Is the Trump campaign really going to start hitting Hillary Clinton for ignoring her husband's assorted affairs?
If Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Ruteledge's latest interview with MSNBC's Craig Melvin is any indication, the answer is "yes."
During the interview, Melvin tried to get Ruteledge to answer why Donald Trump decided on Tuesday to keep the Alicia Machado story alive by criticizing her for gaining a "massive amount of weight" during an interview on Fox News.
Ruteledge tried to parry this by countering with Hillary Clinton's past efforts to discredit women who had come forward and said they'd had affairs with Bill Clinton. She also noted that longtime Clinton confidant James Carville trashed Clinton accuser Paula Jones by saying that if you "drag a hundred-dollar bill through a trailer park, you never know what you'll find."
Ruteledge then asked why Hillary Clinton didn't do more to stop her husband from having affairs.
"Why, as the wife of the president, would you ignore your husband's indiscretions?" she asked.
At this point, Melvin tried pivoting back to his original question about Trump's judgement in attacking Machado on the day after the debate.
"I do want you to answer the question that I just asked," he said. "As a politician, as someone who's running for President of the United States of America, why talk about a woman's massive weight gain? Why call into a cable news show to do it?"
Ruteledge responded that Trump was asked directly about the Machado story and he was simply answering the question. In reality, however, Fox and Friends asked Trump about whether Hillary Clinton managed to get under his skin at any time during Monday's debate, and Trump then brought up Machado out of the blue.
Melvin then pointed out that Donald Trump -- along with his top surrogates Rudy Giuliani and Newt Gingrich -- are all on their third wives, and thus might not be the best messengers to attack the Clintons' marriage.
Ruteledge again pivoted to Hillary Clinton's attempts to discredit Bill's accusers and said that she "is not a good role model for women."
Melvin then asked her if she believed Donald Trump was a better role model for women -- and at this point, Ruteledge stammered and said that she didn't think that was the case at all.
Check out the whole clip below.
