UDSKRIFT 🔗
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Anybody voting against him would be doing a great disservice
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to the country.
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Well. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, just moments ago breaking
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news this morning, posted this on x I have had
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numerous constructive meetings with mister Blanche and he comes across
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as decent and capable, capable. I appreciate the trip he
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made to learn more about Alaska, including our rural areas,
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and as acting Attorney General, he's made several noteworthy decisions
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that will benefit our state and the nation. Ultimately, however,
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I will oppose his nomination. The politicization, even weaponization, of
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the Department did not start with this administration, but has
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accelerated during it. I take issue with the handling of
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the release of the Epstein files, the sweeping immunity protections
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granted to the President, his family, and their businesses, the
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statements that have been made to anti abortion groups, and
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the repeated targeting of individuals ranging from former administration staff
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to sitting US Senators. I am also keenly aware that
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the Department's nearly two billion dollars slush fund, which likely
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would have rewarded January sixth protesters. That's a generous term.
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Some of them convicted felons is only off the table
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because this nomination is pending and the Senate has leverage.
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Once we vote, that will end, and there's no telling
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what the future holds. The country needs an attorney general
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who will check the worst impulses of this administration. I
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hope mister Blanche is able to achieve that if confirmed,
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but I simply do not have confidence that that will
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be the case. Senator Berkowski, as of a few minutes ago,
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is a no Ali vittally on Todd Blinch. So Donald
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Trump exuding a little confidence there in the Oval office yesterday.
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It might be a little tighter this morning. A lot
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of eyes now on Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, which
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will be a fascinating vote because the effectively was run
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out of office and had his political career ended just
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a couple of months ago by Donald Trump.
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Well, well, if it isn't the consequences of the President's
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own actions, and ultimately we will see see how Cassidy votes.
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But that is where the focus is going to be
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this morning, because a little bit of state math for you,
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with McConnell out, that means that we are not working
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with our normal one hundred senators, and so it really
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does leave Cassidy to be the person where if he
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votes yes, the nomination is fine, and if he votes no,
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it's tanked. You don't get the opportunity to go to
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a tie and have Vice President Vance break it. And
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so with Collins and Murkowski now voting against, that really
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does leave all the marbles to the senator from Louisiana.
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And he has been mom in the hallways at times
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when he's been asked by reporters in recent days, he said, well,
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when is the vote, effectively insinuating that we won't know
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how he's going to decide until we get to that point.
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But the question of when is the vote is actually
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an important one right now because the Senate is on
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the cusp of leaving town for the rest of the
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month of August. And this is not something that if
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you heard John Thune when he left the Capitol last night,
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there is a time agreement to start voting around eleven
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thirty this morning on some of the things they have
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to do on their to do list, but the Blanche
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nomination was not immediately one of them. And so I
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think the open question as we start the day is
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does Leader Thoon force this on the floor and in
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full view put Bill Cassidy's decision on display whatever it is,
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or is this something where they table it they say,
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let's go home for August, don't leave on what could
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be an embarrassing note if the votes aren't there, and
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then figure out what do we do in September. From
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a practical perspective, it doesn't change anything. Blanche is still acting.
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You just have a few more letters in front of
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his name. But at the same time, it could be
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a true instance of is this finally the moment where
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YOLO isn't leverage? The L actually stands for live and
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they're just voting the way that they feel they need to.
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Political consequences be down.
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Yeah, we had Senator Tom Tillis on our yesterday. Willy
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and I talked to him and he said, you know,
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he was obviously very opposed to the Weaponization Fund and
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the IRS protections originally, but he and John Cornyn came
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around after he got some assurances. But we have it's
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been pointed out by many those assurances maybe not worth
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all that much. But Tillis did say, and you notice
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this as well, Jim vanaheidt till's look, at the end
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of the day, I'm a Republican. I want Republicans to win.
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So that might be where Bill cass ends up landing
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as well, even though obviously he's not running again and
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I'm sure has some pretty hard feelings about President Trump
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weigh in on that dynamic, but also even the fact
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that it's gotten to this point, piggybacking what Ali said,
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these are the consequences when President Trump goes after sitting senators,
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when he alienates members of his own party, and we're
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starting to see me Look, let's be clear, there's no
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Republican revolt just yet, but we're starting to see the limits,
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if you will, of.
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Trump's power here. Yeah, let's be clear, there's like three
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or four senators who occasionally challenge the president. For the
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most part, they all salute and fall in line. In
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this case, he is a victim of his own words,
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his own actions. He goes after these senators, he says
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things about him. They get a chance for a little
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bit of payback that has to be sitting in their head.
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They're human when determining whether or not they're going to
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help them again. But let's be clear on top Land
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to be brutally honest, it doesn't matter that much if
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he doesn't get confirmed. He can still have the job
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and still do all the things that Trump wants him
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to do. And no matter what Senators want to do,
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the Justice Department explicitly is an arm of both vengeance
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and protection for the President. They've been very clear. Just
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watch what they're doing, watch what they choose to focus on,
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even why Blanche is so popular with the President himself,
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Nothing about this debate is going to change that. They've
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changed the very nature of the Justice Department. And for
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those people that share it, again, I would just remind you,
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are you going to be really comfortable with that when
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a Democrat does the exact same thing, takes a Justice
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Department says there's no more independence, says I'm going to
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use that to go after my critics. I'm going to
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use that to protect me, might even give myself a
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little bit of immunity along the way. Better be comfortable
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with it, because that's a precedent that has now been
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set and Republicans aren't going to do anything to stop
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that after this vote.
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And even Senator till Us yesterday drunk some equivalencies false
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in the eyes of many between this Justice Department and
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some of the things the Biden administration and its Justice
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Department did, obviously, there's not much of a comparison. Jim,
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Let me just ask you, why would Bill Cassidy. These guys,
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when you talk to them privately, they know fundamentally that
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someone who is the president's personal attorney and has done
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all this work on his behalf since then as the
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acting Attorney general shouldn't be the attorney general. Right If
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it were Joe Biden or Barack Obama's personal attorney, they'd
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be up in arms and calling for the impeachment of
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the president. But Cassidy, especially, he's on the way out,
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he's not running for re election, doesn't know the president anything.
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The president danced on his grave after
he had him
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defeated in a primary in Louisiana. Why would he vote
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yes on Todd blanche.
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I mean, bluntly, like, never underestimate the seductive power of
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getting the president to like you, or getting the vast
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majority of Republicans to say ata boy. There's just something
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kind of high school ish about all of us that
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never changes. People just want to be part of a team.
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And you see that it's so powerful. I see it
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every single day, and I still marvel at it. Because
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we talked to so many of these people. I know
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what they actually think about the president. I know what
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they say about the president. Then I watch what they
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say in public, and I watch the way that they vote,
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and I'm like, man, like, you're an extremely accomplished person.
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You've done massive things with your life. You're fundamentally a
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pretty good guy, and yet you keep doing these votes
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or saying things that I know are not true. And
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that's not one or two people. That's the vast majority
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of Republicans. Let's be clear, there's not a single but
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there might be a couple. There's a couple of Republicans
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that are fine with everything that Trump does, but they
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really don't want to be talking about any of these topics.
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They're looking at this Senate map and they're saying, holy hell,
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how did we get to the point where we could
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lose Alaska, We could lose Ohio, we could lose these
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Republican states that we should never possibly happen. We could
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lose Texas. None of these things should be in discussion.
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So if you're operating as a highly functional Republican party.
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You would have thought about getting the best candidates the
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right issue so that you can win and extend your
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majority in the Senate, knowing that the next Senate map
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works against you. But they can't do any of that.
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They're powerless. It's why John Thune, little by little is
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saying whatever, I'm just gonna I'm not just going to
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do what the president wants to do. And I feel
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pretty good that my guys are going to vote for
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me at the end of the day. Like they're just exhausted,
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they're just frustrated, but there's nothing they can do and
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I don't. I don't behaviorally beyond three or four nothing's
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going to change.
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I mean, it's such a good point. It's one of
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the fundamental stories of this political age, which is people
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who know better going along for the ride for reasons
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that maybe they'll explain someday, CEO.
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We saw what can I say that just one thing? Yeah,
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it's not just one party like you saw this even
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at the end of the Biden presidency, where people were
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looking at their own two eyes. They saw what we
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all saw, and yet they would say things that are
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like inconceivable. It says something about Washington it's something about humanity,
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it's something about politics.