Author and journalist Ronan Farrow, whose reporting provided a leading impetus for the #MeToo movement, said that former President Bill Clinton was “credibly accused of rape” by Juanita Broaddrick, an allegation “overdue for revisiting.”
Asked by HBO “Real Time” host Bill Maher if the former president could have survived sexual misconduct allegations in today’s political climate, Mr. Farrow replied, “Bill Clinton is a different conversation.”
“He has been credibly accused of rape,” Mr. Farrow said during a Friday panel discussion. “That has nothing to do with gray areas. I think that the Juanita Broaddrick claim has been overdue for revisiting.”
In 1999, Ms. Broaddrick came forward with a claim that Mr. Clinton raped her in her hotel room in Little Rock in 1978, when he was Arkansas attorney general and running for governor. He has denied the accusation through attorneys.
Mr. Farrow, who won a 2018 Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on accusations of sexual assault and harassment against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, also said that public opinion on Mr. Clinton appears to be turning.
“I’m heartened by the fact that people now routinely express outrage about Bill Clinton, and particularly those more serious allegations about him,” said Mr. Farrow, author of “Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators.”
The subject came up during a discussion of last week’s resignation of Rep. Katie Hill, California Democrat, following reports that she engaged in sexual affairs with subordinates.
“Could Bill Clinton, if he had done what he did in 1998, survive today, or would his own party have thrown him under the bus?” asked Mr. Maher.
Mr. Clinton was impeached after being charged by the House with lying under oath and obstruction of justice stemming from a sexual harassment claim brought by Paula Jones and his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, but the Senate acquitted him on both counts.
Ms. Broaddrick responded Sunday with a blast at Democrats and NBC News, which featured her accusations in a “Dateline NBC” interview that aired Feb. 24, about two weeks after the Senate’s Feb. 12 to acquit.
“All Democrats in Congress refused to read my interview with [independent counsel] Ken Starr during the impeachment process … and of course, NBC’s Andy Lack held my ‘Dateline’ interview until impeachment was over,” she tweeted.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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