CENK UYGUR: Jesse "The Body" Ventura! The former governor of Minnesota! And now rebel in retirement. He's got a book out called "Don't Start The Revolution Without Me." Don't worry Jesse, we won't. Welcome to the Young Turks Governor Ventura.

JESSE VENTURA: How are you doing tonight?

CENK UYGUR: I'm doing good. I'm glad you're on the Young Turks. We appreciate it.

JESSE VENTURA: Well, it's great to be here.

CENK UYGUR: All right, now I'm going to break down your life in five categories. You were a Navy SEAL. You were a wrestler. You were an actor, a governor, and a retired rebel, as I just said at this point. Now, whether you come back, that's a different issue. But I want to get to the politics and the Navy SEAL stuff in a second, but I'm very curious about your wrestling an acting careers.

JESSE VENTURA: Okay.

CENK UYGUR: Now I have a rough sense of how you got into acting and how you got into politics, but, you know, I have no idea how you went from Navy SEAL to wrestler. How did that happen?

JESSE VENTURA: Well, I couldn't sing or dance.

CENK UYGUR: (Laughter) Ok. Well, how did wrestling pop into your head?

JESSE VENTURA: Actually what happened was I had been a fan like most kids, when your kids, you know, back when you're 10, 11, 12 years old. I used to...One of my best friends, he had enough money that he had a monthly subscription to "Wrestling Review," as it was called when I was a little kid, and we'd anticipate every month when the new issue would come in, and we would devour it like all kids back in the `50s and `60s when wrestling hit television. We were big fans of it and then as I got a little older I kind of lost track of it, went through high school, and then went into the Navy. And actually what got me... what piqued my interest was, I always liked theater. And in fact, when I got out of the Navy I went to one year of junior college and I acted in "Aristophanes The Birds."

CENK UYGUR: Huh.

JESSE VENTURA: And so I really enjoyed theater and then I started looking...and I was always an athlete, and I thought, well, it's interesting that pro wrestling combines both. It combines live theater with athleticism.

CENK UYGUR: Well, you know, when I was a kid I used to watch you as a wrestler and I knew that you love the theatrics, there's no question about that.

JESSE VENTURA: Oh yeah. I mean, and that's what I enjoyed about it. Because it gave me the opportunity to perform, and yet to still be an athlete.

CENK UYGUR: All right.

JESSE VENTURA: It fit both roles for me, which were two of the things that I truly enjoy doing at that time. Actually what got me, I came home on leave from the military. I have like a month to do, and I didn't want to cut my hair, so I had leave on the books, so I took 30 days right before I came home on leave, and one night all my buddies were busy. I was 22 years old, and wrestling was at the Minneapolis Auditorium. So I went down there myself and I walked up to the window and I said give me the best seat you got. And the lady said, "are you alone?" And I said, "yeah, just one." And she said, "I have one in the front row." So she sold me a seat right in the front row and it was then that I glimpsed at great pro wrestler, who I pattern my whole career after basically. Superstar Billy Graham.

CENK UYGUR: Oh is that right, oh okay.

JESSE VENTURA: Oh yeah. I saw Billy Graham when I was on leave from the military. I watched what he did and it entered my mind that, you know, this might be an interesting occupation. You know, something interesting to pursue. And then later when I met an ex-pro wrestler, I trained with him three nights a week for seven months, and when I move back to Minnesota and then turn pro, and Kansas City called, and I went down there and had my first match in Wichita Kansas.

CENK UYGUR: All right. That's fantastic. Did you win or lose your first match?

JESSE VENTURA: I was disqualified.

CENK UYGUR: Oh. That's good work.

JESSE VENTURA: Which for a bad guy, that's as good as winning.

CENK UYGUR: (Laughter) Absolutely.

JESSE VENTURA: Because you are so dirty that they have to disqualify you, which means you can brag like you won, even though technically the good guy won.

CENK UYGUR: And do you still keep in touch with any of your old wrestling friends?

JESSE VENTURA: Not a bit.

CENK UYGUR: Really?

JESSE VENTURA: The only... No.

CENK UYGUR: So you have no idea what Don "The Rock" Morocco, Jimmy "Super fly" Snuka, or Special Delivery Jones...

JESSE VENTURA: None whatsoever, I was really loner when I was in the business. I didn't hang out, I stayed by myself, probably because my Navy SEAL instincts made me that way. And I was also a Vietnam vet, and so I kept myself a great deal.

CENK UYGUR: Oh that's interesting.

JESSE VENTURA: When I left the business, I left it. The closest I am to anyone, believe it or not, is with my old partner in Hawaii, Steve Strong.

CENK UYGUR: Yeah, I...

JESSE VENTURA: Steve Cepello.

CENK UYGUR: Uh huh.

JESSE VENTURA: Steve's a great artist, and I actually had... Steve came to Minnesota and he did my governor's portrait that hangs in the Capitol.

CENK UYGUR: Oh. I didn't know that either. All right. Now, how about acting? Did you stay in touch with some of your acting friends, whether it's Schwarzenegger that you were in Predator with.

JESSE VENTURA: If I see them I will. I haven't spoken or had any contact with Arnold since my inauguration.  He didn't invite me to his, but, ah (Laughter).

CENK UYGUR: Were you guys friends on the set, or no?

JESSE VENTURA: Oh yeah, absolutely, you become like a family. Especially when you do a film like Predator, because that was done on location down in Mexico. Puerto Vallarta in Palenque Mexico. And you live together, you eat together for 10 weeks. So you all live in the same hotel, cast and crew. That's why I love doing films where you go to another country, because then you as a cast and crew really become a family. It's kind of you against the world, because you're out there to make the best film you can. And there's no distractions. You stay very focused on it when you're all on a location like that.

CENK UYGUR: So who are you better friends with, Schwarzenegger, or Hulk Hogan?

JESSE VENTURA: Oh, much better friends with Schwarzenegger.

CENK UYGUR: All right. Okay. That's interesting. Now, let's turn to politics. Let me tell you my background, as a prelude to my question to you. When the Bush administration started, I was a Republican. By the time it ended, I'm one of the most progressive talk show host in the country.

JESSE VENTURA: Okay. (Laughter)

CENK UYGUR: Okay, now I know you are an independent, and very proud of it. You don't have a lot of love for either party. But it appears that you had a similar experience with the Bush administration that by the end of it, he didn't seem to have a lot of respect left for the Republican Party. Am I seeing that right? Did you...

JESSE VENTURA: Yes, I think you're seeing it right on. Completely, you know, I had first thought that Bush would be good because when he first took office at the National Governor's Convention, he stated--when all of us governors met with him, and I was in my last year, whatever, I don't recall, two years left, whatever it was, my first couple of years were with President Clinton and then the last couple were with President Bush. He said that he was going to be a state's rights governor, and I liked that in a lot of ways. I like government to be as localized as it can possibly be with decision making. Because at the local level is what will really affect you most everyday. And he was just the opposite. Anytime there was a state's rights issue, he and the federal government came in and stomped on it. Cases in point: medicinal marijuana. You have seven or eight or nine states that the voters voted to have that be approved. That doctors be able to prescribe marijuana, and yet the federal government under Bush came in and squashed it down and threatened to throw doctors in prison, and all this stuff. And the other was that case out North with dignity and death. The people two times voted that they wanted the ability that if they sought to, they could choose when they wanted to die. Well to me, that's an individual issue. No one can stop you if you want to die. How is the government going to step in to your life and say you can't do that? What? Fine and suspend you after you're gone?

CENK UYGUR: Yeah, and they're always very convenient with the state's right issues.
JESSE VENTURA: Well. It's ridiculous. Let's get common sense into government, you know. Well, that's the problem right there. It's an oxymoron. Commonsense and government.

CENK UYGUR: Well, that certainly is an issue.
JESSE VENTURA: But anyway, that being said, I saw Bush go exactly the opposite of what he said he would be, and that's when I started to suspect him. And then of course, the most terrifying thing I ever heard out of the guy's mouth was when he was getting ready to invade Iraq and a group of reporters had asked him if he had consulted his father--and naturally assuming his dad, Bush Senior, the earlier president--and I'll never forget, Bush turned back to the microphone and said I consulted a higher father.

CENK UYGUR: Yeah that is...

JESSE VENTURA: In other words, telling me that God told him to invade Iraq. Come on.

CENK UYGUR: And we just found out information that he had told the French President as well that this had to do with Gog and Magog and biblical prophecy, and that he shouldn't worry because it was biblical prophecy. Which is of course, is incredibly scary.

JESSE VENTURA: Well, I haven't heard that one yet. But if that's true, it makes even worse worse why the hell we're there.....

CENK UYGUR: Absolutely. So of all the things that he's done, and by the way were talking to Governor Jesse Ventura. His book, "Don't Start The Revolution Without Me, is now out in paperback. Of all the things that Bush did, invading Iraq, the state's rights issues, the torture, the warrantless wiretapping, the patriot act, the list goes on and on. What you think was the worst of the bunch?

JESSE VENTURA:  Ha. It's hard to pick the worst because they're all in their own right bad. Our standing in the world, you know. I'll say this. The election of Barack Obama did wonders.
CENK UYGUR: And what did you think of Obama's speech in Cairo?

JESSE VENTURA: Oh. I only listen to parts of it, but the fact that he even did it to me is remarkable. Good for him.

CENK UYGUR: Absolutely. I thought it was a brilliant speech.

JESSE VENTURA: Because I'm always for talking first.

CENK UYGUR: Uh huh.

JESSE VENTURA: War should be the last option. War is the option you take when you have failed politics and failed political leaders. And we should be talking to our enemies, not playing... I don't like this foreign-policy of the backyard bully, where the two tough guys, the two tough kids...schoolyard foreign policy. The two tough kids never talk to each other, so they eventually...what happens? They end up fighting.

CENK UYGUR: Exactly, eventually...

JESSE VENTURA: Well if the two kids talk to each other, they might find that they have some common ground and they might avert the fight, which is a whole lot better.   

CENK UYGUR: We're talking to Governor Ventura. So at the end of this Bush administration, now you say, you know, that one of these things was worse than the other, as the list goes on and on. The Republican party went along with all of it, you know. And at the end...

JESSE VENTURA: Wait, and the Democrats kowtowed, and were spineless, and didn't stand up to it.
CENK UYGUR: Absolutely. No question about it.
JESSE VENTURA: You know, let's be fair here. I'm the good independent because I'll hit the Democrats just as hard.

CENK UYGUR: Now, at the end of that process, and I'll include the Democrats and the Republicans, because on this show, we would yell and scream about how weak the Democratic Party was, and how they got steamrolled, right? At the end of the process, are there any politicians left, whether Republican or democrat, where you say, you know what, those guys I still have some respect for.

JESSE VENTURA: Well, you know, let me put it to you this way. I'm for Obama. I want him to succeed for a number of reasons. I didn't vote for President Obama. I didn't vote for John McCain either, because I protest vote. I won't vote for a Democrat or Republican. But I'll tell you this, on the day that he was elected, I remember I turned to my wife, and I said, "you know what, I feel real good today." And she said, "why?" I said, "because I never believed in my lifetime I'd see a black president, and I'm glad that I was alive and still here to see that happen."

CENK UYGUR: Right, and he is doing much better on the foreign policy...

JESSE VENTURA: And I want him to succeed. No I want him to succeed.

CENK UYGUR: Yep

JESSE VENTURA: Because if he succeeds, that means the United States of America succeeds, i.e., the world succeeds.

CENK UYGUR: All right. Now, Governor Ventura, let's get to the issue you've been talking a lot about on television, which is torture.

JESSE VENTURA: Yep.

CENK UYGUR: You went through the SERE program as you were becoming a Navy SEAL. Do they still do that, and are they still doing the preparation for if you get tortured by a different country, including waterboarding.

JESSE VENTURA: I don't know. You know, it's been many years for me. It's called SERE school. I believe they do, because they were using the SERE school instructors to torture them.

CENK UYGUR: Uh huh. And do you think they should...
JESSE VENTURA: And that isn't what their jobs were. They were trained to be instructors. They were not trained specifically to be interrogators.

CENK UYGUR: And do you think that they should--if they are doing that program--that they should stop; that it's not very productive?
JESSE VENTURA: No, not necessarily. It lets you know what you believe the other side will do to you, but now in our case, it's what we'll do to you also.

CENK UYGUR: Uh huh.

JESSE VENTURA: That's the part that really gets to me; it's the part that we've now sunk to our opponents level. We should stand for something. And the rule of law is that something. And torture is against the law. It's against international law. It's against our law. And there's no substitute. Torture is torture. It doesn't matter who you're doing it to. If torture was okay, how come we never tortured Charles Manson?

CENK UYGUR: Or the abortion killer. The guy who just killed the abortion doctor.

JESSE VENTURA: Well not even just him, how about that other guy Ramírez, or whatever.

CENK UYGUR: Uh huh.

JESSE VENTURA: You know, I mean, you got heinous criminals in our country and we're not allowed to torture them because it's against the law.  Why didn't we torture McVeigh and Nichols? They were terrorists.

CENK UYGUR: Right, and...

JESSE VENTURA: And there's a lot of people that feel there were more people involved in Oklahoma City that those two. Well, why didn't we waterboard them to find out if they had accomplices? Because it's against the law.

CENK UYGUR: Just today, Scott Roeder, the guy who was accused of killing Dr. George Tiller, said that there are more violent plans out there to kill more abortion doctors.

JESSE VENTURA: Okay, then why don't we waterboard him?

CENK UYGUR: Yeah, that's a good..

JESSE VENTURA: And find out what he knows.

CENK UYGUR: Theoretically, the conservatives should agree to that. Of course they won't, because as you pointed out on television before, it's because he is not Muslim.

JESSE VENTURA: Well, and the thing is, I remember I became a pinhead on O'Reilly, because O'Reilly said because it's our citizens and it's against the law here. While in other words then, let's say a foreigner came here on vacation, and was accused of the crime, could we then take a foreigner in and waterboard him?

CENK UYGUR: Yeah. The are absolutely ideologically inconsistent.

JESSE VENTURA: You can't have it both ways. The rule of law you have to respect even when it's goes against you, when it's uncomfortable.
CENK UYGUR: So now you put out a challenge to Sean Hannity that if he could not stand an hour of waterboarding and not admit that Barack Obama's the best president ever, that you would donate to a charity of his choice. I presume he has not taken you up on that offer.

JESSE VENTURA: He never would. And I want him to do better. I want him to put the thousand up for the charity that says he can do it. So when he fails, it costs him a grand.

CENK UYGUR: Well, what if we made it larger.

JESSE VENTURA: The point is, did you see what Mancow did?

CENK UYGUR: I did, yep.

JESSE VENTURA: Well, he lasted 6 seconds.

CENK UYGUR: Yeah. An hour. You said an hour, I was like, man he couldn't last two minutes, let alone an hour.

JESSE VENTURA: Exactly. Mancow had the same attitude. Because I went on his show. He wasn't mean about it, but he felt like a lot of Americans. That you don't die from waterboarding, that it's saving lives, that these are horrible people anyway so who cares if we torture them. Blah blah blah, blah blah blah. And it's not really torture. Well you saw clearly, that after a mere 6 seconds, it took him what, three or four minutes to compose himself? And then he said it was 20 times worse than what he ever imagined it would be. And he said without any doubt it is torture and he was wrong.

CENK UYGUR: Yep. So do you want to expand the Hannity thing. If you want, we can have our Young Turk's listeners chip in for a charity.
JESSE VENTURA: Well, if he's willing to do it. But I would prefer not to do it. I would prefer we get one of the professionals, because I'm not a professional at doing that. And whenever they did it in SERE school, there was always a doctor on hand.

CENK UYGUR: You know, that's easy enough. You could be there; we could be there, and then we'll get professionals to do it.

JESSE VENTURA: Get SERE school, get some guy that taught at SERE school. They all know how to do it exactly because they were highly trained in it.
CENK UYGUR: If Hannity can last five minutes, then we'll take all the money and give it to the charity of his choice. And if he can't last five minutes, then he admits that Barack Obama is the greatest president ever, or that waterboarding is torture, either one of those will do.

JESSE VENTURA: He won't even have to admit that waterboarding is torture. If he admits that Barack Obama is the greatest president ever, you'll know it's torture.

CENK UYGUR: (Laughter) Because you know that's a confession that he does not want to make. All right. Five minutes. All he has to do is last five minutes. What do you think, should we raise some money behind it?

JESSE VENTURA: It's up to you, do you know what, I'll leave that for you guys to do it.

CENK UYGUR: All right.

JESSE VENTURA: You can have the glory of it. Go ahead. I'll give it my blessing. I'll watch.

CENK UYGUR: Okay, that sounds good. All right. Now, I know that there are other interesting parts of the book...

JESSE VENTURA: I've seen it up close too many times.

CENK UYGUR: I hear you on that. Now I don't want to encourage people to start getting on these campaigns too much.

JESSE VENTURA: Because it is indeed torture. It's not a game.

CENK UYGUR: Yeah. Hannity just opened up his big mouth, that's why we're talking about it.

JESSE VENTURA: Exactly. Exactly.

CENK UYGUR: Right. Now, in the book, you have other interesting theories. And Governor Ventura's book is, "Don't Start The Revolution Without Me." Tell me what your real thoughts on the cause of 9/11 are?

JESSE VENTURA: Well, my big thing, I never questioned 9/11. I was like every other American. In fact, I was in office when it happened. And I never, you know, I was stunned, shocked, the way we all were. The only thing that got me started to look back. And now that I've looked back, there is very disturbing things and questions that are not answered, and when you ask them you get attacked, and you're not allowed to even discuss 9/11, let alone question anything we've been told about it. And the point, what got me to do it was at the point that George Bush--I'd just gotten out of office--and George Bush announced that we were going to invade Iraq. Because I immediately sat back and I thought Iraq? I thought the 19 people that they told us attacked us, 15 of them were Saudis. It made a lot more sense to me that we maybe ought to be invading Saudi Arabia. And if we're going in for retaliation, not Iraq. And I said, I thought there were no Iraqis involved, and no one's ever said they were (coughing). Excuse me. I then sat back and thought, wait a minute, what's the big picture here? What is this all really about? And that's when I started...and then my son kept telling me about this thing on the Internet called Loose Change. Have you seen it?

CENK UYGUR: No. I've read a lot about it. I have not seen it.

JESSE VENTURA: Well, all you got to do is google up Loose Change.com and have an hour and watch it. And one day my wife and I did that on a Sunday afternoon because my son kept telling me that you've got to watch this. And that's what opens up and start shining some light on a lot of real weird questions about things that went on that day.

CENK UYGUR: Okay, now, look, that's one side of the presentation. I've also seen the other side of the presentation refuting it. But the question is, Governor Ventura, do you think that it's even possible that somebody within the US government would actually order something like that? Because that's ultimately what it comes down to.

JESSE VENTURA: Well, was it possible that somebody could fabricate the Gulf of Tonkin incident?

CENK UYGUR: Well, I guess it was, because it happened.

JESSE VENTURA: Yeah. And what was the end result? We invaded Vietnam, and 58,000 of my generation were killed, and untold maybe millions of Vietnamese were killed. And you're asking me if somebody would orchestrate a fraud. Remember something, to powerful people like that, we're just collateral damage.

CENK UYGUR: You know...(sigh)

JESSE VENTURA: That's collateral damage for a bigger picture.

CENK UYGUR: Governor Ventura, I understand what you're saying, and I might be naïve in thinking that the American government has changed to some degree since then. And maybe they haven't. But what are the forces inside the government that would be powerful enough to be able to pull off something like that, if the rest of the government isn't going along, and we presume it's not a large enough conspiracy...

JESSE VENTURA: Well, let's reverse that. In other words, what you're saying is we're incapable of doing it, but 19 Islamic radicals armed with box cutters are. Taking orders from bearded guy in a cave in Afghanistan, and they're fully qualified to accomplish it. And yet you're telling me we couldn't.

CENK UYGUR: I'm not saying we couldn't.

JESSE VENTURA: Yes you are. That's what you're saying to me. You're saying that you fully believe that these guys could do it, but there's no way in H, that you believe we would have the capability of doing it.

CENK UYGUR: No, I'm actually asking you a question. I really am. Here is what I can't comprehend. In this day and age when everything is revealed, when everybody writes a book about everything, and everything is leaked, how they can orchestrate something so large, that no one ever leaks a damn thing about it? And my question is...

JESSE VENTURA: Okay, I've been asked that on many occasions.

CENK UYGUR: No no. I hear you. But my question is, if they could, who would it be? Who would be able to organize something like that? So that's what I'm saying, it's literally a question. Who do you think it could be?

JESSE VENTURA: Well, what? To run an operation of that magnitude?

CENK UYGUR: Yes, exactly.

JESSE VENTURA: Uh. I would think a couple SEAL platoons could do it.

CENK UYGUR: But they'd have to get authorized. So they're not going to, a couple SEALs aren't going to...

JESSE VENTURA: Well, of course. Of course they have to. I didn't know what you are asking me. Are you asking me how many operatives it would take to make it possible?

CENK UYGUR: All right. Let's start there. That's a good question. Yeah?

JESSE VENTURA: Well, I figure couple platoons could handle the job. You know what would be easy about doing the World Trade Center?

CENK UYGUR: What's that?

JESSE VENTURA: I'll tell you what would be easy. Number one: construction went on there everyday. So construction workers were of no significance. People ignored them. And that's the key. Construction workers could walk in and out because on all those floors, whenever there was a change of a tenant, they would redo the floor. And so construction workers were a constant there. Another way you could infiltrate a building easily is be the UPS man. You can deliver packages or boxes to any floor you want, and no one's going to question you, are they?

CENK UYGUR: No, those kind of logistics, I hear you...

JESSE VENTURA: Well I'm giving you operational answers here. You asked me at the level of operational how you could accomplish it, and I'm telling you through the knowledge that I have, and the training I received, that would be how I would tackle it.

CENK UYGUR: I see what you're saying logistically. Now, as a matter of how you get those Navy SEALs to, in effect, betray their country...

JESSE VENTURA: No no. Well, I don't know. Who says they did it?

CENK UYGUR: No, I'm saying whoever it was.

JESSE VENTURA: Who says you wouldn't have foreign guys do anything of that nature too?

CENK UYGUR: Uh huh.

JESSE VENTURA: You know. You're just asking me, at least that's how I took the question.

CENK UYGUR: Right.

JESSE VENTURA: You asked me how could you accomplish it, and I gave you a couple of scenarios.

CENK UYGUR: Right, so that's the bottom, that's the ground floor. That's how you get in the building, and how you do it. And you got the Arab guys. But who could put that together. I mean, for example, Vice President Cheney, can he go and say, "all right, I'm going to grab these 19 guys from over here..."

JESSE VENTURA: No. Well. Let me ask you this. Why on June 1st did our whole Air Defense change by an executive order? June 1st, prior to 9/11, there was an Executive Order. Prior to that, all base commanders had it under their realm that they could make the decision whether to send planes in the air if there was something going on. Well, on June 1st, that change by executive order, they now all had to clear it through DOD, the Department of Defense, and Rumsfeld. Which means that there could be an automatic stand-down. Just simply Rumsfeld not answering the phone. Because no one had permission to go up.

CENK UYGUR: Governor Ventura, final thought on this.

JESSE VENTURA: Now wait a minute. That's pretty interesting, isn't it?

CENK UYGUR: No, it is.

JESSE VENTURA: Where was our defense? Where were our jets?

CENK UYGUR: The thing is, on those questions, since I wasn't in the military, I don't really...I have to confess that I don't know how it works. I don't know if that's completely out of the ordinary, or if it's somewhat within the range ordinary.

JESSE VENTURA: Wait, let me give it to you this way. Let me give it to you this simple way. I worked in the military were failure was not an option in the Navy SEALs. If you can't get the job done, you're not there. I would assume that Air Defense falls under the same thing. Failure is not an option. Why after 9/11, the catastrophic failure that it was, why was nobody fired? Or nobody reprimanded for the failure that took place that day.

CENK UYGUR: Well I think that one's easy. Because they wanted to cover up the fact that they, at the very least, screwed up. That they should have been ready, and that they weren't ready. And so, that one I understand.

JESSE VENTURA: Well also if you don't fire anybody there's no investigation, is there?

CENK UYGUR: Well, of course they wanted to avoid that investigation. There's no question...

JESSE VENTURA: But why, why would they...If what they told us is true, why would anyone worry about an investigation?

CENK UYGUR: Because at a bare minimum, George Bush was...

JESSE VENTURA: Incompetent.

CENK UYGUR: ...incredibly incompetent. No question about that.

JESSE VENTURA: Okay,

CENK UYGUR: Zero question about that.

JESSE VENTURA: So all of this you think is based upon his incompetence then?

CENK UYGUR: Well, you know, like you, I'm asking questions.

JESSE VENTURA: Well, then I'd like a...But see I'd like a true study that would show that incompetence so I could really believe it then and that it would put to rest everything else.

CENK UYGUR: So you're asking for a study, you are not drawing conclusions. You're not saying experts...

JESSE VENTURA: What troubles me is that you're not even allowed to ask any questions about it.
CENK UYGUR: Uh huh.

JESSE VENTURA: You know, and that bothers me. The fact that there are many unanswered questions that have not been clearly, you know. How come this, if buildings can fall, skyscrapers, just by catching on fire. Which they've determined the planes hitting them had nothing to do with dropping them. They said it was all done by the fire. Right?

CENK UYGUR: Uh huh.

JESSE VENTURA: If that's true, then why--and FEMA admitted the jet fuel was gone almost immediately on the initial explosion; that took care of the jet fuel. Now, that being the case, why are we not being warned that if there is a fire in a hotel, you need to evacuate the whole hotel for fear of the hotel doing a uniform collapse?

CENK UYGUR: All right. You're getting into question, technical questions that I have no idea about.

JESSE VENTURA: They're not technical, they're called safety. If these steel structures, skyscrapers...

CENK UYGUR: My understanding is that we do evacuate hotels...

JESSE VENTURA: ...can fall from fires, which I don't believe they can. They never have before. It was a first. Then why are we not being warned of that, and what's being done to ensure the building of new ones that they can't fall that way? Nothing.

CENK UYGUR: All right.

JESSE VENTURA: Nothing is being done. Why?

CENK UYGUR: Governor Ventura, final question for you along these lines, and we'll wrap it up. And we're talking to Governor Jesse Ventura.

JESSE VENTURA: I'm a pretty good argument though, aren't I?

CENK UYGUR: Look, I'm not arguing, because I don't want...

JESSE VENTURA: No no no, I should have been a lawyer.

CENK UYGUR: Uh huh. Well, maybe. You've done many other things. So, what's left, right?

JESSE VENTURA: I don't know.

CENK UYGUR: And you are a talk show host to before too. Yeah.

JESSE VENTURA: Actually I did when a court case and I defended myself, so I've been a lawyer too.

CENK UYGUR: All right, now in the book, and the book is "Don't Start The Revolution Without Me," and we'll put it up on TheYoungTurks.com in our library, so everybody can see it for themselves. You also talk about who really assassinated JFK. Now, is there a connection between all these things in your mind. Do you think they're these decision makers within the government that are making these decisions? And if so, who?

JESSE VENTURA: Well, I don't know, but I just think that the...I don't believe that Oswald acted alone. I don't buy that at all, I don't care what anybody says. I studied it for 25 years. And it's just not going to sell with me. And that changed the world. You know, at that point the murder of John Kennedy, all of a sudden the world of the United States changed, in that it was taken away from the voters. If you follow me.

CENK UYGUR: Uh huh. Yeah.

JESSE VENTURA: And that's why that murder is so important. Now is it tied to other ones? It could well be tied to Watergate because in all the studying I've done there is a direct correlation between the Cubans that were involved and the people in Watergate to the Cubans that were involved in the Bay of Pigs as well as Dallas. So there is a tie in there. The unique thing about Kennedy is that you never can know for sure because it was so covered up by the investigation. It was a horrible investigation by all police standards. I mean, how do you pull a prime suspect in, and have him for 24 to 48 hours, interrogate him, and no one takes a note? And no one takes a recorded anything? Which they did with Oswald. I mean, that violates basic police rules even back in `63.

CENK UYGUR: Well, will end on that note because...
JESSE VENTURA: And there are so many things like that to show you that it was far more than just this...Let me finish it this way. If he's who they said he was, this little disgruntled Marine Private, how would anything have to be locked up for all these 40 years because of national security? What the hell could a little Marine Private know?

CENK UYGUR: Look, on the Kennedy stuff, I one hundred percent agree with you. And the Gulf of Tonkin argument is rock solid. So that leaves you with...

JESSE VENTURA: Well that's two of them. So you can't believe that there could be a third or fourth?

CENK UYGUR: You see, my point is there certainly have been...

JESSE VENTURA: They have no credibility.

CENK UYGUR: There have certainly have been conspiracies in the past. No one can doubt that, right?

JESSE VENTURA: Yes, because they've never been admitted to.

CENK UYGUR: So when you say we should at least ask questions about 9/11, I agree with you. I don't know what the answers are, but if you say let's ask questions, I agree with you. It's America, we're supposed to ask questions.

JESSE VENTURA: Absolutely. And you shouldn't be told, and you shouldn't be attacked for asking questions or insulted. Or like, you know what I had a person say to me on the air, they said, you know when you ask questions about 9/11, you lose your credibility.

CENK UYGUR: That's right, I never...

JESSE VENTURA: And I countered, and said why? Why should you? The government... Let me finish you with this on 9/11. And you think about this. And think about our system. If our government has so much knowledge that bin Laden did 9/11, why haven't they indicted him? They indicted him over the USS Cole. They indicted him over the attack on our embassies in Africa. Here's the largest attack on the United States soil in the history of our country, and we haven't even gone to our court system, presented the evidence to a grand jury, and indicted the man for the crime.

CENK UYGUR: Governor Jesse Ventura. The author of "Don't Start The Revolution Without Me." And no question, an interesting man with a lot of interesting ideas, and everybody check out the book so you can read more about it. Thank you so much for joining us on The Young Turks. We really appreciate it.

JESSE VENTURA: Very good. My pleasure, and I hope you think about that last thing I told you.

CENK UYGUR: All right

JESSE VENTURA: Okay, bye-bye.

CENK UYGUR: All right, take care, The Young Turks.