“I had a sexual harassment policy when I was governor in the '80s,” Clinton declared. “I had two women chiefs of staff when I was governor. Women were overrepresented in the attorney general’s office in the '70s. For their percentage in the bar. I’ve had nothing but women leaders in my office since.”
Clinton didn’t invent his particular brand of self-righteous deflection. Plenty of men in power have tried to use their public-facing record with women as a way to shield their private lives from scrutiny. Former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s propensity to talk about women’s empowerment into a microphone while privately abusing women in his life is so blatantly hypocritical that it almost seemed like a kink. In Clinton’s case, the women he promoted in the AG’s office in the '70s, I’m sure, didn’t volunteer to have their professional lives used in the defense of a man’s behind-closed-doors misogyny. And yet, there they were on Monday morning, the latest variation of human shield for a man who projects power but can’t stand to stomach a simple moment of introspection.
Sometimes it’s women doing the obfuscating. Nancy Pelosi originally defended Rep. John Conyers as an “icon” who had long fought for the rights of the disenfranchised. Conyers’ office had paid tens of thousands of dollars to settle sexual harassment claims. Conyers also stepped down and to this day has not acknowledged or even seemed to understand that doing good work in public doesn’t buy you Sin Bucks to spend in private.
Of course, it’s not just the Democrats who do this. (It’s never just the Democrats.) President Donald Trump’s minions often cite his promotion of women in the Trump organization as a sign that the man can’t possibly be sexism personified. Kellyanne Conway has trotted out her status as the first ever woman to successfully run a presidential campaign, effectively throwing her body between her boss and the 19 women who have accused her boss of sexual misconduct. Sarah Huckabee Sanders clumsily invokes her womanhood in arguments against sexism. Ivanka Trump has used her gender to defend her father from harassment and misconduct allegations. How can Donald Trump be sexist? Some of his best children are women!"
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