enhanced_deficit
10-25-2017, 01:07 PM
And Weinstein drops names like Nelson Mandela, Oprah Winfrey as he talks to alpha male Clinton about Syria, Assad, Hillary and other things:
Harvey Weinstein Talks to Bill Clinton
Aired May 31, 2012 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HARVEY WEINSTEIN, CO-CHAIRMAN, THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY: Hi, I'm Harvey Weinstein. You know me from the movies I have been involved with, from "Shakespeare in Love" to "The Artist."
Piers Morgan asked me to sit in for him tonight. And I am proud to be talking to the man who changed the history of this country and the world. Bill Clinton.
In 2016, do you see a Clinton in the White House? Chelsea? Hillary?
(LAUGHTER)
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Chelsea would be too young. I think. Maybe not quite. Hillary says she's going to retire. We'll just see.
WEINSTEIN: I'm also turning the camera on some of Hollywood's greats to tell me what movies mean to them.
MARTIN SCORSESE, FILM DIRECTOR: Movies can be anything.
OPRAH WINFREY, TV HOST: I wanted to have Shirley Temple curls.
QUENTIN TARANTINO, FILM DIRECTOR: The greatest movie ever made.
JAMIE FOXX, ACTOR: That movie, like I said, (INAUDIBLE).
...
WEINSTEIN: Mr. President, every American is asking the same question as they watch these genocide reports from Syria. What do we do? How do we do this, you know? How do we -- do we go in militarily? What would you do in this situation, and what would you advise the president?
CLINTON: Well, I think that the president -- and, you know, Hillary as secretary of state has been very actively in this. What they don't want to do is to get into another situation where it looks like we are unilaterally interfering in an Arab country. Syria is governed by an Alawite minority. It has a Sunni Muslim majority and a tremendous diversity underneath that.
And that's why we've been working as hard as we could to get the Russians to support more united action through the U.N. If we were to do something like what we did in Libya, try to give some arms support to the people in the wake of this last terrible mess -- number one, I don't know, because I haven't gotten any briefings, whether there is sufficient armed opposition in Syria to prevail.
And number two, if we did it on our own, we'd almost guarantee their failure, because it would look like our thing. So I know this is really frustrating, but we're in this place with Syria now where I was with Bosnia in 1993 and 1994, where it took us two years. I was ready to go into Bosnia in '93, but I was determined not to go alone. Bosnia was a part of Europe. The Europeans had the biggest stake in it. And I had to persuade the other major European countries to support our position. And then we only had to bomb three or four days before the peace talk started.
WEINSTEIN: How do you get Russia, which seems to be blocking progress in that area --
(CROSS TALK)
CLINTON: Well, what they should be thinking about is what this does to them with their own Muslim minority on their southern underbelly in Russia. And I think we just have to keep working there. Because if --
(CROSS TALK)
CLINTON: -- and the Russians are saying, "Oh, it's unpredictable, you can't tell what's going to happen." That's all true. Just like the Arab Spring was unpredictable in Egypt. But this level of, you know, kind of -- they'll go along with the peace plan, then they decide if they want to go kill a bunch of people, they'll just go do it. We need to find a way to stop it.
WEINSTEIN: Is the world better without Assad?
CLINTON: I think so, now. You know, I worked with his father for years. And I thought we were going to get an agreement between Israel and the Syrians on the Golan Heights, and a peace agreement. I understand that people who are skeptical. They say, "Oh, Syria's so complicated, and the Alawites have made a place for everybody. The women have more opportunities there than they would if a stricter Muslim regime were in place." I understand all that argument.
WEINSTEIN: Well, you're a great movie fan. I was wondering, in 2016, do you see a Clinton in the White House? Chelsea, Hillary?
CLINTON: Chelsea will be too young, I think, maybe not quite. Hillary says she's going to retire. We will just see. You know, I think she intends to come home and start doing a lot of the charitable work. She has worked so hard for 20 years, you know?
But I'm very proud of her. I think she has really done a good job with a very tough hand to play as secretary of state. And she has done a good job for America, has been good for the world.
WEINSTEIN: I though she had done an incredible job. Every time I see her, she is traveling, on the go to...
(CROSS TALK)
CLINTON: She is in Scandinavia now.
WEINSTEIN: -- country. She is truly one of -- she will go down in history probably as our greatest secretary of state.
CLINTON: She will be -- well, she will rank very high. She has done a good job and she has really tried to build a world where there was more cooperation. That's -- and whenever you try to build a world of cooperation, and you've got a hard problem like Syria, you're always going in two different directions.
But I think with a lot hard problems, she has really been great. I'm very proud of her.
WEINSTEIN: Me too.
Mr. President, the Clinton Global Initiative, how do the viewers, you know, who are watching tonight, how do they get involved? CLINTON: Well, they can go to our Web site, ClintonFoundation.org, or there is one of the Clinton Global Initiative, CGI. And they -- if they want to follow the Clinton Global Initiative, that's where we bring other people together and try to create networks to solve problems.
If they want to know more about what my foundation does on childhood obesity or AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, agriculture, and economic development in Latin America and Africa, they should go to the Clinton Foundation site.
They can go to either one and there is lots of information about how to get involved with time or with money. And we encourage people who can only give five or 10 bucks to be involved and to pick where they want their money to go.
We've tried to make it as user-friendly as possible.
WEINSTEIN: As somebody who has participated over the years, I have to tell you, I learned so much, especially about micro-managing, micro-budgets in India, I mean, and how these women who were oppressed build companies.
It's an incredible experience. And I just hope that for the audience out there they do participate and they do support -- you know, because it's amazing to have this.
CLINTON: Well, one of the things people learn I think there is that intelligence and effort are evenly distributed throughout the world, but opportunity is not. The same thing is true in America.
And so once you know that, then you try to figure out, OK, how do I create the opportunities? Because the people are smart enough to take advantage of it and they will work hard enough to take advantage of it.
WEINSTEIN: Mr. President, thank you for being my guest tonight. I can't thank you enough for doing this. And as I said, I always learn amazing things from you.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1205/31/pmt.01.html
Harvey Weinstein Talks to Bill Clinton
Aired May 31, 2012 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HARVEY WEINSTEIN, CO-CHAIRMAN, THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY: Hi, I'm Harvey Weinstein. You know me from the movies I have been involved with, from "Shakespeare in Love" to "The Artist."
Piers Morgan asked me to sit in for him tonight. And I am proud to be talking to the man who changed the history of this country and the world. Bill Clinton.
In 2016, do you see a Clinton in the White House? Chelsea? Hillary?
(LAUGHTER)
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Chelsea would be too young. I think. Maybe not quite. Hillary says she's going to retire. We'll just see.
WEINSTEIN: I'm also turning the camera on some of Hollywood's greats to tell me what movies mean to them.
MARTIN SCORSESE, FILM DIRECTOR: Movies can be anything.
OPRAH WINFREY, TV HOST: I wanted to have Shirley Temple curls.
QUENTIN TARANTINO, FILM DIRECTOR: The greatest movie ever made.
JAMIE FOXX, ACTOR: That movie, like I said, (INAUDIBLE).
...
WEINSTEIN: Mr. President, every American is asking the same question as they watch these genocide reports from Syria. What do we do? How do we do this, you know? How do we -- do we go in militarily? What would you do in this situation, and what would you advise the president?
CLINTON: Well, I think that the president -- and, you know, Hillary as secretary of state has been very actively in this. What they don't want to do is to get into another situation where it looks like we are unilaterally interfering in an Arab country. Syria is governed by an Alawite minority. It has a Sunni Muslim majority and a tremendous diversity underneath that.
And that's why we've been working as hard as we could to get the Russians to support more united action through the U.N. If we were to do something like what we did in Libya, try to give some arms support to the people in the wake of this last terrible mess -- number one, I don't know, because I haven't gotten any briefings, whether there is sufficient armed opposition in Syria to prevail.
And number two, if we did it on our own, we'd almost guarantee their failure, because it would look like our thing. So I know this is really frustrating, but we're in this place with Syria now where I was with Bosnia in 1993 and 1994, where it took us two years. I was ready to go into Bosnia in '93, but I was determined not to go alone. Bosnia was a part of Europe. The Europeans had the biggest stake in it. And I had to persuade the other major European countries to support our position. And then we only had to bomb three or four days before the peace talk started.
WEINSTEIN: How do you get Russia, which seems to be blocking progress in that area --
(CROSS TALK)
CLINTON: Well, what they should be thinking about is what this does to them with their own Muslim minority on their southern underbelly in Russia. And I think we just have to keep working there. Because if --
(CROSS TALK)
CLINTON: -- and the Russians are saying, "Oh, it's unpredictable, you can't tell what's going to happen." That's all true. Just like the Arab Spring was unpredictable in Egypt. But this level of, you know, kind of -- they'll go along with the peace plan, then they decide if they want to go kill a bunch of people, they'll just go do it. We need to find a way to stop it.
WEINSTEIN: Is the world better without Assad?
CLINTON: I think so, now. You know, I worked with his father for years. And I thought we were going to get an agreement between Israel and the Syrians on the Golan Heights, and a peace agreement. I understand that people who are skeptical. They say, "Oh, Syria's so complicated, and the Alawites have made a place for everybody. The women have more opportunities there than they would if a stricter Muslim regime were in place." I understand all that argument.
WEINSTEIN: Well, you're a great movie fan. I was wondering, in 2016, do you see a Clinton in the White House? Chelsea, Hillary?
CLINTON: Chelsea will be too young, I think, maybe not quite. Hillary says she's going to retire. We will just see. You know, I think she intends to come home and start doing a lot of the charitable work. She has worked so hard for 20 years, you know?
But I'm very proud of her. I think she has really done a good job with a very tough hand to play as secretary of state. And she has done a good job for America, has been good for the world.
WEINSTEIN: I though she had done an incredible job. Every time I see her, she is traveling, on the go to...
(CROSS TALK)
CLINTON: She is in Scandinavia now.
WEINSTEIN: -- country. She is truly one of -- she will go down in history probably as our greatest secretary of state.
CLINTON: She will be -- well, she will rank very high. She has done a good job and she has really tried to build a world where there was more cooperation. That's -- and whenever you try to build a world of cooperation, and you've got a hard problem like Syria, you're always going in two different directions.
But I think with a lot hard problems, she has really been great. I'm very proud of her.
WEINSTEIN: Me too.
Mr. President, the Clinton Global Initiative, how do the viewers, you know, who are watching tonight, how do they get involved? CLINTON: Well, they can go to our Web site, ClintonFoundation.org, or there is one of the Clinton Global Initiative, CGI. And they -- if they want to follow the Clinton Global Initiative, that's where we bring other people together and try to create networks to solve problems.
If they want to know more about what my foundation does on childhood obesity or AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, agriculture, and economic development in Latin America and Africa, they should go to the Clinton Foundation site.
They can go to either one and there is lots of information about how to get involved with time or with money. And we encourage people who can only give five or 10 bucks to be involved and to pick where they want their money to go.
We've tried to make it as user-friendly as possible.
WEINSTEIN: As somebody who has participated over the years, I have to tell you, I learned so much, especially about micro-managing, micro-budgets in India, I mean, and how these women who were oppressed build companies.
It's an incredible experience. And I just hope that for the audience out there they do participate and they do support -- you know, because it's amazing to have this.
CLINTON: Well, one of the things people learn I think there is that intelligence and effort are evenly distributed throughout the world, but opportunity is not. The same thing is true in America.
And so once you know that, then you try to figure out, OK, how do I create the opportunities? Because the people are smart enough to take advantage of it and they will work hard enough to take advantage of it.
WEINSTEIN: Mr. President, thank you for being my guest tonight. I can't thank you enough for doing this. And as I said, I always learn amazing things from you.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1205/31/pmt.01.html