After Howard University partnered to host a women’s empowerment event featuring former President Bill Clinton, Juanita Broaddrick — who has accused Clinton of rape — blasted the university for hosting a “sexual predator” on its campus and called it a “slap in the face to sexual assault victims.”
On Tuesday, the Clinton Foundation announced that Vice President Kamala Harris will be holding a joint discussion on “empowering women and girls in the U.S. and around the world” with former President Clinton on Friday, despite multiple accusations of sexual misconduct against him from different women.
In 1998, Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives for perjury and obstruction of justice over a sexual relationship with then-White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
The former president has also been accused of rape and sexual assault by a number of women, including Juanita Broaddrick and Kathleen Willey.
Broaddrick spoke with Breitbart News in an exclusive interview on Thursday to share her thoughts on the matter.
Describing her initial reaction to news of the event, Broaddrick did not think it was serious.
“I thought it was a joke,” she said. “Someone messaged me asking if I had seen it and I went back and said, ‘oh that’s got to be a joke.’ Then I looked it up and thought, ‘my god this cannot be true.’”
“I don’t know when Bill Clinton is ever going to be held accountable,” she added.
Asked about Clinton hosting a panel on empowering women, Broaddrick referred to a message she tweeted out earlier.
“It’s just like what I tweeted: ‘Inviting Bill Clinton to speak on Empowering women…. is like asking Jeffrey Dahmer to host a cooking class.”
“It’s that absurd!” she added. “The only panel Bill Clinton should participate in is one that empowers women by guiding them in defending themselves from sexual predators like himself.”
Broaddrick also blasted Hillary Clinton for supporting her husband in the face of sexual assault allegations.
“The same with Hillary Clinton,” she said. “She knows exactly how to protect her husband and keep herself in power.”
Broaddrick also spoke about her past experience with the Clintons following her rape allegation, saying she was personally intimidated by Hillary shortly afterward, as Breitbart News previously reported.
Broaddrick, who had been volunteering for Bill Clinton’s gubernatorial campaign at the time and accused him of raping her twice in a hotel room in 1978, recounted an alleged encounter with Hillary Clinton at a fundraising event in which Broaddrick says the future presidential candidate attempted to intimidate her into being silent about the alleged rapes.
“Hillary [came] straight for me and she gets to me and she starts saying, ‘I just want to thank you for everything you are doing for Bill’s campaign,’” she said, before being directly approached her.
“She grabbed ahold of my arm and my hand and she pulls me into her and she says with this very angry look on her face — which had been so pleasant seconds before — and in a low voice says, ‘Do you understand? Everything that you do.’ And that frightened me.”
Addressing why she had waited to reveal what had happened, Broaddrick expressed being fearful at the time.
“I thought so many times about when people accused me of lying or said, ‘well you didn’t come out.’ There were so many things that happened. I truly believe if I had come out when [the rape] happened — which was the very beginning of him becoming a very powerful politician — I wouldn’t be alive today.”
When asked about Vice President Kamala Harris participating in a panel discussion with former President Clinton, Broaddrick expressed disgust at the notion.
“It’s just disgusting,” she said. “It’s absolutely unbelievable that they can do this and it’s unbelievable that Kamala Harris would accept being on this panel about empowering women with one of the worst sexual predators of our lifetime.”
“All she will probably do is sit and giggle at everything Bill Clinton says,” she added. “You probably saw the video of her when asked when she’s going to the border, she just laughed like it was nothing. The woman has no idea what she is doing.”
Broaddrick also suggested that former President Barack Obama is likely highly influential behind the scenes of the Biden-Harris administration.
“That’s why I don’t believe either her or [President Joe] Biden are really in charge. Neither one has a grasp on anything,” she said. “I truly think that Obama is running the show. You know he made comments that he’d like to be secretly in the background giving ideas of how to run the government. I truly think that he and his people are.”
In addition, Broaddrick described the event as “a shocking political statement that indicates that the Clintons are back in business.”
“That Vice President Harris is participating in a panel with Clinton is just shocking,” she added.
Regarding those on the left who have come out strongly in favor of believing all women’s sexual assault claims, Broaddrick pointed out the sheer hypocrisy she sees.
“Where are all the feminists activists and the Me Too movement?” she asked. “They are exactly where they were when I came out in ‘99. They want nothing to do with any Clinton accusations.”
Broaddrick then directed her attention to Democrats, accusing them of insensitivity toward the many women who have suffered from sexual abuse.
“When are the Democrats going to understand that this is so hurtful to all of those women who have been sexaully abused?” she asked. “Especially those that have been abused by Bill Cliinton. What will it take? Will he have to die for them to come through and say you know ‘we were wrong?’”
On Howard University hosting the event, Broaddrick had harsh words.
“How dare you, Howard U!” she exclaimed.
Broaddrick added that she is disgusted by Howard University — a historically black university and the alma mater of Vice President Kamala Harris — saying it should have immediately rejected the offer and disassociated itself from the “mockery” of holding such an event with Bill Clinton.
“It’s a slap in the face to sexual assault victims, it’s so hurtful,” she said. “It’s like here we go again.”
Broaddrick also proposed that the university is likely too dependent on Democrat donations to garner the courage to stand up to the Clintons.
Asked about the general lack of media coverage of Bill Clinton’s role in an event focusing on empowering women, Broaddrick said she was not surprised.
“I’m not shocked the media is not highlighting this,” she said. “They have been covering up for quite a while now. In April, it will be 43 years since the rape occurred.”
“It was good in 2017 when [journalist] Michelle Goldberg came out with, ‘I believe Juanitia’ and Caitlin Flanagan, who writes about women’s rights, came out and said, ‘I believe Juanita,’ but then it just disappeared from the media, as if it never happened,” she added.
Broaddrick concluded by expressing ire at the lack of general indignation over the matter.
“Now we have a sexual predator hosting a panel on empowering women with a vice president sitting alongside him who previously said she believes the woman who accused [President] Biden of unwanted touching,” she said. “Where is the outrage?”
Follow Joshua Klein on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
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