By: Lisa M. Hayes
As the media continues to feed on the Stormy Daniel’s scandal, there is a growing cry from the right saying Trump’s personal life should be off limits. While that sentiment feels like a hypocritical fantasy, as a President’s personal life ceases to be personal the day they begin their first campaign, it is an uncanny defense of a man who’s made everyone else’s life fair game.
We’re talking about a man who’s flaunted his personal life publicly, making too many unsavory public comments about his wives, girlfriends, conquests, and daughter to count- for decades.
We’re talking about the founding card-carrying member of the birther movement, making the lives of Obama’s dead parent’s public fodder.
We’re talking about a man who, like any other bully, humiliates others publicly in very personal ways like a blood-sport.
No one is taking Donald Trump’s personal privacy away by talking about matters that might otherwise be private. He commoditized his personal life himself, like everything else for profit.
However, the resounding cry from the right swells. Donald Trump’s personal life is not relevant and he should be spared the public scrutiny so he can preside over the nation in peace. Democrats like to roll their eyes remembering Bill Clinton and a national crisis built on a blue dress. However, it’s another moment in history involving a Clinton I’d like to shine a spotlight on here.
On October 9, 2016, Donald Trump tried to intimidate and humiliate Hillary Clinton by inviting women who have accused Bill Clinton of sexual abuse to sit in the family area close to the center of a presidential debate. Maybe he thought it would throw Hillary off her debate game. Maybe he thought he’d gain favor with the Clinton-hating rightwing thugs who loved to chant “Lock her up” in front of cameras as a mantra for sport. Maybe he did it for no other reason than he could and thought it would be fun.
The four women planned to walk in the debate hall at the same time as the former president and confront him in front of a live television audience, according to many sources.
The plan was first reported by the Washington Post but was later confirmed by NBC News. It was stopped moments before the event went on-air when the Commission on Presidential Debates intervened to prevent it, even threatening to get security to block the women.
The four women, Juanita Broaddrick, Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey and Kathy Shelton, eventually sat in the audience alongside other ticketed members. Although they weren’t front and center as planned, their presence was well known and the impact felt heavy. They were a favorite for the television cameras during the offstage shots of the audience. They sat there and whispered amongst themselves, laughing, taking in the debate as if hurting Hillary would make them feel whole somehow.
Those four women were players on a big stage for one night. Their roles were scripted for them by Donald Trump. He is the reality TV guy after all. He knew exactly what he wanted from them. They played their parts well, and then they disappeared back into the tabloid history pages from where they came – used again.
That moment was one of the dirtiest moments in U.S. political history ever. That is saying something. Politics is a dirty business and this made stunt topped the lowlight reels. It’s hard to imagine playing any dirtier.
On that evening in October, 2016, Donald Trump dropped the ideals of human decency and appropriateness miles below sea level. He weaponized Hillary Clinton’s marriage against her. This coming after months of campaign smack-talk and innuendo about Bill Clinton’s marital transgressions. In a grotesque display of political theater, Trump made the personal life, the marriage of an opponent public fair game. It’s the kind of stunt that has an impact that can’t be walked back out of the history books.
Practically speaking the question is valid. Are the previous affairs of a sitting President a valid issue during his/her administration? Is the personal life of a President during his administration even relevant? I can easily make the case that the attitudes of a President regarding women that are on display when he cheats on his wife are a political issue. You might say incidents, like having affairs with pornstars and paying for their silence, tells us a lot about a man’s character and character matters.
However, I remember, as a Democrat being frustrated with the notion of the government being practically put on hold over a blow-job in the oval. The debate over the validity of a President’s personal life being a legitimate issue is still and might always be unanswered.
That said, the pseudo-moral outcry from the right that Trump’s marriage should be off-limits is insane. Trump handed over his moral supremacy long before that debate. However, on that night, when he created a moment in time that could only be made for TV, by marching those women into that debate hall, he took the moral high ground for defending him away from all his supporters. As they continue to beat that drum at best they look out of touch and hypocritical. At worst they seem unhinged and desperate.
When my first husband cheated, eventually I ended our marriage. And yet I’ve always admired the fact that in the most public humiliation possible, for whatever reasons, personal or political, Hillary Clinton didn’t. I remember imagining what those days in the White House must have been like, hunkered down with clergy, trying to save that marriage. I rooted for them as a couple. I hoped they’d pull through.
And for whatever reasons, personal or political, they did pull through. Yet Trump chose to weaponize her Clinton’s marriage against her on a public stage anyway. That showed us way more about Donald Trump than it did Bill Clinton.
Legally and practically the debate is irrelevant. If Donald Trump had affairs with anyone, pornstars, maids, or waitresses, should the media get whiff of it, it will become our business – and maybe it should. Ideally, our government runs on morality. The moral compass of the person who leads our nation is and always will be an issue.
So, to the rightwing media machine and the crazed Clinton-hating Trump supporters who want to make morality a non-issue when it’s convenient I want to say: Bill Clinton is no longer President. The history books will tell his story. Hillary Clinton isn’t and never will be President. Donald Trump is what’s happening now and he’s left you nothing to defend him with. You can’t stand on a moral high ground defending a man who is devoid of any moral fiber.
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