Julian Assange To Larry King: 'You Should Be Ashamed' For Bringing Up My Personal Life (VIDEO)

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appeared on Monday's "Larry King Live" to discuss his organization's massive leak of classified logs from the Iraq War. During the interview, King and Assange had a testy exchange about Assange's walking out of a CNN interview over the weekend, with Assange telling King he should be "ashamed" for bringing the incident up.

On Saturday, Assange walked out of an interview in London with CNN reporter Atika Shubert after she began asking him about his personal legal issues. Assange is being investigated in Sweden on charges of sexual abuse that were first dropped, and then reopened.

Assange took offense with Shubert's line of questioning, calling it "disgusting" and accusing Shubert of not wanting to discuss the issues raised by the documents released by WikiLeaks, and walked out.

On Monday, King did discuss those issues with Assange and with Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers. Assange began by talking about some of the details revealed by the documents, including tens of thousands of previously unreported civilian casualties and rampant abuse and torture of detainees.

WATCH:

Towards the end of the show, however, King brought up the earlier interview, playing the tape of Assange walking out. King appeared to be initially confused by the tape, asking if Assange had walked out of his own show as well.

"Well, I didn't walk off, Larry, just then," Assange replied. "But perhaps, I should...those documents cover 109,000 deaths. That's a serious matter and it's extraordinarily disrespectful to those people to start conflating the first revelation of that material with any sort of tabloid journalism."

WATCH:

King hit back, criticizing Assange for dismissing the questions into his personal life.

"She was asking about the deliverer of the information, a question about the deliverer of the information...what was wrong with that?" he asked.

"...It is not right to bring in sensational and, in fact, false claims, a relatively trivial matter compared to the deaths of 109,000 people," Assange said. "And it is -- I mean, CNN should be ashamed of doing that. And you, Larry, you actually should be ashamed, as well."

"All you had to do was to say they were false," King replied. "When you say they were trivial, rape is not trivial. To say they were false, that's your answer. They're false. That's fine. That's all we wanted to hear."

Comments

[jagrmeister721]

01:37 PM on 10/30/2010

Whatever the distractions over his personal life, Assange is proving that one man (and yes his organization) Can in fact change the world.

[eshine]

05:08 PM on 10/29/2010

King was totally right. This guy's credibility is tarnished - and frankly, I have no idea what purpose his "leaks" serve except to embolden our enemies...

[Paxhope]

05:16 PM on 10/29/2010

Yes, let's keep war crimes a secret. Good idea.

[Chazmania]

10:52 PM on 10/30/2010

Oohh theirs that word "embolden" makes one all fuzzy at the thought of our enemy's getting cocky. That enemy that we cant even define except conveniently arbitrary OOOHHHH! la la

[eshine]

02:37 PM on 10/31/2010

Yes - embolden. Why does that offend you? Our enemies - namely, Islamic terrorists who want to kill us, are only emboldened by this sort of imformation. These weren't "war crimes" - they were numbers of dead. Frankly - I could care less about the Iraqi people - they still stone women to death and kill gays. We should have never gone there in the first place. I care about Americans - and we just had a nearly successful test run attack on our soil. This "wikileak" does ZERO to help us.

[maslin]

01:53 AM on 10/29/2010

Why is Assange even appearing on these shows? Why not send another member of WikiLeaks?

His credibility is not really at issue, and should not be at issue until such time as he is proved guilty.

Why does he need to be the messenger here? He's a distraction to his own story at present.

[AContrario]

06:26 AM on 10/29/2010

I agree with that.

[MBryant]

07:34 AM on 10/29/2010

Likely he's there because the interviewers think he is more interesting - in part because of his legal situation. They want to ask these questions.

[BurritoT]

01:52 AM on 10/29/2010

Too bad WIKI doesn't do more snooping on Al-Quieda. Imagine if they actually provided some useful leakage.

[fallingdown]

01:34 AM on 10/29/2010

It sounds like a beat up by the Pentagon to me. I think that Julian Assange is acting in good faith and whilst an accusation of rape is serious, his enemies are only shooting themselves in the foot by their overzealous attempt at assassinating his character and motivations.

It's all a very nasty post-script to a very nasty war that mercifully will soon be over, thanks to growing public unrest and concerned citizens of the world like Julian Assange.

[Dr Night]

01:19 AM on 10/29/2010

Why can't people separate these two issues? No matter what else he may have done the documents speak for themselves. I think he brings more attention to the other issue by his reaction to anyone broaching the subject. Why not say " I'm not addressing this here" instead of fleeing like a scalded cat. His enemies will only seize on this to make people think about him and not his message. This is American journalism today; no topic professional or personal is off limits to them. Get used to this or hire a proxy to do your interviews. That is if the message is more important than getting your face on camera. If it were me leaking Pentagon docs I'd do interviews from behind Groucho glasses.

[EuroRant1]

11:27 PM on 10/28/2010

I'm so grateful to CNN for one main reason ...

mainly for not being around when the Jewish Holocaust took place in the death camps of Western Europe during WW2. It is beyond doubt that CNN's semblance would have been the focusing on the main issue of that day: the shady sex life of President Roosevelt rather than the piles and piles of rotting corpses.

Thank heaven that CNN did not come into existence until many years later when their bubble-head tabloid style of sensational journalism began reporting "nothing" on nothing. Wow, the stench of 109,000 rotting corpses and CNN continues to pursue on the personal sex-life (and dismissed charges) ... about what exactly??? Oh, Larry you just wanted to hear him say what?

Larry your pretence to be a interviewer has for years been a joke - and besides you know better and still you dare to belittle the spirits and souls of 109,000 lost lives because you find it more important to get a new angle on old forgotten dirty laundry.

May you and your ilk style of interviewing never blacken our televisions again (and I'm being nice). Happy Retirement.

[BurritoT]

01:51 AM on 10/29/2010

Can we all sing "nail on the head?" Right on.

[Fraser Orr]

09:35 PM on 10/28/2010

"rape is not trivial"

As if Assange was saying it was, you silly old git.

[sailor422]

06:41 PM on 10/30/2010

a relatively trivial matter compared to the deaths of 109,000 people,"

He did say it. I have mixed feelings on the leaking of classified materials. Openness is good, but I am confident it also puts many people, American and Iraqi in harms way.

But regarding this guys behavior, he has to answer like anybody else.

[raptor]

06:33 PM on 10/28/2010

Since this blog is still alive, but not as popular as the off-screen antics of Charlie Sheen, the on-screen antics of Lady Gaga, etc., see “WikiLeaks proved the US lied: Fisk”, an interview at
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2010/s3051340.htm
Fisk’s article “Robert Fisk: The shaming of America” is at
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-the-shaming-of-america-2115111.html

[MolliBlum]

01:43 AM on 10/29/2010

Thanks for those links

[Supersteel]

03:40 PM on 10/28/2010

If you can't handle Larry king, the easiest interviewer i've seen....

[supergranny]

04:53 PM on 10/28/2010

you people are astounding. you just don't get it. here's an idea, take away the tv and just read the transcripts and feel the magnitude of this. who owns the media? ==>major conglomerates with fingers in defense, technology, communication that benefit from war.

[Supersteel]

05:11 PM on 10/28/2010

King was right. Rather than minimizing the charges, which of course they will ask him about, say they are false

He acted like a spoiled baby.

What they used to call a not ready for prime time player.

[exile]

02:33 PM on 10/28/2010

ok so you leaked news that the usa killed 100,000 iraq men women and children
the iraq government continued to torture people
so
who you dating
you going to the music awards
acadamy awards
what do you like to order when you go out to eat huh

[supergranny]

04:54 PM on 10/28/2010

EXACTLY! More People magazine for the tv-soaked brains of our country.

[gregory57]

02:22 PM on 10/28/2010

Does this guy expect a ticker-tape parade for endangering the lives of American and other soldiers?

[EuroRant1]

11:42 PM on 10/28/2010

Sorry, I'm confused ...

We went to someone else's country and according to these Wiki findings we murdered, maimed and wiped out entire villages and communities and you somehow think that the Afghans are just too simple and ignorant not to have notice what WE have done/are doing there?

Gregory, Let's say another country comes into the US and wipes out 109,000 American citizens ... do you think that would go un-noticed? Right. But somehow 109,000 Afghans are wiped out and before these papers are published ... they just didn't notice? Really? Honestly, do you really believe that?

You really ought to travel abroad more.

[Stopinstigating]

05:14 AM on 10/29/2010

Excuse me, but do you have any children serving in the military? Any relatives? Friends? Well, some of us do.

"Mr. WikiLeaks" is endangering the lives of our sons, daughters and loved ones by releasing sensitive information that could've easily waited until after they came home.

Your reply to gregory57 had nothing to do with his point about our kids - you just couldn't resist an opportunity to show everyone how superior you think you are.

Does our military make mistakes? Absolutely! But this is NOT the way these matters should be addressed - ESPECIALLY since you have no idea how accurate or complete the information in these stolen documents is because they 'were' classified!

If you were truly concerned about the Afghans, then you would've been leading the protests insisting that the Taliban stop harboring terrorists BEFORE we were forced to drive them out. But since you missed that opportunity to show off your "worldliness", we could really use your help to make sure that we avoid conflict with Hugo Chavez, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the drug cartels in Mexico threatening our border. Please let us know what they have to say.

[gip7]

11:56 AM on 10/28/2010

Poor Larry King. Has he ever heard of retirement? How much longer is he going to make a fool of himself and his failing senses? He can't even speak properly anymore. GEE, let the guy go rest. He looks like a skelly already.

[LadyAurora]

02:46 PM on 10/28/2010

He annouced he is retiring at the end of this season. Try watching our channels, besides Faux, and maybe you might hear about what is really going on in the world.

[stalana]

10:11 AM on 10/28/2010

the media is not the media any more what they are now a conglomerate to made ton of money.

[bmike]

08:08 AM on 10/28/2010

Julian should have expected to be falsely accused after exposing America of something it can not defend.Sorry Julian but we have to change the subject that's how we work.

[MolliBlum]

02:03 PM on 10/28/2010

Repost:

"A Pentagon document states bluntly that US intelligence intends to "fatally marginalise" WikiLeaks. The preferred tactic is smear, with corporate journalists ever ready to play their part."

http://www­­.newstate­s­man.com/­in­ternati­ona­l-poli­tics­/2010­/08/p­ilge­r-wiki­lea­ks-afgh­an­istan