YouSaid · the spoken record

Mark Murray

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2018-04-23

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2018-04-23

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1. “That Trump was on the campaign trail is people saying, Oh, well, that's fake news, or why should we end up believing you? And when you equate news organizations that do fantastic work, and sometimes we do mess up to fake news, that is the Donald Trump was endorsed by the Pope and things that were made out of whole cloth from factory mills in Romania. There is fake news. There is fake news. journalists from NBC to CBS, the New York Times, the Washington Post, there's sometimes there's some stories that we do. We're infallible, we can sometimes screw up, but we're not fake. And to me, to be able to have the president states disagree with an article or try to spin it and just call it.”

   2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

2. “It's tough. You always, as a reporter, have to have a lot of dragon skin. I mean, we get criticized even before the Trump era by from anyone, and you have to be tough and you end up believing in your own reporting. And of course, you mentioned Chuck. He's a dear friend. He's a fantastic Sunday show host. He's tough on both sides. He's just a pleasure to work with. But to me in this Trump era and where you can kind of call people names and always kind of declare things fake news, it really does damage our democracy. And while the news media and the Fourth Estate was never written into the United States Constitution, a strong and vibrant press. And I would think a tough press at the power that be and holding power accountable is incredibly important. And you look at places that actually aren't doing that anymore, whether it's Russia or Hungary and you don't have a vibrant democracy anymore. And to me, what has really changed in the last year and a half or since then?”

   2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

3. “It is. And so the formula is for them that they need to be able to pick up at least two and then hold all their tough races. And that's from Heidi Heidkamp in North Dakota to Joe Mansion in West Virginia to be able to withstand. And this environment, at least for Democrats, is the best kind of situation they could have hoped for. If you were a Claire McCaskill or Joe Mansion and Hillary Clinton had ended up winning in 2016, this was going to be a really tough environment for you. I kind of look at that Missouri Senate race as a pure 50-50 contest and we'll see who ends up winning.”

   2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

4. “Investigations, Benghazi, all of that stuff would end up playing out in a cycle where we're beginning the president's re-election.”

   2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

5. “Because if I were the White House, I would have been because so many people interpret that waving the white flag. Well, there's Paul Ryan. He's already headed out the door. This midterm election is incredibly crucial for President Trump because Democrats in charge of the House of Representatives, that means that Elijah Cummings of House Oversight Committee Adam Schiff is head of the House Intel Committee. And I think a lot of the things that the Obama White House ended up seeing transpire in 2015 and 2016 would almost be the new words.”

   2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

6. “Right. Chamber. Democrats only pick up 15 or 18 seats. Paul Ryan's job is so much worse even in that kind of situation where you only can afford to lose four or five Republicans. He was already having a hard time when it was just being able to lose 18 or 20. Well, what happens when your margin is only three or four Republicans? And so it was going to be a difficult job. And David Paul Ryan was also someone who didn't really ever want to be speaker. He kind of did it out of necessity. No one else was going to step up to the plate. And I think he decided this was always a short term. This was never going to be a career long aspiration for him. And you add up the tough midterm environment. I think the very difficult thing of always having to answer for any kind of controversy that Donald Trump had ended up stepping into and knowing that this wasn't a dream job. And I think it made it easier to step away. I was surprised at the reaction that President Trump had, where he had a very congratulatory tweet.”

   2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

7. “So, two points. I mean, there were two. The first was it was yet another sign of how Trump has really taken over the Republican Party, although, of course, that shouldn't be a surprise because the pres of United States is head of that party, but because Ryan was diametrically opposed to Trump on so many key issues, whether it was entitled a moralistic view of politics. And Paul Ryan and Donald Trump were exact opposites. And Paul Ryan leaving kind of said something about the state of the Republican Party. But to me, it was also a statement about the midterm elections.”

   2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

8. “But at the same time, sometimes the Trump trumping all makes it hard for Democratic candidates to get their message out. And that was certainly the case in 2016. Now it might be a little bit different because not every House candidates under the glare of the national spotlight, but Democrats to being able to make up their own economic arguments when the story of the day is Russia this, Russia that income return that stormy Daniels, whatever.”

   2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

9. “That's always been, I mean, midterms usually are about the person in office. And that was true for even Barack Obama in 2010 and 2014. And a tried and true message is, yes, I'll be a check and balance on this president. And so you have that playing out. But Republicans. They always tell me that they needed to be able to pass the tax legislation because it was.”

   2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

10. “Up 15 to 18 20 house seats and maybe just be short of a house majority. Best case scenario, they end up winning 40 or 50 house seats. They end up flipping the United States Senate. They take over state legislatures across the country. They get important governorships in Ohio and in Florida. And that is what the wave is. And this is what political strategists with the ad money with all the spending, all the coverage and the candidates themselves have to determine where does this go? Is it the DIM plus 15 or is it DIM plus 40 or plus 45? And that to me is the range.”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

11. “And you did not see the big flood of Republican money that we ended up seeing like in that Georgia six race last year or even the Pennsylvania 18 race earlier this year. And in that kind of environment where the national parties aren't paying that much attention, the National Press Corps, it hasn't become nationalized in a neutral type of environment. Democrats are way overperforming. Now, they're going to be so many races that Republicans are going to be able to nationalize in House and even gubernatorial races, but you're not going to be able to do them everywhere, including some state legislative races, other races way down the ballot. And to me, that is the potential formula for a very big way for Democrats. And the question is, can they just end up maximizing it? I mean, to me, I almost look at Election Day 2018 and Democrats worst case scenario with the redistricting new redistricting map in Pennsylvania with the retirements. Worst case scenario, Democrats are going to pick.”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

12. “But Democrats have the advantage, but it's not a slam dunk. But when you talk about those races that we've seen already and what to me has been really fascinating, you can end up putting about on average 10 or 12 points on the Democratic performance in these special elections that we've seen versus what the performance was in 2016 for Hillary Clinton or even the past incumbent who had ended up running in that race. And so Democrats were really fired up. And this is even more pronounced in neutral environments, races that Republican and Democratic operators aren't even paying attention to from nationally like we ended up seeing that Wisconsin Supreme Court Were a million votes that were cast, and this was a statewide race”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

13. “And smart Republican strategists I speak with put their odds at about 40% of keeping the House representative. So to me, if 40% is about Kevin Durant's chances of making a three-pointer, which are usually pretty good. So I think you have to kind of keep that in mind.”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

14. “So Democrats have the advantage of winning the House of Representatives in 2018, but it's about the same kind of advantage that Hillary Clinton probably had going on election day 2016, which I think is a reminder for all of us covering it, that it's not baked in, that, you know, for those...”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

15. “Did have a poll. We had job approval rating at 39. And when he is just talking to that 35%, there's an explanation on why it is what it is because he is not looking at the middle of the electorate. I'm sure when you were in the White House or having campaigns, you might end up saying, all right, who is the kind of swing voter and independent that we want to be able to kind of win over with this policy? President Trump isn't making those kind of calculations in his way out.”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

16. “Correct, but it's always important to remember that when I look at data, that Trump base is about 35% of the electorate. And those, again, are the people who are going to support him no matter what. But his formula to be able to win and pull off the inside straight that he did on 2016 and to be able to win re-election, he's going to need to build that by 10 points more. He's going to need to be at 46, 47. And so the kind of question becomes, how does he end up getting there? And that base just isn't enough. And when I currently look at his polling that's out there, he is speaking.”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

17. “Campaign they were running that also argued to me one of the biggest shortcomings in our coverage collectively of Donald Trump is what would he end up doing with his business empire if he became president? You know, we asked all the questions and legitimate ones to Hillary Clinton, what are you going to do with the Clinton Foundation? And by August and September, they had had a plan how you would actually wind it down and disassociate themselves from it. The similar tough questions really weren't ever asked about Trump's own business.”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

18. “Their own risk, but we interviewed all of Trump's supporters and asked them what they thought and really knew where they were coming from. And those voices to me were very powerful. There was the assumption, however, that while Trump ended up having that powerful core committed base, that demographics or the elections, how we'd always seen, would kind of continue to play out again, that Hillary Clinton would be able to take the Barack Obama coalition, and she had the better campaign, the better data. Lot of coverage. And when you talk about the Trump scrutiny.”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

19. “One other thing that I think we got right in 2016 was that we knew what Trump represented in the movement he had created. I mean, all of my colleagues who would be at a Trump rally or event, I mean, we'd have the man.”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

20. “The other important coverage is that this is public accountability journalism, and it's the first test before someone ends up getting in the White House. Can this person withstand the scrutiny? Does this person, their businesses, do their behavior? Do that actually need to have extra amount of scrutiny because that actually might, how you often campaign is how you govern. And that's always been how I think, you know, a lot of the good scrutiny that you end up seeing the campaign trail. But again, I think in 2016, there was an assumption where there's no way this guy is going to win. And David also, one of the reasons that a lot of political reporters had that, it wasn't just conventional wisdom. When you're chatting with Republican sources, they were pretty much admitting the same thing. Now, even I argue in 2008 and 2012, we ended up when we chat with both sides, we ended up hearing everyone's best argument. But when you were on the phone and people are saying, look, our poll numbers, we're probably not going to be able to win this race.”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

21. “Early on when he was doing that, though, it was seen as entertainment rather than here is someone who's going to potentially win the Republican nomination or end up being president.”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

22. “And there was a lot of good journalism that was done in the 2016 election. I look at David Farenthold at the Washington Post who won the Pulitzer Prize last year for his reporting on the 2016 race and the Trump organization and the Trump Foundation and so many must-watch debates and clicks and views were at all time high in the 2016 race. But collectively, I think there was this view of Hillary Clinton's going to win and Donald Trump's going to lose. And that actually ended up creating some disparities in coverage. And you look at some Harvard studies that show that the email story was the most covered story in the 2016 election. I personally think that it was a legitimate story for us to cover, but there are a lot of people who make some very good arguments that it wasn't, shouldn't have been the number one story of 2016. You end up looking at how Donald Trump was able to dominate cable TV at his rallies, particularly very early on in the Republican primary season.”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

23. “So, you know, we were talking about frontrunner bias, whether it happened to Howard Dean in 2004, Barack Obama, even Hillary Clinton before Barack Obama won the Iowa Caucuses, the frontrunner gets a scrutiny. What I've really reflected on, and through a lot of my reporting, is that, you know, what was different about 2016 than all the other presidential races I've covered, and maybe also since you've been in presidential politics, is that one person was assumed that they were going to win and the other person was assumed they were going to lose. And even in your 2008 race, Barack Obama versus John McCain, there was a lot of coverage from my vantage point of, you know, John McCain was taken seriously. All of the tires were kicked. There was a sense of, well, there'd be a Bradley type of effect, you know, how were the polls, can you really believe them despite George Bush's popularity, despite the Iraq war, despite the poll numbers that we were seeing?”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

24. “Chuck Todd, when he was at Hotline, rode up that story. And later my brother-in-law ran into Howard Dean and said, my sister and brother-in-law ended up getting married like right before your scream. And so he wrote down something. I was glad I could have provided some entertainment beforehand. But we covered the 2008 race as competitors, me being at NBC and Sasha being at CNN. But the one nice thing was that NBC and CNN often had a baby pool type of arrangement. So if we needed to actually share a camera for sharing reasons, NBC and CNN had a kind of a natural agreement. Oftentimes candy and Andrea Mitchell would kind of work together on a single camera. So I often used to say, you know, CNN was always my second favorite network, particularly when Sasha was there.”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

25. “We met actually in the Dean Ballroom, so two hours before the scream heard around the world, she came up to me and she said, hey, I think we had met, you know, in a DC bar a few years earlier.”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

26. “Not only was it the great 2008 presidential contest, but my wife, who at the time was Candy Crowley's producer at CNN. I remember her well. Sasha, and I got engaged and got married in the span of the beginning of the 2007.”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

27. “And I can make the argument had that scream not have happen, Dean would have had at least a 50 50 shot of holding on to New Hampshire where he was also”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

28. “He was unhinged on TV. And of course, being present in that ballroom versus sitting on TV, you had two different realities. Yeah.”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

29. “I have a different perspective. So I was in that ballroom covering the dean concession time finishing third. It was so loud and crazy at the time. And what happened was that the pool mic ended up drowning out all the noise, blocked all the noise from the ballroom. Tom Harkin was three times or ten times louder than Howard Dean was. And so it made it seem, you know, in that if you were in the ballroom like I was, Dean didn't seem as odd as it came across on TV, which is a reminder for all candidates always play more to the TV cameras than play to the ballroom at the time. But I always kind of, I remember coming back to the NBC workspace, there was Charlie Cook, and I said, he said, Mark, what'd you think of Howard Dean? I said, you know, I thought he gave a pretty good concession. He might be able to go into New Hampshire to save it. And he said,”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

30. “There was also that scream heard around the world, which is really the most first viral moment. The Dean scream. And David, so I was at that.”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

31. “Well, and also the nature of it being an open presidential contest where George W. Bush was term limited. So New Hampshire voters could end up saying, you know what, we do want to kick the tires. We want this to play out longer. Where in 2004, Democrats were facing a popular George W. Bush at the time after the Iraq war when that was popular. And they might say, hey, we need to end this primary season as soon as possible. And so there was probably more motivation.”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

32. “But it was also when I looked back upon that 2008 New Hampshire race in my mind and looking back at the 2016 election, and I've been talking to your students about this and even the Democratic primary in Michigan, there's a reminder that we do have sometimes black swan elections that defy the polling, defy what, you know, we had come out of that 2004 election where, boy, if you end up winning Iowa and you have the momentum like John Kerry did, where you're going to end up winning New Hampshire. And sometimes those rules get broken.”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

33. “That's right. And that to me has always been when we talk about front runner bias and the frontrunner scrutiny, if you want to be president of the United States and you can't keep it together and have to answer all the tough questions and the build up to Iowa, you're probably not going to do a really good job in the White House. And so I think there's a big rationale for why the frontrunner should give the preponderance to all the tough questions. But as I've told your students, if we'd had videos, Canadian interviews of, say, John Edwards or even Dennis Kucinich in that same race, they wouldn't have gotten near the attention that the ones of Howard Dean at that exact time did because he was ahead in the polls. Yeah.”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

34. “John Kerry, but he was the most, but Dean was the most scrutinized candidate from everyone, particularly the media. And my news organization, along with some of the help that I was able to do, we were the ones who stumbled upon howard Dean making comments that criticized the caucus.”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

35. “Correct, but because of 2004, so much of my coverage was more on that democratic side. And this is what Democrats are going to have to play with in 2020, where the preponderance of the race is not the general election, but it's the primary battle that goes on. And so we spent so much time. And really, to me, one of the things that I've actually been doing through my seminars here at the University of Chicago and one of my first introductions was on frontrunner bias. And I talked to him about Howard Dean because when he actually started to take off in the polls, the really the race, not only from the candidates, like Dick Gephardt and John Edwards who are trying to stop him, but it also became mentioned.”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

36. “He was very familiar to you when he was governor, yes. And so obviously, you know, we Texans kind of know each other pretty well.”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

37. “So my job at NBC News has always been the person who helps manage the people that we have on the bus. And so I'm usually their resource to, hey, what's going on with the other campaign? What's the polling data out there? What are the questions I need to ask at these kind of gaggles? But my experience being out there, I was there throughout all the build-up to the Iowa caucuses. Every debate that NBC News would end up happening, I was there helping to put together some of the questions that we'd have for the primaries that were going on. And then, of course, all the conventions, all the general election debates that we'd be kind of live from. And after a while, even though I wasn't on the bus, I was going from debate, debate, site to site. It was a whirlwind. And to me, given that was the first presidential race I got to cover, I thought it was amazing.”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

38. “Well, we continue to play that clip because it's always a reminder when people say, well, I'm not really interested in running for the presidency. We know that you can end up changing your mind. And I remember that because Tim ended up expressing kind of a, you know, oftentimes there are two reactions you could have. You have the aha. I've got you. Or the other house, I have really big news that NBC News just has right now. So that's how that was done.”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

39. “The formats have changed and our medias have changed, but now you can't have those hour long discussions with a single politician, even if you end up getting the headliner like the president of the United States or a presidential nominee. You the most might have 20 minutes. But back then, 15 years ago, you had 60 whole minutes with Howard Dean.”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

40. “Was the challenge, and in a way, it was like a master chess player and someone preparing and taking the joy, not like, I'm going to embarrass you and defeat you, but I'm here for the pure joy of the game. And that's really what Tim absolutely. It was that sense of joy. And for Democrats and Republicans and everyone, and you had to be on top of your game. And, you know, David, I also say, I remember my first few months on the job in 2003 at NBC News. I went in for the first taping of Meet the Press that since I had been an employee. And it was that interview he did with Howard Dean, who at that time was starting to really take off in the polls in that race. And Tim and Dean had an hour-long debate and question and answer session. You don't have those at all anymore. And it wasn't really even until minute 40 that it started to get contentious between the two. And, you know, I'm incredibly close to Chuck Todd and NBC News and talking about how”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

41. “And just his command of sports. I remember my interview that I had with NBC at the time, first thing he talked to me about. This was in 2003. And he said, so tell me about that Texas Longhorn Point Guard TJ Ford, who at the time was the player of the year in college basketball. And we chatted sports 10 minutes before we started getting into the nitty gritty of the job interview, which made things much easier. And that's”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

42. “He was a fantastic journalist, a great questioner, a tremendous leader too. I mean, he, at the head of our Washington Bureau, was just a boss. Everyone looked up to where I continue to have great leaders and bosses, but the aura around Tim was different than anyone else's. Because he really was that great Sunday news journalist in the age where before everyone started getting their media from maybe more partisan media or how everything started getting split up. I mean, Tim was the person you turned into on Sunday. And so everybody knew Tim Russell. But he was also so relatable. And he always talked about, you know, growing up in Buffalo. Big Ross's dad, the Buffalo Bill.”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

43. “Think what tipped me, and you know, what I knew already was kind of told me was since we were going to have a political note that was going to come out early in the morning, I knew it was going to be longer hours and a more demanding job. But I think what really was just the challenge of changing my beats. And again, I was covering transportation and education policy, writing about immigration, the fate of labor, some politics, but really what tipped me to go work for NBC was covering the biggest story out there, and those were the presidential contests and the political races. And they held that out. And I also, when I was at National Journal, I worked very closely with Charlie Cook and his team and got to see their whole operation. Charlie's always been a mentor of mine. And so to be able to kind of what they do and be able to take a lot of that stuff over to NBC News.”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

44. “So NBC, along with Tim Russert at the time, were kind of looking to bulk up its political unit heading into the 2004 election. And they were looking for someone with more of a print background and a reporting background and ended up getting the job. And to me, at the time, it was like, well, should I go into this TV world? And what I've kind of found is that if you kind of a good writer and a good thinker, you can thrive going from print journalism to TV.”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

45. “The days that I was only about 10 years ago, where big event happens, everyone covers it next day. You might have another analysis. Second day, another analysis piece and people are still trying to get new developments. Now all of those news cycles have been truncated into about a span of three or four hours. And the question is...”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

46. “No, and in fact, I mean, to me, I think the biggest loss in how fast our news cycles have been. And one of the great things is that news is immediate. You get it instantly. It's a lot more diverse. There are new voices where you're not just getting the word of God from Walter Cronkite or even later Tom Brokaw that, you know, all of a sudden you can get news from so many different other people. But to me, the biggest loss has just been perspective and context and also just memory where I think that a lot of times we forget what happened last week. And I've actually found a lot of my journalism that I've done and I do with Chuck Todd and our first read morning column is sometimes looking back. It just like let's putting together what the last week was just for perspective or with the last month or the last year has actually been because I think those are things that get lost and how fast everything happens as opposed to”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

47. “It was, and it was, it's all, I mean, my favorite thing about journalism is being the writing and the crafting of, you know, being at National Journal, and this was 20 years ago when the media looked very different, but I was allowed by my editors to spend three weeks working on a 5,000 word story. And so I could spend a day or two crafting the perfect lead. And that kind of craftsmanship, I've always liked in journalism more than sometimes even picking up the phone on how do you tell the story, who do you interview? Do you have all the facts straight? I go into Capitol Hill offices and interview with all the committee staff to get all the expertise from them before even writing my story. And that, you know, to me is one of the biggest changes in journalism over the last 20 years where the three or four weeks I used to have on a story to write 5,000 word, I now have about 20 minutes to bust out at 400 or 500 word pieces.”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

48. “I agree. I still think the biggest force that kind of creates that is a roadblock for consensus is just the nationalization of our politics and having Fox News and MSNBC and having those kind of where it's very hard for somebody who wants to cut a middle space to be able to do so. But I do agree that if I were ranking them, it might be that kind of nationalization our politics won and then maybe earmarks two or three.”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

49. “Yeah, well, and certainly to be able to get members to take tough votes, it became some kind of currency to be able to say, look, I know you want this bridge. Here's you're able to get it if you can give me this vote. And people could sometimes say that that's potential corruption. It certainly has been very good politics for everyone to say that they're against earmarks. But to me, as a former transportation reporter, the argument that always sticks is people say, who should be making these decisions? Should it be Congress and members of Congress on their own districts, or should it be the federal government that gets to dole out these things later on from the Department of Transportation or elsewhere? And what Congress has done is seeded those kind of projects to the federal government.”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

50. “And another factor in all this is even when Newt Gingrich was speaker, he wasn't the all-powerful speaker that we now actually see. You saw from Nancy Pelosi or John Boehner or Paul Ryan, where they get to really call who the committee chairs are, you know, going back to Bud Schuster again. He sometimes was able to run circles around Newt Gingrich and get what he wanted when Gingrich disagreed. And so that era of having we can debate pork barrel projects and earmarks. There was kind of a system on these very powerful committee chairmen that sometimes was able to produce results and the results that we can't get into desktop.”

    2018-04-23 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 236 - Mark Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source