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Why the gun lobby hates Tim Walz · The Front

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  Speaker 1: the news from the Australian. From the Australian, here's what's
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  Speaker 1: on the front. I'm Claire Harvey. It's Friday, August nine.
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  Speaker 1: Medical experts are calling for Australia to overhaul its plastics regulations.
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  Speaker 1: New research indicates there are chemicals in some plastics which
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  Speaker 1: are linked with the development of autism. That's a big
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  Speaker 1: health story with implications for all of us. Breaking now
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  Speaker 1: on the Australian dot com dot AU. Disability service providers
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  Speaker 1: say they're going broke because of a multi billion dollar
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  Speaker 1: accounting problem with the National Disability Insurance Scheme. They say
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  Speaker 1: the NDIS is underpaying the providers who look after Australia's
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  Speaker 1: most needy people. There's a new player in American politics.
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  Speaker 1: The former high school football coach Kamala Harris has picked
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  Speaker 1: as her new vice president. He's a straight talking Midwesterner
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  Speaker 1: and the gun lobby hates him. Today we meet Tim Walls,
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  Speaker 1: a social studies teacher, a high school football coach, and
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  Speaker 1: once he became a prominent Democrat politician. Tim Walls was
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  Speaker 1: a hunting, fishing, gun rights advocate. I'm Tim Walls. You know,
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  Speaker 1: growing up hunting taught me a lot.
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  Speaker 2: About responsibility and respect, lessons I hope to pass on
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  Speaker 2: to my kids. I'm proud to stand with the NRA
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  Speaker 2: to protect the rates of sportsmen and gun owners.
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  Speaker 3: Until this, Oh my god, Oh my god, oh my god,
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  Speaker 3: we're still shooting.
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  Speaker 1: Shooting animate.
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  Speaker 2: They scored this that we have actual to the shooter
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  Speaker 2: in room three two.
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  Speaker 4: One five three two sustained automatic gunfire at the concert.
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  Speaker 3: Fifty nine now dead, more than five hundred injured.
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  Speaker 1: The most deadly massacre of civilians by a loan shooter
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  Speaker 1: in the United States is sorry. History of gun violence.
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  Speaker 1: The twenty seventeen Mandalay Bay massacre in Las Vegas. It
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  Speaker 1: turned Tim Walls away from guns.
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  Speaker 2: The time for hiding behind thoughts and prayers is long gone.
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  Speaker 2: What we need is action, and we need it now.
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  Speaker 2: So here's what's going to happen. Here's what's going to happen.
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  Speaker 2: We've got gun safety bill on the table, and we're
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  Speaker 2: going to get it passed and.
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to sign it. He donated all the money
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  Speaker 1: he'd ever received from the NRA, the most powerful lobbying
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  Speaker 1: organization in the States to charity. After the Parkland High
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  Speaker 1: School massacre in twenty eighteen, Walls had a confronting conversation
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  Speaker 1: with his daughter op walk up like.
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  Speaker 2: Many of you did five weeks ago, and Debt said, Dad,
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  Speaker 2: you're the only person I know who's an elected office.
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  Speaker 2: You need to stop what's happening with this. I'll take
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  Speaker 2: my kick in the butt for the NA I spent
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  Speaker 2: twenty five years in the army, and I.
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  Speaker 1: Hunt As governor of Minnesota. He dramatically tightened gun restrictions,
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  Speaker 1: and now he's Kamala Harris's running mate. He welcome the
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  Speaker 1: next Vice President of the United States, Tim Wall. There's
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  Speaker 1: been lots of speculation that Kamala Harris would choose a
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  Speaker 1: straight white Midwestern dude to reassure the voters. Well, she did,
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  Speaker 1: But Tim Walls is more complex than the cliche might suggest.
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  Speaker 2: Some of us in here are old enough to remember.
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  Speaker 2: I see you down there, I see those all white guys.
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  Speaker 2: Some of us are all remember when it was Republicans
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  Speaker 2: who were talking about freedom. It turns out now what
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  Speaker 2: they meant was the government should be free to invade
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  Speaker 2: your doctor's office.
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  Speaker 1: On the keystone issue of abortion rights, something the Democrats
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  Speaker 1: are pinning their hopes on this election cycle. Walls is
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  Speaker 1: loud and proud in Minnesota.
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  Speaker 2: We respect our neighbors and their personal choices that they make,
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  Speaker 2: even if we wouldn't make the same choice for ourselves.
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  Speaker 2: There's a golden rule, mind your own damn business.
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  Speaker 1: Wolves is derided by the Republicans as a political wed
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  Speaker 1: of vean, someone who can't be trusted. The Democrats say,
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  Speaker 1: over a long career in the federal House of Representatives
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  Speaker 1: and in state politics, he's just changed his mind. Wolls
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  Speaker 1: hits all the progressive notes from the Democrats' dreams in
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  Speaker 1: an accent that's meant to tell you he's not part
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  Speaker 1: of the East Coast liberal elite.
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  Speaker 2: When Vice President and I talk about freedom, we mean
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  Speaker 2: the freedom to make.
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  Speaker 1: Your own healthcare decisions.
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  Speaker 2: And for our children to be free to go to
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  Speaker 2: school without worrying they'll be shot dead in their classrooms.
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  Speaker 2: By the way, as you heard, I was in the
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  Speaker 2: best shots in Congress. But in Minnesota, we believe in
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  Speaker 2: the Second Amendment, but we also believe in common sense
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  Speaker 2: gun violence laws.
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  Speaker 1: It's only been a few days since Walls was named
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  Speaker 1: as Harris's running mate, and he's already on the attack.
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  Speaker 1: One person firmly in his sights Donald Trump's running mate JD. Vance.
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  Speaker 2: Like all regular people I grew up with in the heartland.
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  Speaker 2: JD studied at Yale, had his career funded by Silicon
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  Speaker 2: Valley billionaires, and then wrote a best seller trashing that community.
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  Speaker 1: Come on the crowd at Walls's debut speech to the
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  Speaker 1: Democratic faithful in Pennsylvania. Loved Walls's shtick, and there was
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  Speaker 1: one line in particular that brought the house down.
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  Speaker 2: And I gotta tell you, I can't wait to debate
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  Speaker 2: the guy. That is, if he's willing to get off
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  Speaker 2: the couch and show up so.
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  Speaker 4: You see what I did there.
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  Speaker 1: If you didn't see what he did there, then this
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  Speaker 1: moment needs a bit of explaining. You might need a
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  Speaker 1: coffee for this one. Soon after JD. Vance was nominated
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  Speaker 1: as Trump's running mate, someone put out a tweet saying
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  Speaker 1: there was a very strange passage in the first edition
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  Speaker 1: of Vance's autobiography, Hillbilly Elegy. It said that on pages
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  Speaker 1: one nine to one point eight one, Vance wrote about
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  Speaker 1: having well carnal relations with a couch. Those aren't the
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  Speaker 1: words that we used by the way, you get my drift.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, there's nothing like that in Hillbilly Elergy, which
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  Speaker 1: was actually a lyrical exploration of poverty and what it's
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  Speaker 1: like to be an outsider. This couch stuff is completely
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  Speaker 1: made up. It's ridiculous, but the Internet being the Internet,
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  Speaker 1: people ran with it. The fake story was all over
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  Speaker 1: social media, Instagram, TikTok x, even Fox News referenced it.
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  Speaker 2: It seems like the Republicans are getting a big ged
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  Speaker 2: Vans should.
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  Speaker 1: I say couch sized? Wake up hod he or didn't he?
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  Speaker 1: It got so weird that the Associated Press released a
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  Speaker 1: story with the headline no, JD. Vans did not have
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  Speaker 1: sex with a couch, But the horse was out of
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  Speaker 1: the gate, and the fact Wolls invoked it crystallizes something
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  Speaker 1: Wolls brings to the Harris campaign. He's a little bit
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  Speaker 1: daggy dad, a little bit vicious political street fighter. He's
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  Speaker 1: rolling out a line. The Democrats have been working hard
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  Speaker 1: since Kamala Harris stepped up as candidate.
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  Speaker 2: Just an observation of mine that I made. I just
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  Speaker 2: have to say it. You know it, you feel it.
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  Speaker 2: These guys are creepy and yes, just where its hell JD.
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  Speaker 1: Vance hasn't dignified the couch thing. Why would you? But
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  Speaker 1: he has returned fire and it's Wolls's military history. He's
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: coming after coming up next things get even more personal.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: And if you're interested in the US election, make sure
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  Speaker 1: Australian dot com dot au and we'll be back after
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  Speaker 1: this break. Jdi Vans is doing a press conference. He's
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: talked about law enforcement, his policies, the usual campaign trial stuff,
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  Speaker 1: but the press aren't so interested in that.
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  Speaker 4: Last night, doctor Wallt suggested that because of your height,
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  Speaker 4: league education and your Silicon backing, your political career and
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  Speaker 4: tho yourself are part of the elite water.
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  Speaker 1: A reporter asks Vance to respond to Walls's digs about
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  Speaker 1: his Yale education and Silicon Valley patronage, the very elite
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  Speaker 1: Vance is so vocal about taking down.
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  Speaker 4: Well, look, I came from a family where nobody in
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  Speaker 4: my family had ever gone to law school. I grew
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  Speaker 4: up in a poor family. The fact that Tim Waltz
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  Speaker 4: wants to turn it into a bad thing that I
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  Speaker 4: actually worked myself through college and made something myself. To me,
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  Speaker 4: that's the American dream.
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  Speaker 1: JD. Vans is good at this. He didn't actually dress.
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  Speaker 1: The accusation is morphed into part of the elite. But
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  Speaker 1: before anyone can follow up, he's on the attack.
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  Speaker 4: When Tim Waltz was asked by his country to go
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  Speaker 4: to Iraq, you know what he did. He dropped out
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  Speaker 4: of the army and allowed his unit to go without him.
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  Speaker 4: What bothers me about Tim Waltz is the stolen valor garbage.
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  Speaker 4: Do not pretend to be something that you're not. And
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  Speaker 4: if you want to criticize me for getting an Ivy
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  Speaker 4: League education, I'm proud of the fact that my mammoll
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  Speaker 4: supported me, that I was able to make something of myself.
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  Speaker 4: I'd be ashamed if I was him and I lied
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  Speaker 4: about my military service like he did.
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  Speaker 1: Wolls spent twenty four years with the Army National Guard,
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  Speaker 1: that's the part of the US armed forces made up
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  Speaker 1: of civilian soldiers. Over that time, he responded to natural
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  Speaker 1: disasters and deployed to Europe in support of operations in Afghanistan.
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  Speaker 1: Eventually he rose to the position of command sergeant major.
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  Speaker 1: Then in two thousand and five, Wolls retired so he
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  Speaker 1: could run for Congress. This was two months before his
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  Speaker 1: unit received orders to deploy to Iraq. The stolen valor
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  Speaker 1: line of attack is compelling, but it might backfire. JD.
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  Speaker 1: Vance went to Iraq, but he wrote in Hillbilly Elegy
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  Speaker 1: he never saw combat. Instead, he worked as a military
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  Speaker 1: journalist for the Marines. Famously, Donald Trump received a medical
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  Speaker 1: exemption from the military for bone spurs in his heel
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  Speaker 1: during the Vietnam War. That diagnosis has previously come under
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  Speaker 1: serious scrutiny, but Walls's military history isn't the only thing
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  Speaker 1: from his past under the microscope. Here's a Republican ad
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  Speaker 1: from this week.
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  Speaker 3: What could be weirder than signing a bill and the
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  Speaker 3: law that requires schools to stock tampons in boys' bathrooms,
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  Speaker 3: or weirder than signing legislation allowing miners to receive sex
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  Speaker 3: change operations. Try electing the man who signed those bills
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  Speaker 3: vice President of the States. Enter cheef weirdo Tam Walls
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  Speaker 3: as governor of Minnesota.
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  Speaker 1: Ooh, the tampons go with me. Last year, Walls signed
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  Speaker 1: a bill requiring Minnesota schools to supply menstrual products to
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  Speaker 1: students so far, so unremarkable. But some Minnesota Republicans took
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  Speaker 1: exception to the wording of the legislation, which said sanitary
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  Speaker 1: products should be available to all menstruating students in restrooms
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  Speaker 1: regularly used by students. The Republicans said, shouldn't this be
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  Speaker 1: about female students and the girls' bathrooms? Maybe the gender
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  Speaker 1: neutral bathrooms too, Why would you implicitly include boys' bathrooms?
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  Speaker 1: An amendment was drafted, but the original wording remained. Now
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  Speaker 1: the Republicans are calling Walls tampon Tim. Gender identity is
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  Speaker 1: a hot political issue in the US, and the Republicans
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  Speaker 1: sniff a weakness. So will Tim Walls be the next
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: Vice President of the United States of America. If there's
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  Speaker 1: something the past decade of global politics has taught us,
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: it's that you can't fully trust the polls, but it
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  Speaker 1: doesn't hurt to have a little peak every now and then.
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  Speaker 1: With Tim Walls on the Democratic ticket, it's still shaping
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  Speaker 1: up to be another razor thin election.
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  Speaker 4: A new poll from PBS News and PR and Maris
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  Speaker 4: shows Kamala Harris with a three point lead over Donald
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  Speaker 4: Trump nationally. That's within the poll's margin of error.
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  Speaker 1: A number of recent polls indicate there's been a tipping
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  Speaker 1: point for the first time. Kamala Harris is slightly ahead
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  Speaker 1: of Donald Trump, but there's a long way to go.
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  Speaker 1: The US election is on November five, but the next
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  Speaker 1: big set piece is the Democratic National Convention, kicking off
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: on August nineteen. We'll have a team at the DNC
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  Speaker 1: the Australian dot com dot au. Thanks for joining us
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: on the front. Our team is leat Sannaglau, Stephanie Coombs,
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  Speaker 1: Kristen Amy at Jasper League, Tiffany Dimak, Joshua Burton and
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  Speaker 1: me Claire Harvey.