The former U.S. president says that he thinks he 'did the right thing.'
Bill Clinton is speaking out about his scandal with Monica Lewinsky.
The former president of the United States, alongside author James Patterson, revealed in an NBC News interview that aired in part on Monday's Today show that he doesn't regret how he handled the situation with the former White House intern 20 years ago. Clinton further disclosed that to this day, he has yet to privately apologize to Lewinsky.
Asked by NBC News' Craig Melvin if he would approach things differently in 2018 in light of the #MeToo movement, Clinton replied, "I don't think it would be an issue."
"Because people would be using the facts instead of the imagined facts," he explained. "If the facts were the same today, I wouldn't."
Clinton, 71, was impeached by the House of Representatives in 1998 for perjury and obstruction of justice after admitting to a sex scandal with Lewinsky, but was acquitted by the Senate in 1999. He previously denied the affair, illegally lying under oath and trying to cover up his relationship with the then 22-year-old Lewinsky.
Instead of resigning, Clinton, who is still married to wife Hillary, chose to fight his impeachment, a move he stands by today. "I think I did the right thing. I defended the Constitution," he said, adding that he has never privately apologized to Lewinsky.
"I've never talked to her," he admitted. "I did say, publicly, on more than one occasion, that I was sorry. That's very different. The apology was public."
When asked if he thinks he owes Lewinsky an apology, he replied, "No, I do not."
Clinton's interview comes nearly four months after Lewinsky published an essay regarding the #MeToo movement and her highly publicized affair in Vanity Fair.
"I am in awe of the sheer courage of the women who have stood up and begun to confront entrenched beliefs and institutions," Lewinsky, now 44, wrote. "But as for me, my history, and how I fit in personally? I'm sorry to say I don't have a definitive answer yet on the meaning of all of the events that led to the 1998 investigation; I am unpacking and reprocessing what happened to me."
"I now see how problematic it was that the two of us even got to a place where there was a question of consent," she continued. "Instead, the road that led there was littered with inappropriate abuse of authority, station, and privilege."
Read the full essay (HERE) and hear more on Clinton in the video below.
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