Donald Trump’s Adultery Argument, Debunked

In the midst of the presidential debate Sunday night, Donald Trump directly brought up the fight he started back in December when he first accused Bill Clinton on Twitter of a "terrible record of women abuse." But the recordings that first leaked Friday — in which he bragged about how being a star meant he could do anything he wants with women — point out the total hypocrisy of Trump's adultery argument against Hillary Clinton.

The New York Times' Nicholas Kristof pointed out why in this tweet, which encapsulates the problems with Trump's adulterer argument against Hillary: "Okaaaay, a serial adulterer who brags about his sexual assaults is needling a woman because her husband cheated on her." And the needling began even before the debate started. Trump held a press conference beforehand in which he invited women that had accused Bill Clinton of sexual assault or harassment to speak as he watched on in silence.

Then in the debate, Anderson Cooper laid out exactly what Trump said he did on the Access Hollywood recording. "You called what you said locker room banter — kissing women without consent, grabbing their genitals. That is sexual assault. You bragged that you have sexually assaulted women," Cooper explained. From there Trump, once again, called what he said "locker room talk" and then tried to change the topic to ISIS.

And from ISIS, he apologized again, and tried to change the topic to Clinton:

If you look at Bill Clinton, far worse, mine are words, his was action. This is what he has done to women. Never been anybody in history of politics in this nation that's been so abusive to women, so you can say any way you want to say it, but Bill Clinton was abusive to women.

Hillary Clinton attacked those same women and attacked them viciously. Four of them here tonight. One of the women who is a wonderful woman at 12 years-old, was raped at 12. Her client, she represented got him off and she's seen laughing at the girl who was raped. She is here with us tonight, so, don't tell me about words. And absolutely, I apologize for those words. But it is things that people say, but what President Clinton did, he was impeached, lost his license to practice law. He had to pay an $850,000 fine. To one of the women. Paula Jones, who's also here tonight.

And I will tell you that when Hillary brings up a point like that and talks about words that I said 11 years ago, I think it's disgraceful and I think she should be ashamed of herself, if you want to know the truth.

At the previous debate, he hinted at bringing up similar arguments but said that he wouldn't as Chelsea Clinton was in the audience. This week, clearly, all bets were off.

Trump might want to stop this attack. Given what he has said, it just doesn't make sense. Even changing the topic to ISIS is a better plan. Because even if he weren't a "serial adulterer," as Kristof calls him, Trump would still be attacking Clinton for her husband's infidelity — not hers. She's running on her own record for the president, not her husband's, and Kristof is right to call him out on this.