On Sunday night, it did not take long for the two candidates to go thermonuclear on each other, bringing up examples of tawdry behavior and sexual scandals.
Before it even got underway, both candidates signaled how acidic the campaign has become: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump did not shake hands.
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Clinton and Trump first answered a question from a young teacher about character.
Then came the tape of Trump in 2005 making lewd comments.
Anderson Cooper was very aggressive on following up. Cooper asked if the recent “Access Hollywood” tape proved Trump boasted about sexual assault. Trump denied it.
“I didn’t say that,” said Trump. “This was locker room talk.”
Cooper pressed again, and asked if Trump ever forced himself on a woman. Trump said no.
Hillary Clinton then said Trump was unworthy to hold office.
CNN officials leaked information on Sunday that the debate moderators, Anderson Cooper and ABC News’ Martha Raddatz, would bring up the leaked audio tape from 2005 in which Donald Trump described advances on women he was sexually attracted to in the opening moments of the debate.
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That was not surprising, but Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, came to Washington University in St. Louis prepared. He brought four women from Democrat Hillary Clinton’s past.
Trump had an impromptu press conference with Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey, Juanita Broaddrick, and Kathy Shelton.
Jones accused President Bill Clinton of sexual harassment in 1994. She cited an incident in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1991, when Clinton was governor. Willey said President Clinton groped her against her will in the White House in 1998.
Juanita Broaddrick more directly involves Hillary Clinton. Broaddrick says Bill Clinton raped her in 1978, when he was Arkansas attorney general. Broaddrick says Hillary Clinton later bullied her to keep quiet.
Kathy Shelton’s case only involves Hillary Clinton. Shelton was 12 years old when she was raped by a man, Thomas Alfred Taylor, in Arkansas in 1975. Hillary Clinton represented Taylor and got him less than a year in jail. Years later, The Washington Free Beacon discovered a tape of Clinton chuckling about Taylor passing a lie detector test. Shelton told LawNewz in August that Clinton does not support women.
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It’s clear why Trump had the pre-debate presser.
At the debate, Clinton was sure to twist the knife a little about the video from 2005. The presence of women Hillary Clinton helped suppress after suffering sexual wrongs from her husband and from a criminal put his unacceptable language in the context of the terrible actions of Clinton and company.
The media doesn’t like him bringing up the Clintons’ sexual scandals in the 1990s. Gloria Borger, CNN political analyst, said on-air Sunday that the scandals in the 1990s are different from the 2005 Trump remarks — because it was a different time.
The excuse-making for Clinton from the mainstream media brought back into focus just how much the press and elites are willing to hammer Trump and expose the same type of transgressions — or far worse transgressions for Democrats.
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