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Trump tries to bypass court order to get his name on Kennedy Center · DEEP INSIGHT

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  Speaker 1: This is the board classically capturing the greatest fundraiser and
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  Speaker 1: greatest builder ever by putting his name on it and saying, okay, okay.
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  Speaker 2: You wanted your name, here it is.
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  Speaker 1: When he says I'm going to raise the money, you
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  Speaker 1: know he's going to raise the money. You need to
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  Speaker 1: induce him, entice him, get him to agree to wear
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  Speaker 1: it and do it.
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  Speaker 3: The Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, today explaining why the Kennedy
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  Speaker 3: Center board believes that Donald Trump's name should be added
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  Speaker 3: back to the building, carved into the stone this time.
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  Speaker 3: Today's emergency hearing is part of Congresswoman Joyce Beatty's lawsuit
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  Speaker 3: trying to prevent that from happening. Congresswoman Beatty is at
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  Speaker 3: today's hearing. We're going to have her right here with
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  Speaker 3: us later on this hour. In a filing submitted ahead
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  Speaker 3: of today's hearing, lawyers for the center's Trump-appointed board basically
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  Speaker 3: threatened to tear it all down, the entire building, if
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  Speaker 3: they don't get their way. Without a renovation overseen by
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  Speaker 3: President Trump, they argued, the Kennedy Center will, quote, deteriorate
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  Speaker 3: further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required
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  Speaker 3: to be taken down, end quote. Worth taking a moment
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  Speaker 3: to sit with this. The center was authorized by Congress,
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  Speaker 3: and it was built as a living memorial to our
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  Speaker 3: nation's slain 35th president, John F.
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  Speaker 4: Kennedy.
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  Speaker 3: The board that Donald Trump picked is saying they'll destroy
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  Speaker 3: it unless that is you let the president have his way.
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  Speaker 3: We're going to start with CNN's Sunlen Sirfati. Sunlen, so
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  Speaker 3: this hearing, it was about two hours. It just wrapped up.
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  Speaker 3: What did we learn? What do we know?
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  Speaker 5: Casey, the hearing just wrapped up. No ruling from the
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  Speaker 5: bench yet. And as you noted, it lasted two hours long.
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  Speaker 5: And so much of today's hearing was certainly about this
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  Speaker 5: very central issue here at the key of this core
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  Speaker 5: issue is if President Trump's name can be added to
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  Speaker 5: the side of the building. Now, you recall just two
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  Speaker 5: weeks ago, the Kennedy Center board voted against in essence,
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  Speaker 5: a workaround around the judge's last order saying, OK, if
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  Speaker 5: you won't let us put the name of President Trump
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  Speaker 5: on the side of the building, we're going to inscribe it.
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  Speaker 5: And in that inscription, it will say renovated and restored
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  Speaker 5: by President Donald J. Trump, as well as plans to
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  Speaker 5: rename the plaza in his name as well. Now, the plaintiffs,
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  Speaker 5: the lawyers for the plaintiffs today argue very strongly that
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  Speaker 5: this move needs to be blocked. They asked judge to
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  Speaker 5: stand in the way of that. They say Congress intended
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  Speaker 5: this to be a memorial to President Kennedy and President
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  Speaker 5: Kennedy alone. And they say that putting Trump's name there
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  Speaker 5: in any way, inscription noting restoration and renovation or not,
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  Speaker 5: would be in defiance of that. They also argue when
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  Speaker 5: it comes to renaming of the plaza, they say this
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  Speaker 5: is essentially Trump and the board renaming the grounds underneath
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  Speaker 5: the building. saying, quote, it can't be that Congress wrote
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  Speaker 5: the statute in that way that would allow the grounds
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  Speaker 5: to be renamed after Tesla or Live Nation or whoever
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  Speaker 5: the highest bidder is. The Department of Justice lawyers, on
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  Speaker 5: the other hand, they argued, they said the board has not,
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  Speaker 5: they believe, taken any steps to rename the building. They
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  Speaker 5: say this latest step is essentially, in their argument, to
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  Speaker 5: acknowledge President Trump's raising the money to restore the building.
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  Speaker 5: They say he should be acknowledged for that. He wants
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  Speaker 5: to be recognized for that as a fundraiser, and they
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  Speaker 5: want to recognize his ongoing contributions.
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  Speaker 6: Our laws sometimes can be vague or ambiguous, but not here.
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  Speaker 6: There is a specific law passed by Congress in 1964,
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  Speaker 6: just months after the JFK assassination, that says specifically this law.
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  Speaker 6: building will be called the John F. Kennedy Center for
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  Speaker 6: Performing Arts. It will be the only monument to JFK
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  Speaker 6: within D.C., the only official monument. And there are to
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  Speaker 6: be no other plaques or memorials or inscriptions within the
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  Speaker 6: building that go to the contrary, with an exception for
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  Speaker 6: a specific area where names of donors and gifts can
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  Speaker 6: be stated. So The law here is on point. If
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  Speaker 6: you want to change the name, you have to go
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  Speaker 6: to Congress and you have to change the law. That
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  Speaker 6: applies to the name of the place and that applies
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  Speaker 6: to all other end runs, inscriptions, memorials, plaques, whatever you
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  Speaker 6: want to call it. So I think it should be
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  Speaker 6: a fairly straightforward law. call on the law itself. With
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  Speaker 6: respect to the threats, we'll see if those are idle
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  Speaker 6: or not. But if you look at the way the
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  Speaker 6: Trump administration approached the East Wing, there was no going
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  Speaker 6: to Congress. There was no going to the regulatory bodies.
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  Speaker 6: They just sledgehammered that thing and then forced other parties
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  Speaker 6: to scramble and try to sue after the fact. So
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  Speaker 6: if I was the plaintiff here, I would be asking
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  Speaker 6: for an order from the judge. A, I'm right. I
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  Speaker 6: would argue if I was the plaintiff that you cannot
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  Speaker 6: add his name and B, I want an order that
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  Speaker 6: they can't destroy this thing in the meantime.
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  Speaker 3: I hadn't thought of that, but your point is well taken.
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  Speaker 3: Gretchen Carlson, I mean.
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  Speaker 2: Look, I almost became a lawyer, but I'm glad Ellie's
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  Speaker 2: here to be the real expert on this. I was
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  Speaker 2: just going to say this is disrespectful. This is repugnant.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, the American people are completely tired of these shenanigans.
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  Speaker 2: He didn't build this, first of all. Sorry to say
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  Speaker 2: Howard Lucknick's not telling the truth, but Donald Trump did
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  Speaker 2: not build this. And he's not going to tear it
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  Speaker 2: down because the American people will have an insurrection over that.
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  Speaker 2: And number three, the American people, I'm sure, love the
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  Speaker 2: fact that Howard Lutnick says that during the week, all
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  Speaker 2: Trump does is talk about building stuff. We've got a
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  Speaker 2: war in Iran that is not solved. He's now naming
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  Speaker 2: Lake Ontario Lake America. He's saying vandalism for the reflecting pool.
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  Speaker 2: He's not talking about the economy. I mean, the American
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  Speaker 2: people at some point are going to have to show
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  Speaker 2: the frustration that I am showing right now.
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  Speaker 3: I do think we should be a little careful with
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  Speaker 3: the word insurrection just because it doesn't imply violence that
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  Speaker 3: right now no one's implying. But that aside, I mean, Howard.
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  Speaker 7: I know I was going to say, I'm not sure
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  Speaker 7: Howard Lutnick intended to articulate one of Trump's biggest political
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  Speaker 7: problems in his in his effort to defend his boss.
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  Speaker 7: But he did. I mean, he put his finger on
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  Speaker 7: exactly why. so many Americans are so frustrated with Trump.
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  Speaker 7: They feel like he's not focused on doing anything to
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  Speaker 7: help them. He's not paying attention to the war, which
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  Speaker 7: is causing their gas prices to go up. He's not
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  Speaker 7: bringing down prices in the way he said he would.
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  Speaker 7: And instead, he's focused on what fundamentally amounts to a
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  Speaker 7: vanity project, which is putting his name on a building
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  Speaker 7: that he hopes is going to outlast him and his legacy.
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  Speaker 7: So if you are a Republican who is running for
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  Speaker 7: re-election in these midterms, That's not a helpful argument, but
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  Speaker 7: it is a very astute political assessment of what Donald
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  Speaker 7: Trump's political problem is.
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  Speaker 3: Well, and if you read Regime Change by our colleague
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  Speaker 3: Maggie Haberman and her colleague Jonathan Swan, they report that
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  Speaker 3: essentially I think 70 percent was the number of the
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  Speaker 3: president's headspace is consumed with things like this. And look,
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  Speaker 3: let's watch, too. I mean, this is something, what Lotnick
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  Speaker 3: said is true, that the president enjoys. All you've got
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  Speaker 3: to do is look back at his previous comments. I
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  Speaker 3: do think some of these previous comments are kind of interesting, though.
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  Speaker 3: in light of this threat to demolish it. Because if
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  Speaker 3: you listen to what the president had said previously, he
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  Speaker 3: actually had quite a few nice things to say about
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  Speaker 3: the majestic building that is currently standing as the Kennedy Center.
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  Speaker 6: Watch. As you look at the marble, look at the
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  Speaker 6: quality of the marble.
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  Speaker 4: You look at the columns outside, the seats, the decor,
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  Speaker 4: whether it's marble or whatever.
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  Speaker 8: The beautiful white statuary marble.
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  Speaker 2: The bones are so good.
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  Speaker 4: I mentioned the word bones before.
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  Speaker 6: The bones here, the bones, we have the greatest bones.
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  Speaker 8: We're fixing broken marble.
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  Speaker 6: You had some of those columns on the outside that
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  Speaker 6: were painted a fake gold.
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  Speaker 1: Now we painted them a beautiful white color, beautiful cream white.
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  Speaker 2: The marble is being rejuvenated.
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  Speaker 6: I always say you can take a hundredth of an
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  Speaker 6: inch off of a piece of marble and you have
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  Speaker 6: a brand new piece of marble, but nobody does that.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, Mike Duckey, he seems to love this building.
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  Speaker 7: Why does he want to tear it down?
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  Speaker 8: What are the rules here? Do I get a pass?
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  Speaker 5: Do I have to answer these questions?
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  Speaker 8: I think the bottom line here is, and I have
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  Speaker 8: no idea what the Secretary of Commerce was trying to accomplish...
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  Speaker 8: with that press conference. He showed a lot of enthusiasm,
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  Speaker 8: but I'm not sure what he was trying to accomplish.
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  Speaker 8: But what are we arguing about here? Because on the
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  Speaker 8: one hand, on the one hand, I totally understand exactly
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  Speaker 8: what you were saying, Gretchen, about this and the naming
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  Speaker 8: of the Kennedy Center and trying to rename it. But
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  Speaker 8: as we listen to that report, We can't put a
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  Speaker 8: renovated buy. I see that on federal buildings all over
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  Speaker 8: the city and all over the country. We can't rename
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  Speaker 8: the plaza. I mean, if we are raising money for this,
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  Speaker 8: and if the president has been instrumental in bringing more
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  Speaker 8: money to a building that does need some level of renovation,
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  Speaker 8: why not recognize that? It seems to me that both
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  Speaker 8: sides have just decided we are going to go as
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  Speaker 8: far apart as we possibly can, and we're going to
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  Speaker 8: make this judge decide.
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  Speaker 3: Well- Let's watch, to try to answer that, let's watch
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  Speaker 3: what Rory Kennedy had to say yesterday because Mike is
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  Speaker 3: making a point that, okay, maybe this doesn't hurt anything,
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  Speaker 3: but I think it's important to remember that this is
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  Speaker 3: a living memorial to a fallen person who was both
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  Speaker 3: a president for all Americans and also part of a family.
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  Speaker 3: This is a member of that family talking about it.
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  Speaker 5: Watch.
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  Speaker 2: This was.
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  Speaker 4: something that Congress put in his name really as a memorial,
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  Speaker 4: not unlike the Lincoln Memorial, but it wanted to be
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  Speaker 4: an active memorial. But it was really meant to celebrate
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  Speaker 4: and to recognize the love in this country for this
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  Speaker 4: pretty spectacular fallen president.