Actions of U.S. President Bill Clinton after leaving office
Parts of this article (those related to information about his life between 2012 and 2015) need to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (August 2015)
The post-presidency of Bill Clinton began on January 20, 2001 following the end of Bill Clinton's second term as president. Clinton was the 42nd president of the United States, serving from 1993 to 2001. After he left office, he continued to be active in the public sphere, touring the world, writing books, and campaigning for Democrats, including his wife, Hillary Clinton, who served as the junior U.S. senator from New York between 2001 and 2009 and the 67thUnited States Secretary of State between 2009 and 2013, on her presidential campaigns in 2008, in which she was runner-up for the Democratic nomination, and in 2016, when she lost the election to Donald Trump. After Clinton left office, he ended up forming a close friendship with George H. W. Bush and later, with George W. Bush.
Public speaking and campaigning
Hillary Rodham Clinton re-enacts being sworn in as a U.S. Senator by Vice President Gore as Bill and Chelsea Clinton observe.
At the end of his presidency, the Clintons moved to their house 15 Old House Lane in Chappaqua, New York, in Westchester County. Clinton opened his personal office in the Harlem section of New York City.[1] In 2000, Clinton assisted his wife in her campaign for office as Senator from New York.[2] Clinton campaigned for a number of Democratic candidates for the Senate in the 2002 elections.[3]
Clinton comments on contemporary politics in speaking engagements around the world.[4][5] One notable theme is his advocacy of multilateral solutions to world problems.
Clinton spoke for the fifth consecutive time at a Democratic National Convention on July 26, 2004, praising candidate John Kerry. He said of President George W. Bush's depiction of Kerry, "strength and wisdom are not opposing values." Despite Clinton's speech, the post-convention bounce to Kerry's poll numbers was less than was hoped for.[6]
Clinton has given dozens of paid speeches each year, mostly to corporations and philanthropic groups in North America and Europe, often earning $100,000 to $300,000 per speech;[7] for 13 speeches he was paid $500,000, or more.[8] According to his wife's Senate ethics reports, he earned more than $30 million in speaking from 2001 to 2005.[9] In 2007, it is estimated he amassed around $40 million from speaking fees.[10] Overall, Bill Clinton earned more than $104 million from 542 paid speeches between January 2001 and January 2013.[11][12]
Clinton served as one of the organizers for the New Baptist Covenant alongside former President Jimmy Carter and other Baptist leaders. This effort sought to bring various Baptists in America together, especially across racial lines, to discuss issues that unite them. Clinton spoke at the January 2008 celebration in Atlanta, Georgia.
Post 9/11 and relations with Bob Dole
Following 9/11, Clinton teamed up with his one-time political rival, former U.S. Senator Bob Dole, on the Families of Freedom Foundation, a scholarship fund campaign to pay for the college educations for the families of 9/11 victims.[14] It helped raise more than $100 million.[15] Clinton also was, for a short time in 2003, a commentator opposite Dole on CBS's 60 Minutes.
The Clinton facility was funded to a large degree by donations from foreign governments, receiving a $10 million donation from the royal family of Saudi Arabia.[18]
Clinton released a personal autobiography, My Life in 2004. The book was published by the Knopf Publishing Group at Random House on June 22, 2004. According to the publisher, for single day non-fiction book sales, the book set a worldwide record.[19] Later released as an audio book, total sales were in excess of 400,000 copies. As a writer's fee, he received U.S. $12 million in advance.[20]
In 2011, Clinton released a book "Back to Work: Why We Need Smart Government for a Strong Economy." The book details Clinton's suggestions for improving the economy.
The William J. Clinton Foundation promotes and provides for a number of humanitarian causes. Within the foundation, the Clinton Foundation HIV and AIDS Initiative (CHAI) strives to make treatment for HIV/AIDS more affordable and to implement large-scale integrated care, treatment, and prevention programs. While in Sydney to attend a Global Business Forum, Clinton signed a memorandum of understanding on behalf of his presidential foundation with the Australian government to promote HIV/AIDS programs in the Asia-Pacific region.
The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), funded by the Clinton Foundation, was inaugurated September 15–17, 2005 in New York City to coincide with the 2005 World Summit. The focus areas of the initiative include attempts to address world problems such as global public health, poverty alleviation and religious and ethnic conflict.[23]
Clinton announced through the William J. Clinton Foundation an agreement by major soft drink manufacturers to stop selling sugared sodas and juice drinks, in public primary and secondary schools within the United States,
on May 3, 2005.[24]
The foundation has received donations from a number of foreign governments, including the king of Morocco, a foundation linked to the United Arab Emirates, and the governments of Kuwait and Qatar.[25]
In 2008 newspapers reported that "Mr Clinton had travelled to Kazakhstan with a Canadian mining magnate, Frank Giustra, to meet its dictator president. Mr Giustra later won three lucrative uranium mining contracts from the government and then donated $US31 million to Mr Clinton's charity."[25]
In the aftermath of the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, Clinton established, with fellow former President George H. W. Bush, the Bush-Clinton Tsunami Fund and the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund, respectively. He and Bush appeared together in television ads in 2005, encouraging aid for victims of the tsunami and Hurricane Katrina.[26] For this, they were awarded the 2006 Philadelphia Liberty Medal on October 5, 2006.[27]
Five days later, to raise money for relief through the USA Freedom Corps, Clinton and Bush appeared on the FoxSuper Bowl XXXIX pre-game show.[29] Thirteen days later, to see the relief efforts, they traveled to the affected areas.[30] In April 2007, they spoke together at the funeral of Russian President Boris Yeltsin.[31]
To create the Clinton Foundation Climate Change Initiative (CCI), the William J. Clinton Foundation entered into a partnership with the Large Cities Climate Leadership Group on August 1, 2006, agreeing to provide resources to allow the participating cities to enter into an energy-saving product purchasing consortium and to provide technical and communications support.[32]
On September 2, 2004, while campaigning for Kerry, Clinton had an episode of angina and was evaluated at Northern Westchester Hospital. It was determined he did not suffer a coronary infarction, and he was sent home, returning the following day for angiography, which disclosed multiple vessel coronary artery disease. He was transferred to Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City, where he underwent a successful on-pump quadruple coronary artery bypass surgery on September 6, 2004. The medical team stated, had he not had surgery, he would have likely suffered a massive heart attack within a few months.[34] As a complication of his heart surgery, Clinton underwent a follow-up surgery on March 10, 2005 for a left pleural effusion, removing scar tissue and fluid from his left chest cavity.[35]
In the course of the 2008 Democratic presidential primary campaign, Clinton vigorously advocated on behalf of his wife, Hillary Clinton, leading some observers and party members to question the appropriateness of his role in view of his status as a former president.[41] Some felt that Clinton was overshadowing his wife in the campaign,[42][43][44] with her presidential rival Barack Obama complaining that he sometimes did not know which Clinton he was running against.[45] At an MSNBC debate, Republican primary candidate Mitt Romney said that he "can't imagine Bill Clinton left with nothing to do in the White House", suggesting that Clinton would be a "co-president and try and help manage the economy and help manage the world affairs".[46]
Top Democratic Party officials, including Congressman Rahm Emanuel, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, asked Clinton to tone down his attacks on Obama following the bitterly contested Nevada caucus, suggesting that Clinton could be damaging his own political capital and global stature.[47] Some commentators even accused the former president of "playing the race card" against Obama, who is half-black, by suggesting he would understand if South Carolina's African Americans naturally would vote for the black candidate, but rejected suggestions that America was not ready for a black President.[48][49][50] Many felt that by alienating black voters who had once overwhelmingly supported the Clintons, Clinton had tarnished his legacy as the so-called "first black president."[51][52] In particular, Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) suggested that Clinton's vocal attacks on Obama could damage the former President's legacy.[53]
Following his wife's disappointing defeat in South Carolina, Clinton again made headlines when he appeared to undermine and racialize Obama's victory by comparing it to Jesse Jackson's failed 1984 bid for the Presidency.[54] Some observers suggested that the controversial comments fueled Sen. Ted Kennedy's decision to endorse Sen. Obama for the Presidency.[55] Clinton attracted further controversy with a series of attacks against Obama that many independents and former Clinton supporters felt to be unfair.[51][56][57] While some believed the attacks might eventually pay off,[58] others felt they would damage Hillary Clinton's presidential prospects and alienate Democratic voters in the general election.[56][57][59] Bill Clinton defended his role in the campaign in South Carolina, disputing claims he made race a campaign issue.[60] According to some reports, the accusations of racism hurt him personally, as blacks had long been Clinton's most loyal supporters.[61][62]
During the primary campaign, his wife's aides criticized Clinton's freelancing and deemed his office uncooperative– at one point, they complained, his people would not allow one of her people to ride on his plane to campaign stops. His aides, on the other hand, stewed over what they saw as her people's disregard for the advice of one of this generation's great political minds and bristled at surrendering control of his schedule. On the night of the Pennsylvania primary, Clinton grew playfully competitive with his wife over who had done more events or had had more impact. Governor Ed Rendell showed Clinton the county-by-county returns, while she was superstitious and rarely watched election night coverage. According to Rendell, "The president wanted to know exactly what the returns were in the places he had been and Hillary hadn't been. He kept showing Hillary, and she would laugh."[61][62]
Due to Clinton's prominent role in his wife's presidential run and his criticism of Obama, many perceived an enduring distance between the two. Clinton was asked later if he thought presidential nominee Barack Obama was qualified to be president. He replied that the Constitution sets qualifications. When pressed as to whether Obama was "ready" to be president, Clinton replied, "You could argue that no one is ready to be president."[63] Such remarks led to apprehension that the party would be split to the detriment of Obama's election. Fears were allayed August 27, 2008 when Clinton enthusiastically endorsed Obama at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, saying that all his experience as president assures him that Obama is "ready to lead".[64]
Clinton made an unannounced trip to North Korea, a country with which the United States does not have diplomatic relations, on August 4, 2009.[65] Clinton arrived in Pyongyang in order to negotiate the release of U.S. citizens Euna Lee and Laura Ling, who were imprisoned by North Korean forces for illegally entering the country from China while filming a documentary and given a 12-year sentence.[66] His visit to North Korea is the second such trip by a former U.S. president, the other occurring when Jimmy Carter visited in 1994.[66] After meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, Kim issued a special pardon for the two journalists.[67] On the morning of August 5, the journalists were released from custody and flew home to the United States with Clinton.[68]
Relations with George W. Bush
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Clinton was a major surrogate for President Barack Obama in the election year, most notably delivering a forty-five-minute speech on the second night of the 2012 Democratic National Convention that was well received in the press, with former Romney consultant Alex Castellanos even stating Clinton had "won the election" for Obama. Clinton remained a powerful surrogate for the President, and was the second person Obama called after receiving Republican candidate Mitt Romney's concession. Clinton also later spoke with Romney, mentioning he felt that Hurricane Sandy had secured Obama's victory.[71] Many, including David Axelrod, have stated Clinton played a crucial role in Obama's campaign.[72]
Over the course of the election year, Clinton supported the presidential campaign of his wife Hillary. In early January, Republican primary frontrunner Donald Trump suggested that Clinton's past infidelities could harm his wife's campaign, Clinton afterward dismissing him: "Donald Trump says a lot of things".[73] On March 21, Clinton made comments about putting "the awful legacy of the last eight years behind us", leading to speculation that he was negatively referring to the Obama presidency. However, on March 24, Hillary Clinton said that her husband was actually referring to the difficulty Obama had in compromising with Republicans.[74]
On June 29, 2016, Clinton had a private conversation with Attorney General Loretta Lynch in Phoenix, Arizona. Clinton's meeting with Lynch, while his wife Hillary was under an FBI probe for the use of a private e-mail server, raised questions about a conflict of interest as well as the ability of the Department of Justice to conduct an independent investigation. Clinton and Lynch insisted that their conversation was purely social.[75]
On November 10, a Clinton aide said he had phoned Trump that afternoon to congratulate the president-elect on his victory.[76] On December 20, Trump tweeted that Clinton called him after the election, which Clinton himself shortly afterward confirmed, and that the former president "doesn't know much" about attracting voters in swing states.[77]
Clinton served as a member of the United States Electoral College for the state of New York.[78] He voted for the Democratic ticket consisting of his wife Hillary and her running-mate Tim Kaine.
Clinton spoke at the 2020 Democratic National Convention on August 18, 2020 in support of Joe Biden. Clinton again served as a member of the United States Electoral College from New York, casting his vote for the Democratic ticket of Biden and Kamala Harris. On January 20, 2021, the Clintons attended Biden's inauguration. Along with Obama and George W. Bush, Clinton laid a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and recorded a segment for the Celebrate America special offering words of wisdom for the new president.
Other
Soccer
This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (June 2019)
Clinton attended an event marking the 30th anniversary of the Family and Medical Leave Act on February 2, 2023.
Disbarment from Supreme Court practice
Clinton was disbarred from practicing law before the Supreme Court of the United States in 2001.[79]
Fiction writer
In May 2017, Clinton announced that he would be co-authoring a book called "The President is Missing" with his best selling crime novelist, James Patterson. The book was released in June 2018.
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