Pence instead said the Trump campaign was the victim of media bias. | AP Photo Pence: Trump sexual misconduct allegations 'not substantiated'

Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence said Sunday that accusations of sexual misconduct against Donald Trump were "unsubstantiated" and blamed the media for focusing too much on the allegations instead of claims of wrongdoing made against Democrat Hillary Clinton and her family foundation.

Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," the Indiana governor was asked by host Chuck Todd whether he believed his running mate when he said that his comments about kissing and groping women in a 2005 "Access Hollywood" video were "just talk."


"I really do, Chuck. What we have this week is a series of unsubstantiated allegations," Pence said.

But Todd interjected that the claims are "not unsubstantiated."

"They're unproven, but they are not unsubstantiated," Todd said. "You have a first-hand account. We have somebody that disagrees with that first-hand account. But they are substantiated, no?"

"Well, no. These are not substantiated accounts. These are people who have brought forward allegations going back in some cases decades," Pence responded. "And Donald Trump has made it clear that he categorically denies that these things ever took place."

Pence said the Trump campaign is the victim of media bias, with reporters overlooking allegations of misconduct by the Clinton Foundation.

"I have to tell you, it really is astonishing to most Americans that as these unsubstantiated allegations are treated with an enormous amount of coverage on this network and other networks that revelations coming out of Secretary of State Clinton's years in the State Department and the Clinton Foundation are virtually ignored by the national media," Pence said.

Pence complained that allegations of wrongdoing by the Clintons "got almost no media attention, while those that step forward with these unsubstantiated claims that Donald Trump has denied were treated with headline news and continuous coverage."