LAS VEGAS, NEV. – Iconic performer Wayne Newton is defending his longtime friend Donald Trump against allegations he groped and demeaned women, as the political world descends on Newton’s home turf of Las Vegas for Wednesday night’s debate.

Newton, who says he has known Trump for more than three decades and has spent time with him at beauty pageants and other events, told WABC radio host Rita Cosby that he has “never seen Trump treat women in a derisive way in any form or fashion.”

{mosads}“I have never seen him under any circumstances react in an irresponsible way toward a lady,” Newton said. “I have never seen him say unkind things to a lady.” 

Trump’s support has been cratering since the revelation that he made obscene remarks captured on a hot-microphone in 2005 in which he boasted about forcing himself on women and getting away with it because he’s a celebrity.

Since then, more than a half-dozen women have come forward to accuse Trump of inappropriately touching or forcibly kissing them.

Trump has dismissed the hot-mic episode as “locker room talk,” and has vehemently denied the accusations from the women.

Newton, who has performed thousands of shows as an entertainer in Las Vegas, said the hot-mic incident is a typical experience for people in show business and that he believes Trump has learned a lesson from it.

“The unfortunate thing that I understand that so many people don’t is I have been the victim myself of walking into a studio and them putting a microphone on you, and then turning you loose for two or three hours to go do what you’re going to do, and unfortunately he said some things he shouldn’t have said, but haven’t we all, OK?,” Newton said.

“And don’t we learn the most from the things that we do wrong instead of the things we do right?,” Newton added. “He has learned from those things.”

Newton will be a guest of Trump’s inside the debate hall at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas on Wednesday night.