Remarkably, for the second time in two weeks, MSNBC invited on a former Bill Clinton White House staffer to lecture the Trump administration over now-fired aide Rob Porter being accused of domestic abuse. This time, it was Clinton’s former Senior White House Aide Ron Klain appearing on Tuesday's Andrea Mitchell Reports to denounce the Trump team’s handling of the situation, without once being asked about rape and harassment accusations against his former boss.
During the February 13 panel discussion, that also included The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol and USA Today’s Susan Page, Mitchell asked Klain: “Ron Klain, you were General Counsel on Senate Judiciary, you were involved in two White Houses and watched the law offices work....The White House gets information from the FBI, who’s good, who’s bad, who’s got stuff in their background, and then they have to act on it.”
Klain ranted: “You know, what’s gone on here is not just that there’s been a horrible mistake in judgment by the senior team at the White House at letting Rob Porter be there, the more amazing thing is that they continue to lie about it and think they’re gonna get away with it.”
Minutes later, without shame or any sense of irony, Klain kept up his attacks on the Trump administration’s response to the scandal:
...this is a time of social change on a lot of these issues, but domestic abuse, even 20, 30 years ago, someone with this kind of record would never have been allowed to work in the White House, either under a Democrat or a Republican. It’s inexcusable this was allowed to happen. But doubly inexcusable now that they continue to defend it, lie about it, and not come clean about what they knew when they knew.
How about the Clinton White House and what people like Klain knew about the numerous allegations against the former Democratic president in the 1990s? That was certainly within the time line Klain mentioned. Was it equally “inexcusable” for an accused rapist like Bill Clinton to not just “work in the White House,” but in the Oval Office?
Of course Mitchell never bothered to put any of those questions to her hypocritical guest. Which really wasn’t surprising since she was guilty of the same hypocrisy. In May of 2016, while desperately trying to defend Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, Mitchell falsely dismissed Juanita Broaddrick’s rape allegation against Bill Clinton as “discredited.”
On Tuesday, the liberal anchor encouraged Klain to continue to ride atop his high horse without challenge, asking: “But the fact is, it’s not easy for anyone to talk about their personal lives and the fact that they have been abused in this fashion.”
The Clinton hack replied:
Yeah, I mean, that’s one of the most sad things coming out of this. You see both of Rob Porter’s ex-wives, Jessica, there, talking about the people who didn’t believe them when they told the story. The skepticism they had to overcome. Clergy people telling them that they didn’t believe them. And you know, the idea that on top of that now, the President of the United States is essentially wishing well to the abuser and essentially casting doubt on their stories. That’s just an unbelievable insult on top of the injury these women have suffered.
Bill Clinton and his hatchet men not only “cast doubt” on the former President’s accusers, but actively tried to destroy them. Klain has no right to pass judgement on the current administration until he is first forced to account for the scandal-plagued Clinton presidency.
In the weeks leading up to the 2016 election, Klain was concerned about Clinton’s past. In a leaked email to other members of Hillary’s top campaign staff, he worried: “We need to set aside some time – it can be tomorrow, it can be Thursday – to do Q-and-A on the political questions, which now seem to be really owning the coverage.”
Several of those questions had to do with Bill’s treatment of women:
4. WJC Issues
a. Is his conduct relevant to your campaign?
b. You said every woman should be believed. Why not the women who accused him?
c. Will you apologize to the women who were wrongly smeared by your husband and his allies?
d. How is what Bill Clinton did different from what Bill Cosby did?
Perhaps Mitchell should have asked Klain some of those questions before she allowed him to moralize on the topic.
