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Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky expressed in a recent interview that former US President Bill Clinton should have left his presidential position after news of their affair became public in the late 1990s. During her appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast with host Alex Cooper on February 26, Lewinsky analyzed how the 1990s scandal had an everlasting effect on her life and reputation.
The anti-bullying advocate Lewinsky believes Clinton should have taken a different approach to handling the situation. She shared:
"The right way to handle a situation like that would have been to probably say 'it was nobody's business' and to resign. Or to find a way of staying in office that was not lying and not throwing a young person, who was just starting out in the world, under the bus."
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She acknowledged that the idea may be naive, but Cooper agreed with her perspective, as reported by USA Today.
The incident's long-term impact on Monica Lewinsky’s life and career
At the age of 22, Monica Lewinsky got engaged in an intimate relationship with President Clinton, who was 49. The relationship between President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky lasted from 1995 to 1996 and was exposed by the media in 1998. Clinton first dismissed the accusations only to later acknowledge that he maintained an inappropriate relationship with Lewinsky.
As per Fox News, an American impeachment process initiated against President Clinton for his initial denial of having s*xual relations with Monica Lewinsky had two consequences. This led to his formal impeachment by the House of Representatives on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. After the Senate acquitted him, Clinton served the rest of his second presidential term.
On the Call Her Daddy podcast, Lewinsky recalled the intense public scrutiny she faced when the affair was revealed. She was labeled a "stalker" and "mentally unstable," among other derogatory terms. She noted that while there was initial sympathy,
"once the White House got in gear, I was very quickly painted as a stalker, a wh*re, mentally unstable, a bimbo. I was very quickly painted as both the pursuer in this and also not attractive enough to be pursued."
Reflecting on the media’s role in shaping the narrative, Monica Lewinsky credited younger generations for reevaluating the scandal with a fresh perspective.
"It was the younger generations that really insisted on reevaluating this story because you were all coming to it with just the facts, not having gone through the brainwashing or lived through that media lens," she said.
She emphasized how young women journalists in particular have played a role in reassessing the scandal. Lewinsky said that she only fully grasped the impact of the scandal on her life about a decade later when she finished graduate school and struggled to find employment.
Although some people involved in the scandal later told her they wished they had made different choices, she stated that she had never received an apology from any of the major figures involved.
Since 2014 Monica Lewinsky has advocated against cyberbullying and public shaming through various platforms. She published a TED Talk on this topic in 2015 and directed the 2021 documentary 15 Minutes of Shame to demonstrate how public humiliation affects people in the digital age.
Most recently, she launched her own podcast, Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky, where she discusses themes of redemption and overcoming adversity. Guests on the show have included actress Olivia Munn, journalist Kara Swisher, and actor Alan Cumming.
According to Fox News, Bill Clinton, who remains active in political circles, recently published a memoir, Citizens, in which he briefly mentioned Lewinsky and acknowledged the scandal's impact. "I live with it all the time," he wrote, while also commending her work on bullying prevention.
However, Bill Clinton has not publicly addressed Monica Lewinsky’s latest comments about his handling of the affair.
