Bill Clinton rape accuser Juanita Broaddrick says she was “sickened” by NBC’s interview of Clinton in which the network only asked the former president about his consensual affair with Monica Lewinsky in the context of the current #MeToo era.
“I can’t believe there is not a reporter out there,” Broaddrick told Breitbart News in an interview. “I mean, this person had a perfect opportunity today to ask Bill Clinton about the allegations of sexual assault and rape.”
“Why doesn’t NBC have me on to discuss the rape? Of course, they are the same network that held my 1999 interview until after the impeachment hearing.”
In today’s interview, NBC News’ Craig Melvin grilled Clinton about whether he would have dealt with the Monica Lewinsky affair differently in light of the #MeToo movement.
Entirely unmentioned were the numerous sexual assault and harassment allegations against Clinton, including those from Broaddrick, Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey and former reporter Leslie Millwee.
Clinton utilized the interview to suggest that his critics are “omitting facts” to group him together with other men accused during the #MeToo campaign.
“A lot of the facts have been omitted to make the story work,” he claimed. “I think partly because they’re frustrated that they got all these serious allegations against the current occupant of the Oval Office and his voters don’t seem to care.”
Clinton failed to mention the serious allegations against him of allegedly violently raping Broaddrick in a hotel room in 1978, Broaddrick noted.
“You know, his interview took away so much from the real victims over the years,” Broadrick said. “The victims against which he perpetrated the sexual assault and harassment and of course raping me.
“I’m not concerned with his consensual sex. I care about him being brought to justice for the crimes he committed against me and the others. That’s what I care about.”
Broaddrick slammed NBC for “failing” to bring up the charges during a conversation about the mistreatment of women.
NBC has a larger history of controversy when it comes to reporting on Broaddrick’s allegations.
Broaddrick has demanded an apology from NBC News Anchor Andrea Mitchell for claiming Broaddrick’s credible accusations had been “discredited” during a Today Show segment.
Last August, Breitbart News broke the story that NBC News quietly scrubbed the word “discredited” from the online version of Mitchell’s report. The NBC online editing occurred in response to a letter from Broaddrick’s attorney, who is also her son, demanding an on air apology for using the word “discredited.”
Neither Mitchell nor the network provided any documentation or evidence to back up the “discredited” claim. As critics pointed out in response, Broaddrick’s accusation has not been discredited. Indeed, NBC itself vetted Broaddrick’s story when she originally broke her silence by speaking to the network’s show Dateline in 1999.
The network also caught up with Norma Rodgers, Broaddrick’s friend and employee, who confirmed Broaddrick’s story of how Rodgers found Broaddrick in her hotel room in the immediate aftermath of the incident with a badly swollen lip and mouth and that Broaddrick’s pantyhose had been ripped off. Broaddrick had stated that Clinton bit her on the lip during the alleged rape, which she said transpired in 1978 at her room in a Little Rock hotel.
NBC’s Lisa Myers, who conducted the 1999 interview with Broaddrick for the network, stated in a 2014 interview that “Nothing has come up since that story was reported that in any way undercuts what Juanita Broaddrick said.” Myers has since retired from the network.
After filming the 1999 interview, NBC waited 35 days until finally airing the exclusive. The timeline is critical. The Senate voted to acquit Clinton in the impeachment case on Feb. 12. NBC’s interview, conducted January 20, 1999, did not run until Feb. 24, and the network placed it opposite the highly-rated Grammy Awards.
Some have questioned NBC’s motivation in waiting to air Broaddrick’s charge of rape. “The 35-day interval between tape and air is now one of the legends of the impeachment process. Why didn’t the American public get to hear Mrs. Broaddrick before the Senate voted to acquit Mr. Clinton on Feb. 12?” wrote Philip Weiss in the Observer in 1999.
Speaking in 1999, NBC News vice president Bill Wheatley vehemently denied the network deliberately held the interview until after the Senate vote. He said NBC took the normal period of time for properly vetting stories. “There was no pressure from the White House, period. Nor as some were claiming was there any pressure from NBC or G.E. corporate higher-ups to kill the story,” said Wheatley.
Last January, Broaddrick said that NBC’s Mitchell told her by phone that the network would not conduct a new interview with Broaddrick “because you have nothing new to add” since Broaddrick first went public in an NBC interview in 1999.
An NBC News spokesperson confirmed to BuzzFeed in January that the network pursued an interview with the rape accuser but decided against running a story after purportedly establishing that there was nothing new.
“When Juanita Broaddrick went public last week, NBC News sent an associate producer to Arkansas to see if there was anything new in her story. We established there was not, and decided not to pursue it any further,” the spokesperson said at the time.
NBC seems to be overlooking a series of recent revelations from Broaddrick, many of which came in previous interviews with this reporter. Those allegations include:
- Broaddrick says Bill Clinton repeatedly called her after the alleged rape.
- Broaddrick says that Hillary Clinton tried to silence her.
- Broaddrick told me that Clinton raped her not once but twice during the same infamous encounter in 1978.
- Broaddrick says NBC removed the bombshell charge that Hillary tried to silence her.
Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio.” Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook.
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