Trump: Weiner scandal an example of Clinton's 'bad judgment'
Republican presidential nominee weighs in on Huma Abedin's decision to separate from her husband, Anthony Weiner
The New York Times is so disgusted with Anthony Weiner that it has deployed the Paper of Record's version of the nuclear option: equating him to Donald Trump.
Outside of the fact that both hail from New York, the comparison may seem like a stretch. But following revelations the former Democratic congressman and husband of Hillary Clinton's top aide sexted raunchy selfies as his little boy lay next to him, columnist Frank Bruni sought to smear Trump with scorn earned by Weiner.
The food critic-turned-pundit drew the oddball analogy in an Aug. 30 column titled, "Donald Trump's Irredeemable Twin." Bruni's colleagues in the Old Gray Lady's opinion section also let slip their election stances with such titles as "The Duplicity of Donald Trump," "Donald Trump's Bigotry," and "Pariahs for Donald Trump."
Bruni himself penned a July column titled, “The Citrusy Mystery of Trump’s Hair.” But in the more recent piece, Bruni managed to compare the GOP presidential nominee to serial sexter Weiner and debunk any question that his wife, Huma Abedin, could have possibly shared sensitive information with her spouse.
“Weiner sent strangers pictures of his bulge," Bruni wrote. "Trump assured the viewers of a nationally televised debate that he was amply endowed. These impulses — these boasts — aren’t unrelated.”
"The details are tawdrier in Weiner’s case, and the stakes far smaller," wrote Bruni. "But both men are creatures of potent want and pure compulsion who lucked into forgiving audiences."
If Bruni had fought a bit harder to overcome writer's block, he might have been able to come up with another notable figure, also very close to Hillary Clinton, who shares Weiner's "potent want and pure compulsion."
Even a loyal Times reader and self-descibed anti-Trumper found the tortured twinning a bit too much.
One of the columns commenters criticized Bruni’s piece.
“Trump is a clown, no doubt about that, but Mr. Bruni appears to be besotted with him," wrote one online commenter. "If he wanted to write a scathing column about Donald Trump, there is a ton of material at his fingertips. To equate him with Anthony Weiner, a Democrat, borders on fanaticism. Mr. Bruni, I used to think you were better than this.”
But Bruni does manage to assuage any fears that Trump raised, weeks ago, when he called Weiner a “very sick guy” and a possible danger to national security due to his “close proximity to highly classified information.”
Bruni points out that their marriage has been devolving for a while and Weiner told his sexting partner that he doubted he’d be going with Abedin to D.C. if Clinton was elected. “There probably wasn’t much pillow talk there,” Bruni wrote in dismissing what he no doubt considers another crazy theory from the guy with the citrusy hair.
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