'They're Lies': Melania Trump Rejects Women's Claims That Husband Groped Them New York Times

Melania Trump, who has been missing in action, as her husband confronts a campaign crisis over allegations that he sexually assaulted women, came out swinging on Monday to forcefully defend her husband while questioning the honesty of the women accusers.

Ms. Trump, in an extensive interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, called the women liars, explaining that nothing had actually happened to his accusers, and that her husband was like a teenage boy who engages in macho boasting.

Related: Melania Trump Compares Donald To 'Teenage Boy' on CNN The Daily Beast

Billy Bush, NBC Reach Settlement Over Donald Trump Tape The Hollywood Reporter

People Trump Accuser Speaks

Revealed: 6 People Who Corroborate Natasha Stoynoff's Story of Being Attacked by Donald Trump People

Former 'People' Writer Speaks Out After Accusing Donald Trump of Sexual Assault New York Magazine

Former People writer Natasha Stoynoff has spoken out for the first time since her blockbuster accusation against Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her while on assignment at Mar-a-Lago, writing a first anniversary Donald and Melanie piece for the magazine.

In this followup interview, Stoynoff said that she’s “doing okay” since going public. “Women are talking about this, and they need to. We cannot be silent anymore. I didn’t tell my story for politics, I told it for women,” she told People.

The assault allegedly occurred in December 2005 at Trump’s estate in Florida, while Stoynoff was working on a feature about the presidential candidate and his then-pregnant wife, Melania. Stoynoff claims Trump pushed her against a wall and forcibly kissed her. Since the story broke one week ago, Trump has denied the allegations, and suggested that Stoynoffisn’t good-looking enough for him to sexually assault.

Stoynoff allows that Trump has perhaps forgotten an event that happened a decade ago, particularly when she may just be one of “many, many” women he has theoretically assaulted. In response to Trump's habitual response that these women aren't beautiful enough for him to assault, Stoynoff said, “I was obviously good-looking enough for him at the time to force-kiss me and insist that we were going to have an affair.”

People's editor-in-chief Jess Cagle says that the upcoming issue will contain an account by a friend of Stoynoff's who was with her when they ran into Melania Trump in New York after the alleged assault took place. Mrs. Trump insists that this interaction never took place and is demanding a retraction of the event as not true.

Michelle Obama Leads Women's Fight Against Trump

Trump Advises: "Get Rough" With Your Wife

The Fury and Failure of Donald Trump Rolling Stone

Win, lose or drop out, the Republican nominee has laid waste to the American political system. On the trail for the last gasp of the ugliest campaign in our nation's history

Donald Trump in 1994: I tell my friends to "be rougher" with their wives VOX

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump once told an interviewer that he advises his friends to "be rougher" with their wives, and that he sometimes goes "through the roof" when he comes home and dinner isn't ready.

"Psychologists will tell you that some women want to be treated with respect," Trump told Nancy Collins in a previously unreleased 1994 transcript from ABC’s Primetime Live. "I tell friends who treat their wives magnificently, get treated like crap in return, 'Be rougher and you’ll see a different relationship.'"

Floodgates of Sexual Aggression Claims Open Against Donald Trump As Women's Stories Substantiate Trump's Own Words AOC Hillary Clinton News

The final weeks of America's 2016 presidential election present a fast ride in which his "shackles have been taken off." Over the years I've referenced my own love for driving sports cars with a firm grasp of driving a stick. As millions of Americans -- and especially American women have tweeted in the last week, our memories of sexual abuse, including firmly delivered sexual aggression and rape were unleashed listening to Donald Trump's Billy Bush video released last Friday by The Washington Post.

Donald Trump's candidacy is a lesson to America on how to spot the signs of abuse VOX