All language subtitles for Original.Sin.Sex.S01E05.Sex.Scandals.720p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-SPiRiT

WOMAN: Burn the witch!

NARRATOR: Political sex scandals
are best dished out...

WOMAN: Another scandal

for Italy's embattled
prime minister.

NARRATOR: ...with a heaping
spoonful of hypocrisy.

MAN: You find that the louder
someone shouts

about sexual normality...

MAN: I didn't send
the photograph, this hacker did.

MAN: I am not gay.

MAN: ...the more likely it is
they'll be exposed as a fraud.

WOMAN: I love watching
a bad person fall.

I love it.

[wolf whistle]

MAN: It's interesting,
it's titillating,

and it's better them than us.

WOMAN: Mrs. Robinson has
admitted to the affair

with Mr. McCambley.

MAN: A 59-year-old woman
with a 19-year-old guy?

You couldn't make that up.

MAN: Today, I'm announcing
my resignation from Congress.

MAN: Yeah! Goodbye, pervert!

DR. DREW PINSKY:
We don't like hypocrisy,

that's someone
we're not gonna forgive.

NARRATOR: Shameless hypocrisy.

CROWD: Shame on you!

NARRATOR: Theirs...

NEWT GINGRICH:
There's no administration

with less moral authority than
the Clinton-Gore Administration.

NARRATOR: ...and ours.

DAN SAVAGE: Half of America
is thinking,

'I've gotten an oral sex from
someone who isn't my wife.'

ANN COULTER: I do think
Monica Lewinsky

was a victim in that.

BILL CLINTON: You're dealing
with, in some ways,

the most mysterious area
of human life.

♪

MARTY KLEIN: Sex scandals are
like a pressure valve,

it's the opportunity to see
important people brought down.

NARRATOR: What triggers
a major political sex scandal

and rocks the foundations
of power

varies widely across the globe.

In many cultures, any taint
of marital infidelity

can bring down a leader.

RuRAOULPAUL CHARLES: Most
politicians are owned

by Joe and Betty Beercan.

They have to kowtow to them.

If that politician revealed
himself for what he really is,

that same person would not
have voted for him.

NARRATOR: Yet in some
European countries,

taking lovers is one
of the unwritten perks

expected of those in power.

CAROLINE HELDMAN: I think they
view US sex scandals as quaint.

In many European countries,

monogamy for politicians seems
like a pretty outdated concept.

GIULIA SISSA: In a Catholic
political culture

and religious culture,

there is an expectation
of sinfulness,

of the fact that
politics is erotic.

There is that kind of thrill

that goes with leadership,
with celebrity.

KLEIN: Europeans do have
a different attitude

about sexuality.

You know what you call
a nude beach in Italy, right?

It's called a beach.

NARRATOR: Yet, even in Italy,

there is sexual behavior that
crosses the line into scandal,

and nobody has tested the limits
of the Italian tolerance for sex

like Silvio Berlusconi.

WOMAN: Another day,
another scandal

for Italy's embattled
prime minister.

VALENTINA MARTELLI:
Silvio Berlusconi was

four-time prime minister
of Italy.

During some of those terms,

he was somehow involved
in a sex scandal

which was called Bunga Bunga.

NARRATOR: The exact origins and
meaning of the term Bunga Bunga

are varied and obscure.

But in 2010, Italians adopted it
to describe tales

of highly sexualized
private parties.

MAN: In what some Italians see
as a gloss on his image

and others as a disgrace,

various sex scandals involving
call girls and wild parties

have been splashed across the
Italian and international media.

NARRATOR: Bunga Bunga was widely
accepted as boys being boys.

Then in January 2011,
Berlusconi was charged

with having sex
with an underage girl,

a criminal matter
according to Italian law.

[speaking Italian]

SILVIO BERLUSCONI [TRANSLATED]:
In the face of an accusation

of this nature, I will react.

I will explain exactly
what the situation is.

I will still have
the Italians on my side.

WOMAN: Throughout the scandal,

Berlusconi has maintained
high approval ratings.

But is this one step too far

for Italy's notorious
prime minister?

NARRATOR: Italians openly mock

the men of
the Bunga Bunga parties

who were said to have worn
pig masks as they caroused.

MARTELLI: When the trial
started in 2011,

people took the streets of Rome
to protest about that.

Women were mad because
they were fed up

of being treating as an object.

They were angry of the fact,

the association between
Berlusconi and girls

was just sexuality.

HELDMAN: Consensual
sexual scandals

in most European countries
are pretty acceptable,

but the Berlusconi scandal
crossed a line

because he had sex with a minor.

NARRATOR: In June 2013,
Berlusconi was declared guilty

and sentenced to
seven years in prison.

But he remained free
while the case was appealed,

and one year later,
he was acquitted.

MARTELLI: The judges found him
not guilty,

because at that time,

he could not officially note
the age of the girl,

she could have lied.

NARRATOR: Immense power often
shields the high and mighty

from the legal fallout
of sex scandals.

But back in 1991, it was the
sexual dynamics of the workplace

that took the spotlight.

The world watched
as Anita Hill testified

against Supreme Court nominee
Clarence Thomas.

ANITA HILL: His conversations
were very vivid.

He talked about
pornographic materials,

depicting individuals
with large penises.

JULIET WILLIAMS: It was shocking
to hear Anita Hill

talking about sex
before a panel of senators

in this austere space.

On the other hand,
it was kind of shocking

that nobody had ever been
talking about this kind of thing

in public before, given just how
commonplace the behaviors are.

[wolf whistle]

NARRATOR: Ever since women
entered the workforce

and started to climb
the corporate ladder,

they've had to be mindful of who
might be eyeing their skirts.

MICHELE B. GOODWIN:
This was just normalized.

Running around a table
from your boss

was just simply something that
a lot of women put up with.

MAN: Next week, anytime,
I'm free anytime.

DAVID EISENBACH: This was kind
of like the 'Mad Men' era,

you know, guy made a pass
at his coworkers,

and, you know, you just had
to roll with it.

And that really lasted
through the 1980s.

GOODWIN: It's not until women
were becoming lawyers

and doctors and entering
the business world

that sexual harassment
in the workplace was something

that these women had the
capacity to try to challenge.

NARRATOR: In 1984, Australia
became one of the first

countries in the world to outlaw
unwanted sexual advances.

In 1986, the US Supreme Court
confirmed that sexual harassment

that creates a hostile
work environment

is a form of discrimination.

Five years later,
in the dignified setting

of a Supreme Court
nominee hearing,

the unseemly details
of workplace harassment

bubbled out.

HILL: He got up from the table
to get the Coke,

looked at the can, and asked,

'Who has put pubic hair
on my Coke?'

NARRATOR: Anita Hill was
a law professor

and former colleague
of Clarence Thomas

who was a conservative judge and
nominee to the Supreme Court.

In the confirmation hearings,

Judge Thomas'
workplace behavior,

as described by Professor Hill,
came under intense scrutiny.

GOODWIN: There was information
that was provided

to the Senate
Judiciary Committee

about Justice Thomas having been
alleged to have committed

sexual harassment against
one of his subordinates,

Miss Anita Hill.

WILLIAMS: What followed
was unprecedented

in the history
of senate confirmation,

in the history of
broadcast television.

MAN: Professor, do you swear
to tell the whole truth

and nothing but the truth,
so help you God?

HILL: I do.

WOMAN: Anita Hill sat before
the Senate and told her story.

HILL: He commented
on what I was wearing,

in terms of whether it made me

more or less
sexually attractive.

He spoke about acts that he had
seen in pornographic films

involving such matters as women
having sex with animals

and group sex or rape scenes.

SARI LOCKER: Everyone watched,

we all heard about
the pubic hair on the Coke can.

We all heard about
Long Dong Silver.

MAN: In fact, he never did ask
you to have sex, correct?

HILL: No, he did not ask me
to have sex.

He did continually pressure me
to go out with him.

NARRATOR: He summarily dismissed
Hill's allegations

and defended
his legal track record.

He also suggested the attacks on
him were politically motivated.

CLARENCE THOMAS:
As far as I'm concerned,

it is a high-tech lynching
for uppity blacks

who, in any way, deigned
to think for themselves.

NARRATOR: The hearing
soon turned into

a high-stakes version
of 'he said, she said.'

LOCKER: Americans were very
divided on this case.

They didn't know whether
they should believe her

or whether the racial issues
and the political issues

were really at the forefront.

MAN: In Compton, California,

people still can't believe
a black woman is his accuser.

HELEN HENSON: I feel she has
betrayed us 100%.

GOODWIN: They created T-shirts
that said, 'The bitch lied!'

WOMAN: It didn't seem to me

like, like she was
telling the truth.

WOMAN: The allegations that
Clarence Thomas

sexually harassed a coworker
and have caused such a stir,

the accuser held
a news conference

to deny she engineered
the last-minute disclosure

for political reasons.

HILL: I came to Washington

because I was asked
by the Senate.

I did not initiate
this investigation.

MAN: The clerk will call
the roll.

MAN: Mr. Adams.

MR. ADAMS: No.

MAN: Mr. Biden.

MAN: Clarence Thomas does have
the votes for confirmation

as an Associate Justice
of the US Supreme Court.

NARRATOR: Clarence Thomas was
sworn on to the Supreme Court

in October of 1991.

He continues to serve today
as an intensely private figure

who has rarely spoken
from the bench.

And Anita Hill's testimony
continues to reverberate

throughout the land.

EISENBACH: The Clarence Thomas
hearings provided this way

in which we could have
this greater discussion

where what you say
in the workplace

can actually be damaging
and offensive.

MAN: Sexual harassment

is a matter

of deep and personal concern.

MAN: Unwelcome affection.

MAN: If you want to get along,

it will be beneficial to you
to be a little bit nicer to me.

NARRATOR: In the early 1990s,

claims of sexual harassment
in the US more than doubled.

In the coming years,

training in the dos and don'ts
of sexual interaction

became a fixture
of the American workplace.

WOMAN: Larry.

LARRY: I'd like, I'd like to...

WOMAN: Not that again, please.

MAN: Allegations
of sexual harassment

will be treated with
the seriousness they deserve.

WILLIAMS: We didn't have
that way of speaking

until brave people
like Anita Hill came out

and told it like it is.

HILL: Despite the high cost,

it is worth having
the truth emerge.

NARRATOR: One year after
the Anita Hill hearings,

a charismatic Southerner
rose to the White House.

The scandal that
erupted around him

threatened to destroy
not only the man in power,

but a woman perceived to be
all but powerless.

PENN JILLETTE: We should've
protected her more.

We should have attacked the
people that attacked her more.

NARRATOR: It was a shocking
scandal involving the president,

an intern, accusations,
and denials.

CLINTON: I did not have sexual
relations with that woman.

MAN: Hold on.

MAN: They are the tapes that
almost brought down a president,

the secret recordings
that made Monica Lewinsky

one of the most famous
women on Earth,

and which have left Bill Clinton
facing an impeachment inquiry.

MONICA LEWINSKY:
We didn't have sex, Linda!

LINDA TRIPP:
Well, what do you call it?

LEWINSKY: We fooled around.

TRIPP: Oh.

WOMAN: Back, move back,
move back.

WOMAN: God help this
poor little Monica.

NARRATOR: Most political
sex scandals feature

a person in power
and a person seduced by power.

And nowhere is the inequity
of power so stark

as in the affair between
the president and the intern.

TRISTAN TAORMINO:
Power is always operating.

In our sexual fantasies, there's
almost always a power dynamic.

Someone is at the mercy
of someone else.

DITA VON TEESE: Powerful men,

they connect with you
really well,

they don't just look past you.

They're, like, connecting,
sizing up,

maybe stealing part of your soul
while doing it.

I don't know.
[laughs]

CLINTON: Thank you.
Thank you very much.

HELDMAN: I could understand
how Monica Lewinsky

could've fallen into this trap.

Having met Bill Clinton and
been in his tractor beam

which he directs at to you,

and you're the only person
that he's looking at,

and you're the only person
who matters in the world

in that moment.

NARRATOR: Anyone can fall under
the spell of great power.

JILLETTE: I was not a fan
of Bill Clinton,

but I would've had
oral sex with him,

because that's a great story.

NARRATOR: So, singling out
a young woman for doing so

might be the height
of hypocrisy.

DAN SAVAGE: When he ran
for president in '92,

there were rumors about him
being a bit of a dog,

and we elected him anyway.

So, discovering some years later

that he was the person
we already knew him to be,

didn't pull back the curtain,

it didn't reveal Bill Clinton
to be a hypocrite.

NARRATOR: In January 1998,
allegations surfaced

of a sexual liaison

between Clinton and
a young White House staffer.

Apparent proof came in the form
of recorded phone conversations.

Monica Lewinsky had a confidante
named Linda Tripp

who secretly made
the tape recordings.

LEWINSKY: The first time
I ever looked into his eyes,

I saw somebody totally different
than I had expected to see,

and that's the person
I fell in love with.

I was a 22-year-old foolish kid,

and there was this charismatic,
powerful man

who was showing interest in me,
and I think I was swept up.

NARRATOR: But it wasn't love
that swept up Monica Lewinsky,

it was a hurricane-force
sex scandal.

REPORTER: It's a high-profile
investigation

in the hands of Kenneth Starr.

JOHN KING: Questions about the
president's private sex life.

LARRY KING: It's like an X-rated
steamy sex novel,

embarrassing and humiliating.

WOLF BLITZER: This material is
quite graphic and lurid.

EISENBACH: One of the
interesting things that happens

during the Monica Lewinsky
scandal is,

how do we talk about it,

because talking about it
got to the essence

of the alleged crime.

LOCKER: I was about to go
on the air

to talk about
Monica's blue dress,

and the producer came
running over to me

right before we were going on

to say, 'Whatever you do,
don't say the word semen.'

So I said, 'Well, how am I
supposed to refer to this stain

on the blue dress?'

And the producer said,
'Just call it a human stain.'

NARRATOR: The president tried
to wipe the stain

from his presidency
on January 26, 1998.

CLINTON: I want you to listen
to me, I'm gonna say this again,

I did not have sexual relations
with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.

These allegations are false,

and I need to go back to work
for the American people.

Thank you.
[applause]

SAVAGE: People are like,
'Of course he lied about it.'

All of us cloak our sexual
experiences and desires

in a little bit of obfuscation.

Half of America is thinking,

'I've gotten a [bleep] from
someone who isn't my wife.'

NARRATOR: In August,
Clinton became the first

sitting president to testify
before a grand jury.

CLINTON: If the deponent
is the person

who has oral sex
performed on him,

then the contact is with,
not with anything on that list,

but with the lips
of another person.

EISENBACH: When Clinton says he
does not have sexual relations

with Monica, well,
what is sexual relations?

What is, what is,
what counts as sex?

And Clinton's defense is,
'I didn't have sex with her.'

Yeah, I mean, oral sex,
but that's not sex.

CLINTON: This is, you're dealing
with, in some ways,

the most mysterious area
of human life.

I'm doing the best I can
to give you honest answers.

NARRATOR: The Republican
opposition seized on the scandal

as a reason to initiate
impeachment proceedings.

But though the president was
subjected to withering

an unprecedented attack

in an effort to remove him
from office,

he had the armor of high power.

Monica Lewinsky
had no such protection.

MARGARET CHO: I think that you,

in this particular case,

really saw American misogyny

at its very, very worst.

Monica Lewinsky was
really, really shamed,

body shaming, slut shaming.

She became a vilified character,

yet Bill is sort of glorified.

REPORTER: Miss Lewinsky was
admitted here,

cleared in the White House
more than a dozen times.

Many questions...

HELDMAN: The amount of public
vitriol that we aim at women,

who are the other half
of most political scandals,

the fact is, you are seen
as the other woman,

you are seen as a social pariah,

and that label tends
to stick with women.

KING: You're a victim
in a sense?

I mean, you're a figure
of the 20th Century.

LEWINSKY: I don't want to use
the word victim,

but all of the details
of what happened,

that's the culmination of it.

ANN COULTER: I do think
Monica Lewinsky

was a victim in that.

I mean, she was,
she was a very young girl,

she did stupid stuff,
she did really stupid stuff,

but I do, I do feel sorry
for her.

JILLETTE: Those of us,
we should've protected her more.

We should've attacked the people
that attacked her more.

NARRATOR: Bill Clinton survived
impeachment proceedings

with his power and
popularity intact.

It took Monica Lewinsky
decades to recover

from the stigma of the scandal.

[applause, cheering]

HELDMAN: More recently, she did
a TED video on bullying,

and she should know,

she was the first kind of victim
of Internet bullying.

NINA HARTLEY: And she has
a master's degree,

she has done something
with her life,

and they will not let her forget

something she did when
she was 21 years old.

So, how stupid is that?

KING: You're always gonna be
Monica Lewinsky.

LEWINSKY: Yeah.
KING: Right?

NARRATOR: Yet, some of the
politicians who cried loudest

for the president's head
during the sex scandal...

CRAIG: Bill Clinton is probably
even a nasty, bad, naughty boy.

NARRATOR: ...were soon to
receive their own comeuppance.

COULTER: Larry Flynt started
soliciting information

about any Republicans
who had had affairs,

and a few came out
of the woodwork.

BOB LIVINGSTON:
I shall vacate my seat.

FLYNT: That was a very proud
moment of my life.

♪

ANDY COHEN: I hate hypocrites,
and unfortunately,

there are so many hypocrites
in Washington.

It never fails to amaze me.

NARRATOR: The campaign to bring
down the US president

is rich with irony
and hypocrisy.

LIVINGSTON: We want the American
people to know

that they're gonna get

good, clean, honest,
efficient government.

NARRATOR: Because some of the
president's most vocal opponents

had unzipped things
other than their mouths.

SAVAGE: You had
House Republicans

impeaching a president for
oral sex performed upon him

by someone who's not his wife,

who were all of them,
as it turns out,

getting [bleep] from people
who weren't their wives!

CHRISTOPHER RYAN: You find that
the louder someone shouts

about sexual normality,

the more likely it is
they'll be exposed as a fraud.

CRAIG: I'm going to speak out
for the citizens of my state

who, in the majority,
think that Bill Clinton

is probably even
a nasty, bad, naughty boy.

NARRATOR: If there was ever
an authority on hypocrisy

from on high, it might be
Idaho Senator Larry Craig.

SAVAGE: From his perch
in the US Senate,

Larry Craig had spent decades

attempting to tell other people

what they were allowed
to do sexually

and not allowed to do sexually.

MAN: The 62-year-old is serving
his third term in the Senate

while building a voting record
against gay rights.

SAVAGE: He didn't think gay
people should have any rights,

thought gay people should
be able to be fired,

thought gay people shouldn't be
able to serve in the military,

and voted that way.

NARRATOR: By thundering against
gays and President Clinton,

Craig earned
high approval ratings

from social conservatives
and religious groups.

CRAIG: Thank you.

NARRATOR: But his private
behavior was a different matter.

MAN: A plainclothes sergeant
running a sting operation

observed Craig
in an airport men's room.

The official police report
states Craig

was repeatedly tapping his foot,

swiping his hand
under the stall divider,

and peeking into stalls.

NARRATOR: The Minneapolis
Airport men's room

had a reputation as a place
where coded body language

signaled a desire
for a gay hookup.

CHO: The fact that he knew all
of the very elaborate stuff,

like running his hand under, how
do you learn these hand signals?

It couldn't have been a mistake,

he wasn't, like, asking
for paper or anything,

which is the signal is this
to put your...'I need paper.'

MAN: The senator
denies he's gay.

Suspicions of
homosexual activity

have followed Craig since 1982.

EISENBACH: Here he's coming up
after he gets caught

and saying, 'I'm not gay.

I just have a wide stance
when I go to the bathroom,

and that's why my foot
was trying to play footsy

with this cop
in the next stall.'

I mean, come on, man.

INTERVIEWER: Will you definitely
resign from the Senate?

CRAIG: You have my statement,
that's all I can say, thank you.

COHEN: I hate a hypocrite.

So, these closeted dudes

that are screaming the loudest

about what sinners,
people like me are,

I kind of feel like
they have it coming.

NARRATOR: After just a week
of scandalous headlines,

Craig announced he would
resign from the Senate.

VON TEESE: We love watching
people like that take a fall.

Hypocrites should
take a nasty fall.

MAN: Representative
from Georgia!

NARRATOR: One of the most
powerful critics

of Bill Clinton's moral failings

was an imposing congressman
from Georgia.

NEWT GINGRICH: There is no
administration

in American history
with less moral authority

than the Clinton-Gore
Administration.

NARRATOR: Newt Gingrich,
the Speaker of the House

and third in line
for the presidency

shot to power as
a conservative intellectual

and champion of family values.

But his private life
was no model of virtue.

Gingrich asked his first wife,
Jackie, for a divorce

while she was being
treated for cancer.

SAVAGE: Newt Gingrich was
cheating on his second wife

with the woman who would then
become his third wife.

COULTER: You know, it's not a
very impressive marital history,

I suppose you could say.

NARRATOR: Even as the president
strayed, so did the speaker.

INTERVIEWER: You were
in an affair at the same time

that Bill Clinton
and Monica Lewinsky

were having their escapade.

GINGRICH: Well, the honest
answer is yes.

MAN: The confession makes
Gingrich sound like a hypocrite.

NARRATOR: The hypocritical
revelations

about Gingrich's second wife,
Marianne,

were even more damning.

KING: She says that
you came to her in 1999,

at a time when you're
having an affair.

She says you asked her to enter
into an open marriage.

NARRATOR: Marianne replied, 'No,
no, that is not a marriage.'

According to Marianne, Gingrich
then sought to divorce her

just months after
she was diagnosed

with multiple sclerosis.

WILLIAMS: It took
a little bit longer,

but ultimately,
his political career

and indeed presidential
aspirations fizzled

because of charges
of sexual impropriety.

INTERVIEWER: To the president,

sir, you have done great damage
to this nation.

You, sir, may resign your post.

NARRATOR: And then, Gingrich's
would-be successor

walked into a trap set by
an unlikely moral crusader.

FLYNT: I got one goal
and one goal only.

Expose the hypocrisy
that exists on Capitol Hill.

SAVAGE: Larry Flynt is the
publisher of Hustler Magazine

and was appalled,
as so many other Americans were,

at the witch hunt and
the targeting of Bill Clinton.

FLYNT: Somebody's got
to do something.

EISENBACH: And so, he puts
this ad in the Washington Post

offering a million dollars
to anyone who can prove

that they had sex with one
of these Clinton accusers.

FLYNT: I didn't start this.

Ken Starr and Henry Hyde
got in the mud first,

I just decided to jump
in there with them.

COULTER: Larry Flynt started
soliciting information

about any Republicans
who had had affairs.

And I guess a few came
out of the woodwork

that were surprises.

[laughter]

LIVINGSTON: It was great.

COULTER: And I would say
Bob Livingston

was one of the biggest
surprises.

NARRATOR: Larry Flynt's ad
hit the newsstands

at the same moment
Bob Livingston was favored

to assume the House leadership
vacated by Newt Gingrich.

FLYNT: Well, we knew
he was a philanderer.

We needed proof.

SAVAGE: Somebody apparently
had that proof,

or Bob Livingston feared
someone had that proof,

because he went into the House
and gave a speech

admitting to not
having been faithful

and resigned the speakership

before he actually even
was officially speaker.

LIVINGSTON: So I must
set the example

that I hope President Clinton
will follow.

I will not stand
for Speaker of the House

on January 6th.

NARRATOR: Livingston quit
in 1999.

Bill Clinton remained in power.

COULTER: I think it's fantastic

when the President
of the United States

has as a major ally the
publisher of Hustler Magazine.

That's fantastic!

FLYNT: That was a very proud
moment in my life.

He held a press conference
on the steps of Capitol Hill

when he resigned,

and reporters asked him,

'What do you think
about Larry Flynt?'

He said, 'Well, I think
he's a bottom feeder.'

So they asked me for a comment,
and I said, 'Yeah, that's right.

But look what I found
when I got down there.'

NARRATOR: Even so,
House hypocrisy had yet

to hit its true bottom.

After Livingston stepped down,

Dennis Hastert was elected
Speaker of the House.

He went on to serve longer than
any other Republican speaker

in American history, all while
guarding a dark secret.

In 2016, Hastert stated

he wanted to, quote, 'apologize
to the boys I mistreated.'

And quote,
'I took advantage of them,'

when he was a high school
wrestling coach.

He earned a 15-month
jail sentence

for lying about violations
of federal banking laws

after paying hush money
to an alleged victim.

SAVAGE: We now know almost
everybody involved

in impeaching Clinton
was philandering,

or in the case of Denny Hastert,

the hypocrisy was galling
and appalling.

NARRATOR: On the other side
of the Atlantic,

Europeans often regard
American sex scandals as naive.

But then came the incident

that created
an international outrage.

GIULIA SISSA:
It was a special case.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn,
a French political leader,

finds himself in
an American situation,

and the clash of the two erotic
cultures becomes explosive.

CROWD: Shame on you!

NARRATOR: American attitudes
about sex scandals

can seem both uptight
and hypocritical,

particularly when compared
to the French.

SISSA: I don't know if we can
mention any French president

who didn't have that
sort of subliminal reputation

of being a seducer.

SAVAGE: You know, in France,
the president, Mitterrand,

had a mistress and
another family, basically.

And the mistress and
his child by her

were welcomed
at his state funeral.

NARRATOR: At Mitterrand's
1996 funeral,

his mistress, Anne Pingeot,
and their daughter Mazarine

grieved alongside
the president's wife, Danielle.

SISSA: This is a complex life
with dramatic moments.

But now, it's time for peace,

it's time for acknowledging

everyone's self-image
and dignity.

NARRATOR: The romantic life
of another French president,

Francois Hollande, is famously
intricate and nuanced.

SISSA: Francois Hollande
lived for a very long time

with a powerful woman,
Segolene Royal.

They had four children,
they were not married,

but they lived together

and had this very united,
wonderful French family.

NARRATOR: Hollande and Royal
parted ways in 2007

when he became
romantically involved

with Valerie Trierweiler.

And in 2014, rumor spread
of an affair

between the president
and actress Julie Gayet.

REPORTER: President
Francois Hollande is preparing

to address allegations
he's been carrying on

an affair with this woman.

NARRATOR: And the president's
response

to intense media interest
in his love life?

NARRATOR: Yet, even in France,

there is sexual behavior that
can't be summarily dismissed,

as one of the most world's most
powerful men discovered in 2012.

SISSA: It was a special case.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

The fact that suddenly
a French political leader

finds himself in
an American situation,

and the clash of the two erotic
cultures becomes explosive.

NARRATOR: In 2011,

Dominique Strauss-Kahn,
known as DSK,

ran the International
Monetary Fund.

He was also one
of the early favorites

in the 2012 French
presidential election.

His private life raised
eyebrows, but few red flags.

SISSA: He had a notorious
sex life

that people more or less
knew about.

NARRATOR: Then came
May 14, 2011.

REPORTER: Strauss-Kahn is
charged with allegedly trying

to rape a maid at this
upscale Manhattan hotel.

NARRATOR: After what
the maid described

as a violent and sustained
sexual assault,

DSK left for JFK Airport
to catch a flight to Paris.

Police boarded the plane
10 minutes before departure

and arrested Strauss-Khan.

The sight of a European leader
in handcuffs on US soil

shocked the world.

SISSA: When the news spread

about Dominique Strauss-Kahn's
arrest in New York,

the reactions were of surprise,

but I would say surprise
at the seriousness

of the American reaction.

DOMINIQUE STRAUSS-KAHN: I still
say what happens in the room

is a private thing, unless the
prosecutors have proof of that.

NARRATOR: Though he downplayed
the charges,

Strauss-Khan resigned from
the IMF four days later,

and the seriousness
of the charges

began to dawn on the French.

SISSA: What people thought was,

'How silly, didn't he know
that he was in America?'

HELDMAN: There's definitely
a line that you don't cross

when it comes to sex in Europe
for politicians,

and that's the line between
consensual sexual relationships

and non-consensual, also known
as sexual assault or rape.

CROWD: Shame on you!
Shame on you!

NARRATOR: The DSK sexual assault
allegations

hit at a time in America when

the echoes of the Anita Hill
hearings still reverberated.

WILLIAMS: He has clearly
had a long history

of doing what he wants,
when he wants.

SISSA: He failed to know the
legal culture, the moral culture

in which he was living, and how
could he do something so stupid?

NARRATOR:
Though Strauss-Khan admitted

to, quote,
'a grave moral mistake,'

charges of alleged sexual
assault and attempted rape

were dismissed.

In September 2011,

he withdrew from
the French presidential race.

SISSA: Not that because
he had that erotic life,

he wouldn't be a good president,

but that he should
have been smarter

about the environment
in which he was living.

Therefore, people
started to say,

'Well, there is something

really, really suicidal

in what he did.'

WILLIAMS: I think
the Dominique Strauss-Khan case

shows that Europeans,

just like any other reasonable
person in the world,

are prepared to draw the line

when it comes to
blatant abuse of power

and objectification of women.

NARRATOR: Having already
gone transatlantic,

political sex scandals were
about to blow up online.

JIM NORTON: It's one moment,
it's, you know,

you're all lathered up
talking to somebody.

'Let me see it,' 'Okay,' click,
send, your life is ruined.

COHEN: I thought his screen name
was awesome.

Carlos Danger.

I want to [bleep] that dude.

NARRATOR: The digital age
has ushered in

a new kind of sex scandal.

Instantaneous, explosive...

[crowd chanting]

NARRATOR: ...and sometimes
bitterly ironic.

EISENBACH: The Anthony Weiner
story really reflects the power

of the male libido
to destroy yourself.

SYDNEY LEATHERS: I kind of feel
like I'm part of the most boring

sex scandal ever, because
there was no actual sex.

[laughs]

So weird.

NARRATOR: In 2011, New York
Congressman Anthony D. Weiner

was serving his seventh term

and married to his politically
connected wife, Huma Abedin.

Then came a puzzling
and eye-opening message

from the congressman.

LEATHERS: He had accidentally
Tweeted a photo of his...

wiener, I guess,
in his underwear.

ANTHONY WEINER: We're trying
to figure out

exactly what happened here.

WILLIAMS: The mistake is that
he thought he was sending

some of these images privately,

and it turned out that briefly,

they were posted to
his public Twitter account.

NORTON: It's one moment,
it's, you know,

you're all lathered up
talking to somebody.

'Let me see it,' 'Okay,' click,
send, your life is ruined.

COULTER: If you're
a sitting member

of the House of Representatives

and you start sending out photos
of your penis on Twitter,

yeah, it might make the news.

WILLIAMS: He denied everything.

WEINER: I didn't send
the photograph, this hacker did.

NARRATOR: Within a month, he
acknowledged sending the photo

and sexting with several women,
and Weiner faced the music.

WEINER: Today I am announcing
my resignation from Congress.

MAN: Yeah! Bye-bye, pervert!

NARRATOR: Two years later,

Weiner was staging a remarkable
political comeback

running for mayor
of New York City,

and leading in the polls.

JIM SIDERIS:
He stood by the people

when the city was going
through hard times,

he didn't abandon the city!

WOMAN: All of New York
are going to make sure

that you are the next mayor.

NARRATOR: Candidate Weiner
was also running

as a changed and humbled man.

WEINER: There is no question
that what I did was wrong,

this behavior is behind me, I've
apologized to my wife, Huma,

and I'm grateful that
he has--she has worked through

these issues with me,
and that I had her forgiveness.

NARRATOR: Yet Weiner had not
kicked the habit.

A leak revealed he was
secretly conducting

an intimate online relationship
with a 22-year-old woman.

LEATHERS: I was really into
politics as a young person,

and I had actually been
a fan of his.

Initially, he had poked me
on Facebook

and then started to message me,

and I pretty quickly realized
that he was flirting with me.

We had exchanged a lot of emails
and stuff,

and that's kind of when he
made up the Carlos Danger name.

[laughs]

COHEN: I thought his screen name
was awesome.

Carlos Danger.

I want to [bleep] that dude.

LEATHERS: It was just this
cool, little secret that I had,

and it was kind of fun
for that reason.

EISENBACH: He was this close to
being New York's mayor, right,

his ultimate dream job.

But he can't stop himself!

He has to continue to do
the same kind of sexting.

DR. DREW PINSKY:
That's full-on sex addiction

you're seeing there.

And without treatment,
that's going to continue.

NARRATOR: By July 2013, Leathers
was burnt out on the deception

and the hypocrisy
of Weiner's public image.

LEATHERS: He had been number one
in the polls at the time,

and I had leaked information
to a gossip blog, just saying,

'Hey, he's saying he doesn't
do this thing anymore,

I know that he does
this thing still.'

Did I want that part of it
out there?

Yeah, but I didn't want
my name in it.

NARRATOR: Nevertheless,
the site BuzzFeed

soon leaked her identity,

and the spectacle of scandal
grew out of control.

TAORMINO: It's like it wasn't
even that big of a deal,

and yet it caused
this huge media circus.

LEATHERS:
They went after my family.

They would knock at my door
with cameras in hand.

They went to my dad's work
and harassed him at work.

I felt worse for my family
than for myself even,

it was a really, really
hard time.

NARRATOR: While Weiner was
exposed as a serial sexter,

Leathers was portrayed as an
attention-seeking opportunist.

LEATHERS: It was kind of easy

to run with this narrative
about me,

that, you know, I just wanted
the attention,

and I wanted to be famous
and all of this stuff,

when in reality, I was deeply
depressed during that time,

that was, like, the hardest time
in my life, ever.

So I just think
it's really unfair

for people to judge, yeah.

NARRATOR: Weiner's political
star nose-dived again,

and he received
just 4.9% of the vote

in the New York mayoral race.

WEINER: We had the best ideas.

Sadly, I was an imperfect
messenger.

NARRATOR: Over the course
of the scandal,

Sydney Leathers changed
from a political idealist

to a tabloid regular,
to an occasional porn star.

LEATHERS: I don't think
I ever would have done porn

had this scandal not happened.

It just wasn't something
that was even on my radar.

NARRATOR: While most
sex scandals involved

men behaving badly,

the male gender doesn't have
a monopoly on hypocrisy.

SANDRO MONETTI: A 59-year-old
woman with a 19-year-old guy?

You couldn't make that up.
That's a movie!

NORTON: Men are usually at
the center of these scandals,

I think, just 'cause we're more
corruptible sexually.

When a guy gets power, all of
a sudden, we go berserk with it,

like, I can have sex with her,
and then her,

and then go home to my wife.

HELDMAN: All the ingredients

that cause men in positions
of power to have sex scandals

are also in place with women,

with the one exception,

that women don't see themselves
as being invulnerable.

MONETTI: I'm sure there are
female politicians

having sex scandals,

but I've always believed that
women are cleverer than men,

so they may be cleverer
at covering it up.

NARRATOR: In 2008,
Peter and Iris Robinson

were the first couple
of Northern Ireland.

IRIS ROBINSON: And so the truth
isn't compromised,

Mr. Speaker, I will not be
withdrawing my comments.

CROWD: Hear!

MONETTI: These two were the most
high-profile couple

in Irish politics
for generations.

PETER ROBINSON: And the stronger
we stand together,

the more surely we will come
through this together.

NARRATOR: Peter Robinson
was first minister,

the highest elected office
in the land.

His wife Iris was
a member of Parliament,

a religious conservative
with adamant anti-gay views.

I. ROBINSON: Homosexuality,
like all sin, is an abomination.

MONETTI: Mrs. Robinson was very
much on a family values crusade.

She was always tub-thumping
for the right way to do things,

the very moralistic candidate.

Yet, behind the scenes,

we know that
she wasn't practicing

what she was preaching.

P. ROBINSON: My first knowledge

of Iris' inappropriate
relationship

came about midnight on
the 1st of March last year.

The night that she tried
to take her life.

REPORTER: Mrs. Robinson has
admitted to the affair

with Mr. McCambley, who is
almost 40 years her junior.

NARRATOR: She had been
conducting an affair

with a much younger man,
Kirk McCambley.

He was 19, she, 59.

REPORTER: Iris Robinson's
fall from grace

was as shocking and as public
as they come.

NARRATOR: Along with
Robinson's hypocrisy

of being a religious moralist,

embroiled in
a May-December affair,

there were whiffs of corruption.

REPORTER:
The first minister's wife,

her former lover Kirk McCambley,

and the explosive allegation
she abused her position

to help him set up in business.

NARRATOR: Mrs. Robinson was
accused of securing

50,000 pounds for her lover,

and not declaring monies
she personally received.

REPORTER: That contract awarded
to Kirk McCambley

to run this café
in South Belfast.

Specifically, if
the then-alderman Iris Robinson

used her position
in Castlereagh Council

to influence that decision.

MONETTI: The public will tend
to forgive a sex scandal.

They rarely ever forgive
a financial scandal.

REPORTER: As the votes came in,

it was becoming clear this giant
of Northern Ireland politics

was about to be humbled
in spectacular style.

MAN: Mrs. Robinson must vacate
all public offices today.

MONETTI: Here's to you,
Mrs. Robinson!

That's the way to do it if
you're talking a sex scandal,

an affair with a man
40 years your junior.

I saw this movie,
it was called 'The Graduate!'

PINSKY: We don't like hypocrisy,

so someone who seems to be
espousing good values

who fails us, that's someone
we're not gonna forgive.

NARRATOR: Politicians are often
guilty of hypocrisy,

but so are the people
they serve.

CHARLES: When there's
a political sex scandal,

they're like, 'Oh,' they're
talking about it and saying,

'I knew he was bad,

I know he was this,
and I knew he was that.'

But the truth is, if that
politician revealed himself

for what he really is,

that same person would
not have voted for him.

NORTON: Whenever there's
a scandal sexually, publicly,

it's not a reflection
on the official,

unless they've done
something monstrous.

It's a reflection on us
and how nosy we are.

NARRATOR: So long as voters
place their leaders

on moral pedestals,
they're bound for a great fall.

VON TEESE: These people are
dealing with things

that other couples are
dealing with all the time.

It's very difficult having
those dramas unfold

in front of the world.

RYAN: Political scandals
are unavoidable

because of the nature
of the people who seek office

claiming moral superiority.

'I can't control myself,

so we need to structure society
in a way

that the behavior
I'm afraid I'll do

is illegal, is controlled,
is condemned.'

They want to design society
to protect themselves

from their own desires.