Clinton Trump.jpg
Hillary Clinton (left) and Donald Trump (right) are running for president as a Democrat and Republican, respectively.
(File photos)
TRENTON -- Was Friday a preview of what a 2016 presidential race between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton would look like?
Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, suggested that one of Clinton's top aides, Huma Abedin, shared classified information with her husband, former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner -- a man Trump referred to as a "perv" and "one of the great sleazebags of our time."
Meanwhile, Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, lamented that Republicans have gone from supporting Abraham Lincoln to backing Trump -- and cracked a joke comparing her hair to The Donald's.
The jabs came one day after a new Quinnipiac University poll showed Clinton just 4 percentage points ahead of Trump in a mock head-to-head 2016 matchup.
Trump made the comments about Abedin and Weiner while speaking at a private house party in the Boston suburb of Norwood, Mass.
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The billionaire businessman referenced how Clinton has faced scrutiny for using a private email server when she was U.S. secretary of state, with the U.S. Justice Department investigating whether she stored classified information on the server.
Abedin -- who was deputy chief of staff while the former first lady and U.S. senator was secretary of state -- has also become a key figure in the controversy after it was revealed she had her own email account on the private server, causing critics to question her role in the matter.
Abedin forwarded at least one email that contained potentially classified information, according to the inspector general for the Intelligence Community. A Clinton spokesman has said the information was not classified at the time the email was sent, and Abedin has denied any wrongdoing.
Trump said Friday that Abedin, who is now vice chairwoman of her presidential campaign, "is one of the people that it all sort of came through."
"Who is Huma married to?" Trump asked the crowd, according to video of the event. "One of the great sleazebags of our time, Anthony Weiner. Did you know that?"
Trump repeatedly mispronounced Abedin's first name as "Ooma."
"So Huma is getting classified secrets," continued the real estate mogul, who owns three New Jersey golf courses and once owned three Atlantic City casinos. "She's married to Anthony Weiner, who's a perv. No, he is."
Weiner, a Democrat, represented New York's 9th District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1999 until 2011, when he resigned amid a sexting scandal. He faced similar controversy in 2013, derailing his bid to become New York City mayor. Weiner is now working as a part-time consultant for New Jersey public relations firm MWW.
Trump said he suspected Abedin shared information she learned from Clinton with Weiner.
"Do you think there's even a 5 percent chance that she's not telling Anthony Weiner -- now of a public relations firm -- what the hell is coming across?" Trump asked the audience. "Do you think there's even a little bit of a chance? I don't think so."
"If you think that Huma isn't telling Anthony, who she's probably desperately in love with, in all fairness to Anthony," the businessman continued. "'Cause why else would she marry this guy? Can you believe it? Can't see straight."
Trump noted that he's known Weiner "for a long time."
"I knew him before they caught him with the bing bing bing," Trump said. "He was a bad guy then. It turned out that he was a really bad guy."
Still, the Washington Post reported that Trump donated $2,000 to Weiner's congressional campaign in 2010.
Nick Merrill, a spokesman for Clinton, said on Twitter that Trump "crossed a line this evening."
"Donald Trump has spent the summer saying offensive things about women," Merril wrote, "but there is no place for patently false, personal attacks towards a staff member. He should be ashamed of himself."
Clinton, meanwhile, took aim at Trump during a speech at the Democratic National Committee's summer meeting in Minneapolis on Friday, suggesting he is hurting the legacy of the Republican Party.
"The party of Lincoln has become the party of Trump," Clinton said, according to video of the speech. "Think about it."
Clinton also criticized Trump for saying he would deal with women's health issues better than she would as president.
"Now, that is a general election debate that is going to be a lot of fun," she said.
And Clinton said the other 16 candidates running for the Republican nomination -- a field that includes New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie -- are "pretty much the same."
"They're Trump without the pizzaz or the hair," she said.
The joke continued with Clinton noting that "a lot of people have said a lot of things about my hair of the years."
"So I do kind of know what Donald is going through," she said. "And if anyone wonders if mine is real, here's the answer: The hair is real, the color isn't."
"And come to think of it, I wonder if that's true for Donald, too," Clinton added.
Trump has often defended his hair, stressing it isn't a toupee. During a rally in South Carolina on Thursday, he called a woman to the stage to tug on his hair to prove it's his.
"I believe it is," she said.
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Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.