“I now see how problematic it was that the two of us even got to a place where there was a question of consent. Instead, the road that led there was littered with inappropriate abuse of authority, station, and privilege. (Full stop.)”
— Monica Lewinsky, writing in Vanity Fair.
“In a year when the party is deploying all their other big guns and trying to appeal to precisely the kind of voters Clinton has consistently won over, an array of Democrats told Politico they’re keeping him on the bench. They don’t want to be seen anywhere near a man with a history of harassment allegations, as guilty as their party loyalty to him makes them feel about it.”
“After booting Sen. Al Franken precisely because they wanted to draw a clear contrast with Trump, Democrats across the party’s ideological and geographical spectrum acknowledged the political trouble that any appearance with Clinton would cause.”
CNN: “A federal court in Washington will unseal documents that have stayed secret for two decades from independent counsel Ken Starr’s investigation of then-president Bill Clinton, following a request from CNN. Some of the records from Starr’s grand jury proceedings are public already — but only reprinted in the independent counsel’s 1998 report to Congress. Until now, the federal court had listed the cases as sealed.”
“Hillary Clinton’s image has declined since June and is now the worst Gallup has measured for her to date. Her favorable rating has fallen five percentage points since June to a new low of 36%, while her unfavorable rating has hit a new high of 61%.”
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-MNY), who holds Hillary Clinton’s former seat, said that Bill Clinton should have resigned the presidency after his inappropriate relationship with an intern came to light nearly 20 years ago, the New York Times reports.
“Asked directly if she believed Mr. Clinton should have stepped down at the time, Ms. Gillibrand took a long pause and said, ‘Yes, I think that is the appropriate response.’ But she also appeared to signal that what is currently considered a fireable offense may have been more often overlooked during the Clinton era.”
Matthew Yglesias: “But looking back through today’s lens, this whole argument was miscast. The wrongdoing at issue was never just a private matter for the Clinton family; it was a high-profile exemplar of a widespread social problem: men’s abuse of workplace power for sexual gain. It was and is a striking example of a genre of misconduct that society has a strong interest in stamping out. That alone should have been enough to have pressured Clinton out of office.”
“Had Clinton resigned in disgrace under pressure from his own party, that would have sent a strong, and useful, chilling signal to powerful men throughout the country.”
“Instead, the ultimate disposition of the case — impunity for the man who did something wrong, embarrassment and disgrace for the woman who didn’t — only served to confirm women’s worst fears about coming forward.”
“Fox News anchor Shepard Smith debunked what his own network has called the Hillary Clinton uranium “scandal,” infuriating Fox viewers, some of whom suggested that he ought to work for CNN or MSNBC,” the Washington Post reports.
“Smith’s critique, which called President Trump’s accusations against Clinton ‘inaccurate,’ was triggered by renewed calls from Republicans on Capitol Hill for a special counsel to investigate Clinton.”
The Atlantic: “Feminists saved the 42nd president of the United States in the 1990s. They were on the wrong side of history; is it finally time to make things right?”
Hillary Clinton “is in talks with Columbia University to take on a formal role at the Ivy League — and potentially house her archives there,” the New York Daily News reports.
“One option under discussion is an esteemed ‘University Professor’ role that would allow Clinton to lecture across a range of schools and departments without the requirement of a strict course load.”
“History has ordered a six-episode scripted drama that will explore the impeachment of President Bill Clinton,” Variety reports.
“The series will be based on the book The Breach: Inside the Impeachment and Trial of William Jefferson Clinton by Peter Baker. The series begins with the revelation that President Clinton was having an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky and continues through the political combat that saw Hillary Clinton, Newt Gingrich, Prosecutor Ken Starr, Congressman Bob Livingston and many others dominating the national headlines.”
BuzzFeed: “Hillary Clinton has hired two political operatives from her 2016 presidential campaign to help manage Onward Together, the project she founded this spring with former governor Howard Dean to fund and support a coalition of Democratic groups led by activists and organizers. The new additions, Emmy Ruiz and Adam Parkhomenko, held central roles on Clinton’s campaign.”
“Clinton’s new group, registered in May as a 501(c)4 organization with an affiliated super PAC, is working to establish a small but diverse cooperative of about 10 to 12 grassroots efforts, each one focused on a different area of the energy and activism set off by Donald Trump’s election and presidency.”
New York Times: “Much as the Clintons did, Mr. Trump is assembling a team of lawyers both inside and outside the White House to draw issues related to the investigation away from the rest of the West Wing. And he has embarked on a campaign to discredit the investigators before they can even get very far in their investigation, hoping to do to Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, what the Clintons did to Kenneth W. Starr, the independent counsel.”
“Advisers to Mr. Trump have studied and privately expressed admiration for the no-holds-barred way the Clintons attacked Mr. Starr’s integrity at every turn in an effort to shift attention from their conduct to his during the Whitewater and Monica S. Lewinsky investigations. The Clintons, Mr. Trump’s advisers said, knew how to ‘go to the mattresses,’ a phrase sometimes used approvingly in this White House, and they added that they were trying to do the same thing.”
Bill Clinton and James Patterson are collaborating on a thriller, The President is Missing, to come out June 2018, the Boston Herald reports.
In a statement, the publishers called the book “a unique amalgam of intrigue, suspense and behind-the-scenes global drama from the highest corridors of power. It will be informed by details that only a president can know.”
Hillary Clinton “is building a new political group to fund organizations working on the resistance to President Trump’s agenda, spending recent weeks in Washington, New York City, and Chappaqua, N.Y., meeting with donors and potential groups to invest in, and recruiting individuals for the group’s board of directors,” Politico reports.
“She is looking to launch the group, expected to be called Onward Together — a nod to her campaign slogan, Stronger Together — as soon as next week.”
Hillary Clinton “soon will launch a PAC as a way of ‘acting as a quiet catalyst’ for organizations she cares about, and eventually will help 2018 congressional candidates — but with no intention of making it a vehicle to run for anything herself,” Mike Allen reports.
“According to a source familiar with the planning, the initial focus will be on lifting up organizations that are the product of the energy and activism she has seen since the election, and existing groups that have been reignited and reinvigorated by that energy. She has met with some of these groups, and it’s something she’s become increasingly passionate about with each meeting.”