The Donald Trump campaign tried to seat women who have accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct in the Trump family box at the Sunday night debate before officials intervened, the Washington Post reported early Monday morning.
Officials with the Commission on Presidential Debates told the campaign that the women would be removed from the box if the campaign tried to seat them there, the Post reported. Before the debate, Trump held a press conference with three women who have accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct, as well as one woman who was involved in a rape case in which Hillary Clinton defended the accused rapist.
The Trump campaign sought to use the women to intimidate the Clintons at the debate, according to the Washington Post. Per the Post:
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.
“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.”
The women ultimately sat with the rest of the audience with the debate. Giuliani said that the campaign ditched the plan to seat the women with the Trump family because they did not want “to have a fight on national TV with the commission to start the debate.”
The debate commission also would not allow the Clinton campaign to seat Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) in the Clinton family box at the debate, according to the Washington Post.
