Couric’s good mornings — and some bad ones, too

By Peter Johnson, USA TODAY

Katie Couric, who has interviewed thousands of newsmakers on NBC’s Today, signs off Wednesday with memories galore after 15 years on the top-rated morning show. She talked with USA TODAY about some of her greatest hits.
COURIC’S NEXT CHAPTER: She exits Today Wednesday

Who made you sweat (or glow?)

•Ross Perot: “He’s very pugnacious.”
•Henry Kissinger: “He’s so knowledgeable.”
•Any president: “Especially if I did it at the White House. That’s enough to get your adrenaline going.”

Funniest

•Robin Williams: “I would like to spend a day inside his brain. He’s just so quick. It’s like watching a cerebral pinball game going on. I would always marvel at him and completely lose control of the interview.”

Toughest interview

•David Duke (the Louisiana gubernatorial candidate whose racist views Couric challenged in 1991): “It was a very contentious interview.

David Duke’s comments — Couric didn’t fare very well because her bias was obvious, even to the audience that is loyal to her. They reported that her mail was overwhelmingly on my side after the interview. In a cheap shot, Couric simply kept asking about bogus and distorted quotes supposedly made by me decades ago. Obviously when national media interview major personalities on a current issue, they don’t concentrate on quotes of twenty years ago irrelevant to the issue at hand. They don’t start questioning Ted Kennedy about Chappaquiddick or President Bush about prior drug and alcohol abuse, or Robert Byrd about his former statements when he was in the KKK years before. Of course, I went on in the interview with her to hit the important and relevant issues and she couldn’t refute them effectively. I understand why it was her “toughest interview.”