I kølvandet på Henry Weinstein og andre liberale sex-krænkere bliver nu også Bill Clintons anklagere taget alvorligt. Det er første gang de bliver troet. Så sent som sidste efterår blev kvinderne affejet.
Den republikanske senator-kandidat, Ray Moore, bliver konfronteret med 38 år gamle historier. Hvorfor skal Bill Clinton gå fri? spørger medier som New York Times og the Atlantic.
Når deres historier bliver konkrete og man lytter til dem, er de vanskelige at afvise.
Paula Jones, Kathleen Wiley and Juanita Broaddrick have long accused Bill Clinton of sexual harassment or worse.
Clinton «gik hele vejen»:
Broaddrick accused Clinton of violently raping her in an Arkansas hotel room while she was volunteering on his campaign for governor.
Hvis offentligheden skal tro Ray Moores anklagere, hvorfor så ikke Clintons? De har sagt det samme i mange år.
Der er intet elegant eller forførende ved historierne om Bill:
Wiley accused Clinton of making advances on her and groping her in the Oval Office — the same place where Clinton instructed a young intern, Monica Lewinsky, to perform oral sex on him.
Paula Jones accused Clinton of sexually harassing her at an Arkansas hotel room where she worked. After making several (unsuccessful) advances towards her, Jones said, Clinton “lowered his trousers and underwear, exposed his penis (which was erect) and told me to ‘kiss it.’”
Når liberale stationer som MSNBC siger, at de tror på historierne, er der noget, der ændrer sig i amerikansk politik. Historien om Monica Lewinsky var marginaliseret. Det er, når man ser den i sammenhæng med de andre historier, at den får en anden karakter.
Bill har vært beskyttet af et «vi er da ikke sådan», han er «en af os». Men Weinstein, Louis CK og de andre tv-stjerner har ødelagt denne illusion. Også de hippe er «sådan». Og dermed ryger forsvaret for Clinton-parret.
“I think it’s time to talk about Juanita Broaddrick,” Vice’s Eve Peyser wrote on Twitter. “I believe her.”
The Atlantic editor Caitlin Flanagan acknowledged that Bill Clinton’s defenders were “on the wrong side of history” in a piece on Monday titled, “Bill Clinton: A Reckoning.”
“The Democratic Party needs to make its own reckoning of the way it protected Bill Clinton,” Flanagan wrote, noting the way that prominent feminists leapt to Clinton’s defense.
Broadrick siger, at «Helvede er frosset til is», dvs. det umulige er sket. New York Times tager afstand fra Clinton.
New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg wrote a column for Tuesday’s paper titled, “I Believe Juanita.” Unlike Flanagan, Goldberg blamed conservatives for the fact that liberals didn’t believe Juanita Broaddrick. Liberals, Goldberg said, “should be wary of allegations that bubble up from the right-wing press.”
“It’s fair to conclude that because of Broaddrick’s allegations, Bill Clinton no longer has a place in decent society,” Goldberg conceded. “But we should remember that it’s not simply partisan tribalism that led liberals to doubt her.”
Broaddrick’s reaction to someone at the NYT believing her: “Hell has definitely frozen over.”
Under tv-debatten i St. Louis fik Steve Bannon fløjet kvinderne ind. Clintons var uvidende om, hvad der ville møde dem, og de var tydeligt påvirkede.
Media Forced To Acknowledge Bill Clinton’s Alleged Sex Crimes