Given Donald Trump’s unflattering history with women, it may seem strange that he is choosing to publicly attack Hillary Clinton over her treatment of women. But at this point on the campaign trail, not much is a surprise anymore.
The Associated Press obtained a memo distributed by the Trump campaign, which details his new plan to highlight how Clinton bullied women.
“Mr. Trump has never treated women the way Hillary Clinton and her husband did when they actively worked to destroy Bill Clinton’s accusers,” the memo reads.
The campaign's spin is that this isn't blaming Clinton for Bill's actions, but rather her own role in trying to discredit and "destroy" women who accused her husband of sexual harassment and even rape, the AP reports.
“The American people have had it with years and decades of Clinton corruption and scandal,” Trump said during a New Hampshire rally on Thursday. “And impeachment for lying… Remember that?
“If you look at her being an enabler, really, in the ‘90s and really attacking these women, it goes against everything that she now tries to spout as a candidate for president,” Trump’s deputy campaign manager, David Bossie, told “Fox & Friends” on Friday.
But not everyone is on board with Trump’s new smear campaign.
The Washington Postreports that Newt Gingrich, who led the impeachment charge against Bill Clinton, said, “It’s totally the wrong direction to go.”
And Katie Packer, a Republican strategist who opposes a Trump presidency, told the AP that “The whole notion of trying to get Hillary Clinton to pay for Bill Clinton’s infidelities is just strategically a bad choice."
Trump has been lambasted over his treatment of women this week, after he tried to defend his comments about the weight of former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, whom he said"gained a massive amount of weight, and it was a real problem." Machado says that in 1996, Trump bullied her so much about her weight that she ended up fighting eating disorders for years. The Los Angeles Times also published a story this week on court documents alleging that Trump only wanted thin, pretty women working at his resorts.
“He (Trump) can say whatever he wants to say… and I’m going to run my campaign talking about what I think the American people are interested in,” Clinton said on Thursday.
A NBCNews/SurveyMonkey poll taken after the first presidential debate found that 22 percent of women voters said the debate made them think worse of Trump, while nearly a third of the women polled said the debate improved their opinion of Clinton.
