Monica Lewinsky Destroys GOP Hopes of Using Bill’s Scandal Against Hillary Clinton

Monica Lewinsky is back, and she is debunking the talking points that Republicans are hoping to use against Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has been going around the country for months calling former President Clinton a sexual predator who abused his power.

On Meet The Press, Paul said,

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Well, you know, I mean the Democrats one of their big issues is they have concocted and says Republicans are committing a war on women. One of the workplace laws and rules that I think are good is that bosses shouldn’t prey on young interns in their office, and I think really the media seems to have given President Clinton a pass on this.

He took advantage of a girl that was twenty years old and an intern in his office. There is no excuse for that, and that is predatory behavior, and should be something we shouldn’t want to associate with people who would take advantage of a young girl in his office. This isn’t having an affair. I mean this isn’t me saying he’s had an affair we shouldn’t talk to him. Someone who takes advantage of a young girl in their office. I mean really? And then they have the gall to stand up and say Republicans are having a war on women.

Republicans like Sen. Paul are trying to paint her as the victim, but Monica Lewinsky tells a vastly different story. Vanity Fair has published excerpts from an upcoming story that was written by Lewinsky herself, “Maintaining that her affair with Clinton was one between two consenting adults, Lewinsky writes that it was the public humiliation she suffered in the wake of the scandal that permanently altered the direction of her life: “Sure, my boss took advantage of me, but I will always remain firm on this point: it was a consensual relationship. Any ‘abuse’ came in the aftermath, when I was made a scapegoat in order to protect his powerful position. . . . The Clinton administration, the special prosecutor’s minions, the political operatives on both sides of the aisle, and the media were able to brand me. And that brand stuck, in part because it was imbued with power.”

I don’t think this is a path that any Republican should want to go down in 2016. The Lewinsky scandal stuff didn’t work in the late 90s, and it definitely isn’t going to work nearly 20 years later.

The interesting thing about Lewinsky’s quote above is that she is blaming both former President Clinton’s throwing her under the bus, Republicans, and the media for the fact that she has been branded for life. I believe that it is time to let Monica Lewinsky live her life. She wasn’t the first woman in history to have an affair with the President Of The United States, and she probably won’t be the last.

The strategy of using the Lewinsky scandal to tarnish Hillary Clinton is destined to backfire. Republicans would only serve to alienate and anger more women if they chose to make what happened during Bill Clinton’s second term a focus of the 2016 election.

Monica Lewinsky’s own words illustrate just how wrong it is to bring this scandal up again. Rand Paul has no idea what he is talking about, and he will definitely regret it if he chooses to go there with Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association