Monica Lewinsky, a former White House intern who had an affair with former President Bill Clinton in the late 1990s, said in a recent interview that when the affair was revealed, Clinton should have resigned.
On the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, released on Wednesday, Lewinsky expressed her belief that the situation could have been handled differently.
In a recent interview with Alex Cooper, Lewinsky stated, “I think the right way to handle a situation like that would have been to probably say it was nobody’s business and resign.”
She went on: “Or to find a way of staying in office that was not lying and not throwing a young person who is just starting out in the world under the bus.”
After admitting to the affair, Clinton was impeached in 1998. Still, Lewinsky admitted that the situation was complicated: “At the same time, I hear myself saying that, and it is like, ‘Okay, but we are also talking about the most powerful office in the world.'” I do not want to be naive either.”
Lewinsky reflected on how quickly she was portrayed negatively in the media following her affair.
“I think for five seconds, it was sympathetic and maybe after about a week, once the White House got in gear, I was very quickly painted as a stalker, a whore, mentally unstable, a bimbo,” she told CNN. “There was a creation of a version of me that I did not recognize.”
In the episode, Lewinsky discussed the White House’s handling of the scandal and Clinton’s denials. She stated, “It was gaslighting,” “I believe that was what I experienced on a larger scale. “It was devastating.”
Lewinsky acknowledged that Clinton’s actions were vile, but she also acted incorrectly during that time. She went on: “Let us recognize that while there were so many ways that Bill’s behavior was more reprehensible than mine, I did make mistakes.”
Monica Lewinsky is now an anti-bullying activist and has launched a new podcast called “Reclaiming With Monica Lewinsky.”
According to HuffPost, Clinton’s book, Citizens, included a mention of Lewinsky and his hopes for her future.
Regarding the scandal, Clinton wrote that he “always regrets” the affair and praised her for battling bullying.
