Former President Bill Clinton’s people may want to consider pulling the plug on his book tour.
Things got off to a bad start last week when he was questioned about his treatment of former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, with whom he was caught having an affair.
Clinton, who is out now promoting his new book, The Missing President, faced another question about the former intern recently when PBS’s Judy Woodruff asked him to respond to comparisons some have drawn between his treatment of Lewinsky and the sexual misconduct allegations brought against disgraced former Sen. Al Franken.
Clinton’s response was … not good.
“I think it’s a good thing that we should all have higher standards,” the former president responded. “I think the norms have really changed in terms of what you can do to somebody against their will, how much you can crowd their space, make them miserable at work,” Clinton said. “You don’t have to physically assault somebody to make them, you know, uncomfortable at work or at home or in their other, just walking around. That, I think is good.”
Clinton continued, defending Franken, who resigned last year after a total of eight women accused him of unwanted touching and kissing.
“I think that, I will be honest, the Franken case for me, was a difficult case, a hard case. There may be things I don’t know. But I, maybe I’m just an old-fashioned person, but it seemed to me that there were 29 women on ‘Saturday Night Live’ that put out a statement for him, and that the first and most fantastic story was called, I believe, into question,” the former president said.
“Believe all women” indeed.
Just so we’re clear here: Clinton’s alleged misconduct goes far beyond making someone feel “uncomfortable.” He has been accused of rape, most notably by Juanita Broaddrick, whom the press has never quite taken seriously even though she told people about the incident at the time.
So, between Clinton soft-pedaling the things for which he has been accused, and his running defense for Franken, it seems pretty clear the former president hasn’t actually changed at all between now and when he was in office. It’s the same old Slick Willie as before, and we’re all watching it play out live in the #MeToo era.
I’d say it’s time for Stephen Colbert to fire up the old media rehabilitator, but it looks like Clinton’s remarks in his interview with Woodruff managed somehow to go largely ignored this weekend. Some in the national press are talking about his comments now, but I doubt greatly that Clinton will face similar pushback like he did after he responded last week to questions about his treatment of Lewinsky.
Like always, Clinton will probably walk away from this unscathed, because not enough leaders in politics or media will press him to answer for the terrible things of which he has been accused. Lucky for him.
