Donald Trump kicked off a day of weekend campaigning with a series of three early morning tweets claiming that the election has been "rigged by the media" to elect "Crooked Hillary" Clinton as the controversy continues to grow and after two more women alleged Friday night he'd acted inappropriately with them.
The tweets started at about 6:30 a.m., when Trump called the escalating claims from women saying he was sexually inappropriate with them "100 percent fabricated and made up charges," and wrapped up two hours later by saying Clinton "should be in jail:
On Friday, two more women came out with accusations of their own that Trump had either kissed them or groped them against their wishes, in continuing fallout from a hot-mic tape from 2005 of him talking explicitly to then-"Access Hollywood" host Billy Bush about actions toward women.
Trump has given several speeches denying the women's claims, calling them liars and claiming the growing controversy was coordinated between the "Clinton machine" and the national media to rig the election against him.
"These are lies being pushed by the media and the Clinton campaign to try and keep their grip on our country," Trump said Friday. "They are all false. They're totally invented fiction. All 100 percent totally and completely fabricated. Never met this person, these people. I don't know who they are."
Trump's poll numbers have been tanking since Oct. 7, when The Washington Post released the recording, which prompted several Republican officials, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, to distance themselves from Trump. Clinton said Friday she does not take pleasure in Trump's growing controversies, calling the election "incredibly painful" during a conference with campaign workers in Seattle.
"I take absolutely no satisfaction in what is happening on the other side with my opponent. I am not at all happy about that because it hurts our country, it hurts our democracy, it sends terrible messages to so many people here at home and around the world," Clinton added.
Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, a frequent critic of Trump's who has called repeatedly for an alternative GOP candidate to replace the New York business mogul on the ticket, launched a series of tweets of his own Saturday morning to hit back at Trump's claims of a rigged election, saying such talk is "irresponsible":
Friday night, the Trump campaign released a video, "Trump's Women's Tour" through his Twitter page.
In the video, female campaign workers, dressed in pink t-shirts are shown donating supplies to a location in North Carolina reeling from flooding in the wake of Hurricane Matthew. "There's a lot of support out there," Trump surrogate Katrina Pierson says in the video,where she's shown standing next to Trump's daughter-in-law Lara Trump.
"I think it's actually been growing just by the amount of waves and honks and messages that I'm receiving."