President Bill Clinton isn’t on the ballot this November, but his presence loomed over the crucial second presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump Sunday night.
Even before the debate began, the Republican nominee held a public press event with three women who years ago accused Clinton of sexually assaulting them.
During the first 30 minutes of the debate, Trump mentioned these women and accused the Democratic nominee of abetting her husband’s behavior. Clinton didn’t respond directly, but Trump’s argument, delivered with Bill Clinton in the room, was among the most tension-filled in any debate in recent memory.
“If you look at Bill Clinton, far worse, mine are words, his was action. This is what he has done to women. Never been anybody in history of politics in this nation that’s been so abusive to women, so you can say any way you want to say it, but Bill Clinton was abusive to women,” Trump said, deflecting questions on revelations that he spoke lewdly about women in a recently unearthed video.
“Hillary Clinton attacked those same women and attacked them viciously,” Trump continued. “Four of them are here tonight. One of the women who is a wonderful woman at 12 years old, was raped at 12. Her client, she represented got him off and she’s seen laughing at the girl who was raped. She is here with us tonight, so, don’t tell me about words. And absolutely, I apologize for those words. But it is things that people say, but what President Clinton did, he was impeached, lost his license to practice law. He had to pay an $850,000 fine. To one of the women. Paula Jones, who’s also here tonight.”
Bill Clinton also impacted the policy portion the debate.
Thirty minutes in, when the first policy question was ask, about the Affordable Care Act, Hillary Clinton was asked to comment on her husband’s recent criticisms of Obamacare and the high costs it has leveled on small businesses that have been passed on to consumers.
Hillary Clinton acknowledged that Obamacare needs to be fixed, which is what she has said throughout the campaign, but that it shouldn’t be scrapped. Trump, sticking with his position, said he supports repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act.
Below is the exchange:
Moderator: Your husband called Obamacare quote, the craziest thing in the world. Small business owners are getting killed, coverage is cut in half. Was he [exaggerating] or simply telling the truth?
Clinton: He clarified, and it’s clear. Look, we are in a situation in our country, where if we were to start all over again, we might come up with a different system. But we have an employer-based system. That’s where the vast majority of people get their healthcare. And the Affordable Care Act was meant to try to fill the gap between people who were too poor and couldn’t put together any resources to afford healthcare, namely, people on Medicaid. Obviously, Medicare, which is a single-payer system. Which takes care of our elderly, and does a great job doing it, by the way, and then all of the people who were employed.
But people who were working, but didn’t have the money to afford insurance and didn’t have anybody, an employer, anybody else to help them. That was the slot that the Obama care approach was to take. And like I say, 20 million people now have health insurance. So, if we just rip it up and throw it away, what Donald’s not telling you is we just turn it back to the insurance companies the way it used to be and that means the insurance companies get to do pretty much whatever they want, including saying, “Look, sorry, you’ve got diabetes, you had cancer, your child has asthma.’
You may not be able to have insurance because you can’t afford it, so let’s fix what’s broken about it, but let’s not throw it away and give it back to the insurance companies. That’s not going to work.
