If Donald Trump hasn’t already amply demonstrated that he is morally unfit to be president, he proved it again on Monday. He used an outrageously crude and vulgar term to describe how Hillary Clinton lost the 2008 Democratic primary to Barack Obama.
At a rally in Grand Rapids, Trump got really crude and really personal in attacking Hillary–even by Trump standards. Watch here.
Trump started out by slamming Hillary for running late in the bathroom at Saturday night’s debate. Indeed, he said it was “too disgusting to talk about.” Well, the Donald must have a funny definition of “disgusting,” because later on he launched an attack on Hillary that any fair-minded person would consider disgusting. It has to be reproduced in full to be believed.
“She was going to beat Obama. I don’t know who’d be worse. I don’t know. How does it get worse? She was favored to win and she got schlonged. She lost. She lost.”
“Schlong” is a Yiddish term for a man’s genitals. The connotation is obvious–Trump was trying to find a replacement for the f-word, and only succeeded in using something that was equally degrading. To give you an idea of just how crude this is, even Fox News bleeped it out. Fox News, people.
Incredibly, some people are trying to give Trump the benefit of the doubt. Harvard University linguist Steven Pinker told The Washington Post that Trump was trying to find a synonym for “defeat.” But given his tendency to use “sloppy language,” Pinker thinks that Trump ended up using “a malaprop.” However, Trump almost certainly knew what he was saying; there are no known alternative definitions of the word.
Moreover, it’s not the first time he used such a crude term. The Post dug up a 2011 interview with Trump in which he claimed the Republicans lost a special election for a House seat in New York because of Paul Ryan’s proposed Medicare overhaul.
“I watched a popular Republican woman [Jane Corwin] not only lose but get schlonged by a Democrat [Kathy Hochul] nobody ever heard of for the congressional seat, and that was because, simply, because of the Paul Ryan plan. That was an attack on Medicare. Now he’s trying to soften it, but whether you like it or not, that was an attack on Medicare.”
The bottom line–Trump was making an ugly, crude, sexist, and degrading attack on Hillary, and he knew it.
Clinton campaign communications director Jennifer Palmieri had this to say on Twitter:
We are not responding to Trump but everyone who understands the humiliation this degrading language inflicts on all women should. #imwithher
— Jennifer Palmieri (@jmpalmieri) December 22, 2015
For all intents and purposes, this is the official response from the Clinton campaign; it was retweeted by Hillary’s press secretary, Brian Fallon–who frequently serves as Hillary’s social media voice.
For his part, Trump has been doubling down on Twitter.
Once again, #MSM is dishonest. "Schlonged" is not vulgar. When I said Hillary got "schlonged" that meant beaten badly.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 23, 2015
For those on TV defending my use of the word "schlonged," bc #MSM is giving it false meaning-tell them it means beaten badly. Dishonest #MSM
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 23, 2015
To my knowledge, the closest thing to a criticism from a Republican comes from Jeb Bush. He told The Guardian that this latest crude remark from Trump proved he was a “chaos candidate.” But Jeb! couldn’t leave well enough alone. He claimed that Hillary would use this to “enhance her victimology status.” Um, since when is speaking out against this kind of behavior a sign that you’re playing the victim?
Jeb!’s reaction, as well as Trump’s original comments, demonstrate everything that is wrong with our political culture. Had this been the UK, Canada, or Australia, Trump would have been forced to publicly apologize to Hillary within 24 hours–while he was withdrawing from the race. What message does it send when someone can make such crude and sexist remarks and even talk about running for president? I knew the GOP standards for acceptable behavior from presidential candidates were absurdly low. After all, even though it is clear beyond any doubt that Chris Christie fostered a culture in his administration that made Bridgegate possible, he was still in the presidential conversation. But this is beyond ridiculous.
Whenever one team in a major league is being run in a rinky-dink fashion, it drags down the value of the entire brand. This is no different. It’s time for Trump to get out.