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Then a 'great woman', now 'nasty': Donald Trump's changing views on Hillary Clinton

Trump has called his rival 'Crooked Hillary' throughout the campaign and also made many personal attacks

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PTI Washington
Both Clinton and Trump have made no holds barred attacks at each other throughout the campaign and during the third and final presidential debate last week Trump broke into one of Clinton's responses to call her "such a nasty woman." The remark sparked a backlash with many coming to Clinton's defence. 
 
Trump has called his Democratic rival 'Crooked Hillary' throughout the campaign and also made many personal attacks.
 
However, in a 2008 interview with NY1 reviewed by CNN, Trump had praised Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, for their time in elected office.
 
Asked about Hillary Clinton's legacy, Trump said, "Well, I think her history is far from being over. I'd like to answer that question in another 15 years from now. I think she is going to go down at a minimum as a great senator. I think she is a great wife to a president. And I think Bill Clinton was a great president."
 
 
"You know you look at the country then. The economy was doing great. Look at what happened during the Clinton years. I mean, we had no war, the economy was doing great, everybody was happy. A lot of people hated him because they were jealous as hell. You know people get jealous and they hate you,"  Trump was quoted as saying. While Trump and Clinton are now taking sharp digs at each other, he had nothing but nice things to say about her and Bill Clinton eight years ago.
 
"Bill Clinton was a great president. Hillary Clinton is a great woman and a good woman," he had said in the interview. Trump wrote about the interview in a blog post at the time, saying, "Hillary is smart, tough and a very nice person, and so is her husband. Bill Clinton was a great President. They are fine people. Hillary was roughed up by the media, and it was a tough campaign for her, but she's a great trouper. Her history is far from being over."
 
Trump had also echoed those same sentiments in an interview with CNN a year earlier, in March 2007, saying, "I think she's a very, very brilliant person, and as a senator in New York, she has done a great job. Everybody loves her. She just won an election with a tremendous majority and she really — she's become very, very popular in New York. And it wasn't easy."
 
Trump has been attacking Clinton for her record as a senator in recent weeks, and going after her and Bill for the former president's sexual misconduct while in office and alleged misconduct before he became president.

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First Published: Oct 23 2016 | 3:30 PM IST

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