Hillary Clinton defended her husband in an interview over the weekend, adamantly denying that his affair with intern Monica Lewinsky was an abuse of power. She also said he should not have resigned over his impeachment for lying about the scandal.
"In retrospect, do you think Bill should've resigned in the wake of the Monica Lewinsky scandal?" CBS’ “Sunday Morning” host Tony Dokoupil asked.
"Absolutely not," Clinton replied.
"It wasn't an abuse of power?" he pressed.
"No. No," she insisted.
Dokoupil’s questioning was in the context of a report about the rise of female candidates, which is, in part, a response to the #MeToo movement.
"There are people who look at the incidents of the 90s and they say, 'A president of the United States cannot have a consensual relationship with an intern; the power imbalance is too great,'" he said.
"… who was an adult," Hillary responded. "But let me ask you this: Where's the investigation of the current incumbent [president], against whom numerous allegations have been made, and which he dismisses, denies, and ridicules?
"So, there was an investigation [of President Clinton], and it, as I believe, came out in the right place."
Hillary Clinton: Bill should "absolutely not" have resigned over Lewinsky scandal https://t.co/an8uyTOo6W pic.twitter.com/LGCqN7VG7p
— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 15, 2018
Earlier this year former Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) said Clinton resigning would’ve been “the appropriate response.”
Clinton pushed back, however, and said he was glad he fought to stay in office, explaining that Gillibrand and likeminded critics are “living in a different context.”