ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Two more women stepped forward today to accuse Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump of groping or kissing them without consent. More than half a dozen women are now on the record accusing Trump of behavior like this. We'll hear from one of them in a few minutes.
Trump has denied all of the accusations, and as NPR's Sarah McCammon reports, he doubled down today on the campaign trail.
SARAH MCCAMMON, BYLINE: Trump's explanation of what's going on is pretty simple.
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DONALD TRUMP: They make up lies. They have people come around. Oh, Donald Trump did this or that. I never saw these people before.
MCCAMMON: In reality, Trump has certainly met some of the women who are accusing him of unwelcome advances, including a writer who interviewed him for a People magazine article and a former Miss Utah. Several women have come forward after a 2005 recording released last week where Trump is heard bragging about groping women.
In last Sunday's debate, Trump said that was just locker room talk and denied ever acting that way. At a rally today in Greensboro, N.C., he said the reports that it was more than talk are 100 percent made up.
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TRUMP: Even a simple investigation would have shown these allegations against me - in just about all cases, it's nonsense. It's false.
MCCAMMON: Trump directed his ire at his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
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TRUMP: The other day I'm standing - I told you this - but I'm standing at my podium, and she walks in front of me, right? She walks in front of me, you know? And when she walked in front of me, believe me, I wasn't impressed. But she walks in front of me.
MCCAMMON: Once again, Trump blamed the media for the scandal.
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TRUMP: It's one big, ugly lie. It's one big fix. The press can't write the kind of things they write, which are lies, lies, lies.
MCCAMMON: Trump also had harsh words for Jessica Leeds, the 74-year-old woman who says Trump fondled her breasts and tried to reach up her skirt during an airplane flight decades ago.
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TRUMP: I was sitting with him on an airplane, and he went after me on the plane. Yeah, I'm going to go after - believe me. She would not be my first choice. That I can tell you. Man, you don't know. That would not be my first choice.
MCCAMMON: This story isn't going away for Trump. Just as he was taking the stage in North Carolina, a former cast member of the reality show "The Apprentice" was holding a press conference in California to accuse Trump of more unwanted sexual contact. Sarah McCammon, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
