"I had not spent a lot of my life hanging out with Republicans, and what I imagined they were talking about was exactly the opposite."

"Now I'm in an administration surrounded by immensely talented people who are immensely idealistic. I always imagined Republicans would get together thinking about how to screw the poor and reduce taxes on the rich, but they're actually narrowly focused on how do we solve these big problems and make our country work. The level of idealism that I see at every level in the White House and in my agency is inspiring. And then the level of capability—the competence of the people I'm surrounded with...."

And a bit earlier in the conversation: "My father hated partisanship because he thought it was dishonest. He always told us you should vote for the man, not the party.... I grew up in a Democratic Party that was very anti-NAFTA. It was against working people and labor unions. Then Trump said that he was anti-NAFTA. All of a sudden, the Democratic Party was pro-NAFTA. And that's what turned my head the first time. Then, when Trump questioned vaccines during the 2016 election. The Democratic Party had that skepticism and those concerns spread evenly across the party. My uncle Ted Kennedy was very much on the side of medical freedom. It was evenly spread. But as soon as Trump said that, it became part of the dogma of that party. And then, when I ran, one of the things I ran against was the Ukraine war. Democrats were always the anti-war party. But as soon as Trump questioned that war, they became the pro-war party. They invited the CIA director to speak at the Democratic convention.... The party's only agenda is 'we hate Trump,' and anything he says, we're going to do the opposite of it. And it makes me very sad for the party."