Hillary Clinton’s top communications aide said Tuesday that the campaign is “not responding” to Donald Trump’s comment that the Democratic frontrunner “got schlonged” in the 2008 presidential contest, calling it “degrading language” that others should condemn.
In a tweet, Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri said: “We are not responding to Trump but everyone who understands the humiliation this degrading language inflicts on all women should.”
We are not responding to Trump but everyone who understands the humiliation this degrading language inflicts on all women should. #imwithher
— Jennifer Palmieri (@jmpalmieri) December 22, 2015The response was the first from the campaign since Trump used the vulgarity Monday night during a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
RELATED: Donald Trump launches vulgar attack against Hillary Clinton
“Even her race to Obama, she was gonna beat Obama,” Trump said Monday night. “I don’t know who would be worse, I don’t know. How does it get worse? But she was gonna beat — she was favored to win — and she got schlonged. She lost.”
Trump also said that Clinton’s delay in returning to the stage after a bathroom break during Saturday’s Democratic debate was “disgusting.”
“I’m watching the debate, and she disappeared,” he said. “I know where she went. It’s disgusting. I don’t want to talk about it. No, it’s too disgusting. Don’t say it, it’s disgusting. We want to be very straight up, OK?”
At an event in Keota, Iowa, Tuesday, Clinton did not make mention of Trump’s crude remark, but did single him out for his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. She also doubled down on her claim that ISIS is using Trump to recruit, though she had a more cautious tone and did not refer to a specific video.
At the end of the event, a young girl with asthma told Clinton she had been bullied in school and wanted some advice. Clinton responded by saying she had become quite familiar with bullying in her life.
“You’re looking at somebody who’s had a lot of terrible things said about me,” she said. “I’m old enough that it doesn’t particularly bother me but I can’t imagine what it’s like to be, you know, a young person in today’s world where that’s coming at you all the time.” Clinton hugged the girl who asked the question after her response.
Though the comment wasn’t clearly aimed at Trump, it has new meaning given what he said about her last night. Toward the end of her remarks, Clinton jabbed Trump without mentioning his name by saying, “We shouldn’t let anybody bully his way into the presidency because that is not who we are as Americans.”
The language between the Clinton and Trump camps had been highly charged even before Trump’s latest round of attacks.
Earlier Monday, Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon responded “hell, no” in response to inquiries about Trump’s demand that Clinton apologize for linking the real estate mogul’s rhetoric to ISIS recruitment.
This article originally appeared on NBCNews.com.
Carrie Dann
Monica Alba