Hoo boy. Donald Trump is a master of restraint—extremely presidential-type restraint—as Donald Trump and his people keep telling us. Trump kicked it off toward the end of Monday night’s debate, saying “I was going to say something extremely rough to Hillary, to her family, and I said to myself, ‘I can't do it. I just can't do it. It's inappropriate. It's not nice.’" But merely pointing out once that he wasn’t going to talk about Bill Clinton’s sexual history on the debate stage wasn’t enough. Trump and campaign manager Kellyanne Conway have been on something of a “he didn’t say ‘blow job’” tour in the hours since the debate ended.
Trump went on Fox & Friends and said that “when she hit me at the end with the women, I was going to hit her with her husband’s women and I decided I shouldn’t do it because her daughter was in the room.” Just in case no one was going to praise him for this noble act of forbearance, Trump did so himself, saying that “I think I did the right thing. It’s not worth a point. I didn’t feel comfortable doing it with Chelsea in the room. I think Chelsea is a fine young lady.”
But Trump’s logic here is fascinating: “when she hit me at the end with the women, I was going to hit her with her husband’s women.” Clinton pointed out Trump’s history of misogyny, and Trump’s instinct was … to hit her with more misogyny. And he wants us to know that! He also clearly wants this hanging out there as a threat to Clinton: go after me again, and I will remind the country that your husband cheated on you, and I will suggest that it’s somehow your fault. As if that would help him. As if Clinton didn’t prepare for exactly that as part of her debate prep.
Trump is not just out there on his own saying stuff that has his campaign team cringing. Campaign manager Kellyanne Conway has been on a bit of a media tour patting Trump on the back for his restraint. Echoing something she said on Fox News Monday night, Conway went on Morning Joe to say that “I have to say, certainly as a woman, I appreciated the restraint at the end—I’m not sure I would have been able to exercise it myself—but restraint is a virtue, and it’s a presidential virtue.” Ha ha ha. Yes, Kellyanne Conway only wishes she could be as restrained as Donald Trump.
As implied threats go, “if you are already beating me, I will say something that makes me look terrible and makes you look sympathetic, and for which you have doubtless already practiced a response” is not the most terrifying.