Washington (CNN)Former President Donald Trump defended Nebraska gubernatorial candidate Charles Herbster at a rally on Sunday, dismissing recent sexual misconduct allegations against him as "malicious" and saying they were the main motivation for his decision to hold an event in the Cornhusker State ahead of the GOP primary later this month.
"He's been badly maligned and it's a shame. That's why I came out here," Trump, who has faced more than a dozen sexual misconduct allegations and denied them, said of Herbster during his remarks in Greenwood. "It would have been easy for me to say, 'I'm not gonna come.' I defend my people when I know they're good."
The full-throated defense came just days after the Nebraska Examiner reported that seven women, including Republican state Sen. Julie Slama, had accused Herbster of groping them at political events or beauty pageants, with an additional woman accusing him of kissing her forcibly. In six cases, at least one eyewitness corroborated the women's allegations, the publication reported.
Herbster has denied the allegations, calling them "100% false." He filed a lawsuit Friday against Slama -- who says that Herbster reached up her skirt during a Republican fundraising dinner in 2019 -- and claimed to have suffered "grievous harm to his reputation" from her accusation.
Trump on Sunday claimed to have met several friends of Herbster who defended him before the former President took the stage.
"Charles W. Herbster will never bend to...
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