Today we will be continuing our series on the dark and sordid history of the Clinton administration for the young and perpetually uninformed. The person in this picture is named Linda Tripp. She was a former White House aide who worked at the Pentagon’s Public Affairs Office. In April of 1996, she met another former White House aide named Monica Lewinsky who had just been transferred to work in the Pentagon as an assistant. Over the course of that summer, Lewinsky began to reveal to Linda Tripp that she was having an ongoing affair with the President of the United States. She informed Tripp that she was deeply in love with Bill Clinton.
Over the course of the next year, Lewinsky’s relationship with the President gradually deteriorated. Lewinsky began to voice frustration over the way she was being treated and sent Mr. Clinton an angry letter. Lewinsky informed the President that only she and Linda Tripp knew about the ongoing affair but threatened to go public with this information if he did not agree to meet with her. Linda Tripp quickly became concerned about this situation. Tripp had been working in the White House on the night that Jerry Parks was assassinated back in 1993. She reported witnessing a flurry of phone calls and secrecy by the White House senior staff as information regarding the death of Mr. Parks came in over the fax machine. She had reportedly seen a similar burst of action in the West Wing on the night that Vince Foster had died. After looking into these two incidents, Linda Tripp suspected that these people were killed in the first few months of President Clinton’s term in order to keep them both quiet.
Linda Tripp ultimately decided to start recording her conversations with Monica Lewinsky. She explains that she felt compelled to do this in order to provide herself with some potential leverage because she was beginning to fear for her life. Tripp continues to record and collect conversations with Monica Lewinsky over the course of many months. During this period, President Clinton is becoming entangled in an ongoing sexual harassment lawsuit by former Arkansas state employee, Paula Jones. Lewinsky and Tripp are both subpoenaed to testify in this ongoing lawsuit which reportedly makes President Clinton very nervous.
Linda Tripp eventually calculates that she might end up in real physical danger if she doesn’t quickly go public with her knowledge of President Clinton. She soon provides her recorded conversations to investigators. She leaks information to the press and to the personal attorneys of Paula Jones. She agrees to wear a wire and extract as much information from her friend as possible. The public backlash which Linda Tripp faces for her actions is brutal. The press painted Tripp as a terrible friend who betrayed someone who trusted her. People made fun of Linda Tripp’s weight as well as her looks. Actor John Goodman developed a morbidly obese character on Saturday Night Live named Linda Tripp and the show mocked her appearance almost every single weekend. In Linda Tripp’s mind, the public scrutiny was almost unbearable but at least she had kept herself and Monica Lewinsky safe.
The released information eventually led to the discovery of one famously stained blue dress. Bill Clinton was forced to publicly admit to his prolonged affair in the Oval Office with Monica Lewinsky and his repeated lies to the American people. The President was subsequently impeached by the House of Representatives on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. According to Linda Tripp herself, no one was more ruthless towards her during the aftermath than Hillary Clinton. Tripp stated that Mrs. Clinton routinely attempted to destroy her in the media. Friends reportedly overheard Hillary Clinton tell her staff, “Get anything and everything on Linda Tripp.” Tripp believed that Hillary wanted the defamation of her character and the destruction of her credibility to begin right away.
Linda Tripp may be one of the most misunderstood characters in this whole saga. She did not consider her role as a traitor to Monica Lewinsky but as a protector. She simply believed that she was trying to help bring down a corrupt administration while keeping herself and those around her safe. She has remained out of the public spotlight until just very recently. She decided a few months ago to speak out publicly against Hillary Clinton’s Presidential aspirations. She recently proclaimed in a public statement, “Without a doubt it’s time for a female president but it is without a doubt not the time nor will it ever be the time for Hillary Clinton to be that president. She simply lacks the integrity.”
