okay out of all the people you've met in
your lifetime who's had the most
positive impact on you and why Fidel
Castro
okay Fidel Castro is the greatest man I
ever met by several miles and I've met
many great
people but Fidel Castro thankfully is
still with us uh I'll give you a copy of
my my biography of
[Music]
him is the most inspiring the most
charismatic the
most
wise and the most
tireless of all the people I've ever met
he's my real
hero he told
me um let me tell you the story when I
went to the
Senate not only did I have a Triumph in
the debating chamber I had another
Triumph you know that Cuban tobacco is
illegal in the United States because of
the 50-year embargo against Cuba that
the United States has maintained to try
and destroy the Cuban Revolution yeah
and it's a no smoking zone so I lit up a
Cuban cigar inside the American Senate
building live on CNN
television and when I got back here the
Cuban Ambassador called me and said that
he had a letter to deliver from the
commandante from Fidel I said please
bring it and the letter said I ordered
you 20 years ago to stop smoking because
we needed you to keep your health and
you defied me as I saw alive on CNN from
the US
Senate at least it was a Cuban cigar
that's the only defense I had this is
the kind of man he is instead of being
happy that I smoked a Havana cigar in
the in the Senate he was angry that I
had not uh followed his order to stop
smoking in order to uh secure my health
m you had um your best interest at heart
which is yeah how important is it to
make