YouSaid · the spoken record

Kirsten Powers

lines on the record: 104
first: 2019-02-14
most recent: 2019-02-14
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 Mickey went over to Commerce. And Mickey went over to Commerce, and so did pretty much his whole team. And I decided, and I was supposed to go, but I decided to stay because I was actually going to Georgetown Law School at night. And I just was like, and they were promoting me. So I was like, I'm just going to stay here and do this. And it just changed. Everything was different. And I became pretty unhappy there. It went from being kind of an idyllic, wonderful experience to being a not very happy experience. And so I kind of got to a place of like, I want to get out of here. And so I started looking around at other jobs in the administration. I had been being pursued by America Online because a friend of a friend was running their communications department and I just was always saying, no, I just don't want the internet. Like, I don't know. I always saw myself as working in government or politics or nonprofits. And the private sector was kind of bad. So I just never would go.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, so I had been in the administration for about five years. And, you know, the first four years were really wonderful. I loved working. Mickey was wonderful. I worked with great people. It was just a wonderful, exciting time. And then as some people may remember, Ron Brown, who was the head of the Commerce Department, was tragically killed.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I guess, and I also ultimately come down. I don't think trade is the problem, I think automatization is the problem, right? So I think we're kind of like for...”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“What is your I think that I, yes, I'm much more liberal now than I was then. I was very much like a new DEM. I was, you know, a Clinton Democrat, basically. So I think that I but even saying that I have become more liberal on a lot of issues, I still think ultimately that. Trade is going to happen, and it's better if it happens with some sort of apparatus, right? Whether it's the WTO or these trade agreements. Do you want to make them? And one of the things that actually Clinton was trying to do was to make NAFTA more put environmental side agreements in it. Labor agreements and that kind of stuff. So to try to make it.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, the deputy communications U.S. Yeah, yeah. So I kind of, I think, yeah, so I started out as a press assistant. I think the second year I became like their director for.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I talk to all the different people that I was working with. And I told them I wanted to work and doing something international. And they're like, you want to work at USTR because that's international and it's in the White House and Mickey Cantor's, you know, close to the president. And so through a series of events, I ended up getting a job there. But again, it was all just so unexpected.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I got a job. Get in early. Yeah, but I was all like, but again, I was just like, oh, like, really? So I got a job on the transition team. And then when I was on the transition team.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He got the nomination and then he went on to win. In the intervening period, I took a job doing political at a political fundraising firm, a democratic fundraising firm, and I wasn't able to volunteer anymore. So I actually hadn't been there in like three months or so when he won. And I always think this is a real testament to them that I got a call the day before he won and they said, you know, he's going to win tomorrow and you were one of the people that was there in the very beginning. And so we're going to give you a job on the transition team. And so”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Could have stayed home and baked cookies served tea, but I decided to. Yeah, and so the phone, you know, so I was answering the phones, people yelling, and so I was, so to make long story short,”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah. But I have rethought. I mean, I actually did an interview on NPR around the Monica thing, and I was like, I think I was wrong. I think that my attitude about her was wrong, you know. And so I definitely have rethought those things. But I, so basically, what happened was I ended up just, I was living in DC, so I went to volunteer in the DC office. And at that point, nobody was volunteering for him because nobody thought he was going to win. So it was like me and like three other people. And so I think the day I started was the day Hillary said the cookie baking thing. And of course, I was like”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So I would say the Jennifer Flowers thing no. I actually am a big believer that that kind of, if it's consensual relationship, certainly I wouldn't want to marry somebody who was doing that, but that's between him and Hillary. That was my opinion then, and that would be my opinion now. When we get into the other stuff, the Monica Lewinsky and Juanita Broderick and these other accusations, I actually wasn't, well, Monica hadn't happened yet. And the other stuff wasn't a fact.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Feminist, and you know, she was this successful woman. So I was like, wow, you know, Bill Clinton is so amazing because he married Hillary. I mean, this is literally how I thought about it. And I actually didn't believe the stuff. This is how, I mean, I was very young and I was very naive, but I was like, why would he ever cheat on Hillary? Because Hillary's so amazing. That is literally how I thought about it. So I actually didn't believe any of it. And so, I mean, when I say any of it, at that point, it was really Jennifer Flowers was the main thing, right? And so I just thought like, he has Hillary. Why would he do that? So that wasn't really a factor for me.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I wouldn't. Yeah. But here's the thing I would say you said we knew. I didn't. Again, I was so naive. This is how naive I was. Okay, the other thing is I was absolutely in love with Hillary. I just thought, because I, you know, I did, I majored in journalism, but I did a lot of women's studies at University of Maryland. My mother's feminist, you know, very kind of radical feminist and trailblazing woman. And so I kind of grew up with that worldview. And up until Hillary, women didn't really say they were feminists unless they were professional feminists like Gloria Steinham. And so the fact that Hillary was this.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and I, so I had some, I was working at a nonprofit with some nothing job, you know, nine to five job. I did follow politics very quickly to your earlier question. My family was obsessed with politics, it's all we ever talked about. And so I was following in and I took a liking to Bill Clinton. And this was, you know, would have been January of 92. So he was not supposed to win. First of all, no Democrat was supposed to win, but he in particular was not supposed to win. So I wasn't doing it as a kind of, oh, I could maybe get a job someday. Also, because again, I was so unsophisticated, I didn't even know that that's how it worked. So I just thought I really like him and I just want to do something. Let me interrupt you for one second because.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Again, total cluelessness to, and just like, so it's amazing how much of my life has just been like falling into things. So I had, I would, I graduated in 91. There was a terrible recession. It was like impossible to get a job.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I was just sort of going through it. I enjoyed it. I thought it was interesting, but by the time I graduated, I just felt like this isn't really what I want to do.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I was just So clueless. I really, I basically what happened was I had a friend whose older sister was a journalism major and I was like, I like to write. I knew I was a good writer. That was the sort of feedback I got in high school. And so I thought I'll be a journalism major. It's literally the amount of thought that went into it. And did you?”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah. I also just think as you get older, you just realize how much a lot of things people always people never change. It's like people always change in my experience. That's the point. There are things I wrote five years ago probably that I would look at and be like, what? You know, it's just like hopefully we're always evolving and always changing and getting more information and thinking about things.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I think there should be a path if there is true repentance and conversion. I mean, I'm using very religious language, but I think that it's, you know, it can be non-religious in the sense that that actually, if true repentance and conversion had happened, it actually would have been part of his story.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, also, the things that he has said about, you know, he knows how to get shoe polish off his face and these kinds of things kind of suggests a lack of real evolution. Now, is he I think Angela Rye made this point when people say, well, look at how he is today. He's different. And she said, yeah, because he has to be different. No one would tolerate this in this culture. So you have to kind of look at the things he's saying. And he's clearly something's kind of not totally evolved, right? So, yeah, so I think that there should be a path.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's the point. And that's what I said. So when it first broke, that's what I said. I said, so far, you know, I don't know enough about him to know what happened. And he hasn't told that story, which makes me think that story doesn't exist. And so without that story, I think it makes it very difficult for him to hang on.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah. Well, and what I said when the news first broke, and a lot of people got very angry at me about it, is that I want to know Here's the thing. I think a lot of people look at these things and like, I would never do that. I would never do that. I would never do that. It's like maybe that's true. But if you grew up in a different family, you might, right? And if you grew up in, you know, in a racist town, and this is where people thought you actually might do something like this, the question The whole reason I feel like, at least for me, that I talk about racial justice, is to change people. So you want people to change. If at some point he was like, oh my gosh, what have I done? This is terrible. You know, he leaves his sort of that bubble.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm just not interested in ruining people's lives over mistakes. So, is there a way for people to repent, to make amends, to come back? I don't feel like we ever really have that conversation.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The one thing that bothers me about these sort of, you know, public floggings of people or pushing them out of, you know, just like you're done, you did this, you're done, is that I do, I would like there to at some point be a conversation about redemption and is there a way back for people”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Around you when you were a kid? Yeah, that was very much. Can I just say one other thing though I want to think? Because the one thing I do want to say that I feel, and it's not just with the Me Too movement, it's just in general, and this is something I've been thinking about a lot.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think what it is is this feeling that, you know, Women need to be believed and that women almost never bring false accusations. It happens, it happens, but it's rare precisely because of what I just said, which is that most women know even today that if you bring these accusations, like the chances that you were recovering from it and having a normal life are very, very well.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But weren't those were more done after the fact, though, it feels like? I mean, I don't feel like they did. I don't know. I mean, I don't know.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right. So the problem is, and I think this is what my argument was in my column. Democrats are going to come out and say believe women and you have multiple women, and there were quite a few women who made these accusations, including women who voted for him and were supporters of him. So it's not just like some right-wing hit job. You have to hold everyone to the same standard. So either you switch the standard and we now give everybody... Know a long time, and I'm open to that argument. Maybe there should be more time. I think it is.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think, and I think a lot of people feel like what ends up happening is then the hearing takes so long and by the time. What would the evidence be? But I think that's a fair point. I mean, maybe they could have given him more time. I think”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think that, and I know that that makes a lot of people angry, but it's, I think that grabbing women, a lot of people have said, oh, he just would grab. It's like, no, like you don't get to grab women's butt.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I can see that. Yeah. How much I actually consider on every issue if I'm saying something but a conservative is saying something else that I actually really think about what they're saying and I'm actually really trying to get it right and trying to be fair. And I do think with me too. I haven't yet seen anything where I would say I think it went too far. You know, a lot of people say, oh, it's gotten out of control. And I always say, well, like with who? Like, who was it that, you know, was Charlie Rose supposed to not lose his job? Was Matt Laura not supposed to, I don't really understand. What about Frank?”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Weaponized. It's interesting that you notice that. One of my friends said to me, people would be shocked at how much you think about these things. And how much I listened”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Sanders' discussion. Yeah, yeah. But there's been other times that it's happened. It's been kind of a part of my life, as it has been for so many women. But you don't report it because You're not going to be believed probably, or somehow you're going to be torn apart and it's going to somehow end up being your fault.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, but actually it wasn't even at Fox. Yeah, it was another, you know. On a campaign, actually, you know, and where it was quite traumatic, but I would never have reported it. There's just no, I mean, first of all, my campaign is who do you report it to? It's kind of like they exist and then they don't, you know, but it's like there's no HR office really.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, yeah, that this is why women don't report sexual harassment is why, you know, people are always saying like, why don't you? I mean, I've also been sexually harassed, like seriously sexually harassed. I've never got.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, that was a really hard time, the whole Kavanaugh situation, because I think it's just still this feeling that women. Everyone will bend over backwards to do whatever they can to somehow defend the guy. That's what it felt like to me. You know, she seemed very credible to me. And there just was this feeling of she's just not being taken seriously, you know, and it's not. And then it's like, this is why I didn't tell anybody. This is why women don't tell. This is what, you know, and so seeing that”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I do remember who the person was. Yeah. And there's no question. And when I wrote the piece, then I had other people, well, and I think I wrote in there as well that I then found out later he did something similar to one of my friends. And we talked about it after I wrote the piece, you know, and then it was more like more came out that this was something that he was, you know, doing to a lot of girls.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, maybe some people would say some 15 year olds are more experienced. I was definitely not in the category of experienced. And so I think maybe I'd kissed one boy or my boyfriend or something. And so it was pretty horrifying to me. But I really was ashamed and I told him, don't tell anybody. You know, I don't want anybody to know about this. I didn't talk to my friends about it. I just was, I was just so ashamed. And so kind of honestly just shelved it and never really thought about it again until the Kavanaugh stuff came up. And one of the points I made in the column was people were making a lot about the fact that Christine Blazey Ford couldn't remember the house or couldn't remember, you know, and I'm like, I don't remember what house it was in. I don't remember.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You weren't in when you shirt was off. And so it was like, and I was, you know, and I was a young 15 again, going back to kind of, you know, I had a pretty sheltered kind of childhood. And so I wasn't.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And drank so much that I blacked out. And when I sort of woke up, there was this boy on top of me. And I couldn't really remember what had happened. And he was one of the most popular boys at school. He was, you know, one of the star basketball players, which at my school was everything. I didn't really know what had happened. And then I think the next day or a couple days later, whenever we were back at school, one of my friends came out of the locker room and was very shaken, one of my male friends. And I said, you know what happened? And he said he was telling us all, all these things that he did to you while you were passed out. And I was so ashamed. I just was so horrified. And I basically said to my friend”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I basically, when I was I was like a sophomore probably in high school. So I think I was probably 15. I was at a party. It was one of the first parties that I'd ever been to. And I was drinking and I had no experience drinking. And I was with mostly older boys and sort of being, you know, here, have another drink, have another drink.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I mean, it was never spoken of again. So it was, yeah. So I think that made it more traumatic because you're just like, I don't understand, you know, what's happening. Only see them on the weekends. And yeah, and so I think that I think it was very traumatic. I think it was very formative for me.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Really? Yeah. And so it's, you know, my brother was three, so he doesn't really remember it. I do remember it. And it was also, people didn't get divorced very well back then. You know, today I see people getting divorced and there's counselors and there's talking about it. And we're going to, you know, we're going to do this where all the kids are allowed to ask questions and whatever. It was mine was much more also my family's Irish, which if anybody's from an Irish family knows what that means, you know, don't really talk about things and don't really express emotions. And so it was more like this happened and then deal with it. That's it.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“While the divorce was devastating, there's no question for me. I mean, especially at age five, that's, I think, a very critical part of, you know, when you're still really developing. Yeah. And I was very aware of what was happening.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's unusual, yes, to have them, you know, I'd go over to see them, and their offices were, you know, like a couple doors down for each other.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah. They're like, oh, it's an adventure. We'll go out for a couple years. And so they went up. And then, of course, they stayed for their whole careers because they loved it so much. And then, so I was three when we moved up there. And then when I was five, they divorced. But they continued to work together in the same department for the rest of their career. That's unusual.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They divorced when I was five, so they met in Madison getting their PhDs at the University of Wisconsin, and then their mentor moved up to Alaska to the University of Alaska and Fairbanks and said, oh, it's really great. You should come up here. And they said, oh, except for the dark.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and she's another good example of I don't think my family voted for her, but they like her. You know, it's the kind of they'll still vote for the Democrat, I think, but they're still like, Lisa, you know, like it's like she's another independent-minded person, you know, and she also is very connected to the Indigenous community there and really sticks up for them. And so I think that that's another big reason that she was able to win”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and she challenged the establishment, exactly. And so that was a very, that's actually a very classic Alaskan way to be, I think. But in particular, in Alaska, you can always, there's all these t-shirts and everything that you can buy and bumper stickers that say, you know, Alaska women kick. I don't know what you can say on here. So podcast, you can say it all. Yeah, Alaska women kick ass. Like that's kind of an attitude there that you definitely grow up with a sense of you can kind of do anything. That's a very Alaskan way of thinking.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and I should say I'm not a Sarah Palin fan in terms of her politics or even how she ultimately sort of comported herself, I think, as the nominee. But before she was selected, when she was governor and I would go home and my family's very liberal, very democratic, they've never voted for a Republican. And I would always ask what's going on in politics. And they'd always say, oh, we have this governor. And she's a Republican, but she's going after the good old boys. And, you know, we like her and she's, you know, there was definitely a positive attitude about her. Now, once she got on the national ticket and started attacking Obama, it was pretty much over for my family. But she reflected a very, when she was a governor, a very independent spirit. If she was elected.”
2019-02-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 308 — Kirsten Powers · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source