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The Recap: The Clinton Affair
Former President Bill Clinton turned 75 this week (August 19), and as such–not to mention our anticipation for American Crime Story: Impeachment–we’ve decided on a jaunt down memory lane to the height of his presidency, and his biggest moment of overexposure. As it were.
The Clinton Affair debuted on network A&E back in 2018 as a six-part series detailing the events leading up to Bill Clinton’s impeachment, and as a chronicle of a series of scandals (and non-scandals) that put his administration in peril. The series is notable for its vast participation of key figures from the Clinton years, including Paula Jones (she accused Clinton of sexual harassment), Ken Starr (a special prosecutor), Michael Isikoff (a reporter investigating the Clintons), and perhaps most notably, Monica Lewinksy (a former White House intern who had an affair with the president…does she really need an introduction?). The Clinton Affair marks Lewinsky’s first on-camera interview in more than a decade, and features the former punchline as a beautiful, thoughtful woman, reflecting on the indiscretions of her youth. It’s a candid conversation and a breathtaking reinvention of a woman once body and slut-shamed as an intelligent, glamorous, courageous survivor.
The Clinton Affair offers its own share of 90s nostalgia as well, though not exactly the comforting kind. Blue dresses, damned spots, cigars, indictments, recorded conversations, subpoenas, the definition of “is”–how these tidbits still echo in the mind more than 20 years on. Apart from the revealing interviews featured in the series, the show also does an excellent job of connecting the dots from one scandal to the next: Ken Starr, originally appointed to investigate the shady real estate dealings of Whitewater, eventually ended up deposing Clinton in a totally unrelated civil lawsuit, which led to his impeachment for purgery.
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[An aside: Starr also was the lawyer that argued to nullify all the same-sex marriages in California following the passage of Prop 8 in 2008. Charming guy.]
In perhaps a most revealing twist, two figures emerge at the center of it all: Starr, the ultra-religious fanatic who seemed unaware of his own witch-hunt obsession, and Linda Tripp, the “friend” of Lewinsky who began taping her phone calls and who ultimately coordinated with Starr’s team to entrap Clinton. Tripp, in particular, somehow believed that Clinton had personally targeted her for reassignment from the White House to the Pentagon (complete with a BIG pay raise), and vowed to destroy him for it. She also fueled several other attacks on Clinton both in the media and with Starr’s team before crossing paths with Lewinsky.
Don’t get us wrong, Clinton himself doesn’t exactly come off great in The Clinton Affair. His philandering and shady dealings will prompt even the most supportive viewers to narrow their eyes. At the same time, it’s virtually impossible to look at the show and not think of Hillary Clinton‘s allegations of a “vast, right-wing conspiracy” to undermine Bill’s presidency. A conspiracy to that effect did unquestionably exist; its efficacy remains one of the open questions of the series. It does become clear that Ken Starr launched a witch hunt so ravenous it would give Cotton Mather–the puritan behind the Salem Witch Trials–pause. Starr wanted to destroy the Clintons at all costs…all in the name of moral purity.
The Clinton Affair paints a sordid portrait of 1990s American politics on both sides of the aisle, and does a fine job of making a meandering path to impeachment much easier to follow. It also raises deeper moral questions about the nature of political scandals. Viewed through a lens of history that includes the warmongering cronyism of George W. Bush and the sedition & treason of Donald Trump, we have to wonder: why was all this a big deal?
Streams on A&E, Hulu, Amazon & YouTube.
James
Ken Starr is a sick disturbed loser who would sell his own mother for a dollar.
Jim
Ken Starr basically got a pass for his “coverup” of sexual improprieties at Baylorl
A class-A hypocrite to be sure.
barryaksarben
Ken Starr’s mistress was just found. He is a giant as*hole hypocrite. TYPICAL RIGHT WING FAKE CHRISTIAN so obsessed with OTHER people’s sex lives while being freaky in their own beds. What an as*shole
whereshouldistart
Are there any other kind of “christians”?
BoomerMyles
Unreal. All that fuss over a BJ in the oval office compared to over 600k dead from making a pandemic political.
Kangol2
Don’t forget that one of Ken Starr’s close henchmen in pursuing Bill Clinton was Brett Kavanaugh, now installed on the Supreme Court. He was rotten from the beginning, just like his boss.
Oh, and as others have mentioned, the ultrareligious fanatic Ken Starr not only was having an affair himself, with a staffer, Juli Hershman, for a year, also refused to punish or sanction Brett Kavanaugh when he badgered Hershman during the Starr investigation. (She reported Kavanaugh’s behavior to three US Senators, who briefly stopped the proceedings but didn’t punish or remove Kavanaugh.)
Also, Starr worked to help get arch pedophile Jeffrey Epstein a sweetheart deal from the government. And the monster also mismanaged multiple sexual assault allegations against football players at Baylor. A good “Christian,” right down to his radioactive soul!
Seth
The only “victim” of the relationship between Bill and Monica was Hillary, though an argument could certainly be made that the entire country victimized Lewinsky once the scandal broke, and the country has spent every waking moment since punishing her for her husband’s transgressions.
This was just a precursor to the “Benghazi Benghazi Benghazi” drivel.