Monica Lewinsky, the former White House intern infamous for having an affair with Bill Clinton, is back under the spotlight again for finally talking about that affair and how it was not a great experience to have at that young age.
During Clinton’s presidency back in the late 1990s, Monica and the former President allegedly had an affair that lasted for almost 18 months between the years 1995-1997. While Bill Clinton had initially vehemently opposed having any such relationship with her, he had later accepted his involvement with Monica. Also, he took complete responsibility for what happened between the two.
On Wednesday’s episode of Call Her Daddy, Lewinsky sat with Alex Cooper, the host, and poured her heart out about the affair with Clinton. Lewinsky is now 51 years old, yet her words showed how badly the whole thing had impacted her and how that incident still remains one of the defining moments of her life.
After their shocking affair was made public and a whole investigation was led into it, Clinton publicly denied having any kind of sexual relationship with Lewinsky . Talking about the same, Cooper asked her on the podcast, “the White House you left out to dry after the president made a public statement claiming he never had sexual relations with you, how did you feel hearing him say that?”
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To this, Lewinsky replied, “In the moment, I was split because I felt so guilty. I felt so guilty for everything. I felt like having this become public was my fault.” She also added, “I didn’t want him to lose his job, so there was a part of me that felt good… deny it. Then there was a part of me that was so humiliated and to have the most powerful man in the world saying, basically, you’re damaged goods. It’s not something you want as a 51-year-old and not something you want as a 24-year-old woman.”
Her words clearly showed how that scar has really not dried up even after all these years. If looked from an unbiased perspective, her reaction is valid because, as mentioned by Cooper on the show, Lewinsky was portrayed almost as a stalker who had this one-sided thing for the President. However, there was clear evidence of Clinton’s involvement and yet, for a while all of those were ignored and it was only Lewinsky’s name that was pulled through mud.
Talking about how it felt when people who knew the truth blatantly lied about these things, Lewinsky said, “well, it was gaslighting. So, I think that was what I experienced on a pretty large scale, and it was devastating. It was devastating at the time.” She also mentioned that she feels that the right response from the White House would have been the resignation of Clinton, but that did not happen.
Should Bill Clinton have resigned after the Lewinsky affair in retrospect?
byu/engadine_maccas1997 inAskALiberal
While she criticized the way the whole situation was dealt with, she also mentioned that somewhere, it was her fault. She said, “did make mistakes,” but she also maintained that no matter what she did, given Clinton’s power and position, he had more responsibility in the matter.
With this incident getting attention repeatedly, social media has also been abuzz with mixed reactions. While some believe Lewinsky is right on what she is saying, some opinions say she should stop making her life revolve around the affairs she had with the wrong people.
