For the second day in a row, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte attacked Chelsea Clinton with a coarse tirade for her criticism of his “joke” that his soldiers could rape women with impunity during martial law. He accused President Bill Clinton’s daughter of failing to denounce her father’s sexual relationship with Monica Lewinski in the White House.
Chelsea Clinton attacked Duterte on Twitter after he told his soldiers in a speech last Friday that he would take the fall for them if they raped up to three women — but all bets were off with four, which may have been the “joke.” Clinton tweeted in response that rape is “Not funny. Ever.”
Not funny. Ever. https://t.co/XUIo85noBQ
— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) May 26, 2017
Hi Kevin -Duterte is a murderous thug with no regard for human rights. It’s important to keep pointing that out & that rape is never a joke.
— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) May 26, 2017
Duterte was widely criticized for the comments, including by Human Rights Watch and the Gabriela Women’s Party in the Philippines, which issued a statement saying that such an outrageous remark “emboldens military forces to use rape as a tool of war.”
Duterte called his critics “whores” and said Thursday that he was being “sarcastic” when he made the rape comments. His spokesman had said earlier that he was using “heightened bravado” to boost morale among the soldiers who are enforcing newly instituted martial law on Mindinao in a crackdown on Islamic militants.
Duterte directed his fury at Chelsea Clinton. “When your father was screwing Lewinsky and the rest of the young girls there in the office of the president, on the table … on the sofa, did you raise any” criticism? Duterte asked in a speech Thursday, according to The Associated Press. Chelsea Clinton was a teenager during the Lewinsky scandal in 1998.
The comments were similar to ones Duterte made Wednesday. But some passages were so crude that the words were later muted on a government video of his speech that day, AP reported.
Clinton has not responded on Twitter.
Duterte also accused U.S. soldiers of raping women in the Philippines and Japan. “You Americans, like Chelsea, be careful because you live in a glass house,” he said, The New Zealand Herald reported.
President Donald Trump called Duterte in May to tell him that he is doing a “great job” in his war on drugs, which has prompted up to 9,000 extra-judicial killings by soldiers and police.
Trump has invited Duterte to visit him in the White House, but the Philippine president has yet to take him up on the offer.
