From the Liveblog of
Thursday, October 13, 2016
Trump calls sexual assault allegations ‘fabrications’
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleDonald Trump on Twitter is dismissing a growing role of sexual assault allegations against him as lies and fabrications.
The New York Times and the Palm Beach Post on Wednesday reported stories about three women who alleged Trump had inappropriately touched them. Separately, a People magazine reporter wrote a detailed first-person account of being attacked by Trump while interviewing the businessman and his wife, Melania Trump in 2005.
“The phony story in the failing @NewYorkTimes is a TOTAL FABRICATION,” Trump writes in one tweet.
Trump’s campaign earlier threatened to sue the New York Times if it did not pull the story.
The phony story in the failing @nytimes is a TOTAL FABRICATION. Written by same people as last discredited story on women. WATCH!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 13, 2016
In another, he questions why the People reporter kept silent for so long.
Why didn't the writer of the twelve year old article in People Magazine mention the "incident" in her story. Because it did not happen!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 13, 2016
The stories come less than a week after the publication of a 2005 recording in which the Republican nominee boasted of using his fame to kiss and grab women.
In an interview broadcast Thursday, the soap opera actress in the video says Trump’s comments were offensive. But actress Arianne Zucker, on NBC’s “Today,” says she wasn’t shocked by it, given “that type of personality.” She says that’s “probably why it doesn’t mean a lot to me.”
The revelation of the video last Friday prompted a flood of Republicans to revoke their support for Trump, with some even calling for him to drop out of the race — though a handful of GOP officials have since switched back to supporting him.
The Trump campaign is now openly signaling it will spend the election’s final month relitigating Bill Clinton’s marital affairs and unproven charges of sexual assault, as well as his wife and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s unverified role in intimidating the women who were involved.
— with AP
The Times of Israel Community.