House impeaches President Bill Clinton, Dec. 19, 1988

After nearly 14 hours of partisan debate, the 105th Congress, which was approaching the end of its session, approved two articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton on this day in 1988. The House resolution charged Clinton lied under oath to a federal grand jury and obstructing justice.

The perjury charge came on a 228-206 vote, while the obstruction charge prevailed 221-212. Clinton thus became the second president — and the sole elected one — to be impeached, following President Andrew Johnson in 1868. In 1974, President Richard Nixon resigned as an impeachment vote loomed.


Two other articles of impeachment brought by the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee failed to gain a majority. By a vote of 205-229, the legislators dismissed a second perjury count that arose from the federal civil rights case brought by Paula Jones, who had filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Clinton. Clinton and Jones had settled the case on Nov. 13, 1998. Another article accusing Clinton of having abused his official powers also went down 148-285.

Only four GOP members opposed all four articles, and five Democrats voted for at least one of them.

The outcome mandated a Senate trial, which began Jan. 7, 1999. Chief Justice William Rehnquist presided. On Feb. 12, the Senate acquitted Clinton on both impeachment articles. The House managers, acting as prosecutors, required a two-thirds majority to convict; they failed to achieve even a bare majority.

In rejecting the first charge of perjury, 45 Democrat and 10 Republican Senate jurors voted “not guilty.” On the charge of obstruction of justice, the Senate split 50-50. After the trial, Clinton said he was “profoundly sorry” for the burden his behavior had imposed on Congress and the American people.

In a recent Bloomberg Politics Poll, Americans gave Clinton a favorable rating by a margin of 60 to 34.

SOURCE: WWW.HISTORY.COM