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Speaker 1: Hi, yeahs, and welcome back to normally the show with

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Speaker 1: normalist takes before the news gets weird. I'm Mary Catherine hamp.

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Speaker 2: I'm Carol Markoitz. I'm Mary Catherine. What an exciting weekend.

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Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. There's a lot going on in the

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Speaker 1: new administration, which is not very old. There are nonetheless

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Speaker 1: results on both a domestic and a foreign relations front.

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Speaker 2: I'm not tired of winning yet.

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Speaker 1: Shall I start with domestic? President Trump traveled to two

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Speaker 1: disaster areas on the first Friday of his administration. He

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Speaker 1: had announced earlier he was going to go to LA

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Speaker 1: to check on the wildfires, which I appreciated. He added

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Speaker 1: a trip that he announced on inauguration Day, I believe,

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Speaker 1: to western North Carolina, which has been really like disappointingly

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Speaker 1: abandoned both in attention and resources since Helene fled the

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Speaker 1: whole place in September and October of twenty twenty four.

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Speaker 1: It's been a while out there.

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Speaker 2: Now, it's been a while.

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Speaker 1: It's been four months. And you know, I check back

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Speaker 1: in periodically because I'm from North Carolina. A lot of

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Speaker 1: media doesn't check back in, and I've talked to people

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Speaker 1: on the ground who are just saying there's no one here.

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Speaker 1: There's no one who cares, there's no one reporting on

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Speaker 1: it aside from local news. There's no one. There's no

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Speaker 1: one sending resources or people. And these are folks who

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Speaker 1: are doing daily work on the ground, so if there

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Speaker 1: were resources there, they would.

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Speaker 2: Be seeing them.

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Speaker 1: And there's just a total dearth. So Trump goes and

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Speaker 1: he speaks a bit, but he also does a thing

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Speaker 1: that I love that he does sometimes, which is he

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Speaker 1: gives the mic away, which is maybe counterintuitive for what

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Speaker 1: people think about Trump. He gives the mic away effectively

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Speaker 1: to several people who have suffered loss in this storm.

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Speaker 1: So let me just let's hear a little bit about

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Speaker 1: one of their stories.

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Speaker 3: There were like a lot of family members there that

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Speaker 3: passed away, like eleven of them, and there were people

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Speaker 3: out everywhere looking for their loved ones, and there were

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Speaker 3: dead bodies.

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Speaker 1: You know.

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Speaker 3: My son's like, Mom, you're going to see things you

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Speaker 3: don't want to see. And so anyway, we got through

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Speaker 3: all that, but I stayed at our church in our

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Speaker 3: sound booth. My husband and I we just slept up

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Speaker 3: in the sound booth for a couple of months because

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Speaker 3: we didn't have power anything for about two months out there,

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Speaker 3: and then we have went back. I've been fighting with

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Speaker 3: FEMA since day one. Our community there's like thirty two homes.

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Speaker 3: We don't have a road in a bridge. We're driving

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Speaker 3: through our neighbor's property. You know. I went to EMS

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Speaker 3: and I said, look, my concern is if we have

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Speaker 3: a fire or we have an emergency out here, you

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Speaker 3: don't going to get to us. You can't get those

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Speaker 3: big trucks up here. And I've called and called and

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Speaker 3: called FEMA, and you know it's this happened on September

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Speaker 3: twenty seventh. That's four months ago. Well for us, today

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Speaker 3: is still September twenty seventh. You know, we haven't had HILP.

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Speaker 1: So that is not an atypical experience in western North Carolina.

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Speaker 1: At this point, he goes down there, he has the event.

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Speaker 1: Suddenly there's all this attention, and wouldn't you know it,

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Speaker 1: National News is covering it again. It's amazing, and the

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Speaker 1: Army Corps of Engineers speaking with and following the Twitter

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Speaker 1: accounts of those who I know on the ground, the

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Speaker 1: Army Corps of Engineers is everywhere clearing debris, getting roads ready,

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Speaker 1: doing things that private people had been doing private charities

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Speaker 1: and just regular guys with back hose, had been doing

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Speaker 1: for four months.

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Speaker 2: Suddenly it's amazing. A change of president could really affect

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Speaker 2: a lot of things, even local things like that, which

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Speaker 2: we don't maybe expect. I love what he did in California,

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Speaker 2: and I think that him handing over the mic in

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Speaker 2: North Carolina is it's great. It's a real sea change

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Speaker 2: from what we had president who never spoke to media,

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Speaker 2: who didn't seem to know what was going on. And

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Speaker 2: this is the difference is here, and it's very very clear.

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Speaker 1: Well, and it speaks to you know, I am not

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Speaker 1: a person who wants to put all of my faith

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Speaker 1: in a political leader. However, leadership does matter when you

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Speaker 1: take control and you say these are my expectations, that

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Speaker 1: can change a lot on the ground, and it seems

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Speaker 1: to be doing so in North Carolina. Trump is also

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Speaker 1: sufficiently suspicious of FEMA that he's calling for a review

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Speaker 1: of exactly how FEMA works and whether it's worth having around.

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Speaker 1: In the meantime, a former Navy seal, Cameron Hamilton, is

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Speaker 1: the interim head of FEMA as this administration starts. But

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Speaker 1: Margaret Brennan was talking to jd Vance this weekend and

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Speaker 1: she had some thoughts on whether states can do emergency

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Speaker 1: management without FEMA, and maybe you, as you're from Florida,

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Speaker 1: have some thoughts on that. But here's Margaret Brennan and J.

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Speaker 1: D Vance talking about it.

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Speaker 4: You know, FEMA has specialized expertise that some of these

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Speaker 4: states just don't have. Oh Arsenal and I wish that

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Speaker 4: these states who are who are lower income states, the Mississippis,

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Speaker 4: the Kentucky's, the Alabamas be able to do this for

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Speaker 4: themselves without federal Well, the President, to be clear, is

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Speaker 4: not saying We're going to leave anybody behind. He's saying

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Speaker 4: that in the way that we administer these resources, some

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Speaker 4: of which is coming from the federal levels, some of

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Speaker 4: which is coming from the state.

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Speaker 1: Level, we've got to get the bureaucrats out of the

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Speaker 1: way and get the aid to the people who need

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Speaker 1: it most. How could they do it? Can I be clearer, Carol?

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Speaker 1: The federal government's expertise is in taking as much money

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Speaker 1: as possible from taxpayers and then sending it elsewhere. That's oliverertise. Yeah, okay,

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Speaker 1: I would love if FEMA were actually expert at helping

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Speaker 1: people in disasters, but it really doesn't look that way.

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Speaker 2: That's right. Yeah, And look the local thing, it's like

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Speaker 2: the local governments can get the experts. I mean, you know,

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Speaker 2: when it's once every decade snowstorm hits Florida, bron de

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Speaker 2: Santis somehow finds the snowplows that nobody knew we had.

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Speaker 2: It's all possible. And I think that's like what the

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Speaker 2: difference between the left and the right have always been.

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Speaker 2: Has always been that the right believes that the individual

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Speaker 2: and the smaller government and the local can do it,

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Speaker 2: and the left thinks that only the federal government is

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Speaker 2: capable of it. But they've failed again and again and again.

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Speaker 2: So maybe let's give our way a shot. I don't know.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And like, give the resources that you're otherwise holding

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Speaker 1: for FEMA to the people with the back hoes who

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Speaker 1: strolled up to their neighbor's houses and decided to clear

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Speaker 1: roads for four months.

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Speaker 3: That's right.

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Speaker 1: Let's give them the reins for a little while.

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Speaker 2: I don't see why not, really.

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Speaker 1: It is so frustrating. I do think emergency management is

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Speaker 1: one of those things that I've become like strangely passionate

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Speaker 1: about the last couple of years, because it seems like

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Speaker 1: something that if you just have a couple of smart

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Speaker 1: people who are thinking ahead a little bit, you can

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Speaker 1: really do wonders for citizens.

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Speaker 2: I love your passionate about it. I think we should

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Speaker 2: continue to talk about North Carolina and we will so.

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Speaker 2: Also over the weekend, Donald Trump got into a bit

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Speaker 2: of a kerfuffle with Columbia. Apparently they loaded two planes

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Speaker 2: of Colombian illegal immigrants who had also committed crimes in

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Speaker 2: the United States and sent them back to Columbia, and

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Speaker 2: Columbia refused the planes, turning them back. Trump tweeted on

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Speaker 2: his truth social I don't really know how to refer

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Speaker 2: to that, he truthed, He said, I was just informed

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Speaker 2: that two repatriation flights from the United States with a

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Speaker 2: large number of illegal criminals were not allowed to land

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Speaker 2: in Columbia. This order was given by Columbia's socialist president,

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Speaker 2: Gustavo Petro, who was among who was already very unpopular

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Speaker 2: amongst his people. I love that Trump is, you know,

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Speaker 2: and nobody likes him.

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Speaker 1: No life. He likes that guy.

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Speaker 2: Petro's denial of these flights has jeopardized the national security

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Speaker 2: and public safety of the United States. So he directed

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Speaker 2: his administration to implement twenty five percent tariffs, travel ban

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Speaker 2: and immediate visa revocation. He's are sanctions on all party members,

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Speaker 2: et cetera, a bunch of stuff. Later that same day,

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Speaker 2: the Colombian president relented and said his problem wasn't with

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Speaker 2: receiving his own nationals back, which you know, I should

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Speaker 2: hope not. It was with the type of airplane used.

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Speaker 2: It was a military plane. That's ridiculous. He needed them

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Speaker 2: to travel in comfort. Really, that's the issue here, So

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Speaker 2: he sent his own plane. He also wrote a fifteen

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Speaker 2: hundred word, you know, manifesto that he posted on Twitter.

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Speaker 2: I'm very much not reading that, bro, but allegedly the

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Speaker 2: gist of it was I don't bend to this guy.

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Speaker 2: Though he did bend to this however. Yeah, so another

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Speaker 2: Trump win. I saw, you know, I saw American leftists

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Speaker 2: saying Trump should have just continued the Biden policy of

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Speaker 2: putting them on passenger jets and whatever. Fine, maybe that

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Speaker 2: Biden policy of sending back a legal immigrants was working.

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Speaker 2: I didn't see that work. But okay, whatever Trump kind

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Speaker 2: of decides to do, that's different than Biden. Right now,

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Speaker 2: I give him some leeway on it. If he thinks

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Speaker 2: that military flights are the better path to get these

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Speaker 2: people out of our country and into their own countries,

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Speaker 2: I'm okay with that. And so this idea that like, oh,

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Speaker 2: we put them on the wrong flights, like.

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Speaker 1: Spare me no same. Have you ever been put on

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Speaker 1: a flight for free in the American government?

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Speaker 2: Haven't?

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Speaker 1: No? I think this feels very much like the United

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Speaker 1: States of America has been watching a lot of reels

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Speaker 1: about how to set proper boundaries, and now we have

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Speaker 1: an actual boundary in the border, and one of our

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Speaker 1: boundaries is going to be Hey, if you're not going

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Speaker 1: to accept and repatriate the citizens who have come here illegally,

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Speaker 1: here are some of the things that we will do right, right,

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Speaker 1: because we have someone who's going to make good on

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Speaker 1: this promises now, because look, there's an old version of

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Speaker 1: me that one hundred percent would have been like, oh,

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Speaker 1: this is very rash. What are we doing the relations

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Speaker 1: between Columbia and the US. This is the sacred way

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Speaker 1: of doing things that we've always done. Things go through

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Speaker 1: the State Department, have a bunch of back and forth.

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Speaker 1: It doesn't work.

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Speaker 2: It doesn't work.

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Speaker 1: You get walked all over he truths. An hour later,

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Speaker 1: the problem solved. We didn't have to have a Blue

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Speaker 1: ribbon commission. We didn't have to stroke a bunch of egos.

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Speaker 1: Threat made this guy seems crazy. He might make good

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Speaker 1: on the threat. We're not messing with you, right.

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Speaker 2: If there was a gentler solution, somebody would have tried

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Speaker 2: it affect actively up until this point. The fact that

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Speaker 2: there wasn't and it didn't work, and none of this

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Speaker 2: had worked before, is why we have Donald Trump period.

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Speaker 1: Well, and here's another thing. You established when you do

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Speaker 1: that one time, as I know with parenting, if you

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Speaker 1: if you if something is established as a as a standard,

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Speaker 1: the other folks who observe you, the younger kids create

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Speaker 1: this standard, will then know that that is the standard. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and maybe you don't have to do that in the future.

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Speaker 2: That's right. Yeah, That's that's really what it's all about. Also,

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Speaker 2: if I was put on an uncomfortable flight home or wherever,

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Speaker 2: and then I had to fly back and then only

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Speaker 2: to be put on a more comfortable flight, I would

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Speaker 2: not enjoy that. If I already landing, like, let me

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Speaker 2: land on this uncomfortable flight. I'm good.

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Speaker 1: I mean, the whole thing sounds like nonsense about the

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Speaker 1: type of plane.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it totally sounds like nonsense.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, nobody likes that guy anyway.

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Speaker 2: Nobody likes him, So why are we even listening to

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Speaker 2: what he has to say?

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Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I do I like I am much

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Speaker 1: like you. I'll give I give leeway partly because I

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Speaker 1: am starved for effective leadership. Yeah, you're not as starved

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Speaker 1: because you live in Oh that's not true. I'm a

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Speaker 1: big governor here too, but it is because of my

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Speaker 1: proximity to DC get I get very right exposed to

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Speaker 1: the worst of leaders.

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Speaker 2: You and I are not huge maga people. Which is

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Speaker 2: funny because we were on a show recently and like together.

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Speaker 2: We were on askajew podcast and some of the comments

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Speaker 2: were like, oh my god, these two trumpers.

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Speaker 1: That's right.

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Speaker 2: It's like in a room of anti trumpers, you and

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Speaker 2: I are big trumpers, yes, but in a room of

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Speaker 2: like hardcore trumpers, you and I are like moderate trumpers.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. As I've told you, I like to be optimistic

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Speaker 1: at the beginning of an administration, and I was optimistic

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Speaker 1: or tried to be at the beginning of the Biden administration.

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Speaker 1: So if I'm a sucker. I'm a bipartisan sucker, but

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Speaker 1: I think it's good practice to attempt to be open

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Speaker 1: minded at the beginning of administration. Yeah, and frankly, Trump's

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Speaker 1: out there arguing with Karen Bass about how come people

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Speaker 1: can't clean up their property starting today, and suddenly it

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Speaker 1: changes the game exactly.

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Speaker 2: We like to see competence, and it doesn't matter if

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Speaker 2: we like or don't like or whatever the person. If

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Speaker 2: Joe Biden had been competent, I would have enjoyed that

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Speaker 2: that didn't happen. We'll be right back on normally.

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Speaker 1: We were from the ever present executive who's.

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Speaker 2: Been to his values and competence, to.

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Speaker 1: The absent executive that we had in office before Trump.

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Speaker 1: And there's new news out, a little scoop that the

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Speaker 1: ACLU sent a list of quote, nonviolent drug offenders for

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Speaker 1: clemency over to President Biden at the end of his term,

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Speaker 1: and wouldn't you know it, President Biden totally with it,

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Speaker 1: signed all those folks out. They were really good to everyone,

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Speaker 1: despite the fact that one of them killed an eight

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Speaker 1: year old boy and his mother because they were going

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Speaker 1: to testify against him in Connecticut. Is that wrong? Adrianne Peeler.

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Speaker 1: He was serving a twenty year state prison sentence for

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Speaker 1: a murder conspiracy in the nineteen ninety nine shootings of

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Speaker 1: Leroy BJ Brown and his mother Karen Clark in Bridgeport,

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Speaker 1: killings that shocked the city and led to improvements in

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Speaker 1: state witness protection. The state had to create a new

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Speaker 1: program to protect people after this. Biden let clemency as

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Speaker 1: of I think July Biden didn't know he did.

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Speaker 2: That, right, Yeah, he had no idea. This guy was

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Speaker 2: serving on federal drug charges until twenty thirty three, and

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Speaker 2: so I think that that was what they saw, the

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Speaker 2: drug charge. This lie that it's all these people smoked

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Speaker 2: a little weed. It's never that. It's never, oh, they

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Speaker 2: you know, did a little drugs. I'm actually very soft

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Speaker 2: on drug decriminalization. You know, you want to use drugs

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Speaker 2: and you don't commit any other crimes, like, you know,

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Speaker 2: go with ja as people say. But look, this is

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Speaker 2: a totally different story. And the thing is it again

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Speaker 2: exposes that we didn't have a president for a long

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Speaker 2: time and who was running the country. We just have

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Speaker 2: no idea.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, the basically this story is an admission that oops,

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Speaker 1: his staff didn't check this particular thing well enough, and it's.

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Speaker 2: Like, yeah, you know, and now a double murderers out

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Speaker 2: on the street.

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Speaker 1: It's like, and here's the thing. The president does have

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Speaker 1: sweeping pardon powers, right you really it's very hard to

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Speaker 1: argue against any of them. But the president's staff doesn't

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Speaker 1: have sweeping power. Yeah, and the president's staff doesn't have

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Speaker 1: a lot of powers that they were probably using for

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Speaker 1: the past four years. And the fact that that's not

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Speaker 1: the largest scandal of my lifetime is something else.

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Speaker 2: Do you think we're going to get books that actually

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Speaker 2: tell what really happened? Because I think the first book

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Speaker 2: to do that will be a giant bestseller. So they

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Speaker 2: all have to be kind of racing to the publisher

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Speaker 2: right now, don't they, one would think.

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Speaker 1: I guess the question for those in media who had

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Speaker 1: access to this is a how much they exposed the

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Speaker 1: fact that they knew about it, because those who had

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Speaker 1: greatest access for sure knew what was happening and scoffed

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Speaker 1: at the rest of us with no access, who nonetheless

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Speaker 1: somehow spotted president wasn't totally with it. So they have

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Speaker 1: to figure out how much they're going to tell on themselves.

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Speaker 1: Then they have to figure out how much that's going

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Speaker 1: to trash the brand of the Democrats, which is their

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Speaker 1: preferred party and which is currently already quite trashed.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's the question. Do they do that? Do

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Speaker 2: they go for it? I still think yes, I still

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Speaker 2: think that book, at least one person is going to

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Speaker 2: tell the inside story of what happened and who was responsible,

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Speaker 2: And of course they're going to say that they had

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Speaker 2: nothing to do with any of that. But you know,

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Speaker 2: then the second book, the second book, we'll tell their story.

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Speaker 2: So yes, we'll get there.

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Speaker 1: Mmmm, we'll learn things at some point.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, now it can be told. We're going to

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Speaker 2: take a short break and come right back with normally.

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Speaker 2: The other story from this weekend is the ci A

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Speaker 2: now thinks that COVID leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China.

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Speaker 1: No kidding, Yeah, I know. Is this the fourth federal

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Speaker 1: agency to come to this conclusion? I think right? And

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Speaker 1: now now that we're five years on, it's.

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Speaker 2: Amazing, It really is amazing. It's it's another now it

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Speaker 2: can be told story where you were not allowed to

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Speaker 2: say that that. That's what the last four years, more

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Speaker 2: than anything I'll remember about the Biden administration was you

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Speaker 2: were not allowed to say things that we all knew

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Speaker 2: to be true, and this was one of them. It

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Speaker 2: was actually John Stewart made this great line. You know,

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Speaker 2: if there was a chocolate spill in Hershey, Pennsylvania, like

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Speaker 2: we don't know who did it, we.

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Speaker 1: Wouldn't be confused about where that came from. Yes, no,

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Speaker 1: I remember this is one of my one of my

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Speaker 1: first twenty twenty feelings of looking around and going so

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Speaker 1: everyone going crazy, like there's a so there's a coronavirus

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Speaker 1: lab where they do experiments with coronavirus there, But you're

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Speaker 1: telling me it came from somewhere totally different and much

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Speaker 1: more innocent. Okay, the headlines on these. Drew Holden is

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Speaker 1: always good at pulling these together. From twenty twenty, Senator

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Speaker 1: Tom Cotton repeats fringe theory of coronavirus origins. Scientists have

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Speaker 1: dismissed suggestions that the Chinese government was behind the outbreak,

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Speaker 1: but it's the kind of tale that gains track among

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Speaker 1: those who see China as a threat. Yeah, okay, York,

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Speaker 1: can we do that? New York Times this week, CIA

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Speaker 1: now favors lableak theory to explain COVID's origins. A new

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Speaker 1: analysis that began under the Biden administration is released by

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Speaker 1: the CIA's new director, John Ratcliffe. Thank you, John, who

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Speaker 1: wants the agency to get off the sidelines in the debate. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Truth is good, transparency is good. Yeah, we're getting so

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Speaker 1: much more transparency during this administration already.

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Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, and I love that obviously, but it is

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Speaker 2: galling how many years they made us think that we

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Speaker 2: were the crazy ones and the racist ones. The whole

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Speaker 2: thing was the lab leak theory was racist. But some

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Speaker 2: guy ate a bat in a wet market in China

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Speaker 2: and that's how COVID started. Yeah, that's not racist. Somehow

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Speaker 2: it didn't even make sense, Like, how did that not racist?

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Speaker 2: That's so much more racist.

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Speaker 1: No, and China, because of this lag time, China has

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Speaker 1: yet to pay a price. Were having done this to

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Speaker 1: all of us. They prevented many people from getting ready

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Speaker 1: in ways that would have been helpful, and then we

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Speaker 1: went and did the damn Olympics there like it just yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's been a ride. Yeah, and we lied for years.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and they lied to us about so many

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Speaker 2: different things. I mean, just remember the early videos of

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Speaker 2: people like falling over and dying in China from COVID,

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Speaker 2: and they led us to believe it was a completely

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Speaker 2: different virus than it was. It just all around, China's

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Speaker 2: not our friend, and the fact that we were forced

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Speaker 2: to pretend that they didn't do this thing that we

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Speaker 2: all obviously knew that they did was again.

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Speaker 1: Galling amazing stuff. Yeah, I think we wanted to correct

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Speaker 1: one thing for the record, lest new fake news be made.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, let's let's cut off that fake news. There was

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Speaker 2: a story that Ice came to a Chicago public school

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Speaker 2: and all these people were like, we're not going to

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Speaker 2: stand for you coming into our schools and taking the

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Speaker 2: children out. And let me tell you, the Chicago Ice

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Speaker 2: story was very popular on the Brooklyn boards that I'm

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Speaker 2: still on because they were all going to form like

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Speaker 2: a chain outside their own schools and not let Ice in.

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Speaker 2: Turned out, it wasn't Ice. It was Secret Service who

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Speaker 2: came to the school looking for somebody who had made

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Speaker 2: a threat.

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Speaker 1: So that sounds legit and like the normal way of

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Speaker 1: doing things. This is one of the things that I

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Speaker 1: think it's important for people like us to do, which

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Speaker 1: is there are going to be freakouts. Oh yeah, and look,

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Speaker 1: there's sweeping change happening in a lot of ways, and

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Speaker 1: that makes many of the people who report on the

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Speaker 1: federal government and the federal government very uncomfortable. And so

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Speaker 1: there are going to be people who lose it or

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Speaker 1: misreport things and make something out of nothing. And look,

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Speaker 1: when there are problems, we should talk about it, Sure

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Speaker 1: we will. There's fake stuff. We should say, hey, that

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Speaker 1: one's not real, guys, and it shouldn't be turned into

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Speaker 1: a symbol of the Trump administration when it's the Secret

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Speaker 1: Service job not right.

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Speaker 2: Fake story gets spread and people get very concensed about

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Speaker 2: it and think that you know something that is happening

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Speaker 2: that just plainly is not. And again, these people are

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Speaker 2: the ones who think that they are not susceptible to

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Speaker 2: fake news. They think that where are the suckers falling

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Speaker 2: for all the fake news everywhere?

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Speaker 1: That's all that we do.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, perhaps check yourself is the message here. Thanks for

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Speaker 2: joining us on Normally. Normally airs Tuesdays and Thursdays, and

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Speaker 2: you can subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts. Get in

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Speaker 2: touch with us at normallythepod at gmail dot com. Thanks

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Speaker 2: for listening, and when things get weird, act normally