Names and faces
President Bill Clinton says the #MeToo movement is overdue. In an interview with NBC’s Today Show released Monday, Clinton bristled at questions over whether he should have resigned 20 years ago over his sexual relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky and whether the #MeToo movement has changed his perspective. At the same time, the former Democratic president claimed credit for empowering women in his orbit and disputed that he might owe Lewinsky a private apology, insisting his public televised apology was adequate. Lewinsky has said their relationship “was not sexual assault” but “constituted a gross abuse of power.” Clinton, who is promoting his new fictional thriller, The President Is Missing, with best-selling author James Patterson, said his critics are “omitting facts” to lump him in with other men accused of sexual assault and harassment. “I dealt with it 20 years ago, plus,” Clinton told ABC. “And the American people, two-thirds of them stayed with me. And I’ve tried to do a good job since then, and with my life and with my work. That’s all I have to say.” Clinton said he was right not to resign. And while he said he supports the #MeToo movement, “I still have questions about some of the decisions which have been made.” Clinton said he doesn’t think President Donald Trump has gotten a free pass, but that allegations of Trump’s exploits haven’t “gotten anything like the coverage you would expect.” Trump has been accused by more than a dozen women of sexual misconduct and was caught on tape bragging about grabbing women inappropriately. Regarding any parallels between the two presidents, Clinton said: “A lot of the facts have been conveniently omitted to make the story work, I think partly because [Trump’s supporters] are frustrated that they got all these serious allegations against the current occupant in the Oval Office. And his donors don’t seem to care.”
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has a new friend on social media, and he lives under the sea. SpongeBob Squarepants on Friday tagged Johnson in a tweet asking what inspired his nickname. And on Sunday, Johnson responded by asking what SpongeBob meant: “Big Daddy? The Rock? Samoan Thor? Beef Piston? Or the inappropriate one” he earned in college. Johnson also wrote he loved SpongeBob’s work. SpongeBob countered that he earned “one or two cool names” in boating school. He then asked if The Rock could smell what Bob was cooking. The answer: Krabby Patties.