We live in a golden age of tasteless political merchandise. This is largely thanks to Donald Trump: over the years the president’s official store has flogged everything from hoodies with Joe Biden falling downstairs on them to a T-shirt with a version of the mugshot from his 2023 booking on felony charges (Trump denied wrongdoing).
Trump isn’t the only one. Back in 2019, Senator Mitch McConnell, then Senate majority leader, sold more than 2,000 T-shirts referencing “Cocaine Mitch”. This had nothing to do with his hobbies; it was in response to a nickname given to McConnell by a political rival off the back of a baseless allegation. “One of the things we learned with this whole ‘Cocaine Mitch’ phenomenon is that people are really engaged,” one of the staffers involved in the T-shirt sales said at the time. “They want merchandise.”
That’s certainly what Hillary Clinton’s team seems to think: people want merch, even if it’s linked to a notorious dead child sex offender. Last month both Clintons appeared before a congressional committee to answer questions about their supposed links to Jeffrey Epstein. At one point the testimony was interrupted by her attorney alerting her to a leaked photograph of her at the hearing online, a violation of committee rules. Clinton responded: “If you guys are doing that, I am done,” she said. “You can hold me in contempt from now until the cows come home.” She has since slapped that line on cow-themed hats and shirts. “You asked and we listened,” a Facebook post from Clinton introducing the online store reads.
Who asked for this exactly? Who thought it would be a good idea to capitalise off a case involving a convicted child sex offender? According to the cow merch storefront, all proceeds “will support groups and leaders working to defend our democracy”, but that doesn’t make it much better. Monetising sexual abuse isn’t a good look.
It could be said to be a particularly bad look when you are married to Bill Clinton. The Maga crowd may be trying to unfairly scapegoat the Clintons but, if I were Hillary, I would simply move on from the deposition. I would not draw any more attention to the fact that my husband, who has his own well-documented scandals, figures so prominently in the Epstein files. Bill Clinton denies all wrongdoing, I should note, and hasn’t been accused of anything nefarious, but all the palling around with Epstein is still a bit awkward isn’t it? Forget cows coming home, Hillary Clinton should focus on the elephant in the room.
• Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
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