YouSaid · the spoken record

Jonathan Karl

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2020-08-24

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2020-08-24

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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

1. “Sculptor Goodson Borglum died in 1941, but there were some 300 people that carried out the work on the mountain, all miners mostly. And about half of them were still alive. But this is pre-Google. There's no database of all these guys. So they put out an advertisement, bought an advertisement in the Rapid City Journal and got a hold of one of these guys. And we headed out and talked to him.”

   2020-08-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 401 — Jonathan Karl · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

2. “Right before I went to fifth grade into fifth grade and we stopped in South Dakota and visited Mount Rushmore and he was fascinated about Mount Rushmore as a sculpture. There was all this stuff at the mountain about the presidents and the shrine of democracy and all that, but he wanted to know how did they do it, who was the sculptor, who worked on the mountain. And there was very little about that at the time at Mount Rushmore. So he started asking questions. After we got home, they got on this idea of trying to track down all of the people who had worked on the construction of Mount Rushmore.”

   2020-08-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 401 — Jonathan Karl · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

3. “Your stepdad, who seemed like a pretty It's a great story, and my stepdad is like the mirror image of my father. They're so different in every possible way. Although interesting, neither one of them went to college. My dad remarried to, his name was Howard, Howard Schaff. And he was a taxi driver in Brooklyn, grew up in Brooklyn. He served in the Air Force and the Korean War. And at this point, he was out in Connecticut running a factory that made bras. I mean, you can't really make it up. His international fabric molders was the name of the company IFM. But he was an amateur writer and he had written six novels and never got even published, but he was like, he was one of the smartest guys that I knew. And we went in the van, you know, old Chevy van with my grandmother, my mom's mom, and drove across country one summer when I was in”

   2020-08-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 401 — Jonathan Karl · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

4. “The nominee he was in. I mean, he didn't like the Clintons and he was on board and I would try to remind him what he had said about Donald Trump over the years. But all that didn't matter anymore and he was in.”

   2020-08-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 401 — Jonathan Karl · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

5. “It was interesting. He was a lifelong Republican and he was around for the primary. And he was sick. He was around through the election. But he liked Jeb Bush. Until I did an interview with Jeb Bush in New Hampshire when Bush's campaign was just tanking, he was like 5% in the polls and just on the verge of dropping out. And it was a pretty contentious interview. And at one point, I asked Jeb Bush about this attack his campaign was doing on Marco Rubio, a pretty vicious attack. And he said he didn't know anything about it. I don't know. And he's like, well, I've got it right here. Take a look. And he's like, oh, I don't know. Don't see it. Here it is. And he took the paper out of my hand. He looked at it for a second and he threw it back at me. And my dad was so offended that he was like, that's it. Jeb Bush is dead to me. And he really didn't like Trump from New York. But then once Trump became...”

   2020-08-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 401 — Jonathan Karl · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

6. “Yeah, he sold his house and moved to another place where he could have a flagpole. And that's the place he lived until he died. I remember when I was packing up his house, getting all this, when the last thing was, you know, putting away the flag and looking at that flagpole, he had it installed when he went to the new place. He sure as hell didn't buy the new house until he got a commitment that that homeowner's association was going to allow him to install flag. But he's a guy he never missed a parade. Memorial Day parade a 4th of July parade. He was a flag guy. He was the kind of symbolism of America guy. Again, not big national politics.”

   2020-08-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 401 — Jonathan Karl · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

7. “Yeah, my dad was a classic kind of community blue-collar guy. I mean, he was active in the Kwanis Club, the Red Cross, the, you know, obviously 10 years as. He never went to college. He was never particularly into national politics that we never really even talked about, but he was very into local politics, always very active. The selectman races, that kind of stuff. And he But once I went in this direction, I mean, he's the guy, he watched and read everything I did. My first job, first daily reporting job was with the New York Post. And my dad was a lifelong daily news guy. And he switched immediately to the post. Read everything I did, I eventually ended up working at CNN for eight years. And, you know, suddenly he was watching cable television.”

   2020-08-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 401 — Jonathan Karl · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

8. “Yeah. So, you know, he needs it. He feeds off it. And I think that's the contrast that he will try to do. But Biden is very inconvenient. To him, and he hasn't figured out quite how to take it to Biden. Is it sleepy Joe? Is it a suggestion that he's somehow too old and is losing it? Is it the wearer's hunter stuff? None of it's really landed. And when you go out and you see these groups of Trump supporters, you don't see, you look at the paraphernalia they have. They're still trotting around with lock her up and... All the kind of stuff against Hillary Clinton, you don't really see much about...”

   2020-08-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 401 — Jonathan Karl · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

9. “So, what he will try to do, and I think this is the contrast they'll try to do with their convention, but of course they haven't had the time to plan for this because it didn't dawn on them that they would have a virtual convention until a few weeks ago. They were still insisting they were going to do something in Jacksonville. But I think that the contrast that he's going to try to do is one of energy and people. We saw him come around do, I mean, he'd more campaign related travel during the democratic convention than he had done since the shutdown of the country. And so I think that he's going to try to inject the energy of the crowd, the field that he's going to be out there. And he'll work hard. I mean, look, he cares, he enjoys campaigning, I believe, a hell of a lot more than he enjoys governing.”

   2020-08-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 401 — Jonathan Karl · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

10. “I think there's very little evidence of that in the public polling. And they acknowledge they've got an uphill battle here. But look, he's done. I thought what was striking about Biden is he explicitly said, I am taking the Democrat. I'm going to be Democratic candidate, but I am going to be an American president. I am going to serve those who supported me and those who didn't support me. And I've covered every day of this administration and I have seen precious few moments where Donald Trump has done anything to try to reach out to a single person who did not support him the first time around. There have been a couple of moments, I'm not saying they're non-existent, but he's done almost nothing to reach out to those who didn't already support him. It's all about energizing his base. And I think objectively, if you look at the, literally look at the numbers, his base is smaller now relative to the base of his opponent than it was four years ago.”

    2020-08-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 401 — Jonathan Karl · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

11. “They do. There's a fair amount of denial, but they know they're in a jam. Now, in the last few days, they are seeing in their own polling what you've seen some evidence of in the public polling some tightening. Now, Donald Trump doesn't. To hearing any kind of bad news well. I mean, you probably remember when George Stephanopoulos was riding in the limo with him last summer and made reference to his own internal polling showing he's in trouble in the battleground states. And he's like, wait, what do you mean? What do you mean? Get Brad on the phone. And he actually called up Brad Pascal to say, what's he talking about? Our poll show, we're doing great. So I think there's a lot of pressure in terms of his polling operation to give him good news. And they're seeing a little bit of good news in their own polling.”

    2020-08-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 401 — Jonathan Karl · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

12. “Trump is at his worst when he is doing a telegraph speech without, I mean, a teleprompter speech without an audience. It's awkward. It's not natural for him. He can pull off a teleprompter speech with an audience. We saw that in his first address to a joint session of Congress. But I expect that this will be a crafted speech. This will be, you know, I mean, just go back to his speech, by the way, which is fascinating to go back to look at his speech four years ago in Cleveland, which was a law and order speech. That was overwhelmingly the theme of that speech, that he will restore law and order, that essentially it is the responsibility of the Democrats, of Obama for these past years that we see lawlessness on our streets. And, you know, now, of course, he's been president for four years, and he's going to say essentially the same thing.”

    2020-08-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 401 — Jonathan Karl · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

13. “Yes, and how they're going to do that, the details we don't know yet. But he has made it clear he will bring people in. I assume he'll bring people into the South lawn in some way. As you know, social distancing is not a high priority.”

    2020-08-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 401 — Jonathan Karl · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

14. “Focused the way it was crafted, the way it was delivered, the substance of what he had to say, absolutely. But no, I mean, I think the main thing Donald Trump thought when he was watching all this. I think he said to himself it was boring. That's what he has to tell himself. And then I'm going to have my people and it's going to be me. And I think we're going to see Donald Trump every single night of their convention. They're going to find a way to inject the idea of the crowds. And my God, could you ever think we would have thought we'd see a convention speech, an acceptance speech at the White House? I mean, all the hand wringing that”

    2020-08-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 401 — Jonathan Karl · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

15. “Yeah, he wants that, but I think particularly the two Obama speeches and Joe Biden, I've been covering Joe Biden for a long, long time. I have sat through more Joe Biden speeches than I can care to count. This was, I believe, by far the best speech that I have ever seen him give.”

    2020-08-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 401 — Jonathan Karl · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

16. “Many, many fewer than you would expect. And I thought that the roll call was just an unbelievable highlight because we've all been stuck at home And then we got to see the country. It was really. No, I thought that”

    2020-08-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 401 — Jonathan Karl · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

17. “The cap blocks were frozen. I thought it was fascinating. I think that one thing here is the Democrats have known for months, months and months that they were almost certainly going to have a virtual convention, and they've clearly been planning. And it was really a technical feat. There were a few goofy moments, I suppose, but I thought it was really fewer than...”

    2020-08-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 401 — Jonathan Karl · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

18. “There's no question that he was watching. I mean, you saw it most obviously when Obama was speaking. He couldn't stop himself. Yes, his cat”

    2020-08-24 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 401 — Jonathan Karl · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source