Former President Bill Clinton once propositioned a one-time staffer to former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to join him in his hotel room while he was a married man, the political operative recounts in a new memoir.
In 1984, Karen Hinton, who earlier this year accused Cuomo of luring her to his hotel room and pulling her close, says she met Clinton, married to Hillary Clinton for almost a decade at that point, who was with a group of men in Greenville, South Carolina. That is where the then-Arkansas governor slipped her a note apparently inviting her to his hotel room, Hinton writes in her new book, Penis Politics, which is due to be released next month. The Washington Examiner obtained an advance copy.
“I felt like a fool, thinking this Governor wanted to hear my ideas about solving poverty,” she writes. “Humiliated, I tossed the napkin in a toilet, gathered my things, and got the hell out of the bar.”
ANDREW CUOMO ‘NOT ABSOLUTELY SURE’ HE NEVER KISSED SENIOR STAFFER ON THE LIPS: TESTIMONY
Hinton previously divulged some details of the alleged note story to former Washington Post investigative reporter Michael Isikoff, who included it in his 1999 book Uncovering Clinton.
The story again made headlines in 2015 amid tensions between Hinton’s former bosses, de Blasio and Clinton, according to her book. De Blasio and Clinton began to communicate “through the tabloids with all the maturity of schoolyard boys in a brawl,” and Cuomo “dredged up some ancient history” to retaliate against de Blasio’s office, where Hinton was working at the time, her book claims.
Hinton, dubbed the “Helen of Troy” by Politico for her positions in both Democrats’ offices, is providing a firsthand account on her own terms for the first time.
The slip of paper contained “the name of his hotel, his room number, and a question mark,” and Clinton passed it to Hinton while at the C&G Railway Depot, a train station converted into a restaurant and bar, for post-dinner drinks with a group of men, according to her book.
Although Hinton does not explicitly write it in the memoir itself, the book jacket says Clinton was “asking for a night of sex” in handing her the note.
Prior to receiving the note, Hinton says her “earlier discomfort” with Clinton had “faded” as she told him her views on an array of policy issues, during which he “shifted his focus entirely to” her.
“I was thrilled that a governor found my policy ideas so interesting,” she writes.
Clinton first invited the group to join him at the converted rail station while still at their initial meeting point, a South Carolina steak joint called Doe’s Eat Place.
“For some reason, Clinton stared at me the entire time, even when [writer] Willie [Morris] was talking directly to him. I tried to keep my eyes on Willie, and I darted my eyes back to Clinton only a few times,” Hinton writes of the dinner.
Clinton’s “gaze was unbroken and rapt and made [her] unsettled,” the book says.
When Clinton sought the presidency in 1992, Hinton said she didn’t think he could win “given his record of womanizing.”
“I watched a parade of women tell their stories about Clinton as he ran for President … To me, their stories rang true. And I recognized the look in their eyes a they made the rounds to tell their stories on television,” Hinton writes. “It was the look of someone who was deemed inconsequential, who wasn’t believed, because they were taking on a powerful man.”
A representative for Clinton did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
Hinton, who worked as press secretary when Cuomo was Clinton’s secretary of Housing and Urban Development, also accused her former boss of sexual misconduct. She said Cuomo, who went on to serve as governor of New York, summoned her to his hotel room and pulled her toward him.
Rich Azzopardi, a representative for Cuomo, slammed Hinton’s “attempt to rewrite history.”
“Karen Hinton is a known antagonist of the governor’s who is attempting to take advantage of this moment to score cheap points with made-up allegations from 21 years ago,” Peter Ajemian, who served as Cuomo’s director of communications, said. “All women have the right to come forward and tell their story — however, it’s also the responsibility of the press to consider self-motivation. This is reckless.”
Cuomo, who stepped down from the governorship on Aug. 24, was charged with forcible touching regarding a separate incident that allegedly occurred at the Executive Mansion, which he said “never” happened in newly released testimony. The former governor is expected to appear in court on Jan. 7.
Clinton, who served as president from 1993 to 2001, was impeached in 1998 on charges of obstruction of justice and lying under oath to cover up an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Clinton was acquitted by the Senate. The 75-year-old has been accused of sexual misconduct by a handful of other women, but he has denied the accusations.
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Penis Politics, published by the Sartoris Literary Group, is set to release Dec. 1.
