YouSaid · the spoken record

Beth Myers

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80
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2016-06-13
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2016-06-13
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  1. “Thank you. You're very gracious, and I've enjoyed my involvement with University of Chicago to the nth degree. And thank you for having me here.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “We might go off track a little bit, but as a people, we've shown this remarkable ability to pull it together. I have faith that it'll happen.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “And where you put that matters a lot more. I spent a lot more time than I did before in spiritual contemplation. And when I was working in a presidential campaign, never had time for that. And that was a huge mistake that you always have to have time for that. But it does putting that the reprioritization of my life.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “And it reminds the brilliance of that play in pointing out that this was a crazy idea, this country, and that there was no guarantee that it was going to work. That somehow Americans who are as different as you and I are in our beliefs have pulled together consistently to make it work. Yeah, when your mortality flashes before your eyes, first thing you think of, of course, is your family. Right. But when things settled down a little, the importance of giving your all the things that matter and are going to leave a lasting mark in the world are important. And American democracy is high on my list.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “And every time that the American experiment has been tested in the past, it's worked. And it works because there's a compact between the people that we always are going to do the right thing for the country. And when push comes to shove, we all rise to that occasion. And making sure that we're still doing that is really important. I saw the play Hamilton. It's corny as that sounds.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “Yes. But yeah, I think what you're asking me does it change the way the seriousness I look more towards the future and the urgency of making sure we get this country right. The American experiment is a really tricky thing.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “Probably, first of all, it definitely made me not want to get on airplanes and run around at the speed of light for, yeah, I mean, I had a stroke in August of 2014 in the middle. I was working on a couple races then. Very fortunate that it really didn't leave me with any deficits, but it did uncover that I have a brain disease that leads me prone to having more brain bleeds in the future or not. Try to live a much healthier lifestyle and living a healthy lifestyle does not allow me to work on a presidential campaign because as you know, it's probably the least healthy lifestyle when you get several hours of sleep.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “Yeah, and Speaker Ryan had the same ambivalence, and today he endorsed Donald Trump and look when change happens, people have to give it some thought. And change is absolutely happening in the Republican Party. I think Thanksgiving will know a little bit better whether this was change for the good or change for the bad.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “I don't know. I think Donald Trump lost in the Ohio primary to Governor Kasich, but he won in New Hampshire. So in some states, I think he'll show very strongly. And in others, maybe less so. But anytime there's someone at the top of the ticket, there's pros and cons.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “Yeah. And those are really tough years to run in when you're either a Republican or a Democrat. It's always much more of a jump ball.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “You know Think it's always presidential years are always, I'm working in two states that are swing states and those are always tougher years.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “It's very unfortunate, and Governor Martinez is a successful governor and also part of a coalition women and Latinas that our party needs in order to win in November.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “Yes, of course it is. And, you know, when I look back at the people that I grew up with in politics, look at Bob Teeter. I mean, we looked at, he said, politics is a profession. It's an honorable profession. And we also have to treat everybody with respect. We're not going to agree with everyone. And I always think that that is the best way to try to find, and you and I have talked about this, try to find the common grounds you have with people that you may disagree with in your party and that you may disagree with across the aisle because finding those common grounds will move us forward as a country. Not everyone's going to be happy with that, but you have to seek that out. And you have to find friendship and camaraderie across the aisle and within the party, even if you don't agree. This year, there has been less of that than ever.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “Not sure that I would agree with our nominees' way of fixing it, but he definitely articulates a feeling that a lot of Americans share.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “While he clearly reflects the voters who voted in the Republican primaries, he showed strongly in many, many states. And the voters were heard. Does he reflect my Visions of America and the Republican Party know.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “I'm sleeping just fine. Look, I did two presidential races in a row. It took a lot out of me, and I'm very happy to work on some down ballot races this year.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “I talked to him at length about it, and I'm very comfortable with his position. He feels that he's putting country over party, and that to me makes sense. He couldn't do it any other way and put his head on a pillow at night. And so I'm completely.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “And Donald Trump, who will be the nominee, has got his work cut out for him in trying to unify the Republican Party and bring in independent voters and create a winning coalition in enough states that he can win 271 electoral votes.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “I guess after all these years, I am. And I think Jeb Busher would have been an excellent president. Not to be. So, what we're seeing is also sort of a change from the conservative movement that I was part of and enervated by, which was really unified with the economic side, foreign policy side and a social conservative side. And I think the foreign policy part held it together. And during the George W. Bush years, that started to come apart. And so the party is not as cohesive as it was when I was a younger person and coming up through the party ranks.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “Oh boy. Know look, I think that there's a lot of people, a lot of Americans who are angry. And who feel that their government has not delivered for them. And I think that's both true of people in the Democrat Party and the Republican Party. We heard some of that in 2012 and 2008, and I don't think we listened carefully enough. And they're making their voices known. They are unhappy with the way things are going. They are unhappy with the Republican establishment. And it looked like the party elders on both sides were going to put before the voters another rematch of Clinton and Bush. And the voters said no, we're not going to do that.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “But it was funny And so it was, you know, back in the green room, we were sort of already, we were high fiving on the first moment. But that as well as that debate went, when you're standing backstage, Debates are gut lunching.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “Yeah, we had one of the people who was on our debate, Peter Flaherty, had come up, had said, hey, look, guys, you know this is the president's anniversary. We got to be ready with this.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “We were, and actually I was managing that process. Stuart Stevens was sort of the Mitwisperer, but I put the structure to it. And we were ready to go into that debate. Yes, September was not a good month, but MIT is a very focused thinker and he knew what he had to do. And he knew just like in the primaries, when he'd walk on those stages, he knew what he had to deliver and he did it.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “We knew that it was an existential moment for the campaign. And fortunately, we had started preparing that for the debates way back in June.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  25. “Right, I mean, we were having anvils dropped on our heads, and you were doing it in two ways. I mean, every morning at 10 o'clock, I had a strategy meeting in my office, and we would see exactly what was on the air pro and con where it was on, and we looked at the content. And I was watching ads that were running at about 300 points a week in early states or in the swing states that were started in the spring and those were devastating ads to just laid the groundwork.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  26. “No, but I was going to debate, so it was March. So I was at debate perhaps with my broken arms, so I know it had to be like in March that we had our last one. So we were doing these debates for months and months and months and months. And then we got out of Primary season pretty worn out. The troops were looking for some refreshment. And you guys were in a position to take advantage of that. Tactically, because one, we were worn out, two, we didn't spend a lot of money. And the mechanics of raising general election money required us to...”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  27. “Matt's a guy of understatement. Right. So, yeah, I mean, we, you know, we knew what we had to do in the spin room afterwards. But look, you had to win the primary. And it was a long time. That was in September. The primary, we were still doing debates. Up until I broke my arm in February and”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  28. “I knew exactly what he was talking about. It wasn't exactly the way the most articulate way to put forward that position and it was misinterpreted.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  29. “Did you talk about that at Um yeah, I mean self-deportation wasn't something that we practiced in debate prep, but sometimes candidates say things that”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  30. “Well, we may see that happen this year with Senator Clinton having to move more to the left with Bernie Sanders. So, you know, again, your point is very well taken. Primaries push candidates to the ends of the spectrum and the general election.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  31. “But we went into every single debate with a strategy against one or more of his opponents who was stronger or weaker in the polls and we pushed through that. It went on longer, the creation of super PACs in 2012 kept a couple candidates who probably would have starved to death under the PAC.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  32. “Well, issues were one thing, tactics were another. I mean, and campaign finance was a third, the way the money flows in primaries, taking the issues first of all. We had to play hardball and we had to this year I heard a lot of people talk about candidates being in their lane or not being in their lane. When we were running in 2012, everyone was in our lane. We had to get through strong candidacies of Rick Perry, Tim Polenti, Newt Gingrich. And we played hardball on all of those, and we were very strategic on how could we juxtapose mitt and his positions against those people. And we did it, and we did it aggressively in the debates. I think there were 22. And yeah, those dates were hard, and there was a lot of wear and tear to do 22 debates. You remember that from 2008. But they hardened”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  33. “And, yeah, I mean, I think when you work for somebody, you don't agree with them on every single issue and you have to decide if that issue is so important to you that you have to step away. In this case, I was able to Reconcile that with his position, with my position and work fine in the administration. But then when Was no longer working from it, I signed the brief, and I'm happy that I did.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  34. “You know, it's funny. Mitt never, ever took a step back from the fact that what he did in Massachusetts worked for Massachusetts, but he also strongly believed and probably, and I'm sure still to this day believes, that the Massachusetts plan as it turned into Obamacare was not the right solution for the country.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  35. “Worked very closely with Ted Kennedy, and it was sort of a perfect time to make that happen in Massachusetts because of our unique situation with something in obscure thing called the uncompensated care pool and a waiver that we got for Medicaid. And the fact that we had a senior senator with enough clout and a health and human services secretary that Mitt was good friends with and willing to work with Mike Levitt. So there was this really unique situation and we had a problem that we looked at for a year before Mitt committed to doing it. We looked at it and said, can we solve this? And the answer was yes. We could solve it from Massachusetts.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  36. “Yeah, but The issues, for instance, healthcare. I mean, I think one of the things that Mitt wanted to do to make sure that happened before he considered a run for presidency is that he left an impact on the state. We're closely.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  37. “Yes But most conservatives. View admits opposition and attempt to do a ballot petition and work legislatively to make changes that were necessary.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  38. “Well, there was definitely a group that felt that the Supreme Court didn't have the right to do what they did. That was a pretty small slip.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  39. “Handled that because even though the governor was opposed to it and made no bones about that, you would have to look hard to find any gay couple that felt that their rights were trampled off in Massachusetts.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  40. “You'd also forget though we had a lot of things that happened that gave men an opportunity to really voice his position in the conservative world. Gay marriage started in Massachusetts and Mitt was opposed. That was a big deal. I mean, he was opposed, but his mandate to me was to make sure that it was executed well, that it was going to happen and that there was nothing really to stop it. I think we had 90 days or 120 days to execute it. And there were a lot of things that the Supreme Court mandate was for the legislature to make such laws and make this happen. They enacted zero laws. So it was all done through the executive. And, you know, I'm pretty proud of the way we...”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  41. “Yeah, I think Mitt Romney was an unlikely presidential candidate. It was not a natural fit for a Northerner somewhat moderate governor of a blue state to be the standard bearer for a party that was southern and more conservative than perhaps he was.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  42. “Yeah, it was the same task that he wanted me to do to be a fair arbiter and make sure that all of that he didn't want me to make a decision or even have an opinion necessarily in that role, but bring the information to him. And then would he”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  43. “It was great. I mean, it was very clear what he wanted. My job as chief of staff to be. And that was to make sure he got the information to make the decisions from the secretariats, got both sides of the issue. So if there was a problem, he didn't want to hear what everybody thought was the solution. He wanted to hear the pros and the cons. And one of the things we did was sometimes we found out that bad ideas were presented well and good ideas were presented poorly. So we had an in-house policy group that if we were going to discuss an issue, both sides had to bring it through to our policy group so that The pros and cons were presented in a fair way to Mitt. And that sort of resonated later to when I was doing the VP vetting. I felt that it was the same.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  44. “But party chair is a part time job. Chief of Staff is a full-time job As I reminded him I still had those two pesky kids to take care of, and while they were old enough to, and they were not giving me any trouble, I really was committed to being home In the what moms know as the witching hour between 5 30 and 8 30 to do dinner and homework with them and wasn't willing to give that up. So I said to Mitt that if I could if he thought I could be an effective chief of staff, I would probably be the first person in the office in the morning because I'm an early person, but that I'd have to leave the office at 5 o'clock every day. And could he live with that? And he said, let's give it a whirl. I'm not sure would have worked for every office holder, but it worked for Mitt and I and Mitt and me. I did that for almost four”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  45. “Mitt asked to meet me, and I thought he was going to ask me to be the party chair. And he asked me to be his chief of staff.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  46. “That's right. And when they had their first debate, I kind of guessed we had done a mock debate the day before, and she had sort of three openings she gave and three closings she'd given in the primaries. And I guessed at what her opening would be and what her closing would be. And I did that the day before, and I was right. And so Mitt, she opened the debate and heard virtually exactly what I had said the night before. And that gave him, you know, he knew exactly where to go. And he had a series of good debates. And ironically, where the 94 debates, the debate with Kennedy might have impacted his race in 2002, the debate was moderated by Tim Russert with Shannon O'Brien probably tipped Mitt over the edge to victory.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  47. “He felt he needed more prep. The second time around, we'll leave it at that. And so I took over that job and he was running against a woman named Shannon O'Brien. And she was very, very on message, and I transcribed everything she said, and I would do these mock debates and I would read what she said.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  48. “I had met him in 94 when he ran for Senate and everyone in Boston knew Mitt Romney. He was sort of one of the most well-known figures around town. He'd started, he'd worked at Bain Consulting. He started Bain Capital. And yeah, I mean, he and Anne were very prominent civic figures. But no, I didn't know him well. I kind of laughed because I told him, no, I won't, I can't run your campaign. I'm a full-time mom But I'll help you out. And he basically gave me the keys to his house while he was went back to Utah. And I went through a lot of his things in his basement from his old campaign and set up a few things until he hired his campaign manager and brought on Mike Murphy as a consultant. So I laid the groundwork. And then I disappeared for months until he was doing debate prep. put a big emphasis on debate prep because he had”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  49. “Yeah, I went down to Texas to work for Bill Clemens in 86 in the rematch against Mark White, where he won. And then I went to law school, met my husband. My intention was just to go down to Texas and then go back to Boston, but I met my husband and went to law school at SMU and worked at Aiken Gump for a few years. And then we did go back to Boston. I worked in state government there as the chief of staff to the state treasurer. And then took a break and went and did the most important job that I ever did, which was being a full-time mom.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  50. “Yeah, I mean, he didn't pull tables. He just like threw the book across tabs at you. And then he'd go through the crosstabs. He would have gone through them first, and then he'd say, turn to page 176 and look at this little piece. And you're going to see something interesting And that was a really different way. I mean, and I said to him after my first meeting, everything you just did makes so much sense to me. And we've been great friends since.”

    2016-06-13 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 58 - Beth Myers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source