Hillary Clinton an 'enabler' of Bill's infidelity, says Trump

"Hillary hurt many women - the women that he abused," the Republican told a rally in Spokane, Washington late Saturday

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump has launched a bitter broadside against Hillary Clinton depicting her as an "enabler" of Bill Clinton's past infidelities - the latest nasty and deeply personal turn in the US presidential campaign.

Trump, who has all but locked up the Republican nomination, made the bizarre allegation while on the stump this weekend in an apparent bid to undercut his Democratic rival's appeal to women voters.

"Hillary hurt many women - the women that he abused," Trump told a rally in Spokane, Washington late Saturday - reiterating past criticism of Clinton over her handling of the former president's affairs.

"And just remember this, she was an unbelievably nasty, mean enabler, and what she did to a lot of those women is disgraceful."



"Some of those women were destroyed not by him, but by the way that Hillary Clinton treated them after everything went down," he said.

The likely Republican nominee charged that Bill Clinton had "abused women more than any man that we know of in the history of politics."

"Bill Clinton was the worst in history, and I have to listen to her talking about it?" he thundered.

Trump has accused Clinton, the likely Democratic candidate in November's presidential election, of using her gender to her political advantage - playing the "woman's card" - and says she would not be seen as a qualified candidate if not for her sex.

The latest attack seemed designed to inoculate Trump against anticipated accusations of misogyny from the Clinton camp.

On and off the campaign trail, the tycoon has used crass and abusive language - "bimbo," "dog," and other epithets - to denigrate women he doesn't like.

The twice-divorced billionaire, who was celebrated for decades as one of New York's most sought-after bachelors, has also admitted to cheating on his first wife with the woman who became his second.

Clinton signaled in an interview broadcast on Sunday that attacks against Trump over his stance on women will definitely be part of her campaign battle plan.



"When he says, 'women should be punished for having abortions,' what does that mean? And how would he go about that?" the former first lady said on the "Face the Nation" programme, referencing comments made by Trump earlier in the primary.

But she also vowed to not to engage in the sort of mudslinging that helped her Republican rival vanquish his challengers for the nomination.

"I'm not going to run an ugly race. I am going to run a race based on issues. And what my agenda is to the American people," Clinton said.

"I don't really feel like I'm running against Donald Trump. I feel like I'm running for my vision of what our country can be, and to knock down all the barriers that stand in the way of Americans getting ahead," she said.