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Piers Morgan Live
Interview with Bill Clinton
Aired September 25, 2013 - 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, William Jefferson Clinton, the 42nd president of the United States, the man who knows America's politics better than just about anybody else. Nothing is off the table. I asked him the Hillary question.
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MORGAN: Who do you think might make the better president, your wife or your daughter?
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MORGAN: What he thinks of Ted Cruz talking and talking and talking.
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MORGAN: ... and most of his party think he's crackers (ph)?
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT, USA: For once in a while I'm extremely grateful for your British roots. I couldn't have said that with a straight face and pulled it off. That is great.
MORGAN: What he really thinks of Vladimir Putin?
CLINTON: Smart and remarkably -- we had a really good blunt relationship.
MORGAN: How blunt?
CLINTON: Brutally blunt.
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MORGAN: And you heard Bono give the world his best Clinton.
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BONO, FRONTMAN, U2: Actually, I feel like a rock star on that occasion.
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MORGAN: A while, it's the Former President to return the favor.
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MORGAN: Could you do a pretty good Bono impression? This is your chance Mr. President.
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MORGAN: This is PIERS MORGAN LIVE.
Good evening. There is no better person to explain what's going on in Washington and the world for that matter, but Bill Clinton.
The former Commander-in-Chief is honest, blunt and fascinating. Every year, he brings the star power to New York City for the annual meeting of his Clinton Global Initiative. And he's made a bit of tradition of sitting down with yours, truly for an in-depth interview.
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MORGAN: Last time I spoken to you was at this very event this time last year. Incredibly influential around the world, it puts you in a great position of somebody who had two terms as president and now of the greatest statesmen of the world. To make a real assessment of where the world is right now, a lot of turmoil, lot of conflict. What is your take on on where we are?
CLINTON: Well, first, all the problems are probably being intensified by the economic challenges we face. Quite a part from the agonizingly slow recovery from the financial collapse. There's a global job shortage. You mentioned that -- I mean there is -- all these young people when the Arab Spring began in Tahrir Square -- and you were there. You knew the -- I don't believe I've ever seen a group of young people who are more impressive. You know, the way they spoke, their grasps of things, they had use the social media to pull each other out all that stuff. A lot of them don't have jobs.
The Egyptian higher education system produced 400,000 graduates a year and no were 400,000 jobs for university graduates that's produced with the Egyptian economy. Unemployment among young people in Greece is over 50 percent, it's almost 50 percent in Spain.
In the United States, our unemployment rate is about 7.3 percent but our workforce participation rate is the lowest it's been in decades. And a disproportion number of the jobs are at the lower income scale which is why there had been -- there's been such a big increase in food assistance. Working people and working families and their children are qualified for this now.
So I think that aggravates all the political problems. It start with that.
Secondly, I think power is becoming more diffused. Good news is it's harder to have a tone deaf, stayed, unresponsiveness government survive in the age of social media. And the ability of people to go into the streets and it's very difficult to repress.
If you look at Brazil where one of only two rising economies were inequality decreased in the last decade, they still had all these demonstrations in the street. The President did a heck of a good job. She didn't beat anybody up, she said, "You know, if you got democracy, you want more of it. You get a little prosperity, you want more of it." We do have continuing problems. Let's be honest about it.
Now, what do you want to do? In other words, you try to bring people into a decision making process. When people started demonstrating against Mr. Assad, he started killing them. An you got the mess we've got now. So, I think the economic crisis sets a stage for discontent. The dispersion of power presents new challenges to people.
And we're going to have another 25 years or so of the struggle that I've talked about often when I was president, between the forces of people who are trying to put things together, and the forces of people trying to take things apart. And it's now occurring at a more granular level all across the world. So it's frustrating to people who think, "Oh, there ought to be some magical answer to all this." And you just had to do the best you can and realize we're in the process of creating a world that is different and potentially dramatically better than anyone we've ever known before.
But there are severe challenges and the tools at hand for people that we put in positions of leadership are not quite as effective as they used to be.
MORGAN: President Obama has to -- at the moment, trust free people who as they would say in Downton Abbey, wouldn't necessarily trust with the family silver. President Assad, Vladimir Putin and President Rouhani/
Let's start with Iran because that's always a big talking point at CGI. Christiane Amanpour at CNN yesterday, interviewed President Rouhani and he -- compared to the interview that I did with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last year, he's talking much more in consolatory term particularly in the fact that he basically admitted there had been a holocaust which is certainly nothing that Ahmadinejad would ever admit to.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That any crime that happens in history against humanity, including the crime the Nazis created towards the Jews is reprehensible and condemned. Whatever criminality they committed against the hews, we condemn
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MORGAN: What do you make of that? How important is that kind of concession? And do you see a real shift there in the relationship with America? How much do you trust him? CLINTON: Well, first of all, I think it's an interesting commentary on the world in which we're living that admitting that the holocaust occurred, qualified (ph) as being a moderate.
MORGAN: Right.
CLINTON: I mean -- in other words, if you get into the fact- based world, there's something to it. At least we can have something to talk about.
I was hoping and I think the President was that the opening of the U.N. would give them a chance to, you know, maybe even do more. This is eerily reminiscent of what happened when the last moderate Iranian President was there, Mr. Khatami. And I spoke and then he spoke, I went out in the audience and sat with the American delegation and listened to his speech. And I apologized for America's role in overthrowing the Mosaddegh government in the 50s. But, he still didn't feel like we could mead or really do anything.
So, I think we just have to keep working at it. And -- but I don't think that President Obama has to trust anybody. I think you just deal with people and you see what happens and you go forward and I feel the same way about the Russian effort to get to Syrian government to declare, disclose and then handover their chemical weapons.
We'd be crazy not take advantage of this ...
MORGAN: And some -- saying this, some says that sounds too good to be true. Usually it is too good to be true. Can we really believe that Vladimir Putin with his own self-interest for Russia is orchestrating this huge maneuver to remove all of Assad's chemical weapons? And it's just going to happen?
CLINTON: No, we don't have to believe it. We just have to see what happens and make the most of what happens. You work for the best and prepare for the worst in this business. But I think it would be a terrible mistake not to take advantage of the opportunity.
And, you know, look, Mr. Putin -- he got -- he's very smart.
MORGAN: You know him better than most people.
CLINTON: Yes. I do.
MORGAN: What was he like behind closed doors away from, you know, the public utterances?
CLINTON: Smart and remarkably -- we had a really good blunt relationship.
MORGAN: How blunt?
CLINTON: Brutally blunt.
MORGAN: And like, you know ... CLINTON: No, but I think, you know, I think the right strategy most of the time is -- but it's frustrating to people in your line of work, you should be brutally honest with people in private. And then if you want them to help you, try to avoid embarrassing them in public.
Now sometimes, they do things which make it impossible for you to keep quiet. But by enlarge, I found all the people I dealt with appreciated it if I told them the truth. How I'd honestly felt and what our interest were and what our objectives were. And they also appreciated it when I didn't kick them around in public for as long as I couldn't kick them around. So -- you know that's my experience and ...
MORGAN: Has Mr. Putin ever renege on a personal agreement ...
CLINTON: No.
MORGAN: ... he made to you.
CLINTON: He did not.
MORGAN: So behind closed doors, he could be trusted.
CLINTON: He kept his word and all the deals we've made. But, here's what I wanted to say about that. I think -- there are two going on here. First of all, it's clear that the President's threat of force to enter into here, prompted to take -- you know, there was some sort of conversation between Mr. Lavrov and Secretary Kerry and he said, "Is there anything we can do just to make this go away?" And apparently, Secretary Kerry said, "Yes, make chemical weapons go away." thinking that that was the last thing on their mind, probably.
And they said, "Well, let me see about that." What does that tell you? A, they didn't want America to weigh in. They've been shipping arms to the Syrian government. They've got the Iranian military in there, they've got the Lebanese visible on there. They do not want the State. They thought they had tipped the scales in favor of the government against the rebel groups.
Secondly, they have arrested Muslim populations in their Southern under belly in Russia. They have to be apprehensive about all these Al-Qaeda affiliated groups getting into mix now in Syria. They have to be concerned about the prospect -- look, chemical weapons are not like the other weapons that is you keep the chemicals over here. And then if you got a sophisticated military, you put them in a war head and you launch them somewhere, but you can use those chemicals in a lot of ways. They cannot possibly want these huge stores of chemicals being in Syria not knowing what's going to happen five years, 10 years from now.
He may have honestly reached a decision that it is not in Russia's interest. Secondly, he may have concluded, I think rightly, that he could ride this anti-American horse only so far. And in the end, it won't put a single Russian to work. It won't increase the life expectancy of Russian males which is now dropped to 59 or lower. It will not restore the vitality of the Russian healthcare system or economy. And, you know, Russia still got the same decision the made -- they had to make after the end of the Cold War. If you -- as long they got plenty of oil and gas and they could sell it at a high price in most of their neighbors, they can pretend that a 19th Century Czarist Empire world view is the best strategy for Russia going forward.
MORGAN: You've talked to the ...
CLINTON: But it's a dead bang loser. I mean the Russians are really smart, creative people.
MORGAN: Did you talked to him on the phone?
CLINTON: No. Not unless I have an issue of -- we did with the Norwegian government an age plan for St. Petersburg. And I talked to him and we've presented to him, left it with him. And they, I think, implemented it. But I -- when I see him or, you know, have -- when Hillary was secretary of state, I sometimes had indirect contacts with him. I had a good relationship with him. But they're -- they should be building a 21st Century economy built on an incredible brain power of their people and their facility and all these information technology areas.
Every year, there's a consortium of global universities that have a contest in solving computer problems. And I don't check on the results every year. But every year I've checked over the last 10 years, there've always been at least two Russian universities in the top five. They're good at this. Why would you build a future based on wasting natural resources and pushing your neighbors around and trying to make sure America's miserable in the Middle East when you could rebuild a future that would allow Russia's population to expand instead of shrink? And allow their influence to be global because it's based on things that are real, and tangible, and help people.
So I think, you know, this might be the beginning of a different strategy for them. Do I know that? Of course, not. And I think we ...
MORGAN: But worth trying.
CLINTON: Yes. You should try everything. You should always work for the best, never shut anything off. It is not necessary to trust somebody to take him up on a good offer. Just pay attention to what's going on.
MORGAN: When we come back, his wife Hillary and the presidency.
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MORGAN: When we come back, it's his wife Hillary and the Presidency.
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MORGAN: Would you want your wife to go through the rigors of the presidency knowing what it's like these days. The brutal toll it takes on you?
And later, the man who unforgettably played the Sax on TV has another memorable rock star moment.
Your daughter just informed me, in fact all of us, that you do a pretty good Bono impression. This is your chance, Mr. President.
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MORGAN: Clinton Global Initiative shows the world's A-list (ph)year after year. So it's no surprise that some of the celebrities and the audience had their own questions for Bill Clinton.
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MORGAN: Well, I'm now going to put my trust into the member of the audience who has a question for you -- someone very special. She's Geena Davis played the Commander-in-chief, the first Lady President of United States.
CLINTON: Yes. She's my President, I always tell her that.
MORGAN: So I think she has a very pertinent question for you Mr. President.
GEENA DAVIS, FOUNDER, GEENA DAVIS INSTITUTE ON GENDER IN MEDIA: Well, you do -- the high point of my life was after the show when I saw you and you said, "My President." Well now, you know, I could die happily but that's the best thing. So we have that in common. My administration was much shorter than yours.
MORGAN: Truly comes off the fans of the show.
DAVIS: Really the only difference. But I hope people understand the scale of CGI and the extraordinary things that you're accomplishing. And there's an increasing focus -- very powerful focus on women's empowerment -- women's economic empowerment and not only in separate discussions about that but including women in every topic that's discussed. Can you just share with us a little bit about why you think that's so important?
CLINTON: Sure. First of all, the reason CGI's done so much is that I'm not doing it. And even our foundation's not doing it. You know, when we showed the film yesterday on our foundation and how we tried to define what we were about. I said I had gone out of my way never to actually get any kind of help for what we do out of CGI. We -- our foundation helps if we're asked like the Haiti Working Group's meeting now. We do a lot of work there. So I'm very active there. But this is a metaphor for the way I hope the 21st Century will work. That is, this is an incredible network that's constantly shifting, constantly growing, constantly learning.
And the most important thing I think CGI's doing now besides holding the meeting and getting the right people here is helping people to develop commitments with a better chance of success and then helping them to keep those commitments.
So now, you've got all of these people getting together and working together who would otherwise never have done so before. I think that's important. Why do we decide to include girls and women in all this? Because -- first of all, it's morally the right thing to do. Secondly, the world has seven billion people, we're going to nine billion and the countries that are growing most rapidly are the ones least able to handle the growth. And all over the world, the only strategy that works to build a sustainable population culturally and religiously in every region is to put all the girls in school and give all the women access to the labor market.
For example, as for Prince's Notes (ph), Saudi Arabia has done a brilliant job of getting young women in institutions for higher education. For several years now, there have been more women than men in college, but they are still underrepresented in the labor force. Japan is caught in a demographic trap aggravated with the fact that they don't take immigrants, but they could buy themselves 20 years to work this out if they can just get even participation both women and men in the workforce and they could come roaring back.
So there's one of the wealthiest in the world. Then if you go to where we do all these work in Africa or Southeast Asia or Latin America. It's obviously going to be very important. Our family is really interested in Myanmar ...
MORGAN: Well, coming to your family as you're talking women in the workforce, who do you think might make the better president, your wife or your daughter?
CLINTON: The day after tomorrow, my wife because she's had more experience. Over the long run, Chelsea, she knows more than we do about everything. And there was a time in her childhood when I thought maybe she thought she did when she didn't, now it's highly embarrassing because she in fact does. So, I feel like I'm going to school everyday when we have a conversation.
MORGAN: I met your wife for the first time and your daughter today and she looks fantastic, she looks completely re-invigorated, she seemed absolutely on fire with ideas and dynamism and so on, and it just screamed to me one thing. I'm running. Can you put as all out of our misery?
CLINTON: No. But it should have screamed to you something else. Real life is a healthier existence than politics.
MORGAN: Right.
CLINTON: Look at West Clark. He looks like he can still swim for West Point, you see? They are some of the example in real life.
MORGAN: But there was a -- well there's a series of points on what you just said I mean, would you want your wife to go through the rigors of the Presidency knowing what it's like these days, the brutal toll it takes on you? Given how well you both -- she said only this week, she was saying, "You and she get to be at home together a lot more than we used to. Have a great time. We laugh with our dogs. We watched stupid movies. We take long walks. We go for a swim. More everyday pleasure." Now, that all goes out the window if you go back to the White House.
CLINTON: Well, the answer to that question is I want her to do what she wants to do. And I think it's too soon for her to decide both because she's getting used to being a private citizen again. She has a book finish, she got all these stuff, and because we don't know what kind of shape the country and the world is going to be in. I think it's quite unhealthy for our democracy and for our decision making process that we all insist on now running permanent presidential campaigns.
I mean Barrack Obama had not taken his hand off the Bible taking the oath of office before all of this stuff was lost. Now, and the Republicans have been out for eight years and so I get that, there's, you know, there's 12, 15 people that want to be the nominees, so I understand that there's going to be stories about this. But to turn this into a permanent thing is a bad deal because America needs to be concentrated on things like, "How are we going to be implement this healthcare reform law?"
If we implement the healthcare reform law and it works and we spend relatively less than we were pending on healthcare that is if we can continue the low inflation rate. How will we see that some of that money that's freed up will be reinvested in the American economy to create more and different jobs.
The reason incomes are stagnant in America today is A, there aren't enough jobs and B, we're not changing the job mix. The only way to raise the median income that is I supported as you know -- repeal of the tax cost for high income people. I don't mind paying more, I think those of us who have got in the line share of gain should pay more.
But, look what's happening. We're returning to the distribution on the first decade of the -- of this new century where 90 percent of the gains go to 10 percent of the people and half the gains go to 1 percent of the people. The only way you can change that is if you have what happened in my second term which the only time since the late 70s when every quintile went up in median income. The one in the middle went up, you got to have more jobs and change the job mix.
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MORGAN: When we come back, I'll ask President Clinton what he thinks it take Cruz's marathon monologue to stop Obamacare.
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MORGAN: Most of his party thinks he is -- most of his party thinks he is (inaudible), what is the way you and Newt Gingrich eventually ...
CLINTON: For once in a while, I'm extremely grateful for your British roots. I could have said that with a straight face and pulled it off. That is great
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MORGAN: Senator Ted Cruz's marathon monologue against funding Obamacare went over 21 straight hours. The Republican finally finished talking. But there is something strange emerging (ph) with the Democrats to move ahead on spending bill that funds Obamacare. Go figure that if you can.
I ask Bill Clinton, what do he think it will take (ph) Washington to get its act together?
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MORGAN: You also have to have, Mr. President, a functional Washington and there is a sense that is never been more dysfunctional, more divisive, more personally abusive. Ted Cruz, for all I know, is still banging on now trying to, you know, get Obamacare defunded, and so on. Even when most of his party think he is crackers (ph). What is the way you and Newt Gingrich eventually ...
CLINTON: For once in a while I'm extremely grateful for your British roots. I couldn't have said that with a straight place and pulled it off. That is great.
MORGAN: All right, I'm happy to help, Mr. President. What is the ways first, you and Newt Gingrich eventually worked it up between you -- how do you get stuff done in this dysfunctional Washington?
CLINTON: We worked it out when he was trying to run me out of town. We we're still working together. I mean I knew it was a -- it was a game to him. He thought, you know, he would -- as he look -- he once said that (inaudible) is the difference between us is that we'll do whatever we can and you won't do that. You think there are things you shouldn't do, and once I realize what the deal was I let him do whatever he could and then we did business on the side.
And you're laughing but that's really we reached an accommodation, but at that time, because they shut the government down twice and because they wish to hold on to their jobs, the Republican, they wanted to maintain their majority, they believe they had to show up for work and get something done.
This reapportionment has created a climate particularly in the House of Representatives, but also in some of the states where there is -- they're basically one party states where they believe that they don't have to get anything done. They just believe that they have to demonize the opposition and say whatever they're going to say.
Let me just give you an example, in 2012 we had a close presidential election, the aggregate vote for the United States Senate gave 57 percent to the Democrats, but we won the big states so you expect that but the aggregate vote for the House of Representatives continued the Republicans and their majority, it was 52 to 48 for the Democrats.
In North Carolina, where there are nine Republicans and four Democrats in the Congress, the Democrats won the House vote, 51 to 49. So, we have to realize that we are creating a system here in which we favor division over cooperation. Yes, everybody likes me in CGI because we forget what our political parties and affiliations are, we just sort of show of for work, kind of do something with worth. And I worry about that and I worry that -- I use to worry that CNN was going to do - lose too many viewers because ...
MORGAN: I'm not in favor of that , Mr. President, we are ...
CLINTON: No, no, let me -- let me ...
MORGAN: ... storming ahead.
CLINTON: Obviously, -- yes you're doing better but -- you're more entertaining now which is good. But, but, but you became more entertaining without becoming more extreme which is important. I mean -- it's because people are wired when they see all this conflict to get in to their fray so that -- and you know what it takes, you got to have 800,000 viewers in a cable show to breakeven, and if you get more than that your profits go up.
So, the good news about the media today is that we have more sources of information than ever before; the bad news is we are all of us prone only to go to the places we agree with. So, MSNBC has -- has grown because they have ...
MORGAN: We don't mention that in -- I'm sorry it's a ...
CLINTON: And Fox News had this big base and I know it's very carefully done psychologically and substantively. And we just -- everything is serving to polarize the country. The problem is if you look around the world, the places where people worked together, they're doing well. The places where people fight all the time, they're not doing very well. It's not rocket science, so why would you keep doing something that doesn't work? Because even in a Democracy, people constantly vote for that which they claim to hate.
So, here is one new test, the next test which would have a big impact on changing America, if we could get the voter turn out in midterm elections, the next one is in 2014 to equal the voter turn out in presidential elections we would at least stop having two different Americas vote in off years. And that would create a clear signal that Americans want us to build a dynamic vital center. And they don't get that signal now; you can just cast the politicians if they think they are voting in a way that will be rewarded, that the public has to send a different set of signals. And I believe we can do that.
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MORGAN: Next, the battle of a guns in America, what Bill Clinton says about the fight and the push for gun control.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CLINTON: I'm the only president in modern times to ever consistently take on the NRA and survived.
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FREDRICKA WHITFIELD: I'm Fredricka Whitfield and this is CNN.
MORGAN: Tonight, chilling new video and pictures of a Navy Yard gunman. The FBI's releasing these disturbing images of Aaron Alexis as he walks to the hallways inside the Navy Yard. Armed with the sort of shotgun, Alexis' seems stalking people and docking behind walls during his deadly rampage.
Alexis murdered 12 people before he was shot to death. Today the FBI says he's under the delusional belief that he was being controlled by electromagnetic waves. And you know where I stand on guns; let's see what Bill Clinton has to say.
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MORGAN: What will it take to change American's culture of gun bans given that we seen some of the worst outrageous in American history in the last year. And they couldn't even pass background checks in Congress?
CLINTON: That's because they are -- I'll tell you exactly what it is and I'm the only president in the modern times to ever consistently take on the NRA and survive, right? But I lost 12 or 15 house members for banning out weapons and passing the Brady Bill.
West Clark and I grew up in Arkansas in the 50's and 60's. Here's what I know about it. The political problem I've seen from the perspective of Congress is that even though 90 percent of people favored comprehensive background checks, there is no reasonable straight face where you can say, the second amendment permits me to check your background if you come in to my gun store to buy gun. But the second amendment does not permit me to check your background if you buy a gun over the internet or one of these guns fairs, right? It's crazy.
So everybody favors that. And we couldn't break filibuster and it was not supported by President Obama. I mean primarily it was led by Joe Manchin, a conservative democrat from West Virginia and Pat Toomey, a conservative republican from Pennsylvania who felt the same way.
MORGAN: Why did they do that?
CLINTON: Because consistently, with the single exception of my getting reelected in 1996, the people who agree with us on the gun issue have not been able to protect the people they elect.
Why is that? How could you have Colorado voting 70 to 30 to close the Gun Show Loophole in 2000 and have these people beat? Well, one of its (inaudible), 70 percent of people in Colorado vote by post card, by mail and some judge said they couldn't that in this case.
MORGAN: But isn't it also a lack -- a lack of political (ph) courage? Isn't it about political (ph) courage?
CLINTON: No, it is not. It's about the voters having no intensity on this side. They get all upset when people get killed and they want to do something. And then, they go into the voting booth and they won't vote against you if you disagree with them.
The people on the other side maybe outnumbered, 7 to 3. I'll just tell you exactly what it was like in Colorado in 2000. We have numbers there. Of the 70 percent who voted to close the Gun Show Loophole, only 15 or 20 percent of them would vote against you if you were on the other side, of the 30 percent who voted against closing the Gun Show Loophole, they would vote against you if you disagreed with them.
So if you're candidate running for office, the real pole was not 70 to 30 in favor of your position. The real pole was 30 to 20 against your position. And there a lot of people who won't hold on to their jobs if they have to give up 10 percent.
Now you want to really know what to do the American people have got to quit ringing their hands and say, you know, "I care about this, I'm going to vote based on this." That's one option. The other option is to give the power to the voters.
Now I remember a conversation I had 30 years ago with my great uncle who was a perfect American demographic for this. He had a 180 I.Q. and a 6th grade education. And 11 years before I sign the Brady Bill into law, I endorse a waiting period. And you would have thought I had come out for the Soviet Union taking (inaudible).
Oh, my God I was getting killed, so I picked up the phone and call Mac (ph) and I said, "Buddy," it was 1982, I said, "Does anybody really think I've come to take your guns away?" He said no. I said, "So, I don't believe all this stuff the NRA is saying?" He said no. But he said "Bill, remember, people you grew up with, your (inaudible) up and little (inaudible), and remember people you grew up with, none of us have enough money to take a vacation. All we got is our hunting and our fishing and the square dances if they come to town. And we don't want to take a chance."
So we know they're probably not telling us the truth, but we don't want to take a chance. And that's what you have to -- you're up against. So the alternative is if you don't want to organize, stand up for your representative if they vote for you, then you got to put it on the ballot. But if you look at this so far we have been unable to protect people. I believe -- I'm not positive, but I believe a majority of the voters and both of those districts where the representatives were recalled in Colorado, were recorded as favoring their vote not opposing it.
But they didn't show up, and until we want this bad enough to defend the people who give it to us, or we have the discipline to circulate the petitions and put it on the ballot. We're going to lose because the polls don't mean anything unless you can deliver the vote.
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MORGAN: We know that President Obama does a killer Al Green impression.
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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT: I'm so in love with you.
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MORGAN: Wait until you see Bill Clinton's take on Bono. That's coming next.
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BONO: Then I had Chelsea torture me about all this aid stuff. And you know, what we got to work on it and, you know, the foundation did incredible work.
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MORGAN: Does he do a good Bono impression?
CHELSEA CLINTON: He does.
MORGAN: Great. He does?
CHELSEA: He does.
MORGAN: That's (inaudible).
A lot of talk obviously this week, you had a general assembly and the CGI all the world leaders here, every opinion makers on it. It's been pretty clear to me this morning, there is anyone real talking point that being gripping everybody, particularly a clip of what they're all talking about Mr. President.
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BONO: I walked then to a novel (ph) office and I -- actually I thought it was a member of his own road crew. I wasn't really dressed right -- actually, I felt like the rock star on that occasion. But together, you know, he did this -- drop the dead thing. And my God, there's 51 million children going to school in Africa because of the drop to dead (inaudible), that's pretty good isn't that right?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: It's pretty good, isn't? Now, first of all, what was your reaction when you heard Bono pretending to be you?
CLINTON: It was pretty good. You know, we've been friends a long time and it's not the first time he has made fun of me but he is getting better at it.
MORGAN: Your daughter just informed me, in fact all of us, that you do a pretty good Bono impression. This is your chance, Mr. President.
BILL CLINTON: What my reason (inaudible). And we, Irish, we imitate anybody. But alas, I've been singing so long and screaming loud at these concerts, that I'm hoarse so I got to be careful with my voice. That's my why all my charities only have three-letter names.
Led (ph), One (ph), and even that's more effort than U2. But we still do a lot of good.
MORGAN: That is great.
Mr. President, it's been absolutely delight. Thank you very much.
BILL CLINTON: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: Next, the Clintons consider heard their greatest achievement. A preview of my interview with Chelsea Clinton, that's coming up.
(START VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: So, Chelsea, you heard what your dad said. He basically thinks you now know at all. And most certainly got run to America, second thoughts?
CHELSEA CLINTON: I'm grateful that I have a proud father.
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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MORGAN: Tomorrow night, Chelsea Clinton, her father says she knows more than he and Hillary do about just about everything. So, will she follow on their footsteps?
Well, here's the preview of my interview with Chelsea.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: Clearly, there is an issue now it the radicalization of homegrown terror whether it's in America or Britain or any -- we may not know where all these terrorists came from but that looks like to be a pattern, we saw it on the Boston Marathon and other times.
You have this disaffected youth, you have this unemployed youth but you also have a youth that can be susceptible to being radicalized. How do you think -- you've got bags of experience of your parents in this area? But how do you think the best way for country like America can actually deal with this kind of problem. CHELSEA CLINTON: With the greatest respect (inaudible) ways in unemployed young man to any social system to any society anywhere in the world. And so, ensuring that young people feel like we are collectively investing more in their future than in kind of either harboring past grievances or and kind of protecting the status quo is I think the best antidote to that.
And in some ways, I think Kenya was attacked because they have been transcending historic tribal barriers and strife. They have come a tremendous way since the 2007, 2008 election violence and have been repudiating kind of the historical forces that were trying to keep Kenya back.
And so, I think because young people stood up in this last election and said, "We're not going to have a violent election. We are going to have free transparent and open elections. We are going to move our country forward." Suddenly, we seen the backlash and I have no doubt that young women like Peggy (ph) and young men will keep fighting for the future.
MORGAN: Hearing you speak Chelsea, and I think I can ask you think question, not your mother because it actually involves you. Have you ever thought of, you know, running for high office?
CHELSEA CLINTON: Well, there's people that's been asking me that question for as long as I can remember, literally. One of my earliest memory.
MORGAN: Chelsea, what's the truthful answer.
CHELSEA CLINTON: The truthful answer is thankfully the truthful answer I guess and that I'm deeply grateful for my life now. I love my life. I love being able to do this work. I love that particularly through the Clinton Global Initiative University, we're able to connect to students like Peggy (ph) and help connect here to more resources that can help advance her work and help connect her to young students who want to emulate her work.
And I'm grateful that I was in the city in the state of the country where ...
MORGAN: This is a brilliant politician's answer I mean --
CHELSEA CLINTON: It's true, right?
MORGAN: ... this is what I mean.
CHELSEA CLINTON: It's true.
MORGAN: This is why you'd be so perfect. (inaudible) to talk for the entire moment without referring remotely to either yes or no.
Do you play board games with your parents like scrabble? And if so, who wins?
CHELSEA CLINTON: So, we generally are a card playing family. We do play some board games.
MORGAN: Which card games?
CHELSEA CLINTON: Oh, we play pinochle, spades, hearts, all variant ...
MORGAN: And very competitive, I'd imagine.
CHELSEA CLINTON: Deeply competitive.
MORGAN: Who wins?
CHELSEA CLINTON: Thankfully, it's a pretty equal distribution. I think, otherwise ...
MORGAN: How did I know you'd say that.
CHELSEA CLINTON: It's true.
MORGAN: You tell me, you all win 33 percent of the time, right?
CHELSEA CLINTON: So -- in cards probably. In Scrabble, my mother is very good in scrabble.
MORGAN: Wow.
CHELSEA CLINTON: And Boggle, my father is probably better.
MORGAN: Your dad is the best Boggler in the Clinton you say.
CHELSEA CLINTON: Probably the best Boggler. My mom is probably the best Scrabbler.
MORGAN: And you are the best ...
CHELSEA CLINTON: Pretty good at upwards, everyone is equally probably pretty ...
MORGAN: What are you best at?
CHELSEA CLINTON: I do really want a traditional board games, backgammon, checkers.
MORGAN: Yes.
CHELSEA CLINTON: Yes.
MORGAN: Interesting. I could talk about this for hours.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: Chelsea Clinton, tomorrow night, that's all for us tonight though.
AC360 LATER, starts right now.
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