WASHINGTON ― In 1999, Juanita Broaddrick said then-President
Bill Clinton had raped her 20 years earlier. She received skeptical media attention at that time, and several polls found that the American public didn't believe her.
Now, with the Me Too movement bringing greater scrutiny to bad men in politics, media and business ― and even ending their careers ― journalists have revisited Broaddrick's story and found it more credible. Even Democratic voters now say they believe the sexual assault or harassment allegations against Clinton. For that, Broaddrick is glad.
"It's so much better now," she told HuffPost, saying she particularly liked a
2017 New York Times op-ed by Michelle Goldberg. "I have so many that are in the middle and on the left that understand I am telling the truth."
But Broaddrick was in Washington on Thursday not just to tell her own story ― she'd also come to cast doubt on another woman's sexual assault claim, giving interviews to reporters at a Concerned Women for America rally in support of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Inside the nearby Dirksen Senate Office Building,
Christine Blasey Ford was preparing to testify that Kavanaugh had pinned her on a bed and groped her when they were both high school students in the early 1980s.
"I believed he was going to rape me," Blasey told the Senate Judiciary Committee. "I tried to yell for help. When I did, Brett put his hand over my mouth to stop me from screaming. This was what terrified me the most and has had the most lasting impact on my life."
Broaddrick said Democrats were hypocrites for choosing to elevate Blasey's claims Thursday after disregarding Broaddrick's two decades ago. "If you can listen to accusations like this, how can you not have listened to me back then?" she said.
