NEW YORK — Juanita Broaddrick, the woman who accused Bill Clinton of raping her twice in a hotel room in 1978, sees echoes of her own experiences in the case of Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, who has been accused by scores of actresses over the years of sexual harassment or assault.
“Harvey Weinstein and Bill Clinton are cut from the same cloth,” Broaddrick charged in an interview with this reporter on Tuesday. “They are both powerful men and had the ability to protect themselves from the rumors and whispers about their well known, deviant and criminal behavior.”
“Their victims were bullied into silence while most reporters and those in the ‘know’ looked the other way,” she said.
Broaddrock asserted that “Hillary’s entourage waged war on Bill’s victims while Weinstein had his own army of Hollywood elite to protect him.”
“It’s the same scenario over and over with these high profile sexual predators,” Broaddrick stated.
“I was reluctant to come forward just like Weinstein’s victims were. Our abusers were too powerful and could destroy our livelihood and our world as we knew it.”
Broaddrick lamented that she “stayed silent too long.”
“I have to live with that,” she added. “Life goes on but I thank God every day another Clinton is not in the White House.”
On Twitter, Broaddrick reacted to a statement in which Hillary Clinton said that she was “shocked and appalled” by the stories about Weinstein.
On Tuesday, numerous women, including major Hollywood stars, went public with more accusations against Weinstein. The New Yorker published an extensive piece bylined by Ronan Farrow that documented the magazine’s 10-month investigation in which Farrow says he was told by “thirteen women that, between the nineteen-nineties and 2015, Weinstein sexually harassed or assaulted them.”
Also on Tuesday, the New York Times, which first broke the story of the accusations against Weinstein last week, released new details citing stars Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie accusing Weinstein of sexual harassment.
Last Thursday, the Times first published a story documenting “previously undisclosed allegations against Mr. Weinstein stretching over nearly three decades,” including sexual harassment and unwanted physical contact. The Times cited two officials within Weinstein’s company speaking on the condition of anonymity saying that he settled at least eight cases with women.
The dramatic reports resulted in Weinstein being fired by the Weinstein Company’s board of directors.
Through a spokeswoman, Sallie Hofmeister, Weinstein “unequivocally denied” any allegations of nonconsensual sex and claimed that “there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances.”
“Mr. Weinstein obviously can’t speak to anonymous allegations, but with respect to any women who have made allegations on the record, Mr. Weinstein believes that all of these relationships were consensual,” reads the statement provided to the New Yorker.
In October, Breitbart News released an exclusive video interview in which Broaddrick recounted to this reporter what she described as the life-changing experience of being raped by Clinton. The emotional YouTube video has since garnered over one million views
Watch that video here:
In another Breitbart News exclusive video, Broaddrick recounted an alleged encounter with Hillary Clinton in which Broaddrick says the future presidential candidate attempted to intimidate her into being silent about the alleged rapes.
Broaddrick said she believed that Hillary Clinton knew that her husband had raped her during their encounter.
Watch the video here:
Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio.” Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook.