SAN GABRIEL, Calif. — For months, Hillary Clinton’s supporters eagerly anticipated the arrival of what she called her “secret weapon” — Bill Clinton — to give a boost to her campaign just before the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.

But while the Big Dog’s arrival on the campaign trail was expected to energize white male voters in particular, it has already given Republicans laser focused on attacking Hillary Clinton a second gleaming target — and Donald Trump, in particular, has managed to ensure that the former president did not return to the political spotlight without toting the old baggage of his sexual past.


Stumping in New Hampshire and Iowa, Bill Clinton has now been asked multiple times whether talking about his sexual past is “fair game,” and whether he will comment on Trump’s attacks about his “terrible record of women abuse.” So far, he has avoided taking the bait.

“I don’t have any response,” he said when asked about Trump’s attacks in Iowa on Thursday. “If he wins the Republican nomination, we’ll have plenty of time to talk. … I have no interest in getting involved in their politics or doing anything except trying to help Hillary.”

Bill Clinton also declined to answer a pointed question about Juanita Broaddrick, a woman who in 1999 accused him of raping her — an allegation Clinton denied — who has kept a low profile for more than a decade but in recent weeks has been revisiting her allegations on Twitter and who on Thursday announced she is supporting Trump.

Clinton allies say they are not concerned with the reemergence of Clinton’s old scandals — that baggage, they say, is already baked into the Clinton cake. But some Democrats said they had concerns that the discussion of harassment and rape culture has changed dramatically since the '90s, and that allegations that were once dismissed as “bimbo eruptions” now will be looked at through a new and more critical lens.

It remains to be seen whether the attacks on Bill Clinton will resonate with voters or translate into character questions for his wife. But for now, it has created some dissonant background noise for the Democratic front-runner who largely sidestepped questions about her husband's past in her last presidential campaign. For now, Clinton has coyly avoided responding to any of Trump’s attacks. “I’ve adopted a New Year’s resolution,” she said earlier this week when asked about his jabs at her on the Islamic State. “I’m going to let him live in his alternative reality and I’m not going to respond.”

On Thursday, she did just that, visiting San Gabriel to launch “Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders for Hillary” and to tout a message about fighting for women and families.

Intro speakers reminded the crowd gathered at the Hilton in San Gabriel of her historic speech 1995 speech in Beijing, where Clinton declared that "women's rights are human rights and human rights are women's rights.”

In her remarks, Clinton focused on her work for families. “When I was a senator, I worked to reduce the backlog for family visas and reunite immigrant families,” Clinton said. “I will keep up that fight. Applicants from the Asian-Pacific region make up about 40 percent of the family visa backlog. Some from the Philippines have been waiting for a visa for 23 years.”

Clinton’s brief detour into California from her heavy early state push highlighted the importance of broadening her coalition of supporters that will propel her to a victory in a general election, and an example of the campaign’s methodical reach out — it has now launched Women for Hillary, LGBT for Hillary and Latinos for Hillary, among other targeted voter groups.

And the event served as a reminder of how Clinton has been methodically building her campaign alone for the past 10 months, her husband helping out as a behind-the-scenes strategist, debate prepper and fundraiser. Now that he’s back on the trail, however, he’s creating a separate story line.

“Trump is smart,” said former Clinton adviser Paul Begala, who now has an advisory role on Hillary Clinton’s super PAC, Priorities USA. “He is attacking [Bill Clinton] now so as to inoculate himself with the angry, old, white male GOP base.” Indeed, Clinton scored two electoral victories in the 1990s, based in part on his ability to attract some of the same types of voters that Trump is now animating — and the attacks on Clinton could be seen as an attempt to neutralize Clinton.

But Begala maintains that attacking Clinton’s personal life only backfires with moderates and undecideds, pointing out that “he reached his all-time polling high during impeachment — and Hillary went even higher.” Begala predicted that attacks on Bill Clinton allow Hillary to be the counter puncher, “which she excels at” and will also move undecided women into her camp.

Clinton defender David Brock said he thinks Trump’s attacks are actually about Sen. Ted Cruz’s rise in Iowa. “Trump can’t get to Cruz’s right on the issues, like immigration,” Brock said, “and he needs red meat for the base. Reviving the right wing’s Clinton craziness of the ‘90s is what he thinks will work. So it’s all about GOP primary strategy.”

But Trump and conservative outlets like the Free Beacon and Breitbart have helped to bring figures from Clinton’s past back into the news cycle to raise questions about Clinton’s character. For now, those attempts are filtering into the mainstream. At a White House briefing on Thursday, press secretary Josh Earnest was even asked about Hillary Clinton’s record on women, and defended her commitment to women's equality as "second to none."

Republican operatives said they are will keep trying to make it a main conversation in the race.

Women who have been harassed by Bill Clinton “will be on TV as much as Hillary, because I’m helping,” said Roger Stone, a former adviser to Trump who has written a book, "The Clintons’ War on Women." Stone denied being in touch with Broaddrick or helping her launch her recent media tour. “It’s only January,” he said. “Hillary is not going to be dislodged from the Democratic nomination. Democratic women are the last women you’re going to pry off of her. But younger women who like Hillary, kind of, don’t know this history.”