The Axe Files with David Axelrod

This week The Axe Files team is sharing an episode of CNN’s The Assignment with Audie Cornish. One year after Roe v Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, we were wondering: what is happening to people caught up in the web of changing law? It's been a tumultuous and uncertain era for reproductive rights, so this week The Assignment checks in on the activists at the frontline de...

Lifelong Republican Bill Gates was working as a lawyer and serving on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in Arizona’s most populous county when the 2020 election upended his life. Maricopa County became a hub of the Stop the Steal movement, and Bill, who defended the safety and legitimacy of the election, became a top target. Bill joined David to talk about navigating vicious attacks from th...

This week, we’re revisiting a 2018 interview with Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian opposition activist who was sentenced to 25 years in prison in April 2023 after speaking out against the war in Ukraine. Vladimir was just 10 years old during the Russian Democratic Revolution in 1991. Witnessing a revolution was a formative experience that led to a lifetime of pro-democracy activism. In 2018, Vladimi...

Since leaving office in 2016, former President Barack Obama has been a careful observer of the ebbs and flows of democracy around the globe, speaking out on the subject and building coalitions through the Obama Foundation. President Obama joined David to talk about the state of democracy at home and abroad, how the economy and technological advances impact politics and polarization, the weaponizat...

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins arrived at college as a chemistry major, but the die-hard Crimson Tide fan soon realized life in a science lab was not her calling. After scouring the university’s course book, she decided to give journalism a try. Now, at just 31 years old, she is about to take over anchor duties for the 9 p.m. hour on CNN. Kaitlan joined David to talk about how her upbringing in Prattville,...

As a child, Michael Wilbon was allowed to argue about sports and politics at the dinner table—as long as he backed up his point. That early training helped launch Michael into a distinguished career as a sportswriter, columnist, and co-host of ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption.” Michael joined David to talk about growing up on Chicago’s South Side, joining the Washington Post in the afterglow of Wat...

Arizona Senator Mark Kelly never planned to go into politics. But in the years after his wife, former Rep. Gabby Giffords, was shot in an assassination attempt, the former astronaut decided to put aside his space suit and run for office. Sen. Kelly joined David to talk about gun violence, moving forward in the wake of Gabby’s injury, immigration and the Arizona border, the debt ceiling, and the im...

Former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson sued the network’s longtime boss Roger Ailes for sexual harassment in 2016, catapulting her into a broader fight for women’s rights. Since leaving Fox News, Gretchen has become a force in advocating for safer workplaces for women and other marginalized groups through her organization, Lift Our Voices, which has helped enact legislation banning forced arbitrati...

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker has carved out a national profile as a staunch advocate for abortion rights and gun control, raising speculation last summer that a 2024 presidential run was in his future. While he confirmed he won’t take on President Joe Biden, Gov. Pritzker joined David to talk about governing through Covid-19, the rise in anti-Semitism and attacks on minorities, his views on imm...

California Rep. Katie Porter is best known for wielding a whiteboard during congressional hearings, stumping CEOs and government officials on how their actions impact everyday Americans. As a single mother who grew up on a farm in Iowa, Rep. Porter has said she entered Congress with a different perspective than many of her colleagues on what exactly an everyday American is, inspiring her jump to p...

Chicago mayor-elect Brandon Johnson started his campaign trailing in the polls with little name recognition among Chicago voters. But with the help of the Chicago Teachers Union, the former teacher and CTU organizer built a progressive movement, ultimately winning the mayor’s race. Mayor-elect Johnson joined David to talk about growing up as one of 10 children, his introduction to politics, making...

Former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson recently announced he’s running for president in 2024. While Gov. Hutchinson has less name recognition than other Republican primary contenders—primarily\ Donald Trump—he hopes to draw a contrast between himself and other candidates by eschewing outrage and focusing instead on bringing back civility and traditional conservative values to the GOP. After servi...

From trying his hand as a monk at a monastery in Sri Lanka to reporting from Prague following the collapse of the Soviet Union, former reporter Neil King has traveled all over the world. In March 2021, he set out on a different kind of journey, walking from his home in Washington, D.C. to New York City. Along the way, he hoped to explore “a founding slice” of the country and take the pulse of pres...

This week, we revisit a 2017 conversation with CNN Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour. She joined David in London to discuss growing up in Iran during the revolution, her experience covering the first Gulf War, her relationship with John F. Kennedy Jr., the refugee crisis, and much more. To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your...

Theo Epstein made a name for himself in baseball by helping teams facing significant championship droughts, like the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs, capture World Series wins using data and analytics. He now works for Major League Baseball, where he helped develop new rules intended to move the game away from data-driven play and improve the flow and entertainment value of the game. For opening d...

CISA Director Jen Easterly got an early taste of government as a sixth grader when her class was featured in a commercial for then-presidential candidate Ronald Reagan. The ad never made it to air, but Director Easterly continued in public service. After spending decades in the Army and the private sector, Director Easterly now leads the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CI...

Since childhood, journalist John Hendrickson has lived with a stutter: wrestling with it, searching for escapes from it, and working to accept it. John, who rose to national prominence after interviewing then-presidential candidate Joe Biden about his own stutter in 2019, recently wrote a book about his experiences and the science behind stuttering. John joined David to talk about living with a st...

In high school, Michael McFaul developed an interest in the Soviet Union that would eventually lead to him serving as US Ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, McFaul emerged as a vocal supporter of Ukraine. McFaul joined David to talk about his work advising on sanctions against Russia, why he believes that the US should go all-in on military aid...

Just days after he was sworn in to Congress, former GOP Rep. Peter Meijer of Michigan watched in horror as protestors stormed the Capitol. Deeply unsettled by the experience, he voted to impeach President Trump, opening a lane for a Trump-endorsed primary opponent to defeat Meijer in 2022. He joined David to talk about his Michigan-famous family name, his time in the military, the importance of de...

Beto O’Rourke shot to national prominence in 2018 when he narrowly lost to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in an unexpectedly close election. Two years later, he ran in the Democratic presidential primary, and, in 2022, he ran for governor of Texas. While the three back-to-back races were unsuccessful, they generated enthusiasm and energy and at times helped reinvigorate the Democratic Party in Texas. Beto jo...

As a Jewish kid growing up in Duluth, Minnesota, Amb. Tom Nides didn’t plan to be a diplomat some day. After a career spanning roles in government and business, he took on the position of US ambassador to Israel in 2021. Following a year of relative calm, Nides now finds himself weathering a tumultuous few months under a new Israeli government—the most right-wing in the country’s history. He joine...

Growing up with severe dyslexia, California Governor Gavin Newsom questioned his own intelligence and path forward. But things began coming together in college when he embraced his interest in politics. Gov. Newsom joined David to talk about his childhood, the tension of growing up with little money while being deeply connected to the Bay Area’s elite, approving same-sex marriage in San Francisco...

A chance meeting with his Congressman during a high school football banquet set Tim Ryan on a path to politics, from a seat in the Ohio Senate, to two decades in the U.S. House of Representatives, to a bid for U.S. Senate in 2022. He joined David to talk about growing up in working class Ohio and how the Democrats lost touch with blue-collar America, the state of the federal government and the nee...

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 wa...

When poet Amanda Gorman was 5 years old, she was already in the habit of waking up before dawn to write; her mother paid her a quarter each morning she stayed in bed past 6 a.m. Poetry became Amanda’s outlet for exploring history and her own experiences. Her talents have taken her from serving as the first National Youth Poet Laureate to reciting her poem, “The Hill We Climb,” at President Joe Bid...