--- title: Bill Clinton Not Really Apologizing to Lewinsky Matters description: While promoting his new book with James Patterson, Bill Clinton has been asked about the #MeToo movement. He has missed a chance to lead canonical: https://time.com/5304900/bill-clinton-metoo-movement-apologize-monica-lewinsky/ author: Susanna Schrobsdorff article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-06-07T19:36:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-12T09:30:03.246Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Why It Matters That Bill Clinton Hasn't Really Apologized to Monica Lewinsky og:description: "Bill Clinton has been disappointing women who believe in him for decades now" og:url: https://time.com/5304900/bill-clinton-metoo-movement-apologize-monica-lewinsky/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf65a8617686eaf09/6989329397cdff022d6b572d/bill-clinton-me-too-movement.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2405 og:image:height: 1353 og:image:alt: Bill Clinton Today Show og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why It Matters That Bill Clinton Hasn't Really Apologized to Monica Lewinsky twitter:description: "Bill Clinton has been disappointing women who believe in him for decades now" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf65a8617686eaf09/6989329397cdff022d6b572d/bill-clinton-me-too-movement.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why It Matters That Bill Clinton Hasn't Really Apologized to Monica Lewinsky > Sponsored content. 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A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=8032b410-6081-4f55-b04a-abf4a242524a&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: A Visual Timeline of the Monica Lewinsky Scandal [Watch (HLS stream): A Visual Timeline of the Monica Lewinsky Scandal](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/HPrA9SSS.m3u8) (4:55)  _Published 2018-05-04. In 1998, Americans were divided over Bill Clinton's affair with a White House intern. In the 20 years since, those feelings have only grown more complicated._  by [Susanna Schrobsdorff](https://time.com/author/susanna-schrobsdorff/)  ## Susanna Schrobsdorff Jun 7, 2018 7:36 PM UTC  by [Susanna Schrobsdorff](https://time.com/author/susanna-schrobsdorff/)  ## Susanna Schrobsdorff Jun 7, 2018 7:36 PM UTC [Bill Clinton](http://time.com/5302846/bill-clinton-colbert-show/) has been disappointing women who believe in him for decades now. And this week, while on a press tour for [the novel he co-wrote with James Patterson](http://time.com/5300857/bill-clinton-james-patterson-the-president-is-missing/), he didn’t fail to fail them again. This was the first time Clinton has been in the spotlight since the #MeToo movement changed how we think about sex and work and power. Of course we all wanted to know whether this man who’d been accused of sexual harassment would be asked whether the outpouring of hurt and rage from innumerable women over the last eight months has changed how he sees his past and the way he’s treated women. And yet when journalists asked him that very question, we saw that, somehow, this former president with his formidable intellect — and many formidable female influences — still does not understand that the #MeToo men include him, too. During a now infamous [_Today_ interview on June 4, when asked whether he’d apologized to Monica Lewinsky](http://time.com/5300017/bill-clinton-today-show-monica-lewinsky-me-too-movement/) in the aftermath of the national scandal that followed their affair, Clinton said that he had, but then moved immediately on to the price he paid, literally: “Nobody believes I got out of that for free. I left the White House $16 million in debt.” And in a very Trumpian way, he pointed to his sky-high job approval numbers upon leaving office, referring to them as evidence that two-thirds of Americans were “on his side” in the Lewinsky matter. And maybe they were then, but not so much after #MeToo and even less after that interview. When asked by the New York _Times_ whether in the wake of #MeToo he believes his affair as president with a 22-year-old intern, Monica Lewinsky, was sexual harassment or an abuse of power — as she now believes it is — he said: “I’m the last person in the world who ought to be weighing in on it.” But here’s the thing: Bill Clinton is the first person in the world who should have weighed in on workplace sexual harassment when the issue blew up last year. Not just to quell his own demons, but for all of us. [As Stephen Colbert pointed out to Clinton himself](http://time.com/5302846/bill-clinton-colbert-show/), “Your behavior was the most famous example of a powerful man sexually misbehaving in the workplace of my lifetime.” As the poster boss for a particularly ugly abuse of power, he had a unique chance this week to become a transformative figure, to carve a path past the defensive denials and limp apologies of his fellow accused and toward some sort of real empathy. And he blew it. He acted like most of the rest of them — including the current president. Imagine if, when asked what he’d say to [Monica Lewinsky](http://time.com/5130921/monica-lewinsky-now/) now, Clinton had understood that by taking that opportunity to say something authentic and empathetic, he’d not only be speaking to Lewinsky, but also to all the other women in his life whom he hurt and then dismissed as the world called them mercenary, predatory or bimbos. If he’d shown that he has evolved, that he now understands the emotional damage he caused, it would have been a step toward giving all the women of #MeToo the essential dignity of being acknowledged. A real apology might even help his party. The Republicans have effectively used Clinton’s behavior to excuse Donald Trump’s boundlessly awful treatment women, and might still be able to do it in the next Presidential election even without Hillary Clinton on the ballot. Most importantly, actual signs of repentance would be a modicum of justice for Lewinsky, whose young life was ruined not by a cruel press and the so-called right-wing conspiracy, but by the cascade of events that Clinton unleashed by denying that they had a relationship effectively accusing her of lying. And because he did that under oath, the hounds of politics turned it into a global scandal that hurt her far more than him. If only he’d said yes, I was unfaithful with a decent young woman who deserved better. The unique cruelty of a transgression compounded by being labeled a liar is a lifelong wound for those who accused powerful men and were not believed. That is the injustice that Bill Clinton had a chance to address this week. He could have moved #MeToo forward and promoted reconciliation in the way that activists like [Ashley Judd](http://time.com/5292610/harvey-weinstein-arrest-ashley-judd/) have been calling for: “We still wait for an accused who can and will embody what [the #metoo movement and our society](http://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/99TPC68M8KFJW64Qhpn5CL?domain=time.com) needs and wants: someone who can… address their abuse of power with culpability and integrity.” But Bill Clinton seems to have skipped the public culpability and accountability phase and moved directly to the reformed sinner preaching phase. He told the New York _Times_ that he wanted to tell a new generation that “the journey \[he’d\] been on the last 20 years is one the country has to take and that #MeToo is demanding we take it and the sooner the better.” Maybe it doesn’t matter. There isn’t a great demand for him to campaign for Democratic candidates these days; he’s got more baggage than influence. And even if he hasn’t taken a real journey on this issue, most of us are on the way. And a new zero-tolerance generation is already there. To them, Monica Lewinsky is the one who’s got something to teach them, not Bill Clinton. Recently, Lewinsky wrote about being stranded in the wilderness of shame for many years after her name became synonymous with scandal in _Vanity Fair_. She described how she had been “abandoned most of all by the key figure in the crisis.” And now she says, she’s no longer alone. Just ask _Town & Country_ magazine, which a few months ago had the audacity to [disinvite Lewinsky from a charity event after Bill Clinton decided to attend](http://time.com/5272495/monica-lewinsky-event-bill-clinton/). When that insult became public, the magazine heard loud and clear from outraged women (and men). They apologized. The shame may finally have been transferred where it should have been all along, to the former president himself. Now Bill Clinton is the one looking alone and outdated as he talks about faxing comments to his writing partner. And there are few people defending him other than 71-year-old Patterson, who jumped in during one interview to argue that the statute of limitations had run out on the Lewinsky questions: “It’s been it’s been 20 years. Stop it.” True, 20 years is a long time — to wait for a real apology. ## Transcript In 1998, Americans were divided over Bill Clinton's affair with a White House intern. Here's a guide to how it happened. In 1994, former Arkansas state employee Paula Jones sued Bill Clinton for sexual harassment, arguing that he propositioned her when he was governor. A legal group working on the case in 1998 received an anonymous tip that the president had a relationship with the Lewinsky and intern first chief of staff that piqued their interest, since it could be used to argue this was a pattern of behavior. On January 7th, 1998, the Lewinsky filed a sworn affidavit in the Jones lawsuit saying she had never had a relationship with Clinton, but she did not know that a close friend, Linda Tripp, had been keeping conversations with her about the affair. Five days after the affidavit was filed, Tripp gave independent counsel Kenneth Starr, 20 hours of taped phone calls. Starr had been investigating the Clintons of a real estate venture known as Whitewater, but the recordings allowed him to get permission on January 16th to investigate whether Lewinsky had lied under oath in a deposition in the Jones suit the next day. Clinton denied the affair as well. This turned out to be a key moment of his presidency. That same day, online news outlet The Drudge Report published a story claiming that Newsweek was sitting on a story about Clinton's affair with an intern. It later published another story that Lewinsky had a blue cocktail dress with Clinton's bodily fluids on it. Clinton again denied the affair, this time on nationally broadcast television, saying, I. Did not have sexual relations with that woman. Ms.. Lewinsky. On January 27th, Hillary Clinton echoed the denial, arguing in an interview on the Today Show that the charges came from a vast. Right wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president. As the month drew to a close, a federal judge ruled that the Jones lawyers could not look into the Lewinsky claim as part of their lawsuit. But the Starr investigation continued on a separate path. In early February, Lewinsky's mother appeared before a grand jury. She had been suspected of encouraging her daughter to lie to Jones's lawyers. After three days of questioning, Starr granted her immunity in exchange for handing over the blue dress. As the summer began, the July issue of Vanity Fair appeared on newsstands featuring glamor shots of Lewinsky, a PR decision that was harshly criticized. On July 27, Lewinsky met with Starr's prosecutors in New York City, and they announced an immunity deal for her the next day. Clinton then agreed to testify before the grand jury voluntarily. In August, the president provided a blood sample to compare his DNA to the stains in the blue dress. That night, Lewinsky and Clinton testified to the grand jury with the president's testimony taken by closed circuit TV. He admitted to inappropriate intimate contact, but also said that he had given accurate testimony previously. Famously quibbling over the definition of is. Later that evening, he spoke to the nation in a televised address. In a deposition in January, I was asked questions about my relationship with Monica Lewinsky. While my answers were legally accurate. I did not volunteer their information. Indeed, I did have a relationship with Miss Lewinsky that was not appropriate. In fact. It was wrong. The next month, Congress received two copies of Stars 445 page report on the investigation and supporting evidence. The Star Report, along with transcripts of Lewinsky trips, were later released to the public. On October eight, the House of Representatives voted to begin an impeachment inquiry. Despite the controversy and the impeachment, President Clinton remained popular in polls and Hillary Clinton saw her poll numbers rise as well. During the midterm elections in November, Democrats did unusually drop in mid-November. Clinton settled the sexual harassment lawsuit with Jones, which he kickstarted the scandal, paying her $850,000 and admitting nothing. During the lame duck session of Congress in the summer 19th, the House voted to impeach Clinton and to charges that he committed perjury in his August 17 federal grand jury testimony and that he prevented, obstructed and impeded the administration of justice. As 1999 open, the Senate began its constitutionally mandated impeachment trial with the Supreme Court's chief justice presiding for February 1213 months after the scandal began. The Senate voted to acquit Clinton on both charges. The respondent, William Jefferson Clinton, president of the United States, is not guilty as charged. Later that day. Clinton apologized to the American public in an address from the White House. I want to say again to the American people how profoundly sorry I am for what I said and did to trigger these events and the great burden they have imposed on the Congress and on the American people. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5304900/bill-clinton-metoo-movement-apologize-monica-lewinsky/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5304900/bill-clinton-metoo-movement-apologize-monica-lewinsky/"},"headline":"Why It Matters That Bill Clinton Hasn't Really Apologized to Monica Lewinsky","datePublished":"2018-06-07T19:36:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-12T09:30:03.246Z","description":"'Bill Clinton has been disappointing women who believe in him for decades now'","url":"https://time.com/5304900/bill-clinton-metoo-movement-apologize-monica-lewinsky/","keywords":["MeToo"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf65a8617686eaf09/6989329397cdff022d6b572d/bill-clinton-me-too-movement.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Susanna Schrobsdorff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/susanna-schrobsdorff/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf65a8617686eaf09/6989329397cdff022d6b572d/bill-clinton-me-too-movement.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Bill Clinton Today Show","caption":"Bill Clinton Today Show","creditText":"Zach Pagano—NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/metoo/","name":"MeToo"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5304900/bill-clinton-metoo-movement-apologize-monica-lewinsky/","name":"Why It Matters That Bill Clinton Hasn't Really Apologized to Monica Lewinsky"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"A Visual Timeline of the Monica Lewinsky Scandal","description":"In 1998, Americans were divided over Bill Clinton's affair with a White House intern. 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