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And now during our lowest prices of the season shop sleep number smart bed at $999 for a limited time. Prices higher in Alaska and Hawaii. For JD Power 2023 award information visit JD Power dot com slash awards. Only at a sleep number store or sleep number dot com. I William Jefferson Clinton do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States.
Welcome to CNN's The Rewind podcast that takes you back in time and shows you how CNN covered the people and events of the past that of course impacts your world today. I'm your host Michaela Pereira and in this episode we're going to go back to the White House of the 90s when 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was the home of a family from Arkansas, Bill and Hillary Clinton and their young daughter Chelsea.
When we look at the Clinton family today, we see a political dynasty, the patriarch Bill Clinton, the two term president who simultaneously led America's longest period of peacetime economic growth. While also becoming the second president in US history to be successfully impeached for you non history buffs Andrew Johnson was the first Hillary Clinton went from first lady to senator to secretary of state. And then most recently hitting the campaign trail with presidential bids of her own.
Even the Clinton's only child Chelsea is still a familiar face in the public eye. She works with her family's nonprofit foundation, but that's today back in 1992. The Clintons were the unlikely challengers for the West Wing, which at the time remember was occupied by George H. W. Bush. There's five Democrats about there just hammering away on the president of the United States. Nice smile and say, look, we'll we'll meet you in the fall.
You can tell by the sound of that comment that Bush was expecting to stay put after the 92 election. And at first, it looked like Clinton wouldn't come close to being the one to unseat the Republican giant early on in his campaign. The Arkansas governor found himself facing allegations about an extra marital affair. That of course would not be the last allegation. Jennifer flowers. This is a name you might remember. She was a former local reporter and Arkansas state worker.
She told reporters that she had had a 12 year sexual relationship with Bill Clinton. Her story snowballed into a major threat to Clinton's campaign. But the presidential candidate didn't shy away from the controversy. Instead, he addressed it head on in an interview with 60 minutes deep craft. His wife Hillary Clinton sitting by his side during that interview. She's a legend and is described in some detail in a supermarket tabloid, which she calls a 12 year affair with you.
That allegation is false. When this woman first got caught up in these charges, I felt as I felt about all of these women that, you know, they've just been mine in their own business and they got hit by a meteor. I mean, it was no fault of their own. We reached out to them. I met with two of them to reassure them. They were friends of ours.
I felt terrible about what was happening to them, you know, Bill talked to this woman every time she called distraught saying her life was going to be ruined. And, you know, he'd get off the phone and tell me that she said sort of wacky things, which we thought were attributable to the fact that she was terrified. It was only when money came out. When the tabloid went down there offering people money to say that they had been involved with me, that she changed her story.
Flower story turned up again some six years later. During his presidency, Bill Clinton admitted under oath to having a sexual encounter with her. But in 1992, that Clinton's rolled right past the scandal and on to the Democratic nomination. Larry King points out just how surprising that was in an interview with Clinton that summer of 92. At this point, the three-way race was shaping up between Clinton, Bush and independent Ross Perot.
Bill Clinton is headed for a first ballot nomination at the Democratic Convention. And this time when he gets up to talk, they pay attention. Four years ago, Clinton put the hall to sleep with his keynote speech. They said he was finished then too. So he defies the pundits, works the system, digs in, hangs on. What if it's all for nothing? Ross Perot. He has no primary victories, no party heavyweights. Some polls have him clovering everybody. Nobody predicted a three-way race.
The new strategy says the campaign is to grab voters in unconventional ways. So last night, Bill Clinton grabbed his saxophone and jammed with our senior halls banned. Hold up for a second. Do you guys remember this moment? I mean, come on. Bill Clinton shows up with sunglasses and a sax and then nails his performance. Let's be honest, he likely got a lot of votes that year because of this moment. But one jam session does not a president make.
As Larry King points out at the time of his performance, Clinton was in third place behind Bush and Perot. Why are you running? Do you think third? Why? Yeah. Because I'm the only one. Because you're the Democratic Party, the majority party in the House and the Senate. Every prominent Democrat has now announced for you. Why are you running third?
Because the Congress is unpopular, the Democratic Party is unpopular, and the political process required me to go through these primaries and get beat up long after the others weren't. I mean, if I had a billion dollars and could just enter the primary, the general election without going through it, that might be a big advantage. And you could control your access to the people. But what I think will happen now, I don't really know why. I mean, who knows why.
What I think will happen now is the American people will think, well, they've got three choices. And they'll give us all a look. They'll give us a look at the conventions. They'll give us a look at our town meetings. They'll give us a look in those debates. And I certainly hope there'll be debates so far. I mean, I have three, right? You bet. I've agreed. I've agreed to start now on the deficit and go through every issue as many times as any of these people are willing to debate.
I'm ready to do it. I think the American people need to see us all talking about their lives, their problems, their promise. And I'm not worried about these polls. I've been, as you pointed out, my obituaries have been written eight times this year. I didn't get into this race to live in the White House or go to Camp David on the weekends. And I just soon live where I'm living now and have the life I've gotten now.
I got into this race because I wanted to change this country, invest in our people and our jobs again and get this country moving again. That's why I got into the race. And so the more debates, the merrier. And I'm not going to give a second thought to the polls until we get down a little closer to election day. And the voters have had a fair chance to look at all their choices, stacked up against one another and what they really had to offer America.
In the end, on November 3, 1992, voters chose Clinton. At age 46, my age, by the way, he was the third youngest president to take office. He was also the first baby boomer commander in chief. And he was the Democrat who interrupted more than a decade of Republicans running the White House. From day one, Clinton certainly had his work cut out for him. He took office as America's economy struggled with a deep recession and a high unemployment rate.
What he did with that first term would not only shape the rest of the decade, it would have ripple effects for years to come. More on that, after short break. Welcome back to the rewind. I'm Michaela Pereira. We're talking about the Clinton era. Those eight years when Bill and Hillary Clinton were in the White House. It was in 1993 to 2001. It's hard to overstate how defining this political family was in the 90s for American culture for better or for worse.
For example, President Clinton brought about the Family and Medical Leave Act. This act requires employers to give certain employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave without fear of losing their job. He also presented a budget plan to help turn around the struggling economy. And he signed the Brady Bill, a law that requires background checks, plus a five day waiting period to purchase a handgun. Yet there was also the controversial don't ask, don't tell policy.
An act that only allowed gays and lesbians to serve in the military if they concealed their sexual orientation. That was later overturned in 2010. Clinton's defensive marriage act was also overturned in 2013. This law stated that marriage was to be defined by the federal government as a union between one man and one woman. Halfway through his first term, Clinton was very aware of the mixed reviews.
He was receiving his president and he was frank about them in an interview that he had with Larry King in November of 1994. How do you deal with it personally? I mean, the carping, the anger, the up and down and the polls. Well, personally. On the up and down and the polls, I basically try to ignore it. Not because I care what people think about the issues.
But I knew when I started this job that while everybody said they wanted us to change, if it were easy to do it, someone else would have done it. So to get the deficit down, we had to make some tough decisions. If you want to make college loans more affordable to Americans within the budgetary constraints we had, we had to make some tough decisions, take on some interest groups. If you want to pass the Brady Bill and the crime bill, you got to make some tough decisions.
In our A got real mad at us. Now they're trying to take it out on every candidate in the country that stood up for safer streets. And anybody who ever fights for change is going to have to be willing to risk going down in the polls. What bothers me more is the general atmosphere where people believe, tend to believe for the worst about people in public life rather than the best and tend to have a negative view generally.
Because the truth is that this country is in better shape than it was 21 months ago. Unemployments down, jobs are up, the deficit's down, the government is smaller but it's doing more for ordinary working people, the streets are going to be safer because of the crime bill. And we were a lot closer toward having a safer, more democratic, more free world. Clinton carried a message of hope right into his reelection campaign for the 96 presidential race. He was reelected.
I don't think many people were surprised. Clinton's White House Press Secretary Mike McCurray explained it to Larry King. American elections turn on the issues of peace and prosperity, America's at peace in the world. Our economy is growing. The President really defined a series of things that he wants to do to strengthen the future. But most important to President said, I've got a good record. I'm proud of it, but I'm not going to sit on it.
I'm going to literally build a bridge to the 21st century. And I think because he talked about the future, he didn't dwell on the past four years. He looked ahead. He made a very compelling case for reelection. And frankly, there was not an alternative offer. Clinton's first term may have been full of all sorts of ups and downs, but it might have seemed like a cakewalk compared to what erupted his second term. Yep, we'll talk Lewinsky right after the break. Welcome back to the rewind.
I'm Michaela Pereira. Your host, when you think of the 90s, inevitably, you're going to think of a monika. Whether it's the friends character, the popular R&B singer, or the White House intern who was at the heart of a scandal that led to the impeachment of a president. Yep, that would be Monica Lewinsky. The story actually begins though with another woman, Paula Jones.
In 1994, Jones filed a federal civil lawsuit in Little Rock, Arkansas against President Clinton, accusing him of making, quote, persistent and continuous unwanted sexual advances towards her. Jones, an Arkansas state employee, said this happened during a business conference in May of 91 when Clinton was still governor of Arkansas. Jones sexual harassment lawsuit carried right over into Clinton's second term as president.
You might remember, it was during a deposition in that case that Clinton talks about his former White House intern. He denies ever having a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky. If you're a little foggy or don't remember the backstory all that well, don't worry. Here's the cliff notes. In 1995, Monica Lewinsky was then a 22 year old college graduate and a White House intern. According to Lewinsky, she and Clinton had sexual contact. You can hear my air quotes.
She told a coworker Linda Trip, remember that name? She told Linda Trip about those incidents. Trip recorded their conversations and passed the tapes to Kenneth Star, the independent counsel who was investigating Clinton for another controversy that had bubbled up during his presidency. But here's the kicker. In the same college Jones case in which Clinton denied having sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky, Lewinsky also denied their relationship in an affidavit.
Of course, when the story broke the alleged affair that January in 1998, every newspaper, news channel talk show magazine you could find was obsessed with two questions. One, did the president have an affair and tell Lewinsky to lie about it? And two, can you impeach him for that? Here's how Larry King dissected the growing scandal in January of 1998 with political commentator William Bennett, who was the brother of Clinton's attorney.
You believe that the sex life of a president, let's assume he didn't lie about anything. Is our business? It all depends. I mean, it all depends. Well, I do think there are 21-year-old intern who works at the White House. I think that's a pretty, you know, I think this tells us something about the person, if what is alleged is true. I think that's different from another kind of circumstance.
But no, if someone's saying, well, if a president had affairs, it's automatic grounds for getting rid of the president, no, life is complicated. But at the same time, life is not so complicated that we can't hold our presence to certain kind of standards. But he doesn't have that question anymore. Bear in mind, if he did something with this young woman, if he had some sexual relations, we have at least that and a couple of lies to the American people. All right, let's take a dilemma.
You are a jammed-of-the-border director of a company. Your CEO has profited that company incredibly, he's the best CEO in the country and this is a popular president. When you agree with his concepts or not, he is a popular president and most people nodded their head during the whole state of the union. They like him. All right, this guy's terrific. He's your guy. And you find out that he's had relationships with interns in your corporation. And lied about it. He's gone? Sure he's gone.
Why not a bribe? I mean, you know, something. What have we lied about it that the public would told you the truth? Well, I think it's, it's, it would need to say to the stockholders. Yeah, stockholders. Lies to the stockholders, he's gone. That's the, where the stockholders? But we actually hold our presidents to a little higher standard. Look, this is the Dick Morris situation. They know what they're dealing with with Morris.
They know this is a disreputeable character and they bring him back and they bring him back. Why are they bringing back? They say, well, he can help us. He can serve us. But even he went too far. I don't want the American people's relationship to build Clinton. To be like Bill Clinton's White House is with Dick Morris. You know, we don't like him. He's a little distasteful. He's disreputable. But, you know, he's, the economy's doing well. I'm sorry. That's not what this country's about.
That's not what those guys who founded this country thought it was about. That's not what Abigail Adams was writing her son, John Quincy, about. We're supposed to aim a little higher. The right wing talk show host who are enjoying this. Some are even saying we're enjoying this. What do you think it at? It's not funny. It's not enjoyable. I mean, it is. Justice is not helping your friends and harming your enemies. Justice is doing the right thing.
What we are talking about in this country is not a pleasant subject. What mothers are having to answer from their children these days is not pleasant. You don't want to see a president toppled. No, I don't want to see a president toppled. I wish Bill Clinton no harm at all. But it is the country and it is the standing of the country. And it is certain expectations of trust between the people and the president that's at stake.
From the moment the news spread, both Bill and Hillary Clinton denied the affair. The president even addressed the nation in an attempt to put the gossip to rest, saying this on January 26, 1998. But I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I'm going to say this again. I did not have sexual relations with that woman. Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time, never.
These allegations are false and I need to go back to work for the American people. Thank you. But between the tapes and additional evidence in the form of the now infamous stained blue dress of Lewinsky's, the case was snowballing. The independent lawyer star had broadened his Clinton investigation and in August 1998, both Clinton and Lewinsky admitted in court to having a sexual relationship. Clinton later repeated his statements to the nation.
As you know, in a deposition in January, I was asked questions about my relationship with Monica Lewinsky. While my answers were legally accurate, I did not volunteer information. Indeed I did have a relationship with Mr. Lewinsky that was not appropriate. In fact, it was wrong. It constituted a critical lapse in judgment and a personal failure on my part for which I am solely and completely responsible. And from there, ladies and gentlemen, we had an impeachment investigation.
So in December 1998, the House Judiciary Committee recommended that the president be impeached on the grounds of lying under oath, obstructing justice and abusing presidential power while trying to conceal the sexual relationship he had with Lewinsky. The House ended up approving two of those four charges in preaching Clinton on perjury and obstruction of justice. Clinton's trial in the Senate in early 1999, however, ended in acquittal.
So Clinton finished out his second term and the presidential baton was then passed to Republican George W. Bush, who won the 2000 election. But here's the fascinating thing about Clinton. While he ended his second term as only the second president in American history to be impeached from the highest office in the land, he was still extremely well liked. Clinton departed the White House with a 66% approval rating. Here's some context.
That is the highest approval rating of any president leaving office since World War 2. It seems as though that for the American people at that time, his good may have outweighed his bad. And so perhaps in that way, Clinton really is a man of the 90s. For all its flaws, the 90s is still an unforgettable decade. Thank you for joining me on today's edition of The Rewind. If you need more 90s in your life, and let's be honest, who doesn't? Head to CNN.com slash the 90s for more.
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Prices higher in Alaska and Hawaii. Quality sleep is essential. That's why the sleep number smart bed is designed for your ever-evolving sleep needs, so you can choose what's right for each of you whenever you like. Need a bed that's firmer or softer on either side? Helps you sleep at a comfortable temperature. Quiet's their snores. Sleep number does that. Sleep better together. JD Power ranks sleep number 1 in customer satisfaction with mattresses purchased in store.
And now, during our lowest prices of the season, shop sleep number smart bed at $999 for limited time. Prices higher in Alaska and Hawaii. For JD Power 2023 Award information, visit JD Power dot com slash awards, only at a sleep number store or sleepnumber.com.