The Monica Lewinsky scandal appears to be rearing its ugly head again, this time, as a GOP strategy to inflict damage to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential run.
The scandal, which remarkably was more than 15 years ago, involved then President Bill Clinton and White House intern, Monica Lewinsky, in a much-publicized affair. What was most offensive and memorable was that Clinton denied the affair repeatedly before finally owning up to the indiscretion, roughly six months after his fervent declaration of innocence.
When he admitted to the affair, after proof began to surface, he claimed, “I did have a relationship with Miss Lewinsky that was not appropriate,” Clinton said on August 27, 1998. “In fact, it was wrong.”
Although the Clintons worked through the scandal, and it fizzled years ago, obviously Lewinsky’s name will continue to reemerge in an effort to sully Hillary Clinton’s run for president.
On NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday, Kentucky’s Republican Senator Rand Paul defended his wife’s, Kelly Ashby’s comment to “Vogue” magazine stating that Bill Clinton’s affair as president with then White House intern Monica Lewinsky was “predatory, offensive to women.”
“Bill Clinton’s relationship with Monica Lewinsky should complicate his return to the White House, even as first spouse,” Ashby told “Vogue.”
But others seem to think this dirt slinging about an event that occurred over a decade ago is just an attempt at a roadblock to Hillary Clinton’s run for presidency.
Bill Clinton did say, in a recent LA Times article, titled Clinton Calls GOP Ad Campaign a Ploy, that he hopes the public has seen the “inner changes” in him since he acknowledged his affair with Monica S. Lewinsky and charged that Republicans are using the matter as a campaign issue to distract voters from their unpopular positions on key policies from education to HMO reform.
“I hope the American people have seen in me over these last few weeks a real commitment to doing what I told them I would do from the beginning: to try to atone to them for what happened and to try to redouble my efforts to be a good president,” Clinton said.
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