Slate: Juanita Broaddrick’s Rape Allegations Against Bill Clinton ‘Credible’

Slate magazine has run a column suggesting that Juanita Broaddrick’s accusation of rape against Bill Clinton are “credible,” but Broaddrick goes too far in claiming that Hillary Clinton tried to keep her quiet about the alleged sexual assault.

Michelle Goldberg, in a piece titled “Juanita Broaddrick’s Rape Allegations Are Credible. Her Attacks on Hillary Clinton Are Not,” says that although there may be truth to Broaddrick’s claims regarding Bill Clinton, “far less credible, however, is Broaddrick’s claim that Hillary Clinton tried to intimidate her into silence.”

Goldberg argues that Broaddrick wrongly interpreted an interaction with Hillary at a fundraiser for Bill’s gubernatorial campaign — seeing a threat where, in Goldberg’s eyes, there was only typical gladhanding.

Broaddrick has given her recollection of this event to Aaron Klein, the Breitbart News editor and reporter who conducted a video interview with her at Washington, DC’s historic Watergate hotel.

In an earlier radio interview, Broaddrick said that Clinton delivered her line about “everything you do” for Bill twice and asked if she understood what she was being told:

Broaddrick stated that Hillary approached her “and said ‘It’s so nice to meet you’ and all of the niceties she was trying to say at the time.”

“And said, ‘I just want you to know how much Bill and I appreciate the things you do for him.’ And I just stood there, Aaron. I was sort of you might say shell-shocked.”

“And she said, ‘Do you understand. Everything you do.’’’

“She tried to take a hold of my hand and I left. I told the girls I can’t take this. I’m leaving. So I immediately left.”

Broaddrick said that “what really went through my mind at that time is ‘She knows. She knew. She’s covering it up and she expects me to do the very same thing.’”

These details are consistent with a 2000 open letter that Broaddrick wrote during Clinton’s campaign to become U.S. Senator for the state of New York.

Goldberg dismisses Broaddrick’s version of events, saying, “Broaddrick interpreted this as a threat, but it sounds like the kind of thing a candidate’s wife at a political event would say to all his supporters. Even in her rendering of Hillary’s words, there is nothing outwardly sinister in them.”

Goldberg then declares the question of Hillary’s intimidation asked and answered. “When you examine every accusation of Hillary as an ‘attacker’ of women, it ends up looking equally flimsy,” she writes. Her evidence? The aforementioned anecdote from Broaddrick and a private note where Clinton called Monica Lewinsky a “narcissistic loony tune.”

Unmentioned by Goldberg:

•Kathleen Willey’s allegation that she was harassed and intimidated before testifying during Paula Jones’ sexual assault lawsuit against Bill.
•A San Francisco talk show host’s claim that notorious private detective Jack Palladino copped to involvement in this alleged intimidation campaign (the Washington Post first reported that the Clintons hired Palladino to handle “bimbo eruptions” in 1992).
•Vanity Fair reporting that Clinton said of Gennifer Flowers: “I would crucify her” in court — though she was telling the truth and Bill did admit, years later, to an affair with Flowers.

Goldberg then concludes with a wish for Hillary to perform well in Sunday night’s presidential debate. “Bill Clinton’s history with women is hard to defend,” she writes. “Hillary Clinton’s history is not. And her own history is all she should be accountable for Sunday night.”

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