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Speaker 1: Tailing what he called a turnaround for the ages since

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Speaker 1: he took office last year. President Trump tonight laid out

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Speaker 1: his accomplishments, including a secure border, a decline in crime,

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Speaker 1: arise in stock prices, and tax cuts that will see

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Speaker 1: Americans receiving larger refunds from they filed their returns this year.

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Speaker 1: Over a speech that broke records for State of the

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Speaker 1: Union addresses an hour and roughly fifty minutes, the President

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Speaker 1: taunted his Democratic opponents, saying they caused increased prices. He

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Speaker 1: repeatedly chided to them for not standing along with Republicans

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Speaker 1: at various points in the speech, and he even called them.

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Speaker 2: Sick and crazy.

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Speaker 1: There was heckling from Democrats, particularly in response to the

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Speaker 1: president's remarks on illegal immigration, but members of Congress on

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Speaker 1: both sides of the aisle stood and applauded at various points,

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Speaker 1: including when the President awarded not one, but two medals

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Speaker 1: of honor.

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Speaker 2: Tonight.

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Speaker 1: There was bipartisan applause and chance of USA USA when

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Speaker 1: the US men's hockey team appeared in the press gallery

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Speaker 1: above the chamber dotting their gold medal. I'm Stephen Portnoy

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Speaker 1: in Washington, and you're listening to live coverage of the

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Speaker 1: State of the Union address from ABC News, Let's turn

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Speaker 1: to ABC News White House correspondent Karen Travers as the

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Speaker 1: President makes his way out of the chamber. Your thoughts,

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Speaker 1: Karen on the President's speech tonight.

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Speaker 3: Well, Steven, as we said at the beginning, he said

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Speaker 3: it was going to be long, and it was a

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Speaker 3: long speech. He said he had a lot to say,

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Speaker 3: and he went into many topics tonight. The bulk of

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Speaker 3: this speech was focused on domestic issues. But I want

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Speaker 3: to touch on one key foreign policy thing before we

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Speaker 3: get into all of that, because we've been talking so

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Speaker 3: much about it over the last several weeks, and that's Iran.

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Speaker 3: The President has said he is considering a limited strike

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Speaker 3: on Iran, but that he is looking to pursue diplomacy.

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Speaker 3: We have not heard from the President though, the why,

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Speaker 3: the reasoning of why he would launch a military action

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Speaker 3: against Iran. We didn't get details of that tonight either.

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Speaker 3: He said that the United States did take out those

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Speaker 3: nuclear facilities last summer. He said, we wiped it out,

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Speaker 3: and they want to start all over again, and that

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Speaker 3: at this moment they are pursuing what he calls their

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Speaker 3: sinister ambitions. The President, Stephen said, we're in negotiations with them.

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Speaker 3: There are talks expected in Geneva on Thursday this week

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Speaker 3: with Iranian officials, and he said they want to make

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Speaker 3: a deal, but the administration hasn't heard what he says,

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Speaker 3: our secret words. We will never have a nuclear weapon,

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Speaker 3: he said again, the preference is to solve this through diplomacy,

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Speaker 3: but the United States under his watch, will not allow

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Speaker 3: them to have a nuclear weapon. So, if people were

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Speaker 3: looking to hear something more conclusive about what the President

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Speaker 3: might do on action on Iran, he didn't say that tonight.

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Speaker 3: But remember at the beginning of the night hours ago,

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Speaker 3: at this point we had said that the President was

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Speaker 3: coming into the House Chamber really to make a sales

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Speaker 3: pitch to Americans, you know, who are really skeptical right

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Speaker 3: now of his policies and his actions in office based

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Speaker 3: on what we're seeing in polls. But to hear the

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Speaker 3: president tonight, things are great. Everything is working. He said

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Speaker 3: that the country is bigger, better, richer, and stronger than

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Speaker 3: ever before. He said, the roaring economy is roaring like

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Speaker 3: never before. You mentioned, you know, prices being down. He

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Speaker 3: talked about prescription drugs and gas prices. He highlighted the

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Speaker 3: stock market being above fifty thousand and really leaned into

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Speaker 3: this message that Americans are doing better under his watch.

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Speaker 3: But in terms of new proposals, if people were looking

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Speaker 3: to hear something from him about what he will do

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Speaker 3: this year, what he will do with Congress, they didn't

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Speaker 3: get a lot. He talked about this one proposal on

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Speaker 3: electricity cost, where he said that tech companies will pay

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Speaker 3: their share of the increase of an electricity cost when

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Speaker 3: they build data center so that consumers don't pay the

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Speaker 3: cost of that. That's something that people will like to hear.

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Speaker 3: He also announced a plan for the administration to match

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Speaker 3: up to one thousand dollars for some Americans for retirement savings,

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Speaker 3: but didn't indicate how exactly that would work, whether this

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Speaker 3: needs congressional approval, or where the funding would come from.

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Speaker 3: So I think, you know, we'll get to Steve Roberts

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Speaker 3: for his take on this. But I think a big

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Speaker 3: question will be did Americans hear anything new tonight that

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Speaker 3: would change their positions to change that sixty percent disapproval

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Speaker 3: right now the president has the highest since he was

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Speaker 3: elected for the second term. Did he move the needle

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Speaker 3: at all with these remarks. You know, I think in

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Speaker 3: many ways he was speaking to his base to fire

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Speaker 3: them up for the midterm elections.

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Speaker 1: Stephen Karen Travers covers the White House for US ABC

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Speaker 1: Steve Roberts as our political analyst. There were several heartwarming

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Speaker 1: tributes and honors given by the President in this speech,

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Speaker 1: but as Karen just mentioned, largely on policy, the President

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Speaker 1: played to his base tonight.

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Speaker 4: Yes, and look, he was telling a story. He was

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Speaker 4: telling a story of a golden age. He was telling

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Speaker 4: a story of mitigated prosperity. The real question tonight is

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Speaker 4: not what he said, but what Americans heard, and did

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Speaker 4: they hear an a accurate description of their lives or

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Speaker 4: is there a disconnect? And if the polling is correct

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Speaker 4: here at ABC and all over the country, he's running

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Speaker 4: a real risk here because there was no empathy really

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Speaker 4: for the troubles people are going through. Only twenty two

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Speaker 4: percent in our poll say life is better economically under

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Speaker 4: Donald Trump than under the previous administration, twenty two percent,

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Speaker 4: And yet he said it's a golden age where everybody

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Speaker 4: is prospering. The real risk here is that people, even

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Speaker 4: people who supported them, say, wait, You don't understand our lives,

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Speaker 4: You don't understand what we're going through. You paint this

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Speaker 4: rosy picture, but that's not what we see. That's not

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Speaker 4: what our families see, that's not what our children see.

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Speaker 4: And so he runs a real risk of being out

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Speaker 4: of touch, of lacking the connection and the sympathy for

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Speaker 4: the troubles a lot of people are expressing around the country.

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Speaker 4: And I think that's the biggest question going forward. Even

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Speaker 4: as he makes this speech and then travels the country

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Speaker 4: cheerleading and saying it's a golden age.

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Speaker 2: Do people believe him?

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Speaker 4: Do they say, this man does not understand what my

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Speaker 4: life is like. And I want to change in Washington,

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Speaker 4: I want to change in the Congress. Let's remember Donald

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Speaker 4: Trump was elected largely because Biden and the Democrats made

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Speaker 4: exactly the same mistake. They said, things are wonderful, biden

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Speaker 4: Omics is working, and a lot of voters said, no,

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Speaker 4: it's not, you're wrong. It's one of the reasons why

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Speaker 4: they elected Donald Trump in the first place. And now

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Speaker 4: he runs the risk of making exactly the same mistake

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Speaker 4: that Joe Biden made in the last election.

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Speaker 2: Steve ABC's Steve Roberts our political analyst.

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Speaker 1: I want to turn to EBC's Elizabeth Sholsey, who covers

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Speaker 1: the economy, because the President said again tonight that America

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Speaker 1: is the hottest country anywhere in the world. He said

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Speaker 1: last week in a speech that he won the affordability issue,

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Speaker 1: but a Steve Roberts just told us surveys are showing

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Speaker 1: that Americans don't exactly feel as though they've been basking

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Speaker 1: in that victory, right Elizabeth.

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Speaker 5: That's right, Stephen. A lot of American families say they

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Speaker 5: are just not feeling a good economy right now, and

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Speaker 5: really what that comes down to is prices. We have

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Speaker 5: seen gas prices come down over the past year, but

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Speaker 5: when you look at other day to day costs, groceries

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Speaker 5: or utility bills, childcare rent, those price increases really do

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Speaker 5: take a toll on how people say they are feeling

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Speaker 5: about their own personal situation and the broader economy.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 1: Statistically, the President says America is the hottest country on earth.

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Speaker 2: We have seen, however, GDP growth slowing.

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Speaker 1: The net job gains for America last year were only

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Speaker 1: about one hundred and eighty one thousand for the whole year,

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Speaker 1: and that experts say is a remarkably weak showing outside

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Speaker 1: of a recession.

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Speaker 5: And you really point out those jobs lost also included,

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Speaker 5: by the way, Stephen, manufacturing. More than eighty thousand jobs

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Speaker 5: were lost in manufacturing last year, despite the president's pledge

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Speaker 5: that tariffs and his entire trade policy would create a

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Speaker 5: manufacturing boom in the United States.

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Speaker 1: We're talking with ABC's Elizabeth Sholsey. Now, Elizabeth, one of

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Speaker 1: the things the President attends mention tonight to address affordability

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Speaker 1: as a new policy focused on electric bills and AI

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Speaker 1: data centers. Elizabeth, you've done a lot of reporting on this.

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Speaker 1: Tell us more about it.

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Speaker 5: This is something that people are really voicing concerns about

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Speaker 5: as we see data centers pop up across the US

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Speaker 5: to basically be the infrastructure for the boom and artificial intelligence.

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Speaker 5: A lot of communities that are near these data centers

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Speaker 5: across the US have seen that their utility bills have

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Speaker 5: gone up. So one thing our sources tell us the

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Speaker 5: President will announce in his speech as an agreement with

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Speaker 5: top tech companies to have tech companies cover the costs

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Speaker 5: associated with building new data centers so that households don't

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Speaker 5: see their prices go up.

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Speaker 2: All right, Elizabeth Sholsey, Thank you so much. Thank you, Stephen.

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Speaker 1: The President expressed disappointment tonight over what he called a

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Speaker 1: very unfortunate ruling by the Supreme Court last week on tariffs,

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Speaker 1: but we did see him shaking the hands of all

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Speaker 1: four justices in attendance, including three of the six who

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Speaker 1: ruled against him in the tariff case. The new governor

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Speaker 1: of Virginia, inaugurated just last month, will deliver the Democratic

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Speaker 1: response to the President. Abigail Spanberger is her name. She

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Speaker 1: won her election for governor this past November by more

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Speaker 1: than fifteen percentage points, the largest margin for a Democrat

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Speaker 1: in Virginia since nineteen sixty one. She won counties that

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Speaker 1: voted for President Trump in twenty sixteen, in twenty twenty

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Speaker 1: and twenty twenty four. The setting for Spanburger tonight, Colonial

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Speaker 1: Williamsburg in Virginia.

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Speaker 2: Here's the Democratic response.

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Speaker 6: Good evening, good evening, and welcome to historic Williamsburg. We

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Speaker 6: are gathered here in the chambers of the House of Burgesses.

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Speaker 6: In seventeen oh five, the people of the Virginia Colony

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Speaker 6: gathered here to take on the extraordinary task of governing themselves.

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Speaker 6: Before there was a declaration of independence, a constitution, or

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Speaker 6: a bill of rights. There were people in this room.

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Speaker 6: The people who served here ultimately dreamed of what a

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Speaker 6: new nation, unlike anything the world had ever seen, could be.

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Speaker 6: States was founded on the idea that ordinary people could

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Speaker 6: reject the unacceptable excesses of poor leadership, ban together to

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Speaker 6: demand better of their government and create a nation that

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Speaker 6: would be an example for the world. And this year,

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Speaker 6: as we celebrate two hundred and fifty years since America

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Speaker 6: declared our independence from tyranny, I can think of no

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Speaker 6: better place to speak to you as we reflect on

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Speaker 6: the current state of our union. Tonight, as we watched

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Speaker 6: our nations lawmakers gather for a joint session of Congress,

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Speaker 6: we did not hear the truth from our president. So

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Speaker 6: let's speak plainly and honestly, and let me ask you,

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Speaker 6: the American people watching at home three questions. Is the

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Speaker 6: president working to make life more affordable for you and

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Speaker 6: your family? He is the president working to keep Americans

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Speaker 6: safe both at home and abroad. Is the president working

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Speaker 6: for you? As I campaigned for governor last year, I

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Speaker 6: traveled to every corner of Virginia and I heard the

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Speaker 6: same pressing concern everywhere. Costs are too high in housing, healthcare, energy,

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Speaker 6: and childcare. And I know these same conversations are being

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Speaker 6: had all across this country because since this president took

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Speaker 6: office last year, his reckless trade policies have forced American

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Speaker 6: families to pay more than seventeen hundred dollars each in

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Speaker 6: tariff costs. Small businesses have suffered, farmers have suffered, some

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Speaker 6: losing entire markets. Every day. Americans are paying the price.

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Speaker 6: And even though the Supreme Court struck these tariffs down

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Speaker 6: four days ago, the damage to us, the American people,

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Speaker 6: has already been done. Meanwhile, the President is planning for

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Speaker 6: new tariffs, another massive tax hike on you and your family,

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Speaker 6: and Republicans in Congress they remain unwilling to assert their

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Speaker 6: constitutional authority to stop him. They're making your life harder,

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Speaker 6: They're making your life more expensive. They're even making it

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Speaker 6: more difficult to see a doctor. Rural health clinics in

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Speaker 6: Virginia and across the country are already closing their doors

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Speaker 6: thanks to the so called One Big Beautiful Bill championed

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Speaker 6: by the President and Republicans in Congress, and tonight the

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Speaker 6: President celebrated this law, the one threatening rural hospitals, stripping

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Speaker 6: healthcare for millions of Americans, and driving up costs in

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Speaker 6: energy and housing, all while cutting food programs for hungry kids.

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Speaker 6: But here in Virginia, I am working with our state

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Speaker 6: legislature to lower costs and make the commonwealth more affordable.

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Speaker 6: And it's not just me. Democrats across the country are

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Speaker 6: laser focused on affordability in our nation's capital and in

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Speaker 6: state capitals and communities across America. In the most innovative

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Speaker 6: and exceptional nation in the history of the world, Americans

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Speaker 6: deserve to know that their leaders are focused on addressing

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Speaker 6: the problems that keep them up at night, problems that

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Speaker 6: dictate where you live, whether you can afford to start

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Speaker 6: a business, or whether you have to skip a prescription

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Speaker 6: in order to buy groceries. So I'll ask again, is

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Speaker 6: the President working to make life more affordable for you

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Speaker 6: and your family? We all know the answer is no.

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Speaker 6: I grew up in a house of service. My mother

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Speaker 6: was a nurse and my father was a career law

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Speaker 6: enforcement officer. I began my career by following in my

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Speaker 6: father's foot steps as a federal agent, working money laundering

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Speaker 6: and narcotics cases. I work side by side with local

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Speaker 6: and state police to keep our community safe and to

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Speaker 6: uphold and enforce the law. Law enforcement officers across the

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Speaker 6: country know that it is a unique responsibility to do

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Speaker 6: the serious work of investigating crimes, comforting victims, and making arrests.

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Speaker 6: It's about building trust, and that requires an abiding sense

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Speaker 6: of duty and commitment to community. And yet our president

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Speaker 6: has sent poorly trained federal agents into our cities where

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Speaker 6: they have arrested and detained American citizens and people who

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Speaker 6: aspire to be Americans. And they have done it without

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Speaker 6: a warrant. They have ripped nursing mothers away from their babies.

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Speaker 6: They have sent children, a little boy in a blue

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Speaker 6: bunny hat, children to far off detention centers. And they

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Speaker 6: have killed American citizens in our streets. And they have

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Speaker 6: done it all with their faces masked from accountability. Every

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Speaker 6: minute spent sowing fear is a minute not spent investigating murders,

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Speaker 6: crimes against children, or the criminals defrauding seniors of their

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Speaker 6: life savings. Our president told us tonight that we are

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Speaker 6: safer because these agents arrest mothers and detained children. Think

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Speaker 6: about that our broken immigration system is something to be fixed,

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Speaker 6: not an excuse for unaccountable agents to terrorize our communities.

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Speaker 6: After working in law enforcement, I continued my career of

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Speaker 6: service as a CIA officer, working under cover to protect

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Speaker 6: the United States and our allies from global threats, terrorism,

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Speaker 6: nuclear weapons, and the aggression of adversarial nations around the globe.

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Speaker 6: But as the President spoke of his perceived successes tonight,

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Speaker 6: he continues to cede economic power and technological strength to Russia,

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Speaker 6: bow down to China, bow down to a Russian dictator,

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Speaker 6: and make plans for war with Iran. Here's the truth.

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Speaker 6: Over the last year, through Doge, mass firings and the

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Speaker 6: appointment of deeply unserious people to our nation's most serious positions,

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Speaker 6: our president has endangered the long and storied history of

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Speaker 6: the United States of America being a force for good.

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Speaker 6: So I'll ask again, is the President working to keep

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Speaker 6: American safe both at home and abroad? We all know

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Speaker 6: the answer is no. In his speech tonight, the President

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Speaker 6: did what he always does. He lied, He scapegoaded, and

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Speaker 6: he distracted, and he offered no real solutions to our

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Speaker 6: nations pressing challenges, so many of which he is actively

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Speaker 6: making worse. He tries to divide us, He tries to

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Speaker 6: enrage us, to pit us against one another, neighbor against neighbor,

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Speaker 6: and sometimes he succeeds. And so you have to ask

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Speaker 6: who benefits from his rhetoric, his policies, his actions, the

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Speaker 6: short list of laws he's pushed through this Republican Congress.

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Speaker 6: Somebody must be benefiting. He's enriching himself, his family, his friends.

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Speaker 6: The scale of the corruption is unprecedented. There's the cover

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Speaker 6: up of the Epstein files, the crypto scams, cozying up

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Speaker 6: to foreign princes for airplanes and billionaires for ballrooms, putting

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Speaker 6: his name and face on buildings all over our nation's capital.

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Speaker 6: This is not what our founders envisioned, not by a

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Speaker 6: long shots. So I'll ask again, is the president working

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Speaker 6: for you? We all know the answer is no. But

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Speaker 6: here's the special thing about America. On our two hundred

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Speaker 6: and fiftieth anniversary, we know better than any nation what

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Speaker 6: is possible when ordinary citizens, like those who once dreamed

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Speaker 6: right here in this room, reject the unacceptable and demand

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Speaker 6: more of their government. We see it in the determination

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Speaker 6: of students organizing school walkouts all across the country, whose

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Speaker 6: voices are becoming so powerful that the governor of Texas

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Speaker 6: seeks to silence them. We see it in the bravery

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Speaker 6: of Americans in Minnesota standing up for their communities, from

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Speaker 6: peacefully protesting in sub zero temperatures to carpooling children to

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Speaker 6: school so that their immigrant parents are not ripped away

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Speaker 6: from them in the parking lot. As a mother of

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Speaker 6: three school aged daughters, I am inspired by their bravery,

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Speaker 6: but I am sickened that it is necessary. And Americans

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Speaker 6: across the country are taking action. They are going to

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Speaker 6: the ballot box to reject this chaos. With their votes,

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Speaker 6: they are writing a new story, a more hopeful story.

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Speaker 6: In November, I won my election by fifteen points, and

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Speaker 6: we won thirteen new seats in our state legislature because

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Speaker 6: voters decided they wanted something different. Our campaign earned votes

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Speaker 6: from Democrats, Republicans, independents, and everyone in between, because they

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Speaker 6: knew as citizens they could demand more, that they could

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Speaker 6: vote for what they believe matters, and that they didn't

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Speaker 6: need to be constrained by a party or political effect.

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Speaker 6: This is happening across the country. New Jersey elected Mikey

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Speaker 6: Cheryl as governor in a double digit victory. Democrats flip

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Speaker 6: state legislative seats in places like Georgia, Iowa, Mississippi, and Texas.

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Speaker 6: The list goes on and on. Ordinary Americans are stepping

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Speaker 6: up to run in the spirit of our forefathers. They

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Speaker 6: are running to demand more and to do more for

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Speaker 6: their neighbors and communities. I know the story well. I

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Speaker 6: first ran for office in twenty eighteen, alongside dozens of

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Speaker 6: other Democrats who did the seemingly impossible flipping forty one

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Speaker 6: seats in Congress. In my case, I was the first

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Speaker 6: Democrat elected in fifty years, swinging our district seventeen points.

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Speaker 6: Those who are stepping up now to run will win

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Speaker 6: in November, because America, you at home, know you can

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Speaker 6: demand more and that we are working to lower costs.

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Speaker 6: We are working to keep our communities and our country safe,

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Speaker 6: and we are working for you. In his farewell address,

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Speaker 6: George Washington warned us about the possibility of quote cunning, ambitious,

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Speaker 6: and unprincipled men rising to power. But he also encouraged us,

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Speaker 6: all Americans to unite in a common cause to move

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Speaker 6: this nation forward. That is our charge once more, and

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Speaker 6: that is what we are seeing across the country. It

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Speaker 6: is deeply American and patriotic to do so. And it

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Speaker 6: is how we ensure that the state of our Union

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Speaker 6: remains strong, not just this year, but for the next

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Speaker 6: two hundred and fifty years as well, because we the

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Speaker 6: people have the power to make chick change, the power

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Speaker 6: to send up for what is right, the power to

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Speaker 6: demand more of our nation. May God bless the Commonwealth

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Speaker 6: of Virginia, and may God bless the United States of America.

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Speaker 1: From Colonial Williamsburg in the Commonwealth, she now leads Virginia

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Speaker 1: Governor Abigail Spanberger with the Democratic response to the President's

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Speaker 1: State of the Union address. She said, Republicans are making

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Speaker 1: your life harder, more expensive, harder. She said, to see

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Speaker 1: a doctor, and she asked, is the President working to

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Speaker 1: make life more affordable for you and your family? We

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Speaker 1: all know, she said, the answer is no. Spanberger also

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Speaker 1: tore into the administration's immigration enforcement policies, saying that poorly

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Speaker 1: trained federal agents are now in our cities, in her words,

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Speaker 1: ripping nursing mothers away from their babies, sending children to

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Speaker 1: far off detention centers. And she said, this is her quote,

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Speaker 1: they have killed American citizens in our streets. When it

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Speaker 1: turned to ABC News, White House correspondent Karen Travers Karen

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Speaker 1: the Lines and the President's speech tonight on immigration sparked

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Speaker 1: heckling from Democrats in the House Chamber.

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Speaker 2: The most contentious moments tonight.

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Speaker 3: Definitely the most contentious, the most fiery moments. When the

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Speaker 3: President was speaking about the security and restoring funding right now.

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Speaker 3: Of course there is that partial government shutdown because Democrats

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Speaker 3: are insisting on reforms to ice. Abigail Spamberger. There was

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Speaker 3: talking about federal agents with their faces masked from accountability.

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Speaker 3: That's one thing that Democrats have been pushing for in Congress,

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Speaker 3: that these agents can do not wear masks when they're

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Speaker 3: out on these patrols. And at this point DHS is

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Speaker 3: shut down and not funded. And the President, as he

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Speaker 3: calls on call on lawmakers to restore that funding, said

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Speaker 3: he wanted to see everybody stand up and show support

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Speaker 3: for a statement. He said, the first beauty of the

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Speaker 3: American government is to protect American citizens, not quote illegal aliens.

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Speaker 3: And when Republicans stood and Democrats did not, the President said,

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Speaker 3: that's a shame. You should be ashamed of yourself for

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Speaker 3: not standing up. Our colleagues who were in the room,

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Speaker 3: Rachel Scott and others said, you could see Congresswoman Ilhan

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Speaker 3: Omar saying back to him, you should be ashamed of yourself,

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Speaker 3: and saying to him, you have killed Americans. Multiple times.

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Speaker 3: There was a lot of that contentious, fiery back and

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Speaker 3: forth between Congresswoman Omar Rashida Talab as well also going

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Speaker 3: back on these particular issues. They were wearing buttons that

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Speaker 3: had expletives about ice. But these were the parts of

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Speaker 3: the President's speech that certainly seemed to get the most

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Speaker 3: aggressive response from Democrats in the room.

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Speaker 1: Karen Traver's ore ABC News White House correspondent, we thank

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Speaker 1: you for being with us on this long night as

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Speaker 1: the President set a new record for State of the

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Speaker 1: Union addresses at more than an hour and forty nine minutes.

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Speaker 1: That's not at an exact time, it's my approximation. But

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Speaker 1: I want to turn to our ABC News political analyst

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Speaker 1: Steve Roberts, because Steve, the men and women who work

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Speaker 1: to write these speeches often have it in mind that

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Speaker 1: they're doing it for history. What do you think will

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Speaker 1: be remembered from tonight's address.

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Speaker 4: Well, I think on the positive side, for the president,

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Speaker 4: there were moments of great national pride and unity. I

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Speaker 4: think the appearance of the men's hockey team was certainly

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Speaker 4: a highlight. Look. Donald Trump is at the core a

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Speaker 4: professional performer. He understands television, he understands optics, he understands drama.

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Speaker 4: And that was a very powerful and dramatic moment. And

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Speaker 4: every American is proud of the hockey teams, both hockey teams,

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Speaker 4: the women as well as the men, even though the

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Speaker 4: women didn't show up. And there were moments also of

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Speaker 4: pride of the American heroes and the balcony, the heroic

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Speaker 4: soldiers who have served their country for a long time.

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Speaker 4: I mean, Donald Trump is very good at that. But

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Speaker 4: I think what also will be remembered, as Abigail Spanberger

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Speaker 4: put it so well, the key question is is the

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Speaker 4: president working for you? It reminded me of the famous

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Speaker 4: question that Ronald Reagan asked in nineteen eighty very effectively

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Speaker 4: in defeating Jimmy Carter, when he said over and over

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Speaker 4: again on the campaign trail, are you better off than

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Speaker 4: you were four years ago? And resoundingly Americans said no,

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Speaker 4: and throughout the Democrats and elected to Ronald Reagan. And

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Speaker 4: that's the other key thing. That's the other question going forward.

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Speaker 4: Can he effectively make the argument that, in fact, you

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Speaker 4: are better off than four years ago. Right now, our

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Speaker 4: polls show only twenty two percent on our latest ABC

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Speaker 4: poll answer that question, yes, and so the way that

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Speaker 4: the Democrats framed it, no, you're not. That's the question

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Speaker 4: of the year. Are you better off? Trump says yes,

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Speaker 4: Democrats say no, and they fall. Elections will turn on

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Speaker 4: the answer to.

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Speaker 1: That question, Stephen, Democrats hoping most Americans say that the

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Speaker 1: answers no. Surveys in the days to come will take

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Speaker 1: a look at how Americans reflected on their current situation,

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Speaker 1: their view of the nation's politics, on the economy, on

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Speaker 1: the President's performance in his State of the Union address tonight.

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Speaker 2: I want to thank Steve Roberts, Karen Travers.

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Speaker 1: All of my colleagues here at ABC News in Washington,

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Speaker 1: and thank you for listening to our live radio coverage

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Speaker 1: of the President's State of the Union address. I'm Stephen Portnoy,

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Speaker 1: and you've been listening to live coverage from ABC News