Harvey Weinstein’s sex scandal is the talk of both the entertainment and political worlds, as the vile Hollywood power broker was a major donor to the campaigns of former President Barack Obama and former presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Obama and Clinton have been receiving criticism for their perceived slow reaction to the Weinstein ordeal. Last night, Obama released a statement about Weinstein, who is now facing multiple sexual assault allegations in which women alleged he sexually harassed and raped them over the course of several decades.
“Michelle and I have been disgusted by the recent reports of Harvey Weinstein,” the former president wrote, according CNN.com. “Any man who demeans and degrades women in such fashion needs to be condemned and held accountable, regardless of wealth or status. We should celebrate the courage of women who have come forward to tell these painful stories. And we all need to build a culture, including by empowering our girls and teaching our boys decency and respect, so we can make such behavior less prevalent in the future.”
Clinton echoed Obama’s sentiments when she released a statement through her spokesperson:
“I was shocked and appalled by the revelations about Harvey Weinstein. The behavior described by women coming forward cannot be tolerated. Their courage and the support of others is critical in helping to stop this kind of behavior.”
Of course, Clinton’s statement came way too late for Fox News. But it was even tardy for CNN’s legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, who criticized Clinton for waiting until Tuesday, some five days after the initial New York Times investigative piece on Weinstein.
“This was widely know, his really inappropriate behavior with women,” Toobin spat out in disgust. Some theorized that Clinton was hesitant to waddle in the middle of this sex scandal after her own husband, former President Bill Clinton, was impeached after lying about his own explosive sex scandal in the late 1990s.
“Seth MacFarlane made a joke about it at the Oscars in 2013,” Toobin continued on CNN’s “The Situation Room”. “Congratulations, you five ladies no longer have to pretend to be attracted to Harvey Weinstein,” Toobin recalled MacFarlane saying, making a wisecrack about the female supporting actress nominees.
“The real question is: Why were the Clintons, and the Obamas, so close to him during their campaigns when they were important?” Toobin asked rhetorically.
“This is a real blot on the records of both the Obama and Clinton families, that they were so blind to this – willfully blind – for so long,” Toobin said.
