Trump: "Fair game" to attack President Clinton if they play woman card

Donald Trump said Tuesday that if Hillary Clinton is going to "play the woman card" then it's "fair game" to attack former President Bill Clinton.

"If she's going to play [the woman card], which she started about a week ago, talking about oh, he mentioned and, you know, the whole thing, playing up the women's card very, very strongly, and if she's going to play that game and if he's going to be out there campaigning, then he's certainly fair game, and I think just about everybody agrees with me on that," Trump said on NBC's "Today Show" by phone.

Trump was asked about a tweet he posted on Monday that said the former president has a "terrible record of abuse."

The GOP presidential frontrunner said there was "certainly a lot of abuse of women" including Monica Lewinsky and Paula Jones.

"Certainly if they play the woman's card with respect to me, that will be fair game," Trump said about President Clinton.

Trump said he likes the fact that the former president will be campaigning for his wife, but he also thinks the former president "failed really badly" while he campaigned for Clinton when she ran in 2008.

The former president is scheduled to hit the campaign trail for his wife next week in New Hampshire.

Trump was also asked about a 2008 interview on CNN in which he called the effort to impeach Clinton nonsense and totally unimportant. He dodged the question though and said he had to get along with people from across the political spectrum as a "world-class business man."

His comments about the Clintons began after Hillary Clinton said in an interview with the Des Moines Register last week that Trump's "schl****d" comment was "not the first time he's demonstrated a penchant for sexism."

Trump brought up the Lewinsky scandal on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday and has tweeted several other times about the Clintons.

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• Donald Trump

Rebecca Shabad

Rebecca Shabad is a video reporter for CBS News Digital.