Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonJeff Flake: Republicans 'should hold the same position' on SCOTUS vacancy as 2016 Momentum growing among Republicans for Supreme Court vote before Election Day Warning signs flash for Lindsey Graham in South Carolina MORE in a new interview argued the media rewarded President Trump after he made discriminatory comments during the 2016 presidential race.

In an interview broadcast Tuesday on NPR's "Morning Edition," Clinton said Trump “never stopped” the attacks on Mexicans, which he began the day he announced his presidential bid.

“And he started his campaign with a vile attack on Mexicans, calling them rapists and criminals, and he never stopped, and he was rewarded,” Clinton told NPR’s Rachel Martin.

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“Time and time again he was rewarded, Rachel, by the press, which saw this reality TV show going on. It was just irresistible. You know, show the empty podium, let's really build it up. He calls for violence at his rallies, pays very little price for it, he insults every kind of person, just about, that we can imagine, and particularly with vicious comments about women, political as well as press figures. So he got away with it, because he did have a kind of attraction to people.”

Clinton argued Trump's "bigoted" and "discriminatory" attacks fed into parts of the United States electorate.

"He called it 'not being politically correct' but in fact it was rude, it was, you know, discriminatory, it was bigoted, it was prejudiced, and yet it fed into part of the electorate that just wanted to have a primal scream," she said.

In the wide-ranging interview, Clinton also said she won the Democratic primary “by March and April” but that Sen. Bernie Sanders Bernie SandersNYT editorial board remembers Ginsburg: She 'will forever have two legacies' Two GOP governors urge Republicans to hold off on Supreme Court nominee Sanders knocks McConnell: He's going against Ginsburg's 'dying wishes' MORE (I-Vt.) “just kept going.”

Clinton's new book, titled “What Happened,” was released Tuesday and focuses on the 2016 election.