Jeers for news media and ‘weak-kneed Republicans’ as Trump appears in Charlotte

A defiant Donald Trump brought pink-clad “Women for Trump” to the Charlotte Convention Center stage Friday after a week of growing complaints of inappropriate behavior by the Republican presidential nominee.

Trump drew 4,000 to 5,000 people, many of whom erupted in boos at warmup speakers’ mentions of the media and “weak-kneed Republicans” who won’t support him.

Supporter Mark Small, 46, an unemployed welder from Archdale, said he lost his job three years ago when his company failed. “Hillary (Clinton) wants open borders. We need to look after our country,” he said. “We need jobs.”

Trump’s North Carolina appearances come in one of the rockiest weeks yet in his presidential campaign.

A week ago, a 2005 video showed him making vulgar and lewd comments about women and boasting that he grabbed them because he was “a star.” This week, several women came forward claiming they were assaulted by Trump. He has denied it.

“I think it’s odd they came out here a month before the election,” said Small, the welder. “They said it happened 30 or 40 years ago.”

At a speech in Greensboro earlier Friday, a defiant Trump ridiculed allegations of sexual assault as “lies and smears.” He mocked the looks of some of his accusers, and even of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

“It’s a phony deal; I have no idea who these women are,” he said. “When you look at that horrible woman (on TV) last night, I don’t think so.”

Referring to a woman who said he groped her on an airplane, he said, “Believe me, she would not be my first choice.”

In a statement released Friday afternoon, Trump’s campaign said he vaguely remembers one of his accusers, former “Apprentice” contestant Summer Zervos, but denies groping her at a Beverly Hills hotel in 2007 as she has claimed.

“That is not who I am as a person, and it is not how I’ve conducted my life. In fact, Ms. Zervos continued to contact me for help, emailing my office on April 14 of this year asking that I visit her restaurant in California,” the statement said.

Trump blamed the media for “creating a theater of absurdity that threatens to tear our democratic process apart and poison the minds of the American public.”

Trump has also rejected the claim by a People magazine writer who said that during a 2005 interview session at Trump’s Florida estate, he pushed her against a wall and kissed her.

“Why didn’t she put it in the story?” he said. “She’s a liar. Check out her Facebook page and you’ll understand.”

And alluding to Clinton during last week’s debate, he said, “When she walked in front of me, believe me I wasn’t impressed.”

The Greensboro rally came before Trump was scheduled to attend a 5 p.m. fundraiser at Weddington’s Longview country club and the rally at the Charlotte Convention Center.

Trump’s North Carolina appearances come in one of the rockiest weeks yet in his presidential campaign.

“The process is rigged, the whole election is being rigged,” he told around 4,000 people at Greensboro’s White Oak Amphitheater. “These lies being spread by the media … are poisoning the minds of the electorate.

Trump’s visits also come amid signs of a shrinking battlefield. NBC News reported that the campaign is pulling out of Virginia, with North Carolina joining Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida as one of four remaining battlegrounds.

Trump and Clinton are locked in a tight race in the Tar Heel State, with Clinton leading by 2.9 points in RealClear Politics’ polling average.

Earlier Friday, President Barack Obama unleashed a blistering attack on him in Cleveland, saying the Republican candidate “lacks the basic honesty that a president needs.”

“Donald Trump’s closing argument is: What do you have to lose?” Obama told the Ohio crowd. “The answer is everything.”

In a statement Friday, N.C. Democratic chair Patsy Keever called Trump a “misogynist creep.”

“This is wrong and outrageous and should have been the end of Trump’s campaign,” she said. “Any candidate who holds these disgusting views is unfit to lead our nation.”

This story was originally published October 14, 2016 at 7:27 PM.