A radio contest that has participants jumping in front of news cameras to accuse former President Bill Clinton of being a rapist is starting to wear on the Democratic nominee’s team.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, Robby Mook, told reporters this week that the promotion as a cheap publicity stunt, and he tied it to GOP nominee Donald Trump’s recently adopted “scorched earth policy.”
“They are losing and they’re trying to make excuses and paper over his own lack of real plans and his hateful and disrespectful rhetoric,” Mook said.
Protesters shouting, “Bill Clinton is a rapist,” have interrupted Clinton campaign rallies in multiple battleground states, including in Ohio and North Carolina. In most cases, the protesters were seen wearing a shirt bearing the former president’s likeness with the word “RAPE” printed across the front.
But the anti-Clinton demonstrations are not organic, and they aren’t part of an authentic grassroots trend. Rather, the rape protests can be traced back to a contest launched on Sept. 30 by talk radio personality and Trump supporter Alex Jones.
Jones is awarding $1,000 to anyone who can get the Bill Clinton “RAPE” t-shirt on national television for “at least five seconds,” according to the radio host’s conspiracy theory website, Infowars.com.
The Clinton “RAPE” shirts can be bought on Jones’ website for $20.
The Infowars.com promotion, which has an operating budget of $100,000, is also offering $5,000 to anyone who can get the “RAPE” t-shirt on national television while also yelling, “Bill Clinton is a rapist!”
Jones, who believes the Sandy Hook massacre was a “false flag” operation and that the federal government is putting chemicals in the water that “turn the friggin’ frogs gay,” acquired the “RAPE” shirts from longtime Trump confidante Roger Stone.
“The t-shirt was introduced at the Republican National Convention,” Stone told the Washington Examiner. “And the point of this is it was designed to break the mainstream blackout of this issue. These are over-the-top guerilla tactics, but we’re making a statement.”
Stone, who is known widely in political and media circles as a “dirty trickster,” stressed that he wasn’t involved in launching the rape contest and that he isn’t a participant.
But both Jones and Stone acknowledge that the contest spun off from the “RAPE” shirts.
“I’m selling these,” he told the Examiner, referring to the shirts. “Alex had made an agreement to buy them from me at cost. And he is running his own promotion. I am supporting his contest, but the contest if Infowars’, it’s not my contest. And no, I’m most certainly not a contestant.”
Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign has been dogged by questions surrounding her husband’s sex scandals from when he was president and when he was governor of Arkansas.
Bill Clinton has admitted in the past to engaging in extramarital affairs with multiple women, including former White House intern Monica Lewinsky and former model Gennifer Flowers. He has also been accused of sexually assaulting more than one woman, including former Arkansas nursing home administrator Juanita Broaddrick and former Arkansas state employee Paula Jones.
With the aide of individuals like Jones and Stone, and with assists from right-wing websites like Breitbart, Trump has sought to make the Clinton sex scandals a major story in the 2016 presidential election.
“For months and months and months we’ve had to endure discussions of Bill’s ‘indiscretions’ or ‘infidelities.’ That’s not the issue here. The issue is not about consensual sex. It’s not about adultery. It’s not about marital infidelity. It’s not about girlfriends or mistresses. It’s about violence against women, sexual assault and rape,” Stone told the Examiner.
The Clinton sex scandals have long been a focus for Stone, who authored a book, titled “The Clintons’ War on Women,” which was published last year.
“I discovered enough women in my book, doing research for my book, that I became persuaded that the number was very large and that they were all telling the truth, or as Hillary Clinton said, ‘Victims of sexual assault deserve to be believed,'” Stone said.
“And the whole purpose here was to break through the mainstream media that just doesn’t want to cover it,” he said of the recent rape protests.
In the name of drawing attention to Bill Clinton’s alleged sexual assaults, Infowars.com-inspired protesters have crashed numerous campaign rallies, heckling the Democratic nominee and her surrogates to their face, and numerous news broadcasts.
President Obama was interrupted by a protester last week in Cleveland.
Bill Clinton has been targeted in Fort Myers, Fla., and Canton, Ohio.
Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., encountered a rape protester during a campaign stop in Las Vegas, and again in North Carolina.
Hillary Clinton herself was also interrupted last week during a campaign stop in Detroit
“You know,” she said after the demonstrator was forcibly removed by security, “I do hope somebody follows that gentleman out and stages an intervention.”
Anti-Clinton rape demonstrators have also appeared during live broadcasts on the NBC, MSNBC, CNN and Fox News.
Alex Jones’ team couldn’t be happier with the response to the Clinton rape promotion.
There have been roughly 20 instances of protesters showing up at Clinton rallies or appearing on local and national television or in print media, according to Infowars.com
Jones’ team also said that $87,000 of contest’s $100,000 budget has already been set aside to contest winners.
The group claimed that it has sent out at least 13 checks to contest winners. However, they noted, many more participants have yet to contact them for their winnings. Contest winners have been advised to contact Jones’ team at [email protected].”>[email protected].
There is no sign that the protest will slow down, and that’s a good thing, Stone said.
The media has been “trying to dismiss” the rape allegations against Bill Clinton for years, he said, adding that the protesters are shedding a much needed light on an issue that has been ignored for too long .
“The voters, I think, would react to it if they knew about it. But the media essentially blocks for the Clintons, and it always has,” he told the Examiner. “It’s an issue that voters would react to if they knew about it, but you have to stop the mainstream media from concealing it. That’s why people are doing what they’re doing.”
“At a minimum it causes people to say, well why are people raising this issue? What are the facts?” he asked.
Asked if he thinks the protests will have a real impact on the 2016 election, Stone shrugged.
“Look, who knows? I think it’s important to listen to the women. If people hear what Juanita Broaddrick has to say, they hear what Paula Jones has to say, then I think they are likely to you know be swayed,” he said.
“I think these women are very credible when given the opportunity to talk. The problem is: The mainstream media doesn’t give them the opportunity to talk,” he added.
Clinton’s campaign, for its part, is not at all amused by the demonstrations.
“Donald Trump will continue to incite hatred and division and that Alex Jones will continue to pay people to hold signs and be disruptive at events,” Robby Mook told reporters this week. “That is their choice.”
