Trump intensifies attacks on Hillary Clinton and husband Bill
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks to volunteers at a United Steelworkers Union Hall on December 22, 2015 in Bettendorf, Iowa. On Monday, the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump unleashed new attacks on Clinton and blasted her husband Bill’s “terrible record” with women. PHOTO | SCOTT OLSON |
What you need to know:
- Mr Trump, leading the pack of Republican White House contenders, revived a flash point that he brought up last week when he issued a warning about campaigning with former president Clinton after Hillary deplored Mr Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric.
- The message was an ominous one: Bill Clinton’s history of marital infidelity will be a drag on his wife’s campaign to become the first female commander in chief in US history.
- Barely a month before the first votes are cast in the state-by-state nomination process, the top candidates appear to be looking past the primaries and going head to head, with Mr Trump reviving an issue that nearly derailed Bill Clinton’s presidency.
- Mr Clinton admitted he had a sexual relationship with an intern while he was president.
WASHINGTON, Tuesday
Any year-end holiday moratorium on US presidential campaign feuding ended on Monday with Mr Donald Trump unleashing new attacks on Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and blasting her husband Bill’s “terrible record” with women.
Mr Trump, leading the pack of Republican White House contenders, revived a flash point that he brought up last week when he issued a warning about campaigning with former president Clinton after Hillary deplored Mr Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric.
The message was an ominous one: Bill Clinton’s history of marital infidelity will be a drag on his wife’s campaign to become the first female commander in chief in US history.
“If Hillary thinks she can unleash her husband, with his terrible record of women abuse, while playing the women’s card on me, she’s wrong!” Mr Trump posted to his five million Twitter followers.
SEXISM
Hours earlier, the billionaire real estate mogul noted how Mrs Clinton “has announced that she is letting her husband out to campaign but he’s demonstrated a penchant for sexism, so inappropriate!”
And in a Sunday interview on Fox News Mr Trump declared Bill Clinton “fair game, because his presidency was really considered to be very troubled because of all the things that she is talking to me about.”
The remark referred to a recent interview that Hillary Clinton gave to Iowa’s Des Moines Register, in which she said Mr Trump had “demonstrated a penchant for sexism” after he used vulgar language to criticise Mrs Clinton’s 2008 campaign loss to Barack Obama, and declared her bathroom break at the latest Democratic debate “disgusting.”
During the debate Mrs Clinton accused Trump of being “ISIS’s best recruiter,” referring to the self-described Islamic State extremist group, and said the radical jihadists were using videos of Mr Trump’s anti-Muslim remarks as a recruiting tool.
Mr Trump demanded an apology, but none was given.
Mrs Clinton and Mr Trump are locked in battle for their respective parties’ presidential nominations.
SEXUAL IMPROPRIETY
Barely a month before the first votes are cast in the state-by-state nomination process, the top candidates appear to be looking past the primaries and going head to head, with Mr Trump reviving an issue that nearly derailed Bill Clinton’s presidency.
Mr Clinton admitted he had a sexual relationship with an intern while he was president.
Other rumours and accusations of sexual impropriety dating back to his time as governor of Arkansas have dogged Mr Clinton for years.
Republicans in Congress pressed vigorously for Clinton’s removal from office.
