Mid-Term Elections: 1998
At various times in this series, a phenomenon had been discussed called the "six year itch" in which the party of those presidents who serve two terms in office suffer losses in mid-term elections held during the sixth year of that president's term in office. This has happened to every president since Andrew Jackson except one. In the 1998 mid-term elections, during the second term of President Bill Clinton, Democrats actually gained a handful of seats in the House of Representatives (5 to be precise) and in the US Senate several seats changed hands, but neither party made a net gain. This was also the first time, since the 1934 mid-term elections, in which the incumbent president's party picked up seats in the House during a midterm election. What is even more remarkable about this is that all of this occurred at a time when Clinton was the subject of an embarrassing scandal, one that would lead to his impeachment.
In 1998, the media reported that between 1995 and 1996, President Clinton and a 22-year-old White House intern named Monica Lewinsky were having an illicit sexual relationship. Clinton initially responded to the rumors by telling the media that he "did not have sexual relations" with Lewinsky, but further investigation led to charges of perjury and to the Clinton's impeachment in 1998 by the House of Representatives.
In 1995, Lewinsky, a graduate of Lewis & Clark College, was hired to work as an intern at the White House during Clinton's first term. She later became an employee of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs. While Lewinsky worked at the White House, Clinton began a personal relationship with her, the details of which she later confided to her Defense Department co-worker Linda Tripp. Tripp secretly recorded their telephone conversations. When Tripp discovered in January 1998 that Lewinsky had sworn an affidavit in the Paula Jones case denying a relationship with Clinton, she delivered the tapes to Kenneth Starr, the Independent Counsel who was investigating Clinton on other matters. The wide reporting of the scandal led to criticism of the media for how it covered the scandal. The incident received a number of nicknames such as "Monicagate," Lewinskygate," "Tailgate," "Sexgate," and "Zippergate.
Lewinsky told Starr's investigators that she had sexual encounters with Bill Clinton on nine occasions from November 1995 to March 1997. First Lady Hillary Clinton was at the White House for at least some portion of seven of those days. In April of 1996, Lewinsky's superiors relocated her job to the Pentagon, because they felt that she was spending too much time around Clinton and had suspicions about some inappropriate conduct occurring. United Nations Ambassador Bill Richardson was asked by the White House in 1997 to interview Lewinsky for a job on his staff. He did so and offered her a job, which she declined.
Lewinsky confided in her friend Linda Tripp about her relationship with Clinton. Tripp persuaded Lewinsky to save the gifts that Clinton had given her, and not to dry clean a blue dress she had that was stained with Clinton's semen. At the suggestion of Tripp's literary agent Lucianne Goldberg, Tripp began secretly recording her conversations with Lewinsky in September 1997. Goldberg also urged Tripp to take the tapes to Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr and also share them with the lawyers who were working on the Paula Jones case. In the fall of 1997, Goldberg began speaking to reporters, including Michael Isikoff of Newsweek, about the tapes.
In January 1998, Lewinsky had submitted an affidavit in the Paula Jones case in which she denied having any sort of physical relationship with Clinton. Lewinsky asked Tripp to lie under oath in the Jones case, but instead, Tripp gave the tapes to Ken Starr who was investigating Clinton over the Whitewater controversy and some other matters. With evidence of Lewinsky's admission of a physical relationship with Clinton, Starr decided to widen his investigation to include Lewinsky and her possible perjury in the Jones case.
News of the scandal first broke on January 17, 1998, on the political website the Drudge Report. Drudge reported that Newsweek editors were sitting on a story by investigative reporter Michael Isikoff exposing the affair between Clinton and Lewinsky. The story broke in the mainstream press on January 21 in The Washington Post. Clinton denied the allegations and on January 26, with the First Lady by his side, Clinton spoke at a White House press conference, and issued a forceful denial. He told the media:
"Now, I have to go back to work on my State of the Union speech. And I worked on it until pretty late last night. 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, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time; never. These allegations are false. And I need to go back to work for the American people. Thank you."
Clinton was not being truthful about this, and his bold-faced lie to the nation, underscored by him sanctimonious tone in the telling of that lie has contributed the the tarnishing of him legacy.
First Lady Hillary Clinton remained supportive of her husband throughout the scandal. On January 27, in an appearance on NBC's Today she said:
"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."
For the next several months the media was unable to disprove Clinton's denial because Lewinsky was unwilling to discuss the affair or testify about it. But on July 28, 1998, Lewinsky received immunity in return for grand jury testimony concerning her relationship with Clinton. She also turned over her semen-stained blue dress to Starr's investigators, the blue dress that Linda Tripp had encouraged her to save without dry cleaning. Starr's investigators had clear DNA evidence that proved the relationship despite Clinton's official denials.
On August 17, 1998, Clinton admitted in taped grand jury testimony that he had what he called an "improper physical relationship" with Lewinsky. That evening he gave a nationally televised statement admitting his relationship with Lewinsky which was "not appropriate".
In his deposition for the Jones lawsuit, Clinton had denied having "sexual relations" with Lewinsky. The blue dress with Clinton's semen gave Starr evidence that led him to believe that the president's sworn testimony was false and perjurious. During the deposition, Clinton was asked "Have you ever had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky, as that term is defined in Deposition Exhibit 1?" The judge ordered that Clinton be given an opportunity to review the agreed definition. Afterwards, based on the definition created by the Independent Counsel's Office, Clinton answered, "I have never had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky." Clinton later stated, "I thought the definition included any activity by me, where I was the actor and came in contact with those parts of the bodies". Clinton denied that he had ever contacted Lewinsky's "genitalia, anus, groin, breast, inner thigh, or buttocks", and effectively claimed that the agreed-upon definition of "sexual relations" included giving oral sex but excluded receiving oral sex.
All of this was known when the mid-term elections were held in November of 1998, and Republicans thought they could use it to their advantage. The campaign was marked by Republican attacks on the Clinton's morality and his fitness for office. Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr had released his report on the Lewinsky scandal on September 9, 1998, and the subject matter of the report was the biggest media story of the year. House leaders had initiated an inquiry into whether impeachable offenses had occurred. But none of this seemed to matter to voters.
The economy was doing well, the government was actually running a budget surplus for the first time in most people's lifetimes, and the internet was improving people's lives. Exit polls indicated that most voters opposed impeaching Clinton, and predictions of high Republican or low Democratic turnout due to the scandal failed to materialize. The public was willing to cut Clinton a lot of slack, and a backlash arose against the Republicans for attacking the successful president. Republicans lost four House seats and failed to gain any seats in the Senate. Republicans still controlled both the House (by a margin of 223 to 211) and the Senate (by a margin of 55 to 45). But it was the first time since 1822 that the non-presidential party had failed to gain seats in the midterm election of a President's second term.
In December 1998, a majority of the House of Representatives agreed that that Clinton's giving false testimony and allegedly influencing Lewinsky's testimony were crimes of obstruction of justice and perjury and thus impeachable offenses. The House of Representatives voted to issue Articles of Impeachment against him. This which was followed by a 21-day trial in the Senate. All of the Democrats in the Senate voted for acquittal on both the perjury and the obstruction of justice charges. Ten Republicans voted for acquittal for perjury and five Republicans voted for acquittal for obstruction of justice. Clinton was acquitted of all charges and remained in office. There were attempts to censure the president by the House of Representatives, but those attempts failed.
The scandal arguably affected the 2000 U.S. presidential election. Democratic Party candidate and sitting vice president Al Gore felt that Clinton's scandal had deflated the enthusiasm of their party's base, while Clinton felt that the scandal had made Gore's campaign too cautious, and that if Clinton had been allowed to campaign for Gore in Arkansas and New Hampshire, either state would have given Gore enough electoral votes for a victory in the election.
Two months after the Senate failed to convict him, Clinton was held in civil contempt of court by Judge Susan Webber Wright for giving misleading testimony regarding his sexual relationship with Lewinsky, and was also fined $90,000 by Wright. Clinton did not appeal the civil contempt of court ruling, claiming financial problems, but he maintained that his testimony complied with Wright's earlier definition of sexual relations. In 2001, his license to practice law was suspended in Arkansas for five years and later by the United States Supreme Court.
In 1998, the media reported that between 1995 and 1996, President Clinton and a 22-year-old White House intern named Monica Lewinsky were having an illicit sexual relationship. Clinton initially responded to the rumors by telling the media that he "did not have sexual relations" with Lewinsky, but further investigation led to charges of perjury and to the Clinton's impeachment in 1998 by the House of Representatives.
In 1995, Lewinsky, a graduate of Lewis & Clark College, was hired to work as an intern at the White House during Clinton's first term. She later became an employee of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs. While Lewinsky worked at the White House, Clinton began a personal relationship with her, the details of which she later confided to her Defense Department co-worker Linda Tripp. Tripp secretly recorded their telephone conversations. When Tripp discovered in January 1998 that Lewinsky had sworn an affidavit in the Paula Jones case denying a relationship with Clinton, she delivered the tapes to Kenneth Starr, the Independent Counsel who was investigating Clinton on other matters. The wide reporting of the scandal led to criticism of the media for how it covered the scandal. The incident received a number of nicknames such as "Monicagate," Lewinskygate," "Tailgate," "Sexgate," and "Zippergate.
Lewinsky told Starr's investigators that she had sexual encounters with Bill Clinton on nine occasions from November 1995 to March 1997. First Lady Hillary Clinton was at the White House for at least some portion of seven of those days. In April of 1996, Lewinsky's superiors relocated her job to the Pentagon, because they felt that she was spending too much time around Clinton and had suspicions about some inappropriate conduct occurring. United Nations Ambassador Bill Richardson was asked by the White House in 1997 to interview Lewinsky for a job on his staff. He did so and offered her a job, which she declined.
Lewinsky confided in her friend Linda Tripp about her relationship with Clinton. Tripp persuaded Lewinsky to save the gifts that Clinton had given her, and not to dry clean a blue dress she had that was stained with Clinton's semen. At the suggestion of Tripp's literary agent Lucianne Goldberg, Tripp began secretly recording her conversations with Lewinsky in September 1997. Goldberg also urged Tripp to take the tapes to Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr and also share them with the lawyers who were working on the Paula Jones case. In the fall of 1997, Goldberg began speaking to reporters, including Michael Isikoff of Newsweek, about the tapes.
In January 1998, Lewinsky had submitted an affidavit in the Paula Jones case in which she denied having any sort of physical relationship with Clinton. Lewinsky asked Tripp to lie under oath in the Jones case, but instead, Tripp gave the tapes to Ken Starr who was investigating Clinton over the Whitewater controversy and some other matters. With evidence of Lewinsky's admission of a physical relationship with Clinton, Starr decided to widen his investigation to include Lewinsky and her possible perjury in the Jones case.
News of the scandal first broke on January 17, 1998, on the political website the Drudge Report. Drudge reported that Newsweek editors were sitting on a story by investigative reporter Michael Isikoff exposing the affair between Clinton and Lewinsky. The story broke in the mainstream press on January 21 in The Washington Post. Clinton denied the allegations and on January 26, with the First Lady by his side, Clinton spoke at a White House press conference, and issued a forceful denial. He told the media:
"Now, I have to go back to work on my State of the Union speech. And I worked on it until pretty late last night. 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, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time; never. These allegations are false. And I need to go back to work for the American people. Thank you."
Clinton was not being truthful about this, and his bold-faced lie to the nation, underscored by him sanctimonious tone in the telling of that lie has contributed the the tarnishing of him legacy.
First Lady Hillary Clinton remained supportive of her husband throughout the scandal. On January 27, in an appearance on NBC's Today she said:
"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."
For the next several months the media was unable to disprove Clinton's denial because Lewinsky was unwilling to discuss the affair or testify about it. But on July 28, 1998, Lewinsky received immunity in return for grand jury testimony concerning her relationship with Clinton. She also turned over her semen-stained blue dress to Starr's investigators, the blue dress that Linda Tripp had encouraged her to save without dry cleaning. Starr's investigators had clear DNA evidence that proved the relationship despite Clinton's official denials.
On August 17, 1998, Clinton admitted in taped grand jury testimony that he had what he called an "improper physical relationship" with Lewinsky. That evening he gave a nationally televised statement admitting his relationship with Lewinsky which was "not appropriate".
In his deposition for the Jones lawsuit, Clinton had denied having "sexual relations" with Lewinsky. The blue dress with Clinton's semen gave Starr evidence that led him to believe that the president's sworn testimony was false and perjurious. During the deposition, Clinton was asked "Have you ever had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky, as that term is defined in Deposition Exhibit 1?" The judge ordered that Clinton be given an opportunity to review the agreed definition. Afterwards, based on the definition created by the Independent Counsel's Office, Clinton answered, "I have never had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky." Clinton later stated, "I thought the definition included any activity by me, where I was the actor and came in contact with those parts of the bodies". Clinton denied that he had ever contacted Lewinsky's "genitalia, anus, groin, breast, inner thigh, or buttocks", and effectively claimed that the agreed-upon definition of "sexual relations" included giving oral sex but excluded receiving oral sex.
All of this was known when the mid-term elections were held in November of 1998, and Republicans thought they could use it to their advantage. The campaign was marked by Republican attacks on the Clinton's morality and his fitness for office. Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr had released his report on the Lewinsky scandal on September 9, 1998, and the subject matter of the report was the biggest media story of the year. House leaders had initiated an inquiry into whether impeachable offenses had occurred. But none of this seemed to matter to voters.
The economy was doing well, the government was actually running a budget surplus for the first time in most people's lifetimes, and the internet was improving people's lives. Exit polls indicated that most voters opposed impeaching Clinton, and predictions of high Republican or low Democratic turnout due to the scandal failed to materialize. The public was willing to cut Clinton a lot of slack, and a backlash arose against the Republicans for attacking the successful president. Republicans lost four House seats and failed to gain any seats in the Senate. Republicans still controlled both the House (by a margin of 223 to 211) and the Senate (by a margin of 55 to 45). But it was the first time since 1822 that the non-presidential party had failed to gain seats in the midterm election of a President's second term.
In December 1998, a majority of the House of Representatives agreed that that Clinton's giving false testimony and allegedly influencing Lewinsky's testimony were crimes of obstruction of justice and perjury and thus impeachable offenses. The House of Representatives voted to issue Articles of Impeachment against him. This which was followed by a 21-day trial in the Senate. All of the Democrats in the Senate voted for acquittal on both the perjury and the obstruction of justice charges. Ten Republicans voted for acquittal for perjury and five Republicans voted for acquittal for obstruction of justice. Clinton was acquitted of all charges and remained in office. There were attempts to censure the president by the House of Representatives, but those attempts failed.
The scandal arguably affected the 2000 U.S. presidential election. Democratic Party candidate and sitting vice president Al Gore felt that Clinton's scandal had deflated the enthusiasm of their party's base, while Clinton felt that the scandal had made Gore's campaign too cautious, and that if Clinton had been allowed to campaign for Gore in Arkansas and New Hampshire, either state would have given Gore enough electoral votes for a victory in the election.
Two months after the Senate failed to convict him, Clinton was held in civil contempt of court by Judge Susan Webber Wright for giving misleading testimony regarding his sexual relationship with Lewinsky, and was also fined $90,000 by Wright. Clinton did not appeal the civil contempt of court ruling, claiming financial problems, but he maintained that his testimony complied with Wright's earlier definition of sexual relations. In 2001, his license to practice law was suspended in Arkansas for five years and later by the United States Supreme Court.