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Laura Coates Live
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson Won't Endorse Biden After Backing Him In 2020; RFK Jr. Downplays January 6 Attack; CNN Presents "Who's Talking To Chris Wallace." Aired 11p-12a ET
Aired April 05, 2024 - 23:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[23:00:00]
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: And to the memory of all those crew members. Thank you, Kaycee Anderson for joining us and sharing --
KAYCEE ANDERSON, DAUGHTER OF ASTRONAUT MICHAEL P. ANDERSON: Thank you.
SCIUTTO: -- your thoughts on this. Well, please don't forget this Sunday, the brand-new CNN Original Series, "Space Shuttle Columbia: The Final Flight," parts 1 and 2, premieres Sunday at 9:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time, of course, only here on CNN.
And thanks so much to all of you for watching "NEWSNIGHT." I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington, and LAURA COATES LIVE starts right now. Hi, Laura.
LAURA COATES, CNN HOST AND SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Tonight on LAURA COATES LIVE, time to get up enthusiastic. The big interview with Curb Your Enthusiasm's Larry David. Wait until you hear what happens when Chris Wallace asks Larry the question he doesn't want to answer.
So, all you Curb fans can probably guess what will happen next. And Larry David, he definitely does not shy away from politics at all, and you'll want to hear what he really thinks of Donald Trump. And if you suddenly hear babies crying, don't blame me. That and much more in their full interview just a few moments away.
But first, look, not everyone in Hollywood wants to talk about politics. "The Rock," AKA Dwayne Johnson, says he will not endorse Joe Biden or anybody this time around.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DWAYNE JOHNSON, ACTOR: The endorsement that I made years ago with Biden was one I thought was the best decision for me at that time. Am I going to do that again this year? That answer is no. I'm not going to do that because what I realized, what that caused back then was something that tears me up in my guts back then and now, which is division, and that got me.
(END VIDEO CLIP) COATES: You know what else is raising some eyebrows or maybe just the one eyebrow from "The Rock?" Anyway, he goes on to say he'll keep his politics to himself. So, here's the thing. That's very different than what he chose to do in 2020. If you look back, here's how he endorsed the Biden-Harris ticket back then.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNSON: So, I figured let's kick this conversation off this way by me officially publicly endorsing you both to become president and vice president of our great country.
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Oh, that's fantastic.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Thank you, thank you, thank you
HARRIS: Thank you.
(CROSSTALK)
BIDEN: -- for real. Thank you.
HARRIS: Really, thank you.
JOHNSON: You guys are both obviously experienced to lead. You've done great things. Joe, you've had such an incredible career. You've led, in my opinion, with great compassion and heart and drive, but also soul.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: Now, remember, "The Rock" is not your average celebrity endorser, by the way. He says that he was approached, recall, by unnamed parties in 2022, asking if he would run for president himself. He has even cited hypothetical polls that show him getting support in the 40s. And while he ruled out a run this year, I didn't hear him ruling out a run in the future. I wonder how all of these fits into perhaps a master plan.
Now I want to bring in Shermichael Singleton, a CNN political commentator and former deputy chief of staff of Housing and Urban Development under Donald Trump, and Kate Bedingfield, a CNN political commentator and former Biden White House communications director.
I'm so glad that you're both here. I'm going to try not to show my WrestleMania past --
(LAUGHTER)
-- but it's there.
(LAUGHTER)
Kate, let me begin with you here because, first of all, the idea of the endorsement or not endorsing, it's quite a thing. Did anyone ask him, per se, to describe it in this way? He seemed like he really wanted this to be known. Why do you think that is the case?
KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, it seems to me pretty clear this is a celebrity protecting his own personal brand. I mean, he made the decision to go on Fox. If you listen to the rest of the interview, he talks about his concern about woke culture in the United States. He's clearly thinking about his own brand. He's clearly sorts of trying to, you know, correct -- course correct for his own personal -- his own personal reasons.
Um, so, you know, I don't know that this is so much a reflection on Biden as it is an effort by a celebrity to sort of say, you know, I stuck my toe in the pool of politics, I didn't love it, and now I'm trying to adjust and pull back.
I think it's a little ironic to go on Fox News and talk about how you reject division and hate the division that you see in the country given what Fox News does, but -- but I think that it's very clear. I think, you know, he and his PR team sat down and were trying to figure out how they could pull him out of politics for his own personal brand.
COATES: You know, of course -- I mean, I'm equally curious about how people think and how they vote, as we all are in many ways, but it's the way that, as Kate is talking about, that he wanted to make sure it was known that he wasn't going to do anything this time around, and there are many celebrities who love being very much a part of it.
SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Yeah.
COATES: I wonder from your perspective, though, does this mean that it's bad for the Democrats?
[23:05:00]
It's more than just "The Rock" saying, look, I'm out. It is more people saying, I'm out from the Democrats.
SINGLETON: I mean, not only did he say he was out, he was asked, did he think President Biden is doing a good job? He pretty much said no. He was asked if he thinks the country is headed in the right direction, he pretty much said no. I think this is a consistent and a persistent pattern that you see with Americans, including some Democrats, in terms of how they feel about President Biden and the direction of the country overall.
You just happen to have "The Rock," who's one of the biggest celebrities in the world, sort of mimicking, if you will, what many other people are saying on the streets in their everyday lives which is, we don't believe the country is better under the Biden administration, and we want somebody else. Unfortunately, we have two people that nobody wants with Biden and former President Trump.
COATES: You know, interestingly, from "The Rock" to maybe the sinking poll numbers for Biden in many respects, he certainly wants it to be much higher, Kate. He wants people to associate his administration with success and good feeling. Now, he can tout a lot of things, but there is a disconnect between people, say, they are feeling in polls. How do you get around that? I mean, he has had these many accomplishments.
BEDINGFIELD: Uh-hmm.
COATES: But when you look at how voters think the issues can be handled best, I mean, Trump leads in the economy, immigration, mental and physical fitness. Of course, abortion and democracy, Biden is there as well. What does that suggest to you?
BEDINGFIELD: Well, I think, first of all, I would say we have seen over the last month, really since the State of the Union, so more than a month, six weeks, we have seen polls slowly start to tick up in Joe Biden's favor. We've seen that in the battleground states. Obviously, not where he wants to be yet, but moving in the right direction.
You know, I think there's also -- we've also seen good economic news. We saw a gangbuster jobs report just yesterday or this morning even. What is time anymore? I don't know. But --
(LAUGHTER)
-- you know, that was better than people anticipated. So, you know, there continue to be economic indicators that are strong. Now, yes, is there a disconnect between how people are feeling, the sense of unease that people have, and substantively where the economy is? Yes.
And so, it is on President Biden and the Biden campaign to spend the next seven months talking about not just what they've done, not just what they've passed, not just the bills, but really how they have made a difference in people's lives. And I think they have a very good story to tell about his focus on kitchen table issues and on what matters to middle class families.
And don't forget, he's running against Donald Trump, whose entire message is about Donald Trump and about himself, and is not in any way about how he's going to -- how his second term is going to make life better for working people. So, the Biden campaign also has to drive that contrast for the next seven months.
COATES: Well, here's a contrast for both of you. What RFK Jr. thinks happened on January 6th in terms of weapons or people approaching, I'm using the term loosely here, approaching the Capitol, and what he's now saying. I want to play for a little bit here because earlier, he said today that January 6th might not have been a real insurrection, that protesters carried no weapons, and then a few hours later, he retracted that, saying that he was wrong.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Now, of course, these were all knowable facts. I'm not sure how one misconstrues or misunderstands given, of course, we've heard many a moment talking about the bear spray, the mace. (END VIDEO CLIP)
There is the idea of the knives. You've got the comments from the January 6th committee talking about Trump through Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony, saying that they're not here for me, don't have them use the magnetometers or whatever it would be. How did he get this so wrong?
SINGLETON: I mean, this is like the oddity with Robert F. Kennedy. I mean, in one vein, he appears to want to be an uber left liberal, and the other vein, he clearly wants to be somewhat like Trump, appealing to some of those Republican voters who may think there is a better alternative. It's just odd. It's just weird.
I mean, I think the evidence on this is pretty straight clear. We've had a year and a half worth of individuals coming out, testifying publicly about it. I think it was a catastrophic mistake. I'm not exactly sure what RFK Jr. was thinking here. I think he needs to probably focus on what is his path when there really isn't one to try to continue forward over the next couple of months. He selected a running mate that no one knows anything about.
And when you really look at some of his policy positions, they really are sort of indistinguishable in terms of how they actually are going to address many of the issues that people are actually facing. So, this is a blunder, a terrible mistake. His folks need to figure out what his message is going to be moving forward. This shouldn't be it.
COATES: A blunder or an attempt to envelop independents or Trump voters?
BEDINGFIELD: I mean, look, this is a combination. This is a brutal combination of dangerous and incompetent. I mean, he's saying things that he knows are not true and are incredibly inflammatory and that, you know, parrot the worst things that Donald Trump says about what January 6th was.
So, he's incredibly irresponsible in carrying that forward. We saw him -- you know, we've seen -- and then incompetent in the way he has handled it. I mean, we saw the fundraising email from his campaign.
[23:09:57]
And then there was an, oh, well, it was just a vendor that we didn't -- you know, we didn't actually approve the language in the email. Then they turn around a day later. Here comes the statement from the candidate himself doubling down on all of this and saying, you know, there weren't -- people were not bringing weapons into the Capitol. And then it was, oh, well, actually, no, I looked and I guess there were some weapons that were brought into the Capitol.
I mean, incredibly dangerous and an incredibly incompetent way to handle this. And, you know, I think that this -- for anybody who's taking a look seriously at Robert Kennedy as a candidate for president, this should give you enormous pause. COATES: And yet there -- there is polling that people are in certain states looking at this. But he -- I want to point to something he said earlier in the week. He suggested, I'm quoting here, that we should not make pariahs out of election deniers. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN F. KENNEDY, JR., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think people who say that the election is stolen, not that we shouldn't treat -- we shouldn't make pariahs of those people. We shouldn't demonize them. We shouldn't vilify them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: So, when you hear that, is that -- does that explain in some way to you why, and I'm not justifying it, but does that explain or give some insight as to why he's trying to bridge these gaps?
SINGLETON: I mean, maybe because, again, to Kate's point, maybe he's trying to appeal to some of those voters. But, look, there are a lot of people who believe the election was stolen regardless of what we may think. Those folks are out there. It is a sizable percent of Donald Trump's base.
COATES: But is it enough to convert a voter for Trump?
SINGLETON: No, absolutely not. I mean, the folks who supported Trump are impeccably loyal. I mean, those. I mean, those folks would literally walk off a bridge for Donald Trump if it meant helping him get back into the White House. Whatever Robert F. Kennedy says, whatever position, policy position he tries to adopt, is not going to persuade any of those people.
Now, if there is a more nationalized conversation about what do we do after the election, let's say Trump doesn't win in terms of reaching out to those people, then I think we're all a part of wanting to have that dialogue, but this isn't it.
COATES: Real quick, Kate, final word.
BEDINGFIELD: I agree. I agree with that. I mean, I don't know who he thinks his audience is for this. This is not going to be an argument that's going to peel away a Donald Trump voter, and it is certainly not going to appeal to a Biden voter or even somebody there in the middle.
COATES: Hmm, I wonder what it's going to do. Shermichael, Kate, thank you both so much.
SINGLETON: Thanks, Laura.
COATES: Hey, just moments away, Curb Your Enthusiasm's Larry David sits down with Chris Wallace, and there will be fireworks. It's a special encore presentation of "Who's Talking to Chris Wallace," and it's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:15:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COATES: Now, let's turn over to our friends at Max with "Curb Your Enthusiasm" 12-season run coming to close this Sunday. Chris Wallace talks to the show's star and creator, Larry David, about T.V., politics, and life itself. Here is "Who's Talking to Chris Wallace."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS WALLACE, BROADCAST JOURNALIST: Larry David, welcome. It's so good to be with you again.
LARRY DAVID, COMEDIAN AND WRITER, STAR AND CREATOR OF "CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM": Thank you so much, Chris. Um, this isn't going to take very long, right? What are we, like, a couple of minutes, five minutes? Because, you know, I don't really sit with people as a rule for a long time, even dinners.
WALLACE: You and I have had dinner, and we sat there for an hour.
DAVID: Was it an hour?
WALLACE: Yeah. Did it feel longer?
DAVID: Felt like three, yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
WALLACE: Well, this will --
DAVID: Yeah.
WALLACE: This will be shorter than dinner.
DAVID: All right, good.
WALLACE: We're coming to the end of season 12 of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," and I got to say, you are on fire. In one episode, you get in a fight with a hotel maid, a waiter who has lost his mother, and even with the Siri device in your car. Here's that one.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID: Siri, directions to Wolfsglen.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Directions to Great Wolf Lodge.
UNKNOWN: No, Siri, Wolfsglen Restaurant.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): One option I see, Wood's Garden Supply on Benedict Canyon.
UNKNOWN: Siri, Wolfsglen Restaurant in Westwood. UNKNOWN (voice-over): One option I see, the Wolseley Restaurant in Burbank.
UNKNOWN: No, no, no, you're not listening!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: It -- it gets a lot worse than that.
DAVID: Yeah.
WALLACE: But in any case, I was going to use --
DAVID: By the way, that scene, the night -- the night that happened, when I was going someplace, that's actually how I reacted.
(LAUGHTER)
Just everything you see in that scene is what I did. And I came in the next day. I said, listen, we've got to shoot this. This is really funny. And so, we did, and we put it in the first show.
WALLACE: Why is it that so many things in life, like Siri, trigger you?
DAVID: I --
(LAUGHTER)
-- I have a very low tolerance for stupidity in myself and in others. And so -- I don't know. I just notice things that maybe -- I don't know. Maybe other people don't or -- or I think I just-- things impact me more. And I have an outlet to do it. I'm sure people have had a situation like that in their car, but what can they do with it? Just tell their friend, hey, has this happened to you or isn't this awful or whatever? But I'm lucky enough that, well, I had a show that I could put it on.
WALLACE: It stood on for a little bit longer.
DAVID: Yeah.
WALLACE: One of the main storylines this season is that you go to Atlanta, and there's a woman who's a friend of yours, who's waiting on line to vote, and you get arrested for giving her a bottle of water.
[23:20:00]
And that evolves, in a kind of roundabout Larry David way, into a story about Rudy Giuliani and a lawn jockey. Here you are.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNKNOWN: Oh, my God. Oh, my God. What's going on here? What the fuck is this
DAVID: And I --
UNKNOWN: All right, you two, you have really gone too far this time. Go out and get me a black jockey right now! You better fucking find one! And I want that purse back, too!
DAVID: It's Giuliani! No wonder I thought he looked like an asshole!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: And I'm not even going to get into how we ended up with a black lawn jockey there. So, how much has the whole 2020 election and everything that has flowed from it pissed you off?
DAVID: I mean, you can't go a day without thinking about what he has done to this country because he's such a little baby that he has thrown 250 years of democracy out the window by not accepting the results of it.
I mean, it's so crazy. He's such a sociopath. He's so insane. He just couldn't admit to losing. And we know he lost. He knows he lost. And look how he has fooled everybody. He has convinced all these people that he didn't lose. He's such a sick man. He's so sick. Anyway, no, it hasn't impacted me at all.
(LAUGHTER)
WALLACE: But, I mean, when you think about it, the, you know, the changing of the rules, the fact that you're not allowed to bring a bottle of water to somebody waiting on line in the heat.
DAVID: When I heard about that -- that law in Georgia, it was mind- blowing. What? You can't give a person a bottle of water or food if they're waiting on line to vote? It was the most preposterous thing I ever heard. It sounded like a sketch. And so, it became one, yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
WALLACE: It's all fodder for grist for the mill.
DAVID: Yeah.
WALLACE: You announced in December that this is not the season finale but a series finale. This is the end of "Curb." How come?
DAVID: I don't know.
WALLACE: That's it? That's the answer?
DAVID: I don't know. It was -- it was -- it was time. Twelve seasons. We've been doing it for 24 years. I mean, it's a long time. And -- I don't know. We really want to see an old guy on television just until he's in the 80s. I mean, how long can you watch?
WALLACE: It's too late. I already have him saying an old guy on television.
DAVID: Yeah. How long can you watch it? Yeah.
WALLACE: What are you going to do with yourself?
DAVID: I'll find some stuff, yeah.
WALLACE: In entertainment? Are you going to just play golf?
DAVID: Oh, no, no, no. I'll do something, yeah.
WALLACE: But "Curb," and this is final. This is --
DAVID: This is it, Chris. This is it.
(LAUGHTER)
I'm making a Sherman-esque statement.
(LAUGHTER)
WALLACE: If nominated, you will not --
DAVID: If nominated, I will not run. If elected, I will not serve.
WALLACE: One thing that people have loved about "Curb" is the way that you find the absurdity in everyday life. And here's case in point, you driving to go see a Los Angeles Dodgers baseball game.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID: Oh, you should see the traffic. The only thing moving is the carpool lane. I'll never make it. I'm just going to go home. I'm not going to use the carpool lane by myself because I don't want to. Well, that's the difference between you and me. All right, goodbye.
UNKNOWN: Hey, Daddy, you want to date with Mama?
DAVID: Get in the car.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(LAUGHTER)
WALLACE: The kicker here is that your crew goes to the game, shoots some footage of the game, and you ended up being the excuse, having evidence that showed that a guy didn't commit a crime and, therefore, didn't have to go to prison?
DAVID: Yeah, the guy -- the guy was in prison. And he suddenly remembered that there was a -- he said he was at a Dodger game, but then he remembered that there was a film crew that night. His lawyer came to our office and asked if he could look at the footage. And we said, yeah, sure. So, I was doing something else.
[23:24:57]
And then I just -- after 20 minutes, I went into the room. Within a minute, the guy jumps out of his seat, sees something on T.V. and goes, there he is. And he was there. And I got the guy off. Not me, but yeah.
WALLACE: I know, you are kind of a hero.
DAVID: Yeah, I saved someone's life inadvertently.
(LAUGHTER)
WALLACE: The only way you'd ever do it.
DAVID: The only way I could ever do it, yeah.
WALLACE: In 2020, in "Curb," you discovered the advantages to wearing a MAGA hat.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNKNOWN: All right, two seats at the sushi bar. You know what? Actually, I think we'd prefer to sit at a table, please. Huh.
DAVID: Sad. Very sad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(LAUGHTER)
WALLACE: In your world here, because, you know, you live in Beverly Hills or Santa Monica or something like that, what would wearing a MAGA hat do?
DAVID: I'm sure you'd get some very odd looks in Los Angeles if you were walking around with that hat. But, yeah, I used it on a show. Got me out of a couple of things. I was going to get beat up by --
WALLACE: A biker.
DAVID: A biker, yeah. Then I put the hat on.
WALLACE: How do you wrap your head around the fact that he could very well be a reelected president? I mean, right now, I'd say he's the favorite.
DAVID: He's just such an amazing conman. He has such a gift for lying and fooling people and convincing people of something that's a complete lie.
WALLACE: But the fact -- but the point is, millions and millions and millions of Americans, more so than three years ago, they buy it.
DAVID: They buy it. It's a testament to his conning abilities. He's the greatest conman we've ever produced, yeah.
WALLACE: Well, that's something.
DAVID: Yeah. (END VIDEOTAPE)
COATES: There's a whole lot more with Larry David ahead. What's he thinks of the, well, the disappointed reaction to Seinfeld's finale as Curb's finale approaches?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:30:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COATES: We're back with more "Who's talking to Chris Wallace?" Well, he's talking to Larry David. Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WALLACE: You started "Seinfeld" in 1989. And I want to play a clip from perhaps the most famous episode, the contest that won you an Emmy and TV Guide, that great authority, said was the greatest episode of T.V. ever.
DAVID: Is that right?
WALLACE: Yeah.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNKNOWN: I want to be in on this, too.
UNKNOWN: Oh, no, no, no.
UNKNOWN: Why? What? Why? Why?
UNKNOWN: Because you're a woman.
UNKNOWN: So, what?
UNKNOWN: It's easier for a woman not to do it than a man. We have to do it. It's part of our lifestyle.
(LAUGHTER)
It's like shaving.
UNKNOWN: Oh, that is such a baloney. I shave my legs.
UNKNOWN: Not every day.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(LAUGHTER)
WALLACE: So, first of all, how'd you come up with that idea? DAVID: I had a contest with a friend.
WALLACE: Literally?
DAVID: Literally.
WALLACE: That -- that contest?
DAVID: That contest.
WALLACE: Who -- who -- who could put it off longer?
DAVID: Yes. Had a contest.
WALLACE: And then what were the results of said contest?
DAVID: I was clearly the winner. Yeah.
WALLACE: Really?
DAVID: Yes.
WALLACE: What'd you go, two days?
(LAUGHTER)
DAVID: Anyway, that's where that came from.
WALLACE: And how much trouble did you have getting it past the NBC censors?
DAVID: Um, usually, the network would -- they would -- when they would come into the room after a show or after a run-through, they would look at our board and see upcoming shows. And they'd say, what's that one about? What's that one about?
And for the contest, I didn't put it up on the board because I didn't want them asking what it was about because I knew they wouldn't do it. They came to a read-through. They heard the show.
WALLACE: Right.
DAVID: And in my head, I'm going, well, if they don't let -- if they don't let us do this, I'm done, I'm quitting. As soon as they say no, we're not doing it. And I've got the whole speech in my head.
WALLACE: Right.
DAVID: Sorry, good luck, I'm done. You know, that's what I was going to do. I was going to quit. But then we had the read-through. It got great laughs. They came back to our office, and they didn't say a word. I was stunned.
WALLACE: Maybe a little disappointed, too.
DAVID: Yeah, it would have been a good scene. (LAUGHTER)
I missed that on a big dramatic moment.
WALLACE: So why do you think they'd let it go?
DAVID: I don't know. I don't know. I guess because they heard laughs. And when they hear laughs, it kind of changes their thinking about something.
WALLACE: There's another episode I love in which George is trying to impress a girlfriend at a kid's birthday party.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNKNOWN: Smoke? Everybody? I think I smell some smoke back here.
UNKNOWN: Fire!
(SCREAMS)
UNKNOWN: It was an inferno in there! An inferno!
UNKNOWN: There he is! That's him!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(LAUGHTER)
WALLACE: Incidentally, it was the clown with the big shoe. He's the one who put out the fire.
[23:34:54]
After the clown and the kids and the old lady and the presumed girlfriend all come out and excoriate George, a fireman says, how do you live with yourself? And George says, It's not easy.
DAVID: Yeah.
WALLACE: So -- and George, it's supposedly based on you, so same question. How do you live with yourself?
DAVID: How do I live with myself? It's -- again, it's not easy. Yeah, it is not easy. I don't know. I just try and get into a routine. And so, if I do the same thing tomorrow that I'm doing today without, of course, seeing you, I've got through it. And okay, do the same thing, you'll get through that one, too. So, I have to have -- I have to have a very regimented life. I don't like traveling. I don't like going anywhere. I like -- I like going to the office.
(LAUGHTER)
I like going to the office. I like playing golf. I like being in my house.
(LAUGHTER)
I'm so dull and uninteresting. I really don't enjoy being out and socializing and making small talk. I don't know.
WALLACE: Is this a bit that you're doing for me?
DAVID: No, it's not a bit. It's not a bit. It's not a bit. Ask anybody who knows me.
WALLACE: So why are you laughing?
DAVID: You know what? I wish it was a bit. I wish it was. I long to be somebody else. I wish I could enjoy things that most people enjoy. But I can't. Yeah. I don't know.
WALLACE: I mean --
DAVID: Something -- something went off somewhere.
(LAUGHTER)
Yeah.
WALLACE: Something went terribly wrong?
DAVID: Something went wrong, Chris.
WALLACE: Speaking of things going wrong, you wrote for "Saturday Night Live" --
DAVID: Yeah.
WALLACE: -- for one season.
DAVID: Yeah.
WALLACE: And --
DAVID: Well, you've really done some -- some background stuff.
WALLACE: Yeah. And the story I heard is you're -- you're writing for "Saturday Night Live," an entire season.
DAVID: Yes.
WALLACE: You get one sketch on the air.
DAVID: Yes.
WALLACE: And you get so fed up that at one point, one night, you go to the executive producer and you say to him, I quit.
DAVID: Yes.
WALLACE: And you realized overnight.
DAVID: It was laced with profanity, by the way. The I quit speech.
WALLACE: Yeah, right.
DAVID: It was the one that I was going to deliver to the "Seinfeld."
WALLACE: About the contest.
DAVID: Yeah, about the contest.
WALLACE: But this time --
DAVID: This time I actually did it, yeah.
WALLACE: Okay. And that overnight, you realize this is a big mistake and that you show up for work on Monday pretending nothing ever happened.
DAVID: Yeah.
WALLACE: Is that a true story?
DAVID: Yeah, 100%, yeah.
WALLACE: And how did that go?
DAVID: It went well.
WALLACE: I mean, did nobody say, hey, what are you doing here?
DAVID: No, I got some odd looks from the writers, people who witnessed my meltdown. And the executive producer who was running it didn't see. He asked me what I was working on. And I told him, and then he moved on to the next person.
I just sat there. He went down the line of the writers, asked them what they were working on, got to me, what are you working on? I told him, and then he went to the next one.
WALLACE: And you turned this into a storyline for George, who at one point --
DAVID: George, yeah.
WALLACE: -- quits --
DAVID: Yeah.
WALLACE: -- realizes it's a mistake, comes back to work --
DAVID: Yeah. Yeah, pretends it never happened.
(LAUGHTER)
WALLACE: I think you're not as maladjusted as you think you are. Although I do have a story to tell. You and I went to dinner with your lovely wife, Ashley -- DAVID: Yeah.
WALLACE: -- last fall. And you very nicely picked up the check. And the next day, I wrote you, I thought, a very gracious thank you note. And you then responded. And I have saved this. I literally quoted this. You wrote back to me and you said, keep in mind, next time when you pick up the check, you will not be getting a next day thanks.
(LAUGHTER)
DAVID: Yeah.
WALLACE: What's so objectionable about it?
DAVID: How many thank you do we have to give out?
WALLACE: I gave one.
DAVID: No, I understand. But if you take me out to dinner and I say, hey, Chris, thank you so much, why do I have to do? Where does it say I have to send something the next day? Why?
WALLACE: I'm not --
DAVID: Everybody is sending all these next day thank you texts. You thank somebody when you leave. That's enough.
WALLACE: I wanted to do it. I'm not asking you to send me a thank you note. I sent you a thank you note.
DAVID: Yes.
WALLACE: But then you had to respond to it.
DAVID: I know because I just wanted you to know in advance that I wasn't going to send you a next day thank you text if you took me out to dinner the next time. I was going to thank you after the dinner, before I got in my car. Thanks so much. I really appreciate it.
WALLACE: And you wouldn't --
DAVID: Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. And that's sufficient. You don't need a next day text, do you?
[23:40:00]
Why do you need the next day text?
WALLACE: I kind of would appreciate it.
DAVID: What do you mean?
WALLACE: Because, otherwise, you've just gotten in the car, you've driven off --
DAVID: No. WALLACE: You've never given a second thought to me and how gracious I was.
DAVID: But I said thank you after the meal.
WALLACE: I understand, but it was a momentary thank you. It means you at least lasted until the next day.
(LAUGHTER)
DAVID: I think that's ridiculous.
WALLACE: So, tell me something else.
DAVID: Yeah.
WALLACE: Everyday social interaction that, you know, kind of greases the wheels of humanity that you think is stupid.
DAVID: I mean, there's 12 seasons worth of it, like the happy new year. I don't understand why anybody would say happy new year to me. I can't even respond to it on a text, happy new year. Why? Why are you sending that to me? I don't -- I don't care. I don't care about a new year. What's the difference? What's the difference? It's happy new year. What does it even mean?
WALLACE: Well, there's even a better question, which I think is actually one of your episodes. How long after January 1st --
DAVID: Yeah.
WALLACE: -- do you have to keep saying happy? In other words --
DAVID: Yes, I was nice and said January 7th. But now I'm revising that to January 3rd.
WALLACE: January 3rd?
DAVID: Yeah.
WALLACE: That's it?
DAVID: That's it.
WALLACE: Do people come up to you and sort of say, almost like a rabbi, how long do I have to say happy?
DAVID: Yeah.
WALLACE: They do.
DAVID: Yeah, I get questions like that.
WALLACE: And you pronounce --
DAVID: Yeah, and I have -- I have answers for all of them. (LAUGHTER)
WALLACE: So, January 3rd --
DAVID: I'm changing it to January 3rd, yeah. Yeah. And here's the thing, because I'm Jewish, I also get the happy new year in September at the Rosh Hashanah.
WALLACE: Yeah.
DAVID: Yeah. And I get it then. So, I'm getting it twice a year.
WALLACE: It's a nightmare.
DAVID: I don't need it. Don't wish me happy new year. I don't even care if you wish me happy birthday. What do you think about that?
WALLACE: Well, now we're really treading on sacred ground here. Really?
DAVID: No, that's fine. Happy birthday is fine.
WALLACE: This is interesting.
DAVID: But, but --
WALLACE: Yes.
DAVID: I've said this in -- I think I did a movie where I talked about this, that the birthday is turned into a job. You're getting 25, 30 texts of happy birthday. They all have to be answered. And it's a job.
WALLACE: Well, I agree with that. But here's the interesting question.
DAVID: Do you agree that you have to respond to the happy birthday text?
WALLACE: I --
DAVID: You have to say something, right?
WALLACE: You have to acknowledge.
DAVID: Yeah.
WALLACE: If I send you a happy birthday and you don't respond, I consider it a snub.
DAVID: Yeah, it's a snub.
WALLACE: It's a snub. In fact, I question the whole basis of our relationship.
DAVID: Yeah. So, what I'm saying is I would rather not get the happy birthday text because I have to return it. That's all I'm saying. I'd rather not get it. If you want to say it in person, if you see me, hey, happy birthday. Hey, thanks. But don't send me a text that I have to return. That's a job. No?
WALLACE: No, I -- I -- I will say -- and God forbid.
DAVID: So, you're with me on the birthday?
WALLACE: Yes, I do agree with you on the birthday. And God forbid it's a big birthday, like, you and I are almost exactly the same age.
DAVID: Yeah.
WALLACE: I think you're like four months older than I am. Seventy- five? A nightmare.
DAVID: Yeah.
WALLACE: A nightmare because you're going to get a lot. And it's not a birthday you really want to celebrate to begin with. And now, suddenly, you've got to respond to everybody. It's a nightmare.
DAVID: Exactly. So, you know, if there's anything that I can do to change that, I would like to.
WALLACE: Well, I'll sign up for that, as a matter of fact.
DAVID: Okay.
WALLACE: Well, you've enlisted me.
DAVID: So -- so you would rather -- let me get this straight now. You would rather people not say happy -- happy birthday, send you a text, a happy birthday text because you have to return it, right? You agree?
WALLACE: Yes, except that I have to say I'm a bit of a hypocrite because I do send people happy birthday texts. But guess what? After today? Never again.
DAVID: Or you could do this. Happy birthday. No need whatsoever to reply to this happy birthday text.
WALLACE: In fact, please don't.
DAVID: In fact, please don't. There you go.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COATES: Next, Chris Wallace asks Larry David questions he doesn't want to be asked. You want to stick around.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:45:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COATES: The questions Larry David doesn't like, Chris Wallace is asking them. Here's more "Who's talking to Chris Wallace?"
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WALLACE: I want to ask you a question.
DAVID: Sure.
WALLACE: Because my --
DAVID: Sure, what do you got?
WALLACE: -- my father always said, people are fascinated by how much rich people are worth. I remember him famously asking Johnny Carson once, what he's worth.
DAVID: That's a terrible, terrible question to ask. Who does your father think he was, by the way?
WALLACE: I think we know.
DAVID: Yeah, we know.
WALLACE: Okay, so here's the question.
DAVID: I hope that Johnny Carson said to him, Mike, none of your business. That's none of your business.
WALLACE: He, in effect, said that. So, here's the question.
DAVID: Yeah.
WALLACE: On the internet, I actually looked, the over under is half a billion dollars.
(LAUGHTER)
No, we're not doing a spit take here.
(LAUGHTER)
DAVID: By the way, I'm out of water. Okay? I'm out.
WALLACE: You're out of water?
DAVID: Yeah. Is there anybody? Can I get more water here?
WALLACE: No, that's it.
DAVID: Is that it?
WALLACE: That was the allotment.
DAVID: Is that my allotment?
WALLACE: That's it. No, I'm sorry.
DAVID: First of all, how dare you?
WALLACE: You know what? We've had -- I've done a hundred interviews. I've done a hundred interviews.
DAVID: How dare you?
WALLACE: I've done a hundred interviews. Everybody takes that amount of water, and they pace themselves through the show.
[23:50:01]
DAVID: Well --
WALLACE: So, that's it.
DAVID: I didn't think we'd be going this long.
WALLACE: I think you're avoiding the question.
DAVID: Avoiding the question? I'm going to say --
WALLACE: Over under half a billion dollars.
DAVID: -- what should have been said to your father, okay? None of your fucking business. How about that? And that's ridiculous. That's ridiculous.
WALLACE: What?
DAVID: What you just said.
WALLACE: Half a billion?
DAVID: That number is so preposterous, okay? Ridiculous.
WALLACE: How about a hundred million dollars?
DAVID: Okay, how about you shut up, okay?
(LAUGHTER)
DAVID: How about you shut up? Is that all right?
WALLACE: I've got a say, you know? A hundred interviews? Nobody's ever said that to me before.
DAVID: Okay, well, just shut up.
WALLACE: Okay.
DAVID: Okay.
WALLACE: All right, we got that straight. You started in stand-up in the 1970s. DAVID: Yeah, okay.
WALLACE: And I read a story that one time, you go out in a nightclub.
DAVID: Yeah.
WALLACE: You look around the room. You scan it. You say, you know what? Never mind. And you walk off.
DAVID: I didn't say never mind. I said, I don't think so.
WALLACE: Really? But you didn't say a word.
DAVID: No.
WALLACE: You didn't go out. You didn't do a couple of jokes.
DAVID: No.
WALLACE: It didn't fall flat.
DAVID: No, I didn't do anything. I just looked them over and I went, I don't think so.
(LAUGHTER)
WALLACE: Why?
DAVID: I just didn't like the vibe.
(LAUGHTER)
WALLACE: You didn't like the vibe?
DAVID: Yeah.
WALLACE: And what did they do? Did they --
DAVID: I guess they murmured what's going on. I don't know. I just left, yeah.
WALLACE: In 2016 and 2020, I'm trying to get over the shut up, but it stings. In 2016 and 2020, you --
DAVID: Trying to get over the what?
WALLACE: The sting of you shut up. It's a little hurtful.
(LAUGHTER)
DAVID: Hurtful?
WALLACE: Yeah.
DAVID: What about your question? What kind of question is that?
WALLACE: You know what Barbara Walters said? There's no such thing as an indiscreet question.
DAVID: Really?
WALLACE: There are only indiscreet answers.
DAVID: Oh. Okay.
WALLACE: Okay?
DAVID: Yeah. I don't think that's true.
WALLACE: It's a good line though.
DAVID: It's a good line.
WALLACE: For an interviewer.
DAVID: It's a good line, but it's nonsense.
WALLACE: In 2016 --
DAVID: I wonder how Barbara Walters would react. Barbara, how many times a week do you have sex with your husband? Do you give him head? Do you think she's like that?
(LAUGHTER)
How do you think she would have reacted to that?
WALLACE: I think she'd say, there's no such thing as (INAUDIBLE). None of your business.
DAVID: Yeah, okay.
WALLACE: I don't think she would have said, shut up.
DAVID: Oh, okay. That really stung you, that shut up.
WALLACE: It's not nice.
(LAUGHTER)
WALLACE: I think you may need to send me a note tomorrow apologizing.
(LAUGHTER)
In 2016 and 2020 --
DAVID: Yeah.
WALLACE: -- you, on "Saturday Night Live," played a presidential candidate --
DAVID: Yeah.
WALLACE: -- that you were more than somewhat resembled. Here you are. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID: We're doomed.
(LAUGHTER)
We need a revolution. Millions of people on the streets. And we got to do something. And we got to do it now.
Enough is enough. We need to unite and work together if we're all going to get through this.
UNKNOWN: Sounds like socialism to me.
(LAUGHTER)
DAVID: Democratic socialism.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(LAUGHTER)
WALLACE: One, was that fun? And two, did you worry, but being Larry David, of course, you worried, that Bernie Sanders was going to win and you were going to be stuck having to play him for four or eight years?
DAVID: That definitely was a concern. Yeah, that was a concern. It was fun. It was fun. It was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed doing that.
WALLACE: And would you have gone on "Saturday Night Live" occasionally to play President Sanders?
DAVID: I suppose I would have. I mean, I started it. I probably would have, but --
WALLACE: Think about this.
DAVID: Fortunately --
WALLACE: Yes, you would have been discomforted, but it would have meant in 2016, the president was Bernie Sanders.
DAVID: Well worth it. It would have been well worth it, yeah.
WALLACE: Finally, I want to end with the Seinfeld finale in 1998.
DAVID: Hmm.
WALLACE: Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNKNOWN: See now to me, that button is in the worst possible spot.
UNKNOWN: Really? UNKNOWN: Oh, yeah. The second button is the key button. It literally makes or breaks the shirt. Look at it. It's too high. It's in no man's land.
UNKNOWN: Haven't we had this conversation before?
UNKNOWN: You think?
UNKNOWN: I think we have.
UNKNOWN: Yeah, maybe we have.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: Seventy-six million people watched that. It was the sixth --
DAVID: Seventy-six million disappointed people, yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
WALLACE: Well, I'm going to get to that.
DAVID: Yeah.
WALLACE: It was the sixth most-watched entertainment event on television at that time. And as you point out, some people weren't thrilled. What do you think of that ending? You wrote it.
DAVID: I thought it was pretty good.
(LAUGHTER)
Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good.
[23:55:00]
WALLACE: Larry?
DAVID: Chris? No hard feelings?
WALLACE: I believe that I'll -- I'll get over it.
DAVID: All right.
WALLACE: Thank you.
DAVID: You're welcome.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COATES: Larry David is just one of dozens of great interviews on "Who's Talking to Chris Wallace." You can stream them anytime you want on Max. The best way to find them is to click on the News tab at the top. And as for "Curb," be sure to tune in to the "Curb Your Enthusiasm: series finale. That airs Sunday night at 10 p.m. and you're able to stream it on Max at the same time. Thanks for watching. Our coverage continues.
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