Clinton Takes Shot at Trump: 'Shouldn't Let Anybody Bully His Way to the Presidency'

Clinton says Trump is "playing into the hands" of terrorists.

ByABC News
December 22, 2015, 5:49 PM

KEOTA, Iowa -- The war of words between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump continued Tuesday in Iowa with the former Secretary of State saying, "We shouldn't let anybody bully his way to the presidency."

Though she didn't mention Trump by name, the remarks came in the wake of controversial comments made by the real estate mogul in which he called a bathroom break that she took during the most recent Democratic debate "disgusting" and said that she "got [expletive]" during the 2008 election.

They also came as Clinton stood by her claim that ISIS operatives are using Trump in recruitment videos.

During the campaign event in Keota, Iowa, Clinton was asked a question by a high school student who said she's been bullied because she has asthma. "You're looking at someone who has had a lot of really terrible things said about me," Clinton responded.

"I think we are not treating each other with the respect and the care that we should show to each other. And, that's why it's important to stand up to bullies wherever they are and why we shouldn't let anybody bully his way to the Presidency," Clinton told the crowd of 700.

Early Tuesday, Clinton’s presidential campaign blasted Trump for what it called sexually derogatory comments.

"We are not responding to Trump but everyone who understands the humiliation this degrading language inflicts on all women should,” communications director Jen Palmieri tweeted.

In addition to making the sexually derogatory remark, Trump also attacked the former First Lady for taking a bathroom break during the most recent debate.

"I know where she went, it's disgusting, I don't want to talk about it,” Trump said. “No, it's too disgusting. Don't say it, it's disgusting, let's not talk, we want to be very, very straight up. But I thought that, wasn't that a weird deal.”

But, Clinton did mention Trump by name at her Keota, IA town hall when discussing national security and the "consequences" of his rhetoric.

Clinton stood by her claim that ISIS operatives are using Donald Trump in recruitment videos for the terrorist organization.

"If you go on Arabic television, as we have, and you look at what is being blasted out, video of Mr. Trump being translated into Arabic, no Muslims coming into the United States, other kinds of derogatory, defamatory statements," Clinton said. "It is playing into the hands of the violent jihadists."

At last Saturday's presidential debate, Clinton asserted that Trump was "becoming ISIS's best recruiter."

"They are going to people showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists," she said during the debate.

Clinton offered no specific evidence of the claim, and subsequently Palmieri said Clinton wasn't referring to a specific video.

"She’s not referring to a specific video, but he is being used in social media by ISIS as propaganda,” Palmieri told ABC News on Sunday.

In Iowa today, Clinton told her audience: "There is nothing they want more than to be able to claim that the United States is against Islam and against Muslims. And that then lights an even bigger fire for them to make their propaganda claims through social media in other ways. It also does something else. Our first line of defense in our country has to be Muslim Americans."

During a lighter moment at the Keota event, which was held after three students invited Presidential candidates to campus back in September, Clinton discussed publicly for the first time that her daughter Chelsea Clinton is expecting a second child.

“I’m gonna be a grandparent again. I have to tell you, it’s like the best news for me, and it’s the best club I’ve ever been in.”

Clinton holds two more events in Iowa Tuesday before taking a break from the campaign trail for the Christmas holiday.

ABC News' Liz Kreutz and John Verhovek contributed to this report.