Democrats don’t know what to do about former President Bill Clinton. On one hand they love and admire him; on the other they wish he’d go away.
“What I hear the most is, ‘I wish the Clintons would go away for this cycle,’” said a female House Democrat who claims to have a good pulse on the caucus. “I was sitting in the cloak room yesterday, and one of the Black Caucus members said, ‘Can’t she get the message, she needs to go away?’ So it’s both of them.”
The former president returned to the spotlight this week for his book tour with author James Patterson. But Clinton made headlines when he was asked by NBC if he would handle his 1995 scandal with Monica Lewinsky differently in light of the #MeToo movement. Clinton became defensive, saying he’s apologized to Lewinsky, publicly not privately.
“If the facts were the same today, I wouldn’t,” Clinton said of how he’d handle the episode. “Nobody believes I got out of that for free,” he added.
Clinton tried to fix it the next day on a late night appearance with Stephen Colbert. He said it “wasn’t my finest hour” and that he was “mad at me.”
As Democrats champion the #MeToo movement and decry President Trump’s treatment of women and his refusal to reconcile with his past, embracing Clinton during a pivotal election year is becoming untenable. Republicans like Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, are already mocking Clinton. If Democrats welcome Clinton on the stump, Republicans will unabashedly hammer the 42nd president and any Democrat associated with him.
The #MeToo movement has forced the country and Congress to reckon with a culture that’s allowed sexual harassment to go unchecked. Aware of the complications, most Democrats struggled to answer questions about whether Clinton would be an asset on the campaign trail or a political liability.
Whether Clinton could provide a boost to Democrats as they try to retake the House will depend on the district, said Rep. Scott Peters, D-Calif.
“People are looking for a unifier right now, and despite all the grief he took over his intern problem, he has actually had a lot of successes and a lot of people are still grateful to him,” said Peters, quickly adding that Clinton needs to be “more forthcoming and contrite about his experience with Monica Lewinsky.”
But each candidate is going to “feel differently” about whether they want Clinton in their corner. As for Hillary Clinton, Peters said, he’d walk through his district with his arm around her, telling people, “I told you so, I told you so, I told you so,” because Trump is creating chaos.
Though Democrats praise Clinton’s service and in past cycles have utilized his formidable campaign skills, they now want to turn elsewhere, namely to former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama. But the Clintons’ influence in Washington and the friendships they’ve cultivated are evident in the responses from Democrats who either refused to talk about it altogether — like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. — or requested anonymity to speak more freely.
Clinton remains, to many Democratic lawmakers and voters, one of the most talented politicians in recent history. Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., said Democrats would benefit from having him around.
“Having the greatest communicator in our party on the trail will be good for Democrats,” said Larson. “Bill Clinton has addressed [Lewinsky], and while I think it could be problematic for some, I think his ability to communicate and explain himself — he’s the best there is.”
Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., put her purse down, paused, and said “time will tell” if Clinton can continue to be an effective campaigner for Democrats.
“It’s a new point in time and the Me Too movement is in the here and now,” said Bustos. “The Me Too part of his history I think has to be reconciled.”
Bustos praised the “amazing moments” in Clinton’s presidency, and his “phenomenal” ability to relay complicated policy issues. But Clinton’s comments and his public but not private apology to Lewinsky, Bustos said, don’t seem like enough.
“The ball’s in his court, so to speak, to make this right,” she said.
Clinton has brushed off the idea that Democrats may not want him around in 2018, saying he’d “be grateful to stay out of the primaries.”
“All good things must come to an end,” said Jim Manley, Democratic strategist and former aide to Sen. Harry Reid.
“He’s one of the most talented politicians of my generation but I think that time has come and gone,” Manley said. “Despite all his skills he’s guaranteed to bring nothing but a distraction to the campaign trail.”
