Ep. 519 — Sec. Antony Blinken

The Axe Files with David Axelrod

CNN

News

4.6 • 7.7K Ratings

🗓️ 26 January 2023

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Secretary of State Antony Blinken had a circuitous path to government, working in journalism, law, and the movies before landing a job in the Clinton administration. He still has varied interests; while he spends his days meeting with world leaders, guitar fans can also find him on Spotify. Secretary Blinken joined David before a live audience at the University of Chicago to talk about Russia’s war on Ukraine, America’s relationship with China, Afghanistan, the state of the world, and the power of public service.

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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 host, David Axelrod.
0:19.0	Last week we marked the 10th anniversary of the Institute of Politics, the home base of the Axfiles.
0:25.0	And as part of that celebration, we had a visit from an old friend and former IOP fellow, Tony Blinken,
0:31.0	whose great personal story you heard here years ago, before he became Secretary of State.
0:37.0	So he and I had an interesting public conversation last week, at a weighty time in the world that is now his portfolio.
0:44.0	And here it is.
0:45.0	Music
0:53.0	Thank you.
0:59.0	I want to welcome my old friend back to the Institute of Politics.
1:04.0	I don't know if you remember Mr. Secretary when I called you in the winter of 2016 to talk to you about this.
1:12.0	I distinctly remember, but I may be misrepresenting this, that I said, I think this job will be a stepping stone to Secretary of State, being a fellow at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics.
1:23.0	It was a stepping stone to employment after the Obama administration, so I'm grateful for that.
1:28.0	Yeah, but before we get to the weightier issues at hand, because of this occasion, what did that fellowship mean to you?
1:36.0	What did you take away from it?
1:38.0	Well, first I took away that this is just an extraordinary community. I've had some chance to spend time on university college campuses over the years, and I think it's safe to say I've never been more impressed with a group of students that I had the opportunity to spend some time with back in 2017, just extraordinary.
1:56.0	So, it's good to do it with all of you.
2:00.0	You guys can applaud for yourselves. Although I have to say it was also just a little bit intimidating because I asked myself at that age, and it's not not a good answer.
2:13.0	But also, you're playing rock and roll.
2:15.0	Well, we're trying to, anyway.
2:18.0	But what I so admire about what you've done, Axe, and the entire team here, is help build a remarkable community, a community that's giving back in a big way. The numbers I saw said that you've managed over the years to place 26, 2700 people into internships in public service.
2:37.0	That's exactly what we need, so I couldn't be more grateful for that.
	...

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