{"id":1273,"date":"2026-05-28T01:41:33","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T01:41:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arabnewsmonitor.com\/2026\/05\/28\/clinton-impeached-over-wrong-sex-scandal-former-gop-leader\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T01:41:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T01:41:33","slug":"clinton-impeached-over-wrong-sex-scandal-former-gop-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/?p=1273","title":{"rendered":"Clinton impeached over wrong sex scandal \u2013 former GOP leader"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monica Lewinsky was not \u201cthe real problem,\u201d Newt Gingrich says<\/strong><\/p>\n

Former US President Bill Clinton should not have been impeached for his affair with Monica Lewinsky, but for lying in an earlier sexual harassment case, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has said.<\/p>\n

Gingrich led the 1998 impeachment of Clinton, in which \u2018Slick Willy\u2019 was charged with \u2013 and acquitted of \u2013 lying under oath and obstruction of justice. The charges centered on Clinton claiming that he \u201cdid not have sexual relations with\u201d<\/em> White House intern Monica Lewinsky, which he did.<\/p>\n

Speaking to New York\u00a0Post columnist Miranda Devine\u00a0on Tuesday, Gingrich said he now considers the decision to impeach Clinton over the Lewinsky affair to be \u201ca mistake.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was a mistake because the real problem wasn\u2019t Lewinsky,\u201d<\/em> he said. \u201cThe real problem was he had committed perjury in a case involving sexual harassment while he was governor. In fact, he was stripped of his law license in Arkansas after he left the presidency, and for five years couldn\u2019t practice because he clearly committed a felony.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\n Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"US
\u2018Rapists should be hung\u2019 \u2013 US lawmaker<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In 1999, a federal judge found that Clinton committed perjury in a civil case brought by Paula Jones, an Arkansas government employee who accused Clinton of exposing himself to her while he was governor of the state in 1991. Clinton was not criminally convicted of perjury, but he was held in contempt of court and stripped of his law license.<\/p>\n

The focus of the impeachment on Clinton\u2019s sex life, rather than his \u201cfelonies\u2026 trivialized\u201d<\/em> the process, Gingrich told\u00a0Devine.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Clinton saw out the end of his second term, and Gingrich was forced to resign after the Republican Party lost seats in the 1998 midterm elections. Gingrich later admitted that he was having an affair with a Congressional staffer during the impeachment saga.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, the New York Times interviewed dozens of lawmakers and staffers, concluding that sexual harassment \u201cis still rampant among Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill and often goes unaddressed.\u201d<\/em> Two prominent lawmakers \u2013 Representatives Eric Swalwell and Tony Gonzalez \u2013 have resigned this year over inappropriate relationships with staffers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monica Lewinsky was not \u201cthe real problem,\u201d Newt Gingrich says Former US President Bill Clinton…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arabnewsmonitor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}