Donald Trump is “not unproud” of the angry tweets he sends in the middle of the night, he has said.

The presidential candidate has finally explained his decision to send out angry messages in the dead of night, often with erratic capitalisation. Doing so is an important way of getting his message out, he told the audience of the second presidential debate, and he chose to do so because Twitter and Facebook are such powerful platforms.

During that debate – which itself was the most tweeted about ever – Mr Trump was asked by moderator Anderson Cooper whether he thought it was a good idea to send out such messages.

The question centred specifically around Mr Trump’s tweets about a former Miss Universe and Hillary Clinton. Mr Cooper asked whether such tweets showed “the discipline of a good leader” – and Mr Trump said that he was not “unproud of them”.

“Tweeting happens to be a modern day form of communication,” he said at the debate. “I mean, you can like it or not like it. I have, between Facebook and Twitter, I have almost 25 million people.

“It’s a very effective way of communication. So you can put it down, but it is a very effective form of communication.

“I’m not unproud of it, to be honest with you.”

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The tweets in question were sent out at the end of last month. Mr Trump sent this in response to the new about Alicia Machado, the former Miss Universe who has been central to some of the backlash against Mr Trump’s behaviour towards women.

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They came as a series, but the first began at 3.20am local time. “Anytime you see a story about me or my campaign saying ‘sources said,’ DO NOT believe it. There are no sources, they are just made up lies!” the presidential candidate posted.

A couple of hours later came another. “Wow, Crooked Hillary was duped and used by my worst Miss U. Hillary floated her as an ‘angel’ without checking her past, which is terrible!”

And then almost straight away Mr Trump posted another message. “Using Alicia M in the debate as a paragon of virtue just shows that Crooked Hillary suffers from BAD JUDGEMENT! Hillary was set up by a con.”

The final one came at 5.30am. “Did Crooked Hillary help disgusting (check out sex tape and past) Alicia M become a U.S. citizen so she could use her in the debate?” Mr Trump wrote.