What does Monica Lewinsky’s experience being in the public eye as a result of an affair with the sitting president of the United States have to do with efforts to crack down on illegal immigration? Apparently quite a bit, at least according to the former White House intern and late-night host John Oliver.
The pair had a tortured exchange about what they feel are their personal connections to the illegal migrants who are facing deportation under the second Trump administration on the latest episode of Lewinsky’s podcast.
On Wednesday’s show, Megyn was joined by National Review’s Rich Lowry and Charles C.W. Cooke to react to the baffling conversation and discuss the truth of the immigration numbers.
‘Anxiety’ and ‘Empathy’
Oliver, who was born in the U.K. and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2019, was Lewinsky’s guest on the episode of her Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky podcast that dropped Tuesday when he raised the topic of President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda.
After saying he finds “certain representations of American patriotism borderline psychotic” because “there is a danger in thinking of yourself as the good guy all the time,” The Last Week Tonight host pivoted and claimed he has felt increased “anxiety” in recent months as a result of the Trump administration cracking down on illegal immigration.
“And I have to remind myself now, with all these stories going on… it brings something out of you,” he said. “Like, it’s there – that anxiety that I thought I’d moved past that day that I got my citizenship. I thought it would be gone then. I didn’t feel that, like the relief didn’t feel enough.”
Not to be outdone, Lewinsky, who is an American citizen, declared that she too feels like she has a “sense of understanding” and can “empathize” with migrants because of her own highly publicized misdeeds. “I’ve had a sense of understanding a tiny, tiny bit that I empathize with the immigrants who are going through the crisis right now, right? ICE f-ckers,” she said. “And just of feeling hunted, like of feeling unsafe of, like, something could happen at any moment.”
“Now, for me, the hunting was– the consequences of that were nowhere near what they’re suffering… But I’ve had that of, you know, whether it’s being recognized or paparazzi,” Lewinsky added. “There’s… a feeling of unsafety wherever you are. And probably a lot of women feel that in general.”
When Lewinsky worried she wasn’t “making sense,” Oliver assured her that her absurd comparison tracked. “I think you’re making total sense,” he claimed. “I think that idea of like attention being weaponized, it feels like there’s a lot of crossover there.”
Old Habits Die Hard
Megyn has long been critical of what she sees as Lewinsky’s inability to move on from her past, but she said this may represent a new low in the victimization process. “‘ICE f-ckers,’ she says. There is one person… on that set… that is known as a f-cker, and it is not ICE. It is you, madam. That is how you got famous, and you have never stopped trying to parlay some sort of a career out of that moment,” she noted. “She hasn’t moved past it.”
Rather than try to leave her “humiliating” past behind, Megyn said Lewinsky has “tried to create an entire adult existence out of her blow jobs to the sitting president of the United States, Bill Clinton, who was married.” And now, Megyn added, she is trying to “parlay that experience into expertise on what it is like to be an illegal immigrant who feels ‘hunted’ because she’s had the paparazzi following her around.”
But Lewinsky didn’t just stop at herself, instead suggesting feeling “hunted” is part of the broader female experience. “If memory serves, she is from a very well-to-do family… She has been writing for Vanity Fair… [And] now it has crossed over to she is calling ICE a bunch of ‘f-ckers,’ she empathizes with the immigrants feeling ‘hunted’ because she is a woman… in America, and she has had photographers who want to take her picture.”
Setting the Record Straight
But beyond the victimization, Cooke called the clip “insane” for the portrayal of the immigration crisis. “The border is probably more secure than it has ever been in American history… and that is a choice,” he explained. “You can’t perfect this area, but the difference is night and day because the last president, Joe Biden, did not want to enforce the border and the current president, Donald Trump, does.”
“And the fact that this is being compared to, you know, the Gestapo, that Monica Lewinsky says that she she feels that these people are being ‘hunted’; that John Oliver says that he doesn’t feel secure in his own citizenship, is complete lunacy in the eyes of 70, 80, 90 percent of the public,” he added. “[People have] been radicalized on this question of deportations because the government has refused to do the basic things that it can do, so… I almost feel like that was a missive from another world… 10 months ago before things changed.”
And much has changed. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt briefed reporters on Wednesday that July marked the third straight month in which “there were zero illegal aliens released into the country.” Megyn said that comes on top of data released earlier this week showing the number of people who are in the United States illegally has decreased by 2.2 million since January.
“The belief is that they are self-deporting because they are worried about [Border Czar] Tom Homan,” Megyn noted. “That is something, I think, to be celebrated… The immigrants who are here legally have nothing to worry about, [and] the ones who are here illegally need to go home.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Lowry and Cooke by tuning in to episode 1,127 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.