Donald Trump said Tuesday that it’s “fair game” to discuss Bill Clinton’s “abuse of women.”
Appearing on NBC’s “Today” with Savannah Guthrie, Trump insisted that the former president has “failed badly” as a surrogate for Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail.
Referring to a tweet Trump sent Monday night, Guthrie also asked the businessman if he thinks that Bill is “racist.” Trump replied, “No, he was called that by the Obama campaign. He was called it loud and clear. He was extremely insulted.”
Remember that Bill Clinton was brought in to help Hillary against Obama in 2008. He was terrible, failed badly, and was called a racist!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 29, 2015
Pushing for a clearer explanation, Guthrie continued to prod Trump as to why he Tweeted that Bill is “racist” and Trump said, “They said it. I didn’t say it. I didn’t call him a racist… That’s what they said, they called him a racist. I don’t believe he is a racist, if you want to know the truth, but they called him a racist.”
“It was a miserable campaign,” in 2008 for Hillary, Trump said, and Bill did “very poorly, and they are bringing him out again.”
“He’s being wheeled out, and we’re going to see what happens, but frankly he did very, very poorly. He was not good for her, and obviously she lost to Obama, and that was the end of that, but they brought him out before.”
Trump was then later asked about the specifics behind his tweet where he insisted that Bill has a “terrible record of women abuse.” Trump said, “Well, if you look at the different situations, of course, we can name many of them, I can get you a list and I’ll have it sent to your office in two seconds.”
If Hillary thinks she can unleash her husband, with his terrible record of women abuse, while playing the women's card on me, she's wrong!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 28, 2015
“But there were certainly a lot of abuse of women,” Trump insisted. “And you look at whether it’s Monica Lewinsky or Paula Jones or many of them, and that certainly will be fair game, certainly if they play the woman’s card with respect to me, that will be fair game.”
Trump argued, “I’ll do more for women than Hillary Clinton is going to do for women, including the safety of our country which is good for everybody, but if she’s going to play, which she started about a week ago, talking about, ‘Oh, he mentioned’ and, you know, the whole thing, playing up the woman’s card very, very strongly, and 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.”
“This is a person who, you know, he’s going to be out, and I like the fact that he’s campaigning for her. He failed in 2008. He failed really badly,” Trump said. “He frankly did a very poor job in campaigning, if you want to know the truth, and perhaps he’ll do well or perhaps he’ll do poorly, but if she’s going to play the woman card, it’s all fair game.”