Sean Hannity is supposed to unveil his latest smearfest in service of his beloved Donald Trump tonight. Yesterday, Bloomberg reported that Trump campaign CEO Stephen Bannon said about Bill Clinton, “We’re going to turn him into Bill Cosby.” Last night, Hannity pledged his part by announcing that he’d trot out (again) the supposed Clinton victims Trump trotted out at the last debate. But will the show still go on in the wake of the latest accusations of Trump’s groping and sexual assault?
Yesterday, Bloomberg reported:
The purpose of Trump’s sudden, intense focus on sexual abuse is twofold: First, to distract attention away from the 2005 Access Hollywood tape recently obtained by the Washington Post that shows Trump making appallingly lewd remarks about women. Second is to depress enthusiasm for Clinton among a key voter bloc in her quest for the White House: millennial women.
Bannon has long believed that young, socially liberal voters unfamiliar with the Clinton scandals of the ’90s will become disillusioned if they learn more about them. ”There’s a whole generation of people who love the news but were 7 or 8 years old when this happened and have no earthly idea about the Clinton sex stuff,” Bannon told Bloomberg Businessweek last year.
That view has now become the guiding principle of Trump’s presidential campaign and explains why Trump is going to such lengths to portray Hillary Clinton as an enabler of sexual violence. On Tuesday, Bannon laid out the campaign’s argument. “She’s led a program of victim intimidation,” Bannon told Trump staffers, according to two advisers who were present. “This has nothing to do with consensual sexual affairs and infidelities. This is Bill. We’re going to turn him into Bill Cosby. He’s a violent sexual predator who physically abuses women who he assaults. And she takes the lead on the intimidation of the victims.”
And guess who was slated to kick off that Clinton sexual-smear campaign? Sean Hannity. He gave an unintentionally hilarious prelude to it last night in a segment recorded before the latest cascade of accusations of Trump groping or worse rained down. In it, Hannity complained that the media had focused too much on Trump’s words while it ignored actions of sexual misconduct. He was talking about Bill Clinton, of course. But, obviously, that meme - which Hannity has clung to since the 2005 Access Hollywood video rocked the 2016 presidential campaign – won’t work now.
According to CNN's Brian Stelter, Trump canceled his appearance on tonight’s Hannity. But Hannity's interviews with the Clinton accusers are still supposedly slated to go ahead. As I write this, there is nothing about tonight’s show on FoxNews.com’s page for the Hannity show. Hannity’s Twitter feed has not been updated since yesterday.
Watch Bloomberg discuss why, despite the abysmal poll numbers, Trump’s strategy might work, below.
Hannity/Trump image via screen grab.
Nonprofit organizations may distance themselves from Hannocchio and Merri Jill. Who wants to be associated with a man who gives a pass to sexual abusers?
“Lucy!!! You got some ‘splainin’,to do!!”
Since Trump is under fire for being a sexual predator what else does he have than find some similar poo to fling Hillary’s way? Serial philanderer Bill’s a soft target and obvious target.
I don’t see it working but a lot of it depends on Chris Wallace moderating debate 3. I suspect he will ambush Hillary with various scandals since one of the designated topics is the candidates’ fitness to be POTUS.
I could see this backfiring.
