Bloomberg’s Heilemann: Bill Clinton ‘Wasn’t Impeached Over Lying’

Nicholas Fondacaro | September 29, 2016
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Following the first presidential debate on Monday, Donald Trump has turned his sights onto former President Bill Clinton in an effort to rout Hillary Clinton. At a rally in New Hampshire Thursday Trump reminded the public that Bill was impeached in 1998 for lying in a sworn deposition. But Bloomberg’s John Heilemann on With All Due Respect pooh-poohed the attack saying, “I believe it is much more of a distraction than it is a focus.” He explained his opinion by claiming that Bill, “wasn’t impeached over lying.

The co-host elaborated on his reasoning saying, “Only because the word impeachment in every American's mind who knows or has any memory of this, is sex. That’s what he was impeached over.” Heilemann immediately contradicted himself by admitting the truth of the impeachment. “He wasn’t impeached over lying. I mean, technically he was, but in fact, the whole thing was lying about a sexual relationship that he had,” he stated before arguing that most people see it as an “invocation” of Monica Lewinski.

Not only does Heilemann contradict his own claim of the impeachment, but so does history. According to the first paragraph of a New York Times article from December 20, 1998:

William Jefferson Clinton was impeached on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice today by a divided House of Representatives, which recommended virtually along party lines that the Senate remove the nation's 42d President from office.

Co-host Mark Halperin disagreed about the seriousness of the of Trump’s new line of attack saying the Clinton campaign should be worried. “I think the Clinton campaign (if they were honest) would knowledge that those are things that can hurt her, because they go back to the old corrupt ways of Washington,” he stated, “And for all the attempts of the Clinton people to say Trump’s worse on everything, he cannot be tied to Washington the way she can.”

But Halperin’s concern was with Trump’s ability to execute the tone for the attack like former President George W. Bush did against Al Gore, “Bush used to say, “When I am sworn in, I would raise my right hand in the Oval Office and restore honor and immediately to the Oval Office.”” “But there is no way Trump would be disciplined enough at talking about impeachment. He won’t be oblique. He will start saying explicit things and it will overshadow the other message,” he continued.

After a back and forth between the co-hosts about Trump’s inability to pull off the attack and coming to the conclusion that it is not worth his time, Halperin ending the segment saying, “We are on like day two and a half of Clinton Corruption: Follow the Money. I wonder how long it will go. I wonder if this is the message the rest of the way or not…” 

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