Donald Trump appears to believe that his best material against Hillary Clinton is 1) more than 20 years old, 2) already so widely aired that it’s baked into what people think of her, and 3) not actually about Hillary Clinton. Last week, Trump accused Bill Clinton of rape. This week, he’s out with a video highlighting women who accused Bill Clinton—a person who is, let’s remember, not Hillary and not running for office—of sexual assault. But he had to do it, see:
“They said things about me which were very nasty. And I don’t want to play that game at all. I don’t want to play it — at all. But they said things about me that were very nasty,” Trump told The Washington Post in an interview. “And, you know, as long as they do that, you know, I will play at whatever level I have to play at. I think I’ve proven that.”
Yes, Donny. You’ve proven you will play at whatever level you have to play at, provided the levels in question are all subterranean and we’re forgiving about what “have to” means. To an outside observer it’s almost looks like Trump is not quite telling the truth when he says “I don’t want to play that game,” but forget that—he’s been forced, he has to wage personal attacks. On people who are not the candidate.
Also, too, Trump is bringing up Vince Foster and Whitewater, because why would we ever let go of 1990s nonsense? At least the absurd conspiracy theories about Vince Foster do involve Hillary herself. They’re fictional, but the fact that Trump is focusing on fiction about Hillary rather than just attacking her husband’s alleged actions of decades past is maybe progress.