[Burnett:] And OUTFRONT now, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton together on the stage talking politics. One is the husband of a democratic presidential candidate, the other the brother of a republican candidate. Let's listen in.
[George W. Bush , Former U.s. President:] Even those who are less likely to vote for you to I mean, one of the most unique relationships I had was with Ted Kennedy. A lot of it had to do with you. And there were some issues we could agree on. A lot of issues we didn't agree on. But I knew when to I tried to convince him on what issues. You have to know the people you are dealing with. Republicans were generally easier for me to work with, particularly when I was riding high. A little more of a challenge after '06. But it turns out that if you are polite, kind, considerate to people, they are a lot more likely to listen to you.
[Unidentified Female:] Give an example of that on the international stage. That more of persuasive. We are watching the debate, the negotiations on the deal right now. The talk about use of that persuasive style in an international setting.
[George W. Bush, Former President:] Well, by the time the issues get up to the president, there has been a lot of persuasiveness going on. That's what you have the secretary of state for and the National Security Council for. And, generally, the issues are pretty cooked by the time you get there. And always I know Cuba knows this. Never negotiate principal to adviser unless you are the one providing the adviser. You always want somebody playing their hand and person has to go back and say, well, I got to make sure Bush OKs it. So, I never got myself in a position where I have to get back to my principal. So, always go principal to principal if you are negotiating. Never go, you are the principal with a non-principal. I don't know if I confused that or not. Do you understand?
[Moderator:] Yes.
[Bush:] You need to understand it.
[Moderator:] Yes.
[Bush:] And so, I'm kind of avoiding your question.
[Moderator:] OK. I will move on then if you would like me to.
[Bush:] I got to know, this look, I spent I had 26 meetings with Putin one on one. More or less, I think. And every one of them started with, how is your family? So, Laura and I went to his house, met his little girls. And, you know, dad loves to talk about his kids and his daughters. So, I started off, how is your daughter doing? No matter how difficult the subject would be. The whole purpose was to try to create a human bridge, a connection. Then we would get to the issues at hand.
[Moderator:] So, one of our scholars observes that obviously, you have an authentic friendship. You spent time together and really enjoy it. I know you know some of the folks that are running for president. And so, the question is, what are your thoughts on the way that they, the candidates, can elevate the discourse so that it's foundational for governing and then tell a few stories from the campaign trail. You have been on it for many years, both of you.
[Bush:] Yes.
[Moderator:] President Bush, you want to start?
[Bush:] Well, you know, I think the discourse generally is lowered by surrogates. And the Internet is a brutal place these days for political figures because there's a high degree of anonymity. There's no personal responsibility whatsoever. People say whatever they want to say. It kind of becomes currency. I suspect I know Jeb and I'm confident Secretary Hillary will elevate the discourse. I can't attest to their surrogates. I can attest to this surrogate. I'm not going to be a surrogate. But it's You know, look, I really I think American people expect to be some sharp elbows in a campaign. I think what really discourages them post-campaign, the inability to govern in a way that is congenial. And hopefully, that will change. It goes in cycles, by the way.
[Moderator:] President Clinton, then we will
[William J. Clinton, Former President:] I may be naive. They say you get naive when you get long in the tooth. But, you know, I think they ought to have these debates both in the Republican primary and in the Democratic primary. And I think that I expect it to be very vigorous in the primaries. And then, whoever wins the two primaries will have a hard debate. But they need to keep in mind that what we are trying to do is to take the advantages America has and Mark Cuban say, we talked about it. We're well positioned. But we haven't proved yet that we can solve the problem that's bedeviling the world. That is that we can create jobs, that we have a large percentage by workforce and we can have shared prosperity. We ought to show respect for the debate by trying to be as specific and clear as we can about the policy choices before us. And we can trust the American people and enable the process just by saying, look, it's not that simple. If it were simple, we would have already done it. But these are the five things we think are most important. This is what I would do about them. I think the more we can keep on that and the less we can just do what I see and so much in the media today is this sort of culture of anger and resentment. We got to rise above anger to answers. Rise to a real response, because if you get this job, I can tell you, the next day it doesn't matter what was wrong with your opponent in the election. Next day, you are on your own. You walk in there and you don't have somebody with you, whichever desk you pick. You got to show up for work and make decisions. So, that's all I hope. I hope we clarify for the American people that this is a big bunch of choices, they're not simple, but we are we can do it. Look, the quality of these young people proves and the assets and the system of freedom of choice we have proves it. But we got a lot of tough decisions to make. That's all I really care about besides I know who I would like to win. But the more important thing for America is that we know what the heck we're deciding on and we make a pretty good decision.
[Moderator:] So this is the we're back to graduating the scholars. What advice do you have for them as they return to their communities and, you know, obviously, you heard Jake's call to action? What is your advice for them?
[Bush:] Don't watch a lot of
[Tv. Moderator:] Read like Mark Cuban.
[Bush:] Actually, act. Do things. Don't be afraid of failure. I'm not worried about this crowd.
[Moderator:] President Clinton?
[Clinton:] I agree with that. You know, the only thing I would say, if it whatever it is, doesn't work out, get up. I lost two elections. I was the youngest former governor in American history after the Reagan landslide. I had one guy appointed to the cabinet walk across Main Street in Little Rock to avoid being seen shaking hands with me for fear that the guy that beat me would fire him. That was a humbling experience. And I think you got to realize, there's no personal ambition you have which can be extinguished by anybody else. Only you, by giving up your dreams, can extinguish them. And if it doesn't work out exactly like you intended, it will still take you some place interesting and you will make a difference. So, my advice is, what George said, don't be afraid to fail. But you probably will whether you are afraid to or not. And it's scary. You just got to get up. The world belongs to tomorrow, not yesterday. Don't give anybody else permission to take your life away. Just keep living. And keep giving. And never make the perfect enemy the good. Never think that what I'm doing is too little to make a difference. That's not true. That's not true. Do something every day. Someday, for all of us, it will be our last day. What will matter were all the steps we took along the way and what they amounted to. Not the home run we hit on day X. And I wish you well.
[Moderator:] President Bush Do you want to add to that?
[Bush:] I was stuck on the some day may be your last day line. I thought that was pretty profound.
[Moderator:] So, this is maybe a good setup for this question. Are scholars have said they were surprised by both of you, that you were not what they expected. They thought what they read
[Bush:] One thought I couldn't read.
[Clinton:] The other one thought I could.
[Moderator:] How do you react to that with respect to the filter of the media and how to what that means for them as they try to present their true selves and have people understand who they are, know their heart and so forth?
[Bush:] You know, I don't know. I mean, I think we're both pretty confident people. And if people don't get us, what we're all about, then you just got to keep moving on. I try not to worry about it. I can't tell you the number of people who have told me that say you are taller than I thought you were.
[Moderator:] I'm not sure that's exactly what they meant. But
[Bush:] I'm 5'11" since I was 18. I don't know. I mean, image is image. You have to be confident of what you believe. If you have a set of believes you are willing to defend, image doesn't matter. And yes, you get people say things about you all the time. If that's the criteria for success for you, then go into the fetal.
[Clinton:] I would also say, if you cover political news, you have to realize that it's in the nature of things conflict is better news than concord, even though cooperation works better than conflict. If that's all you put on the evening news at night, you'd go broke. So, the nature of evening news will be to make people into two dimensional cartoons instead of three dimensional people. It's just the nature of the beast. And I think you just need to always keep your caution light burning in the back of your head on that. I also think the nature is suppose we were in a campaign against each other. He would have narrative and I would have mine. We would try to convince you that our narrative was better than the other. That's OK. But the people covering the campaign, they develop a narrative, too, a story line. It's almost impossible for the real story to be the same as the story line. It's very hard for the American people to be well informed if the story lines swamp the real story. You just have to keep all that in mind as you try to be good citizens. And still show up. Most important thing is showing up.
[Moderator:] So, we want some people to show up for the second class of scholars. We're launching the recruitment today. And people can apply, those who are watching livestream at presidentialleadershipscholars.org. So, for those who are pondering
[Erin Burnett, Cnn Anchor:] All right. So, you have been listening live to George W. Bush and Bill Clinton talking together. I joked at the beginning that they were close enough to hold hands. They did hold hands for a moment. Ari Fleischer is back with us, knows George W. Bush better than anyone, was the White House press secretary. I watched you every day live giving those updates on the war, Ari, like many Americans. And CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist Paul Begala, who served in the Clinton administration as counsel to the president. So, you know Bill Clinton incredibly well. And, of course, you are senior advisor to Hillary Clinton's super PAC. So, you are watching your friends, your former bosses on stage there. What do you make of what he had to say, Ari, when George W. Bush said, I know Jeb and I'm sure Secretary Hillary, that's how he put it, will elevate the discourse?
[Ari Fleischer, Former White House Press Secretary:] Well, it goes back to our earlier segment, Erin, when Governor Bush, Jeb Bush was asked about Donald Trump and he didn't take the bait and didn't want to get into the issue with Trump. Jeb does not like to throw the elbows. Jeb is much more of a wonk, a policy person, a serious minded governor. And that's going to be an issue he will have to deal with in the campaign because as President Bush said, campaigns are about throwing elbows. The trick in the campaign, though, as Paul knows, you have to throw the right elbows in the right manner and not too tough, because the American people get tired of it. They do understand there are differences between candidates. And it's the articulate candidate who can do it well who can make the difference and establish who they are.
[Burnett:] And, Paul, what is your take on what they had to say? I mean, you know, what is so captivating about watching these two talk is that they at one point probably hated each other. They are not really good friends. They are genuine friends. Yet, they couldn't be on more opposite sides of this election now.
[Paul Begala, Cnn Political Commentator:] Let me tell you something, this will surprise Fleischer. I hope he's sitting down. When I was banging on George W. Bush and I think history proved me right when I was a professional Bush basher. Bill Clinton at one point told me, be careful, he has a lot of street smarts.
[Burnett:] Paul, you know what? I'm going to interrupt you for one second. I'm going to come back to you. They are talking about their granddaughters. So, let's jump into that.
[Moderator:] So, I think that's the end of the program, I think. Everybody, please join me in thanking the two grandfathers.
[Burnett:] We will get the sound bite turned around. Obviously, I just missed it. But continue your point as you were saying. Paul was always right, proven right in every point he made against Ari Fleischer. Continue your point.
[Begala:] I was a big Bush basher and I don't make any apologies for that. As President Bush himself said, surrogates are often much tougher than the principals. I was a surrogate. I was happy to be a tough guy on president bush. Even at the time, even in the campaign, even with his Vice President Al Gore running against George W. Bush, I remember president Clinton saying to me, be careful, Paulie, this guy has got a lot of street smarts. Don't underestimate him. He's always President Clinton has always loved the Bush family ever since when he defeated President Bush Sr., President Bush Sr. was so gracious to him. He did not need to be. George H.W. Bush was such a class act and had a profound impact on President Clinton. He authentically likes George W. Bush and I think you saw it there.
[Burnett:] You definitely did.
[Begala:] It's maybe difficult for people to understand. But I do think there's something about sitting in that Oval Office and being one of four people alive and only 43 in our entire history who have had that responsibility, I think it does give you respect for folks who have served there, too.
[Burnett:] All right. Both of you stay with me. We're going to take a pause. When we come back, you're going to hear what they had to say about their granddaughters. I promise. I'm not going to leave you hanging on that, as well as what George W. Bush had to say about the election and losing the election. Those comments coming up right after this.