Latest / Pod Save America / Inside 2024 - Preview | Favreau + Tommy Talk Election Night

Transcript

Inside 2024 - Preview | Favreau + Tommy Talk Election Night · Pod Save America

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey there, I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Tommy Vitor.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: The Pod Save America team is on holiday break, so
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: today we're bringing you a special sneak peek of our
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: new subscriber podcast, Inside 2024. Just one more thing to
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: be thankful for.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: On holiday. Hello. On holiday.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Each monthly episode of Inside 2024 will feature a rotating
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: cast of former White House staffers spilling their campaign trail
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: stories and insights as we look ahead to the 2024
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: election cycle.
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: In this episode, Jon and I will take you through
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: one of the most stressful... dramatic, sometimes terrible days of
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: the year, Election Day. What you're about to hear is
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: just part of the episode. The whole episode and future
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: episodes of Inside 2024 are available to our Friends of
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: the Pod community.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: If you're interested in getting access to more great Crooked content,
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: head over to crooked.com slash friends to learn more and
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: sign up.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Enjoy. Pokemon go to the polls.
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: Yes, we can.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: We can now project that former Vice President Joe Biden
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: has been elected President of the United States. We did it.
• 1:09
  Speaker 4: We did it, Joe.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: Welcome to Inside 2024, Cricket's new podcast made just for
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: our Friends of the Pod subscribers. Every month, this show
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: will feature your favorite campaign and political experts, and sometimes us,
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: who will, we're going to help you make sense of
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: it all. We're going to talk about candidates doing debate prep.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: We're going to talk about what it's like to write
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: convention speeches. the fun times on the campaign trail, what's annoying,
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: what's terrifying.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: It's going to be great. We're going to have lots
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: of fun stories. Yeah, the copy says they're never before
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: told stories.
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: I would say they're stories that haven't been told into
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: a microphone, probably for good reason.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: But you know what?
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: For you, the subscribers, we're going to cough it up.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Anything for content, Tommy. All the good stuff. As you
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: can hear, I'm here with my buddy Tommy. Also, we
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: both were on the Obama campaign, so we're going to
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: talk about that. And also here... one of our favorite
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: Crooked Media producers who's going to be moderating these discussions.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Caroline Reston, what's up? Are you a Randy Cohen?
• 2:07
  Speaker 5: That's my dream. I want to start today at the
• 2:11
  Speaker 5: end and talk about Election Day. And I thought that
• 2:15
  Speaker 5: was a really great place to start because, you know,
• 2:19
  Speaker 5: this show is going to get into the nitty gritty
• 2:21
  Speaker 5: of what it's like to be on a campaign. But
• 2:22
  Speaker 5: I feel like our listeners and honestly, we need to
• 2:26
  Speaker 5: be reminded of what's at stake what we're fighting for
• 2:30
  Speaker 5: and remember the like amazing glory it is to win
• 2:34
  Speaker 5: and the gut wrenching feeling of losing. When I mentioned
• 2:40
  Speaker 5: this topic to you guys, you both had like very skeptic, nervous,
• 2:47
  Speaker 5: stressed out feelings about it. So when you hear about
• 2:51
  Speaker 5: election day, what are the emotions that stir up for
• 2:54
  Speaker 5: both of you?
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: Well, the thing about election days that is weird for
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: people who do what we did, which is communications work,
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: is that there's nothing to do. You just sit around
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: and you stress out and you read exit polls and
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: you follow the news and you vote. But, like, mostly
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: you're just hurry up and waiting. Now, it's different for
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: the field team because they're out, they're doing a huge
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: GOTV effort, they're knocking on doors.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: You asked what election day is like, and anxiety is
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: the first word that comes to mind.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: In fact.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: like so much anxiety that you just saying election day,
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: like I had the feeling again of like, oh shit,
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: it's here because there's, first of all, there's nothing to
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: do on election day. Like I said, if you, if
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: you do the work that we do and so you're
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: just like, but you have to go to work and
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: you're sitting around and it's like, everyone's asking everyone else, uh,
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: you hearing anything, you hearing anything, you got any reports?
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: How about early vote reports? How about, uh, How about
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: reports from early voting in precincts? And this, it just
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: goes on and on and on and on. The first
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: exit polls were released just a short time ago.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: The initial survey shows the election. These early exit poll
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: results are based on voter interviews before election days.
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: So if you're in the White House and you're watching
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: these numbers right now, what does it tell you and
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: what do you do?
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  Speaker 1: Some brutal numbers for President Biden right there, Dan.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: And like none of the information is super helpful or
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: very illuminating about like what the final tally is because
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: not everyone has fucking voted yet. But it does not
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: stop you from asking people what you've heard.
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  Speaker 3: Josh Earnest said that looking at exit polls is like
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: hooking up with your ex.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: You know you shouldn't do it. You do it anyway.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: You feel terrible afterwards. And it's just sort of like
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: this awful ritual that you're doomed to repeat.
• 4:32
  Speaker 5: On election day, what is like a day in the life?
• 4:36
  Speaker 5: Like you're waking up. Obviously, I would have felt like
• 4:39
  Speaker 5: I was asleep the whole time.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Honestly, that would have been preferable. Where are the staffers?
• 4:45
  Speaker 5: Where is the candidate?
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 4:47
  Speaker 5: So in 2008, you guys were in Chicago. That's where
• 4:50
  Speaker 5: Obama was too. But were you guys in the office
• 4:52
  Speaker 5: with him for the full day?
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: We were in the office. Tommy and I were in
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: the office. He was not in the office. Well, he voted.
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he was home and then he voted. Didn't Bill
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: Ayers come to his... So this is the funniest part.
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: So Jen Psaki is with the press pool. They're all
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: waiting to watch Obama go in and vote. This guy
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: named Bill Ayers.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: shows up.
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: Bill Ayers was a huge point of controversy in this
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: election because he was part of an organization called the
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: Weather Underground back in the day.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: We have a great podcast here at Crooked Media called
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: Mother Country Radicals that's about this.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Domestic terrorist group. Yeah. Blew shit up, right? And they
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: had a relationship.
• 5:27
  Speaker 5: For the greater good.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: For the greater good. Debatable. So anyway, moving forward. So they.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: They knew each other back in the day. They, like,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: were socially friends at the University of Chicago. Some might
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: say they were palling around.
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah, palling around terrorists, as Sarah Palin famously said. So
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: he shows up, and that was, like, the big brouhaha
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: of the day, is Saki.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Emailing and being like, well, funny story, Bill Ayers is here.
• 5:51
  Speaker 5: Was that an accident?
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Oh, shit.
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: But we, as far as I remember, just, like, sat
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: in that office and were just, like, refreshing news websites.
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: From, like, 5 a.m.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: Until they called it.
• 6:05
  Speaker 5: So you're saying you're mostly doing nothing except for reading
• 6:08
  Speaker 5: exit polls that may or may not confirm what you
• 6:11
  Speaker 5: don't or don't want to hear.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Correct. You're gossiping.
• 6:15
  Speaker 5: You're just gossiping. That's a much better analogy. It's just gossiping,
• 6:18
  Speaker 5: which sounds honestly very fun. So, okay, Fabs, you were
• 6:22
  Speaker 5: a speechwriter. Where in the timeline have you written a
• 6:27
  Speaker 5: concession or– What's the other word?
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: Oh, no.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: Victory speech. Victory speech. We had three speeches. You have three?
• 6:34
  Speaker 5: What's the other one?
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: I don't know.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: Too close. Inconclusive. Yeah, inconclusive.
• 6:36
  Speaker 5: Too close.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: I forgot you guys did that. That sucks. Yeah. There's
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: a lot of.
• 6:40
  Speaker 5: Did you ever watch Veep?
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 6:42
  Speaker 5: You know, Selina Meyer's best friend who's like, well, that's
• 6:45
  Speaker 5: a good question. I mean, I can see how it
• 6:47
  Speaker 5: can go one way, but what if it went the
• 6:49
  Speaker 5: other way?
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  Speaker 1: Do you remember her? Yes.
• 6:51
  Speaker 5: Rebecca?
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: She was so annoying. That's what I imagine that speech is.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: And really models like a candidate friend quite well, by
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: the way.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: 100%. So.
• 7:00
  Speaker 5: Are there any times during that day where you're editing
• 7:04
  Speaker 5: speeches based off of what's happening? How does that process work?
• 7:08
  Speaker 5: Are you on the phone with Obama? Are you working
• 7:11
  Speaker 5: with your team? How does that work?
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: So maybe a week before election day, we started to
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: write the drafts of the election night speeches.
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: You guys may argue with me on this, but again,
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: I'm just trying to give a little.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: Bit of.
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: A... I want this to be.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: And the way it went was I took the lead
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: on the victory speech. I think Sarah Hurwitz wrote, who
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: was one of our speechwriters. She had been Hillary Clinton's speechwriter.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: Then we hired her. And then she came with us
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: to the White House and became Michelle Obama's speechwriter. She's
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: a fantastic speechwriter. She took the lead on the concession speech.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: And then I forget who did... the too close to
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: call speech, but that was similar to the short one.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: It was a very short one. Yeah.
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: It was like, we're excited about the results. We still
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: got to wait for all the votes to be counted.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: We'll talk to you tomorrow kind of thing.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: Um, and so we had all the speeches done.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: I'd sent Obama had them like days before the election
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: election day, but he was like, I don't want to edit,
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: but I don't want to jinx anything.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: And I'm like too nervous. Everyone's so superstitious. Everyone says, yes.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: So no one gave us edit.
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: So Obama did not Give me edits to the victory
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: speech until it seemed like we won Ohio and he
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: won the presidency.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: And then he called with just a couple edits.
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: OK, yeah.
• 8:37
  Speaker 5: So we actually have a clip from that moment. And
• 8:40
  Speaker 5: so what you're about to hear is from the documentary
• 8:42
  Speaker 5: By the People. And it's Obama calling Favreau with a
• 8:45
  Speaker 5: few last minute edits.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: Oh, and one paragraph up, Axe had one edit when
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: it says there will be setbacks and false starts. He has...
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: There are many who won't agree with every decision or
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: policy I make as president, and we know that government
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: can't solve every problem.
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 9:02
  Speaker 5: Who gets say over that speech? And why did I
• 9:06
  Speaker 5: see you change the word that to those? Are those
• 9:10
  Speaker 5: the important edits you're doing?
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: Well, he.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: Obama would make sort of nitpicky edits like that just
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: because he's a writer, and so he got into that
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: kind of stuff.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: The only.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: I think I sent that to everyone. The people who
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: would really make edits, the most edits were Axelrod, David Axelrod,
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: who's our chief strategist. And once in a while, Robert
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: Gibbs would make an edit. David Plouffe, the campaign manager,
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: would make an edit. But really, no one else dug in,
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: unless it was a policy speech. That was not a
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: policy speech. So that was just– most of that was
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: just me and him.
• 9:40
  Speaker 5: Do you remember any, like, specific part of– That was
• 9:43
  Speaker 5: a victory speech, but is there a specific part you
• 9:45
  Speaker 5: remember that you really loved.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Or was your idea?
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: Well, a couple days before, when I was trying to
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: figure out an ending to the speech, I read a
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: CNN story about this woman named Anne Nixon Cooper who
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: had waited in line. in Atlanta to vote for three hours,
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: which is crazy that she had to wait three hours
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: to vote, but also it was notable because she was
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: 105 years old.
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: This election had many firsts and many stories that will
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: be told for generations, but one that's on my mind
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: tonight is about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta.
• 10:20
  Speaker 4: She is a lot like the millions of others who
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: stood in line to make their voice heard in this election,
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: except for one thing. Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: And so I thought about, I thought this was a
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: great way to end the speech to talk about like
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: when she was born, right?
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: She couldn't vote because she was black and because she
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: was a woman.
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: She was born just a generation past slavery. A time
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: when there were no cars on the road or planes
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: in the sky. When someone like her couldn't vote for
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: two reasons, because she was a woman and because of
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: the color of her skin.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: And then like all the things she'd seen in the
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: century that she was in America and all the progress
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: she'd seen.
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: her century in America. The heartache and the hope, the
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: struggle and the progress.
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: So we figured that's how we'd end the speech. And
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: then after talking about all the things she'd seen, we
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: do the yes, we can refrain.
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: And this year, in this election, She touched her finger
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: to a screen and cast her vote. Because after 106
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: years in America, through the best of times and the
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: darkest of hours, she knows how America can change.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: Yes, we can.
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: So I wrote this whole thing. He called me, like
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: we just saw in that clip. And as soon as
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: I hung up, Tommy, who was right next to me,
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: was like, oh. You should call in Nixon Cooper and
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: let this woman know that she's going to be in
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: this speech. So it was like, oh, right. I didn't
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: even think about that. And so we had our researchers
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: locate her, find her number. And so I called her.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: And this very frail woman picks up the phone.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: And I was like, hi.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: And I was like, explain to her who I was
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: and blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, and Senator Obama
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: is going to mention you in the speech. And because
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: he's really moved by her story and she's like, uh,
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: is it going to be on TV? And I was like,
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: oh yeah, it's going to be on TV. And then
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: she was like, she stopped and she thought, and she
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: was like, uh, what channel is it going to be on?
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: And I was like, it's going to be on all
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: the channels. And, um, and then she stopped and she
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: was like, uh, I'm so happy.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: I'm so proud. And, uh, and it was like right
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: at that moment that they called the race. 11 p.m.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: on the East Coast, and we have news.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: Barack Obama will be the 44th president of the United States.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: And so everyone's, like, cheering and yelling and clapping, and
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: I was, like, under the desk trying to, like, talk
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: to Anne Nixon Cooper before he went and did it.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: It was really, it was a cool moment. Kind of, like,
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: emotional to think about all this shit, you know? Yeah,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: I know. It's a long time ago, but... I always,
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: it's an emotional moment.
• 13:05
  Speaker 5: I mean, I wasn't even there, and I felt like
• 13:07
  Speaker 5: I wanted, I wish I was there. Like, it just
• 13:09
  Speaker 5: felt really emotional and special. Talking a little bit more
• 13:12
  Speaker 5: about the day... Tommy, I know you worked with the
• 13:15
  Speaker 5: press on that day. Like, what's the relationship like between
• 13:18
  Speaker 5: the campaign and this press? How much are you guys
• 13:20
  Speaker 5: speaking to each other? How much are you kind of
• 13:23
  Speaker 5: leaking temperament in the headquarters? What does that look like?
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: Well, so my job in Iowa, I was the Iowa
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: press secretary. And then they said, come back to Chicago headquarters.
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: We're about to beat Hillary. We need you to do
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: a rapid response against John McCain.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: Ha ha ha.
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: What, like four or five months later, we're still campaigning
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: against Hillary. Eventually we win the primary. So then I
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: become a rapid response person. And my job was like
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: go after the McCain campaign all day, every day. So
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: that's just a way of saying like my job was
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: kind of done in terms of press. So I'm just
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: gossiping with people. I'm just trading information, right?
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: There is a pool of reporters that follow.
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: Obama around wherever he goes. Jen Psaki was usually with them.
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: So she's like in a van with them following his
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: movements and then hanging out.
• 14:09
  Speaker 5: We found this one clip. And I believe this is
• 14:12
  Speaker 5: when you're working in Iowa. It's you and a reporter.
• 14:15
  Speaker 5: And I always had an idea that there was a
• 14:20
  Speaker 5: very formal relationship between campaign people and reporters. And the
• 14:25
  Speaker 5: chumminess was very shocking.
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: Hey, man. How are you?
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: I've been reading you forever.
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: I've been, you know, swearing about Boston sports.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: Come on.
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: Stick it to us on that crap lobbying story.
• 14:37
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I knew you wouldn't like that.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: That's such bullshit. Yeah. When are we going to move
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: past the gotcha story?
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: Oh, come on.
• 14:43
  Speaker 5: Here's the reason it's a bullshit story.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: Can I just say what a good spokesman Tommy was
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: in that, like, highlighted it, that clip? He, like, goes
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: up to Scott Coleman. He's, like, super friendly. Ah, from Boston, river, river.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: What the fuck is that story?
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: Blah, blah, blah.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: And then grabs the candidate and brings him to the
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: local Iowa, like, Fucking, what was it?
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what was the counting contest? What was it? Colonel. Oh,
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: the Colonel Counting Contest, yeah.
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: Brings me over to the Colonel Counting Contest to get the, like,
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: local hit in Iowa, which is way more important than
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: whatever the Boston Globe.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: That was the only thing I cared about, yeah.
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: My job was, like, what does the Iowa press need,
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: and how can I beg, borrow, and steal to get it?
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: And it just meant, like, getting the reporter-campaign relationship going.
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: is politics like anything else? They're not like a special
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: breed of people. They're human beings.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: Like none of them wake up in the morning wanting
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: to do a bad job. None of them wake up biased.
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: But like we all make mistakes. We all have our biases.
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: So like if you're friendly to people, if you're nice
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: to them, if you give them access, treat them like
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: a human being, like you're going to do better. And
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: Obama got that intuitively and was like, yes, I want
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: to make time for them. But a lot of other
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: candidates refused to. Like Hillary like wouldn't take questions for months.
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: They planted questions at one point. We sourced that out
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: and planted some stories about it.
• 16:01
  Speaker 5: So we're at, you know, the polls are closing. Everything's
• 16:06
  Speaker 5: too close to call. What are you guys doing? But
• 16:08
  Speaker 5: most importantly, what are you drinking?
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: Here's what I remember.
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: Thanks for checking out our special sneak peek of Inside 2024.
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: To hear the rest of this episode and future episodes,
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: plus a ton of other great exclusive content, consider joining
• 16:22
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• 16:27
  Speaker 3: slash friends to learn more.