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With that, I want to bring in Michael Schnell MS
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now Congressional reporter, David Rhad MS now Senior National Security reporter,
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Eugene Daniels, MS now Senior Washington correspondent and co host
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of The Weekend, and former New York Congressman and Ambassador
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Sean Patrick Maloney, who served as the House Intelligence on
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the House Intelligence Committee, and he's also the former ambassador
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to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Michael, many
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Republicans agreed that the crux of this war was justified,
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but they're worried now about the blowback from the war
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in Iran, the confusion over the messaging. What else are
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you hearing from congressional Republicans right now?
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Yeah, Ariel I spoke to a number of Republicans who
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serve in Congress in recent days, and essentially it boils
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down to three main points they were making. First Off,
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there is no surprise that the ceasefire failed. Republicans were
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saying that there wasn't even in theorious ceasefire in place
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because Iran and the US were still in hostilities with
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one another. They don't trust an actor like Iran, so
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nobody shocked that this ceasefire had failed. The second point
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is that they have to finish the job, that being,
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the US has to finish the job because we are
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so far into this war. We're about five months in,
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almost five months into this conflict. Republicans recognize there aren't
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many good options at this point, but we can't let.
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Iran off the hook. And then the third.
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Point a lot of folks made is the political matter,
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the fact that this is going to come back and
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bite Republicans in the mid terms. Gas prices are back
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up because the fighting has continued. Now the strait of
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horror moves is a sort of on the line right
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now and a point of contention and a point of
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potential leverage by Iran, and that could cause gas prices
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to spike even more. And Republicans have complete control of Washington,
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they have the House, the Senate, and the White House,
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and Republican lawmakers are clear eyed that if these gas
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prices remain elevated in the lead up to November, it'll
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negatively impact Republicans. I spoke to one House Republican yesterday
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who said that gas prices being elevated is a particular
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thing that impacts voters at the ballot box. This person
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saying that they know gas price quote play a disproportionately
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large psychological role in elections, and they continued telling me, quote,
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these numbers are two feet tall and post on every
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other corner across our towns and cities, essentially getting to
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the point that you cannot avoid these elevated prices. So
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Republicans may think that the ends will justify the means
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in terms of defeating Iran, but they're very clear iy
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that in the process, the process of getting to the midterms,
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it could really negatively harm the party.
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The Eugene Trump's mixed messaging on the war has put
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Republicans in a pit of a spot, shall we say,
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One House Republican told Politico pretty bluntly, he's screwing us
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into political oblivion? Is there a way back for Republicans?
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How can they message about this ahead of the midterms
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when clearly today we had a new truth social post
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to cease fires off.
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I don't think so, because it's not just a ran right,
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it is all the things Donald Trump continues to be
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on a completely different message. You had reporting that Susie Wiles,
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the White House Chief of Staff, was telling folks in
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the White House.
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Hey, you guys on message, we focus on what we
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can do.
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Let the president be the president, and like that is
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not a way to run a party into the terms
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or war. And something that I have started to saying
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lots of viewers are probably sick of me saying yet
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at this point, but Donald Trump doesn't really seem to
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care about the success of the Republican Party. But the
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control of the Republican Party is front of mine for
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him all the time. He doesn't have any more elections
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to run, so if voters are upset about something, it
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doesn't really matter for him.
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His MAGA base isn't going anywhere.
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The White House and their team doesn't always give him
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the bad polling or the polling that shows how set
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people are with the decisions that he's making, the decision
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that this administrations are making, So that is going to continue.
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Like Republicans that talk to they were hopeful that maybe
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he'd get on message. But these are people who I
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guess had never met Donald Trump because that's not how
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he operates.
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Hope has died in darkness. Michael Feil had some great
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reporting from Republicans expressing their incredible frustration with the messaging here, Ambassador.
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You know it's not just gas prices. Many Americans are
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just angry over the war, over the fact that they
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don't understand why we're there to begin with. The President
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never really clearly laid that out, and when he did
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lay it out and laid out the objectives, it still
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seems murky at this point whether we've achieved any of them.
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Let's listen to what Alex Tabit, our reporter, talked to
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some of voters about.
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I talked to veterans daily that have been through all
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kinds of wars, and I'm never a fan of this.
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He was a no war president and now network.
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And he thought this was going to be simple. It's
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more complex than that. An idiot could have figured this out,
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but unfortunately not our president. Look at where we were
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before the war, the strait was open. He already claimed
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he obliterated their nuclear capacity, while either he lied then
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or he's lying now.
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Do you believe that Republicans are prepared for how much
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the President's previous messaging and promises about being averse to
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any kind of long term wars and the reversal, not
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how that may reflect on Republicans come the midterms.
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Well, look, I.
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Mean, there are certain situations in politics where you just
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know the you just know the hurt is coming and
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there's not much you can do about it, and you
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can't take the trump out of Trump.
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He is going to continue to do these things.
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You know, when you serve in Congress, you have a
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lot of parents come up to you whose kids are
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in the military active duty, and you know, you take
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it pretty seriously when they say, you know, my kids
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on the USS Abraham Lincoln, and what are you guys
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doing over there? And so in Iran, right, we've all
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got to just focus on There's a nuclear weapons program,
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is a rich uranium, there's straight up horror moves, there's
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proxy armies, there's ballistic missiles, all this other stuff. All
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this like, is there a ceasefires? And not a cease fire?
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To me is evidence that the president has no strategy
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for achieving those objectives. And this war is not going
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to end anytime soon. That means the economic follow on
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effects are going to continue. That means the political problem
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is going to continue. And it's a compound problem. It's
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a problem of incompetence creating real world consequences. And when
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you're talking about healthcare or housing, or gas or groceries.
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That is the tangent between confidence in Washington and the
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middle class family trying to pay the bills.
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David Michael reporting there that Republicans are saying, you know,
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we got into this war. There may have been justification
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for it. Now we've got to finish the job. You
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have the President saying the ceasefire is over, but that
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there's still technical level talks going on here break down
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for us where that leaves us.
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The United States at this point has no leverage.
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So the CeaseFire's gone, but so we can recreate the blockade.
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We can blockade iron sports that'll create some economic pressure
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on them. We're not able to completely open the straight
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of hor moves because they're firing on these tankers now
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and then, so that's I mean, it's really the takers
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have slowed to a crawl. And then in terms of
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additional air strikes, we've tried that for months and it
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hasn't worked. So I don't see how he's going to
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achieve anything. And the Irani's know, most of all, Donald
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Trump is looking at November third, So we're looking at
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a mess through November third, where the US doesn't achieve
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anything that he wants. And just lastly at the summit,
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the President tried to sell and wasstring the voter mention this.
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The President was saying for the first time that when
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the US bombed those nuclear sites, the storage places, that
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the mountain had collapsed onto them and it's now completely
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buried and they'll never.
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Get access to it.
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And so that was June. That was last June.
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So why did we go to war with them in February?
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This February. So it's really a mess. And so he
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has made the nuclear issue the biggest you know, in
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the last few weeks. This is all about a nuclear bomb,
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and there's no way he's going to achieve that without
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even the ceasefire or the sixty day deadline to negotiate.
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Something many even Israel would go ahead.
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Well, votersn't stupid, right, and so they when you hear
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from voters over and over then being able to tie
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the war to their gas prices, tie what Donald Trump
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said last June to what we did in February and
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have been doing since February.
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That I think is really interesting because when.
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Sometimes voters look at the things happening, they sometimes feel
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like it's in a vacuum. But over and over and over,
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get Alex Tabbitt and all of our other reporters who
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have been out and.
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Talking to folk. They have been able to tie what's
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happening in Washington, d C. To what's happening in their pockets.
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And that is why we talk to Democrats, Republicans, independents, consultants, activists, advocates,
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members of Congress, former members of Congress. All of them
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are saying that no reveombers is going to look the
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same way because voters are able to tie this together
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and say, Okay, now I know who to blame.
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With that, I want to bring in Michael Schnell MS
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now Congressional reporter, David Rhad MS now Senior National Security reporter,
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Eugene Daniels, MS now Senior Washington correspondent and co host
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of The Weekend, and former New York Congressman and Ambassador
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Sean Patrick Maloney, who served as the House Intelligence on
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the House Intelligence Committee, and he's also the former ambassador
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to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Michael, many
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Republicans agreed that the crux of this war was justified,
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but they're worried now about the blowback from the war
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in Iran, the confusion over the messaging. What else are
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you hearing from congressional Republicans right now?
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Yeah, Ariel I spoke to a number of Republicans who
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serve in Congress in recent days, and essentially it boils
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down to three main points they were making. First Off,
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there is no surprise that the ceasefire failed. Republicans were
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saying that there wasn't even in theorious ceasefire in place
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because Iran and the US were still in hostilities with
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one another. They don't trust an actor like Iran, so
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nobody shocked that this ceasefire had failed. The second point
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is that they have to finish the job, that being,
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the US has to finish the job because we are
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so far into this war. We're about five months in,
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almost five months into this conflict. Republicans recognize there aren't
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many good options at this point, but we can't let.
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Iran off the hook. And then the third.
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Point a lot of folks made is the political matter,
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the fact that this is going to come back and
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bite Republicans in the mid terms. Gas prices are back
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up because the fighting has continued. Now the strait of
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horror moves is a sort of on the line right
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now and a point of contention and a point of
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potential leverage by Iran, and that could cause gas prices
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to spike even more. And Republicans have complete control of Washington,
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they have the House, the Senate, and the White House,
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and Republican lawmakers are clear eyed that if these gas
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prices remain elevated in the lead up to November, it'll
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negatively impact Republicans. I spoke to one House Republican yesterday
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who said that gas prices being elevated is a particular
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thing that impacts voters at the ballot box. This person
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saying that they know gas price quote play a disproportionately
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large psychological role in elections, and they continued telling me, quote,
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these numbers are two feet tall and post on every
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other corner across our towns and cities, essentially getting to
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the point that you cannot avoid these elevated prices. So
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Republicans may think that the ends will justify the means
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in terms of defeating Iran, but they're very clear iy
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that in the process, the process of getting to the midterms,
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it could really negatively harm the party.
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The Eugene Trump's mixed messaging on the war has put
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Republicans in a pit of a spot, shall we say,
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One House Republican told Politico pretty bluntly, he's screwing us
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into political oblivion? Is there a way back for Republicans?
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How can they message about this ahead of the midterms
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when clearly today we had a new truth social post
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to cease fires off.
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I don't think so, because it's not just a ran right,
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it is all the things Donald Trump continues to be
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on a completely different message. You had reporting that Susie Wiles,
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the White House Chief of Staff, was telling folks in
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the White House.
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Hey, you guys on message, we focus on what we
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can do.
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Let the president be the president, and like that is
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not a way to run a party into the terms
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or war. And something that I have started to saying
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lots of viewers are probably sick of me saying yet
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at this point, but Donald Trump doesn't really seem to
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care about the success of the Republican Party. But the
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control of the Republican Party is front of mine for
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him all the time. He doesn't have any more elections
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to run, so if voters are upset about something, it
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doesn't really matter for him.
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His MAGA base isn't going anywhere.
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The White House and their team doesn't always give him
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the bad polling or the polling that shows how set
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people are with the decisions that he's making, the decision
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that this administrations are making, So that is going to continue.
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Like Republicans that talk to they were hopeful that maybe
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he'd get on message. But these are people who I
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guess had never met Donald Trump because that's not how
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he operates.
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Hope has died in darkness. Michael Feil had some great
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reporting from Republicans expressing their incredible frustration with the messaging here, Ambassador.
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You know it's not just gas prices. Many Americans are
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just angry over the war, over the fact that they
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don't understand why we're there to begin with. The President
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never really clearly laid that out, and when he did
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lay it out and laid out the objectives, it still
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seems murky at this point whether we've achieved any of them.
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Let's listen to what Alex Tabit, our reporter, talked to
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some of voters about.
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I talked to veterans daily that have been through all
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kinds of wars, and I'm never a fan of this.
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He was a no war president and now network.
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And he thought this was going to be simple. It's
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more complex than that. An idiot could have figured this out,
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but unfortunately not our president. Look at where we were
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before the war, the strait was open. He already claimed
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he obliterated their nuclear capacity, while either he lied then
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or he's lying now.
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Do you believe that Republicans are prepared for how much
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the President's previous messaging and promises about being averse to
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any kind of long term wars and the reversal, not
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how that may reflect on Republicans come the midterms.
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Well, look, I.
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Mean, there are certain situations in politics where you just
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know the you just know the hurt is coming and
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there's not much you can do about it, and you
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can't take the trump out of Trump.
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He is going to continue to do these things.
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You know, when you serve in Congress, you have a
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lot of parents come up to you whose kids are
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in the military active duty, and you know, you take
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it pretty seriously when they say, you know, my kids
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on the USS Abraham Lincoln, and what are you guys
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doing over there? And so in Iran, right, we've all
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got to just focus on There's a nuclear weapons program,
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is a rich uranium, there's straight up horror moves, there's
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proxy armies, there's ballistic missiles, all this other stuff. All
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this like, is there a ceasefires? And not a cease fire?
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To me is evidence that the president has no strategy
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for achieving those objectives. And this war is not going
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to end anytime soon. That means the economic follow on
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effects are going to continue. That means the political problem
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is going to continue. And it's a compound problem. It's
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a problem of incompetence creating real world consequences. And when
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you're talking about healthcare or housing, or gas or groceries.
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That is the tangent between confidence in Washington and the
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middle class family trying to pay the bills.
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David Michael reporting there that Republicans are saying, you know,
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we got into this war. There may have been justification
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for it. Now we've got to finish the job. You
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have the President saying the ceasefire is over, but that
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there's still technical level talks going on here break down
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for us where that leaves us.
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The United States at this point has no leverage.
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So the CeaseFire's gone, but so we can recreate the blockade.
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We can blockade iron sports that'll create some economic pressure
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on them. We're not able to completely open the straight
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of hor moves because they're firing on these tankers now
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and then, so that's I mean, it's really the takers
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have slowed to a crawl. And then in terms of
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additional air strikes, we've tried that for months and it
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hasn't worked. So I don't see how he's going to
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achieve anything. And the Irani's know, most of all, Donald
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Trump is looking at November third, So we're looking at
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a mess through November third, where the US doesn't achieve
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anything that he wants. And just lastly at the summit,
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the President tried to sell and wasstring the voter mention this.
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The President was saying for the first time that when
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the US bombed those nuclear sites, the storage places, that
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the mountain had collapsed onto them and it's now completely
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buried and they'll never.
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Get access to it.
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And so that was June. That was last June.
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So why did we go to war with them in February?
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This February. So it's really a mess. And so he
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has made the nuclear issue the biggest you know, in
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the last few weeks. This is all about a nuclear bomb,
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and there's no way he's going to achieve that without
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even the ceasefire or the sixty day deadline to negotiate.
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Something many even Israel would go ahead.
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Well, votersn't stupid, right, and so they when you hear
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from voters over and over then being able to tie
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the war to their gas prices, tie what Donald Trump
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said last June to what we did in February and
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have been doing since February.
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That I think is really interesting because when.
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Sometimes voters look at the things happening, they sometimes feel
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like it's in a vacuum. But over and over and over,
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get Alex Tabbitt and all of our other reporters who
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have been out and.
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Talking to folk. They have been able to tie what's
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happening in Washington, d C. To what's happening in their pockets.
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And that is why we talk to Democrats, Republicans, independents, consultants, activists, advocates,
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members of Congress, former members of Congress. All of them
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are saying that no reveombers is going to look the
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same way because voters are able to tie this together
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and say, Okay, now I know who to blame.
