Liberal comedian Chelsea Handler apologized on Wednesday to the Arkansas woman who accused Bill Clinton of raping her in a Little Rock hotel room in the 1970s.
“I apologize to you for not knowing your story,” Handler told Juanita Broaddrick on Twitter.
“I believe you,” she added.
Handler, a Hillary Clinton supporter, was responding to a tweet Broaddrick posted over the weekend in which she called out the celebrity for ignoring her allegations about Clinton.
Broaddrick, a retired nursing executive, alleged that Clinton, who then served as Arkansas’ attorney general, raped her in a Little Rock hotel room in 1978 following a political function. Broaddrick’s story has largely been ignored by Clinton supporters, even after she gave an interview to NBC’s “Dateline” in 1999.
Handler suggested in her tweet that she was unaware of Broaddrick’s story.
That’s perhaps because her allegations were also downplayed during the 2016 campaign. The Clinton family dodged questions about the numerous allegations made against the former president.
But a slew of sexual misconduct allegations — including against Roy Moore, the Republican nominee for a Senate seat in Alabama — has forced liberals to confront Bill Clinton’s past.
MSNBC host Chris Hayes kickstarted the introspection last week, saying that “Democrats and the center left are overdue for a real reckoning with the allegations against [Bill Clinton].”
New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg followed up with an opinion piece entitled “I Believe Juanita.” Vox.com jumped on the bandwagon on Wednesday with an article entitled “Bill Clinton should have resigned.”
The exchange between Broaddrick and Handler began on Sunday after the actress, in an apparent reference to allegations against Moore, posted a tweet asking followers to “imagine being molested by an older man” only to see the perpetrator go on to be elected to political office.
Broaddrick responded, saying, “Yeah, @chelseahandler, I can imagine.”
“I was raped by the Arkansas AG who then becomes Governor & President and NBC held my interview explaining the rape until after his impeachment hearing. But I’m sure you don’t want to go there.”
Broaddrick’s interview with “Dateline” was the first time she publicly accused Clinton of raping her. But the network held her emotional interview for months, until just after Clinton was acquitted by the U.S. Senate for obstruction of justice and perjury.
Handler responded to Broaddrick, saying that she believed her story about Clinton.
Broaddrick thanked Handler for her apology.