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Leon Panetta

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2024-06-06

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2024-06-06

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1. “Between one candidate who will support the Constitution and the other candidate who will do whatever he wants to do regardless of the Constitution. We have a candidate who supports free and fair elections and another candidate who doesn't support free and fair elections. We have a candidate who speaks the truth. We have another candidate who tells lies. We have a candidate who believes that we have to be a world leader in a dangerous world. We have another candidate who doesn't believe in leadership by the United States in a dangerous world. There are true differences here that could really affect the future of the country. And I think the American people have to think long and hard about their vote and what it's going to mean to the future of our democracy.”

   2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

2. “Yeah, in his age. But, you know, there are fundamental issues here. When presidents get up on inauguration day, they swear an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. I think. A real difference here.”

   2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

3. “If he's in the office of the presidency, and we know that. He's talked about being a dictator. He's talked about an imperial presidency, for God's sakes. So we know where that could take us. And look, Joe Biden has his problems. We all know that he's low in the polls and people concerned about some of the things he's done. But Joe Biden...”

   2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

4. “But if that leadership is not there, then we'll have crisis and we will govern by crisis and we've been governing by crisis for too long. And I think the failure and the dysfunction in Washington has created a sense in the country that something is not working and there's the sense that it's not working for them. And so the real challenge is what is it going to take to elect responsible leadership that is willing to do what's necessary for our democracy? That's the challenge. And what I worry about now is there's a real possibility that somebody who is not a leader Basically, you know, he is somebody who is committed to nothing else but himself and what's in his interest, not the country's interest. He really is dangerous.”

   2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

5. “David, what I tell the students at the Panetta Institute is that in a democracy we govern either by leadership or crisis. If leadership is there and willing to make the tough decisions associated with leadership that have to be made, even though they may not be popular, then we can control crisis.”

   2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

6. “People are so frustrated and angry, they just want to elect somebody who's going to blow things up. I think that's the attitude. Rather than saying to themselves, is this somebody who's going to be responsible in dealing with the office of the presidency, or is he going to be as he was when he was president, simply produce chaos?”

   2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

7. “I think that You know, I guess what concerns me, David, is that I think there's been a failure here, both by frankly Democratic administrations and Republican administrations, to try to unify this country and try to bring this country together. Rather, we've created even greater divisions in the country. And there's a greater divide in the country that's taken place. And what that tells me is that rather than reaching out and understanding, Why this is happening? Why are people frustrated and angry? And I think that's really.”

   2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

8. “I really worry for our country. I worry that we're at a pivotal point where I Where the very future of our democracy is at stake. And I don't say that lightly because, frankly, probably true for you, David. I never thought I would see a mob attack. Capital of the United States and bring our democracy to a halt, bring our democracy to a halt.”

   2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

9. “Intelligence, you know pretty well where that came from and what the source was. And they go after him. The Chinese have done that. Russia's done that. Others have done it as well. So I think people need to know that it is tremendously careless and irresponsible for presidents. And for that matter, anybody, I mean, you and I dealt with classified information. You have to handle that information in a way that protects those who are out there trying to essentially protect our country.”

   2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

10. “Well, what I try to remind people of when it comes to intelligence is you have to think about how that intelligence comes together and what it involves is usually people on the ground or spies who are putting their lives on the line in order to determine what are our adversaries up to. That intelligence is gathered because there's a lot of people who put their lives on the line. And it's critical that we protect that information because in protecting that information, we protect the people that are out there gathering that intelligence. And when somebody gets careless about how he handles classified information, what it does is it basically not only jeopardizes our intelligence, but it jeopardizes the lives of those people who are collecting intelligence. We have to, because our adversaries, when you get a hold of...”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

11. “Way we should have and been prepared for that option that took place. So I really think that what happened was when the president makes a decision and he made a quick decision here that it was the responsibility of those both in intelligence and at the Pentagon to make damn sure that it would be carried out in an effective way. And that didn't happen.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

12. “I was shocked because, particularly at defense, The Defense Department plans for every possibility. That's what we do. We have to think about what are the potential consequences here? How do we make sure that those horrible consequences don't happen? What do we do if we're surprised? You've got to prepare for that. That's what defense of the country is all about. And for this to happen and not be prepared to respond to what was then a route taking place, which certainly was possible, and be prepared to deal with that in an effective way rather than having what happened take place, it just really bothered me, not only because of all the blood we've spilled in Afghanistan, but because it really sent a message that we had not thought this out.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

13. “They did, and made that decision. But that needs to be done because frankly, David, we cannot allow Putin to be successful. The Ukrainians are not just fighting for their democracy. In many ways, they're fighting for our democracy as well.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

14. “And then Trump obviously was opposed to it, and that played a role as well. But that delay basically created a vacuum where the Russians and Putin took advantage of that moment and basically were able to regain the initiative in Ukraine, which is what's happening now. Now, they eventually did pass the package, thank God. We eventually are getting them the arms they need. Having to regain their own initiative. And that means that they have to put together an effective campaign. I'm glad the president said that they should use weapons if necessary to defend themselves, even targets in Russia.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

15. “It's been a very high price. I mean, I just for the life of me could not understand why the aid was being held up. And I don't think they ever really explain why the hell they held up that aid other than the politics of the house in a new speaker and trying to figure out.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

16. “And that's the problem. I mean, the problem is if you're not targeting those who are responsible and making sure that they never are able to come again to have another October 7th, then what you do is you can blow the hell out of everything in Gaza. But if you don't have an approach that tells you what's going to happen the day after, how are you going to deal with Gaza? How are you going to provide security? We're going to see what's already happened, which is elements of Hamas come back and start attacking again. And that's exactly what they've been doing. And then you're back at war again. So yes, I understand why they have to defend themselves and why they had to do what they have to do. But there is no reason. Why, if you're going to make that kind of commitment, you cannot do it in a way that ensures it will not happen again.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

17. “No, no, and I mean, I've dealt with the Israelis. I've dealt with Netanyahu, and I know that their approach is going to be we're just going to charge in and blow the hell out of everything we see. And I understand where they're coming from, but I also think that when you're dealing With what has to be viewed as what represents victory here, what represents victory is not destroying all of Gaza or thinking you could even destroy all of Hamas. It's how do you get those who were involved in that brutal attack? That's victory.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

18. “Yeah, no, look, we were the victims of a terrorist attack. They were the victims of a terrorist attack. The key is obviously to go after the leadership that was involved in putting that attack together because you're not just going to suddenly eliminate all of Hamas any more than we were going to eliminate all of Al-Qaeda. But we could go after their leadership. We knew who they were. We knew what was involved. And it took us a while. But the reality is we were able to get most of their leadership. And the result was that we didn't have another 9-11. And I think if the Israelis had done a more targeted operation going after the leadership, that they too could ultimately assure Israel that they would not have another October 7th. So I do think that it would have been important to really focus on those kinds of targeted operations.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

19. “Because we didn't want collateral damage as a result of that. Now, sometimes people suddenly get in the way and there are people that get killed. But we were very careful about making sure that we were going after the target and the target alone. I think that kind of discipline approach is a very good way to use this as a weapon of war, but it has to be disciplined. What I found going to the defense department is that they did not have, frankly, the kind of operation that involved the amount of surveillance and care before they would go ahead and take a shot. And we tried to bring that same discipline there so that they could make sure that we would avoid any kind of collateral damage.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

20. “That's exactly right. And when you're using drones, as I said, if it's a disciplined operation and it was, they would do tremendous surveillance. And if they felt they had a target, by the way, it was not just surveillance from drones. We also had spies on the ground to confirm that that was the actual target, which was another way to safeguard that we were after the right person. And if there were women and children in the shot, we did not take the shot.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

21. “No, that's right. Pakistan would not allow F16s to attack. They wouldn't allow boots on the ground. But here we had people from Al-Qaeda, Al-Qaeda's leadership, who were basically hiding there. I keep saying with regards to what Israel is facing now, that you can do targeted operations if going after the leadership.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

22. “I believe you really have to put together a very disciplined operation. In order to be able to use drones effectively. And it involves a tremendous amount of surveillance. We did surveillance of various targets. First of all, we picked who the targets were going to be, and the Justice Department signed off on those targets.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

23. “That moment when the helicopter came down. It was hot that day and installed the engine. And I remember saying to Bill McCraven, I was in phone conversation with him. I said, Bill, I mean, it's one of those moments when your stomach is in your mouth. I said, what the hell is going on? And McCraven didn't miss a beat. He said, Don't worry. We got back up helicopters coming in. We're going to go breach through the walls. We're going to go ahead with the mission. And I said, well, God bless you. Let's do it. And he did. And we got bin Laden. And I was really, really proud of both the CIA people and the Special Forces people because they really worked together to send a message that nobody attacks our country and gets away with it.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

24. “He was there when Carter Sent helicopters in to get the hostages and those. Those copters came down, so he was nervous about that. The vice president was concerned about it as well. And then there were those who supported the operation, but he asked me, and I never forgot this. I said, Mr. President, I've had an old formula I use when I was in Congress, faced a tough decision, which is to pretend I was talking to an average citizen in my district. And if you knew what I knew, what would you do? And I said, if I told the average citizen in my district we had the best information on the location of bin Laden since Torah Bora, I think they would say you have to go. And that's what I'm saying to you. President didn't make a decision at that point, but the next morning I got a call from Tom Domin. And he said the president's made a decision to do it.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

25. “The president, to his credit, said we have to develop an operation. He was worried about leaks. And I remember going to the head of special forces, Bill McCraven. Asking Great guy put together different approaches. And he finally put an approach together that involved sending two teams of seals 150 miles into Pakistan at night to repel down and go after whoever was there. We brought that to the national security council and the president was there. And the president basically went around the room and had everybody comment. And there were differences. I mean, you know, Bob Gates Secretary of Defense, and he admits this today. He was worried.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

26. “And I remember telling the CIA, I said, for goodness sakes, get me a telescope, get me a camera. I need to get a facial idea. This could be bin Laden. And they said, you know, this is just really tough to do, Mr. Director. He's got 18-foot walls, 12 foot walls. We just can't get a good angle on this individual. And I remember telling him, I said, you know, I've seen movies where the CIA can do this, damn it.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

27. “Measure and basically said you have to now continue to do surveillance to see if it is bin Laden. And so we did. We were never able to catch him, but there was an individual who would come out and walk in circles like a prisoner in a prison yard.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

28. “Finally were able to hook onto was the couriers to Bin Lan. Once they identified them and we located them in a town called Peshawar in Pakistan, we did surveillance and we tracked the couriers by using drones. We tracked them all the way to Obadabad. And it was then when they drove into this compound where it was a huge compound. It had 18 foot walls on one side, 12 foot walls on another side, and a mysterious family living on the third floor. And when all of those pieces came together, I mean, you can imagine that we thought, well, we may have something here. And I remember reporting to the president, and the president, as you know, takes everything very seriously. Listen.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

29. “As I said, he mentioned it when we first had a conversation. And then I remember getting called to the Oval Office. And he reminded me again. He said, I really want you to go after bin Laden. And when I went back to the CIA, I asked the key people to come up to my office. and tell me where this is at. And they said, you know, we just, the trail has gone cold. We just don't know where he's at. could be any place and i remember saying to them well who's in charge and they all raised their hand which is trouble um so i said i've got to appoint a task force and i i appointed two people old hands to be responsible for nothing else but looking for bin laden and i said i want you to report to me every week as to what's going on and they did that and they looked at a lot of different options but the one thing they”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

30. “And so Rom worked with me and what I did was I brought a lot of the leaders there at the CIA to the Oval Office and we sat in the Oval Office and the president gave every one of them the opportunity to say what they thought, which I thought was probably one of the best examples of presidential leadership was the willingness to sit there and to listen. And then, you know, he made some revisions. He did some things. And after he made a decision, he came to the CIA and basically met with everybody again to talk with him. Which I thought was a remarkable example of leadership.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

31. “He was chief of staff. And I said, look, I said, I'm dealing with a lot of professionals. They go back a long way. They feel like what they did, even though they had their own problems with enhanced interrogation, they followed the orders that were given to them at the time. I think it's really important to listen to them and to have the president listen to them.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

32. “You can't know I'm the type that, you know, for President Ask you to do something, you do it. And I said to the president, I said, you know, I said, I believe that it's important for somebody in that position to speak truth to power. And you will always hear me say what I believe is right, whether you like it or not. And he said, that's what I want you to do. And he says, and I also want you to go after Osama bin Laden. And I said, I consider that a challenge as well in the job.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

33. “I was an Intel officer in the Army and obviously dealt with intelligence as chief of staff. But I kept saying to Rom, I said, are you sure this is the right fit? And he said, yeah, he said, the president really thinks it's a good fit. And so I think it was a few weeks later, the president called and the president, you know, kind of asked about the role. And I said, you know, Mr. President, I said, I'm honored that you would consider me for this, but I have a lot of things I've done in my background, but I haven't spent a lot of time working on intelligence. And he said, look, he said, the reason I want you in that job is to restore the credibility of the CIA.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

34. “Ram Emmanuel was the one who Our buddy and Rom called and said, you know, that the president's thinking about possibly becoming CIA director. And I thought, and I remember joke with Ram and I said, listen, are you sure you're not talking about Manetta? I'd worked on budgets, I'd worked on ocean issues, I'd worked on all kinds of other things.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

35. “We talk about the great qualities of Bill Clinton, and he did have a number of great political. Qualities, but he was not disciplined. He was not disciplined. And frankly, as chief of staff to the president, one of the biggest challenges I had was to try to maintain discipline. To make sure that things were getting done and that the president was sticking to a schedule and doing what he needed to do. And it was always clear that he had this side to him that could always create problems. But, you know, you always felt that he loved the presidency so much that he would never do something stupid. Unfortunately”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

36. “He wanted to hear what the devil had to say About how do you improve your chances? And so what happened was that the combination of Bill Clinton's kind of thinking about how to move because he had a great sense of where the pulse of the country was. He really did. He had a good political sense. He was able to adjust, but at the same time create a vision about where the country needed to go. And when the Republicans started moving backward and Dole and others were talking about the past, what Clinton did is to say, let's build a bridge to the future. That became his theme. And when he grabbed that message, very frankly, it really gave him the opportunity to develop the kind of agenda that really, I think, sold well with the American people.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

37. “Erskine Bull who basically handle issues and personnel, and we're both great. And so one day he came in and told me, he said, you know, the president's talking to Dick Morris, and he used a four-letter word to describe Morris because he'd worked with him before. And I know, you know, I think I kind of understood Bill Clinton's thinking, which was he was worried about the politics of what was happening. He was worried about losing. And he was prepared to talk to the devil if he had to talk to the devil.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

38. “I did when I became Chief of Staff was I established two deputies. One was Harold, the other was a guy from North Carolina.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

39. “That he was working with budgets all the time. But he focused on that and really made some very, very good and very tough decisions. But more importantly, he enjoyed the office of the presidency. He enjoyed the politics. He enjoyed kind of understanding where people were coming from. He was somebody who listened very carefully, but he also did something that I think sometimes is missing today, which is the ability to push yourself and somebody else's shoes and understand where they're coming from. I mean, he knew every congressman. He knew their district. He knew the politics of that district. He knew the senators and the politics of each state. And frankly, when he met with foreign leaders, he had the ability to understand where they were coming from.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

40. “Was interesting. I mean, I think I met him the first time when I was in Congress and we talked about budget issues then. And then he appointed me as OMP director. And that's when I really first got to know him. And it was really a wonderful experience because he had been a governor. He'd worked with budgets. And he was very bright, asked great questions. I mean, we went through the budget line item by line item and he knew every program. I think it was because he was governor of Arkansas.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

41. “That's tough, tough to deal with entitlements, tough to deal with spending, tough to deal with defense cuts, tough to deal with taxes. But they have a responsibility to try to be able to do what's necessary in order to begin to control this runaway spending and be able to do it in a balanced way so that everybody in this country has to make some sacrifices in order to make sure that our children have a better life.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

42. “Focus on the issues that Americans are all about. So Americans are paying the price for the failure to discipline our budget. And Bill Clinton taught me something that I think is important, which is that you can make these tough decisions on entitlements, on defense, on taxes, but you can also invest as a result of that. And he invested in education. He invested in research. He had his priorities to invest in. But it was right to basically do it in a disciplined way rather than just borrowing and putting that debt on the backs of children for the future. So it is important that we try to get back to disciplining the budget. I mean, the biggest problem right now, David, is that neither Democrats or Republicans, frankly, want to confront this issue and make tough decisions.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

43. “Yeah. You know, I can remember when I was, I think I was budget chair at the time and George Bush I got elected and he called me to the vice president's house to talk about the issue. And I said, you know, Mr. President, I just have to tell you that ultimately you have to deal with this issue because I don't care what your priority is, whether it's defense, whether it's education, whatever it is. If you allow these deficits to grow, you won't have the resources to commit to any of your priorities. That's the bottom line. And that's the problem today is that with a $34 trillion national debt, what is happening is the interest payments alone on that debt are now more than the defense budget. It's really getting close to a trillion dollars in interest payments. What we're doing is basically taking away the resources we need in order to”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

44. “Reducing the debt. As chair of the budget committee, it was during the Bush administration and Bush actually ultimately put together a summit at Andrews Air Force Base where we sat down, Republicans and Democrats sat down for, I think it was about two or three weeks, basically fashioning a budget agreement that reduced the deficit by $500 billion, $250 billion in spending savings, $250 billion in tax increases. And then when I became OMB director, President Clinton felt committed to keep working on reducing the deficit. And we put together a very similar budget approach, $250 billion in spending savings, $250 billion in tax increases. Not easy, tough to pass, but we passed it. And the combination of those two budget agreements is what ultimately led to a balanced federal budget.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

45. “It's something I keep telling people when they always ask me about a $34 trillion debt and the fact that we worked on that when I was in the Congress as chair and then as OMB director.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

46. “There's great moments when I remember when I was elected to Congress and I would be walking over to the Capitol and you seeing the Capitol at night. I'd look at the capital and I'd say to myself, My God, here I am, the son of immigrants walking over to vote in the capital of the United States. And later when I got a job in the Clinton administration and I became chief of staff, sometimes I'd be alone in the Oval Office waiting for the president to get there and I'd say to myself, I'm at the center of power in the world. I met in the Oval Office of the United States, and I'm the son of immigrants here, and it was that sense that we really do live in a special.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

47. “I never forgot that. I was running against a Republican incumbent who'd been in office for, I think, about 15 or 16 years. And the district had been basically Republican going back to before World War II. So here I was a young Democrat running. And I was able to win, I think, by about three or four points, 50 to 53 was the number, I think I remember in the election. And so we won, and when we got home, I walked over to see my dad. And he just had this. This look of somebody who is very proud that here he was an immigrant and the son of immigrants had now been elected to the Congress of the United States. I never forgot that moment and it stayed with me a long time.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

48. “When the Italian Prime Minister Norm got infighted. And so We finally decided to put together a baseball team, both of our offices. And Norm said, we played under the sign of the rising pizza.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

49. “Right, because for my whole career, we had problems. Norm and I trying to get it straight. His name was Manetta, a Japanese American in San Jose, and mine was Panetta. We kept getting confused. As a matter of fact, during the Carter administration, when the Japanese Prime Minister would come to Washington, I got invited to the White House.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

50. “Oh, yeah. No, absolutely. When I Working in Congress, there were a lot of Republicans who had been involved in civil rights. And then when the Nixon administration came in, there began to be this kind of move away. And I could sense it. And you could see this split in the Republican Party now taking place. And that ultimately is what made me change my mind and become a Democrat because I said, I have principles that I live by. And the Democratic Party was, you know, as Tip O'Neill used to say, a big tent party and it was willing to accept those kinds of views and really encourage them.”

    2024-06-06 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 582 - Leon Panetta · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source