[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book II)]
[December 19, 1998]
[Pages 2198-2199]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks Following the House of Representatives Vote on Impeachment
December 19, 1998

    Good afternoon. Let me begin by expressing my profound and heartfelt 
thanks to Congressman Gephardt and the leadership and all the members of 
the Democratic caucus for what they did today. I thank the few brave 
Republicans who withstood enormous pressure to stand with them for the 
plain meaning of the Constitution and for the proposition that we need 
to pull together, to move beyond partisanship, to get on with the 
business of our country.
    I thank the millions upon millions of American citizens who have 
expressed their support and their friendship to Hillary, to me, to our 
family, and to our administration during these last several weeks.
    The words of the Members here with me and others who were a part of 
their endeavor, in defense of our Constitution, were powerful and 
moving, and I will never forget them. The question is, what are we going 
to do now?
    I have accepted responsibility for what I did wrong in my personal 
life. And I have invited Members of Congress to work with us to find a 
reasonable, bipartisan, and proportionate response. That approach was 
rejected today by Republicans in the House. But I hope it will

[[Page 2199]]

be embraced by the Senate. I hope there will be a constitutional and 
fair means of resolving this matter in a prompt manner.
    Meanwhile, I will continue to do the work of the American people. We 
still, after all, have to save Social Security and Medicare for the 21st 
century. We have to give all our children world-class schools. We have 
to pass a Patients' Bill of Rights. We have to make sure the economic 
turbulence around the world does not curb our economic opportunity here 
at home. We have to keep America the world's strongest force for peace 
and freedom. In short, we have a lot to do before we enter the 21st 
century.
    And we still have to keep working to build that elusive one America 
I have talked so much about. For 6 years now, I have done everything I 
could to bring our country together, across the lines that divide us, 
including bringing Washington together across party lines. Out in the 
country, people are pulling together. But just as America is coming 
together, it must look--from the country's point of view--like 
Washington is coming apart.
    I want to echo something Mr. Gephardt said. It is something I have 
felt strongly all my life. We must stop the politics of personal 
destruction. We must get rid of the poisonous venom of excessive 
partisanship, obsessive animosity, and uncontrolled anger. That is not 
what America deserves. That is not what America is about.
    We are doing well now. We are a good and decent country. But we have 
significant challenges we have to face. In order to do it right, we have 
to have some atmosphere of decency and civility, some presumption of 
good faith, some sense of proportionality and balance in bringing 
judgment against those who are in different parties. We have important 
work to do. We need a constructive debate that has all the different 
voices in this country heard in the Halls of Congress.
    I want the American people to know today that I am still committed 
to working with people of good faith and good will of both parties to do 
what's best for our country: to bring our Nation together, to lift our 
people up, to move us all forward together. It's what I've tried to do 
for 6 years; it's what I intend to do for 2 more, until the last hour of 
the last day of my term.
    So, with profound gratitude for the defense of the Constitution and 
the best in America that was raised today by the Members here and those 
who joined them, I ask the American people to move with me to go on from 
here; to rise above the rancor; to overcome the pain and division; to be 
a repairer of the breach, all of us; to make this country, as one 
America, what it can and must be for our children in the new century 
about to dawn.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 4:15 p.m. on the South Lawn at the White 
House. The transcript released by the Office of the Press Secretary also 
included the remarks of Chief of Staff John D. Podesta, House Minority 
Leader Richard A. Gephardt, and Vice President Al Gore.