Statistically Impossible!

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They say you can't vote your way out of socialism.
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And last night, against all odds, Lula da Silva, the
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socialist ruler of Brazil, miraculously won his fourth term as
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president of Brazil. And of course, with a little help
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from his friends, We've been talking to this audience about
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Brazil for months. For good reason. Brazil is the largest
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economy in South America. It's sitting on the second largest
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rare earth reserves on the planet behind only China. It
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pumped a record 3.8 million barrels of oil a day
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last year. And its biggest customer? Communist China. In 2025,
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Brazil did $ 171 billion in trade with Beijing, more than
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double what it did with us. And Brazil is the
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B in BRICS. That's Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa,
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and now Iran, too. It's the club built to take
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on the West, and Lula wants it to stop trading
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in American dollars. Standing in Shanghai, he said, every night
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I ask myself why all countries have to base their
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trade on the dollar. Meanwhile, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia,
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they've all turned right. Brazil was the biggest piece of
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the puzzle left, and it was socialism's last stand in
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South America. We've also been warning that Lula wouldn't go
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down quietly and what happened last night as the entire
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world raised their eyebrows, except, of course, for sympathetic socialists
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around the United States and the rest of the world
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who have already rushed to congratulate him. More on that later.
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And here are the impossible odds Lula had to overcome
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in order to beat Flavio Bolsonaro. If you recall, Flavio
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came out of the first round more than 2 million
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votes ahead of the incumbent socialist president. Political scientist Gero
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Nicolaou ran the math and found Lula would need to
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flip about 1.2 million Flavio voters. He called it almost impossible.
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And the morning of the election... Potter 360's calculators found
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that even with the turnout way up and Lula winning
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most of the leftover votes, Flavio still came out ahead
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by 222,000 votes. So what happened? Well, according to the
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official count, Lula picked up more than 10 million new
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votes in three weeks. That's more than every eliminated candidate
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got combined. And most of those candidates were on the right.
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Flavio's brother, Eduardo, calls it statistically impossible, and it is.
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Congressman Nicolas Ferreira put it this way. Every vote from
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the other candidates would have to have gone to Lula.
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What are the odds? And three weeks earlier, on the
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same ballot, those same voters handed Flavio's party the biggest
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block in Brazil's Congress, 19 of the 44 Senate seats.
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Lula's party won six. Then they turned around and gave
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the socialists a comeback nobody has ever pulled off. Think
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about how impossible that is. Then there's Election Day. Lula's
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coalition ran to the Supreme Court for more time. The
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justice who got the case was Christiano Zanon, Lula's former
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personal lawyer. What luck. Whom Lula put on that court.
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At one minute after 5, 5.01 p.m., one minute after
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the polls legally closed, Zanin extended voting two hours nationwide.
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In Sao Paulo, 80% of polling places were already shut,
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and the regional election chief found out from the news
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that it even happened. The national count froze for two hours,
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and more than 35,000 votes came in after the legal
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closing time. Now, yes, Flavio's campaign wanted extra time, too,
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in a handful of towns hit by storms. What the
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country got was what Lula's coalition asked for, two hours everywhere,
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signed by Lula's former lawyer, and it came after most
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of the other polling stations closed. And this isn't the
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first Lula win that raised questions. In 2022, he beat
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Jair Bolsonaro by less than two points. Brazil's own military
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audited the system and said it couldn't rule out malicious code.
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When Bolsonaro's party challenged votes from older machines, election court
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chief Alexandre de Moraes threw it out, fined the party
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about $ 4 million for bringing it, and then Jair Bolsonaro
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was charged with plotting a coup. In a case run
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by Moraes himself, he was sentenced to 27 years, thrown
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in jail. Today, he's under house arrest. Rightfully, Flavio Bolsonaro
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refuses to concede, says the result is impossible to recognize,
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and he wants it annulled. The rules, he says, were
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changed in the middle of the game by Lula's friends
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on the Supreme Court. And despite the irregularities, socialists from
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around the world have already rushed in to congratulate Lula.
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Folks like Bernie Sanders, who called this an extraordinary re-election victory.
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Ro Khanna said the world just beat extremism. And we
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vote in eight days. New York socialist mayor Zoran Mondami
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posted the people united will never be defeated. Tim Walz
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called it a worldwide win. Gavin Newsom says he and
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all of California are proud to stand with Brazil. And
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Canada's Mark Carney says the relationship between Canada and Brazil
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has flourished under their partnership. That's what socialism does. Once
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it gets its hands on power, it does not let
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go easily. You only get to vote for socialism once.
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Then you have to fight your way out. And this
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fight is far from over. Joining me now, the son
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of Brazilian immigrants and former congressman from New York's 3rd District, Mr.
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George Santos. Welcome back, David Pollak, PRIMETIME. What happened in
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Brazil last night should concern every American, and especially the
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coalition of socialists that are jumping to congratulate what we
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just saw in Brazil. George, what are your thoughts on this?
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David, thank you for having me. I know for your audience,
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that's a very powerful intro there. I do want to
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say it's unfathomable. And I want to point out something
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very clear, show everybody understands.
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Brazil is a very different political system than ours.
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And a lot of people, even here in the States,
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thinking that alignment with Lula is a Democrat value, it
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is not. For those who call themselves blue-dog moderates and
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they're congratulating Lula, sir, you have just congratulated the equivalent
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of a DSA member, but a little bit more to
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the left. Brazil has no true right. It doesn't have
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a Republican Party, per se, like we are. The left
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in Brazil are the communists, who are registered under the
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Lone Star Red Star in the PT party.
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And the right is literally— John Fetterman.
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So this is what's alarming is that people are trying
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to Americanize Brazilian politics when it's really a fight against communism,
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not left versus right. But most importantly, this is a
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man who has ruled Brazil directly or indirectly now for
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20 years, him and his party.
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And all Brazil has seen is famine.
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All Brazil has seen is starvation, hunger, disparity in economic,
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social economic classes. And they keep voting for him because
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he's allegedly going to fix it. But they've had 20 years.
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And the only time they had a reprieve was the
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four years of Bolsonaro. And obviously, what happened during those
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four years? Well, three of them were marred by a pandemic.
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And that pandemic is what they use often to say, oh,
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he was a disaster. Yeah, him and every other world leader,
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including Trump, had bad numbers across the board because we
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had the China virus.
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The same China virus from the same biggest.
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Ally that Brazil has essentially vacated Americans from being their
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80 percent trade partner in the early 2000s to now
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lopsiding that and making China their 80% trade partner. So look,
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it's a problem. Americans that are watching this are wondering,
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why do we care about Brazil? It is the fifth
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largest economy. It's the fifth largest nation with a very
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large ground troop army. And it sits from its furthest
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northern tip point just five hours away from America. And
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let me tell you something, China is having a very
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strong foothold there. And if you thought the Cuban Missile
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Crisis with Russia was a problem, I have a bigger
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problem to sell you, and it's pretty big in Brazil.
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So we should all be concerned. We should all be alarmed.
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And this is a great opportunity to look at it
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and say, why should we take the U.S.
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Midterms election so seriously? Why should we be very laser-focused?
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And this is a great example of why, because once
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you vote in communism, you only vote it once.
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You can't vote yourself out of it.
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Yeah, and that's exactly right. And look— I think what
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happened with the election yesterday, I mean, there are so
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many questions, and hopefully there'll be an investigation. I know
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Flavia won't concede, but so many world leaders have already
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rushed to congratulate Lula and suggest that Lula won this legitimately.
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I haven't seen whether or not President Trump made a
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statement on this or not yet, but if this is
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allowed to stand, and all of these socialist and communist
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leaders from around the world are like, yeah, this was great!
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This is a serious problem because, like you said, we
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have our own election coming up. And if what happened
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in Brazil is allowed to stand, it's a blueprint. It's
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a roadmap for every election forward. We are fighting something
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that is so much more serious than just, like you mentioned,
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it's not left versus right. We are fighting the rise
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of communism. And if these elections are allowed to take
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place the way they did, how do we have a
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hope of beating them anywhere?
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Well— Hope is, in Brazil, they say this, hope is
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the last to die, right? I think that's very important.
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But I'll say this for Americans. We don't need to
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We don't need to rely on hope. We can rely
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on action. Look at what people like Scott Pressler are
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doing out there every single day out in the fray
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trying to get people out to vote. I think it's
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important that we just become engaged. Apathy leads to this.
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Complacency leads to this. And there's a lot of that
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to be said about what happened in Brazil, that there's, what,
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somewhat 30 million Brazilians abstained from voting.
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That's apathy.
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That's complacency. That's a defeatist mentality that leads to.
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Exactly what we saw last night. So I think we
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can avoid that. I think Michigan, you have a shot.
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I think Ohio needs to fight like hell to keep
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it red. I think people in Maine need to fight
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like hell to keep Susan Collins. And we have a
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lot of battleground states that shouldn't be battleground states.
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I mean, look, I don't think Texas is going to.
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Turn blue, but for the love of God, do not
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let complacency or your little rift within the GOP right
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now deter you from doing what you need to do.
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Don't cut your nose to spite your face. I'm telling you,
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Brazil is.
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A giant of a nation.
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And just south of us, by five hours from its
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most northern tip to our most southern.
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Tip, that's the distance. It's not too far. They're not
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very different. They're very diverse.
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We're a very diverse nation in ethnicity as they are.
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We can look at that and see how bad it
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can get. And just look to Brazil. Look to how
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bad it's there and how worse it's going to get
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in the next four years. And you can make a
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decision for yourself. Yeah.
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Well, all eyes are in the United States now. All
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eyes continue to be on Brazil. We'll see what happens here.
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Congressman George Santos, my good friend, thank you so much
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for being here as always.
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Thank you, David. Always a pleasure.
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Thank you. Still ahead tonight, Letitia James called what happened
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to the Cornell Sevens accuser horrific. Three days later, she
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was put in charge of deciding whether to charge them
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or not. Now she won't step aside when people are
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concerned about bias. Then two former senior FBI officials under
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arrest charged with lying to Congress about Hunter Biden. One
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told Congress he learned about the laptop case from Wikipedia.
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Really?
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And later tonight, Enough Iranian uranium for nine bombs? And
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nobody knows where it is. The threat from Iran might
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be realer than a lot of people would like to assume.
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Stick around.
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For all of our viewers out there asking where to
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It's been a few weeks since we've spoken about the
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Cornell 7. The story kind of went quiet after text
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messages revealed shocking new details about that evening, including drug
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and alcohol use, inconsistent statements and allegations that one of
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the men could have been actually sexually assaulted by the
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alleged victim. But just because the news went quiet doesn't
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mean the case went away. And good old Letitia James,
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a prosecutor appointed by Governor Hochul, is fighting to stay
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on the case, even though she's already told the whole
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world what she thinks happened. Recall, a former Cornell student
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says she was drugged and sexually assaulted by seven young
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men at a fraternity house in 2024. She filed a
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lawsuit in September, timed conveniently. to craft an election narrative,
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but whatever. All the men deny the allegations. Not one
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has been charged with anything. And despite all of that,
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on September 28th, Letitia James posted that what this young woman, quote,
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has been forced to endure is horrific and unacceptable. And
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to the accuser, quote, we stand with you, end quote.
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Three days later, Governor Hochul made her the special prosecutor. Now,
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the local district attorney, Matthew Van Houten, actually looked at
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the evidence. He says the accuser gave his office a
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six-page sworn statement describing what happened as voluntary, conscious, and consensual.
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And that every time she asked to stop, it stopped.
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He says multiple prosecutors concluded it wasn't a crime under
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New York law. And he was clear her credibility was
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never the question. The law was. He still reopened the
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case so a grand jury could hear it. That's how
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it's supposed to work until Albany stepped in. So the
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young men she's investigating went to court. One says James
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has unequivocally demonstrated a bias and presumption of guilt. A
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judge ordered her to answer, and the hearing is Thursday,
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another once her kept away from the grand jury entirely.
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So what's her answer? Well, her lawyers told the court,
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the claims are not justiciable. Let's lawyer speak for, you
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can't do anything about it. Asked about her post, she said,
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I won't comment on a Facebook post. You already commented
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with your Facebook post. And now she's reportedly hiring outside
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counsel to hang on to the case when a prosecutor
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announces whose side she's on before she ever opens a file.
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She seems to have already decided. I'm not the only
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one who sees it that way. Norman Siegel, the former
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head of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said some
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people have convicted the men in this case. President Trump
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wants her off of it. SHOULD A PROSECUTOR WHO STANDS
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WITH ONE SIDE DECIDE WHETHER TO And if Letitia James
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can't see the conflict, why can't Governor Hochul? This whole
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thing's a mess. Joining me now, journalist and Miami-Dade Republican
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Committee woman, Ms. Angie Wong, who's becoming our Cornell 7
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correspondent here, it seems. Angie, welcome back to David Pollak
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Prime Time. Letitia James has always been sort of a,
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let's call it, she likes to pick her target and
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then do everything she can to go after that target, right?
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It seems she's doing it again.
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Yeah, look, we all know there are holes all over
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this case. It's probably one of the messiest casework.
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That I've ever seen.
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Even the lawyer who filed it, currently today, one of
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the accused, one of the sevens, has filed a motion
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to dismiss his side of the case because in the
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case filings, he was never alleged to have even raped her.
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All it says in Jane Doe's testimony was that they kissed.
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That's not rape, but yet he was thrown into the mix. Clearly,
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Letitia James, Kathy Hopel, they're looking to spin this narrative
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for something. So, David, I got to tell you, over
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the weekend, I taped my eyelids open to watch this
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ABC News documentary called The Cornell 7, and it reminded
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me so much of the ABC News-produced documentary, January 7th.
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It was so overproduced, the dramatic music, the weird editing.
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It basically built a case that these accused seven men are,
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in fact, guilty. They were the villains, along with New
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York state consent laws.
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Those were the boogeymen.
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Where the heroes were Letitia James and Kathy Hochul and,
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of course, Jane Doe, because everyone says, I am Jane Doe.
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And that's been the whole campaign all around. But what
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worries me about this documentary is that it's already built
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the case in people's minds. It's already built the case
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in the public's court. So this case may or may
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not ever see the light of day in a real
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court because, as you said in your opener, it's messy.
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The legal work is really sloppy here. The DA didn't
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want to take it on. No lawyer wants to really
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take this on unless it's for political theater.
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Well, and that's exactly what this is. Anytime Letitia James'
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name is attached to anything, it becomes political theater. You know,
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here we are, two and a half years into the
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Trump administration, and these ghosts of Biden's past keep showing
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up and doing what they do. You know, nobody's going
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to have confidence in our judicial system if people like
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Letitia James are able to just decide an outcome before
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it's even been decided. INVESTIGATED BEFORE A GRAND JURY'S EVEN
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LOOKED AT IT. AND THIS, BY THE WAY, IS ALL
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HAPPENING AT THE SAME TIME WHERE THESE VERY SAME PEOPLE
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THAT JUST PICK THEIR POLITICAL TARGETS AND GO AFTER THEM
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FROM A PROSECUTOR'S STANDPOINT ARE CALLING IT LAWFARE THAT ELON
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OMAR IS BEING INVESTIGATED FOR POTENTIALLY COMMITTING IMMIGRATION FRAUD HERSELF.
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BUT HOW CAN IT BE THAT LATISHA JAMES CAN DECIDE
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WHO GUILTY PEOPLE ARE AHEAD OF TIME? HOW CAN IT
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BE THAT PEOPLE LIKE FANNY WILLIS, WHO BY THE WAY,
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I THINK SOMEBODY JUST STOLE HER VOTER REGISTRATION OR SOMETHING
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CRAZY ABOUT HER. BUT HOW CAN ALL THESE BROKE PROSECUTORS
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WHO DECIDE THE OUTCOME AHEAD OF TIME? NOT BE LAWFARE.
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BUT THEN SOMEBODY POTENTIALLY BREAKS THE LAW AND THEN YOU
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INVESTIGATE IT, THAT'S LAWFARE. SO LAWFARE BASICALLY IS ONLY WHEN
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YOU HOLD DEMOCRATS ACCOUNTABLE. DEMOCRATS ARE ABOVE THE LAW.
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Democrats, the judges really need to kind of pay attention
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to what's going on here.
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They know this is lawfare.
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Even the lawyers know it's lawfare.
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Everyone knows it's lawfare.
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But you've got to run it all the way through
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the courts for years sometimes and sometimes millions of dollars
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before you can prove that all of this was just
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for a political narrative. And that's what really sucks about
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the way our judicial system works right now, is that
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you have to prove your innocence. But, you know, and
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that's why shows like this is so important, because you're
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killing their narrative. David, you said in your opener, this
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story went away for a while. It's because of shows
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like yours and TMZ that it really exposed the real
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truth behind what's going on here early on.
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So that it gave it no political air.
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Kathy Hochul and Letitia James, they wanted to use the
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story to help boost up their donorship and also to
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win their races in New York. That's coming up in
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a week.
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So that's why they.
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Were really counting on this to really kind of elevate
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their names.
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Like, they're the good guys. They're the heroes.
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They're protecting every single female on college campuses. They wanted
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that sticker.
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But we took it away. Yeah, and you know, there's
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a real victim here, too. And again, I'm not prejudging
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the outcome. I don't know what happened. I'm not a
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fact finder in this case. I'm not the grand jury.
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I haven't seen the rulings of any juries of peers
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or any of that stuff. All I know is what
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the allegations are. She's alleging something. The men in this
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case are alleging something else. I'm not ready to call
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anybody a victim or a non-victim here because both sides
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are claiming that things happened that shouldn't have happened. But
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do you know who the real victim is? The real
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victim in this case is other women or other men
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who are sexually assaulted, who aren't using drugs and alcohol,
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who aren't consenting to certain behavior that later maybe they
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wish they didn't do. I mean, the real victims in
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this country are the people now that are going to
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be either ignored or their cases weakened because of political
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shenanigans like this.
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Yeah, and I hope that every victim, male or female,
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who have actually gone through real sexual assault, do report,
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do not let this case scare them off. Yeah, there's
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always going to be some cases like this, and you're right,
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it hasn't been proven yet. So far, this is only
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a civil case, by the way. There's no criminal charges yet, nothing.
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This is just plain and simple, civil case. If the
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outcome has an outcome, it will be a monetary outcome.
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So that could be also in play here. I just
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do hope that this does not deter people from actually
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reporting real crimes committed to them. And I don't—I think
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that people are smart enough. But I also think the
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other victim here are college students who have to bear
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with this kind of political kabuki theater. and have their
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heartstrings pulled, all for what, for voting? This is terrible.
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This is not politics. This is demonic.
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Yeah, and this thing is you don't need reasonable doubt
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to create a narrative, and that's what these civil courts
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have routinely been used for. I mean, we've seen that
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with the Donald Trump verdict in New York, and they
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call him a rapist. There's absolutely no convictions, no allegations,
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nothing that Donald Trump raped anybody. There's a civil lawsuit,
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and yet the left uses that narrative just like they're
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going to use it here in this Cornell 7 case.
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This is what they do. They use the civil courts
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because the standard is much lower to set a narrative
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that they campaign on going into the perpetual future. Angie Wong,
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thank you for being here, as always, our Cornell 7 correspondent.
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And I'm sure we'll be talking about this again soon, unfortunately.
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But it's important that we keep, you know, like you said,
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shedding light on this so the narrative can't run away
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from the facts.
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Thanks, David.
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Thank you. When we come back, two former senior FBI
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officials surrendered Friday, charged with lying to Congress about the
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Hunter Biden investigation. Prosecutors say one told Congress he learned
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about the laptop case from Wikipedia. Retired FBI Supervisory Special
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Agent Chris Hinkle joins me right after this.
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For all of our viewers out there asking where to
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00:24:23.380 --> 00:24:26.059
watch One America News, we'd like to introduce you to
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00:24:26.220 --> 00:24:28.920
OAN Live. OAN Live is the best way to stay
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00:24:29.019 --> 00:24:31.180
up to date on the hardest hitting news and our
417
00:24:31.200 --> 00:24:33.799
talk shows. And the best part is OAN Live is
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00:24:33.839 --> 00:24:38.670
only $ 4. 99 per month. Credible, honest, and unbiased reporting at
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00:24:38.690 --> 00:24:41.109
a fraction of the cost of cable. So just click
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00:24:41.170 --> 00:24:44.589
on the link at the top of our homepage, oann.com,
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00:24:44.630 --> 00:24:47.450
to easily sign up for the news and conservative talk
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00:24:47.630 --> 00:24:48.890
you can't get anywhere else.
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00:24:57.000 --> 00:25:01.160
Accountability at the FBI. You've been demanding it since day one.
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And I told you, be patient. Accountability is coming in
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00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.599
on Friday. Two of its former top officials have been charged.
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00:25:09.660 --> 00:25:14.869
Nikki Flores and Bradley Benavides surrendered on arrest warrants in Washington.
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Each is charged with lying to Congress about the FBI's
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investigations into Hunter Biden. Recall, three weeks before the 2020 election,
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the New York Post broke the story of Hunter Biden's laptop.
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Twitter blocked it. Facebook throttled it. 51 former intelligence officials
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signed a letter saying it had all the classic earmarks
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of a Russian disinformation operation. Mark Zuckerberg later admitted the
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FBI had warned Facebook to watch out for a Russian
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propaganda dump. Flores and Benavides helped run the FBI's Foreign
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Influence Task Force, the unit in charge of protecting that
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election from foreign interference. In 2023, the House Judiciary Committee
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asked them what that task force had to do with
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Hunter Biden. Prosecutors say both were warned that lying to
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Congress is a crime. FLORES WAS ASKED, DID YOU HAVE
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ANY INVOLVEMENT IN THE HUNTER BIDEN INVESTIGATION? HER ANSWER, I
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DID NOT. BENEVITAS WAS ASKED, WHEN HE LEARNED THERE WAS
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A CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION TIED TO THE LAPTOP, HIS ANSWER, THE
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WIKIPEDIA PAGE. THAT'S RIGHT, THE WIKIPEDIA PAGE. A SENIOR FBI
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COUNTERINTELLIGENCE OFFICIAL PROSECUTOR SAY, THE DOCUMENTS, THE COMMUNICATIONS AND THE
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WITNESSES They all tell a different story, not Wikipedia. According
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to the charging papers, Flores was in frequent contact with
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the Hunter Biden case team for more than a year,
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and an FBI employee told investigators he personally talked with
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Benavides about the laptop. FBI Director Kash Patel says one
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of them was on record privately claiming to be running
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a shadow government during the 2020 election. Their lawyers called
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the charges nonsense. and says it is no coincidence that
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they came on the eve of an election, which is
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funny because nobody at the FBI seemed too worried about
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the eve of an election in October of 2020. Now,
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why does this matter to you? Because this was the
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unit that was supposed to be guarding your vote. If
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the people protecting an election can tell Congress they learned
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about the biggest story of that election from Wikipedia, And
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nothing happens. Well, then the rules only apply to you.
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We vote again in just eight days. Tomorrow morning, a
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federal judge in Washington hears whether prosecutors have enough evidence
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to move forward. For years, the FBI told us the
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laptop was a lie. Now, two of its former leaders.
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are charged with telling one. Joining me now, a 20-year
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FBI veteran retired supervisory special agent and host of Blunt Force,
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Chris Hankel. Welcome to David Pollak Prime Time. Look, this
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has serious implications because, yes, accountability needs to come, and
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I'm glad there's finally some accountability. But these folks were
470
00:28:04.559 --> 00:28:09.950
directly involved with basically calling the Hunter Biden laptop a hoax.
471
00:28:10.490 --> 00:28:13.970
But in response to calling it a hoax, people were investigated.
472
00:28:14.710 --> 00:28:17.839
They were spied on. This network itself was labeled a
473
00:28:17.890 --> 00:28:22.019
conduit of Russian disinformation for reporting on the laptop, listing
474
00:28:22.079 --> 00:28:25.279
Biden and Obama as victims, the Clintons as victims. And
475
00:28:25.319 --> 00:28:28.119
these people knew what was happening and then lied to
476
00:28:28.160 --> 00:28:30.480
Congress about it. If they can lie then, what else
477
00:28:30.500 --> 00:28:31.269
were they lying about?
478
00:28:33.089 --> 00:28:35.140
Not sure what all they were lying about. Right now,
479
00:28:35.180 --> 00:28:38.549
we just know that two senior officials, Nikki Flores and
480
00:28:38.589 --> 00:28:42.869
Bradley Benavides, have been charged with lying before Congress. And
481
00:28:42.930 --> 00:28:46.690
this is from a long-term investigation, it appears, that the
482
00:28:46.789 --> 00:28:52.210
FBI was conducting. Looking at the affidavit, it shows that emails, approvals, meetings,
483
00:28:52.269 --> 00:28:56.829
and witness accounts contradict those denials. Those in these senior
484
00:28:56.849 --> 00:28:59.849
executive positions, they're supposed to have some type of briefing
485
00:28:59.890 --> 00:29:03.240
before they go before Congress. so that they have all
486
00:29:03.259 --> 00:29:05.500
of the available information right in front of them. And
487
00:29:05.519 --> 00:29:09.339
it appears that they either didn't have this information or
488
00:29:10.339 --> 00:29:14.440
they just chose not to bring the information. My concern
489
00:29:14.500 --> 00:29:19.259
is more along the lines of, was the foreign intelligence
490
00:29:19.440 --> 00:29:24.079
aspect of this being used to conceal criminal activity that
491
00:29:24.200 --> 00:29:28.180
may be occurring by Hunter Biden? There's nothing in the
492
00:29:28.380 --> 00:29:33.279
affidavit that that specifically alleges that the use of counterintelligence
493
00:29:33.299 --> 00:29:38.309
information and classifying it at the highest level to keep
494
00:29:38.349 --> 00:29:41.059
people from being able to readily look at that information
495
00:29:41.410 --> 00:29:45.019
was being done. But we've got criminal activity that appears
496
00:29:45.059 --> 00:29:47.859
to have been occurring in the form of money laundering
497
00:29:47.900 --> 00:29:52.799
involving Hunter Biden. Of course, he has gotten a blanket
498
00:29:54.089 --> 00:29:56.930
you know, pardon from his father going out of office.
499
00:29:56.950 --> 00:29:59.309
So that case right there, it doesn't mean that the
500
00:29:59.349 --> 00:30:01.680
case goes away. They just won't be able to charge
501
00:30:01.720 --> 00:30:04.200
Hunter Biden, but they could charge the individuals around it.
502
00:30:04.849 --> 00:30:05.130
Yeah.
503
00:30:05.269 --> 00:30:07.930
And honestly, it needs to happen. And I say this
504
00:30:07.950 --> 00:30:10.799
a lot. I argue I'm in debates with people who
505
00:30:10.970 --> 00:30:14.140
want more accountability. FBI, they say it's not happening fast enough.
506
00:30:14.160 --> 00:30:16.400
You know, I've worked in government. You've spent a long
507
00:30:16.440 --> 00:30:19.680
time in government. Not all FBI agents are bad. The
508
00:30:19.740 --> 00:30:22.019
agency does a lot of good work and they continue
509
00:30:22.039 --> 00:30:24.009
to do a lot of good and important work. Now,
510
00:30:24.049 --> 00:30:27.009
there are a few bad apples. I think so. But
511
00:30:27.029 --> 00:30:28.869
you have to fix it from the top down and
512
00:30:28.890 --> 00:30:31.269
hold the people accountable. You can hold accountable. I think
513
00:30:31.289 --> 00:30:34.029
this is a really good first strike. And I think
514
00:30:34.069 --> 00:30:37.210
it's taken time. But we are holding people accountable. And
515
00:30:37.250 --> 00:30:39.170
you want to make sure that we have the facts
516
00:30:39.829 --> 00:30:42.859
and the evidence to support any arrests, or else what
517
00:30:42.920 --> 00:30:44.380
good does it do? And then also, it's not going
518
00:30:44.400 --> 00:30:47.380
to do anything to improve the morale or improve the
519
00:30:47.480 --> 00:30:50.619
loyalty of the FBI if you keep charging people without evidence.
520
00:30:50.640 --> 00:30:54.059
So I think President Trump, I think Kash Patel, and
521
00:30:54.099 --> 00:30:57.380
I think the DOJ is moving diligently towards rooting out
522
00:30:57.460 --> 00:31:01.509
anybody who might have committed crimes during the Biden administration,
523
00:31:01.529 --> 00:31:05.289
even during the Trump administration. But the FBI as a whole,
524
00:31:05.549 --> 00:31:07.789
the entire agency is broken, right? I mean, there are
525
00:31:07.809 --> 00:31:10.369
a few bad apples, but culturally, it needs to change
526
00:31:10.450 --> 00:31:11.869
culturally from the top down, right?
527
00:31:13.210 --> 00:31:13.650
It does.
528
00:31:13.670 --> 00:31:16.480
And I think that it is well on the way
529
00:31:16.500 --> 00:31:19.579
to having that occur. I think a lot of the
530
00:31:19.619 --> 00:31:23.180
individuals that were involved in shaping the narratives, not just
531
00:31:23.240 --> 00:31:26.920
involved with Hunter Biden, but just shaping the culture within
532
00:31:26.960 --> 00:31:30.049
the FBI, a lot of those people were shown the
533
00:31:30.089 --> 00:31:34.230
door during the first several months of the new Trump administration.
534
00:31:34.880 --> 00:31:38.589
I think that they're in the, you mentioned earlier about
535
00:31:39.430 --> 00:31:42.210
rank and file FBI agents. That used to frustrate me
536
00:31:42.269 --> 00:31:45.509
because I worked alongside these rank and file FBI agents
537
00:31:45.549 --> 00:31:47.589
and I knew that they weren't the source of the
538
00:31:47.630 --> 00:31:50.539
problems in the FBI. It was a very select number
539
00:31:50.579 --> 00:31:53.960
of individuals at the top. It was through DOJ. And
540
00:31:54.000 --> 00:31:56.720
you had some analysts that were brought in that didn't
541
00:31:56.759 --> 00:32:00.640
have the life experience necessary to come in and make decisions.
542
00:32:00.980 --> 00:32:04.799
but you had senior individuals in the FBI, beginning with Mueller,
543
00:32:05.099 --> 00:32:09.079
that were elevating these analysts and support employees into positions
544
00:32:09.279 --> 00:32:13.230
above the special agents actually out there conducting the investigations.
545
00:32:13.829 --> 00:32:17.150
So my concern right now is I hope that the
546
00:32:17.289 --> 00:32:20.349
FBI is looking into what was the use of the
547
00:32:20.390 --> 00:32:24.970
counterintelligence moniker under this investigation. Was that being used to
548
00:32:25.009 --> 00:32:28.890
conceal or shape narratives? And I hope that the individuals
549
00:32:28.930 --> 00:32:32.039
that were putting together the intelligence briefings that were being
550
00:32:32.079 --> 00:32:33.500
given to these senior executives.
551
00:32:33.519 --> 00:32:34.400
I hope they're brought in.
552
00:32:34.440 --> 00:32:38.680
And if they were providing information that wasn't verified and substantiated,
553
00:32:38.720 --> 00:32:40.519
I hope that they're held accountable as well.
554
00:32:41.099 --> 00:32:43.140
Yeah, it needs to happen because people need to restore
555
00:32:43.160 --> 00:32:45.890
their confidence in, you know, our largest law and federal
556
00:32:45.910 --> 00:32:51.109
law enforcement apparatus. Because again, stopping terrorism, stopping human trafficking,
557
00:32:51.670 --> 00:32:53.589
stopping drug trafficking. I mean, there are so many important
558
00:32:53.609 --> 00:32:55.269
things the FBI does. And this is such a black
559
00:32:55.390 --> 00:32:57.829
eye on the agency of what happened under Bob Mueller,
560
00:32:57.869 --> 00:33:01.880
what happened under James Comey. And, you know, the reform
561
00:33:01.920 --> 00:33:04.700
needs to continue to happen. And this is a good
562
00:33:04.740 --> 00:33:06.579
first step. Chris, thank you so much for being here
563
00:33:06.599 --> 00:33:09.039
as always. And thank you for your service. Thank you.
564
00:33:09.140 --> 00:33:11.299
And just the message out there to the people saying
565
00:33:11.339 --> 00:33:13.980
that nothing's happening. I keep seeing a lot of things happening.
566
00:33:14.099 --> 00:33:16.880
That's it. Things are happening. And thank you for sharing
567
00:33:16.900 --> 00:33:17.700
that as well. It's important.
568
00:33:18.490 --> 00:33:18.750
Thank you.
569
00:33:20.200 --> 00:33:25.539
Still ahead, Iran's real nuclear threat was bigger than you've
570
00:33:25.599 --> 00:33:30.579
been told. Enough uranium for nine nuclear bombs. Nobody knows
571
00:33:30.980 --> 00:33:34.529
where that uranium is. And the core of one would
572
00:33:34.630 --> 00:33:39.650
fit into a shoebox. Congressman Pat Harrigan joins me with
573
00:33:39.710 --> 00:33:43.650
more on that and later. It's Maha Monday and America's
574
00:33:43.750 --> 00:33:48.599
favorite $ 5 cookie is crumbling. Don't go anywhere.
575
00:33:55.859 --> 00:33:57.680
For all of our viewers out there asking where to
576
00:33:57.720 --> 00:34:00.400
watch One America News, we'd like to introduce you to
577
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OAN Live. OAN Live is the best way to stay
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579
00:34:05.539 --> 00:34:06.000
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580
00:34:06.420 --> 00:34:08.219
And the best part is OAN Live is.
581
00:34:08.179 --> 00:34:13.010
Only $ 4. 99 per month. Credible, honest, and unbiased reporting at
582
00:34:13.030 --> 00:34:15.469
a fraction of the cost of cable. So just click
583
00:34:15.510 --> 00:34:18.929
on the link at the top of our homepage, OANN.com,
584
00:34:18.969 --> 00:34:21.789
to easily sign up for the news and conservative talk
585
00:34:21.969 --> 00:34:23.250
you can't get anywhere else.
586
00:34:30.900 --> 00:34:34.019
NOW, OF COURSE, YOU'VE BEEN TOLD IRAN WAS NEVER REALLY
587
00:34:34.059 --> 00:34:38.389
THAT CLOSE TO A NUCLEAR WEAPON. THE IRANIUM WASN'T WEAPONS GRADE.
588
00:34:38.409 --> 00:34:41.389
THE WHOLE THING, IT'S ALL HYPE. WE'RE JUST ATTACKING IRAN
589
00:34:41.429 --> 00:34:47.570
FOR ISRAEL, RIGHT? was maybe a little bit bigger than
590
00:34:47.630 --> 00:34:50.570
anybody in Washington wants to admit. Right before the strikes
591
00:34:50.630 --> 00:34:55.769
in June of 2025, the International Atomic Energy Agency counted
592
00:34:55.769 --> 00:35:00.610
440 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60%. By the agency's
593
00:35:00.679 --> 00:35:05.059
own yardstick, that's enough for nine bombs, if enriched further.
594
00:35:05.699 --> 00:35:08.760
And the Institute for Science and International Security found Iran
595
00:35:08.780 --> 00:35:13.340
could turn its first bombs worth into weapons grade in
596
00:35:13.380 --> 00:35:17.530
less than a week. And Iran may not even need
597
00:35:17.550 --> 00:35:21.539
that last step. Physicist Edwin Lyman of the Union of
598
00:35:21.639 --> 00:35:25.500
Concerned Scientists says the idea that Iran needs 90 percent
599
00:35:25.559 --> 00:35:28.539
for a bomb is simply wrong. Illinois state physicist Matt
600
00:35:28.559 --> 00:35:33.010
Kaplan found that a crude Hiroshima-style bomb, quote, could be
601
00:35:33.119 --> 00:35:38.130
expected to successfully detonate without even testing it. So where
602
00:35:38.269 --> 00:35:41.429
is all that uranium? Well, nobody knows. Four days before
603
00:35:41.469 --> 00:35:44.960
the strikes— Satellite images showed a truck loaded with 18
604
00:35:44.960 --> 00:35:49.650
containers outside a tunnel at Isfahan. Today, the IAEA admits
605
00:35:49.710 --> 00:35:52.449
it can't provide any information on the current size, composition,
606
00:35:52.730 --> 00:35:56.050
or whereabouts of the stockpile. And Iran doesn't need a
607
00:35:56.250 --> 00:35:58.869
missile to use it. The uranium at the heart of
608
00:35:58.929 --> 00:36:02.059
a bomb could easily fit into a shoebox or even
609
00:36:02.099 --> 00:36:07.260
a backpack. According to the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation,
610
00:36:07.760 --> 00:36:11.260
the finished bomb is heavy, But Kaplan says it could
611
00:36:11.300 --> 00:36:14.179
be smuggled in a standard shipping container on a truck
612
00:36:14.199 --> 00:36:17.699
or by a cargo ship into a port. Now, listen
613
00:36:17.719 --> 00:36:21.449
to President Trump in Nebraska on October 5th. They could
614
00:36:21.489 --> 00:36:22.369
take out a city.
615
00:36:23.050 --> 00:36:25.809
Let them take out Los Angeles.
616
00:36:25.829 --> 00:36:29.300
Let them take out San Diego. The White House says
617
00:36:29.780 --> 00:36:33.719
he was clearly stating U.S. cities would have been threatened
618
00:36:33.860 --> 00:36:37.199
if a nuclear Iran hadn't been stopped. And he's right.
619
00:36:37.889 --> 00:36:39.929
Maybe he picked those two cities, you know, off the
620
00:36:39.989 --> 00:36:43.389
top of his head. Or maybe he knew something. Los
621
00:36:43.449 --> 00:36:46.030
Angeles and San Diego are port cities. The heart of
622
00:36:46.070 --> 00:36:48.250
a bomb fits in a shoebox. The bomb fits in
623
00:36:48.269 --> 00:36:51.309
a shipping container. And Iran had enough for nine. Iran
624
00:36:51.349 --> 00:36:54.599
swears it never wanted a bomb. Well, as Vice President
625
00:36:54.699 --> 00:36:57.960
Vance put it, if you don't want a nuclear weapon,
626
00:36:58.000 --> 00:37:00.920
then why do you need 60 percent enriched fuel? So
627
00:37:01.260 --> 00:37:04.500
where is that uranium tonight and who's watching our ports?
628
00:37:04.519 --> 00:37:08.619
How real is this threat? Joining me now, West Point
629
00:37:08.679 --> 00:37:12.829
trained nuclear engineer Green Beret and member of the House
630
00:37:13.090 --> 00:37:18.550
Armed Services Committee, Congressman Pat Harrigan, Republican of North Carolina. Congressman,
631
00:37:18.570 --> 00:37:22.070
welcome back. Hey, this kind of scares me a little bit.
632
00:37:22.349 --> 00:37:24.010
I want you to tell me, David, don't worry about it.
633
00:37:24.010 --> 00:37:26.050
It's not actually something you should worry about. But at
634
00:37:26.090 --> 00:37:28.010
the same time, we probably should worry about it, right?
635
00:37:29.630 --> 00:37:31.849
Well, David, hey, it's great to be with you. But yeah,
636
00:37:31.889 --> 00:37:33.889
I'm sure that when he said San Diego was up
637
00:37:33.909 --> 00:37:36.400
for grabs, that really concerned you guys out there at
638
00:37:36.449 --> 00:37:37.840
OAN because that's where you film.
639
00:37:38.000 --> 00:37:38.940
Yeah.
640
00:37:39.019 --> 00:37:41.619
So, you know, that's not tolerable to you, I'm sure.
641
00:37:42.880 --> 00:37:45.179
Well, the thing is, though, I saw that that night, right,
642
00:37:45.219 --> 00:37:47.199
when he said, ah, let him take– I knew for
643
00:37:47.219 --> 00:37:50.039
a minute– look, my parents are New Yorkers, and they
644
00:37:50.099 --> 00:37:52.530
do this sarcastic thing. Oh, yeah, let them have pizza,
645
00:37:52.550 --> 00:37:54.969
see how much they like it. It's an expression saying, like,
646
00:37:55.309 --> 00:37:57.530
look what could happen. But I don't think he picked
647
00:37:57.570 --> 00:37:59.969
those two cities just out of the air. I don't
648
00:37:59.989 --> 00:38:03.409
know if he had specific intelligence. I don't know. But
649
00:38:03.429 --> 00:38:06.340
from what I understand, you know, L.A. is a long beach,
650
00:38:06.380 --> 00:38:09.980
largest port in the nation. San Diego, our Pacific fleet
651
00:38:10.039 --> 00:38:12.900
is there. And if Iran had that nuclear material and
652
00:38:12.920 --> 00:38:16.659
if it can be somewhat compact and a simple trigger mechanism,
653
00:38:16.679 --> 00:38:19.539
from what I understand, could detonate something like that, that's
654
00:38:19.559 --> 00:38:21.739
a much bigger risk than anybody's even heard, right?
655
00:38:23.570 --> 00:38:23.789
Yeah.
656
00:38:24.050 --> 00:38:26.679
I mean, and I think that this is where Iran
657
00:38:26.719 --> 00:38:30.039
was a lot further along than most Americans realize. And
658
00:38:30.059 --> 00:38:32.260
I think before Midnight Hammer, you talked about it. Iran
659
00:38:32.320 --> 00:38:35.280
had more than 440 kilograms of uranium that had been
660
00:38:35.320 --> 00:38:38.119
enriched to 60 percent. And as we all know, that's
661
00:38:38.139 --> 00:38:41.949
a pretty short step from weapons grade material and enough
662
00:38:42.030 --> 00:38:45.630
if it's enriched further for roughly 10 nuclear weapons, like
663
00:38:45.650 --> 00:38:48.139
you said. So I think people need to understand just
664
00:38:48.179 --> 00:38:51.079
how far Iran had taken this program. Now, it's one
665
00:38:51.159 --> 00:38:53.320
thing to develop a nuclear weapon. It is another thing
666
00:38:53.360 --> 00:38:55.599
to deliver a nuclear weapon. And there's a lot of
667
00:38:55.619 --> 00:38:58.960
different methodologies and modalities on how to do that. All
668
00:38:59.000 --> 00:39:01.739
of them are very complicated. But the one that President
669
00:39:01.760 --> 00:39:04.360
Trump talked about, about taking something the size of a
670
00:39:04.409 --> 00:39:07.110
shipping container, putting it in a port, that's probably on
671
00:39:07.170 --> 00:39:11.130
the lower realm of sophistication out of the different delivery
672
00:39:11.170 --> 00:39:13.369
methods that exist. And so, yeah, we've got to take
673
00:39:13.409 --> 00:39:14.750
these threats very seriously.
674
00:39:15.590 --> 00:39:19.090
Now, with— I mean, obviously, Iran now, their ability to enrich
675
00:39:19.210 --> 00:39:22.690
uranium has been significantly degraded, which is important for the
676
00:39:22.869 --> 00:39:24.889
safety and security of Americans and the rest of the world.
677
00:39:25.739 --> 00:39:30.000
This supposed and missing uranium, do we have any idea
678
00:39:30.019 --> 00:39:31.860
where it is? Is it buried under the sand? Has
679
00:39:31.900 --> 00:39:34.139
it moved somewhere? Are we able to track this stuff?
680
00:39:36.179 --> 00:39:39.789
You know, I can't answer that question for you, David, without,
681
00:39:40.010 --> 00:39:41.809
you know, I've got to be careful during this entire
682
00:39:41.849 --> 00:39:46.269
interview not to move into classified area. But suffice to say, look,
683
00:39:46.650 --> 00:39:49.699
we went into and we went after Iran for a
684
00:39:49.739 --> 00:39:51.699
lot of different reasons. One of those reasons was to
685
00:39:51.739 --> 00:39:54.460
prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon. I'm confident that
686
00:39:54.480 --> 00:39:56.920
they don't have a nuclear weapon today. And I'm also
687
00:39:57.000 --> 00:40:00.239
confident that they aren't going to have one anytime soon. Now,
688
00:40:00.260 --> 00:40:03.639
that is something that is going to take persistent overwatch
689
00:40:04.199 --> 00:40:06.719
to make sure that they don't move back to where
690
00:40:06.820 --> 00:40:10.960
they were and the trajectory that the Iranian regime was on.
691
00:40:11.699 --> 00:40:13.710
And we are and we do have those over the
692
00:40:13.769 --> 00:40:17.050
horizon capabilities to keep our thumb on that. But we
693
00:40:17.190 --> 00:40:19.090
are going to have to keep our thumb on that
694
00:40:19.469 --> 00:40:20.630
moving forward into the future.
695
00:40:21.139 --> 00:40:23.280
Now, of course, you've heard a lot of critics from
696
00:40:23.380 --> 00:40:26.340
our side even talking about this war was unnecessary, we
697
00:40:26.360 --> 00:40:28.559
didn't need to go to war with Iran, it was
698
00:40:28.579 --> 00:40:30.880
all for Israel, and just about every reason in the
699
00:40:30.920 --> 00:40:34.340
world not to attack Iran. But we needed to do this, right?
700
00:40:34.380 --> 00:40:37.110
This was the right move. And, yeah, President Trump isn't
701
00:40:37.139 --> 00:40:39.389
looking at the politics of it. He's trying to protect Americans.
702
00:40:39.619 --> 00:40:41.590
That's his number one job. This wasn't something we could
703
00:40:41.610 --> 00:40:42.110
put off, right?
704
00:40:44.010 --> 00:40:46.269
Well, look, and I've been very consistent about this from
705
00:40:46.289 --> 00:40:48.909
the very beginning. I do believe that the war was
706
00:40:48.989 --> 00:40:52.360
a war of choice with respect to timing. I'm absolutely
707
00:40:52.420 --> 00:40:54.420
convinced that this war would have happened one way or
708
00:40:54.460 --> 00:40:54.739
the other.
709
00:40:54.840 --> 00:40:55.760
It was inevitable.
710
00:40:55.780 --> 00:40:58.750
I mean, you have a regime that has spent decades
711
00:40:58.829 --> 00:41:03.880
funding terrorist organizations, targeting American service members developing ballistic missiles
712
00:41:03.940 --> 00:41:07.260
capable of threatening our allies throughout the region. And just
713
00:41:07.340 --> 00:41:09.619
consider what it would mean for that same regime to
714
00:41:09.659 --> 00:41:13.360
possess nuclear weapons, which they obviously had a reason to do.
715
00:41:13.420 --> 00:41:17.429
I think J.D. Vance very eloquently said, well, you wouldn't
716
00:41:17.489 --> 00:41:20.469
enrich uranium to 60% if you weren't willing to go
717
00:41:20.510 --> 00:41:22.389
all the way and didn't have the intent to do that.
718
00:41:22.510 --> 00:41:26.150
So the consequences of that would extend well beyond Iran
719
00:41:26.190 --> 00:41:30.070
and Israel. And the United States had absolute legitimate reasons
720
00:41:30.110 --> 00:41:31.510
to be deeply concerned.
721
00:41:31.170 --> 00:41:32.090
About that possibility.
722
00:41:32.130 --> 00:41:34.190
But what I will tell you is that there's a
723
00:41:34.210 --> 00:41:36.800
difference between developing a bomb and delivering a bomb. And
724
00:41:36.820 --> 00:41:39.159
there is decision-making space once you've gone from.
725
00:41:39.179 --> 00:41:40.320
One to the other.
726
00:41:40.840 --> 00:41:43.760
But you're taking a lot of risk in that decision space.
727
00:41:43.820 --> 00:41:46.500
And so I certainly don't fault the president based on
728
00:41:46.539 --> 00:41:49.179
his timing. What the American people care about at large
729
00:41:49.219 --> 00:41:53.139
is they care about outcomes. We've not delivered the outcome
730
00:41:53.320 --> 00:41:57.449
with the finality of with finality in Iran, and we
731
00:41:57.510 --> 00:41:58.530
have to do that.
732
00:41:58.550 --> 00:42:01.989
Well, we'll see. President Trump said, you know, nothing before
733
00:42:02.030 --> 00:42:04.690
the midterms, but all the reports are suggesting that we're
734
00:42:04.710 --> 00:42:08.860
gearing up and reloading and rearming for something big after
735
00:42:08.900 --> 00:42:11.559
the midterms. And it seems that oil is still flowing,
736
00:42:12.059 --> 00:42:13.539
probably at a higher rate than it was before the
737
00:42:13.559 --> 00:42:16.050
war even started. And I think it's really the refining
738
00:42:16.090 --> 00:42:19.510
capacity and some other things that have caused these gas
739
00:42:19.530 --> 00:42:21.909
prices to stay a little elevated. But, look, he says
740
00:42:21.929 --> 00:42:23.690
something's going to happen after the midterms. We'll see if
741
00:42:23.730 --> 00:42:26.369
that's enough to get Iran to the negotiation table. Americans
742
00:42:26.429 --> 00:42:28.449
are concerned with their bottom lines. They're concerned about gas prices.
743
00:42:28.489 --> 00:42:30.769
And I think the president is keenly aware of that, too.
744
00:42:31.590 --> 00:42:35.230
I appreciate everything you've done in North Carolina and everything
745
00:42:35.250 --> 00:42:37.300
you've done in Washington. It hasn't been easy. And we're
746
00:42:37.380 --> 00:42:39.340
going to watch this situation very closely. Thank you so
747
00:42:39.360 --> 00:42:40.099
much for being here, my friend.
748
00:42:41.440 --> 00:42:42.860
Hey, David, always great to be with you.
749
00:42:43.000 --> 00:42:48.190
Thank you. Coming up, it's Baja Monday and Crumbles sales
750
00:42:48.230 --> 00:42:51.909
were down 70% in August. Dozens of stores have closed
751
00:42:52.429 --> 00:42:55.409
and its rescue plan, well, they think maybe to go
752
00:42:55.429 --> 00:42:57.909
along with their sugar-filled cookies, maybe you just need some
753
00:42:58.210 --> 00:43:02.570
zero sugar soda. Heather Heather McIsaac joins me next.
754
00:43:09.780 --> 00:43:11.599
For all of our viewers out there asking where to
755
00:43:11.639 --> 00:43:14.320
watch One America News, we'd like to introduce you to
756
00:43:14.480 --> 00:43:17.179
OAN Live. OAN Live is the best way to stay
757
00:43:17.280 --> 00:43:19.440
up to date on the hardest hitting news and our
758
00:43:19.460 --> 00:43:22.059
talk shows. And the best part is OAN Live is
759
00:43:22.099 --> 00:43:26.920
only $ 4. 99 per month. Credible, honest, and unbiased reporting at
760
00:43:26.940 --> 00:43:29.360
a fraction of the cost of cable. So just click
761
00:43:29.420 --> 00:43:32.840
on the link at the top of our homepage, OANN.com,
762
00:43:32.880 --> 00:43:35.699
to easily sign up for the news and conservative talk
763
00:43:35.889 --> 00:43:37.139
you can't get anywhere else.
764
00:43:44.989 --> 00:43:51.059
MAHA MONDAY AGAIN AND TONIGHT CRUMBLE COOKIES IS CRUMBLING EVERYONE
765
00:43:51.099 --> 00:43:55.179
KNOWS THAT FAMOUS PINK BOX THE FIVE DOLLAR COOKIES THE
766
00:43:55.239 --> 00:43:57.659
SWEET SMELL THAT OVERWHELMS YOU THE MOMENT YOU WALK IN
767
00:43:57.679 --> 00:44:00.980
THE DOOR THE LINES OF EAGER TEENS AND THE 10
768
00:44:00.980 --> 00:44:05.250
MILLION TIKTOK FOLLOWERS THAT GO ALONG WITH IT AND PROBABLY
769
00:44:05.309 --> 00:44:09.489
MOST IMPORTANTLY FOR THE COMPANY THE TWO BILLION DOLLAR VALUATION
770
00:44:09.969 --> 00:44:14.860
JUST LAST YEAR BUT THIS YEAR This year, something's changing.
771
00:44:15.559 --> 00:44:20.050
According to the company's own numbers, August sales were down
772
00:44:20.050 --> 00:44:24.469
70% from two years earlier. The median store's profit in September, $ 1, 832
773
00:44:24.369 --> 00:44:25.989
for the whole month. 65 stores have closed since the
774
00:44:26.010 --> 00:44:34.989
end of April, seven of them in California. A six-store
775
00:44:35.050 --> 00:44:38.940
franchisee filed for bankruptcy. Another is trying to unload stores
776
00:44:39.019 --> 00:44:43.500
at a substantially discounted price. And the company finished last
777
00:44:43.559 --> 00:44:47.179
year with $ 6 million in the bank. One franchisee put
778
00:44:47.239 --> 00:44:55.199
it simply, October has been miserable. blames industry headwinds. I
779
00:44:55.880 --> 00:44:59.440
think Americans just started reading the labels. Look at this.
780
00:44:59.480 --> 00:45:04.079
The ingredient list crumble used to post for its signature
781
00:45:04.139 --> 00:45:10.539
pink sugar cookie runs 55 entries. Sugar shows up four times,
782
00:45:10.599 --> 00:45:14.480
plus high-fructose corn syrup, plus red 40, yellow 5, red 3.
783
00:45:14.480 --> 00:45:20.289
The dye the FDA is banning from food in January
784
00:45:20.309 --> 00:45:23.329
is in those cookies. And this year, Crumble pulled those
785
00:45:23.389 --> 00:45:26.710
ingredient lists off its website. It calls them proprietary now.
786
00:45:27.809 --> 00:45:30.579
Then the cookie company got in a soda. It charged
787
00:45:30.639 --> 00:45:35.019
franchisees up to $ 50, 000 for the equipment. And it's soda week.
788
00:45:36.199 --> 00:45:40.239
Turned in the weakest sales in Crumble's history. One cup
789
00:45:40.260 --> 00:45:45.969
of its crazy cousin's dirty soda. 186 grams of sugar.
790
00:45:45.969 --> 00:45:50.510
186 grams of sugar. That's more than five days of
791
00:45:50.550 --> 00:45:54.030
the American Heart Association's limit for a grown man. For
792
00:45:54.050 --> 00:45:57.929
a kid, it's more than a week. And the rescue plan.
793
00:45:58.829 --> 00:46:08.019
A zero sugar soda and a thin cookie for $ 1. 99.
794
00:46:04.170 --> 00:46:07.929
When the cookie company's big comeback is zero sugar, I
795
00:46:07.969 --> 00:46:12.469
would say Maha might have already won this one. Joining
796
00:46:12.489 --> 00:46:15.530
me now, Air Force veteran and Maha advocate, Heather, Heather McIsaac.
797
00:46:16.150 --> 00:46:19.489
Welcome back, David Pollak, Prime Time. You have a love-hate, actually,
798
00:46:19.909 --> 00:46:23.760
you have a hate-hate relationship with Crumble Cookie, right?
799
00:46:25.940 --> 00:46:30.519
I don't want to rejoice in something that was once
800
00:46:30.579 --> 00:46:36.840
a small company's demise, right? Basically, Crumble made their entire
801
00:46:37.420 --> 00:46:41.239
company based off viral moments and clips. And a product
802
00:46:41.360 --> 00:46:43.659
is not going to have longevity if it's only based
803
00:46:43.719 --> 00:46:47.900
on trends, especially if that company isn't willing to move
804
00:46:48.119 --> 00:46:51.219
where those trends are going. And right now, food is
805
00:46:51.280 --> 00:46:55.579
at the forefront of the Maha revolution. And unfortunately, Crumble
806
00:46:55.639 --> 00:46:59.280
really missed the mark by trying to figure out how
807
00:46:59.719 --> 00:47:03.639
they can make their cookies a little bit Most parents
808
00:47:03.659 --> 00:47:06.070
will take their kids to crumble. They will do it
809
00:47:06.239 --> 00:47:08.769
as a treat, but it's something that parents are going
810
00:47:08.809 --> 00:47:12.250
to continuously keep doing. It's a once in a while thing,
811
00:47:12.349 --> 00:47:14.369
and you can't build a brand off something that's just
812
00:47:14.690 --> 00:47:17.989
once in a while. So I'm hoping for their sake
813
00:47:18.130 --> 00:47:20.829
that they will go back and they will perhaps revisit
814
00:47:20.869 --> 00:47:23.679
some of their recipes and figure out how to make
815
00:47:23.719 --> 00:47:26.960
it more wholesome. Now, that might be an oxymoron to
816
00:47:27.000 --> 00:47:31.340
some wholesome maha cookie all in the same sentence, but
817
00:47:31.380 --> 00:47:35.239
it's possible. They could add protein to it. They could add,
818
00:47:35.510 --> 00:47:38.389
you know, let people know that they don't use seed oils.
819
00:47:38.429 --> 00:47:41.739
They're using real butter. Those are things that parents are
820
00:47:41.760 --> 00:47:45.119
paying attention to. They would rather see those real ingredients
821
00:47:45.519 --> 00:47:50.900
than see a mile-long CVS receipt-esque type ingredient list that
822
00:47:51.199 --> 00:47:53.639
they can't pronounce half the items in it.
823
00:47:54.179 --> 00:47:56.179
Yeah, you know, Heather, and I think this is really
824
00:47:56.280 --> 00:47:58.340
late effects of, and I don't even want to say
825
00:47:58.360 --> 00:48:02.800
late effects, it's positive effects of MAHA because- You know,
826
00:48:02.929 --> 00:48:05.340
this was an indulgent treat. I remember like at Disney
827
00:48:05.380 --> 00:48:08.639
Springs at Gideon Cookies, people lined up for blocks to
828
00:48:08.659 --> 00:48:11.769
get these giant one pound cookies with the chocolate pile up.
829
00:48:12.019 --> 00:48:13.800
And I remember getting one once and I was so
830
00:48:13.900 --> 00:48:16.079
sweet I couldn't even eat it. And then and then,
831
00:48:16.119 --> 00:48:18.820
of course, my kids saw the TikTok trends of crumble
832
00:48:18.840 --> 00:48:22.039
cookies and all the different influencers doing like, you know,
833
00:48:22.079 --> 00:48:24.659
the kick trying each cookie. And so we did this
834
00:48:24.719 --> 00:48:26.539
thing where I let's go try to take the cookies.
835
00:48:27.079 --> 00:48:29.860
the crumble cookies. But after a couple of weeks, it
836
00:48:29.900 --> 00:48:31.690
was like, not only was it the same type of
837
00:48:31.730 --> 00:48:35.110
cookies and they just switched off the toppings, but it just,
838
00:48:35.489 --> 00:48:38.989
it was so sugary, so rich. And then when Maha
839
00:48:39.030 --> 00:48:41.510
came to, you know, when everyone started paying attention to ingredients,
840
00:48:42.179 --> 00:48:45.030
It became almost like, oh, that's kind of gross. So
841
00:48:45.090 --> 00:48:46.849
I do think it's a late effect of Maha. I
842
00:48:46.929 --> 00:48:50.909
think the idea of having these indulgent desserts with mystery ingredients,
843
00:48:50.949 --> 00:48:52.929
people are turned off to. We talked about Dunkin' Donuts
844
00:48:53.130 --> 00:48:55.769
or Dunkin' a couple of Mahas ago where people are
845
00:48:55.789 --> 00:48:57.670
looking at the ingredients there. And you look at the
846
00:48:57.710 --> 00:49:00.460
success of places like Steak and Shake or In-N-Out or
847
00:49:00.500 --> 00:49:02.460
these other fast food restaurants that have replaced the bad
848
00:49:02.480 --> 00:49:06.159
ingredients with good ingredients. I think people... Honestly, Heather, from
849
00:49:06.199 --> 00:49:08.019
talking to you every single week, I think people feel
850
00:49:08.059 --> 00:49:10.400
duped by food industry, and that's a good thing.
851
00:49:10.480 --> 00:49:11.219
And they should.
852
00:49:11.239 --> 00:49:13.309
And this is what we want. Good.
853
00:49:13.409 --> 00:49:15.230
And that was the biggest thing that I saw with
854
00:49:15.269 --> 00:49:17.329
Crumble in terms of the start of their demise was
855
00:49:17.349 --> 00:49:20.860
when people realized that one single cookie was not a
856
00:49:20.900 --> 00:49:24.039
single serving. It was, I think on their website listed
857
00:49:24.099 --> 00:49:27.079
as two to three servings, depending on the cookie. And
858
00:49:27.199 --> 00:49:31.570
most people were, were outraged by that to an extent. Now, granted,
859
00:49:31.969 --> 00:49:34.769
you know, we need to be smart, savvy consumers that
860
00:49:34.809 --> 00:49:36.889
look into things, but when you're taking your child for
861
00:49:36.969 --> 00:49:41.570
a treat and, and items geared towards kids. These cookies
862
00:49:41.650 --> 00:49:45.530
are maybe geared towards the adults that are kids at heart, right?
863
00:49:45.570 --> 00:49:47.760
But this is a brand that was geared towards kids.
864
00:49:47.840 --> 00:49:50.840
It was marketed towards moms to kind of like be
865
00:49:50.860 --> 00:49:53.679
the cool thing to go do. But again, the trend
866
00:49:53.739 --> 00:49:56.760
right now is Maha. The trend right now is Whole Ingredients.
867
00:49:57.139 --> 00:50:00.539
being more healthy. As somebody who's an avid baker myself,
868
00:50:01.400 --> 00:50:06.039
you can make amazing cookies with wholesome ingredients. That's where
869
00:50:06.099 --> 00:50:10.909
Crumble is missing the mark. They unfortunately put their virality
870
00:50:11.309 --> 00:50:14.909
over investing in their product. The sad part is I
871
00:50:15.230 --> 00:50:18.710
knew somebody who invested in a Crumble franchise. I think
872
00:50:18.750 --> 00:50:21.130
that they are one of the California stores that has
873
00:50:21.170 --> 00:50:23.989
since gone under which is sad because all of these
874
00:50:24.070 --> 00:50:28.349
franchisees are people who have invested their own money to
875
00:50:28.389 --> 00:50:30.869
be a part of this company and the company failed them.
876
00:50:31.630 --> 00:50:31.849
Yeah.
877
00:50:31.989 --> 00:50:34.929
And look, the cookie company that comes along, because there
878
00:50:34.949 --> 00:50:37.230
was a lot of like, you know, dupe companies that
879
00:50:37.250 --> 00:50:40.429
came out that tried to be like crumble. And but
880
00:50:40.590 --> 00:50:42.730
I think the company that comes out and makes desserts
881
00:50:42.769 --> 00:50:45.250
that are easy to access, that are made with whole
882
00:50:45.289 --> 00:50:47.510
ingredients that people don't feel guilty about. I think really
883
00:50:47.530 --> 00:50:50.449
that is the future. Maha is changing America. Health consciousness
884
00:50:50.510 --> 00:50:52.429
is changing. And I think that is great. Get rid
885
00:50:52.449 --> 00:50:54.300
of that. I don't care if you're Democrat, Republican. I
886
00:50:54.300 --> 00:50:56.199
don't care what happens in the I do care what
887
00:50:56.239 --> 00:50:58.039
happens in the midterms, but it shouldn't. It doesn't make
888
00:50:58.059 --> 00:51:01.159
a difference. As to what happens in the midterms, people,
889
00:51:01.219 --> 00:51:04.469
all Americans, should be focused on not poisoning ourselves with
890
00:51:04.619 --> 00:51:10.989
cheap ingredients at the expense of our health. And so I'm... Again,
891
00:51:11.150 --> 00:51:12.250
I agree with you. I don't want to see any
892
00:51:12.269 --> 00:51:13.889
small businesses going out of business. A lot of these
893
00:51:13.929 --> 00:51:16.949
crumble places are small businesses owned by local people, and
894
00:51:16.969 --> 00:51:19.070
we don't want them to go out of business. And franchisees,
895
00:51:19.090 --> 00:51:22.590
they just apply whatever corporate model the main company tells them.
896
00:51:22.630 --> 00:51:25.869
It's their recipes. It's their ovens. And you saw, as
897
00:51:25.929 --> 00:51:28.320
I mentioned, $ 50, 000 they spent on these sodas that were
898
00:51:28.360 --> 00:51:31.239
terrible for you. I think crumble as a brand needs
899
00:51:31.280 --> 00:51:34.780
to take a step back and maybe roll out some
900
00:51:34.820 --> 00:51:37.570
better options or else You know, it is going to
901
00:51:37.610 --> 00:51:39.409
come at the expense of some of the small businesses.
902
00:51:39.449 --> 00:51:41.570
But we'll see what happens. The good news is, Heather,
903
00:51:42.030 --> 00:51:44.449
that people are paying attention to their health. And that's
904
00:51:44.489 --> 00:51:46.820
why I love these segments. We need to make America
905
00:51:46.860 --> 00:51:49.239
healthy again. And I appreciate you being here as always.
906
00:51:49.280 --> 00:51:51.320
Great to have you back. I'm glad you're still digging
907
00:51:51.360 --> 00:51:52.860
out from that hurricane. I know it's been a mess
908
00:51:52.900 --> 00:51:54.099
out there for you, but I'm glad to see you
909
00:51:54.119 --> 00:51:54.760
back on cam here.
910
00:51:55.929 --> 00:51:59.500
Hey, we're Florida strong. So, you know, we're all getting
911
00:51:59.519 --> 00:52:02.679
back on our feet. And I just want to remind everybody,
912
00:52:03.260 --> 00:52:06.119
the most patriotic thing that you could possibly do is
913
00:52:06.139 --> 00:52:08.940
to keep track of your health. Because if you are
914
00:52:08.980 --> 00:52:11.900
not a healthy individual, you're not really good to yourself,
915
00:52:11.960 --> 00:52:15.679
your family, your society, your community. So part of that
916
00:52:15.800 --> 00:52:19.119
is watching the ingredient labels and the companies that choose
917
00:52:19.179 --> 00:52:22.840
to not put their consumers' health at the forefront, as
918
00:52:22.880 --> 00:52:24.139
we can see, are going to lose.
919
00:52:24.599 --> 00:52:27.340
Yeah, that's it. And look, we want our small businesses
920
00:52:27.360 --> 00:52:31.059
to succeed. We just got to do it healthy. Heather, Heather,
921
00:52:31.199 --> 00:52:33.599
thank you for being here as always. Happy Maha Monday.
922
00:52:33.639 --> 00:52:34.510
See you next week.
923
00:52:35.590 --> 00:52:36.690
Happy Maha Monday.
924
00:52:37.840 --> 00:52:41.320
That is our show for tonight. Make sure you tune
925
00:52:41.340 --> 00:52:44.079
in tomorrow. We're going to go and break down this
926
00:52:44.280 --> 00:52:48.610
Brazil election even further with Paulo Figueiredo. He has inside
927
00:52:48.630 --> 00:52:51.630
information about exactly what's going on out there. And we're
928
00:52:51.650 --> 00:52:53.329
going to keep bringing it to you. This has bigger
929
00:52:53.449 --> 00:52:57.579
effects for our region, for our hemisphere, for the world.
930
00:52:57.860 --> 00:52:59.480
And we're going to keep bringing it to you. And
931
00:52:59.519 --> 00:53:01.340
as always, be sure to stay in touch with us
932
00:53:01.519 --> 00:53:04.900
on social media. I'm at David Pollak USA everywhere. Or
933
00:53:04.920 --> 00:53:08.719
send us an email. DavidPollakPrimetime at OANN.com. We'll see you tomorrow.
934
00:53:08.760 --> 00:53:11.320
Same time, same place. And until then, stay classy, America.
935
00:53:11.340 --> 00:53:11.599
Good night.
936
00:53:15.320 --> 00:53:17.130
For all of our viewers out there asking where to
937
00:53:17.159 --> 00:53:19.849
watch One America News, we'd like to introduce you to
938
00:53:20.030 --> 00:53:22.730
OAN Live. OAN Live is the best way to stay
939
00:53:22.829 --> 00:53:24.969
up to date on the hardest hitting news and our
940
00:53:24.989 --> 00:53:27.590
talk shows. And the best part is OAN Live is
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only $ 4. 99 per month. Credible, honest, and unbiased reporting at
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a fraction of the cost of cable. So just click
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on the link at the top of our homepage, OANN.com,
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to easily sign up for the news and conservative talk
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you can't get anywhere else.