>> rose: welcome to the program. we begin this evening with president obama's speech today about climate and emission standards. we'll have reak tomorrow, but here's some of what the president said, which will be up for discussion in the political campaign of 2016. >> over the past six and a half years, we take on some of the toughest challenges of our time, from rebuilding our economy after a devastating recession, to ending our wars in iraq, afghanistan and bringing almost all our troops home, to strengthening security through tough and principal diplomacy, but i am convinced no challenge poses a greater threat to our future and future generations than a change in climate, and

that's what brings us here today. now, not everyone here is a scientist. (laughter) but some of you are among the best scientists in the world, and what you and your colleagues have been showing us for years now is that human activities are changing the climate in dangerous ways. levels of carbon dioxide which heats up our atmosphere are higher than they have been in 800,000 years. 2014 was the planet's warmest year on record, and we have been setting a lot of records in terms of warmest years over the last decade. one year doesn't make a trend, but 14 of the 15 warmest years on record have falo fallen withe first 15 years of this century. climate change is no longer just the future we're predicting for

your children and grandchildren, it's about the reality we're living with every day right now. the pentagon says the climate change poses immediate risks to our national security. while we can't say any single weather event is entirely caused by climate change, we've seen stronger storms, deeper droughts, longer wildfire seasons. charleston and miami now flood at high tide. shrinking ice caps force national geographic to make the biggest change in its at las since the soviet union broke apart. over the past three decades, nationwide asthma rates have more than doubled, and climate change puts those americans at greater risk of landing in the hospital. as one of america's governors has said, we are the first generation to feel the impact of climate change and the last

generation that can do something about it. and that's why i committed the united states to leading the world on this challenge. because i believe there is such a thing as being too late. >> rose: with the big republican debate on thursday night, al hunt on the story with dr. benjamin carson, a republican presidential candidate. >> if you look at the experience of everyone in congress today, it comes out to 9,000 years, yet where has that really gotten us? it's possible to gain experience from a lot of different areas. this country rose from nowhere to the pinnacle of the world very quickly, and it wasn't necessarily because we had a lot of experience with politicians -- >> rose: we conclude with marc maron, comedian famous for podcast with president obama. >> it came down to where do i

go. brettman said, he wants to come to the garage. i said, that's ridiculous, he's coming to my house? they said, that's what he wants is the experience of it. he wants that. i was concerned with connecting with him personally. i knew i couldn't do a softball interview and it had to be somewhat in depth, and i was hoping to find out who he is as a person in a genuine way and that's what i ended up doing. >> rose: al hunt with dr. ben carson and marc maron, when we continue. ow rose" has been provided by: additional funding provided by: >> and by bloomberg, a provider

of multimedia news and information services worldwide. captioning sponsored by rose communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. >> hunt: dr. benjamin carson is one of the world's preeminent pediatric neurosurgeons. at 33, he became director of pediatric nero surgery at johns hopkins. he is author of half a dozen best selling books, one of which was made into a television program about his life. earlier this year he announced his candidacy for republican nomination of the president of the united states. one fact cited by critics and admirers alike, he has no political experience in political or public life. they disagree on whether that's a credential or liability. we are pleased to welcome dr. benjamin solomon carson to

the table. welcome. >> thank you. >.>> hunt: we know you are a great surgeon, and because you have operated on our son. america has not elected any president who totally lacked political experience. why would ben carson be different and good? >> the collective political experience of everyone in congress comes out to 9,000 years and where has that gotten us? this country rose from nowhere to the pinnacle of the world quickly, and it wasn't necessarily because we have had experienced politicians. >> hunt: we have had as presidents. reagan and bush had political experience, roosevelt. >> but my point being you can get experience from lots of different areas. >> hunt: let me ask it this way, would it be different if you wanted to hire a baltimore

ravens coach who didn't have any football background or take a really smart person with no medical background and say, we want you to do brain surgery. >> people have asked me that before and i always say, it requires an enormous amount of knowledge, for instance, to become a neurosurgeon, not the kind of knowledge that you can acquire in a year or two yearcñl

now and open the lid on the engine, your immediate response is to shut it back down. it's so complex and corrupt and intricate. and i don't want to spend, you know, 15 years learning all the tintricacies of that engine, i can get plenty of people who know that. >> hunt: what have you learned about yourself and america that you didn't know about a couple of years ago? >> well, what learned about america is there are a lot of people who are frightened, who are very, very unhappy about the direction, and they feel we are losing our country. a lot of people have even given up. what i've learned about myself is that i couldn't do what i

wanted to, to sit back and relax, knowing this was going on, having spent -- >> hunt: you knew you were never going to sit back and relax, dr. carson. >> well, i really was planning on it and my wife was planning on it, after decades of 12 to 16 hours a day, she said, i finally get my husband back. but, you know, knowing what could potentially happen to the next generation, it would be impossible to relax. >> hunt: in the early stages, you made a number of what i think could have been called gaffs. you said gay is a choice and talked about obama and parallels to the nazis. you pretty much ended that. is that because of something you learned or you just had tough handlers that stopped you from doing it? >> no, i learned that when you

use certain terms and phrases, people can't hear anything beyond that. so even though, for instance, take the nazi comment, my point was that, you know, most of those people in germany did not believe in what hitler but doing, but did they open their mouths? no. did they say anything? did they try to stop it? they did not. therefore, you could have all the good intentions in the world, but the you don't do something, you may as well just sit down. >> hunt: that is interpreted as we're in danger of moving the same way nazi germany did, and you don't believe that... >> well, of course not, but my point being, you know, if people actually listened to what you were saying, they would have a completely different takeaway burks they won't do that when you use certain phrases, so i learned that. >> hunt: donald trump is dominating everything, seems, these tas. he's pulled the head of everybody. up until the donald, you were

the only genuine outside, the only non-politician. so going back to our original question, what do you offer that donald trump doesn't offer? >> that will be something i really think should be defined by the voters themselves. >> hunt: you have to make your case. >> they should listen very carefully, but the case i will make is i have spent a great deal of time solving very complex problems, problems that no one's ever been able to solve before, and it's not necessarily because i'm the smartest person that ever existed, it's because you know how to put together the right kinds of resources to solve complex problems. >> hunt: wouldn't you say the same thing about build hog tells and golf courses and -- >> and let me continue. >> hunt: i'm sorry. and then there are very few people who are going to be on that stage who have spent more time in corporate board rooms

than i have, figuring out how to make things run efficiently both in this country and internationally, and i'm not aware of anyone who's put together a nonprofit that, as you know, nine out of ten fail, and ours not only has succeed but has won major national awards only given to one organization in the country. that requires a lot of organizational skill and know-how. all of those things do. >> hunt: kind of hard to see the donald in the operating room. (laughter) he is your friend and neighbor. >> he is. >> hunt: in florida. i know that. do you agree with him on most stuff? >> most of the things we've talked about, yeah, i would say that there is harmony there. one of the nice things about the political process we have is that it is a marathon, not a sprint, so, over the course of time, people will have an

opportunity to really hear our solutions for various things, not just myself and donald trump, but the entire gamut of everybody who's running. and over the course of time, as they get to really know who we are, not who other people have said we are, but they actually get a chance to see who we are, i think people will make the right decisions. >> hunt: let's get to the solutions. one final question about donald trump. you have been very forthright about criticizing democrats for political correct necessary and playing the race card on occasion. you have been very critical of that. >> not just democrats, but anybody. >> hunt: let me ask you about donald trump. donald trump was the one who started the monstrously false charge barack obama was not born in america. it's almost impossible to imagine him doing that against a white politician. does that bother you he raised the birther issue in seemingly racial tones? >> i don't know that it was in

racial tones. first of all, let me just put it out on the table, i don't believe that that is true, that he was born somewhere else. >> hunt:ettes been proven he wasn't. >> right. but i can understand why somebody who specifically blocks a lot of his record would caw -- cause somebody to become suspicious. i understand that. >> hunt: there was a birth announcement in a hawaii newspaper. >> it wasn't just something that came out of the blue. academic records, things of that. >> hunt: you don't think that was loony, the 9/11 truthers, the elvis is just around the corner? >> here's my point -- why if you're running for public office, in particular president of the united states, why would you go through such lengths to hide important parts of your history? >> hunt: i don't think he really did. >> who hid the academic records?

>> hunt: no one says, you know, is joh was john kerry born america. >> let me tell you why i bring that particular issue up. you know, having spent many years in academia, when somebody goes from a place like alcollege to columbia university, that's a pretty big jump, and it would be informative to find out how that occurred. when you hide something like that, it makes people suspicious. >> hunt: let's move on. i'm not sure what was hidden, but let's move on to the issues you were talk about and let's start with the economy, because i understand your proposal is a 10% cut in spending across the board exempting the fence. is that basically accurate? >> well, whether it's 10% or some other percentage, the point is that it needs to be across

board because the reason that we have such difficulty getting things cut in washington is because everybody has their pet projects. >> hunt: the social security cut roughly 10%? >> i would cut all programs or things that are supporting parts of that program. let me tell you about social security. the way it's working right now, as you probably know, we're going to run out of money sometime in the 20s, probably the late 2020s. we need to do something to stabilize it. now, when we put that program into place, the average age of death was 63, and now we're approaching 80, and we haven't made the appropriate adjustments. >> hunt: the age is raised but would you also cut the again fits? >> i would offer people the

ability to opt out of receiving the check in lieu of tax credit. now, obviously, only certain people would be able to take advantage of that, but at least probably 20% of our population could take advantage of that. that would immediately alleviate a lot of the strain on the social security program, and then give you the possibility of enacting gradual raises for people under age 556789 over that age, i think we probably shouldn't touch it. >> hunt: would you cut medical research, n.i.h. >> everything across the board. there is no other twie get it done, because of questions like that. >> hunt: but you said not defense, right? >> well, what i would do with defense is you have to bring defense back to the appropriate level. when you get -- you must recognize that the current administration has cut nearly a

trillion dollars out of defense. >> hunt: so when you have things like they're going to build 2,443 f-35s. a new long range bomber, new nuclear sub to replace the ohio class. are you saying you might cut some and not others? >> let me put this into perspective for you. right now, our navy, the vessels are at the smallest level since 1917. in a recent testimony on capitol hill, the commandant of the marine corps said half of the non-deployed units are not combat ready. when you look at our air force, it's in dismal shape, and you look at our nuclear arsenal, it's archaic. at the same time, you look at what putin is doing with the russian arsenal, look at what the chinese are doing. and they're building new

aircraft carriers. they're trying to, you know, dominate space now. i mean, when you stop and you think about -- >> hunt: would you increase spending for space? >> you think about the world that we're living in right now, the hostilities that are going to be directed toward us, we can be very polyanish, stick our heads in the sand, yeah, everything's going to be okay, or we can look around, see what's going on and recognize if we don't get defense right, pretty much nothing else is going to matter. >> hunt: let me ask one or two more economic questions. on the tax side, i think you said that, really inspired by the bible, you favor a flat tax, somewhere between 10% and 15%. would you do away with charitables and home mortgage deductions? >> yeah, a proportional tax. i like to use 10% because it's easy to do the math. so everybody pays. you make $10 billion a year, you

pay a billion. you pay $10 a year, you pay one. you get rid of all the deductions, all the loopholes, because those are the things that make the system unfair. >> hunt: no charitable writeoffs. >> no charitable writeoffs. but some say, all charity will go away at that point. but is that really true? in 1913, when we enacted the federal income tax, were people not charitable before that? of course they were, and they will continue to be charitable. it's part of who we are. >> hunt: would you do away with the earned income tax credit for the working poor? >> i would get rid of all deductions and all loopholes because, whenever you have them, people migrate toward them. they manipulate things to take advantage of them. we find much better ways to take care of people. and particularly when we're talking about the poor, the indigent people in our society,

for which i have great compassion, having lived that life, i recognize that they would appreciate much more than a pat on the head and say, there, there, you poor little thing, we're going to take care of you. what they would really appreciate is us fixing the economy and providing the appropriate ladder for them to climb up and become part of the fabric of the success of this nation. >> hunt: one thing we don't know about dr. carson is who he would turn to for economic advice because you haven't been in the public arena. what top economic officials or former economists, give us a couple a president carson would turn to for advice. i like art lather and others.

i have had an enormous number of interactions with people in the business world. >> hunt: was c.e.o. really strike your fancy? >> when i look at people who have been able to accomplish amazing things, you look at someone like the founder of costco, even on a number of political things we don't necessarily agree, in terms of business and business savvy and economics, he's a genius. >> hunt: how about donald trump, would you put him in the carson cabinet? >> there is no one of the people who are running that i wouldn't consider as someone who could be extraordinarily helpful. >> hunt: let me ask you the same question about national security and foreign policy. who would be the two or three either former top officials or people that you talked to? you've spent a lot of time talking to people over the last year that you would really turn

to for advice on national security and foreign policy. >> again, until i get their permission to release, but the one whose permission i do have permission to release is general dees who has enormous experience, but i've talked to numerous generals you know as well as people in the c.i.a. and experts in foreign affairs. i think everyone will be hopefully delightfully surprised during the debates when we get to the part on foreign affairs. >> starting thursday? yes. >> hunt: what's the greatest national security threat facing america? >> we have so many incredible national security threats. let me put it this way, on day one of a carson administration, i would be looking to do everything we can to quickly shore up our military, and i'm

very concerned in the immediate term about jihadists, both here embedded and those who are abroad. in the longer term, i'm more concerned about putin and the chinese. but i think there are multiple threats. we also have to look at the fact that, you know, our grid is very vulnerable, is very old. all it would really take is an explosion of a nuclear weapon in our exoatmosphere. we don't have the backup systems necessary to protect us. >> hunt: lindsey graham said he would send at least 10,000 ground troops to take on i.s.i.s. in the middle east, and you've said you would be open to sending ground troops there. does 10,000 sound sufficient, too few? what's the carson doctrine on how many ground troops to send

over there? >> the carson doctrine is we would have to understand why we would need ground troops. the jihadists want to establish a caliphate, requires land. they've already acquired about half of iraq and about a third of syria. they're getting foothold now in tunisia, nigeria and other parts of the world. this is one of the reasons they look victorious and run of the reasons they're able to attract people. we need to stop that perception. in order to stop that perception, we have to be able to take the land from them. >> hunt: so what kind of force do you think that would require? >> in order to take the land from them, i would have to do that in consultation with generals but a i think it's relatively foolish for me to just throw a number out. >> hunt: i'm not saying a number, 11,000 or 8,000, but

does 10,000 sound ballparkish or do you need more? some people may say we need 50,000. >> you might need more but one thing need to recognize, when we take the appropriate leadership role, the coalition wes talk about, they will begin to come because people like to get on a bandwagon when it's winning. but when we're just sort of hanging back, they're not going out there. >> hunt: if putin invaded ukraine, what would the carson response be? >> i think he's already responsible for some of the things going down there. >> hunt: if he were to try to take over the whole country, what would the carson administration do. >> bear in mind ukraine was a nuclear state. they banned their nuclear arsenal partially because we said we would protect them. now, we've had eastern ukraine, you know, invaded and have we

protected them? no, we have not. we won't even give them offensive weapons. so i would definitely support them with offensive weapons and, if that wasn't enough, other things as well because -- >> hunt: do you mean potentially american forces? >> if necessary. >> hunt: if necessary. we have to be people of our word. everybody else is looking at what we're doing. they're looking at what we're doing with israel, with ukraine, and if our friends can't come, how are we going to develop friends? you get more of what you pay attention to and right now we seem to pay more attention of our enemies. >> hunt: let me ask you a final question. you are a man of deep faith and have been since you were a teenager. do you believe god has called upon you to be president? >> let me put it this way -- i have sought grad great wisdom nt only from other people but i've prayed a lot about it because it wasn't something i was gung-ho

to do, and i just said, lord, if you really want me to do this, you need to open the doors, i'm not going to push them open. and, of course, all the pundits and experts said a neophyte, someone who has no connections, it's impossible, don't even think about it. yet, doors are opening. so i just said, lord, as long as you open the doors, i will walk through them, and if you close them, i will sit down. >> hunt: well, as you walk through those doors, save travels, dr. carson, both on the campaign trail and debate stage and, thank you, dr. carson, for joining us. >> thank you, al, always wonderful to be with you. >> hunt: we'll be back in just a moment. >> rose: marc maron is here, comedian and host of "wtf" podcast. he had an interview with president obama and star of the

loosely biographical series maron, concluding the thirdsine. in this scene, his character encounters trouble calling the internet company. >> well he didn't fix it. he left two minutes ago and it's doing the same thing as before. >> do you have your repair number? >> yes. (474)432-8989. >> nope, not coming up. give you another one. ready? a as in apropos,s as in shame, 4 as in for, 7, 8, l as in lama, o as in o orifice, 1. i'm going to send one. >> great. because whatever is happening here is clearly not working. >> hello, mr. maron, how may i

provide you with excellent service today? >> you can fix my internet. very good. let me apologize for the problems you have been experiencing. >> whatever, let's just fix it. and i'm going to help you with that. my name is jeff. (middle eastern accent) >> all right, what's your real name? >> jeffrey. i think we know what's happening here. >> if you could focus on your internet, would you turn on your modem? >> no, what if you're lying about who you are? >> mr. maron, i'm going to schedule a specialist to come to your home tomorrow between 8:00 a.m. and noon if it's most convenient. anything else, sir? >> yes, except you're full of (bleep), jeff. (laughter) >> i haven't seen that in a while. it's funny. >> rose: you think of yourself -- i mean, watching

that as an actor, a comedian or journalist? >> certainly comedian first. everything followed that. comedy is what i wanted to be. i can calm myself and believe i'm a standup comic first and foremost. i know a lot of my success and attention came from talking to people burks i'm still wary of calling myself a journalist. >> hunt: because? because i don't see that i do that. >> hunt: it's not that you don't believe you have those qualities, it's simply that the truth is you're most of all a comedian. >> well, no, it's because, when i interview people or i talk to people, like it's my understanding that you're a journalist that, you know -- >> hunt: oh, no, no, i'm a comedian. >> you came up with a journalist. there's a method there, so i felt it would be wrong of me to assume i was that, you know, who, when, where, what, why, what are you looking for, being selfless or at least object nigh an interview, there are certain

tenets of journal i'm i never learned and don't follow. >> rose: i wasn't trained as a journalist, you know, and i know a lot of journalists who were trained and brilliant journalists but not necessarily good interviewers or conversationalist and not question and answer people. it's a different kind of competency. >> for me, it was all driven by an emotional need. i think when i first got labeled the journalist is when i interviewed carlos mancias and i didn't ask the right questions and he sort of steam rolled me and i had to do a second interview because the one i got was not -- >> rose: acceptable. ight, so i had to go back and do almost a more interrogative, you know, conscious questioning. >> hunt: driven by your curiosity. >> by that and also the need to make sure we talked about what was important, what the issue was. it's not always -- it's rarely

there are issues to be talked about with my guests, necessarily. >> hunt: well, the president? yes, that's the exception. yes, there are some things that had to be addressed but i was not looking for a political interview, really. >> hunt: what were you looking for? >> well, i was given the opportunity. the white house reached out, and i -- >> hunt: what did they say when you reached out? >> i think they talked to my producer, brenlden mcdonald, about a year ago and said, you know, look, we're thinking about doing something. it wasn't even clear. it was sort of, like, you're on our radar, some of us here like the show, i don't know what's going to happen but we're just saying hi. >> hunt: yeah. and brendan told me that and i'm, like, that's crazy, i'm, like, i'm glad someone listens in the white house but this isn't going to happen. then we stayed in touch and it became clear it might happen. and i'm, like, i can do it, i'm ready and honored. it came down to it's happening. then i'm where do i go?

brendan said, he wants you to come to the garage. i said that's ridiculous, he's coming to my little house? they said, he wants that experience. so what i was concerned with most is connecting with him personally and going from there. i knew i couldn't do a softball interview and i knew it had to be somewhat in depth but i was hoping to find who he was or is as a person, you know, in a genuine way. that's sort of what i end up doing, but it's a little trickier when you're dealing with -- >> rose: what's the difference between a hard ball and softball interview, in your eyes, because i think people use those terms with abandon and ill fitting. >> i think we live in a culture where a lot of what's being called journalism is people finding a thing and saying, ooh, what's that story about. and i don't do that. i'm very respectful. for me, i don't know what hard

ball is. for me, a hard ball question is when i know i have to ask it and i know it might be uncomfortable and how am i going to gauge my question after that. >> rose: with respect to the president, what question would you think it would be hard ball because it would be uncomfortable wrchlts politicians, when they don't want to answer a question, they answer whatever one they want. you say, where are we? >> rose: and five minutes later you say, can we get back to my question. >> right, and hold them to it. i asked him directly as my what is my own framing of what i see wrong with politics. i'm more reactnary than research. when i said there is more things in the presidency that are middle management, and who does he really work for. i think he got that but didn't

aired that directly. so, to me, i was nervous to ask that question because i thought it would be insultings in a way. he got it but didn't address where i wanted to go with it. again, when you ever an hour with that guy and you know he's going to take some time if he wants to to answer a question, you know, i had to get a lot of stuff in. and the bigger issue with obama for me was that, you know, i just sat at home, spent a week and read the book he wrote before he was president, it was an exploration of his identity racially and personally, to see who he was, who he is, what's in there. >> hunt: about his phat. >> rose: about his father. yeah. but i get home from hawaii wednesday, we already promoted the show a bit. brendan my producer had flown to l.a. and meet with the secret service and get the thing going 4')t:rju)n÷ happens in charlest. so we're sitting there 10:30 at

night and knew the only thing that would stop this would be a horrible thing internationally and it's happened and, you know, i'm sure he's going to have to stay and deal with this. we said to that, what are we going to do? he's the president and it was a horrible thing. but we waited it out and the next morning they said he was coming and we still weren't clear if he would come to my house but the white house said he is going to come. so then we had to address that because there was going to be three days before we put the interview out, and he was going to be addressing it somehow the following week and days, and it was the right thing to do. >> rose: absolutely. of course. and i can handle it. so we had to aired some supreme court stuff and talk about charleston and we talked about it. it was an incredible change of tone. because thee guys are professionals, you know that. so when he comes into my driveway which was tented with snipers on my neighbors' roofs,

which i asked them if we could do that. >> rose: the guy coming in with a gun -- (laughter) >> yeah, i said to my neighbor, can we put two snipers up there? he's retired, he's thrilled, said this is the best thing. >> rose: can i join them? secret service for a day. (laughter) >> yeah. so he walks in, voces a very overwhelming moment. because to stay focused, it is a very solitaire -- there is no distractions here. >> rose: a reason for that. yeah, it's good. but my garage is cluttered for a reason as well, but the fact is i had 15, 20 secret service people around, lapd, staff and all i was thinking was i have to connect with this guy, president barack obama. the point being, when he came up, a lot of people were coming up on the driveway, i was told to stand in front of the garage and all of a sudden i see the

president say, marc! pats me on the back and said, we're going to have a good time, right? and i said, well, i don't know, a couple of bad things have happened in the past couple of days -- (laughter) but i think he was prepared to have a light-hearted, slightly candid conversation, and after a few minutes he called me a narcissist because there is a lot of artwork around my garage people do of me, and after five minutes we bring that up. i feel a shift and i don't think he knew that's what we were going to do. and out of that came a very focused and human response. but it was a powerful statement about race, and another very sort of powerful condemnation of guns and how they're not regulated in this country, and he basically said that the n.r.a. has a strong hold on congress that probably is not

going to be shaken. so there's a little bit of real stuff about where he was standing -- >> rose: but my point is, it was exactly the place to go, you knew exactly what to ask him. what's going on in this country? there is one incident after another. this one is atrocious because it happened in a place of worship, it happened with people -- young people losing their life. but it's not the first incident and it's not the last incident and it continues to happen. >> yeah, and i think he was very straight and plain about that. this doesn't happen in other places. other places don't accommodate it. >> rose: i think you can do it because you're real and it's not like i'm out to get you, i'm out to understand. >> yeah. he said some beautiful stuff about fear les fearlessness whin

a conversation about comedy and he said some interesting stuff about the nature of democracy and its pace, and i think that was in retrospect, what was the most interesting to me about my experience with him is that i did feel a real person and i did feel he was a thoughtful guy. you know, almost like more thoughtful than you would expect. you know, he didn't strike me as some presidents where, you know, i'd like to have a beer with that guy. i imagine if you went to a party and saw obama, you would be, like, what's that guy thinking about? he acts like he has a lot on his mind, that guy. >> rose: seems preoccupied. exactly. but at the time he did the show, he said the reason i'm doing this is to get people interested in politics, and it wasn't about -- >> rose: get people interested in my politics. >> a bit, but he's discouraged with the distance. i noticed after the show, the response is whether you're on the right or left or whatever, after a first term and well into a second term you sort of detach from the president, he's just a

guy who makes speeches sometimes, and i think the left had sort of decided that they were disappointed, as the right, and i think that he felt disconnected, and the response -- >> rose: what's interesting to me, i think he thinks about those things more and better than most politicians and certainly presidents because he wishes to dialogue and he believes in the dialogue. everything you know about him, he believes in the dialogue. he believes in it internally as he makes decisions, he believes in it with respect the other countries and dealing with common problems, he believes it in conversations with iran. he sent his people to see if the iranians would want to have a discussion to get somewhere, and they got somewhere. >somewhere. right. >> rose: but he believes in dialogue and he also thinks about why is it we can't have more dialogue? he said, i can't talk about

certain things because they get so polarized. you know, if we talk about income inequality, people say it's class warfare. it's not class warfare, we're talking about issues we need to talk about, and we need to do that and i think he believes in that and that's the reason he reaches out to people like you because you -- >> i'll let him talk. >> rose: because you're wise enough to have a real conversation. you're not trying to score off the president. >> right. >> rose: you're trying to get him to think out loud. >> right, and i think what he said within the interview about the echo chamber and the reason dialogue is diminished is it becomes about -- you know, someone says class warfare, that gets traction, so there is no dialogue. it wasn't even use. he said the "n" word to make a point about using the "n" word in relation to progress in

racial relations in this country. then later talks about the echo chamber to be a diminishing force in the dialogue and it happened with that sound byte. >> rose: exactly right. you could walk out of there and know what the lead wit was. >> rose: right. the president used the "n" word. >> and there has been progress but you can't base it on trivial things. >> rose: i was so focused ton having a one-on-one experience with him that all i wanted to do is connect with this guy and i would have flashes that, oh, my god, i'm talking to the frigging president, the president was at my house! what kind of world do we live in? it's amazing! >> it's unbelievable. i could not believe it. i'm told -- the secret service is all over. i'm waiting, playing guitar, i'm

in my house, trying to stay in a groove where i don't get overwhelmed, and the secret service said they'll give me a heads up when he's five minutes away. so the plan is he was going to take the car pool, what's it called, you know, all the cars -- >> rose: right. we both have the same brain glitch. so the motorcade. >> rose: the motorcade. so take the motorcade from the beverly hills airport to the santa monica airport, get on a helicopter, fly to pasadena and park it in the parking lot and come to my house. we have a guy, five sets of headphones running in and out so people listen and we're sitting on the deck and we see the ospreys and the secret service guy said, oh, he's coming.

i don't even need a head up. he's probably 15 minutes away, that's his vehicle right now. (laughter) it was pretty exciting. the neighborhood was quiet, not a car parked anywhere. people lined the street, had a weird tent. >> rose: what's the aftermath of all this? do you hear from the president? >> oh, we talk every day, charlie. >> rose: he had jon stewart down to the white house to advise him on foreign policy. does he call you up and say, well, do you think i'm handling this deal okay? >> i wish i could tell you he texted me twice and i couldn't get back to him, enough, already -- (laughter) no, his relationship with stewart is specific. i think there is been no contact other than he left his to-go cup in my house. they travel with a food person and he has his own to-go cup with the presidential seal and the cocktail napkin with the

presidential seal. >> rose: so he left it. yeah, he left it. the fundamental difference between me and jon is jon has this outlet constantly in the dialogue and the daily show is an institution and he has a relationship with the president. me, the guy leaves the cup and i'm, like, how do i frame that? i have a glass dome that sits in my garage, the president's cup and napkin. >> rose: look but don't touch. ight, and that's what i got. i got the profound honor of being able to speak with a sitle president as candidly as we did. there was nobody in the room. a secret service guy behind me, no restrictions or management on me. >> rose: but you had time. i did a 45-minute interview with him, and just called and said, hey, what are you doing sunday, and we went down and had this

conversation. he could only do 45 because he was flying off to a recital by one of his kids. but the point is that's a lengthy interview for this president. >> yeah. >> rose: and, you know, it is those times that you really hope that you can get to see the guy more so than you do -- >> did you feel like you did? >> rose: i did. and then it's weird, when you're jaded and you have been doing this long enough, you walk out and go, was that really him? i felt like it was weird. he put me at ease fairly quickly and he planted himself in the environment because i have a lot of clutter and i could almost see him do it. when he sat around, looked, commented on it, brought it to me and he's, like, okay, he's in the room. he's not thinking about the next thing, he's here, and that was a lot. >> rose: where does all this go from here? >> well, where it goes is after all is said and done, i do a specific type of show, and i just got back to business. i was asked by somebody, like a

fairly -- one person asked me this question as a journalist, and i wish i could remember the guy's name. he goes, are you going to interview candidates now? i'm, like, no, i don't want to get back into that. i interviewed the president of the united states of america. we're not talking candidates. he's the president. i'm not getting involved in politics again, are you crazy? >> rose: the phenomenon of what's happened to you in terms of podcast and all that, tell me more about where you think they are and what it is that makes them sort of giving people who might not have had access to the mainstream a chance to be part of the national dialogue so much so that the president wants to come talk to you? the freedom to do and be your own boss and -- >> i think -- well, for me, you know, my podcast is sort of born out of a certain desperation. i had done a little wad radio ad

comedy for a long time but it wasn't really happening. i knew this medium existed, there were several people who had been around for a while and i asked the guy who produce mid radio, i said, brendan, do you think we can do this? he said, sure. we committed to a new show monday and thursday no matter what. he had done radio and i did a little, and he knew to build an audience we would have to have regulator. >> rose: they would have to know where to find you. >> right. what happened, is, over several interviews, who knows what makes someone compelling in that format. a lot of people do radio and anyone can do a podcast. why did it take off? a mixture of guests and the medium is new. the medium grew around the same arc of mine in it. i knew i helped the medium but it became visible because of the guest i had and the way i was doing it. so i think what's happening in

terms of the paradigm shifting out of terrestrial radio a bit, and more people are seeking the stuff out, the ability to listen on your time schedule and build a relationship with talents now in this medium, there are thousands of people doing it. who's going to transcend? i don't know. it's an open marketplace. >> rose: it is. it's hard to say how. it's a bit like what stewart said, when you hear it, you know there is some x factor at work that makes it distinct and different and compelling. >> i'm just glad i have that. >> rose: well, it's better you say, yes, i know what it is, this is the formula and it worked for me. but you can't have a formula. you have to be who you. >> are i'm doing speaking now and you want to be encouraging but you have to preface that

with it's probably not going to work out. there's a mixture of desperation and talent and, you know, a certain amount of skill. >> rose: the other thing about it, and we do some of similar kinds of things, is that everybody in the world thinks, hey, i'd love to do that and, boy, could i do it well. >> oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. >> rose: of course, i can talk. >> give me a mic, ready to go! >> rose: exactly. and in the seventh minute, they're saying, oh, my, where do i go from here? >> that's a bad feeling. i make notes as i go along and i like to talk to people, but i have been in a couple of situations where i rely so much on a conversation happening, and there were a couple of situations where the guy i was talking to was not into conversation because he was waiting for questions. >> rose: right. and it was rough for me. it was harry stanton. i had actually gone to his home. i don't think he knew me, the

show was set up through a publicist. i had just watched a document rion him. >> rose: great actor. yeah, great actor. i had been through a lot of hollywood history. i watched the documentary about him that spanned a few years and they could barely get him to talk and it took years to make it. the arrogance of me, i watched it and thought, i'm going to get them, a stranger, i'm going up there. >> rose: and? he was tough. he was doing his cross word and smoking -- >> rose: did he know it was tough? >> no. >> rose: he was depending on you. >> he was. but i made the mistake. i've only done this twice in all 600 shows where i felt i had to somehow explain myself like, you know, i had a hard time and didn't get through. i did it and eventually what we ended up doing is including the filmmaker of the documentary on the broadcast, we interviewed her as well. but people said, he's in his

80s. he's like my grandfather. what do you think he's going to give you? >> rose: that's right, but clint eastwood would be different. >> he's an interesting guy, a buddhist kind of dude and he literally said he didn't remember the movies he was in. i know he did. there was this part of him -- i think i may have put him off a little bit when i questioned his continuing to smoke into his '80s. >> rose: when he was at this table, i think he smoked. >> how did you do it? >> rose: i don't remember it being desperate. >> all right. (laughter) >> rose: great to have you here. >> thanks for having me, charlie. appreciate it. >> rose: thanks for joining us. for this and earlier episodes, visit us online at pbs.org and charlierose.com. captioning sponsored by rose communications

captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

>> rose: on the next pbs "newshour", a report from hungary on the wave of migrants fleeing war and poverty for a better life in europe.

announcer: the following kqed production was produced in high definition. ♪ >> must have soup! >> the pancake is to die for! >> it was a gut-bomb, but i liked it. >> i actually fantasized in private moments about the food i had. >> i didn't like it. >> you didn't like it? >> dining here makes me feel rich. >> and what about dessert? pecan pie? sweet potato pie?