Patrick Gaspard, Pt. 2: The Audacity of Mamdani

Impolitic with John Heilemann

Audacy | Puck

News, Politics

4.8 • 4.5K Ratings

🗓️ 26 January 2026

⏱️ 75 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the second installment of John’s two-part talk with Patrick Gaspard, the former Obama political director, DNC executive director, and U.S. Ambassador to South Africa explains how he came to be Zohran Mamdani’s political sherpa; the qualities that fueled the new mayor’s rise; his similarities to Obama (and how they differ); why his advocacy of abolishing ICE makes political sense (for him); and how his impact on the Democratic Party could be as disruptive—and transformative—as Donald Trump’s on the GOP. 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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1:01.4	Aloha and Namaste everyone and welcome to Impolitic with John Heilman, a puck and Odyssey Joint,
1:05.9	featuring lively, in-depth conversations with the people who cruise the corridors of power in America,
1:09.6	sculpting and shaping the ebb and flow of our politics and our culture.
1:12.2	We are back today with the second installment of our special two-part episode with Patrick Gaspar, the longtime Democratic strategist who served
1:17.0	as Barack Obama's 2008 campaign and first-term White House political director, as executive
1:22.1	director of the DNC from 2011 to 2013, as U.S. ambassador to South Africa from 2013 to 2016, as president of
1:29.9	George Soros' Open Society Foundations from 2017 to 2020, and as president and CEO of the Center
1:36.2	for American Progress from 2021 to 2024, and who has most recently emerged as a key behind-the-scenes
1:43.3	political confidant and consigliary
	...

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