Maureen Groppe

Star Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence began Friday supporting Donald Trump’s statements denying he had sexually assaulted women and promising evidence that would prove Trump's innocence.

By Friday evening, such evidence hadn't emerged. But two other women accused Trump of sexual misconduct.

Soon after Trump said at a rally in North Carolina that the allegations are “100 percent” made up, Pence encouraged a Florida audience to ignore "whatever is in the news" until Election Day and to defend Trump.

“If someone says to you, ‘Why are you for Donald Trump?’” Pence said, “you should say to them, ‘Because the world is less safe today. Our country is less prosperous today. And our highest constitutional traditions and ideals are literally on the ballot.’”

One-on-One interview with VP candidate Mike Pence

In a series of interviews Thursday night and Friday morning, Pence repeatedly called the allegations against Trump unsubstantiated.

“I can say with certainty that Donald Trump has denied that any of those actions that have been alleged have ever occurred,” Pence told Columbus, Ohio, TV station WBNS on Thursday night. “And I believe him.”

Indiana’s governor said in appearances on Fox News, CBS "This Morning" and NBC's "Today" show that there’s evidence to exonerate Trump.

“I think it’s coming,” Pence said on "Today." “Probably in a matter of hours.”

Instead, a former "Apprentice" contestant said at a news conference Friday that Trump “started kissing me open-mouthed” when she met with him in hopes of getting a job after her season with the reality TV show ended.

Summer Zervos said she pulled away, but Trump continued to pursue her and attempt to kiss her.

Also, Kristin Anderson told the Washington Post she was sitting on a couch and chatting with friends in a Manhattan nightclub in the early 1990s when someone's hands moved up her leg and under her miniskirt, fondling her.

After pushing the person's hand away, she said she jumped up from the couch, looked back and recognized the person who had groped her as Trump.

Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks denied the incident with Anderson occurred. And Trump said in a statement that while he vaguely remembers Zervos from "The Apprentice," he never "greeted her inappropriately."

Multiple women have come forward to contradict Trump’s denial during Sunday’s presidential debate that he ever engaged in the conduct that he bragged about on a 2005 "Access Hollywood" video released by the Washington Post last week.

Trump at his rally Friday criticized the appearance of some of his accusers and said their motivation for lying could be "a little fame."

“It’s one big ugly lie," he said. "It’s one big fix."

Trump: Media and Clinton are conspiring against me

Pence told "Today" he talked with Trump privately about the allegations in addition to hearing his public comments.

“As a dad of two daughters, as a public person, you always take these issues seriously,” Pence said. “But these are unsubstantiated claims. Donald Trump has categorically denied them.”

He also said the Donald Trump he has come to know "is someone who has a long record of not only loving his family, lifting his family up, but employing and promoting women in positions of authority in his company."

Asked by CBS whether there's a moral red line Trump might cross that would cause Pence to drop out, he said: “We’re in this campaign, and we’re in it to win this for the American people.”

Pence has said he cannot defend Trump's vulgar comments about women on the 2005 video. But he said he believes in the Christian principle of forgiveness and has commended Trump for acknowledging that the comments were wrong.

More than 90 percent of Hoosiers surveyed this week by Monmouth University said they had either listened to Trump’s comments on the video or had heard about them. Nearly 7 in 10 said they were “not really surprised” by the video. More than half said that although Trump’s comments were inappropriate, they don’t necessarily make him unfit to be president. And two-thirds said Pence should not withdraw from the ticket.

But the poll also showed Trump’s support has fallen in Indiana since August, particularly among women and college graduates.

Trump led Hillary Clinton among likely Hoosier voters surveyed after Sunday's debate but before Wednesday, when The New York Times first reported some of the allegations against Trump. In survey interviews conducted Thursday, Clinton was the slight favorite.

“Trump’s support in his running mate’s home state was already eroding before the latest bombshell hit,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute. “The news that broke Wednesday seems to have driven those numbers even lower.”

In a speech Wednesday at Liberty University before the news broke, Pence urged Christians not to stay on the sidelines in the election, but to help elect Trump.

“Shortcomings are no excuse for inaction,” he said. “If we were perfect, in a word, we wouldn’t need Jesus.”

Asked by "Today" why he doesn’t extend the same forgiveness to Clinton, Pence said she hasn’t apologized for the behavior being revealed through the hacked emails of her campaign.

“All we get is silence. All we get is denials,” Pence said. “The beginning of grace is an apology.”

Steve Deace, an influential Iowa-based radio talk-show host active in evangelical conservative politics, criticized Pence’s response, saying letting Trump off the hook is not what Christianity demands.

“At best this is bad theology and partisan hackery at worst,” Deace wrote in an opinion piece in USA TODAY.

Pence's twisted vision of forgiveness: Steve Deace

Meanwhile, a group of Liberty University students posted a statement Thursday protesting university President Jerry Falwell Jr.'s endorsement of Trump. While everyone is a sinner and everyone can be forgiven, the students wrote, "a man who constantly and proudly speaks evil does not deserve our support."

Interviewed by CNN on Wednesday, when the new allegations against Trump were breaking, Falwell said he takes Trump at his word. Falwell also said that he knows the Trump of today and credited him with good judgment in picking Pence as his running mate.

In a Thursday interview with WBNS-TV in Columbus, Pence was asked why he doesn’t believe the women accusing Trump of misconduct while apparently siding with Trump's decision to bring women to Sunday’s debate who have accused former President Bill Clinton of sexually assaulting or harassing them.

“There’s a lot of substantiation of the claims of Juanita Broaddrick and the others,” Pence said.

He said the Trump campaign won't allow “the Clinton machine or their allies in the national media” to change the focus of the election from the issues that matter: the country's security and prosperity, and the makeup of the Supreme Court.

When Trump becomes president, Pence said, "we're going to change the direction of Washington, and we’re going to uphold the high standards of ethics in the highest office in the land.”

USA TODAY reporter Eliza Collins contributed to this story.

Email Maureen Groppe at mgroppe@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @mgroppe.