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

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  Speaker 1: The Mark Simon Show on SEVENR. Well, let's talk to
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  Speaker 1: the dean himself, Ed Rollins, the greatest political analyst that
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  Speaker 1: He's been in a lot of white houses, run a
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  Speaker 1: lot of campaigns, and he's with us now. Ed Rollins,
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  Speaker 1: how you doing, good morning? How are you very good? Hey?
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: What do you think getting rid of Pam Bondy? Probably
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  Speaker 1: a good idea, A bit of a bumbler.
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  Speaker 2: I think she obviously is too strident for the jobs.
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  Speaker 2: She inlinated a lot of people and didn't do what
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  Speaker 2: Trump wanted. The critical thing I think is the timing,
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  Speaker 2: and I worry from a communications perspective, it's two hundred
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  Speaker 2: and thirteen days to the election. I would not go
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  Speaker 2: to another fight if I was the president of the
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  Speaker 2: president's team. I just leave the number two guy in
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  Speaker 2: there for as long as period as you can and
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  Speaker 2: straighten things out as best you can. What you can't
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  Speaker 2: have is every day taken away from your story. We're
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  Speaker 2: in the middle of a war, and obviously the war
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  Speaker 2: has gone all our side so far, but at the
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  Speaker 2: end of the day, when you get into the ground battle,
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  Speaker 2: which is what apparently the president wants to do or
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  Speaker 2: we'll do, Uh, that are gonna be fired back. We
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  Speaker 2: now have we now have to uh two pot uts
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  Speaker 2: that are down according to this morning's uh stories, and
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  Speaker 2: you know what's gonna happen those guys. They're alive, but
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  Speaker 2: they're basically be uh uh you know, I just think
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  Speaker 2: it's important that the president speech here that night was
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  Speaker 2: a disaster. He didn't didn't add anything to the to
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  Speaker 2: the the dialogue. He could have done that speech anytime,
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  Speaker 2: four weeks ago, four weeks from now, and it's just, uh,
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  Speaker 2: you know, we've got a week of which there is
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  Speaker 2: obviously a very important thing, the space program, that we
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  Speaker 2: could be highlighting. Uh, it's easter time and there's a
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  Speaker 2: lot of people that are aren't interested in politics right now.
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  Speaker 2: Critical thing I think is to get to get your message,
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  Speaker 2: to get your team, and if you've got to change
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  Speaker 2: more people in the White House, do it quick. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I mean, don't don't drag it out.
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  Speaker 1: Problem with that speech. He's not a good teleprompter reader,
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  Speaker 1: and you know, with no audience, it's not him. And
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  Speaker 1: how does something like that happen to people push him
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  Speaker 1: to do that?
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  Speaker 2: Well, no one's had pushed this president. This president g
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  Speaker 2: said to do what he wants to do, and you're deft, right.
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  Speaker 2: When I worked for Ronald Reagan, you know, Ronald Reagan
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  Speaker 2: got the sort of set, was a master speaker, could
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  Speaker 2: read a teleprompter anywhere, but he took time to get
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  Speaker 2: ready for it. The idea that you now have Pam
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  Speaker 2: Bond being fired at the same time, these are all
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  Speaker 2: those tractions to the president, no matter how capable he
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  Speaker 2: may be or not be, No one could basically take
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  Speaker 2: all those pressures all at once. So I think I
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  Speaker 2: think he was badly. You know, he could fire next week,
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  Speaker 2: he could fire two leagues and now I won't care.
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  Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, you've now you've
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  Speaker 2: now stepped all over your stories. And I worry about
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  Speaker 2: the communications. I worry about the Democrats not not necessarily
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  Speaker 2: getting the upper hand on communications, but they're going to
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  Speaker 2: take the press that basically is not favorable to the
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  Speaker 2: president right now and highlight these stories. And now, now
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  Speaker 2: today you have the budget which the presidents ask what
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  Speaker 2: an enormous amount of money for the Defense Department. And
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  Speaker 2: at the end of the day, it may be necessary,
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  Speaker 2: but he's going to prove his case. She's not gonna
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  Speaker 2: get that money easily. So yeah, a lot of the agenda,
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  Speaker 2: a lot of agenda.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, but when you get a guy who's not a politician,
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  Speaker 1: not a professional politician, he's a billionaire, he's from the
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  Speaker 1: private sector. You worked for Ross Perot, They're gonna do
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  Speaker 1: what they want. They're not going to ever follow the procedure,
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  Speaker 1: are they Nope?
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  Speaker 2: I agree totally in Ross Baroi is a perfect example.
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  Speaker 2: But uh uh. You know Trump has had success though,
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  Speaker 2: and I think the key things, you know, he has
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  Speaker 2: to pick us, pick us battles carefully, especially the next
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  Speaker 2: two in a days he loses, he's gonna he's gonna
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  Speaker 2: lose the House. It may not be a may not
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  Speaker 2: be a massive loss, but it's gonna be a loss. Uh,
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  Speaker 2: the Senators now in play. He loses those two things,
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  Speaker 2: those two entities, the whole game chased the last two years.
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  Speaker 2: So he's got to basically the next six months get
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  Speaker 2: what he needs done, get an agenda out there, get
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  Speaker 2: a campaign strategy that can can articulate what it is
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  Speaker 2: is the last two years.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's many many, many many months away. And
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  Speaker 1: you know he can pull rabbits out of his hat.
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  Speaker 1: He is pretty good at that.
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  Speaker 2: Isn't he he's very good at that. At the end
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  Speaker 2: of the day, though, you want to be on your agenda,
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  Speaker 2: on their agenda.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. So, And the idea of firing a cabinet member,
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  Speaker 1: you're gonna hear all day and all weekend on the
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  Speaker 1: Sunday shows this and indicates total chaos in the administrative
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  Speaker 1: It's not unusual to fire cabinet member, is it.
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  Speaker 2: No, it's not. And certainly Trump had had a big
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  Speaker 2: record of hiring people first term, and you know, you
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  Speaker 2: remember back to cabin vers and fire forever. And at
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  Speaker 2: the end of the day, what I would do is
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  Speaker 2: just target is don't don't drag it out, don't don't
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  Speaker 2: do uh one a week so you've got to got
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  Speaker 2: a change, and there's four or five people you're not satisfied,
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  Speaker 2: get it done, do it sometime next a couple of weeks.
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  Speaker 2: And then basically the safest debts of all, they're the
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  Speaker 2: picked senators or people with the Senate will vote for quickly.
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  Speaker 2: I don't. Just as we've made the change with Beyond,
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  Speaker 2: with the Homeland of Security, I get too quick. It's done.
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  Speaker 2: We're moving forward. It's no longer an issue. Uh, this
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  Speaker 2: one's going to be an issue. So I would just said,
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  Speaker 2: I hope we acting the deputy there for as long
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  Speaker 2: as I could. There's no there's no time restraint and
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  Speaker 2: that not basically go out and try and grab somebody
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  Speaker 2: right down, throw throw him on the Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: We're talking with Ed Rollins. Let's let's talk about New
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  Speaker 1: York Bruce Blakeman. I think he'd be a great governor.
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  Speaker 1: I think he's got a real shot at winning this
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  Speaker 1: campaign finance board. It looks pretty corrupt that too many
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  Speaker 1: Democrats are on the board. They've denied him funding. What
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  Speaker 1: what what do you do about a thing like that?
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  Speaker 2: You got to keep fighting. You got to basically get
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  Speaker 2: out there and let people know. I think Blake would
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  Speaker 2: be a great candidate. He's been a great county administrator. Uh.
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  Speaker 2: And at the end of the day, the race is
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  Speaker 2: closer than people anticipated it being. We could win this one.
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  Speaker 2: We're gonna do it, right.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, But she's got like twenty million. In today's world,
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  Speaker 1: like in the old days, you'd spend it all on
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  Speaker 1: TV commercials. What is he to do with the money now?
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  Speaker 1: TV commercials don't mean much. What do you do with
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  Speaker 1: the money now?
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  Speaker 2: Well, you build a grassroots organization. You know, the key
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  Speaker 2: thing here is you've got to take the three or
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  Speaker 2: four states, three or four counties that matter. Sure Westchester,
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  Speaker 2: his county, Suffolk, some upstate and registered voters. Get sure
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  Speaker 2: your voters are aligned to vote participating. But it's great
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  Speaker 2: a grassroots affrica that you've got to do.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the real problem we don't really have
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  Speaker 1: as much of a Republican party in New York. I
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  Speaker 1: mean the actual infrastructure apparatus, it's not really there. What
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  Speaker 1: do we do about that?
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  Speaker 2: Well, he's got to do himself. You can't get a
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  Speaker 2: party in place at this point in time. We've had
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  Speaker 2: the same chairman for an over years now, and it's
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  Speaker 2: just worth too much in a mindset of losing and
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  Speaker 2: self fulfilling prophecy. My sense is we've got a candidate
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  Speaker 2: who's Bible, who's particular, that knows the issues well in
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  Speaker 2: a very weak in comment, so this is big opportunity
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  Speaker 2: for us.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. So uh hey, iran, Uh, what does the president
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  Speaker 1: need to do now to wrap this up? What does
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  Speaker 1: he need to do messaging wise?
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  Speaker 2: Well, message wise is very important. Uh. And as I
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  Speaker 2: said this speech the other night, could have given any time.
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  Speaker 2: But you know, the reality is if you're going to
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  Speaker 2: get on the ground and you're going to go try
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  Speaker 2: and do some of the things that they want to do,
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  Speaker 2: you're going to have, unfortunately going to have American skilled
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  Speaker 2: and that changes the whole dynamics. If I was, if
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  Speaker 2: I was advising him at this point in time, which
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  Speaker 2: obviously I'm not, I would say, get out, You've done
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  Speaker 2: what you want to do. You basically said you're not
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  Speaker 2: You're not going to make You're not going to make
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  Speaker 2: the change in the in the government. Uh. It's and
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  Speaker 2: if you put troops on the ground, you know there's
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  Speaker 2: a million people in their armor. There's two hundred and
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  Speaker 2: fifty thousand and there in their Republican Guard. He was,
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  Speaker 2: you know, the sort of repeat of Vietnam. We bomb
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  Speaker 2: the hell out of Vietnam and basically we've got on
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  Speaker 2: ground with them. They yeah, put a lot of up
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  Speaker 2: dead to the Americans. If you started losing Americans, you
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  Speaker 2: will lose support.
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  Speaker 1: Well Ed, Rond's great talking to your great stuff as always,
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  Speaker 1: and we'll do it again soon. Thanks thanks for being with.
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  Speaker 2: Us, my pleasure.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, take care. Hey, you don't forget Buck and
• 8:17
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