On Bill Press's radio and Free Speech TV show on Monday, D.C. nonvoting congressional representative Eleanor Holmes Norton proved that Michelle Obama's recent admonition that "when they go low we stay high" is something the left pretends to advocate in theory but almost never follows in practice.
Moments after quoting Ms. Obama, Ms. Norton, who no one will mistake for a supermodel, began making insulting, derogatory comments about the appearance of women present at the second presidential debate who have accused Bill Clinton of sexually predatory behavior ranging from harassment to rape (and, by inference, the fourth, Kathy Shelton, whose child rapist escaped serious punishment with Hillary Clinton, who laughed about the result, as his legal counsel) — and went there twice. Bill Press and his compadre, former Politico reporter Jonathan Allen, let Norton's insults go without comment.
Unlike ABC's George Stephanopoulos, who as Kristine Marsh at NewsBusters noted on Wednesday, went after Donald Trump spokesperson Kellyanne Conway over certain Trump ads showing Hillary Clinton in less than perfect health (do you really believe Mrs. Clinton is in perfect health, George?), Press and his on-air partner just let far-lefty Norton's mean-spirited, classless shots slide right on by.
Readers need to watch the video to grasp the full degree of Norton's contempt for "these women":
Transcript:
ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON: Whoever were these women? I almost feel sorry for them. These were these middle-aged looking women, who were apparently young women, who Bill Clinton hit on that they had a press conference with before the debate? Does, does anyone that appeals to the women he (Trump) does not have, which is most women?
I can't even understand what the strategy was.
BILL PRESS: Um, yeah, what was that strategy, John? I mean, we talked earlier about Kellyanne Conway, the campaign manager. This was not her strategy.
JONATHAN ALLEN: No definitely not, although —
PRESS: I would think.
ALLEN: Well, I think Kellyanne doesn't like the Clintons. And I think she doesn't like Bill Clinton, and I think that she's offended by a lot of what went on in the 1990s.
NORTON: She's also a political strategist. Now you bring in a bunch of women, uh, not looking their best — perhaps looking much better, y'know, 40 years ago — uh, to present them before the debate, for what purpose?
How does that — and by the way, he, he didn't go at Hillary Clinton for somehow going after this women, which is about the only thing you could have done.
But you can't hold these women against — Bill Clinton's women — against her -
PRESS: But they tried to.
NORTON: - and the rap on her is that somehow she went after them, but he didn't dare bring that up.
Wow. So much garbage to unpack in so little time.
First, these are not women Bill Clinton merely "hit on." These are women who allege — with lots of evidence — sexually predatory behavior on his part ranging from harassment to rape between 23 and 38 years ago. In Paula Jones's case, Bill Clinton perjured himself and obstructed justice, two serious matters which led the House of Representatives to draw up articles of impeachment, and to impeach him on two of four counts.
Second, Eleanor Holmes Norton is probably not as naive as she pretended to be with Press. She likely knows darn well "for what purpose" Trump led the media into a room where the three Bill Clinton victims and Kathy Shelton, the 1970s child-rape victim and object of Hillary Clinton's ridicule in a taped mid-1980s interview, could speak.
The press was absolutely furious at Trump for leading them into a situation where they were forced to recognize that these women exist, and that they have compelling stories to tell. Trump's move thus gave Americans a chance to hear at least parts of their stories, and broadened the upcoming debate agenda beyond what he said in locker-room talk 11 years ago. The betting here is that Eleanor Holmes Norton knows darned well what Donald Trump did and is mad as a hornet about it — but she'll never have the integrity to publicly admit it.
Finally, Trump didn't have to "dare bring up" how Hillary Clinton "went after them," because the women did that before the debate, in their own words — and they have every right, based on what they allege, to hold Mrs. Clinton's indifference, hostility and intimidation against her.
The women demonstrated what Norton won't admit, that Hillary Clinton's conduct over several decades enabled her sexually predatory husband to engage in his abusive, criminal behavior. It's not even worth asking whether so-called feminist groups will express outrage over Norton's remarks. They won't.
We don't have to ask whether Norton believes in following Michelle Obama's suggestion. It's obvious by her statements that she doesn't.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
