Dale Bumpers, a former U.S. Senator and Governor of the state of Arkansas, has passed away at the age of 90.
The late lawyer and politician, whose first election victory came in 1970 when he defeated former Governor Orval Faubus in the Democratic gubernational primary, gained notoriety during 42nd U.S. President Bill Clinton’s reign when he came to the former president’s defense during his impeachment trial, Fox News reported.
During the impeachment trial, the small-town Arkansas lawyer delivered a speech that, according to Reuters, helped salvage Clinton’s presidency. The speech, which was delivered shortly after his resignation from the Senate, was part of his closing argument at the trial. In it, he told his fellow Democrats to take comfort “in the fact that I’m not being paid” to defend Clinton, whose impeachment trial stemmed from an alleged sexual affair with Monica Lewinsky– a White House intern at the time.
You can take some comfort, colleagues, in the fact that I’m not being paid. And when I’m finished, you’ll probably think the White House got their money’s worth […] We are here today because the president suffered a terrible moral lapse, a marital infidelity, not a breach of the public trust, not a crime against society.
Bumpers, whose uncanny ability to trump incumbents earned him the nickname the “giant killer,” passed away on Friday night in Little Rock, Arkansas.
In the primary of ’74, the close friend of Bill Clinton managed to beat Senator J. William Fulbright.
The late Bumpers was born in Charleston, Arkansas on August 12, 1925.
Prior to becoming a successful lawyer, he served in the Marine Corps during the second world war.
that he passed away from complications related to a broken hip that he sustained during a recent fall,
His son, Brett Bumpers, indicated that he passed away at home while surrounded by members of his family. Brett also indicated that his father’s passing came as the result of a broken hip that he sustained during a recent fall and that his father was under hospice care at the time of his demise, the Los Angeles Times reported.
He died from natural causes, according to his son Brett.
