Overview
- Gingrich made the admission on the New York Post’s Pod Force One podcast on Wednesday, May 27, 2026, saying the Lewinsky story “trivialized” the case against Bill Clinton.
- He argued the central legal issue was Clinton’s alleged perjury in the Paula Jones sexual-harassment case, which led to a civil-contempt finding and a five-year suspension of Clinton’s Arkansas law license after his presidency.
- Gingrich said a conversation with his two daughters in the summer of 1998 — when they warned that voters would punish Republicans for economic harm tied to the scandal — convinced him the strategy had backfired.
- The interview framed the remark as a political reassessment rather than a new legal claim, noting that the House impeached Clinton in 1998 but the Senate acquitted him in 1999 and Gingrich resigned as House speaker after the 1998 midterms and ethics scrutiny.
- News outlets from the New York Post to The Independent and Mediaite reported the comments, and the exchange may sharpen debates inside the GOP about strategy and political messaging without creating any new legal consequences.