ABC/ Ida Mae Astute(NEW YORK) — Donald Trump took aim at the women who have accused him of sexual assault in recent days, calling them “horrible,” “sick,” and “liars” at a campaign event Friday.
After rebuking the allegations made against him in recent days as “phony,” and noting their timing “less than a month before one of the most important elections in the history of our country,” Trump personally attacked the individuals who made the claims against him and accused them of doing it for fame.
“Believe me, she would not be my first choice, that I can tell you,” Trump said of Jessica Leeds, one of two women told their stories to the New York Times. Leeds says Trump sexually assaulted her in the ’90s while they were on a first class flight to New York.
Trump has vehemently denied the allegations and threatened legal action against the New York Times for printing the story.
Sunday during the second presidential debate, Trump noted that his opponent, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, assailed accusers of her husband, former President Bill Clinton.
“Hillary Clinton attacked those same women and attacked them viciously,” he said.
From the lectern in Greensboro, North Carolina Friday, Trump made direct allusions to that debate, brushing off criticism that he encroached upon Clinton’s personal space during the town hall-style event.
“When she walked in front of me, believe me, I wasn’t impressed,” said Trump. “But she walks in front of me, and she takes a question, and then she walked back. And that was the end of that, no problem. Then she said the next day I invaded her space. Give me a break.”
In his attempt to divert attention from the assault accusations, Trump openly questioned why he was being singled out, saying that anyone could be cited similarly, even President Barack Obama.
“Obama is an incompetent. He is an incompetent president. He doesn’t know what he’s doing… why doesn’t some woman maybe come up and say what they say falsely about me they could say about him?” said Trump. “They could say it about anybody. They could say it about anybody. He better be careful because they could say it about anybody.”
Trump, in his attempt to paint the slew of accusers that have spoken out as a result of the media he calls “biased,” also unveiled a new line of attack. He invoked Carlos Slim, a businessman and shareholder in the New York Times, noting his ethnicity.
“He comes from Mexico,” Trump said. “He’s given many millions of dollars to the Clinton’s and their initiative… We are not going to let foreign corporations and their CEO decides the outcome.”
As he continued to excoriate the media for allowing his accusers an outlet, Trump said an investigation would reveal that he had done nothing wrong in “just about all cases.”
“It’s like unbelievable. Even a simple investigation would have shown these allegations against me in just about all cases it’s nonsense, it’s false,” he said.
The New York businessman went on to declare that he would stop the media. In the past, Trump has said that he would open up libel laws to make it easier to sure news organizations.
“I’ll tell you what, our media is indeed sick. And it’s making our country sick. And we’re going to stop it.”
Interspersed through the crowd were a few protesters; at one point a Trump supporter put a protester in a headlock. Both were escorted out.
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