Gingrich Corrects Pelosi When She Says Clinton's #MeToo Misconduct Was Personal, Not Impeachable
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Friday current Speaker Nancy Pelosi was wrong to argue former President Bill Clinton’s conduct that led to his 1998 impeachment was only personal in nature.
During an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” earlier in the day, Pelosi told host and former congressman Joe Scarborough, who voted for Clinton’s impeachment, there is a difference between then and her support for an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump now.
“You and I differed on the Clinton [impeachment] because that was about personal behavior that he was punished for,” Pelosi said.
“This is about the national security of our country, and the president of the United States being disloyal to his oath of office, jeopardizing our national security and jeopardizing the integrity of our elections,” she added.
Gingrich, who was speaker during the Clinton impeachment proceedings, begged to differ with Pelosi, pointing out the evidence of predatory behavior, sexual harassment and sexual misconduct by the former president toward people who worked for him.
“If you look about all the effort made over the last year about men who prey upon women, and you go back and you look at the Clinton case, we had a report from an independent counsel that said he was guilty on seven different counts,” Gingrich told Fox News.
“He ultimately lost his license to practice law,” the former speaker added. “He had to pay a large sum to the woman that he had predatory behavior toward, who was by the way his employee in the state government, you go through that whole thing.”
Gingrich concluded, “Nancy Pelosi certainly wouldn’t suggest that predatory sexual behavior and committing a felony, which he did when he committed perjury,” is acceptable conduct by a president.
https://youtu.be/GSao9umE_vU
Paula Jones accused Clinton of having his security detail summon her to his hotel room while he was governor of Arkansas in 1991, communicating he wanted to meet with her.
When Jones, who was at the hotel working a conference in her capacity as state government employee, arrived at his room, she said the governor propositioned her and dropped his pants, exposing himself and asking her to perform a sexual act.
Clinton has denied the incident happened, but did agree to an $850,000 settlement with Jones in November 1998.
It was during the Jones’ litigation that Clinton lied under oath about having a sexual relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky when she was 22 years old.
Lewinsky said the relationship was consensual at the time, but looking back believes Clinton did abuse his power.
In a February 2018 Vanity Fair piece, she wrote, “I now see how problematic it was that the two of us even got to a place where there was a question of consent. Instead, the road that led there was littered with inappropriate abuse of authority, station, and privilege.”
“He was my boss,” she added. “He was the most powerful man on the planet. He was 27 years my senior, with enough life experience to know better. He was, at the time, at the pinnacle of his career, while I was in my first job out of college.”
Gingrich characterized Democrats’ decision to move forward on the impeachment probe of Trump based on his July phone call with the Ukrainian president as “insane.”
“You look at the transcript, at no point did Trump suggest any kind of quid pro quo” regarding military aid in exchange for a request to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter’s dealings in Ukraine, Gingrich said.
“It’s not in the transcript.”
Gingrich added in the case of the former vice president, “This not some mythical story by a whistleblower, Joe Biden goes to the Council of Foreign Relations and on tape says, ‘Yes, I threatened them with the loss of a billion dollars in aid unless they fired this prosecutor’” investigating the company where his son served on the board.
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