WASHINGTON – Unbelievable.
Except this is true.
A little after 2 a.m. on Friday morning GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump took to Twitter. He went on a rant against the media and a former Miss Universe who he fat-shamed when he owned the pageant.
In one Tweet, Trump suggested people watch a sex tape – though there is no proof such a tape exists.
And then he accuses Hillary Clinton of being the one with bad judgment.
The presidential news of Friday was about Trump’s Twitter Tirade.
OPINION
Trump took the bait Hillary Clinton put out in the Monday debate. She said Trump called former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, who is Hispanic, “Miss Housekeeping” and “Miss Piggy.”
The conventional political practice would be for Trump to let it go. He fell into Clinton’s trap. Now Machado consumes him.
Trump, who is riding Twitter almost to the White House, now cannot stop himself, even when it is clearly in his self-interest to stop.
Trump is already struggling for Hispanic support. Trump and Clinton are fighting for educated suburban female voters.
On Tuesday, Trump, in a Fox phone interview, re-inserted Machado into the news cycle. “She was the winner and, you know, she gained a massive amount of weight, and it was a real problem.”
The Clinton campaign cranked up a public relations push to get Machado booked everywhere.
They got to him. What a gambit. He bit.
Here how Trump melted down on Twitter, keeping up his attacks on Machado.
2:20 a.m.
“Anytime you see a story about me or my campaign saying ‘sources said,’ DO NOT believe it. There are no sources, they are just made up lies!”
4:14 a.m.
“Wow, Crooked Hillary was duped and used by my worst Miss U. Hillary floated her as an ‘angel’ without checking her past, which is terrible!”
4:19 a.m.
“Using Alicia M in the debate as a paragon of virtue just shows that Crooked Hillary suffers from BAD JUDGEMENT! Hillary was set up by a con.”
4:30 a.m.
“Did Crooked Hillary help disgusting (check out sex tape and past) Alicia M become a U.S. citizen so she could use her in the debate?”
7:50 a.m.
“Remember, don’t believe ‘sources said’ by the VERY dishonest media. If they don’t name the sources, the sources don’t exist.”
9:21 a.m.
“The people are really smart in cancelling subscriptions to the Dallas & Arizona papers & now USA Today will lose readers! The people get it!”
As the day went on, Trump saw the opening he gave to Clinton. He tried to make a joke out of it.
1:34 pm
“For those few people knocking me for tweeting at three o’clock in the morning, at least you know I will be there, awake, to answer the call!”
That’s a likely reference to that famous Clinton line from the 2008 Democratic presidential primary, when she said she would be better than Barack Obama to take a 3 a.m. national emergency call.
“It’s pretty telling that Donald Trump thinks the problem with his sexist tweets is the time that they were sent,” Bernie Sanders tweeted.
At a campaign rally in Coral Springs, Florida, Clinton said, “I mean really. Who gets up at three in the morning to engage in a Twitter attack against a former Miss Universe?”
“I mean his latest Twitter meltdown is unhinged, even for him. It proves yet again that he is temperamentally unfit to be president and commander-in-chief.”
John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chair was wickedly funny with his 7:42 a.m. reply to Trump.
“I’m almost @realDonaldTrump’s age, so get the urge to get up in the middle of the night, but impt safety tip: don’t reach for your phone.”
FOOTNOTE
Clinton didn’t have to do a lot here. She’s on a roll. A new Fox national poll shows she got a small bump from the debate: She is at 43 percent to 40 percent for Trump; 8 percent for Gary Johnson and 4 percent for Jill Stein.
More important, post debate polls show Clinton ahead in the battlegrounds of Florida, Nevada, Michigan and New Hampshire.
