Trump adviser A.J. Delgado defends ‘nasty woman’ insult: ‘He was speaking for a great deal of America’

A.J. Delgado, a senior adviser to Donald Trump’s campaign, said Friday that it was accurate for Trump to call Hillary Clinton a “nasty woman” at the third and final presidential debate.

Yahoo News anchor Bianna Golodryga brought up that many undecided women voters were taken aback by Trump’s insult on stage at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, on Wednesday night. The phrase “nasty woman” has even become a feminist rallying cry for Clinton’s White House bid as the campaign cycle reaches the homestretch.

“Why go there? I mean, this was at the tail end of this debate. He seemed to be restrained for the majority of it. They were talking about Social Security, and all of a sudden he just seemed to lash out like this,” Golodryga told Delgado.

Delgado argued that it’s troubling to see Clinton laughing when people bring up controversies that have plagued her campaign, such as the alleged corruption of the Clinton Foundation or her use of a private email server as secretary of state.

“I have to tell you when he called her a ‘nasty woman,’ I think he was speaking for a great deal of America. We are angry at Hillary Clinton’s dismissal of the jobs that we’ve lost with NAFTA and these disastrous trade deals,” Delgado said.

“Why not say that?” Golodryga said. “Why not just go after her on substance?”

According to Delgado, however, Trump was going after her on substantive issues because he “wasn’t calling her a ‘nasty woman’ in any other regard.”

“That’s a personal attack,” Golodryga countered.

“Based on her policy position,” Delgado said. “When Mr. Trump explained her position on abortion and described it so viscerally, I can tell you many pro-life Americans were hearing that, and later, … when he refers to her as ‘a nasty woman,’ somebody who would support partial-birth abortion, I could tell you there were probably quite a few Americans standing up and cheering that remark. It’s referring to her being nasty based on her record.”

Delgado, a prominent Trump surrogate, criticized Clinton’s treatment of women who have accused President Bill Clinton’s of misconduct, such as Juanita Broaddrick, who alleges that Clinton raped her in 1978, and Gennifer Flowers, with whom Clinton had an affair. She also accused Hillary Clinton of having weak policy proposals and being dismissive of the needs of regular Americans.

Delgado also took issue with Clinton’s comment last September that half of Trump’s supporters were “irredeemable” members of a “basket of deplorables.” Clinton partially walked that comment back.

“I consider her a nasty woman for calling me and my fellow Americans irredeemable,” Delgado said. “As a person of faith, I don’t ever use that term to refer to another human being.”