HOOKSETT, NH, January 11, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – At this weekend's speech cementing Planned Parenthood's endorsement of Hillary Clinton for president, CEO Cecile Richards dodged questions that former president Bill Clinton had sexually harassed or raped women during his public career.
“It’s really not the focus of this event today,” Richards told Time magazine when asked about resurfacing allegations that Mr. Clinton has a record of sexual abuse of women going back decades. “The reason we’re endorsing her today…is because Hillary Clinton is a longstanding champion of women’s health and women’s rights and not just Planned Parenthood: equal pay, access to birth control, access to safe and legal abortion.”
Kathleen Willey accused Bill Clinton of forcing himself on her and aggressively making contact with his genitals during a 1993 meeting inside the Oval Office, during his first term as president.
Juanita Broaddrick also spoke up, saying Bill Clinton lured her into his hotel room, bit her upper lip, and forcibly raped her during his 1978 campaign for governor of Arkansas.
But Richards brushed them off. “It’s a political campaign, I’m sure there’s going to be all kinds of mud everywhere,” she said.
Ironically, Hillary Clinton opened up the thorny issue last November, when she tweeted:
Every survivor of sexual assault deserves to be heard, believed, and supported. https://t.co/mkD69RHeBL
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) November 23, 2015
Her opponents quickly noted that Mrs. Clinton helped coordinate her husband's efforts to squelch “bimbo eruptions” by silencing or discrediting women who went to the media with tales about Bill Clinton's sexual predilections.
“As a young lobbyist for Concerned Women for America in the nineties, I had a front-row seat to the scorn and judgement heaped on women who came forward to confront then President Bill Clinton for his at gross disrespect and predatory treatment of women,” said Penny Nance, President of Concerned Women for America. “Hillary Clinton stood by her man, aided and abetted his disgusting objectification and abuse of Gennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, and Monica Lewinsky — those are the ones for which we have proof.”
“In every single instance the Clinton machine, for which Hillary was the engine, kicked into high gear to discredit and damage these women,” Nance said.
When Bill Clinton hit the campaign trail for his wife's ailing 2016 presidential effort, Donald Trump called the former president “one of the great woman abusers of all time.”
Willey and Broaddrick have since become increasingly vocal about his allegedly illegal behavior. Last week, Broaddrick wrote on Twitter:
Was dreading seeing my abuser on tv campaign trail for enabler wife……but his physical appearance reflects ghosts of past are catching up
— Juanita Broaddrick (@atensnut) January 5, 2016
A day later, she added:
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
On Sunday, Kathleen Willey told any woman intimidated by Clinton political muscle to share their stories with the media.
“I would just like to encourage any woman who has suffered at the hands of Bill Clinton to please try to find the courage and bravery to come forth, because it’s OK now,” she told radio host and investigative journalist Aaron Klein. “Nobody can hurt you now. It’s as simple as that.”
The same day Richards cited a litany of feminist causes – including “equal pay, access to birth control, access to safe and legal abortion” – for her organization's unprecedented endorsement during an actively contested Democratic primary. But pro-family advocates say there's a glaring oversight when it comes to the Clintons' alleged sexual abuse.
“Hillary can't have it both ways,” Nance said. “She can't both deny these women the veracity of their claims and be a feminist supporting women against abuse.”
