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

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to you are well. Let's talk to the
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Dean himself, the greatest campaign manager and the best analyst
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  Speaker 1: of all Ed Rollins. How you doing.
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  Speaker 2: I'm doing well, thank you to Thanksgiving and had a
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  Speaker 2: wonderful day.
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  Speaker 1: I'll lead it too, Yeah, definitely. Hey, we're talking of
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  Speaker 1: this before twenty twenty six summer saying could be the
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  Speaker 1: most important election ever for Democrats. It's the final last
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  Speaker 1: chance to stop Donald Trump. If he gets both houses
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  Speaker 1: again and has complete control of Congress, it's smooth sailing.
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  Speaker 1: They've got to take Congress back to stop them and
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  Speaker 1: peach them whatever they want to do.
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  Speaker 2: What do you think, Well, I think that's their goal obviously.
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  Speaker 2: And the reality is the numbers aren't very good for
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  Speaker 2: nobody in the political business today. The Congress numbers are terrible.
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  Speaker 2: But the reality is Republicans are running in the whole show.
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  Speaker 2: So they've got a somehow breakthrough here what happens. And
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  Speaker 2: then having run the progrescial races as a chairman of
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  Speaker 2: the Congressional for medical chairman, uh and having gone to
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  Speaker 2: a mid term election when I was a White House
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  Speaker 2: political director. These are straining elections and they start now. Uh.
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  Speaker 2: We don't have a year to get ready. We have
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  Speaker 2: a We have a couple of months to get ready.
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  Speaker 2: And what occurs as members start doing their own polls,
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  Speaker 2: and the vast majority of members of the most important
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  Speaker 2: thing it's getting re elected. They don't care about anybody else.
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  Speaker 2: They care about the president to a certain extent Republicans,
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  Speaker 2: but at the end of the day, if they start
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  Speaker 2: doing badly, they're going to do everything they can to
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  Speaker 2: get themselves reelected, which may not be what the president wants.
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  Speaker 2: So we've got a lot of chaos. The budget bills
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  Speaker 2: aren't going to get through. They very clear that Dune
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  Speaker 2: yesterday said he's gonna trouble. We're gonna have trouble get
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  Speaker 2: the budget bills through. They made a promise on the
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  Speaker 2: healthcare and publican's problem for years of healthcare is we
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  Speaker 2: don't have an alternative, UH to Obamacare. And so we've
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  Speaker 2: got through real fight to the head of us. And
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  Speaker 2: I just would urge the president to stay consistent on
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  Speaker 2: a few subjects here and not be traveling all over
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  Speaker 2: the world and not get us an war and in
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  Speaker 2: other parts of the world. Yeah, star wars, we won't.
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  Speaker 1: We don't have wars, but you're the expert, and you
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  Speaker 1: know we don't have much time. But when you say
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  Speaker 1: we don't have much time, it's a year from now.
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  Speaker 1: Can't anything and everything change by then?
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  Speaker 2: It won't change the reality is, you know, the economy
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  Speaker 2: may get a little stronger. Hopefully if that does that,
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  Speaker 2: it can turn it around. But everything is kind of
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  Speaker 2: in play now. And the budget. The next big battles
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  Speaker 2: here are the budget battles, and we control that process.
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  Speaker 2: So we've got to make sure whatever it takes to
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  Speaker 2: get get them through. And the country sees the Congress working.
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  Speaker 2: The Congress don't see the Congress working in particularly the
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  Speaker 2: House getting things done. The reality is a load against
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  Speaker 2: the majority that's there. We've got a big election today
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  Speaker 2: in Tennessee. Tennessee seven. Yeah, this is where the president
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  Speaker 2: carried by twenty six points. Shouldn't even be at a race.
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  Speaker 2: But it's dead it even according to the pools that
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  Speaker 2: I've seen. So if we lose this, it's sort of
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  Speaker 2: the process keeps feeding itself, and what happens they eat themselves.
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  Speaker 2: They basically say, okay, our here's our plan for the years.
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  Speaker 2: We're we're going to do ten things, five things, whatever
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  Speaker 2: the number is and then you stick with it. Unfortunately,
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  Speaker 2: the numbers are so small both the sun in the
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  Speaker 2: House that a defection of five six seats anywhere changes
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  Speaker 2: the dynamic dramatically.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, can you explain to us this crazy phenomenon of
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  Speaker 1: these new Democratic candidates. They're all kooks, you know, like
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  Speaker 1: Mom Donnie. Well, this woman in Tennessee, she doesn't like
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  Speaker 1: country music and she said her districts in Nashville. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: w how did the Democrat ends up with these kookie people?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I've seen her on TV. I don't know her
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  Speaker 2: at all, but she's she's pretty pretty charismatic, and I
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  Speaker 2: think that's part of it. They say what they say,
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  Speaker 2: what they want, they say what they think they want,
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  Speaker 2: and it's pretty much running against Republicans, running against Trump
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  Speaker 2: much promoting himself. Obviously, Mon Dabi was different, but Bondaby
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  Speaker 2: didn't run on his own record Nabi and we didn't
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  Speaker 2: do a very good job with laying out what he
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  Speaker 2: really is. He really is a socialist comments whatever term
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  Speaker 2: you want to use. It's all what the vast majority
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  Speaker 2: of New York is, or how the vast majority of
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  Speaker 2: people in the country are.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah about Mon Donnie, the same thing on paper, the
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  Speaker 1: worst candidate in the world. But you're right, he's charismatic
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  Speaker 1: on TV and online social and.
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  Speaker 2: Media and the way things are now, you know, everybody
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  Speaker 2: has their own independent way of getting their news. They
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  Speaker 2: don't watch television walk they used to. They don't watch
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  Speaker 2: the news shows. And you know, the reality here is
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  Speaker 2: that people go on and they're charismatic and they say, oh, no,
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  Speaker 2: I'm just against Trump. Trump's doing all these bad things.
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to change that. And whether he is or
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  Speaker 2: is and is not always relevant. It's the perception. And
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  Speaker 2: the perception right now is there's too many fights going on.
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  Speaker 2: You can't be fighting with Navy seals, he can't be
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  Speaker 2: fighting with the astronauts. Get the job done, and the
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  Speaker 2: president needs to focus on that. In the White House States
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  Speaker 2: philps got.
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  Speaker 1: That, so, uh, you can have the worst wreck in
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  Speaker 1: the world. But as long as you're charismatic, does that
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  Speaker 1: mean Gavin Newsom has a great shot in twenty twenty
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  Speaker 1: eight he.
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  Speaker 2: Has He should not even be in the game. This
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  Speaker 2: guy has been recalled to be called as the worst
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  Speaker 2: record of anybody in California, and modern history of the
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  Speaker 2: state's in terrible, terrible shape and yet he's in the
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  Speaker 2: election was held a couple of school get a fifty
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  Speaker 2: four percent of brewery from Californians. So he's certainly got
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  Speaker 2: a base to run on, and he's not going to
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  Speaker 2: run on his record. He's going to run on against
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  Speaker 2: against Trump. In my sense, that's that's what all do is.
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  Speaker 2: It's all going to be against Trump, and Trump basically
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  Speaker 2: has got to be very disciplineous message. He's got the
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  Speaker 2: strongest party he's ever anybody's ever had, but they're going
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  Speaker 2: to start up backbrating if they don't see him turning
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  Speaker 2: this back around it. It's all about the economy, all
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  Speaker 2: about the economy.
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  Speaker 1: The rest of it is, what does it mean discipline
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  Speaker 1: in his message? You mean talk less, don't tweet every
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  Speaker 1: two seconds, do a little less.
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  Speaker 2: Don't tweet every two seconds, and don't let everybody else talk. Basically,
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  Speaker 2: pick who you're going to have out there doing. What's
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  Speaker 2: the message of the day. The message of the day
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  Speaker 2: right today is we care about what happened to these
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  Speaker 2: You know these guys are gonna shot out on the boat.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah that's the story. Then have your message down, stay
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  Speaker 2: on the message, don't let people want and there's too
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  Speaker 2: many people that are independent and know what you're going
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  Speaker 2: to say. I've always ard with his strategy clients or
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  Speaker 2: whether it's political lines. We'll write it out. Here's what
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  Speaker 2: we're going to say, here's how long we're going to
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  Speaker 2: say it. Here's where the kinds of shows are going
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  Speaker 2: to go on and make sure that everybody's hearing from
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  Speaker 2: us the same message and not fifteen different messages.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, but you know when you get a private sector
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  Speaker 1: billionaire running, well, you had, you ran the Russ Paro campaign,
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  Speaker 1: the private sector billionaire business guy. It's hard to tell
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  Speaker 1: them things, isn't it. They don't listen, do they They
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  Speaker 1: don't listen.
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  Speaker 2: They don't listen. I finally said it pro one day.
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  Speaker 2: So you're just trying to run a traditional campaign, said no,
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  Speaker 2: I'm not just trying to run a campaign.
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  Speaker 1: But they became billionaires, so they must know something.
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  Speaker 2: Right, They do know something, and they should stay in
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  Speaker 2: the lane where they know something. That's good. Let let
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  Speaker 2: people understand politics and communications do that. Yeah, so you're communicating,
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  Speaker 2: You're every day, every day, you're out communicating your message
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  Speaker 2: every day in your basically talking about the things that
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  Speaker 2: matter to you, anything matter to your viewers. If all
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  Speaker 2: of a sudden tomorrow you are going out there and saying,
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  Speaker 2: you know, we just got a lock to the greatest
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  Speaker 2: mayor in the world in New York. Let's get them
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  Speaker 2: a shot. Your ears have started clicking off. That switches that. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: you got to stay consistent in your message who you
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  Speaker 2: are and what you are.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. But but you know, even like that's take the Venezuela.
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  Speaker 1: The boats people are basically common sense. Don't they realize, Hey,
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  Speaker 1: these guys are defending drug dealers. Well, we can't defend
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  Speaker 1: the drug cartels.
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  Speaker 2: But we haven't. We haven't proved the case yet. We
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  Speaker 2: need to go prove the case. And I would argue
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  Speaker 2: at this point in time, this is serious. If they
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  Speaker 2: if they charge the sectarior defense whatever he wants to
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  Speaker 2: be call as you call the world ward. But at
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  Speaker 2: the end of the day, he's not a very good
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  Speaker 2: communicator and he may not be a very good Secretary
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  Speaker 2: of Defense. He may have made a big mistake here.
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  Speaker 2: And for some reason, when it's spend the Christmas holidays
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  Speaker 2: talking about to we murdered two guys hang on the
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  Speaker 2: side of a boat. We think they were trying to do.
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  Speaker 2: Is we don't know that for sure. And the Congress
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  Speaker 2: is calling through hearings. He got to cooperate with the hearings.
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  Speaker 2: What are you gonna do, sit down and get a strategy,
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  Speaker 2: get a plan. There's no strategy in this White House
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  Speaker 2: right now.
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  Speaker 1: All right, Well, good stuff, Ed Rollins, always great talking
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  Speaker 1: you thanks for the great analysis. Keep up the good work,
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  Speaker 1: and we'll talk against him. Take it, take care or
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  Speaker 1: interesting stuff. Yeah. Hey, we got a lot to get
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: to throughout the day, all sorts of stuff to cover.
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  Speaker 1: H We didn't get to the Tim Waltz fraud either.
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  Speaker 1: That is pretty amazing, that fraud Tim Waltz. You know
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  Speaker 1: this happens with these democrats. Look at the Toplasia when
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  Speaker 1: he was in office with his wife's crazy program Thrive NYC,
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  Speaker 1: which were these crazy centers with like yoga for the homeless.
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  Speaker 1: Somehow a billion dollars got put into that and then
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  Speaker 1: went missing. The billion dollars disappeared. To this day, nobody
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  Speaker 1: knows where it went. And by the way, the program
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  Speaker 1: itself never opened, the single center, never got a single
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  Speaker 1: program done, still hasn't to this day. The billion disappeared.
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  Speaker 1: That's what happens when you get these Democratic socialists. Now
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  Speaker 1: look at the Minnesota where you got Tim Waltz in charge,
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  Speaker 1: same exact sort of thing. It also happens to be
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  Speaker 1: a billion dollars went missing, a bunch of crazy programs
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  Speaker 1: in Minnesota, same kind of left wing coop nonsense programs.
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  Speaker 1: The billion dollars is missing. Tim Waltz cannot seem to
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  Speaker 1: explain for a second what happened to the money, will
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  Speaker 1: not even take responsibility for it. People have asked him
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  Speaker 1: over and over and over again. He can't explain it.
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  Speaker 1: Same thing happened with the Blasia. Luckily it's he's a
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  Speaker 1: left wing guy. They don't push him to our bit.
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  Speaker 2: Waltz, do you take response ability for failing to stop
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  Speaker 2: this fraud in your state?
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  Speaker 1: Well, certainly I take responsibility for putting people in jail.
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  Speaker 1: Governors don't get to just talk theoretically. We have to
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  Speaker 1: solve problems. And I will note it's not just Somali's.
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  Speaker 1: Minnesota is a generous state. Minnesota is a place, and
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  Speaker 1: it's basically a no no. He will not take responsibility
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  Speaker 1: for it. Hey, I don't forget Tonight at nine excellent
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: news show Jimmy Fayla, very funny, interesting, show every night
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: nine o'clock here on seven to ten wor