Hillary Clinton is forcefully defending her husband, and herself, amidst a new wave of criticism over his treatment of women throughout his political career.
Clinton, who infamously referred to her husband's alleged victims of sexual assault as "bimbos," today said that "many" of the accusations against him were proven untrue.
The former secretary of state was interviewed on Rita Cosby's radio show Saturday, where she was asked whether she regrets not offering more support for these alleged victims of sexual assault.
"Do you regret, though, not, maybe not saying something that was supportive of the women," Cosby asked. "Because you've always said, women should be believed. And yet, George Stephanopoulos and others have said that you were part of sort of the attacking the victims, the people making allegations against your husband. Do you regret that?"
"Look, there were allegations that were disproved," Clinton shot back. "There were allegations that were absolutely contradicted under sworn testimony. So, of course, you should give people who make such allegations the benefit of the doubt, that's what our system does -- but then you have to investigate them. And that fully happened in the late 90s."
Clinton repeatedly said that if there are standards that need to be held, the Department of Justice should appoint a special prosecutor to investigate claims made against Trump before his political career.
She said that many are "misremembering" the 1990s.
"And I think it's unfortunate that, uh, people are either misremembering or misinterpreting history," she continued. "Because the country remembers it. The country went through it. And it was a painful period. The Republicans spent tens of millions of dollars looking into every part of our lives. And we all know what they found. And that was based on those allegations that were provable and the many that were not. And this is a distraction that we shouldn't fall for."
“Look, Al Franken, you know, he’s a friend of mine," Clinton said. "And I deeply regret, uh, what he did, there's no excuse for his behavior. None at all. But he's called for an investigation, he's apologized to the woman involved. Apparently she accepted the apology. So I think we have got to recognize that he agreed to an ethics investigation. It will go to the ethics committee. It will investigate whatever the situation, uh, was."
"I don’t hear that from Roy Moore or Donald Trump," Hillary added. "Do you?"
"Look, there’s a double standard, I get it," Clinton said. "The Republicans deny, deny, deny and divert, divert, divert, and they get away with it, because the press is more concerned about somebody who accepted responsibility that people who refuse to accept responsibility — and instead attack the women who have made the allegations against them. And that hasn’t stopped. There should be no double standard. If you’re going to hold somebody accountable, hold them accountable and without regards to their partisan affiliation.”
Asked about Sen. Kristen Gillibrand, who now says President Clinton should have resigned from office, Hillary said that the senator's "whole comment was somewhat contradictory" and she didn't know what to make of it.
Here's a transcript of that exchange:
COSBY: “And Secretary Clinton, what would you say though specifically to Sen. Kristin Gillibrand, because she’s been a longtime friend and ally, and she even took your Senate seat?”
CLINTON: “Well she has been friends. Bill and I have supported her over the years. We both have campaigned for her, and raised money for her. And, uh, obviously, I think the history of the 90s, uh, reaches different conclusions, that’s what an impeachment and a trial is meant to determine, what should happen, and it did determine that. And I think we ought to now look at what’s happening today and learn from history where we can. And if we’re going to be serious about holding people accountable, have a process to do that.”
COSBY: “Are you surprised though that she has made these comments?”
CLINTON: “Well, as I said, I don’t exactly know what she was trying to say, because her whole comment was somewhat contradictory, but I’ll let her speak for herself.”
COSBY: “Aren’t you disappointed? Because even your former aide came out and blasted her, and basically said she’s a hypocrite because she was you know, received endorsements from you and even received support from you.”
CLINTON: “Oh, I’m not going to comment on that because she can speak for herself.”