On August 17, 1998, Bill Clinton admitted a relationship with Monica Lewinsky that “was not appropriate.” In the same speech he attacked the investigation: “It is time to stop the pursuit of personal destruction …”
On September 11, at a breakfast with religious leaders, he agreed that his first remarks had been “not contrite enough.” “I don’t think there is a fancy way to say that I have sinned.” He spoke of “genuine repentance — a determination to change and to repair breaches of my own making.”