Last night during the last presidential debate, Hillary Clinton was asked about a “grand bargain” that includes benefit cuts and raising taxes to save the Medicare trust fund by moderator Chris Wallace from FOX News. In her response, she got a dig in a Donald Trump for his use of a feature of the tax code which allows him to evade paying federal taxes. “Well, Chris,” she said, “I am on record as saying that we need to put more money in the social security trust fund. That’s part of my commitment to raise taxes on the wealthy. My social security payroll contribution will go up, as will Donald’s assuming he can’t figure out how to get out of it…”
Trump leaned into his microphone and said, “Such a nasty woman” then made this face:
Watch:
I want to put aside for a moment how Trump has, time and time again during the debates, taken his own shots at Clinton (not to mention the insults he hurled at his opponents during the primary debates), many far worse than her justifiable dig, and ignore the rank hypocrisy and inherent sexism in what appears to be his suggestion that Clinton isn’t allowed to do the same. Instead, consider that statement on national television once again.
“Such a nasty woman.”
I thought back to the presidential debates I’ve watched in my lifetime. I tried to imagine Gerald Ford or Ronald Reagan calling Jimmy Carter “such a nasty man.”
I tried to imagine Ronald Reagan calling Walter Mondale “such a nasty man.”
I tried to imagine George W. H. Bush calling Michael Dukakis or Bill Clinton “such a nasty man.”
I tried to imagine Robert Dole calling Bill Clinton “such a nasty man.”
I tried to imagine George W. Bush calling Al Gore or John Kerry “such a nasty man.”
I tried to imagine John McCain or Mitt Romney calling Barack Obama “such a nasty man.”
I failed. I simply could not envision these Republican men stooping to that level.
Then, thanks to a tweet by Jon Moench (@jon92027), I tried to imagine Joe Biden calling Sarah Palin “such a nasty woman.” As Moench says, if that had transpired, we would have had “President McCain.”
@Eclectablog if Biden had called Palin that in 2008 we would have President McCain
— Jon Moench (@jon92027) October 20, 2016
In the now-famous words of the fictional character Mr. Dooley, “politics ain’t beanbag”. And every cycle gets a bit more coarse and nasty than the last. Donald Trump has, in fact, raised the Nastiness Quotient by several orders of magnitude. Few other candidates in American history have given their opponents the numerous juvenile, insulting nicknames that Trump has. Few others have sunk into the slimy, muck-filled gutter so low as Trump during his 2016 campaign.
Yet he has the audacity to call Hillary Clinton “such a nasty woman.”
Such a hypocrite. Such a narcissist. Such a mockery of the American political system.
Such a nasty candidate.
P.S. Before the debate had even ended, the Clinton campaign had bought the domain nastywomengetshitdone.com and redirected it to HillaryClinton.com. It is, perhaps, the only appropriate response. Outside of crushing Donald Trump on November 8th, that is.
[CC image credit: Thomas Hawk | Flickr]
