YouSaid · the spoken record

Gina Raimondo

lines on the record: 84
first: 2019-10-07
most recent: 2019-10-07
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

“Did I say it was for career reasons, and that's true because I had an opportunity to start my own firm with another guy who was well established in the business. But anyone who's grown up in a small, tight-knit Italian-American family in Rhode Island knows it's only a matter of time before you're back in Rhode Island. In fact, when we were talking about getting married, my husband and I say, you know, we're going to raise our family in Rhode Island.”
2019-10-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 350 – Gov. Gina Raimondo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It is, I think, always controversial. And here's my view on it. I think if every state would unilaterally disarm, I would too. But seeing as how Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, all my neighbors use these incentives, I can't run the risk of us being left behind. I'd like to think, I know we've structured them in the smartest way possible, which is to say you don't get a dime until you've created the job. If the job goes away, the incentive goes away. And it's all geared to incentivizing higher wage jobs.”
2019-10-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 350 – Gov. Gina Raimondo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's not as official as a job board, but we help to essentially match up the companies with these, we call them WaveMaker Fellows, so the people that have the scholarship WaveMaker Fellows. Yeah, we have lots of networking events, matching events.”
2019-10-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 350 – Gov. Gina Raimondo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“For too much of our economy. And so I want to be in the people to be like in the flow of these good jobs, which means they need to be educated. So for us, it's about helping these kids with debt. But frankly, it's about keeping them in Rhode Island so companies come to Rhode Island to hire these young people.”
2019-10-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 350 – Gov. Gina Raimondo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I just started it three years ago. And it's all back to the thing I said at the beginning, I gotta turn the tide on Rhode Island's economy from old line manufacturing to High growth jobs of today, and that's a talent supply. Some people have referred to Rhode Island as the Rust Belt of the Northeast. We relied on manufacturing.”
2019-10-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 350 – Gov. Gina Raimondo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Four years or something? Yeah, so we said that if you go to any school in Rhode Island, public or private, you know, so it could be brown or CCRI or anything in between. And you graduate with STEM degree. If you take a STEM job in Rhode Island, we'll help you pay back your student loans for four years. As long as you stay in that job. Hugely successful.”
2019-10-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 350 – Gov. Gina Raimondo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That does not work. No, if you try that, oh, I can't make that event. I have another event in Providence. We'll wait a half hour. We'll start an hour later for you, Gov. If you can just get there when you can get there. I lost my train of thought.”
2019-10-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 350 – Gov. Gina Raimondo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Can't really get a good job unless you have something more than 12th grade. And by the way, you have to drive yourself into debt to get that. My vision, and what I'm trying to do in Rhode Island, is making it so that every Rhode Islander can get the job training or education they need to get a good job. And by the way, it's also about equity. Since we've done the community college program, we've seen a doubling in applications, much more so for people of color, kids, students of color. We've seen a huge increase in on-time graduation rate, kids on path to graduate. Twice as much so for kids of color. Thing you've got to realize, and I'm reminded of it every day because I talk to people all the time. It's a great thing about being a governor. You don't have to go to Washington. You get to stay in town.”
2019-10-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 350 – Gov. Gina Raimondo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, listen, absolutely. Though I would distinguish, so I look at, I brought about tuition-free community college for every Rhode Islander, and I'm very proud of that. So, anyone in Rhode Island who graduates high school can go to our community college two years tuition free. I don't think of that so much as free stuff as providing necessary amount of public education to get a good job. So Once upon a time, we decided as a country that we were going to provide free public education until 12th grade. Well, that made sense when you could get a decent job with the 12th grade education, but you really can anymore, and I don't think it's fair to say to people, hey, we're only going to take care of you up until 12th grade.”
2019-10-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 350 – Gov. Gina Raimondo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, it determines what you do, where you live, who you marry, what job you take. And she's nodding. But I always knew I wanted to do something more public. I didn't know that would be running for office per se, but in any event, I just, when I was in the venture capital business, I loved working with entrepreneurs. I loved it. I loved seeing these people who thought, who were changing the world with a new product. We would build a team, do the financing, do the strategy, and go after it. For me, that's exciting.”
2019-10-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 350 – Gov. Gina Raimondo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“She was, and I think she'd be extraordinary on the Supreme Court, President Clinton put her up as attorney general, she was extraordinary. Look, the thing is, it wasn't for me. As it turns out, what I like doing better is building teams running something to solve problems. Which isn't to say that being an advocate isn't dignified profession because it is. I am just better at, I think, what I do now as an executive, like build a team. I love recruiting the best people I can find. Setting out to solve some problems and just going after it. And that was, I found more in business. I needed a job to make some money because I had all these dads.”
2019-10-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 350 – Gov. Gina Raimondo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's my warning to all the young people here. Don't go to professional school until you're sure. I came out of law school deeply in debt and then fell in love with a guy similarly in debt. We start our life together $150,000 in debt.”
2019-10-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 350 – Gov. Gina Raimondo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Great question. I thought I wanted to be a lawyer, and it turns out Either I wasn't good at it or wasn't cut out for it. I wish I had known that before the $100,000 of debt I took on.”
2019-10-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 350 – Gov. Gina Raimondo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Fun fact, Eric Garcetti was in my Rhodes class and Corey Booker was a year ahead of us and Bobby Jindle was a year ahead of me.”
2019-10-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 350 – Gov. Gina Raimondo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And everybody, we got to get everybody the skills they need to get a decent job, and we need to make sure we have enough of those jobs.”
2019-10-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 350 – Gov. Gina Raimondo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And today, if you go into a union hall, like electricians union hall in Rhode Island, there's a different skip in their step. Certainly, than there was when I was running. As you said, it's not just the job, this is pride and dignity. You talk about the opioid crisis. It is such a crisis in Rhode Island, and it's absolutely related in part to people being out of work or disconnected. I have a big initiative now that we're launching around recovery-friendly workplaces. A friend of mine said to me, The opposite of addiction isn't sobriety, it's connectedness. And having a job is key to sustaining your recovery if you're recovering from addiction. So anyway, I just think there needs to be a lot more focus on making sure there's a place in this economy for everybody.”
2019-10-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 350 – Gov. Gina Raimondo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, I'd be more inclined to be behind something that was a guaranteed job than a guaranteed basic income. You know, I think our party ought to be the party of work and ought to be the party of dignified work. Maybe that's my own story I saw in my family and in my own life there's dignity and work. By the way, that means work has to pay decent wage. Know how many people in my state have a full time job and they're poor enough to collect food stamps and be on Medicaid. Not dignified work But guaranteed basic income is more troubling to me. I'd rather give a robust wage subsidy. Then a guaranteed basic income. Because I think that, like I already said, I think we ought to be the party of work and move in that direction.”
2019-10-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 350 – Gov. Gina Raimondo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm about to lose my house. I'm about to. My marriage has fallen apart. And then the worst thing is they say, and I lost my pride. I have no confidence. I have no confidence anymore. And that, by the way, today in Rhode Island, the unemployment rate in the building trades is 2.5%. Because I was just so motivated to help those guys. And I think I saw my dad in a lot of them. The people don't. My thing is, I've learned being governor, people don't want to hand out. Actually, there's all this discussion about free stuff. People just want a chance to have a decent job and some dignity. Pride and take care of their fam”
2019-10-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 350 – Gov. Gina Raimondo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So for a while after that happened, once in a while my dad was not in the cheeriest of moods. As kids, we didn't love that. And my mom would say you guys don't get it. You don't understand how crushing that was to your dad. Like it was a blow to his pride. He had been the breadwinner. He never really, it's hard when you're 56, especially then, you know, to restart. When I was running for governor, As they said in the introduction, Rhode Island's unemployment rate was sky high, highest in the country. And the unemployment rate in the building trades, plumbers, pipe fitters, carpenters, was about 25%. Whoa is right. Think about that 25%. That means there were people, mostly guys, Who had been out of work for a year or two? And I would sit with them and listen to them when I was campaigning. And they would say, Haven't had a job in a year.”
2019-10-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 350 – Gov. Gina Raimondo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Beyond frightening, beyond frightening, crushed his confidence. We just think about that. 56 years old, he'd worked there, the one job he had. That is Rhode Island because our leaders did absolutely nothing. Before I ran for governor, my dad and I were talking. And he said, Gina, Our leaders led us down. They just watched the dismantling of these manufacturing jobs and they did nothing to get us into new businesses. And in his words, he said, you know, Massachusetts, they got into computers. Now that's what he said, because Route 128 got into software. He said, we just stayed still, got stuck, and all my buddies and I were all left out. And so when I ran for governor to try to, I'm not bringing Jewry back. I'm not bringing that kind of manufacturing back, and I'm not going to lie and pretend that I am.”
2019-10-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 350 – Gov. Gina Raimondo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I have such a memory my dad would get in the car every morning with his lunch bag and the car was filled with all of his buddies in the car pool and as a kid it seemed to me like there was a place for everybody at the factory one guy was the security guard one guy was a custodian my dad was then electroplating you know it seemed secure but gradually the jewelry manufacturing business went away in Rhode Island, right? It all went to his company closed down, jobs went to Asia, most of the jewelry jobs went to China. And I'd say on a personal level, that was really tough. He was 56 years old. He had three kids to support. My mom never worked. What do you do with that?”
2019-10-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 350 – Gov. Gina Raimondo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, so I will tell you that is why I ran for governor. So, insofar as his story and my family's story is the story of Rhode Island. And I think probably a lot of Midwestern states. So for those of you who don't know Rhode Island, I'll forgive you, although you have to come visit now that you're hearing from me, you have to come visit. Rhoda, the story of Rhode Island is we were once a jewelry manufacturing powerhouse. My dad worked at Boulevard. We had spy demo. The main watches, sorry, a boulevard watch, Tiffany, Coro. It was, you talk about the ecosystem in Silicon Valley. Well, we had the ecosystem of jewelry. There were electroplaters and machine shops, and that's where people's dads worked.”
2019-10-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 350 – Gov. Gina Raimondo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The first step. No, I was just trying to get by, to be perfectly honest. It's life changing. at any institution like Harvard, like Chicago, certainly for kid like me, it was life-changing. I shared a bed with my sister growing up and I joke, like I was psyched to have my own bed and be on my own a bit when I get to college. It's an amazing place. I studied economics. Turns out I was pretty good at economics. I rose to the top of my class in economics. But here you are, this kid from Rhode Island, and suddenly you're studying with the greats of the greats and they're teaching you. So I soaked it all up. It was fantastic.”
2019-10-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 350 – Gov. Gina Raimondo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They're much more sophisticated than I ever was. I said, Mom, we don't have a lot of money, but I'm smart. Like all the kids are the same. I got in. I want to go. And she was right. I got to school. I had to work two or three jobs during term, two or three jobs during summer. Couldn't go off on vacation. You know, I came out, saddled with a bunch of loans. But God bless them. They put every last bit of savings, I think, into getting me through, and I'm so grateful that they did.”
2019-10-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 350 – Gov. Gina Raimondo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Particularly in February, I'm sure it's just lovely. No, truthfully, I never got on a plane till I went to college. Like, you know, my folks weren't able to take me on college tours, hop on a plane and go visit Chicago. You know, that wasn't an option. I did my applications and did my best. But anyway, when I got into Harvard, my mom sat me down and said, hey, Gina, if you want to go, I'm not exactly sure how we're going to afford this, but your dad and I will make it work. You're going to have to work. You're going to have to get jobs. You're going to have to take loans. And we've been saving for this for a long time, and we'll do everything we can. But she said, are you sure you want to go? Because there's a lot of wealthier kids there, and we're not going to be able to give you all of that other stuff.”
2019-10-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 350 – Gov. Gina Raimondo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't know. I work pretty hard, I think. I just worked hard. Look, I'll be very honest. My parents, probably like yours, a lot of people here, they sacrifice so much for my brother and my sister and me. And I didn't want to let him down and I wanted to work as hard as I could. And I always... Just, you know, felt kind of an obligation. We had so many opportunities that they never had, and I didn't want to squander that. I wanted to make the best of all these chances that they gave me.”
2019-10-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 350 – Gov. Gina Raimondo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's exactly even a Catholic school. I thought it was terrific truthfully. You know, there were times when it certainly wasn't 50-50 to start. I can't now remember. It was lopsided, but not overly lopsided. I felt special. You know, we girls at the time felt like we were pioneers and it was a cool thing to do. Of course, we like to think that was a great turning point in La Salle, and it's been better every day since for the fact that it's boys and girls. We gave life to the institution. But the Christian brothers were fantastic. They were. They were embracing of us from day one. And at least in my experience, you know, they had sports team. We had start every sports team. I started the girls volleyball team. They cheered us on the whole way.”
2019-10-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 350 – Gov. Gina Raimondo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I went to Lasal Academy. It's a Christian Brothers High School in Providence, and they had been all boys, and then they went co-ed in 85, and I went first class of boys and girls.”
2019-10-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 350 – Gov. Gina Raimondo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, my father He was born in this country, but his parents were both immigrants from Italy. His dad was a butcher. His mom's a stay-at-home mom, they had five kids. And my dad, I guess his English wasn't too great at first by the time he was in first grade. And he tells a story that the teacher held him back because she said his English wasn't good enough. But as retold by my dad, who's kind of bitter about it. It's Know she just didn't like Italians and held me back saying my English wasn't too good. So, you know, you're exactly right. I mean, people have felt that for a long time.”
2019-10-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 350 – Gov. Gina Raimondo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So here's an interesting story, David. I learned this just recently. My grandfather, my mother's father, who lived in the house with us, served in the First World War. We recently saw his enlistment papers. At the time he served, he was an undocumented immigrant. And the reason I know that is so he came here, he started a business here, he owned a restaurant, and then he went off to fight in the First World War. When he came back, they had a once-of-its-kind naturalization ceremony for those who had fought in the army. And there was a big story about it in the Boston Globe at the time. Clearly, in his enlistment papers, he was listed as an Italian, which means he lived here for years as a quote-unquote illegal immigrant. That's my story. That's my family. And he then went on to be married, had two children.”
2019-10-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 350 – Gov. Gina Raimondo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Life, that story motivates me because the thing is, the library was open at night and it was available for him. And he went to public school. And basic things. Public libraries, public schools.”
2019-10-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 350 – Gov. Gina Raimondo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, my grandparents on both of my parents' side came when they were teenagers alone from Italy and landed on Atwells Avenue in Providence, Rhode Island. And I actually grew up with my grandfather in our house after his wife died. We took him into our house. There wasn't a lot of space in our house, but there was a lot of love and good food and noise. There were six of us all crammed into a little house. My brother and my grandpa shared a room together. And I grew up Sundays listening to Italian radio and learning how to cook. And I grew up listening to stories from my grandfather saying, you know, when he came to this country, he basically worked all day and then would go to the public library at night and try to learn English. And that, as I become more involved in public”
2019-10-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 350 – Gov. Gina Raimondo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Exactly. That's what I was thinking. He actually ate his way into my family, which worked out beautifully. And now we have two kids. But anyway, I grew up in Rhode Island. My mom still lives in the house that I grew up in. I'm the youngest of three kids.”
2019-10-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 350 – Gov. Gina Raimondo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“First of all, thank you. Thank you for having me, and thank you guys for all being here. I probably describe my family as very Italian. My mother is Giuspina, my father is Giuseppe. And it's true. And in fact, when I brought my then boyfriend now husband home, his name's Andy. He's from Michigan. When I brought him home for the first time, My mother insisted on calling him Anthony a few times. But now he's”
2019-10-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 350 – Gov. Gina Raimondo · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source