Alicia Machado and Hillary Clinton Fire Back at Donald Trump

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Former Miss Universe Alicia Machado called Donald Trump’s remarks about her “slander and lies,” while Hillary Clinton said they were “unhinged” and proof he would be “dangerous” as president.

Early Friday morning, the Republican presidential nominee fired off a series of tweets saying Machado was “disgusting” and a “con” and alleging that she had a “sex tape” and checkered past.

 

Machado responded with a photo on Instagram mid-morning of her wrapped in an American flag, accompanied by a long caption responding to Trump. She wrote, in Spanish:

“The Republican candidate and his campaign team are again generating attacks, insults, and trying to revive defamations and false accusations about my life. All of this is done with the goal of intimidating me, humiliating me, and unbalancing me one more time. The attacks that have emerged are slander and cheap lies, generated with negative intentions, that have no basis and have been spread through sensationalist media. This, of course, is not the first time that I have faced a situation like this. Throughout his campaign of hate, the Republican candidate insists on discrediting and demoralizing a woman, one of his most defining and terrifying characteristics. With this, he seeks to distract attention from his real problems and his inability to pretend to be the leader of this great nation. When I was a young girl, the now-candidate humiliated me, insulted me, and publicly disrespected me as he has done usually privately in the most cruel form. As this was happening to me, it has become clear over the years that his actions and conduct have been repeated with other women over decades,” Machado continued. “Therefore I will continue to stand, sharing my story, with absolute support for Mrs. Clinton in the name of women, of my sisters, aunts, grandmothers, cousins, friends and the female community.”

Meantime, Clinton took to Twitter Friday to criticize Trump’s treatment of Machado, questioning his character and temperament.

 

Clinton will speak more about Trump’s feud with Machado at a rally later Friday afternoon.

Read More: Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Miss Universe and the Politics of Weight

 

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Write to Tessa Berenson Rogers at tessa.Rogers@time.com