Twice during the Wednesday night presidential debate, Hillary Clinton knocked Donald Trump for what he was doing while she was in the situation room monitoring the raid against Osama bin Laden.
“And on the day when I was in the situation room, monitoring the raid that brought Osama bin Laden to justice, he was hosting ‘The Celebrity Apprentice,'” Clinton said while defending her record. “So I’m happy to compare my 30 years of experience, what I’ve done for this country, trying to help in every way I could, especially kids and families get ahead and stay ahead with your 30 years.”
Later in the debate, she made this connection again.
“And yes, we do need to go after Baghdadi, just like we went after bin Laden while you were doing ‘Celebrity Apprentice,’ and we brought him to justice,” she said.
What does Clinton think Trump should have been doing that night?
He wasn’t a politician back then, and the only people who knew about the raid were those in the situation room, some in our intelligence community and the people carrying out the raid. What were you doing that night? You probably don’t remember because you didn’t know one of the most important moments of the past decade was taking place.
Trump was doing his job as a reality TV star, just as Clinton was doing hers. I get that she’s trying to contrast her experience to Trump’s, but is she trying to insult the millions of people who watched “Celebrity Apprentice?” And what, was he supposed to somehow know the raid was going on and storm the situation room?
Trump had a pretty decent comeback for Clinton’s discussion of his inexperience. “I say the one thing you have over me is experience, but it’s bad experience because what you’ve done has turned out badly,” Trump said. He also likes to point out that Clinton has been in the public eye for 30 years, yet hasn’t accomplished the things she claims she wants to accomplish as president.
I know many members of the media are lapping up Clinton’s line about where Trump was during the bin Laden raid, but I actually think it was harmful. She insulted fans of the show while reiterating Trump’s own point about himself — that he’s an outsider.
Ashe Schow is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
