Bodine WilliamsBodine Williams

Hollywood could not have produced a better trailer for the second presidential debate than a 2005 video from the vaults of NBC. As reported, it captures Donald Trump’s lewd boasts about his sexual assault of women.

Trump came out swinging, going after Hillary Clinton aggressively as he attempted to draw her husband Bill Clinton back into the sex scandals from his time in office. But with lagging polls and a splintering GOP, Trump seemed unprepared to reach out to voters beyond his base.

The first question of the night would prove prophetic. The candidates were asked if, in their debate performances, they “are modeling appropriate and positive behavior for today's youth.” Clinton gave a saccharine response, while Trump dispatched the question with disjointed references as he touted the need for his brand of leadership.

Game Face: Mastering the Media InterviewGame Face: Mastering the Media Interview, 19 Cautionary Tales, by Bodine Williams

Moderators Anderson Cooper and Martha Raddatz pushed Trump to address his statements in the video. He drew an immediate contrast between his verbal outing and crimes committed by the terrorist group, ISIS.

Certainly I'm not proud of it, but this is locker room talk. You know when we have a world where you have ISIS chopping off heads, where you have men frankly drowning people in steel cages.”

Clinton was ready with a sharp, strategic assessment aimed at women voters.

“What we all saw and heard on Friday was Donald talking about women what he thinks about women, what he does to women, and he has said that the video doesn't represent who he is. But I think it's clear to anyone who heard it that it represents exactly who he is.”

With that, Trump made good on his threat to target Bill Clinton who was in attendance. It was a mutually destructive spectacle witnessed by more than 66 million people.

“If you look at Bill Clinton, far worse -- mine are words, and his was action. His was far worse -- what he’s done to women, there’s never been anyone in the history of politics in this nation who has been so abusive to women.”

Trump’s habit of pointing the finger at a selectively worse offender was a pattern he repeated throughout the 90-minutes. When asked if his $916 million loss allowed him to avoid paying federal income taxes, Trump cast a net around other millionaires. “Of course I do…and so did Warren Buffett. And so did George Soros and so did many of the other people that Hillary is getting money from.”

By the following day Warren Buffett, a Clinton supporter, released detailed information on his taxes and challenged Trump to do the same. It was another unprovoked error that raised more questions about Trump’s character and judgment.

Still, this Donald Trump did a lot better than the one who showed up for the first debate. He was much more effective at countering Clinton’s deceptive patter. When questioned if it is ok for politicians to have both a public and private position issues, as WikiLeaks reports Clinton said in paid speeches, she responded with a story of how President Lincoln used various arguments to build consensus.

Trump shot back with one of the best lines of the night, "She lied. Now she's blaming the lie on the late, great Abraham Lincoln," he said. "Honest Abe never lied. That's the biggest difference between Abraham Lincoln and you.”

Clinton won the debate because she gave the more polished, policy-driven performance. While she labeled Trump as temperamentally unfit to be president and a man incapable of making an apology, she resisted flat-out name-calling. She preferred the coded assessment that Trump “lives in an alternative reality.”

Another man running for office under a heavy cloud of sexist misconduct might have made a token show of respect toward his female opponent. Not Trump. He never addressed Clinton as “Senator” or “Mrs. Clinton.” He managed a “Hillary” here and there, but mostly it was “she” or “her”spoken with a sneer.

A speaker oblivious to the damage to himself as well as the intended target, Trump called Clinton “two-faced,” “a liar,” “the devil,” and a woman of “tremendous hatred.” He repeated the word “disaster” too many times to count. It was his touchstone for a “sad” country under President Barack Obama. However, “disaster” would best describe the worst weekend of his campaign.

Trump focused on two interrelated themes throughout the debate. He repeatedly characterized Clinton as a “talker, not a doer;” in other words, a career politician with little to show after 30 years in public life.

“I've heard Hillary complain about so many different things over the years -- she’s been doing this stuff -- but she's been there for thirty years she’s been doing this stuff. And she never will change. She never will change.

“Hey, if she had a problem -- for thirty years, she’s been doing this Anderson. I say it all the time. She talks about healthcare. Why didn’t she do something about it? She talks about taxes. Why didn't she do something about it? She doesn't do anything about anything other than talk. With her, it's all talk and no action.”


Clinton turned the table on Trump with messages that champion experience and preparedness over his litany of problems without remedies to fix things.

“Look, he has now said repeatedly thirty years this and thirty years that. So let me talk about my thirty years in public service,” she retaliated. And talk she did, providing details of a career helping children, the disabled, women and 9/11 first responders.

“Four hundred pieces of legislation have my name on it, as a sponsor or cosponsor when I was a senator for eight years. I worked very hard and was very proud to be reelected in New York by an even bigger margin than I had been elected the first time.”

What Trump failed to grasp is the fact that Clinton has a decades-long head start on creating and telling her story. She and her narrative have proven to be highly resilient.

Meanwhile, Trump is running out of time to sell his story. As of now, he’s left with an increasingly fragile narrative to make the case for president.

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Bodine Williams is a public relations consultant who specializes in crisis communication, issues management and media training. Her new book, Game Face: Mastering the Media Interview, 19 Cautionary Tales, is available on Amazon.