Posted December 6, 2012

Trent Lott: "We quit running around talking at each other and sat down and talked with each other."

By Abbey Brandon

In interviews this week with CNN's Anderson Cooper, BPC co-founder and former U.S. Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell and BPC Senior Fellow and former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott discussed their roles and obligations as leaders to negotiate deals and broker compromises.

Watch Senator Lott on CNN

Cooper mentioned Senator Lott’s recent Washington Post op-ed with the headline, “Washington lost its love of the deal.” Without legislative leadership, Lott said in the piece, and a “willingness from both parties to engage in negotiation, don’t expect results to differ from those of the past two years.”

Watch Senator Mitchell on CNN

Senator Mitchell published a companion op-ed with the headline, “How to work with Republicans,” offering a Democratic perspective of how he was able to represent his party while also working closely with then Republican Leader and Senator Bob Dole.

The two pieces urged Congress and the president to learn from their lessons and move past partisan divides to get to work for the American people.

Media Highlights

• How to work with Republicans
  The Washington Post
• Washington lost its love of the deal
  The Washington Post
• Let's Get to Work: BPC's open letter to our nation’s leaders

Communications, 2012 Politics , Bipartisanship