Trump Claims Clinton Campaign Got Women To Accuse Him Of Sexual Assault
LAS VEGAS (CBSNewYork) -- Donald Trump blames Hillary Clinton's campaign for bringing women forward claiming he sexually assaulted them.
"Those stories have been largely debunked. I don't know those people. I have a feeling how they came – I believe it was her campaign that did it," Trump said during Wednesday night's presidential debate.
COMPLETE CAMPAIGN 2016 COVERAGE
Several women have come forward claiming Trump sexually assaulted them after a "Hollywood Access" tape from 2005 surfaced where Trump says he goes up to women and starts kissing them and that you need to "grab them by the p****."
"I didn't even apologize to my wife who is sitting right here because I didn't do anything. I didn't know any of these women. I didn't see these women. I think they want either fame or her campaign did it, and I think it's her campaign," the Republican nominee said.
Hillary Clinton quotes Donald Trump on sexual assault comments, he disagrees: "I did not say that" #DebateNight pic.twitter.com/cdX4215r16
— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 20, 2016
He continued, "I believe she got these people to step forward. If it wasn't, they get their ten minutes of fame. It was all fiction, it was lies, and it was fiction."
Clinton responded by saying that Trump "thinking belittling women makes him bigger."
"At the last debate we heard Donald talking about what he did to women and after that a number of women have come forward saying that's exactly what he did to them," Clinton said. "What was his response? Well, he held a number of big rallies where he said that he could not possibly have done those things to those women because they were not attractive enough for them to be assaulted."
"Face the Nation" moderator John Dickerson said Clinton pivoted when asked about the claims about her husband.
"She didn't answer the question which was about her husband. She ducked that just as much as she ducked about the Clinton Foundation," Dickerson said.
Melania Trump said in an interview with CNN that her husband apologized to her about the comments he made on the tape.
"I accept his apology. I hope the American people will accept it as well. And it was many, many years ago. He's not the man that I know," she said.
A recent CBS News poll shows Clinton holding a nine-point lead over Trump nationally.