YouSaid · the spoken record

Trent Lott

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72

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2016-03-07

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2016-03-07

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1. “Well, I've been to an upper girl for both parties, so I don't know what I'll be going to inauguration no matter who it is”

   2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

2. “Every time we think we're fixed to do something domestically, something happens internationally. It pulls us together. The highest ratings the Senate ever had was in the aftermath of 9 11. You know why? Because we had been hit. We unify when we get hit. But also they saw the Congress working together on a bill after bill after bill to help recover, to help New York City, to help the airlines, to help us get over that attack, and to try to make sure we wouldn't have another one. We created the Department of Homeland Security. So, I'm not advocating a crisis”

   2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

3. “But here I always like to end up on a positive note. And, you know, this is still the greatest form of government the minds of men has ever conceived. It is special because we are committed to set a principles not to a set of people. And I also look, the members of Congress, Democrat, Republican, conservative liberals, socialists, progressive, whatever they are, they know the American people not happy with them, but they're not getting the stuff done that needs to be done. They're reading the poll numbers. And when I look at the next generation of leaders on both sides of the aisle on both sides of the capital, I can't guarantee you they will be better, but they will be different. And I think they will begin to turn this ship estate around again. Now, quite often in America, we are a nation of crisis.”

   2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

4. “No, no, I have great faith that this too shall pass, and we shall gain control of things again. Tom and I in the book talk about the history all the way back to the very founders. It was not easy between Jefferson and Adams and Madison and Adams crew, and we had this award. Not to mention Pur and Harry.”

   2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

5. “They're going to be earmark The Congress has ceded that opportunity. I was from one of the poorest states in the nation. What kind of senator would I have been? But my poor state of Mississippi, if I hadn't worked to get money for the bridge across the Mississippi River at Greenville, Mississippi, to get water funds by making Mississippi where they had rust in the bottom of the vial that came out of their faucet to work with agriculture to keep our economy strong. That's the kind of thing that I did. I admit it, and I'm proud of it.”

   2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

6. “People say, get rid of them, and I've rethought that position. Well, today it was announced that the administration is going to be announcing $800 billion in infrastructure projects.”

   2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

7. “Oh, yeah, he does. And I used to say I didn't come to Washington to make a statement, but I came to try to make a difference. Yeah, I liked earmarks. By the way, Tom Dash and I urged that earmarks be put back in. You need a process to control them and have them transparent.”

   2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

8. “We didn't get one point two plus trillion, but we got $900 billion. Did we leave a little money on the table and tax cuts? Yeah. Did we make some changes in the way it was designed? Yeah. I thought that was good for the economy and good for America.”

   2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

9. “Yeah, I probably would be identified now as a mainstream, moderate establishment compromiser. Now what I want to know is when did that all happen? Because if you'll check my voting record, it was always conservative. I always was right or center. I was never in the center or left of center. But I also, like on bushes, first tax cut. We wanted more in that tax cut. We wanted, I don't remember the numbers, but let's just say for the sake of the discussion, we were trying to get like over $1.2 trillion in tax cuts. And then Olympia Snow, a Republican, started to work with my friend John Bro when it was a 50-50 Senate, and I was going to lose it. So I had to negotiate on behalf of the administration and the Republicans in the Senate, with John Bro and some moderate Republicans. And we wound up getting a tax cut of about $900 billion. Now, where I'm from, that's a pretty good compromise deal.”

   2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

10. “One of which we turned over to the FBI because it was serious enough because I was trying to get a result to a problem we have in America. In fact, I tell people in my home state, I said, look, this is not even just about illegal immigration. Our legal immigration system is ridiculous. If you've got something to offer America, like if you're a physician in Canada and you would like to come to America and go in a remote area of Mississippi, you would think you're trying to get Sudan. Anyway, some terrorist in here. I would work one time to try to get a woman physicist from Sweden to come in for a specific program. And it would take me.”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

11. “It wasn't a perfect bill, but it was getting better we were amending it. Just think how different it would be today if we had passed that bill in two thousand seven. And by the way, I got three death threats.”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

12. “Well not very realistic, I don't believe, but I also think we need to have a guest worker program and I also think we have to deal with those that are here, give them a path to a legal existence. But we lost that boat in 2007 and I was in the well of the Senate working trying to get the boats with Lindsey Graham from South Carolina, John Kyle from Arizona, two conservative Republicans, Diane Feinstein, Ted Kennedy, and Harry Reid. And it lost. You know why? Because Republicans were coming in and voting against it because Rush Limbaugh had labeled it amnesty. And Democrats were coming in and voting against, including Barack Obama. Because labor didn't like it, and down she went.”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

13. “Yeah. Yeah, and I do think we need immigration reform. That's one of the two bills that caused me to go ahead and retire from the Senate. I was helped coordinate the effort to pass immigration reform in 2007 at the request of President George W. Bush. He wanted me to work on the process and procedure to get it to the floor. And, you know, I do think we should secure the border. I don't like a wall. I think we should do it with virtual or, you know, technology.”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

14. “If galvanizing bones, I think, I had African Americans support in my elections in Mississippi. I think Republicans need to try to get Hispanic votes. I think philosophically they're with us. They're family-oriented. They're religious. They work hard. So we ought to really go after them. Same thing with Asian Americans. I mean, the very idea that we might lose Asian Americans is ridiculous. And we ought to focus and really try hard to get them. That's one thing that is lost.”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

15. “I think that the discourse has gotten too coarse. The negative comments of the way they're presented, I would prefer that it not be done that way.”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

16. “It did be careful in Washington to keep your skirts clean financially with your spouse, but also you need to watch what you say. And it was a celebratory event. Bob Dole was there. He had a Marilyn Monroe lookalike that came in and sat on Strom's lap. And in the spirit of the event, his 100th birthday, I got too carried away. What I knew about Strom Thurman as a member of the Senate, what I saw was somebody that was chairman of the Armed Services Committee and did a really good job there. He was a guy that stood in the center aisle of the Senate, gave a passionate speech about criminal law reform, and he was supported in that effort by Joe Biden. He was a good senator.”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

17. “I don't know. Well, you know, so much has happened this year I could never prophesied and who knows how this will turn out now. But, you know, I don't like this style of campaign we're seeing. I mean, I think it's not good for Rubio to be talking about his spray tan. And I mean, how tall you are, how short you are, how much water you drink, whether you sweat or not. How big your hands are.”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

18. “You know, a lot of resentment about Obama's style of leadership and all of that. But I don't want a candidate or an office holder to just curse the darkness. I want them to tell me how we're going to get back to the light of day. And that's why I still think Casey, if he could carry Ohio and Michigan and Massachusetts and Vermont. And do pretty well in a couple of southern states, like maybe Mississippi, you know, hang in there and we may wind up going to the convention yet.”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

19. “But here's one thing the Republicans and Democrats better both think about. This has been a bizarre election. You know, when Bernie Sanders, running as an admitted socialist, has done as well as he has done, and when Donald Trump, with all the things that he has said and done, leading the Republicans, what are the people telling us? I do think that there is a lot of angst out there in America. Yeah, there is. Nervousness, and even, yes, I don't like it, but anger. People, you know, Republicans bad that they...”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

20. “I don't like it. I think it's hurting. I just look like kids in a schoolyard fight. I couldn't stand the last debate. I don't like a lot of what Trump says. I think it's inappropriate. If I had said some of the things he said, I'd been run out of town on a rail. But every time he says some of those things, his numbers seem to go up.”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

21. “Well, I guess he's created some jobs and lost some jobs. But, you know, in the Kasich fashion, you know, I have chosen to try not to be that critical of all these other candidates that ran. We had too many that ran number one. We had too many that stayed in too long.”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

22. “But look, one of the things that disappoints me is how little the candidates on both sides, but particularly Republicans, talk about, okay, jobs. You know, how do we create jobs? How do we deal with the budget deficits? How do we deal with the fact that we've got corporations leaving?”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

23. “Well, you know, you've got two alternatives in our Republican former government. You can work with your colleagues on both sides of the aisle of all kind of philosophical stripes to get things done for the country, or you get nothing done. For instance, Republicans should be for infrastructure, lanes, planes, ports, and harbors, water, and sewer. Our infrastructure in America's collaps Now, the good thing about infrastructure is, now, I didn't like the president's program that he had so-called ready shovel ready projects because too much of the money was just given away. What I want is infrastructure projects that create jobs, improve the quality of life. And when you get through, you've got something, you've got a bridge or an airport or a safe drinking water system.”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

24. “Well, first of all, he's run a principled, positive campaign. He's refused to get in the murder plane. Well, look, I'm for him because he's qualified. When I was a leader in the Senate, he was chairman of the budget committee. He was a guy, you know, Clinton and Newt Gingrich liked to take credit for the balanced budget agreement. Actually, it was John Kasich and Pete Domenici that had more to do with it. I mean, he has done it. He was on armed services. He was a reformer on armed services committee. He's been in the private sector and he's been a successful governor. Seemed to me like that's what we should be looking for now.”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

25. “I'm for Casey, and I'm for John Casey, have been from almost the beginning. I've thought he made a mistake by waiting a little bit late to get”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

26. “But we came out of we did our constitutional responsibility and when it's over most people felt like we did a credible job. And to Bill Clinton's credit, the Thursday after I voted to remove him from office for two articles of impeachment, he called me on a Thursday to say you got that bill up there we're working on can we get this going? Never mention to impeachment trial, never mention how I voted. We went forward. So we learned a lot of lessons.”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

27. “Yeah, absolutely. But, you know, my partner now in life is former Senator John Bro, a Democrat from Louisiana. We lived on the same street in Anadell, Virginia. His wife, my wife are best friends. Our kids grew up together. They were in each other's weddings. They played kick the can in the neighborhood. There were three Democrats lived on one side of the street and two Republicans on the other. We were all friends. And when I would go to John on an issue, John Bro and say, John, tell me how you see this and tell me how you think we might package this where maybe we can get this done. He'd give me an honest, straightforward answer. I don't see that happening now. And by the way, this book that Tom and I did, it's not about, oh, look what we did. It's really about, look, we learned a lot of tough lessons. You know, we had the impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton.”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

28. “Well, you know, but some of us, I came to Washington when I was 26. Yeah. I came from a poor blue collar family. My dad was a shipyard pipe fitter union member. My mother's school teacher. I didn't inherit anything. It was tough paying for two house notes and saving money to educate my kids in public schools all their lives. But I didn't.”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

29. “And that was a mistake. First of all, it was a mistake for him to lose his seat because he was a very thoughtful conservative leader, by the way, as a whip in the House and the Senate. I always looked at votes. I studied, he had a conservative voting record. He wasn't a moderate, but he did make a mistake of not having a home. I kept my home back in Pascala, Mississippi.”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

30. “Yeah, they could be. But, you know, I used to get disgusted with senators or always whining about, oh, don't make me vote on that. That's so bad. Or it come to me on a Thursday night and say, well, I've got to fly all the way to California. Don't make us vote on Friday. Look, that's the kind of thing that Tom Dash and I recommend in our book. Number one, they ought to bring their families here. The job is in Washington. The job is not in Pascula, Mississippi, or Sioux Falls, South Dakota. They should not sleep in their offices. Over 40 house members sleep in their offices. That's a new form of public housing that I don't think is very attractive. They should work five days a week of three weeks a month because you can't have hearings. But you know that this notion of bringing...”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

31. “No doubt about that. But, you know, Chuck marches to his own drummer. If the president comes up with somebody that's credible and a little bit more mainstream or moderate, I wouldn't be surprised to see Chuck give him a hearing.”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

32. “supported by all or almost all of the senators who would have somewhat of a centrist view you know the president could come up with somebody that they would want to consider and I don't know that Chuck Grassley will refuse in the end to even have a hearing it's tough for Mrs.”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

33. “No, it doesn't say that, but remember this. The president just nominates. He doesn't appoint. and that Congress has the Senate has a right to vote yes, vote no, or not vote at all.”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

34. “That's a legitimate argument. I don't quite buy it. This is a very critical appointment. This appointment could shift the balance of the Supreme Court from 5-4 one way to 5-4 the other way for years. And that.”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

35. “Yeah. I did vote against one of the members of the Supreme Court because I thought he had a conflict of interest. So if they were qualified by education experience demeanor and had no other side problem, my predisposition was to be for them. Now, now when I'm going to turn a little partisan, the problem is that, in my opinion, in the opinion of a lot of Republicans and certainly in the opinion apparently of McConnell, so many of Obama's nominees have been so bad and so far left that the amount, the trust factor is not there. Was it wise to jump out there the way the leader did? Time will tell.”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

36. “Well, I probably would have handled it differently. My disposition, after talking with my predecessor, John Stennis, and with Thad Cochrane, my senior senator colleague when I was in the Senate, my attitude, particularly on the Supreme Court, was that elections do have consequences, sometimes bad. And I was tried to lean toward being supportive of the president's nominees, Democrat or Republican. I voted for Ruth Bader Ginsburg. In fact, I think I voted for most members.”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

37. “Absolutely, absolutely. You have to be a real leader and you've got to be a visionary of how you want to lead to get things done in the Senate. They don't do that now, and they don't communicate across the aisle. Tom Dash and I advocate some of the biggest decisions we made, we made in a joint caucus. Democrats and Republicans in the old Senate chamber, you know, after the anthrax attack, we met in the Senate dining room and talked about the threat, what we're going to do with it, how we're going to help each other. We even had the temerity to meet with house leaders on occasion. That's a novel idea. Yes. Now they invest.”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

38. “And it never was a possibility. And a lot of people bought that. It never was a possibility. Look, they have checked the Obama administration in a lot of ways, big and small. But, you know, and in the Senate, I used to say it's easy to block things. It's hard to pass things.”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

39. “Who thought that the threat of shutting down the government or shutting down the government to make President Obama sign a bill repealing Obamacare was ever going to happen? He would veto it, and then what?”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

40. “Oh, he is a finalist, and it's amazing. I mean, my own son told me just this past Sunday, you know, Dad, you've always been able to pick the winners pretty good. And when you didn't pick the winners, you could predict what was going to happen. But boy, you missed it this year.”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

41. “Well, he said, Oh, that's me. I ought to come talk with you. He's busy. I haven't seen him since. Yes. But that was my point.”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

42. “Yeah, well, I talked to some of the Hell No Caucus types now that we have in Washington. And the Senate has pulled apart. There used to be a middle. There's almost no middle now. The Republicans are moved to the right and the Democrats are moved to the left. It's very hard to get anything done. But I've talked to people, including Ted Cruz, one night. I told him, I said, look, I know you don't like the way things are done, and I know your tactics are causing some problems. Let me ask you this in terms of being opposed to what went on. When Tom and I were in leadership, and Clinton was president, here's the things we got done. Welfare reform, tax cut, balanced budgets, a surplus, safe drinking water, portability of insurance, telecommunications reform, raise military pay. Now, what among those is not conservative and we're not good for America.”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

43. “We did. We did repeatedly. We'd have to go to them on things like the Patriot Act or how we were going to run a 50-50 Senate. I almost lost my leadership position over the deal I made, the agreement I made with Tom, on how we were going to get the Senate divided $50-50 to operate. They felt like I gave too much. What I did was acknowledge it was 50-50. He all got in trouble because they felt like he made too good a deal with me too quickly.”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

44. “But so we communicated a lot. We had agreements. Number one, that I wouldn't surprise him, and he wouldn't surprise me. And if I did something where I kind of overplayed my hand, I'd go to his office and say, hey, Tom, I'm sorry about that. Let's see if we can't work through it. That was one thing. But because of that, we developed a chemistry, which they don't have now. I respected him and his positions, even though philosophically he was a liberal prairie Democrat, and I was a Southern Conservative Republican, but I understood his positions, and I respected that. I trusted him. And through it all, we actually became friends. But I found Tom also, in addition to just being a decent guy, Tom was a leader. He and I both sometimes had to sell your”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

45. “Well, number one, we communicate it a lot every day. I had a red phone on my desk and when I picked it up it rang on his desk and that was the only place it rang. It gave us quick communication, but it also gave us a way to talk without having to run the gauntlet of the media, which was all lined up out in the hall between his office and mine. It also gave us a way to get around our own staffs because a lot of times they didn't want us talking because they knew Tom and I would make a deal, which is now, you know, a four-letter dirty word. Sure, yeah.”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

46. “Incredibly different, and David, I think you know I've been watching politics for close to 50 years pretty closely. I've never seen it as bad as it is right now across the board, the gridlock, the lack of communication. But the people are different. The times are different, and the media is different. Elections, campaigns are different. Data analysis and targeting, I mean, you and Barack Obama mastered that and did a very good job. So it's very different. But there are a lot of basic things that leaders are not doing now.”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

47. “Oh, yeah. In fact, my deputy chief of staff to my WIP organization was Tom Leffler from Texas. My instruction to Tom is, Tom, don't worry about the Republicans. I'll take care of that. You get over there and work on the Democratic side because you can talk to them. You can talk to people like Joe Wagner, Louisiana and Sonny Montgomery, Mississippi, and Charlie Stenholm of Texas. Those were so-called Bowweevil Democrats. So I knew every boat that came along pretty closely to how many Democrats we were going to get. And there was a pool of at least 40 of them that were conservative or moderate that would vote with us on the key budget votes and defense votes, MXL, deployment of missile in Europe. They were with us.”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

48. “But he thought the president of the United States was entitled to have his positions or his issues voted on. Now, he also didn't think that we could come up with the votes. But he allowed those boats to come to the floor, and we beat him repeatedly. In fact, even though we never had more than 100 and maybe 192 Republicans, we always had to get 30, 40, or 50 Democrats. We won every key vote for six years. Now the wheel started coming off in 87 and 88, but no, he was.”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

49. “And he looked at me so strangely like he didn't know what I was talking about. And I've always wondered did he just not agree? Was he not aware of it? Or was he beginning to have some early problems But yeah, he was pragmatic on that. He was pragmatic on the budget agreements. He didn't insist on every dotted I. In fact, I think he's quoted as saying he'd be glad to take 80% of something and come back later and try to get the rest of it. He worked with Tip O'Neill. Which is a people's partisan, a Democrat as you'd get, however, he was a fair speaker. In fact, I've asked Chris Matthews, who was working with Tipp O'Neill at the time, why did Tip actually allow the president's budget and tax revisions to be voted on in the House? He could have blocked them.”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

50. “Yeah. Oh, yeah. But it also was going to secure the border. And after one of the leadership meetings, that was one of the things he did, by the way, that President Obama has not done, I think, to his peril. He met every week Congress is in session on Tuesday morning at 9 o'clock we met with President Reagan. And quite often it was bipartisan. But after one of those meetings, I think it was in 1987, I went around that cabinet room table to see him, and I said, Mr. President, I supported Simpson Mazzola. I was the whip in the house. I counted the votes. But I said, Mr. President, we're not fulfilling one of the commitments, and that was to secure the border. We need to use modern capabilities and technologies, Blimps, helicopters, a lot of ways we can do this.”

    2016-03-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 34 - Trent Lott · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source