tonight on "the axe files," former secretary of state john kerry sounds off on president trump. >> this is the pull-out, walk-away presidency. and it is not enhancing the interests of the united states of america. >> the current state of congress. >> our democracy is threatened today. our democracy is threatened. we are dysfunctional. let's be honest about it. >> and reflects on his life of public service from the battlefield to the senate floor to the campaign trail. >> i do regret -- i think i was a little bit constrained in some ways that i shouldn't have been. >> welcome to "the axe files." secretary kerry, great to be with you here in your old and new haunt, yale university.

a seminal place in your life. it is a life that's been dedicated to the proposition that these democratic institutions, global institution, diplomacy were important pillars for our country. what's the state of american foreign policy now? >> deeply challenged. deeply challenged. to the point of being dangerous to our country. president trump has isolated america and taken us backwards in terms of institutions that were structured ever since world war ii to bring the world together today without any demonstration of how it will make america safer, why we need to do this. this false presumption that, quote, america first. every president puts america first. but they don't do it in the same way that donald trump has where he's breaking things apart without any alternative that makes us safer.

so in fact, the values that are contained within the united nations and the city council and of the efforts we've made are the values that have helped us create a world in which far less violence is taking place today between nation states than any time in human history. fewer people are dying than at any time in human history. why would you turn away from that, which is what the president is doing. and he -- >> because i think he thinks he's got an appealing political argument. >> yeah, but it's a cheap argument, and cheap arguments by people who are in the highest petitions of leadership are -- positions of leadership are the last thing the world needs. we need to be addressing climate change, cyber, we need to be addressing vast populations of young people who don't have a future in the world, and that's dangerous to us. >> let me ask you about your personal feelings about this. do you feel like the houses that you've built have been mowed over? >> no, on the contrary, david. here's what i feel -- i am

encouraged that in the face of an onslaught from a president who has zero depth in foreign policy, who does not have any intellectual curiosity or any capacity to really articulate a genuine foreign policy structure except tear it apart, in the face of that the iran nuclear agreement is holding together. people are trying to keep it together. china, russia, france, germany, britain, are all persevering to keep that agreement together including iran. >> you went around to some of the allies as a private citizen and urged them to stay in the agreement -- >> no, what i urged them at the time, american policy was still to be in the agreement. and at that point in time, i suggested to them that i thought it was important for this agreement and for the world not to move backwards with respect to a country pursuing a nuclear weapon. president obama succeeded in

eliminating a nuclear weapon from the immediate challenge of our foreign policy. and his intention and desire was then to move on to the issues of the missiles of yemen, of iraq, of -- >> that's the argument -- >> of israel -- >> that iran is as much a malign influence in the region as ever, perhaps more so. so the agreement did not curb that behavior. >> actually, it affected that behavior. and iran helped us to achieve a number of cease-fires in yemen. iran indicated a willingness to sit down and negotiate in any number of circumstances. what president trump has done is adopt a policy of just confrontation. and in doing so, he has made it extremely difficult, in fact, for a leader of iran to come to the table because the politics of iran are as complicated as anybody's politics. so the hardliners in iran are saying to the supreme leader, look, we told you so. you can't trust the united

states. what president trump has done is reinforced that notion. >> the hardliners in iran, it should be pointed out, opposed -- >> opposed the deal. opposed the deal. they're getting president trump to help them undo it just as president putin is getting president trump to -- can you imagine president trump adopted the soviet union's point of view about why they invaded afghanistan which everybody knows to be a lie. president trump stood beside president putin in helsinki, feet away there from him like we are, and literally renounced the consensus opinion of the entire security intelligence community of the united states and of other countries and took putin aside on the subject -- >> i have great confidence in my intelligence people, but i will tell you that president putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. >> i think it's because the

russians clearly, he has some special relationship with them and has not made it public. i think he's fearful that president putin probably has information on him. look, i know from our trips to russia, everything you do and say is being listened to and is being followed. while donald trump was pursuing the miss universe contest and trump towers in moscow, i have no doubt whatever he was engaged in, i know from intelligence community personnel that i've talked to that there is huge credibility within the intel community to the scheduled steele dossier and to many of that. >> did you see any of that in the intel when you were -- you were there during the 2016 campaign. in your very good book, your memoir here, you didn't really cover the 2016 campaign. but you must have been privilegy to the intel during that period. >> well, i was privy to intel

that made it clear to me and others in the administration what the russians were doing and how they operate. >> but in terms of their intrusion in our election, do you think that we -- >> didn't know everything they were doing at that point in time. >> did you do as much as you could in terms of alerting the country? i know the president was concerned about not looking like he was trying to put his finger on -- >> i guarantee you from having run a presidential race that if the president had gone out with trump already in the process of laying the groundwork for potentially not accepting the results of the election, trump already arguing the election was rigged. i believe that if the president had gone out then personally and said to america, "this is what is going to happen," there would have been enormous backlash. and president obama in an effort to avoid that went to mitch mcconnell, the majority leader, and asked him to join in what

they all knew was the intelligence, and mitch mcconnell refused. >> let me ask you something more on this russia issue. there was a kind of startling piece in the "washington post" recently about the fact that the president of the united states met privately with vladimir putin, and there is no record of it. and he is -- and his senior aides were not apparently briefed on what happened in those meetings. the only two people who know what happened in those conversations are putin and trump. was there -- has there ever in your experience, how unusual is that? >> it's unusual to have a two-hour meeting in that context. i spent about five minutes with him alone and related what the conversation was. but i think -- i think -- >> you came back and told your aides what happened in the national security, the conversation. >> absolutely. >> he actually asked apparently for the interpreters' notes to

be withheld from them. >> that's what i understand. >> so what are the implications of that? >> i think that the fbi has announced or that people have learned, maybe a better way to phrase it, and there have been public stories about the fbi initiating an investigation as to whether or not the president of the united states was working in concert with or on behalf -- >> wittingly or unwittingly -- >> wittingly or unwittingly says it all. it's an extraordinary, extraordinary moment for our nation when that question is asked. >> do you believe that he is -- >> david, i can't draw conclusions. all i'm saying is that as many people have pointed out in recent days, it would have been malpractice and inappropriate for the fbi not to have some kind of inquiry based on the input they were getting. and i think speaking as a former

prosecutor -- >> yeah, i want to ask you -- >> there are powerful indications of prima facie collusion that if you have an e-mail coming from -- from a russian operative who's saying we have dirt on hillary clinton and you have another e-mail coming back from the son of the candidate saying, wow, we love that, we want to meet, can't wait for the meeting, that's collusion just right there. that's a form of collusion. >> let me ask you as a former prosecutor but also as a former longtime member of the united states senate who ran some very sophisticated hearings and investigation, what should the role of congress be at this point? the word "impeachment" is floating in the air. you lived through one of them when you were -- >> i think it's a mistake to have the word "impeachment" floating through the air right now because it politicizes things. i think the evidence to me of

high crimes and misdemeanors is -- is an important standard. i did not believe we met that standard with respect to the impeachment of president clinton. i think the republicans paid a big price for that, and i think it would be a mistake for democrats to sort of run headlong in without evidence. let's see what robert mueller says. there's an important investigation taking place in the country. i think the american people need to digest whatever that is. we need to listen to the american people, and people will know whether there's something there that rises to a very significant question. >> you know, the biggest game in washington is what does mueller know and when are we going to know it. but you know him which very few people do. he's not a guy who's made himself a public figure, he kind of shies away. and in this -- appropriately that has been the most sealed operation in washington, but you've known him for most of

your life. >> well, i knew him in high school. we spent a number of years playing on the same teams. we played soccer and hockey and lacrosse together, and we were classmates. and i admire him enormously. he has had an extraordinary professional career. served his country in vietnam with distinction. and has had a law enforcement record that's unparalleled. i mean, his tenure at fbi was unprecedented because people respected him because he's a man who plays it straight. i don't know anything about this -- what he has. i haven't talked to him during the period of time he's been here in this role. i just know with total confidence he will live up to his oath. that's what we need right now. coming up on "the axe files" -- >> who's kidding who? are you kidding me? the age of shame is over? when the president of the united states pulls out of syria and

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cholesterol naturally, and it's odor-free, and pharmacist recommended. garlique you spent 28 years in the senate. >> yeah. >> the senate you arrived in was a much different place than the one that we find today. why is that, and what do we do about it? >> what bothers me so much right now, david, i think it should bother everybody in america, is the fact that we've lost the willingness that we saw in the course of the watergate hearings, for instance, to let the chips fall where they may. and to then respond appropriately. right now, we have members of the senate certainly who i know and like and respect, who seem to be more interested in protecting party and protecting the president and protecting

their jobs than in protecting the constitution of the country. >> lindsey graham was someone who you worked closely with. i remember you guys coming to the white house to talk about climate change. >> sure. he was always considered a bit of a maverick in the senate and willingness to work both sides. he's become the president, one of his most vociferous supporters. and the suspicion is he's running for re-election in south carolina, and he's looking over his right shoulder. >> well, i'm not going to get into individual personalities and -- and let me just say this. we've heard people condemn a congresswoman because she used an expletive in one moment. we've heard people jumping on some of the younger newly electeds because of their outspokenness, et cetera. just think about this -- there's no sense of impropriety and outrage about a president of the united states paying office a porn star. there's no outrage about the

president of the united states defending language of white nationalism, of white supremacy, or instances of it. >> but isn't it fear -- i mean, look, i was in politics for a lot of my life. but it seems to me that politicians close to their first concern is staying in office, and i'm not saying they don't want to -- >> that's the whole point. that's not the oath you take. you say, i swear i will uphold and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic. and you know, that's the oath. not i pledge to take care of myself to stay here for 30 years. so what's happened is people have lost that sense of what's important to our country. our democracy is threatened today. our democracy is threatened. we are dysfunctional. i mean, let's be honest about it. we don't pass a budget. we look at the government. as you and i are talking, the government is still locked out, and this president is not negotiating. he doesn't negotiate.

this is a man who claims to be the world's greatest negotiator. what is he negotiating? he pulled out of tpp. did he fix it? did he do something for workers? did he make it better? no, he just pulled out. ceded power in asia. pulls out of paris. gets absolutely -- >> climate change accord -- >> absolutely nothing on climate change accord. getting nothing for pulling out of paris. pulls out of iran. doesn't get anything except now a greater polarization, greater injury, possibility of war, greater conflict. not empowering the iranians to be able to come to the table. he pulls out of afghanistan. he says we're going to get out of afghanistan, pulls the rug out from under his own negotiator who was about to sit down and negotiate with the taliban. that's the biggest card of all, whether you're going to pull out or not. pulls out of syria without leveraging out of syria an agreement, something for the kurds, something with respect to russia and iran in order to have an agreement as to the future of syria and iraq and the region. none of these things take place.

this is the -- this is the pull-out, walk-away presidency. and it is not enhancing the interests of the united states of america. >> secretary pompeo has just been in the middle east. he made a speech in cairo in which -- which was a repudiation of the obama foreign policy. >> the age of self-inflicted american shame is over, and so are the policies that produced so much needless suffering. >> look at all the things i just said. who's kidding who? are you kidding me? the age of shame is over? when a president of the united states capitulates to the president of russia and adopts his point of view on afghanistan? when he stands up and in a moment of ignominomy ka pit late a -- capitulates with putin, that's a moment of shame. when the president of the united states pulls out of syria and

general mattis resigns. bret mcguirk who's done a job working the isis war, resigns. that is a moment of shame. i just -- you know, we've got get our facts straight here. >> you know, when i was watching the serious story unfold, i thought of you. and you had this uncomfortable situation in 2014 relative to the red line -- >> correct. >> the use of chemical weapons. you were a strong proponent and write about it in your book that america should have gone forward and bombed. and you actually -- with the white house's knowledge and agreement, gave a speech that laid the predicate for all of that. and then the president decided not to -- >> the president's the decider, and the president made the decision. >> you think it was a mistake, though? >> i think that we needed to respond in a way very quickly

and shortly thereafter before he started to maneuver and put civilians in the buildings and did other things. >> would syria have -- would the outcome in syria have been different? >> no, no, no, and that's very important. it's why i was able -- look, the president never made a decision, david, not to bomb. the president made a decision that he thought congress would respond. and by the way, vice president biden, myself believe that we would get congressional support very quickly. so we were wrong. congress didn't want to move quickly. and then, you know, foreign minister lavrov and i were able to reach an agreement on behalf of our countries and presidents to remove 1,300 tons of chemical weapons. that would not have happened immediately if we had bombed. so there was a benefit that a lot of people don't want to acknowledge. but bottom line, the fact that the president didn't wind up bombing and didn't -- and was viewed as going to congress did

cost us in perception in the region. and i spent a lot of time trying to address that. it's just a reality. >> you know, i listened to you, and you talk about the sort of lack of sophistication of the president's foreign sophistication. i don't believe it's a lack of sophistication. it's a lack of basic knowledge. a lack of simple realities. that's all. no -- >> his supporters would say, you know what, all you smart guys, you vote for the war in iraq. >> no, i didn't -- what i voted for was a process that president george w. bush didn't follow. i voted for a series of promises that empowered the president to leverage saddam hussein to let the inspectors in. and if he didn't, we can had the threat of force hanging over that. what we were told was they would exhaust the remedies of diplomacy, they would bring together a legitimate coalition. and they -- they just didn't do that. >> you called it the worst

mistake of your -- >> the worst vote. it turned out to be the worst vote, absolutely. because it -- it empowered him to do something where they didn't follow the things they said they were going to do. yes. i regret that. your experience in vietnam, and you dicame to prominence as a decorated serviceman who came back and became a very, very powerful and articulate opponent of the war and part of the premise was understanding the limits of american power and the appropriate use of it. >> how do you ask a man to be the last man to die in vietnam? how do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake? >> i came back, and i was very much opposed to the war. we were lied to. the american people were lied to about the war in vietnam. the evidence now is overwhelming about that. so when you read that history you can get pretty angry about

what caused 56,800-some names on the wall. i always said at that time i'm not a passivist. there are times america has to stand up and fight and take more, r measur-- take measures, not everything is vietnam. afghanistan was not vietnam. >> the president tapped into something, the sense of weariness -- >> everyone's expressed that. the situation room.t debate in - the issue isn't whether or not we're weary or we've got to be there, we ought to be getting out over a period of time in the right way. but the right way was for the president to use the leverage of america's departure to actually negotiate with the taliban and do so in a way that sustains the sacrifice and efforts made to create something more stable and lasting. up next on "the axe files" -- >> you risked your own life, you

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but i know the importance of having time to do what you love. at comcast we know our customers' time is valuable. that's why we have 2-hour appointment windows, including nights and weekends. so you can do more of what you love. my name is tito, and i'm a tech-house manager at comcast. we're working to make things simple, easy and awesome. so i was struck in your book, you attracted the attention of "60 minutes." morely safer sbruintroduced youd he said, are you going to run for president someday. >> do you want to be president of the united states? >> no. i -- that's such a crazy question at a time like this.

>> and you were just a young guy back from vietnam. but that was the power of your president. but run for president -- >> quite a few years later. >> you joked you that were present for three hours when the exit polls suggested that you were going to win the election. you still thinking about it? >> i said, david, that i haven't taken anything off the table. that doesn't mean i'm running around actively preparing or something. here's what i think is important. i don't think it's important to be talking about who's in, who's out. what's important to talk about is where do we need to go. where do we need to go as a country. we are not doing the great things that america should be doing, and we have greatness in us. we're an amazing nation. i love our country. love what we've done historically. and -- and i mean, we're the country that invented the internet. we're the country that went to the moon. we're the country that has put us on the brink of having the first generation of children

born aids free in africa. and we stopped ebola where we -- you could run a long list. but you can't name one single -- and i can't, major national infrastructure program in our nation that matches what other countries are doing around the world. we -- we have a cyber challenge, climate change. >> yeah. >> i've got grandkids, you've got kids. >> i do. i think about it all the time. but i am just laughing because you don't sound like a guy who's taking it off the table. you sound like a guy who's like to be in the middle of the debate -- >> here's the deal. i'm going to be in the middle of the debate no matter what, period. i believe more than ever we need to be considering a different set of options. there are a lot of people running around -- >> i know -- we could finish the whole show by name listing -- >> we could. >> what's your advice to them? one of the things i loved about your book partly because i've lived these experiences, was you

wrote about the process of running for president and how brutal it is. i don't think people who say they're going to run for president know it -- it's like the astronaut program. you could be in the simulator all you want. once you get out there, you know, it's different. what do you know know about that process that you didn't know going in? first of all, i was living under -- >> first of all, i was living under the constraints of the campaign finance reform and we couldn't run a 50-state campaign, and i wanted to desperately. i had to powell of colorado and virginia -- had to pull out of colorado and virginia three weeks before the election. and the reason is we didn't have enough money to go to all the places we needed to fight for. i lost them not by much. i was the first democrat to win fairfax county since lyndon johnson. i say you have to go outside that system. you have to rely on a broader base of raising funds in order to compete. number two, you got to fight back immediately. we had a big fight in our

campaign about the swift mode attacks. >> the swift mode, veterans for truth that were created to attack your war -- >> no war heroes. >> he betrayed his shipmates. >> let me ask you about that. you wrote a little about this. you -- you risked your own life and almost lost it. you saw others die. you lost friends in that war. you won a silver star, a bronze star, three purple hearts. if i were you i would have been freaking outraged. >> i did express it. the problem is i didn't do it on a large enough stage with enough repetition. i didn't do it through the advertising, and we should have. and i write in the book, i'm clear about it, i take -- i take the blame. look, i take it. it's my campaign. i'm responsible. but you ask me what i learned, that's one of the things i learned. i would never allow minutes to go by now without adequately

putting to bed anything that you know to be untrue. you have to do that. >> you wrote a great author's note to your book and explained how that experience in vietnam changed your outlook. and the book itself speaks to it saying every day is extra. and in it you said finally every day is extra means living with the liberating truth of knowing that there are worse things than losing an argument or even an election. you know, one of the critiques of your race for president -- i wonder if you feel it yourself -- is that you were too constrained. you weren't as open and as free as perhaps you should have been. and that ultimately hurt you. as a attend, it allowed you to be portrayed as the wind surfing, flip-flopping, cautious politician. do you have thoughts about that? >> yes. i think i learned an enormous amount. i think i'm a different person today. i think that i conducted myself

as chairman of the foreign relations committee applying the lessons that i learned with respect to that freedom to just go with your gut. and i certainly acted as secretary of state in that way. and i -- i do regret it -- i think i was a little bit constrained in some ways that i shouldn't have been, period. >> it's tough because you're out there on the ledge, and all the advice and counsel you get is watch your step. >> one of the things that got drummed into me was don't be your own campaign manager. you can't do that. you've probably said it to candidates -- >> a thousand times. >> a thousand times. people say, no, you're wrong. in the end, you -- well, i learned. i learned. you know what, make your gut decision, and stick with your gut decision. that's the most important thing you can do in life period. so i think there were a lot of lessons in all of that.

look, let me -- i want to come back to something so critical here. i write about this -- i have a chapter about my relationship with john mccain and what we did together in vietnam. >> yeah. >> that's what we have to get back to. our country was completely divided over vietnam, still at war with each other here at home, 1990 literally. john mccain and i who came from totally different places politically, we flew to the middle east, we were sitting opposite each other and had a conversation, we agreed we have to work to end the war here at home and to change the relationship with vietnam for ten years we worked together across party lines, across idealogy. and in the end we were able to change the relationship with vietnam -- >> you must have had discussions with him. you were leading protests at the capitol while he was in a -- in a prison over hanoi. i stood in the hanoi hilton with

john mccain -- >> yeah. >> we stood together in this crazy place where he had endured these horrible things. and we found the common ground. we agreed on what we were trying to do. that's what we have to get back to in the senate. you wrote that you considered -- this has been reported -- him as a vice presidential nominee. how serious were you? >> i was serious about considering it, looking at it. we examined it. i think that we both found it had greater difficulties than first appearance might seem because of the party, the conventions, the structure. i thought serious lie about it. but john, john was not prepared to do some of the things. as i said to people, we date, we didn't get married. >> yeah. ahead on "the axe files" -- >> i rode my bike into east berlin, and my dad got so pissed at me that he pulled my passport. i was grounded.

this is maury's in new haven, and i'm given to believe that you may have clocked a few hours here during your academic years. what is this place? >> this is -- it's a huge yale tradition, mory's. it's a lot of fun. >> in reading your book, your childhood it seems like this weird amalgum of like "the great gatsby" and "home alone." part of your life was your mom's family was in europe. they had this estate in europe. and you spent a lot of time there. and you also spent a lot of time in prep school starting at a very early age. >> yeah, much too young -- >> it sounded lonely to me. >> i write about it in the book.

there were times when i first got dropped off at school in switzerland when my dad was going to berlin to be the legal adviser to the high commissioner there was germany, i didn't know where switzerland was -- i really didn't -- was not prepared for the abruptness of my parents getting in a car and driving off, and there i am. so i write about it. i think i cried for three weeks. i was miserable. i wanted to go home -- homesick. i got through it. and i look back on, okay, that kind of toughened you up. i'd been to a bunch of schools. by the time i was in the eighth grade, i think i'd been to seven schools. i don't complain about it. it was a life that a lot of young people that the kids of foreign service officers live. people don't realize that. >> did being overseas -- how did it expand your -- >> it opened my view to the world, david. i mean, it was amazingly

exciting and significant. i actually played in german bunkers when i was a kid. it was a wonderful experience. i rode my bike into east berlin. my dad got so pissed at me that he pulled myself passport and -- i was grounded. i didn't know it, but i was a little too adventuresome. >> you talk about your parents' respect of families because they had distinctly different stories. >> well, my dad lost his father when he -- when my dad was 6 years old. >> this is an interesting story because you learned about that, about the circumstances surrounding your grandfather's death when you were running for president. we talked earlier about the pressures and the unique elements of running for president. one is that people start foraging into your past -- >> yeah, everything. i mean, it's one big public

proctology exam. i'm before interviewed and asked about my grandparents. he had a background, had come from the czech republic. >> the way in which your grandfather died was shocking, i'm sure, that he committed suicide. and at the -- i think copley plaza hotel in -- >> it was totally shocking -- >> a place you noted -- >> how many times i have walked in that hotel. >> you must have made 1,000 speeches there. >> yes. it was quite shocking to learn that he went into the men's room and blew his brains out. and i have no idea why -- we never know anything about it. we never knew. my mother on the other hand came from an old boston family who had been involved in china trade and much of the history of our state. and my grandfather -- >> the founders -- >> yeah, the first governor of massachusetts, john winthrop,

who is the -- who delivered the sermon on the "arabella," the ship coming into the harbor that was famous, quoted by kennedy and reagan, was we shall be as if a city upon the hill. he delivered that sermon on the ship, and he -- it turns out, it was my great grandfather eight times over or something. we had a public side and very private side from two different experiences. >> you came here -- i got the sense from your own writing that academics were not your sole concern when you were -- >> no. i was -- i was mostly -- i played a couple sports here, did a lot of extracurricular activities. and so i did exactly what's on that table there that mark twain suggested. never let school get in the way of an education. and i didn't. >> one of the things you did was you had a -- an encounter, one

of your friends here had two uncles in the administration. >> one of my roommates was the nephew of george and bill bundy. >> george bundy was a national security -- >> national security adviser to president kennedy. >> yeah. >> and that's how you began thinking about enlisting and going to vietnam. >> it was part of it, david. i think i write in the book that i am the son of the greatest generation of parents. and as i've explained -- i mean, my dad left harvard law, and enlisted as a young cadet in the army air corps. and it was 1939. i mean, so they had a sense of duty and service and a sense of priority for america. i think that was passed on to me. you know, when i enlisted, it was 1965. we'd had the gulf incident.

lyndon johnson asked for 500,000 more troops. we all of us suddenly here at yale had our lives turned topsy-turvy. do you get drafted, do you go in? i reported for duty in 1966 at ocs. officers candidate school. i was commissioned at the end of '66. i went to my first duty post the beginning of this is when the transition was taking place. i had gone to vietnam and a lot had happened in 68. the assassination of robert kennedy, martin luther king, the turbulence of the chicago convention. it was a time of enormous upheaval. >> you were taking all that in even as you are in the service. >> hugely. i was devouring it. i was already i think about, i was bitten by politics.

>> the president has said that he knows per than the generals. famously didn't serve. i'm wondering about you and others who did. and you were in the same person. you were a person of privilege. you probably could have found a way out if you wanted to. you didn't find a way out. >> i thought it was important to serve and i still believe that. i don't object to a choice that many people made in that generation. i object to the hypocrisy. i object to pretending something that isn't true. the notion that he couldn't serve because of bone spurs, that's a lie. another lie. that i object to. when he presents himself and says i know better than the generals. no, you don't. you will never know what it is like to be in a fox hole, to be in the front lines, to be in an ambush, to be shot at, to see

your best friend killed in war. i object to that. >> up next -- >> i'm wondering if you see any of yourself in these young people who are agitating for change and really challenging the status quo in washington. hey, darryl. would you choose the network rated #1 in the nation by the experts, or the one awarded by the people? uh... correct! you don't have to choose, 'cause, uh... oh! (vo) switch to the network awarded by rootmetrics and j.d. power. buy one of our best phones, get one on us.

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you'now until january 24th, would like to say, "thank you." enjoy a free week of movies on us- from networks like epix, lifetime movie club, hallmark movies now, and history vault. just say, "show me movie week." that's a full week of your favorite hit movies on your tv, online, or on the go with the xfinity stream app. [shouting] and it's all on us, all week long. you've got some serious watching to do. you came back, as you point out, and you became a nationally known advocate. everybody remembers the one line which you can recite. but how do you ask a man to be

the last man to die for a mistake? the rest of it was a searing indictment of the policy makers of that time. of principal figures in the government and by implication of the people sitting in front of you. and it struck me watching all of this, that we have young people today who are rattling the cages of washington. and i'm wondering if you see any of yourself in these young people who are agitating for change and really challenging the status quo. >> what i see, i respect enormously and welcome which is an enthusiasm and an energy and an honesty and a readiness to move the country.

i welcome this new energy. all of us should. this is what brought us a new congress. young people brought the environment movement. young people brought the women's movement. young people really every major shift gets driven. i think young energy is critical. >> so you're back now at yale all these years later. you have a lot to impart of i guess i'm interested in what these young people are imparting to you. >> a lot. this is such a great two-way street. they're so smart. they're wonderfully engaging. they are already engaged in the world around them. i get a sense that they are incredulous at the idiocy of what is watching in washington today and by the world.

they want to deal with climate change, with cyber. >> february 28th of this year is the 50th anniversary of what i think is a major event in your life. >> the ambush. >> for which you got the silver star. >> it is. >> does it seem impossible -- >> that it could be 50 years? yes. that was a day of luck. luck. that's what i write. those of us lucky enough to come back i think bear the responsibility to lead a life of purpose. we survived when a lot of people didn't. in the tend difference is grace of god/luck. and if you're lucky enough to

get there, you owe something back and that's the way i've tried to live. >> so every day is extra. >> every day is extra. >> to hear more of the conversation, down led to conversation, down led to podcast at axefiles podcast.com. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com live in the cnn newsroom. we begin with breaking news. president trump making a public offer to democrats today on end the partial government shutdown now dragging into its 29th day. from the diplomatic reception room of the white house, the president painted a dark picture of the situation on the border. calling it a humanitarian crisis, talking about coyotes and drug cartels while using misleading statistics and then