Clinton Torn Over Lying About Lewinsky

June 23, 2004 -- -- When Bill Clinton looks back at his denials that he had an affair with Monica Lewinsky, he regrets lying, but also believes that telling the truth could have cost him the presidency.

In January 1998, Clinton was asked about his relationship with Lewinsky, a former White House intern, in sworn grand jury testimony in a sexual harassment lawsuit being brought by another woman, Paula Jones. The president flatly denied having sex with Lewinsky and asking her to lie about it under oath.

His statements came to the attention of Whitewater special prosecutor Kenneth Starr, whose investigation of the matter eventually led to Clinton's impeachment.

Why didn't the former president simply tell the truth?

"I didn't do it because there was so much hysteria and because I didn't know what Ken Starr was going to do to anybody," Clinton said in an interview with Good Morning America's Charles Gibson. "I thought the American people almost always get it right, if they're given enough time and enough information. There was just this madness. Everybody was saying 'Clinton's dead meat.'"

Many people told him that telling the truth would have cost him the White House, Clinton says.

"I will never know what would have happened, but I can only tell you this," Clinton said. "I have not talked to a single person who was there then, who knew what was going on, who believes that I would survive as president if I had said that. Not one. Not any one."

Regrettable Sound Bite

In a now-infamous sound bite at a White House event, Clinton denied the affair for a second time. He wagged his finger and said: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time, never. These allegations are false, and I need to go back to work for the American people."

He regrets saying those words now.

"That was a mistake and I think I shouldn't have said it,' Clinton said." I think what I should have said was the truth. I should have said I didn't violate the law and I never asked anybody else to violate the law, and that's all I should have said."