Melania Trump's sit-down with Anderson Cooper was the most hypocritical interview of 2016

Impact

Donald Trump and his cast of campaign surrogates have attempted to vilify Hillary Clinton for the way she handled her husband's infidelities and alleged sexual assault decades ago.

They have called her an enabler of former President Bill Clinton's infidelities, and said she viciously attacked the women he cheated with, as well as the women who have come forward to accuse him of assault. They even paraded his accusers out before the second presidential debate to make that case.

Yet on Monday, Trump's own wife did exactly what Trump and his surrogates have tried to crucify Hillary Clinton for: She called the now 11 women who have come forward to accuse Trump of assault liars in a sit-down interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper.

"This was all organized from the opposition and with the details that they go — did they ever — did they ever check the background of these women? They don't have any facts," Melania Trump told Cooper of the women who have accused her husband of groping or kissing them without consent.

She said the media unfairly and incorrectly questioned her immigration status after a nude photo shoot she did in the 1990s resurfaced, raising questions about whether she had the proper permissions to live and work in the United States at the time the pictures were taken.

"And suddenly becomes, I'm here illegally, I was married before," Trump said. "I said, like, yes, find me the husband that I was married before my husband. So, there were a lot of, you know, a lot of dishonest stuff, and that surprised me that they would not check the facts and that reporters will just write."

Yet while she complained about the media questioning her immigration status, she failed to leave out her husband's yearslong quest to prove President Barack Obama was not a U.S. citizen, a meritless claim that Trump continued to push even after Obama released his birth certificate. 

Melania Trump also blamed the "left-wing media" for releasing the 2005 tape of her husband bragging about grabbing women "by the pussy" and kissing them without consent. 

"It was left wing and, left-wing media," she told Cooper. "And you could see that and the way it comes out is everything was organized. Every Friday, every Friday, something comes out.  So, they play, they play, they play. And it was hour after hour. I watched TV, was hour after hour bashing him because they want to influence the American people how to vote."

It's a similar line to the one Hillary Clinton has used, blaming the "vast right-wing conspiracy" she says has tried to take her and her husband down over the years.

To be sure, Donald Trump set his wife up for this hypocritical line of attack.

Not only did he leave her to do the interview alone, he's called his accusers liars and fame-seekers, and suggested they were too ugly for him to want to assault.

Still, it doesn't excuse the fact that Melania Trump did exactly what her husband has attacked Hillary Clinton for. 

And even bigger of a problem for the Trump's is that 68% of voters believe Trump has made "unwanted sexual advances on women."

So far, it's unclear whether Melania's interview will change voters' perceptions of her husband and his treatment of women — but the hypocrisy is crystal clear.