Armstrong: I Could Never Win Tour de France Clean — Transcript

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1. 0:00[Music]
2. 0:06yes or no in all seven of your tour to
3. 0:10France victories did you ever take baned
4. 0:14substances or blood dope
5. 0:16yes in your opinion was it humanly
6. 0:20possible to win the Tour to France
7. 0:22without doping seven times in a
8. 0:26row not in my
9. 0:28opinion there it was Lance Armstrong's
10. 0:31big bombshell not exactly unexpected
11. 0:34though viewed by the world last night on
12. 0:36Oprah Winfrey Show Reed alotti and
13. 0:38Vanessa oconnell have been our star
14. 0:40reporters for the Wall Street Journal on
15. 0:41this story since day one and I'm
16. 0:43delighted that they're back with us in
17. 0:44the studio for news Hub this morning
18. 0:46thank you guys thanks for joining us
19. 0:47great to see you so is it what we
20. 0:51expected I yeah I think it's what I
21. 0:54expected I mean he admitted to stuff
22. 0:55that I think has been obvious for years
23. 0:57and he denied stuff that he you know
24. 0:59know can still deny well he denied that
25. 1:02he was a cheater for a start he said he
26. 1:04looked it up in the dictionary and
27. 1:05because the whole idea of cheating is to
28. 1:08give yourself an advantage over
29. 1:09competitors he wasn't cheating because
30. 1:11it was such a Level Playing Field that's
31. 1:13definitely a big point for Lance in
32. 1:15terms of uh how he feels he feels that
33. 1:17even though he doped over those years he
34. 1:19didn't cheat um so it was interesting to
35. 1:22see him slip that in um I think that I
36. 1:25agree with Reed that he essentially
37. 1:27acknowledged a lot of what people kind
38. 1:29of already had accused him of but didn't
39. 1:31go further than that right I he got
40. 1:33specific on what he had used to dope
41. 1:35although he hadn't got he didn't go into
42. 1:36too many specifics about the program
43. 1:38itself or how it was administered but
44. 1:40tell us more about the the actual
45. 1:41substances that he was taking to enhance
46. 1:43his performance we made it to EPO human
47. 1:46growth hormone
48. 1:47cortisone um
49. 1:50testosterone and uh blood transfusions
50. 1:52blood transfusions which is you know not
51. 1:54a drug but a ban method of performance
52. 1:56enhancement and he also made the point
53. 1:58that I guess because he had lost a
54. 1:59testicle during his Battle of cancer it
55. 2:02was perfectly reasonable to take
56. 2:03testosterone he might be a little low on
57. 2:05the testosterone right let's take a look
58. 2:07at another sound bite something else he
59. 2:10said yes or no did you ever take banned
60. 2:13substances to enhance your cycling
61. 2:15performance
62. 2:17yes yes or no was one of those ban
63. 2:20substances EPO
64. 2:23yes did you ever blood dope or use blood
65. 2:26transfusions to enhance your cycling
66. 2:28performance yes
67. 2:33he has been denying it for over 12 years
68. 2:35there he was he didn't even hesitate was
69. 2:37that a
70. 2:38surprise I don't think so in my opinion
71. 2:40it was interesting to see her lead the
72. 2:41show with that and the show to start
73. 2:43that way um you know what what have been
74. 2:46kind of shocking and a surprise as if he
75. 2:48did name names and go into details about
76. 2:50how he was able to do it I think people
77. 2:52really do still want to hear him explain
78. 2:56who helped him how he was able to do it
79. 2:58and more about his relationships with
80. 3:01other cyclists I mean the anti-doping
81. 3:03agency have did describe this as the
82. 3:05most kind of comprehensive most
83. 3:06sophisticated doping program in all of
84. 3:08sport you guys have studied this so uh
85. 3:11deep in so much depth for us since day
86. 3:14one you've been looking at exactly how
87. 3:15it was all put together in your opinion
88. 3:17does that hold up I think he made a he
89. 3:20made a a accurate point it wasn't as big
90. 3:23and sophisticated as say East Germany in
91. 3:25the 1970s and ' 80s I mean yeah that's
92. 3:28race though yeah yeah so the US
93. 3:30anti-doping agency used a little bit of
94. 3:32hyperbole I think in their in their
95. 3:34report but that's not really what we're
96. 3:36arguing about here I mean we're arguing
97. 3:37about the accusations that um you know
98. 3:40he denied accusations that he his
99. 3:42donations to the governing body of the
100. 3:45sport which was in charge of drug
101. 3:47testing had nothing to do with the fact
102. 3:49that he got out of positive drug test
103. 3:51and he admitted on the show that he
104. 3:53covered up a positive urine test in the
105. 3:561999 tour to France does this redeem him
106. 3:59at all the fact that he has come out and
107. 4:01come clean does he have a future in
108. 4:02cycling at this point well I mean not in
109. 4:05cycling he he wants to compete in
110. 4:06triathlons and I can say for sure that
111. 4:10what he said last night is not going to
112. 4:12convince any anti-doping agencies to to
113. 4:15reduce his ban what about the public the
114. 4:17court of public opinion do you think
115. 4:18people will forgive him excuse me well
116. 4:20let's see what he says tonight um I
117. 4:22think some people might forgive him I
118. 4:24mean some people who aren't necessarily
119. 4:27uh don't feel that they need to hold him
120. 4:28accountable in some way but the
121. 4:30anti-doping authorities are very likely
122. 4:32to continue to ban him from competing in
123. 4:35triathlons unless he really comes clean
124. 4:38and provides them with names and many
125. 4:40more details about exactly who was with
126. 4:42him doing blood transfusions and who
127. 4:44helped him do that for instance we know
128. 4:45that his lawyers initially didn't want
129. 4:47him to go to the usada they didn't want
130. 4:49him to to come clean in a way do we know
131. 4:52what legal implications there might be
132. 4:53from what he said last night I can
133. 4:56guarantee that the US Department of
134. 4:58Justice will want to to get that tape
135. 5:00into evidence and use it in their case
136. 5:03their whistleblower case against him
137. 5:05they they're he's alleged to have
138. 5:07defrauded the United States government
139. 5:09the US Postal Service was his sponsor in
140. 5:12the contract it said you can't dope you
141. 5:14can't break the rules of the sport so
142. 5:17this will become evidence kind of
143. 5:19reasonable to have that in there in the
144. 5:20contract now one of the biggest
145. 5:22criticisms about L onong is not even
146. 5:24that he was doping it was the fact that
147. 5:26he went out and attacked the other team
148. 5:28members he attacked the people who were
149. 5:30accusing him of that how how is this
150. 5:32going to play now well it was
151. 5:33interesting I think last night that he
152. 5:36made such a big point of bringing George
153. 5:37hppy into his conversation um George is
154. 5:41somebody who he feels that is very
155. 5:44credible and a close friend of lances so
156. 5:47I think we might see him continuing to
157. 5:49sort of bring George into his
158. 5:51conversation about about doping I think
159. 5:53it would be very hard for Lance to
160. 5:55apologize to Floyd Landis for instance
161. 5:57or to Tyler Hamilton pretty read one
162. 6:00last point from you on that well you
163. 6:02talked about apologies they didn't
164. 6:04discuss Greg Lamont you know the first
165. 6:06American tour to France winner who Lance
166. 6:09Armstrong tried to destroy I mean got
167. 6:11his bike business uh you know taken away
168. 6:14I mean that that never even came up I'm
169. 6:17going to have to leave it there but we
170. 6:18look forward to a lot more reporting
171. 6:19from you guys thank you so much for
172. 6:20joining us this morning and again
173. 6:22wonderful stuff from you thank you very
174. 6:24much indeed lots more on L Armstrong
175. 6:26here on wsj live and on wsj.com