America's Great Divide: David Axelrod Interview | FRONTLINE

David Axelrod is a political consultant who served as chief strategist for Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns and later as a senior adviser in the Obama administration.

Axelrod's candid, full interview was conducted with FRONTLINE during the making of the two-part January 2020 documentary series “America's Great Divide: From Obama to Trump.”

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This interview is being published as part of FRONTLINE’s Transparency Project, an effort to open up the source material behind our documentaries. Explore the transcript and interactive version of this interview, and others, on the FRONTLINE website:

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[frontline]

This interview was conducted with FRONTLINE during the making of our two-part documentary series “America's Great Divide.”

[MYRRHfamily]

Hey wait a minute. You mean I have to extend my attention span beyond a 15 second sound bite? These are exactly the kind of discussions that need to be had, publicized, and most importantly, studies by the American population, soberly and dispassionately. PBS, thank you.

[mattolear]

Obviously you won't read this comment, Mr. Axelrod, but I feel compelled to say that I feel your pain - I, too, have a child who suffers from epilepsy and a host of other medical issues as a result of having a rare genetic disorder. If it wasn't for the ACA protecting those with pre-existing conditions from being denied coverage, we would be in big trouble.

I feel badly for those who were impacted negatively by the ACA, but we need to try to fix the law to mitigate those issues rather than throw the whole thing out.

No one in this country should be in a position of having to choose between paying medical bills or putting food on the table or become destitute because of a catastrophic illness.

[chloevanderhof]

Thank you so much for the whole of this series, Frontline. Love that you let both sides speak uninterrupted.

[eye.]

David Axelrod regardless of politics, he is smart, well spoken, articulate man.

[justmyopinion]

David Axelrod is a very kind man. This is a great interview.

[christophed]

The perfect description of McConnell. Diabolical. Thank you David!

[douglasshaw]

You continue to discount the profound hatred people feel for Hilary Clinton. That hatred definitely was a component of Trump's win.

[katzolitamason]

This is enlightening and fabulous to listen to. I loved hearing the stories of Obama- the wise one- in the Whitehouse, and his thinking and the stories of how things came to be....

[shakazulu]

They could have used the bailouts as leverage to get banks to help homeowners with interest holidays, interest rate reductions... that could have been a win win solution, but instead homeowners got screwed.

[cynthiapikoulas]

The economy was hemorrhaging when Obama was elected. They fought long and hard to keep us from bleeding out. I believe they did develop a strategy, with few immediate options. The Bush administration handed Obama a disastrous quagmire of problems. In addition to that, Moscow Mitch McConnell had no interest in bipartisan support. There are imperfections on both sides of the isle. We all make a conscious decision to become part of the problem, or part of the solution. In the end, Obama and his administration put together a strategic, but steady plan for the trajectory of this economic recovery. TRUMP arrogantly gloating, has been the benefactor. If, Trump continues to make bad policy decisions, we'll be back in a tailspin for the next Democratic President to fix.

[jamesmcd]

Every Republican in these interviews have taken some responsibility for how we got to this point. Not 1 Democrat has taken responsibility in fact they blame everyone from the GOP to the voters in the middle of America.

[chaseofori-atta]

God bless Mr. Axelrod--a man of faith, a humanist, and a great American!

[ryanweaver]

Reading his book and Obama’s book… the intersections of academia and complexity and understandability. It’s a lot of and….

When we consider things like extension centers and various care access points; and the needs of academia and the positive feedback loops which take into account so much good work by so many people… it’s encouraging and almost head shaking at the possibilities.

[craigpoer]

I've watched a couple of videos from this series. This man ideas are why Trump is in office. Republicans and conservatives are not evil.

[joshuaschmude]

I love all of these Frontline interviews. Very balanced and straightforward, I appreciate that.

[riggingpots]

When McCain stopped the women and told her Obama is a good man and she was incorrect. He was right but that night was the beggining of the end.

[ryanweaver]

I read his book, Believer... I could picture Bobby Kennedy when he spoke about him. I also have been a fan myself, too young to have seen him in person. I went back and watched some stump town halls with RFK... there is something about standing up for others which inspires. I always thought of myself as trying to help. There have been times when I have been made fun of for trying to help... I'm ok with that. The work of better has to begin somewhere.

[tesfaiembaye]

One of the best explanations by David Axelford why there is Afd trampism in Germany and USA and why Brexit has arisen in the UK & European Union, Impressed David!!

[mcgman]

The personal interviews are excellent. I do applaud this interviewer. Whoever got their grubby hands on the editing rig really screwed this up for the final documentary. Its heavily biased in the favor of a single worldview and outlook. So much so that if the same tactics were used in reverse you could have come up with a completely different final product. When this happens its called editorial bias. You should have done better considering this is a PBS (publicly funded) product.