Transcripts For CNNW Piers Morgan Tonight 20120507

former president george w. bush. >> i want to stay connected to the veteran community. i'm not going to be a very public person. this is a rare interview for me. >> his remarkable mission for wounded warriors and keeping america great. this is "piers morgan tonight." good evening. two interviews tonight. the first with ted turner, a tv pioneer. also a very outspoken man. he'll let us know what he thinks of television, america and his life today. plus a rare interview for president george w. bush. if anyone knows about keeping america great, the former president tonight talks about the cause close to his heart. counseling veterans. >> after 9/11 millions volunteered. and they said, i want to serve my country. and i'm -- i don't view it as anything personal. i view it as that we were all serving together. we were all part of a great cause. the cause of securing our country. and the cause of liberty. >> an exclusive interview with president george w. bush coming later. but first, someone who i think literally needs no introduction. he's the man who created cnn. the reason that i'm here and others are here working here. ted turner. welcome back, ted. >> good to be here. >> how does it feel to be back? >> good. >> does it? >> yeah. >> are you still proud of cnn? >> absolutely. >> do you still watch cnn? >> i watch it, you bet. >> do you like what you see? >> i like most of what i see. >> you always said about cnn the news should be the star. >> well, that's -- 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 emphasized 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 star anchors, msnbc had rachel maddow and the others, would you do anything differently? >> i'd have to really give it a lot of thought and a lot of study which i have not done, because nobody has asked me to do it. and i -- i -- i value my time greatly. and i'm working on nuclear weapons, trying to get rid of them, and i'm working on -- on the climate and clean -- clean energy, getting us to change over to clean energy. and stabilize the population before the world's just so overcrowded we can't turn around. i'm working on things where i can -- where i can make a difference now. i really 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. an amazing innovation at the time. then others began to do similar versions. >> sure. >> but do you think that cnn should remain the impartial observer of news? >> yes. yes. and -- and -- and cover the -- the substantial news. and that doesn't mean you don't cover hollywood and don't cover kidnappings and the sensational, too. but the emphasis should be on hard news. i -- i wanted cnn to be "the new york times" of the news business. not -- not the daily news. i wanted it to be "the new york times." and i thought that 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 the news business to hold. >> it's still true, there's no question, i've been here 16, 17 months now. when there's a big story -- when i first got here there were an avalanche of huge stories. when that happens, it is very gratifying that the cnn ratings soar. the issue, i think, everyone wrestles with is what happens as you've had recently when there's a lengthy period of not much news. >> there's always -- the world's a big place. and i'm out of the country a good bit traveling internationally. and i've watched cnn international all over the -- all over the world. i probably see it as much as or more than cnn domestic. and i think they're doing an excellent job with their programming for the world. and i can understand the -- 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 this supreme court ruling that corporations can give unlimited amounts. that the moneyed interests are taking over the country. and -- 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 for partisan reasons. i think the country comes first. >> i mean, you're a guy who historically, when you've had a rival, you haven't hesitated to give them a verbal whack or two. >> well, 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. and i think he's done -- done amazingly -- amazingly well. and he's got his spirits up. he never gets discouraged, which is really important in a leader. particularly a leader that's leading us in times of great difficulty. >> if you were advising him, and he can do a lot worse than ask you right now, what would you tell him to be more forceful about? where do you think he's not being strong enough? >> well, i -- i -- i would have liked to see him be -- his positions are good on the environment. but he -- he -- he put health care ahead of the energy bill. if he'd have 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 did. so that was a mistake. but it was good to get the health care bill through. i mean, i supported -- i supported that as well as the energy bill. >> when you see american troops coming out of iraq and coming out of afghanistan, a set timetable has been laid down by the president, i assume you're pleased with that. >> i am. i was against the wars before they started. i've studied history a lot. and wars are not a good way to get things done. and they've been a disaster for us. they've cost us, you know, iraq a trillion dollars a year. afghanistan another trillion dollars a year. a trillion dollars over the period. afghanistan a trillion. it's just crazy. >> when you look at the way afghanistan's gone, many say it's become a sort of counterterrorist operation. is that really what america should have done rather than going in with men on the ground, large troops actually saying we're going to tackle the terrorists through intelligence, special forces and so on? >> i think war should be avoided at all costs and we should do everything we can to get the united nations to deal with conflicts before they get -- before people start resorting to violence. because violence just begets violence. and it's easy to start wars and very difficult to stop them once they've gotten started. i -- i think we ought to renounce war and -- and have -- let the courts handle it. have arbitration at the united nations. let them handle it. and then be -- be bound by what those decisions are just like we do with the courts here in the united states. i mean, 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 anyway. but that doesn't accomplish anything except gets people shot and escalate into -- into war. >> what would you do about iran if you were the american president? >> well, first of all, i believe in total nuclear disarmament. that's the only way we're ever going -- we all got to play by the same set of rules. we have 2,000 or several,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. that's -- that's -- they're not treating everybody equally. and you -- you have no strong position except force. only by force can anything be done. i think we've 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 then iran will stop, i believe, and so everybody else will because if everybody doesn't have them, then -- 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'll be a few cockroaches left, but that's all. i find that crazy. this is such a nice world. and most of the people are really nice here. you know, if you treat people with dignity, respect and friendliness like i did with the russians and the soviets before them, at the goodwill games, if you try and make friends, you can make friends. and you can do that even with former enemies. look, japan bombed us at pearl harbor and now we're good friends with the japanese. we fought china in the cold war. but now we're -- now we're good friends with the chinese, most of us are. >> ted, let's take a break. i want to come back and talk to you about your favorite cnn moment. everything we said about the superstation, we are also looking into the creation of a new alternative for cable subscribers. this news service will be calmed a cable news network and will program continually updated half our segments 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. "ññ meineke's personal pricing on brakes. i tell you what i can spend. i do my best to make it work. i'm back on the road safely. and i saved you money on brakes. that's personal pricing. standby. ready, three. take three. my cue at three. take three. ready, camera three. >> good evening. i'm david walker. >> i'm lois harp. now here's the news. >> that's from cnn's very first newscast on june 1, 1980. back with me now, the man who created cnn, ted turner. what do you feel, ted, when you 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. >> do 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? >> that's right. every country's got one. you're not a country if you don't have one. people nowadays want instant information. they don't want to have to wait eight hours for it or overnight. they're used to getting information right now that they need. >> there were three memorable moments that you highlighted, which i want to remind you about and talk about. one was in 1987. baby jessica being rescued from the well. which resonated with you very personally. tell me why you love that story so much. why does that resonate? >> i could have picked any one of 1,000 other stories. that one really resonated and captured the imagination of america. everybody was pulling for jessica. it took -- i think she was down there for over a day. >> is it also one of those examples where good news can often be just as big a story and rate just as well as bad news? there's always the perception that for news to rate it's always about disaster or something. >> right. >> come to the gulf war. the reason i like this, i was a young reporter in london. i remember watching in 1991, peter arnett 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. the rocket's red glare. 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 allied assault on the city of baghdad. air force general retired harry smith is with us in atlanta. general smith, please comment on what you can see. this is the first time we've seen this tape. this is our camera crew shooting out the window from the ninth floor of the el rashid hotel in baghdad. >> was that the story, event, that made you realize just how big cnn could become? >> yes. that was the biggest story that -- in my opinion the biggest story that we ever had. >> you defied the president. you kept your people there. >> we kept freedom of the press. i reminded everybody we had freedom of the press. and we had volunteers, peter arnett, who had volunteered to stay. and we didn't make anybody stay. and i just said, we're going to stay. >> you also said at the time, look, 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 do you think 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? >> well, 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. and i saw it live. and i ran down to the newsroom. walter isaacson was running it at the time. he had come over from "time" magazine. a good man and a good friend of mine. and headline news had stayed with its regular format, which gives the ball scores and the stock market. its half hour rolling format. 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 news because the story was so compelling. i mentioned that to walter. 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. you know, 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 to what happened? >> well, 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 that 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. because if -- your friends don't bomb you, it's only enemies. why have we made so many enemies? particularly when we have the large amounts of money that 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. and i'd work on trying to be more popular. >> talking about being popular, let's take a break and come back. i want to talk o to you about some of the great loves of your life. women, sailboats, sports teams. anything else you can think of. the great passions of ted turner, after the break. >> yeah. stupid sun. 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[ female announcer ] get the travelocity guarantee anywhere when you book with our new app. you'll never roam alone. we had a great time for ten years. i just am so happy that i got to spend ten years with him. >> that was jane fonda speaking about ted turner on the show a few months ago. jane fonda, 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. i have a billion or two left. you can get by on that if you economize. but i was worth $7 or $8 billion at one point. but you carry on. and i found other things to do. i'm working trying to help the united nations causes, both with my philanthropy and with my personal efforts. i'm going to spend all day tomorrow in a meeting to try and save the oceans. i'm on the committee to save the oceans. i'm on the committee to abolish poverty. the millennium development goals at the u.n. 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. >> i love them all so much. >> 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 those -- you know, the aol merger and the subsequent, basically, destruction of -- 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 dmining by $20 million a minute. >> no, no. $10 million a day for three years. >> what does that feel like? >> it felt bad. but i stayed at the company and stayed on the board of directors to try and mitigate the losses as much as i possibly could, to do what i could to help. and, 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 really hurt. because we were making our budget. and i was loyal to the management of the company. you've read my book, i'm sure. i didn't do anything -- didn't do anything wrong. i think if it had been put to the employees, they would have voted to keep me. but they didn't -- they didn't do that because -- i'd done a pretty good job. i had been "time"s man of the year or "time's" person of the year. i was the only person that worked at "time" ever that got that -- got that honor. that's about as big an honor as you can -- as you can get. i think i was doing a good job. we were making a fabulous amount of money. >> you replaced, jane, for all intents and purposes, with a new system. which is you have four girlfriends at any one time. >> hopefully they won't all leave me at once. >> most men watching this will be going, come on, ted. 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 to -- hard for them to keep up. it's much hard -- 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 i -- 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 think what we need is for humanity -- >> that is another point. i want to know specifically about america. since the united nations foundation created a nothing but net campaign in 2006, more than 20 partners have joined and literally millions of people to raise $20 million and distribute some 2 million bed nets to children and their families in africa. >> ted turner talking about the united nations foundations campaign to fight malaria worldwide. ted turner is back with 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 its incumbent on successful american companies who have global sales to bring jobs back to america, to open factories here, not in china and so on. i think he was alluding as much to companies like apple who have ten times employees now in china than in america. what do you think of the concept of moral capitalism? >> 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 then shift up much of the production jobs to other countries? >> well, 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. now you see -- >> i gave way over $1 billion. almost $2 billion. >> one check you gave them. >> in one check. one commitment. >> when you see bill gates and war buchb fete and those guys now planning to leave vast sums of their fortunes to charities, they're taking their lead from what you did, many would say. what do you think of that? >> i'm part of the giving pledge. i'm going out to california to a meeting with warren and bill. they're 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 some. you've got 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've 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. we had lunch a few months ago in new york. i went to one of your bison restaurants. i was fascinated about one thing. about the detail way you must lead your life. because you ordered a specific number of fries with your bison burger. five fries. >> small. i didn't want a 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 french fries, we make them fresh at ted's. i want to make sure 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? >> on my doctors -- that i was allergic to potatoes. >> really? >> yeah. >> that's terrible. >> yeah. they're testing me for allergies at the current time. i'm not eating potatoes. no dairy products. no cheese. no milk. >> any alcohol? >> nope. no alcohol. >> tobacco? >> nope. >> hard drugs? >> nope. >> what are you allowed to do? >> i can't even drink a coca-cola. you know, no soft drinks. >> really? >> yep. no caffeine. no coffee. >> what are you existing on? >> water. water and -- i'm not supposed to eat any bread either. >> my god. >> i can have bacon and sausage. let's come back. i want to talk to you about the presidential race. i want to know who you think's going to win and what you think of mitt romney, the likely republican nominee. >> first of all -- >> after the break. >> okay. 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. ♪ he went cable, when cable wasn't cool, when we went cable, they called that boy a fool ♪ >> when cable wasn't cool. here is mr. cable cool, ted turner. lett talk politics briefly, ted. the election is coming up in november. mitt romney is the likely republican nominee, for all intents and purposes. who's going to win, do you think? >> i don't know. when i started cnn, i made the decision to stay out of endorsing candidates and to let the viewers make up their own minds about politics. it wasn't going to come from me. the other networks were all telling everybody what to do. but i wanted to be different and let people make up their own mind. so i didn't -- 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. number one. >> 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. i mean, it was so close. anyway, but then i think we would have -- 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've experienced in your life, you won the america's cup, you bought 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've 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 would be cnn. >> how am i doing, by the way? i may as well get the verdict from -- >> how are you doing? i think you're doing great. i like watching you and i think you do a good job. >> almost like i'm a catholic. almost like getting blessed by the pope, you realize that. it's been fascinating for me to go through this. you said once that at your funeral, you said you'd like willie nelson to sing "for all the girls i loved before." >> i said a lot of things. what i'd like on my tombstone is "i have nothing more to say." >> ted, it's been a real pleasure. >> my pleasure. >> please come back again. >> let's do it. i'd be happy to. >> that would be great. ted turner. coming up, former president george w. bush in retirlt. in a rare interview he speaks out about american's veterans, something very close to his heart, and a touching example of keeping america great. people with a machine. what ? customers didn't like it. so why do banks do it ? 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[ female announcer ] get the travelocity guarantee anywhere when you book with our new app. you'll never roam alone. in a way when president obama faced controversy over his trip to afghanistan, one former president is quietly paying tribute to america's wounded warriors. a classic story of keeping america great and a rare interview with the man who stayed out of the spotlight since leaving office, former president george w. bush. >> i've held our military in awe when i was president, and the stories they tell just increase the awe. >> i first learned sergeant major chris is exactly who you would expect on the race on the warrior 100. over 60 miles of mountain biking under the blazing texas sun. marathon runner and triathlete chris has served the majority of his 27-year military career in the army's special forces, including remarkably seven tours in iraq. >> joined the army straight out of high school. kind of what i wanted to do since i was about five years old, give or take, so as kids we play soldier and all that stuff, by i just never grew out of it. i knew from the start, you know, started high school, get good grades. why, i'm going in the army. >> his battle at home is now his greatest. chris is one of the military personnel here in texas for the ride organized by the george w. bush center led by president bush himself. >> the w-100 is a 100-kilometer mountain bike ride to honor our vets who have been wounded in combat to thank their families and to thank the groups that have helped them recover from serious injury. >> each of these warriors suffers from a devastating consequence of war, but chris, it's his leg. the ride is a chance to prove to their 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 a crossfire. >> kind of walked into about a 16-man prison break that apparently had killed their guards, their iraqi guards, taken their ak-47s, apparently you've grabbed a few other ak-47s and was trying to escape. they were coming right around the corner, about 16 of them, turn a corner and they were right there. i shot. they shot, and the process of maneuvering around behind a tree, i had actually gotten shot once in each leg. >> one bullet severs leg leaving him paralyzed. chris' wife dana will never forget the call home. >> he was very, very scared, couldn't feel his right leg. he was having a hard time catching his breath. the pain was starting to kick in, so it was -- it was hard. >> back in the u.s. at walter reed army medical center, the prognosis is not good. >> leg wouldn't work, from the knee down i hardly had any sensation and from mid-calf down no sensation, no movement no, use, so when i with a wouk 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 have to relearn how to walk. >> just two days before i got shot, i was training for a triathlon for what we got back from iraq, and then two days later i'm laying in a hospital where i can't move for two months. >> undeterred, relying on a prosthetic chris returns to iraq for not run but 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 and a return to combat was a chance meeting with his former commander in chief that gives him what no doctor could. >> i met chris self at the brook army hospital. i had just finished my presidency and 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. >> we got to chit cat about bikes, and he let me know that he was a mountain biker, and -- and as the conversation ended, he started to walk off. he said you should join me in a bike ride sometime. i said, well, you are the boss. you say when and where, and i will be there. he said, okay. friday, 9:00 a.m. be at my ranch. >> and sure enough he did, and a friendship and a lasting friendship started right there. >> since leaving office president bush has stayed out of 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 huge -- he loves him and loves what he's done for the troops and loves what he's done for the wounded. he's a wonderful, wonderful genuine man, and it's meant the world to chris to be able to be invited to these 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. this is a rare interview for me, and yet i'm -- and, therefore, i'm worried that the vets will think that 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. >> for president bush the warrior 100 signifies a commitment to the veterans. 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. you see a guy riding a bicycle with one leg on the same trails that the rest of us are able-bodied guys are riding up. you can't help but be inspired. >> an inspiration for 20 wounded warriors, their former commander in chief and a nation grateful for their service. >> the interesting thing you learn from a guy like chris self, when dealt a tough hand, he didn't fold. as a matter of fact, he didn't use his injury as answer accuse, he used it as an opportunity to excel. this is a man who has been in combat seven times, twice on one leg, and to ride across the paladora canyon with chris self

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