03:13

On an extraordinary day even by 2016 standards, a raft of allegations emerged about Trump’s behaviour towards women and young girls.

In separate recordings that emerged in the past week, Trump himself told Howard Stern in 2005 that he did in fact go backstage when contestants were undressing:

Well, I’ll tell you the funniest is that before a show, I’ll go backstage and everyone’s getting dressed, and everything else, and you know, no men are anywhere, and I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant and therefore I’m inspecting it ... I sort of get away with things like that.

But on the specific allegations of inappropriate touching made on Wednesday, the Trump campaign has issued a number of denials:

Trump’s lawyer has written to New York Times editor Dean Baquet to demand his organisation take down the article in which two women claim they were groped and kissed without their consent.

The letter said the article was “reckless, defamatory and constitutes libel” and demanded “a full and immediate retraction and apology”.

In response to claims by People magazine reporter Natasha Stoynoff, the campaign said: “This never happened. There is no merit or veracity to this fabricated story.”

Trump himself has not commented. His last tweet was eight hours ago, exhorting supporters to join him for a rally in Ohio.

Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Lakeland, Florida, on Wednesday. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Elsewhere