In an interview published in Popula magazine weeks after he tragically hung himself in a hotel room, celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain spoke frankly about a wide range of topics and people, including the “entitled, rapey, gropey, grabby, disgusting” Bill Clinton, his enabler wife Hillary, and the disappointing Barack Obama. He also described how he imagined the death of Harvey Weinstein, whom Bourdain’s girlfriend has accused of sexually assaulting her.
Though Bourdain’s interview with journalist Maria Bustillos took place back in February, Bustillos finally published it on Sunday. Its content is not for the faint of heart, as Bourdain clearly felt free to be raw about some hot-button issues and famous people in his free-wheeling two-and-half-hour conversation with the journalist, a conversation that took place fittingly in one of his favorite Irish pubs.
“He talked about #MeToo and the powerful forces of evil arrayed against decent people, about Rose McGowan, about raising daughters, about the sexual mores of the 1970s,” writes Bustillos. “He told me how he imagined the death of Harvey Weinstein, a hilarious, weirdly specific fantasy that I’ll share with you in a moment. We talked about luxury, too.”
Below are some of the quotes that are making headlines, first his opinion on his “disappointment” with Hillary over her Harvey Weinstein statement:
Bourdain: [W]atching the Clinton apology on Weinstein, and [Asia’s] watching this statement, there was a lot of anticipation. People were really hoping she’d come out with a… I don’t know. Let’s just say with something different. I immediately tweeted my disappointment, very much shaped by what I saw around me. And I will tell you, that was really f***ing frightening, the reaction to that. You know, I voted for her.
Bustillos: I did, too.
Bourdain: I was really disappointed with the statement. But even by expressing that, the way that my comment was turned, very neatly—suddenly I wasn’t expressing disappointment in her statement; I was blaming her for Harvey Weinstein’s crimes. The way that turned very nicely was a good bit of artistry and deeply frightening to me and really, really …
After Bourdain admitted he had “no love for Clinton,” Bustillos asked, “Should we have gotten rid of Bill Clinton after the Lewinsky scandal?” “No,” said Bourdain. But then he said this:
Bourdain: Bill Clinton, look, the bimbo eruptions—it was f***ing monstrous. That would not have flown today. A piece of sh*t. Entitled, rapey, gropey, grabby, disgusting, and the way that he—and she—destroyed these women and the way that everyone went along, and, and are blind to this! Screamingly apparent hypocrisy and venality. How you can on the one hand howl at the moon about all these other predators. And not at least look back. OK, let’s say, well, it was all consensual: powerful men, starstruck women, okay fine, let’s accept it at its most charitable interpretation. Fine. He is a very charming man, I met him, he’s f***ing magnetic. As is she. When you’re in the room, you think wow, she’s really warm and nice and funny. But the way they efficiently dismantled, destroyed, and shamelessly discredited these women for speaking their truth is unforgivable. Unforgivable. Why didn’t we get rid of them? We should’ve gotten rid of them back then.
Bourdain also had some unflattering things to say about Barack Obama, whom he found “very unconvincing in public, much of the time,” though he found him in person to be “gracious, graceful, real, funny” and not calculating. “Minute one he started f***ing with us,” said Bourdain. “He promised transparency, he like—more whistleblowers were prosecuted than at any time. There’s not one f***king banker in jail. Not one! Jail me one f***in’ banker! These people stole nine million houses!”
Bourdain also described the death he imagined for Weinstein. “My theory of how he goes is he’s brushing his teeth in a bathroom, he’s naked in his famous bathrobe, which is flapping open, he’s holding his cell phone in one hand because you never know who on the Weinstein board has betrayed him recently, and he’s brushing his teeth,” he said.
On Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, Bourdain said, “Does Jared tweeze his eyebrows? They look manscaped. Those are not natural eyebrows. It’s like Howdy Doody time. … Can you see eight guys standing around, and Jared’s out of the room? And they’re all co-conspirators, they’re all saying, ‘ey don’t worry bout Jared, he’s f***in’ solid, the guy will stand up, he ain’t gonna say nothin’.’ No one has ever said that! That f***in’ little punk is gonna squeal, just show him a tray of jail food, the guy will f***in’ sh*t himself. That kid was a born snitch.”
In response to Bustillos celebrating the indictment of 13 Russians back in February, Bourdain said, “I think this is most useful because it makes it so much more difficult for Trump to fire Rosenstein or Mueller, now that you’ve shown, in a not offensive way: Nobody’s accusing you of anything! I think Trump’s going down for the money. Collusion is tricky to prove, it’s the money. And once they get too close, in my view he will declare victory, congratulate himself on the fantastic job he’s done and resign, saying the job is too small for him.”
H/T Daily Mail