Lost amid Saturday night’s bombshell news that Donald Trump may have avoided paying federal income taxes for 18 years was a comment he made at his rally that is remarkable for its brazenness.
Appearing in Pennsylvania, Trump openly mocked Hillary Clinton for her bout with pneumonia several weeks prior and then imitated her collapsing as she was helped into her car.
“Here’s a woman, she’s supposed to fight all these different things and she can’t make it 15 feet to her car. Give me a break,” he said at his event in Manheim, mimicking a stumble after he was done.
It is not particularly humane, nor politically common, to make light of an opponent’s health. Usually, when it’s brought up in a campaign context ― if at all ― it is with stealth. For a while, Trump adhered to this standard.
When Clinton famously collapsed at the 9/11 memorial, from what her doctor suggested was an episode of walking pneumonia, Trump stayed quiet. He even wished her well.
But as his campaign has hit a rough patch, he’s dispensed with any such magnanimity. A few days ago in Iowa, he made fun of her for the fall, saying Clinton takes “all those days off” and then “she can’t even make it to her car.”
On Saturday night, he actually acted out his taunting. Even for the most contentious campaigns, this is not normal.
Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly
incites
political violence and is a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-911_565b1950e4b08e945feb7326">style="font-weight: 400;">serial liar, href="http://www.huffingtonpost
.com/entry/9-outrageous-things-donald-trump-has-said-about-latinos_55e483a1e4b0c818f618904b">style="font-weight: 400;">rampant xenophobe,
racist, style="font-weight: 400;">misogynist and href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-stephen-colbert-birther_56022a33e4b00310edf92f7a">birther who has
repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from
entering the U.S.