On Saturday's New Day on CNN, during discussions of the possibility that Donald Trump will make an issue of Hillary Clinton's treatment of women who were involved with her husband Bill Clinton, CNN political commentator Errol Louis ignored the existence of several sexual assault accusations made against Bill Clinton which could be brought up as the CNN commentator portrayed Hillary Clinton's behavior as if it were simply going after women who had consensual affairs with her husband.
Shortly after 7:00 a.m. ET, Louis declared: "I have a hard time believing that people would want to re-litigate that because the point that Donald Trump seems to be trying to make is that somehow what happened 20 years ago with the infidelities of Bill Clinton -- not Hillary Clinton -- somehow reflects badly on her."
He soon added: "I don't know that women in particular -- and they're a key voting block that Trump needs to do better with -- I don't know that they're going to hold it against a woman -- a faithful wife as far as we all know -- for attacking the women who her husband was sleeping with."
Co-anchor Christi Paul agreed: "There you go. That's what I was going to say."
Louis then added: "No women that I've met would hold it against a wife who had an unfaithful spouse for going after the women that he had cheated with. I think people understand that on sort of a human level."
Not mentioned were that women like Juanita Broaddrick and Kathleen Willey have made accusations that Hillary Clinton took part in efforts to intimidate them into silence about sexual assaults against them.
There were even charges that Hillary Clinton was deeply involved in intimidating women to keep them from harming her or her husband politically in the 1992 presidential campaign and later.
As he appeared again a bit later, Louis again ignored the sex assault accusations as he suggested that Bill Clinton's adulterous behavior was similar to that of Trump and of surrogates Rudy Giuliani and Newt Gingrich. Louis:
I don't think it will work, in part because Hillary Clinton has already heard the worst things you could possibly hear on this particular topic in the last 20 years. So that part of it, if that is indeed the strategy, that's not going to work. As far as repulsing women, well, you know, that is a sort of a two-edged sword, so the nine wives between Trump and Giuliani and Gingrich that your reporter just described are also going to repulse people.
The CNN commentator then dismissively brought up right-wing talk radio and blogs as being interested in the subject and predicted that most Americans would not be swayed by Bill Clinton's mistreatment of women.
Below are transcripts of relevant portions of the Saturday, October 1, New Day on CNN:
7:05 a.m. ET
CHRISTI PAUL: The question is, do people care about infidelity in the Clinton relationship? Is it a thing of the past?
ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I have a hard time believing that people would want to re-litigate that because the point that Donald Trump seems to be trying to make is that somehow what happened 20 years ago with the infidelities of Bill Clinton -- not Hillary Clinton -- somehow reflects badly on her. To the extent that any of us want to go back to those sordid days, I don't know that women in particular -- and they're a key voting block that Trump needs to do better with -- I don't know that they're going to hold it against a woman -- a faithful wife as far as we all know -- for attacking the women who her husband was sleeping with.
PAUL: There you go. That's what I was going to say. That's his point. He's thinking that the way she dealt with these women is what could...
(...)
LOUIS: No women that I've met would hold it against a wife who had an unfaithful spouse for going after the women that he had cheated with. I think people understand that on sort of a human level.
(...)
7:36 a.m. ET
LOUIS: I don't think it will work, in part because Hillary Clinton has already heard the worst things you could possibly hear on this particular topic in the last 20 years. So that part of it, if that is indeed the strategy, that's not going to work. As far as repulsing women, well, you know, that is a sort of a two-edged sword, so the nine wives between Trump and Giuliani and Gingrich that your reporter just described are also going to repulse people.
You know, I think this is an example, Victor, of the kind of alternate reality that exists -- not just Donald Trump within the Trump organization and among his followers, his campaign followers as well, but also the world of right-wing radio. You know, you have this sort of discussion that's been going on for quite a long time about, "Oh, what a hypocrite she is, she's an enabler of this serial abuser, namely her husband." Okay, that's a point to be made, but they've whipped this up as if this is somehow a big, big concern of the American public. And it simply is not. You can hear them talk about it day and night on right-wing radio and on the blogs and on their websites. But for the rest of the country, it is of absolutely no concern, and the polls really suggest that.
