|
 Trump's off-color comments about the Democratic front-runner at a
campaign appearance on Monday night came a day after he called
Clinton a liar for saying his proposal to ban entry of all foreign
Muslims to the United States aided Islamic State's propaganda
efforts.
"She was going to beat Obama," Trump said of Clinton, speaking in
Grand Rapids, Michigan. "... She was going to beat - she was favored
to win - and she got schlonged. She lost."
"Schlong" is a Yiddish slang term for a man's genitals.
Trump, leading the field to be the Republican nominee in the
November 2016 presidential election, also made a reference to
Clinton returning to the stage late after a bathroom break during a
Democratic debate on Saturday night.
"I thought she gave up," Trump said. "Where did she go? Where did
Hillary go? They had to start the debate without her. Phase II. I
know where she went. It's disgusting. I don't want to talk about
it," Trump said.
Clinton, answering a question about bullying at an event in Iowa,
did not name Trump but said she was used to people saying "terrible
things" about her.
"It's important to stand up to bullies wherever they are, and why we
shouldn't let anybody bully his way into the presidency because that
is not who we are as Americans," Clinton said, according to video
that aired on MSNBC on Tuesday.
Jennifer Palmieri, Clinton's communications director, also tweeted a
scathing response.
"We are not responding to Trump but everyone who understands the
humiliation this degrading language inflicts on all women should,"
Palmieri said.
News reports after Saturday's debate, explaining Clinton's delay
getting back to the stage, said the women's bathroom was farther
away than the men's room.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Monday found that Trump would lose
to Clinton in a hypothetical head-to-head contest if the
presidential election were held now.
Trump, whose supporters admire him for plain speaking, appeared to
struggle to win women's support in a Quinnipiac Poll released on
Tuesday. Six in 10 women said they would be "embarrassed" if the
real estate tycoon were president, compared to four in 10 men, the
poll found.
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'DRUGGED OUT'
Trump's blunt and sometime outrageous style and comments about
Hispanics, women, Muslims and his rivals for the nomination have set
much of the tone for the Republican race. He is also known for
pouring scorn on hecklers at his events, as he did Monday night.
Some were ejected from the venue and Trump suggested they might be
"drugged out." He chided another group for being "so weak" they
would not resist security guards' directions to leave.
Trump's comments about Clinton were not the first time he has veered
into vulgarity. In 2011, he used the term "schlonged" in a
Washington Post interview to refer to a Republican candidate who
lost to a Democrat in a surprise upset. Both candidates in that race
were women.
After a televised debate in August, he posted Twitter messages
criticizing Fox News moderator Megyn Kelly and made comments in a
television interview that were widely interpreted as referring to
her menstrual cycle. He denied that was his intention.
Trump, 69, said last month that Clinton, 68, did not have strength
or stamina to be president, and he also has called her the worst
U.S. secretary of state during her time in the post from 2009 to
2013.
He has frequently mocked his rivals for the Republican nomination
for their lower standing in the polls, often focusing on Jeb Bush,
who he describes as "low energy." Trump was quoted in Rolling Stone
magazine in September talking about the appearance of Carly Fiorina
by saying, "Look at that face. Would anyone vote for that?"
For more on the 2016 presidential race, see the Reuters blog, “Tales
from the Trail” (http://blogs.reuters.com/talesfromthetrail/)
(Additional reporting by Mohammad Zargham; Editing by Bill Trott and
Frances Kerry)
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