Former PresidentBill Clintonwasn’t happy withhis controversial appearance on NBC’sToday, either.
Clinton has come under fire for the chat, which aired on Monday, during which he admitted thathe had never apologized directly to the former White House intern for the scandal that ensued after their headline-making affair— nor did he feel he owed her a personal apology.
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Clinton claimed that the aired portion of the interview had been edited. “When I saw the interview…they had to distill it and it looked like it said I didn’t apologize and had no intention to,” Clinton told Colbert. “And I was mad at me!”
“Here is what I want to say: it wasn’t my finest hour,” he continued. “But the important thing is, that was a very painful thing that happened 20 years ago and I apologized to my family, to Monica Lewinsky and her family, to the American people. I meant it then, I meant it now. I’ve had to live with the consequences every day since.”
He added: “I still believe this #MeToo movement is long overdue, necessary, and should be supported.”
On Wednesday,Todayreleased the full, 22-minute interview with Clinton and Patterson.On Wednesday morning,Todayco-hostSavannah Guthrieaddressed the former president’s latest remarks while chatting with interviewer Craig Melvin, saying, “That must be a little bit surreal for you to hear the former President talking about you [Melvin], but I think the tape speaks for itself. You of course did not assert that he never apologized, you asked whether he apologized.”
Lewinsky, now 44, was 22 when she began her affair with Clinton.
She was immediately thrust into the spotlight once their relationship was made public, the scandal dominating the news cycle for years while a high-profile investigation andthe president’s impeachment followed suit. Lewinsky has said the experiencewas “a living hell”and led to her being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
“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,” he said onToday. “I think I did the right thing. I defended the Constitution.”
The 42nd president also said that he apologized for what happened publicly, explaining: “I apologized to everybody in the world. … I’ve never talked to her. But I did say, publicly, on more than one occasion, that I was sorry. That’s very different. The apology was public.”
In aVanity Fairessay published in February of this year, Lewinsky noted that since the dawn of the #MeToo era,her experience is finally being viewed through a different lens.
“Until recently (thank you,Harvey Weinstein), historians hadn’t really had the perspective to fully process and acknowledge that year of shame and spectacle,” she wrote inVanity Fair, adding that even though what occurred between herself and Clinton wasn’t sexual assault, “we now recognize that it constituted a gross abuse of power.”
She also wrote, “I now see how problematic it was that the two of us even got to a place where there was a question of consent. Instead, the road that led there was littered with inappropriate abuse of authority, station, and privilege.”
source: people.com
