GOP Should Apologize for Impeachment, Clinton Says
WASHINGTON — President Clinton says congressional Republicans owe the nation an apology for his impeachment, and despite their statements that the matter is over, “they haven’t necessarily put their abuse of power behind them.â€
In an interview in Esquire magazine’s December issue, Clinton said the investigation into his affair with Monica S. Lewinsky and his subsequent impeachment was not about pursuing the truth or the best interests of the American people. It was about politics, power, “the Republicans and their welfare,†he said.
“Unlike them, I have apologized to the American people for what I did wrong, and most Americans think I paid a pretty high price,†Clinton said. “They never apologized to the country for impeachment, they never apologized for all the things they’ve done.â€
The president declined to discuss the interview Monday, saying he was assured by Esquire that it would not be released until after the election.
“I would just urge the American people, if they’re hearing all this talk, to read exactly what was said,†Clinton said. “But I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to discuss any of this until I’m doing the wrap-up on my administration.â€
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) told ABC-TV’s “This Week†that Clinton’s statement is “absolutely bizarre,†and that there would be no apology from the GOP. “It shows you something about his thinking and the judgment that he has,†Lott said Sunday. “Look, he disgraced the office. He did things in the Oval Office that are absolutely still incredible and then he lied about it.â€
Clinton said he believes the GOP was counting on using the myriad investigations of his presidency to its political advantage in this election season, and then hastily had to find another plan, because the public found that distasteful.
“The only way that I could have been defeated is if I had played their game,†Clinton said. “They tried to get the people to keep beating up on me for something that the American people had put behind them. But folks, I think, know that they haven’t necessarily put their abuse of power behind them. And so they have to be very careful about how they handle this, because the American people, they say, ‘Look, that’s over.’ â€
Clinton said one way he helped change the presidency was by “breaking the back of the Gingrich revolutionâ€--referring to the ideological shift in Congress in the mid-1990s under then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.)--and eliminating “a lot of the meanness and antipathy†toward the government.
“I think it’s much harder to, at least overtly, practice the politics of division than it was,†Clinton said. “The president is supposed to be a unifying force, not just in rhetoric but in fact.â€
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