BY TERENCE HUNT
AP White House Correspondent
WASHINGTON -- President Clinton said Wednesday he told "the essential truth" about his affair with Monica Lewinsky but declined to discuss her graphic account. Asked whether he might resign, he responded that Americans "want me to go on."
"The right thing for our country and the right thing for all people concerned is not to get mired in all the details here," Clinton said.
Congress, however, is plunging ahead toward possible impeachment proceedings and the release of thousands of pages of sexually explicit material. The House may vote this week to release Clinton's videotaped grand jury testimony that reportedly shows an angry, defiant president struggling with questions about Ms. Lewinsky.
Although the president did not respond directly when asked whether he might resign under any circumstances, spokesman Mike McCurry said the answer was no.
Clinton spoke at his first news conference since Friday's release of the report by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr that accuses the president of perjury, obstruction of justice and abuse of power in trying to cover up his affair.
The news conference, with visiting President Vaclev Havel of the Czech Republic, was held in a State Department auditorium where hundreds of administration employees applauded Clinton's answers. Some of them hissed at reporters' questions about Lewinsky. Havel reflected the bewilderment of many people around the world that Clinton is in such trouble about an affair. The Czech president said he didn't understand some things about the United States but that he would remain Clinton's friend, whether or not Clinton were president.
Leading Democrats have complained that Clinton and his lawyers have been splitting legal hairs about whether the president committed perjury by denying last January in a civil lawsuit that he had a sexual relationship with Ms. Lewinsky, relying on a narrow definition of sex, and again in his grand jury testimony last month. The testimony by the president and Ms. Lewinsky differs on the breadth of their sexual contact.
Asked if Ms. Lewinsky's account was truthful and accurate and whether he still maintained he had not lied, Clinton referred back to Friday's prayer breakfast at the White House where he said he had sinned and repented. "I laid out as carefully and as brutally honestly as I could what I believed the essential truth to be." Clinton refused to answer that question -- or others about the Lewinsky affair -- directly, talking instead about the challenges facing the nation and the business that needs to be done.
Asked if he had lost the moral authority to lead the nation or conduct foreign policy, Clinton asserted, "I have never stopped leading this country in foreign affairs in this entire year and I never will."
Moral authority "is something that you have to demonstrate every day," he said. "My opinion is not as important as the opinion of others. What is important is that I do my job."
"I am trying to do the still quite painful work that I need to do with my family in our own life," Clinton said. "And I'm determined to lead this country and to focus on the issues that are before us." McCurry said Clinton's lack of direct answers was intentional. "He wanted to convey one thing: that he was not going to dwell endlessly on the Lewinsky matter. He wanted to make it clear he is responsible for doing the people's business."
Clinton's only response on the resignation question was to say, "The personal toll on me is of no concern except insofar as it affects my personal life. ... And I feel, though pain, better now because I'm working on what I should be working on."
The president said the expected release of his videotaped testimony was "not of so much concern to me." He said he had thought it would come out, even though grand jury testimony traditionally is not released.
