Fact-Checking Bill Clinton’s meltdown on NBC’s ‘Today Show’

“Yes [I have apologized to Monica Lewinsky], and nobody believes I got out of that for free. I left the White House $16 million in debt, but you typically have ignored gaping facts in describing this, and I bet you don’t even know them. This was litigated 20 years ago. Two-thirds of the American people sided with me. They were not insensitive to that. I had a sexual harassment policy when I was governor in the ’80s. I had two women chiefs of staff when I was governor. Women were overrepresented in the attorney general’s office in the ’70s, for their percentage in the bar. I have had nothing but women leaders in my office since I left. You are giving one side and omitting facts.”
— Former president Bill Clinton, in an interview on NBC’s “Today Show,” June 4, 2018

The former president, challenged about how his sexual transgressions look in the #MeToo world, responded with a defense that stressed how much he had done for women as a politician. To a considerable extent, that is besides the point in today’s context, where putative supporters of women’s rights (such as New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman) have been forced to step down because of disturbing allegations about their treatment of women.

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