US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has denounced new sexual misconduct allegations against him as false and politically motivated.
A number of reports appeared on Wednesday in which several women claimed that the billionaire businessman had groped and forcibly kissed them.
Speaking at a rally in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Thursday afternoon, Trump dismissed allegations as "outright lies" fabricated by the American news media.
Trump said the media is an entrenched establishment force “in bed” with Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and determined to get her elected the president of the United States.
He called the stories of his alleged sexually predatory behavior “slander and libel” and part of a “concerted, coordinated and vicious attack” launched by Clinton and the news media to destroy his campaign.
Trump rejected women’s claims as “preposterous, ludicrous and defy logic.”
“These lies come from outlets whose past stories and claims have already been discredited,” he added. “The media outlets did not attempt to confirm the most basic facts because even a simple investigation would have shown these were nothing more than false smears.”
He described the news media as “the most powerful weapon” in Clinton’s arsenal, and journalists are “conspiring directly” with the Democratic nominee to ensure her victory in the November election.
“Their agenda is to elect Crooked Hillary Clinton at any cost, any price, no matter how many lives they destroy,” he said. “For them, it is war.”
“They will attack you and slander you and seek to destroy your career and family and everything about you, including your reputation,” Trump added. “They will lie, lie, lie and do worse than that. Whatever is necessary.”
“I never knew it would be this vile, this vicious,” he told supporters in Florida. “Nevertheless I take all of these slings and arrows gladly for you. I take them for the movement so we can have our country back.”
“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 American people. The only thing Clinton has going for her is the press. Without the press she is nothing.”
In an interview with Press TV, American scholar Dr. Kevin Barrett had warned that Trump could be taken out physically or attacked quite brutally in the media because the US establishment does not trust him, and consider him a loose cannon.
“Donald Trump is getting a little bits and pieces of truth, but the full truth probably is too politically explosive for Donald Trump to ever tell -- not that it would help him politically to tell it, because he would be immediately shut down and taken out -- whether physically, by being killed, which certainly could happen, or by being attacked quite brutally in the media,” Dr. Barrett predicted earlier this year.