YouSaid · the spoken record

Eric Garcetti

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2017-12-07

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2017-12-07

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1. “That's fine for those whose life is prognosticating, but America actually needs people between those four years who are focused on solving problems.”

   2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

2. “I may, but I think it's right now too much of a distraction of stuff that's more urgent to me. It becomes 100% the conversation. We elect a president and literally the next week on TV, who's going to run in four years instead of what does this country need? I like most Americans get very fed up on this screw system.”

   2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

3. “Several times. Nobody's going to look back and say, wow, somebody who starts a think tank action tank for local level, nobody cares about that politically. I care about it deeply because it will have a long-term lasting effect. But I think it's part of the reason people are so cynical about politics is everything that you do is always about some future thing. Don't get me wrong. Eyes wide open. It's important to prepare for the future. But what America needs right now is some stitching together, some repair and some way that we can take local communities and help them.”

   2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

4. “I realize I have to But that's what I'm focused on flip the house in 2018 and find the solutions that are working around the country. We started a new organization called Accelerator for America that is all about what's working in towns like South Bend or Dayton or Nashville or Los Angeles and helping other cities more quickly get those things passed. I'm more interested in getting a couple hundred billion dollars of infrastructure passed through local city referenda, quite frankly, than what comes next in my political career. If we do that, that's a kind of legacy to leave behind. And as a mayor, we always have good panels, good studies, but nobody helps us get things done quickly. And that's what I'm focused on organizing and helping my fellow mayors do.”

   2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

5. “Can practice, but they've been having to play defense. I mean, credit to them. Every day they're getting five onslaughts from the White House that they do have to answer to, and they're playing good defense, but somebody out here has to stay on offense. And I think we are in our cities”

   2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

6. “When Mitch Landrew was out here, he said there was some congressional folks who were saying, hey, why don't you come to DC with a group of mayors? And we just want to listen to how you talk about changing your communities. And we've had amazing representatives in DC who have to play defense every day. We're going to do it, yes.”

   2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

7. “Not always look to organize parties, and they rise and fall all the time. That's not new. But more than ever, people distrust institutions. So how are we going to build up kind of that old-fashioned organizing model that will sustain itself and speak to people and not be about our power, but their power? That's the inversion that we've got to figure out. And people don't feel that it's their power. And I think they're going to find that with the Trump administration. They were sold a bill of goods that it was about their power. But what has he done to actually improve their lives?”

   2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

8. “There's young souls in older ages, and there's old souls of people who are very young who feel like they're already, you know, get off my lawn and 90 years old when they're in their 20s. No, I don't buy into that. I don't buy into most of these divisions of the coast versus the heartland, the Bernie people versus Hillary people, the generational stuff. What I will say is it's always important to breathe new life and new ideas. And I'm looking for people, whether they've been in for 40 years or been in for one year who look at their work as their first day on the job. When I just got re-elected, I told people this is not my second term in office. This is my second first term. And we better look at everything despite all the successes we've had. I mean, LA's on fire. We reduced our unemployment in half, more visitors, more residents, more jobs. I mean, all the things that we can say proudly said, that doesn't mean we've been doing anything right. How can we do it even better? And I think the Democratic Party, that is one critique I would give, we have to really think differently.”

   2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

9. “I think it's one of those cliches. I don't really buy into it. Look at how popular Maxine Waters is with a younger generation that Bernie was. I mean, I think there's young soldiers.”

   2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

10. “When I went to raise the minimum wage, we had folks from labor saying go slow, don't do that now. And I said, I don't care. This is too important to me. It's not just about union labor. This is about everybody earning the minimum wage, going after the Olympics people said was stupid, you know, taking on when somebody withdraws from the Paris Accord to get 383 cities together around this country representing 70 million Americans. It's not actually an easy thing to do. I love jumping into the fray, taking on folks. And I think maybe the first couple years, because we were focused on doing things like actually paving our streets and what cities should do, that was early, but I think that's more the echo chamber than what people think now.”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

11. “That's an old trope now. I mean, we passed the largest measure in U.S. history on transportation. We raised the minimum wage, made community college free. When I went to raise the minimum wage, those sound pretty good.”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

12. “But then the third thing, which is more important than either of the first two, is they want to then go, okay, you care about my problem. You have some ideas about my problem, but do I trust you to actually see it through? Do you have the guts to get something done? And it was the cliche after the election. All these voters, who people said, well, Trump, they kind of dismissed the head and the heart, but at least he's going to do something. And you don't have to look for that, I think, with people who are mayors and governors, that we have to do things. And I think also, increasingly, we have to be able to communicate that way.”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

13. “I didn't intend it that way. I think that we've seen, though, quite often we get caught in our microid identity, whether that's geographic, whether that's in the policy areas. We're really good at answering a 40-point answer to a difficult policy question, giving the context, giving the studies. When people are like, are you going to do something for me? I go door to door still now in between elections. It's something I love doing. And I tell my staff members when they come to work for me, it's the hearthead and gut check. When you knock on someone's door and you bother them enough, they open the door and realize you're not campaigning or trying to convert or robbing them or robbing them in LA. We have low crimes. They generally don't think that. They then want to know, do you have a heart that connects with what their problems are? If you convince them of that, they'll take you to the next step, which is, okay, now, David, that you're a decent person, do you have an idea? Do you have a brain of what you can do?”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

14. “When we used to be a country that was about what we give to folks. And I think that's a message for Democrats or anybody else to make a contrast. In cities, we don't take things away. We have to do things, produce things, and add things.”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

15. “Close friends, and I'd be honored if that were ever the case. I genuinely think, I hope even if I'd never did, that we have mayors that run for president because they are ready. I trust people like Megan Barry in Nashville to get stuff done. I trust people like Michael Hancock in Denver to get things done. Pete Budig in South Bend, Indiana is a great American leader who's ready to step into almost any position. And so I think Americans are fed up with the old rules and many of the old kind of roots. And they're certainly fed up with a lot of the leadership coming out of Washington, D.C. right now that is all about turning ourselves against one another and producing no results or a party that is increasingly defining itself by what it takes away from Americans. Think about the Republican agenda. Take away your tax breaks. Take away your immigration status. Take away your health care. I mean, it's literally about takeaways.”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

16. “People want results and people want people who have produced results. Mitch Landry's a good friend. People have floated his name. He'd be an excellent president. I could go to Michael Hampshire. I suspect you may be.”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

17. “But I discount all of those rules that people give you. People said that to Barack Obama. I'm sure people said things to Donald Trump that nobody's ever elected a black president. Nobody's had that. I am in charge of a constituency in my”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

18. “I do believe in that. Like, you better just do good work and stop thinking about your own future, and the next step will take care of itself. I could have run for governor a month ago. I turned that down not because of some other big plan, but no, my work is undone here. Governor of California did a great honor, an amazing position”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

19. “Look, I would say this first and foremost to my constituents, my number one job in 95% of my time is spent on being mayor of LA. Bill Kerrick, who's my Once told me you might have to bleep this, but he said, do good shit, and the next thing we'll take care of. It's a podcast. It's a podcast. You can say whatever you want.”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

20. “Here in Los Angeles, we're not finding solutions that will last for one or two years. We're actually re engineering a great American city to provide that sort of prosperity for a generation or two.”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

21. “Stability in their lives and identity of belonging to an America and what those values are. We instead get caught in microidentity, we get caught in programs people don't care about policies, they care about their lives. And so when I travel the country right now, I'm trying to promote local solutions to national problems, that it's in local communities that we know how to create jobs. We know how to invest in things that people drive over and need to visit and that are crumbling right now. We know what the middle class looks like and we know how to protect it. And I think that people who are seeking to represent folks, Democrats or anybody else, need to speak to people's insecurities and give them pathways to more stability. to making college something accessible, to making a decent place to live in their hands, to being able to make sure there's a career, forget jobs, careers for the next 40 or 50 years. And the difference about what we're producing.”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

22. “Well, first, you have to speak, I think, some plain English again, and everybody gets caught in language that doesn't resonate. And I think the language that will resonate is about that clear pathway to taking the most insecure times in our lifetime and providing people with some stability and some identity.”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

23. “I think we need to be a lot less obsessed with a message for the Democratic Party and more obsessed with an agenda for American people, and we get caught in this trap of who cares who the chair of our state party is or our national party, even though Tom Perez is a dear friend. That's not where the average American wakes up worried about. We fall into these traps of what do we need to say as Democrats? I don't really care. I care what we're talking about as Americans. If we happen to be the Democrats saying it better, great. People will elect us, but people come to us because they're like, that guy understands.”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

24. “It makes it absolutely more politically palatable. But it's so perverse. I mean, the middle class tax cuts here, the per capita average income is $28,000. Within a year, those people will have higher taxes. Within three years, anybody $50,000 and under will have higher taxes. And by 2027, all of our tax breaks sunset while the corporations keep theirs. That's crazy. That's un-American. And I'll tell you something that has nothing to do with ideology. My greatest worry as a mayor is when an economy is at full steam and you put this much money out there, back out there in corporate hands, it risks inflation and inflation usually leads to a recession. I'm truly worried that not only will this make the building of things this country needs more difficult, education less accessible, housing tougher to find, that we will lose jobs because of this, that we will head into a recession because this is such an ill-timed, ill-conceived tax break for corporations making record profits.”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

25. “Healthcare. And then fourth on housing, this takes away federal tax credits to be able to build affordable housing in the private marketplace, by the way, which we badly need and many communities need to build housing. So it's not just about states that have higher taxes that are blue states and...”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

26. “It's going to be terrible, and in turn bad for America because of that. Los Angeles isn't some disconnected island, and we're not unique. I think the American dream is predicated on four things. It's a decent job, getting a decent house, good education and healthcare. This tax bill has the unique skill of being able to hurt all four. With jobs, it eliminates something called private activity bonds. The $15 billion that we're spending at the airport creating good American jobs, just the financing that will become half a billion dollars more expensive overnight, fewer jobs, more congestion. I said thank the Republican tax bill next time you're stuck on the tarmac at LAX. Secondly, on education, you can't deduct your debt. We want more higher education. We're going to make it more difficult. Third, on healthcare, we know what this will do, driving more people off the rolls with the end of a mandate. All of those of us who haven't show up $13 million will be without.”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

27. “Budget. Absolutely I think that this is one in which there is bipartisan support, and if that bipartisan support slips past the deadline that the president has called for action and that congressional leaders have said there will be action, that's absolutely fair play to do. And I think they should.”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

28. “People are insecure, but let's find real opportunities for them instead of blaming folks for their insecurity. Let's secure borders. People need to have that for a nation to function. But if a coal worker in West Virginia is losing work, the solution has nothing to do with a dreamer in Los Angeles. In fact, we should be creating better jobs for him or her in LA in the last four years, we've created 20,000 green energy jobs. In four years in town that's 1% of the nation's population, there's only 54,000 jobs in coal in the country. I mean, imagine if we were actually applying some real responsive policies to people who are facing economic insecurity, because guess what? The moment you make the dreamers all here illegally again, that person didn't get a job.”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

29. “Have benefits less than minimum wage when they work in a legal way, that helps everybody's wages, not just theirs go up. And we've shown that time and time again. And so we have $2 billion of taxes they pay, $4 billion of economic activity. Just be competitive with the world. The mayor of Seoul Korea come visit me. And he said, we need to be more like you. I said, what do you mean? He said, you know, we've been very successful in South Korea. My city is very dynamic, but we're not diverse enough. And it's your immigrants and your diversity which is your competitive advantage in the world today. Others can see it from the outside in. We need to start doing that. Well, you can see them in Japan.”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

30. “didn't use those terms. We didn't have those programs, but because he, like some dreamers do today, was able to enlist in the army. He was able to finalize the last step in becoming an American. I wouldn't be here were it not for that. We couldn't have won that war if we hadn't done that. And the inaction right now in Washington around dreamers is unconscionable. Put your vote where your mouth has been. We know a majority of both houses of Congress have said that they are for this. Even the president. And so don't hold them hostage because of a wall or because of anything else. Get that work done. And now think about this practically, not just morally. Here in LA and every study shown, if these folks are pushed back in the shadows, because you can't deport 100% of everybody who's here undocumented, just don't have the people power, that drags down the wages for the rest of us who are citizens because you're competing against somebody who works under the table,”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

31. “This is huge for Los Angeles. These are doctors, these are teachers, these are folks. We had a dinner here at City Hall were invited a bunch of these dreamers to come here. This is something that a majority Republicans and Democrats are for making sure they have a pathway to permanent citizenship. And it's my grandfather. This is really personal for me.”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

32. “So, from a practical perspective, find the ones that are dangerous, take the other ones who, like my grandfather, came here seeking opportunity and are contributing, and find a quicker pathway to make them even more American than they are today. And your economy will prosper. The communities will continue to become safer, and you'll put your resources where we need them. Otherwise, it's literally letting the bad guys get away.”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

33. “Right, because some grandma, some Auelita says, hey, that's the apartment. I trust you, LAPD, that's the apartment where I saw drug dealing going on, or those are the bad guys go over there. If she's worried about what those cops are going to do to her or to somebody living in her apartment building, she's not going to give you that information and those gangs can operate freely and prey on us. My worry about the Trump administration's policies is not just that they're immoral, they're impractical. And if you talk to any police officer, they will hear in LA, they will mirror this, is that if you have limited resources, and ICE does, and they need to do their job, I want them going after the bad sharks in the sea. I want their divers, if you will, going after and finding those guys and getting them out. But what they decided to do, unlike past policy, which is go after the bad guys, is now they're throwing a net into the ocean and picking up a bunch of minnows and saying, look, how successful we are, and the shark is getting away. We don't have enough resources. There's two million people who are here undocumented.”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

34. “Right. And our gang crime is cut more than half over the last decade. We've been extremely successful because we have trust in immigrant communities. Unlike CSI, usually cases aren't cracked by a bunch of trust.”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

35. “Because nobody has a definition of what it means. What I say is if sanctuary city means that our police officers do their work separate from ice here for a whole host of reasons that police chiefs from the most conservative ones in 1979 when this started to more enlightened ones that we have now have said is good policing, then we are a sanctuary city and proudly so. But most people hear that term as it's been constructed and they say, oh, there's these cities that say please come in here criminals. If you're undocumented, we're going to give you bonus points. And that city doesn't exist. So I'm not going to play into somebody's caricature. I'm going to talk about what good policing entails. I'm going to talk about what good economies are built on and how family unity is important too. And I'm too pro-family to break up families. I'm too pro-economy in a city where 63% of our businesses are started by immigrants to roll that back. And I'm never going to stop listening to our police officers who know how to bring down gangs like MS-13, who know how to win the trust of our immigrant communities, and have done that.”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

36. “We know it, and we've got to fix it. And then, second, let's provide good middle class jobs. And I'll tell you, I can get as nationalist about the economy as anybody I'll tell you something that when we passed that and I started looking at how we're going to spend it, the port of LA, which is, as I mentioned, the number one port in the country, the airport where we're doing more renovation, more investment than any airport in the country, there's not a single American company that builds port equipment. For the rail cars, there's not a single American company that builds a rail car anymore. So this is a moment and part of my gospel that I'm trying to spread across the country is let's pass these things at the local level if Washington's incapable. And then second, let's invest in American workers by creating American companies that can do this stuff that we know how to do. Sometimes we're creating the technology, exporting it to other places, and they're getting the benefit of it when we should. And I think it's a real pathway to rebuild the middle class in an insecure moment.”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

37. “The most basic things like paving our streets. It's about 700,000 jobs, and it's going to last not just for like a one-off. Oftentimes we vote for these things and there's a few jobs. These are going to be careers for people in the middle class who might have in the past been building bombers in World War II on the assembly line in South LA without a college degree can now build rail cars on some of these rail lines, have a good union job, have benefits, healthcare. And part of it for me was first and foremost, let's fix the traffic in LA. It's the worst in the country. Second, you see? You see?”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

38. “We had the same night that President Trump was elected and many people were scratching their heads all the way to crying in corners nationally out here in LA we had an amazing night. We passed five different measures, one to improve our community colleges, which I helped make LA the biggest city to have free community college, one to expand our parks, and then two on homelessness and one on transportation. The homeless measures were to build housing and to provide services cities around this country and particularly the West Coast are seeing an explosion of homelessness. And these were the two biggest measures in U.S. history. And then the biggest of all these was something called Measure M which is $120 billion transportation package, the largest times two in U.S. history at the local level. And just forget the numbers, it's 15 new rapid transit lines in LA, fixing our freeways and kind of doing”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

39. “Yes, do the big and progressive and visionary things, but fix the crap in my neighborhood first, pave the streets, open a park, trim the trees like that's what the job description says. Make sure there's cops on the beat, that 911 calls or answered, the trash is picked up. And I think a lot of times we in politics get so far away from what this is really about. This isn't about the game. It's not about the sexiness. It's not about the fights. It's actually about producing things that matter where people live.”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

40. “Yeah, I wasn't expected like the first city. I've never been expected to win. I've kind of been the outsider whenever I run. Not only did the Chamber of Commerce not support me, the County Federation of Labor didn't support me. I think because I was newer to it, and I understood some of that. But I didn't really have the establishment. And in some ways, that's probably what propelled me to a victory. I remember listening to conservative talk radio and when I was in the runoff with my opponent at the time, who now was and now is a good friend again, they said, well, we don't trust either of them. They're both commies, but at least he isn't bought and paid for by the establishment. So we're voting for Garcetti. There was a real kind of sense of what I accomplished in the neighborhoods I'd represented. People could see with their eyes that the neighborhood of Hollywood had turned around and some of the core parts of LA. And my proposal was, look, if you like what I've done here, I want to do this and bring this city back to the basics. A city should run well. And there was a feeling that we weren't doing basic city services anymore.”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

41. “We can build something big. And in that car ride, he said, okay, you're my California chair and we were off to the races and some six months later, seven months later, I was in Iowa. And what I loved about walking door-to-door in Iowa is exactly what you said. I remember knocking on the door once and said, excuse me, my name is Eric. I'm visiting here from Los Angeles, and Iowa's been so generous, they said, I don't care what candidate you're campaigning for. If you're out here from LA, I'm going to support him. And they invited me in and I got another vote for Barack Obama.”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

42. “It was a forgotten little caucus, and I built it up to a fully staffed million-dollar-a-year budget organization. And I just loved that he spoke at the local level. He spoke about community. He was a community organizer. And so I figured I was going to support him for not that race. I mean, I'd support him, but he'd win the next time. This was going to be his first presidential run or something if we had a shot. And I said, he came out here. It was the 15th anniversary of the LA riots. And he spoke at first AME, which was the main church here when those riots were burning the city down. And I got some message to him beforehand about some things to talk about, and he wove it beautifully together, to this audience. It wasn't even a full church, maybe half-filled. Stevie Wonder dropped by and played a song. And I rode with him afterwards, and I said, look, I want to get involved in this campaign. I want to be your chair out here in California, I think.”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

43. “Many people fought that. I had been introduced to Barack Obama by mutual friends who said, hey, we see a lot you guys have in common. He's kind of from a mixed marriage. You are two. He was at Harvard Law School. You got to study as a Rhodes scholar. You know, you guys kind of think alike. You remind me of each other, et cetera. And I met this guy when he was state senator in the contested primary for the Democratic nomination for Senate. Did an event out here and we hit it off. And whenever I'd go to DC, I'd call him and it was easier to connect with him sometimes than members of my own congressional delegation. We sat down and kind of dreamed together, talking about Latino and African-American relations, about sustainable energy. And when he ran, it was no question. I was heading up something called Democratic Municipal Officials at that time, which was the Democratic Party's Organization for All Mayors and Local Officials in the country.”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

44. “Always, I watch a lot of people get into politics at a young age. You're in charge of everything. Nobody ever teaches you how to be one of those middle level guys.”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

45. “Yes, I mean, on all sorts of levels, I have a fluency or respect for a knowledge of The Navy of Joint Operations. My last unit was a DIA unit, Defense Intelligence Agency. And one of the skills I was trained as a strategic debriefer is all about learning how to listen. And I think in politics, we too often teach people how to talk or expect them to give great speeches, but we don't have a lot of good listeners, especially at this moment when the American people need that. And so there is definitely the overlap between how I was trained as an intelligence officer and the skills that I use now. But it was just very important to me that we don't just have others do that work, that we ourselves, especially those of us who will make decisions, know what it's like behind the scenes. And to me, the greatest feeling in the world, I was city council president in charge of all sorts of people, and then I'd go in and I'd be a junior officer. And it was my middle management experience that helped inform how I am as an executive now to be able to say, hey, you're not all”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

46. “No, didn't get my ticket punched though. I was ready to go during the recession. A lot of other people were volunteering ahead of me just for their own economic reasons, I think, among other things. But I have a lot of folks that did and earned the kind of the credit for the work that we were doing, which I can't speak in great detail, was the same as what folks were doing deployed abroad. It was not just training to deploy. We were doing real-time intelligence work that contributed to the global war on terror at the time”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

47. “My grandfather got a citizenship from serving in World War II. He wasn't a citizen yet, even though, as I mentioned, he was kind of a dreamer and had lived here since he was one year old and volunteered to go to the Pacific Theater. My uncle had served in the Navy. And so I decided to join the Navy to become an intelligence officer, which kind of combined both those things that I cared about. It has been an extraordinary experience. I'm still in what's called the standby reserve, but it's been nearly 12 years total.”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

48. “Oh, it was a very visceral decision. I usually have a check, which is will I really regret not doing this? And I had wanted to join, ever since I'd spent time in Burma, I had a colonel from the United States Army who had been the U.S. military attache to Burma during the crackdown. He was the guy who I was with in the jungle doing these trainings, Bob Helvey was his name, a real kind of West Virginia Reagan Democrat who was a tough as nails air cavalry Vietnam vet. And he said, look, you care about democracy and you care about human rights and you care about international relations. He said, if you want to make an impact in those areas, you better join the intelligence and or military fields at some point. You need to. And so I thought I'd do that then in the early 90s, and then I won't road scholarship, and life kind of took off. And after 9-11, it just rang in my ears even more, kind of a patriotic call. A lot of people, fewer and fewer who serve.”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

49. “And Bill Bratton, who used to be our chief here, said, I know when it's your district because I look across the street and it's all tagged and the program you brought in, which enlisted over a thousand block captains, just to tell us where it was so we could get it painted out quickly, helped us bring that down. And then people wanted to come out and go to the park or go shopping or revitalize that empty storefront in their own neighborhood. So it led to economic revitalization when we focused on kind of crime from that and kept kids instead of just bringing cops in, we tried to identify those kids that would have gone into gangs, that would have committed crimes and really identified them early on and give them a different pathway.”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

50. “Usually comes out of either Chicago or New York grass. But the reality is Angelinos love being outside. We have great weather. We can do it 360-something days a year probably. And yet, while we have these amazing soaring parks and we have the most beautiful topography of a city in America where you have Griffith Park and the ocean and you have these amazing vistas, for a lot of kids and families who lived in the denser urban core, they didn't have a park within walking distance. And I had the densest district in the city of LA. So we more than tripled the number of parks from 14 to 16 to 48 parks in matter of like eight or nine years. And I wanted to show that it didn't matter if you didn't have a lot of land. You could scrap and you could figure out a way because then that brings people together that's healthier outcomes for the kids, better education. We did it with school. So it was just all around something for quality of life. Crime was, I think that's the first responsibility of local government. I had very low income neighborhoods that had had traditionally extremely high crime. And we did things like reduce our graffiti by like 90-something percent.”

    2017-12-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 199 - Eric Garcetti · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source