Jake Tapper Discusses with Monica Lewinsky in Interview. Crime Story

Monica Lewinsky says Bill Clinton’s role in affair scandal was ‘wholly inappropriate’

Monica Lewinsky said Tuesday that then-President Bill Clinton‘s role in their affair that captured the nation’s attention for years and eventually led to his impeachment was “wholly inappropriate.”

“I think what’s really important to remember in today’s world is that we never should have even gotten to a place where consent was a question,” Lewinsky told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “The Lead.”

“So it was wholly inappropriate as the most powerful man, my boss, 49 years old. I was 22, literally just out of college. And I think that the power differentials there are something that I couldn’t ever fathom consequences at 22 that I understand obviously so differently at 48.”

American Crime Story

Renewed attention is being paid to the affair that Lewinsky, then a White House intern, had with Clinton, with the twists and turns of the scandal being dramatized in “Impeachment: American Crime Story,” a new FX series for which Lewinsky is a producer. She told Tapper Tuesday that “we’re seeing aspects of Bill that we haven’t seen before.”

The former President has reflected about his relationship with Lewinsky over the years, including in comments in 2018 where he seemed to defend himself and suggest he didn’t owe Lewinsky an apology, saying at the time: “No, I do not — I have never talked to her. But I did say publicly on more than one occasion that I was sorry. That’s very different. The apology was public.”

Clinton later admitted that the defense was not his “finest moment” and said he felt “terrible” that the affair had defined Lewinsky’s life.
As for her own portrayal in the series, Lewinsky said Tuesday that it was important the show didn’t do any “photoshopping” of her life.

“I felt that I shouldn’t get a pass as a producer. I think, first of all, I shouldn’t get a pass in general. You know, I think it’s important to take responsibility for mistakes, and I’ve worked hard to work through those,” she said. “But in particular with the show, there are so many people who have worked hard on the show and it was important to me that the credibility of the show be there.”

Jake Tapper Discusses His ‘G-Rated’ Date with Monica Lewinsky in New Interview: ‘Full Disclosure’

Jake Tapper famously wrote about his date with Monica Lewinsky for the Washington City Paper in January 1998

Jake Tapper has reconnected with Monica Lewinsky almost 25 years after they had gone out on a date together.

The CNN anchor, 52, interviewed Lewinsky, 48, on Tuesday’s broadcast of The Lead with Jake Tapper, during which he spoke with the the anti-bullying activist about the date they had gone on back in 1997 and how it was featured in the latest episode of Impeachment: American Crime Story.

Lewinsky serves as a producer on the FX series, which centers around her mid-90s affair with then-President Bill Clinton that ultimately led to his impeachment.

“First of all, Monica: Yes, I have to disclose — full disclosure — in tonight’s episode, our G-rated date from December 1997 … is portrayed,” Tapper began his segment, prompting a laugh from Lewinsky.

After Lewinsky noted that the pair had only gone out on “one date,” Tapper joked that the actor portraying him in Impeachment is “way better looking than me now or then.”

“No,” Lewinsky assured Tapper.

.@MonicaLewinsky discusses the predatory portrayal of Bill Clinton in new FX series pic.twitter.com/n44ij69gNi
— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) October 5, 2021

Tapper famously wrote about his date with Lewinsky for the Washington City Paper in January 1998, shortly after news of the Clinton scandal broke.

According to Tapper’s article, he initially met Lewinsky during a going-away party for a friend at a bar in Washington, D.C. After getting her phone number, the two made plans for a dinner date at a local Tex-Mex restaurant.

“Right off, Monica was different from the standard D.C. date: not a salad-picker, she joined me in appetizers and an actual entree of her own. She had a beer or two, while I drank bourbon. She even offered to pay for her share, a fairly rare offer I rejected but appreciated,” Tapper wrote.

“We talked about some of her past relationships, though the president’s name did not come up,” he remembered. “It was a first date, one I wasn’t sure would be followed by a second, and how was I to know that the woman on the other side of the table would set the presidency into seismic rumblings?”

Everything Monica Lewinsky Has Said About The Bill Clinton Scandal So Far

In recent years, Monica Lewinsky has spoken out about the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal that rocked America, after staying quiet for over a decade.

Impeachment: American Crime Story, which is now airing on FX every Tuesday, has brought renewed attention to these events.

Lewinsky serves as a co-producer on the FX series, which brings the scandal to life from the perspective of the three women at the center of it — Lewinsky (played by Beanie Feldstein), Linda Tripp (Sarah Paulson), and Paula Jones (Annaleigh Ashford).

Newsweek takes a look at everything Lewinsky has said about the Bill Clinton scandal so far.

What Monica Lewinsky Has Said About The Bill Clinton Scandal
1990s

In January 1998, Lewinsky, a former White House intern and sitting U.S. President Bill Clinton’s affair became public knowledge. The relationship took place between between 1995 and 1997.

Both had denied having any ‘sexual relations’ under oath (Lewinsky in a signed affidavit and Clinton in a deposition January 1998) in the Jones v. Clinton civil case. That same month on January 26, 1998 Clinton infamously declared during a live press conference in response to rumours of the affair: “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”

The House of Representatives impeached Clinton on December 19, 1998, on the grounds of committing perjury and obstruction of justice after evidence of a sexual relationship came to light. This included taped phone conversations of Lewinsky with ex-White House staffer Linda Tripp and an alleged semen-stained dress.

Clinton was acquitted by the Senate on February 12, 1999.

Reflecting on the moment the scandal broke in 1998 in a 2018 interview with ABC News, Lewinsky shared she contemplated suicide.

As the FBI’s investigation into their affair intensified, she revealed she was left “hysterically crying” and would “shut down.”

Lewinsky shared: “In the shut-down period I remember looking out the window and thinking the only way to fix this was to kill myself — was to jump out the window. I felt terrible. I was scared and was mortified and afraid of what this was going to do to my family. You know I was still in love with Bill at the time so I felt really responsible.”

Bill Clinton

William Jefferson Clinton is an American politician and attorney who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001.

(né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946)

He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again from 1983 to 1992, and as attorney general of Arkansas from 1977 to 1979. A member of the Democratic Party, Clinton became known as a New Democrat, as many of his policies reflected a centrist “Third Way” political philosophy. He is the husband of Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013 and the Democratic nominee for president in the 2016 presidential election.

Monica Lewinsky

Monica Samille Lewinsky is an American activist, television personality, fashion designer, and former White House intern.

(born July 23, 1973)

President Bill Clinton admitted to having an affair with Lewinsky while she worked at the White House in 1995 and 1996. The affair and its repercussions (which included Clinton’s impeachment) became known later as the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal.

As a result of the public coverage of the political scandal, Lewinsky gained international celebrity status. She subsequently engaged in a variety of ventures that included designing a line of handbags under her name, serving as an advertising spokesperson for a diet plan, and working as a television personality. Lewinsky later left the public spotlight to pursue a master’s degree in psychology in London.

In 2014, she returned to public view as a social activist speaking out against cyberbullying.

American Crime Story

American Crime Story is an American anthology true crime television series developed by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, who are also executive producers, alongside Brad Falchuk, Nina Jacobson, Ryan Murphy, and Brad Simpson.

The series is the second installment in the American Story media franchise, following American Horror Story.

Each season is presented as a self-contained miniseries and is independent of the events in other seasons. Alexander and Karaszewski did not return after the first season, but retain executive-producer credits.

In the United States, the series is broadcast on FX.

Jake Tapper

Jacob Paul Tapper is an American journalist, author, and cartoonist. He is the Lead Washington Anchor for CNN, and hosts the weekday television news show The Lead with Jake Tapper and co-hosts the Sunday morning public affairs program State of the Union.

(born March 12, 1969)

Before joining CNN, Tapper worked for ABC News as Senior White House Correspondent, where he received three Merriman Smith Memorial Awards from the White House Correspondents’ Association.

Tapper helped with the coverage of the inauguration of President Obama that earned an Emmy Award for Outstanding Live Coverage of a Current News Story. Tapper was part of a team that was awarded an Edward R. Murrow Award for Video: Breaking News for “Target bin Laden: The Death of Public Enemy #1”.

His book The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor debuted at number 10 in November 2012 on The New York Times Best Seller list for hardback non-fiction. Tapper’s book and his reporting on the veterans and troops were cited when the Congressional Medal of Honor Society awarded him the “Tex” McCrary Award for Excellence in Journalism.

The Republican primary debate Tapper moderated in September 2015 drew more than 23 million viewers, making it the most-watched program in the history of CNN and the second-most watched primary debate ever.

He also moderated the Republican presidential debate in Miami on March 10, 2016, which drew almost 12 million viewers and, according to Variety, “garnered acclaim for its substance”.