Hillary Clinton's campaign appears to be employing a "poke the bear" strategy against rival Donald Trump, but on Friday, the GOP nominee said he'll be striking back at her with a tactic that could get under her skin as well: He's bringing in attacks on her husband's infidelities.
Clinton's camp kicked off a week of provocations through her statements during Monday night's debate about former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, who says she found herself being bullied by Trump after she put on weight after winning her tiara in 1996, including being called "Miss Piggy," an "eating machine," and in a possible reference to her Latina heritage, "Miss Housekeeping."
Trump popped up on Fox News "Fox and Friends" the following morning for a telephone interview, during which he told the show's hosts that Machado was the "worst" queen of the pageant, which he owned when Machado and that she'd gained a "massive" amount of weight.
Throughout the week, Machado appeared on several news programs to complain about Trump, and the Clinton camp quickly posted a new advertisement featuring the former beauty queen.
By Friday, Trump raged on Twitter, through a series of early morning tweets urging people to check out Machado's "sex tape," and accusing Clinton of arranging Machado's new citizenship so she could include her in the campaign.
The tweetstorm kicked off just after 3 a.m. with slams on CNN and one of its anchors, Don Lemon, and wrapped up at around 5 a.m. with the Machado messages, giving Clinton plenty of ammunition for a Twitter attack of her own Friday afternoon, when she demanded to know "what kind of man stays up all night to smear a woman with lies and conspiracy theories?"
Early on Saturday, Clinton's camp took a play out out of Trump's late night Twitter playbook, posting a tweet timed for 3:20 a.m., saying it was a good time to talk about national service:
The tweet led to an article Clinton posted on Medium.com touting her plans for expanding programs such as AmeriCorps.
Trump, meanwhile, on Friday ripped into former President Bill Clinton's sexual indiscretions, telling the New York Times that the scandal was fair game because Hillary Clinton used women like Machado to suit her own political agenda.
Further, he attacked Clinton on her response to women who were linked to affairs with her husband, including Monica Lewinsky and Gennifer Flowers.
He also indicated that he was ready to do some bear poking of his own, saying he was bringing up Bill Clinton's issues because he thought female voters would then turn away from the couple, and said he wants to get under Clinton's skin on the campaign trail and in the remaining debates.
“She’s nasty, but I can be nastier than she ever can be,” Trump told The Times.
Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons told The Hill that Clinton's strategy is working, because "they're trying to get him to growl, and so far, it's successful...they're trying to push him into having more outbursts."
The Clinton campaign and supporters are also circling their attacks around Trump in hopes of getting further under his skin.
Campaign chairman John Podesta made fun of Trump's age after the late-night tweets, tweeting that at 67, he's "almost @realDonaldTrump’s age, so [I] get the urge to get up in the middle of the night, but [important] safety tip: don’t reach for your phone."
Missouri Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill also this week poked at Trump, calling for a "weigh in" for him, as Democratic women senators are concerned about his weight.
Former Democratic National Committee Chairman and ex-Vermont Gov. Howard Dean also went after Trump, starting the week by questioning whether his sniffing on the debate stage was related to cocaine use and ending the week by apologizing for his insinuations, but not to Trump himself.
But Trump on Friday also defended his late night tweets:
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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