It’s been over a week since the The New York Times and New Yorker published exposés of Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein that alleged three decades of sexual harassment and assault of actresses, production assistants, temps, and other studio employees. Yet it’s only now that top Democrats are finding their voices and releasing statements on the misconduct of a man who has long been a major contributor and “bundler” for their party.
There’s more than a hint of hypocrisy in Barack Obama’s having remained tight-lipped for so long about the producer, who raised $679,275 for his 2012 re-election bid.
But the former president’s reticence pales next to that of a more recent recipient of Weinstein’s largesse. That would be 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who also needed a week’s time to collect her thoughts before publicly condemning her former “friend,” which she did during an appearance on Fareed Zakaria’s show on CNN:
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
Hillary acting like she’s horrified about Weinstein’s assaults
-As she remains married to Bill Clinton, the sexual predator-is hysterical! pic.twitter.com/zzFAdLFwWz— Corryn (@Corrynmb) October 12, 2017
As you listen to Clinton’s comments and the specific words she chooses, it’s not hard to imagine that she is speaking about another sexual deviant who has played a far more central role in her life than Harvey Weinstein, even siring a child with her.
But there’s also a bitter irony in her quasi-feminist thumbs-up to the women in this sordid tale who had “the courage to speak out.” No such approval was tendered when the names of the victims were Paula Jones, Gennifer Flowers, or Monica Lewinsky. Nor did she ever acknowledge as she did in this interview that she “was just sick” when the philanderer was her own husband.
