>> tonight sean penn on politics and the movie business. and i take him to task about these outrageous comments. also a guy named world peace does something unpeaceful. this is "piers morgan tonight." good evening. i'm in chicago. where nobel peace prize winners are gathering. they're all here to promote global peace and how one person can make a difference. our big story tonight, the exclusive with rahm emanuel. better known for his take no prisoners style. as president obama's former white house chief of staff. tonight he's talking about keeping america great starting with his hometown of chicago. and an interview later with sean penn. he's being honored here for his commitment about human rights. listen to what he says about that. >> i've got a better gras grasp that i'll be able to take the things i've been affected by there and perhaps they'll fit into the work i do elsewhere. >> our big story tonight. rahm emanuel. we're here at one of several chicago schools where emanuel has brought nobel peace prize winners to speak to students. welcome. or rather thank you for welcoming me. are you aware of the history of this school? barron vonn stubin? >> are you aware? >> i'm aware he was george washington's ruthless chief of staff and was responsible for annihilating a lot of brits. >> vonn stubin was in the army. hamilton has a view of whether he was in fact part. but part you're missing is my mother graduated from here. there's more than the history of the name of the school. if i didn't mention that, it'd be a long year for me. >> you were born in chicago. you went to school here. and your mother went to this particular school. people say that the bedrock of any great nation is education. >> without a doubt. >> do you agree with that? >> piers, you and i wouldn't be doing this interview if it wasn't for the love of our parents and the education we received. that's true for any individual. also going to be true for a family, city, country. if you educate your students, you educate your young and even in yo our lifetime now, lifetime education, you have the potential for anything coming at you and anything you want to do in life. >> america's falling behind in education. globally. why is that? >> well, the fact is that we haven't focused like we need to on our educational system. and i wouldn't so much say america is falling behind as america's not catching up. we need to focus on our community colleges to make sure we have an entire workforce trained for the economy. whether that's mba programs, four year institutions, and technical education. and i think you have to not look at one or the other but the entire -- i would say menu of higher education. because 3/4 of the jobs in the future will require a post-high school at least minimum two year education. >> your big idea which i like -- >> i'll take that as an endorsement. >> i'm endorsing this idea. not all of it, but this idea. you have been very exercised about the fact that in chicago the hour of students come to school is not enough. it averaged five and a half hours. you want to push that to seven and a half hours. to me that makes perfect sense. as you said, that allows the debate about whether you chose social over sciences. it's a debate. it has a enough time for a rounded education to do it all. >> first of all, i don't want to again repeat, but you and i wouldn't be here on a five hour and 45 minute day. and the shortest amount of time in class and the shortest school year of any major city in the country. our teachers are -- and our students are caught in a false choice educational system. the system is working against them. >> your mother produced three some would say brilliant men. i would go along with that. you rose to the higher echelons of american politics. one of your brothers is a huge hollywood talent superstar. and your third brother, probably the most talented is a brilliant physician. >> except us. we'd have to veto. >> but we would all agree with the third brother. talk about your mother's ethos for her children. >> albany park is where she grew up. as i talked there to the students, my father's side came to the country leaving europe. now, the first ethos if you want to use that is the importance of being an immigrant. you came to this america because of the unique opportunity. you came to chicago, the most american of american cities because of the opportunity to give your children something they could not get. >> how does she define the opportunity to you at the time? >> first of all, it's a couple things. one of the things my parent had on our family room wall were pictures of relatives who never made it to america. in the middle of that were the passports of my grandmother and two great aunts. it was their way of reminding you're lucky. now use it. second, and something i try to learn from. i think -- and i say this as a criticism of my generation. i think we're over-involved in our kids' lives. we need to leave our kids more to fail. we try to protect our kids too much. >> i totally agree with this. modern kids don't -- are you encouraged to understand losing. >> to fail. and because if you look at one of the things i say at graduations all the time. while these are great milestones, the test of character is what happens when you face adversity, how you pick yourself up. >> what was your biggest ever failure? >> i've had two. that i can think of for me. one is i nearly lost my job working for president clinton. that was something i worked all my life to get to. the other time is i'd cut my finger because of carelessness. i was in the hospital for seven weeks and for a 48 hour period of time nearly died. and my three roommates, i don't know if you call them -- i guess they were roommates. >> which was the finger? >> the middle finger on my right hand. >> it was semi-amputated right? >> yeah. they had died at different times. i think knowing the value of life. those are different times and what happened for me after that. >> what did you learn about yourself? >> well, from the one incident in the hospital, never, ever take life for granted. more importantly than that, i wanted to get everything i could out of life. you never know when it could flip on you. second, while i had worked all my time to get to the white house, i realized at any moment that could go and i needed to change how i was focusing. my whole thing, though, and i want to get back to this. is giving your children an education in school. remember one thing i want to also emphasize. i believe we have great kids, great teachers, locked in a system that is not working with them. do not lose sight of the fact that the most important door a child walks through for their education is the front door of their home. i could not of succeeded at school if my parents didn't teach me the value of that education. and what's missing here is teachers need parents as partners to succeed. they also need a principal like mr. alonzo here who set a tone for the building. >> tell me. how responsible can a president be and an administration to the realty of a school like this? and how much is actually down to a mayor and to local education? >> first of all, you have from the top through the classroom and including the kitchen where parents talk to their kids in their house. you have to have a culture of accountability. a president sets a tone. a secretary of administration sets a tone. i reward president obama for taking on reform. and that's what the race to the top was. you have to make major changes in how we teach and holding people accountable. i believe that as mayor i'm going to be held accountable. i've held goals not just in k through 12. i believe in being held accountable. >> here in chicago, you have the world peace summit. and unbelievably, you've persuaded mickael gosh chof to come to school. what is the idea of bringing them to a school like this? >> first, we have the robert f. kennedy foundation, the nobel peace prize winners from around the world. president jimmy carter, mickael gorbachev will be here. i wanted them to speak and learn from people who stood up and made a difference. for peace. made a difference for economic and social and political justice. and i wanted our kids the opportunity in the city of chicago not to see some summit on the news if they saw it. or on some blog. but to interact with these leaders. we're going to have them here for three days. i think it gives a unique stance for the students. >> take a short break. i want you to put a teacher hat on. give a report on president obama and your ideas on how to keep america great. >> we are all very excited for rahm as he takes on a new challenge for which he is extraordinarily well qualified. but we're also losing an incomparable leader of our staff and one who we are the job. now, rahm's not even six feet try zyrtec® for powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec® is different than claritin® because it starts working faster on the first day you take it. zyrtec®. love the air. yoyou u wawalklk i intna coconvnvenentitiononalal ms ststorore,e, i it't's s rert ababouout t yoyou.u. ththeyey s sayay, , "w"weleu wawantnteded a a f firirm m bebn lilie e onon o onene o of " wewe p prorovividede t thet inindidivividudualalizizatat yoyourur b bodody y neneede. ohoh, , wowow!w! ththatat f feeeelsls r reae. itit's's a aboboutut s supuppope yoyou u fifindnd i it t momost. toto c celelebebraratete 2 25 5f bebetttterer s sleleepep-f-forof yoyou u - - slsleeeep p nr inintrtrododucuceses t ther ededititioion n bebed d st inincrcrededibiblele s savf $1$1,0,00000 f foror a a l li. ononlyly a at t ththe e slsleeer ststorore,e, w wheherere n now, rahm's not even six feet tall. he probably weighs about 150 pounds dripping wet. but in all the ways that matter, he's a very big person for this job. >> president bill clinton campaigning in january last year for rahm emanuel. here to talk about keeping america great. >> it's okay. i can handle it. he knows when i work for him i was 6'2." i lost it all there. >> you are obviously famously known as president obama's right hand guy. you still talk to him regularly. he listens to you most. give me a school report. we're in a school. if you are being dispassionate and being the teacher. saying president obama, tick, tick, tick, cross, cross, cross. >> first of all, he inherited a country that the economy was spiraling more than just the recession into something much more severe. an auto industry that was weeks away from totally shutting down and collapsing. which was about a million plus manufacturing jobs. the industrial base of america. a financial sector not just the savings and loan frozen up to the point you couldn't get a car loan, student loan, or home loan. nothing could move. america's reputation around the world because of iraq and afghanistan, a decade worth of war was not what it was when you think of the american century. we were not held in high regard. and he literally piece by piece put this country back on track. today the auto industry is hiring again. it wasn't. it was literally closing doors at one point. the financial sector is lending again much healthier. the economy rather than losing 750,000 jobs a month is now somewhere around 200,000 a month gaining jobs. and every sector, is it different? is it traverse enough? he'd be the first to tell you. is the middle class more secure? no. are they where they were before? much better but we have a long way to go. we have work to do but we can't -- >> what would you put into the must do better box? >> he'd be the first to say the more things to do in sense of getting the middle class the economic security they need. they came off -- literally for the first time in american history from 2000 to 2010, the median income declined. it was the first time in american history the middle class went backwards, not forwards. and you cannot have another decade in which the middle class falls farther behind. that's not healthy for the economy. that's not healthy for the country. that's not healthy for the political process. and the middle class are squeezed economically. we need to continue to give college assistance for their kids to health care to economic security so they can hold on to the american dream and pass something to their children that today is under assault. >> only one american president in history, i think, has ever been elected with unemployment above 8%. the poll suggests it's pretty close with the assumed nominee mitt romney. president obama, your guy, has a fight on his hands, doesn't he? how is he going to win the economic argument against mitt romney who will be chucking the kitchen sink at him saying i'm the business guy to get out of this. >> the policies that mitt romney advocate are the policies that got us into it. it's hard to get out of it with policies that got us into the mess. second, the president also is more trusted when it comes to fighting for and protecting the middle class. and this still while under assault, the middle class is still the heart and soul in this country. and we'll talk about student loans. the question is, whose side are you going to be on? how are you going to help those students? we have a 90% graduation rate. if they don't get to college, they don't finish college, their individual economic opportunity and gains as well as for the city of chicago and for the country are diminished. we live in an era of where you earn what the learn. >> people assumed that president obama would come in and fulfill the greatest expectation in the history of american presidents. and clearly he hasn't because probably nobody could. but has he been frustrated, do you think, that he can't force the rate of change as much as he'd like to. and what does he blame that on? >> i'm not going to speak for him. you have a political system that needs to measure up to the challenges we have that measures up to the greatness of the people of this country. and does he want change? yes. and he wants change in a direction that helps middle class. i would say clearly mitt romney's economic policies want to take us to a point in time which actually led to this crisis we've had. in the auto industry, the financial sector and economy as a whole. remember. if it was up to mitt romney we wouldn't have an auto industry. he said let them go. president obama said no. and who's right for that industry is who's right for this country. >> what do you think in the end the american voter will decide where to place their vote on this election? >> piers, you can't -- there's not a thing. they'll look at both the individuals, their character, their judgment, and their policies. and people will weigh each of those differently. but those are going to be an assortment of things. i think over the arc of time, they'll see the individuals and their policies and who they want to go in the oval office and fight. piers, here's the thing. nothing going into that oval office is easy. they're going to ask themselves a fundamental question. the president and mitt romney will ask. whose voices will get heard at that oval office desk? whose interest will get served? whose concerns will be listened to? and i think the big concern voters have about mitt romney is their concerns won't be heard at the desk because he has not had a career of hearing those. not only hearing them, fighting for them. >> america's not the land of opportunity b that it was when your mother was at this school. america has got big problems right now. >> no. i don't buy that. >> you don't buy that? >> nope. i think we have a great opportunity to shape things in the future to continue america's greatness. the question is are we willing to take the risks head on? you can shape your future or be shaped by it. what i'm trying to do in the city of chicago is whether it's college to career which is what we're doing so they're focused on giving. and what we're doing in k through 12 for the fundamentals to learn. what we're doing recruiting businesses and investing in our infrastructure so we can move our goods and services faster and be productive. we can meet these challenges. we know what they are. we know the policies to solve them. the question is will you meet those challenges and get done what you need done? or will you be shaped by them? >> what does being an american mean to you? >> it means a great country with great people and great promise. the question is will you give that to your next generation? my father came to this country, my grandfather came to this country to give both their children and grandchildren something better. i am hoping that's exactly what i'm going to do for my children. i am hoping as mayor that's what i do for the kids of this city. the opportunity like senau in the other room whose parents came here from saudi arabia. she's on her way to northwestern with a four year scholarship. that was never going to be achieved in saudi arabia or yemen. no offense to these countries. she's graduated with a 4.0, has four years going to northwestern, wants to be a film writer. where else but in america? this is the greatest country with the greatest potential. >> let's take another break. let's come back and talk about a particular issue that chicago faces. gang crime, black teenagers killing other black teenagers. and how it relates to the trayvon martin case and race in america generally. 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[ female announcer ] get the travelocity guarantee anywhere when you book with our new app. you'll never roam alone. no other city can claim mo nobel lauriettes in the united states. we are lucky to have one of the great peacemakers of the past century with us today. former president mickael gorbachev. >> chicago mayor rahm emanuel introducing mickael gorbachev today. rahm emanuel is back with me talking about keeping america great. chicago. you've been mayor now for still less than a year. but 60% higher homicides in the first quarter of this year is a shocking statistic. everybody looks at chicago now and thinks what the hell is going on, you know, with places like englewood with young black teenagers killing young black teenagers indiscriminantly. what are you going to do about this? and what does it say about race in america? >> first of all, i was in englewood yesterday in a church. the strength of that church, the strength of that congregation is what we need on the streets. second of all, our overall crime rate is down 11%. but we have a gang problem. and also kids raised with no sense of values when it comes to life. that they can indiscriminantly shoot gang on gang violence. it's unacceptable. and as i said at that church, if a kid's shot in little village or in englewood, that's a tear in our city. no one can say that's down there. that's over there. no. that's in our city. that's unacceptable. we have a great city with great people. number two is about getting more police on the street and the guns off the street. the access to guns are unacceptable. we need a change in policy. we've empowered communities to shut down the liquor stores in the neighborhood. okay? but it is working on a strategy that takes guns out of gangs, puts gangs on notice, that these streets belong to our kids, our families. they don't belong to you. >> you've been vocal on gun law in the past. when you look at the trayvon martin case, to me the race element is a slight red herring to the bigger problem. it's not something you can negate and it may be that the trial reveals there was a form of racial profiling. but in relation to what actually happened, george zimmerman is using the stand your ground law in florida. and the fact he was allowed to just walk around with a gun anyway as his d