Trump repeatedly says 'election is absolutely rigged' day before debate with Clinton

At a campaign rally in Wisconsin, Donald Trump repeated claims the election is "rigged" even after his vice presidential nominee contradicted him.

"Remember, we are competing in a rigged election — the media is trying to rig the election by giving credence to false stories that have no validity," Trump told a crowd in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Monday, referring to nine different women who accuse him of sexual misconduct.

The day before the Republican's running mate, Mike Pence, directly contradicted him. Pence told television crews Sunday (October 16) that the campaign "will absolutely accept the results of the election" and that the "sense of a rigged election" comes from the "obvious bias in the national media."

In case Trump wasn't making himself clear, he took to Twitter to say the election was being rigged "at many polling places."

In Green Bay, Trump quoted a 2012 Pew study which found "More than 1.8 million deceased individuals are listed as voters." The report identifies that America's voter registration system needs an upgrade, but it does not go as far as to say that the system is compromised and open to abuse.

Rather, it points out that there are "inefficiencies that waste taxpayer dollars, undermine voter confidence, and fuel partisan disputes over the integrity of our elections."

Trump did not include another statistic listed in the report, which is that "at least 51 million eligible US citizens are unregistered."

A 2003 study by Demos, following accusations of fraud in the 2001 Presidential election won by Republican George W. Bush, found no evidence to substantiate claims of widespread fraud.

In the media, the Trumps also battled against accusations of sexual assault being levelled at the candidate Monday as Trump's wife Melania Trump appeared in a television interview on CNN.

She called the accusations from nine different women "lies." When asked about a 2005 Access Hollywood out-take where her husband describes grabbing women by the genitals and forcing himself on a married woman, she says Trump was "egged on" by the show's host Billy Bush.

Bush announced today (October 18) he is leaving NBC's Today show after joining the flagship programme only a couple months ago.

Trump is set to make two campaign stops later today in Colorado before heading into the third Presidential debate Wednesday, October 19.