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Speaker 1: Richard Arnold, US correspondent, Morning Richard, Good morning.

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Speaker 2: Other.

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Speaker 1: Do you get the feeling that Trump is busy needling

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Speaker 1: Pusian over Syria needling Putin?

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Speaker 2: I don't know. I think he's trying to take a

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Speaker 2: hands off approach. At the moment he said that Syria

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Speaker 2: is not America's problem, it's not our fight. It's what

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Speaker 2: he has posted on one of his social media pieces today.

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Speaker 2: But these dramatic events are playing out with all kinds

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Speaker 2: of potential repercussions. And then just hours thessad's brutal twenty

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Speaker 2: four regime has left the country in chaos, with a

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Speaker 2: great deal of uncertainty as to what is next. Of course,

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Speaker 2: it ends a dictatorship marked by war crimes, including air

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Speaker 2: strikes on civilians and the use of chemical weapons. More

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Speaker 2: than one hundred and thirty thousand people who arrested by

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Speaker 2: a SAD and co and a UN investigation described the

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Speaker 2: detentions as a process of extermination. Circumstances changed, though, with

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Speaker 2: Russia focused on its war in Ukraine and Hassad s

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Speaker 2: Raleian back Lebanese militia has Billa losing some key leader

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Speaker 2: ship figures through recent clashes with Israel as we know.

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Speaker 2: So President Biden is meeting today with his national security

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Speaker 2: team to look at the implications, while Trump, as I said, say,

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Speaker 2: is saying his first instinct is hands off. However, there

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Speaker 2: are some nine hundred US troops in Syria working with

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Speaker 2: Kurdish allies that try to prevent any resurgence of the

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Speaker 2: Islamic State Group. Former SINGCOME Commander General Frank Mackenzie says

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Speaker 2: of this situation.

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Speaker 3: Our troops east of the Euphrates River, prepared with our

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Speaker 3: SDF partners, are there to keep a lid on ISIS

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Speaker 3: and prevent violent extremist organizations from gathering strength and being

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Speaker 3: able to attack the home land of the United States.

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Speaker 3: ISIS aspires to attack US. As we know, ISIS launch

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Speaker 3: a successful attack against Russia just a few months ago.

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Speaker 3: That's why those troops are there. So any decision to

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Speaker 3: bring them out would need to weigh that going forward.

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Speaker 2: So what will Trump do? All this ties in, of course,

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Speaker 2: with the Trump team now being drawn together, and especially

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Speaker 2: his choice for the top intelligence job, Telsey Gabbard as

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Speaker 2: Director of National Intelligence. He back in twenty seventeen, Gabbard

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Speaker 2: made an unannounced trip to Syria to meet with Assad

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Speaker 2: and echoed Russian talking points at the time by saying

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Speaker 2: he was no threat to the US. So how does

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Speaker 2: that selection now stand. Republican Mike Turner, the head of

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Speaker 2: the Intelligence Committee in the House, says he has big

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Speaker 2: concerns about Gabbard.

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Speaker 4: His His take obviously different a great deal in a

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Speaker 4: number of areas with both her judgment and her background

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Speaker 4: and experience, and I think the Senators are going to

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Speaker 4: put her through process niah.

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Speaker 2: So this might add some fuel to the whole situation. Clearly,

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Speaker 2: Turner is no fan of Gabbard, whom some have suggested

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Speaker 2: might be kind of Russian inside. A meantime, the fall

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Speaker 2: of Asad might provide the chance to discover the fate

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Speaker 2: of some who are missing. That includes only named Austin Tice,

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Speaker 2: a missing American journalists who disappeared in twenty twelve. He

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Speaker 2: was freelancing for The Washington Post and other outlets at

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Speaker 2: the time. His family still believes he is alive. Over

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Speaker 2: the years, Assad denied any knowledge of Austin Tyss as noted,

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Speaker 2: though he's been missing for a long long time. As

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Speaker 2: to what next in Syria unclear, says retired General Mackenzie

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Speaker 2: I'm not sure.

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Speaker 3: It's ultimately going to be good news for the people

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Speaker 3: of Syria. You know, we could have an Islamic state

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Speaker 3: arise there, which will have profound negative implications across the regent.

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Speaker 3: That is possible. There are other possibilities.

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Speaker 2: As well, So next few hours will show us.

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Speaker 1: I guess, and listen to this interview that he's just

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Speaker 1: given this as Trump has given to NBC where he

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Speaker 1: says he's not going to try and remove the FED chair.

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Speaker 1: Is that really a surprise. It feels like that was

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Speaker 1: something that everybody else got excited about.

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Speaker 2: Well, he had certainly raised the prospect, and they've been

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Speaker 2: at odds. So this is one of those campaign cut

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Speaker 2: and thrusts that you see along the way. Now Trump

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Speaker 2: is saying.

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Speaker 5: I don't think so. I don't see it, but I don't.

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Speaker 5: I think I told him too he would, But if

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Speaker 5: I asked him too, he probably wouldn't be.

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Speaker 2: In fact, Power has said he does not think that

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Speaker 2: the president has the legal authority to remove him. Power

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Speaker 2: is originally chosen by Trump in twenty seventeen sound on

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Speaker 2: him when Power refused to speed up the Trump call

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Speaker 2: for lower interest rates as the FED worth gearing to

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Speaker 2: battle inflation. In the past, Trump has called Palin enemy

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Speaker 2: and fed officials boneheads. So nothing new and Trump's hexicon right.

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Speaker 2: He says also he wants to work with Democrats on

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Speaker 2: finding a solution for the so called dreamers. So we're

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Speaker 2: talking about immigration here. These are people brought into this

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Speaker 2: country legally by their parents when they were just small children.

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Speaker 2: This idea of working with the Dems is something we

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Speaker 2: haven't heard much of in recent times. While Trump also

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Speaker 2: has repeated his assertion that he will move to free

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Speaker 2: the January the sixth prisoners, those convicted of crimes for

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Speaker 2: their actions on the day of the attack on the

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Speaker 2: US Capitol, he says, of the situation that they have

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Speaker 2: been in, I'm.

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Speaker 5: Going to be acting very quickly. They've been in there

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Speaker 5: for years, and they're in a filthy, disgusting place that

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Speaker 5: shouldn't even be allowed to be open.

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Speaker 2: He says also he has no plans to direct any

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Speaker 2: special or investigator towards the current president Biden, but he

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Speaker 2: remains somewhat vague about any enemy's list.

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Speaker 5: I'm not doing that unless they find something that I

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Speaker 5: think is reasonable. But that's not going to be my decision.

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Speaker 5: That's going to be Pambondi's decision and to a different extent,

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Speaker 5: Cash Pattel. Assuming they're both there, and I think they're

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Speaker 5: both going to get approved.

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Speaker 2: So Trump the master of deniability. As always.

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Speaker 1: Hey, thanks very much, Richard appreciated. It's Richard Donold, US correspondent.

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

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