Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / FREEDOM VS. MANDATES: The Fight Over Faith, Jobs and Vaccines

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FREEDOM VS. MANDATES: The Fight Over Faith, Jobs and Vaccines · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

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  Speaker 1: Because of the mail in ballot ruling, which was a
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  Speaker 1: little bit surprising, gives people more time to vote illegally,
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  Speaker 1: let's say. But the Save Act is even more important,
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  Speaker 1: and that's the right. You have to be a citizen
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  Speaker 1: of our country.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, you have to show you're a citizen of our
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  Speaker 2: country called citizenship voter ID by photo photo voter ID,
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  Speaker 2: and no mail in ballots unless you're in the military, disabled,
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  Speaker 3: With being very open.
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  Speaker 4: About it, you're listening to the forty seven Morning Update
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  Speaker 4: with Ben ferguson.
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  Speaker 3: Good Tuesday morning. Nice to have you with us on
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  Speaker 3: the forty seven Morning Update, and we've got an exciting
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  Speaker 3: story for you. Donald Trump put together the Religious Liberty Commission,
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  Speaker 3: and it presented on Friday the final draft of a
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  Speaker 3: report to President Donald Trump and the Oval Office recommendations
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  Speaker 3: on how to enhance religious liberty policies. They would directly
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  Speaker 3: relate to the COVID nineteen vaccine and others within the
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  Speaker 3: healthcare industry, as well as the US military. Translation, no
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  Speaker 3: more mandates. So what does it mean moving forward? We
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  Speaker 3: have it all for you. But before we get to that,
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  Speaker 3: seven or call nine seven to Patriot Today. It's a
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  Speaker 3: forty seven morning update and it starts right now.
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  Speaker 4: Story number one.
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  Speaker 3: There's been a ton of talk recently about taxes, about immigration,
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  Speaker 3: about foreign policy, and about Supreme Court decisions coming down.
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  Speaker 3: But there's one story about religious liberty that you really
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  Speaker 3: need to know about. President Trump is trying to follow
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  Speaker 3: through on many of his recommendations made by his Religious
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  Speaker 3: Liberty Commission. It actually could fundamentally change how the federal
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  Speaker 3: government treats Americans whose religious beliefs will conflict with government mandates,
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  Speaker 3: including healthcare workers and members of the United States military.
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  Speaker 3: A lot of this goes back to COVID nineteen in
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  Speaker 3: the COVID vaccine. Well last week, the Commission that's chaired
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  Speaker 3: by the Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and the vice chair,
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  Speaker 3: doctor Ben Carson, delivered its final report to President Trump
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  Speaker 3: and the Oval Office after spending more than a year,
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  Speaker 3: holding seven hearings and hearing testimony for more than one
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  Speaker 3: hundred different witnesses. The commission was created in twenty twenty
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  Speaker 3: five to identify threats to religious liberty and then recommend
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  Speaker 3: legislative and regulatory and executive actions. This is exactly by
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  Speaker 3: the way how government should work, and the report it's
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  Speaker 3: pretty amazing. Not only does it cover schools and parents
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  Speaker 3: and faith based organizations and anti semitism and the workplace,
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  Speaker 3: but two sections could have enormous consequences. They deal with
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  Speaker 3: health care and the US military. So let's start with
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  Speaker 3: health care. The commission recommended significant expanded protections not only
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  Speaker 3: for doctors, but nurses, pharmacists, hospitals, and then other medical
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  Speaker 3: professionals who object on religious or moral grounds to participating
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  Speaker 3: in certain medical procedures. Among its recommendations are stronger enforcement
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  Speaker 3: of federal conscience laws and support for legislation such as
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  Speaker 3: the Consciences Protection Act, as well as more aggressive investigations
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  Speaker 3: by the Department of Health and Human Services Office for
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  Speaker 3: Civil Rights, as well as strategic litigation by the Department
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  Speaker 3: of Justice not only to defend healthcare workers, but the
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  Speaker 3: religious freedoms they were trampled all over by the last
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  Speaker 3: administration and during COVID nineteen mandates of Yes the Vaccine
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  Speaker 3: Now supporters are making it clear they believe no Americans
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  Speaker 3: should have to choose between their deeply held religious beliefs
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  Speaker 3: and literally providing for their families losing their careers. Critics,
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  Speaker 3: of course, on the radical left. They argue that expanding
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  Speaker 3: conscientious protections will just make it more difficult for some
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  Speaker 3: patients to access certain medical services. Well, regardless of wherever
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  Speaker 3: you stand on that, this is a major policy debate
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  Speaker 3: that is going to reshape because of Trump's leadership on
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  Speaker 3: health care employment across the entire country. And then there's
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  Speaker 3: the second part of this, and that's the military. The
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  Speaker 3: commission recommends streamlining and then strengthening the religious accommodations process
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  Speaker 3: for service members. It also highlights testimony from top military
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  Speaker 3: personnel who said they suffered career setbacks, lost benefits, or
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  Speaker 3: were even forced out of our service after refusing a
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  Speaker 3: simple COVID nineteen vaccination requirement. Even after they stated it
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  Speaker 3: was on religious grounds. Now, you've got to remember the
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  Speaker 3: COVID years, you had not hundreds, but thousands military members
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  Speaker 3: that requested religious exemptions for vaccine requirements for the COVID
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  Speaker 3: nineteen shot some requests and the majority actually were denied.
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  Speaker 3: Some service members were then forced to leave the military. Now,
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  Speaker 3: others argued that they were effectively forced out of their career,
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  Speaker 3: that they had been spending decades building and serving their country.
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  Speaker 3: And that's where the Commission's report comes in. They said,
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  Speaker 3: those stories illustrate why stronger protections are not only needed
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  Speaker 3: because in the future, and yes, with future administrations, there
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  Speaker 3: will be a Democrat at some point back in the
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  Speaker 3: White House, they said, the future administrations cannot, and the
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  Speaker 3: Commission's view unnecessarily burden the free exercise of religion. And
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  Speaker 3: then that is where it really comes back to COVID
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  Speaker 3: nineteen vaccine and the debate. The report itself, i want
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  Speaker 3: to be clear, does not recommend banning vaccine mandates. Instead,
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  Speaker 3: it recommends making religious accommodation requests that are really actually
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  Speaker 3: just more meaningful and ensuring that when you do make
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  Speaker 3: that request, if you're serving in our military or at
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  Speaker 3: our hospitals, that you receive greater legal protection in both
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  Speaker 3: civilian health care and military settings. Now, if those recommendations
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  Speaker 3: are actually implemented through executive action or legislation the next
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  Speaker 3: time the federal government considers a nationwide healthcare mandate, which
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  Speaker 3: is exactly what happened under the liberal leadership in this country,
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  Speaker 3: then agencies may face a much higher bar for denying
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  Speaker 3: religious exemption requests, and that potentially is a very significant
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  Speaker 3: change and one for the better. The Commission also earn
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  Speaker 3: testimony from workers, including military service members, who said, not
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  Speaker 3: only do they lose their jobs, but they lost pensions,
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  Speaker 3: they lost retirement opportunities, and yeah, then they lost their
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  Speaker 3: jobs because they declined the COVID nineteen vaccines based on
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  Speaker 3: religious grounds. Now those accounts are cited as evidence that
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  Speaker 3: it's clear that we need stronger safeguards that are desperately
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  Speaker 3: needed and warranted. The report also goes well beyond COVID.
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  Speaker 3: It also recommends that the Department of Justice, the Department
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  Speaker 3: of Health and Human Services, and the Equal Employment Opportunity
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  Speaker 3: Commission developed know your Rights materials and create hotlines and
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  Speaker 3: online reporting systems for people who actually believe that the
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  Speaker 3: religious liberties have then been violated, and that could even
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  Speaker 3: be the federal government doing it. It also proposes honoring
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  Speaker 3: individuals who had defended religious liberty through new presidential awards
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  Speaker 3: and calls for additional education about First Amendment protections. Now,
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  Speaker 3: President Trump has already come out praising the Commission during
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  Speaker 3: the Oval Office presentation of all of this, saying that
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  Speaker 3: the administration intends to strengthen religious liberty protections for all
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  Speaker 3: Americans and emphasize that freedom of religion is central to
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  Speaker 3: the country's constitutional rights and constitutional traditions. Not going to
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  Speaker 3: be very clear, none of these recommendations automatically become law.
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  Speaker 3: That's why I'm telling you about it right now. Some
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  Speaker 3: of these could be pursed through executive action, others could
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  Speaker 3: require Congress's approval, and others will likely face significant court challenges.
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  Speaker 3: Why because Democrats are going to sue on all of this.
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  Speaker 3: But what the President is now laid out is a
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  Speaker 3: roadmap that could shape federal policy for decades to come,
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  Speaker 3: and clearly he willing to fight this battle. And if
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  Speaker 3: you're a supporter, then you see these recommendations as not
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  Speaker 3: only restoring what you believe is the original meeting of
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  Speaker 3: the First Amendment free exercise clause, but also about better
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  Speaker 3: protecting Americans from actually being penalized because of sincerely held
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  Speaker 3: religious beliefs. Now, the left, they're angry. They say all
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  Speaker 3: this is is a shift in the balance of power
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  Speaker 3: between religious liberty and other legal protections. They say it's
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  Speaker 3: creating new conflicts over access to service and equal treatment
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  Speaker 3: under the law. Those debates, well, they're going to want
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  Speaker 3: to have them, I think will win. But what is
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  Speaker 3: clear is that the Commission has now placed religious liberties
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  Speaker 3: squarely at the center of a national conversation, and when
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  Speaker 3: it comes to healthcare workers and members of the military,
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  Speaker 3: these implications could be substantial. That's why you should be excited.
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  Speaker 3: If all of these recommendations are actually adopted. Future administrations
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  Speaker 3: will then face greater legal constraints before requiring you to
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  Speaker 3: comply with policies that conflict with sincerely held religious beliefs,
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  Speaker 3: particularly in areas like public health mandates as well as
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  Speaker 3: medical ethics. Now, whether you view this as a restoration
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  Speaker 3: of your constitutional protections you already had, or a significant
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  Speaker 3: policy shift, it's a debate about well, just the beginning
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  Speaker 3: of all of this, and one of these that could
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  Speaker 3: have a huge impact on healthcare as well as the
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  Speaker 3: armed forces, and then dealing with the other big issue,
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  Speaker 3: the scope of religious accommodations in America. This all will
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  Speaker 3: have a big impact for years to come and will
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  Speaker 3: probably impact not only your kids, but maybe even your
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  Speaker 3: grandkids when they're born. That's why Donald Trump clearly is
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  Speaker 3: wanting to have this argument, this fight, this debate right now,
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  Speaker 3: because if we don't have this debate now, what happens
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  Speaker 3: the next time there's a COVID esque outbreak? What happens
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  Speaker 3: when they come up with a vaccine quickly? Are you
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  Speaker 3: going to be forced to take that vaccine or lose
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  Speaker 3: your job? Will that happen to thousands and thousands of
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  Speaker 3: American soldiers? And that's part of why this commission is
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  Speaker 3: doing their work right now and giving these recommendations. The
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  Speaker 3: President of the United States of America. We already know
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  Speaker 3: the President says yes to these types of recommendations. He's
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  Speaker 3: the one signed the alarm about abusive power by the
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  Speaker 3: Democratic Party, the Socialists, and the Marxist in Washington.
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  Speaker 4: D C. Thank you for listening to the forty seven
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