Hillary’s Sexist Attack Backfires

Donald Trump’s response to Hillary Clinton saying he’s a sexist pig: What about Bill?

The Republican front-runner is deflecting Hillary’s attempts to portray him as anti-women by pointing the finger back at her husband, Bill Clinton, the former Democratic president who brings a rich and controversial history of sex scandals and demeaning treatment of women.

“I think (Bill Clinton) is fair game because his presidency was really considered to be very troubled, to put it mildly, because of all of the things that (Hillary) is talking to me about,” Trump told Fox News on Sunday morning after a week of sexism-fueled exchanges between the two presidential campaigns.

“Hillary Clinton has announced that she is letting her husband out to campaign but HE’S DEMONSTRATED A PENCHANT FOR SEXISM, so inappropriate!” Trump tweeted on Saturday night.

Hillary had used the same “penchant for sexism” phrase to describe Trump in an interview with the Des Moines Register last week, which itself was a response to Trump’s bizarre statement that she was “schlonged” by Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary.

Trump’s attacks on Bill come in light of reports that Hillary’s team in January will begin aggressively rolling out the former president at campaign events in Iowa and New Hampshire to help drum up support ahead of the respective caucus and primary in February. Hillary trails Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders by 6 points in New Hampshire, according to the RealClearPolitics average of all recent polls.

Since exiting the presidency in 2000, Bill has remained a highly popular figure among the national Democratic base. He reappears in the public arena every two years during election season to stump and fundraise — with great effectiveness — for Democratic candidates across the country.

But this time around, Bill — who Hillary has described as her “not-so-secret weapon” — and his well-documented sexual escapades could prove to be a major liability to her candidacy.

A core strategy of Hillary’s campaign has been a message of empowering women while painting Republican candidates as machismo sexists who would like for women to do nothing more than cook or clean. To continue portraying Trump as a raging sexist who objectifies women while overlooking her husband and his libido-driven approach to politics would be akin to calling out the speck of dust in Trump’s eye while ignoring the plank in her own.

In 1998, Clinton became the first president in over a century to be impeached after it was revealed he had an extramarital affair with Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern, and committed perjury to conceal the matter. Also in 1998, Clinton paid $850,000 to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by Paula Jones. He has also admitted to a relationship with actress Gennifer Flowers and has had alleged affairs with dozens of other women during his time in public office.

Trump went on to accuse Hillary of playing the “woman’s card” and warned her to “be careful” about launching sexist attacks at him that could easily backfire.

“I’ve had so many women come up to me and say, ‘You’ve got to keep her out, she’s so terrible.’ She’s playing that woman’s card left and right and women are more upset about it than anybody else,” he said to Fox News.

He also contended that he would be a better candidate for women across the board. “I will do far more for women than Hillary, and I will keep our country safe, something which she will not be able to do-no strength/stamina!” he tweeted on Sunday.