By STEVEN SLOAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — For some of their conservative critics, this is the scandal that could finally topple them. Their resistance to testifying proved futile. And now, staring down another epic fight, they’re harnessing their considerable political skills to try and turn the table on their accusers.

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For Bill and Hillary Clinton, the 1990s are back.

The Clintons are slated to testify Thursday and Friday in a House investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, part of a deal with Republicans after it became clear that Congress — with the help of some Democrats — was on track to hold them in contempt if they refused to cooperate. For the battle-hardened couple, it amounts to one more Washington brawl. And like so many of the battles that came before, this one is another mix of questionable judgment, sexual impropriety, money and power.

During his 1992 campaign, Bill Clinton pitched his candidacy as “two for the price of one,” previewing a presidential marriage like none that had come before, with a spouse whose professional credentials rivaled his. In the years since, that partnership helped the Clintons weather repeated scandals, including those so personal that many other relationships would have shattered. When his political career was ending, hers was ascending when she was elected to the U.S. Senate from New York, then served as secretary of state before becoming the Democratic nominee for president in 2016.

For those who have long watched the Clintons, this moment is a reminder that the couple — weaned on the politics of the Vietnam War and Watergate — has never been far from the heat of a cultural fight. And with the Epstein case unfolding unpredictably around the world, the Clintons are once again ensnared in the scandal of the moment.

“It’s kind of a sad but fitting coda to extraordinary political lives,” said David Maraniss, who has written two biographies of Bill Clinton.

There’s no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of either Clinton when it comes to Epstein, a convicted sex offender who committed suicide in 2019 while he was in jail awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

But Epstein had ties to Bill Clinton for years, visiting the White House multiple times in the 1990s, according to visitor logs. After Clinton left office, Epstein was involved in his philanthropy and the former president flew multiple times on his private jet.

“Traveling on Epstein’s plane was not worth the years of questioning afterward,” Bill Clinton wrote in his 2024 memoir. “I wish I had never met him.”

Bill Clinton’s ties to Epstein

By last summer, the Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee issued subpoenas for the Clintons. For months, Bill Clinton, 79, and Hillary Clinton, 78, largely ignored the matter in public but that became harder to sustain in December when the former president was featured prominently in the first batch of Epstein files.

Among thousands of documents made public, some photos showed him on a private plane, including one with a woman, whose face is redacted, seated alongside him with her arm around him. Another showed Bill Clinton in a pool with Epstein’s longtime confidant, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, and a person whose face was redacted. Yet another photo portrayed Bill Clinton in a hot tub with a woman whose face was redacted.

The oversight panel’s chairman, Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, threatened to hold the Clintons in contempt if they didn’t comply with the subpoenas, a historic move considering a former president has never been compelled to appear before Congress. Between his first and second terms, Donald Trump invoked that precedent to fend off a subpoena from the committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

While there was no context surrounding the photos of Bill Clinton, they underscored how his political promise has always been tempered by personal indiscretions.

FILE – President Clinton makes a statement as first lady Hillary Clinton looks on at the White House, Dec. 19, 1998 in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, file)

The 1992 campaign that represented the emerging preeminence of the Baby Boom generation was the same one dogged by rumors of an affair with Gennifer Flowers. A presidency largely defined by economic prosperity was nearly derailed when Clinton was impeached in 1998 for lying under oath and obstructing justice when he denied engaging in a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky.

Each time, many Republicans thought they finally found leverage over the Clintons. But each time, the Clintons found a way out of the vise.

Asa Hutchinson, the former Republican congressman from Arkansas who was a House manager during Clinton’s impeachment trial, described the couple as “a smart lawyer and brilliant communicator.”

The Clinton playbook: fight back fiercely

As each crisis surfaced, a pattern emerged: the Clintons fiercely denied the allegations and often dismissed women who came forward with claims. They villainized the GOP and re-centered the public’s attention on more favorable themes like the booming economy of the era.

FILE – President Clinton sits with first lady Hillary Clinton during a campaign rally in San Antonio, Nov. 2, 1996. (AP Photo/Greg Gibson, file)

Bill Clinton, who famously told voters “I feel your pain,” always managed to stay connected with the public. Indeed, he enjoyed some of the highest approval numbers of his presidency during his impeachment inquiry and trial, when about 7 in 10 U.S. adults approved of the way he was handling his job.

Hillary Clinton similarly dispatched Republicans who sensed an opening in her handling of a 2012 attack on a compound in Libya that killed four Americans. She came out of an 11-hour televised congressional hearing in 2015 appearing poised. Even the Republican chair of the committee probing the attack said he wasn’t sure she revealed anything new about an issue many in his party considered a scandal.

FILE – An attendee holds up a “Lock Her Up” sign before the arrival of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a campaign rally, Nov. 4, 2016, in Wilmington, Ohio. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, file)

That experience has informed how the Clintons are approaching this week’s testimony. Hillary Clinton has been especially vocal in calling for the proceedings to happen in public, rather than in private as Comer currently plans.

“We have nothing to hide,” she told the BBC earlier this month.

Bill Clinton’s communication operation has taken a sharper tone, recalling the political “war room” popularized during the 1992 campaign to respond to negative storylines.

One release accused Comer of “lying in every appearance he’s made this week.” Another mocked GOP Reps. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Andy Biggs of Arizona with a “hypocrisy award of the day,” noting how the Oversight committee members defied subpoenas from the Jan. 6 panel.

Meanwhile, the Clintons released a four-page letter to Comer on social media defiantly belittling a process they said was “literally designed to result in our imprisonment.”

FILE – President Clinton and wife Hillary share a moment during an East Room ceremony at the White House in Washington, July 17, 1996. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds, file)

Much as they tried to refocus attention during the 1990s, the letter hit the White House for dismantling institutions, imposing a harsh immigration crackdown and pardoning those involved in the Capitol riot.

Conservative attacks on the Clintons

The Clintons’ rise to power paralleled the explosion of talk radio as a political force, with Rush Limbaugh using his daily show as a platform to constantly berate the White House. Today, conservative podcasters like Benny Johnson have filled Limbuagh’s space and were gleeful after the House panel moved last month to hold the couple in contempt.

“Do you understand Donald Trump made good on his oldest promise arguably which is he told all of us 10 years ago that Hillary Clinton would be going to jail?” Johnson said last month.

Still, some dynamics have changed.

The lockstep support the Clintons enjoyed among congressional Democrats has eroded as a new generation of lawmakers has taken office — nine Democrats joined with Republicans on the House committee to advance the contempt resolution. Trump, who has faced scrutiny over his own ties to Epstein and may be uncomfortable with the precedent of forcing a former president to testify, has expressed rare concern for the Clintons.

He told NBC News that it “bothers me that somebody is going after Bill Clinton.” He has described Hillary Clinton as a “very capable woman.”

Even Hutchinson, who helped make the case for Bill Clinton’s impeachment, expressed sympathy for the couple.

“It’s frustrating and disappointing that President Clinton and Secretary Clinton are having to go through this fact-finding ordeal,” he said. “That’s difficult for them.”

By MARCIA DUNN

NASA’s Mike Fincke identified himself Wednesday as the astronaut whose medical condition prompted the space agency’s first medical evacuation.

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In a written statement, the 58-year-old spaceflight veteran revealed he was the ailing crew member last month aboard the International Space Station. He did not say what was wrong with him but explained that his condition quickly stabilized thanks to his crewmates and flight surgeons on the ground.

Fincke said he’s doing well now.

“Spaceflight is an incredible privilege, and sometimes it reminds us just how human we are,” he said in the statement.

Fincke launched with three others on a SpaceX flight last summer. Their mission came to an early end on Jan. 15, a week after he experienced what he called a “medical event that required immediate attention” by his fellow astronauts. The health concern also forced the cancellation of a planned spacewalk by Fincke and another NASA astronaut.

Following their splashdown in the Pacific, all four astronauts were taken to a San Diego hospital. They flew home to Houston the next day.

With the sick astronaut’s identity still a secret, Fincke said at a news conference a week after returning that the space station’s ultrasound machine came in handy during the medical crisis.

He elaborated Wednesday, stressing that his situation was not an emergency but that everyone wanted “to take advantage of advanced medical imaging not available on the space station.”

Fincke, a retired Air Force colonel who became an astronaut in 1996, has logged 549 days in space over four missions.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

BY MARK KENNEDY

NEW YORK (AP) — Sondra Lee, a dancer and actor discovered by the legendary choreographer-director Jerome Robbins and originated the role of Tiger Lily on Broadway in “Peter Pan” and played Minnie Fay in the original production of “Hello, Dolly!,” has died. She was 97.

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Lee died Monday of natural causes in her New York City apartment, according to her friend and colleague, the Rev. Joshua Ellis, a former Broadway press agent.

After her dancing days, Lee taught at Stella Adler’s Conservatory and New York University. She also was a consultant to such films as “Places in the Heart” with Sally Field, “The Last of the Mohicans” with Daniel Day Lewis and “The Morning After” starring Jane Fonda, Jeff Bridges and Raul Julia.

In her 2009 memoir, “I’ve Slept With Everybody,” she recounted meeting Robbins at the Shubert Theatre. She had just missed his audition for “High Button Shoes” and did not know who he was.

“Oh,” she told him. “I just auditioned for ‘Allegro’ and they found I was too short so they let me go. So I’m going home to commit suicide.” Robbins replied: “Don’t go home and commit suicide, come over here and dance for me.” She did and got the job, actually two comic roles in the show.

Robbins would become her champion and also gave her a nickname: “Peanuts,” from the Charles Shultz cartoon strip. “I had been given a gift and I ran with it,” she writes.

Other career highlights included supporting Bert Lahr and Angela Lansbury on Broadway in the farce “Hotel Paradiso,” a role in the Robert Redford-led “Sunday in New York” on Broadway and an uncredited turn in Federico Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita.”

Lee originated the role of Tiger Lily in the 1954 Broadway production of “Peter Pan” — as well as playing the part in the 1955, 1956 and 1960 TV broadcasts of “Peter Pan” — working alongside Mary Martin.

In 1964, she began the longest run of her career. The director Gower Champion asked her to play Minnie Fay in the original production of “Hello, Dolly!” with Carol Channing. She would stay with the show for years and also tour with it from 1965-68.

Lee’s last public appearance was at Carnegie Hall in 2025 as part of the Transport Group’s concert performance of “Hello, Dolly!” She received a prolonged standing ovation.

“I was shocked at how vividly the contrast of the city’s low and high density came to life when I visited the new exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York,” the author writes. “Today’s zoning code is for a city that no longer exists.”

Buildings in Jamaica, Queens. (Adi Talwar/City Limits)

I have long understood that New York City lacks available housing. Moreover, I know that approximately 50 percent of the city’s area is zoned only for one and two-family houses. But I was shocked at how vividly the contrast of the city’s low and high density came to life when I visited the new exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York.  

Entitled “He Built This City: Joe Macken’s Model,” the work is a 27-by-50 foot model of New York City. It was done at a scale of one millimeter equals 10 feet. It’s so big that  all of Staten Island does not fit in the gallery. It shows all the buildings of the city, from The World Trade Center to the houses at Breezy Point in the Rockaways. Mr. Macken spent 21 years making the model out of everyday balsa wood and cardboard. He started with 30 Rockefeller Plaza and then decided to do the buildings around it. Two decades later he had done the whole city. And remarkably, Joe Macken’s Model demonstrates before our eyes why we have a housing crisis. 

What the model most powerfully shows is that most of the city is actually a suburb of one and two-story buildings. The New York of our minds, towering structures and vast numbers of people, is really quite limited. The downtown financial district and Midtown east and west are massive in Manhattan, but the rest of that island is much less imposing. Brooklyn at the end of the bridge, Long Island City, recent towers along the East River and, interestingly, public housing developments stand out. Parks are beautifully crafted, but their relative absence in vast stretches of the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens is painfully clear. 

Strikingly, the model is a three-dimensional rendering of the 1961 zoning map. 

New York City introduced the country’s first zoning code in 1916. It was designed to regulate urban planning principles that evolved in the 19th century. High density was considered a problem. Separation of classes and uses was promoted. Residences in manufacturing districts were not allowed. Otherwise, homes were, more or less, as of right. The automobile was barely mentioned.  

The implementation of the code occurred at the same time that the newly consolidated city committed to vastly expanded subway service. Residents of overcrowded Manhattan could find homes in the new “subway suburbs.” The 1920s witnessed an explosion of housing in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens.

Over 400,000 apartments, 100,000 single-family houses and another 100,000 two-family homes were constructed in this decade. The apartments were predominantly in four, five and six story middle-sized buildings. The expanding subway stitched these new neighborhoods together. Unfortunately, it all came to a stop with the Great Depression in 1929. 

The financial suffering of the 1930s and the world war during the first half of the 1940s  suppressed neighborhood expansion. By 1940, subway extension had ended. However, car use continued to grow, even if slowly. The development of the outer boroughs where the subways had not reached became organized by automobile use.  

The post-war era of the GI Bill and the reemergence of the auto industry was the time of the suburbs. The growth of New York City’s population started to slow. The 1960 census was the first to show a reduction of the number of New Yorkers. Thus, Mayor Robert Wagner Jr. oversaw a major revision of the zoning code in 1961. 

It was far stricter than the original code. Separation of uses—residential, commercial and manufacturing—was even more exacting. Given the assumption that the city would no longer grow, density was restricted. Half the city was zoned for only one and two-family houses. The middle-sized apartment building became highly restricted. Joe’s model shows it all. 

New York continued to shrink through the 1980 census and then turned around. The 2020 census showed 8.8 million New Yorkers, a 20 percent increase from 1980. The 1961 zoning code, however, did not respond to this dramatic change. Under Mayor Michael Bloomberg the code was amended for even lower densities.  

Today’s zoning code is for a city that no longer exists. New York needs a new zoning code. The city requires a construction surge at the scale of the 1920s. The current code will not allow it. It also needs its subways extended to make higher densities livable. 

Those committed to a single-family house and a garage can have them—somewhere else. For those who want to live in New York, densities have to rise. A new code can make that happen. Joe Macken’s model shows in three dimensions where we need to build.

Charles Lauster is an architect in New York City whose firm does institutional work and public planning.

To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org

The post Opinion: What a Model of NYC Reveals About Our Housing Crisis appeared first on City Limits.