FORMER President Bill Clinton has advised Donald Trump to focus on his own agenda and leave fighting impeachment to his staff.
Clinton said that his message to Trump would be, “You got hired to do a job,” and warned the president would not get back the days that he chooses to “blow off.”
The olive branch of advice comes despite rumors Clinton’s wife, Hillary, is once again considering a run for the presidency in 2020.
Speaking to CNN in a phone interview on Thursday, Clinton said: “My message would be, look, you got hired to do a job.
“You don’t get the days back you blow off. Every day is an opportunity to make something good happen.
“And I would say, ‘I’ve got lawyers and staff people handling this impeachment inquiry, and they should just have at it,’
“Meanwhile, I’m going to work for the American people. That’s what I would do.”
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Clinton offered insight into how to handle impeachment, having himself been impeached by the GOP-controlled House in 1998.
When Clinton’s trial reached the Senate in 1999, however, it failed to get close to the two-thirds backing needed to remove him from office.
During his impeachment process, Clinton managed to work through his own agenda – but Trump has declared on numerous occasions that he will not work with a Democratic-controlled Congress while he is under investigation.
The House held its first public hearings tied to Trump’s impeachment inquiry on Wednesday, with the president alleged to have pressured Ukraine’s government to investigate former Vice President and domestic political rival Joe Biden.
Clinton’s comments come within days of his wife once again being talked about as a potential presidential candidate.
HILARY 2020
Having lost out to President Obama in 2008 and Trump in 2016, Clinton said she is being urged by “many, many, many people” to run in 2020.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, the former secretary of state said: “I, as I say, never, never, never say never.
“I will certainly tell you, I’m under enormous pressure from many, many, many people to think about it.”
It is not the first time Hilary has alluded to entering the 2020 race, either.
After Trump himself urged “Crooked Hillary” to run again on Twitter, Clinton responded: “Don’t tempt me. Do your job.”
Her husband called into CNN on Thursday to discuss a shooting at a southern California high school, which left two people dead and several others wounded.
Clinton signed off an assault weapons ban in 1994, but that has since expired.
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Following the back-to-back shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, earlier this year, the Trump administration said it was open to talks with lawmakers about stronger background checks.
Those talks failed to develop, however, and Attorney General William Barr said Wednesday that negotiations over potential congressional action against gun violence in America have been halted due to impeachment.
Clinton said: “That’s just an excuse.”
What is impeachment of the President of the United States?
Impeachment is a formal charge of serious wrongdoing against sitting a President.
It is one of the few ways they can be kicked out of the White House before an election.
The US Constitution states a President “shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanours”.
Presidents from George Washington onwards have often threatened with impeachment but usually their political opponents have lacked the will or support to carry it out.
The initial stage of the process comes in the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of Congress, which has “sole power of impeachment”.
The House votes on whether the President should face the impeachment and a simple majority is required for that to go ahead.
Then the case would be tried by the Senate, the upper chamber of Congress, where a two-thirds majority is needed.
Only two Presidents in history have been impeached.
The most recent was Bill Clinton, who was impeached in the House on charges of perjury and obstructing justice in 1998.
It related to his denials of an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
However, when the trial reached the Senate, it failed to get close to the two-thirds backing it needed to remove him from office.
The other was Andrew Johnson, who served as President for four years from 1865.
He was impeached by the House in 1868, just 11 days after he got rid of his secretary of war Edwin Stanton.
The two-thirds majority needed in the Senate was missed by just one vote.
Richard Nixon resigned before he could be impeached over the Watergate scandal.
