Latest / Kvetch & Release / Former GOP congressman Joe Walsh discusses the US election & why Trump must be stopped

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Former GOP congressman Joe Walsh discusses the US election & why Trump must be stopped · Kvetch & Release

• 0:00
  Speaker 2: They were back.
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  Speaker 1: John Leckey here am eight hundred CKLW less than three
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: months until the US election. Of course, we are keeping
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  Speaker 1: our eyes south of the border here in Windsor, Ontario,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: where we broadcast from Hard not To with Detroit, Michigan
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: just across the river. Donald Trump was in Michigan not
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: too long ago. He is, of course campaigning, as is
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  Speaker 1: Kamala Harris, Vice President, joining me right now to talk
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  Speaker 1: about this election and finding optimism in an election amid negativity,
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  Speaker 1: and who this election is really about is former GOP
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  Speaker 1: Congressman Joe Walsh. Joe, how you doing?
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  Speaker 2: John? Always good to be with you, my friend. Thank you.
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  Speaker 1: Great to have you here. So I came across one
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  Speaker 1: of your tweets that you put up yesterday. Hey, it
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  Speaker 1: caught my attention right off the bat. And there's one word.
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  Speaker 1: I can't even say it on the air here, I
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  Speaker 1: was told by my producer, But I'm going to do
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  Speaker 1: my best with something that you did tweet. You said
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  Speaker 1: Trump thinks that you're a piece of I'm going to
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  Speaker 1: say crap. I'll just fill in a different word. That
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  Speaker 1: you're just going to support him no matter what he
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  Speaker 1: does or says. But I know you're better than that.
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  Speaker 1: This election isn't about Trump, Joe. Who's this election about John?
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  Speaker 2: I actually do think it's about the American people. Look
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  Speaker 2: I said when Biden, back when Biden was the nominee,
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  Speaker 2: like one hundred years ago. Remember that I said before
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  Speaker 2: that first debate. I said a year ago that this
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  Speaker 2: election between Biden and Trump is completely different. Biden actually
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  Speaker 2: has something to prove to the American people. He's got
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  Speaker 2: to prove that he's not too old, that he's up
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  Speaker 2: to the job. He couldn't do that. Donald Trump doesn't
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  Speaker 2: have anything to prove. I mean this, He's an utterly
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  Speaker 2: horrible human being and everybody pretty much knows it. Most
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  Speaker 2: of his supporters are fine with it. So he doesn't
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  Speaker 2: have anything to prove. The American people need to prove
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  Speaker 2: to themselves whether they again want an utterly horrible human
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  Speaker 2: being in the White House. And they may, but it's
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  Speaker 2: on us. It's not on Trump.
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  Speaker 1: He's who he is, So we know what the cards are.
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  Speaker 1: It looks like the Harris campaign is putting out an
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  Speaker 1: incredible amount of optimism. It feels like a very different place.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, it harkens back to an America pre Trump there.
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  Speaker 2: I say, yeah, you know, it's a smart play. I
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  Speaker 2: suppose Nicky Haley back in January said, and I'm no
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  Speaker 2: fan of Nikki Haley, but she said something pretty prescient.
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  Speaker 2: She said, whichever party gets rid of their eighty year
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  Speaker 2: old nominee first is going to win. America did not
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  Speaker 2: want the Biden Trump matchup. I mean, damn near every
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  Speaker 2: America who rolled her eyes at that. So Joe Biden
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  Speaker 2: stepped down. And so now Kamala Harris entered, and there's
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  Speaker 2: just enormous enthusiasm behind her. I think there'd be enormous
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  Speaker 2: enthusiasm behind anybody on the Democratic side besides Biden. But
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  Speaker 2: Kamala Harris has done really well. That enthusiasm has led
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  Speaker 2: to her kind of being a happy warrior, which I's
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  Speaker 2: got to be honest, John, that's the antithesis of Trump.
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  Speaker 2: Trump's neither happy nor a warrior. He's a jerk. Donald
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  Speaker 2: Trump's trying to scare people into voting for him. That
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  Speaker 2: works plenty of times. Kamala Harrison, I think, is trying
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  Speaker 2: to appeal to our better angels.
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  Speaker 1: Now. She indicated yesterday that she would be open to
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  Speaker 1: appointing a Republican to her cabinet, saying that she wants
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  Speaker 1: to bring in a breadth and variety of different opinions,
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  Speaker 1: and she wants it to be representative of the American
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  Speaker 1: electorate as a whole. I wonder if you think that's
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  Speaker 1: a smart idea, But also are there going to be
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  Speaker 1: Republicans who are going to come out and vote for
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  Speaker 1: a Democrat?
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  Speaker 2: Very smart idea, it's what America wants to hear. We're
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  Speaker 2: at each other's throats down here, we're dangerously divided. So again,
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  Speaker 2: appealing to where most Americans are, let's put our weapons
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  Speaker 2: down and let's talk to each other. Smart to say
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  Speaker 2: I'll put a Republican in my cabinet. Look, I'm part
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  Speaker 2: of a group called Republicans for Harris. We had a
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  Speaker 2: zoom call two and a half weeks ago. There were
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  Speaker 2: over seventy thousand Republicans on that call. I I'm traveling
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  Speaker 2: the country, going to battleground state after battleground state, trying
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  Speaker 2: to give Republicans the courage, the permission to put their
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  Speaker 2: country first. You don't have to stop being a Republican,
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  Speaker 2: but damn it, put your country first. He's a bad guy.
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  Speaker 2: Support her?
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  Speaker 1: Is it really that permission? Structure that Republicans are needing
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  Speaker 1: to feel like. I mean is that I don't know.
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  Speaker 1: Are people embarrassed about having supported Trump before but wanting
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  Speaker 1: to shift, but feeling like they might be admitting to
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  Speaker 1: themselves that there was something wrong with their choice or
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  Speaker 1: a failure. What is it about, you know, giving that
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  Speaker 1: permission that is actually resonating.
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  Speaker 2: It's a real difficult thing to do. I mean, if
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  Speaker 2: you're a public person like me, the minute you come
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  Speaker 2: out and say I'm going to support Kamala Harris, you
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  Speaker 2: end your career as a Republican. That's what I did.
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  Speaker 2: It's not easy. That's what my friend Adam Kinsinger did.
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  Speaker 2: It's not easy. Nicky Haley doesn't want to do that.
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  Speaker 2: Nicky Haley knows that Donald Trump is unfit, she said it.
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  Speaker 2: But Nicki Haley can't support Kamala Harris because Nicki Haley
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  Speaker 2: wants to remain a Republican. John I was in the
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  Speaker 2: state of New Hampshire this last week, and there are
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  Speaker 2: a bunch of local Republicans in New Hampshire who privately
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  Speaker 2: told me they're going to vote for her, but they
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  Speaker 2: can't say that publicly because it will impact their friendships
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  Speaker 2: it'll impact their involvement in the community, their local Republican groups.
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  Speaker 2: So to say, as a Republican publicly, I'm going to
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  Speaker 2: support her. That does take some courage, It really does.
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  Speaker 1: Now you say, you know, you turned your back on
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  Speaker 1: the party and they've turned their packs on you. Now
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  Speaker 1: as a result of your decision. Have you lost any
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  Speaker 1: friendships as a result of this, just as a personal
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  Speaker 1: question or like, is it something that there's a public
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  Speaker 1: game that needs to be played and people recognize that,
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  Speaker 1: but you know you still can maintain friendships behind the scenes.
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  Speaker 1: I just I wonder what it's like.
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  Speaker 2: I And remember I came out of the closet John
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  Speaker 2: six years ago. Yeah, six years ago. I publicly came
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  Speaker 2: out against Trump and I lost damn near all my friends.
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  Speaker 2: I lost all my supporters, all my followers, all my voters.
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  Speaker 2: Remember I voted for Trump in sixteen, so I came
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  Speaker 2: from maga. I lost all of that. I ended any
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  Speaker 2: shot at ever running as a Republican again. I took
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  Speaker 2: a blow torch to my career and I put up
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  Speaker 2: with daily and weekly threats and it's been that way
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  Speaker 2: for six years. I'm no superman, but it's not an
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  Speaker 2: easy thing to do. Yeah, you basically give up your
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  Speaker 2: life and you got to try to start over. But
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  Speaker 2: no regrets. I do it again because I believe Trump
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  Speaker 2: is a threat to our democracy. But my god, it
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  Speaker 2: has not been easy.
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  Speaker 1: I can't imagine so. And six years ago was a
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  Speaker 1: very very different climate and time as well than it
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  Speaker 1: is right now. So are you optimistic then with what
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  Speaker 1: you're coming across?
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  Speaker 2: I think there are I am now. Traditionally John Trump's
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  Speaker 2: vote has always kind of gone unreported, like he's always
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  Speaker 2: done better on election day than the polls have shown,
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  Speaker 2: because there've always traditionally been people who've been embarrassed to
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  Speaker 2: say I'm supporting that jerk. I think that will still
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  Speaker 2: be the case. But I don't think as pronounced. But
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  Speaker 2: I do think there are quiet Republicans who are not
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  Speaker 2: being measured by the polls, who will come out on
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  Speaker 2: election day and vote for her. But John, this thing's
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  Speaker 2: a dead heat, This thing's a toss up. I think
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  Speaker 2: if the election were held them out, Trump would win electorally.
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  Speaker 2: So yeah, Kamala Harris better not they team Harris better
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  Speaker 2: not pat themselves on the back and think that this vibe,
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  Speaker 2: this joyful vibe can carry them. Hell no, they got
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  Speaker 2: to run hard for the next sixty something days.
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  Speaker 1: I guess the old adage signs, don't vote, people vote, vibes,
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  Speaker 1: don't vote, people vote esme. Hey, are you going to
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  Speaker 1: be coming to Detroit anytime soon on your swing state tours?
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  Speaker 2: I am oh, yeah, yeah, boy, I got it.
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  Speaker 1: We gotta meet, Yeah, we gotta get together. Absolutely. I'll
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  Speaker 1: bring you into the studio. We can chat.
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  Speaker 2: I'd love that we'll do a show from the studio.
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  Speaker 2: I'll give you plenty of heads up.
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  Speaker 1: That'd be a lot of fun. Hey, I know that
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  Speaker 1: you gotta go. You got to see an n hit.
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  Speaker 1: You gotta get to So thank you so much for
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  Speaker 1: your time. I appreciate it, my.
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  Speaker 2: Friend, always enjoy John, Thank you all the best.
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  Speaker 1: Joe Walsh is a former GOP congressman. Now he's on
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  Speaker 1: the never Trump train. As you just heard, there seventy
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  Speaker 1: thousand people on an organizing call for Republicans for Harris.
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  Speaker 1: That is just astounding stuff that we just heard from
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  Speaker 1: Joe Walsh. You know, we're going to open up the
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  Speaker 1: phone lines here. We've been chatting for a while about
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: a bunch of stuff here. We talked back to school
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  Speaker 1: and now a little about Trump. And there were a
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  Speaker 1: bunch of topics during the roundtable. Let's just uh open
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  Speaker 1: up the lines to all of you. Call her text
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  Speaker 1: us five one nine seven nine two CKLW. It's Friday.
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  Speaker 1: Let's just have a little bit of a free for
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: all for the next fifteen minutes. John Lidkey here on
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  Speaker 1: a