My Bet Is That Trump Will Go “There”
In fact, he already has:
“Hillary is hitting me with tremendous commercials, some of it said in entertainment, somebody who’s been very vicious to me, Rosie o’donnell, I said very tough things to her, and I think everybody would agree she deserves it, and nobody feels sorry for her. I was going to say something extremely rough to Hillary, to her family, and I said to myself, I can’t do it. I just can’t do it. It’s inappropriate. It’s not nice, but she spent hundreds of millions of dollars on negative ads on me, many of which are absolutely untrue.”
So has his team:
Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, on Tuesday morning said that Trump displayed “great temperament and restraint” by choosing not to mention Bill Clinton’s sex scandals during the debate.
During an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Conway said that Hillary Clinton sometimes looked “glib” while Trump was speaking during the debate before pivoting to Trump’s decision not to bring up Bill Clinton.
“I have to say, certainly as a woman, I appreciated the restraint at the end — I’m not sure I would have been able to exercise it myself — but restraint is a virtue, and it’s a presidential virtue,” Conway said. “To tell Hillary Clinton, after she accused him of being terrible with women, to tell Hillary Clinton, ‘I was prepared to go rough tonight and I’m not going to do it because your husband and your daughter are here,’ that is going to grow in importance over the next couple of days as the moment of great temperament and restraint.”
And this:
“The president of the United States, her husband, disgraced this country with what he did in the Oval Office and she didn’t just stand by him, she attacked Monica Lewinsky,” Giuliani said. “And after being married to Bill Clinton for 20 years, if you didn’t know the moment Monica Lewinsky said that Bill Clinton violated her that she was telling the truth, then you’re too stupid to be president.”
So it seems obvious to me that Trump is going there – of course, he hasn’t said it to her face yet, but he is laying the ground work to get quite explicit with this line of attack.
It makes perfect sense if you understand who Trump is. He has no problem with Bill Clinton’s infidelity, just like he has zero problem with his own infidelity. Nope, in Trump’s world a man cheating is the woman’s fault. Period.
It’s her fault for letting herself go – for gaining weight, for not being hot enough, for aging
It’s her fault for not meeting his needs – for not supporting and adoring him, as well as sexually
It’s her fault for being “frigid” or… a lesbian (remember that one?)
It’s her fault because he deserves the newest model on the market – and she should understand this!
If that’s the way you view infidelity then, of course, Bill’s cheating isn’t really his fault – it’s Hillary’s. How else could Trump, a serial adulterer, not see his own adultery as wrong? How else could Trump, a man who’s done exactly what Bill Clinton did, consider using infidelity as a weapon against Hillary – the person who was cheated on? Easy. In Trump’s view, it’s not the man’s fault.
So yeah, this issue is going to take center stage. The only question is if Trump has the nerve to say it to Hillary’s face. I’m not sure of that – however, it’s obviously bouncing around in his head, which greatly increases the odds of it spewing out of his mouth during one of the next debates. The man has no impulse control. Back him into a corner and brace yourself for all sorts of crazy. Add to that that Trump seems to think that this issue is his secret weapon – it’s why he keeps teasing it. WTH? Only in Trump world is the person who was cheated on in the the wrong – that it was their fault. Newsflash: Most people don’t feel this way.
I’m 100% certain Hillary has prepared for this line of attack – and I’m certain her response will be pitch perfect. In fact, having a woman candidate running against Trump is pure perfection. He knows how to deal with men (and does so quite effectively). He believes that a man has the right to share a debate stage with him – not so for a woman. Go back and look at the GOP primary debates. When was the one time Trump took a big hit? Yep, it came when he went after Carly Fiorina personally.
Please proceed, Mr. Trump.
Pence said almost the exact same things, word for word, on CBS This Morning yesterday. How he showed “restraint” by not bringing up “what we all know happened” in the 1990s.
They had all of this ready in advance of Trump’s inevitable implosion on the debate stage.
But yes, like puck said. Please proceed, Mr. Trump.
The only question is if Trump has the nerve to say it to Hillary’s face.
I said the other day that it was a failure of nerve for him to not say it on Monday. Now I think it wasn’t nerve, but his “what makes good TV instincts” that kicked in. On Monday, with an unrelenting split screen, Trump going to town on Hillary for her husband’s infidelities would have made him look like Snidely Whiplash. Trump (and his Campaign Manager) know that he is still losing big time with women and this could have completely shut the door. Completely.
Honestly, when he made his BS statement that he wasn’t going to drop his bombshell, she should have turned to him and said “Bring it”.
Here’s why this will be a loser for Trump–all the things said above stipulated.
If you’re going to make the charge, make it. Don’t telegraph it. Don’t give the Clinton campaign game film about how you’re going to do it and weeks to prepare. Because here’s what happens then in the next debate:
They get to make opening statements. Even if Trump goes first he’s not going to use it in his opening statement–he’s going to save it. So in her opening statement Secretary Clinton looks across the podium and says, “Being President is about being strong enough and wise enough to do the job. Being strong isn’t running around the country telling people to vote for you because I didn’t respond to marital problems twenty years ago the way you or any other man thinks I should have. Being strong is hanging in there, having the hard conversations, making the tough decisions, making your relationship work if that’s what’s important to you, and getting on with your life–proudly. Because of the decision YOU made, not the opinions of a serial adulterer.
“I got on with a life of public service and became a US Senator and Secretary of State, and now the Democratic nominee for President in part to tell girls and women everywhere in America–it doesn’t matter what they do or say, it only matters what you decide to do with your own life. So, Donald, if you’ve now acquired the courage to bring up my marriage as a campaign issue, go for it.
“I won’t be responding any more, however. Because the last thing that the women of America need to do–the last thing I need to do–is to hold my personal life accountable to somebody like you. Later we’ll talk about jobs, and foreign policy, and all the rest of it, but tonight I needed to take time to let America’s women know that they don’t have to stand for that kind of abusive crap.”
That’s pretty fucking good. I doubt they’ll go with it as an opening statement. A shutdown rebuttal maybe.
Steve Newton, the Clinton campaign is on line 1. They have a job offer for you.
That was brilliant.
That’s great stuff, Steve!
I can’t believe Trump and his surrogates are going with “It’s a woman’s job to police a man.If he “misbehaves” it’s the woman’s fault.” I get that Trump truly believes this – “You made me cheat!”
I’m also not getting why they think it’s the person who was cheated on job to defend the person who had an affair with your partner. Would anyone view this the same way if the person cheated on was a man? Would anyone be saying – you need to defend the guy who had an affair with your wife? Nope. Nope. Nope.
I’m still not sure what Trump will do (because I agree with Cassandra’s take on this, as well), but if the 2nd debate goes the way of the first one… well, let’s just say impulse control isn’t Trump’s strong suit.
@ Cassandra “I said the other day that it was a failure of nerve for him to not say it on Monday.” And if he did, you would have been all over him. Either way YOUR not happy.
Maybe he got a conscience? Maybe, he thought he has 2 daughters and did not want to do that to Chelsea?
We need change and we have 2 idiots, running!!! Hillary is going to make it totally worse and Trump is just the un-known.
But, if Trump does win, it will be funny to read the quotes from the DELAWARE LIBERAL.
The quickest way for Trump’s rape case to become first page news is if he first goes there and accuses Bill Clinton of rape.
Hillary can match innuendo for innuendo, and no one would fault her for going there in doing so, while making a valid point.
Trump is playing with fire… and guess who is going to get burned??
@the other anonymous: grammatically-incorrect shouting will get you nowhere
“Maybe he got a conscience? Maybe, he thought he has 2 daughters and did not want to do that to Chelsea?”
Utter BS. Because if what you say is true (LOL!) then he wouldn’t have said it at all. Unless he thinks Chelsea can’t hear things outside the debate hall.
@SN “If you’re going to make the charge, make it. Don’t telegraph it.”
I’m not sure he did. As I understand it, the most damning charge is that Hillary mistreated the same women that Bill mistreated. That she was an integral part of the whole mistreatment thing.
The assumption is that she knew exactly what Bill was doing, and that instead of being the primary recipient of his lies, she was a will participant in spreading them, knowing them to be damnable lies.
How can Hillary counter this argument? She could ask him if his former wives knew that everything he told them was a pile of crap. Were they all in on his secretive bad behavior??
Hillary needs to point out that Bill’s lies were his lies only, and that her biggest crime in the whole matter was perhaps believing in him.
In other words… throw him under the bus. It’s well deserved.
^^^ LE no, she doesn’t play. Not at all. Not ever. That’s my point. “I made my choices and I got on with my life. That’s what women in American do everyday. It’s only men like Donald Trump who think they have the right to criticize and second-guess those choices. I’m not going to let America’s daughters have the example of a President who knuckles under to the sexist, abusive agenda of a man like Donald Trump.
“I didn’t do it when they tried to impeach my husband. I won’t do it now.”
You are on a roll, Steve!
No, I just know that the first moment this comes up she has to slap the shit out of him and convert the issue into an abusive male trying to tell America’s women how to live.
The only better thing she could do is say, “I’m not about to be judged by Donald Trump’s version of sha’ria law for American women.”
Yep, you are on a roll.
I have no doubt Hillary is ready for this nonsense. She is “over-prepared” according to Chuck Todd. (My eyes rolled so hard when Todd said that.)
To quote our greatest president … “fuck you, Chuck Todd”
And if he did, you would have been all over him. Either way YOUR not happy.
Is there a question you want to ask me here? Because there are plenty of people on this thread who will tell you that I don’t take kindly to being told what I think or what I feel.
I would have castigated him for bringing up Bill’s infidelities — for the reasons that have been discussed here. But it would have been stupid for him to do that since it would not have been a good look and — as Pandora notes — Bill’s infidelities are not something Hillary has to be answerable for.
But you need to read the rest of my post. There is a complete thought there if you could stick with it for more than two sentences.
@SN “she doesn’t play. Not at all. Not ever.”
Hillary did indeed verbally mistreat some of the same women that Bill mistreated physically.
Hillary either:
(a) Was lied to by Bill, believed this lies, and then spoke based on those beliefs.
or
(b) She knew full well what Bill had done and made an evil political calculation in heaping more (verbal) abuse on those women.
Which was it?? Does it matter? Or do women who were cheated on get an “I was upset” pass on whatever they say and do.
When Trump tries to pin (b) an her, how does she defend herself?
One way is to claim (a), and throw Bill under the bus.
Oh… And I’d like to believe it really was (a), but I suspect it was closer to (b).
@ Prop Joe, Thanks. I have to do a better job in catching; your and you’re.
@Liberal Elite–
Look, I’m NOT actually a fan of Secretary Clinton, but that said, she doesn’t need a pass nearly two decades later, especially not as a woman with a long career in public service being attacked by a serial philanderer and misogynist over her behavior as a married woman faced with an affair by her husband.
She doesn’t owe anyone anywhere jackshit as an answer to those charges, least of all Donald Trump and his supporters.
i realize you may have nuanced concerns about how she handled the situation, but the situation itself has no place in this election other than for her to assert that American women–including those running for office–don’t have to accept, listen to, or respond to abusive masculinist behavior.
And, yes, it really is that simple.
And let’s face it, there is no way she could have handled this that wouldn’t have resulted in criticism.
1. She leaves him immediately after the incident goes public = She’s First Lady! She can’t leave the WH. What a selfish woman who abandons her responsibilities!
2. She fulfills her First Lady responsibility and then leaves him = If she was going to leave him she should have done it immediately, not after he no longer serves as President. She’s an opportunist – staying until the glory days are over!
3. She loses her temper in public and goes after Bill – How tacky, unprofessional, shrewish, etc. This is not the way a First Lady should behave.
4. She says nothing – why didn’t she do points 1-3? She’s hiding something. It’s a conspiracy!
Oh, and Steve’s right… again!
Pandora,
I think that any of those four options you list would have been better than what she actually did. That’s why it’s a potential problem now…
Steve is probably right that she should simply not respond, but it’s really not clear that will get her as many votes as a plausible explanation and an apology.
@LE: In my experience, many feminist women lose their solidarity when somebody’s man is involved. Not all sisters get along.
Even if Bill didn’t lie to her (technically possible), she could still throw him under the bus. He would deserve it.
Being a feminist doesn’t mean defending all women no matter what. Feminism is about equal treatment. That’s it.
I think Bill Clinton took shameless advantage of a 22 year old. How Monica and Hillary responded to his behavior gets a lot of leeway – both were victims. Looking for another horrible person? Linda Tripp. See? A woman (me) having no solidarity with another women.
Siding with women simply because they’re women is not feminism – and it never has been.