Donald Trump can criticize Bill Clinton’s behavior towards women to his heart’s content. But it’s hard for me to take Trump seriously on this front.
As with Hillary, Trump hasn’t always thought so poorly of the former President’s behavior. In 2008, Trump stated, “Look at the trouble Bill Clinton got into with something that was totally unimportant and they tried to impeach him, which was nonsense. And yet Bush got us into this horrible war with lies, by lying, by saying they had weapons of mass destruction, by saying all sorts of things that turned out not to be true.”
So let’s be clear here. In 2008, Trump thought Bill Clinton’s behavior with Monica Lewinsky was “totally unimportant.” As we enter 2016, only now does Trump consider Clinton to have “a terrible record of women abuse” and only now is he disturbed by his “penchant for sexism.”
Back in June, during an interview with Jon Stewart, Clinton said that Trump had been “uncommonly nice to Hillary and me” and praised his support for the Clinton Foundation. If Trump finds Bill Clinton behavior to be so egregious then why golf with the man? If I held someone in such low regard I certainly wouldn’t go golfing with them much less seek their advice about running for the White House or anything else. Given that Trump has repeatedly said how much he likes both Bill and Hillary Clinton, a reasonable person can only conclude that Donald Trump is being a total phony here.
But, by all means, Trump should criticize Clinton when it comes to women. After all, Clinton’s highest approval ratings came in the midst of the impeachment proceedings against him. In December 1998, Clinton had a 73% approval rating and would leave office a little over two years later with an approval rating of 66%. Trump is behaving exactly like someone who wants Hillary Clinton to be elected President.