Donald Trump said Monday night that he refrained in the past from making an “extremely rough” and “inappropriate” comment to Hillary Clinton.
“If you want to know the truth, I was going to say something extremely rough to Hillary and to her family and I said to myself ‘I can’t do it, I just can’t do it,'” the Republican presidential nominee said at the first presidential debate.
Trump was trying to defend himself against charges from Clinton that he is rude and demeaning to women, after he had accused Clinton of lacking “stamina” to be president.
“This is a man who has call women pigs, slobs and dogs,” Clinton noted.
Clinton said Trump once called a woman at one of his beauty contests “Miss Piggy” and termed another one “Miss Housekeeping” because she was Latina.
“She’s going to vote this November,” Clinton said.
Trump didn’t deny the story, instead asking Clinton “where did you hear that?”
Trump used the word “stamina” several times during the exchange, which came near the end of the 90-minute debate. It has been one of his common refrains during the campaign, even though Clinton has held multiple public roles including U.S. senator and secretary of state.
“To be president of this country, you need tremendous stamina,” Trump said. “You have to be able to negotiate our trade deals with Japan, with Saudi Arabia.”
Clinton prompted a burst of laughter in the audience with her response, in which she touted her experience as secretary of state under President Obama.
“As soon as he travels to 112 countries and negotiates a peace deal, a cease-fire … or even spends 11 hours testifying in front of a congressional committee, he can talk to me about stamina,” Clinton said.
