YouSaid · the spoken record

Gene Sperling

lines on the record: 54
first: 2020-05-21
most recent: 2020-05-21
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

“Get better at a time when I think most of the American public wants to, I mean, get bigger at a time when most of the American public would like to see less economic concentration and more entrepreneurship, more competition, more respect for the small business owner, the person around the corner that many that are in the backbone of our country for so long.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Winning by brute force. And we ought to have economic rules that have a bias towards competition and a bias against the capacity to use brute economic force. And I just, you know, I don't, you know, I know Facebook does wonderful things and I have friends like Cheryl Sandberg who work there. But the idea they have to own Instagram and WhatsApp and that we wouldn't be better off if they were all competing with each other and that it would be better to have a bias against buying up smaller companies that could be competitors. Of course we'd have a better country and it's not about what's right for business. It's about what's right for all of us. And so right now if this period before you have a new antitrust policy people are just buying up then yes every little person who's in trouble right now who doesn't have the cushion. Then yes, you could see that economic concentration.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I do. I do. I think we have to watch out for it. I think we're already seeing it. I think there is way too much consolidation. In my book on structuring markets, I talk about what happened with the railroads a century ago. What basically happened was the railroads were so essential that you had to use them. And therefore, people like Rockefeller could figure out how to use just sheer brute force, a gun to your head. There is a real analogy right now when people have to use Amazon or have to use Google or have to use Facebook. When they get so large like that that they can basically say, you want to use this essential platform. It may not be a railroad, but it can be as essential for retailers and businesses. You do it my way or the highway. That's not our vision of the country. That's not winning by performance or quality or better marketing.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“or only the CEO getting to decide who sits on a board. If you can't show that that's in the interest of the economic dignity of workers, then I want to say through this book, through my speaking, that then it's not a valid goal. And we don't have to accept so many things we do. And just one example, right now it is just everywhere. And David, it hurts me to say this was in the White House too, that the people who cleaned our offices were not considered employees of the White House. They were contracted out. That has happening everywhere in corporate America. It is happening everywhere in many governments, and it leads to a second class citizenship, which is not just lower pay. It's not being invited to the take your daughter to work days. It's not being given the full dignity. We don't have to accept that. We can change our laws to encourage more first class.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think some people realize that and some don't. And I supported a wealth tax and I got a bit of abuse for some people on those things. But look, I believe that this is the right thing. I think that the nice thing for me now is I'm not constrained by what we can get in a deal with like, you know, a divided government and all that. This is a chance for me right now in doing a book like this to speak my heart and my vision. And I think that is one in which your North Star at every moment is this concept of economic dignity for all people. And that's your North Star. All the other things only have legitimacy to the degree that they're a means to that goal. If you can't show why a respect of corporate economic concentration”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But you know, look what happened there. You know, they go out. I'm glad they made that statement. But if you don't change the laws, I'm sorry, people will revert back and look what happened with the PPP, the big, small business loan program. All that nice words, but when they had a chance to essentially give loans that were like sending out life preservers to people drowning, they went back to who's a concierge client. Yeah, who's a customer? Who's well off? So, you know, it's nice to see those words. I'd rather see us put in the laws that make them have to compete on a high road.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think polls would show that if you ask people do you think that a corporation's main goal should be towards their shareholders or to their workers? I would bet you that you would get strong numbers saying towards workers and shareholders. I don't think the typical American, not just the typical progressive buys into that notion that a corporation is just about the profits and their bonuses. So I think that they're I think you'll get the resistance from Republicans and their donors, but I think the kind of agenda that Elizabeth Warren was pushing and I think has led has a lot of residence. And I think to talk about workers being able to participate on the board, changing our laws so that workers and stakeholders, not just shareholders, is your top priority, limiting having a more aggressive antitrust policy.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, look, as you said, there's a lot of times you can look back and say, well, if you'd been more woke, what could you have actually done? You have an all-Republican Congress or you have divided government. So of course the number one thing that's going to matter is whether you have a Democratic president and a Democratic Congress and you at least have that moment. But I think your pointing to something that's very powerful, which is I think some of these issues of corporate power are not just seen as progressive issues right now. I think a lot of independents, a lot of moderate Republicans feel that there is too much corporate power, too much economic concentration. I think that I've come to believe very much that big tech has too much power and that there needs to be more aggressive antitrust policies. So I think just to give you an example, I think if you”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You can suffer abuse, sexual harassment. And right now, the idea that when these essential workers try to stick up for themselves, they can face retaliation because they can't organize. I think what Mary K. Henry said on your last show is so powerful. And I talk about this in the book. You need to restore the general power of the union movement, but you need to look at every different type of worker and say, how can people speak in a collective voice? And again, I think the fight for 15, I think what Aijinpu and them are doing is they're saying, even if you're not maybe a worker who fits in the classic sense of a perhaps union dues paying union member, what can you do through passing state laws, through sectoral bargaining, through wage boards, to make sure that everybody has a collective voice? Because if not, every worker”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Purpose and sense of meaning, and three can you work with respect and not domination and humiliation. And I think that an agenda has to look at all of them. And we can see those. One, do we have the kind of living wage healthcare universal paid sick leave that allows you to care for family and be there for family? Does everybody really have second chances? We're a first chances. We're a country that idealizes that. We're the country that first got rid of debt prisons and had a fresh start for people coming out of bankruptcy. And yet when you look at our criminal justice system, you look at dislocated workers, the longtime unemployed, we're among the worst at giving people a true first or second chance to pursue their potential. And third, and I think this is really, this is so critical, none of that really can give you dignity if you do not have protections against domination and humiliation because you will do what you need to to support your family.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, you know, David, it's funny in that same Martin Luther King speech, he refers to the notion of just recognizing people's dignity and not asking on it. And that's something I criticize in the book of Ben Sass and Marco Rubio, these people who talk about dignity of work and then vote against every minimum wage bill, every healthcare bill. But the Lion King says, what good is it to win the right to sit in an integrated lunch counter if you can't afford to buy your family a meal? And I think it's beautiful that we applaud and call people heroes. But if you do not have a compact that allows them to work with dignity, raise their families with dignity, retire with dignity, it's going to fall empty. I mean, I describe the three pillars of economic dignity that should be our North Star, whether you can care for your family and be there at life's most precious moments. Number two, can you pursue your potential?”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“A progressive president like Joe Biden can seize that moment when we're feeling that dissonance and say, this is the time for a new deal for workers. This is the time for an economic dignity compact. And I think that is not this radical or socialist agenda. I think, you know, I quote Teddy Roosevelt in my book, Republican President, 108 years ago, essentially saying people who work contribute do their part should be able to have a living wage. And he says that means being able to retire with security, raise your children with security. I think that there is a chance for a democratic progressive president to bring together that value moment and put together a new deal. And I think that if not now, when? And I think that that will be, I think the moment is ripe for him to do it. I think the country is ready to hear it. And I think he'll have to have a major job.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They've always been among the most important jobs. And so now people are forced to deal with that dissonance in a bigger way. I have to say that you had a great conversation with Mary K. Henry about this, who her and Ijinpu have been two of the biggest supporters of my book on economic dignity. And I think it's because they so feel like these workers have been invisible, that economics has made them invisible, that you focus just on whether they have a job as to whether they have protections and paid sick leave. And now someone has to say, wow, that nursing assistant who's risking her life for my family, half of them couldn't take a day of paid sick leave for their own family. who's giving us food half of them don't have health care and so the question is is this just going to be about having the bold response we need the kind of essential worker bill of rights or is this this moment where”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, you know, David, one of the things I put in the book is I refer to Martin Luther King's speech at the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike. This was the speech on March 18th he gives to 25,000 people packed in a church. And it's one he says all labor has dignity. But the line before it is even more powerful today. He says someday our nation will realize that the sanitation workers is essential as the physician to our health and well-being. That probably seemed like an ideal. This is that moment. This is that moment when we're not just, and we should need to make sure we get this moment right. It is not just about that we are relying on the health aid or the childcare worker or the caregiver now. And so therefore we should have hazard pay or they should have greater health care. We've always relied on them.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That you can borrow a huge amount right now at the lowest interest rates. So things like deficits, people shouldn't be for deficit reduction or against deficits reduction. They should look at the economic times. I think in 93 it mattered. I think right now it should be a zero focus. I think that we probably thought it mattered more than it did. Of course, the time that we were doing that deficits were 10% and there was an overwhelming political emphasis to do something. But I think that we have learned right now that it is not having the impact that people thought. And as Kane said, when you see different information, you ought to change. And right now there has never been a stronger case for doing whatever is necessary.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think that there has probably never been a case stronger for not worrying about deficits at all in responding to this crisis. I think that the world has really changed in the last seven, eight years. We have seen the ability for deficits to go up with interest rates not rising. And now right now all we should care about is how we keep our economy whole. These are one-time huge amounts of money that we'll do. If we don't do them, we will have a longer recession or depression that will be worse fiscally, but even greater than that, it'll be worse for our humanity, our economic dignity, how well we take care of people. And I think you've seen the Federal Reserve Chairman almost really encouraging Speaker Pelosi to go.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and I have a lot of sympathy for them. Obviously, you and I didn't have and shouldn't have had any control over what was done in the Just Department.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I have a more complicated family situation with my wife doing so well out here and my daughter in school. But never say never because I think that that type of public service, again, sometimes when you're in those type of jobs, maybe you're fighting for head start funding and you win the fight and you think, wow, that was just one day and $300 million more is going to go to poor children's education. And I have to admit, you can write a lot of op-eds that will never do sometimes the good you can do in one really good day of advocacy in a White House.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Fight for expanding the ITC with President Clinton or win the fight with President Obama of extending emergency unemployment insurance for another year. Those are those moments where you realize that you've been there and you're passion and working together. You may have made millions of people's lives better. And I do think that whether it's the Fake West Wing or the real West Wing, I think that is what we all live for. Most of the people I've worked with, that's what their aspirations were. It was in some form their vision of economic justice of being able to say they made a difference.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And they with me were among the lead champions for the idea we should save Chrysler. And so we divided up the arguments that we were going to say to President Obama. When my turn came, I said that, you know, this could be like the manufacturing equivalent of Lehman Brothers, that it could be a downward cycle that would what I knew would take not just the Chrysler with it, but the supply, but all the suppliers, all the people who'd created businesses their whole lives, all the people who relied on them. And it could be a downward spiral that we could never recover from. And, you know, I mean, again, I do have that elevated view of public service because it was frustrating times. But when you had a moment to affect the president states on a decision like that, when I had moments where I could win the...”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I certainly do. It was an example of rigorous opinion where there was division on the economic team. And Ron Bloom and Brian Deese and I, the three of us kind of...”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I saw that with you and Pluff and the rest of us in the Obama White House. We're there trying to do the right thing, trying to do the right thing on saving Chrysler. We're not just doing political polls or looking for deals.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“David, you know, it was funny when I was leaving the White House, the number one question was like, you know, what's more realistic West Wing scandal I really do feel that the West Wing captured something that may not be true of the Trump White House almost certainly isn't. But I think was true of the Obama White House and probably the previous Republican White House's and the Clinton White Houses was that these are basically good people who care about service and they're fighting in this difficult political environment. It's impossible. They're screwing up. But I think it did show what public service really was like, that it was this sense of camaraderie on people who want to do something better. And you're stuck in this political environment, but that's not your fundamental motivation. And I think it's beautiful that, for example, Cody, Keenan, who was one of Obama's chief speechwriter, was inspired by watching that show. And I think that people should not think that that was just Gauzey fantasy because I think that basic camaraderie there. I mean, look.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I burst out and I said that. And I remember President Obama looked at me like, okay, that probably wasn't the most appropriate comment right now, but I can understand why you felt compelled to tell all of us about that.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But it was, I took very seriously trying to make it realistic. And David, I think one of my funniest moments was one episode, which I actually didn't get the writing credit for, but I gave most of the information was called Shutdown. And I went through the whole Clinton shutdown. And we came up with this idea together of him marching up to the Capitol, Bartlett. And I'm sitting there in the Oval Office with President Obama. And John Boehner, the speaker, hasn't called him back. And President says, you know, I ought to be like Bartlett and just go walking up there. And my head just exploded that Here, I had lived that. I had helped get that in art. And now I'm in another. Oval office, and he's referring to the show I did about the previous administration. I don't know whether that's art imitating art imitating art, but it was some version.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, you know, for me, it was just an amazing, it was fun, David. It was just doing something exciting, but it was an opportunity to try to bring the reality of the White House to them. They were all ears. I wrote memos all the time. It was exciting that I was able to get writing credit on four different.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right, so the middle of my last year, I come up with an idea for a Westwing TV show. Every time I jog, I work on it and I write it out and I send it into Brad Whifford who play Josh Lyman. And he sends it to Tom Shalami, the director, and they say, we're going to have you meet with Aaron Sorkin. I come out to meet with Aaron Sorkin, and they say, well, he's not here. He just got arrested for bringing, taking mushrooms through an airport. But the writers will meet with you in the mess there at the Warner Brother lot. I walk in. There's a seat open for me. I sit down. I introduce myself to the writer on my left. Her name's Alice and Abner. That's my wife. So that's how I met. We are, when Aaron Sorfin always says that the two things that have lasted from the West Wing are his residuals and my marriage to Alison.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, David, it's really important to describe what I did do out of office. My last year with President Clinton, I led the delegation to Senegal for the Declaration of the Second Millennial Goal of Universal Education. And I founded the Center of Universal Education would still exist at Brooking today and was probably the main helper on the outside for Michelle Obama's efforts.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And it's tilted the balance more against working families. And whether people should have known about these trends or could have done something in the 90s, I think there's a lot of democratic unity right now on what is needed for progressive trade agenda.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“More open to what we do, not just trade, but how do we make sure we're creating millions of jobs for climate change on electric cars? I think it can be combined with more of a strategy for how we create the kind of economic future we want now. And I think if that brings Democrats to the table, then you get out of this world that I think President Obama found himself stuck in too. After I was gone, but where you're relying on Republicans for votes and therefore you end up relying too much on corporate America for structuring deals. And now I think you see Biden and others all agreeing worker first, worker central, jobs in the United States. And I think people are right to say that just the idea of globalization where you just source jobs everywhere has weakened worker power. It's led to economic concentration.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Think that I'm very enthusiastic about that now, and here's why I think that the reality for President Obama and President Clinton was when you wanted to move on trade, you were relying on Republican votes. And that made it harder. And now I think you see Democrats saying, no, we have a progressive vision. We're going to put workers fundamentally at the table. And if we do that, and if we focus on locating jobs more in the United States, if we put workers, then we can deliver those votes. And I do think you started to see Pelosi do that recently. So I think that, you know, again, you can debate things in the past, but I think there's a lot more unity. I agree very much with, again, a lot of the progressive movement, the labor movement. I think they did turn out to be right about a lot of the dangers. And I think that a progressive vision now could be.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The first thing I want to say is I was trying to defend or explain what the intentions at the time are. That doesn't mean that I don't think that much of the critique, particularly from the progressive movement, from the labor unions, has not proved to be correct. And I think, you know, President Clinton himself would say that if he had to do it again, he would have said, no trade until we have that economic compact in place. And that I think that Because you relied on Republican votes, it was too driven by corporate interest. And so, you know, again, we can kind of relitigate. It's totally fair, as you say, what people thought or what their motivations at the time are.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“One, you have to kind of think about what the next administration might do, that even if you have things designed to block things, I think an Al Gore presidency would have had a very different future on what would have happened with trade.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“China was very much driven by the view that President Clinton was the first post-Cold War president and that bringing China, Russia together was going to lead to a more peaceful world to bring them into a rules-based process. And I think that that was, it was very much driven by our foreign policy team who believes URN Ji and Zhang Chi Men offered an opportunity for a more enlightened China and that we should work with them. I think that instinct was a noble one, first of all. But secondly, and this is where life gets more complicated, Bill Clinton doesn't take the deal first. He says, I want protections in case China tries to surge. He puts in a 421 process that allows us to block surges of their imports. So he fights and holds up the deal. Six, seven months to get that. Then the next administration.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, you know, you were dealing with the constraints at the time. I do think that said, there are a lot of things that we've learned since then that you would do differently. You've seen that during the next decade, the era of globalization led to a complete, I think, weakening of worker power, domination of economic concentration, and whether or not Bill Clinton should have sensed that in 1997 or not, we can have a debate about. But what I would say to progressives is when we can all see we're in the same place now, let's join, let's unify, let's agree where we can agree instead of relitigating every old battle.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“First two years. So, you know, Bill Clinton was out there somewhat lost control because in some ways he was seen as going too far. I wish we had done it better. But I think that when we were there, I wish he hadn't said the era of big government was over. But remember what happened? The Republicans had just taken control seven, eight months later he shuts down the government rather than block grant Medicaid, cut Medicare, cut back the EITC, block grant, food stamps. He stands up and actually protects the great society for programs. So you look over eight years, you look when you have six years. We win six years with all Republican Congress. You know, nonetheless, new markets tax credit, the CHIP program that provided universal health care for children, he was a head-on Kyoto and climate change when the rest of the Democrats in Congress were behind him.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Your children with poverty. And he won the battle that that wasn't welfare, that that was a tax incentive that was helping people work. And that helped pass the torch to Pelosi and ultimately Obama. If you look right now today, a single parent with two kids making $17,000 gets an extra $7,000. That's a huge change. It was done more by, you know, fighting in the trenches. You know, Clinton loses a lot his power because he goes for a very, very progressive healthcare plan that was disruptive.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, you know, it's interesting. One of the reasons I write a book like Economic Dignity is I wanted to keep people's eye on the ball because I do think, David, that a lot of times we go back and we debate was something right or wrong decision when a lot of times it's so constrained by the political constraints, the control of Congress. And you can kind of believe that what you were doing was the best thing you can do at the time and still believe with new information and evolving trends, there's a better way. And, you know, for me, we came in at a time when the deficit was like the number one issue in the country on both sides. And, you know, President Clinton brought it down in a way that was quite progressive, you know, just to give an example of something on the earned income tax credit. And this isn't just him, but he won that battle. He won that battle for the value that if you work full-time, you shouldn't have to raise your.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think that people were expecting a campaign in 1992 of Mario Cuomo as kind of the old Democrat and Clinton as the new Democrat. And, you know, we knew that when we worked for Mario Cuomo. But, you know, I used to read all Clinton's speeches. And there were things I did start to really admire, which is that he knew how to speak. He knew how to do policy in a value-based way. He would talk about these values, community responsibility opportunities, and then he would use policies like national service to support them.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And Chris once threw a ball and he walked out in protest because he was like, Dad, this is not fair. None of these guys will call a foul on you because you write their paycheck. And I have to say, yeah, there was something to that.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, it's funny because I've gone on Chris Cuomo's show, and Chris Cuomo, when he would play, when I would be on his team and his dad would cover me and he would follow me all the time.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I was like a lot of young people then. I'd heard his nineteen eighty four convention speech and he was the soul of progressivism for me. So I was so honored to work for him. And I had a job where I really reported directly to him. I advised him. I did work on state issues and service and many different issues. But I also was kind of his sounding board on national economic policy. And it was one of the most amazing things when he asked me to come play basketball with him one day alone. We played basketball every Wednesday night and then every Saturday morning he would have a smaller game. But he took me one-on-one and he said, you know, I'm asking a few people about running for president. And so to have been in that loop for a few months where you couldn't tell a soul and the honor of being in it was deep”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“A presidential campaign, they lose. You think you have nothing, but you've gained this reputation that means everything. And then the second thing was the peers I met. It wasn't just George Stefanopoulos. I'll never forget when Susan Rice is named National Security Advisor and her and Sylvia Matthews are Sylvia Burwell now. The three of us hugged and said, can you believe when we were 20 somethings on the Dukakis campaign that we would have ever been National Security Advisor OMB director and national economic advisor? So the number of people that I met in 88, John Podesta, you know, it could just go on and on. It really did shape my life, even though it was a very disappointing and heartbreaking and losing campaign.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Know, I went in, I'd gone to Yale Law School, Wharton Business School, and I went there as an intern. I punched holes, but I worked my way up. And I found what a lot of young people do, which is that if you can be that essential young person.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, you know, I worked for Bob Reich, and that really gave me a sense of what somebody could do in economic policy. The next summer, I worked for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. So I was kind of going back and forth between this economic policy world and the legal world. And I was publishing law review articles, but I was doing economic policy for the Dukakis campaign, then for three years for Governor Mario Cuomo. But I think that day in 1992, when George Stephanopoulos called me and said, do you want to come down to Little Rock and be the economic policy director for the Clinton campaign? That was probably the moment where the decision was made. Once I had that opportunity, I never really looked back. And I've really done economic policy ever since.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You could be both for a growing economy and for the kind of compassion and economic justice that we were. And I saw somebody else writing things that I was writing in high school, but much better. Bob Reich. And I went and I interned. I spent the summer with him.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Civil rights law was deep in our family. I mean, watching my dad take that case to, you know, win the first 14th Amendment case ever for girls to play in high school sports, watching Judge Damon Keith, a legend rule on his behalf. One of my mentors, Paul Diamond, wrote the briefs for many of the big desegregation cases before the Supreme Court. So I was kind of on two paths. There was part of me that wanted to do civil rights and thought I would use that law school and did. And I did do some civil rights case. I even got to sit before the council's table before the Supreme Court on a civil rights case early after law school. But I also was interning for Carl 11 in 1980, Center for Michigan. I saw how Democrats got devastated on economics and how I thought bad we were at showing that”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, it was gotten into Brown and then I got offered a tennis scholarship to University of Minnesota. I'd grown up watching Big Ten tennis. It was very exciting to me. But, you know, Michigan football, Michigan basketball, that's not just a sports. That's our family religion. That's the deepest, most universal kind of family activity memory. So even when I went to Minnesota, very first year, every year I'd go sit on the Michigan side when they play Minnesota. And of course, the first year I'm there, Minnesota upsets number one, Michigan 1977. And I come back. Sacrilege”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We were like a lot of families. There wasn't like a super dramatic story, but basically it was a story of Jewish families leaving Europe really in the time around before World War I. So they weren't families that escaped from the Holocaust, but they were families that found their way here. And my grandfather was kind of a prominent lawyer who lost everything in the Great Depression, moved to Miami Beach, did not buy land there. So we were a middle class family a lot because some of our grandparents didn't make the smartest investments at times. But she grew up in Miami Beach. He grew up in Brooklyn. He lived on the same street Bernie Sanders did, went to the same school that Bernie, and he was a classmate of just his skin. They knew each other at James Madison High School. They served on student government together.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Essential and it affected me and it made me want to not just even be kind of the citizens they were, but made me want to devote my full life to it.”
2020-05-21 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 387 — Gene Sperling · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source