A former Miss Universe became debate fodder at the first presidential debate between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton. The 1996 Miss Universe Alicia Machado said that Trump called her "Miss Piggy" when Machado gained weight following the pageant. USA TODAY
Republican nominee Donald Trump doesn't think he is being treated fairly by the former Miss Universe whom he is accused of calling "Miss Piggy."
Alicia Machado, who was crowned Miss Universe in 1996, says Trump called her "Miss Piggy" and "Miss Housekeeping," and that his insults resulted in her developiong an eating disorder. Trump's Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, repeated the accusation during the presidential debate on Monday.
Trump responded to the allegations during an interview on Fox News' The O'Reilly FactorWednesday night, saying both that he hardly knew Machado and that he saved her from being fired because of her weight.
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"She had a lot of difficulties and, you know, they wanted to fire her," Trump said. "The company itself wanted to fire her. I saved her job. I'll bet you, if you put up and added up all the time I spoke to her it was probably less than 5 minutes. I had nothing to do with this person. But they wanted to fire her. I saved her job because I said, 'that's going to be ruinous' and I've done that with a number of the young ladies, where I saved their job. And you know what happened? Look what I get out of it. I get nothing,"
Trump repeated that "it's somebody I don't know" while adding, "I saved her job because they wanted to fire her for putting on so much weight."
Trump implied the contestants should understand that their weight could be an issue. "Say what you want Bill, I mean they know what they're getting into. It's a beauty contest," he said.
Yet, Trump wanted to give Machado another chance and convinced the pagaent to "let her try and lose the weight," rather than fire her.
For Trump, the episode serves as an example of how no good deed goes unpunished. "Can you imagine I end up in a position like this?" he asked. "This is what you get for helping somebody."
"But I just don't know her," he added.
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