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Speaker 1: Stay tired, Richard Arnold. Morning. So we're hearing from one

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Speaker 1: of the prisoner swaps.

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Speaker 2: Gosh, yeah, this is extraordinary. We are now hearing word

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Speaker 2: from someone who was involved in this biggest US Russian

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Speaker 2: prisoner swaped since the end of the Cold War. The

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Speaker 2: exchange that occurred a couple of weeks back. It brought home,

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Speaker 2: as you know, Wall Street General reporter Evan Gyskevich and

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Speaker 2: US Marine Paul Wheeland among twenty four people in all

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Speaker 2: who were exchanged. Wheeland had been held for what six years.

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Speaker 2: Now one of those freed US Russian citizen, Vladimir Kara Merzer,

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Speaker 2: is speaking out his crime, his shocking crime that brought

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Speaker 2: him a twenty five year prison term in the Putin Gulag,

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Speaker 2: was speaking out against the Russian war in Ukraine. He

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Speaker 2: had been held in the worst of the Siberian gulags

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Speaker 2: for eleven months. It was solitary confinement, tiny cell where

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Speaker 2: in the mornings they would roll up the sleeping match,

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Speaker 2: so there was nothing for him to sleep on during

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Speaker 2: the day, just that stone floor. Then, a couple of

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Speaker 2: weeks back, as he thought this was going to be

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Speaker 2: his life for another two and a half decades, the

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Speaker 2: prison bosses took him to their office and demanded that

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Speaker 2: he write an official statement in praise of Vladimir Putin. Well,

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Speaker 2: he refused to be any part of that.

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Speaker 3: I said, no, I'm never going to write this. They

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Speaker 3: said why not. I said, well, first of all, because

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Speaker 3: I do not consider Vladimir Putin to be a legitimate president.

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Speaker 3: I consider him to be a dictator, a usurper, and

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Speaker 3: a murderer whose personally responsible for the death of his

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Speaker 3: political opponents.

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Speaker 2: These guys have some guts, don't they. Karen Mrsam had

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Speaker 2: been friends with Rustion opposition leader Alexi Navonni, who died

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Speaker 2: in prison in the most suspicious circumstances back in February.

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Speaker 2: The prison guards then came to get Kara Murs a

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Speaker 2: few days on after this office encounter, and he thought

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Speaker 2: that he was just about to be murdered as well.

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Speaker 3: They said that I had ten minutes to get up,

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Speaker 3: get dressed, and get ready, and I was absolutely certain

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Speaker 3: of that moment that I was going to be let

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Speaker 3: out and get executed.

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Speaker 2: Ten minutes to execution. Well, they didn't kill him. Instead,

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Speaker 2: they took him off to the local airport in Omsk

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Speaker 2: in his underwear.

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Speaker 3: They don't have any words to express how it feels

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Speaker 3: when you spa nearly a year in solitary confinement, just

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Speaker 3: setting in a tiny cell on your own, day after day,

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Speaker 3: not being able to speak to anyone, not being able

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Speaker 3: to go anywhere, not being able to do anything, and

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Speaker 3: suddenly you find yourself in the middle of a busy

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Speaker 3: passenger airport.

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Speaker 2: What an experience. Just a few hours later he was

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Speaker 2: flown on to Germany, which was because part of that

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Speaker 2: international prisoner swap. Then a call came in from Joe Biden,

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Speaker 2: US President, Joe Biden, who was with this man's young daughters.

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Speaker 4: No one is strong enough for this. I was sure

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Speaker 4: I'm going to die prison. I don't believe what's happening.

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Speaker 4: I still think it's a I still think I'm sleeping

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Speaker 4: in my prison instead of hearing your voice.

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Speaker 2: So that was the moment Mike surreal, He says, what

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Speaker 2: an instant As he notes, there are still hundreds of

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Speaker 2: political dissidents locked away by Putin and co.

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Speaker 1: What what are the reviews on yesterday's effort?

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Speaker 2: Well, what box do you put this in? Political chatter

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Speaker 2: was hardly an interview between the political candidate and the

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Speaker 2: world's richest man, Elon, who'd already endorsed him, So this's

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Speaker 2: not journalism. Once there, chat got going forty minutes late,

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Speaker 2: Elon must praise Donald Trump for his many tweets during

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Speaker 2: his presidential term. That would be the main point right

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Speaker 2: before Trump was a band then invited back to Twitter

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Speaker 2: or x Now. I got a call today. But the

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Speaker 2: audio quality of this Trump thing was so bad that

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Speaker 2: he was heard slurring words and speaking with a lisp,

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Speaker 2: according to some listeners. I mean maybe after a Malfie,

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Speaker 2: you know, Glenn could go. I don't know, just a thought.

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Speaker 2: But here is part of the Trump plea for Jewish

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Speaker 2: voter support.

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Speaker 5: I say, if you're a Jewish person, or if you

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Speaker 5: believe in Israel, if you're a person that you know

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Speaker 5: is very pro Israel, if you vote for her, it's

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Speaker 5: worse than Biden.

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Speaker 2: If you're a person who yeah, whatever, maybe zedb Engineering

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Speaker 2: could offer some assistance here. Anyway, there was little new

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Speaker 2: in the two and hours of this. Also, on education,

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Speaker 2: Trump spoke of the idea of abolishing the federal Education Department.

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Speaker 5: I want to closed up Department of Education, move education

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Speaker 5: back to the states where where states like Iowa, where

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Speaker 5: states like Idaho.

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Speaker 2: You know, not every state will do great, So sorry Idaho,

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Speaker 2: Sorry Iowa, you know not everyone can do great.

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Speaker 1: They all right, man, nice to see you. Richard Arnold states,

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Speaker 1: there's a poll out to some of them trying to

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Speaker 1: sprint this morning. And if you know anything about Florida,

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Speaker 1: it's It's It's It's USA Today and Suffolk University. The

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Speaker 1: headline is Kamala Harris's within striking distance of Trump in Florida.

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Speaker 1: The numbers forty seven to forty two. Trump leads, but

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Speaker 1: because there's a four point four percent margin of era,

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Speaker 1: they say she's quite unquote within striking distance. History of

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Speaker 1: Florida is fifty fifty. No one wins Florida by a mile.

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Speaker 2: For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to

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Speaker 2: news talks. It'd be from six am weekdays, or follow

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Speaker 2: the podcast on iHeartRadio