Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton deflected charges of sexism from businessman and GOP rival Donald Trump, saying she’ll focus on issues that are important to women while others dig up her husband’s extramarital transgressions from his time in the White House.
Mrs. Clinton, the former first lady, senator and secretary of state, said Republicans will regret it if they revisit the Monica Lewinsky scandal that roiled President Bill Clinton’s tenure the late 1990s instead of focusing on things like equal pay for women and health care.
“That can be their choice as to how to run in this campaign. Didn’t work before. It won’t work again, because it is what people are focused on, not for the past, but for the future,” Mrs. Clinton told CBS’ Face the Nation.
Mr. Trump, who leads the GOP presidential field in many polls, has signaled he is unafraid to bring up the former president if he is deployed as a campaign weapon for Mrs. Clinton, or if the former first family paints him as sexist.
“I don’t want to say it’s a threat. But it is a threat,” Mr. Trump told NBC’s Meet the Press.
The back-and-forth began after Mr. Trump said Mrs. Clinton got “schlonged” in the 2008 primary election, sparking accusations of sexism against the real-estate mogul. He also called Mrs. Clinton’s bathroom break during the recent Democratic debate “disgusting.”
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“I think he has to answer for what he says, and I assume that others will make the larger point about his language. It’s not the first time he’s demonstrated a penchant for sexism,” Mrs. Clinton said of Mr. Trump in an interview with the Des Moines Register.
Pushing back, Mr. Trump posted an Instagram video that used tabloid newspaper covers and photographs to shuffle through three sex scandals: Mr. Clinton’s affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky; the sexting scandal that forced Democratic congressman Anthony Weiner, who is married to Mrs. Clinton’s closest aide, Huma Abedin, to resign from Congress in 2011; and accusations that Mr. Cosby drugged and molested as many as 50 women over a 40-years period.
He also said Mrs. Clinton enabled her husband’s indiscretions.
“A lot of this was done in the White House. Not a good situation,” Mr. Trump told Fox News Sunday.
“Some of these women have been destroyed, and Hillary worked with him,” he added. “There’s no feeling sorry for Hillary in this situation.”
Mrs. Clinton said she’d rather talk about policy than his attacks, boasting that an endorsement from Planned Parenthood Action Fund is proof that she’ll fight for women’s health.
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“He can say whatever he wants to about me. Let the voters judge that,” she said. “But I am not going to let him or any of the other Republicans rip away the progress that women have made.”
To square off with Mr. Trump or another Republican nominee, she’ll have to get by Sen. Bernard Sanders, Vermont independent who has made the race for the Democratic nomination closer than anyone thought it would be.
Mrs. Clinton holds a 6-point lead among potential Democratic caucus-goers in Iowa, 49 percent to 43 percent, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released Sunday.
Yet Mr. Sanders is ahead of Clinton by four points among likely primary voters in New Hampshire, 50 percent to 46 percent. The results are within the margin of error of plus-minus 4.8 percentage points.
“These polls go up, they go down,” Mrs. Clinton said.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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