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Chris Hayes's podcast interview with Michael Lewis on May 1, 2019
From Chris Hayes' podcast, "Why is this Happening?" recorded on May 1, 2019
MICHAEL LEWIS: I just had surgery on my hip when he was elected. I was stuck in bed, and I was being given these opioids, I was in this horrible state of mind, thrashing around, thinking, “Aside from my hip, why do I feel the way I do?” And it was because of this sense that Trump was a risk-loving person and an ignoramus. He was being given this enterprise. And I started thinking about all the different ways he might kill me.
...
But my mind was floating. It was in this space of what's the risks of having this person {Trump} run this thing? Then when I started interviewing people in the government it became clear this was a perfectly legitimate way to view the government. At its very basic level the government's job is to keep us safe. It does lots of other things. You can view the government in lots of other ways. You can view it as a service provider. You can view it as an employer, but at its very basic level its job is to keep us safe.
When you wander around it you start to appreciate how many things there are to keep us safe from. The things that pop to mind when you're thinking of that are very vivid things, vivid risks, nuclear terrorist attacks or pandemics or natural disasters, all of which the government is responsible for defending us from.
...
But my mind was floating. It was in this space of what's the risks of having this person {Trump} run this thing? Then when I started interviewing people in the government it became clear this was a perfectly legitimate way to view the government. At its very basic level the government's job is to keep us safe. It does lots of other things. You can view the government in lots of other ways. You can view it as a service provider. You can view it as an employer, but at its very basic level its job is to keep us safe.
When you wander around it you start to appreciate how many things there are to keep us safe from. The things that pop to mind when you're thinking of that are very vivid things, vivid risks, nuclear terrorist attacks or pandemics or natural disasters, all of which the government is responsible for defending us from.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/how-break-federal-government-michael-lewis-podcast-transcript-ncna1000586