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Piers Morgan Live
Getting Hot in America; Countdown to Crisis; Interview with Usain Bolt
Aired December 04, 2012 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PIERS MORGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight, is it getting hot in here? It's not your imagination. The world is warming up but why? Bill Nye, the science guy, takes on global warming scoffer Marc Morano.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL NYE, THE SCIENCE GUY: This will be the hottest two decades in -- in recorded history.
MARC MORANO, PUBLISHER, CLIMATEDEPOT.COM: Bill Nye has a bunch of scary predictions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: Plus the B word. Bipartisan. Everybody is talking about hands across the aisle in Washington. Do they really want to sever them?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. GARY HERBERT (R), UTAH: We're going to create people to come together on this and get it done.
GOV. JACK MARKELL (D), DELAWARE: None of us want to see taxes on, you know, middle class folks go up.
REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D), MARYLAND: The president is very determined to try to prevent us from going over the fiscal cliff.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: Those three guys are here live. And the man who shut down the government under Bill Clinton. What Newt Gingrich thinks it will take to avoid that happening again.
Plus one of my personal heroes, the fastest man in the history of planet earth. Jamaican sprinter, outrageous character, Usain Bolt, revealing a talent you may not known that he has.
This is PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT.
Good evening. Our big story tonight, you are so hot, America. And I mean that literally. The temperature was a balmy 60 degrees this afternoon in New York just outside CNN's studios. The average high temperature in December is normally 43. A warm front has flooded the lower 48 states with 482 daily high temperature records across the country on Monday alone. Quite extraordinary but is it evidence of manmade global warming?
That's tonight's "Battleground America."
Joining me now are Bill Nye, the science guy, and Marc Morano, he's the publisher of Climatedepot.com.
Welcome to you both.
NYE: Thank you.
MORGAN: Let me start with you, Marc Morano, if I may. You are implacably opposed to the concept of manmade climate change. Why?
MORANO: We followed the evidence. There are quite literally hundreds of factors that influence global temperature, everything from tilt of the earth's axis to ocean cycles to water vapor, methane, solar system, the sun, cloud feedback, volcanic dust. The idea that CO2 is the tail that wags the dog is not supportable.
And if you go down and look at the scientific literature, we are finding reams of data. And new peer-reviewed study showing the Medieval and Roman warming periods as warm or warmer than today without our CO2 emissions. So what's happened here is the whole movement, because now we've gone 16 years without global warming, according to the U.N. data, and they've now morphed into extreme weather.
And we have the absurd spectacle of people claiming that acts of Congress and United Nations can control the weather and make hurricanes less nasty and make tornadoes less frequent, which by the way none of them are showing any trends at all that are unusual.
MORGAN: OK. Bill Nye, your response?
NYE: Well, we start talking about the facts, those --
MORANO: Those are the facts.
NYE: Medieval warming period and the Roman warming period, those are just in Europe. And they're representative.
(CROSSTALK)
NYE: Let's see if we can agree on a couple of things. Do you agree that when I was a kid or when you were a kid, there was 340 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere?
MORANO: Sure. Carbon dioxide is rising. What's your point?
NYE: OK.
MORANO: No.
NYE: So here's the point, is it's rising extraordinarily fast. That's the difference between the bad old days and now is it's --
MORANO: Carbon dioxide --
NYE: It's much faster than ever in history. And so --
(CROSSTALK)
MORGAN: Yes, let him finish, Marc. Let him finish.
NYE: No. So that's -- it's the rate that's of great concern more than the actual --
MORGAN: And what do you put that rate down to, Bill?
NYE: It's human activity. I mean you go back -- this is what I say all the time. So you look in the ice and you find bubbles of trapped gas from 200 years ago, let alone 1,000 years ago. There's nobody running around with a hypodermic needle injecting bubbles of gas in ancient ice cores. I mean you -- that's the ancient atmosphere in there so you can determine the composition -- ancient atmosphere exactly.
This Medieval Warming Period is brought up quite often but it was really a European phenomenon and it's not -- it was global.
MORGAN: And what are the biggest factors, the manmade factors creating the acceleration of CO2 in the atmosphere?
NYE: Well, the biggest thing is when I was 9 years old, the earth's population changed from 2.999 billion to three billion. Now it's -- in my lifetime, it's now seven billion. People trying to live the way we lived in the developed -- way to live in a developed world and it's just -- we're just burning -- burning carbon and spewing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at an extraordinary rate.
MORGAN: Well, so Marc Morano, if there is a massively increased acceleration in CO2 in the atmosphere at the same time that there's been a bigger than double the sizing of the population of the planet, why would that not be inexorably linked? Explain to me.
MORANO: CO2 is rising. No one is disputing that. What Bill and I just did was waste everyone's time explaining that CO2 is rising. The question is what impact does CO2 have on the weather, what impact the CO2 have on climate change. And that, as we you look at the geologic records, we've had warmer periods where it's been -- with higher -- with lower CO2 and we've had colder periods with higher CO2. And you have to go way back for some of that but the bottom line is hundreds of factors are dictating our climate.
The Medieval Warm Period was both southern and northern hemisphere. On my Web site there's literally -- it demolishes the idea of a hockey stick, new peer-reviewed study, so the idea that Bill Nye is just going around saying CO2 is up, therefore global warming is dangerous, we should be concerned, it's not. It's not dangerous. The bottom line is all these factors --
MORGAN: Well, let me -- let me --
MORANO: -- dwarfs the effects of CO2.
MORGAN: OK. Let me jump in. Let me jump in. How do you explain that the Eastern Seaboard, for example, is getting some of the warmest weather it's ever had at the same time that California has been plunged into storm after storm in the last week and you see New York last month had the worst hurricane it's ever endured and so on and so on?
MORANO: Sure. Great.
MORGAN: How do you explain that we're getting so many of these freakish weather patterns if at the same time you've got all this extra CO2 in the atmosphere and all these people now guzzling up power and energy and emitting gases that weren't there before?
MORANO: No.
MORGAN: Surely that is evidence, isn't it?
MORANO: No. You go to the peer-reviewed literature. You're looking at anecdotal evidence. This is now the level of your daily horoscope. Basically global warmists like Bill Nye say global warming will cause many bad weather events and guess what? Bad weather events happen all the time so people look and they say look, there's more proof, there's a bad weather event.
Bottom line, big tornadoes, F-3 and larger since 1950s have dropped dramatically. Bottom line, we've gone the longest period without a major U.S. category 3 or larger hurricane hitting the U.S. since 1900, maybe the civil war.
Bottom line, new study in the "Journal Nature," peer-reviewed, no change in U.S. drought in the last 60 years. Bottom line, a new study out shows that drought has not changed in 85 to --
MORGAN: OK. Let me give you --
MORANO: Hundred and 26 years.
MORGAN: Before --
(CROSSTALK)
MORGAN: Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Let me add one more -- let me add one more bottom line before I defer to Bill Nye.
MORANO: Sure.
MORGAN: He knows more about this than I do. But another bottom line, the world is indisputably getting warmer. The U.N. Weather Agency said last week 2012 is on track to become one of the top 10 hottest years on record. And all the weird climactic changes we're seeing.
Bill, over to you.
NYE: This is a -- this will be the hottest two decades in -- in recorded history. And so when you throw around a statement like the U.N. says it's not the hottest 20 years --
(CROSSTALK)
NYE: I got to disagree with you. There may be some surface data shows that in certain cities.
MORGAN: Well, here's my point to you, Marc. It's a straightforward one, really. If you are wrong, then the implications for the planet are utterly catastrophic. In other words, if you and the climate change --
MORANO: Not at all.
MORGAN: Well, let me finish. If the anti-climate change brigade win the argument and nothing is done because you convince people nothing needs to be done and you're wrong, then in 100, 200 years, we'll have caused devastation for the planet that will then be irretrievable.
If, however, you are right in what you say and this is unnecessary and overreaction and so on, what you're seeing is a bit of economic hardship in the short term to deal with what may not be as big a problem as you think it is.
MORANO: Why it's the wrong argument? Because every proposal ever done including the United Nations Kyoto Protocol would not even detectibly impact the temperatures assuming you buy into their science. What we're talking about --
NYE: We're not talking about the temperature.
MORANO: We're talking about a climate bill in the United States. President Obama was going around telling people it will keep the planet four or five degrees cooler for our grandchildren. His own EPA said it wouldn't affect global CO2 levels let alone temperature. And if you actually do --
NYE: CO2 --
(CROSSTALK)
MORANO: Right now the developing world is getting 1,000 plus cold plants, there are 1.3 billion people don't have running water and electricity. If we actually go the route of trying to stop carbon- based energy which has been their lifeline, which would lower infant mortality and long life expectancy, it would be the most immoral position you can take. So the bottom line is even if the skeptics are wrong the solutions that the global warming alarmists have proposed would have no detectible impact on climate.
MORGAN: Let me let Bill Nye respond to that. NYE: If we -- if we were to begin to reduce carbon emissions, have the United States, for example, lead the way in this new technology, especially energy transmission, energy storage, electricity, we could change the world. We could get everybody a much higher quality of life than they'd otherwise have. The problem is so many people live near the coasts and these are -- they are very old economic reasons.
People lived on rivers since the beginning of human history, so as sea levels -- as the world gets warmer and I take it he doesn't disagree that the world is getting warmer --
(CROSSTALK)
NYE: So ice is also falling off the ice sheets so that ice is up on land. This is also going to cause the sea level to rise. So, for example, in the case of Sandy, which was not an especially big hurricane, the economic impact was $30 billion and that's in the developed world where we have the resources to deal with it.
When you have people displaced on a continental scales, these are -- we're not talking about a few people trying to get through a fence at a border between countries. We're talking about 30 -- tens of millions of people trying to move north, trying to move out of Southeast Asia. You're going to have trouble.
MORANO: Where -- when is this happening? This is --
NYE: So the sooner you get started on that problem, the better.
MORANO: These are all predictions based on climate models --
NYE: Well, our argument is --
(CROSSTALK)
MORANO: These predictions of Bill is based on climate models --
NYE: I appreciate your yelling. That's good.
MORANO: Eighty one out of 87 of the basic principles of forecasting.
NYE: So --
MORGAN: Marc Morano, do you accept that the ocean levels are rising, that the planet is getting hotter, that CO2 emissions have dramatically increased in the last 50 years, and --
NYE: And ice sheets are shrinking.
MORGAN: Ice sheets are shrinking and the planet population is doubling and accelerating at a terrifying rate, and that the combination of all these things is likely to be a major problem for the next two or three generations, and therefore, doing nothing shouldn't really be a sensible responsible option. MORANO: Doing nothing -- first of all the United States did nothing, our CO2 emissions are dropping as we move to fracking away from coal through technology so the idea of nothing -- there's nothing to do. The idea of -- there's no way you can solve a nonproblem. Sea level has been rising since the end of the last ice age. There's no acceleration. That's Meteorological Institute said there's no acceleration. You can look at the data, the land base data.
NYE: Boy, I just --
MORANO: There's no acceleration of the sea level.
NYE: We just don't agree on the facts. So we're not going to get anywhere.
MORANO: Where it goes -- the scary and where the horror story is in all these predictions. And they come out and say it's worse than we thought. Why --
MORGAN: Well, I respect --
MORANO: Because the predictions get scarier and scarier.
MORGAN: OK. Look, I respect that you have views. I don't think they're facts and there are many scientists who would take issue with you about the use of the word facts.
NYE: Based on studying Venus --
MORGAN: I'm going to have to wrap it up, I'm afraid. It's been a spirited debate. And I appreciate you both coming on.
MORANO: Thank you.
MORGAN: Marc Morano and Bill Nye. I'm sure it will rumble on. Thank you.
And a little breaking news footnote for you. It's 60 degrees in Washington tonight at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time on December the 4th. Now that is weird.
Coming after the break from one load of hot air to another, we'll talk about the fiscal cliff and why a lot of politicians are huffing and puffing and doing absolutely nothing to stop it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The speaker's proposal right now is still out of balance. He talks, for example, about $800 billion worth of revenues but he says he's going to do that by lowering rates, and when you look at the math, it doesn't work.
(END VIDEO CLIP) MORGAN: President Obama telling Bloomberg TV the Republicans' math just doesn't work. Of course, the GOP is delivering the same message about the White House plan. Today, a bipartisan group of governors went to the White House and Capitol Hill, urging both sides to make a deal. Two of those governors join me now.
Governor Gary Herbert of Utah and Governor Jack Markell of Delaware, the chair of the National Governors Association.
Welcome to you both. An interesting day for you because you managed to talk to the president and John Boehner when they can't be bothered to talk to each other. So what did you discover?
Let me start with you, Governor Herbert. What was your take on the two meetings?
HERBERT: Well, we were honored to be invited. I think too many times, states and governors have been overlooked and underappreciated and almost a second thought when it comes to some policies made and so I applaud Jack's leadership in getting us together in a bipartisan way through the National Governors Association.
And I thought we were well received. I think the president and the speaker and the majority leader was appreciative of our insight and our concerns about them going over the fiscal cliff.
MORGAN: Right, but, I mean, Jack Markell, that's all very well, I'm glad you all got on so swimmingly but what is actually going to get done here? There are 28 days to go until we fall off this cliff and the American people are frankly sick and tired of waiting for a bunch of politicians to try and sort something out and just play politics, just get on with it.
MARKELL: Well, we had a productive conversation with the president and his team as well as with the speaker and his team and the majority leader. And our perspective was really to say states can -- may be affected by some of the decisions that you're making and we want to be at the table. And that it's really important from an economic perspective, for example, that taxes on middle class people don't go up because that could be really bad for the economies in our states, as you're thinking about other changes, whether it's in the tax code or whether it's in cuts, if states are affected, we ought to have a seat at the table. That was really our message to all three.
We said at the outset we're not embracing one plan or the other. I believe that they clearly want to get it done and we're hopeful that they will. And it's important that they get it done soon.
MORGAN: Right. I mean, Governor Herbert, they've got to get it done because if they don't get it done, then it's going to rebound badly on your party more than the Democrats because all the polls say that two-thirds of Americans would blame the Republicans for not getting this done, which may or may not be fair, but that's politics and that's reality.
Now the sticking point on your side seems to be look, we don't want to have a plan that we sign up to that means 2 percent of the wealthiest Americans have to pay more tax and certainly not without the kind of spending cuts we're looking for. But America doesn't agree with that, either. America, two-thirds of all people polled, say they're quite happy for the richest 2 percent to be taxed.
Don't you feel like you're batting the wrong kind of game here?
HERBERT: Well, that's for the Congress to decide and that's part of the debate. It's always easy for somebody to say let's tax the other guy and not me. I think part of the situation is going to be deciding revenue enhancements, whether that's closing loopholes or raising rates or, as we've done in Utah, grow the economy, which is another way to increase revenue. And there's a debate on what cuts are going to be made and are entitlements on the table. So I expect that's going to be part of the discussion.
What we're wanting to say to the Congress and the president today, though, as a state, we want you to get it done. Compromise ought not to be a dirty word. There ought to be the fact that the good people can come together, find common ground and keep in mind what's in the best interests of the economy of America and the taxpayer, and find a solution.
Putting this off and procrastination and kicking it on down the road is not an option. We as governors are saying get it done, it's going to impact our states. We're prepared to help you. We'll take less money as states. Give us more flexibility, we'll fit within some parameters and we can help you balance your budget.
MORGAN: Well, I like the sound of that. And Governor Markell, I mean, the bottom line surely here is that if they got a deal done tomorrow, it would be a massive stimulus to not just America's economy but the global economy. It would probably kick-fire a fantastic Christmas for American businesses and everyone could go to Christmas and have a great holy with their family and be grateful to Republicans and Democrats.
But if we don't get to Christmas with a deal, it's going to ruin everybody's Christmas, going to ruin everyone's economy and everyone is going to hate every politician.
MARKELL: One of the things that we talked about today was the need for certainty, particularly for the business community. We all want the business community to be investing to hiring and as long as there's a lack of clarity in terms of the -- what it's looking like going forward, they're less likely to do that.
The other thing we talked about and this is something that Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin brought up. We're concerned not just about the fiscal impact but we're also concerned about economic growth. As Governor Herbert said, we all want to see growth and the president was very interested in that. We talked about, for example, infrastructure.
You know, roads and bridges are not Democratic, not Republican, and it is hard to understand how our country now has infrastructure that's not as advanced as China, Singapore and so many other places. Those are investments that we can make now, putting jobs to work now, putting people to work now and also that will lead to long-term growth. Of course, we've got to find out how we pay for it.
MORGAN: Governors, thank you both very much. I appreciate you joining me tonight.
HERBERT: Thank you.
MARKELL: Thanks.
MORGAN: Now I want to bring in a man who says that President Obama's plan would create jobs and cut the deficit. He's Democratic Congressman Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, and he's a ranking member of the House Budget Committee.
Welcome to you, sir. You said today we're in the fourth --
VAN HOLLEN: Piers, it's good to be with you.
MORGAN: Good to be with you, too. We're in the fourth quarter, you said, as we approach the fiscal cliff. If we can deliver like RG3 delivers, we'll be doing well. No more sign of that in a moment. And also the question I would ask is, why the hell are we in the fourth quarter? Why wasn't this done in the first quarter?
VAN HOLLEN: Well, Piers, as you know, there were a number of efforts before the election to get this done and there were major differences between the parties, and those parties became a big part of the conversation during the presidential debate. The president could not have been clearer that he wanted to do two things. He wanted to boost economic growth by doing things like investing in our infrastructure, which used to be a bipartisan idea, but also, extending middle class tax cuts and, as you said, asking the wealthiest to pay a little bit more to reduce the deficit.
That was part of the conversation. So we would hope that the election would break a little bit of this logjam. Obviously that hasn't happened yet. The president's put his plan on the table. I'm still very hopeful, Piers, that we'll get there. I agree with you, it would be better to get there sooner rather than later. Time is running out. No doubt about it.
MORGAN: One of the -- one of the big problems it seems to me is the relationship between John Boehner and Barack Obama. Just seems deeply flawed. I mean they're at a party and they couldn't be bothered to shake hands. I mean this is not the kind of way that adults, politicians, behave, is it, in a civilized society? I mean they should be able to shake hands, be friendly, then get behind closed doors, shout at each other and get a deal done. But these two, they don't seem to have any time for each other at all. That can't help the process.
VAN HOLLEN: Well, Piers, I wouldn't read too much into the Christmas party at the White House. As I think you know, there are long lines to get your pictures taken with the president. Speaker Boehner has had his picture with the president many times. The president has had his picture with Speaker Boehner.
But, look, the important thing as you say is to get everybody together. Now the president's plan is very clear. He spells out exactly how he's going to get the revenue and he's very detailed about the cuts. What we'd like to see is a similarly detailed plan from Speaker Boehner. As the president said, when you look at the revenue number they propose, for example, they don't tell you how they do the math. So in addition to being not enough revenue, not even as much revenue as is imbedded in the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles plan but in addition to not being enough, they don't tell you how to get it.
And when it comes to cuts, the president has also spelled out his cuts and it would be very useful if our Republican colleagues would spell them out so we could see where they might match up and where they don't.
MORGAN: Congressman, thank you for joining me.
VAN HOLLEN: Thank you. Thanks, Piers.
MORGAN: Coming up, a man who knows a thing or two about Washington battles that go down to the wire. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich who once shut down the entire government.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NEWT GINGRICH (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They'll dance around, play games, hold press conferences, meet with rallies and at the last second, in a magic moment, they will have a secret meeting from which they'll produce a gigantic document, which no one will understand.
We should have had a drinking game.
JAY LENO, HOST, "TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO": Yes.
GINGRICH: Every time for the next six weeks you hear the word fiscal cliff you get to drink.
LENO: Right.
GINGRICH: The country won't be able to drive. I mean people will have to walk to work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: Newt Gingrich telling Jay Leno about his novel approach to fiscal cliff, one that I heartily endorse. The former speaker of the House knows quite a lot about economic crises, his battle with President Clinton twice led to government shutdowns.
His new book is "Victory at Yorktown." And Newt Gingrich joins me now. Welcome to you, Mr. Speaker. I thoroughly enjoyed your suggestion for a drinking game, fiscal cliff. The trouble is, if you had it for every time that phrase got mentioned we'd all be paralytic by about midday.
GINGRICH: Well, think how much less worried we'd be.
(LAUGHTER)
MORGAN: But look, you are the perfect guy to talk about this, because I'm getting increasingly fed up, bored, miserable with the whole thing. So just -- I wake up in the morning with fiscal cliff reverberating in my brain and I can see politicians playing the very game that you alluded to there on Jay Leno and it is a game for them but for other people, it's a very real thing. And the economy at the moment is completely stagnant waiting for something to happen.
You've been in a position of very negative government shutdown with President Clinton and a very positive, where you and he in the second term got together, got stuff done and as you saw, a surplus in the economy.
So you know what the reality of these debates are like and what it's likely to be going on behind closed doors. What is the way through this and how is this likely, in your expert opinion, to be resolved?
GINGRICH: Well, first of all, I think it took the very tough two closings of the federal government, one for six days, the other for 21 days, in order to get to a point where we were able to negotiate seriously to get welfare reform, which was vetoed twice and then signed, and then to get four consecutive balanced budgets, which was a pretty substantial accomplishment, the only time in your lifetime we've had four consecutive American balanced budgets.
So I think it's a combination of how you get to that. I am, frankly, not at all encouraged by what I see and a little bit worried about it. I think, first of all, the -- let me lay my cards on the table. I think that no deal is better than a bad deal. I think going off this cliff is less dangerous than letting things build up for a year or two years to have an even bigger cliff.
I think that the president clearly has staked out a position of non-seriousness, and I think that it's very difficult for the House Republicans right now to find any practical way to get his attention. So he just won an election. He's feeling very good about himself. He is posturing brilliantly. He's putting the Republicans in a corner.
They need to relax. They don't have an election until November of 2014. They need to say look, you want to negotiate seriously, we'll sit down and talk. You don't want to negotiate seriously, the country will survive going off this cliff. It's largely a factor, in terms of American history, the people will not look back on as a giant tragedy.
We need to have serious effort to get this country reorganized. And I see no sign that the political system today is at all prepared for that kind of serious thinking.
MORGAN: But what is so serious about the thinking of a party that just is implacably opposed to raising income tax even for the richest two percent? Because the American people don't give a stuff. They're like, in all the polls, two-thirds of them, yes, let's tax the wealthiest two percent. And by the way, that's you and me, Newt. I don't know about you. I'm quite happy to pay a little bit more if it helps the general good. Are you?
GINGRICH: Well, Piers, I'm happy for you to pay it, too. I think if you want to write a check this evening, the Treasury will accept it. I think that's terrific. I'm delighted with your sense of citizenship.
MORGAN: That wasn't my question. My question is are you personally prepared to pay more tax? Would you be happy to?
GINGRICH: Of course I'm prepared. No, I wouldn't be happy to. Would I be willing to, yes. I wouldn't be happy to. Look, I think this is a wasteful, in some ways cronyist government with enormous bureaucracies. Let me give you an example. I was just interviewing Governor Mitch Daniel, who has done a brilliant job or organizing and innovating in Indiana for eight years.
In Indiana, they need three billion dollars of additional revenue, so they actually privatized their turnpike, got paid four billion dollars for it. Took that four billion dollars of brand new revenue, no taxes involved, and turned that into dramatic infrastructure. They are now using the private sector to build a bridge across the Ohio into Kentucky in a way that's dramatic. It's going to happen faster. It's going to be less than one half as expensive than the original government proposal.
There are a lot of things we could do to solve this budget problem. There are a lot of things we could do to build the infrastructure the governor from Delaware was talking about. That's not business as usual. What Barack Obama's proposing is the same bloated bureaucratic government, with the same bloated waste, but with more tax money.
That's what one economist called socialist austerity. The private sector gets weaker, poorer, has fewer jobs, but we prop up government with higher taxes. I think that's a bad deal for America.
MORGAN: Right. Let's talk about Speaker Boehner, though, because he's obviously in your position, the one that you occupied. And there is a sense that he and Barack Obama just don't have much of a relationship. Certainly nowhere near as warm and constructive as the one you ended up having with President Clinton.
GINGRICH: First of all, we earned -- you'd have to ask President Clinton this, but I think it's a fair thing to say. We earned President Clinton's respect, in part, by closing the government twice and being in a very rough and tumble fight. He came to believe we were serious. We were the first Republican Congress in 40 years. But more importantly, we were the first re-elected Republican House since 1928.
That happened I think because we showed we actually were serious people willing to take the heat, willing to do what it took and willing to work our way to get real solutions. I would say that President Clinton and I developed a relationship out of recognizing that we both had to be in the same room, we both had to bring two sides of the Constitution.
This isn't the president dictating. This is the president representing the executive branch and Speaker Boehner representing the legislative branch. And they have to have mutual respect. I don't sense any mutual respect right now. And I think what you're getting is political games. But respect has to be earned. And I think that's probably going to require the House Republicans to raise the ante dramatically on the president.
MORGAN: Well, tough talking words. I'll expect nothing else from you, Newt Gingrich. Your new book is The American Legacy Book Tour. You're on it with Calista, your lovely wife. And it's called "Victory at Yorktown," the book. And Calista's is called "Land of the Pilgrim's Pride."
So I'm looking forward to reading both of those and speaking to you again in the near future. Good to talk to you.
GINGRICH: Thank you.
MORGAN: Coming up next, after talking about people who are moving at naught miles an hour to get anything done, I am going to talk to somebody who moves faster than any human being has ever moved in the history of planet Earth. And he's hilarious. And he sings like Bob Marley. Usain Bolt.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MORGAN: The very true definition of a champion, Usain Bolt is hands down the fastest person on the planet. In fact, he's the fastest guy who has ever run in the history of planet Earth. The world watched him win three more gold medals at the London Olympics and shatter record after record.
Simply put, there's no one else quite like the Golden Bolt. If I sound excited, Usain, it's because you're my hero. So apart from the fact you support a terrible British soccer team, you are my hero. How does that make you feel?
USAIN BOLT, WORLD'S FASTEST HUMAN: Feel good. Feel good.
MORGAN: How many people do you meet on a daily basis who go, you are my hero?
BOLT: A lot of people. Especially when I travel, I get a lot of that. So it's cool.
MORGAN: When I was young, there was something about -- I remember my first Olympics, I really noticed was when Valerie Bortsof (ph) won the 100 meters, the Russian. From that moment, there are lots of great events at the Olympics, but for me the 100 meter dash is the greatest test of a man.
BOLT: That's true.
MORGAN: How do you feel? When you get down on those blocks and you are about to explode, what actually goes through the Golden Bolt's mind?
BOLT: All you try to do is just relax, really. For me, it's always just trying to compose myself, try to not think about anything, because as soon as something comes in your mind, then you are in trouble. So for me, I try to clear my mind as quickly as possible and take some deep breaths.
MORGAN: See, my theory is that you were deliberately not running that quick for the previous year and a half, luring us all into this sense that it was all over, finished, he can't do it anymore. Blake's going to take him. I thought no, he's not. You were saving yourself.
BOLT: A lot of people -- I think when you win the championship, at times -- even a big championship, at times you get a little off track, because you're the best and you're happy and you're proud of yourself. So you tend to celebrate and enjoy yourself a little bit too much, and lose focus. But that's why it's good to have a good team around you.
So your team can support you and show you and continue to just push you forward, really.
MORGAN: What does it take to be a champion? Not just any old champion, to be a great champion?
BOLT: Well, it's just hard work. For me, it was just hard work and dedication. As I said, you just need a team. Because for me, I remember this year, I was going on good. I thought I was doing well, doing well. Then, all of a sudden, got to the trials. I lost and I was like, whew. Then I refocused and I really talked to my coach, talked to my friends, talked to my agent, buddies. They came together and they explained to me, there's no need to worry, especially my coach. We have three, four weeks to go, one month. Let's just put the work in, sacrifice a few things and we'll get it done. So I did just that.
MORGAN: What is it that motivates you most now? Is it the winning? Is it being the champ? Is it money? Is it fame? Is it the women? Is it all of it?
BOLT: It's everything. It's the whole package. It's the whole package. Everything comes together, I think. But for me, the fans are one of the biggest things for me. I really enjoy just going out and performing for the fans. The energy that they give me. I think this year at the Olympics, I went out there and when I got there, in the heats, there was so much people in the stands that early in the morning. I was so surprised. I was like why. Every championship I've been to, it's been like a few hundred people. Everybody just comes out, few people might come out and watch because they are really into track and field. But at London, early in the morning, everybody was out, like it was full from the morning session. So for me, the energy that I got in London was just wonderful.
MORGAN: I was walking around London. And all I could see were people going like this, everywhere. Everyone wanted to be the Bolt.
BOLT: There was a lot of that going on.
MORGAN: Is it the secret -- because you Jamaicans are flying down every track at the moment, winning everything. Is the secret yams? Is there something in the Jamaican yam?
BOLT: I think it may have something to do with yams. I used to have a lot of yams. If there was one thing I wasn't short of when I was growing up, it was yams. But I don't eat yams that much now. I think I had too much when I was young.
MORGAN: Who are your heroes? Sporting heroes?
BOLT: For me, Michael Johnson was definitely one. Don Quarry was one, because he was a great quarter runner. I was a 200 meter runner. I remember watching Maurice Greene. These guys had a lot of energy. So for me, these are the guys.
MORGAN: What about other sports?
BOLT: Other sports.
MORGAN: Real great, like iconic heroes.
BOLT: I was -- I was into cricket. So it was Wazamacher (ph).
MORGAN: Wazamacher, one of the great Pakistani cricketers.
(CROSS TALK)
MORGAN: Our American viewers have absolutely no idea what we're talking about or who we're talking about. But I can say, the West Indies have just won the T-20 World Cup Cricket competition. Congratulations.
BOLT: Thank you very much.
MORGAN: With a great Jamaican leading the battle cry.
BOLT: Chris Gale (ph).
MORGAN: A great man.
BOLT: He did well. I talked to him a few times. And it was cool. He was doing the Gangnam style every time he --
MORGAN: Yes. Can you do the Gangnam?
BOLT: I can do a little bit. I don't want to get into that.
MORGAN: You mentioned Michael Johnson has been one of your heroes. I have got bad news for you, sir. He doesn't think you can run very well. Here's a clip from my interview with him in London. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL JOHNSON, OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST: Well, I'm a fan of his speed. That's for sure. His style is -- it's not that great, actually, which is amazing, because bio-mechanically he's not as good as some of the other guys like his countryman, Asafa Powell, or the American record holder, Tyson Gay, who are very efficient, very good sprinters technically.
Bolt is not as good as they are technically, which is just amazing because if he were, just imagine what he could run.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: So he doesn't think you can run very well. Your thoughts?
BOLT: I remember at the Olympics --
MORGAN: Coming from him, he hasn't exactly got the most graceful style, has he?
BOLT: I remember at the Olympics, the first Olympics in Beijing, I remember when I was going to run the 200 meters. They said oh, Michael Johnson, do you think he is going to break the world record. Michael Johnson was like no, I don't think he -- he's technically not right. He needs to work on his form, as he was saying.
And then when I broke it, he was like OK. So I'm saying, everybody has their own opinion on things and I think he has a fair opinion on my technical side. It is not perfect, but I'm getting there.
MORGAN: When we come back, I want to talk about Lance Armstrong and cheating in sport.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MORGAN: What do you feel about cheating in sport? The reason I ask you is the Lance Armstrong Report came out and was devastating. And every great athlete must have read it and gone, wow. There's this guy, one of the great champions, seven times Tour de France winner, clearly just a terrible cheat.
MORGAN: For me it's hard to sit back and look into sports and see these things, especially when you're trying to work so hard to convince the people in your sport that we are doing this clean now, we're working to do our best and then this comes out. Then everybody sits back and really take a view on everybody, all the time since back in the days. And the present wins also. So for me it's hard for us.
MORGAN: Should the punishment be stronger? Because at the moment, you can have like a two year suspension, come back and you can compete in the Olympic games. I don't think you should be able to do that.
BOLT: I think it depends on what. Because it's hard. Because some of us are different. And some of us we -- you may get an energy drink, just a sip of energy. You go to a party and you don't want to drink a beer, so you're like, you know what, let's have an energy drink and they have too much caffeine or a certain thing that's in there that's a bad substance, and then all of a sudden, you're banned for life.
So sometimes it's different on the rules. So for me I think the rules are OK now. But they're doing a good job to crack down in my sport. I think they're doing a really good job to catch people, putting them on the pressure in every way.
MORGAN: Now how is your singing voice? Because obviously there's another famous Jamaican, Bob Marley. I want to know whether you can basically sing like Marley.
BOLT: No, I got nothing.
MORGAN: Nothing? You got no game?
BOLT: No.
MORGAN: I can't believe there's anything you're not good at.
BOLT: I can't really sing. No.
MORGAN: Not even a bit of --
BOLT: Not my thing. I tried, though.
MORGAN: Can you do any Bob Marley for me?
BOLT: My one song I always sing is like, "one love, one heart, let's get together and feel all right."
MORGAN: You see, you can sing. I knew you could sing.
BOLT: That's the only song I really know, so I practice it a lot.
MORGAN: I knew you could sing.
BOLT: It's a world wide song. When I go anywhere and I start singing, the crowd takes over.
MORGAN: Also, I've never been to -- I go to the West Indies at least twice a year and I've never met any west Indian who can't sing or play cricket.
BOLT: We play a lot of cricket and football now.
MORGAN: Yes, let's talk football, because you're a fan of Manchester United.
BOLT: I see you're represented well.
MORGAN: I have my mug, my arsenal mug, which actually has the crowd chanting for it. Hang on.
BOLT: See, it's broken.
MORGAN: No, it's not.
(SINGING)
BOLT: You're well represented so it's only -- it's only fair that I represent my team. It's only fair.
MORGAN: That is the most horrible phone I have ever seen in my life.
BOLT: It's only necessary.
MORGAN: That is horrific. You know when you have a hero and they always say never meet your heroes? That's why.
BOLT: No, no, I don't think so. I think you're slightly bitter, but it's OK. I understand. I understand.
MORGAN: Because our best player joined your team. Why would I be bitter about that, you say?
BOLT: I don't know. Maybe because he's scoring a lot of goals for us.
MORGAN: Can we move on? Let's move on to something else. Let's move on to women. How long is the cue for women trying to get near you at the moment, the nearest 10 miles?
BOLT: The cue?
MORGAN: The line, whatever you call it.
BOLT: There's no cue. I don't know what you're talking about. I have no idea what you're talking about.
MORGAN: There is a story that there's a woman in your life, that you're happy at the moment with one woman. Is this true?
BOLT: No, I'm single right now.
MORGAN: You're single?
BOLT: Yes.
MORGAN: So women watching this, you are available. BOLT: Yes, I am.
MORGAN: What have you got to offer them, other than you're the fastest man of all time, you've got loads of gold on you?
BOLT: Look at me? What can I say man?
MORGAN: Let's talk Rio. Are you going to go for it in Rio?
BOLT: Without a doubt.
MORGAN: How many -- as you sit here now, how many do you think you can race in Rio?
BOLT: Well, I've mentioned this to my coach and I have said it to him. We haven't talked about it, but I said it to him. He said it depends on how I work throughout the next four years. If I try to push myself too much or put myself in too much strain. So it all depends on what I want to do.
So if I want to take it easy for the next couple of years, just do enough to win or to win championships or stuff like that, or we go all out and just hope for the best in Rio. But I think if I manage it right, definitely a possibility I could do it.
MORGAN: And you'll be wearing these little beauties.
They're very light, understated little things. .
BOLT: They're light.
MORGAN: These are Puma, right?
BOLT: They're light for the size.
MORGAN: Very light, incredibly light. You wear these?
BOLT: Yes.
MORGAN: These weigh literally nothing.
BOLT: That's the key, though.
MORGAN: Incredible. Usain, there's a question I always ask people, if you had five minutes to live and I had the power to relive a moment for you from your life, what would you choose?
BOLT: World Juniors 2002.
MORGAN: Why that?
BOLT: It was one of my -- it was a life changing experience for me in every sense. It was in Jamaica, I was nervous. I remember I was so nervous at the beginning of the race. I couldn't do anything. I couldn't pretty much -- I couldn't stride. I couldn't think straight. But I won the race on the energy that I got from the crowd and the joy and everything was -- it was just a wonderful moment for me.
MORGAN: And the final question, another question I ask most of my guests, how many times have you been properly in love in your life? Other than with yourself.
(LAUGHTER)
BOLT: Properly in love, I got to go once.
MORGAN: Once?
BOLT: I had a girl friend for seven years.
MORGAN: Did she break your heart?
BOLT: Vice versa. We both had our problems. We both did bad stuff. But I think we're still friends, so that's a good thing.
MORGAN: Usain, it's been a great pleasure. You remain, despite your terrible football team -- you remain my hero. Congratulations on a brilliant year. Put it away, please. You're making me feel -- great to see you.
BOLT: It was a pleasure. It was a pleasure.
MORGAN: The one and only Usain Bolt. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MORGAN: That's all for us tonight. "AC 360" starts now,
