Donald Trump is adding a new figure to the list of people he considers a loser: longtime Hillary Clinton adviser Huma Abedin.
During a Friday evening stop at a
private picnic near Boston, the Republican White House hopeful and real estate
mogul suggested that Abedin had shared classified information with her husband,
disgraced ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner. Abedin, one of Clinton’s longest serving
aides and now the vice chairman of her presidential campaign, was Clinton’s
deputy chief of staff while she was Secretary of State and one of her most
trusted advisers.
Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill
called Trump’s remarks “patently false, personal attacks towards a staff
member.”
While Clinton’s critics are
investigating her use of a private email server and whether classified
information was sent to non-governmental accounts, no one had before suggested
Abedin was passing sensitive materials to anyone who should not have had it. To
Trump, Abedin is yet another shady figure involved in the never-ending saga of
Clinton’s email practices as the nation’s top diplomat. “It all came through
Huma,” whom Trump repeated called “YOU-ma.”
“Who is Huma married to? One of the
great sleazebags of our time, Anthony Weiner. She is married to Anthony Weiner.
You know, the little bing, bing, bing,” Trump went on.
Weiner resigned from Congress amid a
sexting scandal in 2011. Abedin remains married to him and they are raising a
3-year-old son.
“Think about it. So Huma is getting
classified secrets. She’s married to Anthony Weiner, who is a pervert. He is.
So these are confidential documents,” Trump said, taking his typical asides to
add tangential information. “If you think that Huma isn’t telling Anthony—who
she is probably desperately in love with, in all fairness to Anthony, because
why else would she marry this guy? Can you believe it? She can’t see straight.
Think of it.”
Trump said Abedin’s love for her
husband likely compelled her to tell him things she should not have.
“Do you think there’s even a 5%
chance that she’s not telling Anthony Weiner, now at a public relations firm,
what the hell is coming across? Do you think there’s even a little bit of a
chance? I don’t think so.”
Trump’s decision to go after one of
Clinton’s most loyal advisers was a new move for the real estate mogul, whose
brash approach to the campaign has propelled him to the top of the polls.
Abedin started working for Clinton
while she was an undergraduate at George Washington University and Clinton was
First Lady. She went on to work for Clinton’s Senate office and her 2008
presidential campaign and followed her to this one. She’s a constant presence
at Clinton’s side; Clinton has likened Abedin to the second daughter she never
had.
Merrill, the Clinton spokesman, said Trump had gone too far: “Donald
Trump has spent the summer saying offensive things about women, but there is no
place for patently false, personal attacks towards a staff member. He should be
ashamed of himself, and others in his own party should take a moment to stand
up to him and draw the line for once. It’s embarrassing to watch, frankly.”