White, moderate women are a key demographic in this election, and their vote will likely decide the winner of the 2016 election. The Clinton campaign recognizes this, and Clinton and her surrogates are aggressively attacking Trump’s treatment and view of women. They hope their rhetorical use of bdelygmia and enthymeme will persuade women to vote against Trump in November.
Bdelygmia
Throughout his campaign, Trump has maintained his respect for women. CNN even compiled a video of him stating his respect multiple times. However, the same day the CNN video aired, Access Hollywood released tapes that feature Trump bragging about his scandalous treatment of women, including kissing them and grabbing them in their private area. According to Clinton’s surrogates this disclaim employed bdelygmia. Bdelygmia takes place when someone expresses disgust about a person, thing, or action. While referencing the lewd tapes in a speech she was giving in Manchester, New Hampshire, Michelle Obama admitted, “I can’t stop thinking about this. It has shaken me to my core in a way that I couldn’t have predicted.” President Obama told a crowd in North Carolina, “You don’t have to be a husband or a father to hear what we heard just a few days ago and say, ‘that’s not right.’” Both Obamas are using bdelygmia in an effort to fuel the abhorrence many potential voters, especially women, feel, and guide their support away from Trump.
Enthymeme
In addition to bdelymgmia, Clinton surrogates are applying enthymemes in their rhetoric. The narrative of the enthymeme is essentially: women cannot trust Trump to be a good president. Trump harasses women. The audience is meant to fill in the part that those who harass women cannot be trusted to be president. Michelle Obama used a little boy’s words to implement this enthymeme in her New Hampshire speech. She described, “And the little boy, out of the blue, said, ‘I think Hillary Clinton will be President.’ And his mom said, ‘Well, why do you say that?’ And this little six-year-old said, ‘Because the other guy called someone a piggy, and,’ he said, ‘you cannot be President if you call someone a piggy.”’ The ultimate goal is for women to fill in the blank of the enthymeme and decide they cannot trust a man who harasses women to be the next president, and cannot vote for Donald Trump as a result of this realization.