Hillary Clinton has rarely spoken about the cheating scandal of 1998 which involved her husband, then-President of the United States Bill Clinton, and his 22-year-old intern, Monica Lewinsky.
Rarely spoken, until now.
Clinton sat down with veteran US journalist Diane Sawyer for news broadcaster ABC, and it seems no topic was off limits.
From money — Clinton says the family was broke when they left the White House — to forgiveness, the interview gave viewers a rare insight into the mind of the former First Lady and possible future POTUS.
The interview soon turned to the Lewinsky scandal. According to both Sawyer and Clinton, Lewinsky had to be brought up because she had recently written a piece for The New Yorker, detailing the humiliation she felt in the years after her affair with the former president broke.
In her own interview, Clinton took the the high road and said she wishes Lewinsky well.
“I would wish her well. I hope that she is able to… think about her future and construct a life that she finds meaning and satisfaction in.”
Bravo. Eighteen years on from the political world’s most talked about affair and Clinton expertly kept her composure and addressed the scandal quickly and succinctly when asked. That’s some amazing willpower at play — and possibly some excellent media training. Either way, it was brilliant.
Clinton is promoting her new memoir, Hard Choices, which is the second book the possible presidential candidate has written. Her first, titled Living History, was released in 2001.
Here’s the interview, with Clinton’s comments in full. The interview discusses the scandal at the one minute mark.
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If you can’t watch it right now, here is the transcript:
Diane Sawyer: Monica Lewinsky’s back in the news.
Hillary Clinton: Well, she’s perfectly free to do that. She is, in my view, an American who gets to express herself however she chooses, but that’s not something that I spend a lot of time thinking about.
Diane Sawyer: Really?
Hillary Clinton: Really. Really. Yeah, I mean, I wrote about it in my book ‘Living History,’ I dealt with it at the time, I have moved on, and that’s how I see, you know, my life and my future.
Diane Sawyer: You’re not looking at me thinking, “Here she is, asking these questions again”?
Hillary Clinton: No because I knew you would, I knew you’d have to. I mean, it’s something in the news. You have every right to ask and I have every right to tell you how I feel.
Diane Sawyer: Did you call her a narcissistic looney-tune?
Hillary Clinton: I am not going to comment on what I did or did not say back in the late 90s.
Diane Sawyer: She has said she has lived all of these years as a punch line. Is there anything you would say to her about her life?
Hillary Clinton: Well, I would wish her well. I hope that she is able to, you know, think about her future and construct a life that she finds meaning and satisfaction in.
Right there. That’s how you handle a major political scandal while keeping your dignity and grace intact.
Click through our gallery to see more of Hillary and Bill Clinton, and Monica Lewinsky.
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