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Monica Lewinsky Scandal Facts

Monica Lewinsky Scandal Facts
The Monica Lewinsky Scandal, also known as the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, was a political-sex scandal involving then forty-nine-year-old American President William Jefferson Clinton and his twenty-two-year-old intern, Monica Lewinsky. The scandal revolved around a sexual relationship between the married president and Lewinsky in the White House from 1995 to 1997. When news of the affair initially broke in January 1998, Clinton denied any sexual involvement with Lewinsky, famously stating "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." After the Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr revealed that Clinton's claim was not exactly true, he later admitted that he did in fact engage in oral sex with Lewinsky. Clinton was impeached for perjury by the Republican dominated House of Representatives in December 1998, but the Senate voted to acquit him of the charges in February 1998. The case had long-lasting political and historical ramification, as Clinton was only the fourth American president to be impeached
Interesting Monica Lewinsky Scandal Facts:
Lewinsky was born to a well-connect, wealthy Jewish family in California. Lewinsky attended the private Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon.
Lewinsky was transferred from the White House to the Pentagon's public affair's office in 1996 amid rumors that she was involve with the president.
While at the Pentagon, Lewinsky met Linda Tripp, who urged her to record and keep evidence of her liaisons with the president. Among the best known evidence that Lewinsky "collected" was a blue cocktail dress that had spots of Clinton's semen on it from one of their White House encounters.
The accusations against the president weren't released in a single bombshell, but more like in drips in late 1997.
Perhaps in a foreshadowing of the current American political landscape, opinions were divided on Clinton and the scandal. Although people affiliated with both major political parties were generally against the affair morally, Democrats were much more forgiving and didn't think that it warranted impeachment. A majority of Independents agreed, making the impeachment process generally unfavorable among most Americans.
The affair was the constant source of jokes on late night talk shows and Saturday Night Live.
Although the fact that Clinton lied about having an affair with Lewinsky, many of the Republicans that led the impeachment did so on moral grounds. In a somewhat ironic turn after the impeachment, many of these congressmen were exposed as having had affairs while married, including Bob Barr of Georgia, who lost a primary to Republican challenger in the 2000 election.
Another interesting twist in the Clinton-Lewinsky affair is the effect it had on First Lady Hillary Clinton. When Bill Clinton first ran for president in 1992, in a bid to appear as a feminist, Hillary told reporters that if her husband cheated on her she wouldn't "stand by her man." The couple are still married as of late 2019.
Although Clinton's long-term reputation as a president was not significantly hurt by the scandal, he was disbarred.
Political experts and historians are divided as to whether the scandal hurt Al Gore's failed presidential run in 2000.


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