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Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky has taken the spotlight again, but is unlikely to impact Hillary Clinton's 2016 White House bid, experts said.
Lewinsky's affair with former President Bill Clinton grabbed international headlines during the 1990s, sparking an international scandal that was the butt of many late-night-talk-show skits. The affair led to the former president's impeachment, although he beat the case and remains one of the most popular U.S. presidents in recent memory.
Perhaps to clear the air in the lead-up to Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential bid, Lewinsky earlier this week penned an essay for a leading U.S. magazine in her first public addressing of the issue in nearly two decades.
Lewinsky wrote in the upcoming issue of Vanity Fair that she deeply regretted her affair with Clinton, who she said "took advantage of me." But "I will always remain firm on this point: it was a consensual relationship. Any 'abuse' came in the aftermath, when I was made a scapegoat in order to protect his powerful position," she writes.
While Republicans may be tempted to rehash the controversy, U.S. experts said the incident is old news.
Indeed, for many who will vote in 2016, the Lewinsky affair is something that happened when they were in grade school. "It's tough to see these voters' decisions about the election being affected by what is very ancient history to them," said Christopher Galdieri, assistant professor at Saint Anselm College.
"For those voters who lived through the scandal the first time around, it's important to remember what Americans thought at the time: They disapproved of President Clinton's behavior, but saw it as a personal, private failing and viewed impeachment as a massive overreaction." Galdieri told Xinhua.
"They also empathized with Hillary Clinton, whom they saw as a victim of her husband's misbehavior, and both Hillary and Bill enjoyed some of the highest approval ratings of Bill's presidency during 1998 and 1999," Galdieri said.
They said, Republicans, particularly Senator Rand Paul, are likely to keep bringing the scandal up. "It's red meat for party activists, who find the prospect of a Hillary presidency terrifying, and they may think that Clinton is less likely to run if she's faced with the prospect of rehashing old news all over again," Galdieri said.
Darrell West, vice president and director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution, echoed those thoughts.
"The Lewinsky affair is ancient history and no one will care. It does not reflect negatively on Hillary Clinton and has not reduced support for Bill Clinton. Republicans will face a backlash if they try to use it for political advantage," he told Xinhua.
