Jeff Zeleny
The Diplomat
People, composure and the difficult conversation held well.
Jeff Zeleny is a seasoned political journalist with extensive experience covering presidential campaigns and the White House. This interview reveals his leadership style as one that prioritizes empathy and connection, enabling him to effectively mediate and build coalitions in the political arena.
“Taking a large bale of hay out to the pasture and the bale of hay, one of those big, big round ones you see in the fields if you drive through. It wasn't tied properly. And it came apart and it flipped the tractor. And it killed him pretty much instantly, just a mile and a half from our house.”
“To get your news, I think has really explains a lot of our polarization right now. I mean, it was unheard of for anyone when I grew up to have cable television. Maybe the richest kid in our class, his parents had a satellite dish near the end, but that was just not the case. So there was local radio, local newspapers.”
“Which wouldn't happen today probably just because of the changes. So look, I think the party, the Democratic Party absolutely, you can see it has not sort of atrophied in the rural areas because they've gained ground in the suburbs. But Tom Vilsack, now the ag secretary, and of course he was that in the Obama administration as well.”
“For sure. And that is so clear. You know, you can see things happening in real time. And then, you know, it hasn't happened yet in Congress or your editors haven't seen it yet, et cetera. Obama was a good example of that. For years, the people in the newsroom in New York and other places just assumed that Hillary Clinton would win.”
The Axe Files with David Axelrod — Ep. 565 — Jeff Zeleny
LISTEN AT THE SOURCE ↗THE RECORD IS CHECKABLE