Jake Tapper: The Clintons owe Monica Lewinsky an apology

CNN anchor Jake Tapper said that the Clintons owe Monica Lewinsky an apology for treating her “poorly” during the fallout over her affair with former President Bill Clinton in the 1990s. 

“I think she’s handled it incredibly — and what she went through, the Clintons owe her an apology. They treated her poorly. She had legal bills,” the primetime cable host told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published Thursday. 

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Tapper knew Lewinsky before the Clinton scandal erupted, and wrote a January 1998 story about going on a date with her around the time reports of an affair with the president made her famous. He previously told The Hill that he still keeps in touch with her.

Over the nearly 20 years since Clinton faced impeachment for lying about his relationship with Lewinsky, Tapper says the culture around accusations of sexual misconduct has changed. 

“If that blue dress didn’t exist, he’d be denying it today. If there weren’t DNA evidence that proved it were true, he’d be denying it. That was a story that I felt I came at from a different place,” he said of the evidence used by investigators to prove the affair. 

“I think the zeitgeist came around to my view,” Tapper added, giving the example of politicians who have resigned over sexual misconduct allegations in recent months. 

“It is amazing to me how much, when there is a scandal like this, how much the man is able to dust himself off and move on with his life and the woman is stuck like a mosquito [in amber]. How unfair that is,” Tapper told The Hollywood Reporter, also confirming he was in touch with Lewinsky a few weeks before the interview.