Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said former President Bill Clinton was essentially impeached “for being stupid.”
Pelosi’s comment, made during a Thursday night CNN town hall hosted by network anchor Jake Tapper, drew laughter from the audience. The California congresswoman was responding to a question from a Johns Hopkins University student about the difference between prior calls for impeaching former President George W. Bush in 2006, the actual impeachment of former President Bill Clinton in 1998, and the current impeachment inquiry faced by President Donald Trump.
The House Speaker addressed the question about Bush first, saying that though “there was overwhelming calls” for impeaching the former president based on false claims about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, it was “not a grounds for impeachment.”
Then, she spoke about the GOP-led impeachment of Clinton:
“But they had impeached Bill Clinton for personal indiscretion and misrepresenting about it,” Pelosi said. “Impeached him. Some of these same people are saying, ‘oh, this doesn’t rise to impeachment.’ Right there, impeaching Bill Clinton for being stupid in terms of something like that.” (RELATED: ‘Why The Self-Righteousness?’ — Tucker, Mark Steyn Tackle ‘False Piety’ Of Pelosi, Democrats On Impeachment)
“I mean, I love him,” she said, responding to laughter from the audience. “I think he was a great president, but being stupid in terms of that. What would somebody do not to embarrass their family? But in any event, so they did Bill Clinton, now they want me to do George Bush, I just didn’t want it to be a way of life in our country.”
