investigated by the congress, by the fbi, but even more importantly, i ve had my own white house counsel john dean conduct an investigation, and he s reported to me that nobody presently employed in this administration had anything to do with this. well, this is the first i heard of my investigation, and my reaction is, wow. ( )
it s not a crime or a misdemeanor under the constitution to make a mistake. after bush s mistake, the country was totally polarized in its view of the president, and the partisan gap was the widest ever recorded. the president of the united states. impeachment fever would only get worse under the next president. change has come to america. in 2008, barack obama was elected on a promise to help heal the country s extreme partisan divide. yes, we can. yes, we can. but the candidate who had campaigned on yes, we can ran into a wall of republican opposition. hell no, you can t! the tea party formed around an almost fanatical opposition to barack obama. in 2010, it propelled a wave of republicans to congress. what does it feel like?
and no limits, the prosecutors will keep looking for the crime until they can find it. the first special prosecutor, robert fisk as quickly and as thoroughly as possible. vowed to wrap up his investigation quickly. but he was replaced, and his successor, ken starr, was far more aggressive. our job is to gather facts and to get at the truth. expanding the inquiry way beyond whitewater. which is how is this whitewater? the investigation kind of leads in all these different directions. this is truly a wildly historic night. i mean this is just no one could have been happier with starr s aggressive approach than newt gingrich and the republicans. there s been a sea change in american politics. we re winning, we re winning. they had swept into congress in 1994. this is an earthquake. preaching a new gospel of strict, orthodox conservatism.
impeachment is a two-edged sword. you may intend to use it against your executive enemy, but it could very well hurt you even more politically. president clinton was thrilled, thinking he was in the clear. on capitol hill, tom delay is known as the hammer. but hard core conservatives led by house majority whip tom delay were hellbent on impeaching him anyway. article 1 is adopted. we have witnesses history. the house impeached bill clinton almost entirely along party lines. the president resigned that his legacy will be forever scarred today. on this article of impeachment in the senate, he was easily acquitted. william jefferson clinton is not guilty. in retrospect, the 1998-99 effort to impeach and remove clinton is viewed as a partisan endeavor because the american people spoke in the midterms in 1998 and said, we don t really want to impeach this president. after the senate trial, congress took the law that
it feels bad. this new hyperpartisan congress presided over a growing impeachment movement. when you promise that you re out to impeach the president, you can make a name for yourself. you can raise money. you can rally the base. impeach him. really? impeachment is not supposed to be used as a rallying cry to get people to vote for you. both sides played around with it. impeachment campaigns against presidents bush and obama never gained legitimacy or real legislative support, so one could argue who cares. it s only talk. if you play around with impeachment that way, over time the american people are going to misunderstand its constitutional power and its necessity. when barack obama left office, he was more popular than george bush. but the gap between the people