If Hillary Clinton is elected president, one of the most sensitive decisions she’ll have to make is whether to allow her philandering husband — “First Gentleman” Bill Clinton — to have female interns, according to former White House apprentices and former aides to the 42nd president.
Bill Clinton sabotaged his second term as president when it was revealed he had a sordid sexual affair with then-White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The House of Representatives even voted to impeach Clinton over what came to be known as Monicagate.
There are currently more than 100 interns who staff the various White House offices at any given time, including the Office of the First Lady as well as the president’s.
“With President Clinton, you’re going to have this question,” said Maile Wilson, 30, a former policy intern for First Lady Laura Bush. “It’s uncharted territory.”
“It might come down to how you structure the program to prevent any type of situation that would be a problem for the administration,” said Wilson, the first woman and youngest person elected mayor of Cedar City, Utah.
The Lewinsky scandal occurred two decades ago and Bill Clinton, now a grandad, turns 70 on Friday.
But the issue of whether Bill should interact with interns will have to be addressed, said political consultant Hank Sheinkopf, who was an adman for Bill Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign.
“These are events that happened over 20 years ago. Bill is nearly 70 years old,” Sheinkopf said.
But he added, “Twenty years after Lewinsky, there are some people who won’t want him around interns. If Hillary becomes president, there will have to be guidelines for the internship program to make people feel comfortable.”
A Hillary Clinton campaign spokesman declined comment.
One New York state Democratic lawmaker who addressed sexual harassment in the Legislature said it’s better to be safe than sorry. Her verdict: No interns for Bill.
“If there are any risks I say he shouldn’t have interns. It’s probably wise that he [Bill Clinton] doesn’t have young interns in his office,” said Assemblywoman Amy Paulin (D-Westchester), who served on a panel to overhaul that legislative body’s internship program following abuses in Albany.
“No intern should be in a precarious position — and that includes with the president’s husband. Appearances are important.”
Wilson, who interned for Laura Bush in the summer of 2008, said there were strict protocols when she worked in the White House’s East Wing, including a dress code for interns.
She couldn’t recall ever being alone with a top White House official, the president or the first lady.
“It still seems unbelievable for an intern to have access to a president like that,” she said, referring to the Lewinsky hanky-panky. “That was not even considered when I was back there.”
“It was the most professional environment I ever worked in. You were never allowed to wander the White House alone,” Wilson said.
Natalie Plain, a former White House intern from California who worked alongside Lewinsky in the Clinton White House, said the internship program would be “highly scrutinized” under a future Hillary Clinton administration.
She said she would allow interns to work with Bill, if it were up to her — albeit with strict vetting of candidates and a watchful eye.
“Bill Clinton has changed — both physically and personally as a man. He’s a grandfather now,” said Plain, who runs a cosmetic company in the Los Angeles area.
But things were different in the 1990s.
“We were all taken aback that Monica had all that access” to President Clinton, Plain said.
“Monica was this perfect rainbow. He was attracted to Monica.”