The House voted along largely partisan lines to impeach Clinton on two articles—perjury before a grand jury and obstruction of justice—making him only the second US president impeached, after Andrew Johnson in 1868. The charges arose from Clinton's false denials about his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The Senate acquitted him on both counts in February 1999, and he served out his term.
The impeachment vote unfolded even as US warplanes were bombing Iraq in Operation Desert Fox, a coincidence that fueled Republican accusations Clinton had timed the strikes to distract from his own political peril. Inside the Capitol, the debate grew venomous; Democrats accused Republicans of pursuing a personal vendetta over a sexual affair, while Republicans insisted the issue was Clinton's sworn lies, not the affair itself.
The House approved Article I, perjury before a federal grand jury, 228 to 206, and Article II, obstruction of justice, 221 to 212. Two other articles failed. Clinton addressed the nation from the Rose Garden that afternoon, apologetic but defiant, vowing to serve 'until the last hour of the last day' of his term.
The drama's roots lay in an independent counsel investigation, led by Kenneth Starr, that had begun probing an Arkansas land deal and mushroomed into an inquiry over a sexual relationship the president denied under oath. The Senate trial that followed in early 1999 ended in acquittal, with neither article reaching the two-thirds threshold for conviction—a partisan reckoning that left the country as divided as it found it.
Key people: Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich