Original subtitles

♪♪

What overview is the biggest misconception

do you think people have about you?

[ Inhales deeply ]

Probably that I went to Washington

with an agenda to seduce the president

and then expose that relationship

so I could become famous.

I had really gone to Washington

as a short pit stop

on my way to graduate school.

And you wanted to be a what?

Forensic psychologist.

Ironically,

thought I might go into criminology

and work at the FBI, but I --

You could've investigated yourself. [ Laughs ]

Yeah.

♪♪

♪♪

Welcome to "How It Really Happened."

I'm Hill Harper.

In 1995, 21-year-old White House intern Monica Lewinsky

and President Bill Clinton began an affair --

secret rendezvous in the Oval Office,

saucy phone calls,

and a certain dark blue dress

all kept under wraps until Lewinsky confided

in a woman she thought was a friend,

Linda Tripp.

Tonight, Part 2

of our look back at the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal,

the 13 months that crippled Washington

all beginning on Wednesday, January 21, 1998,

when the country woke up to the shocking news.

Here's how it really happened.

♪♪

The allegations are false,

and I would never ask anybody

to do anything other than tell the truth.

We will give you as many answers as we can as soon as we can

at the appropriate time consistent with our obligation

to also cooperate with the investigations.

Troubling allegations here at the White House this morning

about the president's personal conduct

inside the White House.

My initial reaction? Are you kidding?

How could anybody be that stupid?

He's accused of doing what?

CNN has confirmed that

Whitewater Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr

will now investigate whether Mr. Clinton had an affair

with a former White House intern

and encouraged the young woman to lie about it.

When the story broke,

we went from zero to 100 miles an hour,

it felt like, in a nanosecond.

-Mike! -Mike!

Goldberg: You're always looking for something

that's never happened before.

This had never happened before.

Bombshell allegations rocked the White House --

charges of sex, lies, and audio tapes.

Morris: Those of us who were close to Bill Clinton

knew that he saw other women,

but for him to be carrying on in the White House

with a woman this young was just shocking.

Sesno: Linda Tripp, at first, befriended Monica Lewinsky

and ultimately turned on her, unbeknownst to Lewinsky.

Linda starts recording their phone calls,

and these phone calls go on and on.

Sesno: To have Monica Lewinsky's voice saying these things,

it was incontrovertible evidence.

What began as a search for evidence

in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case

has mushroomed into another investigation

of the president and his personal conduct.

The broader political culture was inching towards this moment.

The accusations against Clarence Thomas,

the situation that drove Gary Hart out

of the presidential campaign,

all of that was prologue

that really did set the stage

for the Lewinsky cataclysm.

We weren't quite sure how it was going to play out politically,

but we knew we were in for a ride.

What word is best used to describe

the atmosphere inside the White House

as it pertains to what's going on?

One aide here joked with me earlier today.

He said, "Hey, I'm sleeping like a baby.

I wake up every two hours, and I cry."

Larry: When you first saw your name mentioned,

do you remember your first reaction?

How'd you handle that?

I don't know that I did handle it.

I mean, I -- I --

I cried a lot.

I freaked out a lot.

I mean, it was just --

It was scary.

Andersen: When the scandal went public, she was devastated,

and at one point, actually,

she said she considered taking her own life.

What was that like, by the way, during the hectic days

when you would go out in the street?

It -- It was so -- You couldn't go out, right?

Oh, no.

[ Indistinct shouting ]

-Hey, get back. -Can't anybody get a picture?

Borger: She was just a young kid,

just a young girl,

and I'm sure it was a horrific event

for her to go through.

I can't imagine.

Lewinsky: I was completely devastated.

I mean, can you imagine

the kind of guilt that you would feel?

She was more concerned about him than about herself.

Blitzer: Even those presidential aides concede

that this crisis is of such a scale that,

unless quickly resolved,

it could undermine Mr. Clinton's ability to govern.

♪♪

It's clear that the president's whole manner and demeanor

was quite different.

He seemed stunned.

He seemed set back.

It was about noon, and my pager went off,

and it was the president, so I called,

and he said, "Have you seen the morning paper?"

And I said, "Yeah."

He said, "Ever since I've come here to the White House,

I've had to shut my body down sexually, I mean,

but I screwed up with this girl.

I didn't do what they said I did,

but I think I went so far that I can't prove my innocence."

I then said, "Well, you have to be careful, sir,

because it's the cover-up that'll get you in trouble,

not the initial deed.

Remember, Nixon was impeached for covering up Watergate,

not for the original burglary."

Clinton figures unless they could prove he lied,

people would probably forgive him,

and he'd be able to survive.

President Clinton's strategy here goes against everything

that anyone ever says about a crisis.

Morris: The White House strategy for dealing

with personal scandals was very important,

and Monica Lewinsky was only the latest

in a long string of these scandals.

♪♪

Franken: When he first ran for office,

those in the women's movement

considered the Republicans to be way out there,

so Bill Clinton made it a point

to include his wife, Hillary Clinton,

saying to the world that it's a package deal.

Solis Doyle: Hillary was the personification

of Bill Clinton's stance on women.

He was about empowering women, and he married one.

Democratic presidential candidate

Bill Clinton is denying allegations

he carried on an extramarital affair

with a former nightclub singer.

Yes, I was Bill Clinton's lover for 12 years,

and for the past two years, I have lied to the press

about our relationship to protect him.

The truth is...

I loved him.

Solis Doyle: The Gennifer Flowers episode

was truly the one that hit us the hardest.

King: You can go back to that moment.

That is your playbook

for Clinton's response to crisis.

Hit back hard

to cast up a lot of doubt and confuse people.

We had a conference call in the campaign manager's office,

and they told us, "We're going to fight it,"

and so we fought it.

Franken: Obviously, his campaign was on the line,

and so they agreed to do

a "60 Minutes" interview.

She's alleging

and has described in some detail in a supermarket tabloid

what she calls a 12-year affair with you.

It -- That allegation is false.

They walked right up to the line.

"We have had problems in our marriage.

I think the American people know what we're talking about.

We're not going to get into the details,"

and then the most powerful part of all --

I'm not sitting here as some little woman

standing by my man, like Tammy Wynette.

I'm sitting here because I love him,

and I respect him,

and I honor what he's been through

and what we've been through together.

It was -- It was just a trademark,

stellar, you know,

historic moment in American politics.

If it weren't for that interview,

I don't think he would have survived

much less won the nomination.

Andersen: Clearly, the Gennifer Flowers Scandal

was a sign of things to come, unfortunately,

for the Clintons and the country.

There was a general agreement

that he should basically come out fighting,

and that's what they did.

I want you to listen to me.

I'm going to say this again.

Larry: Were you shocked when you heard about Monica?

Yeah, and I was glad, too, because I was thinking,

"Well, good, this is gonna, you know, show people

that I'm not just making this up,

and it's still happening right now

even in the Oval Office,

our house, the people's house."

Explosive accusations are flying around Washington today,

and the president is reportedly outraged.

♪♪

Sesno: The remarkable thing was, that on the day the news broke,

the president had scheduled interviews,

and one of them was with Jim Lehrer of PBS.

Of course, we all thought

the White House would pull the plug on it.

No, the president wanted to go forth.

Lehrer: Kenneth Starr, Independent Counsel,

is investigating allegations that you suborn perjury

by encouraging a 24-year-old woman,

former White House intern, to lie under oath

in a civil deposition

about her having had an affair with you.

Mr. President, is that true?

That is not true.

That is not true.

I did not ask anyone to tell anything

other than the truth.

There is no improper relationship.

Isikoff: He says there is no sexual relationship,

which the tense a lot of people seized on.

There's no sexual relationship now,

but what about before?

The guy is, how shall I say it, quite the wordsmith.

The Jim Lehrer moment was instructive to me.

What I'm trying to do...

is to contain my natural impulses

and get back to work.

If you look at the interview and watch it,

how uncomfortable he was.

He kept looking down.

Bill Clinton is an eye-contact guy.

It freaked me out.

It's just like, "There's something wrong."

Andersen: Bill consulted his friend,

the Hollywood producer, Harry Thomason,

and Thomason was honest with him,

and he said, "Look, that was pretty mealymouthed,

and you really should come out swinging,"

and five days later,

that's exactly what the president did.

Hillary: Welcome to the White House.

It is a pleasure to have all of you

join the president and the vice president.

King: So the following Monday,

the president has one of his events in the White House.

This one was about education.

This is a cookie-cutter White House event.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Please be seated.

I was the network pool reporter.

In fact, I was the only TV reporter

in the room that day.

This has been the most important year

in a generation for education reform.

So everybody is there.

Microphones, cameras are rolling.

Hillary is standing right next to him.

Now, I have to go back to work on my State of the Union speech,

and I worked on it till pretty late last night.

He draws his line in the sand.

But I want to say one thing to the American people.

I want you to listen to me. I'm going to say this again.

I did not have sexual relations

with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky.

As he was saying that, he was looking right in my eyes

because I was right next to the camera.

I never told anybody to lie not a single time, never.

I hollered back at the TV set, and I said, "What are you doing?

You're putting your neck in a noose on this thing."

These allegations are false,

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

That became one of the great moments

in television history.

I said, "That's it. The guy is hosed.

H-He's done for.

That's it. It's over."

Because how in the heck is he going to get out of this one?

When you point your finger at the American people,

you better be telling the truth.

You better be.

It probably wasn't exactly what

I would have recommended,

given the facts.

When he made that statement, by the way,

how did you feel -- that famous... Right.

..."I have never"? Well, I -- I --

I certainly didn't want him to lose his job and --

But there was also certainly a part of me that was hurt.

I did not have sexual relations with that woman.

With that emphasis and that anger and --

and that emotion, must --

He must be telling the truth, right?

♪♪

President Clinton's denial today

of the charges threatening his presidency

is the strongest we've heard from him.

Blitzer: It sounded like, you know, it was over,

but we all know it wasn't over.

The whole defense really shifted in a very smart way,

and it shifted largely by Hillary Clinton.

♪♪

Andersen: The day after the president's denial,

Hillary went on "The Today Show."

Morning. Morning.

Solis Doyle: We couldn't cancel the interview

because it would seem like we were hiding something,

and it would give credence to the story.

And she wasn't going to concede an inch.

Her intuition is always to fight --

fight, fight, fight, fight, fight.

The great story here for anybody willing to find it

and write about it and explain it is

this vast right-wing conspiracy

that has been conspiring against my husband

since the day he announced for president.

When she first uttered the words right-wing conspiracy,

it was as if Hillary Clinton kind of reset the storyline,

and she reset it

from the tawdry Monica Lewinsky affair

to, "These people are out to get my husband."

I really didn't have a lot of trouble

believing that this was one more

in a long series of accusations

because, by that time,

I'd been accused of so many things.

She wasn't entirely wrong.

There was a right-wing conspiracy,

but they framed a guilty man.

If Hillary Clinton had not defended her husband,

I think the women's groups would've gone the other way.

She gave him a lifeline, and without that lifeline,

I don't know where he'd be today.

King: As this is just bubbling up --

Oh, and by the way, it's Tuesday night,

and it's time to give the State of the Union address.

Mr. Speaker,

the president of the United States!

[ Applause ]

Borger: All I remember thinking,

"He can't possibly give his State of the Union speech

when this scandal was happening."

Were they going to applaud or not?

The presidency hung in the balance at that moment.

Ladies and gentlemen,

the state of our union is strong.

[ Applause ]

And the minute they applauded in the opening,

I knew that we would survive this

and that this would not derail his presidency...

at least not now.

With barely 700 days left in the 20th century,

this is not a time to rest.

After Bill Clinton gave that State of the Union,

I thought, "He's in it."

He was going to manage this like a campaign,

and he was going to win it.

[ Cheers and applause ]

I'm you.

I'm just like you.

Toobin: Starr's complete focus began to be,

"Break Monica Lewinsky."

Larry: Was it emotionally tough to testify?

Larry: Did you not want to see him leave office?

Flowers: I would want to see him leave office if, in fact,

he did encourage her to lie in a deposition.

That's obviously illegal,

and we don't need someone in power that would --

would participate in that kind of activity.

He certainly encouraged me, so do I think he would do it?

Yes, I do.

The Whitewater Independent Counsel

took these latest allegations against the president

to a higher level today.

Less than a week after the original story broke,

a federal grand jury had been impaneled

to investigate what exactly went on

in the White House.

Ruh-roh.

♪♪

We did what anybody conducting a federal investigation

would do.

We're testing the statement made that,

"I was never alone with this woman

in the White House,"

and we're calling anybody

who might have knowledge of that.

Woman: Clinton personal secretary Betty Currie...

Man: Monica Lewinsky's mother, Marcia Lewis.

Man #2: Clinton pal Vernon Jordan.

Man #3: Pentagon staffer Linda Tripp.

I'm you.

I'm just like you.

I'm an average American

who found herself in a situation not of her own making.

As this went on and on and on, again,

either Ken Starr was a jerk

and was, like, just deciding he was going to drag everybody

who set foot inside 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

through the grand jury,

or he must have something.

You cannot defile the Temple of Justice.

Starr's complete focus began to be,

"Break Monica Lewinsky."

Get her to tell the truth

about her relationship with Bill Clinton

and, thus, turn on him.

She wanted immunity from prosecution.

Why didn't you speak out more then?

I didn't know what was going to happen to me.

Was I going to be indicted?

Was I going to get immunity?

Toobin: Finally, after lengthy,

torturous negotiations,

Monica Lewinsky is given immunity

and goes in to testify

before the grand jury.

♪♪

That was now the news event of the year.

Man: Monica Lewinsky herself

arrived at the Federal Courthouse

this morning to begin testifying to Ken Starr's grand jury.

Blitzer: She spent nine hours inside of that courthouse,

and she did allege that -- that she had a certain kind

of sexual relationship with the president.

Larry: Was it emotionally tough to testify?

It was -- It was difficult for me because

I have-- I haven't dealt with those emotions

or really thought

about the events of that time for a while.

It was just -- It was stressful.

Woman: Please welcome

the president of the United States.

Man: At the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue,

President Clinton talked about gun control in the Rose Garden

as if nothing else was going on.

On that day, Bill Clinton, like presidents do,

holds a public ceremony in the Rose Garden,

and he wears a tie that Monica Lewinsky later says

is one that she gave him,

and she says she interpreted his decision to wear that tie

as a signal to her that he was still on her side.

Stay strong.

Bill Clinton, of course, says

it was just some tie in his closet.

Bill: I don't believe she gave me this tie.

I don't remember her giving me this tie,

and I had absolutely no thought of this in my mind

when I wore it.

♪♪

Larry: Are you saying that no dress,

there never would have been an admission

by the president of any relationship?

You're asking me that seriously?

No, I'm -- I'm asking you, yeah.

Well, I think -- I think the facts are --

are clear on that.

Sesno: What made it impossible for Bill Clinton

to run and to lie

and to dissemble any longer really were two things.

One was the clarity and specificity

of Monica Lewinsky's testimony,

and the second thing, the killer thing,

exhibit "A,"

was that blue dress.

Larry: What reason did Monica keep it?

I testified before the grand jury

that it was my opinion

that Monica would hold on to it for reasons of security.

So, she was afraid? I think so.

Of course, Monica had a dress.

She'd kept the dress at Linda Tripp's urging,

and that dress had semen stains on it,

and the question is,

were those President Clinton's?

Judd: So, prosecutors went over to the White House.

They sat with the president as his blood was drawn.

Toobin: It is impossible to overstate how important

the dress is as a piece of evidence

because it creates mathematical certainty

that there was a sexual relationship

between the two of them.

Absent that dress, in my opinion,

Bill Clinton would be denying a relationship to this day.

At that point, Clinton knew

that there was no way out.

He couldn't deny it anymore.

Good evening.

This afternoon, in this room, from this chair,

I testified before the office of Independent Counsel

and the grand jury.

Larry: Was it, as has been reported,

one-sided, in that you were the giver,

and he was the taker?

That's absolutely false,

and I think that's another big misconception

that I certainly hope is cleared.

He gave as much as he took?

[ Stammers, chuckles ]

I mean, to put it -- There's no other way to put it.

I -- It was a mutual relationship.

It was a mutual physical relationship,

and emotional.

Welcome back to "How It Really Happened."

I'm Hill Harper.

August 1998,

President Clinton was set to testify

before Ken Starr's prosecutors in a grand jury

looking into allegations of obstruction of justice

and perjury.

He knew they had that blue Gap dress and his DNA,

and there'd be no more denying the affair,

but like every other moment

in this Clinton/Lewinsky saga,

nothing would go quite as anticipated.

Larry: Would you know why he would not have had

a sexual act of the kind we're talking

with Ms. Lewinsky?

'Course, she certainly, in her testimony,

said that she was amenable.

Bill came to me one evening way into our relationship --

several years after it had started --

and told me that he had found something in the bible

that led him to believe that oral sex

did not determine that someone had committed adultery.

At which time, I said, "Don't be ridiculous,"

and do not want -- you know, don't even discuss that with me.

I'm not gonna go there.

So, if he truly believes that, and I think he does,

he then felt, I guess,

that he was not committing adultery.

Man: Grand jury's in session.

♪♪

I think when it came to preparing for the testimony,

there was a lot of discussion.

First, should he testify?

Should he try to exert executive privilege?

Should he take the fifth amendment?

And -- And all of those suggestions were rejected

by -- by him,

and they wouldn't have gone down very well

with the American public.

I do.

Bill Clinton insisted

on doing a video deposition,

but that may have been a political miscalculation

because that video tape of his deposition

turned out to be one of the defining memories

of his presidency.

Wisenberg: Good afternoon, Mr. President.

Good afternoon.

Would you please state your full name

for the record, sir?

William Jefferson Clinton.

Wisenberg: The people who seek to demonize Ken Starr

and say that he was out to destroy the president,

many of them don't know about an interesting fact.

King: When Bill Clinton sat in that chair and took that oath,

he knew, not everything,

but he knew the highlights of what Ken Starr knew.

Judge Starr kind of made it clear through channels,

"Don't lie in your grand jury testimony.

We know what happened."

He didn't have to do that.

I did not wish to do the work of the Jones' lawyers.

I deplored what they were doing.

Did I want this to come out? No.

Was I embarrassed about it? Yes.

Now, a big mistake we made was,

we agreed to a four-hour time limit.

We knew the president was going to give very long answers,

which he's very good at,

and so that limited what we could do

in terms of trying to get to the bottom of what happened.

I engaged in conduct that was wrong.

These encounters did not consist of sexual intercourse.

They did not constitute sexual relations

as I understood that term to be defined at

my January 17, 1998, deposition,

but they did involve

inappropriate intimate contact.

His entire argument was based on the fact that,

according to his definition of sex,

he hadn't had any with Monica.

And I said, "You knew when your lawyer said that, that,

'There is no sex of any kind,' that that was false,

and you did that in front of a federal judge,"

and that's when the president kind of cocked his head

and looked at me and said...

It depends upon what the meaning of the word "is" is.

Top advisers describe the president

as contrite but confident,

most of all,

eager to get his testimony over with.

The minute he testified, the president also had to make

something of an apology to the public.

Larry: Tonight, a critical moment in American History --

In one hour, President Clinton speaks

to the nation live from the White House.

Knowing the president as I do, which is pretty well,

I suspect that, right now, he's in a room by himself

and is making his own notes and -- and -- and --

and working on -- working on it right to the end.

Man: In about 5 seconds.

[ Inhales deeply ]

Good evening.

This afternoon, in this room, from this chair,

I testified before the office of Independent Counsel

and the grand jury.

I answered their questions truthfully,

including questions about my private life,

questions no American citizen would ever want to answer.

Andersen: The president offered a very strange apology.

He said he'd acted inappropriately.

Indeed, I did have a relationship

with Ms. Lewinsky that was not appropriate.

In fact, it was wrong.

I misled people,

including even my wife.

I deeply regret that. [ Crowd murmurs ]

If you listen to it, you'll see that he's somebody

who's -- who's got to admit something that --

that is an embarrassment to him.

I can only tell you I was motivated by many factors.

First, by a desire to protect myself

from the embarrassment of my own conduct.

He needed a reason for not telling the truth,

and Bill Clinton's reason was that he was under attack.

Now this matter is between me,

the two people I love most,

my wife and our daughter,

and our God.

Thank you for watching

and good night.

James Carville.

He -- He had to come out and admit that what --

what he did was wrong.

He said that he misled people.

He said he misled his wife.

Penn: After he made the speech, I came over.

It was a small group, Hillary, and Chelsea.

Sesno: Hillary helped him,

supposedly, draft or put this thing together,

what he was going to say.

Can you imagine?

Solis Doyle: I've known her for close to 30 years,

and I have never seen her as angry and as dejected as I had

during those days.

I thought to myself,

if they had not been president and First Lady,

she would've left him.

Andersen: The next day, the family was off

on its summer vacation at Martha's Vineyard.

Never forget that walk to the helicopter.

Andersen: It's Chelsea who makes a point of grabbing

both her mother's and father's hands.

That was just a powerful moment.

Solis Doyle: The image of Chelsea literally

and figuratively keeping them

together is just striking.

Hillary: I had to really figure out

how I was going to keep going.

You know, on the one hand,

I had this horrible personal betrayal

that I had to deal with.

On the other hand, he was not only my husband.

He was my president,

and I thought what was being done to him

was really out of bounds.

♪♪

This has been a stunning, some might say,

shocking day in Washington.

The Independent Counsel's report to Congress

has been made public.

There are stories

of the president receiving oral sex.

Bill: I agree with those who have said that,

in my first statement after I testified,

I was not contrite enough.

I don't think there is a fancy way to say

that I have sinned.

♪♪

Today's Main Development -- Ken Starr's report.

Woman: It is a day in Washington,

the likes of which I think is fair to say,

none of us has ever seen.

Sesno: Starr investigation is complete.

Starr comes out, and here are 11 --

11 reasons to impeach the president --

obstruction of justice, perjury.

I mean, you know, on and on it goes.

The report got a police escort

from Ken Starr's office

up to Capitol Hill.

It was very lurid details about the encounters

between the president

and Monica Lewinsky.

It was uncomfortable.

Judge Starr's report is 445 pages

filled with complex arguments,

excruciating detail,

and graphic description.

Candy Crowley was our Congressional correspondent,

and it was her job to be at a desktop computer reading it,

including some of the most awkward paragraphs

in that Starr Report.

W-We're going page by page.

He touched her genitals, both through her underwear

and directly,

bringing her to orgasm on two occasions.

Sesno: We were placed in some very, very awkward positions.

We never reported on oral sex before.

There are stories

of the president receiving oral sex

while talking on the phone to a congressman

during the government shutdown.

It is that sort of thing.

It was shocking.

And after phone sex one night,

she says the p-president fell asleep "mid-conversation."

Well, I'll be glad to get on with politics

after this, I'll tell you.

I sat down with a group of middle schoolers,

and they had heard everything.

I remember the part where they were having this DNA thing

on Monica Lewinsky's dress.

Were you upset at all

the sexual references in the Starr Report,

all of the details of it? Oh.

Yes, of course.

It was humiliating to have to give

those details under oath

so just even being deposed

and being asked questions like that,

but for them -- for them to be disseminated in a way

knowing that people were reading them,

you just --

you just feel naked in front of the whole world.

You can see that entire report at CNN.com.

I let this country down,

but I'm trying to make it right,

and I'm determined never

to let anything like that happen again.

Penn: There were several key strategies

that would be developed in terms of handling this.

One of those strategies was to make sure

that people felt confident that the presidency

could operate in this environment.

One of the phrases that we got sick and tired of hearing is,

"Well, we're not going to respond to that

because we are too busy doing the people's business."

I need to keep working on the people's business.

That's what I intend to do.

The people's business. The people's business.

We've got to go back to -- to --

to doing the people's business.

That was an effective line.

Clearly, it -- it resonated with the American public.

Hillary: I must say, the American people

got it straight and right from the very beginning.

They understood that this was between us

as it would have been between them in a marriage

and that what was important is the job

that Bill was doing as president.

Morris: Only 40% after Lewinsky thought he was a good person,

but 60% thought he was a good president.

The Republicans smelled blood.

They thought that people would be revolted

by what Bill Clinton did, and they were.

Be honest, it reads like -- like soft porn.

But then they overreached.

After a little while,

the public was like, "What is this?

Why -- Why are we even talking about this?"

The real mistake was on the part of the Republicans

and Congress who used this

as the basis for impeachment.

The house debate on impeachment is scheduled to begin

less than an hour from now.

We must stay together as a family!

If you ran into Monica... Yeah.

...would there be any apology?

Hillary: I knew what was being attempted

against this president was absolutely out of line

with what the founders had thought,

what people had always believed

was the basis for Constitutional impeachment.

It was several weeks after Congress

had received Ken Starr's report

that the house began impeachment proceedings.

There's only one precedent for modern impeachment,

1974, Richard Nixon,

and the House Judiciary Committee

sort of set up procedures,

and one of the lawyers on the staff

was young Hillary Rodham,

and Hillary Rodham set up procedures

that a generation later

were used to orchestrate

the impeachment of her husband.

Not piety nor tears

nor whit nor torment

can alter what I have done.

The public consequences of my actions

are in the hands of the American people

and their representatives in the Congress.

Should they determine that my errors of word and deed

require their rebuke and censure,

I am ready to accept that.

The accusations, the evidence, and the arguments

have set the stage now

for a very momentous debate on Capitol Hill --

that debate over whether president

William Jefferson Clinton should be impeached.

Man: A resolution impeaching William Jefferson Clinton,

President of the United States

for high crimes and misdemeanors.

Graham: Let it be said that any president

who cheats our institutions shall be impeached.

My God, what kind of country

are we becoming?

We must stay together as a family,

one house, one family,

the American house, the American family!

We were kind of glued to the TV sets

as everyone else.

President is now in the residence behind me.

I used to say to myself, "Wow, I've really got

a front-row seat to history right now."

♪♪

Bill: Now it is up to the members

of the House of Representatives

to vote their conscience on the Constitution

and the law,

which I believe are clear,

and I have no intention of resigning.

It's never crossed my mind.

Judd: Ultimately, the House voted

to impeach Mr. Clinton on two charges --

one, perjury,

and two, obstruction of justice.

Woman: There it is.

President William Jefferson Clinton

is now the second President

in the history of the United States

to be impeached

by the House of Representatives.

Now this goes to trial.

The Senate trial was

basically a big anticlimax

because it was quite clear

that the Senate would never have 66 votes, two-thirds,

to force Bill Clinton out of office.

♪♪

Man: It is therefore ordered and adjudged

that the said William Jefferson Clinton be,

and he hereby is, acquitted of the charges

in the said articles.

We all have our own opinions of the president,

but under our system, impeachment is hard.

It was meant to be hard, and it's over.

What did you think, Paula Jones, of the vote in the Senate?

Well, I'm -- I'm disappointed, to say the least.

Penn: I remember we called the president

to say it was over now,

and he said, "Well, you know,

should I go out and give a statement?"

And I think America wanted closure at that point.

I want to say again to the American people...

how profoundly sorry I am for what I said and did

to trigger these events

and the great burden they have imposed

on the Congress

and on the American people.

This can be...

and this must be,

a time of reconciliation

and renewal for America.

Thank you very much.

I believe any person who asks for forgiveness...

has to be prepared to give it.

♪♪

Man: Do you feel vindicated, sir?

Isikoff: There were so many points along the way

where all of this could have been avoided, you know.

We can start with Bill Clinton

summoning Paula Jones to his hotel room back in 1991.

Had he settled the Paula Jones lawsuit,

had Bill Clinton told the truth in his deposition,

had he told the truth after his deposition,

he probably could've spared the country a lot of turmoil.

Man: Mr. President, do you have any thoughts on it

that you can share with us that --

that perhaps might bring closure to this?

The irony is, the person who had the least impact

on his historical memory

was Bill Clinton.

And I hope that the efforts that I have made

and that I continue to make every day at home and at work

will bear fruit.

Goldberg: Bill Clinton,

he was a naughty, naughty boy.

He shouldn't have done that,

and he got caught.

This was a pretty tough thing for everybody involved.

Larry: 73% percent of Americans considered

Starr a loser right after the Senate acquittal

of President Clinton.

How do you react to that?

Toobin: Starr went into this investigation thinking

that he would be a hero,

and he turned into a completely partisan figure.

Well, my the reaction is -- is that judges and lawyers

should not be following opinion polls.

Morris: Was in the Justice Department,

in line for the Supreme Court,

and then he was asked to take this job

as Special Prosecutor that destroyed his entire career,

and he became a villain

for the rest of his life.

Larry: You think you changed this country? Oh, heavens.

Are you saying this presidency, do you think?

No, I mean, look. Certainly a big player.

I'm sorry, I believe he tarnished the presidency.

I think the country, at least, realizes that much.

Linda made a very good marriage.

She lives in a small town in Virginia.

They own a shop there, and she has a nice life.

If you ran into Monica... Yeah.

...would there be any apology?

I would want to give Monica a hug.

Judd: 20 years later, I would say that the person

who paid the biggest price,

the most long-lasting price,

was Monica Lewinsky, herself.

You know, I was exploited, I think,

for no other reason but a political agenda.

She paid quite a high price for a long time,

and I feel badly for that,

so I just hope it works out all right.

Do you equate with yourself that you're a part of history?

Lewinsky: No. I -- No, you don't think that --

You're going to be studied in textbooks.

I think that sort of not recognizing

the -- the overall grandness of it

in terms of history is -- is, I guess,

a little immature, and so I do,

but I -- I try to not pay attention to it

because it's just --

It's too awesome in a sense, and I --

I really hope that... as time goes on,

it will become a shorter and shorter footnote

in the history books.

Today, the Clintons remain among the most prominent

and influential couples in the world.

Monica Lewinsky has tried to move on with her life,

getting a graduate degree and writing forVanity Fair,

and recently she became an advocate for anti-bullying,

calling herself patient zero of Internet shaming.

Thanks for watching.

Good night.