Donald Trump said Wednesday he saved the job of Alicia Machado, the 1996 Miss Universe winner from Venezuela who Hillary Clinton claimed Monday was harassed and embarrassed by the then-owner of the international competition.
“She did not do well. She had a lot of difficulty. And, you know, they wanted to fire her. The company itself wanted to fire her … I saved her job because they wanted to fire her for putting on so much weight. It is a beauty contest,” Trump told Fox News’ host Bill O’Reilly from a rally in Wisconsin.
Recommended Stories
The Republican nominee added he has spoken directly to Machado “probably less than five minutes” in the 20 years since he first met her.
“Look what happened. Look what I get out of it. I get nothing,” Trump said. “Say what you want, Bill. It’s a beauty contest. I said ‘don’t do that. Let her try and lose the weight.’ You can imagine — I end up in a position like this. So that’s the way it is. I really just don’t know her.”
Machado may turn out to be a liability not a blessing for the Democratic nominee, Trump said. Due to new reports Machado had threatened the life of a Venezuelan judge and was involved in other problems back home, Trump predicted placing so much emphasis on her case would make Clinton “look extremely bad.”
