Hillary Clinton “ready” to respond to Trump tapes
ST. LOUIS -- Hillary Clinton is ready to respond to Donald Trump’s lewd remarks about women at the debate on Sunday night, according to a top campaign official.
It will be Clinton’s second bout with Trump on the debate stage, just more than 48 hours after the Washington Post published a video of the Republican nominee on board an “Access Hollywood” bus in 2005 talking about the way he “moved on” a married woman.
“I think for us, in this debate, I know there’s a lot of interest in what she’ll have to say about his comments from 2005,” Jennifer Palmieri, Clinton’s communications director, told reporters en route to St. Louis with the candidate on Sunday. “And she’ll be ready to do that.”
Clinton has not yet commented in public on the tape and her campaign has been purposefully quiet, as Republicans from across the country have denounced Trump and, in some cases, said they could no longer vote for him in November. It’s unclear whether Clinton has watched the tape, but Palmieri said aides briefed the Democratic nominee on it during a debate prep session and strategized on how best to respond.
Clinton, however, is hoping that the debate stays focused on the issues.
“A lot of voters have decided in the last 48 hours that they cannot support [Trump],” Palmieri said. “She wants to make a strong case to them on both the economy and national security, as to why she should be their choice and, in prep, that is what we spent most of our time focused on.”
During the primary, Clinton favored intimate roundtable events and town halls over larger rallies and, in the lead up to Sunday’sdebate, she participated in two town-hall style events. It’s a format that her aides say is a natural fit for her. Yet to be seen is if and how Trump will allude to Bill Clinton’s past, a topic that he has threatened to bring up in this setting.
“If that is how he chooses to spend him time in the debate, then that is his decision,” Palmieri said. “Not sure that’s what voters are going to want to hear.”
The former President, along with Chelsea Clinton and her husband Marc Mezvinsky, are expected to be in the debate hall on Sunday night as they were for the first debate.
Clinton has been off the campaign trail for four days to prepare for Sunday’s event and, when she arrived in St. Louis on Sunday afternoon, retreated to a hotel to continue prep with her team. Philippe Reines, her longtime aide who has been playing the role of Trump in practice sessions, and other key members of her prep team traveled with Clinton to St. Louis.