In an hour-long, sit-down TV interview, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump resurrected accusations of rape against former presidentBill Clinton.
Trump’s remarks came in response to a question from Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity, who asked Trump about his feelings on a recent New York Times articlethat dug into the candidate’s troubled history with women, which Trump called a “con job” that made him “furious”.
“Are they going to interview Juanita Broaddrick?” Hannity asked Trump, in apparent defense of the candidate. “Are they going to interview Paula Jones? Are they going to interview Kathleen Willey? In one case, it’s about exposure. In another case, it’s about groping and fondling and touching against a woman’s will.”
“And rape,” Trump responded.
“And rape,” Hannity followed up.
“And big settlements, massive settlements ... and lots of other things,” Trump continued. “And impeachment for lying, and losing your law license. You know, he lost his law license, OK? He couldn’t practice law. And you don’t read about this on Clinton.”
The attack on Hillary Clinton’s husband has no precedent in modern US politics, although Trump has hinted for months that he would be willing to make his attacks against Clinton personal, up to and including her marriage to the former president.
Before a single vote had been cast in either primary, Trump slammed the former president in January as “one of the great women abusers of all time”, calling the former secretary of state a hypocrite for accusing him of sexism. In that same month, Trump published a video on Instagram that implicitly compared the former president to disgraced comedian Bill Cosby, paired with audio of a famous Hillary Clinton quotation: “Women’s rights are human rights, and human rights are women’s rights, once and for all. Let’s keep fighting for dignity.”