I was 11 years old when the impeachment process against former President Bill Clinton began, but the scurrilous details of his misbehavior did not go unnoticed. A slightly sanitized version of the unfolding drama is recorded in my school composition book from that time period.
Twenty years have passed, and Clinton has recovered from his near fall from grace with little effort — until now. With the #MeToo movement forcing America to re-examine Clinton’s misdeeds, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has begun an aggressive multi-pronged campaign of revisionist history about the events of the 1990s.
Clinton now claims that her husband never used his office inappropriately when conducting a sexual affair with an unpaid intern. At 22 years old, Monica Lewinsky “was an adult,” Clinton says, as though this excuses the clear imbalance of power between the president of the United States and an intern. In the #MeToo climate, Clinton’s statement about her husband’s victim, who suffers from PTSD as a result of having her sexual history thrust into the national spotlight, is a gamble. On the Left, commentaters have seemed happy to gobble this statement up, deem it exculpatory, and disavow Lewinsky once more.
Clinton also claims that accusations made against her husband are “not like” the unconfirmed, and outright bizarre, allegations recently made against Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The accusations against her husband, Clinton says, were thoroughly investigated.
Those claims deserve to be addressed. Paula Jones’ accusation that Clinton exposed himself to her, and Kathleen Willey’s claims that Clinton fondled her and forced her hand on his crotch were both investigated. Accusations by Juanita Broaddrick that Clinton raped her in 1978 were investigated, with results inconclusive, as she “kept no evidence.”
However, in 1992, Clinton denied having an affair with Gennifer Flowers, only to acknowledge that he had, in fact, had sex with her when he was deposed about Jones’ accusations in 1998. Also while being deposed about Jones, Clinton lied about his affair with Lewinsky. Clinton came clean only after being presented with incontrovertible DNA evidence that he had, in fact, had sex with that woman.
The Clintons have always tried to make the impeachment a story about sex. Back in the 1990s, the Clintons and their supporters were so intent on reframing the optics of the scandal that they systematically began to dig up dirt on Republican congressmen who had extramarital affairs to force some kind of moral equivalency.
Claims of rape, whiffs of sexual assault, and extramarital affairs aside, it was never about sex. Clinton’s husband, the president of the United States, lied under oath when questioned about conduct unbefitting his position. He demonstrated, in the cases of Flowers and Lewinsky, that his words are not to be trusted. It is why so many Americans to this day do not believe a word the Clintons speak. It is why many who witnessed the way the Clintons treated Bill’s discards cannot consider the former first couple champions of women.
When asked last week whether her husband should have resigned in the wake of his impeachment, Clinton answered, “Absolutely not.” Twenty years on, Clinton still does not get the point.
For many reasons, Clinton’s timing for making her new claims was curious, until another reporter followed the money.
Hillary and Bill will soon be taking their show on the road in order to line their pockets and fill out the scandal-ridden Clinton Foundation for future bouts of political activism. Tickets for “An Evening With the Clintons” range from $69.50 to $699 at Detroit’s Fox Theater. At the Beacon Theatre in New York City, a Meet and Greet VIP package will run you just shy of $2,000.
The Clintons need to remain relevant and solvent, and with the #MeToo crowd coming for old blood, they must reinvent the past. But I remember when the president sullied my 11-year-old innocence with his sordid lies. Even if he paid me, I would not care to hear Bill Clinton waffle over the meaning of the word “is.”
Beth Bailey is a freelance writer from the Detroit area.
