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John Oliver Tackles Trump's Miss Universe Comments

by Joseph D. Lyons

Donald Trump's debate performance has been sized up by many since the verbal duel aired last Monday, but unsurprisingly John Oliver may have found the key insight to it. A key recap: Trump lost, according to many political pundits. Well, he didn't see it that way, and blamed his microphone problems instead. But there's plenty of evidence that he lost the debate — and this might not be the first time. On this week's Last Week Tonight, Oliver took on Trump's body shaming and pointed out something incredibly important: Monday wasn't the first time Trump lost a debate. And he's certainly not going to get away with the way he talks about women.

This all comes from one of the key moments in the debate for Clinton. Ramping up over the 90 minutes, Clinton finally accused Trump of sexism by bringing up a former Miss Universe contestant, Alicia Machado, whom he body shamed during her year with the crown in 1996. She egged him on, saying that of all the things he has said about women, the worst might be his "Miss Piggy" comments. She brought down the house with this line, and it has continued to garner attention. And as Oliver proved, this isn't the first time Machado owned Trump on TV. Oliver played a clip from a 1997 CBS interview:

Trump: Alicia has done an incredible job. She really has turned out to be one of the great Miss Universes, I will say...

Machado: Thank you.

Trump: ...And she had a little problem during the middle where she gained a little weight.

Machado: I don't think so.

Trump: Yeah, she's probably right.

Machado: I don't think so.

Trump: Okay.

That's when Oliver finally said enough is enough. His next line is one for the books, because when it comes down to it, Trump's going to have a real hard time winning women's votes. And that's nothing new. Oliver said:

Wow. Donald Trump really should have been prepared for Monday night because it seems he's been losing televised debates to women for 20 years now.

And it's not just in the debate that women have been winning against Trump this week. Trump attempted to attack Machado (and "Crooked Hillary" as well) once again in a tweet on Thursday. Both Clinton and Machado have responded, once again showing him that women won't put up with his bullying any longer. Machado wrote a long response on Instagram in Spanish. "I will continue standing, sharing my story, my absolute support for Mrs. Clinton on behalf of all women, my sisters, aunts, grandmothers, cousins, friends and the female community," she said.

Clinton tweeted out: "What kind of man stays up all night to smear a woman with lies and conspiracy theories?" Though it's difficult to imagine anything more vile than Trump's comments about Machado, the situation was made even worse by Trump's inability to let it go.

Perhaps the attacks come from insecurity. Trump's loss to Clinton has really been bugging him. News reports say he's angry with supporters who have conceded he lost. The Trump team would rather that everyone in his camp focus on some of his one-liners from the debate and paint a rosy picture of the evening. But truly, it's Trump that keeps changing the conversation to his losing past by attacking Machado. She beat him 19 years ago in that interview, and Clinton — perhaps with some good moderating from Martha Raddatz — is likely to do it again next week.