Silke Jasso
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte lashed out at the daughter of former U.S. President Bill Clinton in an expletive-laden speech for a second straight day Thursday after she criticized a comment he made about rapes committed by soldiers.
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Duterte, speaking Wednesday at a navy event, questioned whether Chelsea Clinton also criticized her father when he had an affair with Monica Lewinsky in the White House when he was president. He repeated his remarks Thursday in a speech to newly appointed government officials.
“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 floor, on the sofa, did you raise any [criticism]?” Duterte said Thursday.
Duterte said he was being sarcastic when he told troops last week that he would take responsibility for any crimes they commit while implementing martial law that he declared in the southern third of the country, even if they rape three women.
Chelsea Clinton, who was a teenager when her father’s scandal began and now works with her family’s foundation, reacted to Duterte’s rape comment with a Twitter post that said: “Not funny. Ever.”
Duterte, who took office last year, is known for his foul-mouthed comments about world leaders and has previously targeted President Barack Obama, Pope Francis and the U.S. ambassador to the Philippines. On the campaign trail, he drew criticism for joking about the gang rape of an Australian missionary during his time as leader of Davao City, saying that as mayor he should have been first in line.
His often profanity-laced speeches are shown live on the government television station and are usually later edited by the presidential palace to mute the foul language. Official transcripts replace expletives with ellipses after the first letter of the word, as most local newspapers also do.
That was the case Wednesday when his live speech contained crude expletives about Bill Clinton’s relationship with Lewinsky that were later muted in the video posted on the government website.
The presidential palace Facebook page livestreams Duterte’s speeches and they are archived without scrubbing expletives.
