Joking and laughing with reporters, Hillary Clinton on Thursday only gently had to deal with Donald Trump threatening to bring up Bill Clinton’s sexual infidelities. In a friendly atmosphere, the journalists wondered more about how the Democrat will respond and very little on the actual issue it raises of how the Clintons treat women.
MSNBC’s Kristen Welker wondered, “Secretary Clinton, the Trump campaign is signaling that they are poised to get personal about your husband's past, about your past. How will you respond at the debates and what's your response today?”
An unidentified reporter made the candidate the victim, wondering if Clinton will use the accusations against Bill as a way to help other women:
REPORTERS: Do you, as someone who presumably who wants women to run for and win office and high office, feel any obligation, if Trump brings up your husband's past, to speak out against a spouse's indiscretions or past being brought into a campaign like this?
The Democrat answered that question with a quick “no,” a response that prompted laughter from Clinton and her compliant questioners.
In contrast, a local New Hampshire reporter pressed Trump with a pointed question about his past: “If it does come up, though, in the next debate, do you think your past marital history is also fair game?... And you're not worried about your past history at all?”
On September 8, 2016, 278 days after her last press conference, Clinton did not face questions about her e-mail scandal. Instead, the assembled journalists wondered about double standards and sexism.
A patrial transcript of MSNBC show Last Word, which replayed snippets of the exchange, can be found below:
Last Word
9/29/16
11:01BRIAN WILLIAMS: And just a short time ago, the candidate going even further on this topic during an interview with NH1 in New Hampshire.
REPORTER: If it does come up, though, in the next debate, do you think your past marital history is also fair game?
DONALD TRUMP: I guess. They can do — But a lot different than his, I can tell you. I mean, we have a situation where we have a president who was a disaster and he was ultimately impeached over it in a sense for lying so we'll see whether or not we discuss it.
REPORTER: And you're not worried about your past history at all?
TRUMP: No, not at all. I have a very good history.
WILLIAMS: For her part, Hillary Clinton was asked repeatedly about this today speaking to reporters on plane in Chicago today. Here is the full exchange, beginning with a question from our own Kristen Welker.
KRISTEN WELKER: Secretary Clinton, the Trump campaign is signaling that they are poised to get personal about your husband's past, about your past. How will you respond at the debates and what's your response today?
HILLARY CLINTON: 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. I'm going to keep talking about my agenda that will, I believe, increase growth, make it fairer, have it be lasting, deal with the real problems that families are confronting. What I want to do to keep America safe and to provide the kind of steady strong leadership the country needs and to bring people together which is going to be one of the highest priorities that I will have when I'm fortunate enough to be elected president, if that's what turns out. So I'm not going to comment on how he runs his campaign. You'll be able to see. We have two more debates, what he says and what I say.
REPORTER: Do you, as someone who presumably who wants women to run for and win office and high office, feel any obligation, if Trump brings up your husband's past, to speak out against a spouse's indiscretions or past being brought into a campaign like this?
CLINTON: No. [ Laughter ]
REPORTER: Donald Trump today invoked your husband's impeachment as evidence that he says the Clintons have "the sordid past" and his president would be, quote, “the bright and very bright and clean future." I'm wondering if you have any response to that comparison. [Starts laughing.]
CLINTON: [Also starts laughing.] No. No. Look, he can say whatever he wants to say, as we well know, we have seen it in realtime over the last many months. I'm going to keep running my campaign, talking about what I think the American people are interested in.
