Former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry: "I Believe in Second Chances"

Editor's note: We were saddened to learn of the sudden passing of Marion Barry, the former mayor of Washington, D.C., who died the morning that his interview with Oprah was to air. The clip above was taken from that interview.

It was a political scandal that rocked the nation's capital. In 1990, Marion Barry, the mayor of Washington, D.C., was videotaped with crack cocaine during an undercover FBI sting operation. Mayor Barry went to federal prison for six months and was later re-elected as mayor of the District of Columbia. Oprah recently caught up with former Mayor Barry via Skype™ to share what he had learned over the decades.

After surviving a political scandal, Barry said, he could identify with disgraced public figures like former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner and Rob Ford, the mayor of Toronto. "I don't identify with what they do, but I identify the feeling you have after you've done it," he said. "It's an awful feeling. Your friends leave you. People won't speak to you, won't talk to you, won't return your phone calls."

In the video above, watch as Barry shares what he's learned from his past and why he believes in second chances.

More from this episode