Lance Armstrong Speaks Out On Life After Doping Scandal | TODAY — Transcript

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1. 0:00Lance Armstrong the seven-time Tour de
2. 0:02France winner and cycling legend
3. 0:04stripped of course of those victories
4. 0:07after years of laws and denials that sat
5. 0:10down and opened up for the very first
6. 0:11time since that life-changing admission
7. 0:14to Oprah Winfrey back in 2013 the last
8. 0:18six years and a lot of ways has really
9. 0:20sucked it's been terrible a blunt
10. 0:23assessment from Lance Armstrong a
11. 0:24cycling champion and cancer survivor
12. 0:27vilified for lying to investigators the
13. 0:29media and fans for years about his use
14. 0:32of performance-enhancing drugs Armstrong
15. 0:35was banned from competitive cycling in
16. 0:372012 for life and stripped of his record
17. 0:41seven Tour de France titles after the US
18. 0:44anti-doping agency called Armstrong the
19. 0:46ringleader of the most sophisticated
20. 0:48professionalized and successful doping
21. 0:51program that sport has ever seen I think
22. 0:54people still six years on want to know
23. 0:58whether you have been humbled
24. 1:00whether you are apologetic funny I get I
25. 1:05get both sides of it I get people that
26. 1:08say he hasn't apologized enough and then
27. 1:12I get a lot of people that say dude stop
28. 1:14apologizing for now I just like a yes or
29. 1:17no okay okay Armstrong first opened up
30. 1:21about the controversy in a 2013
31. 1:23interview with Oprah Winfrey yes or no
32. 1:26in all seven of your Tour de France
33. 1:30victories did you ever take banned
34. 1:32substances or blood dope yes that
35. 1:35interview came at a at an interesting
36. 1:38time and a difficult time and maybe in a
37. 1:40lot of ways came too soon but I knew
38. 1:43that that I was gonna be facing four or
39. 1:45five different lawsuits at that point in
40. 1:47my life I wasn't gonna be able to lie I
41. 1:49was gonna have to be honest did you
42. 1:51think it worked uh I don't know I don't
43. 1:54think it worked I think it absolutely
44. 1:55did not work for half of the room it
45. 1:58wasn't enough and then for the other
46. 2:00half of the room it was way too much
47. 2:02we have Dennis we have Gary we everyone
48. 2:05had an opinion even Donald Trump then
49. 2:07hosting NBC's The Apprentice Donald
50. 2:10Trump the morning after
51. 2:12Lance Armstrong did himself great harm
52. 2:15last night lawsuits and failure will
53. 2:17follow him did you see that had its hit
54. 2:20what do you think when you saw that this
55. 2:23you have to remember I mean this is six
56. 2:24years ago so he was just a Donald Trump
57. 2:26was just a loudmouth you know out trying
58. 2:29to get attention I mean he's right he's
59. 2:31half right he's gonna cost himself a lot
60. 2:33of money right we know that happened in
61. 2:36a lifetime of failure but I don't feel
62. 2:39like a failure and I've never felt like
63. 2:41a failure since then
64. 2:43Armstrong maintains that his actions
65. 2:45were part of a rampant culture of doping
66. 2:47in the sport of cycling at the time I
67. 2:49read recently that you said if you could
68. 2:51do it all over again you'd do it the
69. 2:53same way is that true what I would
70. 2:55rather do is go back and win seven in a
71. 2:58row against everybody else is drinking
72. 2:59water and eating bread that's what I
73. 3:01would want and I believe that that would
74. 3:03happen
75. 3:03Armstrong believes that his high profile
76. 3:05partly due to the success of his
77. 3:07nonprofit LIVESTRONG foundation caused
78. 3:09the blowback against him to be greater
79. 3:11than it might have been for someone else
80. 3:13I do think there's a double standard but
81. 3:15but but I'm ok with it
82. 3:17New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez
83. 3:20another prominent athlete who recently
84. 3:22admitted to using performance-enhancing
85. 3:24drugs was suspended for a season but
86. 3:27later returned to the field before
87. 3:29retiring hey rod didn't raise half a
88. 3:31billion dollars and try to save a bunch
89. 3:33of people's lives I mean that's kind of
90. 3:34the irony in this look it's great when
91. 3:36somebody hits home runs and and you know
92. 3:39maybe does an event here an error for
93. 3:41the girls a boys club this story held a
94. 3:44place in people's hearts and minds that
95. 3:47was way beyond those guys never an
96. 3:51Armstrong is now focusing on building a
97. 3:53new media brand which includes hosting
98. 3:55two popular podcasts starting his own
99. 3:57investment company and spending time
100. 3:59with his fiancee Hannah and his five
101. 4:01children
102. 4:02do that while he bristles it being
103. 4:04called a fraud he acknowledges he has a
104. 4:07long way to go to make amends I don't
105. 4:10know if it's fraud or you can call
106. 4:11whatever you want to call it it doesn't
107. 4:12matter right I mean it's fraud betrayal
108. 4:15all of these things that we know people
109. 4:16felt that's on me and that's I'll spend
110. 4:19the rest of my life trying to make that
111. 4:21right
112. 4:22it's a bizarre conversation because at
113. 4:24times it's a it's a Maher culpa but
114. 4:26other times it sounds like he's
115. 4:27essentially saying yeah okay I was bad
116. 4:29but these other guys were just as bad if
117. 4:31not worse you've talked to him a number
118. 4:33of times over the years do you think
119. 4:34he's truly remorseful it's interesting
120. 4:38because it has been a journey for him
121. 4:40and life is relative because I remember
122. 4:42speaking to him years ago and he is in a
123. 4:45different place than he was then having
124. 4:47said that he has tried to make amends
125. 4:49and apologize on one side of it to the
126. 4:51people that he lied and hurt at the same
127. 4:54time there is still that element that
128. 4:55you're talking about where he still
129. 4:57feels that he is the victim and I think
130. 5:00that remains very hard for some people
131. 5:02to hear all right Sorkin forced their
132. 5:05CNBC's injure us or could add you thank
133. 5:07you fascinating thank you
134. 5:13[Applause]
135. 5:22[Music]