A former NBC News journalist is calling on the network to release raw footage of a 1999 interview with Bill Clinton’s rape accuser, Juanita Broaddrick.
In a chat on the website Sidewire on Thursday, Yahoo! News reporter Michael Isikoff said that the NBC footage of Broaddrick’s “Dateline” interview would show that she told interviewer Lisa Myers that Hillary Clinton attempted to intimidate her weeks after the alleged rape, which Broaddrick says occurred at a Little Rock hotel in 1978.
“Broaddrick told her story to NBC and the WashPost in 99. Both organizations closely vetted her story and chose to run it,” wrote Isikoff.
“Also, NBC has the full tape of the original Lisa Meyers [sic] interview,” he added.
Isikoff is the reporter who is credited with landing the scoop that Bill Clinton was having an affair with Monica Lewinsky. The story was spiked at the last minute by his editors at Newsweek.
When Broaddrick resurfaced in January after years of silence, she claimed that Hillary Clinton tried to “silence” her in a brief encounter weeks after the alleged rape. The former nursing home executive said that she was at a political function when Hillary Clinton showed up, approached Broaddrick and shook her hand while thanking her for “everything you do for Bill.”
Broaddrick said that when she tried to pull away, Clinton grasped her hand and repeated the line. Broaddrick interpreted it as a veiled threat.
Isikoff, who worked at NBC from 2010 to 2014, noted that Broaddrick’s critics have questioned the claim that the former first lady issued the threat because Broaddrick did not mention it in the “Dateline” interview.
“Folks have made much of the fact that her claim about the conversation she had with Hillary wasn’t in the interview that run. Broaddrick said it got cut out; Lisa Myers has since agreed Broaddrick said this then — and NBC chose to cut it out,” wrote Isikoff.
“So NBC ought to check its archive and run the full interview. (AS long as they’re now culling their archives!)”
The last comment is a reference to the recent leak of NBC footage of Donald Trump in 2005 speaking in vulgar terms about women.
Isikoff noted that Broaddrick has said that she did mention her encounter with Hillary Clinton in the “Dateline” interview but that an NBC staffer interrupted the line of questioning from Meyers.
“We were sitting on my couch,” Broaddrick recently told Breitbart News of the “Dateline” interview.
“All the cameras were behind me. [Myers] asked some question about whether I was intimidated or threatened by anyone, and I started right in with the meeting with Hillary while we were filming the interview.”
“And almost as soon as I started to explain, one of the staffers, I believe he was a producer, came rushing in and said, ‘No, no. We can’t go there,'” she said.
When Myers asked the question again, Broaddrick says she complied with the demand to not discuss Hillary Clinton.
“Did Bill Clinton or anyone near him ever threaten you, try to intimidate you, do anything to keep you silent?” Myers asked in the interview.
“No,” Broaddrick said.
Broaddrick did say in interviews conducted after the “Dateline” appearance that she believed Hillary Clinton attempted to intimidate her.
“She caught me and took my hand and said ‘I am so happy to meet you. I want you to know that we appreciate everything you do for Bill,'” Broaddrick said in an interview with The Drudge Report in Aug. 1999.
“I started to turn away and she held onto my hand and reiterated her phrase — looking less friendly and repeated her statement — ‘Everything you do for Bill’. I said nothing. She wasn’t letting me get away until she made her point. She talked low, the smile faded on the second thank you. I just released her hand from mine and left the gathering.”
NBC News did not respond to The Daily Caller’s request for comment.
