Good news, everyone: when the smalltalk hits a lull today, you'll be able to groan and say, "oh, did you hear the latest thing Trump did?" Because at this point, Trump doing something weird is as regular and predictable as the weather being too hot or too cold or too sunny or too wet. Or, in Trump's case, too rapey.
In truth, Trump only said two words —"and rape"— and yet still those two little words have in the last 12 hours launched a million frantic articles. Trump threw out those words in response to Fox News haircut Sean Hannity, interjecting "and rape" into a list of the Clinton's misdeeds.
Generally, when people talk about Bill's consent violations, they're talking about accusations dating back to his time as Attorney General in the late 1970s. Nothing was ever proven (which of course doesn't mean that the allegations aren't true), but either way, now that Trump's put the word "rape" out there about the Clintons, Republicans everywhere have permission to repeat it over and over and over. In this one context, at least.
Trump's apparently very concerned about how women are treated — but only when he can use it to criticize other women.
"She's married to a man who hurt many women," he said at a rally in Spokane. "Hillary hurt many women, the women that he abused."
The words "and rape" aren't likely to change anyone's mind. If you're a Trump person, you're like "yeah right on," and if you're a decent person you're like "wait, didn't Ivana accuse Trump of rape?"
It doubtful that Trump really even thinks about what rape actually is. Awhile back, Mike Tyson endorsed Trump and Ted Cruz tried to make some noise about Trump earning a rapist's endorsement. Trump's response: "So Cruz is now saying, 'Oh, he was a rapist.' This guy is a real liar. That’s why we call him Lyin' Ted Cruz. I mean, the greatest liar that ever lived, except he gets caught every time."
Mike Tyson is a convicted rapist.
So ugh, another dumb quote from Trump, what else is new? Well, this particular incident illuminates how effectively Trump provides the GOP with talking points. Instantly, upon hearing "and rape," Hannity repeated the words out loud. Echo echo echo echo echo...
And Clinton's campaign isn't exactly doing itself any favors with boring responses like this:
"Trump is doing what he does best, attacking when he feels wounded and dragging the American people through the mud for his own gain. If that's the kind of campaign he wants to run that's his choice. Hillary clinton is running a campaign to be President for all of America. It's not surprising that after a week of still refusing to release his taxes and likening Oakland and Ferguson to the dangers of Iraq, of course he wants to change the subject."
And so on and so on, blah blah blah. This was maybe a good time to bring up everything Hillary's done for women's civil rights, but oh well. There's just not much to say about what Trump said, because Trump didn't say much. Just two words.
But then Sean Hannity repeated them. And that's the pattern we're going to keep seeing: The GOP waits for Trump to say something loathsome, and then once he says it, they have permission to repeat the thing they've been wanting to say... and to do so over and over and over and over.
And me? I'm forced to repeat it in order to critique it.