Sen. Elizabeth Warren & Husband are Interviewed about Campaign.
CAMEROTA: Senator Elizabeth Warren is trying to become the first woman president, and that would make her husband of nearly 40 years the first gentleman. How does he feel about that and more? The pair talked exclusively to CNN's M.J. Lee. And she joins us now with this big interview. So how interesting. Tell us everything.</s>LEE: Yes, Senator Warren's campaign has obviously had a lot of political momentum lately, and for the first time since she announced her campaign on New Year's Eve, her husband Bruce is speaking out. We sat down with him, and then the couple together, and we talked about a whole range of things, including the story of how they met 40 years ago, and a previously unreported reporting about their deliberations over whether Senator Warren should jump into the 2020 race and how they might be preparing for a match-up against President Trump.</s>LEE: So let's talk about the two of you. This is your first joint interview of the campaign.</s>SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is.</s>LEE: How did you two meet?</s>WARREN: Oh, at a pink hotel.</s>BRUCE MANN, HUSBAND OF ELIZABETH WARREN: Yes, yes, a pink hotel in Key Biscayne.</s>LEE (voice-over): Meet Bruce man, a Harvard Law School professor better known these days as Elizabeth Warren's husband. (on camera): So 1979.</s>MANN: Yes.</s>LEE: You meet senator Warren. What was she like?</s>MANN: Oh, the -- first, let me set the scene, because --</s>LEE: Please.</s>MANN: It's completely improbable.</s>LEE (voice-over): The two met when they were 29 years old, attending a law conference in Florida. Warren had recently separated from her first husband, Jim Warren.</s>MANN: As I approached the reception, I looked across the lawn, from about, oh, I don't know, 25 yards away, the -- I saw Elizabeth talking to a couple of people, and the -- and even from that distance, the -- I was just -- I was just drawn to her. I mean, she was so lively, so animated, so engaged. I just fell for her from 25 yards out before even meeting.</s>LEE (on camera): Love at first sight?</s>MANN: For me, yes, it took -- it took her a couple of days.</s>LEE: And you?</s>WARREN: I was much slower. That was a Sunday late afternoon when we met.</s>LEE: That's right.</s>WARREN: I wasn't completely in love with him until sometime mid- morning on Monday. He was in the row ahead of me down at the other end of the row, and it was on Monday when I actually saw him in shorts and good-looking legs.</s>LEE: Wow.</s>WARREN: Yes. That's when -- that's when I was all in.</s>MANN: Yes, that's right. That's right. She completely objectified me.</s>WARREN: It's true.</s>LEE (voice-over): As the couple tells it, it was a whirlwind romance built on a shared love of teaching and academia and a bond over their similar upbringings. Just months after they first met, it was Warren who popped the question.</s>WARREN: It was in the fall, and I'd watched him teach a class, which I'd never done before. So I'm sitting in the back of the room while he's teaching. And with classes, he taught a really good glass, and students lots of interaction. Students asked him questions. And he walks back in this big empty classroom, he looks down at me and he says, "Well, what did you think?" And I said, "Great. Will you marry me?" And he said --</s>MANN: Yes.</s>WARREN: Yes. And that was it.</s>LEE: That was it?</s>MANN: That's right, yes.</s>WARREN: That was it. Yes. I got to see him in one -- you know, I got to see him in shorts, got to watch him play tennis. Got to do all that when we were in Miami for three weeks, and then got to see him teach, and -- but that's it.</s>MANN: Yes.</s>WARREN: I'm marrying this one. You know when you find a good one, grab him and hang on. I really am glad to see all of you here.</s>LEE (voice-over): Warren is now one of the leading candidates for the Democratic nomination for president. If she wins, her husband would be the first male presidential spouse in history. He says it's not a role he ever imagined himself playing. (on camera): When you first met the senator, she was a Republican.</s>MANN: I don't think I knew that at the time. However conservative she might have been at the time, the -- it was not particularly apparent, and we really didn't discuss politics.</s>LEE (voice-over): Friends and colleagues describe Mann as the quieter of the couple, devoted to his scholarship and even more devoted to his wife. He's been by Warren's side as her political career has taken off rapidly, beginning with a Senate campaign in 2012 and a presidential run announced on the last day of 2018. (on camera): So that conversation between the two of you where you decide, OK, we're going to do this. I'm going to run for president. What is that conversation like?</s>WARREN: I don't think of it as a single conversation.</s>MANN: No, not really. Not really.</s>WARREN: It was the bits and pieces kind of thing that people who live together do. A piece here about what's happening in our country, a piece about a place we ought to be fighting back. And over time -- now, I did have conversations with other people, real conversations that I told them I was going to have. And I wanted him to think about it so I could get good advice, and this is an important decision.</s>MANN: And so the conversations she mentioned were asking people to give her three reasons why she should run, three reasons why she shouldn't. And she saved me for last. And so finally she asked me for three reasons pro and con, and I said no, I'm not going to do it. And I said, you're going to run anyways. The -- so it just doesn't matter, because if you don't run and Democrats lose, you'll feel guilty, because then that means there will be no one to fight for the people and the issues that you care about.</s>WARREN: It just became clearer and clearer in this fight that you're right. I couldn't not do it.</s>LEE: So we fast forward ten months.</s>WARREN: Yes.</s>LEE: You know that your wife has been leading the polls lately. As the person who knows her best, why do you think she's leading the polls right now?</s>MANN: Because she's the best person to do the job.</s>WARREN: I'm glad you feel that way.</s>MANN: I do, I do, I do, I do. It's an entirely unbiased opinion.</s>WARREN: That's right, that's right. Absolutely.</s>MANN: The -- the --</s>WARREN: And you remember we don't do polls.</s>MANN: That's right. We do not do polls.</s>LEE: And if she does become the nominee, she will go up against President Trump. Are you ready for that?</s>MANN: I mean, I'm not sure if anyone -- how anyone trains for it. You just jump into the deep end, and you swim.</s>LEE: Do the two of you talk yet about what life could be like at the White House?</s>WARREN: No, huh-uh.</s>MANN: No.</s>WARREN: No.</s>MANN: No, no, no. It's a bit early.</s>LEE (voice-over): As his wife is running for president, Mann is continuing to teach at Harvard Law School. He has spent limited time on the campaign trail so far but says he already has one of the most important jobs on the Warren campaign.</s>MANN: My principal role has been as -- as Bailey's handler.</s>WARREN: That's right.</s>MANN: I help -- I help Bailey manage his photo ops.</s>LEE: The couple's 16-month-old Golden Retriever has developed a following of his own. (on camera): So what are the things that you two are doing to try to keep any sense of normalcy when you're home?</s>WARREN: Bailey.</s>MANN: Yes.</s>WARREN: Bailey. No, it is. We try to get out to Fresh Pond. And if it's a really good day, we actually do doubles at Fresh Pond.