Donald Trump has accused former US president Bill Clinton of being “abusive to women” as he clashed with Hillary Clinton in their second head-to-head debate.
The Republican White House candidate said there had “never been anybody in the history of politics that’s been so abusive to women” than Mr Clinton and claimed his Democrat rival should be “ashamed” of her behaviour towards her husband’s accusers.
He also defended a 2005 video recording in which he was heard making lewd comments about women, describing his remarks as “locker room talk”.
He said: “I’m not proud of it. I apologised to my family. I apologised to the American people.
“I have great respect for women. Nobody has more respect for women than I do.
“I’m very embarrassed by it. I hate it. It’s locker room banter.”
Asked by host Anderson Cooper if he had ever assaulted women in the ways described in the 2005 recording, Mr Trump replied: “No, I have not”.
Mrs Clinton said the 2005 recording of Mr Trump, in which she talks about grabbing women “by the p***y”, represented “exactly who he is”.
She added: “We’ve seen him insult women, we’ve seen him rate women on their appearance, ranking them from one to 10, we’ve seen him embarrass women on TV and on Twitter.”
Just over an hour before the debate, Mr Trump met women who have accused Mr Clinton of rape and other unwanted sexual advances.
Mr Trump and Mrs Clinton did not shake hands when they entered the stage at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri.
Mr Trump said Mrs Clinton should be in jail over her use of a private email server while she was US secretary of state.
He said: “I hate to say it but if I win I’m going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation.
“There has never been so many lies, so much deception.
“The people in this country are furious.
“You ought to be ashamed of yourself.”
In response, Mrs Clinton said: “It’s just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in this country.”
Mr Trump replied: “Because you’d be in jail.”
Mr Trump said Mrs Clinton was a court-appointed defender for a man accused of assaulting a 12-year-old who was raped in Arkansas, claiming she laughed at some point while discussing it.
He also alleged Mr Clinton paid a monetary settlement to Paula Jones, a former Arkansas state worker who claimed in 1991 that the former president propositioned and exposed himself to her.
He added: “Bill Clinton was abusive to women and Hillary Clinton attacked those same women and attacked them viciously – four of them are here tonight.”
In response, Mrs Clinton said “so much of he’s said is not right” and repeated comments made by First Lady Michelle Obama – “When they go low, you go high”.
Responding to Mrs Clinton’s claim that Mr Trump had praised Russian president Vladimir Putin, Mr Trump said: “I don’t know Putin. I think it would be great if we could get along with Russia because we could fight Isis together as an example.
“I know nothing about Russia. I know about Russia but I don’t know anything about the inner workings of Russia.”
Mr Trump admitted he had used a 916 million-dollar loss he claimed in 1995 to avoid paying federal income tax, and claimed many of Mrs Clinton’s donors had also taken “massive tax write-offs”.
He added: “I lot of my write off was depreciation and other things that Hillary as a senator allowed.”
Mr Trump said Mrs Clinton had “tremendous hate in her heart” after she called half of his supporters “deplorables”.
The candidates were asked by an audience member what they respected about each other.
Mrs Clinton said: “I respect his children. His children are incredibly able and I think that says a lot about Donald.”
Mr Trump said: “I will say this about Hillary – she doesn’t quit, she doesn’t give up. I tell it like it is. She’s a fighter.”
The candidates shook hands at the end of the debate after failing to do so at the start.