Remember me? I was your vice-president for eight years. We used to have some good times.
Anyway, what I wanted to talk to you about... All these people you see here, well, they're friends of yours. Just like me. I know, you thought this was going to be a fund-raiser, just a little fund-raiser. I'm sorry we had to tell you that lie. We just felt it was important that we got together, as a group, to help you in your crisis.
What crisis? Well, you may not realize that there is one, but we assure you there is.
Let's walk back together through time for a moment. Is that okay?
... Whoa whoa whoa! Come on back, Bill, Hill, come on, take a seat. Don't be in such a rush! Come on. It's me, ol' Al! You're among friends. Don't hyperventilate. Turn off your cell phones. Take off your shoes. Need some iced tea? Karenna! Could you pour some more tea for all the nice guests? Tipper, watch the door, in case, you know, somebody tries to uh, make a run for it again.
So like I was saying, remember back in 1998, those ugly days. Those ugly, ugly days of the Impeachment vote in the house? Yeah, you both remember. We all remember now.
It was December of 1998. The House Republicans had just voted to impeach you, Bill, the first president in more than a century to be impeached. It was humiliating for you both, I know. For us, too, all of us, your friends. But we stuck by you. Remember that? We just kept on shoveling it.
Remember how, as soon as the House voted to impeach, the House Democrats marched out of the Capitol, to the White House, to protest the vote? I was there. You both surely remember watching that. I got up and made a speech. And I said... Uh, pardon me while I put on my spectacles:
"[What happened today] does a great disservice to a man I believe will be regarded in the history books as one of our greatest presidents. There is no doubt in my mind that the verdict of history will undo the unworthy judgment rendered a short while ago in the United States Capitol."
That's just a little bit of it.
You want to know why I remember that speech so well, Bill? I guess it's confession time for me.
I had this little thought, while I was making that speech. A teensy-weensy little thought. I can't say that it was fleeting; it has stuck with me through all the years since.
I thought to myself, you know, if instead of sticking up for Bill Clinton, I were to ask him to step down for the good of the country, that would make me president! In fact, Bill would have little choice about it. Without our support, he would have nothing to keep him afloat. And don't I deserve it? I'm a smart guy. I've worked hard all my life. I have boatloads of experience. I could do so much good. They all owe it to me.
Oh, please, please don't look at me like that, Hillary, like you're trying to burn my eyes out. Come on. It was just a thought, at the time. See, I didn't say any of that, and you know I didn't! No. I stood up for Bill, and he got the support of the whole Democratic Party, and we beat the Impeachment, and you, Bill, served out your term, and I left office in 2001 having been a loyal vice-president.
I have thought about that moment many times since. Like, during the Florida recount, when it was Governor Bush versus Vice-President Al Gore. I couldn't help wondering what it would have been like to be president of the United States for just one day. Certainly, I wondered, it couldn't have hurt to go into the November election as a president instead of a vice-president. Governor Bush versus President Al Gore.
So, I've had my regrets, but I lived with them. What makes it easier is the comfort of knowing that when it got tough, I chose the right thing, the loyal thing, over the Al Gore thing.
And that's what we all are here to talk to you about: Regrets and living with them. Doing the right thing. Doing what is best for the country, not for ourselves. It hurts having to put aside your own personal ambitions for the greater good. History gently whispers into your ear to step aside, it's not your time, be brave.
Do you see what I'm trying to get at, Bill and Hill? It's why we're all here to help you. You have to be brave. It's intervention time.