Ep. 483 — Tony Fabrizio
The Axe Files with David Axelrod
CNN
4.6 • 7.7K Ratings
🗓️ 31 March 2022
⏱️ 65 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Growing up, GOP pollster Tony Fabrizio spent time helping out at his grandfather’s produce stand in Brooklyn, selling everything from watermelons to Christmas trees. While he was always interested in politics, fostered by an early fascination with Richard Nixon, the idea of politics as a career didn’t take shape for Tony until he moved to Long Island at age 12. Tony joined David to talk about how he got his start in political polling, the story behind the infamous Willie Horton ad, working with Donald Trump on his presidential campaigns, Trump’s 2024 prospects, and getting kicked out of the Young Republicans.
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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 your host, David Axelrod. |
| 0:18.0 | For a generation, Tony Fabrizio has been a central figure in Republican politics as a top poster and strategist. |
| 0:25.0 | His advice to Donald Trump in the general election of 2016 was instrumental in the critical targeting of Michigan's |
| 0:32.0 | Wisconsin and Pennsylvania by the campaign that ultimately would deliver Trump the presidency. |
| 0:37.0 | He offered unheated advice in 2020 that may well have saved Trump and his analysis after the election about why Trump had lost and |
| 0:46.0 | raged the former president, who remains in denial to this day. |
| 0:49.0 | I sat down with Fabrizio this week to talk about his long colorful career, the challenges of being a gay man in a party often inhospitable to gay rights, and of course to talk about Donald Trump. |
| 1:02.0 | Here's that conversation. |
| 1:04.0 | Tony Fabrizio, it's great to see you, my friend. |
| 1:14.0 | Good to see you, my friend. |
| 1:15.0 | Thank you for being here. |
| 1:17.0 | Happy to do it. |
| 1:19.0 | I want to know about your family's history before we get into your political history and your history and politics. |
| 1:29.0 | Tell me where the Fabrizio's came from and your journey from New York City to Long Island, where it all happened for you. |
| 1:41.0 | Well, my father's side of the family, my grandfather, Michael Angelo Fabrizio, came from... |
| 1:54.0 | There is some dispute. He claimed God rest his soul that his family came from Naples. |
| 2:01.0 | And others say that they actually came from the outskirts of Vermont. |
| 2:07.0 | So I guess it's some disputed territory there about where he actually came from. |
| 2:12.0 | Sounds like Italy though. |
| 2:13.0 | Yes, it's all Italy. He came when he was young and he originally went to Colorado. |
| 2:20.0 | He was one of 22 or 23 children. |
... |
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