The Republican establishment might be dealing with the headache that is Roy Moore, but it’s had a side effect; it’s roped the Clintons back into the limelight with their history of sexual misconduct and abuse. Moore, the Republican candidate in Alabama’s Senate race, has been accused of molesting and sexually assaulting teenage girls. At least a half a dozen women have made accusations against Moore, which prompted the Republican Party to all but abandon Moore to his own devices, with Election Day less than three weeks away. The polls show a tightening race, but we’ll see what happens. This is deep red Alabama.
Yet, the allegations have also dredged up Bill Clinton and his past allegations, which include rape. Moreover, even media figures, like CNN’s Jake Tapper, noted how Moore’s accusers are shown deference and treated with respect. That was not the case with Bill Clinton. While not a united response, some feminists have written that while Moore is at the center of a media firestorm with his sexual misconduct accusations, the Left has to deal with their bad behavior during the Clinton years. The “slut shaming” that occurred, the standing by Bill no matter how awful the accusation because he’s a liberal Democrat. Liberals are obsessed with being on the right side of the arc of history; some are saying their side was on the wrong side of it with the Clintons. The chickens have come home to roost.
Of course, Hillary wants all of this to refocus on Donald Trump, who has a slew of allegations against him that have not gone anywhere. That’s not to say they’re untrue. We don’t know, but it’s peculiar that while multiple men in powerful positions across a variety of industries have had to come to terms with their alleged bad behavior—Trump has remained untouched. That should be another indicator to Hillary that a) other than liberals, people still don’t like you; b) they still remember; and c) how unpopular do you have to be where recent sexual misconduct allegations involving a Republican boomerang to smack you in the face instead of the man whose allegations were lobbed during the 2016 election? If Democrats really wanted to re-focus this whole sexual misconduct mess back to Trump, the Clintons have to go—and they’re not moving. It’s another reason why a lot of Democrats are really not happy that the power couple has refused to take their voyage into perpetual retirement.
Now, we have Rita Cosby grilling Hillary Clinton on her role in attacking Bill Clinton’s accusers, asking her if she felt any regrets over that on the November 17 broadcast of her radio show. Clinton also opened herself up to hypocrisy when she said if people want to apply what’s happening now with what occurred in the 1990s, that’s fine, but don’t include Bill in the process. Lady, that’s not how this works. A handful of Democrats, like Sen. Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY), have voiced their opinion that Bill Clinton should have resigned over the Lewinsky affair. Real Clear Politics partially transcribed the exchange. The relevant part beings at 1:50 mark:
RITA COSBY, HOST: Do you think that given the fact that it's been 9 women that have made various allegations against Roy Moore should he drop out of the race?
HILLARY CLINTON: Well I'm going to leave that to the Republican party because they're the ones that have to deal with this. And, look, we have a man who is accused of sexual assault sitting in the Oval Office, don't we? And the very credible accusations against him have not been taken seriously. So, I think that the Republicans have a big problem that they are going to have to address and it's not just confined to what's happening in Alabama...
People seemed to think he didn't have to be held accountable for it. And now we're seeing other accusations against other people but that doesn't mean what we learned in the [2016] campaign and what we can see in terms of the women who are still speaking out about their experiences with [Donald Trump] should be overlooked or forgotten.
COSBY: Now you talk about women and that they should be believed. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, your longtime friend, and political ally said in an interview this week that your husband should have resigned after his affair with Monica Lewinsky. What do you say to that?
CLINTON: Well I'm not exactly sure what she was trying to say. There has been some confusion about it. But, look, this was a painful time not only in our marriage but in our country as I've written about. But it was investigated fully. It was addressed at the time. He was held accountable. That is very different than what people seem to be remembering from that period because you can go back and look at the history. But right now this is not a distraction we should fall for. The Republicans are led by a man who admitted to sexually assaulting women. He bragged about it. And if we're going to encourage women to have the courage to be heard we can't excuse the president from this debate.
And, look, the Right and the Republican party need to answer for their own acts and tell America that what Roy Moore and the president did will not be tolerated.
COSBY: But how is that different than the allegations against your husband? Because do you concede that your husband might not have lasted in office if that happened today?
CLINTON: Well I don't know if we can rewrite and revise history. But look if the Justice Department wants to assign a special counsel to investigate President Trump that's the parallel. If they want to spend $70 million investigating every allegation anyone might have made against him that would be in line with what happened in the 90s.
So, if we want to hold people accountable, that happened in the 90s, and I think that's the parallel. If people want to look back in history and say what was done then should be done now then they should go forward and do that.
COSBY: But shouldn't they then look at allegations against your husband and others because some feel that it's a double standard.
CLINTON: I don't think so, Rita. I mean everything was investigating. Everything. I think that's the big difference. When somebody else is investigated to the tune of $70 million and a special prosecutor who wants to prosecute and a partisan Republican party that wants to impeach, that's the parallel. And the people of the United States rejected it, the Senate rejected it, but he was held accountable and he paid a price for it as was appropriate.
COSBY: Do you regret not saying something in support of the women? Because you've always said that women should be believed and yet George Stephanopoulos and others said that you were part of the attacking the victims, the women who were making the allegations against your husband. Do you regret that?
CLINTON: Look, I think every situation has to be judged on its own merits. And there were allegations that were disproved. There were allegations that were absolutely contradicted under sworn testimony. So, of course, you should give people who make such allegations the benefit of the doubt, that's what our system does, but then you have to investigate them, and that fully happened in the late 90s.
And what we've got here is something very different. You know, there's been no commitment to investigate the more than a dozen women who have made charges against President Trump and there's been no effort to really go into and understand what he was talking about in his Hollywood Access tape.
For all the talk about accountability, the fact remains that Bill escaped that public trial. He wasn’t held accountable, which is why the moral high ground is nowhere to be found with Hillary trying to play the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants card. And because of that a lot of people, some of who don’t deserve defending, can slip through the cracks. Everyone knows Hillary’s full of it.
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