Donald Trump Claims Hillary Clinton Cannot Walk Up Stairs, But U.K. Prime Minister Held His Hand On Steps
At the same time that the United States House of Representatives was conducting a vote that ultimately made him only the third president in history to be impeached, Donald Trump held a campaign rally in Michigan where he made a series of claims about his 2016 election opponent Hillary Clinton. At one point, when he mentioned Clinton, the crowd inside Kellogg Arena in Battle Creek broke out into a chant of “lock her up!” aimed at the former secretary of state, according to the Democratic blog Political Flare.
Trump appeared to enjoy the chant, assuring the crowd that “it could still happen.” But the president has often expressed a desire to jail or criminally prosecute his political foes and personal rivals.
The chant came after another Trump insult directed toward Clinton, suggesting that for some reason the first woman to be nominated for president by a major political party is too out of shape to walk up multiple flights of stairs, as reported via Twitter by Vox correspondent Aaron Rupar.
After boasting of his ability to “go upstairs, downstairs, all around,” Trump added, “You think Hillary could do this? I don’t think so. They bring her back home, she wants to go to sleep.”
But the president reportedly has his own issues with stairs, despite his claim to be able to walk up and down many flights.
After Trump bashes Hillary Clinton for purportedly not being able to walk up stairs, his fans break out in "lock her up!" chants. Trump responds by suggesting that because of the IG report, it could still happen. pic.twitter.com/ZCnnvoxzeq
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 19, 2019
In 2017, after Trump and the United Kingdom’s then-Prime Minister Theresa May were photographed holding hands as they walked down a set of steps, the BBC reported that “insiders” explained the unusual hand-holding between the two world leaders as being caused by the president’s own fear of staircases — a condition known as “bathmophobia.”
A spokesperson for May even appeared to confirm that the prime minister needed to assist Trump on the stairs.
“They were walking along. There was an unseen ramp. He put out his hand. She took it,” the spokesperson said, according to the BBC.
Prior to winning the 2016 election, Trump even made a point of ridiculing Barack Obama for the energetic way he often jogged up and down flights of stairs. On Twitter, as the BBC quoted, the president ridiculed his predecessor as “hopping & bobbing all the way,” calling him “so inelegant and unpresidential.”
At the rally, Trump also imagined a conversation between Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, during the 2016 campaign.
Trump's reenactment of a conversation between Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton is totally off the rails pic.twitter.com/NZTzC20Uhh
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 19, 2019
In the imagined conversation, Trump described Bill Clinton referring to his own wife as “Crooked,” much like the 45th U.S. president has long referred to his 2016 opponent as “Crooked Hillary.” He also impersonated Clinton in the fictional dialogue by referring to the former first lady as “you horrible human being,” warning her that if she did not campaign in Wisconsin and Michigan, she would get her “a** whooped.”
