Stain of Impeachment? Riding with Bill Clinton in the back of a Cadillac
The 2019 impeachment reminds me of 1999 — and the time I sat between Bill Clinton and his press secretary in a Cadillac…
Our media and political friends have revived a phrase I hadn’t heard in 21 years: “The stain of impeachment.’’
CNN’s Jake Tapper said the “stain’’ of impeachment would forever be on Donald Trump’s legacy and psyche. The “stain’’ term was used repeatedly by Democrats and media figures. Speaker Nancy Pelosi added: “He’ll be impeached forever. No matter what the Senate does.’’
Twenty years ago, Republicans used this same sort of language about Bill Clinton, saying he too, would “forever be stained in history as an impeached president.’’ His legacy and popularity actually grew after impeachment.
Unmentioned: Impeachment is a constitutional process designed to remove a public official. No president has ever been removed: One resigned after proceedings began (Richard Nixon) and now three presidents have had a House vote calling for their impeachment but (so far) none has been removed via the second part of impeachment: a Senate trial.
If impeachment leaves “a stain,’’ history shows it tends to wash out rather quickly…
I heard (and used) that exact same “stain’’ phrase and made comments exactly like this in January 1999, convinced Clinton would always be remembered for his impeachment.
The Atlantic trumpeted: “The Stain of Impeachment Will Last Forever.’’ The Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson, similarly, declared the stain of impeachment “will never be erased.’’
We heard (and used) that phrase in January 1999. Here are a few:
New York Times Magazine, January 17, 1999: “The stain of impeachment cannot be washed away by what he does in his remaining time…’’
The Los Angeles Times, Decemember 20, 1998: “none is as clearly defined as the dark stain of impeachment.’’
The Rapid City Journal, November 22, 1999: “Texas Gov. George W. Bush never mentions President Clinton’s name but his latest television ad makes clear that he’s peddling a clean break after the stain of impeachment.’’
One year after that 1999 “stain of impeachment’’…
Bill Clinton’s wife (a leading character in his impeachment drama) was elected to the U.S. Senate while his vice president won the popular vote (in a tightly contested presidential election that went to the Supreme Court).
Bill Clinton was also one of the most popular speakers at the 2000 Democratic National Convention. A year after the “stain?’’
After 2000, Clinton got even more popular…
Bill Clinton has been a featured speaker at the last seven conventions from 1988 through 2016. In 2012, when Barack Obama was seeking re-election, Clinton’s speech was considered the best.
In the five presidential elections since “the stain of impeachment,’’ Democrats carried the popular vote in four of those five races and won outright twice. And of course, Clinton’s wife was a leading presidential candidate in two of those five races.
While Bill Clinton’s past #metoo allegations became an issue in the 2016 race (Donald Trump brought victims to one of the debates), the “stain of impeachment’’ was seldom (if ever) mentioned.
What about Andrew Johnson? The “stain” faded there too…
Andrew Johnson was the first president to face impeachment and the only one who came even close to being removed. But one fact that is seldom mentioned?
Johnson won back his U.S. Senate seat in 1875 (just seven years after “the stain’’ of his impeachment and six years after leaving the presidency). He is the only president to win a Senate seat after leaving the presidency and he became a regular critic of his successor.
After learning of his election, Johnson said: “I’d rather have this information than to learn that I had been elected President of the United States. Thank God for the vindication.”
Back to the Cadillac story…
In 1992, Clinton was repeatedly engulfed in controversy. At one point, he was literally running in third place. But, like Donald Trump, he refused to give up and kept fighting (and drove Republicans crazy because they couldn’t believe how often he “got away’’ with things no mere politician could).
The Clinton campaign offered me a one-on-one interview with the candidate. As his rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania ended, I was told to sit in the back of a Cadillac (in the middle seat). I would be able to interview him during the drive from the rally to the airport (an 11 mile, 20 minute drive).
I got in the back of the Caddy. Dee Dee Myers, his press secretary, got in the seat to my left and Bill Clinton got in on my right. Reporters ran to the car asking questions, including NBC’s Andrea Mitchell who asked Clinton “Are you depressed by the polls?’’
Clinton rolled up the window and turned, angrily asking “Can you believe that Andrea Mitchell?’’
I tried my hardest to come up with a number of questions he wouldn’t have heard before. We filled a whole page of the newspaper with the transcript. Editor Alan Hayakawa, reading over the transcript, asked if I “cleaned up’’ his language to remove “ums’’ or “ahs.’’
We both marvelled at how smoothly he spoke in flowing and complete sentences. I threw all sorts of things at him that he wouldn’t have been prepped for, even irritating and angering him with a question about his reputation (seven years before “the stain of impeachment).
In 1992, as with Donald Trump’s 2016 Access Hollywood tape, the American people knew exactly what kind of president they were getting LONG BEFORE he won.
Both men remind me of each other in many, many ways. Yes, both were impeached, but on a regular basis, both faced attacks that would stop normal politicians immediately and kept charging ahead. Going and going and going.
