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Piers Morgan Live
Devastation in the Philippines; Interview with Jay Glazer; Interview with Comedian Artie Lange
Aired November 12, 2013 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PIERS MORGAN, CNN HOST: Anderson, thank you very much indeed. I've been watching the last hour. Incredibly powerful reporting there. You've obviously covered some of the worst natural disasters from Haiti to Katrina and others. How does this compared being on the ground where you are right now in Tacloban to what you've covered before?
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ACHOR: You know, it's obviously, a death toll, it's smaller and we don't know an official death toll, numbers vary and nobody really knows if -- there is no actual search for those who have died. There's no accounting for those who have died at this point.
In Haiti, you had hundreds of thousands of people who died in Port-au Prince alone so it's very concentrated death toll. But in terms of an actual devastation, I mean, this entire area is just gone. The houses that were here are largely gone. And people had nowhere to go. There isn't electricity, there isn't food, there isn't water. It's not as if there's neighbors that they can fall back on.
So it's always hard to compare one to another. Certainly for the people here, it's the worst thing that ever happened to them and the worst thing that ever will happen to them. Their families, their mother is leaving having to sleep near the bodies of their dead children, having to smell their dead children. And this is day five. It's been going on now for five days that their child has been laying near them that they have been smelling their child while they search for their other children who are still missing and they're searching all by themselves or they're searching with just the help of a few relative. But many of those relatives are also searching for other relatives who are missing.
So there's not really a consorted, organized -- the organization level is not something we've seen and on day five, frankly, in Haiti, we saw a greater impact of outside groups who have been able to come in.
We're just starting in the last couple of hours to see little bit of changes here, the airport in Tacloban, the US military is very akin and very confident, they're going to get this airport up and running on a 24-hour basis, getting planes in here on a 24-hour basis. Hopefully, Piers, that will make the difference in terms of getting supplies in here but then the challenge is getting them out to the areas that need it the most. MORGAN: We're getting there a number of CNN eye reporters from the area telling us that they fear that there's a rising sense of anarchy among sections of population as the days go on and the help they desperately needs are arriving in time. Are you sensing any of that? Are you getting a feeling that people are just getting very desperate of bordering on anarchy?
COOPER: Well, I'm here with Paula Hancocks. She's been here, really from the beginning and traveled through a lot of more areas than I have and Piers was asking about are people starting and getting desperate. Is their a security concern? Is their a fear of kind of anarchy or looting?
I mean, what I see really based on your reporting was people are kind of in desperate strays taking whatever they could because there really is nothing. There's nothing for people out there. What are you going to say?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. I mean, looting is, you know, it has a certain connotation that would if you're desperate for food and water, you have no food and water for your family, you're going to try and steal that food and water. So this is out of desperation in many cases.
There are people. They're here at the airport. You can probably see hundreds of people behind me trying to get on the plane, trying to get out of here. They want to leave because of security concerns.
One lady just had twins three weeks ago and she was worried because the house next door to her was ransacked. So she was concerned that her house would be next looking for food and water and her children might be injured. And one lady here actually said to me, I survived the typhoon. I've been here for two hours -- sorry, I've been here for two days. I don't know if I'm going to survive this because she said she hasn't had food and water. So it's actually survive the storm surge, the typhoon, and then to seriously question whether you can survive the airports?
COOPER: Piers, that's one of the things I don't understand is that I was just -- the make-shift clinic here at the airport and Paula has been there as well. I talked to a doctor an hour ago who said they don't have enough food and water at that clinic. That clinic is the only hospital in this entire area that is actually seeing patients.
The patients are saying the main hospitals have no electricity, have no supplies, and aren't actually admitting more patients. So if that clinic underneath that tower right there behind us doesn't have enough food and water for the people coming there, what does that tell you about everybody else? You would think that would be a top priority to be stock with food and water. I don't get.
MORGAN: Right. And Anderson, you hinted earlier that in Haiti, it was obviously a much more focused area that was hit and therefore the international relief that came in was able to target that very directly. How much more complicated is the rescue mission in the Philippines given that there are over 2,000 small islands that which are inhabited there, many of which have been hit in some way by the typhoon, it must make it much more complicated that is so spread out by that.
COOPER: There's no doubt about that and the weather has not been cooperative. No doubt about that. And the road systems in the Philippines have not been invested in over the years due to years of corruption, due to years of government cycling money off from projects like that for decades of that, frankly, really going back a long time.
So there are big infrastructure problems here that are all playing a part in this, but I'm not even talking about, you know, areas that are outlying. We're talking about Tacloban, we're talking about a few blocks from here, people not having water, not having access to food, not having access to shelter. I mean a few blocks from the airport.
So God only knows what's happening in the small villages along the coast where people can't get to.
HANCOCKS: Well, that's the thing. I mean this road into Tacloban City has been open since Sunday, I mean on Wednesday, and still there's not enough supplies getting through to that area. And as you say what's beyond that? I mean there's like at least 100 kilometers more of areas that has exactly the same damage as this.
COOPER: This is the first time that the Philippine military and the authorities are actually starting to clean up the airport area which is --that's going to be a big improvement, that's a great thing.
But again, not to take away from what they're doing, but it is -- it's day five and, you know, it's frustrating for people who have been sitting at this airport for these five days trying to figure out why wasn't that done on day two or day three or day four.
MORGAN: Yeah, it's obviously a very urgent and depressing crisis down there. Anderson and Paula thank you both very much indeed.
And now, I want to turn to CNN's Anna Coren in Cebu. Anna, what are you seeing down there?
ANNA COREN, CNN INTERNATIONALCORRESPONDENT: Well, Piers, this is very much the staging ground of the disaster relief operation. P130 Hercules are flying out of here, packed with aid to those hard hit areas, we joined one of those military cargo planes yesterday and traveled to Guiuan which is a township in Eastern Samar province. It was the first town to be hit by Super Typhoon Haiyan.
And as we flew over the place is completely decimated. Every single building was flattened. We were on the air base on the tarmac, more like a muddy runway for all of 20 minute to deliver that aid. Every single palm tree around and huge, huge trees just flatten, you know, snap like twigs which really gives you an idea of the force of this storm.
There were many, many locals that race through that airfield once we were there on the ground delivering that aid. This is a township of 50,000 people and yet everyone is now virtually homeless. There was supplies perhaps for a several hundred families that might last a couple of days. The people, they were saying they desperately need food, they desperately need fresh water. No medical supplies have come in.
And as our shelter goes, you know, they are scavenging and salvaging what they have from the debris from their homes. You know, we had torrential rain here last night, Piers, which only, you know, adds to the misery that these people are going through.
MORGAN: It certainly does. Anna Coren thank you very much indeed. Rescues in the Philippines are facing huge medical challenges tonight.
Meanwhile, in this country's breaking medical news, we could have millions more Americans taking statins before too long. We're going to talk about both these big stories. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Cardiologist Dr. Eric Topol of Scripps Health in San Diego welcome to both of you.
Sanjay, let's start first of all of what is happening in the Philippines. You've reported from many similar disaster areas, what are the immediate problems after five days with the concentration of rain and the lack of clean water and so on. What are the immediate problems now that will be facing rescuers on the ground?
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the basics do apply here, Piers, there's no question and all of the things we're hearing from Paula and Anderson and Anna there. Getting that clean water, that potable water obviously very important and also kind of figure out what is the long term sort of strategy for this as well? Should they be creating generators to sustain that water demand longer term?
But let me speak to something that you ask about as well with regard to the numbers and I've covered a lot of these types of things as you point out, Piers. People focused a lot on the number of people who have died on one end of the spectrum over here. At the other completely opposite of the spectrum, people who lived and who have adequate resources, but in the middle here is that vulnerable population and this is where it's different from a lot of other natural disasters.
There are a lot of people who survived this but who are very vulnerable, they are in that middle swathe and over the next seven days to 14 days, one to two weeks, everything matters. Everything is totally different. The basics completely matter. People talk about infectious disease outbreaks being of concern. Yes, they are. But these next one to two weeks make the biggest difference in terms of what happens to that big middle swathe. Do they go into this side of the spectrum over here, survive, get the resource they need, or do they pass away because of preventable deaths, Piers.
And again, the basics really, really do apply here.
MORGAN: Yeah and it's desperately urgent to get these rescue supplies in there. So obviously a very difficult with the weather conditions and the fact it's so spread out in so many islands.
Let's turn, Sanjay to this development on the use of statins in America. You report on this a few hours ago in CNN. Tell me exactly what has happened to them. How it will change things for Americans?
GUPTA: Basically the guidelines have been loosened for who can get these statin drugs. Statins are cholesterol lowering drugs. And it's quite remarkable, Piers just to give you a little bit of context. We talked about the fact that roughly among 30 to 35 million people are on these medications right now and with this loosening of the guidelines? They could go up to double that number, 70 million people.
So instead of having sort of a bunch of different criteria for determining who's going to be on these medications or not that if you have diabetes type 1 or type 2, you'd be a candidate for statins. If you have any evidence of heart disease right now, you'd be a candidate for Statins.
So it's really a quite stunning actually, Piers in terms of how many people would now possibly be getting a statin prescription or recommendation from their doctor. Let me just say Piers, you know, because I talk about this a lot. We have pretty good strategies of preventing a lot of these problems in the first with some basic things, you know, just a better diets and exercise, all the things that I've talked about for years.
The fact that we're going on the opposite direction, the fact that 70 million people maybe on these drugs in the next couple of years, it's a bit mind-numbing, actually. And I feel like in some ways, people are waiting the white flag a bit on this whole issue of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, everything. And I hope it doesn't just take us -- take our eye off the ball in terms of focusing on those basics.
MORGAN: Dr. Topol, let me come to you on this, you're a top cardiologist. It does seem to be sending a completely wrong signal, doesn't it? I mean you know, you're trying to make Americans fitter, faster, leaner, eat healthier, exercise and so on and now they can think actually there's a much easier way just pop a few pills?
ERIC TOPOL: Yeah. You're absolutely right, Piers. And I think Sanjay is on the mark on this. Before I get into statins just a second back on the Philippines, you know, Scripps Health has been at Haiti, Katrina and because our Chief Executive Officer Chris Van Gorder is really in to the medical response team, our health system is ready and willing to go in the Philippines.
Now let's get in to the Statins. The big change besides what Sanjay's already mentioned is that we have these target numbers. So for people who didn't have heart disease it was getting the LDL down to a 100. And for those who did have heart disease it was getting it down to 70. And there was no basis for these numbers and so they've been abandoned. And these guidelines have been around for ten years.
So there has been a fixation of Americans to get their numbers right even though so many of them are just getting a cosmetic effect on their blood test without actually improving their risk of getting heart disease. So this has been a big problem. We've already overcooked the use of statins. The data or the evidence for people who have heart disease is overwhelming.
It's the people who don't have heart disease where this concern of having got enough to perhaps as many as 40 million Americans already and possibly doubling that. That is really a worst.
MORGAN: And let me turn just, for a few moment in ObamaCare, President Clinton today came out with a pretty striking criticism of President Obama, let's listen to what he had to say?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL CLINTON, FORMER US PRESIDENT: I personally believe even if it takes to change in the law. The President should honor the commitment to federal government. Maybe those people want to keep what they got.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: Sanjay, we know that the take up on ObamaCare has been extremely low. The White House has not conceited the numbers of published they will be very low. We now have President Clinton really directly challenging President Obama to -- if it means change in the law or change the law to keep his word about if you want to keep your plan or your doctor you could. This is turning into a huge mess, isn't it?
GUPTA: Yeah, I think there's no two ways about that. You know, I think with regard to this idea of keeping the plans, I think that this is another example of the message really having then not properly given. And you know, we talked about the specific thing that if you have your insurance you can keep it. As it turns out as you know is President Clinton said that's not true. You know, Piers, you and I have talked about this before after I interviewed Secretary Sebelius, you know, the number one cause of bankruptcy in United States is medical bills.
And a large part of that is because there are really bad plans out there. I mean, I think this is a little bit of a red herring and if you look at the numbers this is a relatively small percentage of the population that we're talking about that fits into this idea. They have plans, they want to keep them because they are buying insurance already in the individual market. But that we have regulations for cars that are unsafe. People say, "I want to keep my Pinto. I don't want to be forced to buy a Ferrari."
Pintos were the cars that, you know, caught on fire if they got rear ended. Those weren't safe cars. And, you know, if they want to keep that analogy going there all plans out there that are just aren't very good plans but again, to the point that you ask, I mean the promise was that you could keep your plan if you had it and your happy with it. And I think what that's what President Clinton was addressing. MORGAN: Dr. Topol, final question for you and briefly if you may, intrinsically do you feel as a top practitioner of medicine in America that ObamaCare is well-intended? If it all worked well it would be a force of good in America?
TOPOL: Well, I think eventually many of the glitches will get fixed and indeed more people will be covered but the problem that that whole Affordable Care Act has is it doesn't incorporate all the innovations. It doesn't capture the exciting aspects of medicine whether be genomics and the use of sensors and wireless medicine. So it's really unfortunate because it's very much tuned into access and insurance coverage, but missing -- where really the most exciting time in the history of medicine is right now.
MORGAN: Dr. Topol and Sanjay Gupta, thank you both very much. Reminder that Sanjay has a show on Saturday afternoon at 4:30 Eastern and Sunday morning at 7:30 Eastern. Quite an extraordinary story about a British man, he traveled to Amsterdam to get medical marijuana and legally returns to the UK with custom official's blessing. So a new development on the moving story of medical marijuana. I commend you to watch that. Thanks you both very much indeed.
When we come back, bullying from the locker room to the ballroom. Is Richie Incognito blaming the victim? And I'll ask Fox's forces Jay Glazer what he thought, when Incognito told him this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAY GLAZER, FOX NFL SUNDAY: You're telling me that wasn't any signs going into that?
RICHIE INCOGNITO: You know, as the leader, as his best friend on the team, that's what has me miffed, how I miss this and I never saw it. I never saw it coming.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: Also a man that's all about out of control behavior Howard Stern's former psychic Artie Lange. I'll ask him what he thinks to Toronto's crack Mayor Rob Ford. And later, Ken Burns on JFK's legacy. And what the ObamaCare mess may cause President Obama.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
INCOGNITO: This isn't an issue about bullying. This is an issue of mine and John relationship where I may -- I've taken stuff too far and I didn't know it was hurting him. My actions were coming from the a with love. No matter how bad and how vulgar it sounds, that's how we communicate, that's how our friendship was and those are the facts and that's what I'm accountable for.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: Richie Incognito is having his side of a story to Fox Sports over the weekend. This is the first big interview since the Miami Dolphins bullying allegations met headline to cross the country. But it's definitely not the end of the story. The Dolphin said today the delayed meeting with Jonathan Martin until the NFLs represents to has had his meeting with Martin who left the team last month. And joining me now the man who sat down with Richie Incognito, Jay Glazer from Fox NFL Sunday on Fox football day on Fox Sports.
Welcome to you Jay, it's a fascinating interview.
GLAZER: Hi Piers.
MORGAN: Let me first of all ask you what was your relationship with Richie like before they did. There are reports you were great friends or whatever -- just clarify that for me before we start.
GLAZER: Yes. I actually started off our segment on Fox NFL Sunday say, look, I've know Richie Incognito for five or six years. And that's what my job is as an NFL insider, as a reporter, you got relationships. I probably have about 900 of them inside the NFL, that's how we get our scoops in our exclusives. And years ago I've been in mixed Martial arts cross training program. He came out trying a few years ago had a guy named Tyron Woodly is actually fighting this weekend.
But even with that said, even having known him all this time, obviously, the stuff that has come out and the things associated with this with the racism, with the bullying is difficult for me to comprehend. And I think they are difficult of everybody to comprehend. It's hard to grasp. I don't care what the relationship is.
MORGAN: Well, tell me this so, it seems to me that you've got a good access to this because you interviewed him. Also on that you've seen some of the 1,142 text.
GLAZER: Oh I have seen them all.
MORGAN: Right you've seen them all. Now, this is what really interests me, so I have worked, you know, with sports, well I interviewed many of them. I've been in locker rooms. I have played sports at very minor level and being in dressing rooms. I know what can happen there in terms of what people called banter. What were these texts really like when you read them? Were you getting a sense of bullying or are you getting a sense of pretty regular dressing room banter?
GLAZER: Well, you have a public access cable TV show, I could tell you fully but I can't on your show. And the stunt that was said in these texts are, you know, there like you said, locker room they're about as bad as you get from both sides going back and forth. 1142 text, that's a lot of texts. They're both -- know it didn't speak to me that one guy was hammering the other and the other wasn't coming back, you know, hammering, you know, Martin went back to Richie, Richie went back to him. There are stuff that like I said it would be offensive to anybody else who saw it and that's where you have to kind of, you know, figure out what that context is in. You know the problems with stories like this, Piers is, you know, I wish Richie came out and John then came out a day or two after that, you know, then we'd really know hey what really happened here. What's the real story here, you know, it's difficult right now because obviously when I sat down with Richie, you know, he's guy with lawyers and whoever he sat with when we hear from Jonathan Martin is going to be, you know, worded out with lawyers as well. I wish we knew.
And I have been -- I was the first one who actually broke the story originally on Fox Football Daily and on Fox Sports One that this happened. And I start hearing from all sides immediately about it, you know, but it's -- you want to know the truth. The only way you find out the truth from talking to those two people directly and then all of the other teammates and everybody else was in there.
MORGAN: I mean the most fascinating aspect of it, it seems to me from the interview was when Incognito claimed that Martin sent him a friendly text four days after he had left the building. Let's watch that clip from the interview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHIE INCOGNITO, MIAMI PLAYERS: He text me and said, I don't blame you guys. I blame some stuff in the locker room. I blame the culture. I blame what was going on around me.
And when all this stuff got going and swirling and bullying that attach to it and my name got attached to it, I just text him as a friend and like, what's up with this man. He said, it's not coming for me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: So, that struck me as extraordinary if that is true.
GLAZER: Yeah.
MORGAN: That slightly to me tie both this with theory that this was just round put bullying from Richie Incognito to Jonathan Martin.
Now, having said that Incognito has to be that he went too far.
GLAZER: But there was also one before that.
There was one before that, also we showed on Fox that the first one even before that said, "The world's crazy LOL" and then there was another one said, "By the way don't check yourself into a mental hospital."
And, you know, again this was after it happened, and again that's the problem. The problem as a journalist, my job is to try to find out the facts. I want to try to find out what really happened, not what everybody close to Richie is saying and not what everybody close to Jonathan is saying. We want to find out what's really got on in there. MORGAN: From everything that you know about other locker rooms in the NFL up and down the country, did any of this strike you as particularly unusual? Maybe offensive to the outside world that these guys are big, trained, powerful athlete designed to want to kill the opposition metaphorically.
Is it really that surprising that they whip themselves up in this way and have such extremely competitive banter if you like?
GLAZER: I think the great thing about being in sports is that you don't have to grow up. These guys are a bunch of kids and, you know, kids could be mean. And when they get older they're still kids that, you know, its interesting Tony Gonzalez. I'm sure you know Tony Gonzalez.
He probably said the best to me last week he said I get made fun of more than anybody in my locker room, because I have seven nationalities. They make fun of me for nationalities they think I am and say when I retire I'm going to miss that the most. And that's Tony and I get that.
And, hey (inaudible) it sucks with me and my Michael Strahan and Terry Bradshaw and how we laugh, oh my God if you ever heard us. But this question is still if -- and my question to Richie was if you are pushing him too far that's your brother, you got to figure out a way, hey, oh we got a back up because maybe a big brother can go too far with a little brother. Maybe that's not the case, well the one point you got to make sure, hey we don't -- nobody goes too far where it goes over the edge, because these guys bullying on every -- any level, you know, it's a hot pot topic Piers.
Anybody says bullying, you know, it's hard to fend because will start acting like...
MORGAN: Yeah.
GLAZER: ... somebody can (inaudible) bullying. We certainly don't.
But you're right in locker rooms nothing is off limits. There is -- They go after each other for everyday.
MORGAN: I think we should settle this now, old fashion British way just get them in the room together a firm hand shake, apology go around, then move on. I think it's probably the best with all this.
GLAZER: I've suggested that to both parties before the interview. I think they were kind of both on board. I know I was hearing from Jonathan's people that maybe it can happen, I think after the interview they said, no we're going (inaudible).
MORGAN: Well, that's how they get settled soon. Thank you very much in joining me. Jade Glazer and congratulations on your (inaudible) on this.
(INAUDIBLE) MORGAN: Coming next, Howard Stern's bad boys sidekick Artie Lange, anyone knows his way on a jug-filled run, is this guy. Now that his clean and sober though, I want to find out if he's got any advice to Toronto mayor, Rob Ford.
And later filmmaker Ken Burns and the A-list celebrities he (inaudible) dramatic readings of one of the most speeches in American history.
And when I mean dramatic, I mean dramatic. Listen to Steven call there (ph).
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEN BURNS, FILMMAKER: Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth in this continent a new nation concealed in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh it's cupcake, no it's not cupcake.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's hard to tell because he's wearing sunglasses. Somebody just woke up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Oh, no. He's going to fall again.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's really. God. Oh, stop. His head just went, where do we go?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think (inaudible) because I don't want to bang into the metal thing. It's OK.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: Artie Lange kept Howard Stern's business roaring with his unapologetic dark humor and his odor dose. But he's also known to pass out on air and start verbal altercations with fellow cast member while he's in the under the influence. A best author and comedian. He's sober now for a year and half. He talks about all this in his new book Crush and Burn. And in the chair tonight is Artie Lange. Artie, how are you?
ARTIE LANGE, COMEDIAN: How are you doing? Good to be here, Piers.
MORGAN: You were laughing there watching yourself passing out? LANGE: Yeah, well, it's brilliant comic at work, Piers. I mean, you know, our generation's Jonathan Winters, work load, you know, laugh.
MORGAN: What was extraordinary to me was I did the show a couple of times when you there.
LANGE: Right.
MORGAN: You were so part of that family. It such an amazing energy and dynamism between all of you. I would never have known or guessed the personal hell I read about in...
LANGE: Right.
MORGAN: ... Crush and Burn. How many people did know the real depths of what you're going through?
LANGE: Well, I mean, you know, the times you were there I might have been going through hell because I was on for eight and half years. And the first six were just extraordinary. It was a comedian version of bliss man being on to me the greatest show of my generation, the funniest show working with the funniest guy and making a bunch of money to do it.
My schedule got to the point where I combined with my addictive personality to where I needed pills to get up, pills to go down, pills to get out of the plane, pills to get off of a plane. That turned into heroine addiction. And I mean, honestly, the only two people that really knew the depths of it for awhile or, you know, any addict would say this, you and the dealer, you know, one guy, you know, you're putting in his kids to choke school, you know, because you know, you're making him so much money. And you because you're doing it. You tried to hide them from everybody. You're not going to be truthful about that because you're worried about losing everything in your life.
MORGAN: You got to a moment, January the 2, 2010...
LANGE: Right.
MORGAN: ... when you attempted to kill yourself? You took a knife and you stabbed yourself I think nine times.
LANGE: Right. If I had abs I'd be dead now.
MORGAN: What was going through your mind that day?
LANGE: Well, I mean, listen, I was not of a straight mind. I had been doing heroine for four straight days of that point. And I was going through awful withdrawals. That's the only thing that's going to kept me out of nut house for a couple of years.
If you do that and you're straight minded, they won't let you out of the -- they can keep you in a mental institution for years. But the fact that I was under the influence of all these drugs is why I got out just a few days. And then went to a rehab and other crazy things. That took me year and a half to do but I -- what was going through my mind was sheer hell, I couldn't do it anymore, I was high and running out of drugs and I couldn't take another trip to Spanish Harlem (ph), the cop. I couldn't do it anymore. I said I can't keep living this life and at that point, I saw a no way out. I saw a no way out.
MORGAN: Your mother found you and helped save your life.
LANGE: Right.
MORGAN: Rush you into the hospital. When you came round from all this, ...
LANGE: Yeah.
MORGAN: ... did you feel a terrible sense of guilt about what you've put her through?
LANGE: I still do. I still do. I mean, she wasn't supposed to come over that day. It was sheer faith, because stuff and guns so bad. I agreed to give her a key to my place in case something happened. And I just stopped her from beyond and I said, "OK, take it. Whatever."
And dad planned an intervention for me. That was not going to be a peaceful one. I wasn't going to have a choice in the matter, they would've drag me away there friends in (inaudible) and my family and they just happened to stop by that they have found me.
I mean the guilt of passing out with her saying, "Stay with me, don't close your eyes and call 911," I'll never get over that. Thank God she's OK and better and doing OK and now, we're going through a happy time. But no, I'll never get over that guilt in, ever in my life.
MORGAN: Let's take a break. I want to come back and get your reaction to leaving the Howard Stern Show.
LANGE: Right.
MORGAN: And what your relationship with Howard is now, because obviously, it was very difficult for leaving.
LANGE: Definitely.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARTIE LANGE, AUTHOR OF "CASH & BURN": I've been coming on for 10 years, this is probably my 18th appearance.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
LANGE: And I'm very sentimental about this. You're leaving. You're going to do, The Tonight Show.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going out to Los Angeles. Yes.
LANGE: I know it sucks. Good luck, man. I don't know. I don't think it's a bad move.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, what are you going to do? What are you going to do?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: After lying on late night with Conan O'Brien in 2008, he's back in the chair. Well, how right were you Artie Lange?
LANGE: My fingers on the pulse of pop culture. What can I say?
MORGAN: What is extraordinary is you can't even remember appearing that time right?
LANGE: That is -- listen Conan's been so good to me over the years, man. He had me on once every two months. It started about 18 years ago. He was so good to me and that was in the throes of my heroine detention. And yes, I don't really remember that appearance. I kind of been in the blackout. And that is horrifying to wake-up one morning to realize you're on national TV. You spoke publicly. I mean I did at the Funny Boat in St. Louis before but this was, you know, and you realize you don't remember what you said and then, you realize you gave some of the best career advice of all time.
MORGAN: Let me ask you about Howard Stern because you've not been back on the show since...
LANGE: Right.
MORGAN: ... the suicide attempt to explain yourself maybe because Howard doesn't want to put you in that position. And his...
LANGE: Right.
MORGAN: ... Chris Rock told him to try and get you off the airways.
LANGE: Yes.
MORGAN: So could sort yourself out what you have. Does part of want to go back on the show? Where you had this huge audience that was your family and explained as you are to me now?
LANGE: Oh God, yes. I mean, listen. My relationship with the Howard Stern Show started when I was 13 years old. My father, you know, who drove van for a living Clamon Rouse (ph) came to me the summer of 82 and said, "You got to hear this guy in the radio. You got to work with me tomorrow." And we bonded over and listening to Howard Stern. And then, years later, I don't only get on the show, I become a regular on the show.
MORGAN: But you got on it because your father had a terrible accident...
LANGE: Yes.
MORGAN: ... and a quadriplegic...
LANGE: He did.
MORGAN: ... and Howard actually reacted by sending a jacket...
LANGE: Well, I think on the other show was a -- he -- we did an auction and try to raise money for him because we had too go on welfare, was in a horrible situation. And of all the celebrities we wrote to -- that's a lot of local people -- Howard was the only guy who responded. He signed the Howard Stern K-Rock Jacket that was sold at auction. And Gary (ph) brought it up on the air and Howard said in a classic Howard fashion like, this guy think he's going to walk again if he puts this jacket on.
MORGAN: But it must mean a lot to you and your father that...
LANGE: Oh God, yes. To hear that he referenced us. And then my father passed away. When my father passed away, I was 22 and just a drunken gambler and just doing a lot of bad things. And then years later I get on the show and become a part of the show and become this amazing career. So, god, yes, I'd love to still be a part of that family. It was a greatest thing ever but I think Howard and I both realized that going back there might trigger something that will be terrible and he doesn't want to put me in that situation. I mean what happened was so severe. I put them in such a terrible situation. He's reacting -- the only way a good person would right now.
MORGAN: You're still friends?
LANGE: I think I would call us friends -- friendly. I mean we were really good friends for a long time. And when you do heroine, they'll tell you in rehab, friendships are going to go away. And that's one of them that I did that was the most important to me and I feel terrible about it but when we speak, we're friendly and he's very good to me.
MORGAN: I want to play a clip. This is the infamous Toronto mayor, Rob Ford, talking about his crack cocaine episode.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROB FORD, MAYOR TORONTO: Yes. I had smoked cracked cocaine...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When sir?
FORD: ... but no -- do I -- am I an addict? No.
UNIDENTIFED MALE: When did we see...
FORD: Have I tried it? Probably in one of my drunken stupors.
(ENDD VIDEO CLIP) MORGAN: Just quickly, when you see somebody in that position of influence...
LANGE: Yes.
MORGAN: You probably know better than most the kind of thing that you've been through.
LANGE: First of all he's doing it wrong because you're the fattest crack addict I've ever seen. I mean as you point it on cheeseburgers -- what is -- I mean one of the good side effects of crack is you stay very thin. And that's why a lot of models do it. When I see somebody like that, you know, the guy's a mayor and for this sentence to come out of his mouth -- "Have I tried crack? Maybe one of my drunken stupors."
MORGAN: (inaudible)
LANGE: You know, it's great that Canada is loosening up, all right fine. I mean he's stealing from Washington D.C. They invented the idea of a crack smoking mayor. And I think he's ripping them off.
If the guy was a good guy and had good policy I'd vote for him again. Again, you know, the joke, they say, you know, what happen if anyone's in a sex scandal they could run in France on that and win, you know.
I'll give the guy another chance. But it's so crazy to hear that.
MORGAN: I want to leave you with one last thought which is that tonight here in New York, the all time world record has being smashed for the best for painting. There it is.
Francis Bacon's painting of his fellow artist Lucian Freud $142 million, are we on the wrong game?
LANGE: Well, listen I know a lot crooked Jersey contractors into painting your house, that's about the price.
MORGAN: Artie Lange it's a fantastic book, Crush and Burn. You're a brilliant on the Howard Stern Show, this is the searing insight into what was really going on your life at the same time.
Best of luck with the book.
(INAUDIBLE)
LANGE: ...I appreciate you having me.
MORGAN: Thank you very much.
Coming next, Artie's new best friend Ken Burns, they bonded in the Green Room, maybe the edit man could get Bill Clinton sing in the same tune as Taylor Swift. I can't explain the connection.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDEN OF THE UNITED STATES: Four score seven years ago.
JIMMY CARTER, (FRM) U.S. PRESIDENT: Our fathers brought forth on this continent.
GEORGE W. BUSH, (FRM) U.S. PRESIDENT: A new nation conceived in liberty.
BILL CINTON, (FRM) U.S. PRESIDENT: And dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: Ken Burns could get President Obama, Carter, the Bush's and Clinton to agree at least when it comes to reciting well maybe the greatest speech in American History, the Gettysburg Address which President Lincoln of course delivered 150 years ago, next week.
It's a subject of the Oscar Nominated Filmmaker's latest project the address and Ken Burns joins me now. Welcome to you Ken. This is a great idea, so basically your mission is to essentially get every American to be able to recite the Gettysburg Address. I mean it would take them about two minutes right?
KEN BURNS, AMERICAN DIRECTOR, PRODUCER OF DOCUMENTARY FILMS: We like to sing in church, we like to sing, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" together. We like to do things together and we're so fractured now, how great would it be to just learn something. I made a film called the address about these kids in Vermont School, all boys who suffer from learning differences, dyslexia, ADD other sort of things.
And they're -- for the last 35 years, the school has asked their boys to memorize and then publicly recite it and do it magnificently and we covered this film. But as we are making the film and inspired by their heroism we thought, what if we got everyone else to do it?
So, we're issuing this challenge today...
MORGAN: Who else have you got, big name?
BURNS: Oh just amazing people in media and...
MORGAN: Taylor Swift.
BURNS: ... yeah Taylor Swift did it. Uma Thurman, we have Nancy Pelosi and Marco Rubio. We have Rachel Maddow and Bill O'Reilly. I mean we're -- and we're continuing to ...
MORGAN: (Inaudible).
BURNS: There are competitors. MORGAN: Why is it important, the Gettysburg Address? Obviously, you know, coming from Britain we have Churchill and his great addresses. What makes the Gettysburg Address in your opinion, the greatest American Speech?
BURNS: It's pure Presidential poetry but the biggest thing is that it's doubling down on our original promise, made by Thomas Jefferson. Four score and seven years before that all men were created equal but you have to go, oops because Thomas Jefferson owned more than, you know, 100 human beings and didn't see the contradiction of the hypocrisy and more importantly didn't see fit to free any of then in his lifetime.
And four score and five years later there were four million Americans owned by other Americans. So, what Lincoln is saying after the worst battle, the worst battle on American soil in the entire history of North America, he's saying we really do mean all men are created equal, that out of the suffering out of his death we can have a new birth of freedom?
He wrote our new cataclysm, he gave us marching orders that we're still operating under today. When the first anniversary of 9/11 happened, one of the few bits of English words spoken besides the terribly said, desperately said list of the dead was Abraham Lincoln's Address. It had nothing to do with 9/11 but had everything to do with the glue that we needed to try to cohere.
MORGAN: We've got about two minutes left, what better way to end this interview than to hear you reciting the Gettysburg Address.
BURNS: OK.
MORGAN: Off you go.
BURNS: Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any other nation so conceived and dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a battle field, et cetera, et cetera.
MORGAN: It is inspiring.
BURNS: It is, it is amazing and he uses the word here, seven times in which we here resolve, we dedicate here. He's sort of saying, "Look at it here, look where we are. We're not the world where little known -- nor long remember what we say here, but we can never forget what they did here." I mean it's amazing that in some ways the suffering and the death has been obliterated and the words have remained and that's where the great power.
This is a country in which words matter. We were formed on words, not formed by religion, not by conquest, not by economy, not by geography. We were formed because we agreed to subscribe to some words and Lincoln gave those words new impetus and new meaning. And that's why I think these kids struggling to learn it, all of these people helping us is an inspirational thing...
MORGAN: Let's take a short break, come back just with your final thoughts because next week is a huge week for Presidential moments. You've got the anniversary of JFK's death obviously and this anniversary, Gettysburg Address. I want to get your sense of who should be highest in the pantheon of great American Presidents.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MORGAN: Back with filmmaker extraordinaire Ken Burns. The movie, The Address Documentary comes up next April on PBS.
BURNS: Yes.
MORGAN: You've obviously had the chance to look at all these Presidents over the years. Who's the greatest? Who's the one? If you could put one back in power now you'd put them back in power?
BURNS: Well, you know, when you have discussions about Baseball or Rock Music you will have to say besides Bay Ruth and the Beatles, here you have to say besides Washington. So, I've been a Lincoln man all of my life and I put Lincoln at the top and I think that I would after having completed the film, series it will be out in September on the history of the Roosevelt's, put Franklin Roosevelt equal to Abraham Lincoln.
MORGAN: What about JFK?
BURNS: I think JFK is an unfinished story. I think it was abbreviated, obviously I remember like it was yesterday when he was killed, what I was like, I was 10 years old. It was tragic but I think we don't know, I'm now working on a big history on Vietnam and we don't know what he would have done. Whether he would have gotten us out or in deeper.
MORGAN: I've talked to you a lot about this Ken, I've got to leave it there but thank you very much indeed and best of luck for the project.
BURNS: My pleasure.
MORGAN: Good to see you. That's all for us tonight. Anderson Cooper now, reports live from the Philippines.
