Ken Starr in “The Clinton Affair”
Welcome to the weekend frenzy. Each week, we’ll bring you a compelling title designed to keep you from going too crazy. Check back throughout the weekend for even more gloriously queer entertainment.
The recap: the Clinton affair
Former President Bill Clinton turned 75 this week (August 19), and as such – not to mention our anticipation for American Crime Story: Impeachment – we decided to take a jaunt into the past at the height of his presidency and his greatest moment. overexposure. As it was.
The Clinton Affair debuted on the A&E Network in 2018 as a six-part series detailing the events leading up to Bill Clinton’s impeachment and as a chronicle of a string of scandals (and non-scandals) ) who put his administration in jeopardy. The series stands out for its broad participation from key figures from the Clinton years, including Paula Jones (she accused Clinton of sexual harassment), Ken Starr (a special prosecutor), Michael Isikoff (a reporter investigating the Clintons), and possibly most notably, Monica Lewinksy (a former White House intern who had an affair with the president… does she really need an introduction?). The Clinton Affair marks Lewinsky’s first on-camera interview in over a decade, and features the former punchline as a beautiful and thoughtful woman, reflecting on the indiscretions of her youth. It’s a frank conversation and a breathtaking reinvention of a woman once embarrassed as a smart, glamorous, and courageous survivor.
The Clinton affair also offers its share of ’90s nostalgia, but not exactly the heartwarming kind. Blue dresses, damn stains, cigars, indictments, taped conversations, subpoenas, the definition of “is” – how these details still resonate in the mind more than 20 years later. Aside from the revealing interviews featured in the series, the series also does a great job of connecting the dots from scandal to scandal: Ken Starr, originally appointed to investigate Whitewater’s shady real estate deals, ultimately ended up dropping Clinton. in a fully independent civil suit, which led to his arraignment for purge.
[An aside: Starr also was the lawyer that argued to nullify all the same-sex marriages in California following the passage of Prop 8 in 2008. Charming guy.]
In perhaps the most revealing twist, two characters emerge at the center of it all: Starr, the ultra-religious fanatic who seemed unaware of his own witch-hunting obsession, and Linda Tripp, “the friend.” of Lewinsky who started recording his phone. calls and who ultimately coordinated with Starr’s team to trap Clinton. Tripp, in particular, somehow believed that Clinton had personally targeted her for a White House reassignment to the Pentagon (with a BIG pay raise), and vowed to destroy him for it. She also fueled several other attacks on Clinton both in the media and with Starr’s team before crossing paths with Lewinsky.
Make no mistake, Clinton himself doesn’t do very well in The Clinton Affair. His deceptive and shady relationships will make even the most favorable viewers squint. At the same time, it’s virtually impossible to watch the series and not think of Hillary Clinton’s claims of a “vast right-wing plot” to undermine Bill’s presidency. There was undoubtedly a conspiracy to this effect; its effectiveness remains one of the open questions of the series. It becomes clear that Ken Starr has launched such a voracious witch hunt that it would give Cotton Mather – the Puritan behind the Salem Witch Trials – a break. Starr was determined to destroy the Clintons at all costs… all in the name of moral purity.
The Clinton affair paints a sordid portrait of 1990s American politics on both sides of the aisle, and does a great job of making a winding path to impeachment much easier to follow. It also raises deeper moral questions about the nature of political scandals. Seen through a lens of history that includes the bellicose cronyism of George W. Bush and the sedition and betrayal of Donald Trump, we must ask ourselves: why was it all so serious?
Streamed on A&E, Hulu, Amazon and YouTube.
