Jesse Ventura: Claimed CIA Interactions, State of The Media
In the final part of Jesse Ventura’s interview with Chris Yandek and Jay Bildstein, the former Governor of Minnesota discusses his interactions with the CIA, his experiences living in Mexico, his short lived talk show on MSNBC and the state of the media, among other things.
Listen to the final part of the Jesse Ventura CYInterview:
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Here are the highlights:
Ventura consulted with Navy veteran Dick Marcinko after what he claims was a CIA questioning session of him, shortly after he took office as governor. “I was only in the Navy for six years. Dick was there for 32 years and Dick created Seal Team Six – the anti-terrorist unit. He also created red cell and a bunch of other things. Dick worked with the CIA probably on a far more regular basis than I ever saw any of them during my military career.
I wouldn’t have known a CIA guy if he would’ve came up and bit me. I went to my old friends, my old teammates to try to get advice to pick up why they were questioning me and he was exactly right. He said, ‘They didn’t see you coming.’ They wanted to know if there were more independent governors on the horizon.”
Regarding the time he spends every year in Mexico, Ventura says it is important for Americans to go out of their daily environment, “I don’t even know Spanish and I have to survive down there where I’m the minority, which I think everybody needs to live a portion of their life being a minority because then it truly makes you appreciate being a majority.”
Ventura says he wasn’t too controversial during his short lived talk show on MSNBC, but opposing the invasion of Iraq was not allowed, “At that time no one was allowed on television who voiced any opposition to the Iraq war. Case in point, Phil Donahue was on MSNBC prior to me. Phil had the highest rated show on their network. He spoke out and opposed the invasion of Iraq – Phil was pulled. Have you ever heard a network pulling their highest rated show? It’s unheard of.”
Finally, Ventura believes the mainstream media is full of manipulation, “Don’t tell me there isn’t government manipulation of our media because there is. Prior to the Iraq invasion there wasn’t one person out there hollering why can’t we wait to hear from the inspectors? Why can’t we wait for their final report? What is the rush to this war? It was a rush to war.”