The View Full Broadcast – February 28, 2025

a scandal for the ages how Monica Lewinsky says her affair with President Clinton is being cast in a much different light 27 years later it was the younger generation the younger journalists the younger women journalists who were starting to say hold up and decades after being publicly humiliated by the president I did not have sexual relations with that woman Miss how she thought he should have handled it to probably say it was you know nobody's business and to resign then Illinois governor JB pritzer joins the table to talk about his Grim warning for America I'm watching with a forboding dread what is happening in our country right now and responding to angry voters who say their elected officials are letting it happen plus Oscar winner Ariana deot is our special guest co-host here come Hot Topics with whoopy Sarah Haynes Joy Bea Anna Naro Sunny H and Alysa Farah Griffin now let's get get things [Applause] [Applause] started [Applause] me hello everybody welcome to the view yes Anna naar was out today but joining us as guest co-host please welcome Oscar winner Ariana Deo so happy to have you here oh I'm so happy to be here I'm a little nervous so we're goingon to have fun though CU I love you L you have done far more impressive things than co-host the views you'll be great honestly I was so excited when got this call so thank you for the invitation of course you always add so much when you're here that it's it's fun to actually get you for longer Miss crazy crazy how things happen that way well this weekend is the big Osa them correct but on the this is another story it's been 27 years since President Bill Clinton's affair with 22-year-old White House intern Monica Lewinsky which was the biggest political Scandal of the era it seems quaint right now doesn't it now now Monica is telling the call her daddy podcast how she was dragged through the mud by the media and how she thinks the President Clinton should have handled it watch Once the news broke and how everything was handled by media and the White House how do you think it should have been handled have you thought about that oh my gosh the right way to handle a situation like that would have been to probably say it was you know nobody's business business and to resign you know or to find a way to find a way of staying in office that was not lying and not throwing a young person who is just starting out in the world under the bus yeah she also credits the younger generation for taking another look at the affair through a modern lens watch this it was you know your generation and the younger Generations that really insist on reevaluating this story because you were all coming to it with just the facts not having gone through the brainwashing or live through that media lens it was the younger generation the younger journalists the younger women journalists who were starting to say hold up so do you think she got a roar deal cuz she thinks so yes I feel so strong about this we were probably about the same age when this happened we were kids watching it and I remember the headlines I remember the tabloids it was her it was criticizing her looks her weight the Lewinsky scandal not the man who was the person in a much greater position of power that also engaged in the affair and I I thought about it when I was working in the white house and I was in my late 20s the idea that a 22-year-old intern who has no power was in this affair and there wasn't like that we learned more about power dynamics I feel like after me too that we didn't really understand that and culture is different but she wasn't like knowing how to pursue him and evade his Secret Service like it took two to tango and he should have borne way more responsibility I I agree you know when I when I uh started researching this topic that we were doing I realized she was 22 I have a 22-year-old son and the thought of of of a 22-year-old now in perspective as a mother um with with with that perspective handling what she handled is unbelievable I think the other thing is about the power Dynamic that power Dynamic was terrible but I also think what does it mean about our culture and the cancel culture that she hasn't been allowed to Pivot I mean this is a woman who 30 years later is still somewhat defined by this she went to the London School of Economics but she is still defined by this she could was unable to get a job it was personally hard for her I mean she couldn't ever really recover from this and I think that says a lot about our culture to say that Bill Clinton got off the hook is not exactly true I mean he he suffered also for his for it right house for it by the house on yeah I do I think I mean the larger thing what she's asking right is like could this have been handled differently absolutely she I don't think she deserved anything that really happened to her in the aftermath but to say he should have resigned I think the bigger question is what do you want from your Presidents especially looking at the world we're living in today how how are presidents supposed to be themselves what do we as a as a country as a people what do you want from your president yeah um he shouldn't have lied about it cuz that's part of how he got into trouble he got into if you want to talk about Bill Clinton yeah it could have gone down a lot differently and I don't think she should have had to Bear the brunt of that at all it could have been avoid if you have a woman president if you ask [Applause] me I absolutely think she was skewed like this is a woman that has repeatedly said she hasn't been able to have Intimate Relationships she always wanted to be married and have kids she said she can't go on a dating app you can't because the name she didn't want to change it she was like you can only get in the door on that and then someone's going to look at me and be like wow you look a lot like Monica Lewinsky because of that Scandal and arguably this isn't all on President Clinton but President Clinton between the two of them went unscathed he he continued to have a life he was able to restore his marriage his family all that mattered to him and when we recall President Clinton I don't jump to Monica Linsky when I think of Monica Lewinsky I jump to the Clinton well the Lewinsky scandal so I would say that the the the biggest reflection though in looking back because I would have been a little I was older than you guys I would have been in like high school watching how Monica Lewinsky was torn apart and the morality police of the times that this man having an affair because I would argue even Bill Clinton look at what we have today like you said it's quaint like to look back a man having an affair it's the oldest story in the book but it all fell on her and the media was a reflection of what Society was okay with so when we look at the Taylor Swift documentary when we look at the Britney Spears documentary these weren't Evil news people asking them are your boobs real are you gay are you sorry I'm not asking you but she's like why do they look low the Barbara Barbara the Barbara Walters clips that show what a man was able to say to her on air those weren't just evil humans on air they were a reflection of what was loud of the times so it says that that was the bigger part you girls were in high school I was actually in menopause and I believe I was in college actually and I remember this whole thing I used to do a thing called Monica's diary I had it in my standup act you know about this whole Affair no one was judging them we were just having fun with it to tell you the truth because we're some of us were like Europeans you know the French don't have this morality police on their people so we felt that way about it at the time but this is what I will say now about it it wasn't that she was having an affair with the president it was really the power dyn D because when I I wrote a piece that was published in air mail the online magazine about sexual harassment when I was a teacher I was doing a lesson the uh chairman of the department said to me after the lesson I wanted to you on the B Blackboard he said and I said what about my lesson but I handled it that way but now that I think of it he was the chairman and I was just a teacher and he was sexually harassing I could have turned him in but we didn't do that so now the me too movement comes and now the women are turning the men so in retrospect the other thing I want to say about her she talks about what bill cson should have done what about her own self-awareness what do she learned from this about her behavior when I was 22 years old I was married so 22 is not a baby it's not a baby and it's not saying that there's zero some blame of like I if if I were her parent or if it were me you can look back and say wow that was a mistake I but I look at how young 22 is and the not just your boss powerful man on the earth is talking to you know like it's just sleeping with the married man is never okay in my book but she's much younger she has much less at sake she's not stepping out on her marriage she's like I got one in my house by the way just an example like a headline was actually she's not attractive enough for him to have pursued her a she's beautiful but B what a horendous thing that we would never say about said that it was like a headline at the time out there writing all sorts of stuff so you know but anyway we wish her the best I I we do I I don't see why she's stopped in her career though she she has she podcast coming out yeah which is very exciting and also kudos to her for all of the the work she's doing around cyber bullying and advocacy like that's a way that she has spun that to do some real good with her experiences okay the Hot Topics continue on the weekend views streaming on ABC News live and YouTube Saturday and Sundays at 7:30 and 9:30 a. m. and great news we've added a third streaming time on Saturdays at 12:30 p.

m. we're on constantly thanks to our sponsor Rock skincare we'll be right [Applause] back so earlier this week the White House announced they're going to hint pick which media Outlets are allowed in the presidential press poll now the Washington Post owner and multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos said he's retooling the opinion section of the paper to reflect opinions he agrees with isn't that sensorship one post editor already resigned over this his name is David Shipley so and and I don't know that that helps if you resign you have no power at all did he say it was only things he agreed with he actually said um uh the opinion section would Embrace personal Liberties and free markets and basically those opinions that disagreed with personal Liberties and free markets whatever he means by that um they can find elsewhere to write about so wait a minute does so if you're against uh you're only Pro pre markets yeah that would justify them firing all these federal workers I think that or you could not write about that in the paper that this is a an outrageous thing to do it seems that way I'm not sure I think we'll get further clarification but what I will say is I mean he came with that buzz line you know democracy dies in darkness he took it away so he has taken that away I'm sort of surprised by it um I wonder what the ramifications will be right because will people now um cancel their subscriptions to The Washington Post Wills in hords and so there may be repercussions I mean I know today on Friday there's been calls for econ a blackout economically um this economic blackout and I you know I I tend to speak with my dollars I do because if this is a world that's all about business and free markets then I have the freedom to not Cho to choose not to do something to choose not to spend my dollar I don't know if that's going to happen um but I wonder if if it will we'll see well and what surprised me actually is the Washington Post has a very representative um editorial board and opinion section they have Republican voices George Will is one of their longest running columnist who I'm a huge fan of Mark T is also a right of Center colum so it's yes but so they're not it's not like they were only platforming liberal voices but it's had the unintended side effect of making some of their best journalists leave and journalism not opinion has been the lifeblood of the Washington Post since the Woodward days since uh Phil Rucker Ashley Parker Josh dossy their star reporters from the first Trump Administration have all fled to different Outlets I would think largely in part because of these changes that are coming it just goes against like the ethos of the journalism should be objective but opinion should kind of be allinclusive well you mentioned the the Woodward days well um simultaneously as this is all happening Trump is vowing to uh sue people over Anonymous sources journalists that to me is the scariest part because you look at Watergate and deep throat and none of that would happen if someone didn't have that anonymity to come forward and that's what journalists rely on it's an invaluable to yeah it is an invaluable tool otherwise no one speaks up because they fear retribution so what you're doing is you already have companies and people everywhere that are protected from litigious action through NDA and and ethics Clauses and everything to remove this from journalism which is the fourth estate the one that's supposed to be able to share things to me that's the most dangerous of what they're speaking of AR want to say yeah no this whole thing and it's it's an attack on freedom of the press that's right it's it's it's them pushing their own narrative like by choosing which journalists have access to this Administration to the president of the United States they're narrowing the Viewpoint so you only get the information that they want you to have there's no transparency and that is going to be a problem in this country and it's also unconstitutional it's unconstitutional and right now if you look at the state of the nation there are not many checks or balances look at the Supreme Court look at what's going on in Congress and in the Senate this next attack on the Press it's all a larger plan and I just really hope we all can like wake up and see that to be a fact that is not an opinion these are facts and by the way with with the White House Press pool um restricting who's covering it is because um the the president wants to have people who are writing favorable coverage cover him so it can be used as sort of a bargaining chip oh you did a good piece you can come on Air Force One you can be in the pool that day thin skinn and then he sings Macho Man well what I saying my caution to him is this journalists if anything are very entrepreneuring uh you don't need John Carl or Bob Woodward to be physically in the White House to uncover Scandal to work with sources they've worked over Dees to actually tell the public what's happening there so those things are still going to get out but it's the Optics of this is just simply like it's it's just anti First Amendment okay we'll take a break we'll be right back okay here's a socer two of The Real Housewives Are feuding Real Housewives Are Beverly Hills doret kemsley and Sutton St are at odds after stack made snarky remarks about kemsley's personal finances see for yourself you picked at me and I'm sorry you need to pick on somebody else whose wallet fits oh damn okay okay okay you think you're bigger than her I think my wallet is oh no so my question for the Real Housewives of The View is the following is making fun of someone's financial situation below the belt and when it comes to fighting with a friend how low is too low oh well that you're fighting like that you're not really friend I would say and anyone that has to tell you they have a lot of money probably doesn't have a lot of money they have to tell you how powerful they are probably not too powerful if they tell you how big things are for them like probably not the case like so I tend to read more into what she's saying that that kind of hauling around with the money I'm kind of like I get it girl I see you like it just too much yeah I I that's too much I just feel like I mean personally in those situations which I have been in those situations where someone actually through their financial status and that it was better than mine in my face and you know what I did I was like don't you your ostra back I'll be [Laughter] honest I didn't have my My Little Golden man back then but I did say don't mistake my my silence for weakness yeah don't do it or kindness and don't mistake my kindness for weakness I'm very kind but you pushed me too far mhm yeah you you get what you give in a way like but you're not friends to your point that is not that's not something you say The Real Housewives the whole prise of the show is to fight no but that's too low it's too low I I you know you don't know I don't I don't watch the show so I don't know what the financial differences are Alyssa probably knows elor she watches it she knows more than I do but I I do think it depends in a general Sense on the value of your friendship if you are truly friends then you never go that low because I think something like that in front of a group of people can destroy a friendship it's traumatic it's embarrassing like real friends true friends they they they they just don't do that and if you don't care then don't apologize like you know just just just move on person who has a lot of money be ashamed of herself instead of the person who doesn't like these these billionaires we keep talking about they it's horri people FL their money cuz that's all they have well it's the old saying that money can't buy class this you can you can have all the money in the world but you can't bu class exactly but what made this one what bothered me with this one is the woman she goes after sorry that was really good like that that was spicy true the woman she's attacking is going through a brutal divorce and her finances are tied up in it because she was home raising his kids and by the way she tried to pursue businesses at that time it's not like she was somebody who didn't try to make any of her own money so was an even lower blow for that but I would agree I don't think you're friends if you're even saying that a it's tacky to talk about money to go that low you're never coming back in my house have have we ever gone that low I've been here 28 years with each has this panel any ever gone that low with each other or other with each other not with other not personal no no but in the [Laughter] past maybe maybe I have the right to write a memoir too don't miss countdown to the Oscars with Robin Roberts a special edition of 2020 tonight at 800 PM Eastern on ABC I did that for bar for Barbara Walters 2020 and streaming tomorrow on hoola we'll be right [Applause] [Music] back oh no I got governor and Democratic Firebrand JB pritzer made headlines recently with an impassioned and pointed response to some of the current administration's policies and behaviors take a look the seed that grew into a dictatorship in Europe a lifetime ago didn't arrive overnight it started with everyday Germans mad about inflation and looking for someone to blame I'm watching with a forboding dread what is happening in our country right right now if you think I'm overreacting and sounding the alarm too soon consider this it took the Nazis one month 3 weeks 2 days 8 hours and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic W yeah here to talk about the speech and the way forward for Democrats and democracy itself please welcome governor pritzer [Applause] it's great to have you here it's great to be here thank speech incredible and by the way I was trashing billionaires but you're one of them and I like you they're not all the way that I presented them you are a billionaire are you not I am we don't talk yeah yeah you just were trashing the people talking about money on I was one of the good ones yeah no at the Democratic Convention you know right before I went on stage uh Bernie Sanders got out there and trashed billionaires and then they're like and here's JB priter you and then I talked about how you know Donald Trump isn't a real billionaire he's not so no look at God but you are so I'm so happy to I'm so happy to have you here because when I saw that speech I said this guy should run for president um um so what what was the point tell people what you were trying to say in that speech exactly well I think uh anybody who heard it I think understands that uh over the last well it's been 38 days um since the president took over and uh he has slowly steadily uh actually relatively quickly I guess I should say but every day uh eroded your rights and everything that he has done has been tearing down constitutional democracy and that's what happened in Nazi Germany and I'm not suggesting that we're heading all the way down that path but I am suggesting that we should all be I mean it should be like red alert everybody yes I it's time for everybody to wake up and so that's really what I wanted to say just one fou question how do you get the Republicans to wake up because the Republican party in Cong Congress needs to really uh get a fire lit under them what what do you do for that well let's start with the fact that when you talk to many Republicans when they're not you know they don't have the cameras on them and they're not in front of Donald Trump they will tell you that they think what he's doing is wrong but then out in public they'll well they'll vote with him why party I think they're afraid they are afraid they're afraid in their own primaries they're going to get primaried and they'll lose and to be honest with you I don't think anybody should be in public service if your primary concern is staying yeah staying over and over and over again you ought to be able to you ought to be willing to put it all on the line yeah to do what's right in fact that's what I think that yeah I think I think that's the reason to do public service is that there comes along every once in a while an opportunity to stand up and do what's right and risk it all to stand up for the people people for the people now now the president has called himself a king he called uh Ukrainian president zalinsky a dictator but refused to say the same about Russia's President Putin um he's talked about making Canada the 51st state somehow um seizing the Panama Canal buying Greenland even though it's not for sale um he seemingly joked about running for a third term which really concerns me how much of that do you take seriously look a lot of this on his part is distraction he's trying to get you know look over here look over here don't look at what I'm doing down the middle here and and what are they doing there tearing down Healthcare literally 20 million Americans risk losing their health care just in the next few months and and it's not like it's just an idea they just passed it in the House of Representatives as part of the budget they're going to take away Medicaid from millions and millions of people in my state 770,000 people will lose Healthcare and these are the people who need it the most most vulnerable and by the way many of those people indeed about half of them live in red count counties in Republican areas they are Republicans who are going to and they didn't know when they voted for Donald Trump that they were going to lose their healthcare because of Donald Trump they didn't believe it they didn't well it wasn't talked about you know Donald Trump on the campaign Trail and even now says oh I'm not going to take away Medicaid he says Social Security Medicare Medicaid I'm not taking those away meanwhile he blessed the house plan that just passed that takes away Medicaid right so that's the thing I think most people may not know he is lying over and over again people have to wake up so Governor Trump is seemingly everywhere the Super Bowl the Daytona 500 hosting world leaders at the White House taking questions from the Press nearly daily Elon Musk is there too hovering over him um people perceive this whether good or bad as a president who's putting himself out there one of the critiques of Joe Biden that was you weren't seeing or hearing from him enough how should Democrats be cing his public messaging and the fact that he's constantly out there and who is the most effective Democratic leader to do that right now we certainly need leaders to be out there and out front and talking about it but to be honest with you Donald Trump has the biggest bully pulpit right there's no Democrat who holds any position that has the bullet bully ppet the way that the president of the United States does so you know what it takes it takes people showing up showing up at their Congressional town halls and we've seen a little bit of this happening around the country it needs to happen more often people need to show up you need to call Congress right 20222 43121 in case anybody wants to know ask in that vein kind of we're watching Elon Musk and Doge uh they've been shutting shutting down agencies uh defunding programs laying off thousands of people uh president Trump wants cuts to be as he said even more aggressive so how is this going to end especially since these uh firings the in of contracts the budget cuts uh uh they're going to possibly yield little to no savings so at what point is the breaking point like when does it because right now they're already running into things where they're trying to reach out to these people they accidentally fired and they can't find them they can't find them incompetence I mean let's start with that that is that is what we're seeing yeah and just today I think you may have read that that Elon Musk now has put out a tweet saying hey all of you folks who are air traffic controllers who may have retired we need you to come back oh my God I mean I I just flew into New York from Chicago I can tell you like I we need more air traffic controllers I want to make sure that we have safe Airways for everybody to fly um but it's not just that I mean the the reason I think that that Americans are beginning to react and and you'll see more of it is that the very things that people rely upon every day yeah right it's uh your veteran services people who need therapy they go to a Veterans Administration for that um the the you know making sure that you're flying safely making sure in my state we have poultry and meat inspectors seems pretty important to all of us here I'm sure if you go to the store you want to make sure your meat and poultry isn't contaminated so you know these are things that that people are starting to if you so meet and poultry inspectors in my state they stopped paying for them oh boy so if you're the processors in my state now can't get their meat to Market which means that when you go and you try to buy meat or poultry it's much more expensive so that that's a going bad if you're not getting it yet so contaminated meat I don't want to buy at the store and we need to make sure we have those inspectors in place so these are the things that people will feel every day we're going to take a break bro Governor because we want you to stay we'll be right back with Governor prit and we are back with Governor priter Ariana you have a question I do sir talk to me about the working class I think we can all agree the workingclass voters were have historically been a democratic stronghold do but until the last election when either they voted for Maga or they stayed home um Trump dominated issues on like trade immigration no taxes on tips that sort of a thing do you think that Democrats have lost touch with the working class voters and do you have any suggestions as to how they could potentially start to remedy that yeah what I don't think is that we should change the fundamental policies of the democratic party to move to the right to try to address this the the problem in the last election was messaging honestly we have the right position I'll give you an example we're for raising the minimum wage $725 $14,000 a year is the federal minimum wage it is not sustain nobody can live on that anymore right my state in my state we raised the minimum wage of $15 now we ought to do that nationally and that's a Democratic position Republican position they're not in favor of raising it in fact many of them would like to do away with the minimum wage altogether that is an issue on which you can win an election and that's just one right there are several how about Medicaid how about Healthcare across the board right in my state we we did away with uh prior authorizations for for for for mental health care for example right when you're in crisis should just have access to you shouldn't have to pick up the phone and call your insurance company to say you know I have a real crisis can I get authorized to get medical care that shouldn't be and so we did away with that you there's no prior authorization 72 hours you have you you can get uh whatever Services you need to deal with that problem by the way we've got to stand up for the most vulnerable people in our society and to me the Democratic party has always stood for that we're going to continue to stand for that to get that out there though but we need to make sure that we don't go down the rabbit holes that the Republicans set for us right that we've got to go talk about all these other you know what are issues that affect very small numbers of people we should stand up for them by the way it's cruel to go after the smallest minorities right to to be viciously attacking them that's they and we that's why it's an instinct by democrats to to stand up and say that's wrong we're you know because we're the party of civil rights and so we're going to stand up for for people who need it but but we tend to to bite at every one of these things um and we've got to make sure that we're broadly talking about the economic issues that are affecting people's daily lives well let me ask you this Governor we touched upon it a little bit there there have been a lot of Republican voters at these town halls and you see their anger you see their rage about Trump's executive order executive overreach um giving the Elon Musk the unelected uh person um so much power are Trump supporters you think having voters remorse cuz you said the prices at the grow grocy store are going up because democracy is being taken away egg prices are set to rise actually by 40% explain that well because look you think Elon Musk goes and buys eggs at the grocery store no no he has no idea what's happening right your tomato prices are going up because we're going to pay 25% tariffs on tomatoes coming from Mexico wow right so so this just an example but uh it's people who've been put in charge right they're the most powerful the wealthiest people have been put in charge and they have they're unelected they don't understand they didn't get elected by everyday Americans to do anything they just got appointed by Donald Trump because they gave huge contributions in the case of Elon Musk $250 million that we know of God that He gave to him so you know he bought his way in and Donald Trump basically has handed the government over to this guy and so yeah that's what's happening I mean that democracy the fact that they're taking away your Democratic rights you voted for your representative thinking that they're going to go stand up for you and the things that matter to you and make life more affordable for you and a little bit easier and instead what you get is Elon Musk making decisions for you and he didn't get elected anything and you probably don't want him running the country we don't well Governor if I could ask you um you're highly impressive and I think you talk like a straight shooter you've always been at the top of my list of someone who could run for president in 2028 I'm not going to ask you now to agree to that but when you talk privately with Democrats a a concern is he's a white billionaire and then another fellow governor of yours I love Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania they say well he's a Jewish guy have Democrats gone too far with identity representation we love but with identity that you can't elect the most qualified person if he's a white white billionaire or the most qualified P person if he's a Jewish Governor here's what sounds more like racism than yeah but that is something that comes up there yeah I I think here's what matters and I think the way we ought to be judging people it's not by how much money they made or what their ethnic background is or their religion those aren't the things I think it's you know what experiences have they had in their lives that give them some compassion and empathy I want to you know I think about my mother my my father passed away when I was seven my mother when I was 17 she was an alcoholic from my age seven to age 17 and uh she was honestly she's my hero why she fought she was a widow with three young children she fought alcoholism I mean for 10 years until it it killed her and uh but she was somebody who when she was sober she was an activist on behalf of the lgbtq plus Community she was an activist on behalf of Reproductive Rights and I was the youngest kid so there you know nobody was you know when my brother and sister as teenagers were out playing with their friends my mother would take me with her to the marches to to the meetings and I can tell you that I I think the experience of that taught me some compassion it taught me to stand up for people who sometimes don't have any power it's why I got involved in early childhood development that the kids who need Early Childhood most the kids who need Head Start and child care and so on most are the kids who come from the poorest neighborhoods right the parents who need it the most come from the poorest neighborhoods they can go to work if they have someplace safe to put their child you provide it for free in during in your program I congratulate you for that thank you very much I have to go but what you're really talking about is empathy and I see that there's a a drastic lack of it right now in government with a lot of people who are in positions of power and that is a dangerous thing kindness matters a lot kindness and empathy matters a lot and I thank you very much for coming here I hope that you'll come again our thanks to Governor pritzer we'll be right back thanks to Ariana de who will also be co-hosting on the weekend de streaming Saturdays and Sundays on ABC News live at 7:30 and 9:30 a. m.