tv Charlie Rose Bloomberg April 21, 2015 7:00pm-8:01pm EDT
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>> from our studios in new york city, this is "charlie rose." al: the most influential democratic party insider today is john podesta. chief of staff to president clinton he spearheaded an historic climate change pact with china and he is now chairman of hillary clinton's presidential campaign. we are pleased to have him here. thank you for being here. the clinton rollout has been colorfully carry a graft but low-key. is this contrast with 2007? john: we are excited about the
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way this campaign has begun. we wanted to make the point that this is not -- all what she was to do to be their champion. at her determination. the primary caucuses in new hampshire, to talk to voters one-on-one, to ask them some questions to exchange ideas and build this campaign from the bottom up. al: she is not talking to the press. she is not very accessible. john: she's done a few. al: not very many. is that the general approach? john: we are in week one of a 19 month campaign. the press will have plenty of time to ask her questions.
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right now, she wants to have dialogue with the voters and she doesn't want it intermediated just through reporters questions. she wants to go directly to voters to listen to their stories. that is why she is back and on her way to new hampshire. al: new hampshire? john: as we are doing this interview, she is driving to new hampshire. she will start off that dialogue by touring a small business in new hampshire and having a dialogue about how we can do a better job of making sure every american in everyday america has a shot to get access to credit cut red tape. al: and when will she start rolling out specifics on big issues? john: we are on a wrapup phase.
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she has laid down the challenges that she thinks are facing america, starting with building a new economy for the future. she will definitely put specifics on it. this will be a long campaign. we are in a phase where we are building out the campaign organization. she is talking to voters. sometime next month when we have a more official if you will, launch of the campaign, she will explain to the american public what she wants to do. and that will be the appropriate moment that she will begin to put specific policy proposals out. but it will not be a one-shot only deal. i know you want to see the whole platform today but we have 19 months that we are going to build up to a position where people really understand why she wants to be a champion for everyday americans.
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what she is going to do and why she is the best to do it. al: you did put out a trade statement -- a statement on the trade pact. artfully worded. but negative. she wants to crack down on currency manipulation. that is the province of finance ministers and central banks, not really trade agreements. issue teeing up by setting up an issue to oppose obama trade? john: they are the core of whether we will have the trade agreement that meets the test that she laid out. does it produce more jobs for american workers? does it produce wage growth? and are we going to strengthen national security? currency manipulation is at the heart of if trade can be fair.
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there has got to be a way that president can reassure the american people that currency manipulation is being dealt with in the context of this trade agreement -- negotiation. it is worth walking away. the most important thing is that it has to meet these high standards that she has put forward. her leadership is to provide what needs to be in these agreements and that includes labor rights and environmental protection. it includes making sure that public health is attended to and that people have access to life-saving drugs. she said in her book that she is somewhat skeptical about this whole issue around i asked es, the special negotiating provisions. what we don't need to do right now is tilt the playing field more in favor of corporations
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and against workers and consumers. al: she was very populist in her tone without specifics. she talked about the wealthy getting too much, spoiled. her cfo was a tough critic of wall street. matters of wall street, is her campaign going to look more like less war and then bill clinton? john: i think it will start by protecting dodd-frank rather than tearing it down. going on to too big to fail. finishing the job on wall street reform. al: more regulations? john: too big to fail needs work and is is being dealt with by regulators. the lack of regulation, particularly in advance of the crash got us into trouble.
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we need to move forward. we need to ensure that banks are healthy and providing credit to businesses and that they don't result in what we saw in 2008 when the financial crash lead to devastating results for families across the country. al: should the banks be broken up? john: what we need to do is have tough regulation and i am sure she will have ideas on how to do that. al: she has decried the corrosive influence that we might have to try a constitutional amendment to stop it and she is also reversing the obama practice, taking money from washington lobbyists and packss. it will she consider money from groups that don't disclose their donors? dark money act oh john: she is fighting against -- dark money? john: she is fighting against
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dark money. she can't take it. she is saying we need to clean up financial campaign finance. it to listen to voices of everyday americans. to move forward. and if it takes a constitutional amendment, so be it? . and this will set her apart from her republican opponents. she will appoint supreme court justices that protects the right of every american to vote. not by every corporation to buy an election. we need campaign finance reform. there is too much money in politics. al: why take money from lobbyists? obama didn't. john: if you notice how much money is coming at us, the koch brothers pledging $900 million to be spent ted cruz raising $31 million in two weeks.
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the judgment is we will take money if it is legal and if it is from -- we are just going to have to have the resources to compete in this election which will be supercharged with special-interest money coming at any democratic candidate. but particularly hillary clinton. if you listen to the republican candidates in new hampshire last week, you will see what is coming at us. there will be a tremendous amount of money being thrown at her. so we're going to raise the resources that are necessary. what we are concentrating on is raising what might seem like small dollar donations. primary donations that could be from one dollar up to $2700. we are trying to do that online by going to hillarycli nton.com.
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asking people to raise money from their friends and neighbors. but we are not going to cut off resources from people that i participated in the political system. al: we'll she released her full tax returns and medical records before the primary? john: she released her tax returns before 2008, up to and through 2008. she intends to release her tax return again in this campaign. she will do consistent of what others have done in the past. release her health records at an appropriate time. al: full medical? john: she will do -- she will -- it will be consistent with what other people have done in practice. people will know that she is in good health and there will be reassurances from her doctors when it is appropriate. if there is anything to see, you will see it. al: they attacked her on her
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record, her character, even her shopping habits, john. were you surprised? so tough, so early? [laughter] john: was i surprised? let's put it this way. they don't seem like they are that into her. but i wasn't that surprised. they are running a fully negative campaign. it comes with the territory and what we are doing is concentrating. making americans lives better not attacking republican candidates. if they want to spend all their time attacking her and not talking about what the future should look like, so be it. al: one of those second-tier candidate said it wasn't about her gender, it was about earl lack of accomplishments as secretary of state. what were her major compliments? john: she put together the
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sanctions package that led to at least the possibility of having a deal on the iran nuclear program. it took very patient and long time careful diplomacy. she restored america's place in the world which had been very badly battered through the previous administration. she engineered the pivot to asia. putting some new issues on the table for american diplomacy and internet treat him -- freedom. women's rights, lgbt writes, part of our diplomatic package which restored values to the way america projects its power around the world. she participated in the decisions that led up to the
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for americans were killed. the chairman of the house committee says the missing e-mails he will have to personally interview her privately before there is any public inquiry. it will she go along with that? john: she has already testified about it. it was a tragedy and i think she responded to it. she has put forward all of her e-mails that had to do with her job as secretary of state to the state department. she has taken an unprecedented debt in releasing all of them after they had been reviewed. she has said she will testify before him. she was to do it in public. once the point of a private interview? she's vaguely willing to be testified and grilled in public
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so that a couple of things can happen. the american people conceal the e-mails that they've sent. they can see her record as a strong secretary of state. she will answer the questions about what led up to it. there have already been several inquiries that dispelled the can serious -- conspiracy theories the republicans were peddling at the beginning. but it was a tragedy. it we lost four americans, including a great ambassador. i think she took responsibility moved forward, appointed a commission implemented a set of procedures that secretary kerry has moved forward with. we are never going to eliminate this risk. we can minimize it. we can do a better job. we can create better flows of intelligence.
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if we want americans on the lines risking their lives, you can't get it to zero. the only thing you can do is take responsibility when tragedy happens and try to build on that and learn those lessons and move word. al: another controversy, a book that accuses the clintons of giving favors to for an interest while cashing in on donations to their foundation and speaking. it was circulated at the senate foreign relations committee. john: it sounds like just the republican members. maybe just because, you know marco rubio rand paul happen to be members of the senate foreign relations. al: no democrats? john: not to the best of my knowledge. al: let's say the new york times and wall street journal and foxnews cut a deal to work with
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the author. to follow up on any charges. is this a concern to you? john: look. let's take a look at this book. it is a book that is written by a former bush operative that is a reporter for that news institution. he has cherry picked information that has been disclosed and woven a bunch of conspiracy theories about it. the fact there is nothing new about the conspiracy theories we will get to judge when we read the book. al: are you surprised the new york times cut a deal with him? john: they have a lot of reporters and can take a look at it. get them in here and ask them that question. this is what it is.
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we have seen it before. a couple others earlier. places where the perception of fairness is belied by the cherry picking of facts. conspiracy theories. the only reason those facts are out there is because the clinton foundation has put all that out. they have gone beyond any foundation of size that is operating globally. i am very knowledgeable and very proud the work they -- of the work they are doing around the world whether it is hiv-aids, whether it is providing development assistance to people in africa. they are doing tremendous work. all the clintons are proud of what the foundation has been able to do. al: the foundation said they
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will not take money from controversial foreign governments. john: they will take money from small -- a small set of countries that have been funding , previously programs that are working. they are in malawi, liberia, in haiti. it doing climate change work in the caribbean. it has built real, sustainable development and they will continue to accept it. al: aren't there still potential conflicts with those governments? john: i think the work is well-known. if anybody wants to, they should get on the plane with the president, go look at the actual project. look at the work being done, the lives being saved.
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the fact that the clinton foundation, they were working with them to deal with the ebola crisis. and then say, is that a conflict of interest? or is it doing something good for the world? it helps the people being directly helped. i think it is actually why the president is viewed as in such high regard. i think that is a benefit for the united states. al: what role will bill clinton and chelsea clinton play in this campaign? john: president clinton answered that in an interview with town & country and i think he appropriately said that right now, at this point, hillary clinton is out talking to voters , telling them her ideas. she is playing a behind-the-scenes role that is
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appropriate. if you wanted someone who was pretty good in politics, you would probably -- some advice to you. an appropriate role to go out and campaign but now is not that time. he's doing what he can to further his work with the foundation. and chelsea is fully invested and raising a little baby. i think she will be out there but i think at an appropriate time. it's not right now. it's not tomorrow. al: one of the problems in 2007 is that the clinton constellation was huge. and hangers on were coming in. do you have the authority as chairman to keep those people out? john: i hope so. i am always interested in people's views.
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and i encourage them to be comfortable in the campaign. we have campaigns being run by robbie that worked in the campaign in 2008. they just came off the successful campaign for the governor of virginia. i think it will have the most diverse campaign in presidential history. we have a set of values in this campaign that means that people who remember what we are about to improve the lives of everyday americans will succeed. and if people are not that, there will be no place for them in the campaign. al: you may have primary opposition. will hillary debate any primary opponent? john: yes. al: she will? john: i am confident we will
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have primary opposition and we don't take any of this for granted. she will debate her primary opponent. we expect to be challenged and we will run a campaign in all 50 states and the territories to get the nomination. al: john podesta thank you for being with us. we will be back in just a moment. charlie: paleo and -- tea leoni is here. she is back on television after 16 years and stars in the cbs drama madam secretary. the hollywood reporter writes " she is the center and appeal of madam secretary. the casting is spot on. her gravitas is believable at every turn."
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>> madam secretary, the ambassador of canada is still -- >> holy -- >> ahem. not sound proo. f. >> the government is doing every thing to keep you safe, even if it means nuking someone else. >> how did i do? charlie: please to have tea off the table for the first time. tea leoni: don't say it like i didn't want to come. i've been looking at this for years. charlie: you were doing unicef or something like that. he just took 16 years off? i don't need this acting thing
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and i will go do good things? tea leoni: i just find that there is a lot to be done. flyfishing must fit in there. i am obsessed. it is a fairly new obsession but it's in my blood. i have a long line of fly fishermen in the family. he is a corporate attorney but was chairman of the board and recently stepped down. we have been on the board together for about 10 years. there is no way they were putting me on that board with adam. charlie: another grandmother was a theater person? tea leoni: same grandmother.
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she was an actress and decided that the ripe old age of 28 to get out of the ugly business. and so she founded the u.s. fund for unicef. charlie: was that in your head when you got out for a while? tea leoni: it is still a little bit in my head. charlie: did you have some person that led you to the river? tea leoni: my great-grandfather was er hewitt no longer with us. he was a great fly fishermen. and if i were to get into the specifics that he designed and the felt on the bottom of roots you would be so bored. charlie: did he teach you?
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tea leoni: no. i got into it when i was really young. i found flyfishing much later and i love it. charlie: alone in your boots in the river, searching. tea leoni: phishing is a good stand in the river. charlie: just a blood the sun bouncing off the water. you get into it. and it's a skill like golf. charlie:tea leoni: it is more of an art than sport, like golf. the bring it on. i'm terrible. the first round is all i'm
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really good for. i go out there. i'm not thinking about it. my short game, it's just crazy. and then i'm shooting in the high 150's. charlie: do you work out every day? tea leoni: i would like to. i don't enjoy it. that's a lie. but i like walking. charlie: so you like walking? tea leoni: yes. and if i had my druthers, i would not be in the city. i would probably go to vermont. or maybe the cape. charlie: where was that place? tea leoni: i went to putney. it taught me to be a human. it perfected it for me. charlie: getting up at 4:30 a.m. and shoveling the newer -- manure. tea leoni: thank you for finding
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that word for me. my daughter is going to be doing a semester next fall. both of my kids have to do it before they leave. i have a 16-year-old girl. charlie: you know why 16 was so great? north carolina is when you got your drivers license. tea leoni: we are going at 8:00 in the morning. i am taking her to the dmv and getting her her permit first thing. don't you remember that feeling? and you could borrow your dad's car with a full tank of gas? charlie: what else are you going to do? tea leoni: we are doing a family thing on the day and we're
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getting her a funny cake. charlie: she is so close to her father? tea leoni: he's here and in new york. it david is very busy. he is writing books and making albums. he is busy but based out of new york. we live six blocks from each other. >> did you say, perfect? just for me? tea leoni: living on a horse farm. charlie: tea leoni: you can imagine this already. i don't see myself ever getting to this level or anything like it. i did relate to the idea that this was not a career politician. charlie: and she would have your
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career and be spunky. tea leoni: thank you. yes. charlie: did you shape this character? has it become more you? tea leoni: i don't know. i think we are meeting somewhere in the middle. but i have been doing film and it is two or three months and you are done. it is different. it is longer. it really cuts into the flyfishing. that's annoying. the thing is, you get to grow the characters. charlie: the golden age of television. tea leoni: i think they are right. charlie: the sopranos was voted
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the best television series of all time. and there was mash -- tea leoni: i don't know how anybody could do that, really truly. to say that this is the best? although it puts the sopranos out there. i would have to put lucy out there. charlie: a lot of women starring in tv today. tea leoni: we are covering a lot of ground. seeing women as a one-dimensional character or housewife or fish out of water now we sort of our covering all the bases. we have women with issues, women in politics, women who are heads of great countries or teams.
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it is a very different landscape now. i might even daresay better. charlie: did hillary enter into your mind? tea leoni: whether or not i would be a blonde or brunette. but i had no idea. i had no idea how important that decision was. if it goes for several years, i could start to go gray and it would be easier to hide gray in blonde than it would imprint at. that was my thought process. charlie: do you worry about going gray? tea leoni: my mother is 73 years old and she is gorgeous. she has fabulous white gray hair.
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she will throw on -- she is from texas. the idea of going to fix your face. i thought it was hilarious. let me go see what i can do here. but she will put on some list -- lipstick sometimes. charlie: define your character? tea leoni: it's funny. she wasn't really. she was a cia analyst and wasn't in the field doing much covert creepy work. but first and foremost, she is a great diplomat. charlie: what is a great diplomat? tea leoni: judging from my father he is very even keeled
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and even-tempered and able to see the other guy's argument better than the other guy can. i think that's the key to diplomacy. i gave that to elizabeth. charlie: and communicating that you can see. that you are listening and you get what he is saying. however -- tea leoni: i can only imagine how challenging that gets at certain terms. ♪
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charlie: have you thought it might be fun to become a diplomat? like u.s. ambassador? tea leoni: i have some time, you know. i might kick that around. but i don't think they are sending me to china. i think they're sending me to some place much smaller. maybe one of the islands. not the big one. charlie: [laughter] how has this character grown? tea leoni: she's gotten better at the job. slightly more normal.
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and i don't want this. charlie: you don't want her to be normal? tea leoni: not so much. no. i would like for her to stay thinking outside of the box. i don't want her to fall and that. i'll do my best to keep that alive. charlie: isn't this your character? doesn't she listen to you? tea leoni: lori mccreary is looking -- working with morgan freeman. and barbara hall. the three of us are on exactly the same page. i had a coffee. don't knock it. i know you can snub me on that one. it was a great coffee. she is fun. we are going on a double date
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next weekend to the white house correspondents dinner. charlie: so this character, what is the drama of this? tea leoni: we set out to do a woman who could. the little train that could. there are -- the television space has a lot of women struggling with very germanic and fun things to play whether it is the road husband or the addiction or the strange fetish. i was a little concerned but also adamant that elizabeth can do this. that a woman can do this.
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they can have a family that works, a marriage that works. and the more powerful than her husband in terms of the careers. and once we have laid it all out on paper, just the idea, i thought, this is going to be dull compared to what we are seeing. i'm hoping it's not. in that character, the ethics professor -- just throw out that old ethics professor husband. jumping the shark. charlie: that's what it is isn't it? i was loved those people the strong and independent women and their husbands are a professor. tea leoni: ok. i have not seen this.
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henry is the breakout role. we have not seen a man who is confident enough and strong enough to stand alongside a woman who arguably is one of the most powerful women in the world. he is doing a swimmingly good job at it. charlie: it takes a special kind of man to do that. tea leoni: i think so. charlie: take a look at this. i want to show just one example of what elizabeth mccourt is like. roll tape. >> i can't believe i missed it. >> you mean her betrayal? >> my job is to understand people. judge what they are capable of. >> so you let yourself down? >> in my country.
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-- and my country. >> heavy thought about what you would say to her if you had the chance? >> we have had many imaginary conversations for hours. mostly about why she did it. it being classified. highly. she didn't just betray me and her country. she hurt one of our friends. horribly.that's -- that's the part that i just can't reconcile with. charlie: wow. tea leoni: so upsetting. charlie: it was good. tea leoni: it's a hero for me.
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i got to work with marcia -- charlie: wasn't she married to neil simon? tea leoni: yes. it was a huge deal. talk about a woman breaking through. she was fabulous and gorgeous. i loved her in that. i loved her in that film. charlie: let's assume you're talking about somebody that was a former agent or friend or had done something terrible. and she had also gotten someone killed? tea leoni: one of our very closely jewel friends. -- close usualmutual friends. this is the humanity of that character. she betrayed me, her country, her president. but what she did to our friend
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-- the fact that she -- we get to see the humanity of this woman. hillary and matalin and condoleezza, these are women with very full lives. we never really got to see behind the curtain. it is what is entertaining and real and the show is doing what i wanted to do. >> jason, this is about your safety. >> you can't spring this on me. i would be a normal kid at a normal school. >> yourself and get on board. >> just do it, son.
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>> love you. >> uh-huh. >> he's right. it isn't fair. >> i knew it. i knew you would make me the bad guy. and then you had to pick the biggest guy on the planet just a push all of his buttons. >> maybe it is by just that in session with jason security. >> if you had seen what i had seen, you would want them to have protection. >> he doesn't need it. >> it's ok for you not to fight fair? is that it? >> we are not going to let your issues to force jason to be treated unfairly. >> what are my issues? >> are you ready to talk? let's talk. >> fine.
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i don't have time for this. you win. ok? tea leoni: that's a marriage. charlie: i don't think i like you so much. tea leoni: we fight well. it's good. i like that you know that they are going to persevere. charlie: they are real people. passions, feelings -- tea leoni: complicated and three kids. that's a lot. charlie: thank you for coming. tea leoni: i'm so happy to finally see this table. i wanted to lick my finger and use a little spit to get some of the marks off. i'm all for -- do you see that coming out? just use a little something. a little spit. thank you. charlie: great to have you here. let's go flyfishing. tea leoni: let's do it. charlie: on the next charlie rose, the most talked about
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these a new york is at the public theater and move to broadway later this summer. we talked to the director and also the star and creator. >> you make something and you have the wildest dream version of how you think you will be received. we are going to hang on. i started writing this when i was at the show. it was at random, it had great reviews on the back. i knew it was going to have a banging ending. i fell in love with the story. it the dickensian nature of life, almost from the second -- charlie: you say dickens, dickens, dickens. what was dickensian?
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>> alexander hamilton was born, possibly out of wedlock. his father split by the time he was 10 years old. his mother died in bed with him issue -- a few short years later. his brother was apprenticed to a blacksmith and was by himself. he got sent to live with the cousin after their death. the cousin killed himself. he got put in charge and was a clerk for a trading company that traded rom and slaves. there is the key point. he had wrote his way off the island. he described the carnage saying that he saw sites that were astonished for angels. people took up a fund to get him in education. charlie: we have a character that is a great american.
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there is drama that he dies at the individual which he may not have fired his gun. lots of different -- all right. you have translated that story and do so much more. tell me about the ideas that you want to pour into this to make it a new look. the founding fathers, the american experience? the different way of presenting it that would appeal to young people because they are young actors. >> you speak to what we were really conscious of. how do we eliminate distance between our story and now? we knew what it was going to sound like. and fundamentally, this is a country that was founded and created by immigrants. some form of transportation, they put their foot down on this soil and went to work.
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as we started thinking about taking the inspiration, we thought, here are a lot of events. that we have to tell a story. we both read the book and made our own timelines. and we would compare. this really spoke to me. this feels like it is essential. it became apparent early on as we were really designing how the show could function, this idea of doubling characters. he also plays jefferson and they have this connection to france in both have this relationship. how can we make the audience feel like who they are and what they understand is actually not so different from what these people were struggling with? charlie: it seems like a genius stroke now. but that's what you knew. >> i read two chapters of this book and i say someone is
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already done a hip-hop version of this. it is someone who grew up in hard times and wrote his way towards a better life. that is the hip-hop narrative from the south bronx in the 70's to today. so i googled hamilton hip-hop and it was not there. now you will see my show, but that was the first thing that jumped out at me. this was a fundamental hip-hop story. charlie: i'm just like my country. and i am not throwing away my shot. [laughter] is that what the president responded to what he said that tim geithner should see this? >> this is my first time performing this song in public. they asked me to perform something and i said i have the
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first treasury secretary. they allowed me to close out the show with that. he said that somebody ought to get geithner in here. i think he had a quote at that time because the economic crisis, everything had just blown up. he said tim geithner has the hardest job since alexander hamilton. i think it was his quote on the record of what tim geithner had ahead of him. and so, they were just figuring out how to do this and how to get us out of the hole we were in. i think he was tickled by the fact that i made a treasury secretary saying. and that song was from his perspective. he also performed it from his point of view so it got a laugh about halfway through. charlie: where did that idea
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come from? aaron burr's perspective? tea leoni:>> we have the antagonist narrating the story. that was immediately where i went. that said at the very difficult task of figuring out who aaron burr is you is a villain in history. i learned a lot about his life and i have to find my way and because there are a lot of biographies. gore wrote a historical fiction novel. his is a lot craftier than mine. one of the things i learned is that he is an early feminist. his daughter received an education greater than any man of that era. he was very close with his wife and his daughter. he was on the society without exam or hamilton for the
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>> "with all due respect" to bill clinton, if you're going to wear pink, you've got to go very, very big. ♪ in our lineup tonight, researchers line up their targets. congress lines up loretta lynch. baseball debates the semantics of the lineup. first, hillary and bill clinton line up their events. they each spoken about the same time this morning. the president at georgetown university and the would-be president at concord, new hampshire. andrew mitchell, who deserves credit or being one of the
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