Gillibrand Says Bill Clinton should have resigned over Lewinsky affair
Quote:
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, who holds Hillary Clinton’s former seat, said on Thursday that Bill Clinton should have resigned the presidency after his inappropriate relationship with an intern came to light nearly 20 years ago.
Asked directly if she believed Mr. Clinton should have stepped down at the time, Ms. Gillibrand took a long pause and said, “Yes, I think that is the appropriate response.”
But she also appeared to signal that what is currently considered a fireable offense may have been more often overlooked during the Clinton era.
“Things have changed today, and I think under those circumstances there should be a very different reaction,” Ms. Gillibrand said. “And I think in light of this conversation, we should have a very different conversation about President Trump, and a very different conversation about allegations against him.”
Ms. Gillibrand, who has longstanding ties to the Clintons, is the highest-profile elected Democratic official to say that Mr. Clinton should have stepped down as a result of his affair.
She was an early supporter of Mrs. Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and has spent countless hours raising money for Democratic women who run for office, citing Mrs. Clinton as a role model.
“In my adult life, politically, no one has inspired me to get off the sidelines and truly make a difference more than Hillary Clinton has,” Ms. Gillibrand said last year in an essay on why she was supporting Mrs. Clinton.
Ms. Gillibrand has also noted Mr. Clinton’s support for her own run for office. “I was lucky enough to receive guidance and mentorship from Hillary during that run, and was truly honored that President Bill Clinton campaigned for me in my first run for Congress in 2006,” she wrote in the same essay
The Clinton Lewinsky affair was between two consenting adults, not unwanted groping. That said after the massive publicity surrounding the Justice Clarence Thomas hearings earlier in the decade that workplace sexual harrassment was about boss employee power dynamics was well established.
Back then Clinton defenders said a persons private life should not be a factor in judgeing suitability for work. The voters agreed, democrates gained during the mid term elections during the scandal. Now the concept of a private life is is dated as the horse and buggy. Everything you ever said or did is open to revelation and judgement.
Interesting to note that Gillibrand did not mention the allegations of four women of
unconsensual sex including one of violent rape made at the time. The Senator is old enough to remember those times as are most of these people who are now claiming to be shocked and offended and believing the current accusers. At the time most had the attitude of Gloria Steinem who said Clinton’s actions against Paula Jones were just a pass.
This whole reckoning is about people bieng pissed about Trump getting the ultimate reward for predatory behaviors. If Trump lost or the or never ran for President the Weinstein story might have never been revealed or if it had it would have been no more then a few days of tabloid fodder. These things did happen and the dems know they can not get away with bieng silent or dismissing or defending preditory behavoir of thier fellow progressives in this climate.
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17 Nov 2017, 1:13 am
