Hillary Clinton is no fan of Donald Trump’s rhetoric regarding ISIS. In fact, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has repeatedly suggested that her likely opponent’s public utterances are actually aiding the terror organization.
Clinton repeated that argument in a Monday interview with National Public Radio, saying, “Americans need to know that Donald Trump’s words are being used in recruitment videos that ISIS is putting out. I think that is a very serious problem.”
The last time Clinton made this claim, she was flayed by fact checkers, who found no evidence of Trump appearing in ISIS videos. It does appear, however, that ISIS’s video mavens liked her idea—good suggestion!—and did end up putting Trump in one of their productions a few months later.
But that’s beside the point. Because even if it is now true that Trump is being used for ISIS propaganda purposes, that doesn’t actually tell us anything about the merits of his remarks.
Consider, after all, what else appears in ISIS videos. Bill Clinton, for one. The former president and husband of the Democratic candidate is featured in one video where he is labeled a “fornicator.” And gay people as well. (As if the horror in Orlando didn’t make it all the more obvious, ISIS is a venomously homophobic organization.)
Now, I don’t think Clinton would urge gay people to get back in the closet lest they appear in ISIS recruitment videos. She would never say, for example, that the “gay bars are helping ISIS recruitment.” Odd, then, that she applies that bizarre standard—don’t do anything to make ISIS mad!—to Trump.
