2016 race devolves into ugly fight over treatment of women

Published 10:19 am Thursday, October 13, 2016

LAS VEGAS — Already deeply divisive, America’s campaign for president is quickly devolving into an ugly fight over who has treated women worse: Donald Trump, whose White House bid is floundering, or former President Bill Clinton, who isn’t on the ballot.

Trump’s campaign is now signaling it will spend the election’s final month relitigating Bill Clinton’s marital affairs and unproven charges of sexual assault, as well as what Trump says is Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s role in intimidating the women who were involved. But Trump is a deeply imperfect messenger, given that almost everything he says is being overshadowed by a flood of allegations that he kissed and groped women without their consent.

Just four days ago, Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway promoted a tweet from Clinton declaring that “every survivor of sexual assault deserves to be heard, believed, and supported.”

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“‘Every’ the operative word here,” wrote Conway, whose campaign is now attacking the credibility of the new allegations against Trump.

The New York Times and the Palm Beach Post on Wednesday reported stories about three women who alleged Trump had inappropriately touched them. Separately, a People Magazine reporter wrote a detailed first-person account of being attacked by Trump while interviewing the businessman and his wife, Melania Trump.