Hillary Clinton broke her silence on Harvey Weinstein in the wake of mounting allegations of sexual assault and harassment, spanning three decades, by numerous women against the Oscar-winning movie mogul and Democratic donor.
“I was shocked and appalled by the revelations about Harvey Weinstein,” the former secretary of state said in a statement on Tuesday provided by her spokesman, Nick Merrill. “The behavior described by the women coming forward cannot be tolerated. Their courage and the support of others is critical in helping to stop this kind of behavior.”
Both Clinton and former President Barack Obama had been criticized for not immediately joining other Democrats in publicly denouncing Weinstein, who has deep ties to both the Clintons and the Obamas.
On Tuesday afternoon, the former president and first lady released their own statement.
“Michelle and I have been disgusted by the recent reports about Harvey Weinstein. Any man who demeans and degrades women in such fashion needs to be condemned and held accountable, regardless of wealth or status,”
the statement said. “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 did not mention the Weinstein scandal during an appearance at the University of California at Davis on Monday night — four days after the New York Times reported that Weinstein had reached settlements with at least eight women who accused him of sexual harassment between 1990 and 2015. The newspaper also included accounts from other women, including actress Ashley Judd, who said he asked her to watch him shower during a breakfast meeting in his hotel suite in the mid-1990s.
“HRC spoke for 90 mins last nite, didn’t mention Harvey Weinstein,” CNN’s Erin Burnett tweeted on Tuesday. “She won’t give women a ‘pass’ for not voting for her, but she gave him one.”
By Dylan Stableford.
Full story at Yahoo News.
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