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Speaker 1: The Ayatola is dead. He was an evil man and

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Speaker 1: his death should be celebrated. His vicious reign is over,

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Speaker 1: but the Iranian regime has not collapsed. His death raises

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Speaker 1: a question that matters to every single American. Our sons

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Speaker 1: and daughters, America's finest, from our all volunteer military are

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Speaker 1: in harm's way for what reason? Today? There is a

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Speaker 1: question that every American has a responsibility to demand and

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Speaker 1: a right to know what comes next? What is the plan?

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Speaker 1: And the short answer is there is none. It is

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Speaker 1: being made up as it goes along, and that, as

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Speaker 1: we all know, is a recipe for disaster. It is Monday,

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Speaker 1: March the second. I'm Steve Schmidt. This is the warning.

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Speaker 1: Are we at war? Mark Wayne Mullin, the dufish senator

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Speaker 1: from Oklahoma, says, no.

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Speaker 2: President Trump, warren America has prepared for possible troop deaths

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Speaker 2: if this war drags on for weeks or longer for

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Speaker 2: that matter, and US casualties amount. Are you confident that

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Speaker 2: the American public will consider this a noble mission and

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Speaker 2: tolerate growing US military losses?

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Speaker 3: Well?

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Speaker 4: Well, first of all, I'm going to push back. This

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Speaker 4: isn't a war. We haven't declared war on Iran. Were

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Speaker 4: not at war with Iranian people. We had to remove

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Speaker 4: a murders regime that's been attacking the United States for

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Speaker 4: forty seven years. Him and his murders thugs have killed

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Speaker 4: thousands and murdered thousands of Americans for literally forty seven years.

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Speaker 1: But Lindsey Graham says, yes.

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Speaker 5: Senator, let me start with the big question. Is the

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Speaker 5: United States at war with Iran?

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Speaker 6: I think Tolt's say yeah.

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Speaker 1: Donald Trump says there will be more casualties.

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Speaker 3: The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and

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Speaker 3: we may have casualties that often happens in war. But

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Speaker 3: we're doing this not for now. We're doing this for

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Speaker 3: the future, and it is a noble mission. We pray

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Speaker 3: for every service member as they selflessly risk their lives

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Speaker 3: to ensure that Americans and our children will never be

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Speaker 3: threatened by a nuclear armed Iran.

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Speaker 1: And have you seen the new statues? What is the

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Speaker 1: purpose of the war, Lindsey Graham says, it is to

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Speaker 1: make sure that Iran once again does not become the

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Speaker 1: leading state sponsor of terrorism in the world. My question

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Speaker 1: is when did they stop when asked who it is

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Speaker 1: that should be the next leader of Iran. Lindsey Graham

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Speaker 1: says that's not an American decision.

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Speaker 3: Plan.

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Speaker 5: Is there a plan to make sure that happens? Senator?

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Speaker 5: Is there a plan? Does the President have a plan

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Speaker 5: to guarantee that that happens?

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Speaker 6: No, it's not his job or my job to do this.

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Speaker 6: How many times do I have to tell you? Our

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Speaker 6: job is to make sure Iran is no longer the

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Speaker 6: largest state sponsor of terrorism, to help the people reconstruct

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Speaker 6: a new government. No boots on the ground. We don't

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Speaker 6: own you know this idea? You break it, you own it.

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Speaker 6: I don't buy that one bit.

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Speaker 1: It isn't Then how does his statement make any sense?

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Speaker 1: What are we doing? Why are we doing it? Once again,

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Speaker 1: the American people have been fed a line of bs.

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Speaker 1: It's for our security, you see, it's because Iran or China,

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Speaker 1: or maybe Iran with China interfered in our elections and

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Speaker 1: the only way to defeat Iran working with China is

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Speaker 1: maybe to cancel our elections. All of this is madness.

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Speaker 1: And understand something when you read this platitude, this what

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Speaker 1: should we call it? From Bill Ackman?

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Speaker 3: Know this.

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Speaker 1: None of Bill Ackman's kids and None of his friend's

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Speaker 1: kids are at any risk in Iran. No, No, billionaire

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Speaker 1: kids are too important to go into harm's way. Know this,

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Speaker 1: Baron Trump won't be parachuting out of an F fifteen,

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Speaker 1: and neither will Kai Trump. None of the bitcoin billionaire's

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Speaker 1: kids will go into harm's way. Why are we fighting

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Speaker 1: this war? The simple truth is Donald Trump has been

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Speaker 1: manipulated by bb Net and Yahoo and by the corrupt

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Speaker 1: Saudi Crown Prince who has lathered his family in billions

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Speaker 1: and billions of dollars. Just days ago, a new billion

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Speaker 1: dollar hotel financed by the Saudis was approved, and of

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Speaker 1: course the Saudi government soon if the corrupt paramount deal

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Speaker 1: goes forward, will own twenty five percent of CNN. There

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Speaker 1: are no hard questions being asked in fact on the

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Speaker 1: American news media. The Trump decision is routinely dressed up

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Speaker 1: as something noble, brave, even as if Trump, in his

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Speaker 1: order to launch a war that he said he would

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Speaker 1: never launch, has done something heroic. Donald Trump has done

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Speaker 1: nothing heroic. He's done something reckless and something stupid. And

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Speaker 1: there's a reason nobody can answer the most essential question,

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Speaker 1: the most important question, what comes next? What's the plan.

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Speaker 1: Pete Hagsath is already saying we may need to put

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Speaker 1: quote boots on the ground. I heard the question about

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Speaker 1: four weeks.

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Speaker 7: It's the typical, typical NBC sort of gotcha type question.

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Speaker 7: President Trump has all the latitude in the world to

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Speaker 7: talk about how long it may or may not take.

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Speaker 8: Four weeks, two weeks, six weeks. It could move up,

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Speaker 8: it could move back.

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Speaker 7: We're going to execute at his command the objectives we've

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Speaker 7: set out to achieve and what he has shown an

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Speaker 7: ability to do that other presidents can't quite seem to

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Speaker 7: have the aperture to do well. I mean, Joe Biden

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Speaker 7: need even know. What he was doing is to look

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Speaker 7: for opportunities and off ramps and escalations.

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Speaker 8: For the United States.

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Speaker 7: That creates new opportunities to execute what we need on

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Speaker 7: our own timeline.

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Speaker 8: So you can play games of a four weeks, five

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Speaker 8: weeks ago. He has all the latitude, and I'm glad

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Speaker 8: he does.

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Speaker 1: How predictable air power alone has never held any territory.

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Speaker 1: Air power alone has never decapitated any regime. Air power

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Speaker 1: alone will not be enough. And so what is it

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Speaker 1: that we are doing in Iran? It's a great question

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Speaker 1: isn't it. And it's a question nobody in Washington, DC,

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Speaker 1: or on predator Patio Mr Alago can answer. What we

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Speaker 1: are witnessing is the great Trump improv and he's playing

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Speaker 1: with the lives of America's young men and women. Three

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Speaker 1: of them are coming home in boxes.

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Speaker 7: As the President warned, an effort of this scope will

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Speaker 7: include casualties. War as hell and always will be a

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Speaker 7: grateful nation honors the four Americans we have lost thus

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Speaker 7: far and those injured the absolute best of America. May

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Speaker 7: we prosecute the remainder of this operation in a manner

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Speaker 7: that honors them.

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Speaker 8: No apologies, no hesitation, epic fury.

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Speaker 1: What did they die for? They died for nothing, and

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Speaker 1: that's a tragedy. That's a shame, it's a disgrace. And

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Speaker 1: you know whose shoulders at rest on the American peoples

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Speaker 1: who allowed this obscenity to take power with forty nine

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Speaker 1: zero point seven percent of the vote. And here we are.

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Speaker 1: Things will get worse. America is at war without a plan,

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Speaker 1: without a strategy, with incompetent and incoherent leadership who have

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Speaker 1: no clue about what comes next. And every American should

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Speaker 1: be curious after a twenty first century filled with losing

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Speaker 1: American wars about what the answer to that question is.

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Speaker 1: This is the warning. I'm Steve Schmidt. This is the warning.

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Speaker 1: I invite you to join this community where I promise

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Speaker 1: to be honest, blunt and direct about what is happening

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Speaker 1: in this country. America is in crisis. Follow and subscribe

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Speaker 1: to this channel and on substack.

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Speaker 3: Thank you.