As so often, Donald Trump makes the subtext text.
Whereas other Republicans hold Hillary Clinton, his Democratic rival, to a different standard than they do male politicians, Trump will come right out and say it.
In an interview with CBS that was broadcast on Sunday, the New York businessman dismissed his vice presidential candidate’s support for the Iraq War in 2003, saying, “I don’t care.”
Mike Pence, then a congressman, voted for the war, as did Clinton, who was a senator for New York at the time.
Trump has repeatedly argued that Clinton’s support for the war calls her judgement into question, although he himself supported the war before he opposed it. Trump now claims he opposed the war from the start.
The interviewer, Lesley Stahl, pointed out the hypocrisy when Trump said Pence was “entitled to make a mistake every once in a while.”
“But she’s not?” she asked. “Okay, come on.”
“But she’s not,” Trump maintained.
Stahl tried again: “She’s not?”
“No,” said Trump. “She’s not.”
“Got it,” Stahl replied.