Bill Clinton’s contentious #MeToo-themed interview with NBC’s “Today” show stole the headlines Monday after the philandering former president asserted that he “did the right thing” in response to his infamous affair with Monica Lewinsky and suggested that he is the real victim because people have supposedly omitted “a lot of the facts” about the story. But despite the timely theme of his sit-down with NBC’s Craig Melvin, one of Clinton’s accusers is pointing out that NBC failed to press Clinton on the most serious accusations against him.
Juanita Broaddrick, who has consistently accused Clinton of violently raping her in 1978, including in a famous interview with NBC in 1999, slammed NBC for “failing” to fully confront Clinton about the allegations that he “perpetrated sexual assault and harassment” against multiple women.
“I mean, this person had a perfect opportunity today to ask Bill Clinton about the allegations of sexual assault and rape,” Broaddrick told Breitbart in an interview published Monday. “Why doesn’t NBC have me on to discuss the rape? Of course, they are the same network that held my 1999 interview until after the impeachment hearing.”
“You know, his interview took away so much from the real victims over the years,” added Broaddrick. “The victims against which he perpetrated the sexual assault and harassment and of course raping me. I’m not concerned with his consensual sex. I care about him being brought to justice for the crimes he committed against me and the others. That’s what I care about.”
Despite having conducted the interview with Broaddrick in 1999, NBC appears reluctant to bring up the allegation, though the original interviewer, Lisa Myers, stated in 2014 that “nothing has come up since that story was reported that in any way undercuts what Juanita Broaddrick said.”
As Broaddrick points out, NBC notoriously waited a month after filming the 1999 interview to finally air it. After filming it on January 20, 1999, they waited to air the interview for more than 30 days until February 24, over a week after the Senate voted to acquit Clinton on February 12.
In his interview with NBC’s “Today” Monday morning, Clinton portrayed himself as the victim of overblown allegations and faulty reporting and insisted that he was actually acting nobly in the impeachment process to “defend the Constitution.”
“A lot of the facts have been conveniently omitted to make the story work, I think partly because they’re frustrated that they got all these serious allegations against the current occupant of the Oval Office and his voters don’t seem to care,” said Clinton. “I think I did the right thing. I defended the Constitution.”
Asked by Melvin if in light of the #MeToo era he now felt he owed Lewinsky an apology, Clinton said no way. “No, I do not — I have never talked to her,” he said. “But I did say publicly on more than one occasion that I was sorry. That’s very different. The apology was public.”
The whole situation, he said, is in the past. “This was litigated 20 years ago. Two-thirds of the American people sided with me,” said Clinton.