Hillary Clinton baited Donald Trump at the first debate by bringing up former Miss Universe Alicia Machado and the GOP nominee fell for it, David Axelrod told CNN.
Trump recently attacked Machado and Clinton for supporting her in a series of tweets following Clinton's reference to the pageant winner on Monday.
"What he's done is prolonged it for four days. The Clinton campaign could not have asked for more," the former adviser to President Barack Obama said of Trump's continued focus on the issue. "[The Clinton campaign] wanted to make this an issue and he is cooperating in that project. And I'm telling you, none of his advisers are telling him to do this. This is the way Donald Trump is. He's very reactive. The Clinton folks figured that out, they were pushing his buttons all throughout that debate and he is still reeling from that."
"I don't think his senior strategists are saying to him, you know what, why don't you get up at 4:00 and shoot out some tweets," Axelrod said.
Trump previously criticized Machado for gaining weight after winning the title of Miss Universe, which Clinton used to paint the billionaire as sexist.
"After that debate, my question was how will he react to this general verdict that he had lost the debate, because, you know, Donald Trump pictures himself as a winner," Axelrod continued.
"That's his whole image. I'm a winner. Everybody else are losers. And whenever he's depicted as a loser, it just drives him off the deep end. This happened after the conventions. He was deemed a loser in the conventions and he went on, like, a three-week self-destructive rampage that really hurt his candidacy. This, you know, on the Friday after the debate, to get up before dawn, and tweet about Alicia Machado is unfathomable."
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