Latest / THE DAILY BRIEF / Trump claims he doesn't know Binance billionaire he pardoned

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Trump claims he doesn't know Binance billionaire he pardoned · THE DAILY BRIEF

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  Speaker 1: The founder of the crypto exchange Binance. A man named
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  Speaker 1: Chang Peng Xiao, also known simply as CZ, is one
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  Speaker 1: of the latest recipients of a controversial presidential pardon. President
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  Speaker 1: Trump told Senias Kailn Collins last month that the pardon
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  Speaker 1: quote was recommended by a lot.
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  Speaker 2: Of people, unquote, and in an interview with.
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  Speaker 1: Sixty Minutes that aired last night, he reiterated a striking
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  Speaker 1: admission about the pardon.
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  Speaker 2: Why did you pardon him?
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  Speaker 3: Okay, are you ready?
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  Speaker 4: I don't know who he is.
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  Speaker 1: I know he got a four month sentence or something
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  Speaker 1: like that, and I heard it was a Biden witch hunt.
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  Speaker 4: I can only tell you this.
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  Speaker 5: My sons are into it.
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  Speaker 1: I'm glad they are, because it's probably a great industry crypto.
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  Speaker 1: The President there saying that he gave a pardon to
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  Speaker 1: someone that he has no idea who he is, which
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  Speaker 1: is a very interesting claim considering that his own Justice Department,
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  Speaker 1: as well as the House Oversight Committee are currently investigating
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  Speaker 1: whether President Biden knew whom he was pardoning.
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  Speaker 2: Towards the end of his presidency. We'll go back to
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  Speaker 2: that in.
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  Speaker 1: A sec but let's answer the question who CZ is?
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  Speaker 1: Because President Trump says he doesn't know he is. He
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  Speaker 1: is the billionaire founder and former CEO of Binance, and
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  Speaker 1: Binance is the largest crypto exchange business in the world.
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  Speaker 2: Now, as to the Trump claim that the case against
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  Speaker 2: him was a Biden witch hunt, it was not.
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  Speaker 1: We should note that in November twenty twenty three, Binance
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  Speaker 1: and Cz pleaded guilty. The company paid more than four
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  Speaker 1: billion dollars in fines and penalties. CZ resigned as CEO
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  Speaker 1: and was sentenced to four months in prison for failing
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  Speaker 1: to maintain an effective anti money laundering program as US
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  Speaker 1: law requires.
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  Speaker 2: So what specifically does that mean.
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  Speaker 1: Well, according to the Attorney General at the time, Merrick Garland,
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  Speaker 1: Binance became the largest cryptocurrency exchange in part because of
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  Speaker 1: the crimes it committed. And here is then Treasury Secretary
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  Speaker 1: Janet Yellen explaining the company's.
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  Speaker 4: Practices supporting activities from child sexual abuse to illegal narcotics
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  Speaker 4: to terrorism across more than one hundred thousand transactions. That
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  Speaker 4: includes transactions associated with terrorist groups like Hamas's Al Cassan Brigades,
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  Speaker 4: Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Al Qaeda, and ISIS.
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  Speaker 1: Now to the extent that there's any question out there
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  Speaker 1: about whether Binance executives were aware of what was taking place. Well,
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  Speaker 1: according to prosecutors, one of Binance's compliance employees, compliance meaning
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  Speaker 1: the person in charge of making sure that they abide
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  Speaker 1: by law, said in an internal company communication, quote, banner
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  Speaker 1: is washing drug money too hard these days come to Binance,
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  Speaker 1: we got cake for you unquote. Now let's flash forward
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  Speaker 1: a year after that plea agreement to November of twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty four, just after President Trump won real life.
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  Speaker 2: And at that point, according to the Wall Street.
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  Speaker 1: Journal, Binance formed a high level task force to strike
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  Speaker 1: a deal with World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency venture founded
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  Speaker 1: in part by the Trump family. Last fall, that report
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  Speaker 1: goes on to say, quote, Binance took steps that catapulted
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  Speaker 1: the Trump family venture's new stable coin product, enhancing its
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  Speaker 1: credibility and pushing its market capitalization up from one hundred
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  Speaker 1: and twenty seven million dollars to over two point one billions.
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  Speaker 1: And then last month, Trump pardoned the man behind the company.
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  Speaker 2: That's who cz is.
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  Speaker 1: He's a man whose company enriched the Trump family to
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  Speaker 1: the tune of at least tens of millions of dollars.
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  Speaker 1: But of course, the president says he doesn't know anything
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  Speaker 1: about any of that. CNN's Manu Raju earlier today asked
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  Speaker 1: Beaker Johnson about House Republicans interest in this pardon given
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  Speaker 1: their investigation into President Biden.
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  Speaker 2: Here's Johnson's response.
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  Speaker 5: I don't know anything about that. I didn't see the interview.
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  Speaker 5: You have to ask the president about that. I'm not sure.
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  Speaker 1: I see nothing the pardon no one seems to know
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  Speaker 1: anything about from a man that the President doesn't know
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  Speaker 1: who he is.
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  Speaker 6: A congressman, Well, we have you. I do want to
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  Speaker 6: ask you about something the President said on sixty Minutes
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  Speaker 6: last night, as he's accusing his predecessor of having abused
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  Speaker 6: his pardon power. What's your reaction to his admission that
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  Speaker 6: he doesn't actually know someone that he's part in the
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  Speaker 6: founder of Binance, Chang Penzau. He pleaded guilty to money laundering,
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  Speaker 6: and prosecutors accused him of having caused significant harm to
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  Speaker 6: US national security. I mean, do you think the president
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  Speaker 6: should know who he's partning?
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  Speaker 7: Well, we need to about the auto pen from the
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  Speaker 7: previous administration. I think President Biden pardon over forty two
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  Speaker 7: hundred people. President Trump in his previous term pardon two
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  Speaker 7: hundred and thirty eight. Pretty this big disparity there. That said,
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  Speaker 7: I don't know all the working facts candidly on this case,
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  Speaker 7: I do know this. The President United States has done
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  Speaker 7: a remarkable job in his first ten months in offic
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  Speaker 7: in securing eight peace treaties. We've lowered the interest rates,
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  Speaker 7: We've secured the border, we have record stock market. I
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  Speaker 7: feel pretty good about where the economy is moving. What
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  Speaker 7: we need to do is open up the government.
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  Speaker 6: Do you feel comfortable with the notion that he pardoned
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  Speaker 6: someone who he says he knows nothing about, given that
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  Speaker 6: two years before he pleaded guilty he helped facilitate a
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  Speaker 6: multi billion dollar business deal for Trump's family.
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  Speaker 7: Well, again, I don't know all those working parts, but
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  Speaker 7: these are issues where we all need to look at
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  Speaker 7: the partner issue in general. What I was really concerned
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  Speaker 7: about in the last four years that Joe Biden used
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  Speaker 7: an auto pen. You saw a lot of people were
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  Speaker 7: pardoned before even a case took place in the January
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  Speaker 7: sixth incident, that said, I'm focused on, can please open
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  Speaker 7: the government? I mean, there's no benefit now everyone has
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  Speaker 7: made their political points. Let's move forward and get the
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  Speaker 7: government open. Because, as you put it perfectly. People are hungry.
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  Speaker 7: Air traffic controllers are working without pay, and men and
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  Speaker 7: women in the military are working without pay. In a
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  Speaker 7: realistic sense, they work paycheck to paycheck, and it's frustrating
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  Speaker 7: thing to go through, especially when we know we can
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  Speaker 7: work these things out in the long term.
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  Speaker 6: I just want to point out, for fact, the former
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  Speaker 6: president has stated that he is aware of the folks
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  Speaker 6: that he's pardoned.
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  Speaker 7: That's the message of that's what he said today.
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  Speaker 8: That's correct.
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  Speaker 6: Congressman Mike Herodopolis, thank you so much for the time.
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  Speaker 2: It's good to see it.
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  Speaker 3: Let's play the imagine if Biden said that game. We
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  Speaker 3: don't even have to play it because in the same
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  Speaker 3: interview he was going after Biden for an auto pen
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  Speaker 3: allegedly on pardons.
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  Speaker 9: Look just the latest example of a long list of
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  Speaker 9: example of things that are not necessarily equal. But the
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  Speaker 9: president there, this is at least the second time, at
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  Speaker 9: least publicly where he is denied knowing anything about him.
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  Speaker 2: I think he knows well who he pardoned.
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  Speaker 9: Setting us the criticism of Biden for not knowing who
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  Speaker 9: he was partning. Let's focus on this president for the moment,
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  Speaker 9: and this pardon and not be distracted by the Biden one.
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  Speaker 9: I think that if he doesn't know they're members of
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  Speaker 9: his family and the family crypto business that know.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean that's a fair point. He should know
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  Speaker 3: he has this singular power to party someone and he
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  Speaker 3: did it. You asked the House Speaker about this. Let's
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  Speaker 3: watch that exchange.
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  Speaker 10: You can't hear to these mics, and you were very
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  Speaker 10: critical of Joe Biden's audi parted.
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  Speaker 4: He said he needed to know who he's partying.
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  Speaker 10: Last time in sixty minutes, the president President.
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  Speaker 9: Trump, he did it not knowing he parted it.
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  Speaker 7: Cryptico Acilia, chilty to money law and branking.
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  Speaker 5: Does that also concern I don't know anything about that.
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  Speaker 5: I didn't see the interview. You have to ask the
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  Speaker 5: president about that. I'm not sure.
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  Speaker 10: This has been a pattern for the Speaker when they're
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  Speaker 10: confronted with things that Donald Trump has done that are controversial,
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  Speaker 10: and they just want to answer.
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  Speaker 8: He says he has not seen it. Whether it's about
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  Speaker 8: two hundred thirty million dollars in payments that Donald Trump
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  Speaker 8: wanted DOJ to help pay off his legal bills. I've
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  Speaker 8: asked him about that multiple times. He has said he
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  Speaker 8: didn't know about it, he has not waited on that
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  Speaker 8: yet or the bailout to Argentina sort of sized up
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  Speaker 8: that question. So it is familiar tactic.
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  Speaker 10: But the point is that Republicans are investigating Joe Biden's
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  Speaker 10: use of the autopen. They say that he has not
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  Speaker 10: been was not present, and that he was signed off
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  Speaker 10: on all these pardons that are invalid, especially on the
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  Speaker 10: way out of the door because he was unaware. Trump
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  Speaker 10: admitted to the being unaware.
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  Speaker 8: So again, a few things not.
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  Speaker 11: Equals, I mean autopan aside, just the facts of this pardon,
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  Speaker 11: the fact that his family is in business right now
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  Speaker 11: with the head of this, with this company that is
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  Speaker 11: headed by cz That is problematic, I think for all
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  Speaker 11: of us, because I don't think our legal system or
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  Speaker 11: our our kind of guardrails really accounts for something like that.
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  Speaker 11: And the way that the Trump family's net worth has
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  Speaker 11: drumped dramatically because of Crypto is hugely significant and far
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  Speaker 11: outweighs any amount of money that might have traded hands.
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  Speaker 11: When it comes to Hunter Biden.
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  Speaker 7: Quick final word and I think he gave it away
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  Speaker 7: in that interview he says I don't know him, and
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  Speaker 7: then she said but your pardon him, And then his
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  Speaker 7: immediate response was my son's. Like the logic made, he
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  Speaker 7: totally revealed himself in that moment.