and George Galloway I heard on the
street that somebody really important
wasn't done he's been at the top of his
game for basically all of my life he's a
king
[Music]
I can't
[Music]
Lari this is I think the eighth
interview that you've done today and
it's not even dark yet are you ever
going to retire you're 83 no George I
don't think I could I tried when I left
CNN it was about three months I thought
I could retire I was watching television
and they maybe announcement that Osama
bin Laden had been killed and I
literally was jumping out of my chair to
run to a studio to do a show and I had
no show to do and Carlos Slim had been
talking to me about starting something
and I realized I had to go back so we
started the Larry King now and then
politicking and I went back and now
we're in our sixth season I I missed it
I loved interviewing people
I loved the cameras out of microphones
I love communicating I think it keeps me
on that and having teenage boys I was
going to ask you about I've got five
children too there's no doubt to me that
children keep you young but they also
keep you to work and I must say you're a
role model for me in many ways one of
them is I'm going to work until I love
that I would work if there were no
children no dependents and I like I
don't understand people who don't work
let's go back to the beginning
you're a legend you and the Hall of Fame
from radio work and for television work
one of the few men who has made that
switch so effortlessly and for such a
long time I myself also working radio
and TV which do you prefer and what do
you think of the is the future for each
of them how to predict the future in
this business is impossible who would
have told you about the iPhone 20 years
I mean it's insane so I don't know
anyone could tell you about tomorrow I
love both I love radio for its info
mallilie for its closeness something
about maybe oh I love the physical I
don't text I like the sound of voices
and radio is you have to listening
television yun apples with televisions
kinetic television changed the world you
can't beat where you see something so I
realized the immediacy of television but
I like it too I like everything about
commute I like the whole ball of wax I
like is I never liked any I never wanted
to be anything but a broadcaster when I
was five years old George I'd listened
to the radio five and I would go into
the bathroom and imitate what the
announcers had just said a tale well
calculated to keep you in suspense radio
death who knows what evil lurks of the
hearts of men the shadow those and I
would go when I was a teenager I go
visit radio shows that had studio
audiences and I'd watch them stand by
the microphone drop the paper so it
doesn't make a noise as they would read
their scripts watch the sound effects
man creating the sound of fire I was
passive a whole world of illusion and
radio was the theater of the mind
because with radio you could create
everything now radios future is in
trouble if the advance of driverless
cars occurs because we are in a world of
driverless cars
that means you'll watch television in
your car it was all happening to really
never occurred to me most racially days
as opposed to Boober and it's driverless
car you just created there an atmosphere
of radio from your New York background I
had the privilege and everybody watching
this needs to read your remarkable
joining my remarkable journey I bought
to get on a plane on the east coast of
the US and read it
country and it was and I was traveling
alone it was laugh out loud on every
page well I would have been a comedian
if I didn't get into broadcast yeah I
think I'd have done stand-up oh you
would have been brilliant I do a lot of
speeches I'm speaking here in London for
a business group I like making people
laugh I like walking onto a bare stage
so I love comedians interviewed
thousands comedians to walk run or bare
stage nothing but a microphone and
audience make them life no script
make them laugh be funny think about
that to go out what the comic faces he
walks out or she walks out onto that
stage the light hits them be funny can't
fake laughter so you could be in a drama
you don't know how you do one you do a
Shakespeare you don't know how you're
doing you've assumed they're attentive
but if it's a comedy you know we're
doing but that's pected you are though
to me quintessentially a New Yorker in
that book my remarkable journey you tell
stories so funny that they you cannot
not laugh a load of your background in
Brooklyn and so on you've come a very
long way but you must still remember
that certainly I never feel a choice of
George I love Brooklyn when I was twenty
two and a half years old to go to Miami
break into broadcasting and I'm 83 now
I've been away from Brooklyn 61 years
but I'm still from
I live Brooklyn but Brooklyn never left
me so I lived in Washington Miami Los
Angeles I was go from Brooke now
Brooklyn is state of mind
it's a borough it's one of five boroughs
but whenever I think of Brooklyn I think
of Brooklyn and we were kids and we go
into Manhattan we would not say we're
born in Manhattan II would say we're
going into the city Manhattan was the
city we were Brooklyn I wrote a book
years ago called
when you're from Brooklyn everything
else is Tokyo and that was just about
growing up I had I was very poor my
father died when I was only nine and a
half and my young brother and I were
raised by a single parent a mother never
remarried would Jewish immigrants and I
never had father were very poor we're on
relief for two years New York City
bought my first pair of glasses they
paid our rent so my mother could go to
work till I was old enough to watch my
brother so I've always understood when
they hear the term welfare and what we
called it release then the wrong relief
it was hard to take inspectors would
come to the house to see what kind of
meat my mother was buying but some
people grow up that way and get
conservative because they know what not
having something and I grew up on that
liberal so the older I got the more
liberal I wish you an even longer a life
in that case now you did by the way did
your mother live to see you a success in
Miami she died at age 76 in 1976 I
started by national radio show in 1978
and CNN in 1985 but she saw me a roaring
success in Miami
radio-television newspaper caller with
the Miami Herald she never saw a book
publisher written 1415 books you never
saw that but she saw me with Jackie
Gleason with Frank Sinatra she went to
see the Don Rickles when he was
beginning and she knew actors and
actresses that I met and my daughter
kaya went to Jackie Gleason's house to
spend a day and my mother met him Jackie
was a big mentor he was great to be I
met her when he moved the show down to
Miami from New York in 1963-64 I went
down on the train with him I hosted him
on many shows the night before he died
his publicist Hank Meyer called he made
a list of people to say goodbye to now
one of the many anecdotes from your book
which has stayed with me was how you
literally bumped into Jack Kennedy you
literally lived in a car that bumped
into him tell us about that is 1958 I
had been on radio for a year and we had
some what wasn't my car but I was
driving there's a beat-up old
convertible and we wanted a drive to see
what Palm Beach look like there's a
Sunday morning were four of us I was
driving to in front - and back an old
car and we're driving up us one right by
the ocean oceans on the right in Palm
Beach they didn't build hotels on the
ocean like they did in Miami Beach so
these houses are on our left the oceans
on our right and travel that's a
beautiful Sunday morning quiet nobody on
the road and we'll look at the houses
and we're going to the ocean I'm looking
and we're coming to Worth Avenue which
is the popular evident and it was a
cross stopped at a red light and a
convertible and I slowed down but I was
looking away and I hit it I must have
been going ten miles so now I just bump
to us his head bounced and he got out of
the car
and he came over to us and he said how
the hell'd you hit me
it's beautiful day it's a Sunday morning
were the only two cause on a road in our
Fall Fest how the hell do you hit me I
said well we never been in Palm Beach I
was looking around he won't exchange
licenses he said nice of it like I'm
Senator John Kennedy oh yeah
I'm gonna run for president in two years
I try to be vice president two years ago
yeah I remember that tell you what you
do raise your right hand
swear you'll vote for me y'all swole
Wolfie okay and I bumped into John
Kennedy's car now later two weeks before
he was killed
1963 maybe a week before he spoke in
Miami and this was now five years later
from 1958 and I was in the third row and
he was speaking at a convention and he
was looking around and he saw me and he
went I got ya a guy who hit me with the
car I never forgot that buddy we got to
take a quick break be right back
[Music]
Larry King in a legend before the break
we were talking about Jack Kennedy I was
brought up in a house where there was a
picture of the Pope with preeminence and
under him Jack Kennedy it's why your
anecdote has stayed with me I loved the
Kennedy family what did you think of
them they were extraordinary they've had
everything they were royalty without
being royalty they were immigrants
typically American story they were rich
but they understood the poor the
brothers had a father who was
anti-semitic who didn't want to get into
World War two and they had a one son we
wanted to be President Joe Kennedy jr.
died in a plane crash in World War two
which nearly destroyed the family and
another daughter who was born with brain
damage and they had three other boys and
one of the boys became president the
board became a senator and Attorney
General the other boy became and might
well have become president my world
become and one of them became one of the
gate senators ever and I think Ted
Kennedy would be one of the five great
senators that ever served in the Senate
Ted was one of the most genuinely
remarkable people I knew otezla story
love is a frame in my house of a letter
when they announced he had brain cancer
I wrote him a letter I said did Ted best
wishes
you know I'll pray for you I'm with you
through this and get back a beautiful
letter dear Larry thank you for thinking
of me I know that you had a heart attack
and you went through heart surgery so
these things have befallen you and that
you would take time to write to me means
so much to me
I'm so glad I'm in your prayers and you
were always in mine
all the best hey did politicians get
smaller Larry or am I just getting old
there are no politicians of that stature
I don't know what that is when I was
where I was I was in radio I could tell
you every member of the Senate I could
tell you every foreign major foreign
leader I couldn't tell you I remember
the Senate today and I'm a political
junkie I don't know what it is why a
division has occurred that those those
men years ago and some women but those
men years ago could be angry all day and
go out and have a beer no change it part
of it the change it was the jet age they
fly home on weekends and it wasn't so
easy to fly home them so they'd spend
the weekend in Washington they were
buddies Barry Goldwater told me probably
he voted for you but Humphrey because he
was his friend he was his friend he
didn't know Dixon knew Humphrey they
were buddies you know but so they were
friends there's no friends in the Senate
these guys there's like enemies
they don't just disagree there's like a
hatred and I don't know where that came
from
and yet the parties are two cheeks of
the same backside really yeah they say
that I don't believe that
no the Democratic Party is a much more a
party of liberal bent to the Republican
Party of the conservative bent you have
to be sort of moderate in America
succeed you have to come to the bill the
art of compromise it's not a democracy
as a republic the America generally
comes together I mean like this goes
stories like Tip O'Neill the Speaker of
the House and he told me once he
attacked Reagan on the House floor that
day unmercifully this rip them apart the
Social Security idea Nick
goes back to his office and the
secretary from sentences president's on
the phone and he said I said to myself
oh my god
he picked the phone said hello and
Reagan said did you hear the one about
the Irishman when that was different
you pick J Trump falling well he stays
he tweets something semi-literate and
extremely bellicose you interviewed
everybody you've literally interviewed
any everybody who was anybody up for the
outcast or who you with okay a very
great man I'm very sorry you didn't get
to interview who stands out for you on
the on the political field Oh Bill
Clinton seemed to me well here's my
favorite because he was so good but so
smart it's a political machine right
great well all balusters why did all
presence of some you don't get to be
President you have that kind of ego to
say I want to be present and you're all
presidents have something George Bush
the first George HW Bush is a nicer guy
she will ever meet as courteous a guy
not a mean bone in his body
Gerald Ford could a chew gum and was a
true best friend ever great football
player one fair pick good guy great
family Jimmy Carter commanded a
submarine an atomic submarine did more
as an ex-president
than any other ex-president ever great
world citizen beat cancer Richard Nixon
involved
brilliant crazy everybody's against him
but a genius mind I would hire him to
analyze any situation not solve it that
analyze it he could work for my
television station as a political
analyst who what why when we are mixing
Bill Clinton as a man wealth spent just
a guy's guy
nobody could dislike Bill Clinton you
could be his fiercest political opponent
uh picture five minutes in the room and
your lover he listens he stares at kid
and he's bright as a whip
he cares George Bush just a good guy not
the best the president's not the
brightest he had a has a good heart big
baseball thing which is to be a by well
I met for him two hours in the Oval of
was just talking baseball
that was the rule just talk baseball and
did more for aides internationally than
all of our presidents aides is being
cured everywhere because of George Bush
people forget that Barack Obama and
tremendous admiration for Barack Obama
as a human being as a man well within
himself self-contained
right Donald Trump as a friend he was
terrific we know which we were fathers
of the year together went to Super Bowl
together when Marla maples was on the
Broadway stage we went to see it in
theater I had a medical procedure in New
York he took my wife to dinner
he's now this Donald Trump I don't know
because I I knew him and politically he
was very different
so this Donald Trump is not he was a
favor of single-payer health system
favor right to abortion I don't I so I
don't know this Donald Trump he always
had an ego but it was a fascinating ego
you know is you never disliked him
personally cuz he was it was kind of fun
so this is a president but I will say I
know but I don't know is he's a
president I know the best of all the
presidents and I don't know people
watching this are afraid of the world
that Donald Trump is leading us into
most people feel that the more Trump is
attacked on the Russia front the more he
headed into confrontation with Russia
now let's say that's a genuine fear of
someone who is narcissistic and believes
their everything revolves around him
what you have to hope for is good people
around them secretary defense secretary
state his daughter and hopefully others
like that who can bring him to a sense
of understanding that the world doesn't
revolve around him so the fear is
genuine but I think there are enough
stop gaps
just to prevent it happening I think I
don't think I don't think that would
happen sending men to die
because he would be the Donald Trump of
10 years ago will be saying what are you
bothering was serious I don't know that
he's saying that when he was running
know what Iraq he was against Iraq yeah
this is quasars a queue at the door of
people to interview you to be
interviewed by you the last time we were
together the public were queuing up to
get their picture with you I see as a
religious believer myself that God has
been very good to you and yet ideally I
read the urine atheist well I say Adam
every Athey every agnostic every atheist
says he's an agnostic the verse is a
safe thing to say because no one really
knows
so obviously it's easy to say I don't
know but my logic
I grew up Jewish I was Bar Mitzvahs
I read the Old Testament to a Bar
Mitzvah recently already Old Testament
at God I didn't like that God at all
sway my enemies destroy them kill them
and like him I I can't buy the thought
that there's something after this so one
of the things about Judaism that I like
is Judaism says okay you don't have to
believe lead a good life lead a good
life if there's something else fine if
there's nothing what it really you let a
good life so that's where I got my wife
she's a believer people I know there are
believers or they tell me they believe
in a spirit or a force I've never
experienced the force I've never seen
the spirit I've never had anyone from
the dead talk to me and there is
impossible for me to believe what I do
believe is that some geniuses years ago
invented God as a brilliant way to keep
the masses at bay and the one way to
keep them at bay was to promise them
something tomorrow so it had to be
somebody rich someone who had the rubles
and he had the temples and he said hey
you'll be good buying the sky juanita
and God will take care of you too meek
shall inherit the earth
just not yet well as Woody Allen once
said Burgundy I don't fear that I just
don't want to be there when it happens
Larry King I often say this prayer don't
always mean it it's a real honor as well
as a pleasure to have talked to George
my pleasure to be with you thank you
very much for foot heel as George that I
love it Larry King Live and kicking
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Oh