Trump kicks up ‘sex tape’ storm
Print Edition
DONALD Trump shamed a former beauty pageant winner yesterday for her sexual history and encouraged Americans to check out what he called her “sex tape,” in an early morning tweet-storm that dragged him further away from his campaign’s efforts to broaden its appeal to women.
A day after he injected former President Bill Clinton’s dalliances into the campaign, Trump accused Hillary Clinton’s campaign of helping 1996 Miss Universe winner Alicia Machado get US citizenship, but offered no proof. He said Machado had a “terrible” past that a “duped” Clinton had overlooked before holding her up as an “angel” in the first presidential debate.
“Did Crooked Hillary help disgusting (check out sex tape and past) Alicia M become a US citizen so she could use her in the debate?” read a missive from Trump posted on his verified Twitter account at 5:30am.
Trump’s taunt appeared to refer to footage from a Spanish reality show in 2005 in which Machado was a contestant and appeared on camera in bed with a male contestant. The images, posted this week to a newspaper’s website, are grainy and do not include nudity.
The show took place almost a decade after Trump invited reporters to watch Machado exercise and mocked her publicly for gaining weight after she won Miss Universe, which Trump owned at the time. In Monday’s debate, Clinton brought up Trump’s taunts of Machado.
Shaming Machado over intimate details from her past was particularly risky as Trump tries to win over more female voters, many of whom are turned off by such personal attacks. It also risks calling further attention to the thrice-married Trump’s own history with women.
The outburst was an extreme reminder of how Trump has seemed unable to restrain himself from veering into unhelpful territory, even with the election less than 40 days away. Trump’s allies have implored him to stick to attacks on Clinton over her family foundation, her e-mails or her long history as a political insider, critiques that fall further out of view whenever Trump sparks a new controversy.
Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon took to Twitter to ask: “What kind of human being is this?”
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