Former White House adviser John Podesta praises 'superstar' Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

Hillary Clinton's former presidential campaign manager has labelled Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern a "superstar".

John Podesta, who was the White House chief of staff to President Bill Clinton and a counsellor to President Barack Obama, told Newstalk ZB's Heather Du Plessis-Allan that Ardern had given hope to social democrats all around the world.

"She's made an impression on the world. She's somebody that people are paying attention to.

"I think they look to her as someone who has found a way to directly connect and make people feel like they are bonded to their political leader," he said.

"I think she combines an approach that is dealing with building a fair, more inclusive, more sustainable economy with someone who is exciting and young and brings her baby to the United Nations."

Podesta said he thought it was "great" that Ardern had taken Neve to the United Nations.

He said the Democrats would be wise to take a leaf out of Ardern's book.

"They need to be comfortable in their own skin, authentic, telling their own story, giving the reason why they understand what's happening to families in America and why people feel like the system is rigged for the top and not working in their favour and they have to draw from their own experience to do that.

"They [voters] want to know how you are going to approach things, react to things, feel things and I think she [Ardern] has been pretty good at that so far."

Podesta also gave his views on United States President Donald Trump, saying he is "completely unfit and unqualified to be President of the United States".

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