Democratic Rep. Swalwell to Bill Clinton: 'Keep saying sorry' until it's 'good enough'

"I was raised that when you screw up and you make a mistake, you say sorry, and if it is not good enough for the person you are apologizing to, you keep saying sorry until they feel comfortable and you are recognizing that you made a mistake," the California Democrat said Monday night on CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront."

The former president was asked during a heated interview that aired Monday on NBC's "Today" if he owed Lewinsky an apology, to which he responded, "No, I do not -- I have never talked to her. But I did say publicly on more than one occasion that I was sorry. That's very different. The apology was public."

Hours later, Clinton tried to quell the uproar over his comments.

"The suggestion was that I never apologized for what caused all the trouble for me 20 years ago," Clinton said in New York while promoting his new book. "First point is, I did. I meant it then, I meant it now. I apologized to my family, to Monica Lewinsky and her family and to the American people before a panel of ministers in the White House, which was widely reported. So I did that. I meant it then and I mean it today. I live with it all the time."

Swalwell would not say, however, if he agreed with the assertion by New York's Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand that Clinton should have resigned over his relationship with the former intern.

"I don't think going backwards helps this movement, especially going back into the '90s," he said, referring to the #MeToo movement. "I think women deserve to be protected and women should be protected in their workplaces today. And that's the most important part of this movement."