BY EMILY CAHN
16 HOURS AGO
Donald Trump laced into Bill Clinton again on the campaign trail Wednesday,
calling the former president "one of the great abusers of the world" as the
former president is set to campaign on his wife's behalf in New Hampshire.
SEE ALSO: Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton: Don't play the 'women's card'
Trump's latest attacks come as the ex-president is set to make his first solo
appearances on the campaign trail to boost his wife's 2016 presidential bid.
The former president remains popular in New Hampshire, where Hillary Clinton
is looking to open up a lead over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Trump again hits Bill Clinton for what he calls "tremendous abuse" of
women. Notes HRC didn't mention Trump attacks ystdy. "I wonder
why."
— Hallie Jackson (@HallieJackson) December 30, 2015
Trump defended his criticism of the former president on Wednesday, telling
supporters at a South Carolina rally that he was merely responding to Hillary
Clinton, who had been hitting him "really hard with the women card."
"This was only—I did this in like 15 minutes, what happened to them. Because
the husband wants to come and she wants to accuse me of things, and the
husband's one of the great abusers of the world. Give me a break. Give me a
break. Give me a break."
Trump and Hillary Clinton have been trading attacks on since last week, after
the Clinton campaign and its allies criticized Trump as sexist for his use of the
word "schlonged" to describe her 2008 loss in the Democratic presidential
primary. Clinton described Trump as having a "penchant for sexism."
In response, Trump brought up Bill Clinton's affair in the 1990s with 22-year-
old White House intern Monica Lewinsky, an effort to paint her campaign's
sexism claims as hypocritical.
Hillary Clinton has announced that she is letting her husband out to
campaign but HE'S DEMONSTRATED A PENCHANT FOR SEXISM, so
inappropriate!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 27, 2015
During an interview with NBC's TODAY Show , Tuesday, Trump said that his
attacks on Bill Clinton were "fair game" and that there was "certainly a lot of
abuse of women" by the ex-president.
"If she's going to play that game, and if he's going to be out there
campaigning, then he's certainly fair game and I think just about everybody
agrees with me on that."
Trump, who has been married three times, told reporters that his own marital
history would be fair game too.
“Are you saying an extramarital affair by Bill Clinton is fair game?” -
@SavannahGuthrie asked @RealDonaldTrump
https://t.co/8ka2Rzs05e
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) December 29, 2015
While Trump's assaults on the Clintons could help fire up his base, Democratic
strategists say the attacks may have the opposite effect on Democrats — with
whom Bill Clinton is still incredibly popular.
"The Trump attacks allow Republicans a reason to once again use a tired old
line against a president that has the highest approval ratings of his life," said
Michael Trujillo, a California Democratic strategist and Clinton supporter who
worked on Clinton's 2008 campaign.
A May Gallup poll found that while Hillary Clinton registered 50 percent
favorability, her husband was 9 points higher. According to the same Gallup
poll, Bill Clinton is also more popular than his wife among Republicans and
independents.
Even more, Trump's attacks can be painted by the Clinton campaign as
hypocritical — as Trump was one of Bill Clinton's supporters during the
impeachment hearings in the 1990s.
“I got a chuckle out of all the moralists in Congress and in the media who
expressed public outrage at the president’s immoral behavior,” Trump wrote in
The America We Deserve, according to Buzzfeed. “I happen to know that one
U.S. senator leading the pack of attackers spent more than a few nights with
his twenty-something girlfriend at a hotel I own. There’s also a conservative
columnist, married, who was particularly rough on Clinton in this regard. He
also brought his girlfriend to my resorts for the weekend. Their hypocrisy is
amazing.”
For Clinton, Democratic strategists say the one potential pitfall she could face
is taking Trump's bait and creating a war with Trump.
"The lone hazard for her in all of this would be if this turns into a week-long
food fight," said one national Democratic strategist. "She'd run the risk of
looking less than presidential, and that's bad when you have a candidate
predicated on being the adult in the room and who's running the Iron Lady
campaign."
So far, the Clinton campaign has not taken Trump's bait.
"She won't be distracted by the slings he throws at her and former President
Clinton," Christina Reynolds, deputy communications director for the Clinton
campaign, said in a statement on Dec. 28.
Statement on @realDonaldTrump 's latest attacks: pic.twitter.com/
gM17GhAlfy
— Christina Reynolds (@creynoldsnc) December 28, 2015
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