MANCHESTER, New Hampshire — Donald Trump faux-admonished and then repeated a woman who called Ted Cruz a "pussy" at a rally here on Monday night.
Trump was criticizing Cruz for, in his view, failing to offer unequivocal support for waterboarding in the debate on Saturday night. Trump then interrupted what he was saying to point out what a woman in the crowd had shouted.
"She just said a terrible thing," Trump said. "You know what she said? Shout it out because I don't want to — OK, you're not allowed to say, and I never expect to hear that from you again. She said — I never expect to hear that from you again! — she said he's a pussy. That's terrible. Terrible," Trump said, throwing up his hands.
Trump has similarly in the past amplified derogatory comments while at the same time insisting that it's not him who made the comment, or that he didn't really mean it. The use of the term "pussy" represents an escalation in his rhetoric against Cruz, who beat him in Iowa, though Trump has been known to use profanity in public at times.
A few people near BuzzFeed News at the event started chanting, "Pussy! Pussy!" after Trump said this.
This took place at Trump's last event in New Hampshire, where he still holds a double digit lead, before the primary tomorrow.