Rattled after debate, Trump goes on attack, doesn't back down on remarks about pageant winner's weight

A defensive Donald Trump lashed out at the debate moderator, complained about his microphone and threatened to make Bill Clinton's marital infidelity a campaign issue in a television appearance on Tuesday just hours after his first presidential debate with Hillary Clinton.

And defying conventions of civility and political common sense, Trump leveled cutting personal criticism at a Miss Universe pageant winner, held up by Hillary Clinton in Monday night's debate as an example of her opponent's disrespect for women.

Asked whether Clinton succeeded in getting under his skin, Trump conceded that she did when she reminded him that he'd called Alicia Machado, a winner of his Miss Universe pageant, "Miss Piggy" and "Miss Housekeeping."

Trump insisted in the Fox News appearance that he had been right to disparage Machado for her physique.

"She was the winner and she gained a massive amount of weight and it was a real problem," said Trump, who was the pageant's executive producer at the time. "Not only that — her attitude. And we had a real problem with her."

Clinton mentioned Machado by name, quoting insults that Machado has attributed to Trump and noting that the pageant winner had become a citizen to vote in the 2016 election. During the debate, Trump expressed disbelief at the charge that he had ridiculed Machado, asking Clinton repeatedly: "Where did you find this?"

But Trump abruptly shifted course a few hours later, with new comments that threaten to escalate and extend an argument that appeared to be one of his weakest moments of the debate.

His comments attacking Machado recalled his frequent practice, during the Republican primaries and much of the general election campaign, of bickering harshly with political bystanders, sometimes savaging them in charged language that ended up alienating voters. In the past, he has launched extended personal attacks on the Muslim parents of an Army captain slain in Iraq and a Hispanic federal judge.

Trump aides considered it a sign of progress in recent weeks that the Republican nominee was more focused on criticizing Clinton, and less prone to veering off into such self-destructive public feuds.

Going after Machado may be especially tone deaf for Trump, at a moment in the race when he is seeking to reverse voters' ingrained negative views of his personality. Polls show most voters see him as biased against minorities and women, and Clinton has been airing a television commercial highlighting Trump's history of caustic and graphic comments about women.

But Trump appeared thrown on Tuesday by his uneven performance the night before, offering a series of different explanations for the results. On Fox, he cited "unfair questions" posed by the moderator, Lester Holt of NBC News, and insinuated that someone might have tampered with his microphone.

Moving forward in his contest with Clinton, Trump said he might "hit her harder," perhaps raising the issue of "her husband's women." Should Trump opt for that risky approach, he could begin to do so during a campaign swing in Florida on Tuesday.

"I don't believe she has the stamina to be the president," he said on Fox. "You know, she's home all the time."

Both Trump and Clinton will strike out on the campaign trail Tuesday with the goal of framing the debate's outcome to their advantage. While Trump is in Florida, Clinton is expected to campaign in North Carolina, a traditionally Republican state where polls show her and Trump virtually tied.

It will likely take a few days to measure any shift in the race after the candidates' clash at Hofstra University on Long Island. Polls had shown the presidential race narrowing almost to a dead heat on the national level, with Trump drawing close to Clinton in several swing states where she had long held an advantage.

But Clinton's campaign struck a far more confident pose Tuesday, roundly declaring victory in the debate after spending much of the last month on the defensive.

Clinton's running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, cheered her debate performance in a round of morning television interviews, and sought to link her steadier approach during the evening with her qualifications for the presidency.

Kaine added, "And what they saw about Donald Trump was that he lacks specifics, other than attacks, and he was easily rattled."

Trump's running mate, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, also toured the morning TV programs with an upbeat message. Appearing on ABC's "Good Morning America," Pence proclaimed Monday to have been a "great night" in which Trump showcased the "kind of energy" and the "kind of leadership" that had animated his campaign.

"Donald Trump took command of the stage, and I think the American people saw his leadership qualities," Pence said.

But as has become customary for the Republican ticket, Trump's provocative remarks are likely to overshadow his running mate's far more cautious and conventional arguments.