Varadkar joked that at the time, "some parents would have had cause for concern about what would happen to interns in Washington".
The comment was widely viewed as a reference to Clinton's affair with Lewinsky while she was a White House intern in the mid-1990s. The joke threatened to overshadow Leo Varadkar's meeting with President Biden at the White House on the biggest day in the Irish-American calendar.
Leo Varadkar was in Washington DC for a series of events ahead of St Patrick's Day. He was speaking to people involved in the Washington Ireland programme, which teaches career skills to young people. The comment was greeted by some laughter in the room, but was quickly seen as an embarrassing mis-step, especially as the Clintons are due to visit Ireland next month as part of the Good Friday Agreement 25th anniversary celebrations.
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Leo Eric Varadkar is an Irish Fine Gael politician and physician. He has served as the Leader of Fine Gael, and as Taoiseach and Minister for Defence in the Government of Ireland, since June 2017.
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William Jefferson Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Prior to the presidency, he was the governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981, and again from 1983 to 1992, and the attorney general
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Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. is an American politician who is the 46th and current president of the United States. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice president from 2009 to 2017 and represented Delaware in the United States Senate
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Ireland, also known as the Republic of Ireland, is a country in north-western Europe occupying 26 of 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, which is located on the eastern side of the island. Around 40% of the countr
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Monica Samille Lewinsky is an American activist, television personality, fashion designer, and former White House intern. President Bill Clinton admitted to having had an affair with Lewinsky while she worked at the White House in 1995–1996.
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Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and also known as D.C. or Washington, is the capital city of the United States of America.
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Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is an American politician, diplomat, lawyer, writer, and public speaker who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013, as a United States Senator from New York from 2001 to 2009, and as First Lady o
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The United States of America, commonly known as the United States or America, is a country mostly located in central North America, between Canada and Mexico.
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Saint Patrick's Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick, is a cultural and religious celebration held on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick, the foremost patron saint of Ireland.