In 1994, voters expressed their high disapproval of Clinton by giving a landslide victory to Republicans in Congress, where Republicans won 49.9% of the popular vote (compared to the Democrat's 44%). This event was tagged the "Republican Revolution," and began a series of showdowns with the Republican-led Congress.'''(sources needed)''' These showdowns were epitomized by the budget conflict with then-Speaker of the House [[Newt Gingrich]] in 1995. Gingrich refused to pass Clinton's budget proposal, and the latter threatened to shut down the government if he did not have his way. '''(sources needed)'''When Clinton called his bluff, Gingrich caused the federal government to shut down for several days.'''(sources needed)''' Clinton did not cave, however, and eventually had his budget passed [http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/commentprint082800d.html]. This showdown backfired for the Republicans, as it reinvigorated Clinton's flagging approval ratings, which would remain above 60% for most of his presidency[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/Clinton_approval_rating.JPG].
Clinton was reelected in 1996 with 49.2% of the popular vote against Republican candidate ([[Robert Dole | Bob Dole]]), who won 41%, and "populist" candidate, [[H. Ross Perot]], who won 8%. Clinton spent a lot of the remainder of his presidency combating scandals. '''(sources needed)''' A special prosecutor was named to investigate Clinton for allegations of impropriety in the Whitewater real-estate scandal, an investment of Clinton's in a failed real estate venture. '''(sources needed)''' Although nothing came out of this investigation, and it turned out that Clinton actually lost money on his investment, one of the results of the investigation was that the special prosecutor turned to investigating other Clinton activities, one of which (the [[Monica Lewinsky]] scandal) resulted in his impeachment.'''(sources needed)''' After a brief trial, the Senate acquitted all charges.'''(sources needed)'''<ref>http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/02/12/impeachment/</ref>
Clinton was impeached by the US House of Representatives during his second term for lying in grand jury testimony connected to the Paula Jones lawsuit.'''(sources needed)''' However, the US Senate voted not to remove him from office. His term also saw an increase in terrorism directed at the United States. '''(sources needed)''' These incidents included the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, the Alfred P. Murrah building bombing in Oklahoma City in 1995, the bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 and the attack on the USS Cole in 2000. '''(sources needed)''' Clinton responded by striking back at [[al Qaeda]], the organization responsible for the attacks. '''(sources needed)''' He launched cruise missile strikes aimed to kill al Qaeda's leader [[Osama bin Laden]] [http://www.cnn.com/US/9808/20/us.strikes.01/], and began planning to invade [[Afghanistan]] in order to capture bin Laden and overthrow the [[Taliban]] government[http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/nov2001/afgh-n20.shtml].