Sixteen years before candidate Donald Trump was "looming" behind Hillary Clinton to make her feel "incredibly uncomfortable" during a debate, Rick Lazio made a similar move that proved fatal to his campaign.
Clinton has released an excerpt from her new book titled, "What Happened," detailing the exchange with Trump during their October debate when he famously followed her around the stage.
"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,'" Clinton wrote.
Clinton benefited from a similar predicament during a 2000 New York senatorial debate when Lazio, Clinton's Republican challenger, approached her on the Buffalo, New York, stage with paper in hand, asking her to sign an agreement about soft money.
The move was seen as bullying and backfired on Lazio, sinking his underdog challenge to the former first lady. It was an infamous moment in the history of politics and a cautionary tale of what not to do during a debate with a woman.
"I thought that was the opportunity to make the point. On substance, it was right — and on style and perception, it was a mistake, which I regret," Lazio would say eight years later.
Lazio surfaced again last September to dispatch advice to Trump: Stay at the podium.
Trump didn't, but this time there was no windfall for Clinton.
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