StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

President Bill Clintons Trial - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
The paper "President Bill Clinton’s Trial" describes that there was a lot of debate from commentators on the significance of the incident. Some looked at it as a partisan power struggle, or an effort to evict a president who inspired deep hate among his enemies…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER94.5% of users find it useful
President Bill Clintons Trial
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "President Bill Clintons Trial"

? Clinton Trail Introduction William Jefferson Blythe III known to many people as Bill Clinton was born in August 19th 1946 in Hope, Arkansas. Bill Clinton was the governor of Arkansas for a two year term of five months before becoming a president that was since 1979 to 1992. In 1992, he defeated George H.W.Bush and became the42nd president of the United State. This made him the third youngest president at the age of 46 of the United State. In history, Clinton has been described as a New Democrat. In 1996, Clinton was re-elected as the president of the United State for a second term becoming the first democrat since Franklin Roosevelt to be elected twice. However, in 1998, he was accused for perjury and obstruction of justice during a case against him. These two accusations were related to a scandal concerning a white house intern. Although he was acquitted by the U.S Senate and completed his term in office the trial marked a great part of American history. Clinton’s Trial President Bill Clinton’s trial for the charges brought up against him of perjury and obstruction of justice, started in January 7 1999, in the Senate. As indicated in Article 1 of the United State Constitution, Chief Justice William Rehnquist of the Supreme Court was sworn in to preside over the trial and the juniors sworn in were the 100 senators. This was the second time in the United State history that the senate conducted a trial of a head of state (Sigelman et al, 2001). The origin of Clinton’s trial was in a sexual harassment lawsuit claimed by one Paula Jones in Arkansas in May, 1994. Paula Jones was a former Arkansas state employee. Paula claimed that in May 8, 1991 while she was helping to staff a state-sponsored conference at the Excelsior Hotel in Little Rock, a member of at that time Governor Bill Clinton’s security, Danny Ferguson, came to her and told her that the Governor was asking to meet her in his hotel suite. Jones saw this as an opportunity to advance her career therefore she took the elevator to the Governor’s suite. According to her statement, Jones claims that when she got to the suite, the Governor, Clinton at that time, continuously made increasingly aggressive moves on her. In her account, she claimed that the Governor forced her to do sexual things but, according to the security guard outside the suite, Jones looked happy when she got out of the Governor’s suite. The lawyers of Clinton asked the court to dismiss Jones claims in 1997 saying it would only disrupt his work at the white house but the supreme court ruled against the president and allowed the discovery of the case to continue that was in May 1997. An independent Counsel Ken Starr was the one in charge of the investigation (umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/clinton/). Counsel Ken had history with investigating the officials in the white house although many of his cases had failed to hold in court for example his case on the land deal years earlier known as White-water. It was during this investigation that he got prove of Clinton’s misuse of power by being intimate with an employee, Monica Lewinsky. Consequently, Clinton’s trial had a lot of impact to the political sector mainly in Clintons rating and publicity. During this Lewinsky/impeachment controversy, Bill Clinton received the highest job approval ratings of his administration. Furthermore, as the Lewinsky situation unfolded, Clinton's approval in terms of his job went up, not down as was expected. Moreover, his ratings remained high for the duration of the impeachment proceedings. However while Clinton's job approval rating went up during the scandal with Lewinsky and the trial, his poll numbers though went down concerning the question of honesty, integrity and moral character as a political leader. As a result of this low ratings about his moral character and honesty led to change the political leadership of the United States. George.W.Bush was the president elected defeating Gore in the 2000 presidential elections and according to analysts; majority of the people who voted for Bush over the retiring president preferred candidate Gore was because of his moral character. The promise made by Bush to restore honor and dignity in White House made him more popular to the people unlike Gore who was negatively affected by Clinton’s trial and scandals hence leading to his defeat. The congress house was also affected politically by the trial of Clinton in that the speaker of the house, Gingrich, who had been in the front line in supporting Clinton’s trial to take place in the supreme court resigned after the elections. Gingrich had high hopes of the republicans gaining the majority of seats in the congress house because of Clinton’s scandal and trial and he had been reassure before elections by a private polling that due to the scandal the republicans will gain the majority of the seats in the house (Sigelman et al, 2001). However, this did not happen since after the elections the republicans had lost five seats to the democrats and this was an embarrassment to Gingrich hence, leading to him resigning. He officially resigned in January 3, 1999 that was after he had found a replacement to the vacant seat he was leaving behind. Furthermore, Clinton’s trial had great impacts on his presidency, first and foremost the publicity he got surrounding the revelation of Lewinsky about their relationship correlated with a visible large jump in Clinton’s job approval rating. During his trial the public gave Bill Clinton the highest job approval ratings compared to any of the 25 quarters of his administration to date. However, Clinton’s job approval ratings fell after the trial and he was acquitted. Although Clinton had an increasing positive rating on the way he handled the economy, the rating of his moral character as a person in office went down. The rating by the public of Clinton’s honesty and trustworthiness were very low. The public viewed his moral characters and his ability to do his work as required by the people who voted for him differently. They rated him as a good economy driver but rated him negatively on his moral character. The public understood that the case was basically featuring mainly questions on his private work and not his official work and although he had lied before about his relationship with Lewinsky, all that had not affected hi performance in office. Also the trial of Clinton affected his presidency in that it made it difficult for people to take presidents seriously. The destruction of the mystery behind the authority figure like the president is a consequence to be lamented upon. People usually view the president with a lot of respect and admiration because mostly they do not know what goes on behind the image that is portrayed himself, his advisers and the media so therefore when their dirty laundry starts to be unveiled all over then the people will start looking at them differently. That is what happened to Clinton because of the trial and the scandals. The lie that Clinton told on oath about not having a relationship with Monica Lewinsky made him lose some credibility with the people and that’s why they did not vote for the preferred candidate by their retiring president. In U.S history, the trial of Bill Clinton was historic as it brought out a lot about the aspect of American culture. The public understood that the case was basically featuring mainly questions on his private work and not his official work and although he had lied before about his relationship with Lewinsky, all that had not affected hi performance in office. Most liberal and open minded people did not take much weight on the scandal that faced Clinton as the they saw it as an issue concerning his private life. Since the lies concerned his private life, it did not seem to have much impact on the lives of many Americans. This clearly shows that most it’s an American culture to not be concern with other people’s private lives and what they do about their lives as long as it does not affects them directly. However, in some important cases, the press leaned on the suspicions of investigators that did not hold up and downplayed the denials of the accused Moreover, there was a lot of controversy from the report from the media as; The report in initial New York Times account stated that Currie told investigators about Clinton having led her to tell about the relationship with Lewinsky and the gifts she received from Lewinsky. Contrary, The Times, however, reported that in the 17th paragraph Currie’s response through her attorney. Furthermore, some other subsequent reports elsewhere elaborated on what the Times reported. However, in some instances, the press was similarly careful about who started Currie retrieving the gifts from Lewinsky. Further, some commentators were quick to broad conclusions in speculating about what effect that Currie and the gifts would have on the future of Clinton. In the end, Starr makes Currie a key part of the impeachment case, but admits that he has conflicting testimony about what happened. Generally, the New York Times account holds up well as it constituted the principal source for other reporting. This clearly shows how the media contradicted giving the same story but with different reports. The Clinton-Lewinsky scandal was significant as it contributed to a franker national discussion about sex and, by showing how many skeletons exist in the closets of politicians. Furthermore, it might lead to hopefully future elections in terms of considering matters of substance when electing leaders than what one of the candidates did sometime in the past. In conclusion, there was a lot of debated from commentators on the significance of the incident. Some looked at it as a partisan power struggle, or an effort to evict a president who inspired deep hate among his enemies. Furthermore, others looked at it as a debate about the sexual mores of the country, with Clinton's opponents campaigned for a return to Victorian norms that punished behaviors that were not normal while his supporters were defending a new, more tolerant morality (umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/clinton/). Consequently, the debate also brought to light a gulf between the public, most of which wished to see Clinton stay in office, and elite journalists and politicians in Washington, who demanded Clinton's resignation. Consequently, though short lived the impeachment, stained Clinton’s record, and probably caused a lot more harm to the Republicans compared to the Democrats. However, Clinton remained enormously popular the whole time, while the Republicans saw their public standing going down. Consequently, it is argued in some instances that the most lasting effect of the affair was to divert Clinton and the Congress from other concerns, thus keeping them from accomplishing more in his second term. Reference Sigelman, Lee, Christopher J. Deering, and Burdett A. Loomis. "Wading Knee Deep In Words, Words, Words": Senatorial Rhetoric In The Johnson And Clinton Impeachment Trials." Congress & The Presidency 28.2 (2001): 119-139. Print. "The Impeachment Trial of President William Jefferson Clinton." The Impeachment Trial of President William Jefferson Clinton. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. . Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Clinton Trial Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words”, n.d.)
Clinton Trial Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/history/1492695-clinton-trial
(Clinton Trial Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 Words)
Clinton Trial Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 Words. https://studentshare.org/history/1492695-clinton-trial.
“Clinton Trial Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/history/1492695-clinton-trial.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF President Bill Clintons Trial

Trying times for President Clinton during the sex sandal with monica lewinsky

Trying Times for President Clinton during the Sex Scandal with Monica Lewinsky Introduction The alleged sex scandal between the president bill Clinton and the white house intern, Monica Lewinsky subjected the former president to the most trying times of his presidency.... As observed by Chapman (2010: 99), the European observers were surprised that Americans engaged in impeachment proceedings against bill Clinton because he lied about his sexual conduct.... In their argument, they stated that just like any citizen of America would avoid the truth about his sexual fidelity and so bill Clinton will....
5 Pages (1250 words) Term Paper

Impeachment of two U.S. Presidents, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton

Removal from office requires two steps, namely; an impeachment of a formal accusation by the House of Representatives, and the second step of the Senate's trial and conviction.... Presidents, Richard Nixon and bill Clinton Introduction The U.... Presidents were impeached from office, but the paper focuses on the comparison between bill Clinton's impeachment with Richard Nixon's in the 1970s.... On the other hand, bill Clinton's charges in the U....
3 Pages (750 words) Essay

The Clinton Impeachment Trial

he Clinton Impeachment TrialThe impeachment trial of president bill Clinton followed the lawsuit filed by Paula Jones on May 6, 1994, in the United States District Court for Eastern Arkansas for violations of her federal civil rights in 1991 by the president while he was governor of Arkansas and she was an Arkansas state employee, during which time Governor Clinton allegedly made crude sexual advances which she rejected.... In the paper 'Media trial' the author looks at the three most common types of media trials, which utilize narratives taken directly from entertainment media: abuse of power, the sinfully rich, and evil strangers....
5 Pages (1250 words) Assignment

Analysis of Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter's Story Book by Michael Isikoff

Isikoff in this book has chronicled clintons conduct throughout his presidency from Little Rock, Arkansas, to the Oval Office.... Michael Isikoff by revealing the stories of Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey, and Monica Lewinsky brought into public view bill Clinton's personal and political life.... he book makes for some interesting reading as the author book provides us with not only his investigation of scandals such as bill Clinton's personal misdemeanors, financial dealings connected to the Whitewater real estate development as well as the motivation that was behind the attempt to reorganize the White House travel office but also his experiences and difficulties he faced to obtain the approval of editors to publish his stories that were critical of the President....
7 Pages (1750 words) Literature review

US Presidents and the Presidency

Other notable presidents are those who rebuilt the American economy including Ronald Reagan and bill Clinton.... The 43rd president George W.... Bush was the first president of the new millennium who has been accused of inciting and provoking the wrath of the Islamic terrorists.... The current president, Barrack Obama is also remarkable historically in being the first African American president in addition to have being the only one born outside the continental USA....
18 Pages (4500 words) Essay

President Bill Clinton's Impeachment

Jones case against president bill Clinton was a woman by the name Monica Lewinsky.... Lewinsky confessed to having had a sexual relationship with president bill Clinton, which did not include... The first lawsuit leveled against bill Clinton was on May 6, 1994 and was by a woman by the name Paula Corbin Jones.... Corbin made accusations that president Clinton had infringed some of her federal civil rights while she was an employee at Arkansas state while Clinton was the then governor of Arkansas....
10 Pages (2500 words) Essay

Economy and Clinton

He went along with a brutal immigration bill and assaults on civil liberty in the name of crime control.... On most aspects of domestic policy, bill Clinton has been to the right of Richard Nixon.... This paper "Economy and Clinton" presents the U.... .... economy that certainly boomed during his presidency....
7 Pages (1750 words) Case Study

The Rules and Grounds for Impeachments

Some of the more recent and he highly controversial amongst all times was the impeachment of Chief Justice Samuel Chase, impeachments of President Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, and president bill Clinton.... The paper 'The Rules and Grounds for Impeachments' analyzes the procedure by which the president, Vice president, and any other civil officers including members of the judiciary, can be removed from their respective offices if found guilty of treason, bribery, corruption....
17 Pages (4250 words) Research Paper
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us