An hour before the 2nd Presidential Debate Donald Trump initiated a stunt that not even his own Campaign knew was coming. In the absence of his trusted surrogates, Trump threw what some would call a “Hail Mary”, and presented a group of Bill Clinton sexual assault accusers to endorse him as President. This stunt was a move to not only galvanize his Base, but a warning shot to The Clinton Campaign ahead of a debate that he needed to win.
He’s Calling The Hail Mary!!!
The term Hail Mary Pass refers to any last-ditch effort with little chance of success. Trump was coming off arguably two of the worst days in this campaign with the leaked audio tapes of him and Billy Bush’s “Locker Room Banter”. Republican Surrogates were running for the door as fast as possible. Rumors of Mike Pence stepping down as the Vice Presidential Nominee for Moral reason were creeping up. To divert the attention from Trump being a Sexual Predator he put together a news conference with a panel of new surrogates to endorse him before the debate including Kathleen Willey, Juanita Broaddrick, and Paula Jones. These women have all accused Bill Clinton of sexually assaulting them in past, and accuse Hillary of attacking their character as the victims. Two Clinton aides acknowledged to CNN they didn’t expect this — in all their planning and were jarred by the news. Even Trump’s own Campaign was caught off guard by this stunt.
Ironically, Trump has been on record condemning these women in the past for their accusations. On a Neil Cavuto Show on Fox News in 1998 Trump came to the defense of Bill Clinton, “His victims are terrible. He is, he is really a victim himself,” Trump said. “The whole group, Paula Jones, Lewinsky — it’s just a really unattractive group. I’m not just talking about physical.”
He’s not done yet
As any good candidate would do with newly minted Surrogates, Trump wanted to put them up in the spot light to gain the most attention. “We were going to put the four women in the VIP box,” Trump surrogate and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani was quoted as saying by the Washington Post. “We had it all set. We wanted to have them shake hands with Bill, to see if Bill would shake hands with them.” Thankfully, the plot was nixed by Frank J. Fahrenkopf, the debate commission’s co-chairman and a former Republican National Committee chairman. 
Instead, they were seated in the front run.
Time will tell if this was a Hail Mary Pass thrown by a Candidate with nothing to lose, or just a warning shot ahead of the debate to the Clinton Campaign. Either way, Trump proved that he’ll put anything or anybody in play by presenting these women as his surrogates.
This is definitely an integral example of surrogate usage in a campaign. Rhetorically, I can also see the benefits to this act in his efforts to paint a more widely supported image of his campaign as well as a more crooked and negative picture of hers. I think that in an election with as polarizing problems as this one, the use of certain tactics such as surrogates is especially potent in voters’ minds. I do start to even think though, how much can these attempted strategies even improve the image of the candidates amidst just an ongoing back and forth drama. It seems to me, that this very movie-like election saga is just bringing more and more “he said she said” but this time, including four more women “actresses”. As a voter, I feel like adding these components is just making mirky water even mirkier. It seems like rhetorical techniques are still relevant but less integral for such an unprecedented election as this one.
I really like the use of a reference that most of us would understand in the title of your blog post; it definitely drew me in. One thing I find particularly interesting about Trump’s choice to bring in Bill Clinton accusers is that it seems to go against the defense that he offers for himself in regard to his sexual assault accusers. Many of Trump’s surrogates as well as Trump himself have tried to paint himself as a “changed man” and have criticized people for judging Trump on old accusations. It almost does not seem rhetorically sound to attack Bill Clinton (who might I add is not even running for president) on old accusations when he can use the same “changed man” defense that Trump used. It also does not seem sound that Trump would bring in people who he himself denounced. In a normal election, I feel like this is something that would not have happened because it is a questionable move at best, but I suppose this is the far from a normal election. Overall, I really enjoyed your insight and think you wrote a great blog post.