Скачать или смотреть IRELAND: DUBLIN/SHANNON: US PRESIDENT CLINTON VISIT

(4 Sep 1998) English/Nat

The shadow of Monica Lewinsky continues to dog President Clinton as he visits Dublin to promote the Good Friday peace agreement.

Clinton met with Irish premier Bertie Ahern to talk peace, but found that that the sex scandal threatening his presidency still taints his foreign agenda.

While her husband faced the heat over his extramarital affair, First Lady Hillary Clinton was touring on her own at Dublin's Trinity College.

President Bill Clinton and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern met in the heart of the Irish government in downtown Dublin.

After a busy day on Thursday in Northern Ireland, Clinton came south to the Irish Republic with peace on the island his top priority.

He came to meet with the prime minister - or Taoiseach - about anti-terrorism measures enacted by Ireland and Britain.

But the talks were overshadowed by the crisis awaiting the traveling president back at home.

At a photo session, the president again faced the topic endangering his presidency: the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal.

As soon as the camera shutters stopped, Clinton found himself in a hail of questions not about peace in Ireland, but about Monica Lewinsky.

Once again, the American president found himself unable to escape the latest political flareups over his affair with a former White House intern, increasingly from within his own party.

He was asked his reaction to comments in Congress on Thursday by Senator Joseph Lieberman, a leading Democrat from Connecticut, who called Clinton's relationship with the young White House intern 'immoral.'

The President's response was clearly nerve wracked.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
Q: Do you have any comment on Senator Lieberman's remarks?
"Well, I've been briefed on them and basically, I agree with what his said. I've already said that I made a bad mistake, it was indefensible and I'm sorry about it, so I have nothing else to say except that I can't disagree with anyone else who wants to be critical of what I have already acknowledged was indefensible."
Q: Do you think the Senator has the right to formulate...an opinion in the scandal?
"That's not for me to say, that's not for me to say. I don't you know, I've known Senator Lieberman a long time, we've worked together on a lot of things and I'm not going to get into commenting on that one way or the other. It wouldn't be an appropriate thing for me to do."
Q: Do you think it's helpful for him to make that kind of comment?
"It's not for me to say. I, but there's nothing that he or anyone else could say in a personally critical way that I don't imagine that I would disagree with since I have already said it myself to myself. And I'm very sorry about it, but there's nothing else I can say."
Q: Do you think an official censure by the Senate would be inappropriate?
"I, just don't want to comment on that. I shouldn't be commenting on that on this trip and I don't think, my understanding is that was not a decision that was made or advocated clearly yesterday, so I don't want to get into any of that. If that's not an issue, I don't want to make it one, one way or the other. I don't think that's appropriate right now."
SUPER CAPTION: Bill Clinton, U-S President

And it was the first time during the scandal and his confession about it that he said he was 'sorry' in public comments about the affair.

While her husband was again having to answer for his extramarital affair, the woman most impacted by his actions was off on her own around Dublin.










SOUNDBITE: (English)
SUPER CAPTION: Bill Clinton, U-S President




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