0:00:36 > 0:00:39In January, 1996, a sheaf of Hillary's old billing records
0:00:39 > 0:00:43was discovered in the private residence of the White House.
0:00:43 > 0:00:45The documents showed that she had done legal work
0:00:45 > 0:00:48for her old friend Jim McDougal,
0:00:48 > 0:00:53while he was engaged in fraudulent real estate deals in Arkansas.
0:00:53 > 0:00:57The Whitewater inquiry, which had receded from the front pages,
0:00:57 > 0:00:59suddenly came roaring back.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02'There is the issue of why it took the White House
0:01:02 > 0:01:05'so long to turn up the billing records.'
0:01:05 > 0:01:09The discovery of the billing records
0:01:09 > 0:01:11for Hillary Clinton's work for Jim McDougal
0:01:11 > 0:01:14and Madison Guaranty, was explosive.
0:01:14 > 0:01:17Everyone had been looking for those billing records.
0:01:17 > 0:01:20There were subpoenas all over the place to turn those over.
0:01:20 > 0:01:23And then all of a sudden, they just show up.
0:01:23 > 0:01:26Our job is to get at the truth
0:01:26 > 0:01:29and the truth will speak for itself, so, thank you very much.
0:01:29 > 0:01:31The Whitewater inquiry
0:01:31 > 0:01:33was now in the hands of a new independent counsel.
0:01:33 > 0:01:38Kenneth Starr had been appointed by a panel of conservative judges
0:01:38 > 0:01:39to replace Robert Fiske.
0:01:39 > 0:01:43Starr was a respected jurist
0:01:43 > 0:01:46and former official in the Bush Administration.
0:01:46 > 0:01:50At first, his appointment caused little upset in the White House.
0:01:52 > 0:01:56In fact, however, Starr would prove to be a far more aggressive
0:01:56 > 0:01:59independent counsel than his predecessor.
0:01:59 > 0:02:03Unlike Fiske, who determined to finish his work quickly,
0:02:03 > 0:02:06Starr followed his investigation wherever it led,
0:02:06 > 0:02:11no matter the cost in time or money.
0:02:11 > 0:02:14I came to believe it was a persecution, not a prosecution.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17It was an investigation in search of a crime,
0:02:17 > 0:02:19which is not how investigations are supposed to work.
0:02:19 > 0:02:23They were not investigating an allegation of a crime.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27They were looking for a crime.
0:02:27 > 0:02:30To Starr, the sudden appearance of Hillary's billing records
0:02:30 > 0:02:33seemed anything but accidental.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36The discovery of the Rose Law Firm Records
0:02:36 > 0:02:38was a very significant event.
0:02:38 > 0:02:40It was a significant event
0:02:40 > 0:02:43because there had been a subpoena outstanding
0:02:43 > 0:02:46for those law firm records for a long, long time,
0:02:46 > 0:02:48and the Rose Law Firm said, "We don't have them,"
0:02:48 > 0:02:50and, "They were taken away,"
0:02:50 > 0:02:52and there were issues as to,
0:02:52 > 0:02:56well, why would law firm records leave the law firm?
0:02:56 > 0:02:59They weren't individual records. They were law firm records.
0:02:59 > 0:03:02So, why wouldn't they be there? Where are they?
0:03:04 > 0:03:06Mrs Clinton!
0:03:06 > 0:03:08- How are you all?- Mrs Clinton, how important is this week
0:03:08 > 0:03:10in terms of turning your image around?
0:03:10 > 0:03:13Oh, I think it's important to talk about the book I've written
0:03:13 > 0:03:15about America's children, and that's what I'm going to try to do,
0:03:15 > 0:03:18plus answer the questions!
0:03:18 > 0:03:21The discovery of her missing billing records
0:03:21 > 0:03:23undermined Hillary's efforts to recede from the public spotlight.
0:03:23 > 0:03:27'The Rose Law Firm records were found in the living quarters of the White House...'
0:03:27 > 0:03:30As she set out on a national tour to promote her book on children,
0:03:30 > 0:03:33she could not escape questions about Whitewater.
0:03:33 > 0:03:35'It's an important question, Mrs Clinton,
0:03:35 > 0:03:37'because Republicans on the...'
0:03:37 > 0:03:42She was totally under siege, and so was the President,
0:03:42 > 0:03:46but he allows this kind of thing much more easily to roll off his back.
0:03:46 > 0:03:48Hillary becomes obsessed.
0:03:48 > 0:03:52She has an enemy, the enemy is the Special Prosecutor,
0:03:52 > 0:03:55and one or the other is going to be killed.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58I think soon we will continue to do that.
0:03:58 > 0:04:01In Ken Starr, though, Hillary had met her match.
0:04:01 > 0:04:05Behind his avuncular smile, he was relentless and implacable.
0:04:09 > 0:04:12On January 19th, Starr subpoenaed Hillary,
0:04:12 > 0:04:16the only First Lady ever to have been forced to testify before a grand jury.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19Rather than take her testimony in the White House,
0:04:19 > 0:04:23he insisted that she come to the federal courthouse in downtown Washington.
0:04:26 > 0:04:29I think the idea that they would make her come to the courthouse
0:04:29 > 0:04:33and to the grand jury was intended to humiliate her.
0:04:33 > 0:04:36Would you rather have been somewhere else today?
0:04:36 > 0:04:40Oh, about a million other places today, indeed.
0:04:42 > 0:04:44Hillary's billing records proved little.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47They showed that she had represented Jim McDougal,
0:04:47 > 0:04:51but didn't prove she'd known he had used fraudulent loans to prop up Whitewater.
0:04:51 > 0:04:55Nonetheless, Starr redoubled his efforts.
0:04:55 > 0:04:59He re-opened all the files that Fiske had closed.
0:04:59 > 0:05:04He chased down and challenged every privilege that had been afforded
0:05:04 > 0:05:09not just to President Clinton but to previous presidents,
0:05:09 > 0:05:13he decided to re-interview everybody, bring 'em all back to the grand jury.
0:05:13 > 0:05:16The independent counsel focused much of his energy
0:05:16 > 0:05:19on finding witnesses in Arkansas
0:05:19 > 0:05:22who could testify to the Clintons' participation
0:05:22 > 0:05:26in fraudulent real estate deals 15 years before.
0:05:26 > 0:05:29People at the lowest level were hurt.
0:05:29 > 0:05:31People's lives were ruined.
0:05:31 > 0:05:35People were left in debt that they took years to get out of.
0:05:35 > 0:05:36They broke people.
0:05:36 > 0:05:38I mean, investigators invaded high school campuses
0:05:38 > 0:05:41to put the thumb-screws on high school kids for information.
0:05:41 > 0:05:47In May, Starr was able to convict Jim McDougal of loan fraud.
0:05:47 > 0:05:49Under the threat of imprisonment,
0:05:49 > 0:05:52McDougal agreed to cooperate.
0:05:52 > 0:05:54Suddenly, he claimed that Bill Clinton
0:05:54 > 0:05:57had known about his illegal loans.
0:06:00 > 0:06:04After Jim McDougal is convicted, everything changes.
0:06:04 > 0:06:08Up until that point, he never pointed the finger at the Clintons.
0:06:08 > 0:06:12He never indicated that they were involved in wrongdoing.
0:06:12 > 0:06:15But once he's convicted, all of a sudden
0:06:15 > 0:06:19he begins coming up with stories that implicate the Clintons.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25McDougal's testimony was confused and contradictory -
0:06:25 > 0:06:27few believed him.
0:06:28 > 0:06:33But Starr was increasingly determined to find something that would stick to the President.
0:06:35 > 0:06:40There's no question at all that at this point the Starr prosecutors
0:06:40 > 0:06:43believe that the Clintons are hiding evidence
0:06:43 > 0:06:49and lying when they deny that they had involvement in some of McDougal's enterprises.
0:06:49 > 0:06:55And conversely, the White House thinks that these Starr prosecutors have shifted,
0:06:55 > 0:06:57and now all they're doing is a president hunt.
0:06:59 > 0:07:04As Starr scoured the past for evidence of crimes,
0:07:04 > 0:07:08Clinton's prospects for his presidential race were looking brighter than ever.
0:07:12 > 0:07:16Clinton's Republican opponent in the presidential election that fall
0:07:16 > 0:07:18was Kansas Senator Robert Dole.
0:07:18 > 0:07:22With the economy strong, and Clinton resurgent, Dole could do little
0:07:22 > 0:07:26but caricature the president as a free-spending liberal.
0:07:26 > 0:07:28The federal government is too big
0:07:28 > 0:07:33and it spends too much of your money, your money.
0:07:33 > 0:07:37To force the issue, the Republican Congress in August
0:07:37 > 0:07:41sent Clinton a welfare reform bill he had already vetoed twice.
0:07:41 > 0:07:46Welfare reform had been a key part of Clinton's "New Democrat" philosophy,
0:07:46 > 0:07:49but he was aware of how much liberals
0:07:49 > 0:07:52in his own Party hated the bill.
0:07:54 > 0:07:55Good afternoon.
0:07:55 > 0:07:59In August, the President signed the Welfare Reform Bill.
0:07:59 > 0:08:01When I ran for President four years ago,
0:08:01 > 0:08:05I pledged to end welfare as we know it.
0:08:05 > 0:08:09I have worked very hard for four years to do just that.
0:08:09 > 0:08:12Today, the Congress will vote on legislation
0:08:12 > 0:08:15that gives us a chance to live up to that promise.
0:08:16 > 0:08:21Clinton's decision was the last straw for many on the left.
0:08:21 > 0:08:25Several of his closest political allies resigned in protest.
0:08:25 > 0:08:28It made him someone who was capable of anything.
0:08:28 > 0:08:32And it no longer mattered what party he was in.
0:08:32 > 0:08:35You couldn't tell what he would do
0:08:35 > 0:08:39and what he would be willing to go along with.
0:08:40 > 0:08:43With welfare reform behind him,
0:08:43 > 0:08:46Clinton solidified his grip on the race.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49We will together build a bridge to the 21st century
0:08:49 > 0:08:54wide enough and strong enough to take us to America's best days.
0:08:54 > 0:08:55Will you do that?
0:08:59 > 0:09:02He was in his element.
0:09:02 > 0:09:07He was shorn of this great burden that had been over him in '94.
0:09:07 > 0:09:11He was out making the case in the best,
0:09:11 > 0:09:16most positive and toughest way he could, and he was loving it.
0:09:16 > 0:09:22In November, Clinton won by a margin that had once seemed inconceivable,
0:09:22 > 0:09:27taking 31 states and 70% of the electoral votes.
0:09:29 > 0:09:33I, William Jefferson Clinton, do solemnly swear...
0:09:33 > 0:09:37That I will faithfully execute the office of President Of The United States.
0:09:37 > 0:09:42..that I will faithfully execute the office of President Of The United States.
0:09:42 > 0:09:47The re-election in 1996 is obviously one of the great comebacks
0:09:47 > 0:09:49in American politics.
0:09:49 > 0:09:53A president who had been written off as road kill just two years earlier,
0:09:53 > 0:09:59managed to come back to a very convincing re-election in 1996,
0:09:59 > 0:10:02the first Democrat to win a second term
0:10:02 > 0:10:04since Franklin Roosevelt.
0:10:07 > 0:10:11As Clinton strode triumphantly down Pennsylvania Avenue,
0:10:11 > 0:10:14there was no hint that he had already set in motion events
0:10:14 > 0:10:17that would soon divide the country as never before
0:10:17 > 0:10:20and nearly destroy his Presidency.
0:10:26 > 0:10:33By early 1997, Bill Clinton had been carrying on his affair with Monica Lewinsky for over a year.
0:10:38 > 0:10:42I've asked myself a number of times why he put himself
0:10:42 > 0:10:45and his presidency in jeopardy
0:10:45 > 0:10:48in such a careless way.
0:10:49 > 0:10:56The presidency is probably the loneliest office in America.
0:10:56 > 0:10:57Regardless of your friends,
0:10:57 > 0:11:00regardless of how good your marriage is,
0:11:00 > 0:11:04regardless of anything, you are alone there at the top.
0:11:04 > 0:11:09And maybe Bill Clinton, who so much needed and wanted to be loved,
0:11:09 > 0:11:13couldn't say no to someone
0:11:13 > 0:11:18who was going to give him affection and wanted affection back.
0:11:20 > 0:11:22Lewinsky's superiors in the White House
0:11:22 > 0:11:25had begun to notice her attraction to the president.
0:11:25 > 0:11:30Quietly, she was transferred to a job across town at the Pentagon.
0:11:32 > 0:11:39There, Lewinsky befriended a career civil servant named Linda Tripp.
0:11:39 > 0:11:42Like Lewinsky, Tripp had come to the Pentagon
0:11:42 > 0:11:44after years working at the White House,
0:11:44 > 0:11:46first in the Bush administration
0:11:46 > 0:11:49and then, less happily, in Clinton's.
0:11:50 > 0:11:55Linda Tripp didn't like the Clinton people.
0:11:55 > 0:11:58She didn't like their politics, she didn't like their personalities,
0:11:58 > 0:12:01she didn't like their social lives,
0:12:01 > 0:12:05and she simmered with resentments.
0:12:05 > 0:12:10And she finds this young woman, a couple cubicles away,
0:12:10 > 0:12:14Monica Lewinsky, who decides to cry on her shoulder.
0:12:15 > 0:12:18It was very much a big sister-little sister,
0:12:18 > 0:12:22mother-daughter relationship.
0:12:22 > 0:12:26Monica would tell her everything.
0:12:26 > 0:12:29Linda genuinely cared about Monica,
0:12:29 > 0:12:31but there was one overriding emotion
0:12:31 > 0:12:35and that was what Bill Clinton was doing
0:12:35 > 0:12:39and I'm telling you, this was an angry woman.
0:12:41 > 0:12:43Shortly before meeting Lewinsky,
0:12:43 > 0:12:48Tripp had approached literary agent Lucianne Goldberg
0:12:48 > 0:12:51about writing a tell-all book on the Clinton White House,
0:12:51 > 0:12:52but the project had gone nowhere.
0:12:55 > 0:13:01In the Autumn of 1997, she contacted Goldberg with a new project -
0:13:01 > 0:13:05the true story of an ongoing affair between a White House intern
0:13:05 > 0:13:09and the President Of The United States.
0:13:09 > 0:13:10She called me
0:13:10 > 0:13:15and she said, "He's having an affair with a girl who's 23 years old."
0:13:15 > 0:13:16And I said, "Yeah, yeah."
0:13:16 > 0:13:20You know, the kind of agenting that I did I heard a lot of wild stuff
0:13:20 > 0:13:23and people have to prove things.
0:13:23 > 0:13:27So, she said, "No, I'm not kidding you. He's having an affair with a...
0:13:27 > 0:13:30"and I know the girl and I talk to her every day."
0:13:30 > 0:13:33And I said, "Well, can you prove this, do you have pictures,
0:13:33 > 0:13:35"is she willing to step forward,
0:13:35 > 0:13:37"is she willing to go on the Today Show and say...?"
0:13:37 > 0:13:42And she said, "Well, no, I'm sure she wouldn't. This is a big secret."
0:13:42 > 0:13:46I said, "Well, you got to, you got to do something to prove to me
0:13:46 > 0:13:51"so I can prove to a publisher that this, this wild story is true.'
0:13:51 > 0:13:54And I said, "You say you talk to her every day,
0:13:54 > 0:13:58"how about taping your phone conversations?"
0:13:58 > 0:14:00And she agreed that that would be a cool idea
0:14:00 > 0:14:03and she went to Radio Shack and bought a tape recorder
0:14:03 > 0:14:04and plugged it into her phone.
0:14:04 > 0:14:09'Linda, I don't know why I have these feelings for him.
0:14:09 > 0:14:12'I never expected to feel this way about him.
0:14:12 > 0:14:18'And the first time I ever looked into his eyes close up
0:14:18 > 0:14:20'and was with him alone,
0:14:20 > 0:14:23'I saw somebody totally different than I had expected to see.
0:14:23 > 0:14:27'And that's the person I fell in love with.'
0:14:27 > 0:14:29Linda wanted the world to know about this,
0:14:29 > 0:14:33and I think the motivation was no, you know,
0:14:33 > 0:14:36no deeper, no more shallow than that.
0:14:36 > 0:14:41That was it. She wanted the world to know about this relationship.
0:14:41 > 0:14:47She came to believe that fate did call her
0:14:47 > 0:14:51to expose these defects in this president to the country.
0:14:51 > 0:14:55On the other hand, she becomes entwined in a scandal
0:14:55 > 0:14:57that she helped to create.
0:14:57 > 0:14:59'He was supposed to call me again,
0:14:59 > 0:15:01'but I wasn't home and I was afraid to call.'
0:15:01 > 0:15:02'What happened?'
0:15:02 > 0:15:05'I don't know. I saw him for 60 seconds.'
0:15:05 > 0:15:08'So, how was it?'
0:15:08 > 0:15:12'I mean, we hug, and I gave him the paperweight.'
0:15:12 > 0:15:14'So, what did you wear?'
0:15:14 > 0:15:17I knew if the story broke huge
0:15:17 > 0:15:20that people would start calling Linda,
0:15:20 > 0:15:22and Linda would say, "Call my agent."
0:15:22 > 0:15:25And they would call her agent, and her agent would make a book deal,
0:15:25 > 0:15:28and then would make some money, and she would get a little money
0:15:28 > 0:15:32and I would get ten percent of it, and that's the way the world works.
0:15:34 > 0:15:38Goldberg suggested Tripp reach out to Newsweek's Michael Isikoff.
0:15:38 > 0:15:42Before long, the two were having regular conversations.
0:15:43 > 0:15:46She would, kind of, tease me
0:15:46 > 0:15:49and she told me early on that there was a woman,
0:15:49 > 0:15:52who had been an intern.
0:15:52 > 0:15:58And that...she was having an ongoing affair
0:15:58 > 0:16:00with Bill Clinton.
0:16:00 > 0:16:05I was taken aback, as anybody would be.
0:16:05 > 0:16:10So, I wanted to get Linda Tripp to tell me as much as she could.
0:16:10 > 0:16:12And, so, I kept talking to her.
0:16:14 > 0:16:17Linda Tripp was not just talking to Isikoff.
0:16:17 > 0:16:20She had also begun sharing her story with the independent counsel
0:16:20 > 0:16:24investigating the Clintons.
0:16:25 > 0:16:29By 1997, after more than two years,
0:16:29 > 0:16:32Kenneth Starr's investigation into Whitewater had stalled.
0:16:32 > 0:16:36Short on evidence or reliable witnesses,
0:16:36 > 0:16:41he had too little to bring charges against the President or First Lady.
0:16:41 > 0:16:44We know that they were running out of gas, and running out of rope,
0:16:44 > 0:16:49and had just about completely failed, until Monica came along.
0:16:51 > 0:16:54In early January, 1998,
0:16:54 > 0:16:57Starr's office received a phone call from Tripp.
0:16:57 > 0:17:01She revealed the existence of her tape recordings of Monica Lewinsky.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06At first, Starr saw little value in the tapes -
0:17:06 > 0:17:10a presidential affair, no matter how sordid, was not illegal.
0:17:10 > 0:17:15But there was something in Tripp's story that caught Starr's attention.
0:17:15 > 0:17:18The president had asked his friend Vernon Jordan
0:17:18 > 0:17:21to help find Lewinsky a job in the private sector.
0:17:21 > 0:17:27Could this be an attempt, Starr wondered, to buy Lewinsky's silence?
0:17:27 > 0:17:30'I'm just... I'm starting to get a little nervous about Vernon.'
0:17:30 > 0:17:32'Why?'
0:17:32 > 0:17:37'I just want everything to be easy. I want him to call me and say,
0:17:37 > 0:17:41'"You know, how does this amount of money, doing this here sound?"
0:17:41 > 0:17:44'And I say, "That's sound great."
0:17:44 > 0:17:47'He says, "OK. Consider it a done deal."'
0:17:47 > 0:17:49Clinton had good reason
0:17:49 > 0:17:53to worry about whether Lewinsky would keep their affair secret.
0:17:53 > 0:17:54She had just been subpoenaed
0:17:54 > 0:17:59to testify in a sexual harassment lawsuit against the president
0:17:59 > 0:18:02brought by a former Arkansas state worker named Paula Jones.
0:18:05 > 0:18:07Tipped off to the affair,
0:18:07 > 0:18:11Jones' lawyers believed the president's relationship with Lewinsky
0:18:11 > 0:18:13would demonstrate a pattern of behaviour.
0:18:15 > 0:18:17I thought it showed
0:18:17 > 0:18:21President Clinton's proclivity to make sexual advances
0:18:21 > 0:18:25to extremely young, low-level employees,
0:18:25 > 0:18:30and President Clinton had obtained jobs for Monica Lewinsky
0:18:30 > 0:18:33as part of his effort to control her.
0:18:33 > 0:18:36Highly relevant to Paula Jones' case
0:18:38 > 0:18:42Ken Starr was watching the Jones' lawsuit with great interest.
0:18:42 > 0:18:46If Clinton was trying to influence Lewinsky's testimony,
0:18:46 > 0:18:49he would be committing a major crime.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53Suddenly, Starr glimpsed a bridge from Whitewater
0:18:53 > 0:18:57to a potentially more fruitful area of investigation.
0:18:57 > 0:19:02The bridge is that the president, and those close to him,
0:19:02 > 0:19:06may be encouraging Monica to lie
0:19:06 > 0:19:12in the Paula Jones case and therefore suborning perjury.
0:19:12 > 0:19:14That's the little connection they make,
0:19:14 > 0:19:18it's tenuous at this point, but they go for it.
0:19:21 > 0:19:26Three seemingly unrelated threads from Clinton's past and present -
0:19:26 > 0:19:28Whitewater, Paula Jones, and Monica Lewinsky -
0:19:28 > 0:19:33had suddenly come together in one potentially devastating investigation.
0:19:36 > 0:19:41And a single reporter threatened to upend the whole thing.
0:19:42 > 0:19:45I knew we had
0:19:45 > 0:19:48a blockbuster of a story.
0:19:48 > 0:19:51And, of course, I had to call Starr's team.
0:19:51 > 0:19:57And fair to say that when I did, they freaked out.
0:19:57 > 0:20:00They realised that were I to publish a story,
0:20:00 > 0:20:03it would blow their investigation wide open.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06Starr hoped to convince Lewinsky
0:20:06 > 0:20:09to secretly tape record the president
0:20:09 > 0:20:12before Isikoff's story could be made public.
0:20:13 > 0:20:17On January 16th, he sent Linda Tripp to meet with Lewinsky
0:20:17 > 0:20:21at a food court at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.
0:20:21 > 0:20:25Before the friends sat down, FBI agents swooped in.
0:20:25 > 0:20:29The FBI grabs Monica in front of the Cinnabon
0:20:29 > 0:20:34and takes her upstairs in the Ritz-Carlton,
0:20:34 > 0:20:36and tries to get her to flip.
0:20:36 > 0:20:41But Monica basically just drives 'em crazy with her histrionics,
0:20:41 > 0:20:43with her refusal to talk.
0:20:43 > 0:20:45They felt like one of these scenes in a movie
0:20:45 > 0:20:49where a bunch of grown men are trying to change the diapers of a baby
0:20:49 > 0:20:50and don't know how to do it.
0:20:50 > 0:20:55Monica's crying, she's kind of wailing out loud.
0:20:56 > 0:21:00What they weren't counting on, what they hadn't figured out is,
0:21:00 > 0:21:03"So, what to do we do when Monica is not going to tell us
0:21:03 > 0:21:06"whether she had an affair with Bill Clinton?"
0:21:10 > 0:21:14Unable to secure Lewinsky's cooperation against the president,
0:21:14 > 0:21:17Starr still had a card to play.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20The next day, January 17th, 1998,
0:21:20 > 0:21:22Clinton was scheduled to give his deposition
0:21:22 > 0:21:25under oath in the Paula Jones lawsuit.
0:21:25 > 0:21:27If he lied about his affair with Lewinsky,
0:21:27 > 0:21:30Starr would be able to bring a charge of perjury.
0:21:35 > 0:21:36He was about to testify,
0:21:36 > 0:21:40and they knew he was going to lie about Monica
0:21:40 > 0:21:44and that was, if you want to call it, the trap.
0:21:44 > 0:21:45And when a man is asked about this,
0:21:45 > 0:21:48a married man is asked about this, he's going to lie.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51and once he lies, we got him. We got him!
0:21:51 > 0:21:57You may show the witness the definition number one.
0:21:57 > 0:22:00Barred from questioning the president himself,
0:22:00 > 0:22:03Starr had to rely on Paula Jones' lawyers.
0:22:03 > 0:22:06Lead attorney Jim Fisher began the deposition
0:22:06 > 0:22:10by introducing a definition of sexual relations
0:22:10 > 0:22:12taken from a federal statute.
0:22:12 > 0:22:17In an effort to avoid ambiguity, I thought I would use a definition
0:22:17 > 0:22:19that was well grounded in federal law.
0:22:19 > 0:22:24So, I thought that there could be no doubt that these were...
0:22:24 > 0:22:26unambiguous definitions
0:22:26 > 0:22:30for which the law had a well-recognised meaning.
0:22:30 > 0:22:35Fisher's efforts to avoid ambiguity had the opposite effect,
0:22:35 > 0:22:39leaving Clinton a loophole through which to escape.
0:22:39 > 0:22:42So the record is completely clear,
0:22:42 > 0:22:45have you ever had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky
0:22:45 > 0:22:47as that term is defined in deposition exhibit one?
0:22:47 > 0:22:52I have never had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky.
0:22:52 > 0:22:54I never had an affair with her.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57If they had simply asked him,
0:22:57 > 0:23:00"Did Monica Lewinsky ever perform oral sex on you?"
0:23:00 > 0:23:01The gig would have been up.
0:23:01 > 0:23:06Instead, they gave him this ridiculously complicated,
0:23:06 > 0:23:11hard-to-understand definition of sex, which allowed him to parse.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14If I could have done it over again,
0:23:14 > 0:23:16I would have just asked the salacious questions.
0:23:16 > 0:23:18I would have let him have it.
0:23:18 > 0:23:23I was trying to be respectful, and I paid a price for it.
0:23:23 > 0:23:29Having said that, he clearly didn't answer the questions honestly.
0:23:29 > 0:23:33If she told someone that she had a sexual affair with you
0:23:33 > 0:23:37beginning in November of 1995, would that be a lie?
0:23:37 > 0:23:43It's certainly not the truth. It would not be the truth.
0:23:43 > 0:23:47The turning point was when I started asking about gifts
0:23:47 > 0:23:50that he had given to her and she had given to him.
0:23:50 > 0:23:53And I described some of them quite specifically.
0:23:53 > 0:23:59There was a book of poetry by Walt Whitman, for example.
0:23:59 > 0:24:02I thought his mood changed visibly at that point.
0:24:02 > 0:24:08His face became bright red. There was tension in his face.
0:24:08 > 0:24:13He knew at this point there was a mole.
0:24:13 > 0:24:15There was a rat in the woodpile.
0:24:15 > 0:24:19Someone has given all of this damning information to these people.
0:24:19 > 0:24:21He was in trouble.
0:24:21 > 0:24:24Clinton's secret affair with Monica Lewinsky
0:24:24 > 0:24:28was now hurtling toward public exposure.
0:24:28 > 0:24:31The very day that the President was deposed in the Jones lawsuit,
0:24:31 > 0:24:35Michael Isikoff filed his story on the Lewinsky affair.
0:24:35 > 0:24:41But at the last minute, his editors at Newsweek backtracked
0:24:41 > 0:24:44and decided to kill the story.
0:24:44 > 0:24:49Obviously, we had an enormous scoop here
0:24:49 > 0:24:52that was going to shake Washington.
0:24:52 > 0:24:57Some of my colleagues and some of the editors agreed,
0:24:57 > 0:24:59but at the end of the day the brass at Newsweek
0:24:59 > 0:25:02just were not willing to pull the trigger.
0:25:02 > 0:25:06Michael told me. He said, "They aren't going to run with it.
0:25:06 > 0:25:09"They're afraid of it. They don't like it.
0:25:09 > 0:25:11"Nasty stuff, they don't want to do it."
0:25:11 > 0:25:14And I said, "Well, what am I going to do? I'm sitting on this thing."
0:25:15 > 0:25:21Goldberg turned to an internet gossip columnist named Matt Drudge.
0:25:21 > 0:25:24A couple of people said,
0:25:24 > 0:25:26"Call Matt Drudge."
0:25:26 > 0:25:29Or, I said, "Well, tell him to call me."
0:25:29 > 0:25:31So at 11 that night he called me, and that was it.
0:25:31 > 0:25:33It went kaboom!
0:25:33 > 0:25:38The President, the intern, the accusations and the denials.
0:25:38 > 0:25:41The allegations that the President had an illicit affair
0:25:41 > 0:25:45with a 21-year-old intern and then attempted to cover it up
0:25:45 > 0:25:47blasted through the White House today.
0:25:47 > 0:25:50This scandal could unravel the administration.
0:25:50 > 0:25:56Over the next 72 hours, the story made its way around the world.
0:25:56 > 0:25:58SHE SPEAKS FRENCH
0:25:58 > 0:26:00HE SPEAKS GERMAN
0:26:00 > 0:26:01Monica Lewinsky.
0:26:01 > 0:26:05Caught unawares, Clinton's cabinet members
0:26:05 > 0:26:07rushed to his defence.
0:26:07 > 0:26:10I believe that the allegations are completely untrue.
0:26:10 > 0:26:11I'll second that.
0:26:11 > 0:26:14Aides who had worked for him
0:26:14 > 0:26:19for five to six years at this point are just on the floor.
0:26:19 > 0:26:22They can't figure out what there's supposed to think about this,
0:26:22 > 0:26:25much less what they're supposed to do about this.
0:26:25 > 0:26:29I was convinced that Bill Clinton had been set up.
0:26:29 > 0:26:33He's got all these enemies who are out to get him.
0:26:33 > 0:26:38He wouldn't be so stupid as to jeopardize
0:26:38 > 0:26:40his entire Presidency.
0:26:40 > 0:26:44For what? No, that was not the Bill Clinton I knew.
0:26:44 > 0:26:49Clinton did confide in the one person he knew would not judge him.
0:26:49 > 0:26:52When the Lewinsky scandal broke
0:26:52 > 0:26:55the President paged me and I returned the call.
0:26:55 > 0:26:57And he said,
0:26:57 > 0:26:59"Ever since I got here to the White House
0:26:59 > 0:27:03"I've had to shut my body down, sexually, I mean,
0:27:03 > 0:27:05"but I screwed up with this girl.
0:27:05 > 0:27:07"I didn't do what they said I did,
0:27:07 > 0:27:10"but I may have done so much that I can't prove my innocence."
0:27:10 > 0:27:13And I said to him,
0:27:13 > 0:27:17"The problem that Presidents have is not the sin, it's the cover up
0:27:17 > 0:27:21"and you should explore just telling the American people the truth."
0:27:21 > 0:27:24He said, "Really, do you think I could do that?"
0:27:24 > 0:27:27And I said, "Let me test it, let me run a poll."
0:27:27 > 0:27:30So, I took a poll and I tested popular attitudes on that
0:27:30 > 0:27:32and I called him back and I said,
0:27:32 > 0:27:35"They will forgive the adultery,
0:27:35 > 0:27:39"but they won't easily forgive that you lied."
0:27:39 > 0:27:42Mr President, welcome.
0:27:42 > 0:27:43Thank you, Jim.
0:27:43 > 0:27:45Clinton didn't take Morris' advice.
0:27:45 > 0:27:48In interviews days after the story broke,
0:27:48 > 0:27:51he continued to hide his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
0:27:51 > 0:27:54The news of this day is that Kenneth Starr,
0:27:54 > 0:27:56the independent counsel,
0:27:56 > 0:28:00is investigating allegations that you suborned perjury
0:28:00 > 0:28:04by encouraging a 24-year-old woman, a former White House intern,
0:28:04 > 0:28:08to lie under oath in a civil deposition
0:28:08 > 0:28:12about her having had an affair with you. Mr President, is that true?
0:28:12 > 0:28:15That is not true. That is not true.
0:28:15 > 0:28:19I did not ask anyone to tell anything other than the truth.
0:28:19 > 0:28:21There is no improper relationship.
0:28:21 > 0:28:23And I intend to cooperate with this inquiry.
0:28:23 > 0:28:26But that is not true.
0:28:26 > 0:28:28He says, quite indignantly,
0:28:28 > 0:28:32"There is no relationship with Monica Lewinsky."
0:28:32 > 0:28:34And people begin to focus on the words.
0:28:34 > 0:28:36He said "is", didn't he? He didn't say "was".
0:28:36 > 0:28:38What is he trying to say? Is he parsing here?
0:28:38 > 0:28:43I didn't notice the peculiar tense issue until later.
0:28:43 > 0:28:45But I did think to myself, I said,
0:28:45 > 0:28:47"Boy, there's got to be a stronger denial of this."
0:28:47 > 0:28:49And I think some group of us said,
0:28:49 > 0:28:52"Look, you're denying this, you've got to be strong.
0:28:52 > 0:28:53"You've got to get out there
0:28:53 > 0:28:55"and say, you know, how outrageous this is."
0:28:55 > 0:28:59And, of course, I think that was dreadful advice in retrospect.
0:28:59 > 0:29:03I want you to listen to me. I'm going to say this again.
0:29:03 > 0:29:09I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.
0:29:09 > 0:29:12I never told anybody to lie.
0:29:12 > 0:29:15Not a single time. Never.
0:29:15 > 0:29:17These allegations are false,
0:29:17 > 0:29:20and I need to go back to work for the American people.
0:29:20 > 0:29:22Thank you.
0:29:22 > 0:29:24I was watching with a friend in my office and I said,
0:29:24 > 0:29:26"That is it, this man is dead meat.
0:29:26 > 0:29:30"That is it, because I know that he's lying
0:29:30 > 0:29:33"and if I know that he's lying
0:29:33 > 0:29:36"then the rest of the world is going to know he's lying."
0:29:38 > 0:29:40Having set off on a course of deception,
0:29:40 > 0:29:42there was no turning back.
0:29:42 > 0:29:46Clinton continued to press his lie, even to Hillary.
0:29:46 > 0:29:48He tells her it's not true.
0:29:48 > 0:29:52He tells her that Monica Lewinsky was a troubled young woman,
0:29:52 > 0:29:56that he had just tried to be nice to her, to mentor her in some ways,
0:29:56 > 0:30:01and that's a story that Hillary Clinton hangs onto like a life raft.
0:30:01 > 0:30:04The day after Clinton's denial,
0:30:04 > 0:30:07Hillary appeared on national television.
0:30:07 > 0:30:11I just think that a lot of this is deliberately designed
0:30:11 > 0:30:14to sensationalize charges against my husband
0:30:14 > 0:30:18because everything else they've tried has failed. And I also...
0:30:18 > 0:30:22She focused her energy and her anger and her ire at the external enemies.
0:30:22 > 0:30:25At Ken Starr, at the press, at the Republicans in Congress.
0:30:25 > 0:30:28They were the ones who were doing this,
0:30:28 > 0:30:29not her husband.
0:30:29 > 0:30:33The great story here for anybody willing to find it
0:30:33 > 0:30:37and write about it and explain it is this vast right-wing conspiracy
0:30:37 > 0:30:39that has been conspiring against my husband
0:30:39 > 0:30:42since the day he announced for president.
0:30:42 > 0:30:46She says, "This is all about the vast right-wing conspiracy,"
0:30:46 > 0:30:49and in that moment, sort of, sets the tone for the defence
0:30:49 > 0:30:51of the President against these charges.
0:30:55 > 0:31:00To the Clintons, the Lewinsky scandal was just the latest front
0:31:00 > 0:31:04in a war waged by their political enemies to destroy them.
0:31:04 > 0:31:08The Lewinsky scandal was not really the Lewinsky scandal.
0:31:08 > 0:31:11It was really an attempt by the Republican Party
0:31:11 > 0:31:13to have a coup d'etat
0:31:13 > 0:31:18based on having discovered the President's personal behaviour.
0:31:19 > 0:31:22But, even some allies of the Clintons
0:31:22 > 0:31:24found their protestations hollow.
0:31:26 > 0:31:29You can never blame your enemies
0:31:29 > 0:31:32for doing what your enemies will predictably do.
0:31:32 > 0:31:38You can only blame yourself for what you have given to your enemies.
0:31:38 > 0:31:41If you've given them absolutely nothing,
0:31:41 > 0:31:45guess what they're going to be able to do - nothing.
0:31:48 > 0:31:53As the scandal raged around him, Clinton did his best to focus,
0:31:53 > 0:31:56he said, "On the job the American people hired me to do."
0:31:58 > 0:32:00He's coming to work every day, he says,
0:32:00 > 0:32:03and he's going to do the job that's in front of him.
0:32:03 > 0:32:07Privately, behind the scenes, it's a completely different story.
0:32:07 > 0:32:09Of course, he's obsessed by this. Of course, he's consumed.
0:32:09 > 0:32:12Of course he's, distracted.
0:32:12 > 0:32:16He has a meeting with the head of the World Bank, for instance,
0:32:16 > 0:32:19who goes back to his office, and calls Clinton's chief of staff,
0:32:19 > 0:32:22and says, "It's like he wasn't even there."
0:32:22 > 0:32:26"I feel like a character in the novel Darkness At Noon,"
0:32:26 > 0:32:27Clinton told an aide.
0:32:27 > 0:32:30"I am surrounded by an oppressive force
0:32:30 > 0:32:35"that is creating a lie about me and I can't get the truth out."
0:32:35 > 0:32:38In fact, the truth was closing in.
0:32:40 > 0:32:42All he can do is buy time.
0:32:42 > 0:32:45All he can do is hope Starr doesn't have the goods,
0:32:45 > 0:32:49doesn't have the evidence, that there's no physical evidence that could prove it.
0:32:53 > 0:32:56Before long, Starr had his physical evidence.
0:32:56 > 0:33:00In July, Monica Lewinsky reached a deal to give her testimony
0:33:00 > 0:33:04in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
0:33:04 > 0:33:05As part of the deal,
0:33:05 > 0:33:08she turned over a blue dress stained with Clinton's semen.
0:33:11 > 0:33:17Clinton also agreed to answer questions before Starr's grand jury.
0:33:17 > 0:33:20Before the president faced Starr, however, he had to face Hillary.
0:33:24 > 0:33:28That morning, Clinton awoke the First Lady from a deep sleep.
0:33:28 > 0:33:32Pacing the room, he finally confessed he had lied.
0:33:36 > 0:33:41It was probably the most shattering moment in her life.
0:33:41 > 0:33:45He'd lied to her and he'd used her.
0:33:45 > 0:33:50He let her go out and essentially make alibis for him.
0:33:52 > 0:33:55And it not only jeopardized
0:33:55 > 0:33:57everything they'd worked for all their lives
0:33:57 > 0:34:01but totally humiliated her and Chelsea
0:34:01 > 0:34:05and she couldn't trust him anymore.
0:34:08 > 0:34:10Later that day, Clinton's deposition
0:34:10 > 0:34:14was scheduled to take place in the Map Room of the White House.
0:34:14 > 0:34:18The President's lawyers had won an important concession from Ken Starr -
0:34:18 > 0:34:23the interrogation could not last longer than four hours.
0:34:23 > 0:34:27- Good afternoon, Mr President. - Good afternoon.
0:34:27 > 0:34:30Could you please state your full name for the record, sir?
0:34:30 > 0:34:32William Jefferson Clinton.
0:34:32 > 0:34:36Bill Clinton's strategy was to run out the clock.
0:34:36 > 0:34:42And so, he would start talking about little stories from Arkansas,
0:34:42 > 0:34:45he would, you know, take an aside and give a lecture about justice
0:34:45 > 0:34:48and the American Dream.
0:34:48 > 0:34:51And all along, the clock is ticking out.
0:34:51 > 0:34:57Let me begin with the correct answer - I don't know for sure.
0:34:57 > 0:35:00Well, it would depend upon the facts.
0:35:00 > 0:35:03I think on the whole people in the uniformed secret service...
0:35:03 > 0:35:05If we circle number one - this is my circle here.
0:35:05 > 0:35:09I remember doing it so I could focus only on those two lines...
0:35:09 > 0:35:15It depends upon what the meaning of the word "is" is.
0:35:15 > 0:35:18The Starr prosecutors walked out of that
0:35:18 > 0:35:20grand jury testimony totally demoralized.
0:35:20 > 0:35:24They knew they had been clobbered by President Clinton.
0:35:24 > 0:35:29And even though it was just, obvious what he was doing,
0:35:29 > 0:35:33it was a masterful performance on Clinton's part.
0:35:38 > 0:35:42If Clinton could find his way out of Starr's legal trap,
0:35:42 > 0:35:46he could not, he knew, escape the judgment of the American people.
0:35:46 > 0:35:49And we've got about 45.
0:35:49 > 0:35:53That night, President Bill Clinton addressed the nation
0:35:53 > 0:35:57in one of the most bizarre broadcasts in American history.
0:35:57 > 0:36:02Standby. Five seconds.
0:36:02 > 0:36:04Good evening.
0:36:04 > 0:36:07This afternoon in this room, from this chair,
0:36:07 > 0:36:11I testified before the Office of Independent Counsel
0:36:11 > 0:36:12and the Grand Jury.
0:36:12 > 0:36:15I answered their questions truthfully,
0:36:15 > 0:36:18including questions about my private life,
0:36:18 > 0:36:23questions no American citizen would ever want to answer.
0:36:23 > 0:36:26Still, I must take complete responsibility
0:36:26 > 0:36:29for all my actions, both public and private.
0:36:29 > 0:36:31And that is why I am speaking to you tonight.
0:36:31 > 0:36:34Indeed, I did have a relationship with Miss Lewinsky
0:36:34 > 0:36:36that was not appropriate.
0:36:36 > 0:36:38In fact, it was wrong.
0:36:38 > 0:36:41For many of those closest to Clinton,
0:36:41 > 0:36:45this was the first time they'd heard him admit the affair
0:36:45 > 0:36:47and they were deeply hurt.
0:36:47 > 0:36:54Yes, I felt betrayed. He lied to me, yeah.
0:36:54 > 0:37:00He lied to a lot of people about that, not least of whom was himself.
0:37:08 > 0:37:11The morning after his grand jury testimony
0:37:11 > 0:37:16and his speech to the nation, he and Hillary and Chelsea
0:37:16 > 0:37:19head off to Martha's Vineyard for their annual vacation.
0:37:19 > 0:37:20It may be the worst timed family vacation
0:37:20 > 0:37:22in the history of the world,
0:37:22 > 0:37:26but there they are, heading out to the helicopter on the South Lawn.
0:37:26 > 0:37:30And the staff is sitting in the White House thinking,
0:37:30 > 0:37:33"What are we going to do about the walk to the helicopter?"
0:37:34 > 0:37:36They decide they can't do anything.
0:37:36 > 0:37:38They can't orchestrate it, they can't spin it.
0:37:38 > 0:37:42They are powerless to affect it.
0:37:42 > 0:37:46And in the end, it falls to Chelsea Clinton, a teenager,
0:37:46 > 0:37:49to take both of their hands, on her own initiative,
0:37:49 > 0:37:52take her father's hand in one and her mother's hand in another
0:37:52 > 0:37:54and walk across the lawn,
0:37:54 > 0:37:56literally the bridge between her parents
0:37:56 > 0:37:58at this moment of crisis between them.
0:38:06 > 0:38:10As the Clintons spent a tense vacation on Martha's Vineyard,
0:38:10 > 0:38:14Washington was abuzz with talk of resignation or even impeachment.
0:38:17 > 0:38:20At this moment, he was in maximum peril.
0:38:22 > 0:38:26Clinton's advisors were acutely aware
0:38:26 > 0:38:30that President Nixon was driven out of office
0:38:30 > 0:38:33not by the opposing party, but by his own party,
0:38:33 > 0:38:35when the Republicans came to him, and said,
0:38:35 > 0:38:37"Enough, you have to leave."
0:38:37 > 0:38:39That's when President Nixon resigned.
0:38:39 > 0:38:41And so there was real concern
0:38:41 > 0:38:43that Democrats were going to begin bolting
0:38:43 > 0:38:46and they were not returning President Clinton's calls.
0:38:46 > 0:38:48They were not happy with this.
0:38:48 > 0:38:52There was a real concern that this could be the beginning of the end.
0:38:55 > 0:38:58It had been a quarter of a century since Richard Nixon
0:38:58 > 0:39:02had resigned the presidency rather than endure an impeachment.
0:39:02 > 0:39:07Now, many were urging Clinton to do the same.
0:39:07 > 0:39:11But Clinton had no such intentions.
0:39:11 > 0:39:15There were the inevitable comparisons
0:39:15 > 0:39:16between Nixon and Clinton.
0:39:16 > 0:39:19I always thought there was a fundamental difference.
0:39:19 > 0:39:23Both Nixon and Clinton were convinced
0:39:23 > 0:39:27that it was their political enemies
0:39:27 > 0:39:31that were responsible for all their troubles.
0:39:31 > 0:39:33The difference is that Nixon
0:39:33 > 0:39:38always suspected that his political enemies were better than him.
0:39:38 > 0:39:42Clinton hated his political enemies
0:39:42 > 0:39:45and were convinced they were beneath him.
0:39:45 > 0:39:48And, that was the reason, at the end of the day,
0:39:48 > 0:39:52Clinton was never going to do what Richard Nixon did,
0:39:52 > 0:39:55which was to give into them and resign.
0:39:55 > 0:39:57Yes, go ahead.
0:39:57 > 0:40:01Mr President, all these questions about your personal life
0:40:01 > 0:40:04have to be painful to you and your family.
0:40:04 > 0:40:07At what point do you consider that it's just not worth it
0:40:07 > 0:40:09and you consider resigning from office?
0:40:12 > 0:40:15Never.
0:40:15 > 0:40:22You know, I was elected to do a job.
0:40:22 > 0:40:25I think the American people know two or three things about me now
0:40:25 > 0:40:29that they didn't know the first time...
0:40:31 > 0:40:34..this kind of effort was made against me.
0:40:35 > 0:40:41I think they know that I care very much about them,
0:40:41 > 0:40:46that I care about ordinary people whose voices aren't often heard here.
0:40:46 > 0:40:50And I think they know I have worked very, very hard for them.
0:40:52 > 0:40:55Hard work had always been Clinton's salvation
0:40:55 > 0:40:57in moments of vulnerability.
0:40:57 > 0:41:01Now, as he sought to show the American people he could still function,
0:41:01 > 0:41:04he bore down on a suddenly violent foreign policy crisis.
0:41:11 > 0:41:15Early on the morning of August the 7th, 1998,
0:41:15 > 0:41:18two truck bombs exploded simultaneously
0:41:18 > 0:41:22outside US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.
0:41:22 > 0:41:29The death toll reached 200 with another 5,000 injured.
0:41:31 > 0:41:35Within hours, the FBI had pegged responsibility
0:41:35 > 0:41:37to a little known terrorist organisation called AlQaeda.
0:41:39 > 0:41:42Clinton soon ordered his national security team
0:41:42 > 0:41:46to hunt down and destroy AlQaeda
0:41:46 > 0:41:49and its elusive leader Osama Bin Laden.
0:41:50 > 0:41:54CIA had information, it thought it was reliable information,
0:41:54 > 0:41:57that Bin Laden and the AlQaeda leadership
0:41:57 > 0:42:00were going to come together at a certain camp,
0:42:00 > 0:42:03in Afghanistan, at a certain date, at a certain time.
0:42:03 > 0:42:07We went to the president and said,
0:42:07 > 0:42:11"We want to be able to land cruise missiles at that camp while they're there."
0:42:13 > 0:42:16The order would have huge political risks.
0:42:16 > 0:42:20Clinton knew that it would be widely seen as an attempt
0:42:20 > 0:42:23to distract the public from his own personal problems.
0:42:23 > 0:42:25Somebody said something about,
0:42:25 > 0:42:30"Well, you know, we have to take into account the political realities in the United States at the moment."
0:42:30 > 0:42:32Which was, sort of, code words for,
0:42:32 > 0:42:35"You've got this Monica Lewinsky scandal going on."
0:42:35 > 0:42:37And he snapped.
0:42:37 > 0:42:39He just very quickly and sharply said,
0:42:39 > 0:42:43"You don't think about that. You think about national security.
0:42:43 > 0:42:46"You give me the national security advice you would give me if this were not going on.
0:42:46 > 0:42:48"You let me worry about that."
0:42:51 > 0:42:56On August 20th, Clinton ordered a series of missile strikes
0:42:56 > 0:42:57against AlQaeda,
0:42:57 > 0:43:01targeting training camps in Afghanistan and a plant in Sudan
0:43:01 > 0:43:06that the administration claimed was involved in making chemical weapons.
0:43:06 > 0:43:09The missiles narrowly missed their main target.
0:43:09 > 0:43:14We didn't kill Bin Laden, we didn't have that to show for the attack.
0:43:14 > 0:43:19And people, frankly, a lot of people in the Congress, and in the media,
0:43:19 > 0:43:22said this was just an attempt to "wag the dog."
0:43:22 > 0:43:25The timing of all of this is more than coincidental.
0:43:25 > 0:43:29And I think it may very well...
0:43:29 > 0:43:34the President may run the risk of having an even more cynical view of his behaviour.
0:43:34 > 0:43:37He knew that. He knew that was going to happen.
0:43:37 > 0:43:41He knew that would make it worse for him to do this.
0:43:41 > 0:43:45But he launched the attack because he thought it was the right national security thing to do,
0:43:45 > 0:43:46that's what we told him.
0:43:46 > 0:43:47And he said,
0:43:47 > 0:43:52"I'll do it anyway, even though it makes it worse for me."
0:43:52 > 0:43:55Things were deteriorating quickly for the President.
0:43:55 > 0:44:00On September the 9th, Kenneth Starr finally delivered to Congress
0:44:00 > 0:44:05the long-awaited results of his investigation.
0:44:05 > 0:44:10In 450 pages of sometimes salacious detail,
0:44:10 > 0:44:12Starr laid out his case against Clinton for perjury,
0:44:12 > 0:44:17obstruction of justice, and abuse of office in the Lewinsky affair,
0:44:17 > 0:44:19while dropping almost all reference
0:44:19 > 0:44:23to his original investigation of Whitewater.
0:44:23 > 0:44:27Lawyers are thorough. Good lawyers are thorough.
0:44:27 > 0:44:33There could be absolutely no gap whatsoever between the facts
0:44:33 > 0:44:36and then a reasonable conclusion to be drawn from the facts.
0:44:36 > 0:44:38The case had to be proven.
0:44:39 > 0:44:41'The House Sergeant at Arms officially unsealed
0:44:41 > 0:44:43'the document at mid-Afternoon.
0:44:43 > 0:44:48'It had been advertised as steamy, and you could almost see the steam rising as the boxes came open.'
0:44:50 > 0:44:52'According to the sources, the report focuses almost
0:44:52 > 0:44:56'entirely on the President's relationship with Lewinsky.'
0:44:56 > 0:44:59However this turns out, it is a turning point
0:44:59 > 0:45:01in Mr Clinton's Presidency.
0:45:01 > 0:45:03It is not an exaggeration to say
0:45:03 > 0:45:05that he has less control of his destiny
0:45:05 > 0:45:07than at any time since he was elected.
0:45:09 > 0:45:11The Starr report was a turning point,
0:45:11 > 0:45:13but not in the way the independent counsel
0:45:13 > 0:45:17or his Republican supporters had expected.
0:45:17 > 0:45:20Polls showed that after four years and 40 million,
0:45:20 > 0:45:24most Americans believed the investigations against Clinton
0:45:24 > 0:45:28were more persecution than prosecution.
0:45:28 > 0:45:32The Republicans had so undercut their own credibility
0:45:32 > 0:45:34in the way they were going after him
0:45:34 > 0:45:38that people, although they deplored what he had done
0:45:38 > 0:45:40and thought it was stupid
0:45:40 > 0:45:42and it demeaned the office of the presidency
0:45:42 > 0:45:45and tarnished the presidency, tarnished him
0:45:45 > 0:45:48and had been a devastating blow to Hillary and Chelsea
0:45:48 > 0:45:51and all those things that went through people's minds,
0:45:51 > 0:45:56they looked at the Republicans and they had enough already.
0:45:59 > 0:46:01After the release of Starr's report,
0:46:01 > 0:46:04Clinton appeared in the Rose Garden to offer his apology
0:46:04 > 0:46:06to the American people.
0:46:07 > 0:46:14I am profoundly sorry for all I have done wrong in words and deeds.
0:46:16 > 0:46:21I never should have misled the country, the congress, my friends or my family.
0:46:23 > 0:46:27Quite simply, I gave into my shame.
0:46:27 > 0:46:31I have been condemned by my accusers with harsh words,
0:46:31 > 0:46:37and while its hard to hear yourself called deceitful and manipulative,
0:46:37 > 0:46:41I remember Ben Franklin's admonition
0:46:41 > 0:46:45that our critics are our friends, for they do show us our faults.
0:46:49 > 0:46:52If Clinton was willing, at last, to take responsibility,
0:46:52 > 0:46:55the American people were willing to forgive him.
0:46:59 > 0:47:02He disappoints them every time on some level,
0:47:02 > 0:47:04but he always gets up and tries to make it better.
0:47:04 > 0:47:07You know, what else can you ask from a sinner, right?
0:47:07 > 0:47:10And that's how he would define himself. "I'm a sinner.
0:47:10 > 0:47:14"And I try to be better every time, and I learn from my mistakes and I go forward."
0:47:14 > 0:47:20And I think the American public is pretty forgiving of a guy who sees himself as a sinner.
0:47:22 > 0:47:24Weary of the attacks on Clinton,
0:47:24 > 0:47:27Americans punished Republican candidates
0:47:27 > 0:47:30in the Congressional elections in November.
0:47:30 > 0:47:34Upsetting precedent, Democrats actually gained seats in Congress.
0:47:39 > 0:47:43I think the message the American people sent was loud and clear.
0:47:43 > 0:47:47We want progress over partisanship and unity over division.
0:47:49 > 0:47:52Blamed for the defeat, Newt Gingrich resigned his post
0:47:52 > 0:47:55as Speaker of the House of Representatives.
0:47:57 > 0:47:59To the frustration of his Republican opponents,
0:47:59 > 0:48:05Clinton seemed to have won over the American people again.
0:48:05 > 0:48:06There are two or three things
0:48:06 > 0:48:09that I have witnessed in my political career
0:48:09 > 0:48:12that I never could figure out.
0:48:12 > 0:48:14The fact that a lot of people didn't think
0:48:14 > 0:48:18that that was a serious problem -
0:48:18 > 0:48:21that he, you know, perjured himself in his testimony
0:48:21 > 0:48:26and that he'd had a relationship with that woman, Monica Lewinsky.
0:48:26 > 0:48:27That did shock me
0:48:27 > 0:48:31and I've never quite figured out how in the world could that be -
0:48:31 > 0:48:35that he'd come out the back end of it pretty much where he was at the beginning.
0:48:35 > 0:48:39It was just one of those things I never quite figured out.
0:48:40 > 0:48:43Determined to punish the President,
0:48:43 > 0:48:48House Republicans led by Texas Congressman Tom Delay,
0:48:48 > 0:48:51played their last card - impeachment.
0:48:51 > 0:48:54A resolution impeaching William Jefferson Clinton,
0:48:54 > 0:48:59President of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors.
0:48:59 > 0:49:06The Republicans were gripped by just unreasoning hatred of Bill Clinton.
0:49:06 > 0:49:10They just despised the man
0:49:10 > 0:49:15and could not stand that he was going to get away with this.
0:49:15 > 0:49:16Article One -
0:49:16 > 0:49:19In his conduct while President Of The United States,
0:49:19 > 0:49:23William Jefferson Clinton, in violation of his constitutional oath
0:49:23 > 0:49:27faithfully to execute the office of President Of The United States,
0:49:27 > 0:49:30has wilfully corrupted and manipulated
0:49:30 > 0:49:33the judicial process of the United States...
0:49:33 > 0:49:37On Saturday, December 19th, the House of Representatives
0:49:37 > 0:49:41voted along party lines to impeach the president on two of four counts
0:49:41 > 0:49:44involving obstruction of justice and perjury.
0:49:44 > 0:49:50On this vote, the yeas are 228, the nays are 206.
0:49:50 > 0:49:53Article one is adopted.
0:49:54 > 0:49:59Bill Clinton had become only the second president in American history,
0:49:59 > 0:50:01and the first in more than a century,
0:50:01 > 0:50:04to be impeached by the House.
0:50:07 > 0:50:12The American people, I call them to my side here at the podium
0:50:12 > 0:50:18to verify to you that the President committed falsehoods under oath.
0:50:18 > 0:50:22Republican leaders moved the proceedings to the Senate
0:50:22 > 0:50:24where a two-thirds majority was required to convict
0:50:24 > 0:50:28the President and remove him from office.
0:50:28 > 0:50:31The Senate will convene as a court of impeachment.
0:50:31 > 0:50:34We are here today because President William Jefferson Clinton
0:50:34 > 0:50:37decided to put himself above the law.
0:50:37 > 0:50:42This is not about sex, this is about obstruction of justice.
0:50:42 > 0:50:47This is about a pattern. This is about a scheme. This is about a lot of lies. This is about...
0:50:47 > 0:50:50For three long weeks, with little hope of success,
0:50:50 > 0:50:5513 Republican Congressmen pressed the case against Clinton.
0:50:55 > 0:50:57This is not about sexual misconduct
0:50:57 > 0:51:01any more than Watergate was about a third-rate burglary
0:51:03 > 0:51:08Finally, Arkansas Democratic Senator Dale Bumpers
0:51:08 > 0:51:12rose to express the sentiments felt by many in the country.
0:51:12 > 0:51:19We are here today because the president suffered a terrible moral lapse.
0:51:22 > 0:51:25A marital infidelity,
0:51:25 > 0:51:28not a breach of the public trust,
0:51:28 > 0:51:30not a crime against society.
0:51:30 > 0:51:31It is a sex scandal.
0:51:33 > 0:51:35HL Mencken said one time, "When you hear somebody say,
0:51:35 > 0:51:38"'This is not about money,' it's about money."
0:51:38 > 0:51:42LAUGHTER
0:51:44 > 0:51:48And when you hear somebody say, "This is not about sex,"
0:51:48 > 0:51:49it's about sex.
0:51:52 > 0:51:54The Senator judges that the respondent,
0:51:54 > 0:51:57William Jefferson Clinton, President of the United States,
0:51:57 > 0:52:00is not guilty as charged in the 1st article of impeachment.
0:52:02 > 0:52:06What had begun as a sexual liaison more than three years earlier,
0:52:06 > 0:52:09and became a full blown constitutional crisis,
0:52:09 > 0:52:11was finally over.
0:52:13 > 0:52:17This time, however, there was no triumph,
0:52:17 > 0:52:20no crowing about "The Comeback Kid."
0:52:20 > 0:52:22Bill Clinton knew both he and the country
0:52:22 > 0:52:24had paid a heavy price.
0:52:26 > 0:52:30Bill Clinton in his second inaugural address
0:52:30 > 0:52:35said it was his ambition during the second term to be, quoting scripture,
0:52:35 > 0:52:37"a repairer of the breech."
0:52:37 > 0:52:43That ambition was not realised in his second term
0:52:43 > 0:52:48and it effectively died in 1998, the year of scandal.
0:52:48 > 0:52:51The fact that the president was impeached
0:52:51 > 0:52:56will always be part of his story, part of his legacy.
0:52:56 > 0:52:58It consumed a tremendous amount of energy.
0:52:58 > 0:53:02It undercut his standing.
0:53:02 > 0:53:06And, I think, limited his ability to accomplish anything
0:53:06 > 0:53:09outside of surviving for almost two years.
0:53:09 > 0:53:10And, you know, that's tragic.
0:53:12 > 0:53:16Clinton created many of his own problems,
0:53:16 > 0:53:21but his enemies exaggerated, enhanced,
0:53:21 > 0:53:25mythologized, lied,
0:53:25 > 0:53:30were utterly hypocritical in their attacks on him.
0:53:30 > 0:53:32You know, to the extent that I believe that every human being
0:53:32 > 0:53:37is responsible for their own lives, he holds the responsibility for it.
0:53:37 > 0:53:40To the extent that context shapes a life,
0:53:40 > 0:53:44his enemies have a lot to answer for.
0:53:46 > 0:53:49Clinton had survived,
0:53:49 > 0:53:51but the impeachment ordeal
0:53:51 > 0:53:55seemed to have sapped much of his drive and ambition.
0:53:55 > 0:53:59President Clinton has more than 700 days left in office
0:53:59 > 0:54:01after he's acquitted by the Senate,
0:54:01 > 0:54:03and he promises to use every single one of them to its fullest.
0:54:03 > 0:54:07But the constraints were enormous, at that point.
0:54:07 > 0:54:10The big aspirations were gone.
0:54:10 > 0:54:13The chances of re-inventing Social Security
0:54:13 > 0:54:17or re-inventing Medicare just proved too elusive.
0:54:17 > 0:54:21He had a Congress, which had just, literally, put him on trial,
0:54:21 > 0:54:25and was not willing to do a lot of business with him.
0:54:26 > 0:54:30In 2000, Clinton came tantalizingly close
0:54:30 > 0:54:33to the great historical achievement for which he had yearned,
0:54:33 > 0:54:37but a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians
0:54:37 > 0:54:38broke down in the 11th hour.
0:54:40 > 0:54:45The same year, after decades of budget deficits,
0:54:45 > 0:54:49the federal budget had a surplus of nearly 240 billion,
0:54:49 > 0:54:53an accomplishment for which Clinton was given much credit.
0:54:58 > 0:55:02Only as her husband was preparing to leave the stage,
0:55:02 > 0:55:06Hillary was finally ready, at last, to take her star turn.
0:55:08 > 0:55:14The day the Senate votes to acquit President Clinton on impeachment charges,
0:55:14 > 0:55:15Hillary Clinton is meeting
0:55:15 > 0:55:18in the White House residence with Harold Ickes
0:55:18 > 0:55:21to plot a campaign for the very same United States Senate.
0:55:21 > 0:55:26Literally the end of his crisis is the birth of her new phase.
0:55:28 > 0:55:32She said, "I want to be independent.
0:55:32 > 0:55:35"I want to be judged on my own merits."
0:55:35 > 0:55:39And she finally released herself from, you know,
0:55:39 > 0:55:44the shadow of Bill Clinton over her and began making her own decisions.
0:55:46 > 0:55:48He then came to her support,
0:55:48 > 0:55:52and there was nobody more of a champion
0:55:52 > 0:55:55for her Senate race than Bill Clinton.
0:55:55 > 0:55:57He was behind her all the way.
0:55:57 > 0:56:02So even if I didn't know her better than anyone in this room,
0:56:02 > 0:56:04I'd be for her.
0:56:04 > 0:56:08That November, as Vice-President Al Gore
0:56:08 > 0:56:12lost the closest presidential election in American history,
0:56:12 > 0:56:16Hillary Clinton easily won the Senate seat in New York.
0:56:16 > 0:56:20I am profoundly grateful to all of you
0:56:20 > 0:56:24for giving me the chance to serve you.
0:56:26 > 0:56:29In his final round of goodbye speeches,
0:56:29 > 0:56:33Bill Clinton even bid farewell to the Washington Press corps.
0:56:33 > 0:56:37You know, I read in the history books how other presidents say
0:56:37 > 0:56:40the White House is like a penitentiary,
0:56:40 > 0:56:42and every motive they have is suspect.
0:56:42 > 0:56:46Even George Washington complained he was treated like a common thief.
0:56:46 > 0:56:48And they all say they can't get away, can't wait to get away.
0:56:48 > 0:56:51I don't know what the heck they're talking about.
0:56:51 > 0:56:54I've had a wonderful time.
0:56:54 > 0:56:58It's been an honour to serve and fun to laugh.
0:56:58 > 0:57:02I only wish that we'd even laughed more these last eight years
0:57:02 > 0:57:06because power's not the most important thing in life
0:57:06 > 0:57:09and only counts for what you use it.
0:57:10 > 0:57:14Clinton departed the White House for the last time
0:57:14 > 0:57:16on Saturday, January the 20th, 2001.
0:57:19 > 0:57:21In the end, he left much as he had come -
0:57:21 > 0:57:25a man loved by his friends, and loathed by his enemies -
0:57:25 > 0:57:28a politician who had achieved a great deal,
0:57:28 > 0:57:33yet left behind a curious sense of unfulfilled promise.
0:57:42 > 0:57:47I know a lot of people think that Clinton's presidency was a wasted opportunity.
0:57:47 > 0:57:53But he came to office in 1992 and left a stronger country in 2000.
0:57:53 > 0:57:56I don't know if you can say of a president who served us well
0:57:56 > 0:58:01and improved our material good that it was a wasted opportunity.
0:58:01 > 0:58:04And it was sure a lot of fun to watch.
0:58:43 > 0:58:46Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd