Like ebony and ivory, once upon a time, there were two Bill Cs who shared similarly sordid tales. Both raped, drugged, physically coaxed, and sexually assaulted women—and far more than one.
Now, if you have a daughter, sister, or mother you should care. Hey, that would be everybody. It’s not just a #MeToo thing, though it is that. It is, more importantly, a deeply human thing; a decency thing; and a tale of right and wrong (if you still believe in such things).
One Bill C. hails from the North Philadelphia ghetto and is black. He is 83 and was just released from prison on a technicality, serving a little over two years of his 10-year sentence. At least 60 women came forward accusing him of various sex crimes. Some were as young as 15 years old at the time of his assaults. He personally boasted about his exploits and paid a lot of money for a fancy defense.
Bill Cosby is famous as a big-time television star and comedian who starred in the long-running series, “The Cosby Show,” about life in a black suburban upper middle-class family. But what he did was anything but funny. In fact, it was felonious.
The other Bill C. is, of course, the 42nd president of the United States. The white, two-term leader came from an Arkansas trailer park and led a troubled youth but got a scholarship to Georgetown University for bright poor kids. Now 74 years old, he was accused of similar lewd and wrongful acts by some 12 women, many of whom settled out of court and were paid fairly large sums of money.
The sexual relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, much of which happened right in the Oval Office, ended in perjury charges and Clinton’s own impeachment in 1998. The Senate did not convict and remove him, but his law licenses were all stripped away from him in 2002.
What do these two notable predators have in common? Well, it turns out, quite a lot.
Both suffer from out-of-control, misogynist male egos and think they can have whatever they want. What they cannot get, they take. When it comes to sexual predation, they both started early and carried on for a lifetime. Cosby, at Temple University, and Clinton, while a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. Back then these incidents were quickly swept under the rug and hushed up, only to be repeated again and again.
Both Bill Cs had dominant women in their lives who allowed, tolerated, and even encouraged such behavior. They made excuses and never wanted to confront reality. They were in denial. One was Hillary Clinton, and the other was Camille Cosby. Enablers both.
When Hillary Clinton tweeted during her own campaign that “Every survivor of sexual assault deserves to be heard, believed, and supported,” it was reasonable to ask her if she thought that was true of Juanita Broaddrick, too. She was raped by Hillary’s husband but never got justice.
If we pull back the curtain on the M.O. of the two rapists, they appear to be similar, if not identical. Two very powerful figures, both suffering from inferiority complexes, both lacking any father figures in their lives, and played a game of pure dominance. After all, this was not really about sex. It was about power—sheer power.
The Bill Cs had partners in crime. Clinton flew on Jeffrey Epstein’s “Lolita Express” no fewer than 26 times—without his security detail. Cosby, meanwhile, was a celebrated icon of American popular culture, fêted by media, Hollywood, and politicians alike. These partners legitimized the assaults and made the culprits feel good. The infamous painting of Clinton in a blue dress displayed in Epstein’s posh Upper East Side New York townhouse is creepy as it gets, but it was meant to flatter the big guy and honor his doings.
It is interesting how these two American heroes got caught up among the politically correct and the purveyors of cancel culture. For decades their known exploits went uncovered or were brushed aside. Then finally, in the Harvey Weinstein era (yes, he is a paragon of this behavior and the one most responsible for the recent change in attitude) we started to see the walls crumble. Even liberals and movie moguls, perhaps former presidents, were not beyond recall and cancellation. They, too, could be found guilty, put on trial, convicted in both civil and criminal courts, as well as the court of public opinion.
The deals Cosby and Clinton cut with prosecutors to keep them out or get them out of prison also seem to have overlapped. Why did they get special treatment? Why did the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, a political body composed only of liberals, flinch and let Cosby out on a so-called technicality, even when Cosby has confessed to many crimes surrounding the sexual assaults if not exactly assault itself? Why did Bill Clinton get off when his sexual predation was cataloged by everyone from the Arkansas state police to well-documented books like Clinton’s War on Women?
Now to be fair, Camille actually facilitated the dinners and drugging of the women by Bill Cosby, though they claim the women were willing participants. Hillary just threw lamps at Bill when his actions threatened her ambitions. She let him off the hook from the start but supposedly benefitted from what was dubbed a “political marriage.” Yet the two women in the ordeal got what they wanted while those who were raped and sexually assaulted suffered indelible and permanent injury.
It is nothing short of remarkable how the publicity machines kept both Bill Cs so popular, even in the face of demonstrable crises. Both Bill Cs had very good PR and expert handlers who knew how to spin, deflect, and change the subject. How many glossy pieces were done by a knowing and adoring press? There are real questions as to the complicity of the press in the ordeals.
If this were just about sex, either of the Bill Cs of course could afford to hire hookers or have girlfriends and mistresses on the side. But the game of power and dominance is very different, with different demands and stakes. The Bill Cs kept belt notches of their exploits and basked in the evil of their activities. They were full of pride and accomplishment. And it was very much planned and calculated.
When you read the many and lengthy quotes from their victims, which are available to the public in interviews, depositions, and in trial documents, you begin to see the ugly nature of nefarious and criminal behavior. You also see the utter defenselessness of the victims. Dozens and dozens of women were truly harmed. Damaged and severely hurt, they are the ones the public should care about, not the perps. But that has generally not been the case.
So, in the long span of time, what did the two Bill Cs lose? Cosby was locked up for a few years, so he suffered the loss of his freedom in a cell. Clinton never got his just deserts. Both men have fallen off their high horses and neither is considered much of an idol any longer. Fame suffered a blow and bank accounts took a hit. In Democratic liberal circles, however, neither Bill C has been disowned, rebuked, or fully discredited. Liberals can look the other way when it comes to crimes committed by their own. All is forgiven for a “higher cause” they might say, or “just about everybody does it.” Really? What kind of society do we inhabit when rape becomes normalized, even approved?
Finally, what are the lasting legacies of the two Bill Cs now? How will history judge them in the longer term? It may be too early to say for sure but here is what it should read. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, decadent and relativistic American culture gave rise to a trend of lawlessness and debauchery. Many Americans chose to ignore and even applaud predation because, as in the case of the two Bill Cs, they were considered above the law and beyond reproach. They could get away with just about anything.