Latest / Brian Thomas / SPECIAL DANIEL DAVIS DEEP DIVE - Venezuela

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SPECIAL DANIEL DAVIS DEEP DIVE - Venezuela · Brian Thomas

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  Speaker 1: So No. Five, I fifty about ker Cede Talk Station.
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  Speaker 1: So excited when I came in this morning to see
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  Speaker 1: on the rundown a special edition of a segment we
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  Speaker 1: do every Tuesday at eight thirty, the Daniel Davis Deep Dive,
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  Speaker 1: retired Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Davis, offering his beautiful, insight and
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  Speaker 1: thoughtful analysis of matters involving war and of course matters
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  Speaker 1: involving grabbing Maduro and taking him to be tried in
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  Speaker 1: federal court in New York City. Welcome back, Daniel Davis
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  Speaker 1: Deep Dive time. It's good to see my friend. Happy
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  Speaker 1: New Year.
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  Speaker 2: Let's start with that well and thanks, thanks. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: we took a couple of weeks off in the Holy Cow,
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  Speaker 2: a country was invaded in a president's rike. We better
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  Speaker 2: not take off anymore. Too many things are happening. I know,
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  Speaker 2: I couldn't agree with you more, sir. And you know,
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  Speaker 2: part of me was really really happy that all this
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  Speaker 2: hit the fan over the weekend, because after ten days off,
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  Speaker 2: my brain ate really fired on all cylinders coming back
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  Speaker 2: from vacation, sir. So this really kind of took the
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  Speaker 2: weight off, at least in terms of coming up with
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  Speaker 2: a well very interesting topic and this was beyond interesting.
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  Speaker 2: Let me first remark as I opened the show up
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  Speaker 2: this morning, putting aside all of the you know, political implications,
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  Speaker 2: the legal implications, and what this might mean for us
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  Speaker 2: and how long we're going to be involved in other
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  Speaker 2: things we can talk about. You got to give the
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  Speaker 2: American military huge props for what I mean, that was
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  Speaker 2: an unbelievable mission. I mean boom boom in out, obviously
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  Speaker 2: well oiled, well planned, and clearly we had some inside
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  Speaker 2: help within the Maduro regime. Yeah, that's exactly what it's
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  Speaker 2: going to say this. There's really two separate tracks to
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  Speaker 2: examine here, and both deserve their own focus. And the
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  Speaker 2: first one is on the military execution of this, and
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  Speaker 2: it was about his flawless of a large scale operation
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  Speaker 2: as I have literally ever seen in my lifetime. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: there's I think that there was when the leader of
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  Speaker 2: Italy was captured by the Nazis, actually Steve was captured
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  Speaker 2: in World War Two and they got him out of there,
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  Speaker 2: you know, an amazing snatch and grab back in World
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  Speaker 2: War Two. That's about the only thing I can think
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  Speaker 2: of that reaches this level of precision. And you're right,
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  Speaker 2: there's by all accounts, there was a double agent that
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  Speaker 2: we had, involved probably multiple, probably not just one, but
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  Speaker 2: definitely around the inner circle of the president. We had that.
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  Speaker 2: But even without that, the operation to go in with
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  Speaker 2: F thirty fives to take out a lot of their
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  Speaker 2: command of control systems and communications systems, definitely the air
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  Speaker 2: defense systems. They didn't have great stuff, but they had
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  Speaker 2: usable stuff, and the F thirty fives were apparently very
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  Speaker 2: significant in taking those down. And then of course there's
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  Speaker 2: just all of the rehearsals that went in. But I
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  Speaker 2: mean you're talking everything from the strategic, operational, and tactical level,
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  Speaker 2: all the rehearsals that were done. There was apparently a
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  Speaker 2: complete compound built from scratch at a rehearsal site at
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  Speaker 2: some unknown location to where these snatching grabs were rehearsal.
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  Speaker 2: It was like they had been doing it a one
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  Speaker 2: hundred time. So the opportunity to execute this with literally
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  Speaker 2: no friendly loss of life and no loss of aircraft
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  Speaker 2: and a complete total success of the mission by itself
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  Speaker 2: is just amazing.
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  Speaker 1: Now it's the going forward component, which is the most
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  Speaker 1: complicating element about all this. Donald Trump said, we basically
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  Speaker 1: are going to run the country for some period of
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  Speaker 1: time until I guess an election can take place till
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  Speaker 1: there's some stability there. Devil's always in the details. But
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  Speaker 1: as you and I have talked about before, and I
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  Speaker 1: hate to pivot over to Russia and Ukraine, you know
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  Speaker 1: what happens after Russia takes over whatever chunk they take over,
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  Speaker 1: there are still loyal sympathizers to the Ukraine government, the
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  Speaker 1: idea of sovereignty and the idea that Russia is evil
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  Speaker 1: for having invaded it. Those people represent a legitimate threat
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  Speaker 1: in terms of you know, I think about Castro waging
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  Speaker 1: a gorilla war from the mountains. Maduro did have an army.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not quite sure where they were. I understand he
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  Speaker 1: was being protected by Cuban forces, which I thought was
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  Speaker 1: rather interesting. But they haven't disappeared as an entity. Are
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  Speaker 1: they still loyal to his regime? Are they willing to
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  Speaker 1: be talked out of that loyalty? I know most of
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  Speaker 1: them are corrupt. I mean, aren't these military people and
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  Speaker 1: their hardware. Do they not represent a going forward threat
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  Speaker 1: to the United States regarding whatever involvement we're going to
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  Speaker 1: have there, because it seems pretty likely we're gonna have
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  Speaker 1: some boots on the ground there to maintain stability.
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  Speaker 2: Well, let's hope not, because that could go south in
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  Speaker 2: a big rodiat, a big fast and all this great
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  Speaker 2: stuff that we just talked about could be completely lost
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  Speaker 2: if we go down the path of putting troops there
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  Speaker 2: and trying to compel and force our way into this,
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  Speaker 2: because that's where things start getting much more complicated. And yes,
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  Speaker 2: that's what I've been telling everybody. This operation to snatch
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  Speaker 2: and Grab was profoundly successful, but it didn't take out
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  Speaker 2: the regime. And all these people who've been celebrating Yay,
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  Speaker 2: Maduro's gone and we're free and all this, I keep
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  Speaker 2: saying that's premature. Nothing has changed. The system itself is
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  Speaker 2: fully in place. And we're talking about the system that
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  Speaker 2: was under shoved and then translated into transitioned into Maduro.
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  Speaker 2: All those people that have many of them, like the
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  Speaker 2: Vice President, has spent literally decades of support to the
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  Speaker 2: to the top level. Now she's in charge. By now,
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  Speaker 2: I guess acting President Rodriguez, the question is going to be,
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  Speaker 2: what are you going to do if they don't just
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  Speaker 2: say yes, we'll do what you say. Because apparently Marco
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  Speaker 2: Rubio talked to Rodriguez. Trump claims that she says she's
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  Speaker 2: gonna work with this, but when she made a public statement,
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  Speaker 2: wasn't quite that cooperative. And how could she be if
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  Speaker 2: she's cooperating, I mean, her own life could be at
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  Speaker 2: risk inside of her country. So there are some big
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  Speaker 2: time difficulties remaining in front of.
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  Speaker 1: Us, and no question about it. And you know, that's
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  Speaker 1: that's the part that's got me mostly worried. Now. The
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  Speaker 1: lynchpin for all this. Some people are saying, no, Donald
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  Speaker 1: Trump just won a regime change. Donald Trump just won
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  Speaker 1: to Venezuela and oil. Those really were secondary the the
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  Speaker 1: the lynch pin upon which whatever Donald Trump really really
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  Speaker 1: wanted out of this, whatever you know, our you know,
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  Speaker 1: State Department, or whoever CIA wants out of this, can
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  Speaker 1: be accomplished. But the lynchpin was that he had committed crimes.
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  Speaker 1: He was a drug dealer, He had committed these illegal
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  Speaker 1: acts as a head of a state. And that goes
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  Speaker 1: back to what we went through with Manuel Noriega, very
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  Speaker 1: comparable operation. He went through the entire legal process, made
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  Speaker 1: all the legality arguments. President can't do this, he doesn't
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  Speaker 1: have the constitutional authority, It violates international law, and the
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  Speaker 1: courts shot down all of that. So if you didn't
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  Speaker 1: have this criminal indictment hanging over his head, then you
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  Speaker 1: wouldn't have been able to go in and grab him
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  Speaker 1: and bring him to New York City, right because he's
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  Speaker 1: the president of a sovereign nation.
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  Speaker 2: Look, I mean, we got to be honest. You know
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  Speaker 2: that the law doesn't even matter in this point. We'll
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  Speaker 2: say whatever we want, But there's I mean, you can't
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  Speaker 2: say because our country had an indictment on it, that
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  Speaker 2: we are justified to go get him, because then you
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  Speaker 2: literally open that Pandora's box. In every country on the
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  Speaker 2: planet that has power can do the same thing to
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  Speaker 2: their adversaries. Here, we have set that precedent. So to me,
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  Speaker 2: this is black and white. We wanted a regime change.
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  Speaker 2: We wanted political control of the country and physical control
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  Speaker 2: of the oil. And that's what's being set up right now,
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  Speaker 2: at least that's what's being set up as an exception
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  Speaker 2: or a desire. But as President Trump said, I think
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  Speaker 2: it was an air force one last night. He said, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: if they don't cooperate, if they don't do what we
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  Speaker 2: tell them to do, then we may go in there more.
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  Speaker 2: But I'm just telling you, Brian, if we want to
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  Speaker 2: brag on how good this snatch and grab was, if
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  Speaker 2: we have to go in there and force anything on
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  Speaker 2: the ground, it's going to get bloody big fast. And
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  Speaker 2: I'm just telling you, we don't have the force structure
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  Speaker 2: anywhere near sufficient to actually compel the country to do
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  Speaker 2: anything that we want. This is a really bad situation
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  Speaker 2: quite frankly.
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  Speaker 1: Well, And insofar as the Senator is discussing a war
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  Speaker 1: powers vote on this, they tried this last November to
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  Speaker 1: got shot down, and that was at forty nine to
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  Speaker 1: fifty one vote. If they can't pass a war powers
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  Speaker 1: resolution to say limit the authority or other wise control
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  Speaker 1: what we can and cannot do in Venezuela, where does
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  Speaker 1: that leave us? I mean, the president's basically free to
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  Speaker 1: do whatever he wants. I mean, I've been struggling with
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  Speaker 1: this sort of ever since I read about this. What
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  Speaker 1: comes next? And what if Congress doesn't do anything?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, You've had several and Lindsey Graham is the biggest
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  Speaker 2: cheerleader of this. He's been saying and I actually found
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  Speaker 2: something from twenty twenty last night where he just holds
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  Speaker 2: that the nineteen seventy three War Powers Act is not
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  Speaker 2: constitutional in his personal right opinion. That doesn't matter what
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  Speaker 2: his opinion is. It matters what the rule of law is,
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  Speaker 2: and the nineteen seventy three War Powers is an actual law.
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  Speaker 2: The problem is, and he is right in this regard,
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  Speaker 2: Presidents across the board have been ignoring this for many, many,
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  Speaker 2: many years and many administrations. Problem is with that is
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  Speaker 2: that you set a standard that the law doesn't count.
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  Speaker 2: And so to answer your direct question, yes, we are
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  Speaker 2: in a place where the law doesn't restrain the president
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  Speaker 2: and he is totally free to do what he wants
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  Speaker 2: because he has the law, he has the Justice Department,
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  Speaker 2: he has the Secretary of Defense or Secretary of War.
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  Speaker 2: The courts are not going to intervene, it doesn't appear.
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  Speaker 2: And because he has the house in the Senate right now,
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  Speaker 2: there won't be an impeachment. No one will compel anything,
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  Speaker 2: and certainly the Senate. So that means, yes, he is
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  Speaker 2: free to do whatever he wants with no constraints. And
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  Speaker 2: I'm just telling you that it's bad for America.
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  Speaker 1: Well, does that mean Supreme Leader Ali Kameni over and
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  Speaker 1: in Iran it feels like his life maybe in jeopardy
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  Speaker 1: as well.
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  Speaker 2: Why wouldn't he. I mean, there's a lot of people
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  Speaker 2: have to be concerned with that. And already our work
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  Speaker 2: with the Israelis, they had I'd already threatened that in
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  Speaker 2: the past, they had done it with Hezbollah, with his leaders.
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  Speaker 2: Many other leaders in other medium sized leaders in Iraan
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  Speaker 2: have been assassinated, So we just kind of opened up. Really,
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  Speaker 2: the Israelis have opened up this Pandora's box. Although you
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  Speaker 2: can obviously say that Trump did that in twenty twenty
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  Speaker 2: when he took out Solomon he with an assassination, attempt
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  Speaker 2: or execution, and this is, you know, the law of
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  Speaker 2: the jungle man. I mean, it's it's a lot of
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  Speaker 2: people are cheering today because it's an objective that the
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  Speaker 2: US wanted, But I don't see how this benefits our country.
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  Speaker 2: And I see how it could be a really dark
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  Speaker 2: place to where the rule of law gets shredd even further.
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  Speaker 2: And that's problem for.
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  Speaker 1: All of us. Yeah, I just said, it depends on
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  Speaker 1: whose ox is being gord because Zorhan Mandami has declared
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  Speaker 1: Benjaminett Yaho a war criminal responsible for genocide. If there
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  Speaker 1: were presidents Zorhan Mandami, he could go and do the
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  Speaker 1: same thing we did in Maduro, right, because he's been
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  Speaker 1: labeled a war criminal, right, right.
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  Speaker 2: And that's that's one of the things that I have
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  Speaker 2: been saying, is that, you know, we want to defend
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  Speaker 2: President Trump's justification to go after because we declared him
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  Speaker 2: Maduro a criminal and then died him at court, and
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  Speaker 2: that Yahoo is in dotted in many countries as a
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  Speaker 2: suspected war criminal, et cetera. And do you want to
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  Speaker 2: say that any of those countries, if they have the power,
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  Speaker 2: that they can go and try and do a snatch
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  Speaker 2: and grab on that Yahoo. I mean, some people may say, well, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: let them try, because you know, Israel is not Venezuela,
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  Speaker 2: and they would not go. Well, almost certainly, that's correct.
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  Speaker 2: But the president has been set and you know, you
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  Speaker 2: can't just you know, say, all right, this one's fine
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  Speaker 2: for us because we lock it. That one's not fine.
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  Speaker 2: That's different because well we lock him. But the problem
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  Speaker 2: is that that's only as you just said, and the
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  Speaker 2: eye of the beholder whose ox is gored, this is
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  Speaker 2: just it's just not good for us. Man.
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  Speaker 1: I'm just sorry. I'm just telling you, no, I feel
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  Speaker 1: along the same way. I'm always looking down the road
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  Speaker 1: at the next guy at the helm and how this
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  Speaker 1: would implicate, would have implications for every presidential administration from hereafter. Uh,
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  Speaker 1: Daniel Davis got to have you around to bounce these
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  Speaker 1: ideas off of. And I appreciate you coming to the program.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: Another twenty twenty six with the Daniel Davis Steve Dive
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: here on the fifty five KRC Morning Show, Right love
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  Speaker 1: it look forward to it, amen, brother, as do I.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: We'll talk about the China Russia implications on this military
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: action maybe next time we talk. Because that's that's another
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: couple of wrinkles in the Yes it is bib it
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: is thought to talk about here the Kennedy Turl Daniel
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: Davis find his podcast Daniel Davis Deep Dive. You'll enjoy that.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: I'll look forward to having you back on again real
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: soon and Happy New year' sir. Seven seventeen. Right now,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: Christopher Smithman waiting in the winnings for the smither vent First,
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: get your car into foreign exchange. A matter of fact,
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: I'm getting ready to make an appointment. It's oil change time.