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Mark interviews political strategist Ed Rollins. · The Mark Simone Show

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  Speaker 1: Here's more. Mark Simone on seven to ten. Wo R. Well,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: let's talk to La Dean himself. Ed Rollins, who's run
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: more campaigns, more successful campaigns than anyone that in more
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  Speaker 1: White houses, knows everything about this stuff. Ed Rollins, How
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  Speaker 1: you doing good?
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  Speaker 2: Mark? How are you doing this morning?
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  Speaker 1: Very good? Can you believe it's talking about government shutdown again?
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  Speaker 1: Why did this happen?
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  Speaker 2: Well, you know, you only had a couple of boat
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  Speaker 2: margins in the House and Senate. Anything can happen. And
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  Speaker 2: I think to a certain extent, Democrats is going to
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  Speaker 2: take any issue they can to embarrass the president. I
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  Speaker 2: think to a certain extent they need to resolve this
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  Speaker 2: and resolve this quick. If you go through another couple
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  Speaker 2: weeks of of shutdown, it looks like the president doesn't
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  Speaker 2: know what he's doing. Doesn't know Look, and he's now
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  Speaker 2: in a position where he's got to be pretty much
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  Speaker 2: perfect in everything he does. From the forestable future. Wow.
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  Speaker 2: One of the concerns I had as they went to Hyowa,
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  Speaker 2: they and they had a small crowd, seven other people,
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  Speaker 2: and he's got all he was supposed to message about
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  Speaker 2: the economy and how good things are. And you know,
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  Speaker 2: he always gets distracted. He needs a script in his head,
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  Speaker 2: not necessarily script on a teleprompter. But this is what
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  Speaker 2: I'm gonna talk about. I'm not gonna talk about Icet.
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  Speaker 2: I'm not going to talk about Ukraine's not going to
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  Speaker 2: talk about Iran. I'm going to talk about the American
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  Speaker 2: public and all the things that we have done and
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  Speaker 2: can do for the American public. Uh, that's what people
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  Speaker 2: want to hear. He does that, and these trips are worthwhile.
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  Speaker 2: If he doesn't do this, he's a small crowd to
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  Speaker 2: go out there, and you have bigger crowds in the opposition.
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  Speaker 2: It's not it's not a productive use of his time.
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  Speaker 1: You know, all the economic numbers are up. Everything's been
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  Speaker 1: inflating down. You know, the economic stuff is great. He's
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  Speaker 1: such a great salesman. Why is he so bad on messaging.
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  Speaker 2: This Well, I think to a certain extent, he he's
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  Speaker 2: said over and over again, this is what's happening, and
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  Speaker 2: I think he probably doesn't mean this is as sexy
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  Speaker 2: as it should be, as much fun as going after uh,
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  Speaker 2: all of the other stuff. He loves, the international stuff.
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  Speaker 2: He loves he loves to you know, this is it's
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  Speaker 2: pretty interesting. You know, I worked for Nixon, Ford, Reagan, uh,
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  Speaker 2: and then around other presidents ever since. Uh. Some like
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  Speaker 2: the press, some don't like the press. Trump doesn't like
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  Speaker 2: the press. He likes to taunt them to get them
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  Speaker 2: in the Oval office and perform with his good friend
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  Speaker 2: whoever they the friend of the day, maybe whatever, the
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  Speaker 2: world leader. And most most Americans don't care about that.
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  Speaker 2: What they care about right now is they're still not
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  Speaker 2: sure about the economy. All I know is when they
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  Speaker 2: go to the grocery store, their checks aren't going as
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  Speaker 2: far as they used to. And that's the issue here.
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  Speaker 2: And he's got a few months to get the yea. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: certainly it's still out there on Terraff and all the
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  Speaker 2: rest of it is is for some reason, there's a
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  Speaker 2: backspot that's have a big impact. He's got a lot
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  Speaker 2: of members of Congress are very word and as I've
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  Speaker 2: said on the show before, the first thing that the
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  Speaker 2: Congress he cares about is not whether President or Piggan
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  Speaker 2: has high approval numbers, is to do they have high
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  Speaker 2: approval numbers? And are they going to get re elected
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  Speaker 2: as they get into this political process. You know, you're
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  Speaker 2: not talking about the maximum probably is twenty five thirty
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  Speaker 2: feats that you could lose. But it's a big difference
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  Speaker 2: if you run the campaign well and get some benefit
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  Speaker 2: out of it, and everybody's everybody's saying the same thing.
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  Speaker 2: You get too many people in this administration seeing their
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  Speaker 2: own thing, and at the end of the day, you know,
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  Speaker 2: it's disaster in Minnesota and the ICE and all the
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  Speaker 2: rest of it. Who's just really hurt him. I would
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  Speaker 2: basically not use her anymore if does on the fire,
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  Speaker 2: just how I go do FEMA stuff. But at the
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  Speaker 2: end of the day, you know he's he's not going
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  Speaker 2: to get the good word back on ICE. ICE can't
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  Speaker 2: do any more than they've done. We are basically getting
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  Speaker 2: people who are illegally in the country out in the country,
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  Speaker 2: a lot of over data the volunteer program to fly
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  Speaker 2: back to their country. And he had had to highlights
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  Speaker 2: a lot of stuff, but most of all needs a
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  Speaker 2: highlight economy.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, so you know, you can think about this very
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  Speaker 1: clearly and simple and clear. I can do that. But
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  Speaker 1: when you get elected and you're sitting there in that
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  Speaker 1: Oval office all day, are there like a thousand people
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  Speaker 1: pulling in every direction and a million things?
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  Speaker 2: Clearly you need. You need to have a team around,
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  Speaker 2: and you know you don't have to you don't have
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  Speaker 2: to be with anybody. I mean, at the end of
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  Speaker 2: the day, you can have two or three advisors you
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  Speaker 2: want to come in and tell you what you want
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  Speaker 2: to hear, well, tell you what you need, information you need,
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  Speaker 2: you control that environment. He kind of likes crowds, you know.
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  Speaker 2: He when he gets in troubles, these short interviews where
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  Speaker 2: he's either on an Air Force one or he's going
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  Speaker 2: the helicopter or what have you, and he says something
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  Speaker 2: that you shouldn't be saying, or something that's in or
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  Speaker 2: five o'clock on the morning. At three o'clock in the morning,
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  Speaker 2: when he gets up and he gets on on his
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  Speaker 2: Twitter account, you know, you got to try and read
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  Speaker 2: a night of course, well wash watch movies. Who are sports? Uh,
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  Speaker 2: there's a lot on his plate and he's no one.
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  Speaker 2: No president has accumulated as much power as he has.
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  Speaker 2: Nixon tried, as Lennon Johnson tried. But he's done it.
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  Speaker 2: I think to a certain extenting now needs to use it.
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  Speaker 2: You know.
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  Speaker 1: Uh, it's hard to keep in touch with the people,
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  Speaker 1: like really have your finger on the pulse when you're
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  Speaker 1: in the White House. So you can try to watch
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  Speaker 1: your Fox News, you can try to watch the newscast.
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  Speaker 2: You can.
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  Speaker 1: But I remember reading that Reagan like to watch sitcoms
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  Speaker 1: like Roseanne because he would show him people's lives and
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  Speaker 1: how they really So what does the president do to like,
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  Speaker 1: really really be in touch with people.
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  Speaker 2: Well, he likes, he likes. He's a news junkie, and
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  Speaker 2: you know he wants it all to be perfect and
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  Speaker 2: he's never going to be perfect. He listens to your show,
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  Speaker 2: which is my friend Michael Goodwin's column, and you're post
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  Speaker 2: and you know, yeah, even even Fox gets off of
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  Speaker 2: us sometimes, and you know, too much of that is
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  Speaker 2: it sinks? Uh, you know right Reagan. Reagan was a
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  Speaker 2: very secure man. Hagan. Hagan was someone who got alives
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  Speaker 2: that e the needs. And when he's a movie star,
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  Speaker 2: even a lifeguard radio Eureka College. Uh. Trump is still
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  Speaker 2: fighting every day, fighting fighting to get the recommission. I
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  Speaker 2: mean president of the state has been like to twice. Uh,
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  Speaker 2: you know that to be enough for any man. But
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  Speaker 2: you know the stupidity about the about the oh it's
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  Speaker 2: a Nobil peace prize. Yeah, no peace prize. It's just
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  Speaker 2: it's ridiculous. I mean, who cares. Uh, you know, there's
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  Speaker 2: uh the fact that Obama that one in those first
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  Speaker 2: month in office was it was a gift, was it
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  Speaker 2: was made a had done. This president has has done
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  Speaker 2: some real stuff and at the end of the day
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  Speaker 2: here he will do some raal stuff again if he
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  Speaker 2: doesn't get distracted.
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  Speaker 1: Well yeah, but Reagan, as you say, was a movie star.
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  Speaker 1: He was a happy guy. But when you're a billionaire
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  Speaker 1: and you've worked a lot of these billionaires, uh, they're fighters.
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  Speaker 1: They're always fighting there. That's how they became billionaires. They're
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  Speaker 1: fighting fighting billionaires.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, well, well there's no president been surrounded by as
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  Speaker 2: many billionaire as he is. They're in his cabinet, you know.
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  Speaker 2: And and I think to a certain extent, uh, you know,
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  Speaker 2: he didn't come in as a billionaire. He's now become
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  Speaker 2: a billionaire. And I think there's a certain extent a kembol.
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  Speaker 2: Any money, uh is something that's important to him. Doing
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  Speaker 2: deals is important to him. But what he's going to
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  Speaker 2: do is make the country feel like they're benefiting. Ever
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  Speaker 2: from my vein, he does, and it's you know, it's
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  Speaker 2: it's a challenge, it's a challenge every president has. But
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  Speaker 2: this is a president once you know what we what
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  Speaker 2: are we doing? Back in Pennsylvania we argue in the
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  Speaker 2: stupid as actually six years ago. I mean that becomes
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  Speaker 2: a news story today. What's he doing there? Why is
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  Speaker 2: he there? And if you don't clearly lay out the
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  Speaker 2: why you're there, uh, which you shouldn't be Uh, talk
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  Speaker 2: about the future and talk about people, talk about schools. Uh. Yes,
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  Speaker 2: he still has he still has a hero pall but
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  Speaker 2: he's still people love him. But and he pulls up
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  Speaker 2: polarizing president. There's people that hey him. So when you
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  Speaker 2: go to Iowa and you have seven hundred people, you
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  Speaker 2: make a big deal out of going there and plying
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  Speaker 2: Air Force one and what have you. And you have
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  Speaker 2: in a very small stage. There's more people outside against
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  Speaker 2: you than there are on a tourm for you. You
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  Speaker 2: know that's not a good picture. At the end of
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  Speaker 2: the day, Control as much of an as you can,
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  Speaker 2: and you've you've got the big plane, you've got the
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  Speaker 2: big staff. You can control. No one doesn't rallies better
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  Speaker 2: than he does, Nobody does performances better than he does.
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  Speaker 2: He needs to do it all right.
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  Speaker 1: Well, great stuff, great analysis, Ed Rollins, thanks for being
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  Speaker 1: with us. We'll talk again soon, my pleasure. All right,
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  Speaker 1: take care, take care. Hey, don't forget coming up at
• 8:38
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• 8:41
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