Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / GOP Senator goes off on Trump for praising Putin ‘He is a murderer!’

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GOP Senator goes off on Trump for praising Putin ‘He is a murderer!’ · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Zelensky says critical Patriot missiles Ukraine was expecting have been
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: put on hold by the Trump administration. This is according
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: to Congressman Don Bacon, who was on a call with
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Zelensky and other U.S.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Lawmakers today. It comes as Trump says he has opened.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: A meeting with Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping about
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: ending the Ukraine war. That meeting of the three of
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  Speaker 1: them would not include the fourth, Vladimir Zelensky.
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  Speaker 3: Zelensky says you're on the wrong side of history on
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: this one.
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  Speaker 4: Zelensky said it? Zelensky doesn't know what he's talking about.
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  Speaker 4: Zelensky is a man that should have had this war
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  Speaker 4: settled a long time ago.
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  Speaker 3: I think it's time for somebody else to negotiate on
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  Speaker 3: behalf of Ukraine.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, just again to say, the president said Russia, frankly,
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  Speaker 1: has been fine on Ukraine.
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  Speaker 2: They haven't been doing much.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, other than, you know, attacking them with drones
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  Speaker 1: and missiles constantly with the largest civilian death toll since
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: the war began in recent days. Even today, Zelensky posted
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  Speaker 1: an image of that sticks with you. It is hard
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  Speaker 1: to look at. A Ukrainian girl, a toddler in a stroller,
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  Speaker 1: she was killed today by Putin's missiles. You look at that,
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  Speaker 1: her face is blurred.
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  Speaker 2: She's dead.
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  Speaker 1: Her shoes are perfectly tied by her mother, who also died.
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  Speaker 1: Zelensky says that that child was killed in a park
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  Speaker 1: in Kharkiv today.
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  Speaker 2: Her name was Angelina.
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  Speaker 1: And she was killed along with an 11-year-old child, her mother,
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  Speaker 1: and three others. Up front now, Republican Senator Tom Tillis,
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  Speaker 1: who is author of the new book, How to Lose
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Friends and Antagonize Presidents. And Senator Tillis, I don't know
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  Speaker 1: if today you had a chance to see that image.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: It is unforgettable and painful and just the shoes. You
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: had a call today with Zelensky. There were other lawmakers
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: on it. Congressman Bacon, I know, was one of them.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: And Zelensky posted a photo of that call. What did
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: he say that you could share with us? I know
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  Speaker 1: he might have talked about the Patriot missiles. Was there
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: anything you could share with us about that or anything else?
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  Speaker 3: Well, he spoke about the recent attacks. He talked about
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  Speaker 3: the degradation of intelligence or at least early warning.
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  Speaker 4: He talked about the limiting intelligence.
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  Speaker 3: Elements to what had previously not been limits on how
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  Speaker 3: some of the Starlink or Starshield.
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  Speaker 4: Capabilities were using.
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  Speaker 3: I take Elon Musk at his word. He said he
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: had nothing to do with it. So we're trying to
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: find out who in the administration did. Sadly, we also
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: saw some of those photographs. And Aaron, I was in
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  Speaker 3: Kharkiv and in Kyiv about a month ago, and I
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  Speaker 3: saw the devastation. I saw what this murderer Vladimir Putin
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  Speaker 3: has ordered I heard the stories about women being raped
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  Speaker 3: in front of their husbands and then their husbands assassinated.
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  Speaker 3: I went to schools that are meeting in subways in
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  Speaker 3: Kharkiv because they can't meet above ground. I talked to
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  Speaker 3: victims who escaped from Crimea where they're basically brainwashing them
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  Speaker 3: into thinking that they're denazifying Ukraine. And it's interesting when
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  Speaker 3: you consider that they have a Jewish president. Russians are lying.
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  Speaker 3: Putin is lying. Putin is playing President Trump like a fiddle.
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  Speaker 3: And history is not going to look good on an
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  Speaker 3: America that failed to rise up and defend the Western
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  Speaker 3: world if Putin actually gets his way.
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  Speaker 4: And I believe that a.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: Summit with Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, two countries who
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: want to overwhelm the world, is absurd.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: So when Trump says today, and I quote him again, Russia, frankly,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: has been fine on Ukraine.
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  Speaker 2: They haven't been doing much. And the same thing with China.
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  Speaker 4: Haven't been doing much.
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  Speaker 2: What do you even say to that?
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  Speaker 3: Look, when I was in Kharkiv, when we left Kyiv
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  Speaker 3: and we went to Kharkiv, we were the first delegation
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  Speaker 3: to be allowed to travel that far out. And of course,
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: the State Department had a warning to us soon because
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  Speaker 3: we were able to track some of the Russian drones
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  Speaker 3: that were in the air and they were staying away
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  Speaker 3: from us. The point was they were everywhere. They were dropping.
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  Speaker 3: They're dropping on. We went in the ride to Kharkiv.
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  Speaker 3: We saw nothing but devastated civilian grocery stores, gas stations.
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  Speaker 4: We saw schools. Look, he is a murderer and not
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  Speaker 4: doing a lot. What does that mean?
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  Speaker 3: He only killed 20 or 30 people a day versus
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  Speaker 3: a thousand. I mean, my God, one life is too
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  Speaker 3: many at the hands of Vladimir Putin and President Trump
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  Speaker 3: should know better.
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  Speaker 1: Did he did he did Zelensky give any details on
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  Speaker 1: the Patriot missiles, which obviously are the front line of defense?
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  Speaker 1: I met one of the groups running the Patriot battery
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  Speaker 1: in Kiev that they've run out of those. So that
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  Speaker 1: in addition to the Starlink that you're talking about, where
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  Speaker 1: they weren't getting the early warning, they also didn't have
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  Speaker 1: the ability to defend themselves. Has he has he been
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  Speaker 1: told those are that's not happening?
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  Speaker 3: If the information that we received today and I'm in
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: the middle of confirming it, one thing that I ask
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  Speaker 3: is I want to know how the service has degraded
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  Speaker 3: over time, either intelligent intelligence sharing or. or the capabilities
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  Speaker 3: of Starlink. But President Zelensky also mentioned that a part
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  Speaker 3: of what they want are simply Patriot missiles that are
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: coming from third-party countries that are prepared to provide it
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  Speaker 3: if we get an okay here. I want to know
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  Speaker 3: who in the government is saying no to those transfers.
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  Speaker 3: This is not even taking it from our inventories. This
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  Speaker 3: is allowing it to be transferred from other European nations.
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  Speaker 3: Whoever that person is that's making that conscious decision has
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  Speaker 3: the blood on their hands every bit as much as
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  Speaker 3: Vladimir Putin.
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  Speaker 4: In these strikes that are occurring right now.
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  Speaker 1: This is all happening in the context of the midterm elections.
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  Speaker 1: And Vice President Vance held a rally in your state today,
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  Speaker 1: North Carolina. He was campaigning with Michael Watley, who is
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  Speaker 1: running to fill.
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  Speaker 2: Your seat, of course.
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  Speaker 1: Now, early voting shows 20 percent of ballots cast so
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: far in your state are by registered Republicans. Now, that
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: is down significantly from 2024 or 2022 at this point.
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  Speaker 2: So it's early.
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  Speaker 1: But I'm just giving the reference kind of apples to apples.
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  Speaker 1: You have predicted an electoral bloodbath for Republicans. But you
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  Speaker 1: heard Trump earlier today say the, quote, polls are.
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  Speaker 2: Fake.
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  Speaker 1: Speaker Johnson said we're going to defy these, quote unquote,
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  Speaker 1: crazy polls.
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  Speaker 2: Are they wrong or are you worried about the polls?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think some of us will be proven right
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  Speaker 3: and some will be proven wrong in 15 days and
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: a few hours. And quite honestly, Erin, I'm tracking the
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  Speaker 3: daily polls there. We are seeing an intensity from Democrats
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: and unaffiliates in the state That is at a very
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: high level. And we're seeing a drop off, not precipitous,
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: but a drop off of Republican levels as compared to 2022.
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  Speaker 3: If that trend continues, then I start worrying not only
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  Speaker 3: about Michael Whatley, who has an uphill climb, but congressional
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  Speaker 3: races that are on the bubble and legislative majorities that
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: I played a hand in getting back in 2010. And look,
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: I don't believe if you think there's a problem there,
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  Speaker 3: you should do everything you can to call on people
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  Speaker 3: to help you fix it. But if you turn around
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  Speaker 3: and say there's nothing to see here, all the polls
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  Speaker 3: are fake, then how is that going to mobilize maybe
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  Speaker 3: Republicans who would otherwise vote if they think that things
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  Speaker 3: are in hand? Look, we've got challenges here. It doesn't
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  Speaker 3: take a political scientist or an expert pollster to understand
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  Speaker 3: the trends. I want Republicans to win, but we better
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  Speaker 3: recognize the.
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  Speaker 4: the challenge that's ahead of us.
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  Speaker 3: And incidentally, it's a challenge that I forecast that in
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  Speaker 3: April of 2025, not this April, if we continue to
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  Speaker 3: take our eye off of the ball of the economy
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  Speaker 3: and getting immigration and the border right.
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  Speaker 4: And that's what we're seeing today.
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  Speaker 2: Which is important when you point out when you made
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  Speaker 2: the prediction, obviously.
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  Speaker 1: Was a year before the Iran war started. You do
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  Speaker 1: write in your new book that if your prediction comes true,
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  Speaker 1: which is that Republicans will lose the House and potentially
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  Speaker 1: the Senate, you write then, quote, prepare for the kind
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  Speaker 1: of insanity that makes everything we're living through now look
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: positively sunny by comparison. You think we've seen some major
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  Speaker 1: WTF moments so far?
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  Speaker 2: You ain't seen nothing yet.
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  Speaker 1: Look, in the context of what keeps people up at night,
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  Speaker 1: that's a sinister line.
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  Speaker 2: What do you think is coming?
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  Speaker 3: Well, what I hope is coming is a Senate that's
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  Speaker 3: still controlled by Republicans. So I want people like Susan
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  Speaker 3: Collins and John Husted and Dan Sullivan to do well
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  Speaker 3: and make sure that we stand in the breach. I
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: believe that the House is probably going to begin just
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: continuous investigations, some valid, maybe some political. But that's going
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  Speaker 3: to create all kinds of challenges for this administration that
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  Speaker 3: hasn't really done.
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  Speaker 4: A good job of engaging Congress.
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  Speaker 3: I have been asking the president, who I support and
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  Speaker 3: vote with a vast majority of the time, to engage Congress.
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  Speaker 4: That's how you're going.
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  Speaker 3: To build and have a better bulkhead against the election
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  Speaker 3: cycle if we've done it.
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  Speaker 4: Now he may lose one chamber, statistically speaking.
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  Speaker 3: I think that it's likely that the House changes gavels
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  Speaker 3: and he's going to have to deal with those consequences.
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  Speaker 3: And I believe that Congress is going to have to
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  Speaker 3: play a much more prominent role over the last two
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  Speaker 3: years of the president's administrations.