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Why is Trump prioritizing Iran over the economy · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: President Trump tells Axios that he's considering a quote massive
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: attack against Iran, one bigger than ever before, and he's
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: close to making that decision now. Trump is significantly underwater
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: when it comes to his handling of his job, as
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: well as inflation, the economy, Iran, even immigration.
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  Speaker 2: There is no strategy. I'm for results. We just voted
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  Speaker 2: to again stop the war in Iran this morning in
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  Speaker 2: the House. But what is the president achieved. He's driven
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  Speaker 2: gas prices up, He's driven food prices up. The enriched
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  Speaker 2: uranium is still in Iran. They have a more extreme
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  Speaker 2: regime because the Sun isn't even saying what Kaminae did,
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  Speaker 2: which was we won't develop nuclear weapons. The ier GC
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  Speaker 2: is stronger, they have more control over the strait of Hormos,
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  Speaker 2: and Americans are being killed and the American people are
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  Speaker 2: saying this is worse than just a moral crime. It's
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  Speaker 2: a blunder. And you promise to end form wars and
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  Speaker 2: you're getting us into this se mess. You're failing.
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  Speaker 3: Karl As, Yeah, I shook my head because you know,
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  Speaker 3: President Trump is doing what no American president did since
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  Speaker 3: Jimmy Carter. He's actually taken on this murderous regime, the
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  Speaker 3: Mullah regime, the IRGC. These are revolutionary nuts and they
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  Speaker 3: are killing their own people, and they've killed American soldiers
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  Speaker 3: throughout the world for decades. President Trump is the first
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  Speaker 3: president to say, you know what it may cost me politically,
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  Speaker 3: but I'm going to do the right thing. He's done
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  Speaker 3: this in Venezuela, He's working on this in Cuba. He's
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  Speaker 3: working around the world to make the United States the
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  Speaker 3: people safer. And there are people in Iran that want
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  Speaker 3: to have democracy that have a plan. The NCRI are
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  Speaker 3: fighting to have democracy, clean elections, equality among the sexes,
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  Speaker 3: and for the religions, with freedom of religion and clean courts.
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  Speaker 3: So there are people that want to fight back against
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  Speaker 3: this regime. As they get weaker, they get more of
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  Speaker 3: a chance. So I think this is a great opportunity
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  Speaker 3: for the Iranian people. But President Trump is going to
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  Speaker 3: have to drive these very bad as into the Stone
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  Speaker 3: Age to change the to change the what's happening now.
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  Speaker 1: But are they how much weaker are they really in
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  Speaker 1: this moment.
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  Speaker 4: There's one thing that congressmen left out, and that is
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  Speaker 4: they also came to Congress this week and asked for
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  Speaker 4: seventy six billion dollars a lot of money. And I'm
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  Speaker 4: not saying they need it or they don't need it.
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  Speaker 4: But what I do know is I've been running campaigns
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  Speaker 4: from California to New York, and right now the American
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  Speaker 4: public ain't where they were in World War One or
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  Speaker 4: World War two. Right now. They're all out of give
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  Speaker 4: a damse, and they can give a damn about this war.
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  Speaker 4: What they do give a damn about is gas prices,
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  Speaker 4: meat prices, and not being able to afford things every day.
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  Speaker 4: I think because of these things, and because we're in
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  Speaker 4: a different place with not just three networks, folks are
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  Speaker 4: getting their own information and being fed things that they
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  Speaker 4: want or don't want. If you've got a let's Go
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  Speaker 4: Brandon flag on your boat, you're with him. If you've
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  Speaker 4: got a Bernie Sanders tattoo, you're against him. But everybody
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  Speaker 4: in the middle right now, I'm telling you, right now,
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  Speaker 4: is all out of give a damns about this war.
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  Speaker 5: But I think most Americans recognize that there is a
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  Speaker 5: very serious connection between the conflict and Iran and all
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  Speaker 5: of those pocketbook issues that you will refer too earlier.
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  Speaker 5: And I think that even among the President's base. A
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  Speaker 5: lot of the reason why he won is because he
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  Speaker 5: ran with a very particular kind of foreign policy, non interventionists.
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  Speaker 5: We're not going to start stupid wars abroad. And I
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  Speaker 5: think it's possible for two things to be true at once.
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  Speaker 5: That the President was being bold is willing to confront
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  Speaker 5: very bad, malevolent actors in the world, but he also
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  Speaker 5: went about it in a foolish and foolhardy way that
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  Speaker 5: seems to be pretty poorly calculated. It isn't clear that
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  Speaker 5: there is an obvious good path forward here. If the
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  Speaker 5: president imagines that he can just carry out this conflict
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  Speaker 5: by dropping bombs from above without ever getting any boots
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  Speaker 5: on the ground and make any meaningful progress, I think
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  Speaker 5: that seems to be a policy that's probably not going
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  Speaker 5: to yield results.
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  Speaker 1: So Trump today he said that any damages that AROD
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  Speaker 1: does to ship's cargo or anything in the straight up
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  Speaker 1: warbouse would be paid for in Iranian money that the
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  Speaker 1: United States has in its possession. This is quite the
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  Speaker 1: contrast to what he was willing to do just a
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  Speaker 1: few months ago, when he was willing to, you know,
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  Speaker 1: release sanctions on Iranian oil, potentially unfreeze hundreds of millions
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  Speaker 1: of dollars in assets potentially create a fund for the Iranians.
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  Speaker 1: That was a pretty sweetheart deal for iron They didn't
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  Speaker 1: have to do a whole lot to get that, and
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  Speaker 1: they rejected it. Anyway, Again, I'm coming back to the
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  Speaker 1: question of is there even a little bit of strategy
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  Speaker 1: here or is it just a lot of random things
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  Speaker 1: being said day after day.
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  Speaker 6: I think what comes across is randomness is actually iteration.
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  Speaker 6: The cordeo politics, right, the plotoplomo silver or lead? Do
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  Speaker 6: you want the bullet or do you want the bribe?
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  Speaker 6: Do you have two options? But yeah, it's a different
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  Speaker 6: story like that. That is what defines a lot of
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  Speaker 6: the politics of this administration. And I think that is
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  Speaker 6: that is the absolute right approach in the Middle East.
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  Speaker 6: It works very well in Latin America, doesn't translate so
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  Speaker 6: well to Europe. But but when it comes to these
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  Speaker 6: operations that we're seeing, you know, they are not going
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  Speaker 6: forward with the you know you're with us or against us?
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  Speaker 6: It's all or nothing, damn the consequences.
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  Speaker 2: It is.
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  Speaker 6: We're going to try this, Let's see the reaction. We're
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  Speaker 6: going to try this. Let's see the reaction. We didn't
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  Speaker 6: mention the fact that blockade is back on. We didn't
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  Speaker 6: mention the fact that those funds have not been released.
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  Speaker 6: There is still a sweetener. There's still a pot at
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  Speaker 6: the end of that rainbow, if the Iranians so choose that.
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  Speaker 6: If the regime said Centcom's still there, we have not
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  Speaker 6: reduced our forces in the region, don't.
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  Speaker 1: We really put most of it on the table already
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  Speaker 1: at this point. We put the biggest thing we have,
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  Speaker 1: which is our military, on the table first. We did that.
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  Speaker 1: That was the first thing we did. Then we offered
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  Speaker 1: them a ton of money that didn't work. It doesn't
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  Speaker 1: strike me that there's a whole lot left except what
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  Speaker 1: Trump also seems to be threatening, which is that maybe
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  Speaker 1: he might start to strike borderline civilian targets like power
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  Speaker 1: plants or break or whatnot, which would be a line
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  Speaker 1: cross for us. So, I mean, do you think that
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  Speaker 1: there's really much more left for them to either threaten
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  Speaker 1: or to offer to the Iranians in this moment?
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  Speaker 2: The problem is we're losing our leverage. And what's annoying
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  Speaker 2: at Trump is that Barack Obama was far more effective.
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  Speaker 2: That Barack Obama actually got China and the EU and
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  Speaker 2: got a multilateral agreement that got ninety seven percent of
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  Speaker 2: enriched uranium out. And it turns out being statesmanlike and
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  Speaker 2: being smart and strategic is better than bluster for America's
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  Speaker 2: national interest. And now the President has made a mess
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  Speaker 2: of things, made a mess of the economy, but his
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  Speaker 2: ego will not permit him to go to shijin Ping
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  Speaker 2: and the European leaders and have a multilateral solution to
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  Speaker 2: get us out of this mess and to help them.
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  Speaker 6: I mean, the Iranians killed an order of magnitude more
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  Speaker 6: Americans under present in Obama than they have under.
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  Speaker 2: President That's just not true.
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  Speaker 6: It was absolutely true. I was in a racket in
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  Speaker 6: the e Fps that the Iranians were.
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  Speaker 2: Sent back to the Obama didn't go to Dover Air
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  Speaker 2: Force Base and have to look at dead Americans coming in.
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  Speaker 2: Obama didn't preside over the straight up he should have
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  Speaker 2: because there.
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  Speaker 6: Were my colleagues coming back from.
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  Speaker 2: Iraq, from Iraq but not from the Director were killed
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  Speaker 2: by Iranian by back groups. Yes, those were being killed
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  Speaker 2: under the first Trump term as well. And you know
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  Speaker 2: that as well as I do. Trump has created a
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  Speaker 2: disaster and killed and what he has done is he
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  Speaker 2: engaged in the very regime change wars that he ran against,
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  Speaker 2: and he believes that he can attack.
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  Speaker 6: There's no regime change right that. That is the crux
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  Speaker 6: of the democratic criticism. We haven't changed the regime. It's
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  Speaker 6: not a vision.
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  Speaker 3: Inflation, if I may, was much higher under President Biden.
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  Speaker 6: That the crisis, the inflation spent.
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  Speaker 3: He pushed so much money out. He just flooded the
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  Speaker 3: zone with so much money. With the the inflation, we.
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  Speaker 2: Could religate Biden, but the reality is you'll spend.
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  Speaker 5: Of barbage.
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  Speaker 3: And then he was throwing the gold bars out from
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  Speaker 3: the EPA just funding left wing causes to the kinds
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  Speaker 3: of disions.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, the gold bars thing is not quite what you're describing.
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  Speaker 1: But let me just read billions of just just to
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  Speaker 1: your to your comments about the economy, here's a viewer
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  Speaker 1: comment that says, the true war this president has to
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  Speaker 1: deal with is the war against the economy. And and
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  Speaker 1: just to that point, this Fox News poll shows that
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  Speaker 1: seventy six percent of Americans have a negative view of
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  Speaker 1: this economy. Uh and now fifty four percent of Americans
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  Speaker 1: say Democrats would do a better job than Republicans on
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  Speaker 1: the economy. So maybe you know, at the height of
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  Speaker 1: inflation under Biden, for sure the numbers were worse. But
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  Speaker 1: it's it's been interesting because I think voters right now
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  Speaker 1: their sentiment about the economy is similar or if not
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  Speaker 1: the same or worse than it was under Biden. And
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  Speaker 1: I think some of it has to do with the
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  Speaker 1: fact that they felt like they got out of the
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  Speaker 1: woods and now they're going in the wrong direction because
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  Speaker 1: of some of the decisions Trump is made.
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  Speaker 5: Absolutely, and I think it's adjudicating whether Obama or Trump
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  Speaker 5: has a better record or Iran at this point is
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  Speaker 5: a bit of a moot point. We are where we
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  Speaker 5: are in this very difficult, intractable situation, and I think
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  Speaker 5: that the President the administration needs to take a very
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  Speaker 5: hard look in the mirror. They need to find allies
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  Speaker 5: on both sides of the isle. It is very difficult,
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  Speaker 5: and I suspect it was a difficult vote to cast.
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  Speaker 5: When American service persons are being killed abroad by an
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  Speaker 5: adversarial regime and one is voting against actual engagement with them.
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  Speaker 5: I understand why someone might want to cast that vote
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  Speaker 5: if the administration doesn't seem to have a coherent strategy
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  Speaker 5: for dealing with this. I think it can be very
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  Speaker 5: difficult to actually rally support for some sort of military engagement.
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  Speaker 5: This is where we are right now, and figuring out
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  Speaker 5: how to get out of that entanglement is.
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  Speaker 4: There's a reason why. There's a reason why. Sorry, there's
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  Speaker 4: a reason why Joe Biden was blamed because he was
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  Speaker 4: in charge at that point and things were high, things
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  Speaker 4: cost too much. Well, now Republicans are in charge of
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  Speaker 4: every aspect of Congress. The reason I went on that
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  Speaker 4: TI rad in the beginning of a war thing to
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  Speaker 4: talk about the economy was what you just said in
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  Speaker 4: that poll. This is what Americans really care about right now.
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  Speaker 4: If you ask them if they won't ran to have
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  Speaker 4: a nuclear weapon, they'll say no. But they say right now,
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  Speaker 4: that's good and that's over there. But right here is
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  Speaker 4: where I'm hurting. It happened under Joe Biden, and now
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  Speaker 4: it's happening under Donald Trump, but even worse. That's one
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  Speaker 4: of the American public. I ain't taking a side on
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: either one of who did whatever, But I run campaigns
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  Speaker 4: every day, and these people are all fed up, all
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  Speaker 4: across America, who work hard every day, who don't feel
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  Speaker 4: like nobody's listening to them.
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  Speaker 1: I think the danger here is that voters decide to
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  Speaker 1: just take the car keys away from.
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  Speaker 2: Impossible. He's getting the car and impossible. He's given Democrats
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  Speaker 2: a lead on the economy. I don't think we've had
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  Speaker 2: that