Fear: Trump in the White House

Giuliani was exhausted, practically bled out, but he had proved his devotion and friendship. He had pulled out every stop, leaning frequently and heavily on his Catholicism: “You confess your sins and you make a firm resolution not to commit that sin again. And then, the priest gives you absolution and then, hopefully you’re a changed person. I mean, we believe the people in this country can change.”

Giuliani, seeming punch-drunk, made it to the plane for the departure to the St. Louis debate. He took a seat next to Trump, who was at his table in his reading glasses. He peered over at the former mayor.

“Rudy, you’re a baby!” Trump said loudly. “I’ve never seen a worse defense of me in my life. They took your diaper off right there. You’re like a little baby that needed to be changed. When are you going to be a man?”

Trump turned to the others, particularly Bannon.

“Why did you put him on? He can’t defend me. I need somebody to defend me. Where are my people?”

“What are you talking about?” Bannon asked. “This guy’s the only guy that went on.”

“I don’t want to hear it,” Trump replied. “It was a mistake. He shouldn’t have gone on. He’s weak. You’re weak, Rudy. You’ve lost it.”

Giuliani just looked up, his face blank.

Shortly after the planned departure, Chris Christie had not appeared. “Fuck this guy,” Bannon said, and the plane took off.

CHAPTER

5

Giuliani had said twice, on CNN and NBC, that he did not anticipate Trump going after Bill Clinton or Hillary’s private life in the debate that evening. But Bannon had arranged what he thought would be a well-timed kill shot.

Four of the women who claimed Clinton had attacked them or who Hillary had tried to undermine would be at the debate, Bannon explained to Trump. They were Paula Jones, who said Clinton had exposed himself to her, and with whom Clinton had settled a sexual harassment suit, paying her $850,000; Juanita Broaddrick, who claimed Clinton had raped her; Kathleen Willey, who alleged that Clinton sexually assaulted her in the White House; and Kathy Shelton, who, when she was 12, alleged that Hillary had smeared her while defending her client, who allegedly had raped Shelton.

It was an Oscar list from Clinton’s past, triggering memories of his steamy Arkansas and White House years.

Prior to the debate, Bannon said, they would sit the four women at a table with Trump and invite in reporters.

“That fucking media, they think they’re going to come in for the end of debate prep. And we’re going to let them in the room and the women will be there. And we’ll just go live. Boom!”

Scorched-earth, just the way Bannon liked it.

Trump had been tweeting links to Breitbart stories about the Clinton accusers throughout the day.

“I like it,” Trump said, standing and looking imperial. “I like it!”

Just before 7:30 p.m., reporters entered the room at the St. Louis Four Seasons where Trump and the women were waiting. Bannon and Kushner stood in the back of the room, grinning.

At 7:26, Trump tweeted, “Join me on #FacebookLive as I conclude my final #debate preparations”—effectively live broadcasting events as CNN picked up his feed.

The women breathed fire into the microphones.

“Actions speak louder than words,” Juanita Broaddrick said. “Mr. Trump may have said some bad words, but Bill Clinton raped me, and Hillary Clinton threatened me.”

The debate organizers barred the Clinton accusers from sitting in the VIP family box right in front of the stage as Bannon had planned, so they walked in last and sat in the front row of the audience.

Early on, CNN’s Anderson Cooper, the debate co-host, raised the Access Hollywood tape, saying, “That is sexual assault. You bragged that you have sexually assaulted women. Do you understand that?”

Trump parried. “When we have a world where you have ISIS chopping off heads . . . where you have wars and horrible, horrible sights all over and you have so many bad things happening . . . yes, I am very embarrassed by it and I hate it, but it’s locker-room talk and it’s one of those things. I will knock the hell out of ISIS.”

A short time later, Trump said, “If you look at Bill Clinton, far worse. Mine are words and his was action. . . . There’s never been anybody in the history of politics in this nation who’s been so abusive to women.”

Then Trump announced that Kathy Shelton and Paula Jones were in the audience and said, “When Hillary . . . talks about words that I said 11 years ago, I think it’s disgraceful and I think she should be ashamed of herself.”

ABC’s Martha Raddatz, the co-moderator, had to step in to ask the audience to hold their applause so that Hillary Clinton could speak.

Bossie, now Bannon’s deputy campaign manager, was involved in the day-to-day management and hundreds of daily decisions and quickly learned who had the real authority. He would be in a meeting with Bannon, Conway and Kushner, where a decision would be made: for example, on the next three TV spots.