Ep. 433 — Tim Alberta

The Axe Files with David Axelrod

CNN

News

4.6 • 7.7K Ratings

🗓️ 11 March 2021

⏱️ 72 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Journalist Tim Alberta got his first taste of Washington, DC straight out of undergrad as an intern for The Wall Street Journal. Since then, he has become a plugged-in political reporter, with a particular focus on the Republican Party. He has watched and reported as American politics and priorities shifted—something he said most of the country has yet to fully grapple with. He joined David to discuss growing up the son of an evangelical pastor, covering the 2020 election from his home state of Michigan, what the media missed in 2016 and his 2019 book, “American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump.”

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Transcript

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0:00.0	And now, from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN Audio, the Axe Files, with
0:12.5	your host David Axelrod.
0:18.2	There are a lot of fine political writers in this country, but Tim Alberta is one of the
0:22.6	very best.
0:23.6	His book American Carnage is really the seminal work on the conversion of the Republican party
0:28.8	into a Donald Trump party.
0:31.1	He covered the 2020 campaign for political, but he did it by reporting from the grassroots
0:36.0	up in regular letters to Washington, which offered a faithful portrait of voters across
0:41.5	the country.
0:42.5	After the election, he joined the staff of the Atlantic, and for the last quarter, he's
0:46.8	been a fellow at the University of Chicago's Institute of Politics.
0:51.7	We sat down earlier this week to talk about his own fascinating journey, and the country
0:56.1	he's chronicled so well.
0:58.1	Use that conversation.
1:06.8	Tim Alberta, it is fantastic to see you, you're a fellow at the Institute of Politics, this
1:14.6	winner, and you've been a huge asset to them, because you, my friend, are one of the most
1:23.0	insightful journalists on the scene today.
1:26.5	That's why I was so eager to talk to you here, covering politics in this country.
1:31.4	So thank you for both things.
1:32.8	David, thanks for having me.
1:34.7	This is pretty cool for me.
1:36.5	I'm a long-time listener.
	...

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