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DIANE SAWYER (VO) Tonight, an exclusive interview with independent counsel Kenneth Starr, a man accused of trying to impose his personal beliefs on everyone else. (on camera) So to the people who say you’re a prude, you’re a puritan, you’re the sex police, you say what? (VO) A country has been in crisis over a 22—year—old intern. Can the prosecutor justify what he has done? KENNETH STARR We didn’t create these facts. DIANE SAWYER (VO) But he did create the referral with its lurid details, igniting that firestorm of controversy and criticism. (on camera) You’ve been compared to Saddam Hussein, Nero, to Torquemada, who was the head of The Inquisition.
DIANE SAWYER (VO) We will take you for the first time inside the prosecutor’s war room to meet some key members of his legal team, including one of the men who grilled the President for the grand jury. ROBERT BITTMAN, DEPUTY INDEPENDENT COUNSEL It was very eerie. You’re in the majesty of the White House, and then you’re facing the President of the United States, and then you have to ask him these questions. DIANE SAWYER (VO) Is it a vast right wing conspiracy with this man leading the charge? Tonight, the tables turned on the prosecutor. (on camera) Do I have a right to ask you about your sex life? KENNETH STARR If you’re going to ask, go ahead. DIANE SAWYER (VO) The man who has held a country captive finally speaks. (on camera) When is this going to be over? ANNOUNCER That story tonight, Wednesday, November 25, 1998, after this brief message. (Commercial Break) ANNOUNCER From ABCNEWS in New York, Diane Sawyer. DIANE SAWYER, ABCNEWS Good evening. And welcome to 20/20 Wednesday. Sam is away tonight. In a recent magazine article, a friend of the President claims Mr Clinton once said this about independent counsel Kenneth Starr, “That man is evil. When this is over, only one of us is going to be standing, and it’s going to be me.” The President versus the prosecutor. They are two powerful men locked in a bitter battle. Yet, until his congressional testimony last week, few people had heard Starr speak. We only knew that his investigation has polarized a nation and that most everybody says it’s time for him to stop. And something else—a question about him. Has he really been pursuing the President to enforce the law, or because of his private view of personal morality? Tonight, as you meet the independent counsel in his first interview, that’s exactly where we begin. (interviewing) As you know, you have been cast in the role of a moral crusader in an ambiguous world, that you are self—righteous, sanctimonious, that you have moral certainty into areas where other people have doubt and humanity. What do you think about extramarital sex? What do you think about extramarital sex? KENNETH STARR, INDEPENDENT COUNSEL Well, I think it’s—I think it’s wrong. I think it’s wrong at a moral level, and I just also think it’s, you know, unwise. I think it is injurious to one’s self. DIANE SAWYER Is it a grave sin? KENNETH STARR You know, at a moral level, it’s each person’s determination about what kind of life he or she is going to live.
KENNETH STARR I say they are both wrong and that the point is entirely missing what it is that I was assigned to do, and I was assigned to do a job by the attorney general, and that was to find out whether crimes were committed in this sexual harassment lawsuit. DIANE SAWYER Because you know one of the questions people sitting at home have is, “When is he going to fold his tent and leave town?” When is this going to be over? KENNETH STARR We would like to fold our tents and leave town. We have to get the job done. And fortunately, we are coming to the point where we are making our final decisions in terms of any actions that we may be taking. DIANE SAWYER What do you think of Bill Clinton? KENNETH STARR I’m going to leave out all aspects of the investigation. Extraordinarily talented, wonderfully empathetic, and I’ve been with people in the course of this work who—who are very close to him, and I think he inspires just tremendous affection and loyalty by, you know, a wide range of—of people. DIANE SAWYER So you like him? KENNETH STARR He is extraordinarily likable as a person, and the issues that we have had to face have been issues that, you know, are difficult. Let’s say that. DIANE SAWYER Do you think it’s eerie the parallels in your life and Bill Clinton’s life? That you were both born in the summer of ’46, that you were both the smartest kid in the class, that when you come to Washington—in fact, at various stages in your lives, you have been within hundreds of feet of each other on parallel tracks? KENNETH STARR We were actually in the same elevator together ... DIANE SAWYER When? KENNETH STARR ... years ago. DIANE SAWYER You remember? KENNETH STARR Mm—hmm, yeah. I think he had recently been elected governor. DIANE SAWYER (VO) It was his first sighting ever of the gregarious young Clinton charming even the strangers in the crowd.
DIANE SAWYER (on camera) Do you feel that you have a lot in common? KENNETH STARR Yes, I do, because I spent time in Arkansas. I was in college for a year and a half in Arkansas. DIANE SAWYER What’s the major way you’re different? KENNETH STARR Well, I can’t—I can’t speak—but no, I think we have a tremendous amount in common. DIANE SAWYER Someone said, who had worked for you, “He would just die if you told a dirty joke in front of him.” True? KENNETH STARR No, I’m—I—I have heard a lot of dirty jokes, and I’m still, thank goodness, alive and well. DIANE SAWYER Do you hate R—rated movies? KENNETH STARR I’ve seen—I’ve—I’ve seen any number of movies with—with that—with that kind of rating. So do I—and I’ve enjoyed a lot of those movies. DIANE SAWYER What’s your favorite movie?
DIANE SAWYER What did that kid want most when he grew up? KENNETH STARR I was really torn between some form of public service, and I really didn’t have a clue as to what it would be, and then the ministry.
KENNETH STARR Well, I thought about it.
KENNETH STARR Right, mm—hmm. DIANE SAWYER No dancing, no movies? KEN STARR Oh, no, that’s not true. DIANE SAWYER No? KENNETH STARR Well, there were no movies. We—it was ... DIANE SAWYER I thought dancing was a sin. KENNETH STARR Well, it was viewed as not the wisest thing to do. DIANE SAWYER Did you do it secretly? Did you sneak and dance? KENNETH STARR No, in fact, when I was junior class president in high school, it felt—my weighty duties included planning the prom. DIANE SAWYER But you didn’t go and didn’t dance? KENNETH STARR That’s right. DIANE SAWYER You believed that strongly? KENNETH STARR No. It was really more out of respect for my parents. People understood in my class that I had feelings about things, and I tried to live by what I thought was the right thing to do. DIANE SAWYER So did you think it was wicked? KENNETH STARR No, no.
KENNETH STARR My mother made one comment. You know I did, in fact, do that, but the idea that that was fun—no. I had a tremendous amount of fun activities throughout growing up. But I didn’t have to go around, you now, carousing and living some sort of—what shall I say—more typical teenaged life in order to have, you know, a really good time. And I did. I loved my high school friends. I had a ton of friends. DIANE SAWYER What was the most rebellious thing you did? (Laughter)
DIANE SAWYER (VO) He’s been living in the same house for 21 years. He’s been married to the same woman for 28 years. The former Alice Mendell, who was a well—educated career girl from the suburbs of New York City and not of his own faith. (on camera) Alice Mendell—I think it would surprise a lot of people that her family was Jewish. KENNETH STARR Yes, uh—huh. DIANE SAWYER (VO) They have three children together. She taught him to dance, though he says he doesn’t do it very well. And as for the religious differences, all he would say is they worship together. (on camera) I think one of the things that makes people uneasy ... KENNETH STARR Yeah. DIANE SAWYER ... is the concern that your religious principles ... KENNETH STARR Uh—huh. DIANE SAWYER ... are an “engine” fueling your legal work. And they read that you jog and sing hymns and pray. And I think they wonder. Do you think God is on your side? (Laughter)
DIANE SAWYER Because, again, people—people wonder if you understand human frailty. KENNETH STARR I’ve got plenty of frailties. I have plenty of frailties and—and ... DIANE SAWYER But human frailty in this area, this strange continent of marriages ... KENNETH STARR Right. DIANE SAWYER ... and sexual relations. KENNETH STARR And I’m not passing judgment on that in my role as independent counsel.
KENNETH STARR Absolutely. It’s the very job of a law officer or a judge to try, as best he or she can, to set aside personal feelings and to say, “Look, I’ve got to be guided by the rules.” DIANE SAWYER So again, to go back and try to be very careful here. If the President had an affair with an intern in the White House and had never testified about it under oath ... |
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