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Why Trump is rushing to max out new AF1 jet · THE DAILY BRIEF

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So what is the latest here?
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: This is like the latest twist in the kind of
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: ongoing controversy in questions around this new plane.
• 0:09
  Speaker 3: Exactly. That plane maxing is set to begin soon as
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  Speaker 3: the White House is making a plan to quickly upgrade
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  Speaker 3: that Katari gifted Air Force one that President Trump unveiled
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  Speaker 3: just a few weeks ago. And this comes with some
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  Speaker 3: remarkable reporting from our colleague Kristen Holmes. She says that,
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: according to two sources familiar with the matter, there were
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: internal discussions among Trump administration's official officials about whether President
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: Trump should avoid flying that new plane in high threat areas.
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  Speaker 3: Now the extent of these forthcoming upgrades are unclear, but
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  Speaker 3: it comes after the President returned from Turkey on the
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: old plane after flying there on the new plane. He
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  Speaker 3: said that was because the new plane was going to
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: be sent to Mildenhall Air Force Base in the United
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: Kingdom for service members to give it a tour. But
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  Speaker 3: we reported at the time, just a couple of weeks ago,
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: that that decision was driven at least in part by
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: escalating security concerns, as this conflict with Iran had been
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: ramping up in those days. Now, before that trips officials
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  Speaker 3: had discussed the possibility of Trump not traveling on that
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  Speaker 3: plane to high risk areas, but the decision was ultimately
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  Speaker 3: made for the President to proceed on this brand new plane.
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  Speaker 3: It was cleared for use the President traveling to Anchor
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  Speaker 3: for the G seven summit. Now, officials, one of those
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: sources told Kristen later realized that clearing it for use
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  Speaker 3: on that trip was a mistake, and now they are
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  Speaker 3: going to take some steps to rectify that. We heard
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  Speaker 3: from White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt in a statement.
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  Speaker 3: She says, quote, the new Air Force one is perfectly
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  Speaker 3: safe for the President's travels, but will receive additional upgrades
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: and enhancements in the fall, which will take approximately one
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: month to complete. Now, the President is still expected to
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: use this plane for some domestic trips as well as
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  Speaker 3: the possibility of in international trips in the coming months
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: before those upgrades. But some experts have warned that that
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: one month timeline isn't enough for the extent of the
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: security upgrades that they say are needed.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: Just to start with the speed with which this jet
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: was rolled out, this new Air Force one was rolled out.
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  Speaker 2: What did you make of it?
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  Speaker 4: Well, we can look at how long it's taken to
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  Speaker 4: build the new seven forty seven for the president. I
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  Speaker 4: think it's been six or seven years, so you know,
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  Speaker 4: it takes a good deal of time to prepare those
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  Speaker 4: aircraft for presidential travel. We think of seven forty seven's
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  Speaker 4: as you know, transport airplanes or commercial airliners. These are
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  Speaker 4: actually air Force aircraft, and they're prepared for a whole
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  Speaker 4: lot more than what the typical seven forty seven flying
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  Speaker 4: customers around.
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  Speaker 2: Is what else? Pres Secretary Caroline Levit said in the
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  Speaker 2: statement quote the new Air Force one is perfectly saved
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  Speaker 2: for the president's travels. Well, we'll receive additional upgrades and
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: enhancements in the fall, which will take approximately one month
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  Speaker 2: to complete. During that time, the president will fly on
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  Speaker 2: the old Air Force one. What is your sense of
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  Speaker 2: what enhancements would be needed at this point, Well.
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  Speaker 4: Let's got Well, first of all, they're classifying, so besides,
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  Speaker 4: I don't know details about them. They don't like to
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  Speaker 4: talk about them. The Air Force won't specifically talk about them.
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  Speaker 4: But they've got all kinds of capabilities to be able
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  Speaker 4: to recognize and mitigate any threats that may occur to
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  Speaker 4: the aircraft in the air in addition to the aerial refueling.
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  Speaker 4: So there's a lot of things that this US Air
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  Speaker 4: Force plane can do with a full Air Force crew
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  Speaker 4: to prepare and defend itself and fly safely with the
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  Speaker 4: President of the United States, a critical critical mission that
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  Speaker 4: they have every day.
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  Speaker 2: And they're extraordinarily good at what they do. Having been
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  Speaker 2: on Air Force one a number of times, one of
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  Speaker 2: the questions that I've had is, you know, you make
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  Speaker 2: the really great point about how long the process was
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  Speaker 2: taking compared to this one is a month, as the
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  Speaker 2: White House Press Secretary says, all it's really going to
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  Speaker 2: take to update the plane to where it needs to be.
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  Speaker 4: Well, there's radar, there's a different electronic warfare devices, there's
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  Speaker 4: elements that this airplane will have to protect the cargo,
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  Speaker 4: which is a president United States. Whether they can do
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  Speaker 4: that in a month or not, we saw them try
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  Speaker 4: and do it as quick as they could. Flying domestically,
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  Speaker 4: it's probably a whole lot safer. But flying out of Turkey,
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  Speaker 4: where they were literally on the border with Iran while
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  Speaker 4: we're in conflict with Iran, and so they were within
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  Speaker 4: arm's reach of the enemy. At this point, I can
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  Speaker 4: see that there was certainly concerns in that area, but
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  Speaker 4: once I got back to friendlier skies, they obviously made
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  Speaker 4: a decision that the president could fly on the aircraft
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  Speaker 4: at that point. But in order to have that airplane
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  Speaker 4: ready to go twenty four to seven anywhere in the world,
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  Speaker 4: they want to make sure it has absolutely every defensive
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  Speaker 4: capability that it needs to have to protect the president.
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  Speaker 4: And that's what they're going to do. And if they
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  Speaker 4: can do that in a month, that's great. And then
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  Speaker 4: you've got to figure a couple of years from now,
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  Speaker 4: when the president's out of office, will have to what's
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  Speaker 4: called d mill the airplane, which is take a lot
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  Speaker 4: of these capabilities off, because when he uses that aircraft
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  Speaker 4: as part of his president Library, he won't have the
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  Speaker 4: need or the ability to fly with those defensive measures.
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  Speaker 2: The president, you mentioned, you made a really good point
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  Speaker 2: earlier about there's lots off they don't talk about with
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  Speaker 2: these planes. You kind of know riding on them that
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  Speaker 2: they have capabilities, but you don't know exactly what it is.
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  Speaker 2: The President was asked specifically about anti missile defense systems,
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  Speaker 2: which the cutvery plane reportedly was not yet equipped with.
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  Speaker 2: He actually answered the question at some level. Does the
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  Speaker 2: standard Air Force one have on it things that make
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  Speaker 2: it something similar to that? Is that what makes it
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  Speaker 2: so secure?
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  Speaker 4: Well, air Force, listen again, I'm not an Air Force
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  Speaker 4: one pilot and don't have access to the capabilities I have.
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  Speaker 4: I just know that they will spare no expense to
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  Speaker 4: assure that that plane, every time the President is on
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  Speaker 4: it is as safe as possible with every anti missile capability.
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  Speaker 4: They have, every radar that's necessary, every electronic intelligence gathering
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  Speaker 4: tool that they have to have, as well as a
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  Speaker 4: full crew of Air Force operators that are on board
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  Speaker 4: to operate that military equipment, which is not a quick
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: when you see on a typical civilian seven forty seven.
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  Speaker 4: So getting that in place, getting that test and getting
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  Speaker 4: it ready and getting it usable is what's critical here.
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  Speaker 4: And whether it takes a month to finish it off
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  Speaker 4: or a few months, they're going to make sure that
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  Speaker 4: they do that because Air Force doesn't want the President
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  Speaker 4: to be in harms way, Secret Service doesn't want to
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  Speaker 4: be in harms way, and of course the President doesn't
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: want to be in harms way.
• 6:21
  Speaker 5: I do want to ask you about the fact that
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  Speaker 5: he has gone after there's a lot of discussion about
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  Speaker 5: this plane. Yeah, and even before there was reporting that
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  Speaker 5: the reason why they didn't use it coming back from
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  Speaker 5: NATO was because of security concerns. There were security concerns.
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  Speaker 5: That was kind of a well known thing. But now
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  Speaker 5: he is going after this leak. He's going after journalists
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  Speaker 5: asking for all manner of things. He's going after people
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  Speaker 5: inside of his staff as to whether they leaked something
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  Speaker 5: to them, even though this was kind of widely known
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  Speaker 5: that this plane needed some more potential security apparatus. Well,
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  Speaker 5: what do you make of the president's actions.
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  Speaker 6: I don't know what is was or is widely known
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  Speaker 6: on this front. But if you are in possession of
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  Speaker 6: security information, national security information that could jeopardize the safety
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  Speaker 6: of the president of the United States, and you choose
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  Speaker 6: to leak that, I would hope that you're held accountable
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  Speaker 6: for that, because that's indefensible.
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  Speaker 5: Should the journalists be held accountable?
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  Speaker 6: Well, every administration has taken some action against journalists when
• 7:18
  Speaker 6: they thought that they were in the wrong. I don't
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  Speaker 6: know what the truth is here, and I certainly give
• 7:22
  Speaker 6: journalists in the first Amendment of broad latitude, but I
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  Speaker 6: am extreme this guy. Has they tried to assassinate this
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  Speaker 6: guy numerous times, and we also know intelligence came from
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  Speaker 6: Israel that Iron was going to try to assassinate him
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  Speaker 6: while it was over there. He is probably is unsafe
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  Speaker 6: as any president we've had in the modern era because
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  Speaker 6: of all these threats, and so if you're leaking information
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  Speaker 6: that could make him more unsafe, I don't look too
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  Speaker 6: kindly on it.
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  Speaker 7: I don't think the journalists did anything wrong. I mean
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  Speaker 7: what they did was they were released the report after
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  Speaker 7: he was announced that he was not going to take
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  Speaker 7: the plane. He was not going to be on the
• 7:51
  Speaker 7: plane anyway. It was no danger to his safety whatsoever,
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  Speaker 7: and that automatically raises a red flag any journalists worth
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  Speaker 7: their salt, but immediately start acting asking a question, Wait
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  Speaker 7: a minute, he flew this plane, which he's been talenting
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  Speaker 7: all this time. It costs four hundred million dollars allegedly,
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  Speaker 7: and maybe even more. How much more the fix to
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  Speaker 7: all way over to Turkey and then he won't fly
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  Speaker 7: that same plane back there to get another plane in
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  Speaker 7: Any reporter would ask a question. That's a logical question
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  Speaker 7: that asked, And to me, this is a reflection of
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  Speaker 7: the incompetence of the Trump administration and the corruption of
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  Speaker 7: the Trump administration coming together to converge. This is the
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  Speaker 7: whole corrupt deal with the Katari government to accept this
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  Speaker 7: royal jet and violation of old constitutional requirements to the
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  Speaker 7: foreign of monuments, calls and everything else. Not only that,
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  Speaker 7: but then he does the wrong job. He doesn't even
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  Speaker 7: get the plane fixed right. He's in such a rush
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  Speaker 7: because he wants to get this done so it can
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  Speaker 7: show off, instead of letting the Air Force take its
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  Speaker 7: time and do the job correctly. This is the problem
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  Speaker 7: with Donald Trump. He's not focused on the things that
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  Speaker 7: the American people care about. They care about affordability, and
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  Speaker 7: he's spinning hundreds of millions of dollars to fix up
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  Speaker 7: a damned luxury jet.
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  Speaker 5: See if I do want to ask about something that
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  Speaker 5: Scott said, And he said, Look, this president has faced
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  Speaker 5: more than one assassination attempt several and you can look
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  Speaker 5: at the apparatus itself and say, since that is the case,
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  Speaker 5: shouldn't this have been taken care of beforehand, before he
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  Speaker 5: took any flights on this particular aircraft.
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  Speaker 1: Look, I think Scott had it nailed it. I mean,
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: you've got to make sure the president is always saved.
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  Speaker 1: This president or any president. You know, we don't want
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  Speaker 1: the movie version of Air Force one, and so I
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  Speaker 1: don't know what the facts are. But the most important
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  Speaker 1: thing is we've got to make sure that Air Force
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  Speaker 1: one is completely safe in the air and not vulnerable
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  Speaker 1: to missile.
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  Speaker 7: He has other planes, he has other Air Force one jets.
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  Speaker 8: And the facts are the plane was not safe enough
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  Speaker 8: to carry the president back from Turkey. That is a fact,
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  Speaker 8: and that speaks to why was the question of why
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  Speaker 8: was this rush? Why did this have to go up
• 9:53
  Speaker 8: in the air so quickly, as opposed to letting it
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  Speaker 8: be maxed out in a month's time.