Trump’s “Women’s Card” Attack Against Hillary Clinton Comes From Right-Wing Media’s Playbook

After Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump swept five states in the April 26 primary​ elections, he attacked Democratic presidential front-​runner Hillary Clinton for playing the “women’s card” and suggested she wouldn’t be winning if she “were a man.” Trump’s attack follows right-wing media's long history of criticizing Clinton’s “gender card.”    

Trump Accuses Clinton Of Playing The “Women’s Card"

Trump Claims “The Only Card” Clinton Has “Is The Women’s Card.” After Donald Trump swept the April 26 primary elections, he attacked Hillary Clinton and claimed she wouldn’t “get 5%of the vote” if she wasn’t a woman":

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on Tuesday declared their own war over women.

The Democratic and Republican presidential front-runners signaled a heated general election clash over gender after they both swept much closer to closing out their nominations.

[...]

“I think the only card she has is the women's card,” Trump said a short while later in New York. “She has got nothing else going. Frankly, if Hillary Clinton were a man, I don't think she would get 5% of the vote. And the beautiful thing is, women don't like her.”

Trump continued the attack Wednesday on CNN.

“She is a woman,” he told Chris Cuomo on “New Day.” “She is playing the woman card left and right. She didn't play it last time with Obama. But she's playing it much harder this time and she will be called on it,” he said. “If she were a man and she was the way she is, she would get virtually no votes.” [CNN.com, 4/27/16]

Trump's “Women’s Card” Talking Point Is A Right-Wing Media Favorite

Fox's Kilmeade: Clinton Is “Play[ing] The Victim Card” To Court Female Voters. During the September 10 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, co-host Brian Kilmeade said women voting for Clinton “just because she’s a woman” will get her into the White House, claiming Clinton is "play[ing] the victim card”:

STEVE DOOCY: It's interesting because a couple of days ago when she did tape the show with Ellen, and she was talking about the email server problem because it is pretty much illegal, the way she did it. She said, this is Hillary speaking, it's just a reality that women are held to a higher, different, double standard. So is she blaming her secret server problem on the fact that she is a woman? And that's why she is held to a higher standard? Or is it really the problem that she broke the rules, destroyed public records, and she had that hackable server?

BRIAN KILMEADE: Let me give you a hint. She's underwater with women and her approval rating right now. And the thing that's going to get her in the White House or not get her into the White House is for her ability to get women to vote for her just because she's a woman. So therefore, if you play the victim card, then suddenly the gender might run to you. [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 9/10/15]

Washington Free Beacon: Hillary Clinton Plans To Play "Gender Card" “Early And Often.” In a July 21, 2015 blog post, The Washington Free Beacon’s digital managing editor Andrew Stiles claimed the Clinton campaign has been “excruciatingly opaque” on policy issues, but “completely forthcoming” on the “gender card,” adding that “she intends to play it early and often.” [The Washington Free Beacon, 7/21/15]

New York Post: “Playing The Gender Card Is Nothing New For Hillary.” In an October 10 column, the New York Post’s Kyle Smith claimed Clinton’s campaign is about “saying ‘Did you realize I’m a woman?’” Smith went on to claim “playing the gender card is nothing new” for Clinton:

Hillary Clinton has flip-flopped on free trade, changed her policy on Iraq, renounced key laws signed by her husband and proved unwilling or unable to handle the 3 a.m. phone calls from Benghazi.

Her two signature achievements — HillaryCare, later reborn as ObamaCare, and her management of the State Department — both look like dismal failures.

There is only one attribute left that she can’t bungle, switch sides on or turn into a scandal: having double-X chromosomes. So that’s now what her campaign is about. “Hey, America,” Hillary is saying. “Did you realize I’m a woman?”

[...]

Contrary to received opinion, playing the gender card is nothing new for Hillary. [New York Post, 10/10/15]

Fox’s Andrea Tantaros: Clinton’s Whole Narrative Is, “I’m A Woman, Vote For Me.” On the July 29 edition of Fox News’ Outnumbered, co-host Andrea Tantaros slammed Clinton for “buil[ding] a career on being a permanent victim.” Tantaros claimed the Clinton campaign’s narrative is “vote for me, I use the same restroom as you”:

ANDREA TANTAROS (CO-HOST): Well, I think that she’s built a career on being a permanent victim.I mean,she’s a professional victim. But I do agree with a double standard existing for women, I do. Because women are criticized on their looks, if they look tired, if they have a bad outfit on. Remember she hadtoo much cleavage—

[CROSSTALK]

JULIE ROGINSKY (CO-HOST): Yeah, the cankles,the whole thing, yeah.

TANTAROS: So she does get attacked, I do think that exists. But what I don’t understand is why Hillary Clinton doesn’t act a little more like Sandra Smith. And I know that she does it to try and draw attention to the fact that she’s a woman. So Julie, I think that’s the only way she thinks she’s going to win, is be the victim and get women out to vote. Because that’s her whole narrative right? ‘I’m a woman, vote for me, I use the same restroom as you do.’ [Fox News, Outnumbered, 7/29/15]

RedState: “No One … Has Cultivated Their Victimhood More Than Hillary Clinton.” In a March 8 post, RedState slammed Clinton for using the “he was mean to a girl” card against Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and “immediately scream[ing] sexism” when someone challenges her:

There is no one in American public life, other than Barack Obama, that has cultivated their victimhood more than Hillary Clinton. That is her response to everything. Whether it is blaming a Vast Right Wing Conspiracy for Bill Clinton flinging bodily fluids on White House staff or calling out her legions of flying monkeys and harpies to flog the hapless Rick Lazio, Hillary Clinton has relied upon the cult of victimhood for protection. Quite honestly, the only reason Clinton lost the nomination in 2008 was because she could not come up with a scenario where a wealthy, privileged, white, female kleptocrat was more oppressed than a privileged half-black Marxist.

[...]

What Clinton and her followers do is demand that they have it both ways. She wants to be treated as superior to men in every encounter and when anyone has the temerity to challenge her honesty, competence, ideas, or even her lack of good breeding she immediately screams sexism. I think Clinton trotting this crap out in the Democrat primary is going to go a long way towards depriving her of the same tool should she win the Democrat nomination. [RedState, 3/8/16]

The Washington Times: Hillary Clinton Throws Her “Gender Card At Media.” In an April 4, 2014 article, The Washington Time’s Cheryl K. Chumley accused Clinton of throwing her “gender card” at the media and “complaining” about a double standard in coverage of women:

Former first lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton complained that the media has a “double standard” for women, on the one hand running them through the mill of public service and on the other, pressing them to bounce back in the face of all types of adversity.

She said, while serving as a panelist for the Women in the World Summit in New York: “There is a double standard, obviously. We have all experienced it or at the very least seen it. … The double standard is alive and well, and I think in many respects, the media is the principal propagator of its persistence,” Politico reported.

She also said that the media should take steps to curtail its bias against women, Newsmax reported. [The Washington Times, 4/4/14]