YouSaid · the spoken record

Al Hunt

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88
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2018-12-13
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2018-12-13
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Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

  1. “Yeah, I think that's the only sensible thing to do. You can't run at age 77. And if I can quickly tell you, I know exactly how old Joe Biden is because he's two weeks older than I am. And that's because I was traveling with Ted Kennedy in 1972 when we went to Delaware and I said to Kennedy, isn't this kind of a wasted trip? Because this kid's only 29 years old and he's running in a big Republican year. And Kennedy looked at me and said, you watch this kid's special. Every time I'm around Joe Biden, he likes me to tell that story.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “Yeah, I do. I think for Biden and for Bernie and for Elizabeth Warren, they're all going to be in their 70s. I have written this, so I do believe if Biden runs, and again, I'm not sure he will, I think he has to do. And David, politicians so rarely listen to my advice, so I suspect he won't. He ought to run with a running mate, Camilla Harris. You pick someone, young, it's got to be a woman.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “He doesn't have a lot of. No, no. A little culture shock. He's a good person. He's done incredible amount of goodness life, and I think he would be a good president. You know, also he's going to be 78 or 79 years old, and that probably be a factor. So I'm going to...”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “He is of all times. I think he would be a good president if he decides to run. I'm not sure what kind of a candidate he'd be. I keep trying to try to try.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “Well, I think it's a more. I'm not sure I'll do it. I think it's more realistic running to try to get the Democratic nomination than it was to run as an independent. I don't think you can win as an independent. He also had a tremendous fall. He contributed lots of money and probably made a difference in a number of times. He's one of the great”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “But I don't want to be one of those skulls who says, boy, it was so much better in the old days because there's some things today that are a lot better. And I think journalism obviously is going through a tremendous economic challenge, but they're also encouraging things. When you look at what Jeff Bezos has done with the Washington Post, Michael Bloomberg did for Bloomberg News. And the person that just bought the LA Times and hired Norman Pearlstein to be his editor, they're building again now. I mean, the Tribune company, whatever it was called, Tronk almost destroyed the place. Yes. And so there's some encouraging things going on too.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “It's a great deal of pressure. You know, I used to watch television and the cable shows, and it wasn't shirts and skins. It wasn't left and right. And I, as a student last year, spent a couple weeks looking at MSNBC and Fox, an hour apiece. And he said at the end, he said, you almost wanted to have a nervous breakdown. It's two different universes. And I don't know. They all have a role to play, but I don't like that as much. And I missed Tim Russert a great deal. Yes, who was a great...”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “What's both? I think most reporters and editors that I meet, the younger ones today, are smarter than we were. They know a lot. And there's some great journalism being practiced. But there's also, you know, social media has done so much good. The internet has done so much good, but it also has added and contributed to the polarizing impact, influence in America. And there's some awful shoddy journalism that comes out.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “No, I don't think I'm going to continue to write the column. I teach at the University of Pennsylvania, which I love. That'll be a little part of what I want to do. I'm talking to some people. I just want, you know, I used to have an aunt who would say to me, what are you going to do when you grow up? And now I'm going to find out. But I want to try some different things, maybe some semi-journalism related, maybe some other things.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “David, stop that. Wash your mouse out with soap. My wife will leave me if we use the term retirement. I am leaving Bloomberg”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “Yeah, and there are, I suspect you have this too. There are some bad days. There are some traumas. There are some times when he gets upset about things. There are, and he knows what happened to him, and there are times very rarely, but there are times that he will”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “And so it's been tough, David. There have been challenges. You know, I wouldn't wish it on anyone else, but it's also been incredibly inspirational.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “It's like. Exactly. Of course, you're going to do it. But then he really has become just such a source of inspiration for me, as I know Lauren is for you because what he's been able to do is just remarkable. And now he's in a great place. And yeah, it's different. It's not what we dreamed of 22 years ago or whenever. But he has a good life. And he can be very funny. And, you know, we sometimes think, all right, he's got some limitations. I took him to see the movie Third about six months ago and I said, you know, you know what Thurgood, I know who Thurgood Marshall was. And I said, well, who does he remind you of? And I thought, I was thinking of Vernon Jordan, who he knows, well, you know, black civil rights leaders. And he looked at him and he said, Seth Waxman, Seth Waxman is one of our best friends who was the solicitor general of the United States, as Marshall had been 50 years earlier. I didn't make that connection. So he does that.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “At the time, it was beyond description awful. It was traumatic. It was shocking. We thought he was about to go off to a camp. A week later to ride bicycles in Vermont and all that. He couldn't talk for three and a half months.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “Jeffrey was born with a mild defect, birth defect. He was doing fine. He was 16, and then there was a surgical accident. He was left severely with severe disabilities. What was that?”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “Well, I'll tell you, that freshman class, that freshman democratic class impresses me more than any class I've ever seen, including, I'm so darn old, including the Watergate class of 74. They're better than the Watergate class. They really are. And you look at some of those people, Abigail Spanberger, CIA operative, Mikey Cheryl, a Navy helicopter pilot, Colin Alrad, who was a football player and a civil rights lawyer. I talked to Colin Alrad last week, and he said, look, I'm trying to reach across the aisle. I know it's not going to be easy because, you know, there's a lot of right-wing repugnance, but I'm trying. I'm talking to this conservative Texas congressman, and he said, and I have a lunch or a coffee schedule for next week. I said, who? He said, with one of my constituents. I said, who's that? He said, George W. Bush, that's a smart politician.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “You know, the problem with the question, it's a good question. It's what everyone asks, the problem is when we look back at history, you know, we so often have not gotten that right. I mean, I was impressed with Barack Obama the first time I saw him. I wouldn't have said at this time in 2006, I guess it would have been that I thought Barack Obama was going to be the nominee. It wasn't until the following May when I had lunch in Chicago with some wise person who was his media strategist at the time who convinced me that Barack Obama would be president because he knew his time and she didn't know the time. So I don't know now. I have a suspicion that maybe someone from the outside lane, whether it's a landjur or whether it's a bullock or a Garcetti or a Hinkenlooper, I think one of those might emerge. And if they emerge, they might be just what the Times call for.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “Great sensitivity, great understanding, great skill. Rom told me one time that she's the only person that ever intimidated him. And if you can intimidate Rom, I mean, that's good.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “And they ought to. I mean, oversight is terribly important, but they ought to do it carefully, selectively. We don't want to be talking in April and all the Democrats have done is investigate, investigate, and done their version of what Trey Gowdy and Jim Jordan and the others did. They should hold him accountable, but they have to do other things too. I think, this is where you and I totally agree, the person that's best able to walk that line and leave them in walking that line is Nancy Pelosi. And it would be really almost a crime if she's not elected.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “I shouldn't laugh. I think he's certainly the worst president of my lifetime. I think he's the worst president not because I disagree with his policies, though I disagree with many, but I think there is a carelessness, a recklessness, a meanness, and I think a corruption, and I think that swamp is bigger than just 1,600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It's the EPA, it's the Commerce Department, it's pervasive. And I think he's someone who he doesn't know any history, doesn't care about history, and he doesn't surround himself with very good people. If you take Jim Mattis out, I don't think there's a single other high-level person that would serve in a Jed Bush or Marco Rubio or a John Kasich administration. He really has brought in not.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “Where the first battle of Bull Run was fought, where the north, where the Union Army suffered a devastating defeat, it almost ended Lincoln. It was that bad. And here you are at Manassas, Virginia, and Obama comes in, and his mom, I think, had died that day. He's hoarse. It's a long campaign. And he gets up there and he's not very good to begin with. And suddenly it's like he looked down and there were like 65 or 70,000 people. I mean, it was an incredible scene. And he just got stronger and stronger. And there was, I don't know if you remember, there was an African-American gentleman standing next to us who said that this is the most exciting sight he has been since the Kennedy campaign. And he said I was at the Kennedy in Augur. And I said, where are you? He said, yeah, I was a waiter.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “And I walked away. I did the ROM story, and I walked away thinking, oh, dreamy ab, you know, some African American state senator is going to be present someday. But that story is a remarkable story.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “I had dinner with a dear friend, a man who married us, Abner J. McVeigh. Yes. And Abner Mikva said to me, well, you know, it's great. You're doing the Emanuel thing. But he said, there's a much more important story you ought to be doing. I said, what's that? He said, there's a state senator out here who I think could be president someday. And I said, well, who is that, Abner? And he said, his name is Barack Obama.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “And I think some foreign policy were some foreign policy successes, he did get bin Laden. That's not insignificant. And even that, I think, is part of the reason I think he's going to have a really good legacy and also who he was. I mean, that story is just an extraordinary story. I've told you, I think I've told you this story. Please, I hope Rom doesn't listen to this. I came out in 2002 to do a piece on Ram Emmanuel running for Congress because I thought he could really be a big player and came and he had a tough primary, you'll remember that year. And I had dinner.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  25. “You're going to think I'm pandering too, aren't you? Because I think he and Reagan are the two most consequential presidents, maybe since World War II. I mean, Eisenhower is getting the arc of history is helping Eisenhower a little bit, but I think they really were consequential presidents. And I think because they did big things, whether it was coming back from the awful near depression we had in early 2009, whether it was, I think, the Affordable Health Care Act is going to survive. They're trying to gut it, but it's got flaws, but it's terribly important.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  26. “He too miscalculated. But no, I think, look, I think the campaign also wasn't terribly well run. I mean, when you take Wisconsin and Michigan for granted, they didn't take Pennsylvania for granted. They lost. But there were mistakes made, and I think, as I say, she was a good senator, pretty good secretary of state, but not a very good political candidate.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  27. “Yes. Oh, I don't think there's any question of that. Come, you also are a little bit afraid of how much the House Republicans would savage. Yes.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  28. “Yeah, I do. I think so. No question of that. I think in some of the really good media. And I think some of it was, well, we don't have it hard enough besides he's not going to win”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  29. “Exactly. And she sometimes didn't pick the best people when it came to politics. And I think it was a, look, a lot of bad things happened in 2016. I think the Russians, you know, they clearly interfered with the election. Kathleen Hall Jameson at the University of Pennsylvania makes a case that it affected the outcome. That's certainly a case you can make. I think some of the coverage, if you look at the coverage even of great places in October of 2016, there was a lot more coverage of Hillary's emails than of Trump's Russian connection. So she was dealt a bad hand.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  30. “She's not very good. I mean, she's a very smart woman. She's a pretty good Secretary of State, but she doesn't, you know, she could talk about seven-point programs as effectively as anyone that I've seen because she knew them. I mean, if she wanted to put out a tax bill, she could tell you exactly what was in it and why it was good for working class people. But it was a seven-point program. And she didn't have that knack that Bill Clinton had. And I think that Barack Obama had and that Ronald Reagan had. It's not just identifying with people, but it's saying things that people can understand. And she didn't have that. She also.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  31. “And he handled it poorly. He really has handled it poorly. It's always a mistake to say that Bill Clinton can't recover. He has recovered a lot of times, including in his presidential campaigns and other times. When he left office in 2001, in January, he was sky-high in the polls, and then he pardoned Mark Rich, and it got so bad that he had friends trying to get him on corporate boards and he couldn't get on a corporate board. But then he came back. And then he had another setback, and then he came back. I think this one is more permanent.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  32. “Have really hurt him. He's not wanted anywhere. I mean, really. There may be a few places, but he is an albatross now for Democrats. No one mentions him. And it's interesting because it wasn't the case. You remember how much he helped Obama.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  33. “And he could charm, but he turned Newt Gingridge inside out. I mean, they had this after the 94 election when Republicans won their huge majority in the House. Gingrich looked like he was supreme. And they began negotiations, and Clinton just turned him inside out. And he was very good at that. His failure, of course, were some personal failures, and he didn't have as much discipline as a president ideally should have. He was brilliant, wide-ranging mind could talk about anything, but there wasn't quite... I don't think as much discipline as there have been in some other very good practices”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  34. “Did It did. And I don't believe Jim Baker claims that if it weren't for Ross Perot that Bush would have won that election, I don't believe that. I think there were other factors at work there which made it a tough slog for him. But there's no question that the tax issue really hurt him so much among the base there was not a very good turnout among some heavily Republican areas and it cost him.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  35. “They came for about an hour, and they were just charming. I mean, he was a remarkably charming man. And he told me that night, he said, boy, you must be excited. Can you imagine, you know, your dad would be so thrilled? He said, I am, but this deficit really worries me. This deficit, he knew that he had made a mistake or he'd made a political calculation. And it took him a couple years, though, to”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  36. “It was racist. It was disingenuous. And he knew it. And I'll just tell you a quick story. We had what we called a political hack writers group, and we'd have dinners from time to time. And we had a dinner January 19th, 1989, the night before Bush became president, and he knew some of those reporters, Bob Healey of the Boston Globe. So we invited the Bushes. We didn't think there was any way they'd come the night before he was going to be scorned. And they called and said, yeah, we'll come. Can't stay for dinner.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  37. “That reelection is a reaffirmation you can do some things in foreign policy that you maybe can't do in the first term. So Bush was denied that. But you look at the end of the way he and Baker ended the Cold War. You look at the first Gulf War, they really did a lot and even domestically, I think that budget act where he reneged on his no taxes, no new taxes and got a spending cut that ushered the way that was the beginning of the boom of the 90s. The Americans for Disabilities Act, David, something that you and I care a lot about. Talk about that in a moment was enacted under George Bush and he did it with great Tom Harkin. We'll say he never wavered.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  38. “You know, history can be kinder to people, as it certainly was the case with Truman. And I think that's the case with Bush too. I didn't think Bush was a terribly good president in 1992. And I now think that he may be one of the best first one-term presidents ever. Maybe he and James J. Polk. You never become a great president without a second term. I mean, that's just, I mean, Washington, Lincoln had a second term. He just was cut short.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  39. “As a governmental practitioner, Trump, I think, is different than Reagan in a lot of ways, but I think your point about, all right, this is just a corrupt clod and he's going to be easy to defeat next time. 16 was accidental, that that would be a mistake.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  40. “They were great dealmakers. He and Tip O'Neill, contrary to the conventional wisdom, they really weren't crazy about each other, but they could deal with each other. And they did on some big, big stuff. And Reagan was always more flexible than his critics thought. I mean, he would go and remember he went and he enacted a tax cut one time in California. He said, my feet are locked in concrete on this. And when we back down six months later, he said, you know, what you've just heard is the cracking of that cement. But that was Reagan. And he was not the right-wing ideologue. He was sometimes portrayed. He was rhetorically, but not as a...”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  41. “I think that's absolutely true. I think that I want to make one more point about Reagan and then I just said more. What Reagan did do and what I think I didn't like most of his policies, but what Reagan did do in 1980, we really were in a crisis of confidence. Lloyd Cutler wrote a piece for foreign affairs. We ought to turn to a parliamentary system that you can't govern. Jimmy Carter's famous Malay speech, which he didn't say Malay, but that famous speech. And what Reagan proved was you could govern again. I mean, he knew what he wanted. He had a sense of what his priorities were. He had some good people around him. And that was terribly important. He was a deal.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  42. “I think Reagan was Democrats and liberals failed to appreciate some of the strengths that Reagan brought. They thought he was just this grade Bollywood actor who would read lines. And he was more than that. He was not my, you know, I'm not going to say that I voted for him because I didn't, David, but I think he was a sense he was very secure. And I think that's very important for a politician. He was able to surround himself with some good people. There was a mixture. He was a guy who chose the campaign manager of his opponent to be his staff. Now, that takes a certain security, and I think Democrats suffered because they underestimated Reagan.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  43. “I think he was the heir. I mean, it was cast upon him. I don't think he was driven by it, but I think he felt he had an obligation to his brothers, and I think that was reflective in it too. But he would jumble sentences and couldn't articulate. That didn't matter when you were in the Senate. I mean, nobody worked better. In politics, I think, David, they're indoor and they're outdoor politicians. Teddy was as good an indoor politician as you'd see in the Senate. And not very good outdoors”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  44. “If it's a serious challenge, it probably means they're not going to win in the fall. I mean, almost without exception, although Ford, as you noted, did come close. You know, I knew Senator Kennedy really well for a really long time. I admired him immensely. He was, I think, one of the probably four or five greatest senators in the history of the Republic. But he had a legislative mindset. He really did. And you could see it when he ran for president. He ran a terrible campaign. I don't know. I can argue it both ways as to whether he would have been a good president or not, but that wasn't his, I think there are...”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  45. “She got a job with an Atlanta television station because the woman reporter became pregnant. So therefore they could have one woman reporter, not two, and she became the woman reporter and they assigned her to cover the state house when this new governor, Jimmy Carter, took over. So it was pretty fortuitous for her career.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  46. “Is that right? I think that was the most momentous event of 1976. Others think the election of Carter or whatever. I think that was really the big one. I was instantly smitten, David. She wasn't, but we worked on it.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  47. “He lost by a point and he made a huge blunder in a debate about two weeks earlier in which he accidentally freed Eastern Europe from the communist Europe. If he hadn't made that mistake, I think he may well have won that election. He ran a great campaign that fall. He did.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  48. “And those people who thought that should be asked today what they would think of Donald Trump going back and trying to prosecute people because you're absolutely right. Other than extreme, extraordinary circumstances, we don't engage in that kind of political.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  49. “Which donned him. And, you know, it was really one of the best acts that any president has ever done. And at the time, it was just, it seemed like it was going to kill his whole political career. And I think he did it out of the best of purposes and it was the right call. I didn't think so at the time, David. I was a young reporter and I thought it's outrageous. I was, you know, that this guy's getting away scot-free.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  50. “He established that predicate in 76. And he did it brilliantly, and then he went on to win the nomination. He beat George Wallace in Florida. George Wallace's segregationist who had bedeviled the Democratic Party for several cycles, and then went and had a remarkably close election against Gerald Ford, who had been challenged by Ronald Reagan. And Ford was the accidental president, of course, succeeding Nixon. And pardon.”

    2018-12-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 294 — Al Hunt · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source