Donald Trump reiterated criticism of former Miss Universe Alicia Machado Tuesday, the morning after Hillary Clinton called him out for it on the presidential debate stage.
Machado came up during Monday night's debate between Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, and Clinton, his Democratic challenger. In one of Clinton's final comments, she accused Trump of being sexist and used an anecdote from Machado as evidence.
"And one of the worst things he said was about a woman in a beauty contest," Clinton said, according to The Washington Post's annotated transcript. ". . . And he called this woman 'Miss Piggy.' Then he called her 'Miss Housekeeping' because she was Latina . . . Her name is Alicia Machado. And she has become a U.S. citizen, and you can bet she's going to vote this November."
Machado, the now-39-year-old former Miss Venezuela, has accused Trump of insulting her and threatening to take her crown away after she gained weight in the months following her 1996 Miss Universe win, according to Time, which noted that Trump was a partner in the company that owned the pageant at the time.
Clinton brought up Machado in the debate, attempting to use her as an example of how Trump talks to women.
Trump went on the attack Tuesday, again criticizing Machado in an appearance on "Fox & Friends," CNN reported.
"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. "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 Theresa. And it wasn't quite that way but that's OK. Hillary has to do what she has to do."
Machado, who has been stumping for Clinton, took to Twitter Tuesday to reaffirm her plans to vote for her in November.