Donald Trump said Wednesday that claims that he sexually assaulted multiple women "have been largely debunked."
"Those people, I don't know those people," Trump said, when presidential debate moderator Chris Wallace asked why "so many different women ... over so many years" had come forward in recent days to accuse him of groping them or kissing them without their consent.
"I didn't know any of these women. I didn't see these women," Trump said.
"I have a feeling how they came" to make public allegations, Trump said. "I believe it was her campaign that did it," he added, referring to Hillary Clinton.
"Those stories are totally false," Trump said. "I didn't apologize to my wife, who's sitting right here, because I didn't do anything."
Trump added that he believes that the women making the accusation did so because "I think they want either fame, or her campaign" encouraged them to make those claims.
"I believe, Chris, that she got these people to step forward. If it wasn't, they get their 10 minutes of fame. But ... it was all fiction. It was lies and it was fiction."
Clinton, in her response, said Trump had said at campaign rallies "he could not have possibly done those things to those women because they were not attractive enough ... for him to assault them."
Trump shot back: "I didn't say that."
Clinton continued, saying: "He went on to say, 'Look at her, I don't think so.' About another woman, he said, 'That wouldn't be my first choice.'
"He attacked the woman reporter," Clinton said, referring to a People magazine journalist who said Trump groped her during an interview. "Called her disgusting, as he has called a number of women during this campaign."
"Donald thinks belittling women makes him bigger. He goes after their dignity, their self worth, and I don't think there is a woman anywhere who doesn't know what that feels like," Clinton said.
"So now we know what Donald thinks and what he says and how he acts toward women."
"That's who Donald is," she said.