Rhetorical Analysis Of 'President Clinton Testifies'

In Clinton’s address to the public, “President Clinton Testifies”, he downplays his action of cheating on his wife with Monica Lewinsky and emphasizes the overbearing reaction of the public into his life to make him appear as the victim in the situation. He is being forced to confessed, but he tries to come across like he is doing it out of his own volition to get the focus off of himself and hopefully have everyone forget about the ordeal to rebuild his credibility. Clinton starts with a seemingly apologetic tone to comfort the people but quickly changes to a defensive tone of establishing himself as having done nothing wrong. In the end, there is a shift of reprimanding the public for prying into his private situations and not moving along with other important matters of the country. To begin his speech, Clinton initiates imagery by referencing that “from this chair” in the Oval Office that he is speaking to establish his credibility. His location reinforces the idea that he is still president and therefore he must be a trustworthy man. The inclusion of irony in that he “truthfully” answered previously asked questions suggests that he never bent the truth making him seem like a

That implies that he is not the wrong in fault, but more the people who keep harassing him. The inclusion of parallelism in that these claims have “gone on too long, cost too much, and hurt too many innocent people” suggests that Clinton is not the problem at all. He is implying that the repercussions of his actions are not because of him alone, but that of those who have kept the investigation going. Clinton then includes ethos when he mentions that he lives for “our God” which establishes that he is religious and an upright