Fresh off of the debate stage, Donald Trump said he declined to bring up Bill Clinton’s past infidelities out of respect to his daughter Chelsea, who was in the room for the debate.
Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that when Hillary Clinton attacked him for being sexist, he thought about bringing up the subject, but declinded to because it would have been “very disrespectful” to Chelsea Clinton, who he called a “very nice young lady.”
“I didn’t want to say. Her husband was in the room with her daughter, who I think is a very nice young lady, and I didn’t want to say what I was going to say about what’s been going on in their life,” Trump said. “So I decided not to say it. I thought it would be very disrespectful to Chelsea and, maybe, to the family. But she said very bad things about me.”
Trump also told reporters in the spin room that he was “tempted” to bring up the subject, but repeated that he didn’t want to bring it up because of the former first daughter. He also told CNN’s Dana Bash that he was “happy” he was “able to hold back” on the issue.
“I’m very happy that I was able to hold back on the indiscretions with respect to Bill Clinton because I have a lot of respect for Chelsea Clinton and I just didn’t want to say what I was going to say,” Trump said. When Bash asked him what that was, he said, “I’ll tell you maybe at the next debate. We’ll see.”
Prior to Monday’s debate, Trump had floated bringing Gennifer Flowers, who Clinton admitted to having an affair with during the 1980s, to Hofstra University as a guest of the campaign. It was floated as a response to Clinton bringing billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban, who sat in the front row in front of Clinton.
