Donald Trump went there. The presumptive Republican nominee brought up allegations that former President Bill Clinton committed rape in an interview with Sean Hannity — but why?
Anyone who lived through the 1990s remembers that whenever Republicans bring up Clinton’s sex life, it is usually the Republicans who lose. And Bill isn’t the candidate this time around. His wife is.
That’s why so much controversy surrounded Trump’s decision to lob this bombshell. It is worth noting, however, that Trump did not actually make the allegation himself. He just repeated in an atypically understated fashion.
Hannity mentioned a New York Times story that painted an unflattering picture of Trump’s treatment of women, asking if the paper would also interview three women who have accused the 42nd president of sexual misconduct that goes beyond infidelity.
“In one case, it’s about exposure. In another case, it’s about groping and fondling and touching against a woman’s will,” Hannity said.
“And rape,” Trump replied.
With those two words, Trump — who was simply restating Juanita Broaddrick’s accusation — once again grabbed headlines.
A theory: Trump is trying to make an easy narrative that is unfavorable to him seem more complicated. There are going to be stories and allegations about Trump’s history with women. They fit into the portrayal of Trump as a misogynistic troglodyte running against Hillary Clinton, the woman trying to smash the ultimate glass ceiling by becoming the first female president of the United States.
What Trump appears to be trying to do is make that story less one-sided. There are accusations against Trump, but also against Bill Clinton. And in he-said-she-said disputes between Bill Clinton and women, Hillary did not always take the women’s sides.
A scandal can be damaging to a candidate. But sometimes when two candidates start trading accusations, the public begins to tune out the details.
Clinton-bashing also helps Trump bond with the Right, which has been reluctant to fully embrace his unconventional candidacy. And as Trump surrogate Ben Carson recently argued, this serves as a reminder to people who were too young to be familiar with some of the former president’s peccadilloes.
In some ways, Trump’s own playboy past could play in his favor. Unlike past Republican critics of Clinton improprieties, Trump is clearly not coming from a place of self-righteousness. He is not likely to be viewed as a moral crusader for regulating people’s sexual behavior in general.
A culture that has seen beloved figures like Bill Cosby taken down by rape allegations may be more willing to believe accusers than the general public of the 1990s. There may also be even less resistance to talk about sex on television during the campaign.
Trump’s tactics won’t convince people who hate him and love the Clintons. In fact, this approach will only outrage them further. But it might rally Clinton haters, who are not small in number, and make undecided voters less interested in learning the specifics of scandals generally, to Trump’s benefit.
It’s still risky. The charge that Hillary Clinton is in some meaningful sense an enabler of her husband, even concerning the worst things he’s been accused of, may not stick. It could simply be a bridge too far.
Trump is already unpopular with women. If he is seen as using alleged assaults against women opportunistically to denigrate a female candidate, he digs his hole with women voters even deeper.
People may not believe the more lurid allegations against the ex-president, as their veracity is still in dispute. Or they may react as many voters did in the 1990s, saying that Republicans should mind their own business and talk about something other than the Clintons and sex.
When Trump supporter Chris Christie was still a candidate himself, he advised against going down this road.
“It wouldn’t be my focus because I think the American people have litigated how they feel about President Clinton and his personal conduct and his personal life,” Christie said in January, on Hannity’s show of all places. “And I don’t think we get anywhere as Republicans by doing that. I think there is plenty to talk about in Hillary Clinton’s abject failure as secretary of state, her mediocre record as a United States senator. What has she ever accomplished in her life? What has she done? Those are things we should be fighting her on and I don’t think we should be re-litigating Bill Clinton’s personal life.”
Many Republicans have long complained that their party’s presidential candidates are unwilling to really take the fight to the Clintons and Barack Obama when it comes to their scandals, however. With Trump they may get a chance to see if a more confrontational approach would really work.
