Al Gore blamed Bill Clinton and the scandal that led to the former president’s impeachment for his 2000 presidential election loss, a recently-released book claims.
The Lewinsky scandal and Bill Clinton’s subsequent impeachment “cast a permanent shadow on their joint accomplishments” and tanked the former vice president’s chances of succeeding him, according to author Kate Anderson Brower’s book First In Line: Presidents, Vice Presidents and the Pursuit of Power.
The book, released Tuesday, claims that Gore’s team felt that his former boss “did not want Gore to succeed” in his race against George W. Bush, and states that a friendship that was once close eventually soured over the affair, the 2000 race and Hillary Clinton building her own power base inside the White House, according to a Daily Mail report.
Brower’s book describes a “Shakespearean” trajectory to the relationship between the two men as Gore found himself increasingly competing against “the most powerful first lady in American history.”
“The two (Gore and Hillary) fought over turf almost like a brother and sister fighting over their father’s attention,” writes Brower, according to the Daily Mail.
And so far, there has been “no closure” for Gore.
Clinton himself made headlines recently for a Monday night question about apologizing personally to Lewinsky that got him “hot under the collar.” (RELATED: Bill Clinton Walks Back Heated Interview About Lewinsky Scandal)
“The truth is, the hubbub was I got hot under the collar because of the way the questions were asked, and I think what was lost are the two points that I made that are important to me,” said Clinton. “The suggestion was that I never apologized for what caused all the trouble for me 20 years ago.”
“I did. I meant it then, and I meant it now. I apologized to my family, to Monica Lewinsky and her family, and to the American people before a panel of ministers in the White House. I live with it all the time.”