>> i'm so proud of him. >> that's a rare interview with george w. bush. >> i want to stay connected to the veteran community. this is a rare interview for me. >> remarkable mission of wounded warriors and keeping america great. this is "piers morgan tonight." good evening. two big interviews. the first with ted turner, but also a very outspoken man. plus a rare interview with george w. bush. keeping america great as a former president. he talks about the causes closest to his heart. >> after 9/11, millions volunteered. they said i want to serve my country. and i don't view it as anything personal. i view it as we were all serving together. we were part of a great cause. because of securing our country and the cause of liberty. >> that interview coming later. but first, someone who i think literally needs no introduction. he's the man who created cnn. the reason i'm here and others are here working here, ted turner. welcome back. >> it's good to be here. >> how does it feel to be back? >> good. >> does it? >> yeah. >> are you still proud of cnn? >> absolutely. >> did you still watch cnn? >> you bet. >> do you like what you see? >> i like most of what i see. >> you always said the news should be the star. >> well, that was the philosophy that we started with. but it really was the only place open for us because all the other news networks cbs, nbc, and abc, they emphasize their stars and we didn't have any stars. we were lucky to have employees. >> if you had the competition that's around now in cable when you first started, in other words if there had been a fox news with right-wing anchors and nbc had rachel maddow and the others, would you do anything differently? >> i would have to give it a lot of thought. i value my time greatly. i'm working on nuclear weapons trying to get rid of them and working on the climate and clean energy and stabilize the population before the world is so overcrowded we can't turn around. i'm working on things of where i can make a difference now. i don't have any input on a regular basis here. >> do you think cnn should become -- you're the guy that started this whole business. it's an amazing innovation at the time. others began to do similar versions. do you think cnn should remain the impartial observer of news? >> yes. and cover the substantial news. that doesn't mean you don't cover hollywood and don't cover kidnappings and the sensational two. but the emphasis should be on hard news. i wanted cnn to be "the new york times" of the news business. not the daily news. i wanted it to be "the new york times." i thought for the long-term, that would be the best position to be in. even if the ratings weren't the greatest, if you had the most prestige and you were the network that everybody turned to in times of a crisis, that that was the most important position in this business. >> that is still true. there's no question. i've been here 17 months now. when there's a big story, when i first got here, there was an avalanche of huge stories. when that happens, it's gratifying that the cnn ratings sore. the issue is what happens when there's a lengthy period of not much news? >> the world is a big place. and i'm out of the country a good bit traveling internationally. and i watch cnn international all over the world. i probably see it as much or more than cnn domestic. and i think they are doing an excellent job. their programming for the world, and i can understand the difficulty programming for the u.s. audience here, it's a real challenge to do. >> let's talk about some news. what do you make of america right now today? what do you think of your country? >> i think it's terrible that politics have gotten so money oriented with the supreme court ruling that corporations can give unlimited amounts. that the moneyed interests are taking over the country. and there's too much disagreement and argument between the parties. i believe in pulling together to make the country better rather than tearing it apart. the country comes first. >> you're a guy who historically when you have had a rival, you haven't hesitated to give them a verbal whack or two. >> only if it was deserved. >> what do you think of president obama? how is he doing? >> i like him. i like him. he's had an extremely difficult job. i think he's done amazingly well. he's got his spirits up. he never gets discouraged which is really important in a leader. a leader that's leading us in time of great difficulty. >> if you were advising him, and he could do a lot worse than ask you right now, what would you tell him to be more forceful about? where is he not being strong enough? >> i would have liked him to see him -- his positions are good on the environment, but he put health care ahead of the energy bill. if he put the energy bill first when he was first elected, it would have gone through without the kind of animosity that the health care bill has. but that was a mistake. but it was good to get the health care bill through. i supported that as well as the energy bill. >> when you see american troops coming out of iraq and now coming out of afghanistan, a set timetable has been laid down by the president, i assume you're pleased with that. >> i was against the wars before they started. i have studied history a lot. and wars are not a good way to get things done. they have been a disaster for us. it cost us, you know, iraq a trillion dollars a year. not a trillion dollars, but a trillion over the period. afghanistan, a trillion. it's just crazy. >> when you look at the way afghanistan has gone, many say it's become a counter terrorist operation. is that really what america should have done rather than going in with men on the ground? actually say we're going to tackle the terrorists through intelligence, through special forces and so on? >> i think war should be avoided at all costs. we should do everything we can to get the united nations to deal with conflict before they both start resorting to violence. because violence just begets violence. it's easy to start wars and difficult to stop them once they have gotten started. i think we ought to renounce war and let the courts handle it. have arbitration at the united nations and let them handle it. and then be bound by what those decisions are just like we do with the courts here in the united states. if everybody started shooting everybody that they had a disagreement with, all we'd be doing is shooting each other. there's enough of that any way. that doesn't accomplish anything except gets people shot and escalate into war. >> what would you do about iran if you were the american president? >> well, first of all, i believe in total nuclear disarmament. we all have to play by the same set of rules. we have 2,000 nuclear weapons. iran has none at the current time. it's okay for israel to have 100, but it's not okay for iran to have two? they are not treating everybody equally. you have no strong position except force. only by force can it be done. we have already voted at the u.n. and the security council to get rid of nuclear weapons. let's get rid of them. let's get rid of ours and iran will stop, i believe, and everybody else will because if everybody doesn't have them, then we're safe. at least safe from a nuclear attack. if we have full-scale nuclear exchange, it's going to destroy life on earth. all life. maybe there will be a few cockroaches left, and i find that crazy. this is such a nice world and most of the people are really nice here. but you know, if you treat people with dignity, respect, and friendliness like i did with the russians and soviets before them with the good will games, if you try and make friends, you can make friends and you can do that even with former enemies. japan bombed us at pearl harbor and now we're good friends with the japanese. we fought china in the cold war, now we're good friends with the chinese. >> let's take a break. we want to come back and talk about your favorite cnn moments. >> in addition to everything we said about the super station, we're also looking into the creation of an alternative for cable subscribers. this news service will be called the cable news network and with program continually updated of national news, business news, sports and features, 24 hours a day. i know that we will succeed and i pledge to you that we will not let the american public down. for three hours a week, i'm a coach. but when i was diagnosed with prostate cancer... i needed a coach. our doctor was great, but with so many tough decisions i felt lost. unitedhealthcare offered us a specially trained rn who helped us weigh and understand all our options. for me cancer was as scary as a fastball is to some of these kids. but my coach had hit that pitch before. turning data into useful answers. we're 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. yoyou u wawalklk i intna coconvnvenentitiononalal ms ststorore,e, i it't's s rert ababouout t yoyou.u. ththeyey s sayay, , "w"weleu wawantnteded a a f firirm m bebn lilie e onon o onene o of " wewe p prorovividede t thet inindidivividudualalizizatat yoyourur b bodody y neneede. ohoh, , wowow!w! ththatat f feeeelsls r reae. itit's's a aboboutut s supuppope yoyou u fifindnd i it t momost. toto c celelebebraratete 2 25 5f bebetttterer s sleleepep-f-forof yoyou u - - slsleeeep p nr inintrtrododucuceses t ther ededititioion n bebed d st inincrcrededibiblele s savf $1$1,0,00000 f foror a a l li. ononlyly a at t ththe e slsleeer ststorore,e, w wheherere n [ gnome ] bonjour americans! enjoying your holiday? 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[ female announcer ] get the travelocity guarantee anywhere when you book with our new app. you'll never roam alone. standby. let us zoom in a little bit. take 3. ready camera 3. >> good evening. i'm david walker. >> now here's the news. >> that's from cnn's first newscast on june 1, 1980. back with me now, the man who created cnn, ted turner. what's it feel like to see that clip again? >> it feels good. it was a great idea and it was well executed. >> what was the great ambition for you? what did you really want to achieve with cnn? >> i wanted to better inform the world. >> did you feel you succeeded? >> yes. you know how many news networks there are now? 24-hour news networks in the world? >> how many? >> over 100. >> is that right? >> every country's got one. people nowadays want instant information. they don't want to have to wait eight hours overnight. they are used to getting information right now that they need. >> there were three memorable moments that you highlighted, which i want to talk about. one was in 1987. baby jessica being rescued from the well. that resinated with you personally. tell me why you love that story so much. >> that one really resinated and captured the imagination of america. everybody was pulling for jessica. i think she was down there for over a day. >> is it also one of those examples where good news can often be a big a story as bad news? there's always the perception that the news is always about disaster or something. the reason i like this is i was a young reporter in london. i remember watching in 1991, peter arkansas net and those guys from cnn. literally, on the front line. missiles firing over their heads, reporting live. it was the most incredible, dramatic thing. >> and explosions and the bombs bursting in air. >> amazing. >> it was. >> let's play a clip from that coverage. >> we are just in the process of getting tape fed to us from a location in jordan. this is the videotape shot by the cnn crew during the opening hours of the assault on the city of baghdad. air force general retired harry smith is with us in atlanta. please comment on what you can see. this is the first time we have seen this tape. this is our camera crew shooting out of the window from the ninth floor of the hotel in baghdad. >> was that the event that made you realize how big cnn could become? >> yes. that was the biggest story that we ever had. >> you defied the president. you kept your people. >> we had freedom of the press. we had volunteers, peter arnett, who volunteered to stay. we didn't make anybody stay. i said, we're going to stay. >> you also said i don't care what it costs. >> i said spend whatever it takes. i didn't say i don't care what it costs. i did care, but i didn't want to be pinching pennies on this story. >> what was the difference having cnn's cameras on the front lines of a war like that? what do you think the difference that decision, that capability made to the way the war was covered? >> you know, all we did was televise what we saw. >> did it bring a greater truth to war coverage, the fact that you were there? >> i think so. >> your third story that you singled out, 9/11. the cnn coverage of that. what did that do to america? that moment? >> it shook us up. it was unbelievable. and watching it, i was in my office, and i glanced up and just after the first plane had gone in, and the building was on fire. and i sat there stunned. and while i was just sitting there just watching it, the second one came. i saw it live. and i ran down to the newsroom. walter isaacson was running it at the time. a good friend of mine. and headline news had stayed with its regular format giving the ball scores and stock market. and a couple times, we had preempted that format when there was a big enough news story to want both cnn and headline news televising the same thing because the story was so compelling. i said walter have you thought about switching over headline news? the last thing i did at cnn. he said, no, that's a great idea. within seconds, they switched over to the live coverage of the world trade center. and a few minutes later, the buildings collapsed. it was like pearl harbor only being televised. >> what do you think it did to the american people in the aftermath? do you think the american people rallied in the right way after what happened? >> the american people did all they could. there's not really much you can do when something like that happens except try and make sure it doesn't happen again as best you can. and i think the best way to avoid violence is to treat everybody with respect, dignity, and friendliness. your friends don't bomb you. it's only your enemies. why have we made so many enemies? particularly when we have the large amounts of money we donate to charity. why don't we have more friends and less enemies? we do have more friends than enemies, but we have too many enemies. i'd work on trying to be more popular. >> talking about being popular, let's take a break and then come back and talk about some of the great loves of your life. the great passions of ted turner after the break. we had a great time for ten years. i'm just am so happy i got to spend ten years with him. >> that was jane fonda talking about ted turner. was she the great love of your life? >> probably. >> have you ever quite got over her? >> no. >> do you think you ever will? >> no. when you love somebody and you really love them, you never stop loving them. no matter how hard you try, you can't stop. there's nothing wrong with that. that's good. that's why people love their countries. they love their planet. you know, i basically -- i'm basically a happy person. >> you're a man used to winning. and you lost jane. >> i lost jane. i lost my job here. i lost my fortune. most of it. have a billion or two left. you can get by on that if you try. but i was worth $7 or $8 billion at one point. but you carry on. i'm working trying to help the united nations causes, both with my philanthropy and my personal efforts. tomorrow we have a meeting to try to save the oceans. i'm on the committee to abolish poverty. i've got plenty of tough jobs. >> which of the three things that you lost, your fortune, most of it, jane fonda, or the job here? >> you want me to rank them? >> yes. which upset you the most? >> they all broke my heart. but i just, you know, i just rallied. winners never quit and quitters never win. i just made a comeback. >> are you a better man for having experienced loss? >> i'm a more experienced man because the aol merger and the subsequent, basically, destruction of my wealth, they hurt at the time, but i just toughed it out and you have to keep going. you can't give up in life. >> i saw you once say that one stage after that aol merger. you saw your fortune diminishing by $20 million a minute. >> $10 billion a day for three years. >> what does that feel like? >> it felt bad. but i stayed at the company and staid on the board of directors to try and mitigate the losses as much as i possible could to do what i could to help. as a result, i lost even more because when the stockholders sued the company, i wasn't part of that suit because i was on the board. that cost me several hundred million dollars. but i have my honor. i had my honor at the end of it, which is not everybody in the media business can say. >> when you had a guy look you in the eye and effectively fire you from the company that you created -- >> that's right. >> how does that feel? >> it hurt because i was loyal to the management of the company. you read my book, i'm sure. i didn't do anything wrong. if it had been put to the employees, they would have voted to keep me. but they didn't do that because i had done a pretty good job. i had been "time" man of the year. i was the only one that got that honor. that's about as big an honor you can get. i thought i was doing a good job. we were making a fabulous amount of money. >> you replaced jane with a new system, where you have four girlfriends at any one time. >> hopefully they won't all leave me at once. >> how do you get away with that? >> with great difficulty. >> you must have a complicated schedule? and the women must be very tolerant. >> first of all, they are good friends with me. most of the time. >> are they good friends with each other? >> some of them are and some aren't. it's complicated. it's much easier to have one wife, but when you have one wife and she leaves you, and i've been divorced three times, my life was so hectic it was really hard for them to keep up. i travel all the time. >> you said very movingly that after you and jane split up, you cried for six months. >> i didn't cry for six months, but i was brokenhearted for at least that long. >> did you try and win her back? >> a little bit. but it looked like we were so far apart philosophically that we couldn't do it. >> how many times have you been properly in love in your life? >> twice. >> jane and? >> and another person. but that's really in love. i love a number of people. >> there's a difference between being in love and loving? >> sort of. it's hard to tell where one starts and the other stops, you know. >> let's take another break. i want to come back and talk to you about keeping america great. what should america be doing now to revive itself? i want to know specifically about america. the united nations foundation created nothing but nets campaign in 2006, more than 20 partners have joined and literally millions of people raised $20 billion. in this tribute, some two million bed nets to children and their families in africa. >> ted turner talking about the united nations foundation's campaign to fight malaria worldwide. ted turner is back to me now. let me come back to that in a moment. what do you think america's business model is at the moment? there's a battle going on now, i think, for the way forward for capitalism in america. outlining what they call a new sense of moral capitalism, where successful american companies who have global sales to bring jobs back to america, to open factories here and not in china and so on. i think he was alluding to companies like apple who have ten times as many employees in china than in america. what do you think of that concept? >> i'm working so hard on the environment and nuclear weapons and the survival issues that the financial issues and a lot of other areas, you can't be an expert on everything. and i'm not an expert on finance. i believe that we should be doing business with everybody. >> does it help america and its national interests if very successful american companies that create their ideas here than shift up much of the production jobs to other countries to save money? >> that's unfortunate for us, but it's good for the people who get those -- there was a reason why those jobs were shifted. but maybe it was less expensive or maybe they were better workers. i don't really -- i don't really know. >> you were the first billionaire to stand up and say right, i'm going to give a billion dollars to the u.n. you did that. you gave away a billion dollars of your own money. >> almost $2 billion. >> when you see bill gates and those guys now planning to leave vast sums of their fortunes to charities, they are taking their lead from what you did. but what do you think about that? >> i'm part of the giving pledge. i'm going out to california with warren and bill. they are good friends. and i'm proud to be associated with them. >> is there too much greed in the world still? particularly in america, do you think? is that part of the problem? >> in some places there's too much greed, but there's a lot of generosity too. i think there's more generosity than there is greed. >> has money made you happier than you would have been without money? >> having sum. you have to have enough to eat. you need enough to make, you know, to live at least minimally. you have to have that. but it's nice to live well. it is nice to live well. i don't think there's anything wrong with being rich. i have been poor and rich. and i didn't give that billion dollars away until i made it. so you know, they both work. >> i wanted to know what you were like. i went to one of your bison restaurants. i was fascinated about the way you live your life. you ordered five fries. >> they are small. i didn't want a whole lot of fries because i'm fighting, like so many of us, older men particularly, but older women as well, have trouble with their weight. i'm trying to keep the weight off of me. but i do want to taste a french fry because we make them fresh at ted's i want to make sure that the quality is good. >> so five is the optimum number. >> i could have three. actually now, i'm not eating any. >> you've given up? >> my doctors that i was allergic to potatoes. >> really? >> yeah. >> that's terrible. >> they are testing me for allergies at the current time. i'm not eating potatoes. no dairy products. no cheese or milk. >> any alcohol? >> no alcohol. >> tobacco? >> nope. >> what are you allowed to do? >> i can't even drink a coca-cola. no soft drinks. >> really? >> yep. no caffeine. no coffee. >> what are you existing on? >> water. i'm not supposed to eat any bread either. >> my god. >> i can have bacon and sausage. >> i want to talk to you about the presidential race. i want to know who you think is going to win and what you think of mitt romney, the likely republican nominee. ♪ jen's car wasn't handling well. so i brought it to mike at meineke. we gave her car a free road handling check. i like free. free is good. my money. my choice. my meineke. ♪ >> when cable wasn't cool. here is mr. cable, ted turner. let's talk politics briefly. the election is coming up in november. mitt romney is the like lie nominee. who is going to win. >> i don't know. when i started cnn, i made the decision to stay out of endorsing candidates and to let viewers make up their own minds about politics. it wasn't going to come from me. the other networks were telling everybody what to do, but i wanted to be different and let people make up their own minds. i would talk about candidates. and i could say about mitt romney, i think he's a real gentleman. i think he's been very successful. i think he's really smart. i don't agree with everything that he believes, but i agree with a lot of it. and i think he would probably make a good president, but i'm not endorsing him. >> are you more republican or democrat these days? >> i would like to say that right now, in the last few years, the democrats have been closer -- have been more pro-environment. the coal industry is pretty well entrenched in the republican party. that's one of the things that we need to phase out. >> i've got an interview with president bush coming up after this specifically about military veterans. he was president for eight years. what was your overview of his tenure? >> i -- a lot of the things that he did, i didn't agree with. i didn't agree with the wars, for instance. and i didn't agree with -- he wasn't strong enough on the environment to make me happy. very little happened during his term. i think we would have been much better served if al gore had won. it was so close. any way, i think if al had been president, i think we would have stayed out of those wars and we certainly would have gone a lot further towards switching over to clean renewable energy, which we really need to do. >> of all the things you experienced in your life, you won the america's cup, you own a baseball team and had great glory, you dated some of the most beautiful women in the world, you made billions of dollars, of all the things that you have experienced, what's been the greatest moment of your life? >> the greatest single thing is to see my children all turn out well. all five of them. >> and have they? >> they have. >> is that your proudest achievement? >> my proudest personal achievement. my proudest business achievement is cnn. >> how am i doing by the way? >> you are doing great. i think you do a really good job. i'm a catholic. it's like getting blessed by the pope. you realize that? it's been fascinating for me to go through this. you said that at your funeral, you said you'd like willie nelson to sing. >> i'd like on my tombstone "i have nothing more to say." >> it's been a pleasure. please come back. ted turner. coming up, former president bush in retirement in a rare interview speaks out about america's veterans, a topic close to his heart and a classic example of keeping america great. president obama faced president obama faced controversy over his trip to afghanistan, one former president is quietly paying tribute to the wounded warriors. a classic story of "keeping america great" a and a rare interview with the man who stayed out of the spotlight since leaving office. george w. bush. >> i held our military in awe when i was president and the stories they tell just increase the awe. >> at first glance, sergeant major chris self is exactly what you'd expect in a race in the warrior 100. over 60 miles of mountain biking in the blazing texas sun. marathon runner, chris has served the 27-year military career in the army special forces including remarkably seven tours in iraq. >> joined the army straight out of high school. kind of what i wanted to do when i was 5 years old, give or take. as kids we play soldier and all that stuff. i never grew out of it. >> but his battle at home is now his greatest. chris is one of the 20 u.s. military personnel here in texas for the ride organized by the george w. bush presidential center. led by president bush. >> it's a 100 kilometer bike ride to honor the veterans wounded in combat and to thank the families and to thank the groups who helped them recover from serious injury. >> each of the warriors suffered devastating consequences of war. but chris, it's his leg. the ride is a chance to prove to the former commander in chief and to themselves what they can do. >> these are stories of courage, sacrifice, commitment. these are volunteers who wanted to serve the country and they did and they suffered serious injury. >> december 2005 while serving in iraq, chris is caught in the cross fire. >> kind of walked right into about 16-man prison break that apparently had killed their guards, their iraqi guards, taken their ak-47s. apparently grabbed a few other ak-47s and they were trying to escape. they were coming right around the corner. about 16 of them turned the corner and they were right there. i shot, they shot. and in the process of maneuvering around behind a tree, i had actually gotten shot once in each leg. >> one bullet severs the nerve and leaves him paralyzed. his wife will never forget the phone call home. >> he was starting to get a little bit, you know, try -- he was having a hard time catching the breath. the pain was starting to kick in. so it was hard. >> back in the u.s., at walter reed army medical center, prognosis is not good. >> the leg still wouldn't work. really from the knee down, i don't have hardly any sensation. from about mid calf down i had no sensation, no movement, no use. so when i would walk, the foot would kind of flop there. >> seven months later, chris and dana made the devastating decision to have his paralyzed right leg amputated. >> i was determined i'm going to get back and i'm going to do everything i did before i lost my leg. >> chris would to relearn how to walk. >> two days before i got shot i was training for a triathlon. and then i'm in a hospital bed where i can't move for two months. >> then chris returns to iraq for two more tours. >> when i found out that he was being returned to iraq with a prosthetic after he had already been injured it was very, very scary, but we had a very -- our whole family is military so we come from that. so we had a very, very overwhelming sense of pride that he was going to step up and do this. >> countless hours of rehabilitation, there was a chance meeting with his former commander in chief. >> i met chris self at the brook army hospital. i had just finished my presidency and i was down there in san antonio for a different reason and decided to go by the facility there and there was chris self getting a prosthesis fixed for his leg. he said i understand you mountain bike. >> so we got to chitchat about bikes. he let me know that he was a mountain biker. and as the conversation ended, he started to walk off. he said you should join me in a bike ride some time. i said, you are the boss, you say when and where i'll be there. friday, 9:00 a.m., be at my ranch. >> sure enough, he did. a friendship and a lasting friendship started right there. >> since leaving office, president bush has stayed out of the public eye choosing instead to devote his time to veterans and friends like chris self. >> seeing chris around president bush never gets old. never gets old. he's a -- he loves him. he loves what he's done for the troops and that he's done for the wounded. he's a wonderful, wonderful, genuine man and it's meant the world to chris to be invited to the things and to be a big part of the w-100. >> it means the world to the president as well. >> well, it's important to me because i want to stay connected to the veteran community. i'm not going to be a very public person. i mean, this is a rare interview for me. and yet -- and therefore, i'm worried that the vets will think i don't care about them. and this is a way to say, not only do i respect them but i love them. and will continue to do so for the rest of my life. >> and for chris self and the others the ride is about what they can still achieve. >> it's inspiring because some of these guys have some injuries that make me look like i stubbed my toe. so you see that -- you see a guy riding a bicycle with one leg on the same trail as the rest of us are able-bodied guys are riding. >> an inspiration of 20 wounded warriors. the former commander in chief and a nation grateful for their service. >> the interesting thing you learn from a guy like chris self is when dealt a tough hand, he didn't fold. as a matter of fact, he didn't