Hillary Clinton Debate Bathroom Controversy: Rand Paul Says Fiorina Can Use Restroom Quickly, So Why Couldn't Former Secretary Of State?

Republican presidential candidates can’t seem to stop themselves from talking about Hillary Clinton’s bathroom habits. Yet another 2016 White House hopeful has decided to weigh in on how long it took Clinton to return from using the bathroom during a commercial break during the last Democratic presidential debate.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul jumped into the controversy surrounding Clinton’s bathroom break as part of his annual airing of grievances on Twitter in honor of the fake holiday Festivus from the TV show “Seinfeld.”

During the Dec. 19 debate, the ABC moderators returned from a commercial break and began asking questions even though Clinton was not back at her lectern. Although she returned a few moments later, saying, “Sorry,” the incident was extremely awkward.

As the Boston Globe reported, the reason Clinton was late was that the sole women’s bathroom was farther from the stage than the men’s room, and someone else was occupying the bathroom upon the former secretary of state’s arrival. Women are used to long lines for bathrooms, but to many men, this may have seemed like an odd explanation.

Paul apparently felt the need to publicly share his opinion about how long women should use the bathroom. He said Wednesday on Twitter that Carly Fiorina, who is also running for president as a Republican, had “ZERO trouble making it back from commercial breaks,” so there was no reason Clinton should have had trouble either. This statement seemed to ignore the circumstances surrounding Clinton’s bathroom trip, as well as the fact that not all women's bodies are identical.

The Kentucky senator is not the only 2016 candidate to criticize Clinton over this issue. Republican front-runner Donald Trump mocked Clinton’s absence Monday during a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Trump told his supporters he was watching the debate and when Clinton disappeared, he wondered where she went.

“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.”

During the same rally, Trump also said Clinton was “schlonged” in 2008 when she was up against President Barack Obama — a comment that has drawn intense criticism this week.

Trump has caught flak over sexist remarks since he began his bid for the White House over the summer. He has gotten into a war of words with Fox News host Megyn Kelly and made comments about Fiorina’s face that people interpreted as being disrespectful to women in general.

Clinton, for her part, has refrained from responding to Trump’s off-color remarks over the past few days and has instead stuck to criticizing him and the other Republican candidates over policy issues. Her communications director, Jennifer Palmieri, tweeted indirectly about Trump’s comments Tuesday.