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Speaker 1: Welcome to talking politics. And what a week it was

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Speaker 1: from the bonkers Pam BONDI hearing to Tom Holman's announcement

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Speaker 1: that he's withdrawing troops from Minneapolis to some catastrophically bad

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Speaker 1: poll numbers for Trump. It's been a lot. We're going

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Speaker 1: to cover it all and later I have a great guest,

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Speaker 1: a congressman from Pennsylvania who can help fill in some

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Speaker 1: of the blanks for us as we look ahead to

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Speaker 1: what it all means for midterms. And I'll be honest, guys,

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Speaker 1: that's the biggest thing on my mind right now. Midterms.

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Speaker 1: It is an electioneer, though you might not know it

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Speaker 1: if you look at the way Trump and his administration

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Speaker 1: are behaving. And I have a serious warning for Republican lawmakers.

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Speaker 1: But we'll get to that in a minute. First, we

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Speaker 1: just got to talk about these new poll numbers. They

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Speaker 1: are shocking. Honestly, I've done this a long time. I

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Speaker 1: am shocked at how bad these numbers are. This is

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Speaker 1: from a new Axios piece which says, quote, three new

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Speaker 1: surveys point to the alarming trend for a president who's

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Speaker 1: done everything in his power to erase his predecessor's legacy.

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Speaker 1: It's what did the polls say.

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Speaker 2: Well.

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Speaker 1: A Harvard Caps Harris poll found that fifty one percent

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Speaker 1: of voters say Trump is doing a worse job than

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Speaker 1: Biden did. A Rasmuscin poll that's a Trump friendly poll

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Speaker 1: found that forty eight percent of likely voters say Biden

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Speaker 1: did a better job, versus only forty percent who say

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Speaker 1: Trump did you gove Economist poll, forty six percent of

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Speaker 1: adults say Trump is doing worse than Biden, forty percent

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Speaker 1: say he's doing better. I want to remind you, like,

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Speaker 1: just how badly people thought Biden did okay when when

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Speaker 1: one e twenty four was over and he and Kamala

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Speaker 1: had lost to a convicted criminal, and Trump swept all

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Speaker 1: seven swing states and Trump won more new voters, young voters,

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Speaker 1: Hispanic voters, independent voters than ever before. This was a

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Speaker 1: crushing defeat. I know Democrats can get on talk all day.

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Speaker 1: Want Oh, it wasn't that huge of a landslide. It

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Speaker 1: wasn't that big of a victory. It was actually one

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Speaker 1: of the margins. Bullshit. He won all seven swing states

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Speaker 1: and new voters, new voters, new kinds of voters for

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Speaker 1: the first time. It should not have gone that way.

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Speaker 1: And it did, and the Democratic brand was in the

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Speaker 1: gutter just a year ago. Okay, the gutter. It's not

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Speaker 1: much better today. But honestly, for a wide swath of

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Speaker 1: voters to now say Biden was better than Trump, that's bad. Biden.

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Speaker 1: Look whatever you think of him, I think he's a

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Speaker 1: nice guy, but he was a week end at Bernie's

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Speaker 1: president for too long, and he ignored the top three

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Speaker 1: issues that mattered most of voters. He tried to convince

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Speaker 1: them that things like democracy and abortion mattered more to

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Speaker 1: them than the economy and crime and immigration. He didn't

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Speaker 1: get it, and neither did Kamla. Maybe she did, but

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Speaker 1: she couldn't. You know, she couldn't completely reverse the course.

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Speaker 1: She couldn't completely throw Biden under the bus. She couldn't

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Speaker 1: acknowledge the things that any Democratic candidate would have to

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Speaker 1: have acknowledged to do well, which was that most people

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Speaker 1: did not feel the economy was going great. Most people

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Speaker 1: thought immigration was a mess and a crisis. Most people

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Speaker 1: didn't feel safe in their cities and towns. They couldn't

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Speaker 1: admit to any of that. It was a terrible, terrible campaign,

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Speaker 1: and it wasn't a much better presidency. And yet the

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Speaker 1: American people still think Biden was better than Trump. Now,

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Speaker 1: how did he come in with such a mandate and

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Speaker 1: waste all of that political capital? You know? You know how,

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Speaker 1: because this president's been acting like a madman, focused on

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Speaker 1: garbage issues, personal grievances, grifting on the backs of American people,

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Speaker 1: and focusing on things nobody really cares about. Instead of

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Speaker 1: lowering the cost of goods, he's raised them with his

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Speaker 1: dumb tariffs, and he's more focused on invading greenland, building

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Speaker 1: condos on the Gaza Strip, getting rich on crypto, naming

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Speaker 1: buildings after himself, and winning fake participation trophies than he

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Speaker 1: is on fixing America's problems. That's obvious for anyone to see.

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Speaker 1: It's almost it's like he's actively trying to see how

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Speaker 1: quickly and comically he can destroy the country and ruin

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Speaker 1: whatever political capital, political headwinds, political goodwill he had on

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Speaker 1: the Epstein Files. Well, you saw the Pam Bondi shit

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Speaker 1: show this week. She was a raving lunatic, clearly performing

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Speaker 1: for an audience of one and simultaneously tanking the DOJ's

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Speaker 1: credibility on anything. Instead of releasing the Epstein Files as promised,

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Speaker 1: they've done everything they could to keep them sealed, and

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Speaker 1: instead sent the DOJ off to try to harass Mark Kelly.

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Speaker 1: It failed at that too, by the way, So if

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Speaker 1: you're still looking for justice for Epstein's victims, Bondi says,

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Speaker 1: who cares the stock markets up? It was insane. I've

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Speaker 1: never seen anything like that, you guys, And it is

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Speaker 1: my job to put words to the things that we

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Speaker 1: are seeing happening. I didn't have them. I didn't have

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Speaker 1: them on Wednesday during that hearing. I didn't have words

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Speaker 1: to describe what Pam Bondy was doing and saying it

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Speaker 1: was it was crazy and shameful. But you know that

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Speaker 1: that performance, what she's doing, you know what's coming from

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Speaker 1: the top. She's got a stone wall because now it's

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Speaker 1: just a massive cover up. That's her job. It's a

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Speaker 1: massive cover up. And Trump is acting like we'll all

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Speaker 1: just move on. Well, that ain't happening. The longer he

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Speaker 1: works to cover this up, the worse it gets for

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Speaker 1: him politically. Speaking of political disasters, I know it sounds

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Speaker 1: crazy to suggest that, you know, the government killing two

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Speaker 1: innocent American citizens for protesting in Minnesota might not endear

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Speaker 1: the government to the American people, but it really did not.

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Speaker 1: Trump's ice surge in Minneapolis has been an un mitigated

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Speaker 1: disaster politically, there's just no way around it. It's tanked

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Speaker 1: his poll numbers on immigration, an issue he once led on,

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Speaker 1: and even his supporters are saying he's got to change course.

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Speaker 1: So this week they did Homan announced the surge is over.

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Speaker 1: They're withdrawing the troops. They're trying to frame it as

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Speaker 1: a mission accomplished. They can do all that, you know,

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Speaker 1: all they want, but Americans know what they saw there

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Speaker 1: and they will not forget it, trust me. So all

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Speaker 1: of this has evaporated whatever goodwill Trump had coming into

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Speaker 1: office a second time. His signature issues are now liabilities

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Speaker 1: for a lot of the supporters he got in twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty four. Now they disagree with his handling of immigration.

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Speaker 1: He's at negative eighteen, which is twenty six points lower

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Speaker 1: than he was at this point in his first time.

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Speaker 1: On the economy, He's lost young voters, Hispanic voters, independent voters.

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Speaker 1: He's even losing young men with no college education. It's

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Speaker 1: like he's trying to lose And so here's my warning

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Speaker 1: to Republican lawmakers. Save yourselves. Okay. Trump doesn't care about

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Speaker 1: your reelection. Trump doesn't care about the health of the

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Speaker 1: Republican Party or its majority. Trump doesn't care about the country,

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Speaker 1: and he has nothing more to offer you but certain failure.

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Speaker 1: If you're not in a ruby red Maga loving district,

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Speaker 1: Trump will be an albatross around your neck, and supporting

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Speaker 1: him now will taint your own legacy forever. Trust me,

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Speaker 1: no one's looking back at Pambondy, jd Vance, Cash, Betel Christinome,

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Speaker 1: Pete Hegseeth, or anyone else from this clown car administration. Fondly.

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Speaker 1: History will remember all of this correctly. Believe me, you

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Speaker 1: can either be with them, or you can be on

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Speaker 1: the side of the good in the right. You have

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Speaker 1: nothing more to gain by standing with a guy who,

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Speaker 1: instead of lowering prices in America, is marauding Venezuela for

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Speaker 1: its oil, who instead of fixing roads and bridges, is

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Speaker 1: building monuments to himself, who, instead of bringing justice to

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Speaker 1: the victims of a convicted pedophile, is having his goon

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Speaker 1: squad go out and arrest journalists, who, instead of giving

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Speaker 1: Americans a reason to love our country, is embarrassing us

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Speaker 1: on a global stage. Nearly every day, who instead of

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Speaker 1: making rational policy based decisions to fix the structural problems

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Speaker 1: that America is dealing with, he's posting racist memes about

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Speaker 1: a former president and his wife. I mean, come on,

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Speaker 1: what are you guys doing with your lives? Republican lawmakers?

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Speaker 1: You were elected to fulfill a duty to be public servants,

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Speaker 1: to uphold a constitution that the president is shitting on

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Speaker 1: every single day, to be a legislative check on the

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Speaker 1: other two branches. And instead you're burying your heads in

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Speaker 1: the sand as this administration runs roughshod over its people

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Speaker 1: and its institutions. Why are you protecting this sick in

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Speaker 1: the head madman. Cut your ties, cut your losses. Midterms

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Speaker 1: around the corner. Trust me, he's not worth it. He's

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Speaker 1: going to lose it for you, and you know what,

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Speaker 1: he won't even care when he does. You know that,

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Speaker 1: you know that's true. So what are you doing? Grow

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Speaker 1: a pair, get some common sense, save yourselves. Okay, after

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Speaker 1: the break, I talked to a Democratic congressman about that

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Speaker 1: party's plan for the midterms. Don't go anywhere. Welcome back

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Speaker 1: to talking politics. I'm happy to bring on a Democratic

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Speaker 1: congressman from Pennsylvania. He's someone I got to work with

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Speaker 1: a bit on Syria over some years. Welcome to the Pod,

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Speaker 1: Congressman Brendan Boyle.

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Speaker 2: Hey, great to be with you.

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Speaker 1: Sci Yeah, thanks for joining us. Before we get to

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Speaker 1: a sort of big midterm conversation, I just wanted to

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Speaker 1: ask you about a couple of things while we have

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Speaker 1: you here as an insider from the House. This week,

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Speaker 1: the House voted to terminate Trump's tariffs on Canada, and

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Speaker 1: more votes on tariffs are are likely coming. I know

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Speaker 1: Trump's tariffs were a loser. You know Trump's tariffs, We're

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Speaker 1: a loser. Is Congress going to end them? Or will

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Speaker 1: it be the courts?

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Speaker 3: So we had I made two victories this week in

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Speaker 3: the House, and first, getting enough Republicans to join with

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Speaker 3: every Democrat to defeat Mike johnson led rule that would

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Speaker 3: have stripped Congress away from our inherent ability to be

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Speaker 3: able to vote on emergency tariffs. We should have had

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Speaker 3: this vote already, but Mike Johnson and Republican leaders came

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Speaker 3: up with this gimmick to basically get around the already

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Speaker 3: existing law. The Congress is supposed to vote within fifteen

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Speaker 3: days on any emergency tariff, and obviously We've had many

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Speaker 3: a dozen emergency tariffs declared by this president, a lot

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Speaker 3: of emergencies going on because the tariffed ninety two different

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Speaker 3: countries based on this so called emergency authority. So first

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Speaker 3: we won that a few days ago. They weren't able

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Speaker 3: to keep this gimmick going. Then the following day we

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Speaker 3: had the ultimate vote and six House Republicans voted with

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Speaker 3: every Democrat to remove the tariffs on Canada. So those

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Speaker 3: are two big votes we think that we have based

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Speaker 3: on previous votes that have happened to majority support in

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Speaker 3: the Senate as well. Here's the problem though, Ultimately, the

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Speaker 3: way a bill becomes law is that goes to the

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Speaker 3: White House for the president's signature, and there is no

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Speaker 3: way that he's going to sign this legislation. So then

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Speaker 3: we come down to would we have enough Republicans to

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Speaker 3: override his veto I'm.

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Speaker 2: Still skeptical on that.

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Speaker 3: Okay, if this were a if this were a private

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Speaker 3: ballot and a secret ballot, I think we would.

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Speaker 2: Have enough votes.

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Speaker 3: But how many times I see if you heard this

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Speaker 3: in the last ten years, that Republicans will say anti

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Speaker 3: Trump things.

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Speaker 2: And impressing anti Trump in private.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, but then in public, you know, are falling all

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Speaker 3: over themselves to kiss up to your leader. It's the ultimately, yeah,

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Speaker 3: and you're someone who admirably has not gone along with that.

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Speaker 2: But as we know, so many have and are are

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Speaker 2: willing to continue doing that. So that's probably a longer.

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Speaker 1: As a journalist, I hear from a lot of Republicans

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Speaker 1: who will say off the record in private, and I'm like, like,

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Speaker 1: grow a pair, dude, Okay, there's the reason.

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Speaker 2: Go ahead. Well I'll end with this a reason why.

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Speaker 2: Profiles and Courage was a very short book.

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Speaker 1: It was very short. It was a pamphlet. It was

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Speaker 1: a pamphlet. Okay. The jobs report yesterday, one way it's

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Speaker 1: being framed is more jobs were added than expected. I

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Speaker 1: think you see it differently.

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Speaker 2: Well, I mean, that's called exceeding a very low bar.

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Speaker 3: The reality is that we basically, in total net net,

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Speaker 3: have not created any new jobs over the course of

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Speaker 3: this past year, over the course of twenty twenty five,

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Speaker 3: because of all of the substantial downward revisions that have

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Speaker 3: taken place to previous reports, previous monthly reports that were

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Speaker 3: released some time ago.

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Speaker 2: So and you know it's not just me.

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Speaker 3: I mean you can see this on CNBC or any

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Speaker 3: other sort of neutral business.

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Speaker 2: Channel or source of information. We're in right now.

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Speaker 3: Basically an economy that is an economy that is not

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Speaker 3: creating new jobs. And you know, one of the challenges

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Speaker 3: the FED has, and Jay Powell has, they want to

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Speaker 3: do something. It's quite clear in terms of stimulating a

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Speaker 3: weak job market. But at the same time, inflation, as

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Speaker 3: we saw as recently as this morning, we still have

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Speaker 3: inflation well above the two percent target. Yeah, so it

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Speaker 3: really limits the tools that the FED has, right.

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Speaker 1: Okay, midterms, I think it's going to be a blood term.

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Speaker 1: A blood term. I think it's going to be a

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Speaker 1: blood bath for Republicans. But my question to you is

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Speaker 1: how can Democrats f it up?

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Speaker 2: No?

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Speaker 1: I mean seriously, like, what's democrats plan going forward? Is

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Speaker 1: it just to let Trump and Republicans hang themselves or

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Speaker 1: is there a positive, forward thinking agenda.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, I've seen this movie before.

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Speaker 3: I was in Congress in twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen, the

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Speaker 3: beginning of Trump's first term. You saw in that term,

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Speaker 3: Trump was so deeply unpopular that House Democrats, who at

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Speaker 3: the time were much deeper in the minority than we

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Speaker 3: are now, actually pick up forty seats in that midterm

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Speaker 3: and win it by I think, on the generic something

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Speaker 3: like an eight point advantage, and win a pretty substantial

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Speaker 3: majority in the House of Representatives. I think passed this prologue,

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Speaker 3: and I base that not just on Trump's incredibly low

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Speaker 3: approval rating, but it has been remarkable over the last

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Speaker 3: fourteen months now, the Democratic overperformance in special election after

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Speaker 3: special elections throughout the country, and in the past, that

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Speaker 3: has been a great leading indicator of what would happen

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Speaker 3: in the following November midterm election.

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Speaker 1: I've reported on this podcast that Democratic secretaries of state

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Speaker 1: and several states are preparing for federal interference in midterm elections,

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Speaker 1: which is it's a wild thing to say, but here

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Speaker 1: we are. How worried are you about the integrity of

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Speaker 1: these elections?

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Speaker 3: I can't believe we're having this conversation about the United

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Speaker 3: States of America, but here we are. I literally just

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Speaker 3: came right from a meeting with a Pennsylvania state senator,

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Speaker 3: a very serious person, and she and I were talking

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Speaker 3: about what happens.

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Speaker 2: This is another scenario.

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Speaker 3: What happens if on the day before the election and

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Speaker 3: election day, suddenly there are a lot of ice agents

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Speaker 3: hanging around and standing in front of polling locations in

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Speaker 3: North Philly. Yeah, we have a pretty high Latino population.

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Speaker 2: So yes, it is.

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Speaker 3: You do not have to be paranor you do not

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Speaker 3: have to wear our tinfoil hat. Yeah, to be reasonably

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Speaker 3: concerned when it comes to either you know, seizing ballot

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Speaker 3: boxes after the election or the scenario that I just

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Speaker 3: outlined about ice interfering and showing up at polling locations

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Speaker 3: where you know most of the vote tend to vote Democratic.

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Speaker 2: This puts I think.

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Speaker 3: Even more of a premium on the ability to vote

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Speaker 3: early in those jurisdictions that allow it.

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Speaker 1: Well, And speaking of ice, just to wrap this up,

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Speaker 1: how do you read how did you read the home

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Speaker 1: and announcement and the decision to withdraw in Minnesota this week?

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Speaker 2: I think is waving the white flag.

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Speaker 3: But that said, I'm not going to spike the football

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Speaker 3: because I'm glad to see it. I think the fact

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Speaker 3: that Trump it was interesting the last couple of weeks

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Speaker 3: he's back down on two very big profile issues. One

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Speaker 3: was on greenland right and literally did a one eighty

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Speaker 3: within a few hours at at Davos, and then the

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Speaker 3: other is this I think he recognizes that what has

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Speaker 3: happened in Minneapolis has totally lost the American people the

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Speaker 3: idea that on the immigration issue specifically, he has double

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Speaker 3: digits underwater.

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Speaker 1: It's crazy.

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Speaker 3: That's not something I would have predicted just about a

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Speaker 3: month or two months ago.

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Speaker 1: No, And the crazy thing is he had the political

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Speaker 1: will of a majority of Americans on the issues of

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Speaker 1: immigration and crime, had he just done it competently and

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Speaker 1: normally and not with this insane fafo bloodlust but like

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Speaker 1: this cartoonish overreach with like gestapo coat guys. I mean,

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Speaker 1: he actually could have done this effectively and maintained the

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Speaker 1: approval of a majority of Americans and didn't.

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Speaker 3: It's wild, You're exactly right. But you know, let's let's

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Speaker 3: be realistic. Over the last ten years expecting Donald Trump

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Speaker 3: to be either reasonable or competent. I know, you know,

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Speaker 3: that's not money that I would put down to make

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Speaker 3: that bet.

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Speaker 1: No, because it's it's he's only interested in money he

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Speaker 1: can make.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think, not the transition to a

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Speaker 3: different subject, but I think the depressing lesson he learned

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Speaker 3: from the first term, and then the inability to hold

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Speaker 3: him account gumble during the Biden presidency was that Hey,

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Speaker 3: if I'm president, I can get away with it.

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Speaker 2: And that's right, and that's exactly how he's behaving.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's uh, it's tough to watch. But thanks

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Speaker 1: for joining us today. I really appreciate it, Congressman, and

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Speaker 1: keep us posted on all the goings on over over

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Speaker 1: on the Hill. I know it's a lot.

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Speaker 2: It's never born que happy too.

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Speaker 1: Okay, thanks so much for joining us on Off the

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Speaker 1: Cup and uh, that's it for talking politics. See you

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Speaker 1: next time. Off the Cup is a production of iHeart

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Speaker 1: Podcasts as part of the Reason Choice Network. If you

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Speaker 1: want more, check out the other Reason Choice podcasts, Politics

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Speaker 1: with Jamel Hill and Native Land pod. For Off the Cup,

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