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  • 2 days ago
This historic documentary takes a behind the scenes look at the speaker of the house and the resulting election of 1998. Camera’s capture Newt Gingrich at work and provides insight into the second most powerful politician in the country. Gingrich granted the producers unprecedented access in what turned out to be one of the most tumultuous times in recent American history. The Fall of Newt Gingrich showcases a period of remarkable drama, tremendous upheaval, including the moving of articles of impeachment against the President of the United States, the 1998 elections, where Republicans were trying to maintain majority control of the U.S. House. It culminates in the stunning resignations of Speaker Gingrich just days after the election, and then the resignation on the floor of the U.S. House of Representative of Congressman Bob Livingston, who was to succeed Gingrich as Speaker of the House.
Transcript
00:18This is where most of the dinosaur eggs have come from in North America.
00:23It is Labor Day weekend, 1998.
00:27Newt Gingrich, the Republican Speaker of the House, is on vacation in Montana.
00:32He is indulging his lifelong passion for dinosaurs.
00:36It's a piece of a Troodon tooth, a little meat eater that nested here.
00:40You can actually see the serrations on the edge that's towards you.
00:46Gingrich has had a rocky four years since he came to power, constantly battling President Clinton.
00:52Did you find something?
00:53But now he feels he can relax.
00:56Good morning.
00:57The ongoing Clinton scandal may finally be working to his advantage.
01:03Back in January, rumors of Bill Clinton's affair with a White House intern first became a national issue.
01:10I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.
01:18But in the next eight months, a lot changed.
01:21Monica Lewinsky produced a stained blue dress.
01:24An independent counsel, Ken Starr, compelled Clinton to testify under oath before a grand jury.
01:30Indeed, I did have a relationship with Miss Lewinsky that was not appropriate.
01:34In fact, it was wrong.
01:38There's a lot of eggshell right here.
01:41Gingrich, like almost everyone else, assumes that this new phase of the scandal will help his party politically.
01:48That's a very nice rock.
01:49So as he contemplates the future while digging up the past, Gingrich anticipates pushing new legislation through Congress and then
01:59winning more House seats in the November election.
02:01They're mostly marsupials.
02:04Today, he may be the most powerful man in America.
02:08But the next six months would be full of surprises.
02:12Do you think that was the surface then or do you think it was compressed into this?
02:16Well, it, it, we're pretty sure it's the surface then.
02:20Yeah, because...
02:22Lots of little hills and then, I mean, little, tiny mountains.
02:25Mm-hmm.
02:26And then the nest in between.
02:32Thanks for having me.
02:33You MINI.
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