Ep. 477 — Sen. Jon Tester

The Axe Files with David Axelrod

CNN

News

4.6 • 7.7K Ratings

🗓️ 10 February 2022

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

More than 100 years ago, Sen. Jon Tester’s grandfather arrived in Montana, where he homesteaded a vast stretch of farmland. Sen. Tester still makes time to farm that land today, saying his tractor doesn’t care if he’s a US Senator. He joined David to talk about how farming helps him keep perspective when he’s working in Washington, why addressing climate change is imperative to the agriculture industry, his thoughts on political polarization and the filibuster, and why Democrats are losing in rural America.

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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,
0:12.5	with your host, David Axelrod.
0:18.9	John Tester of Montana is something of a unicorn in today's politics.
0:23.0	A working farmer he's one of the few Democrats who still represents a rural state in the U.S.
0:27.9	Senate.
0:28.9	He's a moderate from the middle of the country in an increasingly polarized Washington.
0:33.2	We talked about that in his own compelling story when we sat down yesterday and here's that conversation.
0:45.4	Senator, it's great to see you again at your post in Washington.
0:51.4	Paradise.
0:52.4	It's very good to see you.
0:53.4	It's good to be with you, David.
0:54.9	Thank you very much.
1:01.9	I appreciate the opportunity to visit with you.
1:06.5	You are a master of segues because that's where I want to start because the testers have
1:13.0	been around there for over a hundred years.
1:17.6	Tell me about how your family came upon this 1700 acres back in, I guess, 1916.
1:27.6	Yeah, I look so.
1:28.9	My grandfather and grandmother moved out to grandfather scope the area out in about 1910.
1:34.5	They lived in the Red River Valley.
1:36.5	That's where my grandfather and my great grandfather, homestead, was in that area.
1:40.3	And it truth be known.
1:41.3	I don't know if this is truth, but I kind of surmise it that my grandmother didn't get
	...

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