The President is Missing

Bill Clinton was born in 1968 and trained as a lawyer before serving as the Arkansas state attorney general and then governor. He was elected as the 42nd president of the United States in 1992 and assumed office on January 20, 1993. Clinton was reelected for a second term in 1996.

In early 1998, it came to light that Clinton had engaged in a sexual relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky; the scandal around these allegations and Clinton’s response significantly impacted perceptions of his leadership. In December 1998, Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives (the lower house of the US Congress). This made him the second US president to be impeached and the first in more than 100 years (after Andrew Jackson in 1868).

However, Clinton was not removed from office: In January 1999, his impeachment trial began in the Senate, and he was acquitted of charges related to perjury and obstruction of justice. He remained in office until 2001. These experiences of impeachment are reflected in the plot of The President Is Missing, in which President Duncan faces impending impeachment based on false allegations.

Clinton was the leader of the Democratic Party but focused on a “third-way” approach to government, in which he tried to moderate and avoid rigid divides between the interests and ideologies of both the Democratic and Republican Parties.