Donald Trump is threatening to sue the New York Times following an article alleging he had groped two women.
In a statement from his campaign team the accounts describing “inappropriate touching” on separate occasions, were dismissed as pure fiction.
They accused the newspaper of a coordinated character assassination against the Republican presidential nominee.
Trump who was out and about attending rallies on Wednesday (Oct 12) didn’t refer to the allegations which date back to 1980 and 2005.
One women said he had grabbed her breasts and attempted to put his hand up her skirt on a flight three decades ago while a second said he’d kissed her against her will at Trump Towers.
More allegations
In the hour immediately following the publication of the New York Times story, other media outlets published reports describing other incidents.
CBS showed clips from its show Entertainment Tonight in 1992 with Trump addressing a group of 10-year-old girls, telling them he would be dating one of them in 10 years. He was 46 at the time.
The Palm Beach Post reported a claim by a woman in South Florida, that Trump had grabbed her bottom 13 years ago while she was working at his Mar a Lago estate as a photographer’s assistant.
CNN reporting that Trump camp telling the press that the two women should “lawyer up.” This guy wants to sue everyone at the end of the day.— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) October 13, 2016
The New York Times has said it stands by the story which it claims “clearly falls into the realm of public service journalism”.
Crisis
The New York Times article comes on the heels of a video that surfaced on Friday showing Trump making crude comments about women. The video which also dates back to 2005, plunged the Republican Party into crisis with some senior members distancing themselves from their own presidential candidate. US House of Representative Speaker Paul Ryan said he would no longer campaign for Trump.
Trump is already lagging behind his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in opinion polls.
With just four weeks to go before the November 8 election, former Republican House Speaker John Boehner said before the New York Times article was posted that he would still be voting for Trump.
“What more could be said in this election cycle than has already been said?” Boehner asked. “It couldn’t be any worse, could it?”
