Duterte digs up Clinton’s affair to slam Chelsea after ‘joke’

MANILA: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday denounced the daughter of former US president Bill Clinton for criticising him over a joke about abuse, and questioned whether she was just as outraged by her father’s affair with a White House intern.

Duterte was incensed by Chelsea Clinton tweeting at the weekend that he was a “murderous thug with no regard for human rights”.

Duterte’s abuse remark came during a speech on Friday aimed at reassuring soldiers that he would take full responsibility for any backlash to martial law, which he imposed last week on Mindanao island.

He said he would not tolerate abuses but joked that if any soldier was to abused three women, “I will admit it, that’s on me”.

The firebrand leader is notorious for comments that are deemed offensive by some, but are taken lightly by many Filipinos.

Referring to Bill Clinton’s involvement with intern Monica Lewinsky in the 1990s, he hit back at Chelsea Clinton and said he was speaking sarcastically and it was not a joke. “I was not joking, I was being sarcastic,” Duterte said in a speech to navy officers.

“I will tell her, when your father, the president of the United States, was having affairs with an intern in the White House, Lewinsky, how did you feel? Did you slam your father?”

The affair led to Bill Clinton being impeached by the House of Representatives in 1999. He was later acquitted by the Senate and completed his second term in 2001.

Duterte is known for his informal, no-nonsense style and his speeches are often loaded with hyperbole, profanity, threats and jokes about taboo subjects.

Duterte said American military servicemen had committed crimes overseas, including in the Philippines, recalling a 2005 incident involving a marine who escaped a 40-year jail term by settling a case out of court.

“It is a crime actually committed by soldiers, mostly Americans in Okinawa,” he said, referring to several cases involving US servicemen stationed in Japan.

“But, we never heard of a Filipino. But I am just warning them that anything they do, I have to answer for it. I take full responsibility for your foolishness. I speak sarcastically.”