Tripp-Lewinsky Tapes (3)

LEWINSKY: Well, what am I supposed to say?

TRIPP: (Sigh) Yes, you say tell me what the options at the Watergate are? Let's discuss them.

LEWINSKY: OK. There's a restaurant, Aquarelle.

TRIPP: OK. This is not even hard. You live there. This is totally explainable. You live there. He's a friend of the family. That is it.

LEWINSKY: OK, and somebody sees it and somebody gets the wrong idea, breakfast with someone? Do you know

TRIPP: ... The only wrong idea they could get is that you're having an affair with him. ... Let them think what they want. It's not true. ... You do not go to the ambassador of the United Nation's hotel (REDACTED) room.

LEWINSKY: No.

TRIPP: That's out of the question. Use your head.

LEWINSKY: If I say something, isn't that also insulting to him?

TRIPP: No. No. You are an adult. No female in her right mind would say, "Oh, sure, that's fine." No. No. And, you don't suggest it's improper you just say, "I'd prefer it if we could meet I'd suggest that we meet at blah, blah, have breakfast together." That makes sense. It's out in the public. ...

LEWINSKY: I don't know what I'm supposed to say to him. That (REDACTED) better call me tomorrow night 'cause he can. I imagine he will.

TRIPP: Well, you can make it happen, and how you can make it happen is you call Betty and remind her, "Could you please let him know that I need to speak to him tomorrow tonight before I meet with him."

LEWINSKY: Oh, I'm such a wreck.

TRIPP: And Nel didn't seem to think so?

LEWINSKY: He didn't even mention that, so

TRIPP: Oh, well, then, he figures he can cover that.

LEWINSKY: You know?

TRIPP: Well, I think it's totally doable. I don't know that you should broach it right away.

LEWINSKY: No. I know. But my you know, I don't even know when I'm going to get to see him again, 'cause, you know, I

TRIPP: Here's what you could suggest.

LEWINSKY: What?

TRIPP: You could suggest that if he's in New York alone

LEWINSKY: That's never going to happen. He never goes to New York alone.

TRIPP: Ah, but he does go on foreign trips alone.

LEWINSKY: Well, I can't go on a foreign trip.

TRIPP: Well, you can if you're at the U.N.

LEWINSKY: Oh, oy, no, please. I don't want to go to the U.N.

TRIPP: (Laughter)

LEWINSKY: I don't want to go to the U.N. I don't want to have anything I don't want a job that has to do with him.

TRIPP: Yeah, that's true. ... Monica please promise me you will not meet this guy in a hotel room.

LEWINSKY: I cannot promise you that. What I can promise you

TRIPP: Yes, you can.

LEWINSKY: Linda, Linda

TRIPP: Monica

LEWINSKY: Linda

TRIPP: whose best interests are we thinking about here?

LEWINSKY: I'm thinking about my own. But let me tell you something. ...

I will promisyou that I'm going to broach the subject with (Isabelle Watkins, executive assistant to Bill Richardson) and suggest to her that we meet in the room in the in the in the restaurant. I am not going to push this to the point where this becomes a big issue and a scene.

TRIPP: I don't think it has to be. I just think you need to be firm.

LEWINSKY: Well, I think that suggesting it as (sic) firm as I can get.

TRIPP: Monica, you hold the cards.

LEWINSKY: No, Linda, I don't hold the cards and I'm not going to start causing trouble with this.

TRIPP: Monica, please think about what you're saying.

LEWINSKY: I understand what you're saying, and I would if this were a situation I do not want my first experience OK

TRIPP: You cannot go to his hotel room, Monica. That is just sheer stupidity. How do you know he's not setting you up?

LEWINSKY: For what?

TRIPP: I don't know.

LEWINSKY: A friend of John Podesta's he's going to set up?

TRIPP: Yeah. Think about it for a minute. What if you're a problem and what if John Podesta thinks just think about this for a minute. What if John Podesta thinks a good way to neutralize you is to put you in a compromising situation? Then if ever you decide to become a crazy woman, they can say, "Oh, please, she propositioned Bill Richardson at the Watergate."

I mean you Monica, this is big stuff. You don't go into a huge personage's hotel room. It's just it's lunacy.

LEWINSKY: What if those people don't meet with I mean, I'll tell you something. OK, I'm just saying I I understand what you're saying, OK?

TRIPP: It's it's it's so dangerous.

LEWINSKY: I understand what you're saying, and I'm also telling you that being on a (REDACTED) trip, there is no way in hell, no way in hell, the (REDACTED) would meet with anybody in the restaurant at the hotel, no way in hell.

TRIPP: Isn't he is he coming down with an entourage? You don't know that.

LEWINSKY: I'm sure he is. He is coming I don't know I'm sure he there will be more than one person there. I don't know that there'll be more I don't think there'll be more I don't think there'll be more than one person in the meeting. There might be. I doubt it, but I'm not sure. ...

But I can't that's why I'm saying I can't go making demands like that. I can suggest it.

TRIPP: (sigh) You know, I'd almost rather you meet him at the White House then.

LEWINSKY: What? How how am I supposed to meet him at the White House?

TRIPP: I'm just trying to think. ...

LEWINSKY: He's going to Capitol Hill. I understand what you're saying, you know. But I also you know, it's not I'm just looking at it from the point of a (REDACTED). The (REDACTED) would never meet with somebody in the hotel restaurant.

TRIPP: Yeah. What time are you supposed to meet with him?

LEWINSKY: At 8:30.

TRIPP: (sigh) Oh, God. How long do ou think you'll be in there?

LEWINSKY: A half an hour to an hour. I don't know.

TRIPP: That's long enough to make it look like something if it ever got that devious.

LEWINSKY: I don't think they would.

TRIPP: I don't trust them, OK? That's all I'm saying.

LEWINSKY: Well, I don't think they would. And I you know, I appreciate your concern on that, but if I talk to the creep I'm going to tell him that. I'm going to say, "Gee, I sure hope" well, I don't want to say that because that's too reminiscent of what's her face, P.J. ...

TRIPP: (sigh) But alternatively, I'd prefer that you go to New York and meet with him in his office. Who are they gonna believe, a 24-year-old girl

LEWINSKY: But, Linda ... I don't think it's an issue.

TRIPP: What if it is?

LEWINSKY: Why is this ever going to become an issue? I don't understand.

TRIPP: Because what if just what if Podesta's doing something sneaky?

LEWINSKY: OK. What what is sneaky? He's gonna come and say that that Bill Richardson's going to come out and say, "This girl attacked me?" No, I'm never going to do anything. I am never going to do anything so

TRIPP: (sigh) I guess I'm just being paranoid.

LEWINSKY: You are being paranoid. Because I'm never going to come forward with this. So as far as I know

TRIPP: I know that. ... I'm not saying you would ever come forward with this. I'm just saying

LEWINSKY: And if someone else did, I would deny, deny, deny.

TRIPP: Yeah, I know, but ... I don't know. I guess I'm just seeing too much of this Paula Jones deposition (REDACTED) on TV and everything. It's just making me very upset, the whole thing.

LEWINSKY: Why does it upset you?

TRIPP: Because it's so manipulative. I mean

LEWINSKY: It's not manipulative. You know what? She said her character was defamed, and her reputation was ruined. If her reputation was (REDACTED) before, then what was ruined?

TRIPP: Yeah, I know. It just looks like, you know, they're bringing them out of now this Gennifer Flowers thing and I just said, oh my God.

LEWINSKY: I mean, but those are all people, I mean, you're looking at people who are proclaimed, self-proclaimed lovers of his.

TRIPP: All of them?

LEWINSKY: Yeah.

TRIPP: Yeah, I guess even that one in wherever she's from.

LEWINSKY: The book writer?

TRIPP: Yeah.

LEWINSKY: Her book is not fiction.

TRIPP: Well, it's being touted as fiction.

LEWINSKY: Well, whatever. ... You know, nobody I know the only person that I am not friends with anymore who knows about this is Andy, and I guarantee you his ass won't ever say anything, because I will ruin his life, and he knows it.

TRIPP: Well, he has enough to lose, doesn't he.

LEWINSKY: Yeah.

TRIPP: I mean, his wife would get an earful, wouldn't she? I mean, obviously, Andy would lose more by openin his mouth.

LEWINSKY: Right. That's what I'm saying. That's why I know that's why I know I don't worry about Andy.

... TRIPP: Whew, this is a weird movie.

LEWINSKY: In fact, to tell you the truth, I don't think Andy even believes me.

TRIPP: Well, it is it is mind-boggling.

LEWINSKY: Yeah.

... LEWINSKY: What are you wearing to the fundraiser?

TRIPP: Uhm, I don't know yet, actually. ... Try to talk to Betty, though.

LEWINSKY: No, I will. I mean, I I the two things I want to say to her are this. One, I'm going to say, "Look, I know that he'll be alone tonight. Could you please ask him to call him sometime early on because I'm very nervous about the meeting tomorrow."

And then I'm gonna say, "Look, I really need your advice. The secretary's telling me I'm supposed to meet him in the room, and I'm really uncomfortable with that."

TRIPP: He's not a secretary.

LEWINSKY: Oh yeah, I know. Ambassador. I keep forgetting that.

... TRIPP: Um, okay. So you're going to mention that to Betty.

LEWINSKY: Right.

TRIPP: Good.

LEWINSKY: So I'm going to say to her, you know, 'What should I do?'

TRIPP: Yeah, good idea. She'll probably say, 'Oh, that's fine, that's fine.'

And then I think you need to say, if you want to, I think you should say, 'Well, I really need to speak to the big creep before'

LEWINSKY: Look, all I can do with Betty is I can ask her to pass it along, and she's she's gonna do what she's gonna do, whether I say it's important or not important.

I would imagine but I could be wrong because I've been wrong before, I would imagine that he would call me tomorrow night.

LEWINSKY: ... You know? It's been a week since I talked to him.

TRIPP: He still needs reminders, Monica. He's just that way.

LEWINSKY: ... But I sent the present. ... I mean, I'm gonna tell her I'm not saying I'm not gonna tell her, but what I'm not gonna do is bug her all day ... if she told him or not.

TRIPP: ... When you talk to Richardson ... and he asks you what you want to do ... I guess you have to treat this as though you want to go.

LEWINSKY: ... I'm not going to talk about salary. I'm going to tell the creep to make, you know

TRIPP: Oh, you don't talk you don't need to talk about salary to him.

LEWINSKY: OK, 'cause the creep told me you know, the big creep gave me like he's such a (REDACTED), you know?

TRIPP: Why?

LEWINSKY: Because he's like, "Well, you know, see what you can get out of him. Try and get the best deal you can out of him, the best salary, the best job, the best da, da, da, da."

I'm kind of like, "I'm supposed to do this?"

TRIPP: Oh, I don't think so. You know what? I would let Podesta handle that. ... I think I think it's just not suitable for you to get into that with him.

LEWINSKY: Right. ... But I thin I mean, they'll just stick me in the press office. They have a press operation there.

TRIPP: Right, they do. They have a foreign press officer there. Uhm well, I think you have to use the word "substantive" a lot. You you know. ... You'd prefer not to be someone's assistant. ...

LEWINSKY: The other thing that I would be interested in, too ... would to be something where doing some kind of liaison work with the White House, too.

TRIPP: That would perfect. ...

LEWINSKY: But there could be something already there, in that place, you know. Or I was thinking ... about ways of, you know, implementing more the president's initiative ...

TRIPP: It's it's less applicable

LEWINSKY: To the U.N.?

TRIPP: To the U.N.

LEWINSKY: That's what I thought.

TRIPP: Yeah. There would be, yes, on occasion, but not routinely, and I think that remember, that the United States is one member.

LEWINSKY: Right. ...

TRIPP: All I will say is, this is your opportunity to tell him what you want, so ... that you don't end up in the press office ... in some lowly

LEWINSKY: I know. ... I think I'd feel a little better about this if there was some other something else has materialized. And if I get to talk to him tomorrow, I'm going to make him take a pen and piece of paper and write down that I leave in two in two weeks from today.

Continue To Part 4 of Tripp-Lewinsky tapes