Clinton Legacy

Dana Millbank: “We didn’t know it at the time, of course. But in Bill Clinton were the seeds of Donald Trump.”

“With 20 years of hindsight, it is clear. To see the former president — now promoting a mystery he co-wrote with novelist James Patterson — sit down with NBC’s Craig Melvin was to see how Clinton’s handling of the Monica Lewinsky affair was a precursor of the monstrosity we now have in the White House: dismissing unpleasant facts as ‘fake news,’ self-righteously claiming victimhood, attacking the press and cloaking personal misbehavior in claims to be upholding the Constitution.”

“The former president’s offenses were far less serious than President Trump’s. Trump’s many misdeeds — against women, law, facts, democracy and decency — are in a category of their own. But Clinton set us on the path, or at least accelerated us down the path, that led to today.”

Bill Clinton was interviewed by Craig Melvin on NBC’s Today Show about whether he ever apologized to Monica Lewinsky:

MELVIN: “I asked if you’d ever apologized. And you said you had.”

CLINTON: “I have.”

MELVIN: “You’ve apologized to her?”

CLINTON: “I apologized to everybody in the world.”

MELVIN: “But you didn’t apologize to her?”

CLINTON: “I have not talked to her. I– I thought it—”

MELVIN: “Do you feel like you owe her an apology—”

CLINTON: “No, I do—I do not. I’ve never talked to her. But I did say, publicly, on more than one occasion, that I was sorry. That’s very different. The apology was public.”

Clinton is on a book tour promoting his new novel with James Patterson, The President Is Missing.

Bill Clinton told CBS News that he “disagrees with” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s (D-NY) “position that he should have resigned” following his affair with Monica Lewinsky.

Said Clinton: “You have to– really ignore what the context was. But, you know, she’s living in a different context. And she did it for different reasons. So, I – but I just disagree with her.”

New York Times: “As President Trump and Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, negotiate about a possible interview in the Russia investigation, all sides can turn back to the only real precedent: the time that President Bill Clinton was interrogated by prosecutors before a grand jury watching over closed circuit television.”

“The date was Aug. 17, 1998. Mr. Clinton was defending himself against allegations that he had lied under oath and obstructed justice during a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Paula Jones, a former Arkansas state worker, to cover up an unseemly affair with a former White House intern named Monica S. Lewinsky. While Ronald Reagan and George Bush had been interviewed during the Iran-contra investigation, never before had a sitting president given testimony in a case in which he was so clearly a potential target of prosecution or impeachment.”

“I think I’ve counted something like 16 times in a row that a Clinton has run – either her or him – they’ve always gotten the most votes, so there’s something to be said for that.”

— James Carville, quoted by The Hill.

Michelle Cottle: “Yes, what happened to Clinton was awful. She did not merely lose the presidency, she lost it to an opponent singularly unqualified to hold the office. Worse still, multiple external factors likely contributed to her loss, including Russian meddling and former FBI Director James Comey’s October surprise and, yes, the media’s absurd obsession with ‘Servergate.'”

“But whatever the root causes, the result is what it is: She lost. And while her frustration, disappointment, and rage make perfect sense, Clinton needs to give the public kvetching and finger-pointing a rest—if not for the sake of her or her party, then for the nation as a whole.”

CNN: “A federal court in Washington will unseal documents that have stayed secret for two decades from independent counsel Ken Starr’s investigation of then-president Bill Clinton, following a request from CNN. Some of the records from Starr’s grand jury proceedings are public already — but only reprinted in the independent counsel’s 1998 report to Congress. Until now, the federal court had listed the cases as sealed.”

“Hillary Clinton’s image has declined since June and is now the worst Gallup has measured for her to date. Her favorable rating has fallen five percentage points since June to a new low of 36%, while her unfavorable rating has hit a new high of 61%.”

Matthew Yglesias: “But looking back through today’s lens, this whole argument was miscast. The wrongdoing at issue was never just a private matter for the Clinton family; it was a high-profile exemplar of a widespread social problem: men’s abuse of workplace power for sexual gain. It was and is a striking example of a genre of misconduct that society has a strong interest in stamping out. That alone should have been enough to have pressured Clinton out of office.”

“Had Clinton resigned in disgrace under pressure from his own party, that would have sent a strong, and useful, chilling signal to powerful men throughout the country.”

“Instead, the ultimate disposition of the case — impunity for the man who did something wrong, embarrassment and disgrace for the woman who didn’t — only served to confirm women’s worst fears about coming forward.”