Hillary Clinton on Tuesday mused about her book-ended impeachment experiences a quarter-century apart when asked about how House Democrats should respond to the findings from special counsel Robert Mueller’s federal Russia probe.
“I have a kind of weird personal history about impeachment,” Clinton said during an appearance at the Time 100 Summit in New York to laughter from the audience. “And not what you’re thinking,” she added.
Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, was impeached by the House of Representatives in 1998 for perjury and obstruction of justice arising from independent counsel Ken Starr’s investigation into his extramarital affair with Monica Lewinsky. But the following year, the 42nd president was acquitted by the Senate.
Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, however, was referring to her time as a staff attorney serving on the impeachment inquiry for former President Richard Nixon two decades earlier in 1974.
“I was one of the young lawyers who actually drafted the memo about what is a high crime and misdemeanor, and it was truly meant by our founders to describe actions that undermine the integrity of our government that placed the personal or political interest in a president over the interest of the nation,” she said. “So, I know what it looks like, and I know what is required to do it in a way that wins the trust and confidence, not only of the Congress but of the American people. But I certainly think that the roadmap, as some call it, of the Mueller report raises so many serious questions in part one about what the Russians did, which is beyond debate, and in part two about all of the evidence about obstruction.”
Clinton’s comments come as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and top Democrats on Capitol Hill push for more investigations into President Trump, his administration, and his financial dealings. The former secretary of state and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee on Tuesday said she agreed with Pelosi’s measured approach after Mueller’s findings into Russian interference in the 2016 election and Trump’s attempts to thwart the probe.
“Well, I think what Nancy means, and I agree with what she means, is that it shouldn’t be a preordained conclusion, it shouldn’t be what you do for partisan, political purposes almost outside the framework of the Constitution,” she said. “You don’t put impeachment on the table as the only item on the table and say you’re going to get there no matter what, which is what happened in ’99. Instead, you say we are going to proceed with the seriousness that this demands.”
