As long as there are journalists in the U.S., there will be apologists for Bill Clinton.
With the exception of the Obamas and the Kennedys, few in public life have enjoyed as much protection and support from the U.S. press as America’s 42nd president.
Yes, the Clintons have endured unflattering coverage, but usually only when it’s unavoidable. It takes an FBI investigation or articles of impeachment to attract national media scrutiny. And even then, many in the American press are perfectly content to dismiss, downplay, or explain away whatever legitimately awful or terrible thing the Clintons are caught saying or doing.
Take, for example, CNBC’s John Harwood’s generous spin of former President Bill Clinton’s disastrous appearance on Monday’s “Today” show.
“Through the lens of ‘Me Too’ now, do you think differently or feel more responsibility?” asked USA Today’s Craig Melvin, referring to former White House intern Monica Lewinsky’s claim she suffered PTSD following the intern sex scandal.
Clinton responded in an interview that aired Monday, “No, I felt terrible then. And I came to grips with it.”
“Did you apologize?” Melvin continued.
“Yes, and nobody believes that I got out of that for free. I left the White House 16 million dollars in debt,” Clinton responded. He had to clarify later that no, he never actually did apologize personally to Lewinsky.
He continued, taking aim at the press, saying, “But you typically have ignored gaping facts in describing this and I bet you don’t even know them. This was litigated 20 years ago. Two-thirds of the American people sided with me, they were not insensitive to that.”
Asked whether he thinks he owes Lewinsky an apology, Clinton said, “No, I do not. I have never talked to her. But I did say publicly on more than one occasion that I was sorry. That’s very different. The apology was public.”
This is amazing. Only Clinton could play the victim in case where he preyed on, abused, and scapegoated someone else.
“Through the lens of #MeToo now, do you think differently or feel more responsibility?… Did you ever apologize to her [Lewinsky]?” @craigmelvin to Bill Clinton pic.twitter.com/rXcixhDHER
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) June 4, 2018
Most people would look at this “Today” interview and see an angry, bitter old man who is unwilling to accept responsibility for his actions decades later. Most people would see a man who refuses to accept that his choices have hurt and humiliated others.
But not Harwood!
“[P]erhaps any of us with the experiences in political life of Bill and Hillary Clinton would feel the same suspicion/anger/bitterness toward the media,” the CNBC journalist said Monday on social media. “[I]n any case it contributed to her 2016 defeat for the presidency.”
Ha! The Clintons developed that tough shell because they got such bad coverage, that’s all!
Asked to clarify his remarks, Harwood added later, “not defending them at all … Clintons hurt themselves with their powerful anger toward (people like me in) the press. Bill Clinton looked bad in today’s interview (about his very bad conduct). But I understand why they feel it after 40 yrs of political battles.”
No matter what they do, the Clintons will always have defenders in the press looking for ways to explain how it isn’t all that bad, and it isn’t really their fault. (While we’re at it: the post-2016 narrative alleging national media were too tough on Hillary Clinton is one of the funniest political spins in recent memory.)
Imagine if President Trump, who came up in the world on a steady diet of (often deserved) negative tabloid press, were given this sort of consideration today. It’s really quite hysterical to imagine. The complaints about FOX News or Sinclair media and their pro-Trump sympathies, coming from Clinton’s defenders, evince all the self-awareness of a small insect.
Do they not realize they’re just a better-dressed version of what they deride?
