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[Escape Goat]

The main points:

First, there’s the simple truth that this line of attack doesn’t poll well. A little over a week ago, Politico asked voters whether it would be appropriate or inappropriate for Trump to bring up Bill Clinton’s affairs and “allegations that Hillary Clinton tried to silence women who accused her husband of infidelity or sexual misconduct,” only 33 percent said this would be appropriate, and 56 percent said it would be inappropriate.

Second, it is really difficult to strike a balance between appearing contrite and going on the attack as Trump appears to want to do. The story since Friday has been about Donald Trump’s conduct. So if he tries to change the subject, it will be interpreted as him trying to change the subject. His video apology statement was hammered for just this reason — the apology just seems less sincere when you throw in “Bill Clinton is worse.” Either the apology or the attack is going to come off as weak.

Third, there’s the question of just what Hillary Clinton will say in response — she’s deliberately said nothing about the leaked tape so far. That’s because, according to a report by Politico’s Annie Karni, her team wants to maximize the impact of her first response by having it take place live on the debate stage, in front of an audience of tens of millions of people.

Fourth, the leaked Trump tape is already out there, voters are widely aware of it, and what it portrays is indisputable. So Hillary Clinton can afford to use a lighter and more subtle touch in discussing it, if she feels that’s the best option. But if Trump truly wants to portray Hillary Clinton as “an enabler of sexual violence,” he is going to have to be the one to do it — all those ugly and disputed allegations are going to have to come out of Donald Trump’s mouth onstage.

Fifth, the optics of Trump aggressively confronting Clinton might be quite bad. Her best moments in past political debates have often come when arrogant male opponents have aggressively overplayed their hands, and Trump has already been hammered for interrupting her too many times in the first debate.

Sixth, there’s the fact that this debate takes place in a town hall setting. The room will be full of undecided voters who will ask pre-selected questions, and most will likely focus on more traditional policy issues. How does Trump press a sexual misconduct-focused case against Bill and Hillary Clinton in an environment when the questioners will likely want to talk about other things? It’s much easier to ignore the question and completely change the subject when it’s a moderator talking rather than a flesh-and-blood voter.

And finally, Trump’s mental state does not seem to be the greatest at this moment. The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman writes that he is “increasingly isolated and upset.” And he couldn’t manage to seriously commit himself to debate prep even before his campaign entered this recent tailspin, after all.

Theres a reason why politicians have been reluctant to attack Hillary on this largely its because people don't like it when you attack the wife for the sins of the husband. If Trump decides to go this route its probably because hes all but given up and hes going to throw everything out there in an attempt to make things messy for Hillary.

I think point #6 is going to hold especially true. Trump is not skilled at debate. He doesn't have the skill to navigate from an unrelated topic into sexual misconduct so he'll simply have to ignore the question completely as hes often done before.

 

[Crayon]

These allegations have been repeated relentlessly on american am radio daily for a whole generation. I doubt Trump yelling it will have a lot of punch considering our current events.

 

[Escape Goat]

These allegations have been repeated relentlessly on american am radio daily for a whole generation. I doubt Trump yelling it will have a lot of punch considering our current events.

I don't think its intended to be news to anyone, but to mitigate the impact of Trump's behavior. Both sides are the same and all that.

 

[V_Arnold]

Most importantly, Hillary is her own master. Which means, Trump saying "Bill is worse" is literally meaningless. Do you see Bill on stage, Trump? He is not the puppet master here, so what do you think this will achieve?

 

[Sydle]

There's no question if it will go wrong. He doesn't have the finesse to handle it and he will only make things worse for himself.

 

[Amir0x]

Most importantly, Hillary is her own master. Which means, Trump saying "Bill is worse" is literally meaningless. Do you see Bill on stage, Trump? He is not the puppet master here, so what do you think this will achieve?

I think his line of attack is going to be more of the "you enabled Bill" variety suggesting she attacked and insulted the women who accused Bill. Still wont work, but that is how he intends to make it about her.

 

[fluffydelusions]

I think everyone is hoping it all goes wrong

 

[gofreak]

That base message - I'm no worse than Bill Clinton - is indeed incredibly prone to backfire, at least among more moderate republicans. I mean Clinton was vilified for the kind of behaviour Trump would effectively be 'me-too-ing '.

Never mind that he's dealing with the wronged wife here.

 

[Vicetrailia]

It will be easy for trump to go off tangent and bring up Bill Clinton during the debate.

However, he'll look really bad doing it. There's no way to be smooth about it and come out on top because the nature of the message doesn't work.

 

[Jeffrey]

no matter what trump's attack will be, he will bungle the execution and just ramble.

Make sure to watch the body reactions of the town hall audience.

 

[funkystudent]

It seems like a topic Hillary and her team has probably been waiting for someone to bring up and has probably spent years working on the counter to.

Its one thing to push those stories in ads and at rallies but doing it to her face seems like setting yourself up for a counter attack. Also REALLY doesn't help Trump has been telegraphing that he will go there since the last debate.


One might even think these recent attacks on Trumps past have been a attempt to bait him into bringing up Bills past as well. No way camp Hillary didnt expect that.

 

[adj_noun]

The room will be full of undecided voters

This oughta be good.

 

[gofreak]

I think his line of attack is going to be more of the "you enabled Bill" variety suggesting she attacked and insulted the women who accused Bill. Still wont work, but that is how he intends to make it about her.

Yeah, but this is still so risky for him.

'Like your wife who seeks to protect you and your family, in that difficult time my primary thought was my daughter. What was Donald thinking of when he was grabbing pussy?'

This is desperation mode stuff from Trump, on the chance that Hillary will be wrong-footed. I can't imagine Hillary isn't well drilled to deal with it effectively though... He's telegraphed this for weeks now.

 

[Modest Mauser]

I wonder if maybe Hillary doesn't even try to address the tape. It speaks for itself and then she will probably come across better answering the audience's questions while Trump keeps trying to steer his responses into attacks on Bill.

I don't think that attack will work at all. This election has gotten so nasty and I think people are tired of it, Trump would do so much better pressing her on the Wikileaks stuff this week for example.

 

[TwoDurans]

How is going after her for her husband's affairs anything but victimshaming?

 

[psynergylover]

Should change the "could" to "will"

 

[Already Torn]

I wonder if Hillary's camp could pay off someone to go off script and get Trump talking about it somehow. Like their question was supposed to be about the economy, but they go live with "Mr. Trump, don't you think the media scrutiny you received has been unfair when Bill Clinton is so much worse?"

 

[Platy]

Atacking Bill's sex scandal would only make people remember that if Hillary gets elected she will not only be the first women president in the USA, but the first time an USA president had sex with another USA president

 

[epmode]

The room will be full of undecided voters

HOW

Who are these people?

 

[Escape Goat]

she will not only be the first women president in the USA, but the first time an USA president had sex with another USA president

That we know of...

 

[Stumpokapow]

The thing about it is that the average American understands the substance of the allegations to be "Bill Clinton cheated on his wife (primarily with Monica Lewinsky)". Beating up a spouse for being the victim of her husband's infidelity has no traction at all.

Where the story has some potential to do damage is the extent to which the story can be framed as Bill Clinton as sexual predator. Even if you discount Juanita Broaddrick / rape angle, Jones and Willey are somewhat more persuasive and their allegations are closer to the sort of sexual harassment being discussed here. Society's reaction to men exploiting positions of power because they feel entitled to sex has changed a lot in 20 years and re-evaluation of a lot of "womanizing" behaviour from earlier decades through today's norms would cross the line into predatory, reputation-ruining stuff. But even if you could make it stick, I think it'd be a big uphill climb to tie Hillary to the story. She has the near-invincible defence to characterize it again as infidelity and write off any statements she had defending her husband as part of her own grief process.

Also, if like me you think most of the reason the Trump story has caught on this week is because he's losing badly and Republican elites want to strategically defect, then there's no parallel for the Clinton campaign.

 

[CHC]

I'm trying to think of even one way that it could go right. But he will do it, there is no doubt. He's moving towards his final form, with all the directionless fury and accusations that come with it.

 

[mstevens]

Atacking Bill's sex scandal would only make people remember that if Hillary gets elected she will not only be the first women president in the USA, but the first time an USA president had sex with another USA president

As far as we know.....

 

[Biske]

Seems incredibly obvious to me how its a bad idea.

When your campaign is a dumpster fire because of sex stories, its not a great idea to bring up more sex stories.

 

[GhaleonEB]

All Hillary needs to do is talk about how hard it was to deal with Bill's infidelity, how it strained her marriage, and how she came to find forgiveness, rekindle their love, and move on. They've been married over 40 years now. And point out that Trump is in no position to criticize anyone for not being faithful. People will empathize a woman whose husband cheated on her, and who was able to repair a long lasting marriage.

This will blow up in his face so hard.

 

[timetokill]

I don't think attacking Bill is helpful. On a strategic level he needs to focus on Hillary attacking and silencing Bill's victims for political gain.

 

[RPGCrazied]

You know he is going to. He can't help himself. He is going to attack Hillary about Bill. Its inevitable. I mean, he basically lost all GOP elite support the last day or so. He has nothing to lose. Expect him to get extra nasty tonight.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

It's the worst thing he could possibly do. AT this point the only people it would get him support from are already on his side, and it would turn those against him even further against him, and humanize Hillary and energize her base (which were really Hillary's only two issues going into this election). Of course despite all of this, Trump will still do it because he's a fucking idiot.

 

[mnz]

HOW

Who are these people?

There just hasn't been enough coverage of both candidates, you know?

 

[Protein]

HOW

Who are these people?

Probably a mixture of 'both sides' dummies and people that are usually apathetic to politics.

 

[Nokagi]

All Hillary needs to do is talk about how hard it was to deal with Bill's infidelity, how it strained her marriage, and how she came to find forgiveness, rekindle their love, and move on. They've been married over 40 years now. And point out that Trump is in no position to criticize anyone for not being faithful. People will empathize a woman whose husband cheated on her, and who was able to repair a long lasting marriage.

This will blow up in his face so hard.

Yeah I really hope this is the route she takes if he brings it up.

 

[Meowster]

Hillary was a victim so it would look very bad to attack her on this.

 

[Kinyou]

How is going after her for her husband's affairs anything but victimshaming?

I believe the accusation is that she silenced a woman who accused Bill Clinton of raping her. However Tump bringing up Bill's rape accusation would be pretty foolish considering Trump was also accused of being a rapist.

 

[metalslimer]

I don't think attacking Bill is helpful. On a strategic level he needs to focus on Hillary attacking and silencing Bill's victims for political gain.

Except doing this in a town hall debate just comes across as horrible. Clinton will come out strong against the pussy tape, but she won't linger on it. If Trump tries to linger on Her and Bill from the 90s it will go so badly.

Also if we're getting into potential rape accusations there is no way Trump can win when he has multiple rape and sexual assault allegations

 

[Y2Kev]

I'm not sure how Hillary responds to accusations that she's an enabler. There's a lot of stuff out there in the ether and while the issue has been litigated in public view over the last 30 years, it's new to a lot of the Democratic base and has the potential to be very demoralizing and demotivating. Attitudes about sexual violence and sexual assault are a lot different now.

I think she doesn't go beyond saying her humiliation was public and heart-wrenching, how she forgave Bill and how they are closer than ever, and that she would appreciate if people could understand that her grief period, which was incredibly visible and challenging for her, changed her and reinforced her position as a someone who wanted to champion the rights of women for the rest of her career.

I don't think I address the "you tried to silence the accusers" accusations head on.

 

[brandonh83]

If Trump showed up, laid out solid plans and argued them effectively against Hillary's plans while apologizing for all of this stuff, it would absolutely blow minds.

Buuuuut yeeaahhhhh

 

[johnsmith]

Trump's brought this up since May and it did nothing. He's desperate and this is the best he can come up with. He's done.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/19/u...-clinton.html?referer=https://www.google.com/

 

[Alex_Mexico]

The man with three wives and very public infidelities is going to attack a woman for her husband's sins?

I'd like to see him try!

 

[mnz]

He's been tweeting stuff like this today:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/785167148150820864
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/785106800572063744

Since apparently some in here think this would be about Lewinski. That's not what I'm expecting.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

He's been tweeting stuff like this today:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/785167148150820864
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/785106800572063744

Since apparently some in here think this would be about Lewinski. That's not what I'm expecting.

I have zero faith in Donald Trump being able to bring this up in a debate in a way that doesn't make him look like a goddamn moron.

 

[Slayven]

No one thinks this is a good idea except Trump( Predator), Bannon(Abuser), and Alies( Harasser), see a pattern?

 

[hammysaurusrex]

There's a vastly important difference between Trump and Bill. Bill was undeniably a philanderer, but there's no convincing evidence his sexual exploits and misadventures guided his fundamental view of women in a political sense. In contrast, Trump has anchored himself mostly to standardized GOP anti-women policies and agenda, so it's more problematic to unravel his sexism from how he would actually govern over women. For this reason, it's much easier for voters to compartmentalize Bill's deeds as a personal failure, whereas for Trump it serves as more evidence of his incompetence to see women as human beings who should have protection under the law.

 

[Stumpokapow]

I'm not sure how Hillary responds to accusations that she's an enabler. There's a lot of stuff out there in the ether and while the issue has been litigated in public view over the last 30 years, it's new to a lot of the Democratic base and has the potential to be very demoralizing and demotivating. Attitudes about sexual violence and sexual assault are a lot different now.

I think she doesn't go beyond saying her humiliation was public and heart-wrenching, how she forgave Bill and how they are closer than ever, and that she would appreciate if people could understand that her grief period, which was incredibly visible and challenging for her, changed her and reinforced her position as a someone who wanted to champion the rights of women for the rest of her career.

I don't think I address the "you tried to silence the accusers" accusations head on.

I agree, but maybe not about the "it changed my views on issues" -- she's portrayed herself as someone interested in civil rights and women's rights from the beginning ("Women's Rights are Human Rights" might actually be the single most famous feminist claim ever, and that's pre-Lewinsky Hillary.)

But I agree both with your first paragraph and your second. If Bill was running in 2016, this would be much much much worse than it was for him in the 1990s. The world has changed a lot and people don't get takebacks of stuff they did under the old rules.

 

[Derwind]

I don't think there is a single thing Trump can do that'll be good for him.

This is his best hail Mary move that he has to try and shift the narrative to Bill Clinton's affairs, however, how will that apply to Hillary who was technically the victim in this.

And if he chooses to not go on the offensive (the figurative hole he dug & entrenched himself), the narrative from this weekend will continue on.

It's beautiful to note that his reality TV personal style of campaigning has come right our to bite him in the butt. He was the maker of his own undoing.

 

[Squire]

I think everyone is hoping it all goes wrong

He's an idiot that can barely form complete, coherent sentences.

It's going to go very wrong.

 

[Jombie]

The only people who this shit matters to are his stupid, sycophant supporters. Everything that has or could be said about Bill, Hillary and their marriage was exhausted 20 years ago. Couple that with the fact that it's completely hypocritical to even bring up for obvious reasons.

'Yeah, Bill could be a piece of shit, but he never called Chelsea a "piece of ass."

I'm so ready for this shit to be over with. November can't get here soon enough.

 

[Y2Kev]

I agree, but maybe not about the "it changed my views on issues" -- she's portrayed herself as someone interested in civil rights and women's rights from the beginning ("Women's Rights are Human Rights" might actually be the single most famous feminist claim ever, and that's pre-Lewinsky Hillary.)

But I agree both with your first paragraph and your second. If Bill was running in 2016, this would be much much much worse than it was for him in the 1990s. The world has changed a lot and people don't get takebacks of stuff they did under the old rules.

Yeah, that's fair. Maybe enhanced her ability to empathize with women going through what she went through.

 

[Jeffrey]

The thing is any controversy with the clinton family is quite complicated and no one believ es trump can articulate them into something that people can understand within the 2min or less time he's allocated.

His speech pattern of repeating the same lines really does hurt him on that aspect lol

 

[Magnet_Man]

HOW

Who are these people?

Maybe Trump is pandering to a certain audience and would not actually carry these ideals with him to the presidential election.

 

[VendettaRed07]

If Trump showed up, laid out solid plans and argued them effectively against Hillary's plans while apologizing for all of this stuff, it would absolutely blow minds.

Buuuuut yeeaahhhhh

I don't think it would honestly. People are going to hammer him on it tonight and just saying "whoops" or "lets talk about the economy" isn't going to be good enough.

I think he believes deflecting is his only option. It's a terrible idea to go here but it was a terrible idea to do and say pretty much everything else he has said and done. He's basically going to throw a hail mary because he can't just ignore the tape that is out on him. It's completely indefensible and his only option really is to broach the subject and hope that Hillary gaffes and gives a really terrible answer in order to take pressure off of himself.