Hillary Clinton is beginning to prepare for the first general election debate against Donald Trump, scheduled for Sept. 26, and that means getting ready to confront some old hurts. Among the topics Clinton is expected to prepare to face is the death of Vincent Foster, the accusation she is a rape enabler, and the Monica Lewinsky and Gennifer Flowers scandals, Politico reports.
"You can't put it beyond Trump that Monica Lewinsky will play a role in this debate. [Clinton's] got to be prepared to deal with the Foundation and Wall Street and super PACs and all of that. They need to be less focused on dealing with [Trump's] policy proposals and more on dealing with the unexpected. He's going to be in attack mode, probably the whole time," said Greg Craig, President Obama's former White House counsel and an experienced debate-prepper.
The main issue at hand is predicting the unpredictable. Trump might be expected to go after Clinton for her use of a private email server, for example, but that is only if he stays on message. Clinton is also going to brace for being called "crooked," or being told she "short-circuited," but also for the insults maybe even Trump himself hasn't come up with yet.
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Of course, that means finding a close ally to play Trump in the debate prep — an uncomfortable role. "You have to start off by saying, 'I want to thank the American people, especially Monica and Gennifer Flowers.' Nobody who is a friend of hers is going to want to say that in debate prep," a top Clinton ally told Politico.
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