Let’s be honest, if someone came up to you and asked if you had heard the controversy about Bill and Hillary Clinton, there’s only one honest response: “which one?” Bill Clinton racked up quite a few controversies during his two terms as president in the ‘90s. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton stirred up her own share of controversy as the Secretary of State and, later, in her attempted bid for the presidency.
Indeed, Bill and Hillary Clinton have had so many controversies that it is easy to overlook even fairly big ones. For example, most people are unaware of the wild scandal involving White House furniture and other assorted goods. It may not be that well-known, but as recently as last year, this controversy still haunted America’s most notorious politicians. Just what is this scandal, and what does it tell us about Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton? Keep reading to find out!
A history of bizarre scandals
Bill Clinton was one of America’s better presidents, at least in terms of leading the country through a time of peace and prosperity. There were no new wars, the World Wide Web was born, and the economy was booming. Unfortunately, this made it easier to focus on his many scandals, including the multiple women who came forward to allege they had an affair with him. The most prominent of these women was Monica Lewinsky, and confirmation of her affair with Clinton nearly cost him the presidency.
Hillary Clinton’s scandals came later on. When she was Secretary of State, many blamed her for the horrific Benghazi attack, claiming that she should have provided more security for the American embassy. Later, when she ran for president, it was revealed that she used a private server for government business, making many potential voters think she was too sloppy with information to be in charge of the entire country.
Those controversies electrified millions of people around the world. But in many ways, that paled in comparison to the weirdness of a scandal we like to call “Furnituregate.”
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The birth of “Furnituregate”
The Furnituregate scandal goes all the way back to when Bill and Hillary Clinton left the White House in 2001. They were moving home after Bill’s two terms as president and looking forward to starting the next chapter of their lives. The only problem was that the Clintons didn’t leave America’s most famous home empty-handed. Instead, they left with a bunch of furniture, artwork, fine China, and assorted other items.
Now, quite a few people are guilty of walking out of their former workplace with a few knick-knacks, so you might not think this was much of a problem. However, the Clintons didn’t exactly walk out with staplers or other cheap items. The total value of the items they took home was a whopping $190,000. That would have been pretty scandalous on its own because it looked like the president and his wife were taking everything in the White House that wasn’t bolted on. But what turned this controversy into a potential legal matter was the question of how much of this stuff the Clintons were even allowed to have after they left office.
Was what the Clintons did illegal?
Now that you know about the weirdness of Furnituregate, you probably have a simple question: was it legal for the Clintons to take all this stuff from the White House? The answer to that question isn’t so simple, though. You see, presidents are allowed (within certain guidelines) to keep gifts that have been given to him from both foreign and domestic individuals, and Clinton certainly received many presents from visiting dignitaries. Unfortunately, there are lingering questions regarding what was meant as a gift to Clinton, specifically, and what was meant as a gift to the White House.
Obviously, that’s the dividing line here: any gifts intended for Bill Clinton were fair game for him to take home, regardless of their value. But taking gifts meant for the White House amounts to theft. Weirdly petty theft, too, which is why the Clintons get teased to this day about the incident. Last year, when Hillary Clinton griped about Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project, Ted Cruz called back to Furnituregate, quipping, “At least he didn’t steal the silverware.’
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How the Clintons tried (and failed) to make things right
How did Bill and Hillary Clinton react to this strange scandal? In 2001, they tried to make the scandal go away by returning approximately $28,000 worth of items and cutting a check to the government for $86,000. They hoped that this would make things right, and they further hoped that, after looking into the matter, the government would conclude that the $28,000 of items belonged to the Clintons and return them.
Neither hope panned out. The returned items (which ended up being worth closer to $50,000) were deemed the property of the government, and the Clintons never saw them again. And while the check they cut helped smooth things over in the short-term, the bizarre optics of a departing president leaving the White House with nearly $200,000 worth of stuff continue to haunt the Clintons, casting a long shadow over their troubled political legacy.