(Image courtesy of Amazon.com)
Juanita Broaddrick, the woman who claims that Bill Clinton raped her in 1978, has written a book about the event. Published on Amazon, Kindle and print versions of the book have sold briskly. Now, however, Amazon has halted sales of the Kindle version of the book after five months of problem-free sales, and Broaddrick is sounding the alarm.
The book, You’d Better Put Some Ice On That: How I Survived Being Raped by Bill Clinton, gives Broaddrick’s side of the story. The Amazon preview says, in part:
Now, with award-winning former investigative journalist Nick Lulli, she tells her story of survival; from the assault at the hands of the future president, to the veiled threats by a seemingly complicit presidential wannabe Hillary Rodham Clinton; Broaddrick believes now is the time to set the record straight and ensure victims everywhere are believed.
In a Facebook post on June 12, Broaddrick wrote:
Outrageous!! Was just sent this by Amazon. My book has been #1 on Kindle and selling just fine for 5 months. Formatting tool was supplied by Amazon. Publisher, Create Space, is owned by Amazon. IS AMAZON TRYING TO SILENCE MY BOOK?
As of this writing, the Amazon link confirms that the e-book is not currently available for download. One can still, however, purchase the print version of the book.
In an exclusive interview with PJ Media, Broaddrick says she can’t be sure if this is a random error or deliberate, but she questions the timing of the de-listing of her book. She says sarcastically, “Just coincidental with new statements from [Bill Clinton].” She added that this isn’t the first time Amazon has given her problems. “The first week my book came out when they were pushing Fire and Fury, they dropped my book with no explanation. We had to rush to get a second one up after buyers told us it was not available.”
“We have never been given an explanation. How does it sell 1000 Kindle [books] with no complaints and all of a sudden it’s all wrong?” she asked.
Broaddrick says she and her coauthor have reached out to Amazon for an explanation, but have not heard back yet.
Those new statements from Bill Clinton were reported by the New York Post on June 11, taking the Internet by storm, for obvious reasons: “Norms have changed for what you can do to somebody against their will,” Clinton said in an interview.
It’s quite a coincidence, as Broaddrick points out, that several times recently her book has mysteriously been lost by Amazon when something more aligned with the liberal agenda takes precedence in the news cycle.
Clinton’s full quote, in a PBS interview reproduced by the Post:
The former president has come under fire once again for comments he made during a recent sit-down — this time noting how “norms have changed in terms of what you can do to somebody against their will.”
Clinton made the controversial statement while speaking to PBS Newshour about the resignation of former Senator Al Franken last year following his sexual misconduct scandal.
“I assume you think that what happened with you was more serious than what happened with [Franken],” host Judy Woodruff asked Clinton. “He was driven from office, from the US Senate. So, norms have changed. Do you think that’s a good thing?”
“Well, in general, I think it’s a good thing, yes,” replied the former president.
“I think it’s a good thing that we should all have higher standards,” he said. “I think the norms have really changed in terms of, what you can do to somebody against their will, how much you can crowd their space, make them miserable at work.”
Clinton added, “You don’t have to physically assault somebody to make them, you know, uncomfortable at work or at home or in their other — just walking around. That, I think, is good.”
One can reasonably question whether Clinton simply misspoke or whether he legitimately believes that doing things to women against their will used to be A-OK. The lack of self-awareness, however, can take your breath away. On top of that, can we talk about PBS giving Clinton a forum to talk about the #MeToo movement in a naked attempt to assist him in rehabilitating his image? More and more people suddenly are coming to the conclusion that the Democrats have a Clinton problem, as recently discussed at CNN:
Bill Clinton’s testy exchange with an NBC reporter about the #MeToo movement and his lack of direct personal apology to Monica Lewinsky is worth watching, both because it underlines the difficulties the former president’s legacy will face as it ages and because it pinches the nerve the former president exposes for Democrats looking to the future.
For the record, Clinton, who somehow seemed a little blindsided by the question, thinks the #MeToo movement is “long overdue.”But.“I think that it doesn’t mean I agree with everything. I still have some — questions about some of the decisions which have been made,” he said.
Poor fella.
This is not the first time Amazon has been accused of double standards regarding books authored by conservative writers. In 2017, it was widely reported that Amazon graciously deleted all the one-star reviews on Hillary Clinton’s campaign post-mortem, What Happened, left by people who were not confirmed to have purchased the book. The same courtesy was denied to conservative author and PJ Media contributor Matt Margolis.
Jeff Reynolds is the author of the forthcoming book, Behind the Curtain: Inside the Network of Progressive Billionaires and Their Campaign to Undermine Democracy, due out Fall 2018. You can follow Jeff on Twitter @ChargerJeff.
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