Former President Bill Clinton attempted to be diplomatic Sunday when discussing the death last week of Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel who led the investigation into him during his presidency.
“I read the obituary, and I realized that his family loved him, and I think that’s something to be grateful for,” he said speaking in an interview that aired Sunday on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS.”
“When your life is over, that’s all there is to say,” he added.
The Starr investigation began in August 1994 as an effort to sort out a complicated Arkansas land deal known as Whitewater, and its connection to Bill and Hillary Clinton. In the course of the investigation, an affair between Bill Clinton and White House intern Monica Lewinsky became public knowledge, leading to Clinton’s impeachment in 1998 and an unsuccessful attempt by congressional Republicans to remove him from office.
Starr, 76, died last week in Houston after what was described by his family as a long hospitalization combating an undisclosed illness. After his years as special counsel, Starr served as president of Baylor University — he stepped down in 2016 after revelations of a sexual assault scandal on campus — and joined President Donald Trump’s legal team during his first impeachment trial.
“I have nothing to say. Except I’m glad he died with the love of his family,” Clinton said of Starr.