Gore says Clinton is 'not going to resign nor should he'

NASHUA, New Hampshire (September 18) -- Vice President Al Gore said Friday President Bill Clinton is "not going to resign nor should he" in the wake of the ongoing Monica Lewinsky investigation.

In a series of local newspaper interviews, Gore said the president will serve out the remainder of his term "with a distinguished record that will go down in history as a virtuoso performance ... an economic recovery producing an American renaissance."

Gore said the report Independent Counsel Ken Starr delivered to Congress "does not serve as a basis of impeachment."

But he said in an interview with the Concord Monitor he agrees with Clinton's comment that his behavior with Lewinsky was "indefensible."

"I feel badly for him," Gore said. "What he did was wrong. But the country balances it against the good things he has done as president."

Gore added he hopes Congress will find a way "to proceed on a bipartisan basis" regarding the release of the tape of the president's grand jury testimony.

Asked if he condemend the president's actions, Gore says the president "himself has condemned it."

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