--- title: Presidential Debate: Donald Trump Says Accusers Seeking Fame description: Donald Trump once again denied all allegations of sexual assault against him, arguing the women were seeking "their 10 minutes of fame." canonical: https://time.com/4537900/donald-trump-sexual-assault-presidential-debate/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-20T03:18:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-06-24T06:57:03.672Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Says Accusers Seeking '10 Minutes of Fame' og:description: At the final presidential debate. og:url: https://time.com/4537900/donald-trump-sexual-assault-presidential-debate/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3c0b699c590ad39e/6988aac697cdffede06ae3e3/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-20.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIMEPOL Debate og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Says Accusers Seeking '10 Minutes of Fame' twitter:description: At the final presidential debate. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3c0b699c590ad39e/6988aac697cdffede06ae3e3/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-20.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Says Accusers Seeking '10 Minutes of Fame' ## Video: This Video Is No Longer Available [Watch (HLS stream): This Video Is No Longer Available](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fKodeUO6.m3u8) (0:10)  _Published 2026-06-23. Donald Trump once again denied all allegations of sexual assault against him, arguing the women were seeking "their 10 minutes of fame."_  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Oct 20, 2016 3:18 AM UTC  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Oct 20, 2016 3:18 AM UTC Donald Trump once again denied all [allegations of sexual assault](http://time.com/4530242/donald-trump-sexual-allegations/?iid=sr-link7) against him, arguing the women were either seeking “their 10 minutes of fame” or were prodded to make the claims by Hillary Clinton’s campaign. During the [final presidential debate](http://time.com/4536110/presidential-debate-donald-trump-last-stand/?xid=homepage) Wednesday night, Trump said of the women accusing him of sexual assault, “I don’t know these people. I have a feeling how they came. I believe it was \[Clinton’s\] campaign that did it … I believe, Chris, that she got these people to step forward. If it wasn’t, they get their 10 minutes of fame.” Trump, in fact, does know at least two of the women: [Natasha Stoynoff](http://people.com/politics/donald-trump-attacked-people-writer/) was a PEOPLE magazine reporter assigned to cover him, who was interviewing him for a profile at the time of the alleged assault, and [Summer Zervos](http://time.com/4531878/donald-trump-summer-zervos-apprentice/?iid=sr-link1) was a contestant on his reality show _The Apprentice._ Trump also argued, incorrectly, that the assault claims have been “largely debunked,” and said that he hasn’t told his wife Melania that he’s sorry. “I didn’t even apologize to my wife, who is sitting right here, because I didn’t do anything,” he said. Clinton responded by noting that Trump has [also implied at recent rallies](http://time.com/4531872/donald-trump-sexual-assault-accusers-attack) that the accusers were unattractive. “Donald thinks belittling women makes him bigger,” she said. “He goes after their dignity, their self worth, and I don’t think there is a woman anywhere who doesn’t know what that feels like.” Trump has been embroiled in heated controversy over his treatment of women since a 2005 _Access Hollywood_ tape [leaked in early October](http://time.com/4523526/donald-trump-women-leaked-audio/?iid=sr-link6) in which he says of women, “Grab them by the p—y. You can do anything.” Since then, multiple women have come forward and claimed that Trump has kissed or groped them without consent. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4537900/donald-trump-sexual-assault-presidential-debate/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4537900/donald-trump-sexual-assault-presidential-debate/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Says Accusers Seeking '10 Minutes of Fame'","datePublished":"2016-10-20T03:18:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-06-24T06:57:03.672Z","description":"Donald Trump once again denied all allegations of sexual assault against him, arguing the women were seeking \"their 10 minutes of fame.\"","url":"https://time.com/4537900/donald-trump-sexual-assault-presidential-debate/","keywords":["Donald Trump","2016 Election topic","Debates"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3c0b699c590ad39e/6988aac697cdffede06ae3e3/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-20.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3c0b699c590ad39e/6988aac697cdffede06ae3e3/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-20.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TIMEPOL Debate","caption":"Final Presidential Debate Between Hillary Clinton And Donald Trump Held In Las Vegas","creditText":"Joe Raedle—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4537900/donald-trump-sexual-assault-presidential-debate/","name":"Donald Trump Says Accusers Seeking '10 Minutes of Fame'"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"This Video Is No Longer Available","description":"Donald Trump once again denied all allegations of sexual assault against him, arguing the women were seeking \"their 10 minutes of fame.\"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/fKodeUO6/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2026-06-23T15:00:44.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fKodeUO6.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4537900/donald-trump-sexual-assault-presidential-debate/","duration":"PT10S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4537900/donald-trump-sexual-assault-presidential-debate/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```