“These claims are all fabricated”, says Trump
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump launched a defiant attack on US media Thursday, calling published accusations by several women that he sexually assaulted them “pure fiction.”
“These vicious claims about me of inappropriate conduct with women are totally and absolutely false. And the Clintons know it,” Trump told a rally in West Palm Beach, accusing Democratic rival Hillary Clinton of being complicit.
“These claims are all fabricated. They’re pure fiction. And they’re outright lies. These events never, ever happened,” he said.
Trump, a 70-year-old New York real estate mogul, described the accusations as “slander and libel … thrown at me by the Clinton machine and New York Times and other media outlets as part of a concerted, coordinated and vicious attack.”
Trump’s campaign was already reeling after the release of an explosive 2005 video last week that captured the candidate bragging about how his fame allowed him to grope women with impunity.
On Wednesday the campaign was rattled anew, when The New York Times and other outlets published accounts of women who accused Trump of sexually assaulting them or kissing them without consent years ago.
Trump said there was “evidence to dispute these lies” and that he was preparing a lawsuit against the Times.
“Let’s be clear on one thing: the corporate media in our country is no longer involved in journalism,” he warned.
“They’re a political special interest, no different than any lobbyist or other financial entity with a total political agenda,” he added.
“And their agenda is to elect crooked Hillary Clinton at any cost, at any price, no matter how many lives they destroy.”
Denouncing what he called an “absolute horror show of lies, deceptions (and) malicious attacks,” Trump said he had expected the assaults on his character.
“I knew these false attacks would come. I knew this day would arrive,” Trump said.
He also spoke in menacing terms about Clinton and her economic policies, charging that the former secretary of state met “in secret with international banks to plot the destruction of US sovereignty in order to enrich these global financial powers.”
When the crowd began chanting “Lock her up!” Trump said, “Honestly, she should be locked up.”
Trump at one point touched on the personal toll the accusations have taken.
“I will not lie to you. These false attacks are absolutely hurtful,” he said.
“To be lied about, to be slandered, to be smeared so publicly, and before your family that you love, is very painful,” he added.
0 Comments