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Speaker 1: Boston's bulldozer never sleeps. The Kooner Report weekend edition on

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Speaker 1: the Voice of Boston wrko.

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Speaker 2: Okay, I've been waiting for this because she knows a

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Speaker 2: lot about real estate. She comes from a construction family.

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Speaker 2: Her dad was a builder. So if anybody's got special

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Speaker 2: expertise on this, doctor Grace putting liberals in their place,

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Speaker 2: Grace vuoto full disclosure. Men, did I marry up my

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Speaker 2: wonderful wife, Grace. Look, you're a realtor. You do a

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Speaker 2: lot of real estate. You know real estate, you know construction.

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Speaker 2: Your dad, as I said, was a builder. Trump, out

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Speaker 2: of his own pocket and with private funding, not taxpayer money,

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Speaker 2: wants to expand the East Wing, tear it down, demolish

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Speaker 2: part of it, expand and at the heart of it

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Speaker 2: a big, beautiful ballroom. The left says, he's the filing

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Speaker 2: sacred ground. He's taking a literal wrecking ball to the

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Speaker 2: White House. This is an attack on history, and as

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Speaker 2: Hillary said, it's an attack on the people's house. He's

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Speaker 2: destroying the people's house. It's a massive scandal.

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Speaker 3: What say you so much for having me on? Well,

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Speaker 3: I think I have a perspective that's going to surprise

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Speaker 3: you today, Jeff, because I really do not like this

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Speaker 3: project at all, and I'll tell you why. I know

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Speaker 3: that his intentions are noble, and I know that he's

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Speaker 3: being maligned at every turn by the left, and so

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Speaker 3: we feel the need to come to his defense all

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Speaker 3: the time. But on this one, I just think that

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Speaker 3: building a ballroom right now is a huge luxury project.

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Speaker 3: When you think about this, Who's going to benefit from

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Speaker 3: a ballroom like that? Foreigners like Emmanuel mccron, I don't know,

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Speaker 3: the leader of Saudi Arabia, Mark Karney and his wife

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Speaker 3: Zelenski and his wife, Chancellor Mertz. Who's going to really

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Speaker 3: benefit from a bigger ballroom. We really don't need this

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Speaker 3: right now. I think the country has so many big,

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Speaker 3: big problems that to be doing this luxury project right

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Speaker 3: now it seems to me just a very very bad timing.

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Speaker 3: So I'm sorry to disagree with you, and I know

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Speaker 3: a lot of the audience is excited about this. I

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Speaker 3: also want to say that I visited the White House.

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Speaker 3: It was beautiful as it was now. There's a difference

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Speaker 3: between you want to keep the carpet updated, you want

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Speaker 3: to make sure that the leather seating is updated. There's

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Speaker 3: a difference between keeping a white House updated to a

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Speaker 3: massive renovation, a massive expansion. Those two things are very different.

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Speaker 3: I toured many, many of the most beautiful places in

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Speaker 3: the world, the Chateau Versailles, beautiful places in Europe, and

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Speaker 3: yet I found the austere and the simplicity of the

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Speaker 3: White House as it was absolutely stunning and in keeping

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Speaker 3: with our American traditions, we don't need to show off.

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Speaker 3: And I do not like what he's done to the

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Speaker 3: Oval Office. All that gold, I think is tacky. I

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Speaker 3: would take all that down, and so I'm just not

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Speaker 3: agreeing with his asceticism at all on this. I'm not

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Speaker 3: agreeing with the timing, and I think it's a luxury

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Speaker 3: project that is really out of step with what the

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Speaker 3: people need right now, which is a laser focus on

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Speaker 3: the economy.

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Speaker 2: Jeff, Well, let me well, actually he's improving the economy

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Speaker 2: because he's got construction crews working around the clock. He's

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Speaker 2: literally creating jobs right there at the White House. That's

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Speaker 2: number one. But number two, it's not as if he's,

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Speaker 2: you know, a construction foreman, and he's there telling him

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Speaker 2: tear this down, tear that down, put this up. He's got,

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Speaker 2: you know, a professional with the most professional crew in

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Speaker 2: the world and working, he's working on other things. It's

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Speaker 2: not distracting him a single bit. And you know, Grace,

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Speaker 2: I'm a little surprised that your opinion on this, and

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Speaker 2: I'll tell you why. Yes, he invites foreign dignitaries. But

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Speaker 2: the White House holds all kinds of events for Americans.

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Speaker 2: School children will go visit. You know, you win the

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Speaker 2: super Bowl, the teams go visit, members of Congress go visit.

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Speaker 2: There's all kinds of you know, staffers, events for Americans

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Speaker 2: all the time. There's bill signings. In other words, this

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Speaker 2: idea that this is all just for Macron or Zelensky

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Speaker 2: or Mark Karney, the Prime Minister of Canada, it's not true.

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Speaker 2: And you know Trump's point is they stick them in

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Speaker 2: this cocktail room and you can barely fit eighty people

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Speaker 2: in there. It's embarrassing. And let me just add one

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Speaker 2: other point, and I want to get your rebuttal. Theodore

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Speaker 2: Roosevelt literally did a massive expand he built the West Wing,

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Speaker 2: the whole West Wing. President William Howard Taft built the

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Speaker 2: Oval Office, the actual Oval Office FDR. In the midst

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Speaker 2: of the Great Depression on taxpayer money, built the entire

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Speaker 2: East wing and a swimming pool. Harry Truman literally gutted

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Speaker 2: and reconstructed and rebuilt the entire White House, including a

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Speaker 2: massive bowling alley. I mean, I could go on and on.

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Speaker 2: Obama a basketball court. Suddenly Trump wants to build the ballroom,

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Speaker 2: and it's tacky. It's the timing is wrong. We have

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Speaker 2: to focus on the economy, you know. I mean, the

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Speaker 2: West Wing. You like the West Wing, the Oval Office,

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Speaker 2: you like the Oval Office, the East Wing, you like

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Speaker 2: the East Wing. The modern white House that was Truman.

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Speaker 2: You like the modern White House. So how come every

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Speaker 2: other president can add an expansion.

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Speaker 3: But Trump, well, Jeff Trump campaigned differently. He has a

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Speaker 3: different campaign. His campaign was a laser focus on the

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Speaker 3: forgotten man and woman. How many people actually have the

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Speaker 3: chance to go sit in the new ballroom. It's going

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Speaker 3: to be a very small portion of the American people

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Speaker 3: that'll ever go there. And the larger point is this,

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Speaker 3: The White House is beautiful as it is. Like I said,

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Speaker 3: I've toward some of the most beautiful places in the world.

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Speaker 3: And when I went there, actually I went with my mom,

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Speaker 3: one of the most memorable moments of my whole life.

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Speaker 3: I was astonished by the beauty of the White House

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Speaker 3: as it was, and I even bought a book because

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Speaker 3: I thought that so much of it was gorgeous. I

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Speaker 3: wanted to emulate some of its decor. So the idea

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Speaker 3: that it has to be improved because we're an embarrassment

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Speaker 3: to the world is just wrong. And he's imitating the

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Speaker 3: aesthetic of Europeans and of the Arab world, rather than

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Speaker 3: the aesthetic of America, which is puritanical, which is austere,

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Speaker 3: which is simple, which is dignified. And I think a

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Speaker 3: lot of his taste in architecture and what he's done

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Speaker 3: to the White Ass it's just gaudy. Listen, Milanya has

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Speaker 3: beautiful taste in her clothes, but her interior decorating tastes

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Speaker 3: are just deplorable, and I strongly dislike it. I think

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Speaker 3: he should have just think about that two hundred million.

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Speaker 3: Had he raised it, say to do something magnificent for

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Speaker 3: our vets, I would be cheering today. But this is

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Speaker 3: a luxury project that just rubs me the wrong way.

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Speaker 3: I'm sorry to disagree with you and many people of

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Speaker 3: the audience, but that's sincerely how I feel.

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Speaker 2: No, no, I, Lissa, I appreciate your sincerity and your authenticity. Look,

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Speaker 2: let me just make two quick points and then you know,

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Speaker 2: I'll get your Obviously, I want to give you a

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Speaker 2: chance to respond. Every building Trump is built, whether it's

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Speaker 2: in New York, in New Jersey, in Florida, in Chicago,

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Speaker 2: never mind around the world, they're beautiful, they're stunning. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: they're a bit more on the ostentatious side, that's his.

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Speaker 2: But when you say, you know, it's got to be

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Speaker 2: austere and puritanical and that's your taste. New Yorkers would

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Speaker 2: disagree with you, Floridians would disagree with you, Midwesterners would

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Speaker 2: disagree with you. Californians would disagree with you. So what

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Speaker 2: I'm saying is, we have some very beautiful, big, impressive

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Speaker 2: buildings that Trump has built, not just him, but others.

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Speaker 2: So you know, this is not the eighteenth century. With

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Speaker 2: all due respect, you know, we're not a small, fledgling

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Speaker 2: republic an agrarian country. We're the greatest superpower in the

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Speaker 2: history of the world. And the world comes to us

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Speaker 2: and then you say, well, it's not going to be

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Speaker 2: used by the American people. I disagree. We see the

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Speaker 2: White House all the time, you see it from the outside.

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Speaker 2: He's also making it beautiful, not just on the inside,

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Speaker 2: but on the outside. So you know, I'm sorry. Sorry.

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Speaker 2: Every other country in the world can have a spectacular ballroom.

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Speaker 2: You name your country, Japan, South Korea, France, Germany, Britain, Canada, Australia.

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Speaker 2: I could go on and on. Suddenly we have a big,

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Speaker 2: beautiful ballroom. And Grace Voto says, he's not focused on

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Speaker 2: the on the little man. He's now forgotten the forgotten man.

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Speaker 2: That yeah, we're having state dinners in a tent. That's

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Speaker 2: what it's been, literally in a tent outside with the rain.

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Speaker 2: State dinners and a tent.

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Speaker 3: No, this is wrong. Having we already have a ballroom.

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Speaker 3: He just wants a much bigger one and a much

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Speaker 3: more ostentatious one. We have a place to greet foreigners.

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Speaker 3: We have a beautiful oval office that has served this

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Speaker 3: country well. We have a unique aesthetic. We don't need

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Speaker 3: gold on the walls, because we have bombs that can

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Speaker 3: blow up an Iranian facility with such precision. That's what's impressive.

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Speaker 3: It's not gold on the walls that impresses anybody you

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Speaker 3: know around the world. World. This is the mindset of

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Speaker 3: the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, not in the United States.

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Speaker 2: By the way, we don't have a ballroom. What we

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Speaker 2: have is an East wing and you can barely fit

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Speaker 2: eighty people in there. And if you have more than

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Speaker 2: eighty people at a function, they put you in a

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Speaker 2: tent outside. Now you're right, that's a bit more on

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Speaker 2: the Saudi style, you know, like the Middle East Arab

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Speaker 2: style a tent. All that's missing is the camels. Okay,

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Speaker 2: So I'm just saying, no, we're a modern Western country

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Speaker 2: and I think we should have a nice ballroom and

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Speaker 2: frankly a modern, upgraded white house. But that's me, and

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Speaker 2: I respect your opinion. By the way, you know you

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Speaker 2: tend to like gold. I'm just saying privately, your style

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Speaker 2: is more in the Trump vein. You know, you like

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Speaker 2: mar You're Italian, for God's sake, you like marble, you

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Speaker 2: like gold, you like the nice stuff. And on that note, thanks.

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Speaker 1: Jeff doesn't get a day off. This request came from

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Speaker 1: his wife. The Kooner Report weekend edition on the Boys

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Speaker 1: for Boston w RKO