Breaking news from WaPo:
ST. LOUIS — Donald Trump’s campaign sought to intimidate Hillary Clinton and embarrass her husband by seating women who have accused former president Bill Clinton of sexual abuse in the Trump family’s box at the presidential debate here Sunday night, according to four people involved in the discussions.
The campaign’s plan, which was closely held and unknown to several of Trump’s top aides, was thwarted just minutes before it could be executed when officials with the Commission on Presidential Debates intervened.
The commission officials warned that, if the Trump campaign tried to seat the accusers in the elevated family box, security officers would remove the women, according to the people involved, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the discussions were confidential.
The gambit to give Bill Clinton’s accusers prime seats was devised by Trump campaign chief executive Stephen K. Bannon and Jared Kushner, the candidate’s son-in-law, and approved personally by Trump.
The four women — three of whom have alleged Bill Clinton sexually assaulted or harassed them years ago — were to walk in the debate hall at the same time as the 42nd president and confront him in front of a national television audience.
Classy folks. Robert Costa told the MSNBC people that Trump’s folks might use the outrage over being denied this opportunity as an excuse to skip the last debate.
Trentrunner
Plenty of competition, but:
A sexual exploiter exploiting women who believe they were sexually exploited is the absolute low point of this campaign.
RaflW
And the Trump campaign flying monkeys crash into another wall they built themselves.
I’d laugh, but I hate them too much.
Bailey
I wonder if Chelsea and Ivanka continue to hang out together.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I wonder when Ivanka found out. Unless the rumors of her intelligence are pure myth, I can’t imagine she’ll be pleased.
RaflW
Oh, and Jared Kushner is lower than worms.
When this is over, I’d say that they’ll never be welcome in polite company again. But I think Trump might be making the concept of polite company inoperative for a generation (or two).
This country is fucked. up.
Major Major Major Major
@Trentrunner:
You forgot to add “so far”.
burnspbesq
What a fcuking night.
jl
Clinton On Trump Looming Over Her In Debate: ‘He Was Very Present’
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-standing-right-behind-clinton
RaflW
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think you may be creating a rumor that she has any greater kindness or decency than her kin.
eta: I may be misunderstanding, too, also (It’s late!). Perhaps you mean she’s pissed over the ham-handed keystone-copness of it.
JWR
Sniff, sniffle sniff. That is all.
(Sorry, but this thread has been up too long to see 0 comments.)
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I haven’t seen any evidence of her fabled intelligence. She seems to think foisting her creepy, racist, unqualified father off on the country is a swell idea.
Mnemosyne
As I said in the thread below, I’m pretty sure that this was the Clinton campaign’s response to that part of the story.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@RaflW: the latter– people have been speculating that she’ll be the Marine LePen to the old man’ Jean Marie, which i”ve never bought, she doesn’t strike me as one who would want to campaign, American-style
Joyce H
This is the debate that David Bossie has been wanting to have for a quarter of a century. Trump said all the things he wanted to have said in front of a national audience. In the minds of the Clinton-Deranged Right, saying those words in front of a national audience would magically defeat the Clintons once and for all. Sort of like how saying “radical Islamic terrorism” would magically defeat ISIS.
Trentrunner
Well, if Hillary gets through this without slapping that Ludicrous Orange Ballsack, she’ll deserve the Nobel Peace Prize that Obama got in 2008.
These people are the lowest.
jl
The Trump campaign should thank whoever stopped that nonsense.
Marshall compared to whole go after Bill thing as like a crazy uncle bringing a bag of shit to Thanksgiving dinner as part of his feud with grandpa. Would not go well for the crazy uncle.
RaflW
BTW, did folks see the Tiffany move where she blocked Trump’s hug tonight?
I would not be totally surprised (though I’d be sickened, as this is a horrible thing to contemplate), that some day we find out about multi-generational sex abuse inside the Trump family.
There is something really, really, really wrong with that family.
Mary G
I think this is all going to backfire on the Donald. The deplorables will love it, but it’s just too crazy for the 73%. The presidency isn’t the Jerry Springer show.
BillinGlendaleCA
@jl: As I said in an earlier thread, Trump should have asked Senator Lazio how that tactic worked for him.
Betty Cracker
@Joyce H: That’s a good point — a lot of the poop Trump flung only made sense to people who’ve seen what’s on Breitbart or Drudge. I was watching the debate with my husband, who doesn’t follow politics all that closely, and a couple of 18-year-olds, who were babies during the first Clinton administration. Several times they were completely mystified by references Trump made. It would be like commenters here threatening to “pie” real-life acquaintances or making reference to missing mustard or naked mopping. It would sound like crazy babbling to the uninitiated.
Anoniminous
Man, the GOP is in a worse position than I thought.
BillinGlendaleCA
@JWR:
You’re sound like Trump there, ya OK?
RaflW
@jl: Are you kidding?! They are furious with Republican debate comm. chair Fahrenkopf. He apparently squashed it the moment he heard of it.
I get you, he saved the Trumps from even worse disaster. But they have not the slightest idea of the rake they just avoided stepping on that woulda broken their own skulls.
This overnight revelation also explains, for me, why Trump seemed so strange at the start of the debate. He was expecting a circus to have shifted the room, and it didn’t materialize.
RaflW
@Betty Cracker: It sounds like crazy babbling to the all-too-initiated.
(You served that so sweetly, I just had to return volley)
BillinGlendaleCA
@Betty Cracker: All my wife noticed were the sniffles. She said, “is something wrong with him?”.
RadioOne
the liberals freaking out about this debate is pathetic.
hovercraft
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Lucrecia may be more polished than Uday and Qusay, but I don’t think she’s any more decent, male pundits talk about her in glowing terms because they think she’s hot, and female pundits don’t contradict them because they don’t want to be thought of a jealous of her looks. She’s a Trump through and through and her husband is a perfect fit into the klan, because his clan is just as bad.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Mary G: Jerry Springer’s view on the race:
sukabi
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: her body language at the end of the debate was not that of a happy person. Subdued, tired, defeated…
piratedan
waiting for the “deplorables” to turn on any perceived establishment GOP office holder. I hope that they draw their proverbial line in the sand because if they follow through on their threats, I really think we’re witnessing a wave election here. Granted, it may not be big enough to wash away the stench at the state level but it sure might be enough to turn the House. In a way, Trump surviving may very well be the biggest gift because I certainly do not see a path with him to the Presidency and I hope like hell that his petty vindictive ways cripple the GOP for a generation.
amk
presidential politics = schoolyard bully level
CZanne
@RaflW: Yep. That’s the move of a woman who has been groped more than once, and knows how to deflect it without causing a scene. The arm pat puts the dude firmly in the friend* zone. I think Tiffany may have dodged some bullets being raised on the far side of a continent.
Ivanka’s face tensed hard when she saw that, and the son that looks like a vampire also caught it and reacted with a sneer — though probably because he’s had it done to him more than a few times.
Melania also seemed to deflect, and her wardrobe was speaking for her tonight: a p—y bow blouse and trousers. She speaks the language of fashion; those were deliberate choices.
I did not see a single happy family member.
*not an actual friend, but someone who’s never getting in the pants.
sukabi
@RaflW: saw that, that is one WELL PRACTICED move. And she does it with a smile, a pat and a quick exit.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@CZanne: he son that looks like a vampire
Heh. I’ve had the same thought, for some reason he makes me think of the vampires in the old TV movie version of Salem’s Lot, which I haven’t seen in… twenty-five years?
jl
@Betty Cracker:
” commenters here threatening to “pie” real-life acquaintances or making reference to missing mustard or naked mopping. ”
Shit. Maybe that is why people look at me funny when I talk. Thanks for the tip. Who wudda thunk.
But anyway, I think you are correct. It is wingnut conspiracy code talk that mystifies normal people. I try to halfway follow it, and I can’t keep track of what some of it is supposed to signify.
amk
@Joyce H: Now that peak wingnut has been achieved and will prove to be a failure in less than a month, what else the wingnutz have got in future? They have shot their entire collective wad with the carnival barker.
jl
@hovercraft: I think Ivanka is more self aware, and politically shrewd in the sense or GW Bush. Knows how to package policy, etc. But you are right, in many ways, just as bad as daddy on most policy. Besides old white doofus pundits drooling over her looks, probably think, or hope, Ivanka would get in the door first to talk some common sense to President daddy. But, that is nonsense. She’s hot, so they have to find some reason to say nice things.
RaflW
Reince talking to Hannity tonight: Hillary “did things that were inexcusable and many times illegal.”
Yep. He’s fully on board Trump’s train to jail his opponent. Reince is A-OK with normalizing what should be relegated to the worst tinpot dictator corners of the globe.
These are not patriots. They are desecrating our constitution, the document they fetishize even as they totally misunderstand it. Or worse, as they simply ignore it for their immediate power goals.
Trump must be defeated. But the damage being done to our democracy is far deeper and more lasting. I am beside myself with rage and bitterness tonight.
amk
This tweet seems to have won innerentz today
opiejeanne
@RaflW: Ok, I watched the debate on MSNBC and they showed the four women seated next to the Trump family. Brian Williams or whoever was talking at that moment pointed them out when they sat down at the end of the row where the Trump kids were sitting.
When were they removed? I would swear they were still sitting there when Trump referred to the woman who was the 12yo rape victim.
Or am I misunderstanding and it was only the timing of the entry that was fixed, so that Bill wasn’t confronted by a woman who signed an affidavit 20 years ago that he had not in fact raped her and that they had not had any sort of improper relationship?
RaflW
@opiejeanne: As I read it, the Trump camp wanted the 4 women much closer to Bill, I guess the two family boxes were closer to each other than where the women sat with Giuliani.
The greater distance made the theatrics not workable. They would have been tossed if they sat where they were told not to, so I guess they complied.
Mary G
@RaflW: I agree. The forces the Republican party has set in motion will be causing damage for years. I’m watching “All the Way” on HBO about LBJ and it’s depressing how much is still the same.
opiejeanne
@RaflW: Ah. They were sitting on the end of the bench farthest away from the Clinton family.
The one who was raped at 12 years old is strange. Hillary didn’t get her rapist off, he pled guilty. She was assigned to the case by a judge after the defendant fired his male attorney and requested a woman instead, thinking she would be a more sympathetic figure to the jury, especially defending in a rape case. The victim said for many years that she held no ill will toward Hillary, and that it was her mother who wanted the whole thing to go away, didn’t want her daughter to have to testify in court. That changed about a year ago for some reason, and I’d bet there’s money involved, trips and hotels funded by Breitbart or their “angels”, the Mercers.
Juanita Broaddrick denied that she was raped or had an affair or that there was any sort of improper relationship with Bill Clinton in an affidavit 20 years ago.
hovercraft
@opiejeanne:
The Trump camp wanted them to walk in with the candidates families at the beginning of the debate, which would have forced them face to face with Bill on the stage in front of the whole country. They wanted to create a spectacle.
opiejeanne
@hovercraft: I got that part, but they did enter with the Trump family, a little ahead of them.
The whole thing was vile. I thought Hillary looked deeply sad in one photo I saw of her during the campaign, and who could blame her. I also thought she did very well and that little raised eyebrow was hilarious and perfect.
Tokyokie
The plan of the Trump “brain trust” to turn the debate into a Springer show episode sounds like something James O’Keefe (a deplorable, if ever there was one) would dream up. Maybe they should have had der Trumpenführer wear a funny costume as well.
NotMax
1) Empty threat.
2) If by some remote chance he is really boneheaded enough to bail on the next debate, one fervently hopes there will be video of Bannon and others from Trump HQ rushing to their bookies to lay every shekel they can put a hand on on a Clinton victory.
hovercraft
@opiejeanne:
I’m not sure they were removed, I think they left at the end with everyone else, but I think the Clintons went to the other side of the room. I suspect if they tried to get close to them the SS would prevent them from doing so. I’m sure someone will clarify tomorrow.
Goodnight.
JWR
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Yeah, I’m okay. I mean, aside from (still) trying to Grok the venality of what the Trump campaign has become/has always been. But Jeebus! What Clinton was debating tonight was like me debating my local AM Hate radio station, which is designed to be a losing proposition.
CZannehappy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think he looks like the 30 Days of Night vampires ( B movie, genuinely creepy and bloody slasher, within the last decade.) I have not seen Salem’s Lot (have read it) so my visuals are idiosyncratic. But bloodsucker, mostly checking out all the walking Happy Meals and considering which will be least missed.
The other one is the midlevel Contracts manager sent by Hell services.
CZannehappy
@opiejeanne: she’s the one that is reported to have got $2500 for appearing.
Joyce H
Speaking of Secret Service, I was imagining the two protection details texting one another through the debate. “If your protectee gets any closer to our protectee, we’re going to take him out…”
sukabi
@Joyce H: and his detail says not if we do it first?
Pest Bog Mummy, Frakensteinbeck
@Joyce H:
It’s going to be weird as the next few days go by and they realize that no one cares. You are right. They absolutely do think that the whole country will suddenly turn against Hillary and she’ll be brought up on charges now that her crimes can no longer be hidden. I’m not sure we’ll see the fallout, but this will shake them like militias are shaken when they launch one of their defiant campaigns and the race war does not start and True Patriots do not rise up across the country. Remember when the refuge occupiers started squabbling and deserting and making fools of themselves? Like that.
Matt
I assumed they nixed it after nobody on the team could figure out how to keep Trump’s hands off of the women in question.
Applejinx
@CZanne:
…really? Fuck. It’s Ivanka. Donald takes what he wants, and on Wikipedia:
Named after his wife but the child version of the name, wife out when she’s nine, she’s still with him in NY until 15. Donald tangled up with Jeffery Epstein, billionaire pedophile and class 3 sex offender. Later, Marla Maples was to move across the country after getting away from Donald, taking Tiffany with her.
Poor kid. Ivanka is a very wealthy casualty of Caligula-like rich-man privilege, taking refuge in Judaism to repudiate the wickedness of her earlier life… but it ain’t really her that’s the monster. Goes to show you that you can have lots of money and power in your own right, and still have unreasonable amounts of shit to deal with. However, if it’s a matter of taking down Donald versus letting him be President and take even that because he wants it, I don’t think it’s OK to protect Ivanka anymore.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
The idiots really think this is an episode of the Apprentice. I am sure it would have helped with the ratings Donny, but get you votes, no.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@amk:
Not to mention they’ve had the rage stoke to 11 for so long. With Obama they had the shock of the skin color to feed on, but Hillary is quite familiar and boring when you get down to it. I suppose Kansas points the way with a lot of Wingnut laws in the deep red states. Kind like a crazy uncle sulking when the entire family tells him to shut the f**k up finally.