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Michael Isikoff: NBC Should Release Full Juanita Broaddrick Interview

Juanita Broaddrick
Juanita Broaddrick / AP
October 13, 2016

The reporter that first learned about Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky said on Thursday that NBC is sitting on the full tape of its initial interview with Bill Clinton rape accuser Juanita Broaddrick and should release it before the election.

Michael Isikoff, who was a leading reporter during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, said in a Thursday discussion that NBC should release a 17-year-old tape of an interview that it conducted with Broaddrick. Broaddrick has long claimed that the interview that NBC aired edited out her claim that Hillary Clinton was involved in quashing Broaddrick's rape claims.

"NBC has the full tape of the original Lisa Myers interview," Isikoff said during an online discussion on Sidewire.com. "NBC ought to check its archive and run the full interview. (AS long as they're now culling their archives!)"

Isikoff worked as a national correspondent for NBC from 2010 to 2014. He says that NBC reporter Lisa Myers has confirmed Broaddrick's claim that NBC edited out references that could have been damaging to Hillary Clinton.

"Folks have made much of the fact that her claim about the conversation she had with Hillary wasn't in the interview that run," Isikoff said. "Broaddrick said it got cut out; Lisa Myers has since agreed Broaddrick said this then—and NBC chose to cut it out."

NBC has never released an unedited version of its interview with Broaddrick.

Both NBC and the Washington Post "closely vetted" Broaddrick's claims at the time and chose to run with stories on her claims, Isikoff said.

He added that it was "amazing to watch" Democrats that he saw defend Bill Clinton against his accusers now jump to embrace women accusing Trump.

"It's amazing to watch how D's who attacked those women are now embracing the Trump accusers, while the Rs who believed them attack them," Isikoff said.

Earlier this year, NBC's Andrea Mitchell said that Broaddrick's claims had been "discredited." The network stealthily deleted the line after it was threatened with legal action by Broaddrick's son.