Ep. 430 — Heidi Heitkamp
The Axe Files with David Axelrod
CNN
4.6 • 7.7K Ratings
🗓️ 18 February 2021
⏱️ 70 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
While former US Senator Heidi Heitkamp was growing up in Mantador, North Dakota, her family made up one tenth of the town’s population. She took the lessons she learned from her small-town upbringing to the Senate, where she served as a rare Democrat from a deep-red state willing to work across the aisle with then-President Donald Trump. Former Sen. Heitkamp joined David to talk about rural America’s emotional attachment to Trump, the energy industry and climate change, why she couldn’t vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and the passing of conservative radio star Rush Limbaugh.
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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 Axfiles, with your |
| 0:12.8 | host David Axelrod. |
| 0:19.8 | Heidi Heidekamp is one of the most authentic and impressive people I've met in politics. |
| 0:24.0 | North Dakota through and through, the former senator speaks from the heart and the heart |
| 0:28.4 | land, but make no mistake about it, she's also a deeply incisive, political, and policy |
| 0:34.0 | thinker in which she's been thinking a lot about lately is how to reconnect Democrats with |
| 0:38.4 | rural and small town America. |
| 0:40.6 | She's a great person with a wonderful story, currently a fellow at the Institute of Politics |
| 0:46.2 | of the University of Chicago. |
| 0:48.0 | Here's my conversation with former senator Heidi Heidekamp. |
| 0:52.0 | It's great to see you. |
| 1:02.7 | We've seen a lot of each other lately or a fellow at the Institute of Politics and it's |
| 1:06.4 | been an absolute delight. |
| 1:09.2 | And as we begin this conversation, the news came within the last hour that Rush Limbaugh |
| 1:16.3 | has passed away and I thought, who better to ask about his impact on our politics and |
| 1:22.4 | on rural America than someone who is so connected to rural America? |
| 1:27.6 | Tell me what your thoughts were when you heard that news. |
| 1:30.3 | Well, I don't want to be uncharitable, but I did have a vision of him standing in line |
| 1:36.7 | at the pearly gates having to answer some pretty tough questions about whether he lived |
| 1:43.8 | a life that enhanced other people's lives. |
| 1:47.7 | If that can be, meanly, sad, I guess, I shouldn't prejudge things, it's not up to me. |
... |
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