- Hi, I'm Jesse The Body Ventura.

Relax, relax, you're still watching PBS.

I walk and talk where I want.

- [Reporter 1] Not touching.

- Notice the hypocrisy?

'Cause I am a bad guy.

I'm just Jesse The Body, I'm ahead of my time.

(rock music) - Jesse defies definition, he doesn't fit in a box.

- Is it true there's like, this wrestler running for office?

- I would like to lead the wave.

- Ventura is a character above all.

- The most popular governor in the world.

- [Eskola] [He had a proclivity for making news at the oddest times in the oddest places.

- Do people remember you standing up for women's rights, do you think?

- I'm not going to apologize.

- Would you legalize drugs?

- I don't know how you could make up this life story.

- You don't have President Donald Trump without Governor Jesse Ventura.

- [Barkley] Be careful of who you help.

- I dare not say never to be equaled, but never to be equaled.

(off-air tone, signal static) (tape machine clicking) - And from the Duluth- So I was a brand new reporter, had just been hired for my dream job.

Twin Cities Public Television where I'd interned.

With little fanfare and few reporters.

So it's election night.

- Vice president of the United States.

- Skip Humphrey was ahead in the polls, so I decided to pick the one election night headquarters I could go to, so I went to Skip Humphrey's headquarters.

And as returns were coming in, it was not looking good for Skip Humphrey.

Ventura was ahead.

And Ventura looked like he could win this thing.

- [Ventura Supporters] Jesse!

Jesse!

- We drove 80, 90, maybe a hundred miles an hour out to Ventura headquarters.

It was like a mosh pit.

- I think this is the most wonderful night I've had in a long, long time.

(rock music) - [Mary] There was already champagne spraying everywhere.

I'm like, how are we gonna get in?

- [Lou Harvin] Ventura captures voting 37%.

- [Mary] And my photographer at the time yells, "Public television coming through."

And the sea parts and the whole crowd lets us up to the very front.

And we are there when he screamed the famous - 'Cause we sacked the world!

- You always said all along, the only poll that mattered was November 3rd.

What do you have to say to all your naysayers?

- Well, I was correct, wasn't I?

(gritty sustained musical chord) (Ventura supporters cheering) [Ventura Supporters] Jesse!

Jesse!

Jesse!

Jesse!

(high heels approaching) (tape machine clicking) - Hundreds and hundreds of tapes chronicling the ups and downs of the Ventura administration.

With our unique access to the.

- [Eskola] Ventura knew who he was.

- We have many clips you won't see anywhere.

- And what he was was kind of a made up character.

His real name is Jim Janos.

So he's even got a fictitious name.

(somber piano music) (tape machine clicking) (somber piano music continues) - Jesse Ventura's parents are really important to his background.

They were both Veterans so that that public service serving your country really important that, you know, public education, doing good in the world.

(engine sputtering) Ventura writes about his parents, Bernice and George being World War 2 Veterans.

His dad was in the tank destroyer division and she was a nurse.

I think the most interesting part is that mom outranked dad.

- My mother was a woman of career before it was even popular.

She was the head nurse in surgery at North Memorial Hospital in the Twin Cities for the majority of her career.

I learned a lot from my mom.

- They served their government, but they also didn't blindly follow their government.

I think they both questioned and I think his dad was Libertarian and Independent.

- My dad said one time, all politicians are crooks.

And I said to him, "Dad, come on, they can't all be crooks.

"Why do you say that?"

- It's fascinating to hear how much his, you know, Minneapolis born and bred roots and parents influenced his politics for the rest of his life.

(somber music) One thing I remember in his book, he talked about that his dad was a big powerful swimmer.

(somber music suddenly stops) James Janos.

He was a long, lanky, really talented swimmer.

- He was a kid from Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis.

(jazzy bass line music) - [Mary] We definitely know he was the only swimmer from Minneapolis to go to state.

But also he talked about that he was the first one to break a minute in the hundred yard butterfly.

He was really proud of that.

He was a better swimmer than he was a football player.

So the Navy Seal thing isn't a total surprise.

(jazzy bass line music continues) His older brother, Jan, had served in the Navy Seals and he wanted to follow in his brother's footsteps.

There's been some debate about it.

He was in the underwater demolition team that eventually became known as Seals.

He always called himself a frog man and he said he was told it was gonna be tough, really difficult.

He knew that, but I think it was far more difficult, more physically and mentally challenging than even he was prepared for.

He spent a total of 17 months in Southeast Asia.

He said it was towards the end of the Vietnam War and kind of admitted there wasn't a lot of action.

The US was already in withdrawal mode and described it as, you know, being fortunate.

- I served my country, returned home and wasn't even old enough to vote.

I went in at 18, you couldn't vote 'til 21, 'til 1972.

So I could fight and die for my country or possibly kill for my country, but I couldn't drink a beer and I couldn't vote.

- [Mary] That really sowed the seeds of his anti-establishment nature.

One of those many people who was super conflicted.

He was proud of his service, but he wasn't proud of his country.

- [Jesse] I also marched against the draft to stop the draft movement.

I've been politically active since I got out of the military.

(jazzy bass line music) (off-air tone, signal static) (salsa tap music) - There is this short time in his life where he said he rode with a biker gang, the Mongols.

He apparently officially joined this gang and he described them as 90% Mexican and always said he was the only white guy who could go into East LA and not be bothered.

After like, less than a year with the Mongols, he came back to Minnesota, went to college on the GI Bill.

(static signal) His physicality made him a good swimmer.

It made him a good Navy Seal.

It made him a good pro wrestler.

(rock music) - [Eskol] I've been a wrestling fan for 60 years.

I don't know, I just like the over the topness of it.

- [Emcee 1] Wrestlers being hit pounded all over the ring.

- [Emcee 2] Three point drop kick.

- [Emcee 3] Whoa, what a big body slam!

- [Eskola] It's such a world unto its own.

And it's a very bizarre product.

- My two big brothers, we watched professional wrestling every Sunday morning and then often recreated it afterwards.

This one time where I did a double flying drop kick and I gave one brother a bloody nose and one brother a bloody lip.

And they were both like, yeah, that was so awesome.

Like, they were proud of me for drawing blood.

(rock music) - So it's improv, which is my thing.

Like, it's creating a story in real time with other people that has drama and humor and stakes.

- [Emcee 4] Holy smokes!

What in the world!

- [Tane] And be able to deliver that for an audience where they are hooked.

(wrestler shouting in a foreign language) - I didn't have an extensive amateur background in wrestling, so I do whatever I have to do to win.

- He just had the physique and the look and the bravura attitude.

Patterned his wrestling after superstar Billy Graham, who was a great draw in the '70s.

- And I'll beat both of you the same night.

- I had first met him in the late '70s when I was still at KDAL in Duluth and I did some ring announcing.

I think may have been the first night I did it, Ventura was on the card and he comes out.

And I'm supposed to introduce them from the ringside table.

Ladies and gentlemen, he hails from Venice Beach, California.

He weighs 248 pounds.

That's 278, jack.

And 69 pounds.

I beg your pardon, I stand corrected, 2-8-0.

He was a guy that teamed mainly with a Adrian Adonis as a tag team.

And if you watch the old films from the AWA, you'll notice that Ventura is mainly outside the ring raising havoc and agitating.

And a Adrian Adonis did much of the work.

- The former King Pins of the Bay Area.

- [Eskola] Ventura was a terrific promo guy and they manufactured this persona where he was kind of a surfer dude from California kissing the biceps and real gruff gravelly voice, which helped a lot.

- What does it look like to you, Mean Gene?

I can't get in the holiday spirit.

- [Eskola] I think the inverted body vice was his big closing maneuver.

He was great at baiting the fans, baiting the referee, heckling the guy doing the interviews.

He was just, his persona and his verbal skills, good on the stick, as they say in wrestling.

- [Emcee 5] Jesse stands out as the bad guy of the wrestling ring.

- The heels and the baby faces, they were called, the good guys and the bad guys, they're supposed to be mortal enemies.

- Possibly the most despicable act I've ever seen in professional wrestling.

- Thank you.

- [Terry] In wrestling, he was a villain.

- You take that as a compliment?

- And so we needed that cushion of having a different name because otherwise people were coming and egging our house and, you know, puncturing tires and doing all sorts of damage.

We just all learned in public we call him Jesse and in private, we call him Jim.

- How did I get a reputation as a bad guy?

'Cause I am a bad guy.

I don't know.

- I want you to go out in front of an audience without any prepared remarks or scripts to just make it up and do it in a way where people actively boo and jeer you, this is something that almost nobody ever even tries to develop, much less gets really good at and is able to do on a nightly basis in front of thousands and thousands of people.

- The last night I worked before I came down to Minneapolis to work, so Ventura stomps to the ring and I'm introducing him.

And he leans over the ropes and says, "When you get to Minneapolis, "remember I made you, I made you."

(1980s pop music) - [Emcee 6] Just been in professional wrestling today.

- [Eskola] Vince Jr. bought up and killed the territories and got national TV.

Ventura became a national figure as a commentator 'cause it was seen all over the country.

And he sued Vince over royalties and it was a like $800,000 settlement.

He was a businessman among all the tumult.

You know, there was a video game.

(video game music) He was gonna make a bunch of money and move on.

(video game chiming) - Jesse venturing from the world of wrestling now to the world of rock videos.

And maybe you gotta explain why you decided to do this.

- What rockstar can be a wrestler?

None.

But I can be a rockstar and a wrestler.

I'm unique.

(rock music) ♪ I got the power ♪ I got speed ♪ This body moves - [Emcee 7] The excitement of the World Wrestling Federation!

- [Eskola] He was brought back as the first heel commentator, color man, analyst.

Instead of having a baby face rooting for the good guys in the commentary, he was making all kinds of excuses for the bad guys and it really changed the way wrestling was presented on TV.

- Can Hogan get to him?

I don't think so.

- What does it feel like to come right out of the professional wrestling into the movies?

- [Jesse] Terrific.

- [Questioner] Terrific.

- Oh, it feels great.

- What about the old back pocket?

- The the bank book?

- Yeah.

- Even better.

(1980s tense music) - The '80s, getting towards the end of the Cold War there and it's very much this, like, America is macho and it's going to win and it's gonna just, like, crush its enemies.

And we're not going to be subtle about that at all.

We are going to put the beefiest cakes on the screen that we can.

(bomb exploding) (men yelling) - [Mary] Jesse Ventura did a lot of movies but really his signature movie is "Predator".

He knew that that movie was gonna be a big deal.

He is so memorable in it.

People absolutely love that character.

And everybody knows his famous line.

- You're bleeding, man.

- I ain't got time to bleed.

(machine gun firing) - That is Jesse.

He might not be governor without that line and without that moment.

That is where he became almost an A-list celebrity from that movie.

- I did one stunt in "Predator".

I was on hold that day and I was bored.

So I jumped in with second unit and I went out and did my own fast rope repelling out of the helo.

But I got my ass chewed.

I was told you never will do that again.

Are you ready for pain?

- There's a lot of Lycra and toupees.

- [Guide] Control your jersey and leave your- (Jesse shouts) (tape machine clicking) - [Interviewer 1] Tell us about these wild boots.

- Those are dalmatian boots.

- Oh, no.

(Terry laughs) - [Interviewer 2] What a sensitive guy.

- [Interviewer 1] No.

(Terry laughs) - The closer the spots the younger the pup.

- You're kidding.

- [Interviewer 2] Jess isn't running for office, I can tell that.

So tell us about this movie.

- I think it's easy to say Ventura's election was an anomaly because he was a celebrity and times were good and it was a fun easy vote for people.

But Dean Barkley was incredibly strategic.

He plotted every move, every debate, every ad, every time.

He knew exactly what he was doing.

(1990s hip hop beat music) Barkley's really the mastermind.

He kind of founded the Reform Party, the third party movement in the state.

- Joe, you're on "The Fan with The Bod".

- On his radio show, Jesse Ventura used to articulate Libertarian ideas and apparently that's how we met Dean Barkley.

- And I heard him calling the DemoCrips and the Re-Blood-Li-Cans.

and how they both parties had ganged up on him to have him defeated in his bid to become mayor of Brooklyn Park.

Give him credit, he leaves them talking.

- This isn't a playground, this is- - I won that against a 25-year incumbent.

67% to 33.

- And I said, "Well I think I ought "to get to know this guy."

(1990s hip hop beat music) And we kinda hit it off.

- That's what it's all about, that's talk radio.

- [Mary] Barkley was running for office again.

He was in his hometown, Annandale.

And Ventura who'd been his friend showed up for the parade.

- This is my hometown, I should be, hey Barkley, look.

No, uh-uh, everyone was cheering about Jesse.

It was Jesse this, Jesse that.

And I was a big boy, I mean, I could take rejection as well as anybody.

But that's when the light bulb came on.

When I turned to him and I said, "You know, Jesse, "you see the reaction you're getting?"

I said, "The wrong guy's running.

"You're running next."

And he kinda laughed at me.

He says, "Ah-ha-ha, Barkley."

I said, "No, you're running next "because next is gonna be governor."

It took me about a year 'til he finally said that he would do it.

That was the easy part.

But now we have to go out to the horse barn.

Who's out there?

Terry, his wife.

Jesse, I've never stood in your way of doing anything that you wanted to, but I'm not gonna participate in this.

You're on your own.

You're gonna do it without me.

(off-air tone) - This is my cheesy TV job scrapbook that I made once upon a time, it starts.

So I was a brand new reporter, had just been hired and the first time I met him was the day he filed for office.

Jesse Ventura and his running mate, Mae Schunk, filed for office.

I grew up watching Jesse The Body Ventura.

I knew that he could be outrageous and outlandish and I knew the feather boas.

And the first time I saw him, I think he had like, T-shirt and jeans on.

- The FCC just doesn't bind people.

- He was just kind of serious and he wanted to be taken seriously and we did from day one.

- And I challenge any one of these career politicians who sit at the public trough and collect my tax dollars, your tax dollars.

- He had a great resume to be governor.

Politicians have gone a lot farther on a lot less.

- Thanks, Chevy.

- Al Franken who was a comedian, Rod Grahams was a TV anchor, Rudy Boschwitz was a plywood salesman.

I mean, we are not immune from taking a chance.

You know?

(Eskola chuckling) - I knew it was a long shot for sure.

I mean he wasn't a Democrat or a Republican.

You have to go back more than half a century to find the last third party governor to be elected.

That was Elmer Benson from the Farmer Labor Party who took office in 1937.

But the person who paved the way before him was Floyd B. Olson.

We've had a history of Libertarian of a little out of the box voting and thought so it wasn't preposterous.

As a biker himself, Jesse Ventura was right at home at this moment.

- I do, this is very true, remember coming to visit grandma and grandpa in Minnesota and going back to Florida.

And it me being in school, like, a little celebrity because people were like, (Tane gasps) you were in Minnesota?

Like, what's going on?

Like, is it true there's like, this wrestler running for office?

(game music chiming) You have two of the most strongest possible candidates for governor in a long time, right?

- [Mary] Skip Humphrey, the sitting attorney general had just settled a huge multimillion dollar tobacco lawsuit.

Minnesota was rolling in it.

He was looking like a golden boy.

- The scion of the most decorated political family in Minnesota.

- [Mary] He's the son of the Vice President.

There was a stadium named after the guy at the time.

And then on the Republican side, - [Tane] You've got Norm Coleman.

- [Mary] No slack, either.

This is St. Paul Mayor Norm Coleman, - Former Democrat now Republican, - Who used to work for the Attorney General in the Attorney General's Office - Brought hockey back to St. Paul!

(game music chiming) You can imagine Norm Coleman just like putting, I brought hockey to St. Paul on a bumper sticker and then being like, alright, see you all at the election.

(game music chiming) If you see these two things next to each other and then there is this colorful person.

(game music chiming) - And Ventura is just offering this different view.

I don't walk the party line.

I'm not captive of the special interests of the Republicans or the Democrats.

He would go like this, no strings.

You know?

(Eskola chuckling) It was a breath of fresh air, politically-wise, yeah.

(gaming music beeping) (tape machine clicking) (off-air tone) - It was Bill Hillsman who created Ventura TV ads.

It is not the first time Hillsman used humor to get an underdog elected.

He created the Where's Rudy TV ads that helped Paul Wellstone.

(signal static) - [Wellstone] Then I tried his office.

Is he here?

- He is not here.

- [Mary] Had this really fun, independent, - Do you have the telephone number of a Rudy?

- [Mary] Vibe that was totally different than anything else in the political marketplace.

So Dean Barkley, who was then advising Ventura, definitely said we need to bring Bill Hillsman in.

- [Campaign Assist 1] Labor endorsed.

- [Reporter 3] Paul Wellstone.

- The first set of ads was the Ventura action figure.

- [Advertiser] New from the Reform Party, - Yeah!

- [Advertiser] It's the new Jesse Ventura action figure.

You can make Jesse battle special interest groups.

- [Boy 1] I don't want your stupid money.

- [Advertiser] And party politics.

- We politicians have powers the average man can't comprehend.

- I think the moment everybody really found out about Jesse's service and what kind of person he was, and it made him a multi-dimensional person, is The Thinker ad.

(relaxing orchestral music) - [Advertiser 2] Navy Seal, union member volunteer high school football coach, outdoors man, (operatic singing) husband of 23 years, father of two.

- [Mary] The intent was the softer side, the multi-layered side of Jesse because he looks like a big tough, you know, muscular dude.

- [Advertiser 2] Who does not accept money from special interest groups.

- And then this moment at the very end, he looks at camera and winks.

- I remember looking at it and I says, okay, it could be a little risque.

Terry's his wife, did not like that ad.

I said, "Well, let me do my own little test."

Then I went to about seven different women and the reaction from everyone was, "God, I want to see it again."

(drum music) And they loved it.

- Barkley would say that was where they got women.

They knew they had guys.

- It was probably the best political ad I've ever seen.

- But it's amazing what one campaign ad can do to completely recast and ad dimensions and layers.

Suddenly he wasn't just The Body anymore.

(signal static) - Mae and I are the only two vested union members running.

- Back in the day, certainly pro wrestling had its share of short payoffs for the wrestlers and working conditions and I assume there was an occasional OSHA violation.

- [Emcee 8] You see the pain in Ventura's face.

- It shows some of his progressive tendencies.

When Ventura wanted to unionize the wrestlers in WWF at the time and he claims that Hulk Hogan snitched on him.

- I would love to see the Stuntman's Association come in and force them to unionize the wrestlers because the wrestlers are no longer just wrestling today, they're performing stunts.

(brass band pageantry music) - In the debates, Ventura got a free pass much of the time.

The other candidates were not interested in insulting him, thereby insulting his viewers.

He did very well in all the debates, keeping it to a very simple message.

- He was great with one-liners and he was good and he knew when to shut up.

- Voters should believe that the best qualification to be governor is an absence of experience in state government?

- This isn't transplanting kidneys.

If it were transplanting kidneys, I'd be supporting Dr. Najarian.

- Coleman and Humphrey couldn't figure out who he was helping and who he was hurting.

At different times, they would say, oh, he should be in the debate or he shouldn't be in the debate 'cause they didn't know.

There was, you know, an assumption, oh, he is gonna pull from the left, no, he is gonna pull from the right.

We want him and we don't want him.

They did not know how to deal with him.

- Norm Coleman and Skip Humphrey kept saying, "Jesse's right, Jesse's right," hoping that when Ventura inevitably collapsed at the end, they would inherit his voters.

- Jesse's right, Jesse's right, Jesse's right, and Jesse's right.

- You are absolutely right.

You are absolutely right, Jesse.

- Jesse's right.

Jesse, you're right, it is.

- But they said Jesse's right so often that I think a plurality of voters says, yeah, Jesse's right.

- You have failed to do that.

- I've been Attorney General for 10 years during that period, that 10 year period- - Then quit promising to every single person.

- Skip, if you do say.

- [Mary] There was a lot of crossfire in the debates, the Democrat and Republican attacking each other and they were kind of lobbying over him.

So he got to be kind of the good guy too, and that was something you couldn't predict.

- 10 years ago, Norm was a Democrat - And working in my office.

- Interesting.

- The beauty of being a third party candidate is when the Democrat and the Republican in a debate start arguing between themselves and then the Independent candidate can just go, "See?"

"See what these two parties produce?

"I offer something different."

- The only poll that counts is November 3rd.

All the rest are meaningless.

- The best advice I ever gave, I says, "Jesse, if you get to a question "you don't know the answer to, admit it.

"It's okay not to know it."

- Well, I don't know.

I'm open to a suggestion, if you have one.

Umm....That's a tough question.

(panelists laughing) But, that's a very hard question.

- And that was revolutionary.

I don't know if we ever remember a high level candidate saying, "I don't know".

And instead of it looking like he didn't understand government, he looked like a normal person.

It made him relatable.

- We'd gone from about 10 to 15% in early September 'til he did his debates and got him into the mid twenties.

- Absolutely true story, there were people in Florida who dressed up as Jesse Ventura for Halloween.

When was the last time anyone in another state dressed up as the gubernatorial candidate in a different state for Halloween?

- [Mary] Halloween weekend, Anoka.

I remember following them around and the crowds were just enormous.

- [Barkley] That's where the hardcore, angry S-O-Bs all live, right?

They've moved outside of the city to get away from it all.

They just want to be left alone.

- If they had all the same voters as usual, they probably couldn't win.

They knew crunching the numbers in Minnesota, they had to get people who hadn't voted in a while, young people.

They had to bring out just enough new voters to change the calculus, change the math.

- We decided to go to every college campus in Minnesota that we could, the new voters that haven't voted before or are too pissed-off to vote.

And they were there.

And they'd show up, "Yay, Jesse."

It was just amazing how he could control the mob.

And he did.

- Sunday before election day where we followed the candidates around (RV beeping) Ventura, big crowds.

Ran down Coleman and Humphrey to see how they were doing.

Much more mediocre crowds, you know, technicolor, black and white.

I thought, hmm, something's up here.

- There were stories of kids going in mass from high school, high school seniors who were 18 and old enough to vote.

- [Barkley] There were lines around the block at the University of Minnesota for students who registered to vote.

And they said they'd never seen this before.

I mean, there were blocks long of new people trying to get to vote.

- We knew something different, something special, something unpredictable was happening here.

- Morning of the election, I'm on 'CCO doing some talk to voters, exiting the polls in the morning.

I said, "How did you vote today?"

She said, "Well, I voted straight DFL, "but I did vote for the big wrassler."

And I thought, "Whoa-oh, something's up."

- [Ventura Supporters] Jesse!

Jesse!

- We consider now some of the great upsets of the 20th century.

Now Jesse The Body Ventura knocks off two major party opponents to become governor of Minnesota.

(Ventura supporters cheering) - I feel a lot like Muhammad Ali the night he beat Sonny Liston, when nobody would believe it.

(crowd cheering) (Ali shouting) 'Cause we sacked the world!

(Ventura supporters cheering) - [Ventura Supporters] Jesse!

Jesse!

- [Mary] The greatest joy I'd ever seen from a politician.

- I wanna thank my mom and dad.

- [Mary] Quoting Muhammad Ali.

I mean, he was on top of the world.

('70s rock music "Ventura Highway") ♪ Ventura highway ♪ In the sunshine - [Mary] The governor held his inaugural party.

It was everything from, you know, jeans to tuxedos.

You had this rockstar bus tour coming in live.

You were frustrated with politics as usual.

Let's do something different.

That event represented that and it was just, you know, surreal, the rock stars and celebrities and how he sang with Warren Zevon.

(Jesse singing) ♪ Werewolves of London The next day, it's a press conference.

In the state capitol in the governor's reception room, the last question reporter yells out - Singing with Warren Zevon, are you considering singing lessons?

(few reporters chuckling) - That was cute.

I don't know, are you?

- Okay, he likes the glory, but he doesn't like the criticism.

- We were having fun.

- [Eskola] Some people said that he could dish it out really well, and really well.

Could he take it as well?

(rock music) (off-air tone) - [Reporter 4] Another commissioner appointment by Governor Ventura, one after another.

- So the transition, who's who of politics, government, private sector, business are coming and going.

'cause everybody wanted to work for Jesse Ventura.

He was very popular.

He promised to do things different.

- He very actively puts together a cabinet and advisors that are really good and smart.

- [Barkley] Kind of moderate Republicans, moderate Democrats scattered throughout the various agencies.

- [Mary] Assembling his cabinet was remarkable because he didn't have any favors.

- To getting him the best possible people in the job.

- He says, I don't know a lot of this stuff, so I need people who are smarter than me on X issues to help us do this really well.

Just that alone, that vulnerability and authenticity is again something that is really hard to sort of imagine a politician now saying.

- His Finance Commissioner, Pam Wheelock, one of the toughest, smartest people in finance in our state, he praised so much at this bipartisan press conference announcing these tax cuts, Pam Wheelock shed a tear.

His commissioners loved him.

(rock music ends) - All you women out there, you stop and think for a minute.

You take a look at that fat, potbelly dude sitting next to you.

- He says obnoxious, inappropriate things, but he has a deeply moral code.

Do people remember you standing up for women's rights, do you think?

- Probably not, but I can go farther than that, Mary.

I drug the first lady out of the house to go down and march and protest in the Equal Rights Amendment way back in the '80s.

- [Mary] The two of you did that?

- I made her.

- [Mary] Really?

- Yes, I said, "Don't talk about it."

I said, "Get off your butt and do something."

(rock music) - He was very capable of throwing a curve ball or saying stuff that was, you know, he believed was candid but was not politically correct.

- Jesse Ventura did an interview in "Playboy" magazine.

He said he'd like to be reincarnated as a double-D bra.

- [Commentator] Wait a minute, Jesse.

Really?

That's definitely gonna cause some family turmoil.

- That maybe gets in the way of how he wanted to empower women, how he was for the Equal Rights Amendment, how he appointed many women to cabinet posts.

(rock music) Staff thought that maybe there was some middle ground on what's been the most divisive issue in American politics.

That's the issue of abortion.

- During legislative negotiations on the 24-hour waiting period for abortion.

- I didn't think much of it.

24 hours, what's that?

Yeah, I'll support that.

- The bill was sent to him and it was not known if he was going to sign or veto this.

- But it was because I learned actually what it was.

My mother, a woman influenced me greatly on my position on a woman's right to choose.

When Roe v. Wade came in, the relief my mother had at home, I remember saying, you should see the things we get in the emergency room.

Watching back alley abortions come into the emergency room where both child and mother many times perish.

I said, "Okay, I'll sign the 24-hour wait "if you include all elective surgery in it," which means if you're getting a vasectomy, if you're getting liposuction, if you're getting your breasts made bigger.

The Republicans were outraged.

They said, "We can't interfere "in medical decisions like that."

And I said, "But what are you doing with this?

"Notice the hypocrisy?"

Today I vetoed Senate File 33.87.

We learned that there is no middle ground here and so now we move on.

(static signal) - Governor Ventura's XFL contracts sparked fierce debate at the capitol today.

- I just don't think Minnesotans had even contemplated that the governor would have a series of part-time gigs, you know, some side hustle.

- [Mary] He did several gigs.

One of them was a guest referee spot.

- There's a lot of media saying that I'm a disgrace for being here, (crowd booing) but I'll tell you this, I'm proud I was a wrestler and I'm proud to be here tonight.

- Yeah, Jesse!

- XFL commentator.

- I'll tell you, it's typical of Vince McMahon.

Anything he touches turns to you know what.

- [Mary] The guest appearance on his favorite soap opera, "Young & The Restless".

- Why the hell did you decide not to run for president?

- Why don't you run with me?

- Critics at the time said, well, you know, he wouldn't be this national figure, international figure if it hadn't been for Minnesota voters and maybe he should pay more attention to Minnesota voters than these side gigs.

- But if I have Saturday night open and can earn another income, I'm still a citizen, I have every right to do it.

- [Mary] For a while there were hearings about whether this was a conflict of interest, that the governor was taking a side job.

We hadn't had a governor take a side job before.

So there were committees.

- Employee, he will have to immediately cease and desist any of those activities that would be marketing the prestige of the office for private gain.

- What kind of prestige do you believe is left Commissioner of the governor's office in the state of Minnesota?

(off-air tone, static signal) - Nobody says a word to Jesse The Body.

I walk and talk where I want to.

- I think it was part of his defense mechanism to be on the offensive, to question things, to accuse things, to be suspicious of people, to have a chip on his shoulder.

I think all of that played in and it's consistent with being a heel in pro wrestling.

- Move at our pace, not your pace.

- His relationship with the press absolutely was news over and over, and it got worse and worse and kind of more volatile.

- First of all, it's none of their business.

- A lot of it was predictable.

If things were going bad, he was not gonna talk to us for a couple of days.

If he didn't like a question, he was going to yell at you.

You know, you were the jackals.

- [Reporter 5] Security concerns, the governor's office.

- His administration issuing official media credentials and it was labeled Media Jackals.

- And you would think it would have the reporter's picture to match the name with the picture with the person.

Well this is the only press pass in the country that has the subject's picture on it, Ventura.

- Notice that only a few people are wearing their credentials today.

Congratulations for having a sense of humor.

For those that do.

And to those that don't, go stick your head in the mud (reporters chuckling) (off-air tone, static signal) (audio playing in fast-reverse) Love's bigger than government.

You better realize that.

(soft piano music) - [Tane] 25 years ago, it is socially largely unacceptable to be out and gay in a lot of places.

- When people are committed in a relationship, they should get the benefits of anyone else who's committed to a relationship.

- He was the first governor in Minnesota history and really one of the first governors in the country to advocate for same-sex domestic partner benefits for state employees.

- Think about this then as context, this is several years after liberal hero Paul Wellstone votes for the Defense of Marriage Act, which outlaws gay marriage, that literally outlawed me being able to marry the person that I love.

- He is articulating LGBTQ rights well ahead of anyone.

- I had two friends that were gay that were in a relationship for almost 40 years and one of them passed away.

And nothing disturbed me more than when that person's partner wasn't allowed to sit bedside in a hospital because the rules said spouse or next of kin.

To me, that's cruelty.

(off-air tone, static signal) - Jess, that'd be my pleasure.

The man of your stature, anybody with arms that big and a chest like that.

- In wrestling they call it, I get a rub off of you.

If I can get close to the world champion by helping him or doing something, then I get some rub off of him and my stature is enhanced.

So I think Al Gore showed up.

- Sean Penn, Jack Nicholson.

Willie Nelson famously drove his tour bus up to the state capitol and the doors open and you can guess what wafts out a distinct smell of marijuana.

(blues music) Catwoman, Eartha Kitt came for a visit.

Ventura said, "Okay, everybody roll.

"You're not gonna believe this.

"You have to see this."

Eartha Kitt gets on the governor's desk and does this, like, amazing floating handstand.

And again this is the part of Ventura that respects, like, athleticism and strength and women.

He was just in complete awe of her.

- The Dalai Lama came.

- We need your support.

- So the Dalai Lama has a private meeting with the governor.

And the governor comes out and talks to us after the Dalai Lama has departed and he says, "What I just asked the Dalai Lama was, "had he seen 'Caddyshack'."

- The Dalai Lama himself.

So I got that going, which is nice.

- [Mary] John McCain was very independent at the time too and Ventura really liked that streak.

Worked with him on some legislation.

You know, everybody and their mother, the Bushes were friends with them.

- They made sure at the national governor's thing that I was seated with Hillary (Jesse chuckles) that one year.

- But maybe others looking for that sort of that Ventura blessing.

- I'm not here to ask for Jesse's support at this point because in all fairness to Jesse, I haven't even made the determination to run.

If I do, I'll be back here very quickly because there's nobody's support that I'd want more than his.

- Donald and I have been friends for a number of years.

He is not a candidate yet.

I may seek reelection.

And if I and if the people of Minnesota decide they wanna send me back here, that's.

- Ventura called a really serious impromptu press conference and everybody comes running.

And we're all huffing and puffing and very serious.

And he walks up to the microphone.

- So I'm here to tell you this morning that yes I will be seeking another term as governor of the state of Minnesota.

That's all I have to say.

Any questions?

- And he spins around and says, - April Fools.

(press members gasping, commenting) - He had every single one of us hook, line and sinker.

You can literally hear a reporter gasp.

(reporter gasps) None of us really looked at the calendar and realized that it was April 1st.

So he was still playful and still kind of joking with this 'cause he liked that combat.

(tape machine clicking) More attention when he left the state, which he did fairly often.

- Of course he was a great front man for Minnesota with his acting and gifts and with his notoriety and this worldwide attention that he and the state were getting.

- His first trade mission was to Hollywood (video game music) and legitimately tried to drum up business for Minnesota.

But also it was a chance for him to go hang out with his buddies.

- State of Minnesota just acquired 25% of Disney stock.

- [Mary] And then the first international trade mission was Japan.

(video game music continues) Jesse was really well known in Japan.

His inaugural was broadcast live in Japan.

Another former pro wrestler accompanied Ventura.

- You gotta be kidding me!

- Mr. Saito!

- Your new partner.

- We were at a restaurant and noticing Ventura using unseparated chopsticks like a shovel.

Are you doing it right?

- Hey, it's workin' isn't it?

(diners laughing) What do you mean am I doing it right?

The food's getting in my mouth.

- The Japan trip was really kind of a culmination, I think, of his celebrity.

- Governor Ventura boarded a Northwest jet for a 15 hour trip to China.

- Press relations are starting to get a little frayed.

He was annoyed, he didn't want anybody around.

He didn't want the press.

We are on the Great Wall of China.

He took off just hauling up the Great Wall of China.

We're sprinting with the camera.

- Yeah, killing me since about four or five.

- And then at the top, he whips out a stogie too and he is smoking a stogie on the Great Wall of China.

(salsa music) We spent a week with Jesse Ventura and Fidel Castro in Havana.

He is trying to normalize trade relations against the wishes of the president of the United States.

You don't tell Jesse not to do anything 'cause then he wants to do it about tenfold.

So we had a lot of national and international press there as well as the Minnesota press.

And there's a final press conference.

And I said, "Governor, is there anything else "you wanna tell us?

"You spent a lot of time behind closed doors "with Fidel Castro.

"Anything else you wanna share with us?"

And he said, "Well, yeah.

"Of course I asked him if he had anything "to do with assassinating JFK."

(vinyl record scraping) - Everybody says you're a kook if you don't believe Oswald did it.

So I will keep that to myself.

What we discussed on that will remain with me.

- Jesse Ventura is an expert and maybe slightly obsessed with JFK assassination theories.

- He said he read every JFK assassination book that existed.

- After he left the governor's office, he lectured at Harvard on JFK assassination theories.

And I think it might be part of his career that he's very most proud of.

- If you believe it.

- You don't believe it?

- I don't know.

- You don't know if he's dead?

- I don't know because, I don't know because I've been lied to so many times by my government.

(static signal) (audio fast-reversing) - The tragic death of Senator Paul Wellstone, the senator, his wife, Sheila, daughter, Marcia, several staffers and two pilots died in a plane crash this morning near Eveleth.

- For those of us who knew and worked with Senator Wellstone, his dedication to his state and nation was profound.

- Ventura attended the memorial service, which turned into kind of a partisan rally.

- We need to win this election for Paul Wellstone.

- And Ventura got up and left.

And he felt like, for him, his moral compass said this just went off the rails.

It also turned out to be a really big opportunity for him because the governor has the power of appointment.

It's one of the largest powers any chief executive has.

And he got to pick the next US Senator (playful orchestral music) - 8:55 in the morning and I get a call from Eric Eskola.

Ventura's got a press conference at 10 o'clock.

He's gonna announce who's gonna be senator.

He says, "You gotta know."

He says, "No Eric, I swear to god, I don't know.

"I was with him all weekend, not a word."

And I got a page from Bosacker, the Chief of Staff.

Well I called him back and I says, "Well, what do you want?"

And he, "I heard there was a press conference."

Say, "Yeah, and you're gonna be in it."

- [Reporter 6] Dean Barkley was officially sworn in on Tuesday as a US Senator.

- [Mary] The senate's essentially tied, when Barkley goes, - 'Cause it was evenly split.

It was 50- 49 on me.

- [Mary] Is the power broker.

- I got five major bills done in five days of being there.

- Dean Barkley gets to be the most important, most popular person in Washington for a very short time.

(Mary laughing) - For a couple weeks, it was good to be me, let's put it that way.

(ominous SFX) (sirens approaching) - [Mary] We also had one of the really first high profile mass shootings while Ventura was in office.

Governor, what should policy leaders do?

And he said we should arm teachers.

- Maybe lives would've been saved.

- [Reporter 7] Pressure from his staff, cabinet, legislators, and the public sent the governor backpedaling.

- The school is no place for weapons.

And that caring of concealed weapons in schools is not the answer to this terrible problem.

- You know, one of his other controversies when he said, "You know, you haven't really hunted "until you've hunted man."

- If Jesse's coming down the street, I guarantee you I'm not gonna worry about him having a gun, I'm gonna- - Wait a minute now, Skip, I'm gonna educate you again.

No matter how big you are, it only takes an ounce of pressure.

See, I have a new policy on the Second Amendment.

Any weapon taken off a private property carried in public must be licensed, insured, and the person carrying it, licensed.

- Again, he doesn't fit in a box, he doesn't.

The policies, the ideas, the quotes are all over the place.

- I only ran, Mary, on two promises.

Number one was to give back all budget surpluses.

And number two was to control the growth of government.

- The largest tax rebate in the nation's history is already in the mail in Minnesota.

The Department of Revenue said.

- [Mary] We had a budget surplus, Jesse checks.

Send the money back.

- They build statues for people who spend money.

They do nothing for people who watch the checkbook.

(off-air static) (audience applauding) - [Mary] His official gubernatorial portrait was different.

It was darker and it was painted by a pro wrestler.

Felt that was a little outta the box and controversial.

And it is absolutely loaded with symbolism.

(harmonica music) In his official gubernatorial portrait, there's a train.

- I wanna ride a train by the year 2002.

- The discussions of a light rail in Minnesota literally date to at least the '70s.

- Here in Minnesota, again, we've fallen way behind in mass transit and we've gotta do our catching up there.

- And then, Jesse Ventura got it done after 30 years.

(train horn blowing) - It sounds like you're thinking a little bit more about your legacy and what your mark on Minnesota's gonna be in this four years.

No, I don't think about my legacy.

I think about looking in the mirror.

- So one lasting legacy, he recruited good judges.

(soft piano music) - He had a merit selection process and picked good judges.

I think he took that very seriously.

- I formed a panel of very qualified lawyers.

They were screeners who then screened the candidates.

And we had such a diverse group of qualified screeners that I think a bad judge would have a hard time getting through.

- Did they support us?

Are they Democrats?

Are they Republicans?

No, we didn't care.

- I think I named 73 judges, if I'm correct.

I'm so proud that one of my judges was a finalist for the United States Supreme Court now.

- [Mary] So Wilhelmina Wright was one of yours.

- Oh, absolutely, I appointed her.

I was so proud of that.

I was cheering on, "Put her on the Supreme Court."

- He deeply believed that the core of American democracy was a non-partisan judiciary.

(attendees applauding) (static signal) (upbeat James Brown music) ♪ Livin' in America - [Eskola] The legislature was afraid of him and his popularity for his first two years in office.

- [Mary] Lawmakers wanted to work with him.

Democrats, Republicans early on kind of feared him, didn't know what to do with him.

They both wanted to work with him.

Jesse likes something, they better like it, too.

- The state of the state is great.

(assembly applauding) - And then when he started to wear on people and it became a little bit more and more about Ventura than it did about the people, then the legislature just walked all over him with, you know, overturning his vetoes, overriding his vetoes and stuff.

- [Reporter 9] The Senate quickly and quietly made the override official Thursday.

- Governing every day is really hard work.

And having critics and the press, it's not easy.

And I think the job stopped being fun for him.

- How many times did they beat up on me personally?

This is politics, this is the dirtiest game in the business.

It makes wrestling look clean.

- I think it was in Wabasha and he perceived to be under fire from all sides.

- Part of his wing had to be amputated - [Mary] And he was addressing kind of a small town Rotary club and started talking about how difficult it was to get anything done.

How he wasn't a Democrat, how he wasn't a Republican, how he didn't have a caucus.

- I stand alone, but I have you.

(Jesse sniffling) Don't let me down.

(attendees chuckling, clapping) - It was a very poignant moment.

And he is kind of a softie underneath the bravado.

- His daughter and his wife and the threats to them.

She was a minor the entire time he was in the administration.

He was very protective of her.

- She used to show with me.

- Why did I quit, Jade?

- She quit 'cause I was.

- [Mary] One day as Ventura was leaving, I ran into him and he was physically seething.

I mean he was just angry, angry, angry.

So I just stopped him and walked up to him and said, "What, what'd we do?

"What do we do now?"

'cause I knew he was mad at the press, right?

And he said, 'You questioned the security for my child.

"She is vulnerable.

"We've had threats."

And the press was questioning the amount of money that was being spent on his security.

And he was so angry.

And that's when I really saw so much of the anger was him being protective of his family.

- The bombshell, of course, was Governor Ventura's live announcement Tuesday that he won't seek reelection - Because the first lady wanted it over with.

- He should rest unless somebody else be Superman for a while and save the world.

Just come home.

(Terry chuckles) - This point in time, I don't know what I'll do, but certainly I'll reappear somewhere.

I'll reinvent myself in some way, shape, or form.

But ultimately.

- As you talk about kind of the arc of his career, I think this was just another stop.

If he had wanted to be a party builder, that would've made the future even more interesting past his term.

- How about your party?

Don't you leave them in a tough spot with only a few weeks before the convention to scramble and find a candidate?

- No one promised anybody a rose garden.

- [Eskola] He wasn't a political animal, it wasn't in his blood.

He was like an entrepreneur.

- Would you legalize drugs?

- What is the matter with industrial hemp?

Who are any of us to tell someone who's dying, what they should or shouldn't take to relieve their pain?

- It kind of brings a story full circle because Governor Ventura returned to the state capitol before a state senate committee to endorse a bill to legalize marijuana.

- I'm here because I started this and as governor I believed in hemp and cannabis back then.

- But this was a different argument than he made 25 years ago.

This time he sat in front of the committee and said, - Cannabis saved my life.

If I get choked up a little, bear with me.

It was about 10 years ago, first lady Terry Ventura started suffering from seizures.

Four different seizure medicines did not work.

All had bad side effects.

In desperation, we broke the law.

My wife took the first three drops under the tongue and has not had a seizure since, none.

Marijuana cannabis stopped the seizures.

She wanted to be here because we don't want any Minnesotans to go through what we went through.

The man himself.

- Thank you for being here.

- Oh, thank you for inviting me.

It's very wonderful to see a dream of yours over 20 years ago finally happen today and I'm still alive to see it.

- It's legal, there you go.

(crowd clapping) - People laughed at him and thought he was crazy once upon a time.

And suddenly, like, public opinion catches up with him in a good way.

I don't know how many politicians that's true for.

Like, he ends up on the right side of history on a lot of big social issues.

- If I were to get back into politics, could I expect your moral and financial support?

- 100%.

- You don't have President Donald Trump without Governor Jesse Ventura.

And we know Trump's people studied Ventura's path to victory.

- Donald came in, he says, "I wanna have a talk "with you and your staff."

And Jesse was there and I was there.

And Roger Stone was there in the back taking notes.

- And I don't think the reform.

- You take a celebrity name, somebody with very high name ID, somebody who's on television.

They had both kind of created this image that they were macho, successful, self-made men, again, anti-establishment.

- That was 20 years ago when Donald Trump supported the Clintons and was pro-choice.

Why did Donald Trump change so drastically in 20 years from the person I met 20 years ago?

- Ventura also doesn't respect the fact that Trump didn't serve.

I think he considers him a draft dodger - When it came time for him to serve, his dad bought him out of it.

That's been made clear.

He ran.

And yet you see them dressing him up like Rambo putting headbands on Donald Trump like he's some tough.

Why do people think he's a tough guy?

He's a puke.

- So these two men that once seemed very much alike and were very close, have definitely had a divide, a schism.

- I think Donald Trump is the worst thing that's happened to the United States of America, his presidency.

It's divided our country.

I took an oath to defend the constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

And on January 6th I watched a confederate flag be run through my capitol.

(mob shouting) If Donald Trump and his minions at the top don't get convicted of something, then that shows me our entire legal system in this country's a fraud.

(tape machine clicking) (crowd commenting, shouting) I think that we may need a wrestler in the White House in 2008.

(crowd cheering) Yeah!

- Every time I sat down with him after he left office, I'd have to ask him, and are you running for president?

And every time he toys with it, 'cause he likes to be relevant, he does care.

Ron Paul for president.

Would you run with him if he ran as a Libertarian, as he did in '88?

- Yes.

I won't say definitively yes.

- But there's always kind of a reason not to.

- Oh, I'm always tempted, but it's impossible because you'd have to join one of the parties and I won't do that.

- And the very last time we sat down, his dislike and distrust of his former friend Donald Trump is so high.

- I would love to debate Trump.

Oh.

(Mary chuckles) - You would?

Could you put it on a scale of one to 10, how interested in running for president?

- I won't do it just to do it, but my patriotism is always in the back pocket.

And I say this, it's like a curse that always whispers to me, "If not you, then who?"

- [JFK] Ask not what your country can do for you.

(rock music "Cult of Personality") ♪ I sell the things you need to be ♪ ♪ On the smiling face on your TV ♪ ♪ Oh, I'm a cult ♪ I am a cult of, I am a cult of ♪ ♪ I am a cult of, ♪ I am a cult of personality, ya ♪ - [JFK] Ask not what your country can do for you.

(rock music "Cult of Personality" continues) (rock music "Cult of Personality" ends)