Juanita Broaddrick: Bill Clinton Rape Allegation Resurfaces

The Bill Clinton rape allegation has resurfaced in the form of a tweet by purported victim Juanita Broaddrick.

Broaddrick took to Twitter yesterday to transmit the following message: “I was 35 years old when Bill Clinton, Ark. Attorney General, raped me and Hillary tried to silence me. I am now 73…it never goes away.”

Bill Clinton’s alleged philandering as an Arkansas politician and U.S. president has been dredged up after Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton accused her GOP counterpart Donald Trump of sexism, at which point the brash New York businessman fired back accusing her husband of “women abuse.”

Clinton rival Bernie Sanders has insisted, however, that Bill Clinton’s sex life is irrelevant to the issues facing the country.

Against this backdrop, so-called hecklers have challenged Hillary Clinton at campaign events about her vow that survivors of sexual assault “deserve to be heard, believed, and supported.”

Broaddrick was a reluctant witness in Ken Starr’s investigation that led to Bill Clinton’s impeachment in 1999 following the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Broaddrick claimed that Bill Clinton sexually assaulted her in a Little Rock hotel room while he was running for governor of the state, an allegation strongly denied by the ex-president’s lawyer. Clinton originally met her at a campaign stop (she was a volunteer) and invited her to drop in to his campaign office when she was in town, the Washington Post reported in 1999.

“Arriving later in the [hotel] lobby, [Clinton] called and asked if they could have coffee in her room instead because there were too many reporters in the lobby, Broaddrick said.

“As she tells the story, they spent only a few minutes chatting by the window — Clinton pointed to an old jail he wanted to renovate if he became governor — before he began kissing her. She resisted his advances, she said, but soon he pulled her back onto the bed and forcibly had sex with her. She said she did not scream because everything happened so quickly. Her upper lip was bruised and swollen after the encounter because, she said, he had grabbed onto it with his mouth.

“‘The last thing he said to me was, ‘You better get some ice for that.’ And he put on his sunglasses and walked out the door,’ she recalled.”

I was 35 years old when Bill Clinton, Ark. Attorney General raped me and Hillary tried to silence me. I am now 73….it never goes away.

— Juanita Broaddrick (@atensnut) January 6, 2016

CNN political contributor Errol Louis recently claimed that 14 women have alleged non-consensual relations with Bill Clinton.

In a discussion of the Juanita Broaddrick allegation as compared to the Paula Jones case, for example, liberal website Vox was not dismissive.

“There are three main accusers, of whom it seems by far the most credible — based on the publicly available evidence — is Broaddrick…Broaddrick’s allegation, while hardly proven, has not been definitively refuted. Only Broaddrick and Bill Clinton know what the truth of the matter in the case is. But if one generally believes it’s important to believe the victim, it’s hard to argue that this case should be an exception…Several friends of Broaddrick’s backed up the story…Broaddrick claims she was traumatized by the incident and scared of Clinton’s influence, and so didn’t report the rape or tell her then-husband…”

NBC News Dateline reporter Lisa Myers covered the Juanita Broddrick rape claim in a 1999 broadcast (see clip below), but most media outlets never followed up in any significant way.

In February 2014, Kathleen Willey — who claims she was groped by then-President Bill Clinton in the Oval Office — questioned Hillary Clinton’s feminist credentials by declaring that the candidate personifies (rather than opposes) the so-called war on women by allegedly attempting to intimidate any female who came forward with allegations about her husband.

Moreover, a review of archival material at the University of Arkansas from a Hillary Clinton confidant seems to suggest that the former First Lady and Secretary of State may have orchestrated a strategy of trying to discredit women who came forward about their sexual encounters with her husband, which back in the day were referred to by Clinton insiders as “bimbo eruptions.”

I hadn't realized how reluctant Juanita Broderick was to speak publicly about allegation that Bill Clinton raped her https://t.co/qVz4tJHMJZ

— Conor Friedersdorf (@conor64) January 7, 2016

A 2008 Obama voter who now likes Trump, Juanita Broaddrick told Gawker that Hillary Clinton positioning herself as champion of women’s rights, especially victims of violence, prompted her to come forward on Twitter. “She’s just not the one. I can’t imagine what made her possibly do that. How can you say that? This woman doesn’t deserve to be a candidate, much less president.”

In a phone interview with The Hill yesterday, Broaddrick added that “I’ve been quiet for too long, and now with the possibility of [Hillary Clinton] being the Democratic nominee and possibly president, I feel the need to get involved.” Praising Trump for bringing up the issue of Bill Clinton’s infidelities, she noted that “Everyone has been hanging back and most of the mainstream media won’t approach it but it’s something that should be talked about.”

Earlier this week during a discussion about Juanita Broaddrick and other Clinton accusers, The View co-host Joy Behar called the ex-president “a dog” but admitted she would still vote for him because they are on the same page politically with regard to women’s rights.

A reporter attempted to question Bill Clinton about Juanita Broadrick this week.

Do you think Bill Clinton’s past — such as the Juanita Broaddrick rape allegation — should or will have any impact on the Hillary Clinton campaign for president in election 2016?

[Photo by Andrew Harnik/AP]