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Bill Clinton’s Scandal Spiral: How It All Unraveled (S1, E1) | The Clinton Affair | Full Episode — Transcript

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0:01(male #1) 'Mr. President, your testimony is subject'
0:03'to the penalty of perjury, do you understand that, sir?'
0:06I do.
0:07[instrumental music]
0:10(David Brock) There was shock in the conservative movement
0:13that twelve years of dominance
0:15had been upended by the Clintons.
0:18Together we can make America great again.
0:22(Joe Lockhart) Democrats lose elections and they get sad.
0:26Republicans lose elections and they get mad.
0:28And when they're mad, there's payback.
0:33(David Brock) People that I was associated with wanted the Clintons
0:37to be brought down on personal scandal.
0:40(Paula Jones) In May of '91, Bill Clinton
0:43harassed me on the job.
0:45(male #2) 'Did you ever ask Paula Jones to kiss your penis?'
0:49No, I did not.
0:51(male #3) 'The president is being dogged'
0:52'by a story that won't go away.'
0:54(Newt Gingrich) 'Whitewater development is not going to go away'
0:57there are too many questions, and there are too many
0:59implications of breaking the law.
1:01That's a lie. That's a Republican lie.
1:03(Joe Lockhart) House republicans were salivating.
1:06(Joe Conason) This was the next Watergate.
1:08(male #4) He's new chief of the Whitewater investigation
1:11Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr.
1:13My view was very simple. This is all about rule of law.
1:17(Jane Sherburne) They wanted to execute a search warrant on the White House.
1:19Starr was out to destroy the president.
1:22The great story here is this vast right wing conspiracy.
1:28(Peter Baker) He knows they're out there to get them.
1:30He knows that he's being hunted.
1:32And yet he could be so reckless.
1:34(Joe Conason) Bill Clinton handed the sword to his enemies.
1:38As I passed George Stephanopoulos' office
1:40I kind of looked into the open doorway, and Bill happened to be
1:43standing there and he motioned me in.
1:47I don't think my heart had ever beat as fast.
1:51Unbeknownst to me, I was on the precipice of the rabbit hole.
2:06(Bruce Udolf) What does this information about an affair
2:08with the President of the United States
2:09have to do with Whitewater?
2:11Nothing.
2:13(Bob Bittman) I was going to the White House
2:16in the dark of night to take a blood sample
2:19from the sitting president of the United States
2:21to compare with a semen stain
2:23on the dress of a 22 year old.
2:26This was the people's business in the people's house.
2:29[indistinct chattering]
2:33(Todd Purdum) We are still, 20 years later
2:35living the legacy and paying the price for that story.
2:38(Peter Baker) What it comes down to is, how does our democracy work?
2:41(male #4) 'The House of Representatives is exhibiting to the Senate'
2:44'of the United States articles of impeachment'
2:48'against William Jefferson Clinton.'
3:05(Johnny Carson) 'My, uh, my first guest tonight..'
3:07'Bill Clinton is a four time governor.'
3:09[crowd cheering]
3:13Here's a man who needs no introduction
3:15the honorable Bill Clinton of Arkansas.
3:17[crowd cheering]
3:19[instrumental music]
3:31You're governor now of Arkansas until, uh, 1991?
3:33- That's right. - Yeah.
3:35Where are you looking beyond that, politically? Or are you?
3:37Depends on how I do on this show tonight.
3:39[laughing]
3:43(female #1) This year, fellow governors voted him
3:45"The Most Effective Governor" in the nation.
3:49Name a problem, Clinton probably has a solution.
3:52[crowd applauding]
3:57We are not here to save the Democratic Party
3:59we are here to save the United States of America.
4:04(Lucianne Goldberg) I liked him.
4:05He was good looking, he was funny.
4:09He actually had nerve enough to drag that saxophone
4:12onto late night talk shows.
4:15I thought, "Gee, he's kind of cool."
4:17I like the looks of this guy. He looks like today.
4:19♪ I'm a southern man ♪
4:23♪ I'm a southern man I'm a southern man.. ♪
4:27(Joe Conason) Clinton was a progressive southern Governor
4:31who saw distress in the country
4:34that had built up over the years
4:36of the Reagan and Bush presidencies.
4:39The Republican message was, "let's hold on to all
4:42of the good things that are slipping away from our past."
4:45I am tremendously concerned
4:47about the erosion of the family unit.
4:50Clinton was "the future's the answer."
4:53It's all about the future.
4:55♪ Ain't nothin' like being with my lady ♪♪
4:57Make no mistake, this election is about change.
5:02Change in our party, change in our leadership
5:05change in our nation.
5:08And that is why today I proudly announce
5:11my candidacy for President of the United States of America.
5:14[crowd cheering]
5:19(Barney Frank) One of the best politicians ever.
5:22A mega charmer with large audiences
5:25and excellent one-on-one.
5:30(Michael Isikoff) The Democrats had lost three elections in a row
5:33and here was this young, fresh face
5:35from a rural, conservative state, who had appeal
5:39to rural, conservative voters, yet was very much
5:44a part of the mainstream of Democratic thinking.
5:48(Patricia Ireland) Bill Clinton was somebody we could work with
5:51on women's equality, on birth control funding
5:55on social security.
5:57Clinton was our answer to Reagan.
6:04(David Brock) The Clintons represented a new generation
6:06and there were cultural issues surrounding them
6:10that a lot of Republicans and conservatives
6:12were uncomfortable with.
6:15Bill Clinton hadn't served in Vietnam
6:18he had at least a brush with marijuana use.
6:21You add Hillary into the mix, who was a feminist
6:26all of that drove the conservatives crazy.
6:30I was part of the movement of the opposition to Clinton.
6:34The conservatives actively sought to engage in certain
6:37tactics that hadn't been fair game before.
6:41[indistinct chatter]
6:47(Dick Morris) Clinton was cruising along as the new Democrat
6:50when it came out that he'd had a affair
6:53with a woman named Gennifer Flowers.
6:57Yes, I was Bill Clinton's lover for 12 years
7:02and for the past two years I have lied to the press
7:04about our relationship to protect him.
7:07Flowers actually had tapes of him talking to her
7:12not overtly sexual but implying it.
7:29(male #5) 'Did anyone ever approach you from the Republican Party'
7:33'perhaps another Democratic candidate'
7:35'to urge you to tell this story publically?'
7:37- Yes, they did. - 'Who?'
7:39'Was it the Democratic Party, or was it'
7:40'the Republican Party, Miss Flowers?'
7:42It was the Republican Party.
7:46(Dick Morris) Gennifer Flowers really threatened
7:47Clinton's candidacy with oblivion.
7:50(Joe Conason) The Republicans were putting together
7:54a dossier on Clinton, mostly stuff about womanizing.
7:58Republicans were very much of the sort of the family values
8:01moral character sort of party
8:03and there was a sense that his character was flawed.
8:06He is fatally flawed, and extremely vulnerable--
8:08(male #6) 'Tell me why he's fatally flawed.'
8:10It's character, people don't know if they can believe
8:12anything this guy says, I think the character
8:14of the person who would be President of the United States--
8:16(male #7) 'Do you think that the issue of
8:17marital fidelity is a legitimate issue?
8:20I think that it's something that voters
8:21are going to want to know about, yes.
8:23(Joe Conason) The thing about Clinton was
8:26he would not be stopped.
8:28I mean, other politicians would, might give up, or, you know
8:32other people would give up on them.
8:34He would not permit that.
8:36I did not work on his staff in 1992
8:40but he called me a lot and we talked a lot by phone.
8:44I told him, they will elect you if they feel you had an affair
8:48if you handle it properly.
8:50This is clearly a story that the Clintons
8:52want to meet head-on, together.
8:55(Joe Conason) In '92, you had four networks.
8:59Three broadcast networks
9:01ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN.
9:04It was a smaller media universe, no Internet to speak of.
9:09So, when Clinton was confronted with Gennifer Flowers..
9:15...he could go to one place and kind of deal with it.
9:19[clock ticking]
9:22She's alleging a 12 year affair with you.
9:26Right before that interview, he called me
9:29and he said, "What should I say?"
9:31And I said, "I think you should say that I've sometimes caused
9:34pain in my marriage, and I feel very badly about that."
9:38I have acknowledged wrongdoing.
9:40I have acknowledged causing pain in my marriage.
9:44And the problem with the answer is, it's not a denial.
9:47No matter what I say to pretend that the press
9:50will then let this die, it, we're kidding ourselves.
9:53I mean, I think most Americans who are watching this tonight
9:56they'll know what we're saying. They'll get it.
9:58There isn't a person watching this who would feel comfortable
10:02sitting on this couch, detailing everything
10:05that ever went on in their life, or their marriage.
10:07I'm not sitting here as some little woman
10:09standing by my man like Tammy Wynette.
10:11I'm sitting here because I love him, and I respect him
10:15and I honor what he's been through and what we've
10:17been through together, and, you know, if that's not enough
10:20for people then, heck, don't vote for him!
10:23(male #9) It is this sense of sureness and of combativeness
10:26that Hillary Clinton is employing this week
10:28in support of her husband.
10:30She is on the attack.
10:31This woman has admitted that the Republicans
10:34offered her money, uh
10:35to change her story and implicate my husband
10:39after having denied it repeatedly.
10:41Well, I think Hillary Clinton is his best defense
10:43because she does not come across as the aggrieved wife.
10:49(male #10) Have you ever thought about quitting?
10:51The licks that I've taken are nothin' compared
10:54to the licks most Americans take.
10:55I mean, if you can't take a few licks
10:57you've got no business being president.
10:59It's a tough job, you've got to be a tough guy.
11:01(James Carville) He was tough.
11:03This guy had like, stamina
11:04he could take a, he could take a lick.
11:06I mean, what was the old Timex
11:08you know, "It could take a licking and keep on ticking."
11:10Is anything about our marriage as important to the people
11:13of New Hampshire as to whether or not they will have a chance
11:17to keep their own families together, and to deal with
11:19the problems that are affecting this country.
11:22(Joe Klein) They were both tough as nails.
11:25At the worst possible moments, he just worked harder.
11:31The night before the New Hampshire primary
11:34I went out and I found him and he was shaking every hand
11:36in every restaurant in Manchester, New Hampshire
11:39until the restaurants closed, and then he went to the bowling
11:41alleys, and he shook every hand in every bowling alley
11:45until there was just us, and he looked at me and he said
11:47"Do you wanna, do you wanna bowl a game?"
11:54(female #1) A two-way race for the White House is on.
11:58Governor Clinton, it appealed to the middle class
12:01that he was centrist
12:03and he kept hammering away on the economy.
12:06We were promised jobs
12:08but instead we got pink slips and insecurity.
12:11President Bush, at times, seemed disinterested.
12:15Did you miss the recession, did it come late, what happened--
12:18Well, that's a charge that-that maybe I was being too technical
12:22but I'm telling you, what, what is a recession?
12:25I've had friends that have been laid off from jobs
12:28I know people who cannot afford to pay
12:30the mortgage on their homes.
12:32How has it affected you?
12:33'And if you have no experience in it'
12:35'how can you help us?'
12:37I don't think it-I don't think it's fair to say
12:40"You haven't had cancer, therefore
12:41you don't know what it's like."
12:43I don't think it's fair to say, you know, whatever it is
12:46that if you haven't been hit by it personally.
12:49I'll tell you how it's affected me.
12:51In my state, when people lose their jobs
12:53there's a good chance I'll know them by their names.
12:55When a factory closes, I know the people who ran it.
12:57When the businesses go bankrupt, I know them.
13:00And I've been out here for 13 months
13:02with people like you all over America.
13:05(male #8) 'Bill Clinton, 11 points ahead in the polls.'
13:09Clinton scared a lot of Republicans.
13:11What was it with this guy?
13:16How could he survive a mistress?
13:18Everybody knew that was a political death sentence.
13:22The dirty little secret of Clinton
13:25he was the last Democrat to really get
13:29white working class support
13:31and he got it because they identified with him.
13:34Here was a guy who was having an affair with lounge singers
13:37eating McDonald's french fries by the bucket
13:40uh, and seemed to care about people like them.
13:43I'd like to ask our future president a question.
13:45[crowd cheering]
13:47(male #9) 'Michigan, traditional Midwestern battleground'
13:49'goes to Clinton.'
13:50'Pennsylvania the Keystone state..'
13:52Pennsylvania!
13:54[crowd cheering]
13:56(male #10) 'The man from Hope, Arkansas'
13:57'the new president of the United States'
13:59'Bill Clinton, the projected winner tonight.'
14:02[crowd cheering]
14:04I ask you to join with us in creating a reunited states
14:09a united country with a new sense of patriotism
14:12to face the new challenges of this new time.
14:18(female #2) 'The President and Mrs. Clinton can now call'
14:20'the White House home.'
14:24(Jeff Gerth) When the Clintons got to Washington
14:26they had hoped to leave all the campaign stuff behind
14:30and come to Washington with a fresh start.
14:34(Tom Daschle) There was high expectation and great enthusiasm
14:38here was a young couple with a lot of charisma
14:42a lot of excitement around the things they wanted to do.
14:45Bill Clinton made some huge, important appointments.
14:49To see a Janet Reno at the highest level of
14:52law enforcement, to see Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the court.
14:56He advanced the women's agenda.
14:59It was a major breakthrough.
15:02Today I am announcing the formation
15:04of the president's task force on national health reform.
15:08'I am grateful that Hillary has agreed to share this task force'
15:12and not only because it means
15:14she'll be sharing some of the heat I expect to generate.
15:21No. No.
15:24I never have paid her for her public service efforts
15:27I don't want to start now!
15:29Hillary Clinton, like her husband
15:32was representing something new in politics..
15:35A feminist First Lady
15:37who had her own career as an attorney.
15:40But don't you think we'll need an hour?
15:42(Joe Conason) And wanted to play a role
15:44on the national stage.
15:45(Katie Couric) Hillary's has a staff
15:47that's gotten high marks
15:48for its ability, organization
15:50and protectiveness.
15:52I can't help but notice that, uh, this is an all chick staff.
15:55[chuckles] All women on this staff.
15:58She put herself in positions that no other First Lady
16:01had ever been in.
16:02I mean, she at points was acting
16:04almost as the deputy president.
16:06Why did you decide to have an office
16:09in the West Wing of the White House
16:10when all the First Ladies before you
16:13have worked out of the East Wing?
16:15It made sense for me to be near the people that I would have to
16:18uh, consult with and get information from, so--
16:21Closer to where the action is.
16:22Closer to where the policy work is being done.
16:24The president's feeling was
16:26she's his intellectual equal, and so why not?
16:31Because she was willing to step out in front politically
16:36she became a lightning rod, and an object of hatred.
16:40The First Lady is now involved in policy implementation
16:42but she didn't run for office, the country was not told
16:45what she would be involved in, and now she is the architect
16:48of healthcare and she assembled a team in secret.
16:51It's all part of the deception that seems, to me anyway
16:55to be the hallmark of this administration.
16:58There is a whole sense out there, I think, of an
16:59administration that has somehow suddenly become
17:02you know, not us.
17:04(Joe Klein) These were people who didn't understand
17:07what the authority of men should be.
17:11They're trying to change this country
17:13and make it a different place.
17:22(David Brock) From almost the day after the election
17:26there were people that I was associated with
17:28who were dedicated to upending that administration
17:32throwing sand in the gears of governance
17:34doing everything one could to obstruct
17:37slow down, harm Bill Clinton.
17:42(Joe Conason) "The American Spectator" magazine
17:44was kind of a far right magazine.
17:46The aim of it was to bring Clinton down.
17:50What we saw conservative journalism
17:53as was providing a counterpoint to liberal bias.
17:58And, of course, that meant conservative bias.
18:01In late 1993, I wrote a story
18:05about four Arkansas state troopers
18:07who facilitated
18:09philandering by Bill Clinton.
18:12(male #11) 'In a story in a conservative magazine'
18:14'"The American Spectator," two troopers formerly members'
18:17'of Governor Clinton's security detail'
18:19'claim that the troopers themselves would help arrange'
18:22'then stand guard over sexual liaisons involving Mr. Clinton.'
18:27(David Brock) The troopers were being stage managed by an arch enemy
18:31of Bill Clinton from Arkansas named Cliff Jackson.
18:36(Cliff Jackson) I was very involved as an activist.
18:39Some called me a gadfly.
18:41I have been a very effective gadfly at times.
18:46I think it's inappropriate for any elected official
18:49to use state personnel to procure women.
18:53As state policemen, they were used
18:55basically as glorified pimps.
18:58(David Brock) Cliff Jackson's goal was to get a conservative magazine
19:02to put every lurid detail into print
19:05and also lure very credible
19:08reporters from the "LA Times" to write a similar story.
19:13The articles were a political bombshell.
19:17Allegations emerged over the weekend that President Clinton
19:19when he was governor of Arkansas, used public employees
19:23to perform questionable personal and private duties.
19:27(David Brock) Part of the article had to deal with
19:30a woman named Paula.
19:33It said something consensual had happened between
19:37the woman named Paula and Bill Clinton.
19:41I can't say exactly why I made the decision
19:45to put a first name onto this anecdote
19:47but it ended up being, uh
19:49a pretty important decision
19:52because the woman named Paula Jones came forward.
19:57(Paula Jones) In May of '91, Bill Clinton harassed me
20:01on the job and then basically told me
20:05let's keep this between ourselves.
20:08I just pretended that it didn't happen
20:10because who would believe me?
20:16I grew up in Lonoke, Arkansas.
20:19I was kind of poor, actually
20:21I mean, we-we didn't have a whole lot.
20:24Very modest, very religious home.
20:26Very, very sheltered.
20:29I didn't imagine even really working
20:31when I was young.
20:34But my dad had passed away my senior year of high school.
20:39I had to go to work and get a job.
20:42It was such a small town so there wasn't
20:44very much opportunity there, unless you wanted to work
20:46at the Walmart or Pizza Hut, and I didn't want that
20:49I wanted something better for myself.
20:53A good friend of mine worked with the state
20:56and she said that they're hiring
20:58in our department, and would you like to apply.
21:00And I thought, "Wow, working for the state of Arkansas
21:03that's jumping up there."
21:06So, I applied, and she put a word in for me
21:09and I got, I got the job.
21:14The part about having a consensual sexual relationship
21:18that was far from the truth
21:20so I just wanted to get that retracted.
21:25And they would not do that.
21:28(Cliff Jackson) I met with Paula.
21:30I said, "Paula, we're going up to Washington
21:33"and we are going to be at the CPAC conference.
21:38I'll introduce you to the national press and media."
21:41My name is Cliff Jackson
21:43and I appreciate all of you folks slipping and sliding
21:47over to this, uh, press conference today
21:49'and this is, uh, Paula Jones from Arkansas.'
21:53(Michael Isikoff) CPAC is an annual event on the right.
21:57It's sort of de rigueur for conservative Republicans
22:00to make appearances.
22:03To the extent that Bill Clinton had enemies
22:06they were, uh, mostly all there.
22:09I was there as the Washington Post reporter
22:13to see if there was news out of this.
22:16(Paula Jones) It was terrifying.
22:18I didn't know what was going to be said about me.
22:20I just knew I was telling the truth, and that's all
22:23that kept me going.
22:28It is wrong that a woman can't work in the workplace
22:31and be harassed by
22:33a figure that high
22:36and, um
22:39it's just humiliating what he did to me.
22:45(Michael Isikoff) A piece came out which referred to the Paula Jones
22:49press conference as "another eruption of Mount Bimbo"
22:52which was a good line, but I thought
22:55given the nature of what she was alleging
23:00we should at least hear what her story is
23:03and investigate it before we dismissed her.
23:07I'll just put it this way, that he presented h-himself
23:11to me in a very unprofessional manner
23:15and I would call it sexual harassment
23:19and...that's all.
23:30A type of sex, yes.
23:39In May of '91, I was working the conference
23:42for business leaders of Arkansas and I was there to
23:46sit at the front desk and help
23:48give them their name tags and information.
23:51Trooper Ferguson approached me
23:55and he told me that Bill would like
23:58to meet with you up in his room
24:02and my response was
24:04"Well, why does he want to see me?"
24:05And Mr. Ferguson said
24:08"It's okay, we do this all the time."
24:11And I thought, "Well, I might get a job."
24:15That's the only reason why I-I would think
24:17that he would want me up there.
24:21He was leaning up against the back of a wing-back chair
24:24and I was standing a little ways off from him
24:27when he tried to pull me over and he put his hands up my leg
24:31and he tried to kiss on my neck
24:34and he told me how he liked the way my curves were
24:38and he liked the way my hair went down
24:40to the middle of my back.
24:43He sat down really fast
24:46and he dropped his pants and he was fondling himself
24:50and he asked me to kiss it.
24:55I didn't have a clue what, that he would do that.
25:00Um..
25:02I wasn't thinking about it, so I thought
25:05there's no way he's going to, I didn't even think about it!
25:07So it didn't even cross my mind that he would do something
25:10like that.
25:13So..
25:15[sobbing]
25:27[laughing]
25:32I swear I didn't know this was going to happen.
25:37- Hello! How are you doing? - Hi. Fine.
25:49(David Brock) Troopergate inspired a kind of "Scandal Inc."
25:53for the conservative movement.
25:55Shortly after the Trooper story was published
25:59conservative activists started to pay attention
26:03to the story of Whitewater
26:05which had surfaced in the New York Times
26:08in the spring of the campaign season.
26:13(Jeff Gerth) In early '92, I did a piece about Governor Clinton.
26:17I went down to Arkansas
26:19where I first heard
26:22about Jim McDougal
26:24a friend of the Clintons who was involved
26:27with something called Whitewater.
26:30Whitewater was a real estate property
26:33Jim and his wife bought with the Clintons.
26:36(male #18) In the late '70s and early '80s, Jim McDougal was a smart
26:40small town banker who traveled in the cozy circle
26:43where Arkansas politics and business blur.
26:46I saw Bill and Hillary down at the Black Eyed Pea
26:49you know, the restaurant, I said
26:51"I got this piece of land up on the White River
26:52"that I'm going to buy, you want to go in with me?
26:55I'll take care of setting the financing up."
26:58They said, "Okay."
26:59McDougal's a very charming guy..
27:04But he was not disciplined like a businessman.
27:10(David Kendall) Jim McDougal made a lot of investments
27:12some of which were bad
27:14and because the Clintons were business partners
27:16controversy over the McDougals' other business
27:21sometimes washed over onto the Clintons.
27:23Like Madison Guaranty.
27:26In the early '80s, Jim and his, and his wife
27:29bought a savings and loan called Madison Guaranty.
27:32It was a fast-flying institution
27:35that got in trouble pretty quick.
27:38(Jim Blair) McDougal saw this little savings and loan
27:41which he's quoted of saying you could buy
27:42for the price of the Buick.
27:44It was not in very good shape and it crashed.
27:49(Jeff Gerth) I was in touch with McDougal
27:51and I met him at the Steakhouse off the highway.
27:55He told me that Governor Clinton had come by one day and said
28:00"Look, you know Hillary and I are
28:03"in a little bit of financial trouble.
28:05"Could you hire Hillary and her law firm
28:09to represent Madison Guaranty?"
28:13That raised questions about conflicts of interest.
28:17There's nothing in the piece I wrote that says
28:20anybody did anything illegal, or anything unlawful.
28:23And for the rest of the campaign, after the first
28:26couple weeks, it, it faded and was not an issue
28:30until the death of Vince Foster.
28:36[bell tolling]
28:40(female #5) At the White House, it is a day of grief
28:42and unanswered questions.
28:44President Clinton cancelled public appearances today
28:47over the apparent suicide of his deputy legal counsel
28:51and old friend, Vincent Foster.
28:54(female #6) Foster left work at the White House
28:56drove to a park in Virginia, and shot himself.
29:00It is an immense personal loss to
29:03to me and to Hillary and to many of his close friends here
29:08and a great loss to the White House, and to the country.
29:11(Michael Isikoff) Vince Foster was the deputy White House counsel
29:15and also had been Hillary Clinton's
29:18close partner at the Rose Law Firm.
29:22This was a stunning event.
29:24What prompted this very, you know, powerful man
29:28in the White House to commit suicide?
29:32There was an investigation.
29:35The Park Police showed up at the White House
29:38to see if there was a note, to see if there was anything
29:41that might explain why he had taken his own life.
29:46The White House counsel took the very traditional
29:49position of lawyers which is
29:51no it's attorney-client, you can't see the material.
29:55(male #19) Records kept by Foster on business dealings
29:58of the Clintons were turned over
29:59to President Clinton's personal lawyer.
30:03(David Kendall) Files weren't made public.
30:05That fed a suspicion that there must be something there.
30:09(male #20) Federal investigators said they want to examine
30:11files removed from Foster's office
30:14pertaining to the Clinton's business dealings in Arkansas.
30:17(David Brock) The anti-Clinton opposition started marketing theories
30:21that Vince Foster was murdered rather than committed suicide.
30:27Right now, I want the undivided attention of
30:30every God-fearing American citizen.
30:33Please get your pencil in hand.
30:35I'm going to tell you what you, as one person
30:38can do to demand that the American people be told
30:41the truth about Whitewater and Vince Foster's death.
30:45The reason why that there is a coverage of this
30:49that doesn't go away is that the Clintons are lying.
30:52One should never underestimate the genius of Rush Limbaugh
30:56and of the impact that he had.
30:58It raises questions of whether or not we can trust
31:01this president, and we can't investigate it
31:03because we've got one party rule in Washington.
31:06(Joe Klein) And he could say any sort of stuff.
31:07In fact the only consequence was
31:10that he would get more listeners who were fearful
31:13and wanted to be entertained.
31:16(Robert Fiske) People on the right were saying Vince Foster was murdered
31:19by the Clintons because he knew too much
31:22or if it was a suicide it was because he was so distraught
31:26at the severity of the Clinton's problems with Whitewater
31:29that he couldn't take it anymore.
31:32(David Brock) The Republican establishment got infected
31:35by a kind of anti-Clinton disease
31:40that was fomented first in further right circles
31:45but became embraced by politicians like Newt Gingrich.
31:49There is no question that we need an Independent Counsel
31:52in Whitewater, and I think the longer the Clintons avoid
31:54doing that, the more, frankly, people are going to suspect
31:57that there's a reason they don't want an Independent Counsel.
32:00(Robert Fiske) Republicans go to Janet Reno and say
32:03"We want you to appoint a special prosecutor."
32:06(David Kendall) Some of Clinton's advisors were very adamant
32:09that something had to be done because the legislative agenda
32:13was being totally tied up in Congress.
32:16(Robert Fiske) The President said he wanted
32:18Janet Reno to appoint a prosecutor.
32:20I got a phone call, "Bob, is there any way you can do this?"
32:25And I basically said, "How can I say no?"
32:28The attorney general Janet Reno has named a Republican lawyer
32:31to be what everybody will surely call
32:33the Whitewater Special Counsel.
32:36I would certainly expect that before this investigation
32:39is over that I would question both the President
32:42and the First Lady, and it would be under oath.
32:44I had jurisdiction to investigate anything relating
32:48to the president and Mrs. Clinton's relationship
32:51with Whitewater and Vince Foster.
32:55I told everybody when we started, no matter what we did
32:58it was going to get criticized.
33:00So I said we just have to put all that aside
33:02we're just going to do our jobs and we won't worry about that.
33:09On June 30th 1994
33:12we issued a report that said that Vince Foster
33:15had committed suicide in Fort Marcy Park.
33:19(Joe Conason) Robert Fiske found that Vince Foster had indeed
33:23committed suicide and not for any nefarious reason.
33:27From the Republican point of view, that also meant
33:30that he was going to find that there was nothing to Whitewater.
33:34That was not what they wanted to hear.
33:36The cover-up continues here today.
33:39Fiske's independence has been seriously questioned.
33:43For propriety's sake, they have to replace, uh
33:46Mr. Fiske with a brand new Independent Counsel.
33:50(James Carville) The Republicans saw it
33:52in spite of all evidence to the contrary
33:55we have deemed the Clintons to be corrupt and no matter what
33:58that's our story and we're sticking with it
34:00and we don't care.
34:02We all carried beepers in those days
34:04the beeper went off and I looked at it.
34:06"You won't believe this, you've been replaced by Ken Starr."
34:10Federal judges have named a new chief of the Whitewater
34:12investigation he's Independent Counsel, Ken Starr.
34:15(female #3) 'Starr, a Reagan Republican, is a former federal appeals'
34:18'judge, and served as George Bush's solicitor general.'
34:21(Ken Starr) I thought I would be in Little Rock for six months
34:26but then I discovered Whitewater
34:29was a very multifaceted investigation.
34:33My view was very simple, this is all about rule of law
34:37it's all about accountability. That's it.
34:40I guarantee you, no better lawyer than I am
34:43you give me an unlimited budget
34:46and give me a target, you for example
34:50I can prove you broke some federal laws.
34:53I guarantee I can. You didn't know you did it.
34:56You didn't mean to do it. You didn't know they were crimes.
34:58But you've broken some federal laws.
35:00As you know there are suggestions, allegations
35:02call them rumors if you will, that somehow money
35:05'from the savings and loan'
35:07was funneled into Bill Clinton's campaign coffers.
35:12That's a lie, that's a Republican lie.
35:15Ken Starr turned the Clintons, and their friends
35:18and their lives upside down.
35:19And what Starr and his team found
35:22in many cases, was not very pretty.
35:28[applauding]
35:30(woman on PA) 'Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States.'
35:34I'm delighted to see you, you look wonderful, all beaming.
35:38[laughing]
35:40'You look around here, if they had a picture like this'
35:43'of the White House interns 30 years ago'
35:46they'd all be guys like me, 30 years younger
35:50and now we've got a real picture of America here.
35:54I hope you're having a great summer
35:56and I hope that this experience has been a very good one for you
35:59and it's something that you will take with you all your lives.
36:02[applauding]
36:07(Monica Lewinsky) After I graduated college the plan had been to get
36:11a PhD in forensic psychology.
36:13I was very interested in where
36:16the law and psychology intersected
36:19but I had not scored high enough on this one section of the GRE
36:24so we had a family friend whose grandson had done
36:27the White House internship the summer before
36:30he said if I was interested, he'd certainly recommend me.
36:35I was delighted and surprised
36:38to get the internship.
36:40It was not just xeroxing papers or answering phone calls
36:44but I was writing.
36:46Leon Panetta was chief of staff at the time
36:48and I was part of the team
36:50that handled his correspondence.
36:53Before that, I wasn't actually very interested in politics.
36:57In my essay to apply, I talked about how having been
37:01a psychology major, we studied the mind of the individual
37:05and that I felt the White House was the mind of the country.
37:10It was just this overwhelming experience
37:13tinged with a lot of positivity at that point.
37:16But I-I was young, you know, I was young, I was starry-eyed
37:20and there's something in the air there.
37:23There's the smell of eucalyptus
37:25it's weighted with history, and the sense of
37:28power not so much from powerful people, but from power of
37:32how the decisions that are made there, they shape our country.
37:35They affect lives.
37:38I loved working at the White House.
37:41Early on, there was sort of this period where
37:44I had these strange encounters with some other interns
37:47one in particular of this girl gushing about the president
37:50talking about how handsome he was and I just remember
37:53thinking to myself, "Ew, you know, this is this old guy
37:57with wiry grey hair and how could she find him attractive!"
38:03I didn't get it until the first time
38:05I was really in his presence.
38:08I was struck, in a way, that he had this ability
38:12to hold everybody who was there
38:15not just young women, not just older women
38:18but young men, older men, gay, straight
38:20everybody is sort of starry-eyed in his presence.
38:26I kind of have to laugh at my younger self
38:30but that was when my crush started.
38:37When the opportunity arose to attend a departure ceremony
38:41or some of the other events
38:43I did.
38:45The first time, he sort of seemed on autopilot
38:48so my crush kind of waned a bit
38:51the second time was different.
38:55He, you know, paid a lot of attention to me.
38:59He spent time sort of standing there and held my hand longer
39:02than he should have, and gave what others have described
39:05as "The Full Bill Clinton."
39:07It feels as if you're the only person standing there.
39:13The next day, we had a surprise party for Bill
39:18on the South Lawn that the staff was having.
39:23I did this really silly thing.
39:26I ran home at lunch time, and I put back on
39:29the sage green suit I had been wearing the day before
39:31when he paid attention to me and I thought, well, maybe
39:34he'll notice me again.
39:38And, notice me he did.
39:47Over the course of the rest of August
39:49and September and October and into November
39:52we had a number of these flirtatious encounters.
39:57There was really no sense for me of anything beyond
40:02I have this crush, and this person I have a crush on
40:06is actually paying attention to me.

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