Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina said Hillary Clinton “should’ve known better” in reaction to the former first lady denying that her husband Bill Clinton’s 1990s affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky was an abuse of power.
“Really, @HillaryClinton? Do you really think your husband (then-President of the United States) and Monica Lewinsky (a then-22-year-old intern) were peers?” Fiorina tweeted Tuesday. “Sexual misconduct is about power: specifically the enormous imbalance of power between perpetrator and victim.”
“That imbalance changes everything - even in so-called consensual relationships. Sexual misconduct is always an abuse of power - whether in business, politics, athletics or religion,” Fiorina said in a separate tweet. “Your statement is a petty, political denial that helps no one. You should’ve known better.”
[Also read: Hillary Clinton: 'Significant difference' between Bill and Trump sexual misconduct allegations]
That imbalance changes everything - even in so-called consensual relationships. Sexual misconduct is always an abuse of power - whether in business, politics, athletics or religion.
— Carly Fiorina (@CarlyFiorina) October 16, 2018
Your statement is a petty, political denial that helps no one. You should’ve known better.
During an interview on "CBS Sunday Morning," Clinton said her husband did not use his position as president to take advantage of Lewinsky, stating there was “absolutely” no need for him to resign due to the scandal. Hillary Clinton also stressed that Lewinsky was “an adult.”
Lewinsky has characterized the affair as a “gross abuse of power,” and "an inappropriate abuse of authority, station, and privilege.”
"There are many more women and men whose voices and stories need to be heard before mine," Lewinsky wrote in an article for Vanity Fair in February. "There are even some people who feel my White House experiences don’t have a place in this movement, as what transpired between Bill Clinton and myself was not sexual assault, although we now recognize that it constituted a gross abuse of power."
The House impeached Bill Clinton over charges stemming from the Lewinsky scandal cover-up, but the Senate acquitted him in 1999.
Fiorina ran an unsuccessful campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, and distinguished herself as being a tough female critic of Hillary Clinton, who until her nomination, was the presumptive Democratic front-runner. During one of the GOP debates, Fiorina said a Clinton presidency would be "bad for women."