After Hillary Clinton accused Donald Trump of calling a former Miss Universe “Miss Piggy” at the debate on Monday night, Trump defended himself Tuesday by saying that she had “gained a massive amount of weight.”
“She was the winner and you know, she gained a massive amount of weight and it was a real problem. We had a real problem,” Trump said on “Fox and Friends” on Tuesday.
“Not only that, her attitude, and we had a real problem with her, so Hillary went back into the years and she found this girl — this was many years ago. And found the girl and talked about her like she was Mother Teresa. And it wasn’t quite that way but that’s okay. Hillary has to do what she has to do.”
During the debate, Clinton called out Trump’s past comments about women, including former Miss Universe Alicia Machado. Clinton repeated Machado’s allegations that Trump had called her “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeping” because “she was Latina.”
“This is a man who has calling women pigs, slobs and dogs and someone who has said pregnancy is an inconvenience to employers, who has said that women don’t deserve equal pay unless they do as good a job as men,” Clinton said on the debate stage.
“And one of the worst things he said was about a woman in a beauty contest — he loves beauty contests, supporting them and hanging around them — and he called this woman ‘Miss Piggy,’ then he called her ‘Miss Housekeeping’ because she was Latina,” Clinton added. “Donald, she has a name. Her name is Alicia Machado. And she has become a US citizen and you can bet she is going to vote this November.”
According to CNN, Machado was 19 years old when she represented Venezuela in the Miss Universe pageant in 1996 and won. However, she gained almost 60 pounds. According to a CNN report at the time, rumors started circling that she might have to give up the crown, but Trump had said they “had a choice of termination or do this. We wanted to do this.” In this case, “this” meant encouraging her to lose weight.
“Some people when they have pressure eat too much. Like me. Like Alicia,” Trump said at the time. He was then executive producer of the Miss Universe Pageant. According to Machado, she had “anorexia and bulimia for five years” after the episode, and went “to a lot of psychologists to combat this.”
After the debate on Monday, Machado tweeted in Spanish, “Thank you Mrs. Hillary Clinton — your respect for women and our differences make you great! I’m with you!” She later tweeted that she received her U.S. passport and would be “ready to vote for my country for you @Hillary Clinton for my daughter. For women workers.”
Watch Trump’s interview with “Fox & Friends” above.
Gracias señora @HillaryClinton su respeto a las mujeres y nuestras diferencias la hacen grande! Estoy con usted!
— Alicia Machado (@machadooficial) September 27, 2016
I received my passport ! I'm ready to vote For my country for you @HillaryClinton for my daughter For women workers pic.twitter.com/U5lSwWxiHc
— Alicia Machado (@machadooficial) September 27, 2016