Latest / THE DAILY BRIEF / GOP megadonor publicly breaks with Trump on Iran war

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GOP megadonor publicly breaks with Trump on Iran war · THE DAILY BRIEF

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  Speaker 1: Okay, let's talk about this red flag for Republicans when
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  Speaker 1: it comes to the midterms. One of Trump's most influential
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  Speaker 1: donors is actually breaking with the president over the war
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  Speaker 1: in Iran. Now, Politico is reporting that it obtained audio
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  Speaker 1: of billionaire tech investor and Republican mega-donor Peter Thiel. They
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  Speaker 1: quote him speaking at a private event earlier this month, saying, quote,
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  Speaker 1: I'm skeptical of the war. I think we should not
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  Speaker 1: have done it. There were a lot of mistakes that
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  Speaker 1: were made. President Trump, of course, sees it very differently.
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  Speaker 2: I think it's one of the greatest things we've done.
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  Speaker 2: We've stopped Iran from having a nuclear weapon. It's one
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  Speaker 2: of the best things that we've done. It took a
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  Speaker 2: lot of courage to do it because no other president
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  Speaker 2: was willing to do it. And if we didn't do it,
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  Speaker 2: Iran would right now have already used massive nuclear weapons.
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  Speaker 1: Group chat is back. Just a reminder, Peter Thiel helped
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  Speaker 1: found PayPal, early investor in Facebook. He currently has a
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  Speaker 1: stake in SpaceX, etc., More importantly, he gave $ 15 million
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  Speaker 1: to a super PAC for J.D. Vance's Ohio Senate run.
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  Speaker 1: In a lot of ways, I don't know if there's
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  Speaker 1: a J.D. Vance without Peter Thiel.
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  Speaker 3: There isn't.
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  Speaker 1: So is this really like a person who, like Vance,
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  Speaker 1: isn't into this war speaking in a way that is
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  Speaker 1: kind of predictable if you know J.D. Vance's politics?
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  Speaker 4: No, I think there's a number of Republicans that are
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  Speaker 4: feeling right now if we weren't in Iran, we wouldn't
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  Speaker 4: have these billboards on every street corner across America saying,
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  Speaker 4: with high gas prices, which is causing a lot of
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  Speaker 4: the angst at the kitchen table. So there's a number
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  Speaker 4: of Republicans who who I feel the same way that
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  Speaker 4: Peter Thiel feels. It just so happens, given his position
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  Speaker 4: and and backing of the vice president and others. He's
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  Speaker 4: got a, you know, people are listening to what he
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  Speaker 4: says and I guess tape recording private conversations.
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  Speaker 5: What's happening at these donor events?
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  Speaker 4: I don't know.
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  Speaker 6: Well, he's also on a look for the Antichrist. So
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  Speaker 6: he probably has to have a lot of recordings going on.
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  Speaker 6: And he's famously not sure whether or not humanity should survive.
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  Speaker 6: So Peter Thiel, I think he's got an interesting set
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  Speaker 6: of opinions.
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  Speaker 4: He's got a good background.
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  Speaker 6: You know, the other people that thought maybe... that we
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  Speaker 6: shouldn't be in this war with Tulsi Gabbard, the Director
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  Speaker 6: of National Intelligence.
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  Speaker 5: I think a lot of people feel like we shouldn't be.
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  Speaker 5: I just feel like people aren't saying it. And so
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  Speaker 5: that's arguably the news here. And they aren't saying it.
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  Speaker 5: They're not saying it, actually. They're being recorded privately as
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  Speaker 5: we're seeing it. And we're hearing it being announced. But
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  Speaker 5: everyone feels that way. No one is going to sit
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  Speaker 5: here and say this was a good idea. Except for
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  Speaker 5: Donald Trump.
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  Speaker 1: And then it comes up over and over again when
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  Speaker 1: you're running for office. We talked about Kansas earlier. Here's
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  Speaker 1: a Roger Marshall in a conversation with my colleague Manu
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  Speaker 1: Raju just on Sunday.
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  Speaker 7: What about Iran?
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  Speaker 8: I think you guys need to talk about something that
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  Speaker 8: Kansans want to be talking about.
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  Speaker 2: You want to talk about the Iran war?
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  Speaker 8: I've given you my comments on Iran before. Look, I
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  Speaker 8: want this war to be over as quickly as possible.
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  Speaker 8: I don't want to lose any soldiers, any more soldiers
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  Speaker 8: like Eisenhower. I hate war.
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  Speaker 5: Good answer? Look, yes, but he was very reluctant in
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  Speaker 5: the beginning. He gathered himself. It looked as if he
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  Speaker 5: gathered himself because he did not want to discuss it
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  Speaker 5: because they don't like to break with Trump. I understand
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  Speaker 5: that's clearly what's happening here, but nobody wants this war.
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  Speaker 5: And now they're realizing they have to. A lot of gathering.
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  Speaker 9: There's a lot of gathering. There's a lot.
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  Speaker 4: And there's two things that have to happen for Republicans
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  Speaker 4: to get through the midterms. It's semi-intact. There's two things
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  Speaker 4: that have to happen. You have to make this as
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  Speaker 4: much about local issues as you possibly can. And you
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  Speaker 4: have to get Donald Trump out on the campaign trail
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  Speaker 4: to motivate his base.
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  Speaker 6: No, no.
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  Speaker 4: Let me to motivate his base that generally only comes
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  Speaker 4: out on the on the. every four years when he's
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  Speaker 4: on the ballot. We've seen it in 18, 22, and
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  Speaker 4: now in 26. And to make both of those things
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  Speaker 4: happen is incredibly difficult. I'm not sure it's going to happen.
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  Speaker 5: I feel like local issues are now still directly related
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  Speaker 5: to world issues. I think the way in which we
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  Speaker 5: are moving, we can't separate that. I hear people talk
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  Speaker 5: about it all the time. People who could care less
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  Speaker 5: about what's going on in the other part of the
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  Speaker 5: world now do. Because they're looking at the gas prices.
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  Speaker 5: They're seeing inflation. And they understand that two plus two
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  Speaker 5: does equal four.
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  Speaker 2: Russia and China helping Iran.
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  Speaker 3: And if so, how?
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  Speaker 10: Well, Senator, as the chairman alluded to, there's definitely adversary
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  Speaker 10: alignment attempts to do so. And there are many ways
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  Speaker 10: that we can. deter that, some of which are, and
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  Speaker 10: the depth and extent of it ought to remain classified,
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  Speaker 10: and it should. But there are ways in which both
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  Speaker 10: of those countries are limiting at different levels, enabling some
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  Speaker 10: of the things Iran is doing. Yes.
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  Speaker 7: That's a lot of words to say.
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  Speaker 5: Yes, they are.
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  Speaker 9: And that was a Republican senator asking.
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  Speaker 8: Yeah.
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  Speaker 7: And, you know, look, one of the things in the reporting,
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  Speaker 7: obviously some of this is classified, is that One of
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  Speaker 7: the ways that they're helping is specifically to target our bases,
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  Speaker 7: which is where a lot of our service members are
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  Speaker 7: being killed. It's where we are sustaining an enormous amount
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  Speaker 7: of damage. I don't understand why the president keeps not
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  Speaker 7: wanting to believe what his own administration is saying.
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  Speaker 11: Yeah, I mean, there's so much classified information here. It's
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  Speaker 11: hard to know at what level or to what extent
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  Speaker 11: this is.
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  Speaker 9: It's not classified that China is an enemy of the
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  Speaker 9: United States. So, so.
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  Speaker 11: You know, he said, you know, in a qualifier today,
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  Speaker 11: it might be at a low level. You know, Hegseth
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  Speaker 11: was obviously hedging there in public because some of what
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  Speaker 11: he was being asked to talk about was classified. My
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  Speaker 11: personal view is it wouldn't shock me at all to
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  Speaker 11: find out that Moscow and Beijing are helping Iran target
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  Speaker 11: the United States, even if it's at a low level.
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  Speaker 7: But why is the president downplaying it? That's the question.
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  Speaker 11: I don't know.
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  Speaker 5: He is he is the only one.
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  Speaker 11: He is the only one who would have full access
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  Speaker 11: to all of the classified information, plus his own conversations.
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  Speaker 11: with the leaders of those two countries.
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  Speaker 9: And so only- The reason he downplays it is because
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  Speaker 9: he loves paddling around with Xi and Putin, right? He's
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  Speaker 9: scheduled to go to China. I mean, he just had
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  Speaker 9: Xi at the White House, rolled out the red carpet,
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  Speaker 9: treated him- like the second coming of Jesus, threw him
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  Speaker 9: a state dinner. So it would be hard to justify
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  Speaker 9: all of that if at the same time you were saying,
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  Speaker 9: this is the guy sharing intelligence with Iran that is
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  Speaker 9: enabling Iran to target U.S. assets in the region. And Putin,
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  Speaker 9: he just invited Putin to Doral Country Club in Miami
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  Speaker 9: for the G20. So it's hard to do both things
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  Speaker 9: at the same time.
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  Speaker 7: If they are helping target bases, which is what some
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  Speaker 7: of the reporting suggests, they actually have been doing that
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  Speaker 7: and they've been doing it. And the cost has been
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  Speaker 7: American lives. Okay. So that's why it matters. It's not
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  Speaker 7: a theoretical thing. It's like people are dying in these bases.
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  Speaker 7: Our bases are being destroyed, sustaining significant amounts of damage.
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  Speaker 7: Their Navy might be at the bottom of the sea,
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  Speaker 7: but they're still doing that. And that's a problem. And
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  Speaker 7: the president, um, has this long history of downplaying the
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  Speaker 7: behavior of Russia in particular. And when it comes to
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  Speaker 7: this war, listen.
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  Speaker 9: Well, it depends.
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  Speaker 12: It depends.
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  Speaker 2: So far, I think Russia's behaved quite well having to
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  Speaker 2: do with the Strait of Hormuz.
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  Speaker 12: And you have to understand, for everything they do, we
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  Speaker 12: do also. You know, somebody was saying about China, what
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  Speaker 12: about China?
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  Speaker 2: We hear they're spying.
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  Speaker 12: We spy on them too. That's the way it goes.
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  Speaker 12: We'll find out eventually. I'll ask Putin about it. We'll
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  Speaker 12: find out. Hasn't had much impact because we've knocked the
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  Speaker 12: hell out of them. I don't think they've been doing it,
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  Speaker 12: certainly not at a high level. And if they have,
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  Speaker 12: it has been very unimpactful.
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  Speaker 3: Well, what we know about this president is that he
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  Speaker 3: has an admiration and an affection for dictators. And I
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  Speaker 3: think because of his love affair with them as pals,
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  Speaker 3: as you called it, is very compromising.
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  Speaker 7: And it should have a bad relationship with them.
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  Speaker 3: Well, he shouldn't have that relationship because.
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  Speaker 1: I have an open line of communication with two other.
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  Speaker 3: I think he should. I think he should have a
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  Speaker 3: type of relationship to where if you're sitting here and
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  Speaker 3: you're the constant message you're conveying to the American people
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  Speaker 3: is how against communism you are. And then you do
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  Speaker 3: the exact opposite. There's one thing diplomacy. I understand that's
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  Speaker 3: a part of politics. I get that. But we're talking
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  Speaker 3: about something where he's just basically playing footsies with these.
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  Speaker 7: Lydia, do you think that he should be asking Putin
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  Speaker 7: to tell him the truth about whether he is doing
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  Speaker 7: malign acts around the world and targeting American troops through Iran?
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  Speaker 7: Do you think that we should be taking Putin's word
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  Speaker 7: for that?
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  Speaker 4: I don't think Trump is naive.
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  Speaker 7: Well, then why did he say, we'll find out if
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  Speaker 7: that's true because I'll ask Putin about it?
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  Speaker 9: That's naive.