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Speaker 1: Are you one of those people who thinks it's okay

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Speaker 1: to drives down? I mean, what's the worst that can happen?

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Speaker 1: You end up driving below the speed limit, It's no

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Speaker 1: big deal, right wrong? The truth is your reaction times

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Speaker 1: slow way down. When you're high, you not only put

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Speaker 1: yourself in danger, but everyone around you. Talk about it. Buzzkill,

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Speaker 1: Stop kidding. It's not okay to drive high. If you've

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Speaker 1: been using marijuana in any form, do not get behind

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Speaker 1: the wheel. If you feel different, you drive different. Drive high.

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Speaker 1: Get a DUI paid for by NITZA. Now here's a

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Speaker 1: highlight from Coast to Coast AM on iHeart Radio and

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Speaker 1: welcome back to Coast to Coast George Norry with you.

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Speaker 1: As I mentioned at the top of the program, United

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Speaker 1: States troops are going to be withdrawn from Syria. President

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Speaker 1: Trump said the Islamic State ISIS group has been defeated there.

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Speaker 1: I've got some questions about that. Some two thousand troops

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Speaker 1: have been there. Ground troops will probably still keep some

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Speaker 1: air troops up there, planes and things like that. But

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Speaker 1: the troops, they say the ground troops will be coming

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Speaker 1: out of Syria. We still have them in Afghanistan and

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Speaker 1: Iraq as well for the next couple hours. Craig Hewlett

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Speaker 1: back with us. He was the speechwriter and special assistant

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Speaker 1: for special Projects to Congressman Jack Medcalf at the time.

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Speaker 1: He has been a consultant to Federal Law Enforcement, DA

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Speaker 1: Homeland Security for more than twenty five plus years. He

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Speaker 1: remains a paid analyst and consultant in various areas of

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Speaker 1: geopolitical business and security issues, terrorism, military affairs. We've got

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Speaker 1: a whole list of things to talk with Craig about today.

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Speaker 1: We'll start with the Syrian situation. Craig, welcome back. I

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Speaker 1: hope you are ready for Christmas, my friend. Not really.

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Speaker 1: We don't really celebrate Christmas around here. By some presents

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Speaker 1: for the grandkids, but we don't. We really don't do

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Speaker 1: much celebration around here. I guess that's why I have

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Speaker 1: that reputation of being every part. I was going to say,

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Speaker 1: you probably jump Santa if he comes down the chimney, right, Well,

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Speaker 1: I would ask him to politely leave. Well, it's good

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Speaker 1: to talk to you and good to have you back.

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Speaker 1: I want to get your reaction for a little bit

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Speaker 1: about US pulling out these two thousand troops in Syria.

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Speaker 1: And what also confuses me on this story, Craig is

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Speaker 1: the President said that the Islamic state ISIS has been

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Speaker 1: defeated in Syria. Weren't they the ones we were supporting

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Speaker 1: to fight Assad? Yes, so, yeah, there was way too

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Speaker 1: much evidence to ever deny that. Now we even know

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Speaker 1: where we trained, and we'd trade them in the southern

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Speaker 1: part of Jordan where Dick Cheney discovered oil in Jordan

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Speaker 1: and handed it off to Israel rather than Jordan. That

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Speaker 1: area has been used for training these people we call

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Speaker 1: ISIS for a very long time. But unbeknownst to most

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Speaker 1: people in the United States at least, there's a group

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Speaker 1: out there called Isis Hunters, and I've researched them in

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Speaker 1: depth for the past couple of months. They do have

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Speaker 1: an odd, strange blog kind of tweet thing they're doing,

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Speaker 1: but they are a fearsome bunch. And the people that

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Speaker 1: are the fundamentalists that are part of those groups, like DASH,

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Speaker 1: which I believe is the correct terminology IIS, doesn't make

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Speaker 1: any sense in either language. But if you just go

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Speaker 1: ahead and understand them as militant fundamentalist Islamists that want

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Speaker 1: to overthrow secular regimes, then I don't really care what

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Speaker 1: we call them. But the ices hunters are the ones

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Speaker 1: that are actually making a great deal of headway. And

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Speaker 1: they are in large part mercenaries, and they come from

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Speaker 1: all different parts of the Middle East and North Africa,

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Speaker 1: and they're extremely active. But they don't get much press,

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Speaker 1: they don't want much press. But I've looked at some

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Speaker 1: of the backgrounds and they are a fearsome bunch and

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Speaker 1: they are taking them on head on the way you

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Speaker 1: would expect mercenaries to do. They get paid to do it,

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Speaker 1: and believe it or not ices is being aid to

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Speaker 1: do what they're doing. So we're kind of getting a

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Speaker 1: little bit Middle Ages here. We're using fewer and fewer

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Speaker 1: government sponsored troops actual military personnel. In fact, we have

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Speaker 1: more state security contractors deployed than US actor of duty

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Speaker 1: military right now. Well, now, didn't the Russians, the Iranians,

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Speaker 1: and the Syrians go after the same group that we

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Speaker 1: were trying to defend and protect. Yeah, Putin's reason for

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Speaker 1: going into Syria was the same reason I argued in

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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety when Bush Senior went into Iraq and threatened

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Speaker 1: the other not very stable regimes in the area. They

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Speaker 1: decided what the Soviet Union's collapse of the Berlin Wall

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Speaker 1: coming down, that we could go in. Western powers could

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Speaker 1: go in and take over the Middle East, eliminating seven

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Speaker 1: nation state leaders, secular leaders leaders predominantly, and including their

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Speaker 1: conventional warfare making capability. We chose in nineteen ninety to

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Speaker 1: remake the Middle East. Now, I never believe that was

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Speaker 1: a smart thing to do. But you know, I have

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Speaker 1: no say. Nobody listens to me. I know, but I think,

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Speaker 1: you know if some people in Congress used to. But

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Speaker 1: I don't think so anymore. I think we've gone off

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Speaker 1: the rails because I warned in nineteen ninety go ahead

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Speaker 1: and do what you're talking about doing. But you're talking

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Speaker 1: about libya'st Theriat, Irraq, Afghanistan, and those are on the

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Speaker 1: borders of Russian interests in Chinese interest and those two

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Speaker 1: countries are not afraid to go to war. They're more

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Speaker 1: prepared to go to war conventionally than any other nations

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Speaker 1: on Earth. And a recent study prepared by the RAND

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Speaker 1: Corporation asked by the Congress last year, it in fact,

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Speaker 1: I heard one of the admirals that was part of

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Speaker 1: the study itself that held right part of it he

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Speaker 1: was on a radio show, very short interview, and he

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Speaker 1: described the US military is not by even a whistleblow

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Speaker 1: chance of defeating Russia or China in a conventional war.

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Speaker 1: And then the argument goes from there, well can we

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Speaker 1: win a conventional war without using nuclear weapons? And he

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Speaker 1: said no, yeah, that's probably right. So so what did

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Speaker 1: the president mean when he said the Islamic state has

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Speaker 1: been defeated. That's just nonsense. Trump's not the only one

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Speaker 1: that does nonsense. I want to be really clear before

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Speaker 1: we go any further. I don't believe Trump is any

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Speaker 1: more of a legitimate president than George Bush, Junior Obama,

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Speaker 1: or Bill Clinton or ridiculous as it would have been,

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Speaker 1: Hillary Clinton. These people are not actually what you think

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Speaker 1: the president ought to be according to our constitution. You're

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Speaker 1: just wrong that the power isn't there any longer, and

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Speaker 1: it hasn't been for decades. So you know, I used

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Speaker 1: to argue twenty five years ago, it doesn't matter who's

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Speaker 1: in the white out, the thing we flippantly referred to

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Speaker 1: as a deep state, or some people refer to his right,

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Speaker 1: of course, it exists. Do you actually think people like

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Speaker 1: David Rockefeller or Dick Cheney or or George Sorrows all

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Speaker 1: those people. Yeah, you actually think that they stop being

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Speaker 1: political when they leave office and go into the corporate world. Again, No,

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Speaker 1: that's where that's where they build the power of the

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Speaker 1: corporate empire, and that's what controls everything that matters at

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Speaker 1: the White House level. So when Trump says, you know,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to pull the troops out, he just is

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Speaker 1: likely in three days to redeploy five thousand troops. Oh

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Speaker 1: my god, we're still not his decisions. We you know,

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Speaker 1: we went into Afghanistan in two thousand and one in October.

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Speaker 1: We're still there. U seventeen years now, My god. We

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Speaker 1: went into Iraq the second time in two thousand and three.

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Speaker 1: We're still there. I mean, we never had any plans

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Speaker 1: to leave. Didn't. No, No, there's no exit strategy. No

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Speaker 1: nobody that looks at military affairs. And and believe me,

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Speaker 1: you know, I don't read I don't read the daily newspapers.

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Speaker 1: I don't listen to CNN or Fox News. I don't

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Speaker 1: listen to any of those people. If I want to

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Speaker 1: understand what's going on politically, economically, and militarily, I go

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Speaker 1: to the sources that report to the government and the

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Speaker 1: people who are interested at that level. I don't really

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Speaker 1: care what an opinion maker has to say, like Sean

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Speaker 1: Hannity doesn't interest me. In fact, it depresses me. And

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Speaker 1: I don't get depressed ever. But you know, Sean Hannity

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Speaker 1: and Rachel Maddow, I'm just I have to close my

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Speaker 1: eyes and just say, oh my god, what's happened here?

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Speaker 1: This is not right. I can't listen to this because

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Speaker 1: what's really going on it's got nothing to do with

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Speaker 1: what they'll ever tell you. They don't need to tell you,

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Speaker 1: the American people, anything that's true any longer. It's not

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Speaker 1: nobody even thinks that way any longer. It's gone so

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Speaker 1: far past it that they could fire seymour Hersh from

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Speaker 1: The New Yorker and no other newspaper even cared to

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Speaker 1: look at it or question it. He said, America's only

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Speaker 1: living great investigative reporter still breathing, And what was he

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Speaker 1: working on Russia? And he got fired because they didn't

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Speaker 1: want him reporting what they knew they were going to

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Speaker 1: report about Russia under the Trump administration, so they just

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Speaker 1: simply fired him. And if they could fire seymour Hersh

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Speaker 1: or Dan rather over George Bush Junior's National Guard record.

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Speaker 1: Then how vulnerable is free press in this country? Good

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Speaker 1: to good point, good points. Listen to more Coast to

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Speaker 1: Coast AM every weeknight at one am Eastern, and go

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Speaker 1: to Coast to Coast am dot com for more