Hillary Clinton’s long history of scandal and controversy are largely the result of the untamable men she is associated with, according to New York Times columnist Frank Bruni.
In an op-ed published Wednesday morning, Bruni said the damaging episodes Clinton has faced over the years, right up to the most recent revelation that the FBI obtained more emails related to her private server, are the fault of men close to her.
“She’s in the climactic week of a grotesque battle with another. If she prevails, [her husband’s] boasts of sexual aggression will partly be why,” Bruni wrote. “And if she fails? Again there’s a priapic protagonist. The FBI wouldn’t be examining Anthony Weiner’s laptop if he hadn’t invited so many strangers to examine his lap, and her fate is enmeshed once more with the wanton misdeeds of the weaker sex. Over so many of her travails hangs a cloud of testosterone.”
He said now Clinton is also faced up against another “male tormentor” in Republican Donald Trump, who Bruni said is “an unalloyed expression of male id” bothered by Clinton’s confrontations.
“The humiliations that she suffered — and the public sympathy that she reaped — were inextricable from the dueling displays of male vanity around her,” he said. “Fast forward two decades [after her husband’s affair with Monica Lewinsky]. While there are still angry white men and they favor Trump, it appears that there aren’t enough to counter her advantage with women, who are poised to get the president of their wishes. Not everyone is taking this well.”
