donald j. trump unleashed a slashing new attack on hillary clinton over bill clinton <u+2019>s sexual indiscretions on friday as he sought to put the clintons<u+2019> relationship at the center of his political argument against her before their next debate. mr. trump, aiming to unnerve mrs. clinton, even indicated that he was rethinking his statement at their last debate that he would <u+201c>absolutely<u+201d> support her if she won in november, saying: <u+201c>we<u+2019>re going to have to see. we<u+2019>re going to see what happens. we<u+2019>re going to have to see.<u+201d> in an interview with the new york times, he also contended that infidelity was <u+201c>never a problem<u+201d> during his three marriages, though his first ended in an ugly divorce after mr. trump began a relationship with the woman who became his second wife. speaking by phone from a campaign swing in michigan, he said that he was <u+201c>absolutely disgusted<u+201d> that mrs. clinton had allied herself politically with a miss universe winner, alicia machado, whom mr. trump had derided for gaining weight. mr. trump said that mrs. clinton, who has portrayed ms. machado as a victim of mr. trump<u+2019>s cruel insults, had <u+201c>made this young lady into a girl scout when she was the exact opposite.<u+201d> he asserted, without offering any evidence, that ms. machado had once participated in a sex tape. mr. trump, the republican presidential nominee, argued that mrs. clinton<u+2019>s support for ms. machado was part of a pattern by the democrat of treating women to suit her own political ends, and raised mrs. clinton<u+2019>s criticism of women who had been involved with her husband, such as monica lewinsky and gennifer flowers. he said he was bringing up mr. clinton<u+2019>s infidelities because he thought they would repulse female voters and turn them away from the clintons, and because he was eager to unsettle mrs. clinton in their next two debates and on the campaign trail. <u+201c>she<u+2019>s nasty, but i can be nastier than she ever can be,<u+201d> mr. trump said. <u+201c>hillary clinton was married to the single greatest abuser of women in the history of politics,<u+201d> he added about mr. clinton. <u+201c>hillary was an enabler, and she attacked the women who bill clinton mistreated afterward. i think it<u+2019>s a serious problem for them, and it<u+2019>s something that i<u+2019>m considering talking about more in the near future.<u+201d> mr. trump said he believed that his own marital history did not preclude him from waging such an attack. he became involved with marla maples while he was still married to his first wife, ivana, who divorced him in 1991. he married ms. maples in 1993; they were divorced in 1999. he married his current wife, melania, in 2005. while mr. trump has bragged about his sexual exploits over the years, he charged in the interview that mr. clinton had numerous indiscretions that <u+201c>brought shame onto the presidency, and hillary clinton was there defending him all along.<u+201d> but when asked if he had ever cheated on his wives, mr. trump said: <u+201c>no <u+2014> i never discuss it. i never discuss it. it was never a problem.<u+201d> asked specifically about his affair with ms. maples when he was married to ivana trump, mr. trump said: <u+201c>i don<u+2019>t talk about it. i wasn<u+2019>t president of the united states. i don<u+2019>t talk about it. when you think of the fact that he was impeached, the country was in turmoil, turmoil, absolute turmoil. he lied with monica lewinsky and paid a massive penalty.<u+201d> a clinton campaign spokesman on friday night described mr. trump as <u+201c>unhinged<u+201d> in his attacks on mrs. clinton over ms. machado. <u+201c>as hillary has said, donald trump can say whatever he wants about her, but she will not be bullied out of defending alicia and the many other women trump has attacked and demeaned,<u+201d> said the campaign spokesman, brian fallon. mr. trump<u+2019>s sharply negative attacks on the clintons, and on ms. machado, pose a significant political risk to his own appeal: two-thirds of voters already see him unfavorably, according to polls, and he is struggling to win over female voters <u+2014> including white women, a majority of whom have historically supported the republican candidate in presidential elections. the clinton campaign is running a new attack ad against mr. trump featuring his insults of women over the years and has aggressively defended ms. machado; mrs. clinton called her on friday to offer thanks <u+201c>for all she had done and the courage she has shown, particularly as this became elevated through a war of some pretty unpleasant words,<u+201d> according to nick merrill, a campaign spokesman. but mr. trump is also scrambling for ways to rebound from his widely panned performance in the first general-election debate on monday, when he frequently interrupted mrs. clinton and failed to raise issues that he wanted to discuss, like her ties to wealthy donors to the clinton foundation and the attacks on the american diplomatic compound in benghazi, libya. mrs. clinton<u+2019>s team, democrats supporting her and many senior republicans have braced for an attack on the clintons<u+2019> marital history, seeing it as inevitable <u+2014> particularly now that mr. trump is being advised by several people connected to efforts in the late 1990s to reveal mr. clinton<u+2019>s affair with ms. lewinsky and to the subsequent impeachment battle. david bossie, mr. trump<u+2019>s deputy campaign manager, is the president of the conservative group citizens united, and worked as an investigator who searched arkansas for evidence of mr. clinton<u+2019>s personal misdeeds during the 1992 presidential campaign. some of mr. trump<u+2019>s advisers have tried to suggest focusing on accusations that mrs. clinton tried to discredit women who said they had been harassed by mr. clinton. chief among those suggesting this approach is roger stone, the longest-serving trump adviser, who wrote a book called <u+201c>the clintons<u+2019> war on women,<u+201d> laying out accusations from juanita broaddrick and kathleen willey, who have accused mr. clinton of sexual assault <u+2014> accusations the clintons or their lawyer david kendall have denied. mr. trump, however, has struggled to articulate that concept, and around 5 a.m. friday he released a series of posts on twitter attacking ms. machado once again. in the interview friday afternoon, mr. trump said he would begin preparing as soon as this weekend for the next debate, on oct. 9, and would be plotting ways to attack mrs. clinton on policy issues like trade and national security, as well as to unnerve her with possible targets like her husband<u+2019>s past. as for his own vulnerabilities, mr. trump insisted that he did not think he bungled a question at his first debate about not releasing his tax returns, when he argued at one point that he was <u+201c>smart<u+201d> to have avoided paying any federal income tax earlier in his career. <u+201c>i started getting such negative and unfair questions,<u+201d> mr. trump complained. mr. trump said that he did pay some federal income tax last year, but declined to specify the amount, and continued to cite a federal audit as an excuse not to release his tax returns. people are free to release returns when they are under audit, and most presidential candidates have released their returns since the 1970s. mr. trump said he did not think he needed to prepare more rigorously for the next debate than he did for the first one, because any shortcomings on monday, he argued, were because of a problem with the microphone at his lectern, which he <u+201c>spent 50 percent of my thought process<u+201d> dealing with. the commission on presidential debates, which sponsors the events, said on friday that there were <u+201c>issues<u+201d> with mr. trump<u+2019>s audio. looking broadly at the race, mr. trump said he was pleased that he was running close to mrs. clinton in many polls and expressed optimism that he would prevail in ohio and florida and ultimately take the presidency. <u+201c>i have the issues on my side,<u+201d> he said bullishly, <u+201c>and i have trump, which i<u+2019>ll take.<u+201d> find out what you need to know about the 2016 presidential race today, and get politics news updates via facebook , twitter and the first draft newsletter . a version of this article appears in print on october 1, 2016, on page a10 of the new york edition with the headline: clintons<u+2019> marriage is trump<u+2019>s new line of attack. order reprints | today's paper | subscribe
donald trump opens new line of attack on hillary clinton: her marriage
patrick healy maggie haberman