Clinton regretful for 'misleading' Americans over Lewinsky scandal
January 26, 2000
Web posted at: 8:45 p.m. EST (0145 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Clinton Wednesday expressed regret for misleading the American people over his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
In an interview taped Wednesday afternoon with "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" and aired later that evening, Clinton said: "The thing I regret most, except for doing the wrong thing, is misleading the American people about it.
"I don't regret the fact that I fought the independent counsel," Clinton said. "What they did in that case and generally was completely overboard, and now rational retrospectives are beginning to come out where people have no connection to me, talking about what an abuse of power it was and what a threat to the American system it was."
"But I do regret the fact that I wasn't straight with the American people about it. It was something I was shamed and pained about and I regret that."
The admission is an interesting footnote to the White House scandal, because Lehrer was one of the first journalists to interview President Clinton when it first broke in 1998.
On January 21, 1998, the day the Lewinsky scandal broke in the Washington Post, Lehrer was at the White House for a previously scheduled interview with the President.
During that interview, Clinton ferverently denied reports that he had an improper or sexual relationship with Ms. Lewinsky.
On Wednesday, Lehrer asked Clinton to speculate whether he would have been impeached if he had been more forthright during their 1998 interview. Clinton said he did not know.
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