Jesse Ventura, the former governor, was a professional wrestling star in the 1980s. Photo / via YouTube
Jesse Ventura, the former governor, was a professional wrestling star in the 1980s. Photo / via YouTube
The story is sketchy and the details are entirely dependent on who you choose to believe, but at some point in 2006, former wrestling star-turned-governor Jesse Ventura and "American Sniper" Chris Kyle got into a furniture-busting brawl at a Navy SEAL bar in California.
Tables were thrown. Someone ended up on the floor, possibly with a black eye. The fight lasted just a few moments, but the battle over just what happened won't go away. A US$1.8 million defamation lawsuit that was won by Ventura then overturned hasn't squashed it. Neither has Kyle's death.
Kyle is the author of the book American Sniper who is credited with more than 160 confirmed kills during four tours in Iraq. He was killed in 2013 while helping a fellow veteran who suffered from mental illness and PTSD. Ventura, a Vietnam-era veteran, has used his celebrity as a former pro wrestler and former governor to promote marijuana legalization.
Chris Kyle, the real life subject of the film American Sniper. Photo / Supplied
Their widely reported bar fight, and the accusations, recriminations and lawsuit that followed, got a new blast when self-described Fox News "political humorist" Jesse Watters (of Chinatown infamy) conducted an impromptu Jesse-on-Jesse interview at an event where Ventura was speaking.
Kyle's book recounts the night he says he fought Ventura, who he refers to as a celebrity named "Mr. Scruff Face," who "started running his mouth about the war and everything and anything he could connect to it."
The two exchanged words, then things got physical, Kyle wrote, when Ventura said the SEALs "deserve to lose a few."
"Being levelheaded and calm can last only so long," Kyle wrote in the book, which says he was at the bar mourning a recently killed comrade. "I laid him out. Tables flew. Stuff happened. Scruff Face ended up on the floor."
Kyle concluded: "I have no way of knowing for sure, but rumor has it he showed up at the graduation with a black eye."
Ventura has taken issue with Kyle's telling of the events, particularly the part that has him disrespecting servicemen.
He sued Kyle for defamation in 2012, and chose to continue the lawsuit even after Kyle's death - targeting Kyle's widow and his estate, which was newly enriched from the sale of his book and the movie rights.
People were not amused. Ventura was widely criticized, and he claims the story and the lawsuit have turned Navy SEALs against him and torpedoed his career.
He told CBS News he can't find work, has lost his Screen Actors Guild health insurance and recently inked a deal with the only agency that will deal with him - Russian Television.
"I can't get a job in the U.S. No one will touch me," Ventura told CBS News. "My United States union throws me in the dirt and who comes to the rescue? Russia."
So it was already a sore subject when Watters sauntered up to him with a video camera this month after Ventura spoke at the Cannabis World Congress and Business Exposition.
Ventura is confronted by Fox News' Jesse Watters. Photo / via YouTube
Watters started with lighthearted questions about Ventura's pet issue, marijuana legalisation: Could Donald Trump and other politicians benefit from being high?
Things sobered quickly when Watters asked about the lawsuit against Chris Kyle's estate.
"Were you high when you sued Chris Kyle's widow?" Watters asked, throwing Ventura off balance.
"Was I high?" he replied. "You know, that's a bull-- question and I expect if from someone from Fox."
Watters defends the seriousness of his question, but Ventura shot back that "I never sued the widow - I sued him."
"Okay, well, she's suffering a lot of pain right now," Watters replied.
"No she isn't," Ventura said, "Because insurance pays for it all. She hasn't paid one cent. How do I know it? It's my case."
Later, he added: "The case got overturned because the truth came out: Insurance is paying for all of it," Ventura said. "It isn't costing his family a cent. That's the way legal works if you'd do your homework."
The interview ends shortly after Watters asked Ventura whether he would apologize to Kyle's widow.
"No!" Ventura replied. "She should apologize to me for the lie her husband told about me. Why would I apologize? I didn't do anything. You only apologize if you've done something wrong, pal."
