YouSaid · the spoken record

Mitch Landrieu

lines on the record: 107
first: 2020-06-22
most recent: 2020-06-22
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

“I was. It was a, first of all, it was a national catastrophe. At the time, as you remember, because Speaker Hassett spoke What he thought was his truth most clearly and he couldn't have been more wrong, which was that this happened because there's something wrong with us. Basically, you know. And the country had not yet had Sandy and not yet conceptualized that this was a national threat with climate change and sea rise and all that stuff.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In North Louisiana as it does in South Louisiana or in a rural parish and in an urban parish, there are chains of goods that flow from rice farms in North Louisiana to the tables of restaurants in South Louisiana. And I think that once we get out of this fit, I think the country's in a fever right now and we will get out of it because fevers always break and people realize how closely connected we are. Some of those ties that have been severed because of the emotions of the last election and because of the current president and how things are working out at the moment will eventually heal and be bound back together.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I know that all of the people are doing the easy thing and saying, oh my God, look at the numbers. All the rural areas voted for Trump and all the urban areas voted for Clinton. You know this at every election is different because the candidates are different and the times are different, number one. And so the postmartem on them is often too simplistic. I actually happen to think that it's going to change. And I think that when we start talking about the necessary connection that exists between rural and urban citizens, for example, the Ave Maria, our amazing race, sings the same exact way in a rural parish as it does in what I'm saying parish now. I'm talking about a Catholic church parish.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Katrina Rita, Ike, Gustav, you know, and I had, right when the BP oil spill hit was when I kind of transitioned into my inauguration as mayor. But I was sitting at the emergency ops table. Now as the mayor of the city, I'm actually sitting at the head of that table. So I have been through as many homeland security threats as most executives in the country. And they've been voluminous, unfortunately.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not here. In Louisiana, I was, of course, in succession to be the governor in the event and anything until war had happened. And, you know, thank God nothing did to either one of actually the three governors that I served with. But I also oversaw the Department of Culture Recreation and Tourism. And tourism is a massive industry. So I had executive responsibilities. I also sat at the table for all of the major emergencies for the responses. Including.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“If you showed up and you talk to them and you listened to them, people are very open and they've been generally, even if they had a prejudice about you, once they get to know you, assuming that you meet the test of whatever makes them like you or dislike you, they were pretty good about it. Now, the difference in the jobs was incredible because one was it's an executive branch job, which is wholly different from being a legislator. I was a legislator with a bunch of young guys who would intent on reforming the state. We did a lot of good work, but I didn't realize till I left the legislature that as a legislator, I'm mostly an advocate. I'm talking about what needs to be done. I'm advocating what the governor should do. That's different when you get to be the head of the executive branch about having to get it done.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's a great question because as a legislator, I was a legislator of an urban legislative district that was wholly ensconced in New Orleans. And I knew that district well, but it was the city. But when you represent a southern state, it's mostly rural, I acclimated to it fairly well, but it was a little bit culturally different because the state is really kind of divided into a number of different areas. It's not just urban and rural. But in Louisiana, the interstate I-10 runs right across the bottom of the state. The lower part of the state is heavily Roman Catholic. An Acadian Cajun to kind of a whole different kind of cultural vibe than North Louisiana, which was mostly Baptist. And that took a little while to get used to. I was a little bit nervous about it because there's always this big city antagonism. But the truth of the matter is the people of the state just accepted me really, really well because”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Three times act No, 84 is not right. I ran in 94. 94. Right. And then I ran a 2004. Yeah. Against Mayor Nagan. I lost both of those races. I actually lost the first race to Memorial, who is now president. Right, another legacy Urban League.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“All the time. Well, first of all, I'll tell you I have eight brothers and sisters, but they used to call my brother, I have one older brother, halfman, they call me quartermoon.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But it did take me, it's just interesting enough because when I went to school, nobody really knew who I was. Nobody cared that my dad was in a cabinet and he had a weird name. His name was Moon. And they were like, who are these people from the south? They didn't know anything about me. And I was able to really establish for my own self, you know what? I actually can stand on my own two feet and I can get someplace on my own and I don't need a name. And it's really about hard work and it's really about just kind of showing up and doing the things. And if you do that, people will give you a fair shot. But it was a generally very positive experience for me.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I went to Washington, DC to get away from him. And President Carter then asked him to be the cabin. And one of my most joyful days of my life is when he came on campus to visit me. And somebody said, you mitch is dad. I'm like, yes.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But I do remember thinking to myself, you know what? I really want to get out of here and go someplace else. I want to leave the state after to go to college. I was the first one in my family to leave the state. Most of my brothers and sisters went to elementary. Then your father followed you and joined the cabinet. This really was terrible.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, Don Quixote. And Jesus Christ. Don't forget that. And Jay Gordaro. Yeah, Chay. I'm going to put him on my resume because I'm still trying to get to Broadway.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Got some advantage. Yeah, no question, no matter what I did Like if I want a tennis match, or if I got a lead in the play, or if I, whatever. Oh, you got that because you're dead. It was the mayor. And one of the things it did do to me was cause a little bit of uncertainty about who I was. People really like me because of me. Was I really? Can I stand on my own two feet? Like, what is that? It was a kind of real deep insecurity. Now, it wasn't a terrible one because my ego is pretty healthy, but I do absolutely remember that.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And so I had always kind of gone around with my dad. I enjoyed it. And I knew kind of in my bones that I wanted to do this because I liked it. Now, I will say, though, he was the mayor during my very formative years from the time I was 10 to 18. And of course, people say stupid things to you. Like if they hated your daddy, they hated you. They never met you. So you knew that you were going to get judged based on what your name was and not what you did. And it did create...”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I remember being a very positive thing. I was always very interested in it and engaged me. For example, the office that was sitting in right now, I was here when I was in the mayor's office. One of the worst days of my father's administration was when a Vietnam veteran named Mark Essex went on a building that's less than 200 yards from here and put it on fire. And when the police and firemen showed up, he started shooting them off of the ladders. It was the first act of major domestic terrorism. I actually sat in this office during that time and watched that happen.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Correct. You know, that's a great question. First of all, I don't know the politics as a whole different from medicine and football. I mean, in New Orleans, we're a city of families, so we have the Mannings, got Archie and, you know, the rest of the crowd, and they've done pretty well. You have the Brennans. Know in food, they have owned all the restaurants here, the Marcellus family. I think people tend to follow what their parents do. So politics in that regard is not that different. But in the political arena, all of my brothers and sisters, if you ask them, would probably have a different story about what impact my dad in being in politics and being so prominent had on their lives. For me,”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's all been downhill from there. I mean, think about it. You didn't shy away from the big rolls. Well, you know, you had to try out, and I got cast, but I had some chops. I was pretty good.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“For culture and art and music went on to do pretty wonderful things in their life. And, you know, it's been a lifelong passion of mine, and I still love it. And I think it's really important.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That you made, but Who really wanted to make it in theater Turned out pretty well. He did great. But listen, during that same period of time, just to let you know, I wasn't that far away from it, Harry Connick was one of my contemporaries, Patricia Clarkson, Wentmorcellus, as one of my buddies, Brian Batt. All these young folks from New Orleans, which as you know, is a cauldron.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I guess. I mean, I've seen some people that have gone on and do great things, but he probably gave me good advice. And what happened was I met the woman that I was going to marry. My wife at law school on the first day that I was there because she's a lawyer as well. And then we got married and have five children and, you know, the rest is...”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That was many, many me and we knew each other over time. But at that school, I really wanted to do theater. That's what I wanted to do professionally. My father, who watched me perform, said, you know, son, you might, you know, want to have something to fall back on. And, you know, if you go to law school, And see how that goes after you get a degree and after you can support yourself, if you want to go back and do professional work, you can do it. But you really ought to be thoughtful about probably good at it.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“At Catholic University was Terry McAuliffe, who is the governor now, as you know, and Tom Donald, who was the president's subsequent president's National Security Advisors, was also at Catholic University. Marty O'Malley was a couple years behind me.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And strangely enough, when I was thinking about going to college, I wanted to find a school where I could do politics because I love that and theater and play tennis. And it turns out the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. had a bad enough tennis team for me to get on, but had a really good theater department and a great Political science department. No, you won't be surprised, or you will, but Norm Arnstein was my mentor professor and my RA.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Or a concert. And we tried it out. It turns out I had a voice. So she said, you can sing. And then my mother and father, for some strange reason, I don't know why this happened, how I got to go to see this. I went and saw Oliver at the movie theater back and this had to be in the early 70s. And I said, that's what I want to do. And when I went to high school, it turns out that we had really one of the best theater departments in the South and a great producer named Sonny Bory. And I got into doing theater. I actually became a professional actor when I was 16. I got my actors equity card because it was a professional playhouse down the street.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I actually drove my father crazy because I wanted to be everything. I wanted to be a police officer. I wanted to be an astronaut. I wanted to win Wimbledon because I was a pretty good tennis player when I was a kid. But I remember in seventh grade, Our school got a new nun. Her name was Sister Jane, and she decided to do a Christmas.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Something that makes us really special as a country, and it turns out that those life lessons turned out to be pretty good lessons for politics as well.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Father was like, work hard, be fair, and be honest. Those are the three things that come across all the time. Whatever it is you're going to do, if you're fair, if you're just, if you're honest, everything else is going to work itself out. And of course, would he never have to say, and my mother never had to say just because they lived it every day, would serve other people. I mean, literally almost every choice, if it was serving other people to serve yourself, making money or doing something that helped other people, it was always reaching out. My house was always open. It was always inclusive. If you walk around the city with me right now, half the people we're going to run into are going to say, hey, man, I played ball with you in your backyard because that's just kind of what it was like. And my mother never turned anybody away from my house. And those kinds of lessons that we learned have informed my sense of what policies look like, which is why you hear me always say it. Diversity is a strength. Inclusion makes us better, not worse. Reaching out to other people rather than pushing them away is”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, it was a really great question because my mother and father, as I said, there were nine of us kids. We always had dinner every night at home. And my father, who wanted to be as present as he could, and he was present a lot. He was a great dad. Instead of going out to dinner with people that he needed to see, he would bring them home. So literally, on a fairly regular basis, we had governors and senators and really special people that just came to our house. And my dad said, if you want to see me, you just got to come eat with my kids. And we want the kind of household where my dad said, you got to shut up at the table and listen to the adults talk. I mean, it was a scramble. I mean, in every way that you can when you have nine kids in a limited amount of food. And so we got a really good, healthy dose of what good, respectful, healthy debate looked like because my father encouraged us in those conversations. But listen, there are a couple of big themes that stretch out to me.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm the president of that organization, which, as you know, is an organization that has 1,400 cities that are a part of it, bipartisan with Democrats and Republicans. And you know this because mayors govern in real time in reality. We don't govern philosophy. We don't govern in theory, which is why we just tend to be much more practical about whatever the answer is. Let's kind of get at it. You know, figure it out and then see what it looks like when it gets on the ground.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Is going to fill up the emergency rooms. It's going to impact our ability to deal with public safety. Now, only a mayor kind of processes information that specifically that quickly, which is why we've said to Congress, talk to us, really kind of engage us in a bipartisan way along with the governors, of course, but listen to the field generals on the ground that are doing this work so that we can confect something that actually makes sense.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, when people talk to us about healthcare, for example, one of the weird things that comes into my mind is wall time. And people say, I don't even know what that means. And I said, I'll tell you what it means. It means that my ambulances that we pay for in my emergency medical services first respondents who go out and respond to citizens who call that need help or when there's a shooting on the street or when there's a kid that is suffocating. I said when they go pick up that child or that citizen, they bring them to the emergency room. If that emergency room is crowded and they can't drop that person off, they have to sit there while the person waits on the wall. And if they have to sit there for 25 minutes or 50 minutes or two hours all of a sudden they can't go care for. So what Congress is doing.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Now mares, they're the most unique politicians, uniquely situated politicians to actually see the senators in congressmen don't see it. Governors really don't see it where the words that are spoken at the highest levels of government, whether on the executive branch or on the legislative branch, what they really look like when they get on the ground. So just this morning I was on another radio show and they were asking me about the health care bill and they said, what impact is it going to have on the clinic? And they named the clinic that I had enunciated in a letter to one of our senators. And I said, you know, that's really important because senators and congressmen really have to understand because mayors see this.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, of course. But what was really striking to me was how I could be in the White House at one o'clock. And then all of a sudden on the ground in the lower ninth ward at eight o'clock that night. In New Orleans, and how close it in time was, but how distant it was to speak policy in Washington and what it looked like when it hit the ground. Yeah.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I tell my guys that all the time when you talk to the city council and you ask them, are they for you or against you? Unless they tell you I am absolutely for you under all conditions at all times, that's not a yes. But you know, it's funny that you mention it because I know when you work for President Obama. As a mayor had the occasion to visit the White House many times, and of course you're struck by the awe and the splendor and the power of that office.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And they say you're a chip off the old blood. Yeah, absolutely. You just like your daddy. I hated him and I hate you too.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“was necessary for the country, and he was courageous enough to take that stand, and he was elected as a result of it, and then delivered pretty aggressively. On the promise is still today, people remember that, who are upset with the direction of the city, and they say your dad ruined the city because he hired African Americans. I hear that from time to time.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Of the city. The guy that ran, I mean, basically the city manager. And the first department heads. My father was, you know, during that election, it was an interesting election. It was 1969. There were four or five really qualified people in that race. My father wound up winning at the last, really in the last day. It was one of those neck and neck things. And he beat a wonderful guy named Jimmy Fitzmorris who went on to become the lieutenant governor of the state and really a mentor of mine later on. And also in that race was a guy named Billy Gust, who then subsequently went on to become the attorney general of the state of Louisiana. So the three of them actually kind of led the state through a very difficult time. At that time, though, the population of African Americans in the city had been increasing. And they completely supported my father, and he would not have gotten elected without the support of the African American community. And my father spoke very forcefully about making sure that diversity was a strength, not a weakness, that everybody was included. He clearly saw the historic trajectory and what”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We're Yeah, I think that's right. You know, it turns out that President Johnson was prescient. When he said, Yeah, we just passed it, but we might have just lost the South. And that has played itself out over a long period of time. And now both my sister Mary and I got elected statewide innumerable times. I think Mary four times. I got elected twice as lieutenant governor. We don't have any statewide elected officials that are Democrats today. So that pendulum has swung. It will swing back. It'll take time. But it will definitely swing back. But a lot of that is because of race. It's not all because of race, but it's all because of, I mean, it is a lot because of it.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Back in the day, even as early as forward as 1988, there were three Southern governors. That was Bill Clinton, that was Ray Mabis and Buddy Romer, all of whom were from the South, but Ivorley educated that had come back home and everybody kind of knew one of them was going to be the president. It actually turned out to be president Clinton. But he wrote a piece in a document called Halfway Home and a long way to go on behalf of the Southern Growth Policies Board that talked about this concept of the New South and what that really looked like. And of course, we've been struggling to really understand what that thing really means. Part of the Old South, part of the New South, how much of it is race, how much of it is economics, how does the South really rise above and use its natural resources as an intellectual capital become the leader of the nation? An argument with Governor Bill Richardson from time to time is whether the West has ascended or whether the South was ascended. I think the West is right now at some point in time, the South will find its footing.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“When you think back over it and you think about what happened in Atlanta and what happened in Alabama and then Mississippi, there are other white elected officials. My dad, William Winter, of course Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I think that's still true today. You can still catch a whooping for that. But there is this whole idea of the New South.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The boys were alta boys, you know, at St. Matthias Parish Church. We were all members of CYO. All of us went through the same thing that every other Catholic in the country goes through in terms of first communion and confirmation and all of those rituals that are so special to those of us that are Catholics. And then throughout the years, I can't think of a time when there was really a discussion about what we were doing in politics without there being a moral component to it that was heavily influenced by the education that we got in the respective schools. Now, all of my brothers and sisters and I, all nine of us, went to Catholic grammar schools, Catholic high schools, and some of us, I went to Catholic University of America and Washington, D.C., which is a papal institution of the country. So it's had a very heavy influence. And when John Kennedy was elected, of course, he was the first Catholic.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, it meant a lot. I mean, my mother and father were both raised as devout Catholics. As I said, you know, the nine children in our family. My mother and father were raised again by the Jesuits. So my father went to Jesuit high school. My mother went to Ersline Academy and was very heavily influenced by the Ersline nuns. Both of them in the time that they were in their formative years were really influenced by social activism. And by the Jesuits, a guy named Father Toomey. Then there was another guy named Bill Nelson. A lot of the Jesuits down here were really on the forefront of social justice and civil rights and that stuff. So my parents were, you know, Vatican II Catholics, very progressive leaning, very socially organized. And Pope John the 23rd. And they were heavily influenced by that entire life. So all of us were.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, there's no question that city council members in big cities, particularly in New Orleans, are very close to the ground and they're very powerful. And mayors are generally more powerful than county executives or et cetera. And, you know, you've seen this in Chicago. I mean, you grew up in New Orleans was very much like that. It was like Boston. It was like, you know, Los Angeles. It was certainly like New York in that regard. And there was strong ward bars back in the day. Part of the reason.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah That could be here too, because you know, the city of New Orleans is bigger politically than a state legislative district. Now, if you represent a county or you represent a rural parish and you're the legislator, you have a bunch of mayors that are really smaller than you. But in the city, city council members are bigger and the mayor is probably the most prominent.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm sure he did, you know, but in the environment that we grew up in, that has been his course his entire life and all the conversations that we've ever had. He never really seemed to waver that much. And by the way, Liana Press happened to be wrong. I mean, not only was he not dead politically, he went on to become the mayor of the city of New Orleans and, of course, a cabinet secretary and do great things in his life.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You won't survive physically or politically. And that must have kind of scared him. But that's kind of what he was born into the fire. And so from that moment forward, he just kind of was committed to making sure that he was just going to do the right thing for his friend Norman and all the other folks. And that's kind of how we got locked into it. And that's how that was the environment that we were in.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And when my father and mother and Norman and Blanche just basically kind of grew up together, they had children together. That kind of formed my father's consciousness on race and realized that, you know, it was just an unjust practice. And he was a young southerner that was enlightened by his relationship with Norman Francis and Blanche and all their kids, all of whom are still our best friends today. So we kind of all grow up together. But on that day, I asked my father, I had never, my father's told me a lot of stories many times, as you can imagine. But one story that he did not tell me until recently was that on the day in 1960 that he voted against the governor's package, that he was confronted in the elevator that night bodily and a perez. It was a great racist segregation as sheriff and a guy named Willie Rannick, who was a racist clan congressman. And they put a finger in his chest and said, you're dead.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, it's a really interesting question because I've talked to him about this. When he got to law school on his first day, he met a young, another young guy whose name was Norman Francis. And they became best friends on that first day. So they were young law schools whose Norman Francis was the second African American to graduate from Loyola Law School. Now, Norman Francis people will now know, has gone on to become the president of Xavier University and the longest serving university president in America and was given the Medal of Honor by President Bush and led the recovery effort for Katrina. He was my father's best friend in law school.”
2020-06-22 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Best of The Axe Files: Mitch Landrieu · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source