YouSaid · the spoken record

Pete Souza

lines on the record
69
first
2017-11-30
most recent
2017-11-30
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

  1. “Yeah, I mean, I got a lot of thoughts swirling around in my head, and I got to figure that out. I mean, this year, just getting this book together, producing it, getting it designed and printed the way I want it. So this has been book year, as I say, and I haven't done that much photography. I did something for Netflix with Kevin Spacey of all people in promotion of the new season of House of Cards. I did something with my friend Brandy Carlyle, who's a Musician in Seattle, and I did some pictures for upcoming record. And I've done a couple other assignments like that. But I got to figure out what my next big project is.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “No, you know, so, but look, compared to, I mean, I think I'm so subtle and respectful on Instagram, especially when you compare it to what some people write on Twitter”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “And just reminding folks about what the last administration was like. And to do it in a way, as I say, was respectful and playful at times and let it speak for itself. The last six or eight months, and I never did one interview because I thought that would, you know, make it less effective. Matter of fact, Early on, people started writing stories, even though I wouldn't be interviewed. And I remember the first time I saw the headline, you know, Obama, photographer, throw shade at Trump. I had to actually look up what throw shade mean.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “I didn't have anything in mind. It's like people think I'm like, you know, I had some grand strategy. I didn't. I just almost began accidentally. And the one thing that I was trying to maintain is being as subtle as I could and not being like the pod save America guys”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “So I was on the plane for two and a half hours going down, two and a half hours going back. And you could see the weight was gone weight of Everything that you do and say is on your shoulders, no matter what happens. The country and in the world it affects you when you're the president of the United States”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “Yeah, it's, I mean, I've been with him a couple times. I was at the summit with him, and then I went down to, uh... Texas for that benefit concert for a hurricane victim. So I flew on his plane. I asked if I could go because I thought. This might be the last time all five formers are together. So I thought from a historical standpoint.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “I have to say that from the time that I knew him as a United States Senator until January 20th of this past year and beyond the core character of the man has not changed. I really believe that. I mean, I think he always Was thinking about what's the right thing to do for people? And I think I got to say that I wonder if anyone that wants to be president maybe should be a community organizer for a couple years as a requirement, as a prerequisite. Because I think that's one way he was able to, I don't think he ever lost the connection that he had with those people in Chicago. And I think that in the same way that Joe Biden never lost a connection he had with people in Scranton, I think that's a good background to have when you're at the highest levels of government. Don't you think?”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “No, and we were walking either to or from an event in an old executive office building, which is within the White House complex. Here's a funny anecdote about that picture. The guy's name is Larry Lipscomb. And I had a photo editor who would look through every single picture that I took. And at the time, it was Alice Capriner. She was there for the first two and a half years, I think. And she was looking at my take that day every single frame. And she came across this picture and she said, this is the guy that takes out our trash. That comes to our office and takes out our trash. And it struck her that she was living history too in a different kind of way. And that picture became emotional for her that she knew this guy”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “But you know, here's the thing, X this also tells you a lot about the president of the United States. That at the behest of a four-year-old kid. He would bend over like that and let this kid just touch his head.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “His friend said that his hair is like his and President Ben's over and says go ahead and touch it and you have this little four-year-old boy touching the head, feeling the head of the president of the United States who's bending over at the waist in front of him and Jacob's eyes are just glued right to the president's head as he's touching them. And I shot one frame of that. It happened so fast it was unexpected. I didn't even know for sure that I had a picture until later that night. And I think it later resonated with so many people, mostly because imagine people could imagine a four-year-old African-American kid touching the head of the president of the United States who looks like him.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “So the little boy was Jacob Philadelphia. He was four years old at the time. His dad was a foreign service worker who had non-political, so had worked during the Bush administration, carried over to Obama, had come in with his family into the Oval Office for a family photo with the president standing in front of the desk. They finished the photo. The mom says, Miss President, Jacob has a question for you, and Jacob, you know, imagine being four years old, talking to the president of the United States. So it's kind of more of a whisper about.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “It was not when the helicopter crashed. I can't tell you exactly when it was, but in looking at the line by line of the mission itself, and one of the good things about a digital camera is everything is timestamped. So it's towards the end of the mission. And what I'm pretty sure it was when the special forces were inside the house and there was no direct link to what was going on. And so I think that they were waiting for them to come out of the house, hopefully all intact. Because like, you know, this thing could have gone really wrong. I mean, there are a helicopter crash right away. And Admiral McCraven, being the genius that he was, had backup helicopters nearby and the pilot being the genius pilot that he was, crashed that helicopter in a way that no one got hurt, which is amazing when you think about it.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “You have the most powerful people in the federal government all jammed into this room, and they're essentially powerless. They could not affect in any way the outcome of what they're watching. It's up to those guys on the ground, and I think it was somewhat of a helpless feeling because you want to help in some way, but you can't. They'd already made their decision in the days and weeks before, and now they're just there.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “Usually in a situation room meeting, there's lots of discussion back and forth. The president's talking, Secretary of State's talking, there's, you know, sometimes there's arguments. Sometimes there's policy differences. They're hashing it all out. 40 minutes there was no discussion there was observation including by me and my they were observing what was taking place on the screen and I was observing them watching it and I think if you look at all those tense faces you see the tension that was in that room and one of the reasons why is that”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “As you know, the situation room is comprised of three conference rooms. President's always in the big conference room. But the communications link set up for this raid was in this little tiny conference room across the hall. So everybody just piled in there. And really, it's jammed in this room. And the president is not even seated at the head of the table because there was a brigadier general on a laptop who was in direct communication with, I believe, Admiral McCraven. So he was ready to give up his chair for President Obama and president. It's like, no, you stay right where you are. I'll just pull up a chair next to you. But so everyone is monitoring this raid as it's happening for 40 minutes.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “I love that picture because that one to me accurately reflected what had just happened where I think the Republicans were stunned that this guy knew a hell of a lot more about the health care bill and healthcare in general than all of them put together.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “So it was the first time it was available. And I suspect that no matter who had been president, who had been the photographer, a different president and a different photographer would have done the same thing. But we were trying to be authentic. So a lot of the pictures, especially in 2009, 2010, reflected that. As you call it, anguish, and were subsequently in years to come used out of context in political ads, which is the risk that you take when you release pictures like that.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “And I was saying to someone the other day that the administration made the decision early on to make a lot of these pictures public right away with social media. We used the Flickr photo stream.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “Well, and I never had the desire to do it again, but I often thought to myself, well, if I ever do this again, I want to be the head guy and I want to really do it the way it's supposed to be done. And there was a guy who I had always admired. I never met him, Yoshi Okamoto. His nickname was Oki. And he was LBJ's photographer. And he was probably the first official White House photographer to truly document a president for history. He had like access to everything. And so that was the approach I wanted to take. And I remember when Gibbs, Robert Gibbs, your... Friend and colleague was calling me as an emissary for the president-elect. And when he called me to offer me the job, I said, well, I definitely want to do this, but I need to have access to everything. And I remember he just said the president-elect gets it.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “To encourage others to do it. And there were like thousands of people there to watch that are sitting in the trees. People are yelling. It was like crazy, just crazy, out of control. Excitement. There wasn't like violence”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “Robin Island. Yeah, that was amazing. And then he went to Kenya to go to the village where his grandmother lived. And that was crazy. I mean, I don't know how else to say, because the entire village pulled out. I remember actually before we even went to his grandmother's village, we were in, I'm trying to think of the name of the town, but he wanted to do a public AIDS test, have his blood tested.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “With CNN. And he somehow got a text message back to the editors in Chicago. And we had CNN up, of course, on the TV in this little airport, CNN International. And nobody knew we were being detained. But Jeff got this text message out. And the next thing we know we saw on the scroll bar Two senators detained in Russia.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “We did get detained for like, you know, three or four hours. And I forget the name of the town, but it was in Russia. And, you know, Jeff Zelany was with me, a reporter for the Tribune now”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “For a photographer, because that's what you want. You don't want them to be self-conscious. You want to be able to capture whatever they're doing in a natural way. And I just saw that the first day. But then, more than anything, I saw how people were reacting to him and how he was able to connect with people, whether he was talking to them. Or whether he was more doing not the grandstanding, but the retail kind of politics where you're just having a conversation with someone. He connected that way and he connected when he was talking from a podium in a way that was really impressive right away.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  25. “Yeah, and he had to quickly eat a sandwich because it was the only chance he was going to eat. So he's eating this sandwich. Sasha Malia with him. It's a very intimate picture on this. You and I are about four feet apart. I'm about this close to him and I'm making this really intimate picture and there's no recognition that I'm even there, that he's just like so comfortable in his own skin. And it's somehow it's translated to Sasha Malia where they're not even paying attention to me. And I'm thinking like just because of that, I'm thinking this guy is a good subject.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  26. “That very first day. So I've known the guy four hours. I'm tagging along with him. I'm not really talking to him much because that's not my job. He's, you know. It's kind of a ceremonial day. And he goes into this little office.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  27. “And my only knowledge of him was the profile that the New Yorker had done. So that was my only real sort of intimate knowledge about who this guy was. But two things struck me one right away, I met him on his first day in the Senate. That was the first time I had met him. And I'll show this picture tonight. Four or five is long.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  28. “Yeah, you know, I had never met him. I was one of the few people who hadn't seen the 2004 convention speech because I was traveling with John Kerry.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  29. “And I was lucky in that. I remember one time as we were walking along the front lines and you could hear clear. Crystal clear sniper bullets from the Taliban whistling over your head, and you didn't know if it was. Two feet over your head or 20 feet over your head.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  30. “Four days after we got outside of Kabul, the US started really dropping B-52 bombs and the Northern Alliance, which were the soldiers that we were supporting within Afghanistan fighting the Taliban. They made their final push into Kabul like four days after we got in the valley. So we were so lucky to be there and all that happened. But there was like a lot of”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  31. “Why I crossed the river, I forget the name of the river from Tajikistan in the north No, but this is before that to actually get into Afghanistan at the cross of river on this little raft from Tajikistan from the north. So that got us above the Hindu Kush Mountains. And then by horseback, we went over the Hindu Kush Mountains. And even though it was October, it was already winter there. There was like three feet of snow. It was like below zero once the sun went down. And, you know, it was like we almost froze to death on that mountain. And then we finally got into the Pantur Valley and we're close to Kabul. And our timing was impeccable because”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  32. “Yeah, it was amazing and in some ways was one of the more fulfilling things I've ever done in my career because this was the first war where digital cameras were good enough. And even though there was very little electricity in Afghanistan with a satellite phone, you could send images back. So I was My images were appearing in the tribune every day and I was getting like hundreds of emails from readers and I really felt that I was doing good work and people were seeing it and to paying attention to it. But it was a very treacherous trip. I came in, this is when the Pakistan border was still closed. The US had started an air campaign. And before any US troops were even on the ground, I got into Afghanistan.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  33. “Before I went to Afghanistan and right after 9-11, I did cover the refugee crisis in Kosovo. And then when NATO finally crossed a border into Kosovo, I was with the NATO troops. And we had a few close calls. And Kosovo, but nothing like Afghanistan.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  34. “And when you're the guy that then has to go before all the cameras and answer questions and be able to articulate policy and answer, like for Barack Obama to do that with like having been on a trip for 10 days and not had good sleep and had these all day meetings and still never mess up.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  35. “And the thing that I was always Impressed with about, well, amongst the many things, but pressed with about, I mean, we're skip jumping up to The last administration with President Obama.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  36. “Because you tend to. Even in your 50s and 60s, you tend to start remembering details. But, you know, it's sort of like why James Comey wrote. notes after he had been in a meeting.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  37. “And I noticed the last, you know, now I forget if it was six months or last year or so, he would be in these meetings and he would occasionally write something on the back of his schedule. I had never seen him do that in like the first four and a half years I was there. And I never asked him about it or, you know, but I'm an observer. That's my job as a photographer. You're supposed to be an observer. And I observe that. And my suspicion was that he was getting up to the residence at night and maybe was not remembering details. Like, I could do that myself now and it would be helpful. You know what I'm saying?”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  38. “So that was one of the things that I knew was that he did keep a diary. I mean, I had never seen it, but I knew that he, at the end of the day, he would go up to the residence and he would write in his diary. And sometimes it was short annotations, which we saw. When Diary was published. And he would get a pocket schedule, much like Barack Obama did, that he would keep in his suitcoat. It's just a very, what would you say, like three inches wide by seven inches tall. And it would have a schedule on it.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  39. “I've said this Before I respected him as a person. He was a decent human being. I didn't always agree with his politics per se. And if he had not been like a decent human being and treated people with respect, I don't know that I could have stayed there. May I stayed the last five and a half years of his administration. I don't think I would have lasted that long if I didn't respect him.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  40. “They were very close. It was not like a made for TV kind of a relationship. It was a real relationship. They truly did love each other. They were each other's best friends. He was not happy when she was out of town on a foreign trip. He was not happy when he was on a long foreign trip without her. And he just like, it was really a partnership. Now, I will say that she never got involved With policy, but she did very much get involved with personnel, as I think we all know now.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  41. “So when he went to visit the cemetery, it was winter and the cemetery was filled with snow, and they did not see the graves.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  42. “And it's ironic, the staff work is such that there was a pre-advanced team. So that's a team that goes over months before to sort of set the stage for the visit. And Mike Deaver was part of that pre-advanced team. Mike Deaver.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  43. “Telling him he could not go and visit there. And he had this stubborn reaction, which was another head of state. Asked me to do this visit, and unless he rescinds the invitation, I'm going. And he argued with his wife about it.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  44. “Which turns out the graves of SS soldiers were buried there, Hitler's elite guard, which when he accepted the invitation, the White House didn't realize it. And then it was before the visit. It was uncovered. And he was being everyone on the White House staff, Mrs. Reagan, Ely your friend Ely”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  45. “Oh, so I'll give you an example. And you may have to give the background a little bit more, but there was this controversy. When he accepted a visit from German Chancellor Cole to go visit a cemetery in Bitburg.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  46. “I wish I could tell you. I don't know that I know. If you talk to his son. Very difficult guy to get under his skin and really figure out what made him tick. I will say this, you know, the one aspect of his personality that was similar to President Obama is he was very even-tempered. And it would take a lot to get him really riled up as it would President Obama. I did get him see him get riled up.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  47. “After his administration, and you're putting things into context, right? It's not like you're. putting them out. At the time, which I understand why us would not want to.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  48. “Well, sure. I mean, during the Reagan administration in 86 or 87, like I forget, went around Iran-Contra was going on. And I mean, I have some pictures that I really feel reflected the mood. The White House would not make them public. When I published a book, Reagan himself was okay with me making them public.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  49. “I don't like when you're at the White House as a White House photographer. It's not like you suddenly switch gears and you start using, you know, like you start taking pictures differently or you change the style of how you take. It's the same thing. Yes, I am on the government payroll. Well, the question”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  50. “It is. I mean, you know, there would be outrage by photojournalists to refer to me as a photojournalist within the White House.”

    2017-11-30 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 196 - Pete Souza · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source