WATCH: Visibly uncomfortable Arkansas AG offers cringe-inducing defense of Trump's 'sex tape' tweet

Just hours after Donald Trump declared that he and his campaign represented the "bright and clean" future of American politics, he sent out a tweet urging voters to "check out" a non-existent sex tape of former Miss Universe Alicia Machado.

Appearing on MSNBC to talk about this newest controversy, Trump-supporting Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge sat down for an interview with host Stephanie Ruhle, who grilled her about why on Earth Trump thought it was appropriate to tell America to "check out sex tape" with just 38 days to go before the election.

Rutledge decided to come clean and place the blame for this where it really belongs -- on Hillary Clinton.

"It's unfortunate that this issue was raised by Secretary Clinton during Monday night's debate," she said. "She's the one that jumped off in the ditch, bringing back comments from the '90s. So it's unfortunate that it turned to that, rather than turning to jobs and the economy and national security."

Ruhle wasn't having any of this line of argument, however.

"OK, that was Monday, this story was dying down," Ruhle said of the Machado affair. "Donald Trump told America -- told the millions of people following him on Twitter, our children who in their own schools have their own little elections -- [to] look at a sex tape. And it wasn't just Alicia Machado: Monday night he doubled down and said, 'The views on Rosie O'Donnell, they're universal.' He's been saying this for years."

Rutledge responded by repeating the exact same talking point she delivered in her first response.

"Well, again, Secretary Clinton is the one who jumped off in this ditch, and it was not Donald Trump," she repeated. "We have seen, for the past several months, that he has been focused on talking about jobs and the economy, bringing back jobs to the inner cities."

Ruhle still wouldn't let it go and pointed out that it was Trump himself who went on Twitter at 5 a.m. this morning and told everyone, without being prompted, to check out a sex tape. She then asked Ruteledge whether she thought this was a good strategy for him.

Rutledge paused for about three seconds and looked visibly uncomfortable.

"Well, I am a fan of tweeting during waking hours of most folks," she said. "So I'm not up tweeting at 3 a.m. generally, so I don't know if that's great advice, but perhaps there are people who are interested in other issues at 3 a.m."

She then said that Trump's actions paled in comparison to how Hillary Clinton treated women who had affairs with her husband back in the '90s.

Check out the full clip below.