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During the first Trump-Clinton presidential debate, Clinton said:

He called this woman "Miss Piggy." Then he called her "Miss Housekeeping," because she was Latina. Donald, she has a name. Her name is Alicia Machado.

Trump responded by asking "Where did you find this?", repeating the question three times. However, I'm not aware that Trump made any real attempts to debunk the claim.

I've tried searching for when and where Trump said this, but I couldn't find where it's supposed to have originated from.

Fiksdal
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    "Where did you find this?" to me doesn't sound like debunking, it sounds like freaking out about someone else finding out a truth. If anything you should be saying you're not aware that Trump made any further attempts to *verify* the claim... – user541686 Oct 01 '16 at 20:37

2 Answers2

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This is Machado's own claim, as she confirmed to the New York Times today.

Ms. Machado recalled the taunts from Mr. Trump that Mrs. Clinton invoked on Monday night, as well as another sobriquet: “Miss Eating Machine.”

[edit: As the other answer notes, this was not first made public at the debate. She has been stating this publicly since May 2016 at the latest.]

This additional insult Trump repeated in public, on the Howard Stern show: “She gained about 55 pounds in a period of nine months. She was like an eating machine."

It was also widely reported at the time (1997) that Trump called a press conference which Machado was forced to attend, and told reporters that she was "somebody who likes to eat". He also told the "rowdy" reporters, "A lot of you folks have weight problems. I hate to tell you."

Avery
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    "As far as I can tell Machado's claims were first publicized at the debate" - This story has been out in the public for quite some time. Most of the ones about private comments came out in July of last year, because Machado announced that she was going to write a "tell all" book about it. Previous, public comments about her weight, and the public spectacle of having the press come and watch her work out, while calling her an "eating machine" to the press were well publicized and criticized, to a certain extent at the time. Just an FYI, certainly not worth a down-vote or anything. – PoloHoleSet Sep 29 '16 at 13:56
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    In his book, The Art of the Comeback, Donald Trump wrote: "I could just see Alicia Machado, the current Miss Universe, sitting there plumply. God, what problems I had with this woman." – David Schwartz Sep 29 '16 at 18:24
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    @DavidSchwartz to be fair the book [was largely ghostwritten](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Schwartz_(author)), but then Trump *did* give it his seal of approval and the ghostwriter gathered material by following Trump around. – Tacroy Sep 30 '16 at 20:23
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    How is this the answer? Neither "Miss Piggy" nor "Miss Housekeeping" are even *mentioned*. – DCShannon Sep 30 '16 at 23:51
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    @DCShannon The article does, and the initial quote's phrase "the taunts from Mr. Trump" is referencing them. This seems like completely appropriate context, no need to restate them. – Matthew Read Oct 01 '16 at 15:23
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Machado made the same claims in an interview with Inside Edition in May 2016:

Machado, who claims she actually gained closer to 15 pounds, told IE she felt publicly shamed. She said he called her “Miss Piggy." It made her feel “so fat” that it made her “very depressed," she said.

The Huffington Post reports Trump's other insult was featured in the same program:

Machado said Trump also made fun of her English language skills and called her “Miss Housekeeping” in an apparent jab at her Venezuelan accent.

To me, this interview looks to be a possible (and likely) source for Clinton's claims. Sure, her story was already out there, but both of the terms Clinton cited appear in this interview, and the interview seems to have been a follow-up of sorts to a NYTimes piece about Trump's insults towards women. Surely this was added to the opposition research.

I doubt video evidence of Trump's actually calling her these terms exists, but they certainly don't seem out of character for him.

BCdotWEB
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    Who would look at the Huffington Post for facts? – Menasheh Dec 02 '16 at 04:34
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    I'm confused, this post seems to give more details on **Machado's claims**, which is useful but .... do we have the slightest clue whether or not Trump did this? (Which would seem to be the title of the question here?) (The question begins **"Did Donald Trump..."** .. right?) Note that after reading all this, I don't even know **where** or **when** (within, let's say **thirty years?**) this putative event happened? – Fattie Feb 11 '17 at 15:51
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    Regarding the final sentence of this post, both parts seem utterly out of character with a "skeptics" site? – Fattie Feb 11 '17 at 15:52
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    @JoeBlow ["She said that, ***during her year as Miss Universe***, Trump called her "Miss Piggy" because she gained weight and "Miss Housekeeping" because of her Hispanic background."](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alicia_Machado#Involvement_in_politics) – BCdotWEB Feb 11 '17 at 21:19