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CNN Larry King Live
Interview With Don and Deirdre Imus
Aired March 21, 2006 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LARRY KING, CNN HOST: Tonight, Don Imus, the always outspoken and outrageous radio giant taking on all the news of the day as only he can, from the president and Iraq to the Florida teacher's sex scandal, where charges by the way were dropped today. Don's wife Deirdre is here too.
And, we'll be hearing from the new dad Donald Trump all next on LARRY KING LIVE.
By the way, Friday night, Laura Bush will be our special guest; tomorrow night Mike Wallace.
It's always good to welcome Don and Deirdre Imus to LARRY KING LIVE. Deirdre has a whole new line of products that are being sold without profit right?
DEIRDRE IMUS: Right, 100 percent of the profits go the Imus Ranch.
DON IMUS: Unfortunately.
KING: Unfortunately?
DON IMUS: Yes.
KING: We'll talk a lot about them in a while. But, basically they're what kind of products?
DEIRDRE IMUS: Cleaning products, they're non-toxic called Greening the Cleaning, all purpose and window cleaner, glass cleaner. You can clean your whole house with those two products.
KING: Are the other products toxic?
DEIRDRE IMUS: Yes, that's the whole point is to get rid of all of the toxic cleaning agents and replace them with non-toxic ones but they work as well as the toxic leading brands that everyone has in their homes right now. We've proven through using them in hospitals.
This is a program I started back in 2001 at Hackensack University Medical Center. It was one of the first hospitals. We went in and we got rid of all their toxic cleaning agents and replaced them with non- toxic ones.
DON IMUS: What you looking at me for?
KING: I'm looking for a reaction. We're going to get -- we'll show you the samples of her products later. She's a very creative (INAUDIBLE) lady.
DON IMUS: Maybe she'll clean something which I've never seen her do by the way.
DEIRDRE IMUS: Well, how could you?
KING: You've never seen her clean?
DON IMUS: No.
DEIRDRE IMUS: He says that. First of all...
DON IMUS: Well it's untrue.
DEIRDRE IMUS: When you're home you have your nose in the computer playing chess or you're watching NASCAR or the NCAA, something.
DON IMUS: I would notice if you were on the business end of a mop wouldn't I? Wouldn't I notice that?
DEIRDRE IMUS: I would hope so.
DON IMUS: I had to show her one time how to turn on a vacuum cleaner when I first met her.
DEIRDRE IMUS: He has selective vision and selective hearing.
DON IMUS: I'm just telling you.
DEIRDRE IMUS: So, it becomes a problem.
KING: Does her ability with business surprise you?
DON IMUS: No, no she's smart, no.
KING: So, you knew when you met her?
DON IMUS: Again, unfortunately, no I thought she was -- I didn't think she was that bright when I met her but unfortunately.
DEIRDRE IMUS: And he always -- you're a dope. You're a dope, right, you used to call me a dope?
KING: How has this marriage worked? How has it worked?
DEIRDRE IMUS: That's a good question.
DON IMUS: There was no pre-nup so.
DEIRDRE IMUS: No, there's not. There was never a -- there was never a question of a pre-nup or anything.
DON IMUS: No. I mean we love each other.
DEIRDRE IMUS: Actually it's been very pure and innocent honey hasn't it been?
KING: Do you bicker a lot?
DEIRDRE IMUS: Yes.
DON IMUS: Yes.
DEIRDRE IMUS: But it...
DON IMUS: Well we fight like (INAUDIBLE).
DEIRDRE IMUS: ...it's part of our deal I think, our personalities. It's probably foreplay right honey?
DON IMUS: Now we fight whenever I try to discipline Wyatt. She interrupts. But if she disciplines him and I say anything, oh my God, just get David (INAUDIBLE) on the phone.
DEIRDRE IMUS: That's not true.
DON IMUS: I mean it's ridiculous.
DEIRDRE IMUS: Again, I mean we all live in a two-story house right?
DON IMUS: But we don't have one.
DEIRDRE IMUS: He has his story and I have my story but somehow it works out.
KING: We'll get to your products in a while.
DEIRDRE IMUS: OK.
KING: Let's ask Imus some questions. Did you see the Bush White House press conference today?
DON IMUS: No.
KING: He said United States troops will still be in Iraq when he leaves office. He said he's optimistic we'll succeed. If not, he'd pull the troops out. What are your thoughts?
DON IMUS: Well, here's my observation about all of them. I like the president I mean because I don't think he's a bad guy but they have been wrong about every single aspect of this going back to a week before the war started.
And Dick Cheney went on "Meet the Press" with Tim Russert and said, "Well, we're going to be greeted as liberators." Russert said, "Well, what if that's not the case? It's not going to be the case."
So they have been wrong and I understand they're judgment calls but they've been wrong about everything, about everything and so now they're saying well we have to have patience that they're going to be right now. What's to make anybody think they're going to be right now?
They're not going to be. I mean there's no -- if you worked at Time Warner or GE or anywhere and you made those kinds of decisions and they're judgment calls and give them the benefit of the doubt. Let's say they're all telling the truth. But they've been wrong so much, I mean it's enough they'd get fired. We can't get rid of these people.
KING: How do you account for it?
DON IMUS: Account for what?
KING: Being wrong, I mean how do you explain it? These are not not bright people.
DON IMUS: Well, I think they were wrong initially and they were so wrong initially because they thought -- you remember, I don't know if you remember the Tom Friedman columns or not but he wrote that there were two possibilities.
One was we were going to be greeted as liberators and the other was that the place was going to blow up and the Sunnis and the Shia and the Kurds were all going to -- they've hated each other since Jesus was walking around so they're going to continue to do that.
So, it turned out to be the latter. So, now you're in there. You got 2,300 and the last figure I saw 11 kids killed or close to 20,000 or perhaps more with no arms and legs and various other kinds of injuries and how do you get out now? So, I think they got into a situation and what do you do now? I mean they got in and the place blew up.
KING: So you're not surprised that the public now, 60 percent of it feels your way?
DON IMUS: Well, I mean I don't know how -- I never thought it was a good idea to begin with. I'm not one of the people who thought it was a good idea.
KING: You didn't think they had weapons of mass destruction?
DON IMUS: Well, I didn't know whether they did or not but I mean, you know, I didn't think they were going to use them. I didn't think there were any imminent threats. I mean the president said the other day that he never -- the president said, "Well, I never said that there was any direct connection between September 11th and Iran or Iraq," interesting slip.
But what they did do was they said that they accused Iraq of harboring terrorists. So, if you're paying half attention to the news like most people do you could infer from that anything you wanted to.
So, they left the impression that a lot of people thought the terrorists came from Iraq and they just let that float out there, you know. I mean I don't think -- do I think the president lied and is malicious? No but I just think he's wrong. KING: Deirdre, do you tend to share Don's views?
DEIRDRE IMUS: Yes but I think my passions lie elsewhere as far as being he's very -- you're getting very angry honey.
DON IMUS: I'm not angry. I'm just -- Larry is asking a question. I'm answering the question.
DEIRDRE IMUS: But it's interesting too certain Senators and Democrats that said they signed on to the war and then said, oh they were hoodwinked and now are screaming out against it, you know, and the timing of all that. It just...
DON IMUS: You know what I think is the biggest news item of the day?
DEIRDRE IMUS: It's transparent.
DON IMUS: I met this lovely kid here at CNN from Make a Wish.
KING: Yes, we do -- he's a kid that just wanted to meet this -- meet me, meet this program.
DON IMUS: I'm saying to the kid, "You could have got a TV. You could have gone to Disney World. You could have come to the -- you could have done anything. You're going to blow it on Larry." I mean (INAUDIBLE).
DEIRDRE IMUS: But the kid loves Larry and he's apparently big on politics.
KING: Got muscular dystrophy, very bright.
DON IMUS: No, I just think that if you get a Make a Wish, I just...
KING: You wouldn't wish for me.
DEIRDRE IMUS: But that -- that wouldn't be your wish but that's his wish just like we have -- we actually have kids that make a wish to never have Don come near them.
KING: How about those who blame the media for the coverage of the war that we only show the bad things?
DON IMUS: Well the other day Charles (INAUDIBLE) was on the news over there at MSNBC and it's all right if I mention them because they're no threat. And so he goes on the computer and he says "Let me see if I can find some good news, any good news."
So, I mean you know every morning I listen to him. At 5:30 I'm driving over there. There's 70 people that they found dead. I mean I'm sure there are good things happening certainly of course there are but boy not enough I mean.
DEIRDRE IMUS: Oh, the thing that he exposed was all these young men and women coming back with, you know, limbs lost and really no rehabilitation centers. I mean this goes back to, you know, all the wars where our men and women come back.
KING: Yes, but they didn't usually hide them. We hide these people.
DEIRDRE IMUS: Exactly.
KING: You don't see bodies coming back. We don't even know Iraqi casualties do we? We don't know them. I mean they don't tell us.
DON IMUS: Well the other day they said 30,000.
DEIRDRE IMUS: But it's just like with the fallen heroes fund.
DON IMUS: It's so outrageous that it's (INAUDIBLE) and you feel depressed and I don't know what you do at this point. What do you do because they're...
KING: That's what I was going to ask you what do you do?
DON IMUS: I don't know. I don't have an answer but they don't.
DEIRDRE IMUS: Also the president has never asked the country for help or to sacrifice or to do anything.
DON IMUS: No matter what happens, no matter how long it takes, no matter how many dead kids you have, no matter how many kids have come home with all their arms and legs, the outcome is going to be the same. We're going to have to get out of there and the place is going to blow up.
KING: So you don't see an end game?
DON IMUS: Well do you see a happy ending there?
KING: I'm trying to figure -- no.
DON IMUS: No, there's no happy ending there.
DEIRDRE IMUS: Well there's no clean way to do it you know.
DON IMUS: Well I finally got ridiculed for it but I thought, you know, that you say to Saddam Hussein, I mean I know he's a bad guy but you say, "Look, you know"...
KING: Come back.
DON IMUS: He looks great. He looks like Walter Matthau. Did you see him?
KING: Yes.
DON IMUS: Say, "Look, we're sorry about Icky and Sneezy or whatever the kids' names were (INAUDIBLE) and"... KING: Come back.
DON IMUS: Don't screw around with the oil and (INAUDIBLE) on the rape rooms and that kind of stuff and you handle this mess.
KING: We'll be right back with Don and Deirdre Imus. We'll be hearing from Donald Trump, the new dad. And later we'll take your calls and we'll find out all about Deirdre's products as well. Don't go away.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DON IMUS: It's coming up tonight on LARRY KING LIVE. I'll be there with my wife and Trump's calling in.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh my God. Oh my god. You have got to be kidding.
DON IMUS: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're not only going on LARRY KING but Trump is going to call in.
DON IMUS: Well, I think that Trump's calling in about the baby and...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, man. They're all going to be in one place tonight. Here's your chance, a little look ahead to this evening for you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Don and Deirdre Imus are with us.
And, joining us on the phone is the new papa, young Barron, Donald Trump is with us. If you saw the front page of the "New York Post" today it said "You're Sired" and then do an imaginary picture of Donald Trump's baby with that haircut. How did you react to that Donald?
(AUDIO GAP)
KING: All right, how did you pick the name Barron?
(AUDIO GAP)
TRUMP: ...the name Eric for my last son Barron and I just didn't have the courage to do it and now I just went for it and I just like the name. I've always liked the name and Melania loved the name so it's Barron William.
KING: Now, right after your baby is born you call Imus?
TRUMP: Well, I was calling Imus every Monday morning at about 6:30 I speak to Imus and we have sort of this routine and we just speak about "The Apprentice" and other things. And, actually this Monday was a little bit strange because I was just getting out of the hospital and I said, "Oh man, I have to call Imus." Can you believe it?
So I'm calling and, you know, what happened is during my wedding I forgot to call and Don didn't let me forget it for about six months, so I said you know I just had a baby and now I have to call again. You know, the baby was born at 5:30 and I was on the phone with Don at 6:30 only because it's much easier to call him than suffer his wrath for six months.
So, I called him and actually I refused to talk about "The Apprentice." We started off talking about "The Apprentice." I said, "Don, let's forget it. Let's talk about something else. I just had a baby and I'm calling you." So, at least he was very happy that I called I think so we didn't discuss "The Apprentice too much."
KING: Were you surprised? Don, were you surprised he called?
DON IMUS: No, I wasn't, no.
KING: Really, I mean a man's just become a father.
DON IMUS: Well, yes, but I mean what I thought was really cool was that you could just tell he was excited and happy and I said, "Well what's coming up on The Apprentice tonight?" He said, "Who cares? I just had a baby." I thought that was cool.
KING: Are you surprised Deirdre that he called?
DEIRDRE IMUS: Frankly, yes, I mean because I know, I mean I remember when we had Wyatt and he was in the room and Donald said he was in the room there with Melania, so I mean there's nothing -- there's no bigger event than that.
KING: You're not kidding. You watched the birth Don?
TRUMP: Well, I watched parts of it, yes. I was in and out and it shook me up enough that I called.
DEIRDRE IMUS: Oh.
DON IMUS: She was in labor for eight hours right (INAUDIBLE)?
TRUMP: Calling Don for a change was easier than doing it. It was great. I mean it's an amazing thing and beautiful and Melania handled it amazingly well. She's in -- you know she's in great shape and, you know, everything -- it just went very smoothly. The baby is beautiful and healthy and Melania was just perfect.
KING: By the way, we all here at LARRY KING LIVE have a little gift for Barron. Can you see that Don?
TRUMP: Well, let's see. You have a little bit of a tape delay, Larry, so I'm waiting to see it. I don't know how long -- oh, there it is, OK, oh that's very nice. KING: Little suspenders.
TRUMP: Very nice.
KING: Adorable little outfit.
TRUMP: Just like a baby Larry.
KING: That will be sent over to you tomorrow and we all send our best to you, Sean and everybody at home and I know that, Don, we speak for everyone. You're a good guy Donald Trump and we're happy to see you enter fatherhood again.
TRUMP: Well thanks a lot, Larry, and I appreciate it. Deirdre and Don take care of yourselves. And I want to watch now the rest of the program. Don't bicker too much you two.
DON IMUS: All right, Donald.
KING: Donald Trump. We'll be right back with more of Don and Deirdre Imus. We'll take your calls at the bottom of the hour. We'll see Deirdre's products as well. Don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We're back. And, in the next half hour we'll be taking your calls. We'll also be showing you Deirdre's products, environmentally pure products.
Our guests are Don and Deirdre Imus. Don is the famed WFAN and MSNBC personality. What do you make of the Howard Stern lawsuit, the suit of him by CBS, your employer?
DON IMUS: Oh, it's stupid to sue him, I mean you know. Well, I mean when he announced that he was going they should have done one or two things, take him off the air or say this is great. And, you know, have a farewell party for 15 months or whatever and say, you know, thanks a lot. He made them a lot of money and good luck. But I mean it was insane the way they handled it so I thought.
KING: So, you think the lawsuit is insane?
DON IMUS: Well, I don't know the details of that if he -- I don't know. I don't know enough to comment about it. I mean I don't know what the allegations are. I know what he says but I mean, you know, I mean just who knows?
KING: Do you bear any ill feeling toward Stern?
DON IMUS: About what?
KING: About in general?
DON IMUS: No, why?
KING: Because the two of you seemed to have had a rivalry over the years. You worked at the same station once.
DON IMUS: Right. It's been more his problem than mine. I mean it's not an issue with me. I mean I don't want anything bad to happen to him. I wish him good luck and I want satellite to work. I bought this stupid stock because of Mel.
KING: Mel Karmazin?
DON IMUS: Yes. I'm a big fan of Mel's.
KING: So, you're rooting for satellite radio?
DON IMUS: Yes.
DEIRDRE IMUS: Oh, and the stock was up today.
DON IMUS: I mean I'm not going to be on satellite radio because I can't get people to listen for nothing. They're not going to pay, you know.
KING: What were you going to say Deirdre?
DEIRDRE IMUS: I was going to say didn't it say in the papers today that the stock was up all of a sudden with Sirius?
DON IMUS: We paid 516 for it.
DEIRDRE IMUS: Right.
DON IMUS: That's our average share price. It's selling for 511. When you went to Villanova and you went to math class how did that work out? No, it's not but it hasn't gone -- no. It was up around nine. We should have bailed then, so we're in for the long haul. I think it's a -- I mean I think Opie and Anthony on XM I love them. I mean I think at some point it's going to work. I mean they -- but who knows you know? It's not going to put -- it's not going to put...
KING: If you hadn't signed a contract, would you sign a contract with one of these XM or Sirius? If you hadn't signed another five year deal with CBS would you have gone the satellite route?
DON IMUS: Well I don't think that they thought -- I never had a conversation with anybody on satellite radio and I never had any intention. If they'd have offered me whatever amount of money, I wouldn't have gone but I don't think that they thought because I'd have heard from them but I don't think they thought that they could get people...
KING: To pay for you?
DON IMUS: ...to pay for me because there's nothing I would do on satellite that I'm not doing now. I mean I don't want to go to satellite to say something new or different.
KING: You're not going to curse?
DEIRDRE IMUS: Or have lesbians on all of a sudden and take their clothes off right honey?
DON IMUS: Well what would be wrong with that?
KING: You've given him a whole new idea here.
DON IMUS: We had a big argument back in the makeup room about the teacher sex scandal.
KING: I was just going to ask you about that. What do you make...
DON IMUS: Well, I mean if you're a 14-year-old kid, I mean you'd give up ten years of your life for that, I mean come on. And she's going (INAUDIBLE).
DEIRDRE IMUS: He has it backwards because it's -- a 14-year-old can't help themselves.
DON IMUS: Well good.
DEIRDRE IMUS: It's the adult that has to take the responsibility so...
DON IMUS: Well she's a whack job but that's not the kid's fault.
DEIRDRE IMUS: ...I mean that's just, you got to be a total whack job.
KING: Apparently got a plea deal under which she would not have had prison time and the prosecution then dropped the charges for the well-being of the victim because he would have had to testify probably.
DON IMUS: Yes, but we haven't seen -- some 14-year-old kids are pretty good sized kids you know. I mean it's not the worst -- and the way the news media covers it is disgraceful. Whatever -- I mean there are lots of these teachers who have sex with kids who are not all that attractive.
DEIRDRE IMUS: Tell those who don't get picked up by the media.
DON IMUS: So, Nancy Grace, I love Nancy but she and the rest of them are not all -- and then the woman over at MSNBC whose name escapes me, now, I guess I should know shouldn't I? What's her name?
KING: I don't know.
DEIRDRE IMUS: Which woman?
DON IMUS: The woman at MSNBC, the woman I like.
KING: Rita Cosby?
DEIRDRE IMUS: Oh, Rita Cosby.
DON IMUS: Rita Cosby, yes. They wouldn't be doing this story if the teacher was some pig, you know, but I mean this one she can go right down to a book deal and then go to Playboy or someplace I mean.
DEIRDRE IMUS: Right.
DON IMUS: Please, come on.
KING: Did you ever have a teacher like that in your class when you were 14?
DON IMUS: No, of course not except that...
DEIRDRE IMUS: No, he was saying he wished he did.
DON IMUS: ...except I'm so much older than my wife if she -- when she was in high school I would have been what 40?
DEIRDRE IMUS: I don't know. Did you go to college? Can you do the math? O H, that's right wait a minute.
DON IMUS: No, I didn't, no, no I...
DEIRDRE IMUS: Larry, he didn't go to college.
DON IMUS: I didn't go to college.
DEIRDRE IMUS: That's right and you barely made it through high school.
DON IMUS: Well.
DEIRDRE IMUS: Yes and he got kicked out of every school he was at too so he's a problem. Do you know I actually have from his mother...
DON IMUS: At least when I went to school I went to class.
DEIRDRE IMUS: ...saved those Western Unions how they used to do Western Union. His mother would get a Western Union delivered to the ranch.
DON IMUS: This is not necessary.
DEIRDRE IMUS: Your son, John Donald, is a menace. Please come and get him. We've put him outside the classroom. He's out of control. We don't want him in the school anymore.
KING: John Donald?
DEIRDRE IMUS: John Donald, oh yes. I mean I have these Western Unions.
DON IMUS: My parents sent me to a place called the Orms (ph) Ranch outside of Sedona, Arizona and it was for kids who were...
KING: Incorrigible?
DON IMUS: Yes. DEIRDRE IMUS: To say the least.
DON IMUS: And they threw me out of there but I mean whatever.
DEIRDRE IMUS: Well you tied and then you had -- you were in the Boy Scouts or something or was it...
DON IMUS: What is this? Larry King is not (INAUDIBLE).
DEIRDRE IMUS: I don't know but every, I mean I...
DON IMUS: Well, no, but I mean why do we have to...
DEIRDRE IMUS: His mother saved all this because everything he ever was a part of he was kicked out of. I mean one said you were in some...
DON IMUS: No, no but Larry doesn't need to know that.
DEIRDRE IMUS: ...organization and he tied a girl to a tree.
DON IMUS: What does Larry need to know?
KING: Did you know Don when he was drinking?
DEIRDRE IMUS: No.
DON IMUS: At least I never worked at an escort service. What?
KING: Oh. You didn't know don when he was drinking?
DON IMUS: No.
DEIRDRE IMUS: No.
KING: Don was a riot.
DEIRDRE IMUS: I don't know that.
DON IMUS: No, I wasn't a riot. I was a nightmare.
DEIRDRE IMUS: I don't know the drinking.
KING: Well we did a radio show once...
DON IMUS: What is this?
KING: ...in Washington at Jefferson Hotel and he was on for an hour. I did a three hour show. He was on for the first hour. He was hysterically funny, never funnier, totally tanked, right? And the next day in the lobby he says to me, "Hey, Larry, what are you doing?" And I said, "I do my radio show here." "Oh, you do the radio show here." "You were on last night."
DON IMUS: Probably had a black out, you know, I bet it was.
DEIRDRE IMUS: You know I can't picture him like that. It's another world.
DON IMUS: It's when I first met Mark Russell. Is he still alive?
KING: Mark Russell is still alive.
DON IMUS: A nice guy.
KING: Yes.
DON IMUS: Funny guy.
KING: All right, we're going to take a break and when we come back we're going to go to your phone calls. We're going to show you Deirdre's products as well on this edition of LARRY KING LIVE.
Laura Bush on Friday night; Mike Wallace tomorrow; don't go away.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DON IMUS: We'll have some remarks from Reverend Falwell about what, Reverend Falwell?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mostly about this particular program.
DON IMUS: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Uh huh. It's not pretty.
DON IMUS: But you don't seem to mind appearing on them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I'm trying to -- this is the only way I can bring about change in you, in this program through the Lord's and do the Lord's work is to be here in the trenches as we say.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Confront the evil.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you Brother Charles.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Quite frankly confront the evil.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exactly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's exactly why we're here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We're back on LARRY KING LIVE with Don and Deirdre Imus. We're going to go to your calls shortly. But we want Deirdre to explain these products. This says Imus Greening the Cleaning citrus sage all-purpose cleaner. Explain Cleaner. DEIRDRE IMUS: This is -- all cleaning products are toxic. They commonly have carcinogens, neurotoxics, endocrine disrupters, hormone disrupters. There's a reason why all of us are sick and especially our children.
So I started with cleaning products and it went down to 2001 in hospitals, taking cleaning products, toxic cleaning products out and replacing them with nontoxic ones. So now we have the retail line since the institutional line has been so successful and we just launched it this past month. And we can't keep it in stock, it's unbelievable.
KING: Can we get a shot of this?
DEIRDRE IMUS: And we have -- this is the all-purpose cleaner, and then we have window cleaner. And you can clean everything in your home with this. I mean, all your -- everything in your bathroom, your kitchen, your floors, the window cleaner. You can clean all glass, plexiglas, on your car windows, countertops.
DON IMUS: One of the problems with green products up to now has been that they don't work as well as Windex or 409 or whatever.
KING: So these work and they're environmentally...
DEIRDRE IMUS: Yes, that's based on the principle when I established the Greening with Cleaning program in hospitals, airports and schools, we've now greened over 25 schools in the New York area and 25 hospitals.
KING: What makes it better if I use this on my window?
DEIRDRE IMUS: You don't have anything toxic in it. It's not going to affect your health. Right now all the famous commercial brands have carcinogens.
DON IMUS: You can go to the....
DEIRDRE IMUS: And neuro toxins.
DON IMUS: ... EPA Web site and they will say about leading window cleaners not to use -- to use them in a ventilated room. Why do you see, when you see people cleaning the building near Time Warner, the cleaning crews going around with masks on. Because ammonia is a listed respiratory irritant.
DEIRDRE IMUS: I mean, you see in the stores, it's like they're proud of this. They say, with Ammonia D, and we know that worst case, it can cause death and pulmonary edema. I mean, that's one, there's lung irritants.
KING: Where to you get it?
DEIRDRE IMUS: This right now, on imusranchfoods.com and it's now at Shop Rite and in Linens 'N Things, across the country in 580 of their stories, and we're also by the next week or so filtering into all the major grocery stores.
DON IMUS: It's the first product -- we have Imus Ranch Foods, which incidentally 100 percent of the after-tax profits go to the Imus Cattle Ranch for Kids with Cancer which -- I mean, I thought -- I mean, how long can I do this radio scam? And I thought, you know, don't you see products where they say, a portion of the proceeds goes to...
DEIRDRE IMUS: It could be anything.
DON IMUS: ... What would be wrong with that? Oh, no, no.
DEIRDRE IMUS: He's been fighting me on this.
KING: You have to give it all.
DEIRDRE IMUS: But 100 percent of the profits.
DON IMUS: We can't make this crap fast enough. I mean, the Web site is selling thousands of bottles a day because it sells for the same and it works better.
One of the fundamental aspects of all of this is, it's a thing that you can do, you can change the cleaning products in your home which affects your kids, your pets, and you.
But you don't have to revolutionize life and stop eating meat or all of the -- hugging trees or saving whales or whatever. One of the problems with trying to get people to use green products is they tell you that you have to revamp your entire life.
DEIRDRE IMUS: You don't.
DON IMUS: And it's too stressful and you can't do it.
DEIRDRE IMUS: Start with one thing, and we've made it easy. And again, it goes back to the efficacy. We work as well and in fact better. We have hundreds of testimonies that show us we work better than all the famous leading brands and we're cost-competitive. We are equal in price and it's nontoxic.
KING: I salute you.
DON IMUS: Now why wouldn't ...
DEIRDRE IMUS: ... Why wouldn't someone want that? We give all the profits away to the ranch. And then my institutional line that was started at my environmental center, the Deirdre Imus Environmental Center for Pediatric Oncology at Hackensack University Medical Center, 100 percent of the institutional line, that goes to research, specifically for kids health with cancer, autism, and helping other charities.
DON IMUS: Why wouldn't major companies make this stuff? Because the profit margin is not there.
DEIRDRE IMUS: Yes, we're sucking up the profit margin because the raw materials are so expensive.
KING: Let's go to calls. The products are Imus's Greening the Cleaning and Imus's Greening the Cleaning Window Washer and the other is the citrus sage all-purpose cleaner.
DEIRDRE IMUS: They're used with citrus sage, it's all essential oils. The fragrance comes from a natural source of essential oils from botanicals.
KING: Ft. Thomas, Kentucky, hello.
CALLER: Hello. I'd like to know why Bernard doesn't go out on the streets of New York anymore and do those funny segments.
DON IMUS: That's a good idea, we'll have him do that. I don't know why we haven't done that. He's a funny guy. Talking about Bernard McGuirk, who's a producer of the program and a participant and hilarious.
KING: Why have you stopped doing it? You don't know?
DON IMUS: No, we just haven't thought about it.
DEIRDRE IMUS: He hasn't done it in a year or so.
DON IMUS: We'll do it, I mean, that's a good idea. We'll do it. We'll go to her trailer.
DEIRDRE IMUS: Yes, where does she live? We'll go to her town.
KING: Tampa, hello.
CALLER: Yes, Larry. My question for Don Imus is since September 11th, I've been doing a local show down here called the Tampa Grapevine. I was wondering, what advice would you have for someone like myself to get into the professional broadcasting?
DON IMUS: I couldn't understand any of that.
KING: He's doing a show in Tampa and he wants to get in full- time into professional broadcasting. What advice would you give to a young would-be professional broadcaster?
DON IMUS: Boy, I don't know. The market, things have changed, the landscape's changed so much. I mean, there are lots of opportunities in satellite and X.M. and Sirius. My brother works for Sirius.
KING: What's he doing?
DON IMUS: Outlaw country on the weekends. So there's an opportunity for anybody, you know.
KING: If Fred can do it?
DON IMUS: If Fred can do it, anybody can do it. KING: To Cortland, New York, hello.
CALLER: Hello, thank you for taking my call. I have a couple of questions. One is for Mr. Imus and Deirdre. I want to thank you so much for promoting autism awareness.
My question is, Mr. Imus, will you continue to promote autism awareness? And I do believe there's a link between vaccines and autism. And Deirdre, could you please explain to me what happened between you and Senator Frist when you met, when you testified before the Senate?
DEIRDRE IMUS: Oooh, well, first of all Don's wearing a pin from Autism Speaks, which is Suzanne and Bob Wright's organization, to raise awareness and money to get to the bottom of autism.
The Green in the Cleaning, all of these things with the environment, global warming, all of these, the planet is sick, our children are sick. I mean, the state of the health of our children is that one out of every 166 kids that are born in this country will develop autism.
Cancer's still the leading cause of death by disease with children. Asthma is still the leading cause of absenteeism in school with children. Obesity and diabetes is epidemic with children. This is the state of our health of our children. One out of six kids have a learning disability. What are you doing?
DON IMUS: Nothing, I'm just listening to you.
DEIRDRE IMUS: And including him, he has attention deficit. Many adults have attention deficit.
DON IMUS: No, I don't have any attention -- I don't have attention deficit at all.
DEIRDRE IMUS: These are all epidemic. This is the state of our health with our children.
KING: What happened with Senator Frist?
DEIRDRE IMUS: Well, I went down there to meet with him and other senators to get this combating autism bill passed. And I was with Suzanne and Bob Wright and Katie Wright, their daughter, who has an autistic child.
And do you know, not one senator that we met down there, we met with five different senators, not one of them -- and Katie's showing them a picture of her child, how he looked before he had autism and then what he looked like.
Not one of them asked her a question, or how are you doing, and how is it to deal with a child with autism every day? It is one of the most horrifying things when you see these children and it's epidemic now. I mean, there's millions of families in this country.
KING: And the senators didn't ask you a question?
DEIRDRE IMUS: Nothing, particularly with Senator Frist.
KING: Who's a doctor.
DEIRDRE IMUS: Who's a doctor, and made that clear when we met with him, which we obviously all knew that he was a doctor, a heart surgeon. We were there to talk about helping these children. None of us get paid to do this. We're down there and he wasted our time by attacking me, because of my husband. So that's really what happened.
KING: How did you react to that, Don?
DEIRDRE IMUS: He doesn't like what Don says about him. And so he wanted to know why he says the things he says because it hurts him. And I think he should take it up with Don.
KING: You're a critic of Senator Frist?
DON IMUS: Yes, well, why, I am, he's a criminal. But I mean -- the problem is, the guy wants to be president. So my question for Senator Frist is, what would he have done, called Saddam Hussein's wife and bitched at her?
DEIRDRE IMUS: Well I said to Senator Frist, I said, you know, if ...
DON IMUS: ... I invited him on the program. He doesn't have the guts to come on the program. He wastes her time and Bob and Suzanne Wright's time and Katie Wright's time, bitching to her about me. But he didn't have the guts enough to call me and complain about it.
KING: We've got to take a break, but we'll come right back, don't go away.
DON IMUS: What's the matter, you don't want to talk more about it?
KING: No, I've got to take a break.
DON IMUS: Oh, OK. I'm being censored by CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We're back on LARRY KING LIVE with Don and Deirdre Imus. You were finishing up on Senator Frist.
DEIRDRE IMUS: I wanted to finish answering the lady's question about the vaccination issue, how this falls into the whole autism conversation.
Vaccinations, and it goes back for years, have contained a preservative called thimerosal, ethyl mercury, which is a known neurotoxin. The government has told us for years, when women are pregnant, now they tell you only eat a serving of fish because of the ethyl mercury, which comes from coal burning that gets into the fat of the fish, and when you eat the fish you absorb the mercury. It's a known neurotoxin. At my environmental center we identify all these threats.
KING: Are you saying don't get vaccinated.
DEIRDRE IMUS: No, no. Get vaccinated safely. Our child has been vaccinated. But vaccinate without thimerosal. This has been an issue.
KING: You can tell the physician?
DEIRDRE IMUS: Yes, you need to tell him. You're paying him. You're buying a service. You're buying a product which happens to be a flu shot, or any of the infectious disease inoculations.
DON IMUS: It's a preservative that they use.
DEIRDRE IMUS: In the vaccination.
DON IMUS: But most pharmaceutical companies now make children's vaccine without it, although not as much flu vaccine is necessary. It's important to say there's no definitive evidence, although there's strong suspicions, but there's no definitive evidence to suggest that there's a direct link between thimerosal and autism.
DEIRDRE IMUS: The key here is they have not proven the safety of thimerosal, the CDC or the FDA, and they need to prove that. There's studies being done, a UCLA of Davis study that just came out this past week in a peer reviewed journal with a study with thimerosal.
There's many studies that have been done but they need to continue to be done to get to this the bottom of this. Whether it causes autism or not, common sense tells you, you don't have to be a doctor, if you're a mom out there, common sense tells me you do not want to inject into the blood stream of your baby a neurotoxin.
KING: Livingston, New Jersey, hello.
CALLER: Hello, my name is Corey. Hi. I just want to say how great the greening the cleaning thing is. I wanted this in my school. I wanted this in offices. I want this everywhere. And Deirdre has come to my school. I think this is the ideal program for America.
This is exactly what we need to see -- for cancer survivors. I don't want to see anyone go through the things that I have or to have to breathe chemicals and see people who, you know, just die, just dealing with chemicals. And people don't even know it, and Deirdre really has made us aware. Something I didn't know until I went to the Imus Ranch.
DEIRDRE IMUS: Oh, Corey's been great. He came to the ranch.
DON IMUS: You put him up to that?
DEIRDRE IMUS: God. Yes, honey. I called him before the show, Corey, please call Larry King when we're on. DON IMUS: Out of the millions of people watching LARRY KING LIVE, how does a kid who's been to the ranch get through?
DEIRDRE IMUS: As you know, he's persuasive. He makes a good point. And the World Health Organization tells us that 80 percent of all cancers are caused by environmental factors.
KING: Can those products, you can get them in Canada too? Your products? It's on the Web site.
DEIRDRE IMUS: It's on the Web site, absolutely. Imusranchfoods.com.
KING: We'll be right back. Let's now check in with Anderson Cooper, the host of "AC 360." Anderson, what's up tonight?
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Coming up at the top of the hour on "360", is Iraq facing a civil war? President Bush said today he doesn't think so. He spoke out again today, took more questions about the situation. Sometimes a heated discussion. We're covering all the angles. We'll talk to Democratic Congressman John Murtha, who's spoken out against the war.
We'll look at calls being made once again that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld should resign. What's really behind them? In one Florida county prosecutors dropped charges against a former teacher, Debra LaFave, accused of having sex with a middle school student. We'll tell you why the charges were dropped, give you a chance to weigh in on the case. We'll be taking your phone calls. All that and more.
KING: Anderson Cooper right at the top of the hour. We'll be right back with more of the Imuses. Don't go away.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEIRDRE IMUS: You're actually looking pretty good, look at this.
DON IMUS: You're never going to get that out.
DEIRDRE IMUS: Those wrinkles here? And all these pock marks. All over your cheeks here. Just so the viewers know it's actually clean right now. That even though you see all these dents and pocks on the face right now, it really is clean. That happens to be his skin.
DON IMUS: That's just lovely. We're giving him a facial.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We're back with New Caanan, Connecticut.
CALLER: Hello and good evening, everyone. This is a question for Imus, whose opinions I love to hear, whether or not I agree. But a former Nixon strategist, I think his name was Ken Phillips, has written a new book --
KING: Kevin Phillips.
CALLER: He's claimed that after all the rhetoric, given all the oil interests in the administration, all that's really happened is that the administration wanted to establish a military base with oil underneath. And I wondered if Imus is still haunted by the thought that this is all about oil, perhaps, and not terrorism.
DON IMUS: Well, they did fly two planes into the World Trade Center. I think you have to start there. I think oil's a huge element of all of it, of course. But I don't know. I've got a lot of stuff on my mind, I can't be answering questions like that. I'm not qualified.
KING: You have a lot on of stuff on your mind?
DEIRDRE IMUS: Like these autistic kids.
DON IMUS: I tell you why General Motors is going out of business, because in the back of the limo there's no way to set the temperature at a specific degree. You turn it on and it just blows hot air or blows cold.
DEIRDRE IMUS: Very inefficient.
DON IMUS: So I have to deal with that.
KING: Wait a minute.
DEIRDRE IMUS: In the limousine.
KING: this is your main concern?
DON IMUS: It's not a main concern, it's one of the concerns.
KING: This is a Cadillac Limo?
DON IMUS: Unfortunately, yes. We're looking to get a hybrid sort of thing.
KING: Is this a limo that drives you to work?
DON IMUS: Yes.
DEIRDRE IMUS: Very toxic vehicle.
KING: Sherman, Texas, hello.
CALLER: Hi, Imus. I watch your show every day and I just love you.
DON IMUS: Thanks, ma'am.
CALLER: Deirdre, I would like to -- I'm a teacher and I would like to know if you have a vision of perhaps promoting your products in public schools across the United States.
DEIRDRE IMUS: Yes.
CALLER: Thank you.
DEIRDRE IMUS: Oh, god, thank you. We hope to green all schools in America. All hospitals, all businesses. And we're working on that. We've greened the cleaning in about 25 schools in the tri-state area.
KING: She really gets wrapped into things.
DON IMUS: We're willing to sell this whole thing to Johnson and Johnson.
DEIRDRE IMUS: That's the whole idea too is not to be against these chemical companies that make all these toxic things, but to educate and start creating a demand so the Johnson & Johnsons of the world start to produce these products as well. There's over 80,000 chemicals being released in our environment right now in the United States. And fewer than 10 percent of them have been check ford safety by the EPA, Environmental Protection Agency. This is the state of our health again. It all goes back to our toxic exposures.
KING: She really gets wrapped up.
DEIRDRE IMUS: People need to know this, Larry. If you knew that, we'd only be eating organic food, we would only be using non- toxic cleaning products, we'd only be building, this whole building would be green. We wouldn't be using toxic surfaces and toxic carpeting with petroleum and benzene and all these cancer causing things. When you have a cocktail inside of all these different chemicals you don't know what you're breathing.
DON IMUS: You're killing me and Larry, really.
DEIRDRE IMUS: We wonder why our kids are so sick. And commonly there's neurotoxins. You talk about learning disabilities and autism. It's off the charts. He makes fun of me and goes on that I go on too much.
DON IMUS: I'm not making fun of you, you're killing us. We get it. We understand it. We'll buy the stuff. What's the number again?
DEIRDRE IMUS: You have children. Don't you want to know this? There's very few people out there that are actually trying to protect these children.
KING: So Don --
DEIRDRE IMUS: And trying to educate so our children aren't sick.
KING: Let's get a break.
DON IMUS: Gosh, the hour's almost gone.
DEIRDRE IMUS: Shut up.
DON IMUS: Where did the time go?
KING: We'll be right back.
DEIRDRE IMUS: We haven't talked enough about you, that's why.
KING: We'll be back with our remaining moments, don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: We're back with our remaining moments. Who are you favoring for the Republican nomination?
DON IMUS: McCain. I voted for him before.
KING: You don't feel he's copped out on you a little with Iraq and other things?
DON IMUS: I think he has the potential to be one of the great presidents in the history of this country, I really do.
KING: So you allow him what might have been, some of his fans are saying, that he might have copped out?
DON IMUS: No, I don't buy that. I like other people too. I like Joe Biden. I like Harold Ford Jr. I love Santorum.
DEIRDRE IMUS: He's very handsome too.
DON IMUS: It's difficult to reconcile supporting Harold Ford, Jr., who is one of the brightest -- have you ever had him on?
KING: Sure.
DON IMUS: He's unbelievable.
KING: Great.
DEIRDRE IMUS: I also like Santorum. I know people think he's crazy. He believes what he believes. You know.
KING: You might be in trouble.
DEIRDRE IMUS: Senator Santorum's also the one that co-sponsored with Senator Dodd the combating autism bill.
KING: What about Obama?
DON IMUS: Barack Obama? Yes, I do. What's not to like about him? An elegant guy.
KING: And of course, Hillary.
DON IMUS: Is Satan.
KING: Satan?
DEIRDRE IMUS: Stop it. Who's making you say that? Bernard?
DON IMUS: No. Nobody's -- she's not as evil as Al Gore. That's all I can --
KING: That's your comparison not as evil as --
DON IMUS: Just a horrendous -- no.
KING: What brings this up?
DEIRDRE IMUS: I think Bernard, right?
DON IMUS: She's Satan, Larry. She's the devil.
DEIRDRE IMUS: Oh my God. He called me the dope.
KING: Could she win?
DON IMUS: No. I mean, all of my friends in New York will vote for her. And my other friends in L.A. will vote for her. But Americans, I mean, no. She's angry and she's evil.
DEIRDRE IMUS: He also picked Boston College to win the NCAA.
DON IMUS: We'll see.
DEIRDRE IMUS: Yes, we'll see. Against my alma mater, Villanova.
KING: They're both in the final 16. Sweet 16. You follow that, huh?
DON IMUS: A little bit, sure.
DEIRDRE IMUS: A little bit, oh my God, Larry, we've got all these new TVs and he has everything fit just right with the TiVo and God forbid he misses any moment of this whole basketball championship. Oh my God. Playing the chess while he's watching -- I don't know anyone else that plays chess while they're watching NASCAR, do you?
KING: You play chess on a computer?
DON IMUS: And regular chess.
KING: Who are you playing?
DEIRDRE IMUS: He's obsessed, he's addicted.
KING: When you're on a computer who are you playing?
DON IMUS: Boris Spassky.
DEIRDRE IMUS: You're playing all these babes all the time.
DON IMUS: I'm not very good. KING: Thank you, Imuses. Good luck with the products.
DON IMUS: You didn't seem that happy to have us here.
KING: I loved having you.
DON IMUS: You didn't seem that happy.
KING: You read it wrong. Don and Deirdre Imus, they're welcome anytime. Tomorrow night, Mike Wallace. Friday night, Laura Bush. --
Right now let's turn things over to Anderson Cooper, the host of "AC 360" right at the top of the hour. Anderson, what's up?
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