EDITORIAL: Shame on you Susan

Susan Hutchison

Mouths nationwide were agape on Oct. 7 when a video surfaced of Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump making lewd comments about women, bragging about kissing, groping, and attempting to have sex with women who were not his wife. “When you’re a star, they let you do it,” he said in the recording.

Even Trump’s running mate, Gov. Mike Pence, said, “As a husband and father, I was offended by the words and actions described by Donald Trump in the … video. I do not condone his remarks and cannot defend them.”

And while Washington state Republican Party Chair and former KIRO 7 anchor Susan Hutchison called the comments “indecent” on Twitter, she also stated that at the time the comments were made, Trump was a Democrat.

“He (Trump) was a Democrat at the time and he was channeling Bill Clinton,” Hutchison tweeted. “And the hypocrisy of Hillary Clinton to say this man does not belong in the White House, when her husband defined this behavior, is just absurd.”

Republican or Democrat, “channeling Bill Clinton” or not, how is this okay?

One Facebook user stated it eloquently. “As a woman, how can you say it’s alright to assault women and think it’s no big deal? I used to respect you but never again!”

You can do your job as the Chair of the Washington state Republican party, and stand up for women’s rights. Your blasé dismissal of Trump’s comments made while “he was a Democrat” sets women back.

You are a woman, and not just any woman. You were the face many in western Washington became familiar with and invited into their homes, when you anchored for more than 20 years on KIRO 7. Girls and women in the 1980s and 1990s looked up to you. You ran for King County Executive, and you once had ambitions for a U.S. Senate seat.

This now infamous recording was mentioned several times during the second presidential debate on Oct. 9, with Trump calling it “locker room talk,” which is the same thing as saying, “boys will be boys.”

Too often, comments like “locker room talk” and “boys will be boys” are used to excuse bad behavior.

Boys and men are perfectly capable of respecting other people’s bodies, possessions, and space. But every time phrases like that are uttered, and boys hear that society excuses their bad behavior as part of being a boy, they learn that they are not only above the rules, but also that they cannot control their impulses.

I shudder to think what you taught your two sons, Susan. Shame on you for excusing this very bad behavior.