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Speaker 1: You're listening to taking stock with bim Box and dathe

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Speaker 1: nays on Bloomberg Radio. President Obama is at the Pentagon.

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Speaker 1: He will be giving an update on his administration's battle

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Speaker 1: against Islamic State against ISIS, but he will be opening

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Speaker 1: up the post briefing statement to questions from the press,

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Speaker 1: potentially giving him another chance to weigh in on the election.

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Speaker 1: Angela Greyling keene Are, a White House reporter for Bloomberg News,

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Speaker 1: joins us now from Washington, d C. Home to Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: and one oh five point seven h D two. Angela,

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Speaker 1: thank you for being with us. Tell us why is

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Speaker 1: the President going to the Pentagon in order to tell

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Speaker 1: the nation about the efforts on the administration's part to

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Speaker 1: battle ISIS. The President has been meeting with his National

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Speaker 1: Security Council this afternoon at the Pentagon. He's done these

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Speaker 1: meetings with the National Security Council at a variety of locations.

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Speaker 1: This time he returns to the pen gone where he's

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Speaker 1: done them before. Sometimes they're at the White House, sometimes

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Speaker 1: they're at other parts of the defensor intelligence community, but

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Speaker 1: he likes to move them around, and this time he's

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Speaker 1: taking the different step of having a press conference afterwards,

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Speaker 1: so we expect him to address not only national security

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Speaker 1: concerns in Islamic State, but also all the other issues

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Speaker 1: of the day. Well, let's start with Islamic State UH

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Speaker 1: and the the expansion of the US led coalitions military

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Speaker 1: UH mission against ISIS IS, the US bombs targets in

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Speaker 1: and around Uh, a key Libyan city. Undoubtedly, Libya will

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Speaker 1: be one of the questions. This will be the first

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Speaker 1: time that President Obama is likely to address Libya at

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Speaker 1: a press conference. We expect him to be asked about

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Speaker 1: his decision to use more US UM air power against

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Speaker 1: Islamic State targets in Libya. It was a key decision

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Speaker 1: to expand the US mission and take air strikes in Libya,

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Speaker 1: and clearly that's not been well received by everybody, and

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Speaker 1: he will undoubtedly be asked about that. As far as

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Speaker 1: any new policies, will there be any indication of any

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Speaker 1: other UH sort of roots or strategies to battle Islamic

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Speaker 1: State or waves of terrorism around the world. We don't

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Speaker 1: expect new policy announcements out of this press conference. He

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Speaker 1: lucinely speaks after these meetings and does not denounce any

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Speaker 1: new policy. But it's unusual for him to take questions

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Speaker 1: from the press, so that that's what's different. But there's

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Speaker 1: been no telegraphing of any changes in strategy or other

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Speaker 1: increases in the US involvement against Islamic stage. Is there

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Speaker 1: any particular reason to to do this at this time?

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Speaker 1: Is this routine and this is the right time to

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Speaker 1: talk about isis you say you haven't been telegraphing any

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Speaker 1: big announcement or he hasn't. That's what you're got picking

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Speaker 1: up on. Uh So what how should we understand the messaging?

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Speaker 1: And I guess we would say the optics of the

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Speaker 1: president's appearance today, Well, the meetings are routine. He meets

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Speaker 1: with his National Security Council regularly, and these meetings at

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Speaker 1: different locations have been happening approximately a quarterly basis that

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Speaker 1: what use has chosen to draw attention to these meetings,

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Speaker 1: and part of that is making sure that the president

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Speaker 1: is out there and people are paying attention to his

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Speaker 1: message against Islamic state. The President is about to head

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Speaker 1: on vacation for the next two weeks, so starting on Saturday,

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Speaker 1: he'll be on Martha's vineyard on vacation. A lot of

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Speaker 1: golf and for sure the White House wants to keep

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Speaker 1: the optics that the president's working hard, that he's paying

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Speaker 1: attention to world events, and that I would guess as

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Speaker 1: part of the timing of this particular meeting in press conference,

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Speaker 1: tell us about the questions. One question sure to be

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Speaker 1: the authorization of the four million dollar cash payment to

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Speaker 1: Iran that coincided with the release of those American prisoners

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Speaker 1: that was back in January around is likely to come up.

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Speaker 1: We've heard a lot from the White House in the

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Speaker 1: past day and a half on that. The White House

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Speaker 1: line is that they did announced this payment back in

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Speaker 1: January when they released the hostages. Of this payment wasn't

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Speaker 1: the secret and the White House line is that this

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Speaker 1: also was not ransom. Of course, the President is likely

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Speaker 1: to still be asked about that, but he may not

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Speaker 1: say anything different than what his administration surrogates have been

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Speaker 1: saying already. The other topics that are likely to come

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Speaker 1: up are Russia. He talked a little bit the other

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Speaker 1: day about to be increasingly tense relationship with Russia and

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Speaker 1: President Putin, And of course there will be some sort

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Speaker 1: of question or questions involving the presidential election and Donald Trump.

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Speaker 1: President Obama had a press conference just two days ago,

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Speaker 1: and he declared that press conference Donald Trump quote unfit

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Speaker 1: to service president. But he will surely have more to

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Speaker 1: say on that topic today. Well, certainly our reporters are

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Speaker 1: gonna question on on that and it's always hard to

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Speaker 1: tell in his on some mean, occasionally when the president

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Speaker 1: has a press conference, he goes and goes and goes

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Speaker 1: until every last person in that room has had the

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Speaker 1: opportunity to ask at least one question. So in all that,

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Speaker 1: we've got a figure that there will be maybe even

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Speaker 1: more than one version of that question asked. There certainly

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Speaker 1: could be. We're expecting about five to six questions today,

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Speaker 1: which is but an average amount of questions for a

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Speaker 1: full press conference. It's it is fairly unusual for a

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Speaker 1: President Obama, who can go a month without a press conference,

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Speaker 1: to have two in a week. Just on Tuesday, he

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Speaker 1: held a press conference with the Singapore Prime Minister Lee

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Speaker 1: at the White House and both Obama and Lee took

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Speaker 1: uh They took a total of four questions too, from

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Speaker 1: each country. So this is a fir amount of questions

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Speaker 1: for the press for the public from President Obama in

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Speaker 1: a single week. Will the president also be asked about

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Speaker 1: Russia's influence on US elections, he very well could be.

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Speaker 1: He did address Russia on Tuesday. He said that, Uh,

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Speaker 1: he certainly did not link Russia to the hacks of

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Speaker 1: the Democratic National Committee in the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee,

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Speaker 1: but he didn't steer away from those either. He said

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Speaker 1: it's too early to say for sure. He also said

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Speaker 1: that he essentially said that anything that Russia does won't

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Speaker 1: make the relationship any worse. He said things are already

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Speaker 1: pretty bad between him and putin between the US and Russia,

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Speaker 1: and that even if Russia is found to be responsible

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Speaker 1: for that hack, that he doubts it will change anything.

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Speaker 1: The US wants to work with Russia to improve things

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Speaker 1: in Syria, but beyond that, there's fairly little cooperation right

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Speaker 1: now between the two countries. Uh. You know a story

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Speaker 1: that you also were part of this week has to

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Speaker 1: do with political hacking. Uh. And this possibility of actually

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Speaker 1: designating elections is national critical infrastructure right after the recent

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Speaker 1: hacking attacks on obviously on political groups on the d N. See,

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Speaker 1: how is this just something that you know? Someone answered

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Speaker 1: in been a question Homeland Security Secretary Johnson actually or

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Speaker 1: is there some serious push in this direction. Do you think, uh,

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Speaker 1: it is important? Um, you're right. So Homeland Security Secretary J.

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Speaker 1: Johnson is the person who talked about whether the US

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Speaker 1: may designate elections as quote national critical infrat structure and

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Speaker 1: that means that they would get extra homeland security protection.

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Speaker 1: Um what J. Johnson was talking at a breakfast for reporters,

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Speaker 1: So it was certainly not something he mentioned off hand.

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Speaker 1: You don't mention something like that to a table full

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Speaker 1: of reporters if you don't want it to get attention.

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Speaker 1: So that was definitely a calculated move by the administration

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Speaker 1: to say that they are paying very very close attention

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Speaker 1: to election security and probably that they're concerned about it. Well.

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Speaker 1: One of the things that has changed, at least this

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Speaker 1: week is we all were able to learn about the

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Speaker 1: interview of a German Man who joined the Islamic State

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Speaker 1: and then really revealed the workings of the various lieutenants

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Speaker 1: of Islamic State and their plans to carry out its

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Speaker 1: tacks around the world. Will that whole idea of radicalization

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Speaker 1: be a focus of the President's strategy. It probably will.

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Speaker 1: Lone wolves are something that the President and many other

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Speaker 1: world leaders are very concerned about. We saw just yesterday

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Speaker 1: here in Washington where a Metro Transit police officer was

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Speaker 1: arrested for trying to um cooperate with or work with

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Speaker 1: Islamic States, and that that was not a lone wolf incident,

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Speaker 1: but it certainly could have been if it progressed. So

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Speaker 1: the President will likely talk about the lone wolf issue,

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Speaker 1: maybe some of his strategy. UM. That's for sure something

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Speaker 1: that was discussed with his National Security Council. UM. He

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Speaker 1: normally at these sorts of events, he's taken a sort

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Speaker 1: of reassuring tone, telling people to you know, carry on

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Speaker 1: with their daily lives, not not be afraid or curtail

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Speaker 1: their activities because of risks or threats posed by Islamic

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Speaker 1: State or um it's adherents. Uh. I don't expect him

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Speaker 1: to change that today, but given what we've seen in

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Speaker 1: Europe this summer and this arrest yesterday in Washington, that

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Speaker 1: got to be front of mine for him as well

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Speaker 1: as for the reporters who will be asking him questions.

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Speaker 1: In addition, the United States has about five thousand troops

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Speaker 1: in Iraq currently in a few hundred in Syria. Will

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Speaker 1: it be further calls to either increase in American presidents

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Speaker 1: in those countries, or will there be a sort of

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Speaker 1: concerted effort to try to, you know, to have him

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Speaker 1: draw those numbers down. Uh, inasmuch as there's political opposition

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Speaker 1: around the world to having those troops there. Yeah, President

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Speaker 1: Obama faces pushing pull from both sides on the troops issue.

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Speaker 1: He ran for president promising to get the US out

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Speaker 1: of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the administration

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Speaker 1: would say they've been largely successful given the number of

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Speaker 1: troops today versus the number of troops eight years ago.

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Speaker 1: But clearly we're not out of u Ghanistan and Iraq,

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Speaker 1: and like you said, there are now some troops in

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Speaker 1: in Syria. So the President has said that he has

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Speaker 1: backed off. He's publicly said already that he's backed off

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Speaker 1: of plans to completely draw down troops, and he uh

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Speaker 1: may he could potentially increase numbers, but that's fairly unlikely.

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Speaker 1: But he for now is sticking with his plans to

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Speaker 1: to keep the troop levels that we're at, and we

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Speaker 1: have seen him increase slightly numbers of troops overseas. So

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Speaker 1: I I don't expect announcements along those lines today because

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Speaker 1: he's unlikely to make that sort of announcement in this

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Speaker 1: public of a forum, but he he for sure is

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Speaker 1: under pressure from some people that think there should be

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Speaker 1: no troops and from some people that think there should

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Speaker 1: be a lot more. And he's resigned to not making

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Speaker 1: everybody happy. That's part of the job of president. You

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Speaker 1: only have at this point. How much in fact, how

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Speaker 1: much at this point are President Obama's hands not exactly tied,

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Speaker 1: but you know, maybe restrained by the fact that he's

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Speaker 1: got a few more months in office and someone else

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Speaker 1: is taking over. If he makes a significant move up

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Speaker 1: or down in troops at this point, is that is

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Speaker 1: that the correct thing to do is that presidential etiquette, right,

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Speaker 1: absent any big, big shift in the external factors that

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Speaker 1: he's dealing with in the Middle East. Right, And under

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Speaker 1: a normal presidential transition, of course, we could look and

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Speaker 1: be looking at a fairly unique presidential transition depend on

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Speaker 1: who is elected. But under a normal transition, the successor

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Speaker 1: will follow on for a while at least what the

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Speaker 1: what the predecessor did. Clearly when President Obama were to

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Speaker 1: ramp up now and certainly if he keeps the same levels,

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Speaker 1: no changes happen the first day that a new president

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Speaker 1: takes office, so anything he does now last for at

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Speaker 1: least a little while. Is this also an occasion for

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Speaker 1: the president to reiterate his comments about the Republican nominee

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Speaker 1: for president, Republican candidate Donald Trump. I mean, he has

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Speaker 1: said previously, and you've reported this, that he had never

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Speaker 1: had a reason to question the qualifications or fitness of

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Speaker 1: other Republicans who ran against them, such as John McCain,

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Speaker 1: Senator from Arizona and former Massachusetts government Romney. I think

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Speaker 1: it's very fair to assume that the President will continue

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Speaker 1: his line of attack against Donald Trump. He has had

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Speaker 1: increasingly strident language against him, including calling him quote unfit

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Speaker 1: for the presidency on Tuesday. It's hard to get a

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Speaker 1: lot stronger than that. What will be interesting to see

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Speaker 1: is whether he continues today his line of reasoning from

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Speaker 1: Tuesday about encouraging prominent Republicans to back away from their

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Speaker 1: support of Donald Trump. What the President seemed to be

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Speaker 1: doing was to ask Republicans like House Speaker Paul Ryan

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Speaker 1: to back away. Even though Ryan has criticized Trump, he's

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Speaker 1: still officially supporting him, and the President Obama was basically

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Speaker 1: challenging those sorts of Republicans about whether they're going to

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Speaker 1: keep publicly supporting Trump. Angela brylantein Think So Very Much,

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Speaker 1: White House reporter for Bloomberg News in Washington,