On Jan. 26, 1998, President William J. Clinton famously told the nation, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.” (William J. Clinton). It was the lie that started the impeachment process of the 42nd President of the United States of America. America loves the fairytale love stories but this story is the exact opposite. Monica Lewinsky is the person that everyone knows as the mistress of President Clinton. Although Monica Lewinsky is usually the name you hear when speaking of Bill Clinton’s affair, she wasn’t the only one. Before he became president he had many affairs. In the 1970s before Clinton took office he had a twelve year affair with a model and actress, Gennifer Flowers. Not only did he have an affair with …show more content…
her but in 1977 she was pregnant with his child, later in an interview with New York’s AM 970 she stated “I wasn’t prepared to have a baby and raise it on my own so I decided to go ahead and have the abortion.” (Gennifer Flowers). Juanita Broaddrick accused Clinton of raping her in April of 1978. After that Elizabeth Ward Gracen admitted to a one time affair with Clinton in 1983, after denying it until 1998. He had an affair with Sally Perdue, former Miss Arkansas in 1983. Kathleen Willey, a former white house volunteer aid said that Clinton sexually assaulted her on November 29th 1993 during his first term as President.A few months after on May 6th 1994, Paula Jones filed a lawsuit against Clinton for sexual harassment. Monica was definitely not Clintons only affair and all these women stepping forth show the country he was not the man they originally thought he was.Evidence of Monica’s affair first started to come out to the public when a friend of Monica, Linda Tripp secretly taped a phone call between them.
Monica was caught giving information about the affair on this phone call. These phone calls were taped between October 3rd, 1997 and January 13th, 1998. On the phone call Monica told Linda that her and President Clinton did have intimate relations. Following these phone calls President Clinton released a statement has shown above, saying to the American people that he infact did not have any sexual relationships with Monica Lewinsky. Which was a lie to to the American people. Not only did he lie to the American people but he lied under oath during the civil case where again he said he didn't have sexual relations with Miss Lewinsky. Lying under oath is an offense called Perjury. He also obstructed justice by influencing people to lie and conceal the truth. William J. Clinton should have not only been impeached from office during his presidency but also removed for committing perjury and obstructing …show more content…
justice. Lying under oath is a serious offence also known as Perjury, that could put a civilian in jail for up to five years and is one of the reasons President Clinton should have been removed from office. There are eight allegations where Clinton lied under oath. First being in a civil case when he denied a sexual affair with Monica Lewinsky. His defense to lying that he had an affair was he didn’t understand what the full meaning of an affair was. This is the President of the United States saying he didn't know what an affair was. Clinton went to Yale Law School, he knew what an affair was. The second allegation is when he lied to the grand jury about his sexual relationship with Ms. Lewinsky. He now isn’t just lying in a criminal case but now to the grand jury. In his civil deposition, to support his false statement about the sexual relationship, about being alone with her and about the many gifts exchanged between them. Then again he lied under oath in his civil deposition concerning Lewinsky and her involvement with the Paula Jones case. Lastly he lied again underoath in his civil deposition about his discussions with Vernon jordan concerning Ms.Lewinsky’s involvement in the Paula Jones case. As you can see, not only did he lie once under oath but many times. The House of Representatives vote was 228 saying yes to Clinton committing perjury before the grand jury and 206 voting no. This should have caused him to be removed because he broke the law and proved to be non trustworthy to the American people and to the rest of the world. As Kay Bailey Hutchison, a United States senator said during the impeachment trial, “Chief Justice, if a university president, a minister or priest, general or admiral, or a corporate chief executive had engaged in a sexual relationship with an intern under his charge, he would lose his position, with scant attention paid to whether or not such a relationship were ‘‘consensual.’’ We place in certain individuals so great a measure of trust that they are seen as acting essentially in loco parentis.The question before us today is: Should the President of the United States be held to a lower standard?
The answer is: No. To the contrary; we can bestow no higher honor than to select one individual to represent us all as President. In one person we endow the character of our Nation, as the head of state and the head of government.” (Kay Bailey
Hutchison) The President should have been prosecuted like every other American citizen. He broke the law, when he is the person who is suppose to enforce it. That shows weakness to other countries. He should have atleast been imprisoned up to five years. After the senators heard all the evidence they voted. “The chamber was evenly split, 50-50.” (cnn.com), 50 senators voted guilty and 50 voted not-guilty. After hearing that he lied at least four times underoath and multiple times to the American people, how could you say he is not-guilty? Democratic Senator Feingold defense was, “it is too easy to forget the most salient fact about this entire matter, and that is one simple fact that many others have mentioned: In November 1996, 47 million Americans voted to reelect President Clinton.” (Russell D. Feingold). Truth of the matter is even though the American people voted in President Clinton, he isn’t who everyone thought he was. As stated before he lied to the American people, it doesn’t matter what happened before what matters is what is going on right now. Most of the evidence did not start to come out until months after the election. President Clinton should have been removed from office on perjury alone but there was also another crime he committed. President Clinton also obstructed justice which is another impeachable crime. There is evidence of Clinton discussing the Paula Jones case with Monica Lewinsky. Which by law you can not share private information about cases to anyone. By lying to the grand jury Clinton obstructed justice with Monica Lewinsky by jointly lying and concealing the truth about their sexual relationship. Clinton also obstructed justice by getting Lewinsky a job in New York when she would have had a very important part in the Paula Jones case if she told the truth. President Clinton also tried to tamper with a potential witness by influencing his secretary after his civil deposition. Then he refused to testify for seven months and that is an attempt on obstructing justice. Lastly, Clinton abused his constitutional authority in several ways throughout the impeachment process. He abused his authority by lying to the public and the Congress about his relationship with Ms.Lewinsky. Promising to cooperate fully with the grand jury investigation but then later he refused six invitations to testify to the grand jury. When the President failed to reveal to the Federal judge that Monica Lewinsky's affidavit was false during his Paula Jones deposition, that was obstructing the process of federal court. He meant for Ms.Lewinsky to file a false and misleading affidavit and he lied about it to the court system.
Lewinsky was an unpaid intern and later became a paid staffer at the White House. In the beginning of the case, Monica Lewinsky did deny having sexual relations with the President. Starr then found tape recordings of telephone conversations of Lewinsky describing her relationship with the president. Clinton tried to cover up the affair by having his advisor Vernon Jordan to have Lewinsky lie or having a job outside Washington.
Before Clinton was elected President he had an encounter with Paula Jones in a hotel room. After Clinton took office Paula Jones then sued Clinton for sexual harassment. A short time later Monica Lewinsky began her intern at the White House. Clinton and Lewinsky began a sexual relationship. Judge Kenneth Starr was the investigator of Whitewater. President Clinton denied any sexual relations with Lewinsky. On October 8, 1998, the House would vote to have an impeachment and won. Clinton was charged with perjury and obstruction to justice. Bill Clinton would end up not getting kicked out of office by senate.
None of this would have been much of a problem had Monica Lewinsky had not told Tripp that Bill Clinton and Vernon Jordan instructed her to lie about the affair with Clinton. Supposedly Linda Tripp has Monica alleging this on tape. These tapes if finally released to the public should prove to be quite titillating, Monica Lewinsky claims that Clinton was very fond of oral sex and that she it to him on a number of occasions. It has been alleged by various news organizations that a secret service agent actually caught Lewinsky and Clinton in the act. It has also been alleged that Monica Lewinsky has a blue semen stained dress which, if true, would be direct DNA evidence of the affair. But it still would not prove obstruction of justice. If that was ever proven it could be an impeachable offence, a sexual scandal probably would not lead to the impeachment of Bill Clinton. If not then it will simply be a source of Bill Clinton jokes.
No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of Preside...
When Nixon was inaugurated, he took a sworn oath to protect the people and the country. He lied to his people. He states, “The major problem on the Watergate is simply to clean the thing up by having whoever was responsible admit what happened. Certainly I am satisfied that nobody in the White House had any knowledge or approved any such activity.” (Memoirs 646).
Having only two candidates running for the leader of our country restricts our choices for president. If a third part wins the majority of the popular vote, that doesn't necessarily mean they will be the president because it's all up to the electors. If the candidate doesn't win the electors' votes then they will not h...
On August 17, 1998, exactly one year after making the statement above, President Bill Clinton prepared to deliver a speech concerning a scandal that had gripped the nation for months. It is needless to say that this was an important moment during the Clinton administration. After accusations of sexual harassment, Clinton addressed the nation and admitted to having a relationship with Monica Lewinsky. In this critical speech Clinton set out to admit to wrong-doings, provide a few reasons for his action, and ultimately persuade the audience into moving on and forgetting the scandal. This essay will break down his speech into sections and examine the most and least effective strategies that Clinton employed and how well he executed those strategies. This is an interesting speech given under rare circumstances. Not since Watergate had an American president been under such harsh moral criticism from the public. By looking critically at this speech we are able to gain valuable insight into Clinton's motives.
The 22nd amendment reads: “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President, when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the
Out of all of the current presidents in our time the most interesting president to explore was President Richard Nixon and out of all of them he was the only one in term to resign. That Richard M. Nixon, President of the United States, is impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, and that the following articles of impeachment to be executed to the fullest extent of their nature. His poor choices and decisions led to his resignation. Although he did have some good qualities in helping the U.S. the bad however override the good. In the CRS (Congressional Research Service) It states: “ Obstruction of justice is the impediment of governmental activities. There are a host of federal criminal laws that prohibit obstructions of justice. The six most general outlaw obstruction of judicial proceedings (18 U.S.C. 1503), witness tampering (18 U.S.C. 1512), witness retaliation (18 U.S.C. 1513), obstruction of Congressional or administrative proceedings (18 U.S.C. 1505), conspiracy to defraud The United States (18 U.S.C. 371), and contempt (a creature of statute, rule and common law). Simple perjury in a federal investigation or judicial proceedings carries an extensive fine and up to 5 years in prison.” This was the first article president Richard M. Nixon was charged with by the House of Judiciary Committee. The vote was 27 to 1 for Nixon to be charged with the first article of impeachment, which was Obstruction of Justice. In denial of his liability in part taking in the Watergate scandal by saying he wasn't involved in the scandal He pointed finger at others that were involved in the break-in. However, tapes were found of conversations that proved his involvement and he was going to be impeached. Before he was charged, he made a resignat...
One man’s bullet would force him into the presidency, and but for one man’s vote he would have been forced out.
In fact, the Constitution contains provisions for direct and indirect election of the different parts of the legislature and the executive, based on overlapping but distinct electorates (Muller 1251). In addition, many people believe that, the Electoral College process of electing the president necessitates replacement with a direct popular vote to honor our democratic form of government in the United States. Moreover, in a democratic form of government, the authority rests with the people rather than in one or a few as in a totalitarian or authoritarian form of government. People believe a direct election supports the 14th Amendment principle of “one person, one vote” (Wagner 577). Therefore, the winner-take-all system inaccurately represents the will of the American citizens since not all candidates garner any electoral votes. On the other hand, a popular vote for the president could lead to many runoffs if neither candidate reaches a majority, creating a bigger opportunity for voter fraud and manipulation of the vote, which would not truly represent the will of the people, states, or country. The Electoral College sometimes fails to represent the national popular vote because states use the winner-take-all approach and not some proportional method for the representation of its voters. However, the Founding Fathers were not too keen on
In August 17, 1998 Clinton, after seven months of silence, Clinton finally admitted that he had an inappropriate relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. In a four-minute apologia speech, Clinton formally apologized for his personal misconduct, and at the same time, asked for support from the people to stop the lawsuit and accusations that came from the scandal. Clinton carefully and skillfully made use of logos and pathos throughout the speech to convince the audience that there were bigger issues at hand than his personal dealings with Monica Lewinsky. Therefore, he believed that this matter should no longer be the focus point of the nation, and it was about time to move on.
Despite the national attention the Watergate scandal had gained President Nixon, he won the second term presidency. The major problem for Nixon would come later. The investigations of the Watergate scandal lead to the discovery of other criminal acts by officials including Nixon. During the investigation many things begin to surface. It was discovered that documents had been destroyed that may have made a link between Nixon and the Watergate scandal. These documents may have shown that he had some acknowledgement in what had happened. There was evidence that people involved in the Nixon campaign had been wire tapping phones illegally for a long time according to “dummies.com”. The greatest issue would come to light during the 1973 Watergate hearings. During testimonies it came to light that every conversation was recorded in the Oval office according to “study.com”. It was demanded that these tapes be reviewed to learn how much involvement President Nixon had in the Watergate burglary. The President felt that he had the right to withhold these tapes through what he referred to as executive privilege. This means that if it is the best interest of the public the president has the right to keep information from the
Only three times in the 226 year history of the office of the President of the United States has the idea of impeachment reared its head. Only twice has a president been impeached, and only one president has been driven out of office due to possible high crimes and misdemeanors. Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton both were impeached by the House of Representatives, and faced trial in the Senate. Both presidents were acquitted of their supposed transgressions, and were allowed to remain in office. Richard Nixon, despite never experiencing impeachment, vacated his office due to increasing pressure to resign and spare the Senate from going through the process due to his obvious guilt. Nixon was actually in violation of his duties as President, but Clinton and Johnson were impeached by political rivals. Nixon’s actions were considered in such grave violation of the Constitution, that he did not keep his office, whereas Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton stayed.
Lately, the top story in the news day after day, months after months have been about William Jefferson Clinton, also known as Bill. Who could blame them, there is nothing better than a story out of the ordinary, especially one with presidential status. For the past months he has been the most talked about figure, being the essential topic for news, talk shows, late night comedy and even going as far as the big screen. Talk about 'Primary Colors' and 'Wag the Dog.' What has gotten to me the most however, were the constant flow of Republicans, along with a few Democrats, who just want to say how shocked and embarrassed they are along with the people of the United States.The president had not just become the most talked about figure, but also one history had ever seen, so far that is, breaking the record and becoming a topic of conversation and debate 'twenty-four seven.' The people, who I think were most affected by this crisis and feel very sad for, are the Republicans, since they had lost severe amount of sleep over the president's bedroom crisis. They had to perform their republican duties by shocking our brains with the president's affair with Monica Lewinsky. We had to ignore the rest of the world news and its issues while they plough through the valley of lies, abuse of power and something they called high crimes and misdemeanors.