DADE CITY, Fla. — Hillary Clinton accused Donald Trump of “demeaning, degrading, insulting and assaulting women” for “30 years” here Tuesday, using former Miss Universe Alicia Machado’s story to illustrate her case.
“Look at what he does. He calls women ugly, disgusting, nasty, all the time. He calls women pigs, rates bodies on a scale of 1 to 10,” she said, before telling Machado’s story in detail.
"Can we just stop for a minute and reflect on the absurdity of Donald Trump finding fault with Miss Universe? But, you’ve got to ask, why does he do these things? Who does this? I will tell you who: a bully, that is who,” she said to cheers at the outdoor rally.
Machado, who introduced Clinton at the event, said she was “scared” of Trump, whom she also labeled as “cruel” for calling her things like “Miss Piggy, Miss Housekeeping, Miss Eating Machine” after gaining some weight after a beauty pageant in 1996.
“It's really clear that he does not respect women. He just judges us on our looks,” Machado said at her first campaign outing with Clinton. "He thinks he can do whatever he wants and get away with it. Well, now I'm standing here on behalf of women and Latinos across the country” and “together we are going to say loudly and clearly: no trump. He's not getting away with it.”
Clinton prefaced her remarks on Trump and women by saying she would rather be talking about “nearly anything else.” She argued that “he doesn’t see us as full human beings” and has “shown that clearly” throughout the campaign.
“He is wrong about both the women and the men of this country. He has shown us who he is. Let us on Tuesday show him who we are,” she said, before urging voters to cast their ballots early.
This is Clinton’s fifth day in the Sunshine State in the last week. Of all the battleground states, she has spent the most time here since the Democratic National Convention.
Outside her event, a few dozen Trump supporters could be heard chanting “lock her up” throughout her speech.
The former secretary of state seemed to acknowledge them by saying “a lot of his supporters don’t like to hear” criticism of Trump. “I don’t blame them. If I were supporting him, I wouldn’t want to hear it either, to be honest,” she said.
