On Monday night, CNN anchor Don Lemon tackled Hillary Clinton’s defense of her husband’s affair with Monica Lewinsky with his panel.
During an interview on CBS, Clinton insisted that former President Bill Clinton shouldn’t have resigned over the scandal and argued that it wasn’t an abuse of power for him to have sexual relations with a White House intern because Lewinsky was an “adult.”
“Just to be clear, we’re talking about a 22-year-old, who was an intern, and the president of the United States. So her comments from Sunday are coming across to some people as incredibly tone-deaf,” Lemon told the panel. “Could that end up hurting the Democrats, those comments?”
CNN commentator David Swerdlick agreed, saying calling her remarks “tone-deaf” is putting it “mildly.”
“There is obviously a power imbalance between a sitting president of the United States and an intern. For Secretary Clinton to sort of gloss over that I think is sort of wishful or willful or it’s something, but it’s clearly not being straight with the interviewer or with her audience.”
Lemon then called out the former secretary of state for the “whataboutism” in deflecting from her husband’s affair to the alleged wrongdoings by Donald Trump before he became president.
Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen said that while her remarks were “wrong,” it was her husband’s abuse of power, not hers.
“Hilary, that said, she doesn’t have to respond in a way that is supportive,” Lemon pushed back.
Rosen agreed that it was the “wrong response,” but also argued that this will not impact the 2018 midterms and that Democratic candidates across the country still want her to campaign for them.
“Even in this Me Too moment, do you think people across the country want her after that comment to come campaign for them?” Lemon asked Rosen.
She responded by saying she “knows” candidates who still want Clinton to help their campaigns.