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Piers Morgan Live
A Tale of Two Presidents
Aired November 15, 2013 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PIERS MORGAN, HOST: This is PIERS MORGAN LIVE. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. Tonight, a tale of two presidents. One cut down in his prime, another struggling to preserve his legacy. As the nation remembers John Fitzgerald and what might have been if those bullets never have been fired 50 years ago. How will we remember this president? Will Barack Obama's legacy be a failed health care law? Is Obamacare his Katrina?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.: I am not a perfect man, and I will not be a perfect president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: Can the President survive politically and what about the rest of his second-term agenda? I'll ask the man who wrote the book on Obama and on President Clinton, David Maraniss, plus one of Barack Obama's biggest Hollywood supporters, Harvey Weinstein. Will he standby his man?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: Well joining me now on that and that is where on the Democratic Party, Howard Dean, the former Presidential candidate and DNC Chairman and David Gergen who advised Presidents from Nixon to Reagan to Clinton. Welcome to both of you.
David Gergen, let me start with you on this because I watched the President's press conference yesterday. And as he went on and on and on and on taking the blames, soaking it in and so on, I just began to find myself, distancing myself from him in terms of credibility, and thinking why you're talking so much of those just get it fixed.
DAVID GERGEN, CNN SR.POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, sometimes of late he does seem to think that the longer, he talks, the more he persuades and I think that's wrong. I think it's just the reverse if you are more -- and more transparent. He got into trouble because of what he said. That's most of the trouble is by saying over and over and over again, if you like your healthcare plan, you can keep it.
MORGAN: Did he mislead or was it just a blatant lie?
GERGEN: I've had big arguments on that and friends of Obama said they're not lying. What they do agree is that it was fraudulent. And the healthcare bill task based on fraud. You got to remember one--
MORGAN: But that wasn't lie, isn't it?
GERGEN: In my book--
MORGAN: It was semantic.
GERGEN: Yeah, I agree. In my book -- but listen, Pierce, you weren't living here at that time. When the Clintons try to push forward with healthcare, the opposition ran what was called "Harry and Louise ads" and they had Harry and Louise sitting in around their the kitchen table saying, "You know, if you sign up for Clinton Care, the government's going to take away your healthcare plan and the Bureaucrats on Washington are going to tell you what kind of healthcare plan to have."
That's sank the Clinton Bill. Those ads sank the Clinton Bill and so you can imagine Obama really anxious to say to you, "You can keep healthcare plan," you can keep your doctor but they got themselves in a lot of trouble doing.
MORGAN: Howard Dean, fraudulent, lying, whatever you want to call it is not the transparent Barack Obama that everybody assumed they were electing. How damaging is all these to him, personally in terms of his credibility?
HOWARD DEAN, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yeah, let me say a couple of things. First of all, I disagree with David. My guess is that the staff let him to believe that it was true and, you know, his early staff was weak and that they did made a lot of mistakes and I think he is a truth teller. I do believe that he told the truth as he heard it and saw it.
Secondly, anybody who compares this to Katrina is smoking something. 3,000 people were killed in Katrina. We haven't lost any lives here, yet. This maybe a big political mess and blah, blah, blah. We're talking politics here. We're not talking about loss of life.
MORGAN: Well, hang on, hang on. Let met just jump in there because that was my initial reaction but that should be taken to its logical extension. A massive healthcare program like this which the President has staked his reputation on in many ways. It is about life and death. It is about health. I mean, if the system collapses then people are going to suffer, the health may suffer.
DEAN: Well that -- Pierce, interestingly enough, the Republicans would disagree because the Republicans kept saying, "Oh, don't worry, if you don't have health insurance, you'll get and taken care of the emergency room." So you can't have it both ways here.
Look, and I do agree with David about the length of the expect -- I was with a group of people actually onset, on a television talk show and we all, of course, had to stop and watch and the thing and we all fairly experienced in politics. And we're just saying, "Where is Jay Carney saying, "Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen." I mean, I was shocked. I don't know of a Press Secretary that would've let this go on like this for any President and it should've been cut off and David's absolutely right.
MORGAN: Let me come to David on that. I mean, this is what I thought was strange. It was almost like he was out there as a sitting duck. Wanting to take the harpoons coming his way, but for what purpose because nobody came away thinking, OK well that sorted that then.
GERGEN: Well I -- it's hard to explain. I think he feels very vulnerable. I think he feels humiliated. I agree with Howard. I think for the most part he has been an honest President and we have not have scandals in this administration. And that is to his credit.
What I disagree is well his staff let him down. I'm sorry but when you have your biggest issue of your Presidency and you're the Chief Executive, Howard was a governor. He knows this. He's run this kind of things. You're responsible, and he may not have hard knowledge but he's in any court of my way.
(INAUDIBLE)
MORGAN: It wasn't, Howard Dean like he just said it once and it was a slip of the tongue, he said it repeatedly.
GERGEN: Sure.
MORGAN: He went on and on and on and on telling the American people, you can keep your plan, you can keep your doctor. He must have known that neither of those things was true and he must have known...
DEAN: I don't think so.
MORGAN: ... the reason he was selling was to sell his program.
DEAN: I don't believe that about him. I just don't. I, you know, people may say things and their explained things. Look he's a very bright guy. I think everybody understands that. He had a lot of people explaining him things, but frankly, I didn't think his experts were all at great. Some of them are terrific and some of them weren't. And I don't know who was explaining all this to him. But you know, my honest opinion is I don't think Kathleen Sebelius, who I think is great, understood all of this stuff. This is really complicated stuff and I think she got lots of mumbo, jumbo people from Massachusetts to explain it all and they said somethings that we're misleading,
GERGEN: Well, that's (inaudible). Sorry, look we've now had a variety of newspaper report saying. His staff did know, they had a big argument within the White House about whether what he should say, and how to describe this and the political people basically came down hard or you got to make this very simple and very reassuring and that's the way we're going to sell this program.
I just do not believe that President had no knowledge of that. It's so fundamental to the program about how you pay for this program. MORGAN: In terms of the accountability David. The President can say look at the box stops for me. Well, of course, it does, he's the President and this is his major plan.
Why does he not fire Kathleen Sebelius? Given the scale of how disastrous this has now become. Surely ahead has to role, doesn't it? And she is the obvious head?
GERGEN: Well, I believe in due course the head will roll. I would assume that it's some discrete interval that she will gracefully find a way to leave. I don't think they ought to humiliate here but I think this was a failure up down the line, I don't think it's hers. This is the White House that is centralized power that is taken a lot of power away from cabinet officers put it in though White House and they didn't have the team, I think that Howard's got a good point here but the quality of the team to run this.
I think the President has some very good people with him in his inner circle. People he brought from Chicago are terrific people but he never brought in a heavy weight to run health care. If he brought in Tom Daschle for the beginning, as I think he's still should have done.
Well, Howard Dean could have been very helpful to her but there is somebody who was a heavy wait who understood executive management and understood politics would have to make a big ...
MORGAN: Howard let me ask you of this, you are a doctor. Do you think the fundamentally ObamaCare is a good idea, now a problem has been the implementation or you think the whole thing is basically flawed?
DEAN: This is doable idea. The major problem here is that the website crashed that was foreseeable. I've been through a lot of tech roll outs when I was governor. My rule generally is it takes twice as much as they told you, it is twice as long as they you it was going to take, it cost twice as much and often you have to do it twice.
MORGAN: Let me question you -- but let me question you Harold, here is the problem. It's the President's credibility, you know, when I watch the video mash up, of him just saying endlessly to the American people to complete falsehoods. It is very damaging because you want to believe that guy, that's why he got elected ...
DEAN: But Piers.
MORGAN: ... the polls numbers are 39 percent. What do you expect? That is 6 percent lower than the crack smoking mayor of Toronto. How bad is that?
DEAN: I must say I was speechless at that one. What a press conference that was yesterday holy cow.
MORGAN: But he's still polling higher than the President. He's got a problem and these are, I mean David Gergen, these are big problems for the President, I think. Can Presidents comeback in the second term when the clock is ticking from such a major fiasco? GERGEN: Yes, but, let me just say, I think that whether this program is going to work or not is highly problematic right now. We just simply don't know but on the question whether the Presidents can comeback in the second term? Yes, they can. He still has time to do that.
You know, Ronald Reagan had a run contra early in his second term, he came back, you know, Bill Clinton had Monica Lewinsky and all that (inaudible), he got impeached in his second term and he still have great accomplishments and finished high in the polls. Both Presidents instead, so I think ...
MORGAN: Because, you know, I would say on that though, you see, one of those is a personal failing all be at one that he misled people about it.
But a personal failing, the second one was a forum policy maneuver that was unpopular. This is right in the heart of domestic policy. This infects everyone in America in some way.
GERGEN: Yes, here's the difference that in both cases Reagan and Clinton their credibility was badly damaged by the incident and they both came back. It took a lot of work because the President's going to have to make up for it.
But if he -- listen if he gets a grow in economy. He is possibly getting in run deal that is welcomed on all sides, and maybe this thing worked better overtime. Yeah, this will be an incident in the past, but right now, I think people will say -- say fairly, he's been, the damage to him has been devastating. I'm not sure it failed.
MORGAN: Let me put it in perspective for you Jay ...
DEAN: At the end of the way ...
MORGAN: More people -- more people, Howard Dean more Americans signed a petition to have me deported for my opposition to guns, then have actually enrolled in ObamaCare. Now that doesn't worry the President. What will?
DEAN: Well, that should worry you.
MORGAN: Listen gentlemen, got to leave it there. Howard Dean, David Gergen thank you both very much indeed. And I want to bring in David Maraniss, the author of Barack Obama, the story. David you heard these two eminent men debating there what is going on here, put it into historical context. How damaging is this, do you think? And how successfully can the President extricate himself from this mess?
DAVID MARANISS, AUTHOR, "BARACK OBAMA: "THE STORY": Well, I think it's very damaging. I think that he based his entire Presidency on this single great initiative. He had more than three years to prepare for its roll out. But I agree with David Gergen that it's not fatal. As he pointed out Bill at this -- when Bill Clinton issued his apology from Monica Lewinsky. It was not a low the point. He was yet to be impeached. Like Barack Obama, Republicans were out to get Bill Clinton. They disliked him intensely. President Obama is facing that same problem but he does have time to recover and he has the benefit of the possibility of this plan actually working. He's got some time to work on that as well as his reputation.
MORGAN: Let's take a look at three bits of footage. The first one is the President yesterday issuing his mea culpa and immediately after that will be Bill Clinton and George W. Bush apologizing for Monica Lewinsky and for Katrina. Let's watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: My expectation was that for 98 percent of the American people, either it genuinely wouldn't change at all or they'd be pleasantly surprised with the options in the marketplace and that the Grandfather Clause would cover the rest. That proved not to be the case. And that's on me.
BILL CLINTON: It is important to me that everybody who has been hurt know, that the sorrow I feel is genuine.
GEORGE W. BUSH: Americans have every right to expect a more effective response in a time of emergency. When the Federal Government fails to meet such an obligation, I as President, am responsible for the problem.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: There you have three mea culpas, all very different things obviously. But, how difficult can it be for a President when his own personal credibility is so questioned. When it looks like Barack Obama has made a series of speeches just telling blatant falsehoods to the American people over his great big project. That's got to be pretty bad, isn't it?
MARANISS: Well, you're right. The mea culpa is a ritual in American politics. In this case, for President Obama, I think his -- the reason he dragged on and on yesterday, you know, and this is a week from now, Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address in 272 words.
MORGAN: Right.
MARANISS: You know, Obama was barely clearing his throat by that point. But nonetheless, the fact is that Obama knows that whatever he says is completely overwhelmed by what happens and I think he always says trouble dealing with words when he knows the deeds are more important. He gets following stuff and that's what he tends to talk too much.
MORGAN: How will this damage potentially Hillary Clinton's chances of winning at 2016 race if the Democrats become associated with this catastrophic ObamaCare which is assuming for the worst case scenario, it doesn't work at all, falls flat in his face and Obama is humiliated? How does that impact on Hillary Clinton if at all? MARANISS: Well, first of all, you're assuming that Hillary Clinton will run and she'll be the candidate, and at this point, before 2008, nobody even knew about Barack Obama. So, there's so much time. I think it's more clearly going to effect the -- you know, elections next year. And also one possible larger impact, which is actually much more important than how it affects Hillary Clinton, and that's how it affects Liberal Activist Government. If this plan fails, it does great damage to that whole notion.
MORGAN: David Maraniss, thank you very much. There's one small bright spot for the President tonight, his message for Batkid, five- year old Miles Scott. The "Make a Wish Foundation" is making young Miles' wish come true by letting him be Batman for the day. And the President sent his personal congratulations.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: Way to go Miles, way to save Gotham.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: Does it get better than that. When we come back, one of President Obama's biggest banquets in Hollywood I'll ask Harvey Weinstein if he thinks the President could win back the nation's trust.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NEWT GINGRICH, ANCHOR CNN: I'm Newt Gingrich and this is CNN.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Obama having press conference where he said that he fumbled the rollout of ObamaCare.
But the good news is he just got signed to play running back for the Oakland Raiders.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me be quick. When I said end of November I did not say which November.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He blamed themselves and we said, "I'm not a perfect President". Yes.
Yeah, but that's explains why today Fox News name Tim their employee of the month.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: President Obama taking his (lumps) from the kings of late night. Has Hollywood lost faith in their President? Well, joining me now one of the biggest reporters from Hollywood, Harvey Weinstein, President of Weinstein Company. Harvey, welcome back to you.
HARVEY WEINSTEIN, PRESIDENT OF THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY: Nice you to see you.
MORGAN: Now, remember when we talked over the last for years or so about President Obama who was being massively supportive and I tended to agree with a lot of what you said. I find it very difficult this ObamaCare thing. When I see the repeated footage of him standing there and saying, you can keep your doctor and keep your plan, just telling it outright occupy to the American public. I don't like it. It's not the Barack Obama that I expected. Do you feel any sense of disappointment in the way this has gone?
WEINSTEIN: Well, I think he said that he made a mistake. But for me, I look at the idealism behind it.
You know, sometimes, you know, I know in my own industry I can't execute the way I want. The movie doesn't come out perfectly. Maybe we get it right much later on.
But I mean this is the guy who got a compassion for 41 million Americans who don't have insurance. I mean, and he's getting -- why don't people say things like, "Can we help you" as opposed to can we, you know, attack you.
(INAUDIBLE)
WEINSTEIN: What's wrong with the country?
MORGAN: But Robert Redford, was interesting about is, he came out and said that Obama's paralyzing the system, behaving stupidly. He then went on say this, "I think just the idea of giving credit to this President, giving credit for anything is abhorrent to them," taking up the point you just made. "So, they'll go against it. Never mind that it's the better good of the people, never mind that they're supposed to be in the office representing the interest of the public. They're representing their own self-interest, which is very narrow and, in some cases, bigoted. There is a body of Congressional people who wants to paralyze the system. I think what sits underneath it, unfortunately, is there's probably some racism involved to which is really awful.
Pretty strong words. I mean based accusing Obama's opponents are being racist.
WEINSTEIN: I think some of them are, you know, unfortunately.
MORGAN: Do you?
WEINSTEIN: Yeah, I do. Because this is kind of victory is unexplained otherwise. I mean I -- luckily for me I've been around the Clinton Administration, and there wasn't (inaudible) like this. And I've also, you know...
MORGAN: And then more so, wasn't it? WEINSTEIN: I guess there was but it was much more focused in getting Ridge (ph) good laugh and, you know, Clinton could laugh back and, you know, they joke back and forth. It just looks utter disdain, you know, for the President. You know, it is ironic, you know, that we're going to talk about Mandela but I'll bring that up know.
MORGAN: Yeah.
WEINSTEIN: You know, I screened the movie for the President.
MORGAN: At the White House last week?
WEINSTEIN: At the White House. You know, Mandela was his great hero. When you see this movie and Mandela talks about leadership.
MORGAN: Right.
WEINSTEIN: He says "Look, I know what you want but I'm not going to do that. I'm going to do the tough thing because I'm your leader." And when you see Mandela sit down with the clerk, this guy -- I mean he put him in prison for 27 years and he forgave them. This country's got to start, you know, acting like -- it mean they care about each other.
MORGAN: To a point, I agree with a lot of what you say. The point when I don't is I think on this ObamaCare thing, is not so much there were technical problems of the rollout. That happens in big role outs. And I'm sure that they will fix that.
It's that repeated footage of him not just once but dozens of times telling the American people you can keep the planner, keep your doctor. When it looks like now he knew all along that wasn't possible. It was just an outright falsehood. And I can't remember him doing that so blatantly and I certainly couldn't imagine Nelson Mandela ever doing that.
WEINSTEIN: Well I think, you know, I don't know what, why or what happened but he made a mistake. I know that I make mistakes everybody else.
Let's reserve it for a second. Do you think that if, it was George W. Bush who made the mistake, you know, that Obama would be beating on him everyday?
MORGAN: Yes.
WEINSTEIN: I don't think so.
MORGAN: Of course he would.
WEINSTEIN: I don't think so.
MORGAN: You don't think...
WEINSTEIN: No, I don't.
(INAUDIBLE)
MORGAN: When enemies are vulnerable, you whack him, don't you?
WEINSTEIN: I think, you know, you mean running for an election, you whack him. But I think it wasn't non-election situation. I think people would be rolling up their sleeves.
MORGAN: What was a mood like in the White House when you were there?
WEINSTEIN: I think, you know, they were excited. You know, to see this movie. You know, and of course, they were number one priority was, you know, helping affordable care and getting people care. I just really think people have lost the plot.
MORGAN: I see. I agree with...
WEINSTEIN: If they don't realize the 41 million Americans running -- where this is the only the country in the world where we don't have healthcare. Countries embarrass us around the world. And this is the only country in the world, we don't have gun law. I watched you, you know, talked about that.
You know, quite frankly it's embarrassing. Obama was not embarrassing. The country is embarrassing.
MORGAN: But you can be like me on this Harvey. You can you be supportive of the principle of ObamaCare which I am. Coming from a country that has universal healthcare for all. You can support that but you can also be irritated by the role of failing because it may (inaudible) the whole thing. But you can also be very, very angry that the President lied. I mean you can be all those things.
WEINSTEIN: He made a mistake. He's human. He made a mistake.
MORGAN: Let's move on.
WEINSTEIN: Let's move on.
MORGAN: Let's take your advice. Let's move on to the Mandela movie.
WEINSTEIN: Good advice.
MORGAN: Let's watch a clip from this Mandela movie because I'm very excited about this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have challenged the idea of a free democratic society where all persons live together in harmony with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and achieve. But, if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: Very powerful and getting fantastic votes of this movie at it should because it's a great tribute to this extraordinary man. Who's clearly, you know, that we haven't seen him in public for quite a long time.
His legacy really is, he's the ultimate bipartisan politician and man wasn't he? He could have come out of prison and obliterated his opponents in the bloody carnage but he didn't. He went the other way.
WEINSTEIN: That's the movie because you see his wife Winnie Mandela included and members of the African National Congress was saying to him "We have the upper hand. We can do what we want. We can take this country. We have the guns. We have the people. We can do but we don't have to go to the bargaining table." And Mandela was "I forgive them. We have to sit down, nothing works unless we work together."
MORGAN: Is that the real problem in America right now in terms of the government and Congress everything put together nobody is thinking that way. All they're thinking about is damaging each other.
WEINSTEIN: Yeah. I think that's the terrible thing about politics today. I think that's why some of the governors are looking, you know, pretty good out there, you know, in terms of -- because they deal with it on an executive level and they don't have in-fighting of a terrible Congress.
MORGAN: Can you enjoy the work of someone like Chris Christie even though he's on the other side?
WEINSTEIN: I love him, you know, and I think the guy is fantastic and, you know, I had a conversation with him and he said, "Wait till I win, you know, my gubernatorial race." And then, you know, and a year from now we'll be on opposite sides again and we certainly will.
MORGAN: Hollywood seems to be lining up for Hillary Clinton. You're obviously a big friend of the Clintons. Will you stumping to Hillary if she runs?
WEINSTEIN: Anything that Mrs. Clinton asks me to do, you know, I will do because I think she represents the best path for 2016. I think its unquestionable and as great as Governor Christie is I think a little bit more seasoning and, you know, would do him a world of good too and a lot more experience in foreign affairs. I think he could become an excellent Secretary of State under President Clinton.
MORGAN: Nicely put Harvey, very, very nicely stabbed in the back. Let's get a short break, let's come back and talk about the, a film's getting all the Oscar buzz as always you got a few up your sleeve. Also ahead another of the President's Hollywood supporters Nick Cannon with a bit of advice for the Commander In Chief.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MORGAN: Reach up to Hurricane Sandy, Harvey Weinstein and John Sykes gathered a who's who from the worlds of music and entertainment at Madison Square Garden to raise funds to the hurricane relief. Talk about all stars Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones led the way, the 12-12-12 concert raise out of $50 million Robin Hood Hurricane Sandy relief fund and a year later Harvey is releasing a behind the scene a documentary. Let's take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every single person is in my iPad and every person that I have ever loved - I mean this is like it's just like everyone coming together and just like put on the best show they can possibly put on. It's a crazy night. It's something I'll never forget.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: Harvey Weinstein is back with me now and John Sykes has joined. John, what a night that turned out to be, it was an incredible show. What was it like to be behind the scenes with all this legends?
JOHN SYKES, PRESIDENT, ENTERTAINMENT ENTERPRISES, CLEAR CHANNEL: Well, one thing it was great for us to see was what it really looked like is Harvey and I were running around doing 50 other things and the cameras were capturing everything else. But what you did see was these artist getting together, the biggest stars who usually headline the garden by themselves all lined up working together, no egos nothing just to basically put on a great show. And to see them in come together backstage with something that you never see as a viewer or as a fan in the audience. And when Harvey and I and Jim Dolan who was with us saw the footage would say, I had actually show people what went in to this, when Paul McCartney rehearsing backstage with Alicia Keys locked in the dressing room, things you'll never see in the other side, that's where it made (inaudible).
MORGAN: What I read Esvadic (ph) which was Bob Geldof's book about Live Aid and how he put all that together. What was clear was that egos ran riot with these things because they got so much to lose this artists because they're being exposed to the world and they all battle for position and so. Obviously that goes on, how do you control that?
(INAUDIBLE)
HARVEY WEINSTEIN: We've done the two biggest concerts probably indoors ever and that we've done the same thing both times, reach for Paul McCartney because no band says, "I'm going to close the shop." They know Paul McCartney is a Beatle which I guess make some equal to Prince William or King Philip or...
MORGAN: Winston Churchill.
WEINSTEIN: Winston Churchill, you know, Beatle has a status for everybody.
MORGAN: So that resolves the big issue who is the top dog.
WEINSTEIN: We didn't have Paul in that show we'd still be there, you know, figuring out who closed. Seriously we would be there, it would be bad, ugly, horrifying.
SYKES: Bruce, but Bruce Springsteen has the greatest response because he has the ultimate respect for Paul and he said I'll open. WEINSTEIN: Right. Yes. Because of McCartney closing.
SYKE: And actually when one bad would finish the - everyone else would go out to watch the next one because it was a mutual admiration society as every single one of this artist had sold off the garden. So you would see Alicia Keys walking out and getting a look at, Eddie Vedder getting up with Roger Waters, and she said, "I've never seen these before they're amazing." She said, "I'm nervous just being here around these artists."
WEINSTEIN: That's the difference in this movie than the concert where we see or used to. You usually see the performance and said, "Wow, he played my favorite song." This is much more about, you know, the scandalous Adam Sandler or Chris Rock or James Gandolfini or Ben Stiller or the bands behind the stage or McCartney singing "Hey, Hey We're The Monkeys". It's like a backstage pass like no one has ever seen.
MORGAN: But in terms of money Harvey, huge amounts have been raised, more will be raised obviously from the movie as well, how is it best being used to the moment?
WEINSTEIN: Robinhood eats all the overhead unlike some of the charities that we all give money to, where you find out that the charity director made a million dollars and his cousin got $400,000 and they paid for the dry cleaning, all the money. You raise $50, $50 goes to the registry.
SYKE: And this event happened in 12, 12, 12 within six weeks, $55 million is on the street on distributed to people. So if you were homeless within two days you are in a homeless shelter. If didn't have food within three days, you were eating. And rather than going to red tape, whenever Robinhood has this amazing way of - because they know New York so well and getting the money right.
MORGAN: So I wish - I mean unfortunately all it does is it stoutly reminds you of the difficulty in the place like the Philippines with the typhoon ravaging there with all this little islands and you see what goes on there, only that could have some kind of structure for that kind of disaster and sort of the same in Haiti and others. Harvey, let's talk about a bit about Oscars because it's that time when you're gearing up for your normal battle plans and win as many as possible. How many have you won now?
WEINSTEIN: Maybe 192 Oscars.
MORGAN: Just the 92...
WEINSTEIN: Between the two companies (inaudible).
MORGAN: Quite incredible. Let's watch a movie called August Osage County, this is the one that Sean Penn was raving to me about. Tell me about this movie?
WEINSTEIN: Well, you know, at the Weinstein Company we give breaks to young, you know, talent and we decided to let Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts do this movie, you know, that Streep girl, you know, I think she's got a future and Roberts too by the way. And I think people are saying it's, you know, two of the greatest performances.
MORGAN: It's a family drama?
WEINSTEIN: It's a family drama about the - this movie is a comedy believe it or not. And when you see it, it will make you feel good about your own family no matter how dysfunctional they are nothing could be as bad as this, as the family they're called the Westons. They're at each other's throat literally. When you see Julia Roberts choking Meryl Streep, you know, I mean but it's hilarious...
MORGAN: It's a great (inaudible), Julia Roberts choking Meryl Streep. Harvey it's great to see you. John thank you very much for coming in. All proceeds from the 12-12-12 Documentary will benefit as we said the Robin Hood Sandy Relief Fund and the film opens in theaters tonight. Also check out Harvey's other films, Mandela, Long Walk To Freedom, August: Osange County, Philomena I mean there's so many as usual Harvey. Good to you see you bud.
Coming up, another of President Obama's Hollywood supporters who performed in the inauguration Nick Cannon talks politics and life with one of John's former clients, Mariah Carey.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nick are you able to just take off that ridiculously expensive watch? Yeah great just take it off for us, I promise to be very careful with it, very careful. I'll place it over here very carefully. All right great.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my god.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nick here's your watch.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: How to be young, good looking and talented in Hollywood. There's so few of us left. Anyway Nick Cannon's with me. In addition to hosting America's Got Talent and this weekend's HALO Awards on Nick at night. He has his own line of men's ties at Maceys. He sold nearly $45 million worth of monster headphones and if that wasn't enough, he got a new album delightfully entitled, White People Party Music.
Wow, how are you?
NICK CANNON, AMERICAN ACTOR, COMEDIAN, RAPPER AND RADIO/TELEVISION PERSONALITY: It's good to see you old chap.
MORGAN: No first of all if you're wondering I'm apologizing to viewers as to why I'm wondering this ghastly tie, it's actually one of Cannons.
CANNON: You look very presidential.
MORGAN: Show me your shoes.
CANNON: Yes, yes you see.
MORGAN: That's why I have a problem with your fashion.
CANNON: What are you talking about?
MORGAN: What the hell are you wearing?
CANNON: These are Christian Louboutin baby.
MORGAN: (Inaudible).
CANNON: Only a few people can pull this off.
MORGAN: Yes and you're not one of them. Now you're launching the HALO Awards?
CANNON: Yes.
MORGAN: Is that supposed to be some sort of joke?
CANNON: No, no honestly.
MORGAN: You a HALO?
CANNON: Come on man it stands for helping and leading others, it's a true positive thing that we do each and every year and this is the fifth year that we're doing it with Teen Nick and Nickelodeon.
MORGAN: I actually like it. I'll tell you why I like it. It's because a lot of these celebrity award events make me slightly nauseous. Because it's basically back slapping each other...
CANNON: Shaking each other butts.
MORGAN: Right, this is the real people, young people who have done something inspiring right?
CANNON: Yes and we take celebrities and corporations and we shine that spotlight on, you know, teenagers and their community that are making the world a better place and we connect them all together. It's outstanding because anybody can HALO, anybody can help and lead one another and it's all about creating that HALO effect. This year we got Josh Hutcherson, Chris Paul, Queen Latifah, so many others.
MORGAN: Let's watch a clip from the HALO Awards, let's take a look at this.
CANNON: Absolutely.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CANNON: Congratulations give it up for Jendel (ph) this is his Team Nick HALO hit. I love what you're doing with the Philadelphia Urban Creators and we want to help further that mission. I'll hook you up with $10,000.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: I've forgotten how much you shout.
CANNON: When I get excited I talk loud, giving that kid $10,000.
MORGAN: No you're a smart guy, we sat a lot of dinners together on America's Got Talent and discussed proper issues. I want to talk to you about President Obama.
CANNON: OK.
MORGAN: Because I'm not happy with it right?
CANNON: OK.
MORGAN: Because I think this ObamaCare thing has been an unmitigated disaster and I want to know what you think, because you're a big supporter of his.
CANNON: Yes.
MORGAN: You played at the inaugurations and so on.
CANNON: Yes.
MORGAN: What do you feel about what's going -- he's got his lowest ever approval ratings. He's let people down with it.
CANNON: Now do you think he has personally let people down? Or do you believe the system has let people down? That would be my question.
MORGAN: I think, well the system has failed but I also think when you watch those repeated clips of him saying, "You can keep your plan, you can keep your doctor," and it turns out actually you can't. That's just a bad faced fib.
CANNON: And this is the thing, I think our President initially when he was elected he signed on with the best intentions. I mean when you think about giving everyone in America free healthcare that idea is amazing. When you dig deep into it and you find out it's a lot more difficult other than that and I believe, I wish one day we can have that and I feel like we'll work to that but because there are so many things and so many others that don't want us to have that, there's been a lot of glitches...
MORGAN: You see I agree with him. In my country in Britain we have free healthcare right?
CANNON: Yes it works. MORGAN: I want people in America to have that.
CANNON: But was it always that way? Was there ever a transitional period?
MORGAN: Obviously it was brought in the National Health Center.
CANNON: And I'm pretty sure when it was first brought in that you had to work through the glitches and I think ultimately the idea that President Obama is presenting is idea that will eventually help everyone but it's going to take for us all to get used to it.
MORGAN: If you were in a room with him now...
CANNON: Yes.
MORGAN: Knowing how unpopular he is according to the approval ratings right? At the moment, what would you say to him to try and galvanize things again for the last part of his tenure?
CANNON: I'll say hey, haters are helping we don't argue with the help. That's what I would say to him. Honestly, and he's been one of those people that I look to when, because I know he has so much pressure on him and he handles it so well and I ultimately would just say continue to do your job I mean.
MORGAN: What does it say about Washington that they can just shut down a government? How do you feel as such a hard working American when that happens?
CANNON: I mean, that was unfortunate to me, I mean I felt like.
MORGAN: Don't you feel sickened?
CANNON: Absolutely and especially when something could come to a stalemate like that I personally was disappointed in our system but that's not the first time I've been disappointed in our system. So, I feel like it's more of a game of cat and mouse then, you know, in other places like, you know, where you're from. Ultimately you can have, you know, two opposing ideas but ultimately the idea is to come together in the middle and everybody is served in that sense.
But we stood on these polarizing factors and we never get anything that and that's what's been unfortunate to me and disappointing about, you know, the last I would say these eight years that we're going through right now.
MORGAN: Let's take a break and come back and talk about your wife.
CANNON: All good things, better watch out man I know you got a crush on my lady.
MORGAN: Actually it's the other way around.
CANNON: There you go.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CANNON: It's incredible.
KEVIN HART, AMERICAN ACTOR AND COMEDIAN: The answer's Nick I think it's in (inaudible) I think you're intruding. I want all these people and all the stuff out of my house it's too much man.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: An incredible day.
HART: Oh hell yeah it will. I want everybody to leave except them too.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: A tape from Real Husbands of Hollywood. I'm back with one of those real husbands Nick Cannon.
CANNON: Yes.
MORGAN: How do you feel about being known, particularly by me as Mr. Mariah Carey?
CANNON: I could be called a lot worse things than that. It's an honor man, Mariah that's my dream girl and be able to say, you know I was able to marry and have children with the woman of my dreams, it's outstanding.
MORGAN: See people said it wouldn't last, they were all cynical about it but I've seen you guys together and unfortunately it has lasted and you are...
CANNON: You just stood there and waiting.
MORGAN: Yes.
CANNON: You're waiting for your opportunity?
MORGAN: Yes like a vulture.
CANNON: No I mean honestly.
MORGAN: What's the secret to a successful very high profile marriage?
CANNON: Not to take yourself too seriously and to actually enjoy each other, as much as you possibly can. I mean that's why people get together. We try to celebrate one another as much as possible and have fun and it makes it so much easier when you have children as well because everyday that something new that we can do together as a family and we just have a great time.
MORGAN: Had you ever been like properly in love before you met Mariah?
CANNON: I'm a hopeless romantic so I always thought I was in love until I found the real thing.
MORGAN: Well how do you know it's the real thing? What happened with Mariah that made you think, "OK this is what it's supposed to be?"
CANNON: Well you know what? There's a bit of fantasy and fairy tale that goes along with it that we all dream of but then to know that you have a connection and that you're equally yoked with someone where you have the same values, you have the same spirituality and then you have the same sense of humor where, you could be in the middle of a heated debate and then the funniest thing happens and then nothing else matters. Like and that's cast and it's been that way since day one and it's still that way today.
So, I've never been in a situation like this.
MORGAN: Now you got a new show time comedy special. I love the title of this because...
CANNON: Because you say it all the time.
MORGAN: I do, well I used to say it a lot. Let's watch a clip from a show which is called (inaudible) Nick Cannon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CANNON: As soon as you have children, you instantly change. And it's all true because it happened to me. Oh in the delivery room I changed. I did, like, like, because my daughter she came out first and I instantly became overprotective. Like soon as I've seen here, I've seen her beautiful face I was like, oh my god, like I'm responsible for her, I have to protect her. I'm the man in her life.
And all of a sudden the doctor just rushed her off into the nursery. Hey man where the hell are you going with my daughter?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: If I said you could only be one thing for the rest of your life right?
CANNON: Yes.
MORGAN: You can either be a radio guy, have you showed that? You can do TV like America's Got Talent or you can do Stand Up Comedy, which one would you do for the rest of your life?
CANNON: For the rest of my life, Stand Up Comedy.
MORGAN: That's the real soul of Nick Cannon?
CANNON: Absolutely that's where I started, hopefully that's where I'll finish and that's -- if you see, like obviously you showed a very clean clip of the special but to get on a stage.
MORGAN: Why is it called (inaudible) Nick Cannon?
CANNON: Because that's where everyone, like...
MORGAN: Everyone says to you when they see?
CANNON: It's unapologetic. I'm saying what the haters say and that's the beauty of a stand up stage. You can get out there, and it started like from like Dave Chappelle was actually the first person to make that term go global from his Chappelle Show.
But from that term it's like, you know, it's one of those things like I don't care what you think about me, I don't care, this is my opinion this is my take on life and if you don't like it then FU too. There it is.
MORGAN: Nick Cannon it's always good to see you.
CANNON: Always a pleasure.
MORGAN: A number of projects on as always. Your comedy special premieres this Saturday November the 16 on Show time. The HALO Awards air on Sunday on Nick at night, auditions for the 9th Season of America's Got Talent, obviously...
CANNON: We miss you.
MORGAN: ... not quite as good a show as it used to be in the glory days but it's still coming out. Those auditions are happening right now so do apply. Nick Cannon good to see you.
CANNON: Always a pleasure sir.
MORGAN: I love the shoes.
CANNON: Thank you.
MORGAN: We'll be right back.
CANNON: Love the tie.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MORGAN: Monday night I'll talk to Ann Romney in the years since her husband's failed run to the White House. A lot has changed to the Romney Family, she'll talk about that and she has some words when it comes to President Obama and his healthcare mess.
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ANN ROMNEY, WIFE OF MITT ROMNEY: He's put himself in a very sticky place because you either have to think that he was not telling the truth or he's grossly incompetent. And either one of those choices is not a good choice.
MORGAN: Which side are you leaning towards?
ANN ROMNEY: I think a little bit of both.
MORGAN: You think he lied?
ANN ROMNEY: I don't think he was telling the truth.
MORGAN: It's the same thing isn't it?
ANN ROMNEY: Yeah, I mean that's harsh for me to say that because -- but it's you know, it's -- and I think that's where his real problem is going to be.
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MORGAN: Ann Romney on politics, family and a new cook book. You can hear her Monday morning on CNN's New Day beginning at 6 and she sits down with me right here Monday night 9 Eastern. That's all for us tonight. Anderson Cooper starts right now.
