WASHINGTON — Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hit back against criticism her husband, former President Bill Clinton, should have resigned in the wake of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and insisted his affair was not an abuse of power and Lewinsky “was an adult.”
In an interview with CBS on Sunday morning, Clinton defended her husband and said “absolutely not” in response to a question about whether he should have resigned after his affair with Lewinksy came to light more than 20 years ago.
New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who holds Hillary Clinton’s former seat, recently told The New York Times that the former President should have stepped down at the time.
“Yes, I think that is the appropriate response,” Gillibrand told the Times, when asked directly about the scandal.
Clinton said the affair between the former President and Lewinsky, a White House intern at the time, was not an abuse of power and said Lewinsky “was an adult.”
This 28 August, 1999, file photo shows then President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton at the East Hampton Airport in East Hampton, New York. (Photo: TIM SLOAN/AFP/Getty Images)
“But let me ask you this,” Clinton continued, “Where’s the investigation of the current incumbent, against whom numerous allegations have been made, and which he dismisses, denies, and ridicules?”
Clinton was referring to multiple allegations of sexual assault and harassment leveled against President Donald Trump, which Trump has denied.
The former secretary of state said of the subsequent investigation into her husband, “I believe, came out in the right place.”
Clinton was ultimately impeached over the scandal but was acquitted by the Senate and finished his term as President.
When asked what role, if any, she played in criticizing the character of the women who accused her husband of sexual misconduct, the former secretary of state said: “None.”
“No role,” Clinton said. “I take responsibility for my life and my actions.”
