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American Morning

Monica Lewinsky Back in Media Spotlight

Aired March 01, 2002 - 09:20   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: And joining us now with her take on Lewinsky's reappearance, Julia Reed, senior writer for "Vogue," who is in New Orleans this morning. Good morning. Happy Friday morning to you.

JULIA REED, "VOGUE": Hi, how are you.

ZAHN: Good, thanks.

I know you caught most of the interview last night. I heard you had a very strong reaction to a portion of the interview where Monica Lewinsky talked about sort of holding out hope that the president at some point might leave Hillary for her.

REED: Well I was relieved to know that she didn't really want to be the second first lady. But my strongest reaction was that I felt like I was back in the bathroom in junior high school in the girl's bathroom. If I hadn't known that I was going to come on this morning and talk to you about this, I would have had a hard time getting past the 10-minute mark on this show. I mean, it was just so incredibly tedious to watch this girl. I mean, there was never to me an oh, wow, moment. We didn't find out anything that we already know, that Monica Lewinsky is not the brightest bulb on the tree, and that -- so the stunning thing to me that the president actually almost brought down his presidency, destroyed his family life, over this girl.

ZAHN: Well, as you know, part of the reason why this interview was done as part of lead-up to this HBO documentary that airs on Sunday night. I wanted you to also address a piece of the tape where she talked about potential wiretapping.

Let's listen to that portion now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MONICA LEWINSKY, FMR. WHITE HOUSE INTERN: I made the best decisions. I could and chose to not wear a wire and tape people. I chose not to get immunity until -- or accept it, whatever, until the independent counsel's office was comfortable with what I said was the truth. So it's frustrating for me, because there's so many facts out there and there's so many things, and until someone has walked in my shoes...

(END VIDEO CLIP) ZAHN: OK, Julia, there's a reporter named Michael Isikoff who is accused of actually getting this story and sitting on it for some reason, and then eventually breaking it. And he said in watching this interview last night that Monica Lewinsky appeared to be very clear- headed about the decision not to wear a wiretap. What kind of reaction did you have to that part of the documentary?

REED: I definitely think -- I mean, during the show at one point, she said she doesn't want to call herself a victim. I do think this girl was a victim. She's an intern in the White House. As we found out last night, the president picks her up in a departure ceremony line on his way to the helicopter on the White House lawn, and she ends up, you know, sort of surrounded at the mall by FBI agents. She didn't do what a lot of people would have done. So I mean, I guess that's Monica's heroin. She took a sort of high road, if you will, after the fact.

I don't blame Monica Lewinsky for any of this stuff. I mean, but what I'm wondering though now, is do we -- I mean, are these fine points we are arguing? She didn't wire, so she's a good person or whatever? My question is. who cares? You know, there's so much distance between that administration and this one. I mean, for a while it seemed like Bill Clinton wouldn't go away. But I mean, it's just like. do we want to have interview with Denise Rich these days? So I'm not sure HBO is going to get sort of -- I myself am looking forward to "Six Feet Under." You couldn't put a gun to my head and make me watch 90 minutes of Monica Talking again.

ZAHN: All right, so you're essentially saying the celebrity status that Monica accrued during this whole impeachment crisis might fade, like we much saw happen to Donna Rice and Fawn Haul?

REED: Yes, I mean, those names, because last night, when I was watching, there was this CNN tape that is always riveting, and I was reading it, and a rival network is hosting a celebrity boxing match last night between Amy Fisher, the one who shot Joey Buttafuco's wife, and Tonya Harding, and I thought, that's sort of fitting that I'm finding this out while I'm watching Monica, I mean, sort of yesterday's girls.

ZAHN: All right, Julia Reed, never one to mince words. "Vogue" magazine. Always good to see you. Have a good weekend.

REED: Thank you.

ZAHN: So I suspect if you're offered an interview with Monica, you're just not going to do it, are you?

REED: Listen, I have great respect for Larry King, but even he was having a hard time getting anything out of her.

As I said, the stunning thing about this to me was that Bill Clinton was sitting in the Oval Office, sort of leaving messages on this girl's answering machine as they were both in high school. That to me was sort of -- if her value is that, just to remind us what this guy had on his mind, it's pretty -- that's remarkable. ZAHN: We will have to leave on that note this morning.

Julia Reed, enjoy you time in New Orleans. Good to see you again.

REED: Thank you.

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