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This study on campaign discourse borrows the notion of image repair from Benoit (2015) by connecting it to studies developed on ethos and its “reworking” in discourse analysis and argumentation theory. In the context of the 2017 French presidential election, the rhetoric of repair appears as a reaction to verbal accusations that appeal to a systematic attempt at self-defense and self-promotion. In the case of Jean-Luc Mélenchon studied here, three types of argumentative procedures took center stage from March 18 to April 23: the disassociation between appearances and reality, the connection between the person and his/her actions, and the ad hominem associated with an appeal to fear or the tu quoque argument. The argumentative and discursive analysis of the accusations and image repair reveals not only the construction of a new model of what is presidential, but also reasonings and modes of verbal exchange geared towards a social imaginary.