YouSaid · the spoken record

Michael Morell

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85

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2016-11-14

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2016-11-14

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1. “So I had I had the rest of my day and I spent the rest of the day with him, the rest of my day was kind of a mixture of the intensity of doing my job in that kind of situation and the surreal. So an example of the intensity of doing my job, when we flew from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana to Offit Air Force Base in Omaha, where he was going to do a secure video teleconference with his national security team, he asked to see me alone. So it was me, him, and Andy Card, the White House staff. And so I sat down in his office on Air Force One, a pretty small place. And he said to me, Michael, who did this?”

   2016-11-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 96 - Michael Morell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

2. “And then I walked into the staff room, which was right next to the room the school had set aside for the White House staff, was right next to where the president was, and it was in there that we saw, actually saw the second plane hit. And at that point, I knew that this was terrorism. We were in for quite a ride.”

   2016-11-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 96 - Michael Morell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

3. “My first reaction was that because we had heard one plane, one building, right? That's all we heard. So my reaction was his reaction. This must have been an accident. This must be a small plane, bad weather, right? First thing I did was call the CI Operations Center and learn very quickly that no, the weather was fine and this was not a small plane. This was a large commercial jet.”

   2016-11-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 96 - Michael Morell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

4. “There was nothing actionable. It simply said he wants to do this. He's been planning to. He's tried to over the millennium. He tried to sneak somebody into the United States who was arrested coming across the Canadian border, who was going to attack LAX. He's tried to. He continues to want to. But there's nothing, right? There's nothing that links this back to the earlier reporting about a catastrophic attack, and there's nothing that we know he's planning right now. So there was nothing actionable in it. I did not treat it as a hair on fire piece, and he did not read it that way.”

   2016-11-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 96 - Michael Morell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

5. “So nothing in the intelligence that takes us there, mister President, but he would like to do that. So he kept on asking this over and over and over again. And I finally asked our guys to do a report for him about bin Laden's intentions in the United States. So that was the august sixth PDB.”

   2016-11-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 96 - Michael Morell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

6. “It turns out that what we were picking up in the spring and early summer of 2001 was bin Laden going from training camp to training camp to training camp in Afghanistan and giving pep talks to his guys and telling them that something big was coming and that's all he was saying right and so we were picking up the chatter that was resulting from all of that so every time every time that George Tennant who was then the director of central intelligence who sat in on the briefings and I presented some of this intelligence to the president he would always ask Michael is there any indication in this intelligence that this attack could be here he was deeply concerned about that and we would always answer David we would always say there's nothing in the intelligence that says that but he would like nothing more than to bring the fight here he's planning to do that he wants to do that”

   2016-11-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 96 - Michael Morell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

7. “Nothing. So here's the story of that report. In the spring and early summer of thousands. We were getting considerable intelligence chatter that al Qaeda was planning a significant attack. possible multiple targets possibly a catastrophic attack. The intelligence said nothing about location, method, or timing.”

   2016-11-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 96 - Michael Morell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

8. “For me, I had been in government a long time and had been through a number of transitions. I think it was the best managed transition that I had seen. I think they did everything they could to set you guys up for success.”

   2016-11-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 96 - Michael Morell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

9. “When I did the briefing in Crawford at the ranch, we would have breakfast before we did the briefing and we'd have cereal and cereal bowls and we'd talk about the baseball score from the night before and then we would have to do the dishes together before we did the briefing. So I mean that's how intimate I got.”

   2016-11-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 96 - Michael Morell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

10. “Which I So he was a lot smarter than many people thought I found. I found he was very quick to understand an issue that he was very quick to get to the essence of the core of the issue. He asked great questions. I thought his policy instincts were on the money. I think some of his closest aides took him in directions that were actually against some of his instincts. But I found him to be a great consumer of intelligence and a very, very serious consumer of intelligence. I also found him to be an incredibly gracious and nice man. He welcomed me into his home. He welcomed me into his family. David, I was afraid, he made me so comfortable that I was afraid I was going to slip up at some point and call him George rather than Mr. President. That's how comfortable he made me feel”

    2016-11-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 96 - Michael Morell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

11. “Spend a lot of time with him every day for a year, six days a week, no matter where he went in the world, whether it was overseas, trip, domestic trip. That's why I was with him on 9-11, vacation. You know, by the way.”

    2016-11-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 96 - Michael Morell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

12. “I I think there's a good chance that TPP passes in the lame duck. Wouldn't be surprised if I don't know this, but I wouldn't be surprised if that would be her preference as well. And then it's not her doing and it's President Obama doing it in his final days. So that's my sense.”

    2016-11-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 96 - Michael Morell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

13. “Yes, I believe that, you know, she moved to the left because Bernie Sanders forced her there. I happen to believe that she will govern from the center.”

    2016-11-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 96 - Michael Morell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

14. “I know they don't, I know they don't, and I think it's incumbent upon the political leadership to educate them about that. two, its importance strategically, its important from a national security perspective, because if we don't do this, the nations of East Asia will increasingly turn to China not only for economics, but increasingly for security issues. So it's actually important from a strategic perspective. And then thirdly, you mentioned it, it's just important from the perspective of demonstrating U.S. leadership in the world, which there isn't anybody else to lead. We have to do it.”

    2016-11-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 96 - Michael Morell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

15. “I think it's important for a number of reasons. I think it's important economically. I think it will enhance living standards both in East Asia and in the United States.”

    2016-11-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 96 - Michael Morell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

16. “And that brings us to the second thing and the last thing and the hardest thing that's pulling us apart, which is there a rising power, we're a status quo power. As a rising power, they want a greater say in the world around them. Guess who has that say today? We do, right? So how does that get resolved? Colleague of mine at the Kennedy School did a study recently where he looked at Every time in history when a rising power came up against the status quo power resulted in war 70% of the time. So how does that fundamental tension get resolved that they want a greater say, but we have that say? How does that get resolved? The South China Sea is where that's playing out today.”

    2016-11-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 96 - Michael Morell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

17. “Exceeding those places where they're actually intention. So there are opportunities for us to work together in the world for good. Great example is the Middle East, where they have even a bigger stake than we do in the stability of the place, given how much energy they take from there and how important that is to them. Those are the two things pulling us on the right direction. And we need to use those as opportunities to push the relationship. The first is we both have large militaries in the same place on the planet. When that happens, you plan for war against each other. You equip yourself for war against each other in terms of the weapon systems you buy, and you exercise those war plans, right? And both sides do it, and both sides see the other side doing it, and that creates a natural tension in the relationship.”

    2016-11-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 96 - Michael Morell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

18. “To, on the other end of the spectrum, war. And it's a huge range of possibilities here. There are, in my mind, David, two things that are pulling us together and pulling us in the right direction and two things pulling us apart. The two things pulling us in the right direction is that we both have a huge stake, despite what Donald Trump says. We both have a huge stake in the success of the Chinese economy, particularly reforming Chinese economy. And I base this on my own experiences talking to Chinese intelligence officers, the number of places in the world where our national security interests are actually starting to overlap.”

    2016-11-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 96 - Michael Morell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

19. “And the possible outcomes in that relationship are huge. They range at one end of the spectrum from cooperation, the kind of cooperation that we saw on climate change. It's fantastic. Imagine what we could do with China if we cooperated on a whole bunch of stuff.”

    2016-11-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 96 - Michael Morell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

20. “It was one of the interesting things, David, about all of that is those market-oriented reforms and the focus on education at a time when they were all authoritarian states. And they were able to drive those reforms, many of them politically unpopular, but they were able to drive them, right? And one of my concerns about a place like the Middle East. As democracy becomes more important as the voice of the people become more important, it gets harder to do the kind of economic reforms you need to do to actually grow in the long term. So that's one lesson. The big issue in East Asia is China. And what is our relationship with China going to look like over the next twenty-five to fifty years? I think, David, that the most important bilateral relationship in the world is the one between Washington and Beijing.”

    2016-11-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 96 - Michael Morell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

21. “All right. So I started not surprisingly working out on the economics of East Asia. And what you see there, which is, I think, a great lesson were two things that drove the dynamic economic growth of East Asia. One was a focus on free markets and free trade, and the other, and the two things go together beautifully, the other was a focus on education, and really educating and developing a workforce who could succeed in that open environment. That's exactly what you saw in Hong Kong, in Taiwan, in Singapore, in South Korea. That was a huge lesson of my time watching those countries.”

    2016-11-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 96 - Michael Morell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

22. “Who have ended up putting in office, either a leftist populace or a rightist populace have fallen further behind economically because those policies on the far left are far right end up undermining the economy further. You know, it's the policies in the center that end up driving progress, not the policies on the far ends.”

    2016-11-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 96 - Michael Morell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

23. “So I've seen this play many, many times watching the rest of the world. I've seen struggling economies. Where people are not doing well and they turn to populist candidates either on the left or on the right. And that's exactly what happened in this election, right? People ran to Bernie Sanders who said, I will fix this through income redistribution and they ran to Donald Trump who said I will just fix this right through better trade deals or I'll just fix it. I'm not even going to tell you how. And so they've gone there, right? And the history of the countries that I have seen.”

    2016-11-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 96 - Michael Morell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

24. “I'm done. I'm done. Capitalism is one of the most powerful forces for good in the history of the world. I really believe that. But if we don't take care of these people who have been left behind, we're going to lose that.”

    2016-11-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 96 - Michael Morell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

25. “When he retired some twenty years later, he was still making twenty thousand dollars a year, a little bit more, but he was still making twenty thousand dollars a year roughly, and you can't be in the middle class anymore. And so it is not possible to be an unskilled worker in the United States of America and be in the middle class. And that is a huge change. And, you know, I happen to believe as an economics. Guy, I've done now all the coursework for a PhD. The agency came through and did pay for that and sent me away to school for a year, paid my salary, paid for school.”

    2016-11-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 96 - Michael Morell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

26. “Actually a lot. You know what's happened to places like Northeast Ohio, Pittsburgh, Youngstown, Detroit. There's a lot of people who have been left behind by globalization and technology. Not only people who are a little bit older and don't have the skills to operate in the modern economy, but actually people coming out of high school who don't have them either because education is So the world is leaving people behind. And I experienced this personally when I was 12, 13 and first became aware of the family finances. My dad made $20,000 a year. And that was enough to put us solidly in the middle class in Akron, Ohio.”

    2016-11-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 96 - Michael Morell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

27. “I mean, it's kind of It's come back. Was blown away by the mission of the place. I was blown away by the capabilities of the organization. I was blown away by the quality of the people that I met. And they said, you know, this grad school thing you want to do? We'll pay for that.”

    2016-11-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 96 - Michael Morell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

28. “Absolutely. The Soviet Union was the big brutal Yes, yes, and my first job, my very first job was to work with a team that was trying to figure out how dependent Western Europe was going to become on Soviet natural gas if the Soviets built two pipelines and President Reagan authorized the sale of G.E. Turbans for these pipelines. So my work.”

    2016-11-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 96 - Michael Morell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

29. “And I had a professor at the University of Akron who I think did some work from the agency, and he encouraged me to send the agency an application, send them a resume. So I did. They invited me to Washington. I had never been to Washington, DC before. So I said sure, I'll come and I went for two days on the government's dime to do interviews, but to actually see our nation's capital, right, on the government's money. With the intention the entire time, David, of if offered a job saying no, and off to the University of Chicago, I was going to go and get a PhD and teach. But the two days in Washington at the CIA. Changed all that. I was blown away by the mission of keeping the country safe. Which at that time?”

    2016-11-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 96 - Michael Morell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

30. “Yes, because at the University of Akron, where I happen to get a great education, I fell in love with economics. I majored in it. I fell in love with it. Why? It seemed to me to explain not only the economy and economic behavior, but it seemed to me to explain a lot of personal behavior. And of course, that's the school here at Chicago, right? And I so fell in love with it that I wanted to go to grad school, get a PhD, and teach. And I applied to a number of places, including the University of Chicago, because it was teaching the kind of economics that I was interested in. And I got in. And I was going to come to the PhD program here”

    2016-11-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 96 - Michael Morell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

31. “I had a great conversation with President Bush once when he was critiquing intellectuals and in the middle of his critique, he turned to me and he said, Michael, you're not an intellectual, are you?”

    2016-11-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 96 - Michael Morell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

32. “For I think it was culture, it was closeness to family, and it was financial. It was all of that. And so I never even thought of going anywhere else. I never looked anywhere.”

    2016-11-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 96 - Michael Morell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

33. “Nope, just high school grads. No college at all. My sister was the first in the household to go to college, and I followed behind her. There was always the assumption that we would go to college. There was never any question about that. And there was never any question that we would stay at home when we went to college and go to the University of Akron. And that was what the plan was. What cost?”

    2016-11-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 96 - Michael Morell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

34. “Salad girls, right? She chopped a salad in the morning and laid it all out for the salad bar. There were no salad salads.”

    2016-11-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 96 - Michael Morell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

35. “I came from middle class family. My father was an autoworker for Chrysler. My mom was a homemaker. Occasionally she would be a salad girl at a local restaurant, but other than that she was home.”

    2016-11-14 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 96 - Michael Morell · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source