YouSaid · the spoken record

Jim Baker

lines on the record: 81
first: 2017-09-30
most recent: 2017-09-30
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

“And you buy that. Yeah, and you buy that. But on the other hand, I also support the idea that the State Department can use some reforming, just like the UN. I mean, they're both great big bureaucracy. There's plenty of room for reform. I don't know that I can't pass on the extent or degree of the performance cut.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I don't know Iran is now the most important country in Iraq other than Iraq, not the United States. We had a great, big, big embassy we built there, but Iran's the most important.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I don't think so. Well, I don't know. That's very speculative. We used, you know, we work with Saddam. When I first became Secretary of State, we got him agricultural credits. We gave him intelligence against Iran and his war against Iran. We were trying to bring him into the community of international responsible international nations. We weren't successful. He was a brutal tyrant. So it's hard to say the Iraqi people would be better off. I'm saying the Americans.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, we got a lot of grief for that for two or three years after we left office, but we were afraid that what has happened would happen, that Iraq would fragment and it would be all sorts of ethnic controversies, tensions, and warfare. And that's what you've got now. You've got a Shia, Sunni battle going on there in Iraq. Kurds are involved, but peripherally, but Iraq is really sort of breaking up into three different states. We were worried about that. Furthermore, our military didn't want any part of going in and occupying that great big Arab country. And when we got all the other countries to sign on to a use of force resolution in the Security Council, we told them that wasn't our objective. Regime change wasn't our objective. We were going to kick Iraq out of Kuwait.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think if you take a look at how George H.W. Bush Led the international community to get the unification of Germany accomplished against the initial wishes of France, Britain, and the Soviet Union. That's a good example. Another really good example is what he did to eject Iraq from Kuwait. He said, you know, this is wrong for a big country to brutalize its small neighbor, the occupation was very brutal. He said, we're going to reverse it. And he got the rest of the world together to support him in it. Even got a resolution authorizing the use of force against a UN member state out of the Security Council of the United Nations. Never been done before and hadn't been done since and won't be done for a long time. Then went and did exactly what he said he was going to do, eject him from Quake, that and nothing more. And then came home and guess what?”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This is the United Germany, and President Bush wrote a note up there. Jim, thanks for all your effective work in making this map possible. I'm really proud of this because I think it was a significant diplomatic achievement. We had a very narrow window of opportunity to unify Germany after the collapse of the Soviet Union. And France was against it, and Britain was against it. The Soviet Union was against it. But we nevertheless got it done with cooperation between the United States and Germany, and we got it done as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. And it was very dicey when we first started talking about it. It was very sensitive subject. But it's remembered in Germany.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Something about it was incumbent upon all of our governments. Something about it. We haven't done it. It's also incumbent upon our government to do something about North Korea. We haven't done anything about that either since 1994.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You're very kind, David, on your being with you. I guess reasonable minds could question that, but I don't. I think if all the intelligence agencies say that they hacked us, I think they hacked us”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But He said, I screwed it up from the very beginning. He was willing to admit that. And he did. He didn't memorize his clothes. He didn't do the work that he'd done before. And when he won all those debates, and then in the next two debates, he just obliterated Mondale.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And said, you got to let him go. I said, well, that's interesting, fellas. I said, I want to tell you something. I'll fire Dick Darmin when the president asked me to fire Dick Darmin. I knew damn good and well the president would never ask me. Because it wasn't Dick Darmin's fault. They said you brutalize the president in the preparation for the debate. I said, wait a minute, we prepared him in the very same way we did for the other debates, which he won. So it became a non-issue.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not on that, no, no, no. What you're thinking of is that after that first debate, there were some in the White House who thought that they needed a whipping boy for it, that couldn't be the president. We can't let this be the president or the president himself said it was my fault. I didn't he was totally honest. But they wanted me to fire Dick Darmin, who was my assistant, who had been in charge, and who was an extraordinarily fine public servant and a really bright guy.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, he knew he hadn't done well, and when the press talked to him about, he said, I didn't do a good job. He didn't memorize his clothes. If you remember, he was traveling down the coast highway to the shining city on the hill when they cut him off. They had to cut him off twice. And he just didn't do the work.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Since you work with the Democrats, did a wonderful job on the hurricanes and empowered John Kelly. Those three things. And the numbers are up to 42%. Now, that's not over, that's not big numbers, but it's a hell of a lot better than 34. I was in the White House with Reagan in 82 when he went down to 38. It's not a fun place to be when those are your numbers. You never got there. Your numbers stayed higher.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I don't know what at the end of the day isn't here yet. We're going to have to wait and see what the end of the day brings. But I would point out to you that his numbers have moved up in recent years. Interesting, since you've got the deal.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Practiced? No. President Reagan was extraordinarily talented at quipping, quipping back. You know, the press did not like Reagan's policies one bit, but they could not dislike President Reagan. He was hope. He was opportunity. He was, oh, shucks, you know, but they didn't like the policies, but they couldn't dislike the president.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, we'd just blown away John Anderson. He was a Republic third-party candidate, and he wanted debates. And at that time, I think we were behind. And Carter didn't take it. He was president, and we took that debate. And the Gipper blew him away. And he's terrific.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, well, you're asking me your question that's totally hypothetical. I learned a long time ago not to answer hypothetical. These are questions.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't know whether it's awkward or not. It's the way our system works. There's no questioning that authority. It's like the pardon authority. It's total. It's absolute, unconditional.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Answerable to no one. This council is answerable. He's answerable to the Justice Department and ultimately to the President, so it's a significant difference. I hate to see us in this country get into the business of trying to indict. Our leaders. We've never done that before.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, there's a significant difference between this special counsel and the independent counsel law that we used to have, which President Clinton extended and then became subject to one. The Independent Counsel was”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Investigation, Ford that didn't. By the way, we only lost that Ford Carter race by 10,000 votes out of it. But who's counting 81 million? Yeah, no, no.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Small states are never going to give up that power, and they shouldn't. It was a solemn bargain that was struck at the time the nation was one of those”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I do very strongly, and I can tell you why if you want me. Well, it was a solemn pact by our founders, the small states gave up their sovereignty and joined the Union because they were promised a special say in the election of the chief executive and an equal say in the upper body of the Congress. So that's why we have the Electoral College. And people say, we've got to get rid of the electoral college. We're never going to get rid of the electoral college because you've got to do it with a Constitution Amendment and the small state.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, it was a political exercise. You know that as a good politician. It was a political exercise. Yeah, there was a large element of legality to it. I mean, I don't know how many lawsuits were filed, but there were a whole lot of them, and for 37 days there in Florida, we didn't know who was going to win these lawsuits or who was going to be ultimately the president of the United States. And I don't think we'll ever find a time, David, where a presidential election is decided by 537 votes in one state.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think that first of all, I wasn't summoned until after Al Gore had said that he was going to put Warren Christopher in charge of the recap. One of your counterparts, another former Secretary of State. So George Bush, I think, Governor Bush at the time, said, well, we got our own Secretary of State, so he called me.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think so, but if you compare our debates, our political debates today with those of the 18th and 19th century, they're mild by comparison in many respects.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't think we were, but a lot of people do. And if we were, we were not doing anything that you all don't do either on your side.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Granted. I guess what I'm getting to is, you know, I work very collaboratively with President Jimmy Carter when I was Secretary of State. We would never have been able to end the wars in El Salvador, Nicaragua had it not been for a Jimmy Carter. He and I were asked to co-chair a presidential commission on a federal election reform, and we proposed, get this now, we proposed photo identity. I saw that vote. And you know why? Because President Carter said, and I totally agreed, if a minority has a government issued photo ID, very few voting registrars are ever going to try to deny them the right to vote. But now you'd think that photo IDs to vote were the worst thing in the world. That's bad that we've done that.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Countries with an African American Attorney General, two of them. I mean, and to say we're not making progress in race relations, come on. I didn't say we were making pleasure. I chaired a commission say that. I didn't”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, you know, we don't have time, but we can sit here and argue that all day. You were a very effective campaign manager and White House assistant to the first African-American president.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You can't tell me that not standing up for the national anthem with your hand over your heart is not denigrating the national anthem, well the flag it is. I mean, there are plenty ways for him to protest.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You don't denigrate. The one thing that used to, and I hope it still will, unify us, is that we're all Americans. I think identity politics is really bad, David. And I know we play it and you play it. And I think that's one of these problems that's affected our polity. We ought to get away from identity politics. We're all Americans.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You should ask him that. Who has been empowered? Ask him that question. But, you know, I think this issue that we're confronting today, I watch Monday Night Football last night. Yeah. I thought it was handled very, very well by both teams, by the NFL. They went out, they showed unity with all their players, took a knee, but not during the national anthem, not to denigrate our country and our flag. I mean, I just think it's outrageous. There are plenty of ways that you can call into question some of the racism that may still exist.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think it's important to get immigration reform, health care reform, tax reform. Those are the things that I think he ought to be spending his time on. And I'm not saying”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Wouldn't you also agree that putting on that goofy looking helmet and riding around that tank? I am not here. He had nothing to do with that. I'm not here to suggest.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Few weeks. But David, I know I admire what you did in your campaign and you were very, very effective. But look, Michael Dukakis, in a debate when he was asked if someone broke into his house, murdered his wife and raped her, if he would then support the death penalty. And he said, no. We didn't have anything to do with that.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He called me back because I was his friend of 40 years, because he was my daughter's godfather, and because I had run all of his prior campaigns. Not all of them, but the ones for President. And that's the reason I think.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Or husband. Well, it's a 24-7 job, as you know, when you're in the White House, and particularly if you're Chief of Staff of the White House. I worked all day Saturdays and Sunday mornings. I mean, it was six and a half day a week. We're going to take another short break, and I'll be right back with Jim Baker.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, they weren't. That's exactly what happened. He said, Jim, I want to talk to you before you go back to Texas. And I told her that, and she started crying. And then the next, and I told the president elect that the next day, and he took over in the corner, and he said, let me tell you something, Susan. I think family is extremely important. Your man's going to be home at 5 o'clock every afternoon. I wasn't home at 5 o'clock any afternoon.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, it was a big sacrifice. I wrote that in my book. It's the families that really sacrifice. And I didn't, you know, I had these beautiful eight kids, and I didn't get to spend enough time with them because I was flying all over. First of all, I was doing these campaigns. Then I became Deputy Secretary of Commerce for President Ford, and then I turned right around and ran my own race. By the way, I got smart. I got smart enough to know the best way to get to a high office is not to run for it, is to get appointed to it. I ran for Turing General, Texas and lost, and it was the best thing that ever happened to me because if I'd won, I'd have been stuck down here in Texas and never gotten to go to Washington. But yes, your family suffers. Everybody thinks it's glorious.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Conservative Democrats, which is what I was, were really Republicans. And it was shortly thereafter that they began to vote Republican. And now, of course, as you know, Texas is a solidly Republican state.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In fact, I expressly had been advised by my grandfather's mantra, if you want to be a good lawyer, work hard, study, and stay out of politics. For 40 years of my life, I stayed out of politics. And then my wife got sick. The last people to see her other than family before she died were George and Barbara Bush came to see her We were close friends. And George came to me after she died and said, Bake, you got to get your mind off your grief. Help me run for the Senate here in Texas. I said, well, George, that's great. Except I don't know anything about politics, and I'm a Democrat. He said, well, we can change that last thing. And I changed to become Texas.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“General Kelly called me after he was appointed, and we had a very cordial and friendly, very substantive, I think, conversation, not too long, but long enough. I think he's doing a really good job. It is a hard job given the president's personality and the way he has always run things. He ran his business by himself. And so that's the way he approaches governance. And so General Kelly's got, but he had, I think the president has empowered General Kelly, whereas he didn't empower Rhines Priebus. And no chief of staff can be effective unless he's empowered. And one of the first things General Kelly did was to Cut off access to the oval by anybody just walking in there. They had to go through him. And that's a very important procedure.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Officing. George Schulz quickly said, well, Mr. President, I'll take the lie detector test if that's what you want, but it'll be the last thing I do as your Secretary of State. And the president didn't realize that this was a mistake. And it never should have gone to him through Bill Clark, the authority for that was something that was in my court in the White House.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No. Well, first of all, President had given me specific, specifically given me in an order the authority to order polygraphs if they were going to be ordered or to recommend to the Justice Department and so forth. And so that was done without my knowledge. And I was on my way to lunch. In downtown, I got word of it. I turned the car around and walked back in the oval and the president was having lunch with the vice president and secretary of state at that time, George Schultz. And he'd ordered this polygraph on anybody who was in a particular NST. On the recommendation of his National Security Advisor, Bill Clark. And of course, it didn't make any sense at all to do that. You can't strap up, you're going to strap up the vice president of the United States. He's a constitution.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, no, we haven't, and that's what I said earlier is regrettable about our polity now. But Ed was on that legislative strategy group. I was, there were other people. And so when stuff would, you know, you operate in a very short time. So when word would come down from the hill, we can't get this done without Senator So-and-so's amendment on such and such. You've got to make decisions pretty much like that. And that's where those decisions were made. And so it's great to formulate policy. It's wonderful. And he was in charge of formulating. But you've got to implement it. And it was the implementation that my side of the White House had control of.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Your president's executive order. Anyway, so yeah, I had to let, and so we created the legislative strategy group. The process of governing is constant compromise here and there, particularly with Congress. If you want to get stuff passed.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And you do that. Most importantly, press, communications, and Congress. Because Congress, you got to get, if you're going to get your policies implemented into law with any permanence, executive orders work great. That's great, but they can be undone as we're seeing right now. Your executive orders are being undone by the world.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Everybody assumed he was going to be the chief of staff. And so I called that and he was obviously down about the decision and I said, let's go to breakfast. We went to breakfast. And he wanted to be in charge of policy. And I said, okay, I'll be in charge of politics and making the trains run on time. And that's what that document.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I took the political side of the White House. Ed wanted to be in policy. And by the way, let me tell you something. I have no better friend, really, than Ed Meese. I put him on the Iraq study group and on the War Powers Commission that I co-chaired with Warren Christopher, he's a wonderful person and a close friend. Yes, there were tensions in our White House between his so-called camp and mine. But it all worked well for the Gipper. I mean, he got all sorts of views. On this document you're talking about, what happened was the day at morning, the night of the election when we found out we'd won. President Reagan said, Jim, before you go back to Texas, I want to talk to you. And so I went to see him and he said, I would like you to be my chief the next morning. I'd like you to be my chiefest staff. But make it right with Ed because Ed had been chief of staff of California.”
2017-09-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 176 - Jim Baker · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source