On Wednesday, Juanita Broaddrick marked 40 years since her alleged sexual assault by Bill Clinton with a tear on Twitter, recalling the entire timeline of events that led up to what she calls the "forcible, brutal rape" that she said took place on April 25, 1978.
"On this morning, 40 years ago, my life changed forever," Broaddrick wrote Wednesday morning. "On 4-25-78, I was brutally raped by Ark. AG Bill Clinton. I have spent the majority of my life trying to forget...and watching the Evil thrive."
As Broaddrick—who was working on Clinton's campaign for Arkansas governor at the time—tells it, that day she had plans to meet with Clinton at his campaign headquarters until he suggested they meet up at a coffee shop in the lobby of a hotel where she was staying. When Clinton arrived at the hotel, she said, he called up to Broaddrick's room and said he was at the coffee shop, but that it was too crowded. He allegedly asked instead if they could have their meeting in Broaddrick's hotel room.
"I was nervous," Broaddrick wrote on Wednesday. "But he was the attorney general. I agreed and ordered coffee."
Things escalated quickly when Clinton arrived at her room, according to Broaddrick. She said he ushered her over to the window, asking her to join him in looking out at a nearby jailhouse he "wanted to restore when he became governor." Then, she alleged, the assault happened: "As he pointed to it, he put his arm around my shoulder and I backed away," Broaddrick wrote. "He then grabbed me and started kissing me. I was so startled and shocked. I told him, 'NO!!'
"When I realized he was not taking no for an answer I began to scream," Broaddrick continued in her Wednesday account. "That is when he began to bite my upper lip every time I screamed. Then he shoved me backwards onto the bed.
"After 40 years, I am still very emotional and tearing remembering what followed," she wrote. 'It was a forcible, brutal rape!"
On this morning, 40 years ago, my life changed forever. On 4-25-78, I was brutally raped by Ark AG, Bill Clinton. I have spent the majority of my life trying to forget..... and watching the Evil thrive. A timeline of that day follows.......:
— Juanita Broaddrick (@atensnut) April 25, 2018
Explaining the motive behind her series of tweets, Broaddrick wrote: "I want EVERYONE to know ......Bill Clinton, 42nd President of the US, IS A RAPIST."
Broaddrick first went public with her account in 1999, when she gave an interview to Dateline NBC and a slew of other media outlets, around the same time the Senate acquitted Clinton on charges related to his affair with Monica Lewinsky.
In a later interview with the Drudge Report, Broaddrick talked about Hillary Clinton's alleged attempts to intimidate her into silence. According to Broaddrick, the then-first lady once intercepted her at a political rally to thank her for keeping quiet about the alleged sexual assault.
Clinton has denied Broaddrick's accusations. In 1999, his personal lawyer David A Kendall spoke on his behalf: "Any allegation that the president assaulted Mrs. Broaddrick more than 20 years ago is absolutely false. Beyond that, we're not going to comment." And later, at a press conference, Clinton deferred to Kendall's statement: "Well my counsel has made a statement about the...issue and I have nothing to add to it."
Broaddrick has told and retold her story publicly hundreds of times since then. In 2016, President Donald Trump, then the Republican nominee, invited Broaddrick and three other Clinton accusers to a press conference in the aftermath of the Access Hollywood tape. In an interview with Newsweek a little more than a year later, Broaddrick said "didn't care" that Trump had used her to score political points for his presidential campaign.
"We had this opportunity in a very public forum to come out again and tell what happened to us to people who had no idea we existed," she said in November. "That's why I did it."
In light of the #MeToo movement, support for Broaddrick has grown wider. Despite the decades of being called a liar, of having her story being sidelined or forgotten, Broaddrick said in November that there's still time to believe her and hear her story.
"I don't think it's ever too late to say you believe me," she said.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Marie Solis is a politics writer at Newsweek focusing on women's issues. She's previously written for Mic, Teen Vogue, Bustle, ... Read more
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
