Washington: The signs were all too clear that the 2016 Presidential election would plunge below the belt, and it didn't take long. Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, who had indicated that nothing would be off bounds when he takes on Hillary Clinton in the race to the White House, on Wednesday resurrected accusations of alleged rape against his Democratic rival's husband, former President Bill Clinton.
The tawdry R-moment came when Trump was asked about a recent New York Times article that dug into his (Trump's) colorful history with women, a story which the billionaire candidate said was a "con job" that made him "furious." In apparent sympathy, Fox News anchor Sean Hannity rhetorically asked him, "Are they going to interview Juanita Broaddrick? Are they going to interview Paula Jones? Are they going to interview Kathleen Willey?" invoking the names of women who have made allegations of sexual misconduct against Bill Clinton in the past.
"In one case, it's about exposure," Hannity continued. "In another case, it's about groping and fondling and touching against a woman's will."
"And rape," Trump added.
"And rape," Hannity concurred.
"And big settlements, massive settlements," Trump continued. "And lots of other things. And impeachment for lying."
The exchange resurrected a raft of accusations against Clinton in the 1990s, including allegations in 1999 by Juanita Broaddrick, a former nursing home employee, that Clinton had raped her when he was a gubernatorial candidate in Arkansas.
Broaddrick had initially dismissed as unfounded rumors that Clinton had sexually assaulted her in a deposition in the Paula Jones case (in which Jones had alleged sexual harassment), but she later claimed in a 1999 TV interview that Clinton had indeed assaulted her. Coming on the heels of the Monica Lewinsky scandal that had enervated America, Broaddrick's charges died a quiet death with the media not inclined to pursue it.
But sections of the conservative media recently hunted down Broaddrick for an interview in which she reasserted the charges and suggested the New York Times spend the same amount of energy investigating claims of sexual assault against Bill Clinton that the newspaper put into probing Donald Trump's alleged past treatment of women.
She said there is a whole generation of Americans who "haven't heard about what Bill Clinton did to the women back in that time that they need to know," and called Hillary Clinton an "enabler," a term also used by Donald Trump.
There was no word from the Clinton camp about the latest bombshell, but Trump has already warned that all bets are off when it comes to taking on the Clintons. The liberal media meanwhile has piled on to Trump's alleged infractions with women ensuring that this election campaign will be tawdry.
