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Speaker 1: Will that crazy twelve percent that believes in this conspiracy

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Speaker 1: be the determining factor in electing Donald Trump. It's Thursday,

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Speaker 1: February fifteenth. There are two hundred and sixty four days

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Speaker 1: left until America decides and chooses who will be the

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Speaker 1: next head of state, commander in chief, and President of

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Speaker 1: the United States. There are two political parties in America,

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Speaker 1: the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. Did you know

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Speaker 1: that they are also the first and the third oldest

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Speaker 1: political parties in the world. The Republican Party is the

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Speaker 1: junior partner, founded in eighteen fifty four, and today in

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Speaker 1: our country of three hundred and thirty million Americans, thirty

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Speaker 1: eight million of them are registered Republicans, slightly more than

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Speaker 1: ten percent of the actual population of the country. Third

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Speaker 1: of Republicans, according to polling, believe that there is a

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Speaker 1: conspiracy affoot involving Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey to somehow

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Speaker 1: fix the Super Bowl tied into the general election and

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Speaker 1: participate in some nefarious manner that will steal the election

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Speaker 1: again from Donald Trump. If I understand the conspiracy correctly,

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Speaker 1: let's think about that number. One third of thirty eight

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Speaker 1: million is a little bit north of twelve million people,

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Speaker 1: and this lays out the choice in our country. Are

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Speaker 1: three hundred and thirty million of us in total going

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Speaker 1: to be ruled over by our lowest common denominator? Will

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Speaker 1: that crazy twelve percent that believes in this conspiracy be

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Speaker 1: the determining factor in electing Donald Trump? Because that base

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Speaker 1: is the hardcore MAGA core, and it's nuts. The crazy

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Speaker 1: people just didn't spontaneously generate. We've always had crazy people

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Speaker 1: in America, yet at the same time, we've retained the

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Speaker 1: wisdom to make certain that they never took control of

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Speaker 1: the nation. It would have been much better for the

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Speaker 1: world if a crazy faction of Americans were able to

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Speaker 1: take the whole of the country hostage. That it would

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Speaker 1: have taken place when America was a much less powerful nation,

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Speaker 1: not the world's pre eminent one its most potent nuclear power.

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Speaker 1: Yet that is the situation that we face. Across all

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Speaker 1: of the history of humanity. There are only about seven

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Speaker 1: hundred million people that have ever lived that can call

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Speaker 1: themselves properly Americans. It's interesting to consider on the eve

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Speaker 1: of America's two hundred and fiftieth birthday and the anniversary

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Speaker 1: of independence, that half of all Americans who ever lived

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Speaker 1: are alive right now today. And the dominant, most powerful

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Speaker 1: political faction, the one that has their hand on the

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Speaker 1: throat of American politics, that has consumed the overwhelming amount

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Speaker 1: of the nation's attention for the last eight years, that

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Speaker 1: has powered an extremist element that turned into a fascist movement,

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Speaker 1: is found in a minority. And this is always the case.

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Speaker 1: The core of the Trump movement is relatively small, thirteen

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Speaker 1: million people. That this is the business model of the

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Speaker 1: cable companies. They're able to reach a faction of that

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Speaker 1: thirteen million, a couple million on Fox, a couple hundred

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Speaker 1: thousand on news Max. When you disaggregate it through social media,

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Speaker 1: everybody gets a little piece. And it works exactly the

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Speaker 1: same way on the Democratic Party side. And what this

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Speaker 1: has done, plus the algorithm, is create a situation where

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Speaker 1: everybody lives in their own bubble, their own delusion and

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Speaker 1: their own reality. They're disconnected from the concepts of Americanism

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Speaker 1: and community and patriotism. And when patriotism weakens the weed,

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Speaker 1: the pestilence, the malevolence that comes in its place is nationalism.

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Speaker 1: We shouldn't be surprised that there's twelve million people in

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Speaker 1: this country who would vote for a rapist. Why would

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Speaker 1: we be We shouldn't be surprised that there's twelve million

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Speaker 1: people in this country who believed the presidential election will

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Speaker 1: be decided in a conspiracy between Taylor Swift and Travis Kelcey.

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Speaker 1: We shouldn't be surprised about any of it. The surprising

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Speaker 1: part about it is that the overwhelming majority would allow,

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Speaker 1: through indifference, this deluded, crazy faction to actually take political

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Speaker 1: power and be the authors of our destiny and shape

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Speaker 1: the future. Is it surprising that a third of Republicans

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Speaker 1: believe this nonsense? The Speaker of the House of Representatives

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Speaker 1: is a bonafide, full on religious fanatic, a theocrat who

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Speaker 1: believes people in dinosaurs walked around together six thousand years ago.

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Speaker 1: These people are nuts, and Donald Trump, the greatest demagogue

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Speaker 1: of his age, a malignant narcissist, a sociopathic personality, a

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Speaker 1: convicted rapist, a fraudster, has built a cult of personality

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Speaker 1: around this core of madness. Nobody is asking anybody in

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Speaker 1: America to quit their jobs, to vote their lives to

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Speaker 1: stopping this. But the way you stop it is to

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Speaker 1: go vote a couple times a year is to participate

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Speaker 1: a little bit, to practice citizenship. Because there's a difference

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Speaker 1: between you and the crazy ass people that believe in

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Speaker 1: the conspiracy between Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift. Those crazy

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Speaker 1: ass people are going to go vote, They're going to

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Speaker 1: vote in primaries, and you're not u And so that

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Speaker 1: crazy group, which is a third of the Republican Party

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Speaker 1: and a much smaller percentage nationally, becomes the dominant percentage

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Speaker 1: in a primary, and voila, guess what it produces. The

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Speaker 1: Carrie Lakes of the world, the Marjorie Taylor Greens of

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Speaker 1: the world, the Lauren Boberts of the world, the Nancy

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Speaker 1: Maces of the world. Cynicism yields insanity. In difference yields fascism.

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Speaker 1: What's happening in America is very real. Do the forty

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Speaker 1: percent of the people in this country who have four

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Speaker 1: hundred dollars cash available do they live in a democracy?

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Speaker 1: Do they have choice, control agency? Are they able to

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Speaker 1: pursue happiness? I don't think so. Thank you for listening

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Speaker 1: to my political commentary. If you like what you heard today,

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Speaker 1: please also consider subscribing to The Warning Daily newsletter on substack.

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Speaker 1: Our democracy hangs in the balance. The twenty twenty four

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Speaker 1: presidential election is the most consequential in America's history. It's

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Speaker 1: not hyperbole, it's a fact. That is why the mission

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Speaker 1: of The Warning with Steve Schmidt is to help readers

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Speaker 1: orient to the currents that are shaping our times and

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Speaker 1: the unseen forces driving politics that are very rarely discussed

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Speaker 1: on cable news. Please sign up at Steve Schmidt st

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Speaker 1: e ve, E, S, C, H, M, I, D T

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Speaker 1: dot substack dot com again Steve Schmidt dot substack dot com,

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Speaker 1: or at the link in the show notes section below.

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Speaker 1: Thank you to each and every one of you for

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Speaker 1: listening and watching