YouSaid · the spoken record

Gayle Smith

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2020-05-07

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2020-05-07

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1. “As they should be, as they should be. I mean, I want to be very clear on something. Our expectation as the one campaign is not that people in the United States who have lost their jobs, who are worried about family members, who may see their small businesses go under, that they should suddenly drop everything they're doing and think about people all over the world. It's that all of us globally, those of us like you and I, Decision makers and governments who are in a much better position should be the ones to think about whether it's at home or abroad, saying that we're going to make an investment both in the urgency of now but also in the long term because again the notion of doing this again it's something the world can't afford to even contemplate.”

   2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

2. “To think beyond just the short term in the immediate and understand that we've got, as I say, an opportunity, but I think an obligation to invest in the future we want to live in. Or just to kind of revert to normal wait till this hits us again. So I think part of what we need to do is put that choice before people and help people understand it with tangible facts and numbers because it's abstract, I think otherwise.”

   2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

3. “I think there's a danger of that and it's very easy. In the wake of a crisis, when people are exhausted and relieved, To sort of forget and move on to the next thing. And I think In this pandemic we have the opportunity but also the obligation. Hit the pause button, ask ourselves how much have we spent. on this pandemic. Versus how much will it cost to ensure that we don't go through this again? And the cost effectiveness of doing the prevention and preparation after the fact, both in the global health space but also in terms of development more broadly, there's no comparison in the numbers. It's a question of, I think, whether or not we will have the collective wisdom”

   2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

4. “Where you're born shouldn't determine how and indeed if you live, and that nobody is equal until all of us are equal. I actually believe that. I believe both of those things. And so we will keep the pressure on. And part of it is that donor countries continue to maintain robust development budgets and support effective development programs around the world. We're also campaigning in Africa. We've got a amazing team in Nigeria, for example, that has campaigned there to urge the Nigerian government successfully to spend more money on health there. So our aim is to mobilize the resources from donors, but also from governments in these countries to bring about the kind of change we need to see if we're actually going to see a world that works for everybody, not just some of us.”

   2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

5. “A lot of it, David, is what this pandemic As unmasked, I think it's something that many of us have seen but hasn't been as starkly. Available in the eyes of way too many people, which is that we've got this huge divide and that there are hundreds of millions of people living in extreme poverty. In my view, it's unacceptable. It's just not right. We've got a saying it one that”

   2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

6. “Actually, outrun it, so it was great to see that we were able working with others to mobilize the resources there. Right now, we've just had a small, it's an important victory, but I would say small on debt relief for the world's poorest countries, which the G20 just agreed to in its recent meeting in the face of the pandemic. It's important. It's not going to be enough to fill the gap and the need for liquidity in the markets in a lot of countries. But it's that kind of campaigning, whether it's for HIV and AIDS, for vaccines, for education around gender that one does constantly around the world. We've got nine offices, North America, Europe, and across Africa. And it's gone really well. And actually, I think people really do care. And they want to do something. And if you can say, here's what you can do, we often find that they're fully prepared to stand up and...”

   2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

7. “with all of the creative content, with all sorts of influencers, with all of the public mobilization that is necessary, with a really smart inside game, understanding how the budget works, understanding how decisions are made all over the world. And I think it's been in an interesting way the last few years have been challenging because development hasn't been a top priority for leaders in the way we've seen in the past. We've had some who've been huge champions President Macron, France, Angela Merkel, but we've had some victories. We just in the fall saw the mobilization of a new round of funding in the fight against HIV and AIDS at a time when people think that'sn't that something we've already taken care of and it's not, especially in Africa, but it's, you know, that's, again, that's a virus that we're almost caught up with it and we can actually.”

   2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

8. “I've known Bono for a long time. He's the one that came up with the crazy idea that I should assume the position I'm in. Today I'm glad I did. But the reason I made that decision is having been in government twice, I had always found one to be an extremely effective advocacy organization. Because it combines a sort of external campaign.”

   2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

9. “Absolutely enlightened self interest. The United States needs and wants markets for its economy to thrive and grow, and it's important that we have relationships with and invest in the creation of those markets. The third reason David has to do with national security. As you said at the top of our discussion, Globalism were the fact that we were interconnected is often rejected. It's fact. And we are affected by things that happen outside our borders, often in negative ways. We've seen that with terrorism. We've seen that when we do not have the global architecture that we need that we can play such a role in building, that you have a global pandemic. We've got something called a global economy. It's in our security interest to be engaged.”

   2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

10. “I'd say there are three reasons that we should care. I think the first is that our values, our embrace of what I still believe are universal values matter. And it's not that we don't get anything in return for that. I can't tell you the number of places I've been around the world where people knew and know that the United States was the first and the fastest to show up in a crisis, where there was an earthquake or a conflict or a famine that the United States stood with them. And I think values really, really matter. And I think the projection of universal values matters. Second, we've got an economic interest. It's a question of.”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

11. “You can't win if you don't try. You can't help if you don't try. And you didn't always succeed, so I think it's unfortunate that we don't appear to be paying that much attention to what's going on in Syria.”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

12. “While within Syria there are millions of people who are affected and who are internally displaced. So I think they are, you know, if you look at the most disenfranchised people on the planet's refugees and what are called IDPs, internally displaced people, I think they face no end of hardship. I think that regime doesn't yet look to be going anywhere. survival by a lot of external players. I wish I could say that I was hopeful that there would be real change in Syria in the short term. I'm afraid that's not the case. So, I think it's going to be probably harder for some time before it gets better. I do think that we are not engaged. The U.S. government is not really engaged at this point. And I think that's a mistake. It's hard. It's really hard. You will remember how many times Barack Obama said, yeah, well, hard stuff is hard.”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

13. “It played out in a big way and it's obviously played out in a big way in Syria. Where the lengths to which the regime was and is prepared to go are endless. Where you've got interests from across the region in it and therefore a number of players and where I think a burgeoning people's movement that had real momentum And I think many people hoped could really take off and change that country for the better was utterly crushed. And then you have a vacuum and you've got all sorts of terrorist groups combing up in the middle of it. Again, I think it's probably one of the hardest foreign policy challenges that the Obama administration handled. My job was the humanitarian side, and I will tell you, it's one of the most complex, difficult, horrible humanitarian crises we've ever seen.”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

14. “The change was massive, it was destructive. These countries were ripped to shreds. And I remember very well before even Syria debates about Egypt. And what do you do about Egypt when all of those people are in the square? And do you say to Mubarak publicly and privately, it is time for you to go? Or not. I think that was a pretty easy choice. But again, in that case, as in others, it's not like that then there's a door number three when it's, well, that's very easy. Mubarak goes, Egypt will now flourish.”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

15. “You know, it's a good question. My directorate and area of responsibilities you point out was on the development side. We also had all the humanitarian crises and democracy. And I think it's instructive to go back to look at the beginning of the Arab Spring. I think on the one hand, many of us, and I think the world thought that this was going to be a huge opening and finally the kind of change that had been needed for long in that region. I think at the same time, it became evident that The dictatorship, the tyranny, the closed systems that exist across that region had been allowed to exist for way too long. Because once things started to change,”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

16. “There's also a difference in terms of what you may say privately and what you say publicly So, you know, you talk about President Obama being very nuanced. There were instances where I think people were critical that he wasn't publicly tougher on a given leader. Having sat in a meeting with him and a given leader, he was quite tough and he was quite frank. But I think often he make a distinction between what you may say in private as a representative of the United States government and what you say publicly. And again, it's nuance, it's weaving, and it's constantly threading a needle.”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

17. “You can make both arguments that you should stay away from them. Or you can make the argument, no, you actually ought to get in there and try to improve it. So there are tough questions all the time. And it's what I meant about one of the things I actually found invigorating. It's not as easy as yes or no. Often there's no door number three that's no risk, no cost. It's like it's really challenging.”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

18. “It's a There are a lot of countries with whom the United States has a real interest in having a relationship. Some of those interests may override say what my portfolio was. There may be counterterrorism as something that's been very dominant, obviously during the last 15 years. So how do you thread that needle? And I remember in Nigeria when Tania Bacha, who was a dictator, died, and there was a transition and then an election, there was an opportunity to try to work with that military to reform it. And there was a huge debate inside and outside the government about to go ahead and try to retrain the army under a new elected government, or because they're so corrupt from having served this dictator, do you stay 100 miles away from them?”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

19. “time they were in their 20s. I would argue that that was actually helpful rather than a hindrance. But again, people have all sorts of views.”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

20. “Yeah, and look, and people are often going to say that. And I had a number of contacts in Africa that people wanted to speculate about in all sorts of ways. I would argue it was really, really helpful. I am not a seasoned diplomat. I was able to speak very, very frankly with both leaders. The sanctions on Eritrea were because even though that war started for a number of reasons, the initial act was Eritrea crossing what was understood to be a border and taking land by force and refusing to move. And that was supported and it wasn't just the United States, it was supported by other countries. That was a tough one. I mean, these were two countries that were governed by men who had fought together literally in the trenches as liberation movements. And yes, I knew them both from the”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

21. “Occasionally it's hard because you want to explain and say, look, man, I'm doing my best. And sometimes your best is good enough and we all make mistakes. And so I don't mind anybody suggesting that mistakes were made. It's the insinuation sometimes that it's like a willful or intentional shift. And I think the other thing, and you'll remember this, and it's even more insane now. That was the time when 24-hour news coverage came to the White House, right? So there would be the regular press briefings, but there would be questions about how we were going to deal with a given crisis within three minutes of something happening. And I think that was even harder than the criticism. The expectation that something happens on Tuesday and by Tuesday afternoon, you should have the solution well in hand.”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

22. “Well, it's, I mean, I think in both cases, we were extremely active. I mean, I remember as it became clear that the tension between Eritrea and Ethiopia was rising, we went back and forth between the two countries for months before the conflict actually eroded. And it was literally shuttling back and forth on a constant basis. When Rwanda and Uganda decided it would be a good idea to have a conflict actually in the Congo, I was the one that negotiated a ceasefire. Now, we get criticism.”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

23. “It's a really different thing and the transition from Adisaba to Washington, D.C. was pretty dramatic also. You know, I think David, the thing that was great that I hadn't understood and I really cherish about having served in government twice. You're an advocate or an activist, you can formulate, you can articulate what the government should do, right? Then you get inside government, you've got big ideas, and the president's got big ideas, and you want to do really big things, and you realize that you actually have to do it and to do it isn't as simple as just flicking a switch, right? You've got to have the budget. You've got to have the Congress on board. You've got to have all parts of the government lined up. So it's a harder enterprise than it appears from the outside, but an absolutely thrilling one.”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

24. “And went back to Africa. Long story short, during the Somalia crisis, I had another round of discussions and initially worked for USAID for a couple of years and then ended up in the White House at the National Security Council. I moved back on a Saturday and started on a Monday morning Talk about change.”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

25. “It was crazy. After President Clinton was elected, I was contacted by the presidential personnel office, which you're familiar with, and this was just at the very beginning. It was the combination of that office and the transition team. And they asked whether I'd be interested in working for the administration. And I got a fax. This was in the olden days. I was in Eritrea and I thought somebody was goofing with me. I didn't really think it came from the White House, so I didn't respond. They came back and asked if I would speak to them, so I met with them. They offered me a job which I actually didn't take. I didn't know when wash you're supposed to take these.”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

26. “And not everybody agreed, don't get me wrong. There were very different views of what better was. But there was a stronger sense of maybe purpose and community that I felt. So when I did come back, it was. Actually, a little bit accident, it was big by chance.”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

27. “Um yes and no, I missed my family and my friends I didn't miss you. All the stuff I'll tell you a quick story. I remember I came back briefly for a trip. And I got to a meeting early. And so I was walking around a fairly nice part of Washington going in and out of shops. And I started wondering, what is the goal here? And I realized, and I wrote a piece I never published called Goat Cheese and Failed States, that the goal seemed to be to have whatever you wanted whenever you wanted it. So if you wanted round goat cheese, if you wanted square goat cheese, you wanted goat cheese with peppers, you could get it 24-7. Whereas where I was living at the time, which was in East Africa, the vast majority of people were just trying to make things better.”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

28. “Well, I think we also had local partners so that, which is a much better way to do it, actually, than any of us being the deliverers. But I think I had a familiarity. I knew people again in my very creative use of the local language I was able to communicate enough that I could bond with people, relate to people, ask questions, offer what little I could. And I was absolutely driven. I mean, I was crazy driven. Do you know David, in that famine close to a million people died that the world could have reached, and they didn't reach because of international politics, because they lived behind the lines. And so you just, it's like, it's a bit like Ebola's for 14 months. You just can't stop. You've got to keep going because the stakes are just too high”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

29. “Right. And what happened there was that I was covering the wars in Ethiopia and Eritrea that were the rural areas of those two. And that's where the famine was the most acute. That's also where the least assistance was going, because there were areas not controlled by a government. I was asked by some members of the World Council churches because I had been in and out of these areas so often to travel around Europe and to the US to talk to governments about what I had seen and what we thought was coming. This was even in 83 and 84. And we did that. We raised a bit of money, but eventually they asked if I would work with them because, again, I had been in there quite a lot. And I chose to do it. And I'm really glad that I did. So yeah, I made the shift from an observer to being part of an international emergency response.”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

30. “It's high, the risk of increased hunger, of increasing poverty, and in some cases of starvation absolutely exists. A couple of reasons. We're seeing supply chains breaking down because there's some production, some places not in others. A lot of people, particularly in the developing world, work in the informal sector, and that sector has kind of frozen as economies have stalled and countries have gone into lockdown. And then many countries out of a fear about food supplies are doing things to restrict trade in food, and that actually causes the price to go higher. So it's a traffic jam. The International Food System is congested at some risk. But yeah, there's a very high risk of increased hunger.”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

31. “Thousands and thousands of people starving. And it was also in the middle of a war. And I was covering it from the other side of the lines, if you will, not the side of the lines where most of the aid agencies and the attention was. And Ethiopia, I was in northern Ethiopian Eritrea during the time. And I think the thing that struck me more than what am I doing here was how could these two realities exist on the same planet? How could there be a reality where I grew up? Or like the United States or London or somewhere else, and a reality where hundreds of thousands of people are literally dropping dead from starvation. It just didn't It didn't make any sense. It was wrong, and I think that was the predominant sentiment and the thing that kind of fueled me and still does, quite frankly”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

32. “Not really. I mean, there were moments where my eyes were opened to what war really is. I mean, to witness something where there's a deliberate bombardment of a market full of thousands of people. is to understand that war is a word that's easily used, but a pretty ugly thing to behold. I think the thing that struck me the most was during the 80 forty five famine. Remember, this was the, in 1984-85, said to be the biggest famine in written history. And it was extraordinary”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

33. “From various liberation movements that some journalists wanted to go in. I was curious. It was occasionally dangerous. It was also eye-opening and it was occasionally hilarious.”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

34. “I've had this question a lot, and I think, yes, these were war zones, these were parts of the world I didn't know that were brand new to me. But I also found that If you tried to speak the language and I speak a few languages very creatively, but you're at least demonstrating that you're trying. If you are polite and respectful in how you behave and how you present yourself, and if you're curious, And people trust that you are asking a question not out of some. purient interest but out of a real interest in wanting to understand The reception is actually pretty good. And I also covered a couple of wars that were not receiving much coverage, so there was a great desire.”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

35. “But I learned how to do it and was a stringer for a number of publications and covered mostly wars because again there were these wars going on that how did people not know more about what was happening and what was what is called the Horn of Africa so I spent a lot of time in war zones covering those wars.”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

36. “I hadn't I haven't and as a stringer as you know that's not a full-time you're not like totally blessed they'll take your stuff or they won't”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

37. “And I kept going. I was curious. We'd been in Greece. I had enough money to get to Egypt. I was fascinated by the Middle East. So went to Egypt and then to Sudan. And that's really where my life changed in a huge way. I mean, here I was. I'd had a good education. I followed what was going on in the world. And I suddenly realized there was a whole lot I didn't have any idea about. And so worked briefly as a researcher for a documentary film company and then became a stringer for the BBC and others because there were these extraordinary stories to tell of things that were happening at that time.”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

38. “Well, it was right after college, and I had studied English and also mathematics, and frankly I wasn't at all sure what I wanted to do, so I did travel with a guy. The relationship of the guy came to an end as they do.”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

39. “No, you know, look, I was really lucky. I've often said and I still think it's true. I kind of have the best parents anybody could ever hope for. We were a family that expressed our emotions. We talked about things. There were a lot of secrets. It's not to say there was never an argument. But it was a peaceful loving family that took care of itself and each other. So I had it about as good as anybody could possibly have it.”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

40. “No, I got off easy. I mean, in that I was not born with the addiction. I do think it taught me a lot and as painful as it is, there are few things I've seen that are as heroic. As people who really overcome addiction and get sober and fight it every single day, it's an extraordinary demonstration of strength. And having seen that, knowing it's possible It's inspiring. I mean, the flip side is it's painful and it's horrible and it's a terrible, terrible disease. But the overcoming is something to the whole.”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

41. “Yes, we had a fair number of alcoholics in the family, so it's something that we grew up with and were familiar with. It's a painful thing to go through, but in many ways I feel like I fortunately learned a lot from it and I think have become a lot more open to it. And as I'm sure you and your listeners know, there are very few families that don't deal with addiction in some form or another. But it was something very close and dear to her heart. Two of her three children suffered from alcoholism.”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

42. “My dad was an attorney and my mother worked a lot at home but then worked out of the house on two things, cooking. She was spectacular cook and alcoholism treatment.”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

43. “Interesting that you mentioned Bob Green because Tim Green, his brother I went to college with. So I know the Greens and in fact Neb's mother. You know, I grew up in a real American dream. I grew up in a small town that was safe where people had jobs. I grew up in a middle class family that did better and better over the years. went to a good school.”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

44. “I think that's absolutely right. And there are two things that are really key, I think, in all of this, and that's that people need to be provided with regular scientific information, not opinions, not hopes, not predictions. But scientific information so that people have the facts. And the other thing, and this is under a lot of discussion here, is that a lot of people do need to go back to work. A lot of people are working now because they are essential. to keeping things running for the rest of us. We've got to make sure that they are fully protected and they can avail themselves of the testing and everything they need so that they're safe.”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

45. “You know, I think it's unevenness, and I set before think like a virus, right? Every day the virus is moving faster than we are, it's winning. And right now it's still moving faster if you look globally. It's still unchecked in the United States. We've seen progress in a lot of places, but not sufficient to say that we're well ahead of the virus itself. And I think the things that hinder us are distractions. uneven information, misinformation and confusion. And again, you hear very little discussion in the United States out of Washington, D.C. about the fact, again, that this is global and that in addition to what we're doing domestically, we need to be a player globally or it will be reimported.”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

46. “If we had stopped and said, well, the WHO really made a huge mistake here, which they did in that case, they were very, very late to the game. I think we would have been severely hindered in our effort to end that epidemic.”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

47. “They may have, and I haven't spent a lot of time going through the TikTok of exactly who said what when, but I also recall statements out of the White House that were very positive about China. And the fact is that the facts are available. They should be looked at. Any UN technical agency also, again, it serves at the pleasure of its members. Some may think the WHO went too far. WHO, any of them have to be a little bit careful because they don't offer commentary and analysis on their members in the way that members themselves might do. So it's tricky. I just think the timing is absolutely off the mark. We had problems with the WHO during Ebola, and there's been a reform process since 2015 because of that.”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

48. “It kind of, in the way we used to say you serve at the pleasure of the president, the WHO serves at the pleasure of its members. It is imperfect, but it's also a really good and really vital organization right now because it's the one that many countries rely on for guidance, for information. And in fact, for support, it's providing assistance to countries all over the world. And to spend time right now debating who said what to who when I think is a distraction and it risks undercutting an organization that we vitally need. Let's look at all of that after the fact. But right now we've got, we should have a first priority, which should be ending the pandemic.”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

49. “Now, look, first and foremost, every time we take our eyes off fighting the virus, it's a distraction that scores a point for the virus. So my main point is that right now we should be focused exclusively on that. And when this is all over, we need to have a global after action to look at the performance of countries, of institutions, WHO included, and look at where we stood up and where we failed and what we need to do better. But the other thing I think to understand about the WHO, it's a technical UN agency.”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

50. “We're seeing some of them come together, mind you. There's a very big effort underway right now to mobilize resources for vaccine development and deployment, and there are, I think, 50 or 60 leaders. In fact, just today meeting in Europe to mobilize resources for them.”

    2020-05-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 384 — Gayle Smith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source