Hillary Clinton took aim at her GOP presidential rival Donald Trump in a Tuesday interview with the Des Moines Register, criticizing the outspoken real estate mogul’s “penchant for sexism” a day after he lobbed some personal attacks at her.
“I think he has to answer for what he says, and I assume that others will make the larger point about his language,” Clinton said. “It’s not the first time he’s demonstrated a penchant for sexism.”
On Monday, Trump said that Clinton “got schlonged” in the 2008 election when she lost the Democratic presidential nomination to then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama. At the same rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the Republican candidate referred to Clinton’s bathroom break during Saturday’s 2016 Democratic debate as “disgusting.”
Clinton told the Register that she had no intention of responding directly to Trump’s gendered attacks, saying “he thrives on that kind of exchange.”
Her spokeswoman, Jennifer Palmieri, sent a tweet earlier Tuesday calling for supporters to make a note of Trump’s “degrading language.”
We are not responding to Trump but everyone who understands the humiliation this degrading language inflicts on all women should. #imwithher
— Jennifer Palmieri (@jmpalmieri) December 22, 2015
Trump previously has come under fire on the campaign trail for mocking his Republican opponent Carly Fiorina’s appearance and suggesting that Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly asked him challenging questions during a debate because she “had blood coming out of her wherever.”