Clinton calls Trump ‘creep’ in new book

Washington, Aug 23 (IANS) US former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in her new book has called President Donald Trump a "creep" and said he made her "skin crawl" by stalking her around the stage during a presidential debate.

In audio excerpts of the book "What Happened" aired on Wednesday on MSNBC, Clinton described her 2016 campaign as "joyful, humbling, infuriating and just plain baffling" and acknowledged that she failed her millions of supporters by losing to Trump in the November 2016 election, the Washington Post reported.

Clinton described the televised debate on October 9 in Missouri in which Trump followed her closely around the stage, lurking behind her as she fielded questions from a live television audience. The debate came two days after an audiotape emerged in which Trump was heard bragging about groping women.

"It was incredibly uncomfortable. He was literally breathing down my neck. My skin crawled," she said.

"It was one of those moments where you wish you could hit pause and ask everyone watching, 'Well, what would you do?' Do you stay calm, keep smiling and carry on as if he weren't repeatedly invading your space? Or do you turn, look him in the eye and say loudly and clearly, 'Back up, you creep. Get away from me. I know you love to intimidate women, but you can't intimidate me, so back up'."

Clinton said she chose the first option. She said writing the book, due to be released on September 12, "wasn't easy".

"Every day that I was a candidate for President, I knew that millions of people were counting on me and I couldn't bear the idea of letting them down. But I did," she said. "I couldn't get the job done."