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Speaker 1: Hey, this is Emily and you're listening to stuff Mom

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Speaker 1: Never told you. And at the top of today's show,

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Speaker 1: I want to share a little bit of personal news.

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Speaker 1: It is obviously very sad and devastating to me on

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Speaker 1: so many levels that Bridget and I's magic won't continue on.

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Speaker 1: But I'm confident that Bridget Todd is going to carry

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Speaker 1: the baton forward for stuff Mom Never told you with

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Speaker 1: new hosts in a fabulous fashion. But I'm actually heading

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Speaker 1: on to start my own show, which you can now

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Speaker 1: find and subscribe to in Apple podcasts. So search for

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Speaker 1: bossed Up. That's b O S S E. D. A

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Speaker 1: is in Dog and then up as in the direction up.

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Speaker 1: Find bossed Up in Apple podcasts. Now you can listen

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Speaker 1: to a preview trailer that I've put out there that

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Speaker 1: tells you all about the show I'll be leaving to do.

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Speaker 1: So that's premiering March first, and I hope you will

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Speaker 1: join me. There sminthy listeners, especially if you are looking

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Speaker 1: for career advice. But today's podcast topic not so happy,

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Speaker 1: not so uplifting, not at all bossed up. And first

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Speaker 1: of all, we have to state a trigger warning to

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Speaker 1: those who are sensitive about issues relating to intimate partner

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Speaker 1: violence domestic abuse. Today we have to talk about the

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Speaker 1: kinds of abusers who are in our White House. So

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Speaker 1: major Trump alerts ahead. It's been a little while because

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Speaker 1: we have some Trump alerts. It's been a nice break

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Speaker 1: from talking about To be honest, I know, we've just

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Speaker 1: sort of ignored the disaster after disaster that he's been

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Speaker 1: a part of. But not today, not today's sminty listeners.

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Speaker 1: Today we are talking about domestic violence in our house,

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Speaker 1: our White House. After all, this is our government, this

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Speaker 1: is our taxpayer funded staff who are being hired to

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Speaker 1: run things in our nation's capital, in the White House.

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Speaker 1: So let's break this issue down. Who is Rob Porter. Well,

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Speaker 1: you may have heard his name before he was Trump Secretary,

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Speaker 1: and basically he has been accused of awful, awful domestic

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Speaker 1: violence against women. And it seems like this is a

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Speaker 1: situation where people knew this was happening, and rather than

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Speaker 1: sounding of the alarm bells and doing something instead, they

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Speaker 1: chose to protect him exactly. So, the domestic violence in

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Speaker 1: and of itself is pretty horrifying, and we're going to

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Speaker 1: talk more about that in a second. But the story

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Speaker 1: that's turned this into a scandal. Really pertains to how

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Speaker 1: the Trump administration responded to the news, or when they

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Speaker 1: knew about this news, or when they discovered that one

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Speaker 1: of their impending hires had a seriously messed up past,

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Speaker 1: and what they decided to do about it. In the

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Speaker 1: Washington Post, colde Holderness, Rob Porter's first ex wife, describes

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Speaker 1: a time when Rob Porter's now ex girlfriend had actually

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Speaker 1: reached out to both her and Jenny Willoughby, Rob Porter's

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Speaker 1: second ex wife, on Facebook, asking for advice for how

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Speaker 1: to extricate herself from this relationship that had turned in

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Speaker 1: many ways abusive. She ends her description by saying, am

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Speaker 1: I crazy? Which if you are a woman dating someone

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Speaker 1: who reaches out to that's someone's two ex wives for

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Speaker 1: confirmation that you're not crazy, that's a pretty dramatic cry

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Speaker 1: for help. Yeah, that's a grim situation. And honestly, what

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Speaker 1: it really does illustrate is the way that women often

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Speaker 1: create these networks of support reaching out when they're in

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Speaker 1: these abuse of situations. And so I'm happy that she

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Speaker 1: felt like she could reach out to them to get

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Speaker 1: some support, but I am so sad and angry that

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Speaker 1: she was in that position In the first place. Absolutely.

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Speaker 1: Colbe Holderness describes to The Daily Mail how Rob was

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Speaker 1: angry because we weren't having sex when he wanted to

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Speaker 1: have sex on their honeymoon. Mind you, this is when

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Speaker 1: the abuse physically started. Oh my god, and so he

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Speaker 1: kicked her. She writes, this was the first time he

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Speaker 1: hurt me, and then the doors opened. I didn't do anything,

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Speaker 1: and it continued. And she goes on to describing the

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Speaker 1: Daily Mail a few really disturbing forms of abuse, including

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Speaker 1: him getting into screaming matches with her, and granted she

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Speaker 1: would scream back at him, but then the fights turned

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Speaker 1: physical in ways like he would jab her with his

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Speaker 1: limbs like elbows to sort of emphasize what he was

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Speaker 1: yelling to her about. Once he grabbed her out of

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Speaker 1: the shower, she had walked away, disengaged with the fight,

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Speaker 1: to take a shower, and he pulled her out of

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Speaker 1: the shower, yanking her by her shoulders, only to be

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Speaker 1: apologize profusely. And it culminated in this photo that apparently

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Speaker 1: Poured himself took. She says she made him take it

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Speaker 1: wow of her black eye that he had given her. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that photo was pretty alarming. I also think it's worth

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Speaker 1: noting that he he waited to introduce physical violence into

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Speaker 1: their relationship on their honeymoon, so a pattern that was

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Speaker 1: heated by the way on his second marriage. So clearly

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Speaker 1: this was part of his pattern of abusive behavior, of

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Speaker 1: getting these women to feel that they were locked in,

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Speaker 1: they couldn't leave, we're married, all of that, and really

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Speaker 1: introducing physical violence at that moment. And to me, that

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Speaker 1: just that just seems so clearly the pattern of a

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Speaker 1: serial abuser. It's really disturbing. These are the kinds of

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Speaker 1: behaviors that Holderness reports started happening after marriage. This included

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Speaker 1: things like throwing her on the bed and forcefully pushing

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Speaker 1: one of his limbs into her body in anger, and

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Speaker 1: choking her. She writes, quote, the thing you would do

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Speaker 1: most frequently is he would throw me down on a

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Speaker 1: bed and he would just put his body weight on

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Speaker 1: top of me, and he'd be yelling at me. But

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Speaker 1: as he was yelling, he'd be grinding an elbow or

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Speaker 1: knee into my body to emphasize his anger. Jesus, I

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Speaker 1: mean that sounds like someone who really cannot control their

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Speaker 1: rage that they can't have a conversation about something. The

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Speaker 1: only way they can get anything across is through these

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Speaker 1: physically violent expressions of rage, Like this is not someone

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Speaker 1: who should be in the flight house, is really what

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Speaker 1: it comes down to. Yeah, well, it just goes to

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Speaker 1: show you, a this is behavior that we shouldn't condone anywhere,

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Speaker 1: but be this is the kind of behavior that should

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Speaker 1: be flagged as a potential hire for any employer, but

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Speaker 1: especially for our federal government. This is someone who's going

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Speaker 1: to have access to national secrets. You know, this is

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Speaker 1: supposed to be the best of the best. Absolutely. I

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Speaker 1: also think it really highlights a way that we've been

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Speaker 1: trained to think about domestic violence, where it's something between

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Speaker 1: a couple, it's a it's a family issue. What happens

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Speaker 1: in your home should stay in your home. But if

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Speaker 1: this just goes to show that that line of thinking

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Speaker 1: isn't right. Someone who abuses their wives in the privacy

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Speaker 1: of their own home cannot be trusted in public. That

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Speaker 1: should be a public issue, particularly when they're in the

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Speaker 1: White House, particularly when they have access to all kinds

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Speaker 1: of sort of information, but really in any capacity. I

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Speaker 1: remember a story a few years ago when national security

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Speaker 1: agency employees were caught using secret government surveillance tools to

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Speaker 1: spy on the emails and phone calls of their current

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Speaker 1: and former lovers. And I just think when you have

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Speaker 1: access to privileged information about everyday citizens, there needs to

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Speaker 1: be an extra level of scrutiny and trust in terms

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Speaker 1: of what you're gonna do with that information. And I

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Speaker 1: think that no matter where you work, if you have

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Speaker 1: a history of domestic violence, that should be an issue,

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Speaker 1: but specifically especially if you're in the White House. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean, this is not an everyday job. This is

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Speaker 1: why we have clearances for federal government workers, which will

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Speaker 1: talk more about after this quick break, Because the bigger

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Speaker 1: story here, besides what this creepy, violent, clearly unhinged man

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Speaker 1: has done too many of the women in his life,

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Speaker 1: is how our government, how our leaders, how our White

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Speaker 1: House responded to that knowledge and information. So let's get

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Speaker 1: into that story after this point break and we're back,

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Speaker 1: And I want to first site this great piece that

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Speaker 1: Jenny Willoughby, one of Rob Porter's ex wives, penned for

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Speaker 1: Time magazine. She says, quote, on Friday, a friend and

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Speaker 1: I watched as the President of the United States sat

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Speaker 1: in the oval office and praised the work of my

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Speaker 1: ex husband, Rob Porter and wished him future success. I

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Speaker 1: can't say I was surprised, but when Donald Trump repeated

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Speaker 1: twice that Rob declared his innocence, I was floored. What

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Speaker 1: was his intent in emphasizing that point. My friend turned

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Speaker 1: to me and said, the President of the United States

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Speaker 1: just called you a liar. Yes, and so he did.

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Speaker 1: And that was the beginning of the Rob Porter scandal

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Speaker 1: in my opinion, because the President of the United States decided,

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Speaker 1: when letting Rob Porter go, when signing off on his

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Speaker 1: own self penned resignation letter, to emphasize the potential of

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Speaker 1: innocence here that he said he's innocent, and to remind

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Speaker 1: us all once again, women who speak out against violence

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Speaker 1: against women, women who share their stories, who hashtag me

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Speaker 1: to it up aren't to be trusted. Now, this doesn't

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Speaker 1: surprise me in the least. We know who Trump is.

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Speaker 1: He's shown himself to us many, many times on many

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Speaker 1: different levels. It's not surprising to me at all that

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Speaker 1: he would get up on this huge public platform and

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Speaker 1: essentially called the victims of domestic violence liars. Doesn't surprise

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Speaker 1: me at all exactly, But what does surprise me, and

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Speaker 1: what surprised a lot of members of the press was

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Speaker 1: the almost calculated and calibrated messaging attack that the entire

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Speaker 1: White House staff went on, including and especially their chief

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Speaker 1: of Staff, John F. Kelly, the guy who was supposedly

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Speaker 1: brought in to be the grown up to keep Trump

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Speaker 1: from messing himself up, to try to, you know, steer

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Speaker 1: the ship properly, and want to turn it over now

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Speaker 1: to Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus to give us the

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Speaker 1: rundown on why this behavior from John F. Kelly was

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Speaker 1: especially surprising. Then General Kelly issued this remarkable and appalling

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Speaker 1: statement describing Rob Porter as a man of true integrity

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Speaker 1: and honor. A man of true integrity and honor, go

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Speaker 1: look at the photographs, the horrifying photographs of Rob Porter's

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Speaker 1: first wife and the bruise under her eye. General Kelly,

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Speaker 1: thirteen hours, by the way, after that photograph came out,

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Speaker 1: changed his assessment of Rob Porter sort of and announced

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Speaker 1: that he was shocked. If he was shocked by the photograph,

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Speaker 1: that's only because he didn't go check it out because

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Speaker 1: she had given that photograph to the FBI, not this January,

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Speaker 1: but last January. So just to reiterate, the FBI had

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Speaker 1: images of what he had done to her, allegedly seven

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Speaker 1: days is after the inauguration, So this wasn't something that

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Speaker 1: they just found out, you know that, it's only now

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Speaker 1: when has come to the surface. They've had some time

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Speaker 1: to deal with this and process how they were going

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Speaker 1: to respond, and this is what they chose to do exactly. So,

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Speaker 1: whether this White House is completely dysfunctional in terms of

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Speaker 1: all personnel management, which is possible for sure, or had

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Speaker 1: knowingly seen these photos and had knowingly looked past his

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Speaker 1: abusive record and said whatever, we don't care. We like

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Speaker 1: Rob Porter. He's a man of true integrity and honor.

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Speaker 1: As General Kelly said, does it really matter, you know,

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Speaker 1: to mean like, either this is a sign of mass dysfunction,

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Speaker 1: which to me seems like a very plausible possibility, or

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Speaker 1: they looked past spousal abuse because this is something that

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Speaker 1: Donald Trump can relate to. Quite frankly, honestly, I think

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Speaker 1: it's both. I think it's both. That this is a chaotic,

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Speaker 1: dysfunct sational White House where nothing gets done and no

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Speaker 1: one knows what anyone is doing, and everyone is blaming

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Speaker 1: everyone else for all of these missteps and everything is overlooked.

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Speaker 1: And I also think they aren't particularly keen on taking

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Speaker 1: domestic violence seriously because that implicates Donald Trump, and the

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Speaker 1: more we talk about domestic violence, the more that keeps

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Speaker 1: the issue in the consciousness of the American people, particularly

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Speaker 1: women who are now having this big me too reckoning moment.

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Speaker 1: And so I think it's both just complete ineptitude and

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Speaker 1: also a conscious thing of we can't deal with this

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Speaker 1: too loudly or make too much noise about this, because

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Speaker 1: that gets people thinking about the other creeps that are

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Speaker 1: in the White House. But if they are not being

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Speaker 1: disappointed to hear how the women of the Trump White House,

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Speaker 1: not that I should expect more from them, but truly

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Speaker 1: to hear how Kelly am Conway and Sarah Huckabee standers

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Speaker 1: were following marching orders from General Kelly, but it shocked

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Speaker 1: me to hear that Kelly A. Conway said quote, I

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Speaker 1: have no reason not to believe the statements that the

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Speaker 1: victims who were speaking out, the X wives of Rob Porter.

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Speaker 1: It's like the least helpful thing you could say, while

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Speaker 1: still plausibly coming across as being on their side. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it doesn't sound like she's on their side. It's that

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Speaker 1: saying I have no reason not to believe them. To me,

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Speaker 1: that's one step below saying you're a liar. What reason

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Speaker 1: would she have not to believe them? They don't have this,

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Speaker 1: they don't have a history of public lies. Is just

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Speaker 1: such a weird thing to say. That seems to suggest, Oh,

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Speaker 1: I believe you, Like I bet Kelly a Conway thought

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Speaker 1: she was being very you know, support, But it sounds,

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Speaker 1: you know, it's like saying like, well, it will be

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Speaker 1: like if I said, Emily, I have no reason to

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Speaker 1: believe you stole my purse the whole thing. Of course

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Speaker 1: you don't. I've never stolen anything from you before. It

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Speaker 1: would be a weird thing to say, totally. But it

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Speaker 1: gets worse. She goes on to say. When she's on

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Speaker 1: CNN's State of the Union, she was asked if she

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Speaker 1: fears for the safety of White House Communications director Hope Picks,

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Speaker 1: who was apparently dating Rob Porter but two days ago,

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Speaker 1: according to the News, is now not dating him. Not surprising,

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Speaker 1: quite frankly, I would get out of that headline relationship too,

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Speaker 1: And when asked if she should be worried about Hope Picks,

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Speaker 1: she said, and I quote, I've rarely met somebody so strong,

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Speaker 1: with such excellent instincts and loyalty and smarts. So therefore

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Speaker 1: she's not worried about Hope as though the victims of

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Speaker 1: domestic violence are not strong or you know, strong, loyal,

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Speaker 1: smart women can't become victims of domestic violence. Also, loyal

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Speaker 1: is a weird thing to throw in there, like what

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Speaker 1: is she trying to say? That's the Trump doctrine coming here,

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Speaker 1: and she's very loyal, Like what does it have to do?

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Speaker 1: What is loyalty being a victim of domestic violence? Is

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Speaker 1: it such a weird thing to say? And again, all

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Speaker 1: kinds of people, men, women, strong women, as sort of women,

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Speaker 1: women who are less assertive, anybody can be the victim

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Speaker 1: of domestic violence. Doesn't even do with any of these qualities,

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Speaker 1: and her highlighting them as a reason why she wouldn't

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Speaker 1: worry about Hope Hicks. It's just very bizarre. Exactly the

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Speaker 1: other thing that came out of Sarah Huckaby Sanders mouth,

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Speaker 1: which was jarring, but also says a lot I think

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Speaker 1: about this administration when explaining away, or trying to explain away,

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Speaker 1: the allegations that they knew about Rob Porter's abusive background,

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Speaker 1: didn't care, didn't do much about it. She was basically

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Speaker 1: giving a press briefing, you know, explaining the timeline, explaining

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Speaker 1: that they had taken action swiftly, and went on to say,

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Speaker 1: above all, the President supports victims of domestic violence and

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Speaker 1: believes that everyone should be treated fairly and with due process.

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Speaker 1: So she can't just say the President completely rejects domestic violence.

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Speaker 1: She can't just say that like the President himself, who,

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Speaker 1: by the way, she later told the media, he literally

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Speaker 1: dictated that to me. So the President cannot, in the

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Speaker 1: same breath, resist from saying, yeah, I support victims, but

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Speaker 1: like also, these guys who might be falsely accused are

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Speaker 1: worthy of due process. So that's a bull. I find

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Speaker 1: it fascinating that Trump is all of a sudden so

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Speaker 1: invested in due process. This is a man that's spent

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Speaker 1: eighty five thousand dollars of his own money taking out

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Speaker 1: an ad condemning the youth involved in the Central Park

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Speaker 1: five jogger case. If you don't know what that is. Basically,

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Speaker 1: in the late eighties. Trump really rose to political fame

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Speaker 1: by taking out this ad saying, this is why we

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Speaker 1: need to bring us the death penalty. These kids are guilty.

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Speaker 1: Blah blah blah. It turns out all of these youths

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Speaker 1: were exonerated. They were all proven innocent by DNA evidence.

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Speaker 1: They had been pressured to say they were guilty, and

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Speaker 1: they weren't. To this day, Trump has never taken back

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Speaker 1: what he said, and so he is someone who gleefully

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Speaker 1: gets into the mix when it comes to condemning people

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Speaker 1: without due process. He's in publicly proven wrong on that

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Speaker 1: front time and time again, and so it's it's very

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Speaker 1: interesting to me that when it comes to this situation,

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Speaker 1: he's all about reminding us about due process, but in

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Speaker 1: so many other very public situations where nobody frankly even

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Speaker 1: asked him what he thought, he felt the need to

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Speaker 1: get in the mix. We'll think about how he launched

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Speaker 1: his campaign. The very first press conference he held as

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Speaker 1: he launched his campaign and made that renowned sort of

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Speaker 1: escalator debut, he basically called Mexicans rapists. So this is

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Speaker 1: a man who is swift in condemning people who don't

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Speaker 1: look like him as rapists. As abusers, as violent men.

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Speaker 1: But you know he's swift to come to the defense

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Speaker 1: of white men who have been accused of assault, like

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Speaker 1: Roy Moore of Alabama. Exactly. I think with Trump, you

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Speaker 1: really see a pattern of making it clear that he

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Speaker 1: believes that if you're brown, are black, you are an abuser.

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Speaker 1: You cannot be rehabilitated, you should be thrown in jail

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Speaker 1: or criminalized, or we should build a wall to keep

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Speaker 1: you out or deport you. But if you're a white guy,

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Speaker 1: then you're an upstanding person. And it's interesting who he

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Speaker 1: gives the benefit of the doubt. For whom these issues

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Speaker 1: are just matters of the home, private matters, stay out

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Speaker 1: of them, and for whom they become issues of national security.

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Speaker 1: And it's clear that when it's a Latino or an

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Speaker 1: African American, it is an issue of national security. Build

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Speaker 1: the wall, more cops, blah blah blah, deck penalty. When

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Speaker 1: it's a white guy, totally give him access to secret

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Speaker 1: government files, He's fine, he's white. Exactly. So he not

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Speaker 1: only didn't denounce accused child minister Roy Moore, who ran

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Speaker 1: for Senate in Alabama, he endorsed him. And before that

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Speaker 1: he defended Bill O'Reilly as a great guy and Roger Ales,

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Speaker 1: two men ousted from Fox News after it was revealed

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Speaker 1: that they'd paid off millions of dollars and settlements to

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Speaker 1: women who had accused them of harassment and assault. And

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Speaker 1: we have to give a shout out to our out

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Speaker 1: Liz Playing friend of the show, who wrote an excellent,

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Speaker 1: incisive piece for l magazine called when Donald Trump protects

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Speaker 1: a white man accused of assault, He's protecting himself. It's

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Speaker 1: a great piece. Will include it in the show notes.

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Speaker 1: And I want to talk more about the President's response

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Speaker 1: directly to the Rob Porter scandal after this quick break

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Speaker 1: and we're back. And we've been talking about why President

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Speaker 1: Trump might be so quick to come to the defense

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Speaker 1: of someone like Rob Porter, perhaps because he reminds him

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Speaker 1: of a younger him in many ways. And it's interesting

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Speaker 1: to hear how Trump has changed his tune on the

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Speaker 1: Rob Porter scandal as the news story about it has developed. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's almost identical to what happened with the Roy Moore situation,

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Speaker 1: where at first he didn't say much about it on

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Speaker 1: the record, wouldn't really make a public comment on it,

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Speaker 1: but then in the days that followed would only respond

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Speaker 1: by highlighting his pristine record and saying, Oh, he's done

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Speaker 1: a great job and blah blah blah. I think it

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Speaker 1: really is a pattern of support for an abuser, and

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Speaker 1: it shouldn't be surprising because creep support other creeps totally.

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Speaker 1: It took a whole week after the Rob Porter News

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Speaker 1: really broke um, and after Rob Porter himself resigned, for

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Speaker 1: Trump to actually say on the record that he was

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Speaker 1: quote totally opposed to domestic violence. And in response to

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Speaker 1: the people who were like, damn, that took a long

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Speaker 1: time for you to come around and just say out loud,

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Speaker 1: he basically turned the question back on his critics by saying, quote,

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Speaker 1: I'm totally opposed to domestic violence of any kind, and

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Speaker 1: everybody here knows that, and it almost wouldn't even have

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Speaker 1: to be said. So now you hear it, but you

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Speaker 1: all know, like you've known all along, Like, screw you

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Speaker 1: for making me have to say this. You known this

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Speaker 1: whole time. Don't tell me you didn't know that about me. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it really is gaslighting. We listened to him, it met

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Speaker 1: his own despicable acts against women, and then he's gonna

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Speaker 1: turn it around on us and be like you guys know,

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Speaker 1: I champion women. Come on, you're crazy for thinking otherwise. Exactly,

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Speaker 1: And honestly, it really reminds me of when people were

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Speaker 1: calling on Trump to denounce Nazis. I didn't know we

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Speaker 1: were in a situation now where one publicly saying that

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Speaker 1: you're against domestic violence and to publicly saying that you're

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Speaker 1: against Nazis is all of a sudden a controversial thing

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Speaker 1: that we have to hold our breath to see if

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Speaker 1: it's actually going to happen. Where I come from, domestic

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Speaker 1: abusers and Nazis are squarely in the bad category and

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Speaker 1: there's not really a lot of gray area about it.

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Speaker 1: Just see Indiana Jones. Yeah, exactly, exactly. And now we're

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Speaker 1: in a new place where apparently asking the President of

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Speaker 1: the United States to publicly denounced Nazis and abusers is tricky,

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Speaker 1: and it involves more nuanced than just saying, of course

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Speaker 1: they're awful. Next question, well, not all nuts. These some

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Speaker 1: are very fine people. Exactly. God, yeah it, but really,

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Speaker 1: you see who gets that Trump benefit of the doubt

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Speaker 1: about being a fine person or a good worker or whatever,

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Speaker 1: And it's white men. Yeah, it's not good. And I'm

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Speaker 1: no psychologist. But it feels like maybe there's a little

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Speaker 1: bit of projecting going on, a little bit of defensiveness

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Speaker 1: that our commander in chief feels given his own record

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Speaker 1: with domestic abuse. And honestly, we don't have time on

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Speaker 1: a single podcast to review every horrifying thing Donald Trump

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Speaker 1: has ever said about women, But I do want to

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Speaker 1: draw our attention to and excerpt from a book by

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Speaker 1: former Texas Monthly and Newsweek reporter Harry Hurt the Third,

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Speaker 1: which describes how things basically fell apart between Donald Trump

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Speaker 1: and his ex wife Ivana Trump. In this really harrowing

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Speaker 1: scene in the book, Trump comes back home after painful

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Speaker 1: scalp reduction surgery to remove a bald spot. I'm so

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Speaker 1: I shouldn't laugh. I mean, it's it's it's absurd. And

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Speaker 1: apparently he was very mad at Ivana because Trump had

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Speaker 1: used the same plastic surgeon that she had, or maybe

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Speaker 1: like she recommended the doctor to him, and so he said, quote,

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Speaker 1: your king doctor has ruined me. And according to reports,

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Speaker 1: what followed was a violent assault, during which time Donald

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Speaker 1: held back Ivanna's arms began to pull out fistfuls of

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Speaker 1: hair from her scalp as if to mirror the pain

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Speaker 1: that he felt from his own operation. He tore off

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Speaker 1: her clothes and unzipped his pants quote. Then he jams

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Speaker 1: his penis inside her for the first time in more

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Speaker 1: than sixteen months. Ivanna is terrified. It's a violent assault

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Speaker 1: her rights. He goes on to say, quote according to versions,

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Speaker 1: she repeats to some of her closest confidants, he raped me.

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Speaker 1: That is harrowing. I have no trouble believing that that happened.

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Speaker 1: And again it goes to show why perhaps Trump doesn't

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Speaker 1: want to come down on condemning these abusers too hard,

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Speaker 1: why he does feel the need to say they're upstanding people,

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Speaker 1: because he's really saying about himself. Yeah, a lot of

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Speaker 1: that I think is happening here for sure, And we

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Speaker 1: have to ask ourselves, you know, from a national security standpoint,

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Speaker 1: from a national personnel standpoint, do we want taxpayer dollars

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Speaker 1: to pay the salaries of people like Rob Porter? I mean,

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Speaker 1: clearly not the majority of us wanted our taxpayer dollars

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Speaker 1: to pay the salary of Donald Trump. But that's a

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Speaker 1: different issue for now. There's an interesting security element here

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Speaker 1: that comes into play, and granted it's very nuanced, so

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Speaker 1: we're paraphrasing here, but this is now something that our

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Speaker 1: committees in the Senate and House are investigating because Rob

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Speaker 1: Porter was not given a security clearance. He did not

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Speaker 1: pass the VET, he didn't pass the background check basically

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Speaker 1: to get the kind of clearance that most people in

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Speaker 1: the White House need to get to be able to

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Speaker 1: do their jobs. And so now six Senators have asked

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Speaker 1: Christopher Ray, the FBI director, for the names of other

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00:25:11,040 --> 00:25:14,439
Speaker 1: employees at the White House who were working quote, without

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Speaker 1: being able to obtain a permanent security clearance. When you

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00:25:18,240 --> 00:25:20,560
Speaker 1: look at the number of people in this administration who

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00:25:20,600 --> 00:25:25,000
Speaker 1: don't have permanent clearances, it is shocking. And actually watchdog

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00:25:25,080 --> 00:25:29,439
Speaker 1: organizations agree citizens were responsible and ethics in Washington otherwise, though,

436
00:25:29,520 --> 00:25:31,760
Speaker 1: as Crew has basically pointed out that the fact that

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Speaker 1: high level White House staffers, including folks like Jared Kushner,

438
00:25:35,720 --> 00:25:40,119
Speaker 1: not having their permanent clearance, that's a really dangerous precedent. Exactly,

439
00:25:40,160 --> 00:25:43,040
Speaker 1: this whole idea of an interim clearance, which is the

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00:25:43,119 --> 00:25:46,680
Speaker 1: kind of clearance that somehow allowed Rob Porter to continue

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00:25:46,720 --> 00:25:49,760
Speaker 1: doing his job, it wasn't designed for that, It wasn't

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00:25:49,760 --> 00:25:54,159
Speaker 1: a workaround, It was really just intended for giving folks

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00:25:54,200 --> 00:25:56,960
Speaker 1: clearance for the first few weeks of the new president's

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00:25:56,960 --> 00:26:00,680
Speaker 1: administration while they were waiting for approval from the Personnel

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00:26:00,760 --> 00:26:04,080
Speaker 1: Security Office. That's the office that receives all the background

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00:26:04,080 --> 00:26:08,440
Speaker 1: information from the FBI determining whether officials should be clear

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00:26:08,520 --> 00:26:11,320
Speaker 1: to have access to sensitive information. And as someone who

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00:26:11,359 --> 00:26:13,439
Speaker 1: has gone through this process, which by the way, is

449
00:26:13,600 --> 00:26:16,280
Speaker 1: hellish when I was trying to join the Obama administration

450
00:26:16,320 --> 00:26:18,480
Speaker 1: a few years back, let me tell you, if you

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00:26:18,520 --> 00:26:21,720
Speaker 1: are not able to get your permanent clearance, the assumption

452
00:26:21,760 --> 00:26:24,360
Speaker 1: is not that, oh, you're probably fine, it's just a backlog,

453
00:26:24,359 --> 00:26:26,560
Speaker 1: blah blah blah. The assumption is that something is up

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00:26:26,600 --> 00:26:29,119
Speaker 1: and that you shouldn't have that clearance, right, And the

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00:26:29,119 --> 00:26:31,119
Speaker 1: fact that these people are running around the White House

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00:26:31,359 --> 00:26:35,520
Speaker 1: with temporary clearances probably fills anybody with any inside knowledge

457
00:26:35,560 --> 00:26:38,240
Speaker 1: of that process with a lot of dread and fear,

458
00:26:38,280 --> 00:26:41,199
Speaker 1: as it should. And now everybody's pointing to everybody else's

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00:26:41,240 --> 00:26:44,439
Speaker 1: office and the administration. It's really it's a real show,

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00:26:44,480 --> 00:26:47,120
Speaker 1: to be quite honest. The FBI is saying that they'd

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00:26:47,119 --> 00:26:50,160
Speaker 1: sent the White House a preliminary background report on Mr

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00:26:50,280 --> 00:26:53,000
Speaker 1: Porter in March, so less than three months after the

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00:26:53,040 --> 00:26:56,960
Speaker 1: new administration took office. They sent them a full investigation

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00:26:57,040 --> 00:27:00,600
Speaker 1: in July and a more detailed accounting in November, closing

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00:27:00,640 --> 00:27:04,359
Speaker 1: its inquiry in January. So basically a year later, we

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00:27:04,359 --> 00:27:06,560
Speaker 1: don't know what's in those reports, but we do know

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00:27:06,800 --> 00:27:10,280
Speaker 1: that the FBI did a thorough investigation. Meanwhile, the White

468
00:27:10,280 --> 00:27:14,679
Speaker 1: House says we never got it. We might have gotten it,

469
00:27:14,720 --> 00:27:18,199
Speaker 1: but we're gonna not acknowledge getting it, saying that the

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00:27:18,280 --> 00:27:21,720
Speaker 1: Security Office, by the way, which the White House manages,

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00:27:22,240 --> 00:27:27,720
Speaker 1: it's the personnel Security Office under the administration, never made

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00:27:27,800 --> 00:27:31,480
Speaker 1: a final recommendation. A lot of folks are saying that

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00:27:31,520 --> 00:27:36,840
Speaker 1: this entire process is highly unusual and dangerous for people

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00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:41,280
Speaker 1: at Mr Porter's level of access, of clearance, of responsibility

475
00:27:41,720 --> 00:27:46,439
Speaker 1: to do their jobs indefinitely without the proper clearance. Well, Emily,

476
00:27:46,600 --> 00:27:48,359
Speaker 1: all I have to say is thank god there's not

477
00:27:48,400 --> 00:27:50,600
Speaker 1: a woman in there checking her email in a private server,

478
00:27:50,880 --> 00:27:54,119
Speaker 1: because that would have really been a dangerous situation. Can

479
00:27:54,200 --> 00:27:58,600
Speaker 1: you imagine soon what a security fail? I know act

480
00:27:59,440 --> 00:28:01,280
Speaker 1: they are used private servers. So the whole thing is,

481
00:28:01,320 --> 00:28:03,840
Speaker 1: the whole thing is bananas. We could do a whole

482
00:28:03,840 --> 00:28:07,320
Speaker 1: episode on that, and honestly, sminty listeners. We have to

483
00:28:07,400 --> 00:28:10,359
Speaker 1: keep our eye on this story because, and this is

484
00:28:10,400 --> 00:28:12,879
Speaker 1: the most tragic part of how this story is ending

485
00:28:13,760 --> 00:28:16,280
Speaker 1: is as all of this is coming to a head,

486
00:28:16,359 --> 00:28:19,879
Speaker 1: the pressures on the White House, Sarah Huckaby Sanders is

487
00:28:19,880 --> 00:28:22,919
Speaker 1: supposed to hold a press conference with the administration addressing

488
00:28:22,960 --> 00:28:26,240
Speaker 1: these hard hitting questions on Wednesday, but it gets postponed

489
00:28:26,640 --> 00:28:31,960
Speaker 1: and then all bets are off because the shooting in Parkland, Florida,

490
00:28:32,160 --> 00:28:36,000
Speaker 1: completely changes the conversation and the news cycle. And as

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00:28:36,040 --> 00:28:41,040
Speaker 1: of right now, as of this recording Friday, the administration

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00:28:41,240 --> 00:28:44,640
Speaker 1: just canceled it. The whole press briefing was scrapped. So

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00:28:44,720 --> 00:28:47,560
Speaker 1: this is my thing. I think the administration is counting

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00:28:47,560 --> 00:28:49,920
Speaker 1: on us to lose focus on this story. They're counting

495
00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:52,320
Speaker 1: on us to have this story pushed out of our

496
00:28:52,320 --> 00:28:55,400
Speaker 1: our consciousness as we move on to other important stories,

497
00:28:55,680 --> 00:28:58,120
Speaker 1: and I think we can't let that happen. We owe

498
00:28:58,120 --> 00:29:01,120
Speaker 1: it to not only these thick women who were victims

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00:29:01,120 --> 00:29:04,920
Speaker 1: of abuse, but two victims of abuse large everywhere. We

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00:29:05,040 --> 00:29:07,600
Speaker 1: owe it to the country to show that this is

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00:29:07,640 --> 00:29:10,800
Speaker 1: a serious issue. Think about all the people in your

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00:29:10,880 --> 00:29:14,440
Speaker 1: life who could be victims of domestic violence. You owe

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00:29:14,520 --> 00:29:17,520
Speaker 1: it to them to make sure that we hold abusers accountable.

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00:29:17,800 --> 00:29:19,680
Speaker 1: These are people that you probably see every day and

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00:29:19,680 --> 00:29:22,400
Speaker 1: you don't even know. It's important that we not let

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00:29:22,400 --> 00:29:25,080
Speaker 1: this issue just fall by the wayside and we, you know,

507
00:29:25,120 --> 00:29:27,440
Speaker 1: focus on something else. I think we really got to

508
00:29:27,600 --> 00:29:31,040
Speaker 1: be intentional about holding these abusers accountable because they work

509
00:29:31,080 --> 00:29:33,400
Speaker 1: for us there in our house. The White House isn't

510
00:29:33,480 --> 00:29:35,520
Speaker 1: their playground to do with what they want and to

511
00:29:35,560 --> 00:29:37,600
Speaker 1: fill with all kinds of creeps that they want. We

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00:29:37,640 --> 00:29:38,920
Speaker 1: have a say in this, and I think we have

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00:29:38,960 --> 00:29:41,800
Speaker 1: to make that clear. Minty listeners, what is your take?

514
00:29:41,960 --> 00:29:44,840
Speaker 1: Send us a tweet at mom Stuff podcast, hit us

515
00:29:44,920 --> 00:29:47,000
Speaker 1: up on Instagram at stuff Mom Never Told You, and

516
00:29:47,080 --> 00:29:49,880
Speaker 1: as always, you can reach us via email at mom

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00:29:49,960 --> 00:30:00,640
Speaker 1: Stuff at how stuff works dot com. Two