A defiant Donald Trump hit the campaign trail in Florida on Thursday, and he lashed out about the most recent accusations of his sexual misconduct, NPR reports.
In a 49-minute speech at a West Palm Beach campaign stop, Trump attacked his accusers and blamed his recent run of bad publicity on the “Washington establishment” and the “Clinton machine.”
As The Root previously reported, last week a 2005 video of Trump having a lewd and misogynistic conversation about women was released. In the video, Trump bragged about being able to do whatever he wanted to women because he is famous. Those braggadocious claims seem to have been substantiated in a Wednesday New York Times article in which two women accused Trump of forcibly groping or kissing them. A third woman came forward in the Palm Beach Post, and yet another woman, a reporter for People magazine, came out to accuse the presidential candidate, too.
On Thursday Trump came out on the defensive, calling his accusers “horrible, horrible liars.”
“These vicious claims about me of inappropriate conduct with women are totally and absolutely false,” Trump said.
He called the accusations “slander and libel” and said that it was all part of a concerted, coordinated and vicious attack on the part of the Clinton machine, the New York Times and other media outlets.
“The claims are preposterous, ludicrous and defy truth, common sense and logic,” Trump said. “We already have substantial evidence to dispute these lies, and it will be made public in an appropriate way and at an appropriate time very soon.”
Trump attacked the New York Times, saying that the paper is failing financially and has previously tried to discredit him. He said that Wednesday’s story was completely fabricated and that there are no witnesses to either story.
Of the People magazine article, Trump resorted to victim-blaming and asked why his forced interaction with the writer was not part of her original story.
“This invented account has already been debunked by eyewitnesses who were there. They were there. The very witness identified by the author has said the story is totally false,” Trump said.
Trump continued his attack on the New York Times, saying that the paper is fighting for relevancy and financial survival.
And although Trump himself has used past accusations against Bill Clinton to his advantage, he thinks it’s wrong for the Hillary Clinton campaign to capitalize on his own foibles.
“I will not allow the Clinton machine to turn our campaign into a discussion of their slanders and lies but will remain focused on the issues facing the American people,” Trump said.
Watch Trump’s speech and read the transcript on NPR.