BS BRIEF:
- Monica Lewinsky drew praise and criticism after honoring the late Sen. Lindsey Graham for investigating what she described as a White House smear campaign against her during President Bill Clinton’s impeachment—even while making clear that she disagreed with “many, many” of Graham’s political choices.
- When a critic insisted Graham had not acted for her benefit and called him “evil,” Lewinsky responded that she had not whitewashed his record, but that his actions during the impeachment fight had been “healing” for her and her family.
- Lewinsky’s tribute made the radical suggestion that gratitude, disagreement and moral complexity can coexist.
MONICA LEWINSKY DEFENDS LINDSEY GRAHAM TRIBUTE: ‘THOSE ACTIONS WERE HEALING’
Monica Lewinsky has spent nearly three decades living with the wreckage of a Washington scandal in which almost everyone with power walked away in better shape than she did.
So when she offered an unexpectedly gracious remembrance of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, it was not because she had suddenly adopted his politics.
It was because she remembered what he did when the Clinton White House was allegedly attempting to discredit her.
Following Graham’s death on July 11 at age 71, Lewinsky wrote:
“I’ve disagreed with many (many) of Lindsey Graham’s choices and beliefs, but he was also — as one of the house managers on the ’98 impeachment — the one who worked tirelessly to prove there was a smear campaign against me from inside the WH.”
She ended the post simply:
“RIP.”
The tribute came as memorial services were being held for Graham in Washington, with President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy among the political figures expected to participate. Graham died following what authorities said was likely an aortic dissection related to cardiovascular disease.
Not everybody appreciated Lewinsky’s gesture. One social-media user replied:
“Come on. He did not do it for you. The man was evil.”
Lewinsky did not retreat.
She answered:
“I know he didn’t do it for me. i didn’t whitewash his history. but those actions were healing for me (and my family)… thanks for sharing your opinion.”
That response was the heart of the story. Lewinsky was not arguing that Graham’s entire career should be judged by one action. She was saying that one action still mattered—to her.
Public relations adviser Adrienne Uthe told Fox News that Lewinsky was not presenting herself as a Graham supporter.
“She’s not suddenly a Lindsey Graham fan — she’s just honest enough to say he did one thing that mattered to her, and she’s not going to let political disagreement erase that.”
Uthe called the tribute “classy” and said its lack of polish made it seem more authentic than a carefully manufactured political statement.
Crisis communications specialist Holly Baird similarly argued that Lewinsky’s gratitude was consistent with her years of advocacy surrounding public humiliation, empathy and the lasting damage caused by mass shaming.
“The statement reflects the idea that personal gratitude and political disagreement can coexist.”
Former White House spokesperson Alexandra LaManna added that the post did not read as a political endorsement.
“It reads as someone recognizing decency where she found it, even in a complicated story.”
Graham was a House member when he was selected as one of 13 impeachment managers prosecuting the case against President Bill Clinton in the Senate.
The House impeached Clinton in December 1998 on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice arising from his testimony about his relationship with Lewinsky. The Senate acquitted him on both articles in February 1999.
During the trial, Graham argued that impeachment was not merely about criminal punishment.
“Impeachment is not about punishment. Impeachment is about cleansing the office. Impeachment is about restoring honor and integrity to the office.”
Graham also pursued evidence that Clinton allies had attempted to portray Lewinsky as an unstable stalker—an effort Lewinsky now says provided a measure of healing to her and her family.
Lewinsky was only 22 when her relationship with the 49-year-old president began in 1995. Once the affair became public, she was subjected to relentless ridicule, international humiliation and a level of public scrutiny that she has since described as nearly unbearable.
Bill Clinton completed his second term. Hillary Clinton went on to serve in the Senate, as secretary of state and as the Democratic presidential nominee.
Lewinsky became the punchline. That history explains why she may remember the rare person in power who investigated whether the White House had tried to destroy her credibility.
Graham’s death has also triggered a fast-moving political succession in South Carolina.
Gov. Henry McMaster appointed Graham’s younger sister, Darline Graham, to fill the vacant Senate seat temporarily, making her the first woman to represent the state in the U.S. Senate. She has since entered the special-election contest for a full term.
The Republican primary has drawn a crowded field that includes Reps. Ralph Norman and Russell Fry, former Gov. Mark Sanford and several additional candidates. The primary is scheduled for August 11, with a runoff on August 25 if no candidate receives a majority.
MY TAKE:
Imagine that. A person acknowledging that someone from the opposing political tribe once did something honorable.
Monica Lewinsky did not endorse Lindsey Graham’s entire career. She did not take back every disagreement. She did not issue a blanket absolution for every vote, every statement or every political alliance.
She said the man did one thing that mattered deeply to her.
And because this is social media—where nuance goes to be beaten to death with a folding chair—some people immediately demanded that she withdraw her gratitude and return to the approved partisan script.
No.
Good for her.
Lewinsky lived through one of the ugliest public destruction campaigns in modern American life. Bill Clinton was the president. The Democratic machine was powerful. The media treated the story as entertainment, and much of the country turned a young woman into a national joke.
She knows better than some stranger on the internet what helped her heal.
And here is the larger point: You do not have to approve of a person’s entire life to acknowledge an act of decency.
You can believe Lindsey Graham was wrong on foreign policy, immigration, Trump, spending or a dozen other issues and still recognize that he may have done right by Monica Lewinsky when a powerful White House was trying to bury her.
This all-or-nothing thinking is poisoning the country.
The Left does it. The Right does it. Everybody must be an angel or a demon, a hero or a traitor, entirely pure or completely irredeemable.
Human beings do not work that way.
Graham was complicated. Lewinsky’s feelings about him are complicated. History is complicated.
That does not make her tribute weak.
It makes it honest.
DBS WIRE SOURCES:
- Fox News — Monica Lewinsky’s Lindsey Graham tribute draws criticism and praise for placing people over party
- Monica Lewinsky on X — Lewinsky remembers Graham’s work investigating a White House smear campaign
- Associated Press — Lindsey Graham’s funeral draws Trump and world leaders to Washington
- Reuters — Trump, Zelenskyy and Netanyahu to attend Lindsey Graham’s funeral
- Associated Press — South Carolina Republicans line up for special primary to replace Lindsey Graham
- South Carolina Governor’s Office — Gov. McMaster appoints Darline Graham to the U.S. Senate
