Trump Stages Pre-Debate Event with Bill Clinton Accusers

On October 9, 2016, just 90 minutes before the second presidential debate in St. Louis, Donald Trump staged a surprise press conference with four women who have accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct or been connected to the Clintons’ legal history. The event, held at the Four Seasons Hotel and broadcast via Facebook Live, represented an audacious deflection strategy in response to the Access Hollywood tape scandal that had consumed Trump’s campaign for the previous 48 hours.

The Women Present

Trump appeared with four women:

Paula Jones - Had filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Bill Clinton in 1994, alleging he had exposed himself to her in a hotel room when he was Arkansas governor.

Juanita Broaddrick - Had publicly accused Bill Clinton of raping her in 1978 when he was Arkansas attorney general running for governor.

Kathleen Willey - Had accused Bill Clinton of groping her in the Oval Office in 1993 when she was a White House volunteer.

Kathy Shelton - Was raped at age 12 in 1975, and her alleged attacker was represented by Hillary Clinton as a court-appointed public defender. Shelton had criticized Clinton’s handling of the case.

The Press Conference

Trump described the event as his final “debate prep” before facing Hillary Clinton on stage. During the Facebook Live event, the women made direct accusations against both Clintons. Broaddrick stated: “Mr. Trump may have said some bad words, but Bill Clinton raped me and Hillary Clinton threatened me.”

The event created the explicit comparison Trump sought: while Trump had been caught on tape bragging about sexual assault, the women argued that Bill Clinton had actually committed sexual assault and that Hillary Clinton had enabled or participated in covering up or discrediting the accusers.

The Planned Debate Hall Stunt

Trump campaign officials had initially planned an even more aggressive confrontation. The original scheme called for the four women to sit in the Trump family VIP box close to the debate stage, and the campaign planned to have them directly confront Bill Clinton as he entered the debate hall. However, debate commission officials intervened and stopped this plan, citing debate rules and concerns about disrupting the event.

The four women ultimately attended the debate as guests of Trump, seated in the audience but not in the family VIP section.

Trump’s Debate Performance

During the debate itself, Trump invoked the “locker room talk” defense for his Access Hollywood comments while pivoting to attack Bill Clinton’s behavior and Hillary Clinton’s treatment of her husband’s accusers. The strategy demonstrated Trump’s fundamental approach to scandal: never apologize, never retreat, and immediately counterattack with accusations against opponents.

Significance

The pre-debate press conference represented a watershed moment in modern American political norms. No major party presidential nominee had ever staged such an event, using accusers of sexual misconduct against an opponent’s spouse as a campaign tactic. The spectacle demonstrated several key aspects of Trump’s political approach:

Deflection Over Contrition: Rather than addressing the Access Hollywood tape’s substance—his own admission of sexual assault—Trump changed the subject to his opponent’s alleged wrongdoing.

Weaponizing Trauma: Trump’s campaign took women’s allegations of sexual assault and harassment and weaponized them for political gain, not to advance a cause of accountability but purely to deflect from Trump’s own scandal.

Breaking Debate Norms: The attempted stunt to confront Bill Clinton in the debate hall showed Trump’s willingness to shatter longstanding presidential debate traditions and norms of conduct.

Media Manipulation: By staging the event just 90 minutes before the debate, Trump ensured that media coverage would focus on the spectacle rather than substantive policy discussion or continued focus on his own misconduct.

The tactic worked politically. While the Access Hollywood tape had appeared to threaten Trump’s campaign viability 48 hours earlier, the dramatic pre-debate event changed the media narrative and demonstrated to Trump and his allies that aggressive counterattacks could overcome what would have been disqualifying scandals for previous candidates. The episode established a template Trump would use repeatedly: respond to allegations of misconduct not with apologies or accountability, but with immediate, aggressive attacks on accusers and opponents.