Trump fixes on Bill Clinton's scandals

Foe Hillary Clinton scoffs, keys on the future

Iowans John Olsen (left) and Mark Cooper compete Thursday to be the first to drop a ballot into the box in Des Moines on the first day of early voting in the state.
Iowans John Olsen (left) and Mark Cooper compete Thursday to be the first to drop a ballot into the box in Des Moines on the first day of early voting in the state.

BEDFORD, N.H. -- Donald Trump on Thursday resurrected Bill Clinton's impeachment, adding the former president's infidelities to the 2016 campaign. Trump warned voters in New Hampshire that a Hillary Clinton victory would revive her husband's sex scandal at the White House.

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AP

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton campaigns Thursday in Des Moines, Iowa.

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AP

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks Thursday at a campaign rally in Bedford, N.H.

"The American people have had it with years and decades of Clinton corruption and scandal. Corruption and scandal," Trump said. "An impeachment for lying. An impeachment for lying. Remember that? Impeach."

That was a reference to Bill Clinton. After an inquiry by an independent counsel, the House approved formal impeachment charges in late 1998 in connection with President Clinton's testimony about his affair with a former White House intern, Monica Lewinsky, and other matters. He was acquitted of the impeachment charges by the Senate.

Trump's team said he had been prepared to bring up the Lewinsky scandal during Monday night's debate but decided otherwise because the Clintons' daughter, Chelsea, was in the room. Trump did not bring up Lewinsky by name on Thursday.

Shortly before Trump's remarks, Clinton offered a more optimistic message to supporters in Iowa's capital city.

"I want this election to be about something, not just against somebody," she said in Des Moines.

At her Des Moines rally, Clinton recounted her own background of working on children's issues and her father's struggles as a small businessman.

"I know so much of this campaign has been about, you know, whatever my opponent said and who he attacked and who he denigrates -- and the list is long," Clinton said. "But it's not about that; it's about you. It's about your families and your future, and each of us should be telling you what we intend to do in the job."

Asked Thursday about the possibility that Trump would raise her husband's infidelities, Clinton said, "He can run his campaign however he chooses. That's up to him. I'm going to keep talking about the stakes in this election."

With Election Day less than six weeks away, early voting already is underway in Iowa and some other places.

In recent days, Trump and his supporters have raised anew a number of personal attacks against Clinton, questioning her role in her husband's infidelities and casting her as a corrupt tool of political donors and special interests. Trump also has assailed a 1996 Miss Universe pageant winner for her weight gain -- an incident Clinton used in this week's debate to portray Trump as insensitive to women.

"The Clintons are the sordid past. We will be the bright and very clean future," Trump said in New Hampshire.

Trump and Clinton meet again on the debate stage Oct. 9 in St. Louis.

Separately, Clinton's campaign seized on a new report alleging Trump had explored business opportunities in Cuba in the late 1990s, apparently in violation of the U.S. embargo on the island. Though Clinton strongly supports President Barack Obama's efforts to ease the embargo and restore U.S. ties to Cuba, she accused her opponent of acting against U.S. interests by defying the sanctions in the past.

The work was done by a consulting firm called Seven Arrows on behalf of Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts Inc., Trump's publicly traded casino company, Newsweek reported. The magazine said Trump reimbursed the consultants for $68,000 of business expenses for the Cuba work -- even though neither Trump nor the firm had sought a government waiver that would have allowed them to pursue such activities.

Clinton told reporters aboard her campaign plane that "we have laws in our country" and Trump knew what they were. She added that "he deliberately flouted" the law and "puts his personal and business interests ahead of the laws and the values and the policies of the United States of America."

Late Thursday, Trump denied the Newsweek article, telling New Hampshire's NH1 News he "never did business in Cuba."

Attacks seen as risk

Trump critics say his mentioning of Bill Clinton's infidelities could backfire, elevating Hillary Clinton in the eyes of female voters and motivating her base.

"The whole notion of trying to get Hillary Clinton to pay for Bill Clinton's infidelities is just strategically a bad choice," said Katie Packer, a longtime Republican strategist opposed to Trump's candidacy. Women in particular, she said, see it as cruel.

Republican pollster Frank Luntz said Trump's reference to Bill Clinton's indiscretions was his low point Monday night among the group of voters with whom he watched the debate.

"They were laughing about it because they thought that was Trump at his worst," Luntz said, adding that undecided voters are especially turned off by personal attacks.

The effort also risks drawing attention to the thrice-married Trump's own unflattering history with women. His first marriage ended after a well-publicized affair, and two of his top advisers, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, have had their own well-documented infidelities. The three have had nine wives combined.

Trump first touched on Bill Clinton's sexual past the weekend before the debate, threatening to seat Gennifer Flowers in the front row. She has said she and Clinton had an affair, and he has admitted to one sexual encounter. She didn't appear.

In talking points later distributed by the campaign, Trump supporters were advised that "Mr. Trump has never treated women the way Hillary Clinton and her husband did when they actively worked to destroy Bill Clinton's accusers."

The document mentions Flowers, Lewinsky and Paula Jones, a former state worker in Arkansas who sued Clinton on sexual-harassment accusations. The former president eventually agreed to an $850,000 settlement with Jones but acknowledged no wrongdoing.

Trump supporters are advised to say they are not "blaming Hillary for Bill's infidelities," but rather are pointing out that she has "been an active participant in trying to destroy the women who has come forward with a claim."

Giuliani said Bill Clinton "disgraced this country with what he did in the Oval Office."

As for Hillary Clinton, Giuliani said, "After being married to Bill Clinton for 20 years, if you didn't know the moment Monica Lewinsky said that Bill Clinton violated her that she was telling the truth, then you're too stupid to be president." That was in an interview posted by a reporter from the news website Elite Daily.

Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge told MSNBC on Wednesday, "If we want to dig back through the '90s on comments made about women, we can certainly look to Secretary Clinton referring to Monica Lewinsky as a neurotic loony toon."

According to an archive of private papers once belonging Diane Blair, a friend of the Clintons who died in 2000, Hillary Clinton called Lewinsky a "narcissistic loony toon."

While Hillary Clinton's aides aren't thrilled about having her marriage back in the spotlight, they argue Trump's new focus prevents him from making an affirmative case for his candidacy and only underscores the concerns some voters have with his temperament.

Said spokesman Brian Fallon, "She's not wired in the same way he is, prone to outbursts."

'An aleppo moment'

Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson, meanwhile, faced ridicule again after he was unable to name a single world leader he admired.

The moment drew immediate comparisons -- including by Johnson himself -- to his "Aleppo moment" earlier this month when he didn't recognize the besieged city in Syria.

Johnson's misstep played out live on MSNBC, where the former New Mexico governor and his running mate, William Weld, were appearing in a town hall. Host Chris Matthews ticked through a list of regions, hoping to jog the Libertarian Party candidate's memories, but to no avail.

"You've got to do this," Matthews said. "Anywhere, any continent: Canada, Mexico, Europe, over there, Asia, South America, Africa. Name a foreign leader that you respect."

"I'm having a brain freeze," Johnson said. "I guess I'm having an Aleppo moment."

Weld went to his rescue, offering the names of three former Mexican presidents. Johnson settled quickly on Vicente Fox, calling him "terrific" before Weld named his own favorite foreign leader: German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Despite the slip-up, Johnson did earn the endorsement of The Detroit News, the first time that the newspaper, in its 143 years, has not endorsed a Republican.

The newspaper said that while Clinton has the resume and temperament for the presidency, it did not agree with her on the issues and was troubled by her "career-long struggles with honesty and ethics" and her "self-serving approach to politics."

Trump, it said, "is unprincipled, unstable and quite possibly dangerous. He cannot be president." Nor, it said, is Trump conservative. "Trump does not meet any true conservative standards. Except for those, of course, who wrongly equate conservatism with racism, sexism and xenophobia."

It continued: "So we find ourselves in the same position as a vast number of voters in looking for an option other than skipping the presidential portion of the ballot.

"Gary Johnson meets that need. We recognize the Libertarian candidate is the longest of long shots with an electorate that has been conditioned to believe only Republicans and Democrats can win major offices."

The Detroit paper's endorsement of Johnson came as Democrats embarked on an effort to convince voters skeptical of the major party candidates, particularly millennials, that a vote for a third-party contender, Johnson or the Green Party's Jill Stein, was essentially a vote for Trump.

Information for this article was contributed by Josh Lederman, Catherine Lucey, Jill Colvin, Lisa Lerer and Steve Peoples, Patrick Mairs of The Associated Press and by Fred Barbash of The Washington Post.

A Section on 09/30/2016

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