President Bill Clinton apologized. President Donald Trump said, "It was all bullshit."
Two modern-day presidents were impeached and acquitted and their reactions were polar opposites.
Trump on Thursday, the morning after the U.S. Senate cleared him on two impeachment counts, was defiant and confrontational, praising the Republicans who voted to acquit and attacking Democrats as "vicious and mean."
Trump entered the packed East Room at the White House to a standing ovation from supporters, recognized the legal team who represented him before the Senate and mocked the Democrats who had tried to get him ousted.
The end result? He held up a copy of the front page of The Washington Post to more applause. "Trump Acquitted."
During his gleeful victory lap, he insulted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the lead House impeachment manager, Rep. Adam Schiff, calling them "horrible" people.
He described his impeachment as a "witch hunt" that started the day he and first lady Melania Trump came down the elevator at Trump Tower in New York City to announce his candidacy for president.
"It was evil, it was corrupt. It was dirty cops," he said.
"We went through hell," he added.
The attempt to remove him from office after his unexpected win began with what he called "Russia, Russia, Russia," the investigation into whether his campaign had conspired with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election.
"It was all bullshit," Trump said as he talked for about an hour and repeated falsehoods on a range of issues, bouncing from his firing of former FBI Director James Comey to the day Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise was shot during a congressional baseball practice.
Senate Impeachment Trial
Trump's "celebration," as the president called it, was in stark contrast to Clinton's contrition after he escaped removal from office.
To start, 21 years ago this month, Clinton apologized. In a very short statement in the Rose Garden, he said he was profoundly sorry for what he had done -- lying under oath and to Americans about his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
After his acquittal, he said he was “humbled and very grateful” for the prayers he had gotten from millions of Americans and called for the country to come together.
Here is his statement:
"Now that the Senate has fulfilled its constitutional responsibility, bringing this process to a conclusion, I want to say again to the American people how profoundly sorry I am for what I said and did to trigger these events and the great burden they have imposed on the Congress and on the American people. I also am humbled and very grateful for the support and the prayers I have received from millions of Americans over this past year.
"Now I ask all Americans, and I hope all Americans, here in Washington and throughout our land, will rededicate ourselves to the work of serving our nation and building our future together. This can be, and this must be, a time of reconciliation and renewal for America. Thank you very much.”
Some credit an earlier apology Clinton made at a White House prayer breakfast as having helped to convince Democrats to stick by him.
"I don't think there is a fancy way to say that I have sinned," he said then. "It is important to me that everybody who has been hurt know that the sorrow I feel is genuine -- first and most important, my family, also my friends, my staff, my Cabinet, Monica Lewinsky and her family, and the American people."
Trump on Thursday morning also spoke at a prayer breakfast.
Previewing his comments at the White House while speaking before the National Prayer Breakfast, he appeared to mock the religious faith of Pelosi and Sen. Mitt Romney, of Utah, the only Republican to vote to convict him.
"As everybody knows, my family, our great country, and your president, have been put through a terrible ordeal by some very dishonest and corrupt people,” Trump said. “They have done everything possible to destroy us, and by so doing, very badly hurt our nation.”
Trump did apologize, but to his family.
"I want to apologize to my family for having them have to go through a phony, rotten deal by some very evil and sick people," he said.
