YouSaid · the spoken record

Chris LaCivita

lines on the record: 91
first: 2024-11-21
most recent: 2024-11-21
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

“Give two damn Well, I mean, every time we ask them for something, it was sort of like, sure, sure, kick the can down the road. I mean, it was a huge pain in the ass. So glad we're going to be able to change so much there. But then, you know, the 14th Amendment cases where they're trying to kick him off the ballot state by state. I mean, they did not want to run against Donald Trump and they did absolutely everything in their power save taking a shot at him. They had other wackos. And so, you know, they certainly did everything in their power to try and defeat them, and none of it worked”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But they didn't have a message. I didn't spend a whole lot of time thinking about that. You know, it was just about taking advantage of opportunities as they present themselves, which she did weekly. I mean, Biden did daily. She did weekly. I don't know. I mean, I think that the establishment in the government, the justice system, the quote-unquote justice system, I think all of the everything that we've had to endure, we endured assassination attempts. We endured having to change and alter an entire campaign apparatus and operation because the Damn Iranians were trying to shoot us down. And the people in Washington.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He did, but I got to tell you, and I don't say this very often, but I just knew after he survived that shooting, I was like, there's no way that you go through something. You get spared that to lose. I mean, I know that sounds, but at the same time, I'm, I'm. I'm sure that had they developed some sort of message, but”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, and there's a fundamental difference there because the people on the right, myself included, believe that life begins a conception. And I actually think that the true conservative position, if you're a real conservative, the real conservative position, even though I believe life begins a conception, but that's my personal opinion, but is that it belongs in the states. You know, that's one of the things that President Trump thought did a masterful job of disarming. And clearly it was not the number one issue for the left because that was the only thing that they could talk about. And one point that I would want to raise as it relates to campaigns and it relates to messaging. In the last two weeks of our campaign, we ran a total of six different creatives. The Harris campaign ran over 140.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Dave, I mean, they're in school systems across the country. They're literally teachers around telling kids. This is Trans day. This is that. That's being force-fed to people across the country. And the vast majority of people are not for it. And so, I mean, look, I certainly empathize with people who have, you know, a situation like that just don't freaking tell the rest of the world that it's got to be accepted as the way it has to be because that's just not the way this country is based. But you'd tell that.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I'm not, look, I don't make judgments about people first and foremost about anybody. I mean, I may disagree with them, but that's not my job. I don't make judgments. My faith doesn't allow me to do that anyway. But in terms of, you know, in terms of in a campaign, look, that is an issue that is central, or at least it was, to the Democrats.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right. So, and parents who've lost children from my gut crime and all of these people. Yeah, I have empathy for all of them. Right.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, or Charlemagne, as I call them. But when we aired the first ad. He then went on the air. Charlemagne didn't say, I'm not for that. We took that clip and turned it into second was out of content. Well, I mean, I don't know. I know the whole clip, so we ran the whole clip. We targeted black men, Hispanic families, white families, suburban women. We ran that because it also got to the point about boys and girls locker rooms, which suburban moms don't like.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Some of them. I remember we were having this conversation because Tony was, you know, and as was I, we were religious in our discipline in terms of making sure that the only conversation we were going to talk about was economy, economics, economics. That was the number one issue. We needed, you know, blah, blah, blah. And then that, you know, the video showed up and then, you know, the K file, I think, had done some clip on it or something. And so that gave us the...”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think a lot of it is intuitive. I think he knows that to generate a conversation about a particular subject, you probably have to push the boundaries sometimes”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, but at the end of the day, it was from our standpoint, it was, are we pushing the points that we want to push? What are we getting from her that we can then use against her? And then, of course, him going down to the spin room post debate, which was just a masterclass in occupying and sucking all the space. You know, a point that we generated, of course, we know most of it was negative because of the way the press is, but over 2.1 billion dollars in earned media during the course of this campaign was crazy.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, people judge debates through the lens of, especially in Washington and on TV, through this construct of what a debate should be. And the boss was like, you know, he made his points and everybody's, if people say he takes that he was taking the bait. No, he views it. I was defending myself. I'm not going to let a charge go unanswered.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Bidenomics is working and then the view stuff. And then there's nothing I would change to prisoners and illegal aliens or immigrants should have taxpayer funded gender transition surgery.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, everybody was out of sorts. I mean, of course, you know, we look back at it now and I'd say, think about a boss, you just beat two Democrat nominees for president in one election. I mean, you know, he loves to be the first dat and the best at, you know, that's a, you know, looking back. But at the time, yeah, you were a little discombobulated because you're spending money, you're spending resources on doing this.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“visually by name the whole nine yards Biden Harrismaster Biden Harris Biden Harris and so when the drop happened you know we were all it's not like we were standing around you know”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, 100% because I couldn't imagine that they would take the first African American woman vice president and depose her for anybody else. It just wasn't going to happen. And I mean, of course, it was hard for us to believe that they would depose the incumbent president of the United States too, but they did. So when Going into the convention, there was more and more talk, the RNC convention, there was more and more talk about switching. So we ensured that all of the media that was packaged and what was a very well orchestrated message driven event at the convention. And then we had all the real people stories and all that kind of stuff that it included Harris and everything. In every single instance it included her.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, in May, we did a report on an internal analysis of what would be required for them to dump Biden. We did it in May. So we started thinking about this before even the first debate. So in that first debate happened, it's like pull it out, dust it off, let's recirculate.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But it's not that it wasn't anything that we disagreed with. And the reason being because none of us felt that he would debate. We didn't think there was a chance in hell that Biden would agree to a debate. So when they agreed to a debate and they said it'd be two and one would be in June, we're like, it's a little early, but why the hell not? Sure, let's do it. And so the fact that we got a debate for us was a win. But literally the first five minutes into the debate, we're all thinking, okay, he's not going to make it. This is going to change.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes. As a matter of fact, when the boss said, when President Trump said anytime, anywhere, any place, okay, that's what's going to happen.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh my god, especially Susie and Laura. Laura Trump was, I think, I give her a lot of credit as I do Susie for the discipline to stay on top of that every time the boss would go up and say, oh, we want to vote single day voting. And we're like, just throw in there a little bit about the early vote. And he did. And when we started getting the results. You know, when the voting started, it was quite amazing to see that I knew that if tactically we put our efforts behind it, that we could be better than anybody else.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, I think it helped. I mean, look, everything that was going on out there was an added benefit, right? It's not like it hurt us at all. But our numbers in Pennsylvania were great. Our numbers, but in truth, the new voter registrations in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania were much higher for Republicans than they were Democrats first time ever. That had nothing to do with anybody. It was up around the country, but specifically in Pennsylvania was way up. And, of course, the campaign put and the RNC put a big emphasis on early voting, which had never been done before.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But I do not see an equivalency with my grandparents or my family history and what's going on at the border right now, none whatsoever.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Does different groups of people? Well, my grandparents and your grandparents, the Italians and the Irish, they came through Ellis Island. They came over here legally. They did not cross a border. They did not start taking government benefits or expecting X, Y, and Z. They just didn't. There's a completely different perspective. And by the way, that's part of the reason why Trump did so much better with Hispanic voters, broke all the records with Hispanic voters is because all the Hispanic voters that vote are the ones, the vast majority that we know if they're legal. And they've done it the right way. And they don't like people who break rules.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I don't think President Trump would disagree with that. As a matter of fact, he's always, and he's been talking a lot about it in this particular campaign as well, which is I'm all for immigration as long as it's legal.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And so to lull their super pack into a battle with us in New Hampshire, while we're still cleaning their clocks in Iowa, and I figured they would pull out of Iowa, which then I would get some play out of, right? And say, oh, they've collapsed in Iowa. But to my surprise, they stayed in because they wanted to win Iowa, kill off him, use that as a slingshot to come in and beat us in New Hampshire. But we recognize that plan started beating them up in New Hampshire.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“New Hampshire primary. Right. And she was spending all her money, all her money, all her money in Iowa. And I'm looking at what they're doing in New Hampshire and I'm like, they're not doing anything in New Hampshire. And New Hampshire's in three weeks. I was like, hmm. So we dropped a bunch of jack ads on her in New Hampshire. They never saw it coming. We dropped these attack ads on them in New Hampshire that were on the issue of immigration. She's soft on immigration, right?”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Big mistake. Basically, had Ron's death put all his eggs in the basket. He had to finish second. Had to in Iowa. Otherwise, he was dead in the water. Nikki got greedy because her numbers were showing her competitive. And so she started spending all of her money”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And started targeting these people by those were our base people, right? If they show up to a rally, then they should easily find five people to vote to come out and vote in the caucus. So we started building an operation that was basically built on that. And then one of the things that we found with all the people that we put into our system, there were 8,000 of them that weren't even registered to vote. So I said, look, your goal, I told the demon, I said, your goal is to get 2,500 of those 8,000 registered. Then ended up getting like 4,000 registered. So we had all these new voters. And so we had such a solid win in Iowa, despite the fact that the turnout was nearly 40% lower than what everybody projected. And then, and of course, you know, we went into New Hampshire, which is more of a traditional, you know, back and forth, but that was fun because it was, we were watching Nikki make a big.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Here's what we did, I'll boil down on this real quick. So we had all these people that signed up, they go to Trump rallies, and there's tens of thousands of people to show up. And so they would show up and they would just fill out paperwork and I'd say, well, what are you doing with it? This is like 16 campaigning. They had like 10,000 caucus cards and they were never entered into a database. So what we started doing was I was able to basically was able to find a lot of that information.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because they told us we were crazy. We didn't have an operation that was worthy of it, blah, blah, blah, blah. I have all the newspaper articles I'm putting together and handing them out to my staff.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The trained realmment and basically this particular area of Ohio wasn't getting any emergency response. And it's like basically the locals were saying the government doesn't care about us. And so the president flew in. I was with him on that trip. And it was an amazing thing. But literally, we saw our numbers just pop after that because we sort of reminded people what it was about Trump that they liked. And then, of course, two weeks later, the indictment happened. And then we popped off like rocket fuel.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, yeah. And let me tell you why, because About two weeks before the first indictment. We want East Palestine, Ohio And it was after that visit that we saw our first substantial separation in our primary numbers. It was after that visit.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Wow, I mean, when that first one popped, I mean, our numbers went through the roof. I mean, they helped a lot. They helped a lot.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, well, we had a great political operation. Basically, what we had done in Iowa was a test case. And look, as things had developed and we started, you know, the campaign started going and we developed a really good rhythm. And tactically, we were just a lot more aggressive and a lot better campaign than what DeSantis had put together. And so, you know, and you can feel that momentum. And when you feel that momentum, it gives you a degree of swagger. And we were really convincing we were convinced internally that we knew the primaries we were going to roll through.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You apparently have no desire to be correct. That's not my thing. And I can be very helpful to what the president wants to accomplish on the outside. As opposed to being on the inside. But I mean, Susie's always been known to speak the truth, and she's always been known to speak her opinion, and that's part of the reason why he's got her there.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And, you know, I think her job is, I mean, I can speculate all day long and I try to avoid that because I'm not a prognosticator and I have no desire to be. And you're not inside?”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“World record holder like four years, right? And so in different capacities. And the most important thing is that the president trusts her implicitly. And so having that, as you know, you've been in that kind of environment as well. Having that trust between the candidate and your top political people is very, very important. And he had that with me as well. And that was the one currency that I guarded very jealously, which was, you know, that trust.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, he has, so Susie took, you know, she was at the center of all of that really on a day-to-day basis, especially dealing with the boss. And she just very effective at communicating to all parties and to the boss, you know, the good, the bad, and the ugly. And she doesn't sugarcoat anything. She just does it. So if he chooses the ugly, then she just...”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Now, what we would do is, and of course it happened, you know, and we just had to go, okay, well, now we know what we have to do. I think that's what separated us from previous campaigns or previous iterations of the campaign. Instead of pivoting and then going on background to people saying wasn't our decision, we never would have done this. We just found a way to survive it and move forward and not work about that. Everybody speak.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“On a moment basis than in this camp. Of course, we did. Well, no, I mean, the boss we would talk to him about certain things. We would give our honest opinion. I mean, we were never, it's not like he didn't listen to people.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and he's not one of those things that entered into that, right? I can control the campaign. And I went in with eyes open. And I've never gone into a campaign saying that I'm going to control a candidate. I just haven't, regardless of who it is.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, you know, as I told you very early on, you know, back during the primaries, and I've told this to people all the time, you know, my job wasn't to control him. And I worry about what I can control.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I wasn't there and all I remember is that I don't think they even knew who I know we didn't know who one of the guys was. I think the meeting was with, oh God, what is his name? Yee or whatever, I don't know who that is. That's it. That's it. Yeah. And so, and I'm like, who, how did the, you know, and Susan and I kind of like scratching our head, but all of that at the same around the same time, yeah, that was a rough part. It was a low part.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because that's Term election. It was, yeah, it was viewed as an immediate repudiation of Trump. And it was because of the Dobbs decision part. It was because of the party is ready to move on. You had the rising stock of Ron DeSantis. And then in Nikki Haley really. And so, yeah, it was a rough period of time. And then three weeks later, I had this, you know, we had to deal with this idiotic people that showed up at the week after Thanksgiving, the Fuentes stuff and the Yin stuff and all that stuff that no one knew.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But correct. But I will tell you that an interesting story, the day that the Dobbs decision came down earlier that summer, leading up to the 22 election. But I was sitting in his office with him. Bedminster. And my phone went off, the alert went off, and I went, oh boy. And he's like, what? And I read it to him. And he just looked at me and he says, well, we're going to have a problem. He instinctively knew immediately the political issue that that was going to pose. But going into the election last couple weeks, all the public polling, all the private data was suggesting a blowout for Republicans. So when it didn't materialize.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, so I had a couple meetings with them, and we hit it off. And, of course, I was working with Susie and this stuff. So, and I ended up doing the MAGA Inc. ads. And during that period of time, she and Tony, I think, were conspiring to ensure that I moved over to the campaign. I figured, well, this would probably work itself into a super PAC role. And it may have started out that way. I never really asked, but Susie and I just got along so well that it just wasn't natural for me to go to the campaign.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, who's this guy? Yeah, right. And so, but then, you know, the boss was playing the music. It was comical. It was quite enjoyable. And then, you know, Chris, you like lobster. I love lobster. Bring lobster to the biggest lobster. I bring lobster. And he gave me this discussion about the reason why it serves the lobster and whole plate, the whole lobster. Because if you just serve the meat, no one's going to want to pay $100 for that. He says, but if you bring out the whole lobster on a giant plate on a doily, wow, they're getting their money's worth. I mean, that kind of attention to detail on these kinds of things. Remember.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Who will rename Nameless was brought on. And so, you know, Susie sort of had like this aura about her of being the Uber consultant from Florida. And so, but so, you know, I was great to meet Susie and she and I hit it off immediately. And so she said, hey, let's talk about, you know, what we can do in terms of TV ads and things like that. So then I went and had met the boss, sat down, had dinner with the boss. That was a shit show. Well, I was a shit show. Because you just imagine you're at the Marlar. No, no, no. You're in the back patio and he's sitting in the center table. With rope and stanchion around them and your center show. And there's hundreds of people, and they're all around like, oh, who's the guy?”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and he and I have worked together, my God, for 30 years in all different capacities, came to me and said, hey, would you be interested in doing some super pack work? For President Trump's super pack. I was like, sure. And he said, Well, let me introduce you to Susie. Wow. So I'd never met Susie, and I knew who Susie was. I was actually in 2016 when we at the R&C, because I was also the battleground stage director in 16 as a consultant. When we fired the old state director in Florida.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, in 2020, obviously I was very involved in preserve America, and that was $120 million close to $120 million super pack that basically ran ads against Biden in all the battleground states. And that was at a critical time because the Trump campaign in July of that year literally went broke they had no money to run ads. And so we were the only people on TV in any significant manner. And then In 22, Tony Fabrizio, who's a dear friend of mine I've worked with for.”
2024-11-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 602 — Chris LaCivita · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source