When legendary right-wing attorney Ken Starr passed away this week, many liberals were not exactly rushing to memorialize him.
Starr became widely known as the Special Counsel in charge of the inquiry into former Democratic President Bill Clinton and his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
And given the way Lewinsky was attacked by Starr and his employees and savaged in the media to the point she considered suicide, Lewinsky's two cents on Starr's passing was top of mind for many when the news broke.
But Lewinsky was decidedly unwilling to take the bait, showing, as always, astonishing restraint and magnanimity in a classy Twitter response to the news that has left many people applauding.
See her take below.
Lewinsky wrote:
"as i’m sure many can understand, my thoughts about ken starr bring up complicated feelings…"
"but of more importance, is that i imagine it’s a painful loss for those who love him."
That was far kinder than most of us would ever be able to manage.
Lewinsky has spoken publicly in the past about Starr and the many encounters she had with him during the investigation, meetings she characterized as "avuncular and creepy" and in which she says he "kept touching my arm and elbow."
She has also said Starr made her life "a living hell" after she was forced to testify about her sexual encounters with Clinton in granular detail when Starr shifted the focus of an inquiry into the Clintons' Arkansas real estate investments to an investigation into the affair between Lewinsky and the President.
Starr vividly and luridly reproduced these sexual minutiae in his reports on the matter, which seemed to many at the time to be deliberate attempts at salaciousness and character assassination of both the former President and Lewinsky.
Lewinsky became a national laughingstock as a result, and was later diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder because of the ordeal.
Regardless, Lewinsky has always maintained a respect toward all parties involved in the scandal that has rarely been shown to her, and many were shocked she was able to show such restraint even amidst the news of Starr's passing.
Starr died Tuesday at 76 following complications during surgery.
@WhiteHouse/X
