Debate officials thwarted Republican nominee Donald Trump's plan of seating four women, who accused Bill Clinton of sexual assault, in Trump's family box at the second presidential debate, The Washington Post reported.
The confidential plan, which was engineered by Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and campaign chief executive Stephen Bannon, was unknown to several of Trump's top aides but approved by the Republican nominee.
The Commission on Presidential Debates intervened minutes before the plan was executed, threatening that if the Trump campaign tried to include accusers in the family box, security officers would have them removed, sources told The Post.
According to the plan, the four women were supposed to make an entry into the hall at the same time as Bill Clinton and confront him.
"We were going to put the four women in the VIP box," former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was quoted as saying. "We had it all set. We wanted to have them shake hands with Bill, to see if Bill would shake hands with them."
After the plan got foiled, the four women — Paula Jones, Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey and Kathy Shelton — attended the press conference seated with other members of the audience.
Debate commission's co-chairman and a former Republican National Committee chairman Frank J. Fahrenkopf sought to immediately foil the plan as soon as he learned of it.
According to the report, Fahrenkopf cautioned a Trump staffer that if the campaign tried to get the four women into the family box, he would have them removed.
"Fahrenkopf said, 'no' — verbally said 'no,' that 'security would throw them out,'" Giuliani, who coordinates Trump's debate negotiations.
Giuliani said it was unfair that during the first debate, Clinton aide Mark Cuban sat in the front row. "The women were outraged," Giuliani told the Post. "They were in the holding room and ready to go. No one was pushing them. They volunteered. But I knew the minute we got pushback that we had gotten into their heads. [Hillary Clinton] was rattled. They were rattled."
Even three minutes before the debate began, Giuliani admitted Bannon kept pushing to have the women come towards the family box.
"But we pulled it because we were going to have a big incident on national TV," Giuliani said. "Frank Fahrenkopf stopped us and we weren't going to have a fight on national TV with the commission to start the debate."
Before the debate commenced, Commission officials informed the Clinton campaign that they could not seat Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill from Missouri with Bill and Chelsea Clinton and her husband, Marc Mezvinsky, in the Clinton family box.
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