Monica Lewinsky Says Bill Clinton Should've Resigned After Affair, Felt She Was 'Gaslit' By White House

Lewinsky appeared on the Call Her Daddy podcast Wednesday, where she spoke about that traumatic time in her life and why she believes President Bill Clinton should've resigned following his affair with the then-22-year-old.

"I thought it was something it wasn't," Lewinsky, who interned in the West Wing between 1995 and 1997, said of her relationship with the former president. "My feelings were real and it was very frustrating and painful to have people talking about this in a way that was untrue."

As the headlines began to pour in and all kinds of things were written about Lewinsky -- from calling her a whore to labeling her mentally unstable -- the activist admitted even she began to doubt herself. Something that, on further reflection, she realized was gaslighting.

"That's the whole goal of gaslighting right? So I don't think the White House's intention was to gaslight me, I think the intention was to stay in power and to get out of legal Jeopardy, but I think that is the core of being gaslit -- you do start to doubt yourself."

A report for the House Judiciary Committee by independent counsel Ken Starr found Clinton and Lewinsky engaged in a sexual relationship in the Oval Office before the president, who was 49 at the time, lied about it under oath in front of a federal grand jury.

The inquiry came out of a 1994 sexual harassment lawsuit from Pamela Jones, a former Arkansas state employee, who claimed Clinton propositioned her and exposed himself inside a hotel room in Little Rock while he was governor in 1991. It was during Jones' case that Starr found Clinton had lied under oath when discussing his relationship with Lewinsky, which was found to be grounds for impeachment.

The president was brought up on charges of lying under oath and obstruction of justice, but the Senate ultimately voted to acquit Clinton in February 1999.

Now, years later, Lewinsky says she believes Clinton should've resigned from the Oval Office as Congress voted to impeach him for lying about the affair.

"I think that the right way to handle a situation like that would've been to probably say it was nobody's business and to resign," Lewinsky said, suggesting that Clinton should've been truthful about the pair's alleged sexual relationship as a solution to finish out his second term amid the scandal.

"Or to find a way to stay in office that was not lying and not throwing a young person who is just starting out in the world under the bus," she added.

This marks the first time Lewinsky has made this suggestion, with the activist telling Cooper she has never been asked the question.

Lewinsky felt she was being too lenient with the former president and the magnitude of what a resignation could've meant.

"At the same time I hear myself say that and it’s like, 'OK, but we're also talking about the most powerful office in the world,'" she said. "I don't want to be naive either."

It wasn't until leaving the office that Clinton, who has said he never thought about resigning, opened up about engaging in an affair with Lewinsky.

"I did something for the worst possible reason -- just because I could," Clinton told CBS in 2004. "I think that's just about the most morally indefensible reason anybody could have for doing something -- when you do it because you could."

He continued, "And I thought about it a lot, and there are a lot of more sophisticated explanations, more complicated psychological explanations, but none of them are an excuse. Only a fool does not look to explain his mistakes."

Lewinsky said her future was forever impacted by the scandal, but she's proud she held onto her "true self" through the traumatic ups and downs.

And as others started to see what she faced -- as well as the power in balance she was up against at the time -- Lewinsky said several people reached out to her over the years and offered apologies for not standing up for her then.

"I've had a handful of people who were involved at the time that I've run into in different ways who acknowledge that they have made different choices," Lewinsky. "None of the people who were above-the-fold names involved in the investigation. I'm grateful that I'm at a place where I don't need it anymore."