Venezuelan beauty Alicia Machado hit the headlines last night when she was at the heart of Hillary Clinton's closing remarks on sexism and racism
OUTSPOKEN Donald Trump today hit back at claims he once dubbed a reigning Miss Universe 'Miss Piggy' by suggesting it was only because she piled on weight after winning the crown.
Venezuelan beauty Alicia Machado hit the headlines again last night when she was at the heart of Hillary Clinton's closing remarks during the first televised presidential debate.
The Democrat labelled Trump a sexist adding "One of the worst things he said was about a woman in a beauty contest....he called this woman Miss Piggy."
"Then he called her Miss Housekeeping because she was Latina," Clinton said.
However today speaking on 'Fox & Friends,' Trump spoke out after admitting Clinton's words about the 1996 title winner 'maybe' got under his skin.
"The very last question, when she brought up the person that became – I know that person – that person was a Miss Universe person, and she was the worst we ever had. The worst. The absolute worst. She was impossible," Trump said of Machado.
"And she was a Miss Universe contestant, and ultimately a winner, who they had a tremendously difficult time with her as Miss Universe. ... She was the winner, and you know she gained a massive amount of weight and it was a real problem. We had a real problem."
Machado, now 39, fought a public battle with her weight on an international stage at the time, with Trump – who had just bought the pageant – inviting the media to watch her work out.
"She weighed 118 pounds or 117 pounds, and she went up to 160 or 170. So this is somebody that likes to eat," Trump told reporters at the time.
That moment made its way into a Clinton campaign video ad, released immediately after Monday's debate; Clinton set it up by berating her Republican rival on stage as a sexist.
"One of the worst things he said was about a woman in a beauty contest – he loves beauty contests, supporting them and hanging around them – and he called this woman "Miss Piggy."
As Trump demanded to know where she had heard Clinton said: "Donald, she has a name. Her name is Alicia Machado, and she has become a U.S. citizen, and you can bet she's going to vote this November."
Today Trump blamed Machado for being an unworkable Miss Universe, citing 'her attitude.'
"We had a real problem with her," Trump recalled.
"So Hillary went back into the years and she found this girl – this was many years ago – and found the girl and talked about her like she was Mother Teresa, and it wasn't quite this way," he said.
"But that's okay. Hillary has to do what she has to do."
In the Clinton campaign video, Machado also called Trump a racist.
"I was the first Miss Universe after Trump bought the pageant,"; she said in Spanish.
"He was overwhelming. I was very scared of him. He'd yell at me all the time. He'd tell me, 'You look ugly,' or, 'You look fat.' Sometimes he'd 'play' with me and say, 'Hello, Miss Piggy', 'Hello, Miss Housekeeping'.'
"It had turned into a circus, the joke of The Fat Miss Universe," she said.
Machado has previously said she was plagued with anorexia and bulimia for five years.
"I wouldn't eat, and would still see myself as fat, because a powerful man had said so," she said.
