Editing Clinton–Lewinsky scandal (section)

==Impeachment==<!-- This section is linked from [[State of the Union Address]] -->

{{Main|Impeachment of Bill Clinton}}

In December 1998, Clinton's Democratic political party was in the minority in both chambers of Congress. A few Democratic members of Congress, and most in the opposition Republican Party, claimed that Clinton's giving false testimony and allegedly influencing Lewinsky's testimony were crimes of [[obstruction of justice]] and [[perjury]] and thus impeachable offenses. After a delay due to a brief [[Bombing of Iraq (1998)#Distraction from Clinton impeachment scandal|bombing campaign in Iraq]], the House of Representatives voted to issue two Articles of Impeachment against him which was followed by a 21-day trial in the Senate.

Clinton was acquitted on both counts as neither received the necessary [[supermajority|two-thirds majority vote]] of the senators present. Between 45 and 50 senators voted to convict, depending on the charge, short of the 67 votes needed for conviction and removal from office.<ref name=WaPo02131999>{{cite news| last=Baker| first=Peter| title=The Senate Acquits President Clinton| url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/impeach021399.htm| newspaper=The Washington Post| publisher=The Washington Post Co.| access-date=December 4, 2013| date=February 13, 1999| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131110183732/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/impeach021399.htm|archive-date=November 10, 2013| url-status=live}}</ref> All the Democrats in the Senate voted for acquittal on both the perjury and the obstruction of justice charges. Ten Republicans voted for acquittal for perjury: [[John Chafee]] (Rhode Island), [[Susan Collins]] (Maine), [[Slade Gorton]] (Washington), [[Jim Jeffords]] (Vermont), [[Richard Shelby]] (Alabama), [[Olympia Snowe]] (Maine), [[Arlen Specter]] (Pennsylvania), [[Ted Stevens]] (Alaska), [[Fred Thompson]] (Tennessee), and [[John Warner]] (Virginia). Five Republicans voted for acquittal for obstruction of justice: Chafee, Collins, Jeffords, Snowe, and Specter.

President Clinton was thereby acquitted of all charges and remained in office. There were attempts to [[Censure in the United States|censure]] the president by the House of Representatives, but those attempts failed.