--- title: Bill Clinton Addresses Monica Lewinsky Comments on Colbert description: Former President Bill Clinton walked back his comments on Monica Lewinsky and #MeToo during a Colbert Show appearance with Stephen Colbert. canonical: https://time.com/5302846/bill-clinton-colbert-show/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-06-06T12:05:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T19:30:01.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: ‘I Was Mad at Me.’ Bill Clinton Addresses Those Monica Lewinsky and #MeToo Comments og:description: 'It wasn't my finest hour' og:url: https://time.com/5302846/bill-clinton-colbert-show/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3cb9a66f7f4b9179/698932687cdbac25ddd5d157/bill-clinton.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Today - Season 67 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: ‘I Was Mad at Me.’ Bill Clinton Addresses Those Monica Lewinsky and #MeToo Comments twitter:description: 'It wasn't my finest hour' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3cb9a66f7f4b9179/698932687cdbac25ddd5d157/bill-clinton.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # ‘I Was Mad at Me.’ Bill Clinton Addresses Those Monica Lewinsky and #MeToo Comments  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Updated: Dec 12, 2023 7:30 PM UTCPublished: Jun 6, 2018 12:05 PM UTC  Former President Bill Clinton on the Today show on Sunday June 3, 2018 Former President Bill Clinton on the Today show on Sunday June 3, 2018NBC—NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Updated: Dec 12, 2023 7:30 PM UTCPublished: Jun 6, 2018 12:05 PM UTC Stephen Colbert gave Bill Clinton a “do-over” in answering questions about the #MeToo movement and Monica Lewinsky when the former President appeared on his show Tuesday. An [interview on NBC’s _Today_ show](http://time.com/5300017/bill-clinton-today-show-monica-lewinsky-me-too-movement/) that aired Monday turned heated when Craig Melvin asked Clinton about his affair with Lewinsky, then a White House intern, during his time in office. Clinton appeared to say he would not apologize to Lewinsky and that he felt he had handled the aftermath of their affair appropriately — comments he later walked back on _The Late Show_. “They had to distill it, and it looked like I was saying I didn’t apologize and I had no intention to, and I was mad at me,” Clinton told the comedian. “Here’s what I want to say: It wasn’t my finest hour. But the important thing is, that was a very painful thing that happened 20 years ago, and I apologized to my family, to Monica Lewinsky and her family and to the American people.” When asked by Colbert why he appeared to find questions about his past surprising in the era of #MeToo, Clinton said he didn’t like the NBC interview because “it started with an assertion that, basically, I had never apologized, as if I had never tried to come to grips with it and as if there had been no attempt to hold me accountable.” NBC News’ _Today_ released [Melvin’s full interview with Clinton](https://www.today.com/video/watch-full-interview-with-bill-clinton-and-james-patterson-1249289795644) in response to his comments. _Today_ co-anchor Savannah Guthrie also [discussed the incident with Melvin on air](https://www.today.com/video/bill-clinton-my-reaction-to-monica-lewinsky-questions-wasn-t-my-finest-hour-1249305155771), mentioning Clinton’s “false allegations” about the interview. “That must be a little bit surreal for you to hear the former president talking about you, but I think the tape speaks for itself,” Guthrie said. “You of course did not assert that he never apologized, you asked whether he apologized.” Clinton, who appeared on the show as part of his book tour with [_The President Is Missing_](http://time.com/5300857/bill-clinton-james-patterson-the-president-is-missing/)co-author James Patterson, went on to address the #MeToo movement more broadly, voicing his support for it. “I still believe this #MeToo movement is long overdue, necessary and should be supported,” he said. “I’d like to think we’re all getting better as we go along.” > [](https://twitter.com/colbertlateshow/status/1004145300523618304) Bill Clinton Addresses Monica Lewinsky Comments on Colbert ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5302846/bill-clinton-colbert-show/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5302846/bill-clinton-colbert-show/"},"headline":"‘I Was Mad at Me.’ Bill Clinton Addresses Those Monica Lewinsky and #MeToo Comments","datePublished":"2018-06-06T12:05:04.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-12T19:30:01.000Z","description":"Things got heated during an NBC interview","url":"https://time.com/5302846/bill-clinton-colbert-show/","keywords":["White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3cb9a66f7f4b9179/698932687cdbac25ddd5d157/bill-clinton.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme","jobTitle":"Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3cb9a66f7f4b9179/698932687cdbac25ddd5d157/bill-clinton.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Today - Season 67","caption":"Today - Season 67","creditText":"NBC—NBCU Photo Bank via 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/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5302846/bill-clinton-colbert-show/","name":"‘I Was Mad at Me.’ Bill Clinton Addresses Those Monica Lewinsky and #MeToo Comments"}}]}] ```