Latest / 5 minute updates on the latest Trump actions by Prof Christina Pagel / What’s Happened in America While You Were Watching the Iran War

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What’s Happened in America While You Were Watching the Iran War · 5 minute updates on the latest Trump actions by Prof Christina Pagel

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  SPEAKER_00: Understandably, the focus has been on the war in Iran
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  SPEAKER_00: and Trump's threats of obliteration and genocide.
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  SPEAKER_00: But so much has been happening behind the headlines.
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  SPEAKER_00: So today I'm going to highlight recent actions that either undermine
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  SPEAKER_00: free and fair elections or, more attacks on perceived enemies.
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  SPEAKER_00: So starting with worrying signs of election interference
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  SPEAKER_00: So speaking at the CPAC conference, which is an annual massive
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  SPEAKER_00: Republican conference,
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  SPEAKER_00: the then deputy and now acting attorney general Todd
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  SPEAKER_00: Blanche endorsed sending ICE agents to the voting polls.
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  SPEAKER_00: So he's now the most prominent Trump official
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  SPEAKER_00: to voice support for immigration officers patrolling the polls.
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  SPEAKER_00: The obvious, consequence and intent is to deter Americans from voting
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  SPEAKER_00: if they look like they might not be American.
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  SPEAKER_00: So effectively, ethnic minority voters.
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  SPEAKER_00: There are all kinds of other ways
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  SPEAKER_00: that they're thinking of restricting the vote.
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  SPEAKER_00: And most of that relies on them combing through, registration
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  SPEAKER_00: data of voters to try and find what they think of
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  SPEAKER_00: as fraud or something that they can represent as fraud
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  SPEAKER_00: or what they think are kind of non-citizens voting,
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  SPEAKER_00: which all the evidence suggest is really, really rare.
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  SPEAKER_00: So, firstly, the Department of Justice
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  SPEAKER_00: acknowledged in a court hearing, that it plans to share voter
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  SPEAKER_00: registration data that it gets from the states
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  SPEAKER_00: with the Department for Homeland Security
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  SPEAKER_00: so that it can be run through a citizen check, housed
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  SPEAKER_00: at the Department.
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  SPEAKER_00: same time, the Justice Department also said that it has sued
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  SPEAKER_00: Idaho for failing to produce its voter rolls.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's now sued 30 states, who refused to share that information with it.
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  SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, the governors of Florida and Mississippi signed legislation
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  SPEAKER_00: to require documents of proof of citizenship to register to vote
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  SPEAKER_00: and to begin a process
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  SPEAKER_00: that will eventually un-enrol voters who have not provided
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  SPEAKER_00: citizenship documentation.
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  SPEAKER_00: So there are lots of reasons that absolutely valid
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  SPEAKER_00: voters or American citizens might not have the documentation
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  SPEAKER_00: they require, and disproportionately that will affect, people of lower
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  SPEAKER_00: economic status.
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  SPEAKER_00: So effectively, what these are is these are, state
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  SPEAKER_00: versions of the same act that Trump is currently trying
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  SPEAKER_00: to push through Congress.
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  SPEAKER_00: So Donald Trump also signed an executive order
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  SPEAKER_00: that seeks to restrict mail-in voting across the US with a series of more
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  SPEAKER_00: stringent requirements, to meet the threshold for mail-in voting.
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  SPEAKER_00: But it's not clear that he has any authority to do that
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  SPEAKER_00: because it’s states and not the president
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  SPEAKER_00: who has the authority to run elections.
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  SPEAKER_00: And this is kind of coming on top of Trump
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  SPEAKER_00: repeatedly and baselessly arguing that U.S.
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  SPEAKER_00: elections are ripe with fraud.
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  SPEAKER_00: And wanting this kind of proof of citizenship,
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  SPEAKER_00: even though there's no evidence that this is an issue.
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  SPEAKER_00: Then, while she was still Attorney General,
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  SPEAKER_00: Pam Bondi authorized Dan Bishop, who is a U.S.
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  SPEAKER_00: attorney in North Carolina
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  SPEAKER_00: to pursue election related probes across the country.
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  SPEAKER_00: So basically, Bishop is a former congressman.
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  SPEAKER_00: He voted against certifying Biden's 2020 win,
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  SPEAKER_00: so he's bought into the big election lie, of 2020.
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  SPEAKER_00: So he wants to examine the voter roll data
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  SPEAKER_00: that the Justice Department has been collecting from states
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  SPEAKER_00: or trying to collect from states
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  SPEAKER_00: in an effort to determine whether non-citizens
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  SPEAKER_00: have illegally registered or cast ballots.
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  SPEAKER_00: So really, this whole thing is about trying to cast doubt on elections.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's a way of starting to sow doubt in citizens minds
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  SPEAKER_00: that elections are fair.
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  SPEAKER_00: I think it's a way of setting up, court cases.
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  SPEAKER_00: If the Republicans lose too many seats in the midterms,
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  SPEAKER_00: it's a way of really kind of destabilizing
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  SPEAKER_00: the the context in which elections are held.
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  SPEAKER_00: So moving on now to attacking, enemies.
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  SPEAKER_00: Firstly, Trump actually got rid of Pam Bondi, a week or two ago,
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  SPEAKER_00: apparently because he was frustrated with her performance.
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  SPEAKER_00: And
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  SPEAKER_00: I mean,
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm laughing because it's just really hard to say this
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  SPEAKER_00: with a straight face,
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  SPEAKER_00: but basically part of the reason that he's fired her was that
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  SPEAKER_00: he felt that she wasn't aggressive enough in prosecuting his critics
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  SPEAKER_00: and adversaries, who he felt should be facing criminal charges.
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  SPEAKER_00: And just to be absolutely clear, the Justice Department
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  SPEAKER_00: is meant to be independent of the president,
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  SPEAKER_00: and it's not there to go after the president's enemies.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now, her temporary replacement was the former deputy,
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  SPEAKER_00: now the acting U.S. Attorney general.
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  SPEAKER_00: Todd Blanche who was Trump's former personal lawyer.
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  SPEAKER_00: And he then said that Trump has a right and duty to shape
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  SPEAKER_00: federal probes of individuals who investigated Trump previously.
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  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't have that right or that duty, by the way.
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  SPEAKER_00: Then the, top enforcement official at the US
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  SPEAKER_00: Securities and Exchange Commission, resigned abruptly.
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  SPEAKER_00: Apparently he clashed with agency leaders
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  SPEAKER_00: over the direction of his enforcement program.
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  SPEAKER_00: Basically, this guy wanted to, investigate people close to Trump
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  SPEAKER_00: and his family who he felt were,
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  SPEAKER_00: potentially involved in fraud or misconduct,
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  SPEAKER_00: but he was kind of being warned off it by the chair of the Securities
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  and Exchange
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  SPEAKER_00: Commission, Paul Atkins, and other kind of political appointees.
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  SPEAKER_00: And so he left, basically because he felt
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  SPEAKER_00: he wasn't fairly allowed to do his job.
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  SPEAKER_00: Going back to CPAC, the Federal Communications Commission
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  SPEAKER_00: chair, Brendan Carr, announced proudly
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  SPEAKER_00: that Trump is winning his feud against the fake news media.
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  SPEAKER_00: So quoting him, he said President Trump took on the fake news media
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  SPEAKER_00: and President Trump is winning.
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  SPEAKER_00: Look at the results so far.
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  SPEAKER_00: PBS defunded, NPR defunded, Joy Reid gone from MSNBC.
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  SPEAKER_00: Sleepy-Eyed Chuck Todd gone.
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  SPEAKER_00: Jim Acosta gone, John Dickerson gone.
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  SPEAKER_00: Colbert is leaving.
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  SPEAKER_00: CBS is under new ownership.
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  SPEAKER_00: And soon enough, CNN is going to have new ownership as well.
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  SPEAKER_00: So this incidentally, also feeds into undermining free and fair
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  SPEAKER_00: elections, because what you're doing is you're tilting the,
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  SPEAKER_00: the playing field towards Republicans in the midterms
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  SPEAKER_00: because increasingly people
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  SPEAKER_00: are getting their information from Trump aligned sources.
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  SPEAKER_00: Then Trump kind of revived his his feud,
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  SPEAKER_00: his attacks on New York Attorney General Letitia James.
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  SPEAKER_00: So he posted about prosecuting her 14 times in five days.
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  SPEAKER_00: So signaling kind renewed and intensifying focus on her.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now, the reason he is going after her is that she previously brought
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  SPEAKER_00: a major civil case against him when Biden was president.
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  SPEAKER_00: Trump has also been attacking journalists, so he threatened to jail
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  SPEAKER_00: a journalist who reported that a second U.S.
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  SPEAKER_00: airman was missing after being shot down by Iran.
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  SPEAKER_00: Because he wanted to identify their source,
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  SPEAKER_00: which goes against kind of all, journalistic, protocols.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then in a separate press briefing, Trump
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  SPEAKER_00: also attacked New York Times journalists Zolan Kanno-Youngs,
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  SPEAKER_00: calling him fake, shouting at New York Times as failing.
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  SPEAKER_00: And basically all that happened was a journalist had asked Trump
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  SPEAKER_00: if attacking Iran's infrastructure, violated the Geneva Conventions.
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  SPEAKER_00: So basically is attacking civilian infrastructure, a war crime.
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  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it is.
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  SPEAKER_00: Trump then also, targeted Democrats.
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  SPEAKER_00: And well, the Democratic state more broadly.
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  SPEAKER_00: So he announced a fresh crackdown on fraud in Democratic states
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  SPEAKER_00: and tapped vice president, JD Vance to lead that, crackdown.
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  SPEAKER_00: And immediately afterwards, officials announced a string of arrests
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  SPEAKER_00: in California.
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  SPEAKER_00: Without citing evidence, Trump said that Vance would focus on everywhere,
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  SPEAKER_00: but primarily in those blue states where crooked Democrat politicians
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  SPEAKER_00: have had a free for all in the unprecedented
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  SPEAKER_00: theft of taxpayer money.
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  SPEAKER_00: But really, as far as I can see,
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  SPEAKER_00: this is just a way of trying to, attack Democratic states.
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  SPEAKER_00: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, signed into law a measure
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  SPEAKER_00: that gave him and other state officials
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  SPEAKER_00: the power to designate groups as terrorist organizations
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  SPEAKER_00: and then to expel students who support them.
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  And really,
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  SPEAKER_00: the law it empowers the state's chief of domestic security,
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  SPEAKER_00: the governor, and the cabinet, to designate any organization
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  SPEAKER_00: they term and engages in extremist acts as a terrorist organization.
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  SPEAKER_00: And what's worrying about this is this can be used
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  SPEAKER_00: to target civil rights groups, groups supporting LGBT
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  SPEAKER_00: people, groups protesting wars in Gaza or Lebanon.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's a real way of
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  SPEAKER_00: potentially empowering, powerful tools to suppress dissent.
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  SPEAKER_00: The new Department of Homeland Security, Secretary Mullen,
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  SPEAKER_00: has also recently said that Customs official could stop
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  SPEAKER_00: processing international travelers
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  SPEAKER_00: and major US airports in sanctuary cities in Democrat
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  SPEAKER_00: led states
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  SPEAKER_00: that have declined to cooperate with the Trump administration's
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  SPEAKER_00: immigration crackdown.
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  SPEAKER_00: This has included Denver, Philadelphia, Chicago,
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  SPEAKER_00: Los Angeles, New York, Seattle and San Francisco.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now they all have major international airports.
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  SPEAKER_00: They're all international hubs.
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  SPEAKER_00: They all obviously receive a lot of tourists.
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  SPEAKER_00: And so this could potentially
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  SPEAKER_00: be quite devastating for tourism in those states.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then finally I'm going to end on the Pope.
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  SPEAKER_00: reporting emerged this week that in January, the undersecretary
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  SPEAKER_00: of war, Colby summoned Pope Leo the 14th, then cardinal,
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  SPEAKER_00: ambassador to the United States, and basically delivered a lecture.
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  SPEAKER_00: And he told the Cardinal that America has the military power
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  SPEAKER_00: to do whatever it wants in the world,
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  SPEAKER_00: and that the Catholic Church had better take its side or else.
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  SPEAKER_00: So I think it is quite something when,
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  SPEAKER_00: you have the president directly threatening the Pope.
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  SPEAKER_00: And so that's all for this week.
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  SPEAKER_00: I'll be back in a week or so.
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  So here are
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  six ways that the Trump administration has tried to undermine
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  free and fair elections for the midterms over the last two weeks.
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  So moving on now to attacking, enemies.