The Independent / UK: Donald Trump has said the U.S. presidential race is being “rigged by the media” in order to elect Hillary Clinton.
He made the unprecedented assertation in response to accusations of unwanted kissing, groping and more from at least eight women.
Mr Trump maintained his innocence and denounced Ms Clinton and a supposed international media conspiracy aimed at denying him the White House.
100% fabricated and made-up charges, pushed strongly by the media and the Clinton Campaign, may poison the minds of the American Voter. FIX!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 15, 2016
This election is being rigged by the media pushing false and unsubstantiated charges, and outright lies, in order to elect Crooked Hillary!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 15, 2016
“100 percent fabricated and made-up charges, pushed strongly by the media and the Clinton Campaign, may poison the minds of the American Voter. FIX!” Mr Trump tweeted on Saturday morning.
“This election is being rigged by the media pushing false and unsubstantiated charges, and outright lies, in order to elect Crooked Hillary!” he added.
Hillary Clinton should have been prosecuted and should be in jail. Instead she is running for president in what looks like a rigged election
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 15, 2016
He went on to say Ms Clinton should be in jail and repeated his assertion the election looks to have been rigged.
Mr Trump called the women who accused him of sexual assault “sick,” in a speech at a rally in Greensboro, North Carolina.
The Republican nominee said he had never met most of the women who had made “phony” claims about him.
“I have no idea who these women are,” he told the crowd. “I have no idea. I have no idea. And I think you know I have no idea as you understand me for a lot of years, OK?”
“These people are sick,” he added.
Polls suggest Mr Trump has fallen further behind Ms Clinton nationally and in most battleground states.
Early in-person voting is underway in 20 states, including Ohio, where President Barack Obama railed against Trump a day after first lady Michelle Obama declared in a passionate speech, “Enough is enough.”
The Obamas both seized on Mr Trump’s words, captured in a video released last week, bragging about kissing and groping women. The 70-year-old billionaire has apologised, but also repeatedly dismissed his comments as “locker room talk.”
“You don’t have to be a husband or a father to know that that kind of language, those kinds of thoughts, those kinds of actions are unacceptable. They’re not right. You just have to be a decent human being,” Mr Obama charged in Columbus, Ohio.
