Donald Trump is starting to attack both Hillary and Bill Clinton. AFP.

Donald Trump speaking on the USS Iowa last September. AFP.

Donald Trump is starting to attack both Hillary Clinton and her ex-president husband, Bill Clinton. AFP. Trump has been bashing the couple for Bill Clinton's long record of infidelity and perceived sexism. Trump has been labeled by the Clinton campaign as a sexist after many of his remarks, including one where he said that Hillary Clinton had been "schlonged" by Barack Obama during their presidential primary race. But Trump has warned the Clinton campaign that trying to pull the sexism card against him would be a bad idea due to Bill Clinton's behavior in the past. Trump also demanded an apology after Hillary Clinton claimed that ISIS was using his remarks on restricting Muslim immigration to recruit people during the last Democratic debate. Clinton claimed that ISIS had put his statements into propaganda videos, but to date no such videos have been found. 

My Comment:

I'll talk about the ISIS claim first. Hillary Clinton was completely lying about the video. As of this writing there have been no ISIS propaganda videos staring Donald Trump. And I doubt ISIS thinks about Trump at all. Most of their propaganda, when it mentions American politics at all, talks about Barack Obama. Sometimes other politicians are mentioned. Indeed, in one video, posted below, ISIS called out Bill Clinton himself calling him a "fornicator" (at about 45 seconds into the video). He wasn't the only president called out, as Barack Obama and George Bush were made fun of as well. But Donald Trump wasn't mentioned at all. 

If the video is removed, the video is "No Respite".

ISIS is certainly politically savvy and may eventually exploit Donald Trump's campaign statements in their propaganda videos. But that hasn't happened yet and for Hillary Clinton to claim that Trump is a recruiter for ISIS when her own husband has been filling the same role is hugely hypocritical. Either way though, the argument that we shouldn't say some things just because ISIS may use the soundbite as a recruitment tool is stupid. ISIS is going to do whatever they want and if it isn't Donald Trump's statements they use, it will be something else. They are disgusted by most of Western society, so there is plenty they could be offended by even if Trump had never said anything controversial at all. 

And the idea that we should never say anything bad about Islam and Muslims because if we do they will join terror groups seems rather offensive to me. After all, people are claiming anyone that wants to restrict immigration for Muslims are bigots, but those same people think that Muslims are so sensitive that even mentioning that some Muslims could be a threat will cause all Muslims to freak out and join terror groups? My question is who is the real bigot here? I'd like to think that even the most anti-Muslim bigot would understand that there are millions of Muslims that would either ignore Donald Trump's criticism or at the very least, wouldn't immediately join ISIS and kill people. 

As for Donald Trump being a sexist, I really think he is the opposite. He treats women exactly the same as he treats men, at least when it comes to politics. Trump is a blowhard and speaks his mind. He insults people. And he does it regardless of his opponents sex, race or age. He does the exact opposite of discriminating against women, he treats them the same as he would treat a man. I will say that it seems like he treats women he respects, like his daughters, wife, and the women in his company, well. Though Trump is crude and says some crazy things once in awhile, I don't think he hates women just for being women. But if the bar for sexism is that you can never be critical or any woman ever, under any circumstances, then all of us are sexist and sexism has lost all meaning. 

There is this insane idea out there that being critical of any particular woman means you hate all women. Which is incredibly stupid. Just because you disagree with Hillary Clinton, and I certainly do, does not mean that you hate all women. Even if you call her mean names, that does not translate to hating all women. Being a woman does not absolve you of any and all criticism. But many women see all women as their tribe. An attack on one feels like an attack on all. That's an almost universal problem with any group mind you, so the problem isn't unique. I could give you dozens of examples of people perceiving a criticism against an individual as a criticism of a group, including times where I fell into the trap myself. It's not a smart way to think about things, that is for sure. But it does explain why claiming Trump is sexist because he criticizes, harshly, people like Hillary Clinton and Rosie O'Donnell works. 

 And almost all of the time, when a female politician uses the gender card she is using it to distract against criticism. There is plenty of criticism that Hilary Clinton needs to distract against. She's done a lot of bad things as a First Lady, as a Senator, and especially as a Secretary of State. Those scandals won't go away just because she is a woman. She needs to answer for them and pointing those scandals out does not mean someone is sexist. 

As for Bill Clinton, I think Trump is right. His treatment of women has never been exemplary, to the point that Wikipedia has a whole page on his sexual misconduct. He cheated on his wife more then once with many different women. His relationship with Monica Lewinsky was inappropriate, even if he was single, and he has been accused of far worse. And Hillary Clinton has also been accused of covering up his infidelities and perhaps even crimes. After all, Juanita Broaddrick claimed that Bill went as far to rape her and she claimed that Hillary intimidated her. 

Though I have no idea if all or even most of the allegations against Bill Clinton are true, the fact of the matter is that most politicians don't have that long of a rap sheet when it comes to these kinds of sex scandals and still have a successful career. I would argue that even being sleazy like Bill Clinton is doesn't make him sexist, but by almost any standard he has treated women worse then Donald Trump has. I don't think either of them are really sexist, but I do think that Bill Clinton gets a pass for behavior that would get a Republican candidate crucified. 

I am not sure that these attacks will hurt Hillary Clinton or help Donald Trump all that much. The people that support her have supported her through worse and the people that hate her can't hate her much more then they do already. There may be a few people out there may switch their allegiance one way or the other because of this issue, but they will be few and far between. The only exception I can see is for young people that were too small to remember all the scandals of the Clinton Presidency when they happened. Since those people tend to lean liberal anyways Trumps attacks on Clinton, if they help anyone, they probably help Bernie Sanders more then they help him. 

I don't think Trump has anything to lose by bashing the Clinton's this way though.The people that hate him will think he is a bigot no matter what he does, so attacking has no cost. But it does have one benefit. It's like throwing a huge juicy red meat steak to the Republican party. Almost everyone in the Republican party hates Hillary Clinton and there aren't that many fans of Bill Clinton in the party either. Bashing the Clinton's for Bill's treatment of women is the kind of thing that could gain Trump's fans from people that would otherwise hate him. I also think that some people are absolutely sick of people using the "sexism" card to get out of actual criticism. If 2015 taught us anything it's that people are sick and tired of identity politics. Trump understands this and he is helping to fuel the backlash.

Finally, I think that most of this is irrelevant to whether or not you should vote for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. You should vote on policy and not whether or not someone said something mean about somebody. Just because Hillary Clinton got made fun off does not mean she should be president. And Donald Trump shouldn't be president just because he managed to tangle with the Clinton's. You should vote for what the candidates want to do and what their politics are, not over stupid scandals or fights. If you hate Hillary Clinton's personality or husband but you like her policies you should vote for her. Same goes for Donald Trump or whoever you want to vote for. Vote on the issues, not fights.