PBS’ “To The Contrary” Trump vs Clintons, Religious Schools; We Were Feminists Once Host: Bonnie Erbe May 27, 2016 Panelists: Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton; Conservative Commentator Dana White; Independent Women’s Forum Senior Fellow Julie Gunlock; Feminist Activist Erin Matson PLEASE CREDIT ANY QUOTES OR EXCERPTS FROM THIS PBS PROGRAM TO ‘PBS’ TO THE CONTRARY Announcer: Funding for To The Contrary provided by the Oak Foundation, the Colcom Foundation, ​ and the Charles A. Frueauff Foundation Bonnie Erbe: This week on To The Contrary: (SOT) First, the battle of the sexes between Trump and the Clintons. Then, sexual assault on religious campuses. Behind the Headlines: Feminism­ Is it a movement or a brand? [♪♪♪] Erbe:Hello, I’m Bonnie Erbe. Welcome to To the Contrary, a discussion of news and social trends from diverse perspectives. Up first, women and the elections: Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump called a group of women up to the podium at a rally this week to make the point he doesn’t have a woman problem. However, his attacks against New Mexico’s Republican governor Susana Martinez and Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts suggest another story. And Trump aide Paul Manfort told the Huffington Post choosing a minority or a woman for VP would be seen as pandering and therefore not the best move for the candidate. Meanwhile Trump continues to slam Democratic front­runner Hillary Clinton calling her out as an enabler of her husband President Bill Clinton’s infidelity. And on Instagram this week Trump posted a picture of President Clinton smoking a cigar with the voices of two women who had accused him of sexual assault playing in the background Erbe: So Congresswoman Norton will Trump's attacks against the raising of scandals that took place two decades ago, will they work to turn young people against Hillary Clinton, young people who weren’t around back then? Congresswoman Norton: Bonnie, since when can you shame a woman by penning her husband's Infidelities on her? I hope never. Julie Gunlock: Well, I would say that there is some accusations that Hillary helped harm the women that made the accusations, so I think it's perfectly fine for Trump to bring up the accusations. Erin Matson: Trump campaigns dirty to the point you might almost say he is running for bigot in chief and so I’m just going to observe that I’m not surprised three of four women are turned off by him. Dana White: I don’t it’s really going to matter. I think Hillary just has a personal problem with young voters. Erbe: Yeah, but how big is it? I mean in a matchup against him, he has a problem with everybody just about except white males? I should say uneducated white males? White:I think that’s true, but I think that Hillary suffers a greater deficit because she is a woman frankly for her unlikability. I think a male gets away with more and I think that Donald Trump in particular gets away with more because we know who he is and he’s been this person for 25 years. Norton: You know, your notion that somehow it's fair game to attack Hillary because of Bill's infidelities because somehow she enabled women ­­ she not enabled women ­­ but lashed out against women or did something to those women. Before you throw that out again, which is what trump does he throws it out and backs it up with nothing. When you throw it out, seems to me you have an obligation to back it up with what in the world are you talking about. Give me some facts. Erbe: Most of his­­ I don't know how he is doing among millennial voters. One tends to think his support is from white males who are a little older than that. But will, he’s got his own scandal going on. He happens to be married to a woman who posed nude for a major magazine. So is, is that ­­ plus all his infidelities, plus all his divorces. Which is more of a turn off to young people? Gunlock: Well I do think that when you think about when I was in college and Clinton was running and there were a lot of scandals in that administration, and when he was running for president, and the whole you know, did I inhale, I mean that would not be shocking today. I think we have become a harder society to shock. So I don't know that the scandals are really going to make a difference. And certainly think Trump's wife posing naked in a magazine really is that big of a deal. Erbe: You don’t think it is a big deal to have a first lady whose nude pictures are going to be projected all over the world constantly when she’s in the White House? Call me really old­fashioned, but I think that would ­­ forget the candidate ­­ but on that basis alone, I would never vote for a male or female for president. Gunlock: Yes, but I think people are well aware of Trump as a reality star and that he has this glamorous wife and that she was a former model. So as far as shocking voters and swaying them, I don’t think it will make a difference. Matson: Yeah, I mean Melania’s nude photos, that’s no big deal at all. And actually when you think about men getting voted for, I mean Scott Brown went and successfully got elected senator after he posed nude. And he even went so far as to move to try to take office in another state, too. So talk about male entitlement versus the standards that we put on women. So I don’t think that’s a big deal at all. I think that you know, The reality is is that Hillary Clinton is held to much higher standards because she is a woman. That that is not fair and that Donald Trump is deeply sexist and he’s got a lot of problems coming. Erbe: What about his attacks on Elizabeth Warren and Governor Martinez? Is he single­handedly undoing all the progress the Republican party has made with women in the last 20 years? White: I don't know that he’s single­handedly undoing it and I don't know that we have done that well in the last 20 years. Erbe: Well White women. I mean President Bush won white women votes married white women both times that he ran. White: He did. But I don’t think that that’s going to be what saves Trump or not. I think we also have to look at young voters in terms are we talking 18­30 because for me, frankly, reliving '92 and '94 I’m not interested. We’re talking about Vince foster, we’re talking about about investigations and the F.B.I. I mean, I’m tired of it. It feels like Groundhog Day to me. Gunlock: I think we also need to remember that Hillary also has a woman problem. She is also deeply unpopular with women, particularly young women who tend to be going towards Bernie. So you know, I think this is a ­­ Erbe: It’s not deeply unpopular. She’s very popular with 35 plus ­­ Gunlock: She is as unpopular as Donald Trump with women. Erbe: I do not think that is accurate. Gunlock: And I think there is another thing that younger women really oppose and that is the way in which Hillary and some feminists talk to young women. That you have to get behind Hillary, there’s a special place in Hell if you do not support Hillary. This is language that young women don’t like. They don’t like to be, I mean this is sort of the reason for feminism. I am an individual I can make my own decisions. And I think they’re off ended by that kind of language. Erbe: Eleanor talk me through this for a minute. When I talk to Democrats say they say the trump getting ahead in the polls, of Hillary, national polls, means nothing if you look at the electoral map there’s no way he can win. Explain that to me? Is that correct? Norton: Of course they are going off the last two elections. But it is certainly true that the electoral map favors Democrats and it favors Democrats precisely because of social issues and because Republicans frankly have been in power more than Democrats and look at the economy they have to show for it. So It does seem to me that, yeah, if you look at last, last election's electoral college we’re doing great. However, where do the numbers come from? Which leaves them equal in popular vote well if they’re overdone in the south where Republicans are, of course, expected always to win anyway that’s one thing. And I have not seen the analysis one needs to see of where these numbers are to say that Democrats should relax. I don’t think it's time to relax at all. Erbe: Your thoughts? Matson: I strongly agree with that. Donald trump is a Fascist and I think we should take it seriously. I think it was a mistake for example when Huffington Post long ago decided to put him in the entertainment section rather than the politics section. Just because he’s saying outrageous things and dangerous things doesn’t mean that we should poo poo it and say you know there’s no way this country could elect this man.