Ep. 409 — Nicolle Wallace
The Axe Files with David Axelrod
CNN
4.6 • 7.7K Ratings
🗓️ 5 October 2020
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Nicolle Wallace, host of MSNBC’s Deadline: White House got into Republican politics partly by chance. After a brief stint in broadcast news, she applied to work for both a Democratic and Republican member of the California assembly. The Republican offered her a job. She has since worked in communications for Jeb Bush and John McCain, and served as White House communications director for President George W. Bush. She talked with David about her fondness for the 43rd president, how Sarah Palin was the precursor to the present-day Republican Party and what she thinks President Trump fundamentally misunderstands about the job of president.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Music |
| 0:06.0 | And now, from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN Audio, the Axe Files with |
| 0:12.5 | your host, David Axelrod. |
| 0:19.7 | You all know Nicole Wallace as the very smart host of Deadline White House. |
| 0:25.4 | Each weekday on MSNBC, I've known her as a opponent. |
| 0:29.3 | She was on the opposite side of the presidential race in 2008, a very skilled and seasoned White |
| 0:36.2 | House veteran and campaign communications operative. |
| 0:40.0 | We had a chance to sit down this week to talk about her journey, this surreal presidential |
| 0:45.6 | race and how much politics has changed in the 12 years since we were on opposite sides. |
| 0:51.1 | Here's that conversation. |
| 0:55.4 | Nicole Wallace, it's great to see you. |
| 1:03.0 | Normally, the way I do this podcast is I start sort of sequentially and I talk to people |
| 1:09.7 | about their lives, but it feels like we got to sort of touch on the story of the day |
| 1:16.4 | or the story of the middle of the night. |
| 1:20.3 | I thought of you, the president, first lady, positive for coronavirus. |
| 1:26.4 | I thought of you because A, we've both worked in the White House and B, you've written |
| 1:30.9 | novels about the White House and I was wondering, could she have dreamed of a plot like this? |
| 1:36.3 | No, but I thought of you too and I thought of all the little things that presidents do. |
| 1:42.9 | Well, I thought about two things. |
| 1:44.2 | I thought about their sort of struggles to take care of themselves during the most stressful |
| 1:49.9 | professional and personal chapters of their lives. |
| 1:54.9 | I know President Obama and President Bush worked out. |
... |
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