GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (CNN) — Donald Trump went after Hillary Clinton during his stop in West Michigan Monday night, saying that her bathroom break during the last Democratic debate was just too “disgusting” to talk about and then stating she “got schlonged” by Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential race.
“Even a race to Obama, she was gonna beat Obama. I don’t know who would be worse, I don’t know, how could it be worse? But she was going to beat — she was favored to win — and she got schlonged, she lost, I mean she lost,” Trump said, using a vulgar Yiddish word for a man’s penis.
Earlier, Trump started to criticize Clinton for not returning to the ABC News debate stage on Saturday night in time, but then said he didn’t want to talk more about it because it was “disgusting.”
“I know where she went, it’s disgusting, I don’t want to talk about it,” Trump said. “No, it’s too disgusting. Don’t say it, it’s disgusting, let’s not talk, we want to be very, very straight up.”
Fired up by a raucous crowd, Trump unleashed on a slew of political opponents — starting with Sen. Lindsey Graham, who dropped his presidential bid earlier on Monday, and finishing with Obama.
Throughout it all, Trump’s supporters roared in approval. But groups of protesters throughout the arena interrupted Trump throughout his hour-long speech.
More than a dozen times, protesters began shouting during Trump’s speech, which was one of the most interrupted since he jumped into the presidential race in June. The protesters largely accused Trump of spewing a racist and bigoted ideology.
Trump even mocked some of the protesters, noting that one had a “weak voice” and calling several others “a bunch of losers.”
But Trump focused the brunt of his fire on Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, who just days earlier in the Democratic debate called Trump an ISIS recruitment tool.
On Tuesday, the Clinton campaign’s director of communications Jennifer Palmieri tweeted, “We are not responding to Trump but everyone who understands the humiliation this degrading language inflicts on all women should. #imwithher.”
Trump on Monday morning demanded an apology from Clinton for making the allegation, to which the Clinton camp responded with a swift, “Hell no.”
Engaging Clinton again on Monday night, Trump described Clinton’s late return to the Democratic debate stage on Saturday night because of a bathroom break as “a weird deal.”
“I know where she went. It’s disgusting. I don’t want to talk about it, it’s disgusting,” Trump said, after bringing up the incident unprompted 20 minutes into his speech.
Trump went on to call Clinton a “liar” and “crooked,” insisting that Clinton would not want to face Trump in the general election despite reporting that the Clinton camp is licking their lips at the prospect of Trump as an opponent.
“Ask Jeb Bush if he enjoys running against me. Ask Lindsey Graham, did he enjoy running against Trump? Ask Perry, ask Gov. Perry. Ask Bobby Jindal,” Trump said. “Ask all of these guys that have gone out, do they enjoy running against Trump? I enjoy it. They don’t enjoy it.”
Trump also could not resist hitting one of his favorite opponents on Monday night: the press.
In a strange segue in which he defended Russian President Vladimir Putin from widely reported allegations that he has ordered the killing of journalists, Trump went on to consider whether he himself would consider killing reporters, whom he then blasted as “lying disgusting people.”
“I would never kill them. I would never do that,” Trump said at first, before reconsidering.
“Uh, let’s see, uh?” Trump said inflecting his voice. “No, I would never do that.”
