WATCH: Rachel Maddow Invokes Bill Clinton to Ask Hillary if Kavanaugh Deserves Due Process
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show Tuesday night, and covered a lot of ground over two segments, including discussing Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford at length. During that discussion, Maddow brought up former President Bill Clinton‘s own sex scandals, in order to ask the former First Lady about due process.
The two discussed the overall situation as well as the specific news that Ford now wants a full FBI investigation prior to offering any testimony in Congress. Maddow played a clip outlining the statement from Ford’s attorneys and asked Clinton if she had any reaction to the call for the FBI to intervene.
“I think that’s a reasonable request,” said Clinton. She added her belief that it could be resolved quickly, at the direction of the White House. “I don’t think it would be a lengthy investigation. I think it could be done in an expeditious manner.”
“They could postpone for two weeks and probably get a lot more information than they have now,” said Clinton.
They then turned to comparisons with the Anita Hill hearings back in 1991 before Maddow brought up the issue of due process and the rights of the accused, invoking Bill Clinton.
“If he is absolutely innocent of this charge, if this didn’t happen the way Professor Blasey Ford says it did, and that is what Judge Kavanaugh asserts, do you think that the Senate is capable of giving him due process?” asked Maddow. “Allegations like this have — there are lots of allegories for this, and lots of times in politics. Your husband when he was president, faced allegations that were not the same as this, certainly, but had connections to these kinds of old allegations from years ago, and I know you had concerns at the time, your husband certainly had concerns at the time that he never really had due process to defend himself from allegations like this.”
Maddow asked, “have we learned anything over the years about due process not just for the accusers but also for the accused?”
“Well, I think that you have to take each of these situations sort of on their own merits,” said Clinton. “And what we have today is a process that has been rushed, that has been deliberately opaque, where information that the Congress, not just democratic senators, but all senators and the public deserve to see, that they were denied. So there has to be a set of standards.”
“Yes, there should be due process for everyone involved,” she continued. “And I think that’s what Dr. Ford is asking for. She is asking for due process. She’s asking that there be an investigation.”
Clinton suggested that the investigation could go any way, and that “we don’t know” what might happen, including that Ford may just decide to back out of the accusation or Kavanaugh may suddenly remember assaulting Ford. She closed by saying again that she agrees with Ford that there should be an FBI investigation.
“We don’t know, because there has been no decision to give due process on either side. And that’s why I think the White House should ask that the FBI reopen the background check.”
Watch the clip above, courtesy of MSNBC.
[Featured image via screengrab]
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