Limbaugh Smears Clinton Supporter as ‘Porn Star’ While Kelly Jokes About Her Own Butt

The former Miss Universe gets the same treatment as any woman who clashes with Trump, or dares to support a different candidate

Fox News' Megyn Kelly interviews former Miss Universe Alicia Machado
Fox News’ Megyn Kelly interviews former Miss Universe Alicia Machado

In the days after the first presidential debate, the campaign conversation stayed on a low plateau.

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On nationwide radio, right-wing oracle Rush Limbaugh — without apparent proof — kept calling a female Hillary Clinton supporter a “porn star” after the woman said Donald Trump insulted her for gaining weight when she was Miss Universe.

Meanwhile, on FOX (FOXA) News Channel, news actress Megyn Kelly was discussing her own fully-clothed rear end.

“Does this dress make my butt look big?” Kelly said. “What? Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. You can’t see my butt. Well – heh-heh-heh-heh.”

Kelly’s light-hearted segue came at the end of a relatively serious conversation on The Kelly File Wednesday with Dana Perino about how the Republican candidate took Clinton’s bait in Monday’s debate and hooked himself to a losing issue.

By bringing up the 20-year-old fat-shaming incident with Alicia Machado of Venezuela, Clinton got Trump to protest too much and make himself, through the miracle of video tape, look like a cad.

“If you want to increase your numbers with women, stop telling us how fat we are,” Kelly said. “… It doesn’t make us feel very good, especially when you (Trump) have been classified as overweight. And we don’t want to hear it, in fact, even if you’re perfectly fit. Especially if you’re perfectly fit. We don’t want to hear it. Period!”

Clinton cited Machado as a Trump victim in Monday’s debate, saying the woman is now an American citizen who will vote for the Democratic candidate. Since then, the plump Trump and his beefy buddy Newt Gingrich have been talking about Machado’s weight gain two decades ago when Trump owned and ran the beauty pageant.

“You’re not supposed to gain 60 pounds during the year that you’re Miss Universe,” Gingrich told Log Cabin Republicans in a cell phone video that made the rounds.

On Anderson Cooper 360 on CNN Thursday night, the host showed tape of Machado working out in a gym before a horde of cameras at the orders of Trump.

In the midst of them stands, eyes cast down to the young woman, stood Trump, with a certain expression on his younger, leaner face.

“He was standing there leering at her,” said Cooper, who called the image “creepy.”

Had Trump really supported Machado and her fitness, Cooper said, Trump would have changed from a suit into sweats and would have exercised with her.

Cooper’s many guests in the 8 p.m. hour were mostly females with strong opinions, particularly Ana Navarro, who said Trump treated the teenage beauty queen like a guinea pig.

“Hell knows no fury like a Latina who’s been called fat,” Navarro said. “She was exhibited… This has turned into a reality show… You just want to cringe… When you’ve got a Donald Trump and a Newt Gingrich shaming people in public, I don’t know, man, but I think you’ve got to have a minimum level of fitness yourself.”

Navarro’s words were quoted in the next hour on Fox by Kelly. In fewer words, Krystal Ball might have topped Navarro when she spoke to Kelly.

“This comes as a shock to absolutely no one that Donald Trump is a sexist pig,” Ball said. “It’s kind of relevant to people whether their future president happens to also be a sexist pig.”

Kelly stressed that although Trump made comments about Machado’s weight, no one has seconded her charge that Trump called her “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeping” (the latter, you see, because she is from Latin America. Trump’s a funny guy).

But Kelly’s production staff failed to track down an old clip that Cooper showed of an interview between Trump and shock jock Howard Stern in which the two Long Island Lotharios discussed the possibility of sex with Princess Diana of England.

STERN: “You could have gotten her, right? You could have nailed her.”

TRUMP: “I think I could have.”

If you wanted sterner stuff, Lawrence O’Donnell of MSNBC came through Thursday night with a scene from Godfather II of the American mobsters dividing up casinos in Cuba while cutting a cake.

He used this as an introduction to the Newsweek story about how Trump may have broken American law by sending a group of representatives to Havana in 1998 to inquire about opening a casino there, when the United States still officially enforced a trade embargo that made such visits illegal.

O’Donnell also touched on a New York State investigation of Trump’s foundation and whether it is properly registered. And he mentioned a Los Angeles Times piece about how Trump demanded only pretty women be hired to interact with the public at one of his golf resorts.

But, like all the hosts, O’Donnell had to touch on issues of love and marriage and fidelity and of how the Trump campaign has threatened to let Trump talk about Bill Clinton’s sex life in the next debate.

“Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump, Newt Gingrich,” O’Donnell said. “Three wives each. Experts on women, right?”

Disclosure: Donald Trump is the father-in-law of Jared Kushner, the publisher of Observer Media

Joe Lapointe spent 20 years as a sports reporter for The New York Times and worked as a segment producer for Countdown With Keith Olbermann. Recently, he’s taught journalism at New York University, Rutgers and Long Island University-Brooklyn. follow him on twitter: @joelapointe

Limbaugh Smears Clinton Supporter as ‘Porn Star’ While Kelly Jokes About Her Own Butt