Are the sexual scandals of Bill Clinton threatening his wife’s chances to get to the White House? Billionaire Donald Trump compares the ex-president to Bill Cosby, the famous comedian, who turned out to be a serial rapist.*
The front-runner in the presidential election campaign, Hillary Clinton, is learning that it’s not good to fight a losing battle. In December during the Democratic candidates’ debate, she claimed that nobody is as efficient at recruiting terrorists as Donald Trump (who provocatively claims that the U.S. borders should be closed to Muslim people). In reply, the millionaire taunted that in the primary in 2008 Hillary was also favored to win but she “got schlonged” by Obama. He used a verb form of the word schlong – a slang, vulgar expression meaning penis.
Clinton did not have to get even; according to the rule among cultured people, one does not talk with a boor. But asked to comment by the The Des Moines Register, she affirmed, “I think he has to answer for what he says … It’s not the first time he’s demonstrated a penchant for sexism.”
Indeed, Trump has often offended women publicly, suggesting that they are ugly and stupid. Moreover, he is surrounded only by young, beautiful girls who work as his secretaries, assistants and beauticians. But Clinton’s reply outraged him and he started attacking [her] however he could. First on Twitter: “I am sexist? And what about Bill?” and ”Hillary Clinton has announced that she is letting her husband out to campaign but he’s demonstrated a penchant for sexism, so inappropriate!”
In the ’90s, Bill Clinton was almost impeached because of an affair with an intern, Monica Lewinsky. A few other women accused him of raping them or molesting them when he was the governor of Arkansas, and earlier when he was the state attorney. He was acquitted, but it is an open secret that he used his high positions to conquer or molest women who were occupying less influential positions on the social ladder.
Which – and here we need to agree with Trump – is worse than telling women that they are ugly. Of course, Hillary is not directly responsible for her husband’s sins. But already in the ’90s she was accused of turning a blind eye to her husband’s flings because she used him to improve her own career.
Therefore, she cynically tolerated abuse of women because she dreamed of becoming president. Can such allegations, repeated after 20 years, harm her?
Some analysts and campaign specialists think that is not the case, that it is an old chestnut. Young people have already forgotten “Zippergate” with Lewinsky and the other accusations. Bill, on the other hand, is enjoying great popularity, e.g., he is regarded as one of the best presidents of our time, someone who brought America economic growth and even a stable budget. He is an asset to Hillary and not a burden.
Others, on the other hand, claim that that old chestnut can be very dangerous to her because America today is a completely different country than it was 20 years ago. When we now watch or read how women who accused Clinton in the ’90s were treated, it seems almost unbelievable. Betsey Wright, who was the governor’s chief of staff in Arkansas, dismissed the accusations against Bill Clinton as “bimbo eruptions.”
Presidential aide Sidney Blumenthal claimed that the 22-year-old Lewinsky ”molested and stalked” the 40-something president because she was ”a predatory and unstable, sexually demanding young woman.”
If state officials would say something like this today, they would be picked to pieces. The famous commentator and Democratic Party activist Kirsten Powers wrote a couple of days ago in USA Today that the president went on to become one of the most respected men in the world. Lewinsky’s life was destroyed.
Why? Because in the ’90s, America was a sexist country, dominated by men.
These days, rape accusations are treated more seriously. Americans are disgusted with the famous comedian Bill Cosby, who is already being accused by 35 women for doping them many years ago and raping them afterward. Even more shocking is that they were telling their friends what happened to them in the ’80s and ’90s and went to see lawyers, but they were ignored or were advised to stay silent.
Evidently, Trump decided that in the new cultural reality, the polling might favor the old chestnut, and it might harm Hillary Clinton. He compared her husband to Cosby on TV. He accused her of hypocrisy. Not long ago, Hillary Clinton said herself that ”all sexual abuse accusers deserve to be believed.”
But accusations against her husband were never treated seriously by anyone – and she waved it aside.
Time will show whether Trump was right. But Clinton is still in danger, especially because the billionaire Trump has pushed his narrative to the media for the last six months.
* Editor’s note: Bill Cosby has been accused of sexual assault, but has not been convicted of any crime as of the date of this article.
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