Thiessen on Sexual Harassment: We Have in the Public Sector a Lack of Accountability and It’s the Legacy of Bill Clinton

‘Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal was the first politician to decide that he wasn’t going to resign’

EXCERPT:

THIESSEN: "My first reaction is, first as a father of two daughters, I’m glad that Matt Lauer and the sex predators who are out there are getting called out and exposed. Because hopefully that’s going to make the world safer for my daughters when they enter the workplace. But at the same time, Sandra, I’m really struck by how different the response is in the private sector and in the public sector. So Matt Lauer this morning, the allegations come up, he;s fired. ABC News fired Mark Halperin, CBS fired Charlie Rose and so on and fo forth. Harvey Weinstein’s career is finished. Kevin Spacey’s done. But when you go into the public sector into the world of politics, there seems to be no accountability. John Conyers is still in Congress. Al Franken is saying he’s going to continue serving and in Alabama Senate race Roy Moore is still running. So what we have in the public sector is the lack of accountability and the  death of decency. And that is, quite frankly, a legacy of one man, Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal was the first politician to decide that he was not going to resign, he was not going to do the right, the decent thing and step down. And as a result he taught a generation of politicians that if you just push through, if you just have -- if you have no shame and you just push through you can survive any scandal. And so what the politicians are doing is saying, ‘I’m -- I’m just going to push through, continue serving and wait for people to forget. And I think we need to find accountability for public officials who engage in this kind of conduct." 

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