Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on Sunday that it was “probably” a mistake for Democrats to “give Bill Clinton a pass” on the multiple sexual misconduct allegations against him, as well as his affair with Monica Lewinsky.
“Do you think Democrats, in hindsight, made a mistake by giving Bill Clinton a pass all those years over his treatment of women?” Jonathan Karl asked the New York congresswoman.
“Probably,” she answered. “I actually don’t think this is as partisan — I wouldn’t look at this through a partisan lens. I think that this is part of an evolution that we’re having as a country. Women have been historically mistreated. I don’t think that that is a controversial thing to say.”
“We still have a pay gap, which is persistent by inequalities in parental leaves. Inequalities in, you know, the fact women don’t get guaranteed paid leave … When it comes to President Clinton, I think it’s not just Democrats, I think that we have historically from Anita Hill to the present day I think that women have historically bared a lot of adversity in the work place,” she continued.
“From Anita Hill to the present day, I think that women have historically beared a lot of difficulty, adversity in the workplace,” Ocasio-Cortez also said, referencing the woman who accused Justice Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment in 1991. Former Vice President Joe Biden, who was then chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, took flak for asking questions of Hill in a way that some regarded as overly contentious.
Ocasio-Cortez also touched on Biden’s history of making women uncomfortable during in-person interactions, saying it is not on the same level as sexual misconduct, but that he still has some work to do to convince women voters that he understands his actions.
