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Former President Bill Clinton’s new memoir reportedly details his irritation at being questioned about his infamous affair with Monica Lewinsky during an interview six years ago.
Lewinsky was a White House intern in her early 20s during the Clinton administration when she became involved with the president, leading to public ridicule and an impeachment scandal after details of their affair were released.
The Guardian obtained a copy of Clinton’s new memoir, “Citizen,” which chronicles his life after his presidency, including an awkward 2018 NBC interview that turned to the subject.
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During the interview, “Today Show” host Craig Melvin surprised Clinton by grilling him on whether he would resign if his scandal had happened amid the 2018 #MeToo movement.
“The former president insisted no because, he reasoned, the impeachment was illegitimate and had to be fought,” The Guardian reported. “Then Melvin read from a Lewinsky column about how the MeToo reckoning changed her view of sexual harassment and asked if Clinton felt differently now.”
The report went on to quote an excerpt from the book where Clinton wrote, “I said, ‘No, I felt terrible then.’ ‘Did you ever apologize to her?’ I said that I had apologized to her and everybody else I wronged. I was caught off guard by what came next. ‘But you didn’t apologize to her, at least according to folks that we’ve talked to.’ I fought to contain my frustration as I replied that while I’d never talked to her directly, I did say publicly on more than [one] occasion I was sorry.”
According to The Guardian, “he was prepared to be asked why he had not apologized to Lewinsky in person but not to be accused of not apologizing at all.”
Clinton added that the interview “was not my finest hour,” but nonetheless criticized the interviewer for having been “barely in his teens when all this happened, and probably hadn’t been properly briefed.”
“Regardless, it’s always better to save your anger for what happens to other people, not yourself,” the former president reportedly added.
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“I live with it all the time,” Clinton wrote in “Citizens” of the Lewinsky scandal, while also complimenting her work on bullying. “I wish her nothing but the best.”
In 2021, Lewinsky gave a candid interview arguing that the former president “should want to apologize” in the same way that anyone who hurts another person through their words or actions should want to make amends.