Slow Burn: The Clinton Impeachment | Ep. 8 “Move On” (Oct 10, 2018) — Detailed Summary

Episode Overview

The season finale of Slow Burn’s second season focuses on the explosive aftermath of Independent Counsel Ken Starr’s report to Congress regarding President Bill Clinton’s conduct. This episode, titled “Move On,” explores not only the legal and political battles over impeachment, but also the surfacing of a bombshell sexual assault allegation buried deep in the evidence files. Through interviews, archival audio, and behind-the-scenes accounts, host Leon Neyfakh examines how both major parties processed the mounting scandals around Clinton, how a previously sidelined accusation from Juanita Broaddrick gained new attention, and what these events revealed about American politics, the legal process, and the country’s reckoning with presidential misconduct.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Arrival of Starr’s Report and the Deluge of Evidence

• [00:00–01:13]
  • Ken Starr delivers his long-awaited referral to Congress in September 1998 after a four-year investigation.
  • The report includes 36 boxes (18 each to Democrats and Republicans) of raw material including grand jury testimony, interview transcripts, and internal memos.
  • These materials were made available exclusively to the House Judiciary Committee as they contemplated whether to move toward impeachment.

“Hundreds of pages that are the culmination of four years of a controversial investigation… transported in a pair of white vans… locked in a room in the Ford Office Building.”
— Leon Neyfakh (00:42)

2. The Role of Congressional Democrats: Abby Lowell’s Assessment

• [01:13–03:30]
  • Abby Lowell, a lawyer recruited in preparation for potential impeachment proceedings, heads the Democratic review of Starr’s findings.
  • Lowell and his team comb through the evidence over a grueling weekend, under intense expectation from party leaders Dick Gephardt and Tom Daschle.
  • Their task: determine if the President’s actions formed legitimate grounds for impeachment.
  • Lowell concludes that while Clinton’s conduct was inappropriate for a President, it did not legally constitute an impeachable offense such as perjury, obstruction of justice, or abuse of power.

“The President of the United States committed conduct that was not anywhere close to what we expect a President… but I did not see his conduct as violating… any of the criminal statutes… nor… an abuse of power that would have risen to an impeachable offense.”
— Abby Lowell (02:53)

3. Political Stakes and Democratic Positioning

• [03:30–04:38]
  • Armed with this legal analysis, Democratic leadership—especially Gephardt—commits to defending Clinton, framing Republican drive for impeachment as politically motivated.
  • Gephardt warns Congress against a protracted process:

“If we stay here for 3, 6, 9, 12 months, 2 years in suspended animation while we go over every charge… we will hurt our country and our people and our children.”
— Dick Gephardt (03:54)

4. The Buried Bombshell: Juanita Broaddrick’s Allegation

• [04:38–05:31]
  • Among thousands of pages, a single reference surfaces in an appendix: a claim by “Jane Doe Number Five,” later identified as Juanita Broaddrick, that Clinton sexually assaulted her years earlier.
  • Starr’s team had deemed this allegation as not pertinent to impeachment, so Lowell’s initial review largely overlooks it.

“Since Starr himself had concluded that this accusation was not relevant… Lowell figured his time was better spent on other material.”
— Leon Neyfakh (04:56)

5. Shifting Focus and Political Tremors

• [05:31–06:20]
  • Months later, as Broaddrick’s identity and story become public, her accusations intensify debate in Congress and beyond, shifting the lens from an “adulterer” to potentially a “violent criminal.”
  • The episode poses critical questions: How did the political and media establishment process such a grave accusation? Why did Broaddrick’s story remain sidelined in popular memory?

“All our reporting found things that tended to support her story, not undermined it.”
— Leon Neyfakh (06:11)

6. Moral Reckoning and the Limits of Accountability

• [06:11–06:20]
  • The episode challenges listeners with the dilemma of separating policy success and leadership from personal immorality or criminality.

“How do you look at the person who’s your President of the United States—and think that he’s capable of something like that?”
— Abby Lowell (06:16)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “People think that from second one, the Democrats in Congress were aligned with the President. And that’s not true.”
  — Abby Lowell (02:34)

• “It was Dick Gephardt who said to me that… if we came to that conclusion [that impeachment was warranted]… it would be he and Tom who walked up Pennsylvania Avenue and told the President that he had to resign.”
  — Abby Lowell (01:42)

• “Someone is going to get this woman on the record saying what this president did to her years ago.”
  — Abby Lowell (06:11)

Important Timestamps

• [00:00–01:13] — Overview of the Starr report’s submission; evidence arrives at Congress.
• [01:13–03:30] — Abby Lowell’s charge to analyze evidence; Democrat legal strategy forms.
• [03:30–04:38] — Gephardt’s public positioning; urgent warnings about the political fallout.
• [04:38–05:05] — Discovery of Juanita Broaddrick’s allegation in evidence files.
• [05:31–06:20] — Broaddrick’s story surfaces, raising the stakes of the impeachment debate.
• [06:11–06:20] — Episode’s central question: the struggle to reconcile leadership with allegations of violence.

Conclusion

“Move On” serves as a powerful meditation on the limits of political accountability, the blind spots of a partisan Congress, and the enduring question of how grave personal allegations should affect a President’s fate. Leon Neyfakh’s reporting and personal interviews illuminate the mechanisms—and failures—of American political institutions during one of the country’s most consequential scandals. The episode leaves listeners considering not just the events themselves, but also their resonance in how we grapple with leadership, scandal, and justice today.