GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump wasn’t always so offended by the sex scandals Bill Clinton endured while commander in chief.
Though Trump has been on a week-long tear against the husband of his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, accusing him of having a “terrible record of women abuse,” CNN unearthed a 2008 interview with the GOP frontrunner in which he called the scandals “totally unimportant.”
Discussing the legacies of former presidents Clinton and George W. Bush, Trump dismissed the impeachment effort brought on by Clinton’s affair with his former intern Monica Lewinsky as “nonsense.”
“He lied! [Bush] got us into the war with lies! And, I mean, look at the trouble Bill Clinton got into with something that was totally unimportant, and they tried to impeach him, which was nonsense.”
Asked about his 2008 remarks in a Tuesday interview on the “Today” show, Trump suggested that his once gentler attitude towards Clinton was a byproduct of his business acumen.
“I’m dubbed as a world class businessman, which frankly that’s what I am, and I got along with everybody,” Trump said. “I got along with the Clintons.”
In the same interview, he reiterated his claim, first made on Twitter, that Clinton’s extramarital relations as president amounted to abuse.
“There were [sic] certainly a lot of abuse of women, and you look at whether it’s Monica Lewinsky or Paula Jones or many of them.”
Paula Jones was a former Arkansas state employee who filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Clinton while he was president.
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
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
In a statement to NBC, Clinton campaign spokeswoman Christina Reynolds called Trump’s language “demeaning” but declined to specifically comment on his remarks about the Clinton’s personal lives.
“Though Donald Trump has pushed around nearly all of his fellow Republicans, Hillary Clinton won’t be bullied or distracted by attacks he throws at her and former President Clinton,” Reynolds said.
h/t Mediaite
