YouSaid · the spoken record

Tim O'Brien

lines on the record: 67
first: 2020-10-01
most recent: 2020-10-01
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

“Doc ALO was a history teacher of mine, the late Doc ILO, in high school, and he was a big influence on me too. I think I enjoyed writing. You know, I grew up in a family. My parents loved literature. My mother was a wonderful writer. She wrote poetry herself. So these were things I was around. And Doc Ayello in high school introduced me the idea of wedding writing to things like journalism or history or public policy. And I got that bug, I would say, towards the end of high school. When I went to Georgetown, I thought about going into politics. I ultimately decided not to. But using writing in some way as an analytical tool and a descriptive tool of the world around me. And then I just, I love beautiful writing.”
2020-10-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 408 — Tim O'Brien · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, you know, it is so intellectually rigorous. You know, when I went to Little Academy, I had a very challenging and rich academic experience there in a lot of ways when I got to college college felt easier to manage to me than high school because of that. And I think the classic Jesuit education of trying to ask good questions, being empirically aware of what's around you. And then I think trying to be dedicated to the idea that you want to live a good life dedicated to something larger than yourself. So when you're on your rocking chair, on your porch, you don't have any regrets about the life that you led. There were a number of Jesuits, I think, who really shaped who I am, the things that I pursued academically and professionally come right out of that tradition.”
2020-10-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 408 — Tim O'Brien · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We had a very close family growing up. I grew up in Deerfield, a suburb about an hour north of Chicago. My father was a lawyer. My mom was a homemaker. I had four older sisters, two older brothers, one younger sister. We were very tight growing up. My parents were wonderful people. I'm not a practicing Catholic, but I think there's no doubt that Christianity shaped my philosophy of life because I grew up around it in grade school and high school. And I went to Georgetown University for college. And both of my parents, you know, they weren't holy rollers, but they lived, I think, what they valued in the world. They were honest, hardworking, loving people. And I wouldn't be at all who I am now without Arthur and Barbara O'Brien in my life and all of my siblings.”
2020-10-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 408 — Tim O'Brien · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, it was a mystery to me last night why Chris Wallace didn't have the ability to cut Trump's mic off and say, I'll come back to you when it's your turn. It's the vice president's turn, and let's move on.”
2020-10-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 408 — Tim O'Brien · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And his service for the country. The Trump children have done nothing remotely approaching public service. And neither has Trump himself. And Joe Biden himself has been a public servant his entire career. Boe Biden was a great public servant. And Trump smeared Boe Biden and Joe Biden on a national stage. And I don't think that sits well with voters.”
2020-10-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 408 — Tim O'Brien · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think in the immediate rush of it, I don't think he did. And that's why he was saying it was Joe Biden and Chris Wallace versus him. He put that up on Twitter in fairly short order. But, you know, the reason Donald Trump is a survival is such a good survivor is that he creates his own alternative reality bubbles around him and he will create whatever narrative he wants about how he was successful and then he'll accept that. And I think that the difference between 2016 and now because he did some of this stuff on debate stages in a less extreme way with Hillary Clinton is there's a track record behind him. And the kinds of things he's trying to attack Joe Biden on, for example, I think one of the signature moments last night was when Biden was speaking about Boe Biden and Boe's life.”
2020-10-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 408 — Tim O'Brien · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah. And on the other hand, these kinds of important moments, public moments, shouldn't get debased in the way that Trump can debase them and make them become essentially a clown rodeo. And I think by and large, it was a great debate for Joe Biden. And I think it was a great debate because Trump undermined himself. If I was the Biden camp, I would just say, let's not do any more debates because this guy is going to turn them in into an utter shit show. Oh, can I say that on your podcast? I'm sorry.”
2020-10-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 408 — Tim O'Brien · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know what you said about Joe Biden being a fundamentally decent man, you know, we need that so much again in the presidency regardless of ideology or party. We need people who have integrity, decency, and compassion leading the country through this epically bad moment. And that's not Donald Trump. That's clearly who Joe Biden is. I think at different moments when he went toe to toe with Trump around name calling, saying you're a clown. That's a tricky thing when you're dealing with Trump, because if you don't take him on directly, Trump comes across as a bully. And, oh, he is a bully. It's not that he comes across as a bully. It comes across that he can bully you.”
2020-10-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 408 — Tim O'Brien · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And he wouldn't because I think he revels and relishes the idea, revels in and relishes the idea of his folks making trouble at the polls. And obviously the other thing that he just wouldn't come clean on is disavowing white supremacy. But I think that's a different issue. But I think he's going to be a force for chaos over the next month. I think our institutions are really going to have to stand tall. I think particularly secretaries of state of both parties at the state level and local, I think law enforcement to make sure there's not trouble at the polls. I think we're going to see a lot of rabble rousing at a minimum on the street. I think his rhetoric is going to get more and more extreme. And it will involve blaming everyone else. Around him and trying to incite chaos and dissent. And I hope that doesn't become violent.”
2020-10-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 408 — Tim O'Brien · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, you know, he's capable of burning the house down. That's who he is. If he can't get what he wants, he will roast everything around him. And I think it's not just what happens between now and November 3rd. I think it's the second step is what happens between November 3rd and January 20th. He is not somebody who goes gently into that good night. There were many things that were disturbing and I think obscene about the debate last night. But when Chris Wallace gave both Biden and Trump an opportunity to say, will you tell your supporters to stand back peacefully and accept the outcome of the election and Trump had, I think, two or three opportunities to say that he would tell his supporters to do that?”
2020-10-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 408 — Tim O'Brien · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And now he's saying, you know, mail in balloting is corrupt and riddled with fraud. And yet he votes by mail himself as a resident of the state of Florida. And once it dawned on him, when he began this attack on mail-in balloting, that all those seniors in Florida who are important voters for the GOP vote by mail, he made sure to say he didn't think specifically there was any problems with it in Florida. So it parallels that stuff he said about the Electoral College in 2016.”
2020-10-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 408 — Tim O'Brien · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Correct Or even his inauguration numbers. Remember that everyone was lying about the popular support at his inauguration and the photos were doctored, etc., etc.”
2020-10-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 408 — Tim O'Brien · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And when he says to people like Joe Biden, you're not smart, or you're a loser, he's deeply fearful himself about being both a loser and being ignorant. And I do think that a lot of this fishing expedition he's on of claiming male invoting is corrupt when it's empirically not the case is defined excuses for why he's losing. So I do think that observation's spot on, David.”
2020-10-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 408 — Tim O'Brien · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“When he was running against Hillary Clinton, as soon as his bad poll numbers would begin to crescendo in 2016, he started talking about the election being rigged. Dirty Hillary, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And he's playing that script again. And I think it's not a novel insight to say that Donald Trump projects. But the amount of times he calls other people losers or dumb is, and you know, I actually think there'd be a great video mashup of Donald Trump at rallies in front of his audiences, punctuating sentences with, okay, I'm a really smart guy. I went to Wharton, okay. I'm a really rich guy. I'm worth $10 billion. Okay, and so on and so forth, because he's looking for affirmation from these audiences because deep down inside, he knows he's ignorant, he knows he's not as wealthy as he is.”
2020-10-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 408 — Tim O'Brien · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's 100% right. And he's done this throughout his life. In the early 90s, when he ran a number of businesses off the rails and he was deeply indebted to bankers, he pointed all around him at how it was everyone else's fault that he was a serial bankruptcy artist. And the bank, the bankers and his investors either lacked compassion or they weren't loyal. But it had nothing to do with the fact that he's not an adult with his hands on the steering wheel. He wasn't that way in his business in the 90s. And he says this about the most mundane and nonsensical things when the apprentice, which was essentially a garbage reality show, didn't get an Emmy, he said the Emmys were rigged. He telegraphed this in 2010.”
2020-10-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 408 — Tim O'Brien · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Joe Biden in the polls. I think he feels cornered. And I think that debate was an effort to try to delegitimize Joe Biden narrowly. Delegitimize the election and voting more broadly. And then yet it's another chapter in his effort to deal legitimize institutions and basic trust people have in anyone or anything other than him. So no, I wasn't surprised by it. I authentically was not surprised by it.”
2020-10-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 408 — Tim O'Brien · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I don't mean this in like a yan-ya kind of. I told you so a way, but I don't think any of us should have been surprised by what we saw last night. I think we should be worried and concerned and attentive. But the Donald Trump, who was on that stage last night is, I think, the Donald Trump, who sprung from his father's forehead like Athena fully armed, you know, in the first years of his life. He's a 74-year-old man who's been doing this publicly for 50 years. It's not a strategy because he's not a strategic thinker. He's not sophisticated or empathetic enough to be a strategic thinker. This is just who he is. He's a troubled, damaged person who's a force for chaos. And right now, I think he's very aware that he's well underwater compared to.”
2020-10-01 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 408 — Tim O'Brien · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source