‘MY SKIN CRAWLED’
HIL SPILLS ON INFAMOUS DEBATE VS. STALKER TRUMP
CROOKED HILLARY has her own name for her former presidential opponent: Creepy Donald.
Hillary Clinton says her “skin crawled” as Donald Trump stood only a few feet behind her, hovering silently and staring at the back of her head during a presidential debate last year.
Clinton adds that she felt Trump was “literally breathing down my neck” — in what has become one of the most infamous moments of the 2016 election.
The former secretary of state offers her perspective on the awkward moment — as well as a deeply personal take on her botched candidacy — in her new book, “What Happened,” which is due out next month.
Excerpts of the audiobook — read by Clinton — were obtained by and played on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Wednesday.
Clinton details several moments from the campaign that she wishes she could “go back and do over.”
The heated Oct. 9 debate is one of those moments.
The showdown between Clinton and Trump took place in St. Louis two days after a now-infamous 2005 audio was released in which Trump details his preferred methods of groping women.
Tensions were already heightened when the town hall-style event got underway.
“Now, we were on a small stage and no matter where I walked, he followed me closely, staring at me, making faces,” Clinton writes of the close confines of the debate stage. “It was incredibly uncomfortable.”
The two didn’t shake hands when they took the stage, and things only got more intense as Clinton directly answered a question from a member of the small, seated audience.
That’s when the Republican nominee sneaked up behind her — a move panned by many as a bullying tactic meant to intimidate his opponent.
The Daily News front-page headline the day after the debate read: “Grab a seat, loser.”
“My skin crawled,” she writes. “It was one of those moments where you wish you could hit pause and ask everyone watching, Well, what would you do?”
In her mind, Clinton could either stay calm or tell Trump, “I know you love to intimidate women but you can’t intimidate me, so back up.
“I kept my cool, aided by a lifetime of dealing with men trying to throw me off,” she continues. “I did, however, grip the microphone extra hard.”
While Clinton pondered how else she could have handled the situation, she also cast a glance backwards, implying that her behavior was a result of years of enduring similar situations.
“Maybe I have overlearned the lesson of staying calm, smiling all the while, determined to present a composed face to the world,” she writes.
Clinton, who won the popular vote, but lost the Electoral College to Trump in a stunning defeat, also fesses up in the book to making mistakes during the campaign.
The former New York senator, who has previously laid blame on myriad outside influences, including former FBI Director James Comey and Russia, admits that she made a few mistakes of her own.
“Every day that I was a candidate for President, I knew that millions of people were counting on me, and I couldn’t bear the idea of letting them down — but I did,” she said. “I couldn’t get the job done, and I’ll have to live with that for the rest of my life.”