Patrick Gaspard, Pt. 1: The Mamdani Whisperer on Year One of Trump 2.0

Impolitic with John Heilemann

Audacy | Puck

News, Politics

4.8 • 4.5K Ratings

🗓️ 23 January 2026

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

John welcomes longtime Democratic strategist, former White House adviser and U.S. Ambassador to South Africa for Barack Obama, and current Zohran Mamdani political sherpa Patrick Gaspard back to the show for a special two-part episode. In this installment, Gaspard assesses the first year of Donald Trump’s second term; how Democrats are faring in their efforts to counter and cope with a pathological president; and what the national party can learn from Mamdani’s refusal to tamp down the loftiness of his rhetoric or the scale of his policy ambitions. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you by Vanta.
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0:34.6	Aloha and namaste everyone and welcome to Impolitic with John Heilman, a puck and Odyssey Joint,
0:41.7	featuring lively, in-depth conversations with the people who cruise the corridors of power in America,
0:46.0	sculpting and shaping the ebb and flow of our politics and culture.
0:50.7	Patrick Gaspar has been a guest on this podcast in the past, most recently, in the summer of
0:56.1	2024, live from the Democratic National Convention in Chicago when he came on immediately
1:00.8	following Kamala Harris' speech, accepting her party's presidential nomination.
1:05.1	In national politics, he is a well-known figure, cutting his presidential campaign teeth on
1:09.5	Jesse Jackson's failed failed but history-making
1:11.5	bid for the Democratic nomination in 1988, serving for nearly a decade as the key political
1:16.8	and legislative strategist for 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, which is the largest
1:23.0	and most powerful local labor union in America. then working for Howard Dean's presidential campaign
	...

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