Clinton’s top aides decided not to release any statement in reaction to the shocking new video posted Friday night. | Getty Clinton campaign waiting for debate to unleash on Trump The campaign has gone quiet and asked surrogates to do the same, waiting for Sunday night’s debate to pounce.

Hillary Clinton will first address the explosive recording of Donald Trump bragging about sexual assault from the debate stage on Sunday night — a move designed to maximize a moment her aides believe could be the deathblow for the Republican nominee.

On Saturday, Clinton’s top aides decided not to release any statement in reaction to the shocking new video posted Friday night. And they discussed and ruled out putting Clinton out for any interviews to respond, a campaign official said.


Many Democratic allies were urging Clinton to spend the 90 minutes during the town hall forum connecting with the undecided voters who will be posing the questions, rather than taking an ax to Trump. But the Clinton campaign official intimated that she plans to address the latest controversy head on, in prime time.

The decision was made, the source said, after discussions about how to capitalize on what the campaign saw as fortuitous timing: an opportunity to deliver the first, raw, response from the Democratic nominee in front of one of the largest audiences Clinton will benefit from in the final 30 days of the election.

Clinton's army of surrogates were also urged not to go overboard before the debate rather, the source said. They were given no official talking points.

Clinton’s campaign appeared to go dark on Saturday, as Trump running mate Mike Pence distanced himself from Trump's profane comments and multiple Republican senators and party leaders condemned the GOP nominee and withdrew endorsements of his campaign — or even called on him to quit the race.

Clinton herself was holed up in debate prep at a hotel near her Chappaqua home for much of the day.

But Saturday's unprecedented defections of top Republicans from their party's nominee was part of what gave the Clinton campaign the breathing room to wait for its own big moment Sunday night in St. Louis.

With many Republicans looking to Pence, Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook on Saturday huddled with campaign attorney Marc Elias, who assured him there was no way for Republicans to remove Trump from the ballot with 30 days left in the race, the Clinton official said.

On Saturday, Elias tweeted: "regardless of RNC rules process, it is too late to replace Trump on state ballots. He will be the candidate."

On Saturday, even Republicans in the heart of Trump country, such as West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, were calling for Trump “to reexamine his candidacy” in light of his “disgusting and demeaning language” used to describe women.

But the campaign official said there were no immediate plans to shift its battleground state resources to new openings in the map. The official, however, said the campaign was always monitoring shifts in the map and did not rule out such a plan in the coming days.