How old was bill clinton when he became president
In he entered law school at Yale University. After graduation, Clinton went into private practice as a lawyer in Fayetteville, Arkansas. He also began teaching at the University of Arkansas Law School. In Clinton decided to begin the political career that he had wanted since he was a teenager. He ran for Congress, but lost the election in a very close vote.
On October 11, , Clinton married Hillary Rodham — , whom he had met when they were fellow law students at Yale. In he was elected attorney general of Arkansas, an office he held from to In Clinton ran for the office of governor of Arkansas. His election made him the youngest-ever governor of that state. In his first term Clinton tried to make numerous changes, many of which were extremely unpopular, including an attempt to raise the cost of vehicle licenses.
In he ran for reelection as governor but lost to Republican Frank White —. When Clinton campaigned for election in against White, he explained that he had learned the importance of adaptability and compromise. He received 55 percent of the vote and once again became governor of Arkansas. While Clinton was governor of Arkansas, he pushed for the reform of schools, health care, and welfare.
He also continued to be active in Democratic national politics. In he was voted most effective governor by his peers and was chosen to head the Democratic Leadership Conference. That same year Clinton announced that he was entering the race for president. Clinton had much competition for the Democratic nomination for president.
He came from a small state that many people thought of as unsophisticated and underdeveloped. Critics felt that his lack of experience in national government gave him little understanding of foreign policy. Clinton, however, insisted that he had a fresh point of view to bring to government. Clinton's campaign was also marked by personal scandal.
He faced charges of extramarital relationships and questions about his avoidance of military service during the Vietnam War. Clinton remained in the race, however, and became the Democratic nominee, selecting Senator Albert Gore — as his running mate. Clinton focused his campaign on economic issues, especially unemployment and health care.
In November Clinton was elected president, defeating both the president then in office, Republican George Bush — , and independent candidate Ross Perot —. Once in office Clinton continued to work on economic issues, and interest rates and unemployment began to drop. He also appointed his wife to be the head of a task force to explore national health care reform.
As the end of Clinton's first term approached, a new scandal arose. The scandal was called Whitewater, after the suspicious deal in which Clinton and his wife had bought land along the Whitewater River in Arkansas. In Clinton was elected to a second term as president. He won the election by a landslide, defeating his Republican opponent, Senator Robert Dole — , with 49 percent of the popular vote and electoral votes.
Clinton's second term, however, became overshadowed by the investigation into Whitewater of lawyer Kenneth Starr —. The investigation became more serious when charges of Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky — , a White House intern, were made public. At first Clinton denied the affair, but he later stated that he had been in an inappropriate relationship with Lewinsky.
On December 19, , the House of Representatives ruled to impeach Clinton, or try him in Congress for charges of lying under oath about his relationship with Lewinsky. The Senate then conducted an impeachment trial. Clinton was only the second president in U. On February 12, , the Senate found Clinton innocent. He apologized to the American people and to Congress for what he had done.
Clinton became the first U. In his speech, he said that Russians did not need to fear America's missile defense program and that their future would be vital to the twenty-first century. Later that month, he signed into law a long-awaited e-signatures bill, which gave on-line "electronic" signatures the same legal status as handwritten signatures.
The Whitewater investigation was concluded on September 20, , with a statement that there was not enough evidence to prove that either Clinton or his wife had taken part in any criminal wrongdoing. On October 16, , Clinton attended an emergency meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak — and Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat — , who wanted to come to an agreement to end ongoing violence in their countries.
Barak and Arafat left the meeting with a "statement of intent" to end the violence, but neither side was completely satisfied. In that same month, Clinton sealed a major achievement of his administration by signing a bill which gave China permanent, normal trade status. This was considered the most important U. Later that year, Clinton signed into law a bill that set the blood-alcohol limit for drunkenness at 0.
This was a stricter level than most states had used previously. Supporters of the bill said that this national standard, which is used to determine whether or not a driver is legally drunk, could save hundreds of lives every year. Clinton signed another important bill into law in , when he permanently established a separate reserve of heating oil for the Northeast.
The law made it easier for the White House to withdraw oil from reserves in case of emergency. Finally, on November 13, , Clinton began a historic journey to Asia , becoming the first American president to visit Vietnam since the Vietnam War. The purpose of the visit was to work on relations between Hanoi the capital of Vietnam and Washington, D.
On January 19, , Clinton's last day as president, he publicly admitted that he gave misleading testimony in the Lewinsky investigation. He faced no criminal charges, but his license to practice law was suspended. Clinton continues to raise money for and speak on behalf of many issues. The many causes to which he devotes time and money include the economic development of small businesses, City Year a national service program for young people , and acquired immune deficiency syndrome AIDS ; a disease of the immune system research and education.
Despite the scandals and difficulties that plagued the second half of his presidency, Clinton continues to be an active public figure, supporting many issues and causes that are important to the world. The youngest president since John F. Kennedy , he has come a long way from his small childhood home in Arkansas. Allen, Charles F.
New York : Carol Publishing Group, Klein, Joe. New York : Doubleday, Cohen, Daniel. The Impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton.
History of president clinton and wife
Maraniss, David. First in His Class. Moore, Jim, and Rick Ihde. Clinton, Young Man in a Hurry. O'Clery, Conor. America: A Place Called Hope? Dublin , Ireland : O'Brien Press, President Bill Clinton 's administration was marked by a series of remarkable successes as well as embarrassing scandals. When he took over the presidency in , the national deficit the amount the federal government needs to borrow to make up the difference between what it spends and how much it collects in taxes was the largest in U.
During his two terms in office, the U. Among many other successes, Clinton initiated major welfare reform and free trade agreements, helped in the peace process in Northern Ireland , and led an international intervention in Serbia.
History of president obama: Clinton was the first president in history to appoint more women and minority judges than white male judges to the federal courts. [] In his eight years in office, % of Clinton's court of appeals nominees and % of his district court nominees were black; % of his court of appeals nominees and % of his district court nominees.
Though personal scandals and impeachment loomed heavily over his second term, his approval ratings with the American public remained extraordinarily high. Bill Clinton was born on August 19, , and grew up in Arkansas. His father, William Blythe, was killed in a car accident before his son was born. His mother later married Roger Clinton, who legally adopted him.
By the age of sixteen, Clinton had already decided on a career in politics. After graduating with an international affairs degree from Georgetown University in , Clinton won a prestigious Rhodes scholarship and studied at Oxford University in England for two years. While he was in England, the United States 's participation in the Vietnam War —75 was at its height.
Clinton opposed the war and participated in numerous protests against it. He submitted to the draft upon his return to the United States but only after he had learned that he would not be called to serve in the armed forces. He would later be criticized for trying to avoid going to Vietnam. He earned a law degree from Yale University in Clinton rose through the ranks of Democratic Party and Arkansas politics.
In , he ran the presidential campaign in Arkansas of former Georgia governor Jimmy Carter — , and he was elected state attorney general. He married Hillary Rodham — in In , at age thirty-two, Clinton became one of the youngest governors in the United States. After one term, he failed to win reelection. While practicing law in Little Rock , Arkansas, Clinton went to work planning his political comeback.
In , after a heated campaign, he reclaimed the governor's office. He was reelected in by a wide margin. Successful education reforms, among other accomplishments, built his reputation, and, among his political associates, his name began to arise as a possible presidential candidate. When Clinton announced his candidacy for the presidential nomination in August , he joined a crowded group of fellow Democrats.
He led a strong campaign and promised active measures to improve the drooping economy, believing, unlike his Republican opponent, incumbent president George H. Bush —; served —93 , that the federal government could play a constructive role in fixing the nation's social problems and stimulating economic growth. Clinton chose U. Clinton and Gore, both southern Democrats, projected the youthful vigor of the baby boom generation the generation of people born between and During the first few months of his campaign, an Arkansas woman claimed to have had an extramarital affair with Clinton while he was governor.
Clinton did not deny the affair, and the small scandal did not seem to affect public opinion of him much. He won the presidential election with the help of a highly divided Republican Party. He became one of the youngest U. One of the first issues Clinton attempted to tackle was health-care reform. He appointed his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton , to head the task force on health care.
Her proposal to make health care affordable to all Americans failed to pass in Congress. Clinton was also unable to fulfill his campaign promise to lift the ban on gays and lesbians serving in the military. Foster Jr. At the time, Foster had been handling charges that the Clintons had been involved in a suspicious land deal, the Whitewater venture, while Clinton was governor of Arkansas.
Investigations into the Whitewater dealings of the Clintons turned up nothing concrete against them, but led to constant inquiries into every aspect of their public and personal lives. The biggest blow in Clinton's first term in office was the resounding Republican success in the midterm elections, in which the Republicans gained control of the House and Senate.
The Democratic defeat was widely viewed as a vote on Clinton's performance as president. Along with the highly visible defeats, there were some major successes. The economy was getting stronger; some categories of crime were in decline; welfare reform had been tackled; the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, imposing a waiting period on handgun purchases, was passed; and his national-service program AmeriCorps was created.
In the months after the disastrous elections, it had seemed unlikely that Clinton could secure a second term. As Clinton's second term began, the U. In , he reached a balanced budget agreement with Congress that was so successful, by the major domestic political issue was how to use the ever-increasing budget surplus.
But the robust economy was soon overshadowed by allegations of wrongdoing. In , former Arkansas state employee Paula Jones — filed a lawsuit charging Clinton with sexual harassment. At the same time, the investigations led by special prosecutor Kenneth W. Starr — branched out from the original Whitewater investigation to look into Vincent Foster's suicide, Paula Jones's allegations, and new charges of improper conduct with a young White House intern, Monica S.
Lewinsky —. These matters increasingly consumed the press coverage of the president to the near exclusion of most matters of public policy. In August, Starr presented a report to Congress alleging that Clinton had perjured gave false testimony under oath himself in the Jones and Lewinsky matters. In December , the House of Representatives voted, largely along party lines, to impeach charge him with misconduct in office the president.
The dramatic Senate trial was held in January and February of Throughout the process, opinion polls repeatedly indicated that the public did not want Clinton removed from office. In fact, his approval ratings reached 70 percent during the impeachment trials. During Clinton's administration the United States was called upon to serve as a mediator between the warring sides or to lead a military intervention in countries including Bosnia, Somalia, and Haiti.
In March , the Clinton administration spearheaded a series of NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization , a political alliance of European nations and the United States and Canada bombing raids on targets in Serbia, stopping the Serbian government's program of mass murders of Muslims and the expulsion of ethnic Albanians from the Serbian province of Kosovo.
In the Middle East , he helped mediate a historic agreement between Israel and its Arab neighbors, including Jordan and the Palestinians, though these peace negotiations collapsed in In Northern Ireland , the Clinton administration mediated talks between the various factions, helping to negotiate a cease-fire and peace agreement.
In October , Starr stepped down as Whitewater special prosecutor. His successor did not pursue a perjury indictment to follow Clinton's departure from the White House, but Clinton, in exchange, admitted to having made a false statement in the now-settled Jones suit. It is common for presidents leaving office to exercise their constitutional right to issue presidential pardons for select people charged with federal crimes.
In his last days, Clinton issued such pardons. A few of these pardons were highly questionable, even to his loyal supporters, creating a final controversy in his colorful tenure as president. Clinton, one of the youngest presidents to leave office, remained active in politics and world affairs after exiting the White House.
He was a driving force in the Democratic Party, working both publicly and behind the scenes. He and former president George H. Bush established a foundation in to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Clinton underwent quadruple heart bypass surgery in September of It did not slow him down for long. By , he was tirelessly campaigning for his wife in her race for U.
As of March , she was in a battle against U. William Jefferson Bill Clinton born won the Democratic nomination for the presidency in and then defeated incumbent George Bush to become the 42nd president of the United States. He was re-elected to a second term in His mother, Virginia Kelly, named him William Jefferson Blyth, IV, after his father, who had been killed in a freak accident several months before Bill's birth.
When Bill was four years old his mother left him with her parents, Hardey and Mattie Hawkins, while she trained as a nurse-anesthesiologist. His grandparents ran a small store in a predominantly African American neighborhood and, despite the racist practices of the South in the early s, Bill's grandparents taught him that segregation was wrong. They lived outside of the town in a house that had no indoor plumbing, which was not unusual for rural Arkansas in the late s and early s.
Though Bill changed his last name to Clinton when he was 15 in an expression of family solidarity, the Clinton household was a troubled one. Roger Clinton was an alcoholic, and the family was frequently disrupted by incidents of domestic violence. At the age of 15 Bill made it clear to his stepfather that he would protect his mother and half brother, Roger, Jr.
Clinton considered several careers as a child. At one point he wanted to be a musician a saxophonist , and at another he wanted to be a doctor, but in , as part of a delegation of the American Legion Boys' Nation, he met then-President John F. As a result of that meeting Clinton decided that he wanted a career in politics. He entered college at Georgetown University in As a college student Clinton was committed to the movement against the Vietnam War , as well as to the civil rights struggle.
In he worked as a summer intern for Arkansas Senator J. Bill said that feeling bad wasn't good enough. That was the first time I encountered the idea that liberal sensitivities weren't enough and you had to do something about such things". While Clinton was president in , he received an honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree and a fellowship from the University of Oxford , specifically for being "a doughty and tireless champion of the cause of world peace", having "a powerful collaborator in his wife", and for winning "general applause for his achievement of resolving the gridlock that prevented an agreed budget".
During the Vietnam War, Clinton received educational draft deferments while he was in England in and He subsequently decided not to join the ROTC, saying in a letter to the officer in charge of the program that he opposed the war, but did not think it was honorable to use ROTC, National Guard, or Reserve service to avoid serving in Vietnam.
He further stated that because he opposed the war, he would not volunteer to serve in uniform, but would subject himself to the draft, and would serve if selected only as a way "to maintain my political viability within the system". In fact, the highest number drafted was Colonel Eugene Holmes, the Army officer who had been involved with Clinton's ROTC application, suspected that Clinton attempted to manipulate the situation to avoid the draft and avoid serving in uniform.
He issued a notarized statement during the presidential campaign:. During the campaign, it was revealed that Clinton's uncle had attempted to secure him a position in the Navy Reserve , which would have prevented him from being deployed to Vietnam. This effort was unsuccessful and Clinton said in that he had been unaware of it until then. After only about a month, Clinton postponed his summer plans to be a coordinator for the George McGovern campaign for the United States presidential election to move in with her in California.
Clinton eventually moved to Texas with Rodham in to take a job leading McGovern's effort there. He spent considerable time in Dallas , at the campaign's local headquarters on Lemmon Avenue, where he had an office. Clinton worked with future two-term mayor of Dallas Ron Kirk , [ 44 ] future governor of Texas Ann Richards , [ 45 ] and then unknown television director and filmmaker Steven Spielberg.
In , he ran for the House of Representatives. Running in the conservative 3rd district against incumbent Republican John Paul Hammerschmidt , Clinton's campaign was bolstered by the anti-Republican and anti-incumbent mood resulting from the Watergate scandal. Hammerschmidt, who had received 77 percent of the vote in , defeated Clinton by only a 52 percent to 48 percent margin.
In , Clinton ran for Arkansas attorney general. Defeating the secretary of state and the deputy attorney general in the Democratic primary, Clinton was elected with no opposition at all in the general election, as no Republican had run for the office. In , Clinton entered the Arkansas gubernatorial primary. At just 31 years old, he was one of the youngest gubernatorial candidates in the state's history.
Clinton was elected governor of Arkansas in , having defeated the Republican candidate Lynn Lowe , a farmer from Texarkana. Clinton was only 32 years old when he took office, the youngest governor in the country at the time and the second youngest governor in the history of Arkansas. However, his term included an unpopular motor vehicle tax and citizens' anger over the escape of Cuban refugees from the Mariel boatlift detained in Fort Chaffee in Monroe Schwarzlose, of Kingsland in Cleveland County , polled 31 percent of the vote against Clinton in the Democratic gubernatorial primary of Some suggested Schwarzlose's unexpected voter turnout foreshadowed Clinton's defeat by Republican challenger Frank D.
White in the general election that year. As Clinton once joked, he was the youngest ex-governor in the nation's history. Effective with the election, Arkansas had changed its gubernatorial term of office from two to four years. During his term, he helped transform Arkansas's economy and improved the state's educational system.
Formally organized as the Democratic Leadership Council DLC , the New Democrats argued that in light of President Ronald Reagan 's landslide victory in , the Democratic Party needed to adopt a more centrist political stance in order to succeed at the national level. In the early s, Clinton made reform of the Arkansas education system a top priority of his gubernatorial administration.
The committee transformed Arkansas's education system. Proposed reforms included more spending for schools supported by a sales-tax increase , better opportunities for gifted children, vocational education, higher teachers' salaries, more course variety, and compulsory teacher competency exams. The reforms passed in September after Clinton called a special legislative session —the longest in Arkansas history.
Also in the s, the Clintons' personal and business affairs included transactions that became the basis of the Whitewater controversy investigation, which later dogged his presidential administration. According to some sources, Clinton was a death penalty opponent in his early years, but he eventually switched positions. During his time as governor in the s, Arkansas was the center of a drug smuggling operation through Mena Airport.
CIA agent Barry Seal allegedly imported three to five billion dollars worth of cocaine through the airport, and the operation was linked to the Iran—Contra affair.
History of president clinton children
In , the media speculated that Clinton would enter the presidential race. Clinton decided to remain as Arkansas governor following consideration for the potential candidacy of Hillary for governor, initially favored—but ultimately vetoed—by the First Lady. He gave the nationally televised opening night address at the Democratic National Convention , but his speech, which was 33 minutes long and twice the length it was expected to be, was criticized for being too long.
During the campaign for the New Hampshire primary , reports surfaced that Clinton had engaged in an extramarital affair with Gennifer Flowers. He finished second to Tsongas in the New Hampshire primary , but after trailing badly in the polls and coming within single digits of winning, the media viewed it as a victory.
News outlets labeled him "The Comeback Kid" for earning a firm second-place finish. Winning the big prizes of Florida and Texas and many of the Southern primaries on Super Tuesday gave Clinton a sizable delegate lead. However, former California governor Jerry Brown was scoring victories and Clinton had yet to win a significant contest outside his native South.
He scored a resounding victory in New York City, shedding his image as a regional candidate. During the campaign, questions of conflict of interest regarding state business and the politically powerful Rose Law Firm , at which Hillary Rodham Clinton was a partner, arose. Clinton argued the questions were moot because all transactions with the state had been deducted before determining Hillary's firm pay.
Clinton was still the governor of Arkansas while campaigning for U. After killing a police officer and a civilian, Rector shot himself in the head, leading to what his lawyers said was a state where he could still talk but did not understand the idea of death. According to both Arkansas state law and federal law, a seriously mentally impaired inmate cannot be executed.
The courts disagreed with the allegation of grave mental impairment and allowed the execution. Clinton's return to Arkansas for the execution was framed in an article for The New York Times as a possible political move to counter "soft on crime" accusations. Bush's approval ratings were around 80 percent during the Gulf War , and he was described as unbeatable.
When Bush compromised with Democrats to try to lower federal deficits, he reneged on his promise not to raise taxes , which hurt his approval rating. Clinton repeatedly condemned Bush for making a promise he failed to keep. When Pat Buchanan and Pat Robertson addressed Christian themes at the Republican National Convention —with Bush criticizing Democrats for omitting God from their platform—many moderates were alienated.
On March 26, , during a Democratic fund raiser of the presidential campaign, Robert Rafsky confronted then Gov. Clinton won the presidential election electoral votes against Republican incumbent George H. Bush electoral votes and billionaire populist Ross Perot zero electoral votes , who ran as an independent on a platform that focused on domestic issues.
Bush's steep decline in public approval was a significant part of Clinton's success. The election gave Democrats full control of the United States Congress , [ 4 ] the first time one party controlled both the executive and legislative branches since Democrats held the 96th United States Congress during the presidency of Jimmy Carter. According to Seymour Martin Lipset , the election had several unique characteristics.
Voters felt that economic conditions were worse than they actually were, which harmed Bush. A rare event was the presence of a strong third-party candidate. Liberals launched a backlash against 12 years of a conservative White House. The chief factor was Clinton's uniting his party, and winning over a number of heterogeneous groups.
Clinton's " third way " of moderate liberalism built up the nation's fiscal health and put the nation on a firm footing abroad amid globalization and the development of anti-American terrorist organizations. During his presidency, Clinton advocated for a wide variety of legislation and programs , most of which were enacted into law or implemented by the executive branch.
His policies, particularly the North American Free Trade Agreement and welfare reform , have been attributed to a centrist Third Way philosophy of governance. At the end of the fiscal year September 30 for each of the years a surplus was recorded, the U. Senator from New York. There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.
After his presidential transition , Clinton was inaugurated as the 42nd president of the United States on January 20, Clinton was physically exhausted at the time, and had an inexperienced staff. His high levels of public support dropped in the first few weeks, as he made a series of mistakes. His first choice for attorney general had not paid her taxes on babysitters and was forced to withdraw.
The second appointee also withdrew for the same reason. Clinton had repeatedly promised to encourage gays in the military service, despite what he knew to be the strong opposition of the military leadership. He tried anyway, and was publicly opposed by the top generals, and forced by Congress to a compromise position of " Don't ask, don't tell " whereby gays could serve if and only if they kept it secret.
Public opinion did support one liberal program, and Clinton signed the Family and Medical Leave Act of , which required large employers to allow employees to take unpaid leave for pregnancy or a serious medical condition. This action had bipartisan support, [ ] and was popular with the public. Two days after taking office, on January 22, —the 20th anniversary of the U.
Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade —Clinton reversed restrictions on domestic and international family planning programs that had been imposed by Reagan and Bush. Popkin and first used by Clinton in December , while campaigning. On February 15, , Clinton made his first address to the nation, announcing his plan to raise taxes to close a budget deficit.
The plan focused on reducing the deficit rather than on cutting taxes for the middle class, which had been high on his campaign agenda. President Clinton's attorney general Janet Reno authorized the FBI's use of armored vehicles to deploy tear gas into the buildings of the Branch Davidian community near Waco, Texas, in hopes of ending a 51 day siege.
During the operation on April 19, , the buildings caught fire and 75 of the residents died, including 24 children. The raid had originally been planned by the Bush administration; Clinton had played no role. It cut taxes for 15 million low-income families, made tax cuts available to 90 percent of small businesses, [ ] and raised taxes on the wealthiest 1.
Additionally, it mandated that the budget be balanced over many years through the implementation of spending restraints. On September 22, , Clinton made a major speech to Congress regarding a health care reform plan ; the program aimed at achieving universal coverage through a national health care plan.
This was one of the most prominent items on Clinton's legislative agenda and resulted from a task force headed by Hillary Clinton. The plan was well received in political circles, but it was eventually doomed by well-organized lobby opposition from conservatives, the American Medical Association , and the health insurance industry. However, Clinton biographer John F.
Harris said the program failed because of a lack of coordination within the White House. Mitchell failed to gain a majority of support in August The failure of the bill was the first major legislative defeat of the Clinton administration. On November 30, , Clinton signed into law the Brady Bill , which mandated federal background checks on people who purchase firearms in the United States.
The law also imposed a five-day waiting period on purchases, until the NICS system was implemented in He also expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit , a subsidy for low-income workers. In the affair later known as " Troopergate ", the officers alleged that they had arranged sexual liaisons for Clinton back when he was governor of Arkansas.
The story mentioned a woman named Paula , a reference to Paula Jones. Brock later apologized to Clinton, saying the article was politically motivated "bad journalism", and that "the troopers were greedy and had slimy motives". That month, Clinton implemented a Department of Defense directive known as " Don't Ask, Don't Tell ", which allowed gay men and women to serve in the armed services provided they kept their sexual orientation a secret.
The Act forbade the military from inquiring about an individual's sexual orientation. According to David Mixner , Clinton's support for the compromise led to a heated dispute with Vice President Al Gore, who felt that "the President should lift the ban Truman used executive order to racially desegregate the armed forces.
Clinton's defenders argued that an executive order might have prompted the Senate to write the exclusion of gays into law, potentially making it harder to integrate the military in the future. Clinton and most of his allies in the Democratic Leadership Committee strongly supported free trade measures; there remained, however, strong disagreement within the party.
Opposition came chiefly from anti-trade Republicans, protectionist Democrats and supporters of Ross Perot. The bill passed the house with votes in favor and votes opposed Republicans and Democrats in favor; Democrats, 43 Republicans, and one independent opposed. The treaty was then ratified by the Senate and signed into law by the president.
On July 29, , the Clinton administration launched the first official White House website, whitehouse. According to Robert Longley, "Clinton and Gore were responsible for pressing almost all federal agencies, the U. On July 17, , Clinton issued Executive Order —Federal Information Technology, ordering the heads of all federal agencies to utilize information technology fully to make the information of the agency easily accessible to the public.
During Clinton's re-election campaign he said, "My crime bill expanded the death penalty for drug kingpins, murderers of federal law enforcement officers, and nearly 60 additional categories of violent felons. After two years of Democratic Party control, the Democrats lost control of Congress to the Republicans in the mid-term elections in , for the first time in forty years.
The President focused on his administration's accomplishments and efforts related to the epidemic , including an accelerated drug-approval process. He also condemned homophobia and discrimination against people with HIV. Clinton announced three new initiatives: creating a special working group to coordinate AIDS research throughout the federal government ; convening public health experts to develop an action plan that integrates HIV prevention with substance abuse prevention; and launching a new effort by the Department of Justice to ensure that health care facilities provide equal access to people with HIV and AIDS.
On September 21, , Clinton signed into law the Defense of Marriage Act DOMA , which defined marriage for federal purposes as the legal union of one man and one woman; the legislation allowed individual states to refuse to recognize gay marriages that were performed in other states. In defense of his actions, Clinton has said that DOMA was intended to "head off an attempt to send a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage to the states", a possibility he described as highly likely in the context of a "very reactionary Congress".
The veteran gay rights and gay marriage activist Evan Wolfson has called these claims "historic revisionism". Windsor , the U. Despite DOMA, Clinton was the first president to select openly gay persons for administrative positions, [ ] and he is generally credited as being the first president to publicly champion gay rights.
Now even my cat has its own page. The United States campaign finance controversy was an alleged effort by China to influence the domestic policies of the United States, before and during the Clinton administration, and involved the fundraising practices of the administration itself. Appointed by Clinton, [ ] the U. Commission on Immigration Reform recommended reducing legal immigration from about , people a year to about , In November , Clinton narrowly escaped possible assassination in the Philippines, [ ] which was a bridge bomb planted by al-Qaeda and was masterminded by Osama bin Laden.
During Clinton's presidency, the attempt remained top secret, [ ] and it remains classified as of March [update] , when Reuters reported having spoken with eight retired secret service agents about the incident. Leading up to the presidential election , Clinton's chances of being re-elected initially seemed slim, partially due to his growing untrust among the general public due to the Whitewater controversy [ ] [ ] and the lopsided defeat of national Democrats in the elections.
Unlike Bush in the election, Clinton's incumbency greatly benefited him in the general election, [ ] as most Americans felt the country was going in the right direction. On election day, Clinton won electoral votes , securing reelection and defeating Dole, who received electoral votes. With his victory, he became the first Democrat to win two consecutive presidential elections since Franklin D.
In the January , State of the Union address, Clinton proposed a new initiative to provide health coverage to up to five million children. In October , Clinton announced he was getting hearing aids, due to hearing loss attributed to his age, and his time spent as a musician in his youth. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation resulted in convictions against the McDougals for their role in the Whitewater project, but the Clintons themselves were never charged, and Clinton maintains his and his wife's innocence in the affair.
Fiske and Ken Starr found insufficient to evidence to prosecute the Clintons. Craig Livingstone, head of the White House Office of Personnel Security, improperly requested, and received from the FBI, background report files without asking permission of the subject individuals; many of these were employees of former Republican administrations.
Ray's report further stated, "there was no substantial and credible evidence that any senior White House official was involved" in seeking the files. This caused the White House travel office controversy even though the travel office staff served at the pleasure of the president and could be dismissed without cause.
The White House responded to the controversy by claiming that the firings were done in response to financial improprieties that had been revealed by a brief FBI investigation. However Fiske said there was not enough evidence to prosecute. The House voted — to impeach him for perjury to a grand jury [ ] and voted — to impeach him for obstruction of justice.
To hold impeachment proceedings, Republican leadership called a lame-duck session in December While the House Judiciary Committee hearings ended in a straight party-line vote, there was lively debate on the House floor. The two charges passed in the House largely with Republican support, but with a handful of Democratic votes as well were for perjury and obstruction of justice.
The perjury charge arose from Clinton's testimony before a grand jury that had been convened to investigate perjury he may have committed in his sworn deposition during Jones v. Clinton , Paula Jones's sexual harassment lawsuit. The Senate later acquitted Clinton of both charges. The final vote was generally along party lines, with no Democrats voting guilty, and only a handful of Republicans voting not guilty.
On January 19, , Clinton's law license was suspended for five years after he acknowledged to an Arkansas circuit court he had engaged in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice in the Jones case. Supreme Court suspended Clinton from practicing law in the high court, citing fallout from the Lewinsky scandal, [ ] but rather than appealing the decision he resigned from the bar entirely.
Clinton issued pardons and 36 commutations on his last day in office on January 20, She was later replaced by then-Republican James Comey.
History of president clinton
The investigation found no wrongdoing on Clinton's part. Palmer , all of whom had ties to Clinton when he was governor of Arkansas. In February it was discovered upon documents being released by the Clinton Administration that people had stayed at the White House and that of them had made donations to the Democratic Party and got the opportunity to stay in the Lincoln bedroom as a result of the donations.
Top donors also got golf games and morning jogs with Clinton as a result of the contributions. In , it was found that several Chinese foreigners made contributions to Clinton's reelection campaign and the Democratic National Committee with the backing of the People's Republic of China. Some of them also attempted to donate to Clinton's defense fund.
Clinton and Al Gore also allegedly met with the foreign donors. However, Democratic senators Joe Lieberman and John Glenn said that the evidence showed that China only targeted congressional elections and not presidential elections. American troops had first entered Somalia during the Bush administration in response to a humanitarian crisis and civil war.
Though initially involved to assist humanitarian efforts, the Clinton administration shifted the objectives set out in the mission and began pursuing a policy of attempting to neutralize Somali warlords. In , during the Battle of Mogadishu , two U. This resulted in an urban battle that killed 18 American soldiers, wounded 73 others, and resulted in one being taken prisoner.
In April , genocide broke out in Rwanda. Intelligence reports indicate that Clinton was aware a "final solution to eliminate all Tutsis " was underway, long before the administration publicly used the word "genocide". And I regret it. In and , Clinton pressured Western European leaders to adopt a strong military policy against Bosnian Serbs during the Bosnian War.
Clinton deployed U. In , before his presidency, Clinton proposed sending a peace envoy to Northern Ireland , but this was dropped to avoid tensions with the British government. In November , in a ceasefire during the Troubles , Clinton became the first president to visit Northern Ireland, examining both of the two divided communities of Belfast.
Clinton sought to continue the Bush administration's policy of limiting Iranian influence in the Middle East, which he laid out in the dual containment strategy. In , Clinton declared that Iran was a " state sponsor of terrorism " and a "rogue state", marking the first time that an American President used that term.
Navy guided missile cruiser. In Clinton's State of the Union Address , he warned Congress that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was building an arsenal of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. Clinton signed the Iraq Liberation Act of on October 31, , which instituted a policy of "regime change" against Iraq, though it explicitly stated it did not provide for direct intervention on the part of American military forces.
At the end of this operation Clinton announced that "So long as Saddam remains in power, he will remain a threat to his people, his region, and the world. With our allies, we must pursue a strategy to contain him and to constrain his weapons of mass destruction program, while working toward the day Iraq has a government willing to live at peace with its people and with its neighbors.
Capturing Osama bin Laden was an objective of the U. In response to a State Department warning about bin Laden [ ] and the bombings of U. In August , Clinton ordered cruise missile strikes on terrorist targets in Afghanistan and Sudan , targeting the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Sudan, which was suspected of assisting bin Laden in making chemical weapons, and bin Laden's terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.
The factory was destroyed by the attack, resulting in the death of one employee and the wounding of 11 other people. In the midst of a brutal crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in the province of Kosovo by the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia , Clinton authorized the use of U. The resolution placed Kosovo under UN administration and authorized a peacekeeping force to be deployed to the region.
Clinton aimed to increase trade with China, minimizing import tariffs and offering the country most favoured nation status in , his administration minimized tariff levels in Chinese imports. Clinton initially conditioned extension of this status on human rights reforms, but ultimately decided to extend the status despite a lack of reform in the specified areas, including free emigration, treatment of prisoners in terms of international human rights, and observation of human rights specified by UN resolutions, among others.
Relations were damaged briefly by the American bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in May Clinton apologized for the bombing, stating it was accidental.
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In encouraging Congress to approve the agreement and China's accession to the World Trade Organization WTO , Clinton stated that more trade with China would advance America's economic interests, saying that "economically, this agreement is the equivalent of a one-way street. It requires China to open its markets—with a fifth of the world's population, potentially the biggest markets in the world—to both our products and services in unprecedented new ways.
Clinton attempted to end the Israeli—Palestinian conflict. The agreement led to the Israel—Jordan peace treaty in and the Wye River Memorandum in October , however, this did not end the conflict. Clinton was the first president in history to appoint more women and minority judges than white male judges to the federal courts. Throughout Clinton's first term, his job approval rating fluctuated in the 40s and 50s.
In his second term, his rating consistently ranged from the highs to the highs. Roosevelt as the highest ratings for departing presidents in the modern era. A year after he left office, a Gallup poll found that 51 percent of respondents said they approved of the overall job Clinton did as president. Bush, found that a strong majority of respondents said Clinton outperformed Bush in six different areas questioned.
In , 69 percent of respondents in a Gallup survey said they approved of the job Clinton did as president, including 47 percent of Republicans and 68 percent of independents. His sudden spike in popularity during this time was attributed to Americans comparing him to then-incumbent Democratic president Barack Obama , who had low approval ratings.
Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. According to their findings, Clinton ranked eighth overall, with a rating of 70 percent. Clinton was the first baby boomer president. Clinton drew strong support from the African American community and insisted that the improvement of race relations would be a major theme of his presidency. Several women have publicly accused Clinton of sexual misconduct, including rape, harassment, and sexual assault.
Additionally, some commentators have characterized Clinton's sexual relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky as predatory or non-consensual, despite the fact that Lewinsky called the relationship consensual at the time. These allegations have been revisited and lent more credence in , in light of the MeToo movement , with many commentators and Democratic leaders now saying Clinton should have been compelled to resign after the Lewinsky affair.
In , Paula Jones initiated a sexual harassment lawsuit against Clinton, claiming he had made unwanted advances towards her in ; Clinton denied the allegations. In April , the case was initially dismissed by Judge Susan Webber Wright on the grounds that it lacked legal merit. Robert S. Bennett , Clinton's main lawyer for the case, called the filing "a pack of lies" and "an organized campaign to smear the President of the United States" funded by Clinton's political enemies.
In , Kathleen Willey alleged that Clinton had groped her in a hallway in An independent counsel determined Willey gave "false information" to the FBI, inconsistent with sworn testimony related to the Jones allegation. Willey's account of being sexually groped by Clinton in the Oval Office. Also in , Juanita Broaddrick alleged that Clinton had raped her in the spring of , although she said she did not remember the exact date.
The Lewinsky scandal has had an enduring impact on Clinton's legacy, beyond his impeachment in In , Clinton was asked in several interviews about whether he should have resigned, and he said he had made the right decision in not resigning. Clinton admitted to having extramarital affairs with singer Gennifer Flowers and Monica Lewinsky. Bennett , and Jane Mayer , alleging they engaged in a conspiracy to attempt to block her from publishing a book loosely based on her relationship with Clinton and tried to defame him.
However, Browning's lawsuit was dismissed. In , Clinton warned that pre-emptive military action against Iraq would have unwelcome consequences, [ ] [ ] and later claimed to have opposed the Iraq War from the start though some dispute this. The William J. In the aftermath of the Asian tsunami , U. Based on his philanthropic worldview, [ ] Clinton created the William J.
Clinton Foundation to address issues of global importance. The Clinton Global Initiative CGI , begun by the Clinton Foundation in , attempts to address world problems such as global public health , poverty alleviation and religious and ethnic conflict. During the Democratic presidential primary campaign , Clinton vigorously advocated on behalf of his wife, Hillary.
Later in the primaries, there was some infighting between Bill and Hillary's staffs, especially in Pennsylvania. Fears were allayed August 27, , when Clinton enthusiastically endorsed Obama at the Democratic National Convention , saying all his experience as president assures him that Obama is "ready to lead".
In , Clinton travelled to North Korea on behalf of two American journalists imprisoned there. Euna Lee and Laura Ling had been imprisoned for illegally entering the country from China. Since then, Clinton has been assigned many other diplomatic missions. Bush would coordinate efforts to raise funds for Haiti's recovery. While Hillary Clinton was in South Korea, she and Cheryl Mills worked to convince SAE-A, a large apparel subcontractor, to invest in Haiti despite the company's deep concerns about plans to raise the minimum wage.
In the summer of , the South Korean company signed a contract at the U. State Department, ensuring that the new industrial park would have a key tenant. During the presidential election , Clinton again encouraged voters to support Hillary, and made appearances speaking on the campaign trail. He voted for the Democratic ticket consisting of his wife Hillary and her running-mate Tim Kaine.
Bush, George W. Clinton was one of the first public figures to endorse Biden's re-election campaign in , with him appearing in interviews and fundraisers with various politicians and national figures. However, the Senate voted to acquit Clinton on both counts in In , the couple established residence in Chappaqua, New York, and she won election from that state to the U.
Following his years as president, Clinton built a foundation, wrote his memoirs, and oversaw the creation of his presidential library in Little Rock, Arkansas. He remains actively involved with the work of the William J. On January 20, , Jimmy Carter was inaugurated as the thirty-ninth president of the United States.
During his time in the White House —81 , President Carter made many decisions guided by his fundamental commitment to peace and democratic values, emphasizing human and civil rights above all else. These unique collectibles — honoring individual presidents or specific White House anniversaries — have become part of the holiday tradition for millions of American families.
In this collection, explore the history behind our design and learn more about President Jimmy Carter. The website is no longer updated and links to external websites and some internal pages may not work. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first baby-boomer generation President. During the administration of William Jefferson Clinton, the U.
He was the first Democratic president since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win a second term. He proposed the first balanced budget in decades and achieved a budget surplus. As part of a plan to celebrate the millennium in , Clinton called for a great national initiative to end racial discrimination. In high school, he took the family name.
He excelled as a student and as a saxophone player and once considered becoming a professional musician.