By Philip Rucker and Sean Sullivan
October 13 at 5:53 PM
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-says-groping-allegations-are-part-of-a-global-conspiracy-to-help-clinton/2016/10/13/e377d7e4-915a-11e6-a6a3-d50061aa9fae_story.htmlDonald Trump issued a breathtaking call to arms Thursday as he emphatically denied allegations that he groped and kissed multiple women without their consent, charging that his accusers were
part of a global conspiracy to extinguish his outsider movement.
Scrambling to turn around his floundering campaign, Trump declared war on the media and multinational corporations, alleging they are colluding with Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton to orchestrate “the single greatest pile-on in history” and undermine his campaign, which he said was an “existential threat” to the global establishment.
“The Clinton machine is at the center of this power structure,” the Republican nominee said at a rally in West Palm Beach, Fla. “Anyone who challenges their control is deemed a sexist, a racist, a xenophobe and morally deformed. They will attack you. They will slander you. They will seek to destroy your career and your family. . . . They will lie, lie, lie.”
Trump’s fiery invective came just minutes after first lady Michelle Obama tried to summon the morality of a nation by saying Trump’s degrading comments about women were an affront to all citizens.
The dueling speeches made for a remarkable moment in a roiling presidential campaign and signaled that the final 25 days would focus not on policy or ideology but on character.
The first lady, exasperated and angry, said video of Trump in 2005 bragging about leveraging his stardom to force himself upon women “has shaken me to my core.” Though careful never to mention Trump by name, Obama sternly admonished him for behavior she called “cruel,” “sick” and devoid of basic human decency.
“This is not politics as usual,” Obama said at a rally for Clinton in Manchester, N.H. “This is disgraceful. It is intolerable. And it doesn’t matter what party you belong to — Democrat, Republican, independent — no woman deserves to be treated this way. None of us deserves this kind of abuse.”
(more at link)
