Hillary Clinton in 2015 must really loathe the Hillary Clinton who lived in the White House in the 1990’s.
During an interview last week, Hillary Clinton told the online outlet Refinery 29 that women who report instances of sexual assault must be “heard and believed.” Otherwise, Clinton said, those women may feel pressured to keep quiet:
You know, first of all, there needs to be a decision in our country and on every college campus that any woman who reports an assault should be heard and believed, and there should be a process that is in place — not made up every time that something like this happens — to examine what she is saying, to begin to hear from people to make some kind of decision that is viewed as fair to everybody, because it does need to be fair to everybody. But many women like her feel that they are basically being asked to remain silent. That nobody wants to hear from them, that nobody wants to believe them, and nobody wants to have the comprehensive services that they need.
Clinton’s remarks reflect the consensus of many feminists who believe activities like examining evidence and interviewing witnesses before pronouncing guilt are tantamount to denying that rape exists. Granted, it’s a view completely at odds with the foundational American legal principle of “innocent until proven guilty,” but it’s one held by a vocal segment of the Democratic party’s base.
That’s not what makes Hillary Clinton’s new position on sexual assault claims so fascinating, however. No, it’s her attitude in the 1990’s towards multiple women who accused Bill Clinton of sexual assault and misconduct that makes Hillary’s new view so intriguing. Back then, when she was doing her best to run interference for Bill, Hillary most certainly did not believe that sexual assault survivors should be “heard and believed.” Oh, no. The policy back then was that women who accused Bill Clinton of sexual assault were to be immediately slimed and shamed.
Most people have heard of Monica Lewinsky, Bill Clinton’s intern paramour whom Hillary once characterized as a “narcissistic loony toon.” Lesser known to those who didn’t follow politics in the 1990’s are names like Kathleen Willey, Juanita Broaddrick, Paula Jones, and Gennifer Flowers.
Willey has maintained for decades that Bill Clinton sexually assaulted her in the oval office in 1993. According to Willey, Hillary went out of her way to enable Bill’s predatory behavior by attacking his victims:
“She enabled his behavior. It’s as simple as that. She looks the other way,” Willey told radio host Aaron Klein on Sunday. “She might throw a tantrum, but she enabled it to happen again and again and again and again. And then she chooses to go after the women that he hooks up with, to ruin them again and again and again and again. And that’s how it works.”
Then there’s Juanita Broaddrick, who claimed that Bill Clinton violently raped her in a hotel room in 1978:
Juanita Broaddrick told her story to a national television audience last night, saying she did not tell authorities 21 years ago of her contention that Bill Clinton sexually assaulted her because “I just don’t think anyone would have believed me.”
In a gripping account punctuated by sobs, the Arkansas woman told “Dateline NBC” that in her Little Rock hotel room, Clinton suddenly “turned me around and started kissing me, and that was a real shock. I first pushed him away. I just told him ‘no.’ . . . He tries to kiss me again. He starts biting on my lip. . . . And then he forced me down on the bed. I just was very frightened. I tried to get away from him. I told him ‘no.’ . . . He wouldn’t listen to me.”
But Broaddrick could not remember the date, even the month, of the alleged 1978 incident. And NBC’s Lisa Myers reported that Broaddrick, a volunteer in Clinton’s first gubernatorial campaign, attended a Clinton fund-raiser three weeks later. “I think I was still in denial,” Broaddrick said. “I still felt very guilty at that time, that it was my fault. By letting him come to the room, I had given him the wrong idea.”
Asked about Broaddrick’s allegation at a news conference earlier in the day, President Clinton said: “Well, my counsel has made a statement about the . . . issue, and I have nothing to add to it.” Attorney David E. Kendall’s statement called the charge “absolutely false.”
If the name David Kendall looks familiar, it’s because it is. Kendall is now Hillary Clinton’s personal attorney working to prevent her from being charged for mishandling of classified information related to her secret unsanctioned e-mail server.
Unsurprisingly, Broaddrick holds a dim view of Hillary Clinton, due in large part to Hillary’s efforts to make her shut up about the whole Bill Clinton/rape thing. Here’s an excerpt from an open letter Broaddrick wrote to Hillary during the former first lady’s first Senate run in 2000:
I had obligated myself to be at this rally prior to my being assaulted by your husband in April, 1978. I had made up my mind to make an appearance and then leave as soon as the two of you arrived. This was a big mistake, but I was still in a state of shock and denial. You had questioned the gentleman who drove you and Mr. Clinton from the airport. You asked him about me and if I would be at the gathering. Do you remember? You told the driver, “Bill has talked so much about Juanita”, and that you were so anxious to meet me. Well, you wasted no time. As soon as you entered the room, you came directly to me and grabbed my hand. Do you remember how you thanked me, saying “we want to thank you for everything that you do for Bill”. At that point, I was pretty shaken and started to walk off. Remember how you kept a tight grip on my hand and drew closer to me? You repeated your statement, but this time with a coldness and look that I have seen many times on television in the last eight years. You said, “Everything you do for Bill”. You then released your grip and I said nothing and left the gathering.
What did you mean, Hillary? Were you referring to my keeping quiet about the assault I had suffered at the hands of your husband only two weeks before? Were you warning me to continue to keep quiet? We both know the answer to that question.
Then there’s Paula Jones, whose sexual harassment suit against Bill Clinton eventually led to his impeachment and disbarment. How did Team Clinton respond to Jones’s allegations of sexual assault? Did they act as though she had a right to be “heard and believed?” Hardly. Instead of treating Paula Jones with care and compassion, long-time Clinton family confidante and current Hillary Clinton surrogate James Carville implied that Jones was nothing more than a trailer park prostitute.
“If you drag a hundred dollar bill through a trailer park, you never know what you’ll find,” he said at the time. Carville even went so far as to set up a web site for the exclusive purpose of personally smearing Paula Jones and other Clinton victims and skeptics.
And if you’re wondering where Carville learned to do awful things like that, he apparently learned by watching Hillary Clinton. Here’s how Slate of all places describes Hillary’s history of silencing alleged victims of sexual assault:
According to Carl Bernstein’s A Woman in Charge, as her husband prepared to run for president, she pushed to get sworn statements from women he’d been rumored to have been involved with, statements in which they were supposed to say they’d had no relationship with him. She even interviewed one of these women herself, at her law firm. She also led efforts to undermine Gennifer Flowers, whom she referred to as “trailer trash.”
Do any of these examples paint a portrait of a woman with a heart for sexual assault victims? Or do they instead provide a sketch of a woman hellbent on acquiring and maintaining power at all costs?
Who knows, though. Maybe Hillary really has changed. Maybe she really does believe that women who make allegations of sexual assault actually deserve to be listened to. Maybe Hillary truly believes that it should now be automatically assumed that all sexual assault victims are telling the truth.
Thankfully, there’s an easy way to figure out if she’s had a sincere change of heart. Her answer to a simple yes or no question, if any in the media dare ask it in her presence, can instantly clear up all the confusion surrounding Hillary’s new sexual assault policy. Here’s the question for Hillary Clinton that could put the issue to rest for good.
Do you, Hillary Clinton, believe Kathleen Willey, Juanita Broaddrick, and Paula Jones?
