Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Former Aide Sparks Autopen Firestorm plus ICE Nabs 15 Iranians with Terror Ties

Transcript

Former Aide Sparks Autopen Firestorm plus ICE Nabs 15 Iranians with Terror Ties · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

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  Speaker 1: Guys like Schumer, our great Palestinian senator. This guy, no,
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  Speaker 1: he's changed. He used to like Jewish people. Now he's
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  Speaker 1: totally against Jewish people. It's the most incredible transformation I
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  Speaker 1: think I've ever seen.
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  Speaker 2: You're listening to the forty seven Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.
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  Speaker 3: Good Saturday morning to you. Ben Ferguson with you, and
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  Speaker 3: these are some of the stories that you may have
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  Speaker 3: missed that we talked about this week on the forty
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  Speaker 3: seven Morning Update. First up, in shocking testimony before Congress
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  Speaker 3: that the media is not reporting on a former Biden
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  Speaker 3: ade says quote she does not know who ordered President
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  Speaker 3: Biden's auto pen signatures. Will give you the details on
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  Speaker 3: what all she said to Congress and why this story
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  Speaker 3: is being hidden from you. And also another major story,
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  Speaker 3: at least five more Iranian nationals who were in the
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  Speaker 3: country illegally with additional criminal backgrounds have been arrested by
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  Speaker 3: Ice in recent days. The number now to almost twenty
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  Speaker 3: individuals who have been arrested, some of them would direct
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  Speaker 3: ties to terrorism and Iran. And finally, a former Biden
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  Speaker 3: official has now come out on TV saying that Iran's
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  Speaker 3: nuclear program was in fact set back significantly again, the
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  Speaker 3: complete opposite of what the media has been trying to
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  Speaker 3: sell you on. We have the receipts and we'll play
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  Speaker 3: it for you. It's the forty seven Morning Update and
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  Speaker 3: it starts right now.
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  Speaker 2: Story number one.
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  Speaker 3: There is a very important story that is getting virtually
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  Speaker 3: no coverage right now. So I hope all of you
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  Speaker 3: will share this information wherever you can. And that is
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  Speaker 3: the shocking a mission by a former Biden aide announcing
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  Speaker 3: that she does not know who ordered President Biden's auto
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  Speaker 3: pen signatures. Nira Tendon, a former Top eight president Joe Biden,
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  Speaker 3: told Congress under oath that she had authorization to direct
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  Speaker 3: autopenna for the president, but does not know who gave
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  Speaker 3: the final order. Tendon served as the director of Biden's
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  Speaker 3: domestic policy counsel, and she told Congress during testimony that
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  Speaker 3: the president used an automatic signature tool allowing for aids
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  Speaker 3: to sign pardons, sign memos, and other official documents in
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  Speaker 3: the White House. Tannam said she did not know who
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  Speaker 3: authorized any of those signatures. During her interview before Congress,
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  Speaker 3: which lasted more than five hours, she told lawmakers that
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  Speaker 3: in her role as staff secretary and senior advisor to
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  Speaker 3: the former president between twenty twenty one and twenty twenty three,
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  Speaker 3: that she was authorized to direct auto pen signatures on
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  Speaker 3: behalf of Biden. An Oversight Committee official has confirmed this
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  Speaker 3: now to Fox News. Tennen, who reportedly said during her
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  Speaker 3: testimony that she had quote limited interactions with Biden in
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  Speaker 3: her role even though she was a senior adviser that,
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  Speaker 3: according to sources familiar with her tis testimony, described an
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  Speaker 3: approval process that left her at least partly in the
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  Speaker 3: dark about who specifically was giving final approval on the
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  Speaker 3: decisions to use the automatic signature tool, even though she'd
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  Speaker 3: simultaneously insisted quote Biden was in charge. Tendon reportedly testified
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  Speaker 3: that it get approval for the use of autopen signatures,
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  Speaker 3: she would send decision memos to members of Biden's inner circle.
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  Speaker 3: Now remember these are people elected by no one. She
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  Speaker 3: added that she was not aware of what actions or
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  Speaker 3: what approvals took place between the times she sent the
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  Speaker 3: decision memo and the time she received it back with
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  Speaker 3: the necessary approval. According to sources familiar with what happened
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  Speaker 3: in this testimony, a minority member of the Oversight Committee
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  Speaker 3: called Tandem's characterization quote a lie with a statement from
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  Speaker 3: a former White House staffer saying that they received quote
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  Speaker 3: a written sign off from Biden on every executive action
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  Speaker 3: she presented with him. The only problem is she's under
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  Speaker 3: oath and saying that's not how it went down at all.
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  Speaker 3: Any other characterization is a distortion of the testimony the Biden.
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  Speaker 3: Former Biden officials stated, quote to inciniate that Nira Tanem
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  Speaker 3: said President Biden did not approve every single presidential decision
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  Speaker 3: and sign off on every executive action coming out of
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  Speaker 3: the White House is a lie. Well, she's saying that
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  Speaker 3: it's the truth. Tenem's attorney agreed with the staffer, adding
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  Speaker 3: that the autopens were used after Biden approved the decisions,
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  Speaker 3: saying this in a clean up statement, the auto pen
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  Speaker 3: was used only after President Biden personally approved the decision.
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  Speaker 3: Aids at no time signed these documents on President Biden's behalf. Again,
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  Speaker 3: that's not what her testimony was under oath. So just
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  Speaker 3: know this is the big story that we should be
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  Speaker 3: talking about, and also know that the media will not
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  Speaker 3: touch the fact that a former Biden aid does not
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  Speaker 3: know ooh, this is her testimony. Who ordered the present
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  Speaker 3: auto pen signatures.
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  Speaker 2: Next story number two.
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  Speaker 3: At least five more Iranian nationals who are in this
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  Speaker 3: country illegally now off the streets as real threats to
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  Speaker 3: our national security. This coming after eleven we're arrested over
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  Speaker 3: the weekend, and this is a real problem now as
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  Speaker 3: we're talking about Iranian sleeper cells being a threat to
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  Speaker 3: this country. More Iranians with major criminal histories being arrested
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  Speaker 3: and targeted by ICE, and what the White House is
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  Speaker 3: referring to is a major security sweep, saying these are
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  Speaker 3: the worst of the worst among US. Now, officials are
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  Speaker 3: touting this as a full throttle go after anyone they
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  Speaker 3: can who is in this country that may be a
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  Speaker 3: known or suspected terrorists and have direct connections to Iran.
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  Speaker 3: That is what they're trying to do. I want you
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  Speaker 3: to hear more about what's happening in a report from Fox.
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  Speaker 4: Concern about our say to hear at home. In the
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  Speaker 4: wake of the strikes on Iran's nuclear sites. Breaking news today,
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  Speaker 4: Immigration and Customs agents announced they have arrested fifteen illegal
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  Speaker 4: Iranian immigrants since Sunday. One of them admitted to ties
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  Speaker 4: to Hesbelah in Lebanon, a law enforcement source told Fox
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  Speaker 4: News the FBI is closely watching for any Iranian back
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  Speaker 4: sleeper agents in the wake of Operation Midnight Hammer. During
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  Speaker 4: the Biden administration, border agents arrested more than one thousand,
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  Speaker 4: five hundred Iranians who entered illegally at our southern border.
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  Speaker 4: They let nearly half of them go. President Trump on
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  Speaker 4: that this morning.
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  Speaker 5: Biden led a lot of supercells, that Biden was an
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  Speaker 5: ad competent. President had no idea what he was doing.
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  Speaker 5: He let a lot of supercells in, many from Iran.
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  Speaker 5: But hopefully we'll take care of them. What Biden did
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  Speaker 5: to this country should never be forgotten.
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  Speaker 4: Justice correspondent David Spunt is in Washington.
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  Speaker 6: David well Harris, the news about the fifteen Iranian nationals
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  Speaker 6: coming illegally into the US is no surprise to the
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  Speaker 6: people at the Justice Department, the FBI, and of course,
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  Speaker 6: the Department of Homeland Security. According to authorities, one of
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  Speaker 6: them has ties to HESBLA, another is an alleged former
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  Speaker 6: sniper for the Iranian Army. At a budget hearing yesterday,
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  Speaker 6: Attorney General Pam Bondi said the number of Iranians illegally
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  Speaker 6: in the United States continues to grow.
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  Speaker 4: It's well over one thousand have entered our country, and
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  Speaker 4: I can tell you we are on high alert and
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  Speaker 4: everyone is looking at that very closely now.
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  Speaker 6: She says budget cuts won't affect the overall mission. DOJ
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  Speaker 6: and the FBI continue to focus on threats toward President
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  Speaker 6: Trump himself as a result of his ordering of the
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  Speaker 6: killing of this man, General Kasim Solomani in January twenty twenty,
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  Speaker 6: assassination plots originating in Iran not only toward President Trump,
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  Speaker 6: but to US residents who once lived in Iran. DHS
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  Speaker 6: Secretary of Christy Nome, seen there yesterday, was asked about
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  Speaker 6: sleeper cells in the United States. Those are groups of
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  Speaker 6: people who live among us in the US quietly until
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  Speaker 6: order to act.
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  Speaker 4: We've seen some from overseas and some that have been here,
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  Speaker 4: maybe gone overseas for short to time, become radicalized and
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  Speaker 4: come back, or individuals that are right.
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  Speaker 3: Here in the United States.
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  Speaker 6: NLM held a conference call with some of the nation's
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  Speaker 6: governors over the weekend of pledge federal resources to help
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  Speaker 6: on the state level to combat any threats, whether federal
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  Speaker 6: or local. Attorney General Bondi back in front of lawmakers
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  Speaker 6: tomorrow to talk about the DOJ budget, but you could
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  Speaker 6: expect some of these topics also will likely come up.
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  Speaker 3: If you go back to the list of the individuals
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  Speaker 3: that have been arrested and what they've been arrested for.
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  Speaker 3: One of the ones I mentioned earlier was out of Atlanta,
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  Speaker 3: an individual that was arrested in Alabama. And this was
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  Speaker 3: a guy that served as an Iranian Army sniper. Now
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  Speaker 3: he didn't serve as an Iranian Army sniper like twenty
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  Speaker 3: years ago. The individual served as an Iranian Army sniper
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  Speaker 3: from twenty eighteen to twenty twenty one, and at the
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  Speaker 3: time of his arrests in America, he was in possession.
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  Speaker 3: He had an Islamic Republic Army identification card on his person. Right,
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  Speaker 3: if you don't want to be involved in that, why
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  Speaker 3: would you have it on your person. You go to
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  Speaker 3: another example ice in Houston. They arrested another Iranian there.
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  Speaker 3: When they arrested him, he was carrying a loaded nine
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  Speaker 3: millimeter pistol. They arrested him, by the way, in seventeen
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  Speaker 3: in Harris County, that is Houston, Texas. The police arrest
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  Speaker 3: him for assaulting a family member and impeding breathing, meaning
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  Speaker 3: you're strangling someone. You also go to another person in Houston,
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  Speaker 3: another Iranian national. An immigration judge had ordered him removed
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  Speaker 3: nearly twenty years ago on August fourth of two thousand
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  Speaker 3: and five. He's been twice convicted of drug crimes and
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  Speaker 3: one's convicted driving on a suspended license. He's still in America.
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  Speaker 3: There's problems here. There's another example of this. A man
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  Speaker 3: in Arizona arrested again another Iranian. He had a final
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  Speaker 3: order of removal. He was convicted of threatening a law
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  Speaker 3: enforcement officer and being an alien in possession of a firearm.
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  Speaker 3: So these are as the President would describe it bat
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  Speaker 3: ownbrace right. You have officials that arrested another man that
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  Speaker 3: was in the country illegally from Iran. The man threatened
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  Speaker 3: to open fire on ice officials if they entered her home,
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  Speaker 3: and then she would go outside and shoot ice officers
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  Speaker 3: in the head quote unquote. So it's not just men,
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  Speaker 3: it's also women. You had another twenty two year old
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  Speaker 3: in Mississippi, an Iranian national and former lawful permanent resident. Well,
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  Speaker 3: guess what he lied on his original visa application and
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  Speaker 3: committed potential marriage fraud as well. This is a guy
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  Speaker 3: who quote is listed as a known or suspected terrorists.
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  Speaker 3: He's now an ice custody pitning removal. You have another
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  Speaker 3: man in Colorado, an individual after a judge had already
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  Speaker 3: ordered him to be removed. His criminal history include state
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  Speaker 3: and federal convictions for drug crimes and arrests for assault
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  Speaker 3: and child abuse. No big deal, right, totally fine. You
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  Speaker 3: got a man in Saint Paul a man that was
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  Speaker 3: fifty six year old Iranian national. He's been victed of
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  Speaker 3: being a felon in possession of a firearm in Minneapolis.
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  Speaker 3: He was sentenced to fifteen months in prison. He's also
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  Speaker 3: a former member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard with admitted
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  Speaker 3: connections directly to Hezballah. You got another guy in San Francisco,
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  Speaker 3: sixty two year old Iranian national with a criminal history
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  Speaker 3: that includes a conviction for petty theft and a conviction
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  Speaker 3: of possession of a controlled substance for sale. He was
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  Speaker 3: sent to ten years in state prison for drug conviction
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  Speaker 3: and now he's in ice custody. Or go to Buffalo.
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  Speaker 3: You've got another Iranian national there, a man convicted of
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  Speaker 3: grand larceny, schemes to defraud, criminal impersonation, and practicing as
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  Speaker 3: an attorney, another example of the people that they're taking
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  Speaker 3: off the streets. So when you look at what we
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  Speaker 3: are now witnessing, it is very clear that there are
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  Speaker 3: real people in this country that are trying to do
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  Speaker 3: harm to this country that were let in under the
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  Speaker 3: last administration. That is, the last administration knew that these
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  Speaker 3: people were coming into this country, and they just didn't care.
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  Speaker 3: They wanted to flood the country with as many illegal
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  Speaker 3: immigrants as they possibly could, and they just didn't care
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  Speaker 3: who was coming in, how they were getting in this country.
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  Speaker 3: It didn't matter. And that's incredibly sad. Let me also
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  Speaker 3: say one other final thing here. I expect this to
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  Speaker 3: get worse before it gets better, with a number of
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  Speaker 3: illegal immigrants that we're going to find that are a
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  Speaker 3: real threat to our national security, and we should do
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  Speaker 3: everything we can to support and advocate for Ice and
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  Speaker 3: this administration to find them wherever they have to in
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  Speaker 3: the country.
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  Speaker 2: And here is story number three.
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  Speaker 7: There is a new classified report that is suggesting that
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  Speaker 7: Iran's nuclear program, still intact, likely relied on faulty info
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  Speaker 7: Iranian propaganda from Iranian sources. This is when the media
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  Speaker 7: decided to run with the story, knowing that their propaganda
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  Speaker 7: was literally coming from Iran. The top secret Defense intelligence
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  Speaker 7: agency known as the DIA assessment that claimed a RAN's
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  Speaker 7: nuclear sites suffered only moderate damage likely relied on faulty
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  Speaker 7: information from deceitful Iranian sources that according to several former
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  Speaker 7: US intelligence officers, one of whom described the documents as
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  Speaker 7: so unreliable you can wipe your aass with it. The
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  Speaker 7: classified DIA report ignited a media firestorm in the days
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  Speaker 7: after President Donald Trump authorized those precision strikes on Iran's
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  Speaker 7: top three nuclear sites. The findings, of course, werein the
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  Speaker 7: league to CNN and The New York Times, which you
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  Speaker 7: heard about a moment ago. Then they presented them as facts,
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  Speaker 7: as bombshell evidence that the US bombing run only set
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  Speaker 7: back Tehran's nuclear ambitions by you know, a couple of months.
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  Speaker 7: The US intelligence community deemed that an initial assessment with
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  Speaker 7: quote low confidence, a fact CNN purposely admitted from its
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  Speaker 7: original story and based it solely on satellite imagery and
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  Speaker 7: intercepted communications known as signal intelligence from Iranian officials. Again,
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  Speaker 7: think about this. You have the Iranian government putting out
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  Speaker 7: propaganda and media companies in this country, putting it out
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  Speaker 7: there as fact. Shortly after the assessment leaked, Axios reported
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  Speaker 7: that communications intercepted by Israel suggested that Iran's military officials
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  Speaker 7: have been giving false situation reports to the country's political leadership,
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  Speaker 7: downplaying the extent of the damage. Such communications likely made
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  Speaker 7: their way into the da report. According to three former
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  Speaker 7: US intelligence operatives, including a current US official and other
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  Speaker 7: veteran national security insiders, who spoke to The Washington Free
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  Speaker 7: Beacon both on and off the record, some of them
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  Speaker 7: referred to the DIA as the discount intelligence agency. It's
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  Speaker 7: basically messaging by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, messaging by Tehran.
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  Speaker 7: That is what a former intelligence officer with the US
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  Speaker 7: Central Command who operated in the Middle East for nearly
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  Speaker 7: thirty years set. In fact, CNN actually had to report
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  Speaker 7: on this, and here's what it sounded like when a
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  Speaker 7: former Biden official had this to say about Iran's nuclear program.
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  Speaker 8: Oustein, a longtime diplomat who served as President Biden's senior
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  Speaker 8: advisor for Energy and Investment. And I think one question
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  Speaker 8: that regular people will have, you know, listening to what
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  Speaker 8: came out of that briefing today on Capitol Hill from
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  Speaker 8: Republicans from Democrats, is what should they take away when
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  Speaker 8: there is such a divide between the politicians over what
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  Speaker 8: is the fate of Iran's nuclear capacity and where that
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  Speaker 8: stands tonight?
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  Speaker 6: What do you think?
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  Speaker 9: Well, first, Kaitlin, it's good to be with you. Look,
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  Speaker 9: I think the most important thing is to separate out
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  Speaker 9: what's politics and what is happening on the ground over
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  Speaker 9: the last year year and a quarter. Last April, Iran
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  Speaker 9: launched a missile attack against Israel, which was one hundred
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  Speaker 9: ballistic missiles a company by two hundred or so UAVs.
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  Speaker 9: The United States military coordinated a response and defeated that attack.
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  Speaker 9: But that was really the first time that Iran and
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  Speaker 9: used its own territory to attack Israel. They did it
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  Speaker 9: again in October, and again the United States supported Israel
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  Speaker 9: and with regional partners as well as European countries to
• 16:31
  Speaker 9: defeat it. And now since then, Iran has lost most
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  Speaker 9: of its deterrence power. They had three things going for them.
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  Speaker 9: They had proxies, meaning terrorist organizations in Lebanon, in Syria
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  Speaker 9: and Iraq and Yemen that supported them. The second was
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  Speaker 9: the missiles, and the third was the thread of a
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  Speaker 9: nuclear weaponization of their nuclear capabilities, most of their proxies
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  Speaker 9: are either weakened to the point they can't respond or
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  Speaker 9: are choosing now to distance themselves from Iran. Their missile
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  Speaker 9: capability has been proven to be less effective because of
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  Speaker 9: the United States ability to defend the region, and now
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  Speaker 9: their nuclear capability is likely at least set back. Now
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  Speaker 9: the whole idea of obliterated or destroyed. These are political
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  Speaker 9: terms that are not really relevant, and I would urge
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  Speaker 9: Americans not to really pay attention to those words. What
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  Speaker 9: we do know, we know that as a result of
• 17:24
  Speaker 9: the both the Israeli the American strikes, the nuclear program
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  Speaker 9: was set back significantly. How much we don't really know.
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  Speaker 9: Most Israeli military analysts and generals that I've spoken to
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  Speaker 9: over the last twenty four to forty eight hours, I
• 17:37
  Speaker 9: think this has gone from a six month's breakout to
• 17:41
  Speaker 9: timeframe to two years, so an eighteen month or two
• 17:43
  Speaker 9: year delay in their program. But here's the thing. They
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  Speaker 9: have also lost other capabilities. They've lost their command and control,
• 17:51
  Speaker 9: they've lost military leaders, they've lost scientists, and they lost
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  Speaker 9: their conversion so they're clearly weakened. And lastly, Israel has
• 17:58
  Speaker 9: proven that they have an intelligens capability inside Iran that
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  Speaker 9: if they try to reconstitute we'll we the United States, Israel,
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  Speaker 9: other European allies will know about it.
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  Speaker 7: Yet again, more proof of the propaganda coming from the
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  Speaker 7: media trying to convince you that somehow one of the
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  Speaker 7: most successful missions in modern military history was a failure,
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  Speaker 7: all because Donald Trump is the one that's said to
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  Speaker 7: do it.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to the forty seven Morning Update
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  Speaker 2: with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: you're listening to this podcast right now and for more
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: in depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson podcast
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: and we will see you back here on Monday morning.