PORTSMOUTH: Donald Trump charged yesterday that "corrupt" media were seeking to rig November's presidential election in favor of his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. His White House campaign in chaos over snowballing accusations of sexual assault, Trump has cast himself as the victim of a "smear campaign", and further escalated his attacks on his rival heading into the final weeks of the race. "Hillary is running for president in what looks like a rigged election," he told a fired-up rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. "The election is being rigged by corrupt media pushing completely false allegations and outright lies in an effort to elect her president."

Trump tweeted out a similar allegation earlier yesterday to his 12 million followers, charging: "Hillary Clinton should have been prosecuted and should be in jail. Instead she is running for president in what looks like a rigged election." As the Manhattan billionaire tanks in the polls, he has spent the last week claiming the media and a "global elite" is working against him, and that Clinton had plotted to destroy the sovereignty of the United States.

"Either we win this election or we lose this country," he told supporters in New Hampshire. "I really believe this is the last chance we have to win. I really believe it. Not going to happen again." The virulence of Trump's attacks on the Clinton camp have raised concerns about whether the real estate mogul would even acknowledge a defeat, and how his legions of fired-up supporters would react should he lose.

Trump earlier rejected claims of women accusing him of sexual misconduct, and portrayed himself as the victim of a "smear campaign" orchestrated by the media and established politicians. As Trump spoke at a rally, Summer Zervos - an ex-contestant on his reality TV show "The Apprentice" - came forward to accuse him of kissing, groping and thrusting his genitals at her during a meeting at a California hotel in 2007. The Trump campaign said in a statement that he "vaguely remembered" Zervos, but shot down her accusation.

It later released a statement from one John Barry, identified as Zervos's first cousin, claiming that Zervos had praised Trump for years. Barry implied that Zervos was upset because Trump refused to visit her California restaurant during the primaries. Also Friday, a former aspiring model, Kristin Anderson, told the Washington Post that Trump had sidled up to her in a nightclub in the early 1990s, reached under her skirt and touched her vagina through her panties.

They were the latest in a stream of women accusing Trump of predatory sexual behavior, adding to the woes of his now free-falling presidential bid. Clinton on Friday called the election "incredibly painful". "I take absolutely no satisfaction in what is happening on the other side with my opponent," she told a crowd at a campaign field office in Seattle, Washington. "I am not at all happy about that. It hurts our democracy."

The torrent of allegations against Trump was unleashed by the Oct 7 release of audio from 2005 in which Trump bragged that he could get away with grabbing women's crotches because he's famous. "Lies, lies, lies," Trump thundered at a rally Friday in Greensboro, North Carolina, referring to sexual misconduct allegations reported by the New York Times and other media. "I have no idea who these women are. The stories are total fiction."

At a later rally in Charlotte he claimed to be "the victim of one of the great political smear campaigns in the history of our country. They are coming after me to try and destroy what is considered by even them the greatest movement in the history of our country." According to Trump, "the political establishment is trying to stop us because they know that we're a threat to their totally corrupt controls". - Agencies