Friday on MSNBC, former Gov. Howard Dean (D-VT), also the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, offered his thoughts on Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump so-called late-night “tweetstorm” about former Miss Universe Alicia Machado.

During the conversation, host Stephanie Ruhle asked Dean about his tweet suggesting Trump was a cocaine user during the first presidential debate.

Dean did not back down and said that we don’t know he is a coke user, referring to the timing of the tweets.

Partial transcript as follows:

HOWARD DEAN: First of all, Donald Trump was up in the wee hours of the morning … Tweeting at three or four o’clock in the morning about a sex tape. This is a guy who is running for president of the U.S.

STEPHANIE RUHLE: We’re going to talk about Donald. And Donald gives you low-hanging fruit to go after every day — just like why is he tweeting at 3:00 am. But you’re a member of the Democratic Party. Michelle Obama had the line: When they go low, we go high. To suggest that Donald Trump was maybe coked up? Come on, he has no history of that.

DEAN: If I could — Well, I don’t know that we know that [Donald Trump has no history of drug use]. People who stay up until 5:00 in the morning tweeting about sex tapes — these are not normal people. There is something the matter with him, and I don’t know what it is.  Let me say this: I would be very willing to apologize (not to Donald Trump). But I don’t think using innuendo is a good thing. But the problem is much greater than that.

(h/t RCP Video)

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor