Monica Lewinsky clinton
Monica Lewinsky 2016
The glossy publication Town & Country apologized to former White House intern Monica Lewinsky on Thursday for disinviting her to its social change summit after learning former President Bill Clinton was also in attendance.

Clinton and Lewinsky infamously engaged in an affair during Clinton's first term in office and into the beginning of his second. Lewinsky was an intern at the White House, beginning as a 22-year-old, from 1995 to 1996.

The news of the affair first broke in January 1998, and the resulting scandal led to Clinton's impeachment by the House of Representatives in December 1998 after he lied under oath about his relationship with Lewinsky and obstructed justice.

As a result of her newfound ignominy, Lewinsky was subjected to intense media scrutiny and cyberbullying. Lewinsky now engages in social activism against cyberbullying.

Twenty years after the scandal first propelled her into the limelight, Monica Lewinsky was disinvited from Town & Country's annual philanthropy summit Wednesday evening. The reason? Bill Clinton, who has been accused of sexual assault and harassment on multiple occasions by numerous women, was in attendance.

"dear world: please don't invite me to an event (esp one about social change) and - then after i've accepted - uninvite me because bill clinton then decided to attend/was invited. it's 2018. emily post would def not approve. Me," Lewinsky tweeted Wednesday.

"p.s. ... and definitely, please don't try to ameliorate the situation by insulting me with an offer of an article in your mag," Lewinsky added.


Although Lewinsky refrained from revealing in her tweets which magazine had disinvited her, the Huffington Post first reported that Town & Country was the culprit.

Clinton attended the summit and introduced Parkland, Florida, shooting survivor and gun control activist Emma González. Clinton's spokesman, Angel Ureña, said in a statement on Twitter Wednesday that the former president knew nothing about Lewinsky's rejection.

"President Clinton was invited to address the Town & Country Philanthropy Summit. He gladly accepted. Neither he nor his staff knew anything about the invitation or it being rescinded," Ureña wrote.


Town & Country apologized to Lewinsky on Thursday in a succinct tweet.

"We apologize to Ms. Lewinsky and regret the way the situation was handled," the magazine wrote.


But Town & Country's decision to disinvite Lewinsky from its summit after she'd already accepted the invitation won her an outpouring of sympathy and support on social media.

During a segment Thursday on the MSNBC program "Morning Joe," co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski vented about the magazine's decision to favor a former president accused of sexual misconduct above an anti-bullying activist.

"If you have an event, Joe, on social change, Bill Clinton's not your guest," Brzezinski said.

Scarborough replied, "If he is, then you have Monica Lewinsky on the guest list also. You don't disinvite her."

"You look over the past 20 years and see what a remarkable transformation we've seen in how the public - most of the public - actually looks at Monica Lewinsky," Scarborough continued. "She went from being a late-night punchline to being ... sort of at ground zero for online harassment and hate."

Scarborough praised Lewinsky for carrying herself "with such dignity over these years through an extraordinary, difficult time" in the public eye after engaging in an affair with Clinton.

"And you would think that whoever invited her would have been proud to have her at the event," Scarborough added. "And if Bill Clinton wanted to come, well, that was his call. But, you know, you shouldn't be disinviting this lady."

Fellow co-host Willie Geist chimed in, noting that Lewinsky has "done a lot of good with it, especially in the last decade or so, when she decided to use her voice and to use her name and her experience for good in leading this anti-bullying campaign."

BBC's Katty Kay noted how unfair it was that "here we are, 20 years later, and it's still Monica Lewinsky who is paying the price for that relationship."

"There were two of them in that relationship. Who's paid the price consistently?" Kay said. "[Town & Country] made a decision to make her pay the price once again and not him."

Lewinsky has shared the lessons learned from her humiliation in the wake of the affair with Clinton. Many people have also revisited the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal with fresh eyes after the #MeToo movement - which highlighted women's stories of abuse, assault, and improper power dynamics in relationships - came to the forefront of national and global discourse late last year.

The #MeToo movement has also caused many Democrats to re-evaluate their opinions of Clinton. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) made waves when she told The New York Times in November 2017 that the "appropriate response" for Clinton would have been to step down as the scandal involving his affair with his former intern came to light and led to impeachment proceedings.

Lewinski made headlines in March 2015 when she gave a TED talk about her prolonged time in the spotlight.

"Overnight, I went from being a completely private figure to a publicly humiliated one worldwide. Granted, it was before social media, but people could still comment online, email stories, and, of course, email cruel jokes," Lewinsky said. "I was branded as a tramp, tart, slut, whore, bimbo, and, of course, 'that woman.' It was easy to forget that 'that woman' was dimensional, had a soul, and was once unbroken."

When The Guardian interviewed her in April 2016, she told the publication that "the shame sticks to you like tar."


Comment: There's a reason shame works like that: to discourage bad behavior. Back in the 90s adultery was the coward's way having one's cake and eating it too. Shame is the appropriate response to being exposed to public scrutiny of one's misbehavior. Nowadays, anything goes - unless you're a male, in which case you must be shamed for engaging in any sexual behavior whatsoever. But even that tide is turning: Male Student Accuses Female Student of Sexual Assault. She Says He Wanted Revenge.


"I felt like every layer of my skin and my identity were ripped off of me in '98 and '99," Lewinsky said. "It's a skinning of sorts. You feel incredibly raw and frightened. But I also feel like the shame sticks to you like tar."

"To be able to give a purpose to my past, if I'm stuck with my past, feels meaningful to me," Lewinsky added.