YouSaid · the spoken record

Alyssa Mastromonaco

lines on the record: 95
first: 2019-03-11
most recent: 2019-03-11
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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

“There was anything. We had little minivans waiting for him, and he was really energized and felt like he was being useful. You know, everybody wants to feel useful and like they're making a difference. And it was so wild. And at the end of the whole thing, John Kerry came into the office, and I think I went over to the house, which was down the street, and he said, kid, you're very good at this. And I didn't even know what this really was, but it is something that even today I have a hard time being chill about logistics.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Old friend of Carrie's, and so every place we had a different airplane waiting for us or a commercial flight, and it was the most exhilarating thing I had ever done.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So basically, John Kerry and his press secretary David Wade hit the road. We did not know where they would be day to day. And I was just like mission control in that desk. I was, you know, okay, we need a plane. Call Fred Smith. I was like, you mean like FedEx Fred Smith? And I did.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Spectacular. I mean, it will be hard to. I cannot think of any movie I have seen where his performance could be beaten. Amy Adams too, what Lynn Cheney, I mean, it was, I thought it was an incredible story. So for the sake of this story, that was like the actual Dick Janey”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I was there the day that he was, I think, expecting to get the phone call and they announced Joe Lieberman. I mean, that's. I mean, it was an unbelievably sad day, but they came back, and because he is a pull yourself and get yourself together kind of guy, he did this trip called Chasing Cheney. And he chased Cheney across America for like two weeks. And we never knew where Cheney was going. And the woman who was the director of scheduling for her. No, it was Chaney.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I did. So back when people don't always remember this, but when Vice President Gore was running, his vice presidential selection process was sort of the opposite of what everybody's done since, well, except for Trump. And it was very public auditions. It was these public auditions. And it had been made very clear that John Kerry was the frontrunner in the papers.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, and I thought it was so wonderful. He was so, I mean, people can have their criticisms of John Kerry, but he can give a rousing speech. There are a few people smarter than him. And I was like, what am I doing? Because at that point I was working at Sotheby's auction house, had a real wandering career. And he gave this great speech and I said, what am I doing? And so I wrote this sort of Jerry Maguire manifesto to their intern coordinator whose name was actually Benedict. And I said, please just give me a chance. I'll do anything. And they took me at my word. And so I was the, I did the press clips again, and I helped with the schedule. And I answered the phones for $20,500 a year. And it was incredible fun. And I spent a lot of time with John Kerry because I was in Boston. So I got to interact with him a lot.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“For a year or two more. Yes, and you know, and you start thinking about it too, what floor you were on, what people you knew, and the funny thing is that most of the lawyers that we worked for at the law firm, Thatcher Profit and Wood, had been there during the bombing in 92 or 93, and they remembered and they told the stories of having to some of the less fit people, like some of the fit lawyers had to carry the less fit people down the stairs. And, you know, they told you these stories, and that was nothing compared to what this was. And so all those stories just replayed in my head. And luckily that day, when I was in Boston, I was living there with one of my paralegal pals from the World Trade Center. So we were together and we spent the day together.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I did. I did. When the funny thing is when you've worked in the building and then you see what's happening in slow motion and a story I've really never told before is my very, very best friend since seventh grade was on her way to one of the law firms there for an interview that day. And she's on her way in from LaGuardia and she leaves me a voicemail. I was working for John Kerry at the time in Boston and she says, hey chicken, I'm watching my nickname chicken. So I'm watching.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We would walk every day four of us lived in a one bedroom apartment in Soho, and we would walk every day to save money to the World Trade Center through Tribeca. It was back when law and order would just shoot out. You know, they would just be shooting out. It's not like it is now. And I walked through so many law and order sets unwittingly that Jesse L. Martin almost began to know my name. But we would see JFK Jr. having coffee at least once a week at this cafe. And I was like, Tribeca is the best place I am ever going to be. And so, you know, 20 years later now I live there, which was a real moment.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Good restaurants. There is value in every experience. And while I did not want to be a real estate lawyer, like this was not my next step, I learned how to be in a team. I learned how to work in a corporate environment. I learned when I was in over my head.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Did when we, it's actually a really special time and I obviously didn't want to be a real estate paralegal. It did later help me understand the financial crisis.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I did. I was so naive. I sent so many heartfelt letters to so many people. And I got no responses. I didn't get one response. And I sent probably every committee, every congressman and senator I thought was interesting and their committee's and like the DNC and the DLC and everyone and nobody wanted me. So I became a real estate paralegal for a few years. In New York. In New York.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, so I was a French major with a minor in Japanese in Vermont and they were getting weight of their program. So I transferred to Madison to be a French major with a minor in Japanese but changed and became a poly sci major after Bernie and a minor in French.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And when I got arrested for having a fake ID, helped me out of a jam and explained how I could get a payment plan to pay off my $500 ticket. It was clutched.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I did. And one of my stories that I love to tell young people is that how you may have a job that you think is uncool or beneath you, like answering the phones every day. But what happened to me was that Bernie was running late for a meeting and the 608 area code comes up on the phone, which I knew was Madison. I'd already been accepted and was applying. I mean, I had already applied and been accepted. And I without really thinking asked the man, I was like, oh, are you in Madison? And he said, yes, my name is Ed Garvey. And I had heard the name Ed Garvey. I didn't know exactly who he was. And he said, well, what are you doing when you get here? And I said, I'm going to college. And he said, well, you know what? When you get out here, any friend of Bernie's is a friend of mine. And Ed Garvey, the progressive who unionized the NFL Players Association, hired me and paid me for two years to do research for some of his progressive organizations.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We might have maybe needed a vice president who was down with pardoning the turkey because I think he would have been like, this is so bad. I don't know why I'm doing it, but you're pardoned. Yeah.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, I think he wouldn't have liked the job. You know, I think because even though we see now that I guess you can eschew every precedent and still not be impeached or, you know, run out of office, but I think he would have made good decisions. I think that he was a very moral person who wanted to do the right things. But, you know, it was sort of the same for us. When you come in with so much hope and have made so many promises for how things can be, I mean, people just want to see you fail. And I don't know if he would have been as resilient. I think that we have just...”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He was terrific. I mean, he was, I mean, remember it's that he's the independent from Vermont at this point. It's a small state and a small staff. And I was included in everything he asked my opinion. He was so thoughtful. He wanted to know what everybody thought. He took time.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He thought he might know about. And so I would cut them, I would paste them on paper, I would photocopy them. And so by the time I picked him up, I knew everything, which was the bonus of having to read all these papers. And he would quiz me on things. Really? Yes, he would quiz me and be like, well, wait a minute, what's happening in Rutland? How's the Northeast Kingdom coming? Did they flood up in the Northeast Kingdom? And so one, I learned a lot. It drove me to take a course on a rural sociology, which has actually been helpful in something I've referenced for 20 years. Then he would tell me what was happening in Washington. And it sounded so exciting.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I used to drive Bernie around. You know, people, when I tell people under the age of, say, 35, they don't understand. But this was before there was an internet or, you know, when people talk about clips, they think that you have a service now that hunts them down and sends you an email. My job every morning was to go in and read every single newspaper in Vermont and cut anything, not just that mentioned Bernie, but that was relevant to things he worked on or any problems that”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It does. And what I was so drawn to was the fact that despite what everybody seems to think today, government matters, and it does help people, and it has the power to really change people's lives if the right people are on the other end of the phone. And I was so good at answering the phone that then they brought me down to the campaign. So I was an intern in the morning in this congressional office.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They were like, okay, you got it. And I loved all I did was work the front desk. That was my job. And Axe, you know I like to talk. So people would call and I would ask them about all their problems. And, you know, I realized after a couple weeks I had helped people with their Medicaid. I had helped people with their immigration papers and Social Security. And it doesn't sound sexy, but when someone's...”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Bernie, I did. I thought that the thing that I thought was so interesting, I mean, truth be told, I really just wanted to live in Burlington for the summer. And my parents were like, no, no, no, you're going to have some jobs. And so I interviewed with Bernie himself.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And what did you do? My only memory was going down to whatever street he was doing a meeting and we had found out where it was and basically our dorms, my dorm was the closest to downtown. And so some weird little hippie mob, we all went down there in our Birkenstocks and Puffercoats and were like, we're here. And he didn't care. It was like, it was kind of like a five-minute thing, but I felt excited.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, it really, this one will be interesting if the government is still closed down, but which is quite sad, but it really is a special and wonderful moment as a country, I think, for everybody.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“POTIS says, you know, you're so little that you're not going to be able to actually see anything. And I was like, what do you mean? Don't we get special seats? And he's like, you get no special seats. And I was like, well, I don't want to miss it. So I watched it from home.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In high school for me, and I watched it, and I was like, you know, the moment when he goes in for the state of the union and they say, Mr. Speaker, the president, and I got goosebumps, and it was actually one of the funny things when we got to the White House, because that had played in my memory. I think I was always drawn to the public service. I don't like the fights. I don't like people name-calling or making up bad things about people. But when we got to the White House, all I wanted to do was go to the first State of the Union because I had been dreaming about it. I'd watched every state of the Union ever.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know what? It's not politics. You know, it's like my favorite movie is the American president. I mean, not the only one. But, you know, that came out.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So when the contract for America came up to Burlington, and you have to wonder to yourself, why did Newt Gingridge think coming to Burlington was a good idea? But no, all the girls in my dorm were like, let's go get him. And I got real swept up in it. And somehow I was like on the hood. I mean”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It was, well, I was very proud of myself because when Bernie caught fire, when everyone started to feel the burn, I was like, you guys, I might actually be political Forrest Gump. Because the first person I work for was Bernie and he had just won Iowa. And then I worked for, and I worked for John Kerry, and I worked for Barack Obama. I was like, why is no one telling me I'm a genius all the time? But no, he was, the thing about Bernie is that he was so engaged in the community that we all felt like we knew Bernie. And this is 1994 when he was just running for Congress, door-to-door, dorm to dorm, followed behind by Howard Dean, who was running, was he running for lieutenant governor at the time? Yeah, he was the lieutenant. And so, and then, of course, he ends up running against John Kerry. And I was like, wow, door-to-door work. Never doubt that door-to-door works. Burlington, Vermont. Exactly. Who did it?”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, I went. I was there. I just didn't need to put my little dress on and get going. I didn't need to get my hair did. But when I saw that and she showed up and nobody knew why she showed up and I knew that it's because she had the time to ask a random 16 year old what she was doing and where everybody was. And I think that being curious about other people is something I picked up. And I know you are an incredibly intellectually curious person. I've always said that about POTUS. And I think that's how we all melded so well together because even if we had our own ideas, we were always open and curious about what other people thought and were malleable and open-minded. And I feel like, you know, that's really helped me over the years.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“She came and sang. She surprised everybody, you know, and came and sang a couple songs with the girls who had been in choir. And when you see people do those things when you're pretty young.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, and the thing that I learned too is that when I was 15 and 16 working at Kilmer's IGA, I was working alongside 70-year-old people who'd been doing it for 30 years. And everybody treated everybody with dignity and respect. And the people who would come through the line, I was the best bagger, as you can imagine. Everybody wanted to be on my line the Wednesday before Thanksgiving because I was very efficient. But this Natalie merchant from 10,000 maniacs lives in town and she would come grocery shopping. She was the first person I knew with recyclable grocery bags. And one day she comes through and she says, where are all the other girls? And I said, oh, they're getting ready for prom. And she said, well, why aren't you getting ready for prom? I said, well, because I have very short hair and I'm not doing anything for prom. And she said, well, where is it? And I told her it was at this place Valore Mansion.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, I was a real. I always liked having my own money mostly so I could see fish and grateful dead shows without having to ask my parents for money. But yes, I bagged groceries, which actually came in. The experience of working in a grocery store, which was the only grocery store that took food stamps for about 25 miles, gave me great perspective as a 15-year-old about people's struggles and what's fair and what's not fair and what dignity is, you know. And then I work.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In something they would push me. I started taking French at a really young age. My parents both could speak French. And so, you know, by the time I was in seventh or eighth grade, my dad would put breakfast out and he would say, okay, wait, wait before we eat Alyssa, what's on the table? And it gave rise to one of the best nicknames of all time because we were having grapefruit that morning. And Pop said,”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, it's interesting. My parents always really let me do whatever I wanted, not in like a bratty millennial way. It was kind of like try and fail. It's not like you get to eat whatever you want for dinner, which was definitely not the case. But, you know, one of my favorite memories, which again was disputed until I proved that my memory is better than everybody's, was when we had Girl Scout Cookie sales for the first time and I was trying to become a brownie and I was like You know, we'd go to dance class and all the moms were selling their kids cookies and my mom was like that will not be happening and so I had to go around my neighborhood. They gave me a walkie talkie. You know, it's like 1982. They gave me a walkie talkie and I went from door to door, but because I was so nervous about going out, everybody had already bought their cookies, so I never got my badge and I never made it to Brownie. But it was, you know, for them, just if I had an interest.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's just like such a great story. She was the woman before online when you wanted to order from a catalog. She was the lady at Bamberger's that would pack your coat and your clothes and ship it to you. And so they got discounts for working there and she had a couple coats made for herself. And they actually fit me perfectly and I still have them. And because they had so little when they got here, she took such care of it the papers weren't, the coats weren't paper and the sleeves were stuffed with paper and there's not one moth, you know, bite or hole or anything in any of them. So I have about five of her coats.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Okay, no, but see, my friend, my best friend Kara always says that when we were in high school and we would tell the story, she was like, stop, you're not Ann Frank. Stop telling it, and you're not in the sound of music. Stop making it up. And I'm like, I'm not making it up. But her only possessions were these aquamarines. And she put them in my uncle's diaper and they came across the ocean and they made it to New Jersey of all places where her first job and the job that she”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, Omi. Omi had quite the life. And as she got older, my mom's mom. And as she got older, she would tell me more stories. And, you know, she was in her early 90s when she was telling me some of it. But basically, her family had been sort of part of the righteous Gentiles, and they helped get Jews out of Germany. And so several of the people she knew and family members had been. Captured by Nazis and taken to Auschwitz and escaped, got captured again, and when they got to the camp, it was actually liberated by the Americans. And so I'm like, how have you never told this story, Om? And she's like, who cares anymore? And so she actually had my uncle Dieter already. And they had to escape. And they went into the Swiss Alps and lived with the nuns. And she had her only possession”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's only about two weeks ago that I found out what that really meant. And so my mom worked in the garment district in the late 60s and early 70s. And it was her job to go to department stores like Lord and Taylor and Bloomingdale's. And she was like, this whole racket she had. And she would go and buy the new fashions from real fashion designers, bring them back. They would take them apart, copy them, and they would sew them back together and she would return them. And she's telling us this story. And I'm like, mom, you're basically like the fashion mafia underground because you couldn't buy 10 dresses from Lord and Taylor and return them the next day without raising eyebrows. And she was like, I had friends everywhere. And so she had never told us that story. And we were howling with laughter at dinner. She also had a friend who used to say Jiminy Crackers, which we also thought was very funny.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh my goodness. So my mom is from New Jersey and my dad was in the Bronx and then they moved to Westchester and he was an engineer for IBM and actually started working at IBM when he was in college. So he was able to retire in his early 40s, something I have not achieved, something I have not achieved. And start a second life and started his own company. And my mom was a fashion merchandiser. And it was only about two weeks ago.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's cold. It was a hardcore nursery school. It was very organic. It was called Freedom Planes, but there was nothing free about it.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I was. And it's actually a sad story. And I think that hopefully nursery schools are different now, but I had somehow learned that my teacher, I think Mrs. Templeton was her name. Her birthday was coming up. I've been back in New York. No, this was in Poughkeepsie where we first lived. And so we had this thing called the Windy House where everybody got together and played when it was cold out. And so I got all the four-year-olds together and said, you guys, it's Mrs. Templeton's birthday. Let's throw her a party. And so I assigned everybody things to bring in. And when the teacher, when the parents went to the teachers and were like, should I be bringing these cupcakes in, I got in trouble, even though it was true for lying and I had to apologize. My mom remembered the story. I had to stand on one of the desks in the nursery school and apologized to everyone for lying.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, the general came from our announcement tour, and we were in New Hampshire after we had been chased by an ice storm for two days. And I finally fell asleep on the floor waiting for the event to be done. And Oprah came around the corner and said, where's the general? And I was like, shit, where am I going to find the general? And she was talking to me. I'll take that one to my grave. I'll take that one to my grave.”
2019-03-11 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 314 - Alyssa Mastromonaco · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source