Bill Clinton on a visit to Juanita Broaddrick’s (right) nursing home in 1978 in Van Buren, Arkansas. (Getty)
The woman who accused President Bill Clinton of rape more than 15 years ago has emerged on Twitter to bring the allegations back into the public light as Clinton’s wife, Hillary Clinton, runs for the Democratic nomination for president.
Juanita Broaddrick, now 73, claimed in 1999 that Clinton raped her decades earlier, in 1978, while he was running for governor in Arkansas. She was working as a supervisor at a nursing home at the time and met the future president when he visited the facility. She later wanted to volunteer for his campaign and met him at a hotel, where she says he raped her, according to an interview on NBC’s Dateline.
Clinton denied the allegations and no criminal charges or civil proceedings were ever brought against him.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Broaddrick Said on Twitter ‘It Never Goes Away’
(Facebook)
Broaddrick has confirmed to multiple news outlets that the Twitter account is real. On Wednesday, she tweeted, “I was 35 years old when Bill Clinton, Ark. Attorney General raped me and Hillary tried to silence me. I am now 73….it never goes away.”
I was 35 years old when Bill Clinton, Ark. Attorney General raped me and Hillary tried to silence me. I am now 73….it never goes away.
Broaddrick also retweeted a cartoon about the comparisons between Clinton and the Bill Cosby rape accusations.
She started the Twitter account in 2009, but only tweeted three times, not about politics or Clinton. In September, she tweeted for the first time in several years:
Thoroughly disgusting–Hillary’s comments on rape. Shame on you, Hillary, shame on you!!
The tweet came after Hillary Clinton spoke about sexual assault victims at a campaign event in Iowa.
“Today I want to send a message to every survivor of sexual assault,” Clinton said. “Don’t let anyone silence your voice. You have the right to be heard. You have the right to be believed and we’re with you.”
Broaddrick followed that tweet up with one about a National Review article on Clinton and an October tweet that said, “Sometimes memories sneak out of my eyes and roll down my cheeks (purple clover) even after all this time.”
According to her Facbeook page, Broaddrick still lives in her hometown of Van Buren, Arkansas, where she says she first met Clinton in 1978.
Read more about Juanita Broaddrick in Spanish at AhoraMismo.com:
2. She Spoke Publicly About the Rape Allegations During a 1999 TV Interview
Broaddrick stayed silent about the rape accusations for more than two decades, eventually going public during a 1999 interview on NBC’s Dateline, which you can watch above.
She said during the interview she first met Clinton in 1978 in her hometown of Van Buren, where she worked as a nursing supervisor at a nursing home. In April of that year, she says she was invited to meet with the then-gubernatorial candidate in Little Rock, while she was in the city for a conference. They met at a hotel and Clinton asked her to meet for a coffee in her room, because the hotel lobby was too crowded, Broaddrick claimed.
According to a Washington Post story about the allegations, Broaddrick said they talked for a few minutes about a campaign issue, before Clinton began kissing her. Broaddrick, who was married, said she pushed Clinton away and said she wasn’t interested.
She told Dateline:
Then he tries to kiss me again. And the second time he tries to kiss me he starts biting my lip (she cries). Just a minute… He starts to, um, bite on my top lip and I tried to pull away from him. (crying) And then he forces me down on the bed. And I just was very frightened, and I tried to get away from him and I told him ‘No,’ that I didn’t want this to happen (crying) but he wouldn’t listen to me.
Broaddrick said she was traumatized and didn’t come forward for decades because of Clinton’s influence.
She says Clinton later appointed her to a non-paid advisory board position in 1978, and in 1984 she received a letter from Clinton after her nursing home was recognzied as a top facility in Arkansas.
There was a handwritten note that said, “I admire you very much,” Broaddrick says, which she took to be a thank you for her silence.
Broaddrick also claimed Clinton tried to apologize to her during a meeting in 1991 in Little Rock, but she said there was “nothing” he could do and walked away from him.
3. She Claims Hillary Clinton ‘Enabled’ & ‘Covered Up’ for Her Husband
Juanita Broaddrick. (Twitter)
Broaddrick spoke to Mic News on Wednesday about Hillary Clinton, saying she believes the Democratic frontrunner helped her husband cover up the sexual assault.
“It still hurts. It’s still a very hurtful thing that they continue on in the pattern of denial to people of what this man is,” Broaddrick told Mic. “I think (Hillary Clinton is) evil. She’s doing all of this for political gain. She’s absolutely enabled and covered up for him.”
Broaddrick said she met Hillary Clinton in 1978 at a campaign party, which occurred three weeks after she says she was sexually assaulted.
“Hillary was asking and someone pointed right toward me,” Broaddrick told the news site Wednesday. “She immediately came over to me and she said how grateful she was for all I was doing for them. She just looked me in the eyes and said that — it was the strangest thing in the world.”
4. President Clinton Has Recently Started Making Public Appearances for His Wife’s Campaign
Former President Bill Clinton at a rally for his wife, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, in New Hampshire in January 2016. (Getty)
President Clinton has recently started making public appearances on the campaign trail for his wife, including a stop in New Hampshire earlier this month.
Broaddrick tweeted about seeing the former president on TV.
Was dreading seeing my abuser on tv campaign trail for enabler wife……but his physical appearance reflects ghosts of past are catching up
She has said that she plans to continue to speak out as the Clintons campaign to return to the White House.
5. Hillary Clinton Was Confronted About the Rape Allegations By a New Hampshire Lawmaker
Hillary Clinton was confronted about Broaddrick’s rape accusation by New Hampshire State Representative Katherine Prudhomme-O’Brien, a Republican, during a campaign town hall in Derry.
“I asked her how in the world she can say that Juanita Broaddrick and Kathleen Willey are lying when she has no idea who Juanita Broaddrick is,” Prudhomme-O’Brien told CNN. “She told me this summer she doesn’t know who she is and doesn’t want to know who she is. How can she assess that they are lying, which she told someone last month?”
Clinton dismissed the lawmaker’s interruptions, leading to cheers from the crowd.
“You are very rude, and I’m not ever going to call on you,” Clinton said. “Thank you.”
Broaddrick tweeted about the incident, writing, “Hurray for Katherine Prudhomme confronting Hillary.”
