Bill Clinton: Remarks at Annual Prayer Breakfast

Bill Clinton assumed the presidency in 1992 promising change and renewal to a recession-wracked nation just entering the post–cold war era. As the economy recovered while tensions in the former Soviet Union and elsewhere exploded into violence, Clinton sought to garner support for often controversial policy decisions through the message of positive change. Shadowed by scandal, Clinton’s presidency saw unprecedented public involvement in the chief executive’s personal life. In 1998 he was impeached for lying under oath about a sexual liaison he had had with Monica Lewinsky, who was at the time a White House intern. Just as the details of the Lewinsky affair became public, Clinton made the embarrassing scandal the centerpiece of his Remarks at the Annual Prayer Breakfast at the White House. In his remarks, he focuses on his moral failings and his repentance, and he vows to rectify the damage he has done.