FLASHBACK: Pelosi opposed impeachment of Bill Clinton, said GOP 'paralyzed with hatred' of Democratic president

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) finally caved to the Democratic caucus Tuesday and announced a "formal impeachment inquiry" against President Donald Trump.

"The actions taken to date by the president have seriously violated the Constitution," Pelosi said. "The actions of the Trump presidency revealed dishonorable fact of the president's betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security and betrayal of the integrity of our elections."

However, the California Democrat sang a much different tune in 1998 preceding the impeachment of then-President Bill Clinton for lying under oath and obstruction of justice.

Speaking from the House floor on the afternoon of Dec. 18, 1998, Pelosi denounced Clinton's imminent impeachment and claimed that Republicans were "paralyzed with hatred" for the Democratic president.

"Today the Republican majority is not judging the president with fairness, but impeaching him with a vengeance. In the investigation of the president, fundamental principles which Americans hold dear — privacy, fairness, checks-and-balances — have been seriously violated," Pelosi said.

"We are here today because the Republicans in the House are paralyzed with hatred of President Clinton, and until the Republicans free themselves of that hatred our country will suffer," she said.

Pelosi later called the process a "hatchet job" and called out Republicans for what she believed was hypocrisy.

"It's about a punishment searching for a crime that doesn't exist," she said of the proceedings.

Clinton was impeached one day after Pelosi's impassioned defense.