In an attempt to take some of the heat off his own disgusting remarks that surfaced just two days before, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump appallingly held a press conference just 90 minutes before Sunday night’s debate with three women who have made accusations against Bill Clinton in the past: Paula Jones, Juanita Broaddrick, and Kathleen Willey. Also present was Kathy Shelton, whose accused rapist was defended in court by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. If the goal was to rattle his opponent it clearly worked, as Hillary Clinton appeared to look furious at the start of the debate; the two neglecting the traditional handshake between candidates. The women were later seated prominently in the audience, where they were spotted on camera throughout the debate.
But had Trump gotten his way, it would have been much, much, much worse. According to the Washington Post, the original plan was to go full on Jerry Springer Show by seating the four women in the Trump family’s seating area, to come out and surprise Bill Clinton just minutes before the debate was to start.
Thankfully the plan, conceived by Trump’s campaign chief executive Stephen K. Bannon and son-in-law Jared Kushner, was blocked at the last minute by officials with the Commission on Presidential Debates, who warned that the women would be forcibly removed by security should they try to go through with the plan.
“We were going to put the four women in the VIP box,” said former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who represents Trump in debate negotiations. “We had it all set. We wanted to have them shake hands with Bill, to see if Bill would shake hands with them.”
“But we pulled it because we were going to have a big incident on national TV,” Giuliani said. “[Debate Commission co-chairman] Frank Fahrenkopf stopped us and we weren’t going to have a fight on national TV with the commission to start the debate.”
…As opposed to having a big fight between a candidate’s spouse and four women with an axe to grind, which is clearly what they were going for. Who knew that Jerry Springer would have been so prophetic when he tweeted the following during the first presidential debate.
Hillary Clinton belongs in the White House. Donald Trump belongs on my show.
— Jerry Springer (@jerryspringer) September 27, 2016
(Via Washington Post)