MSNBC host Rachel Maddow asked Hillary Clinton if she believes Judge Brett Kavanaugh deserves due process after a woman accused him of sexual assault when the two were teenagers. In an interview on Tuesday, Maddow told Clinton that her husband as president faced problems of due process rights following similar allegations.



Maddow asked Clinton given the allegations former President Clinton faced in the 1990s and her concern about due process had she changed her mind on due process for the accused.



"Your husband when he was president faced allegations that were not the same as this, certainly, but had connections to these kinds of old allegations from years ago. And I know you had concerns at the time. Your husband certainly had concerns at the time that he never really had due process to defend himself from allegations like this. Have we learned anything over the years about due process not just for the accusers but also for the accused?" Maddow asked.











Clinton agreed that there should be due process for everyone involved, but changed the focus from her husband, the accused, to Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, the current accuser in this case. Clinton made Ford's due process rights paramount.



"Yes, there should be due process for everyone involved. And I think that's what Dr. Ford is asking for. She is asking for due process. She's asking that there be an investigation. You know, at the end of the investigation, she might very well decide not to pursue her willingness to testify. She might say, well, you know, there's no way to ever prove it. Who knows what she might decide," she said.





RACHEL MADDOW, MSNBC HOST: If he is absolutely innocent of this charge, if this didn't happen the way Professor Blasey Ford says it did, and that is what Judge Kavanaugh asserts, do you think that the Senate is capable of giving him due process? I've seen allegations like this -- there are lots of allegories for this and lots of times in politics.



Your husband when he was president faced allegations that were not the same as this, certainly, but had connections to these kinds of old allegations from years ago. And I know you had concerns at the time. Your husband certainly had concerns at the time that he never really had due process to defend himself from allegations like this. Have we learned anything over the years about due process not just for the accusers but also for the accused?



HILLARY CLINTON: Well, I think that you have to take each of these situations sort of on their own merits, and what we have today is a process that has been rushed, that has been deliberately opaque where information that the Congress, not just Democratic senators, but all senators and the public deserve to see that they were denied.



So there has to be a set of standards. And, yes, there should be due process for everyone involved. And I think that's what Dr. Ford is asking for. She is asking for due process. She's asking that there be an investigation. You know, at the end of the investigation, she might very well decide not to pursue her willingness to testify. She might say, well, you know, there's no way to ever prove it. Who knows what she might decide.



On the other hand, the person she's accusing might decide well, wait a minute, my memory is faulty, or I don't remember that, and now there is evidence for it. We don't know because there has been no decision to give due process on either side. And that's why I think the White House should ask that the FBI reopen the background check.