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Democrats Second‑Guess as Administration Says Iran Left No Time to Wait · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

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  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 2: Do you intend to lift sanctions on Iradian oil?
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  Speaker 3: And do you intend to potentially put US troops or
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  Speaker 3: more troops in the region.
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  Speaker 4: No, I'm not putting troops anywhere. If I were, certainly
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  Speaker 4: wouldn't tell you.
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  Speaker 5: You're listening to the forty seven Morning Update with Ben ferguson.
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  Speaker 4: Good Friday morning.
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  Speaker 6: Nice to have you with us on the forty seven
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  Speaker 6: Morning Update, and we've got two stories for you. First,
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  Speaker 6: there's a growing obsession from the Democrats claiming that there
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  Speaker 6: was no imminent threat from Iran.
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  Speaker 4: Will debunk that.
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  Speaker 6: Plus, the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, throws down
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  Speaker 6: on intelligence and calls out a man by the name
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  Speaker 6: of Joe Kent and his lies.
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  Speaker 4: But before we get.
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  Speaker 6: To that, I want to tell you about our good
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  Speaker 6: seven morning update and it starts right now.
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  Speaker 4: Story number one.
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  Speaker 6: Democrats are pushing a new narrative right now that Iran
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  Speaker 6: was not an imminent threat to the United States of America. Therefore,
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  Speaker 6: Donald Trump jumped the gun and should not have acted
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  Speaker 6: to go after the regime. Well after the strikes and
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  Speaker 6: the broader military operations have been a massive success, Democrats
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  Speaker 6: are now trying to figure out how do you push
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  Speaker 6: this narrative that this was a war of choice, arguing
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  Speaker 6: there's no credible intelligence to justify the actions. Some lawmakers,
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  Speaker 6: even after classified briefings, have doubled down, saying they didn't
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  Speaker 6: see evidence of an immediate threat. Take a listen to
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  Speaker 6: the House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and what he had
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  Speaker 6: to say at the press conference.
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  Speaker 7: Having been briefed now not once, but twice, there is
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  Speaker 7: no evidence that has been presented to us that the
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  Speaker 7: United States was under threat of imminent attack from Iran,
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  Speaker 7: zero evidence of that. In fact, many members of the
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  Speaker 7: administration have actually publicly now admitted that. So if in
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  Speaker 7: fact that was the case, it's hard for the American
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  Speaker 7: people to understand the rationale from launching a preemptive war
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  Speaker 7: in the Middle East that has now spread to more
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  Speaker 7: than half a dozen countries and resulted in the death
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  Speaker 7: of at least six brave, courageous, heroic service members, that's unacceptable.
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  Speaker 6: Now Democrats are using the death of those soldiers to
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  Speaker 6: put their political agenda now. The d and I director
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  Speaker 6: Gabbert was also asked on Capitol Hill as Democrats are
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  Speaker 6: honing in on this one single point.
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  Speaker 4: And here's what she had to say about.
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  Speaker 6: The only person that opinion matters really on what an
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  Speaker 6: imminent threat is and can determine what to do about it,
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  Speaker 6: she says, is actually the President of the United States
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  Speaker 6: of America.
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  Speaker 8: Was it the assessment of the intelligence community that there
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  Speaker 8: was an imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime?
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  Speaker 2: The intelligence community assessed that Iran maintained the intention to
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  Speaker 2: rebuild and to continue to grow their nuclear enrichment.
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  Speaker 8: Was it the assessment of the intelligence community that there
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  Speaker 8: was a quote imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime?
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  Speaker 2: Yes? Or no, Senator, the only person who can determine
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  Speaker 2: in what is and is not an iminent threat is
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  Speaker 2: the president.
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  Speaker 4: False.
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  Speaker 8: This is the Worldwide this is the Worldwide Threats Hearing
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  Speaker 8: where you present to Congress national intelligence, timely, objective and
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  Speaker 8: independent of political considerations. You've stated today that the intelligence
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  Speaker 8: community's assessment is that Iran's nuclear enrichment program was obliterated,
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  Speaker 8: and that quote there had been no efforts since then
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  Speaker 8: to try to rebuild their enrichment capability. Was it the
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  Speaker 8: intelligence community's assessment that, nevertheless, despite this obliteration, there was
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  Speaker 8: a quote imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime.
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  Speaker 2: Yes or no, it is not the intelligence community's responsibility
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  Speaker 2: to determine what is and is not an imminent threat?
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  Speaker 7: Is up?
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  Speaker 8: Here's the problem is? It is precisely it is precisely
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  Speaker 8: your responsibility.
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  Speaker 6: You can hear there Democrats honing in and now they've
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  Speaker 6: launched onto the resignation of the top counter terrorism official
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  Speaker 6: who is grandstanding claiming the same exact thing, that Iran
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  Speaker 6: didn't pose an imminent danger. Now, to be clear, that
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  Speaker 6: completely contradicts what that individual had said in the weeks
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  Speaker 6: and months and years in the past. We also have
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  Speaker 6: now found out that that same individual is apparently under
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  Speaker 6: FBI investigation that was open long before his resignation for
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  Speaker 6: leaking classified information.
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  Speaker 4: I want to go.
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  Speaker 9: Sources are saying that Joe Kent, the former director of
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  Speaker 9: the United States National counter Terror Center, This is from Semaphore,
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  Speaker 9: he just resigned. He's now under FBI investigation for allegedly
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  Speaker 9: leaking classified information, and the investigation predates his departure. Congressman,
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  Speaker 9: your reaction to that tonight, Wow.
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  Speaker 10: Well, there's a lot there, and I think that we
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  Speaker 10: need to let this investigation play out. But we shouldn't
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  Speaker 10: tolerate any leakers in the administration, particularly regarding classified national
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  Speaker 10: security interests and information. So we'll let this play out
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  Speaker 10: and see where it goes. But if he was leaking,
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  Speaker 10: he ought to be held accountable, just like anybody else
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  Speaker 10: would be.
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  Speaker 6: You listen to the former National counter Terrorism Center director
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  Speaker 6: Joe Kent again under FBI investigation for allegedly leaking classified information,
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  Speaker 6: and the investigation predates his departure. Now the White House,
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  Speaker 6: by the way, they're in on this as well, making
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  Speaker 6: it clear where they stand. They were acting, as they
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  Speaker 6: described it, on intelligence, on decades of Iranian aggression, and
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  Speaker 6: on a very simple reality. Iran has been a sustained,
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  Speaker 6: evolving threat to the United States and its allies for
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  Speaker 6: nearly half a century. Top Republicans and administration officials that
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  Speaker 6: pushed back hard, saying the President reviewed intelligence and made
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  Speaker 6: a deliberate decision that the threat was real and imminent,
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  Speaker 6: and they're not alone. Military leadership has been crystal clear
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  Speaker 6: about the mission dismantle Iran's nuclear capabilities, neutralized missile threats,
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  Speaker 6: and stop a regime that has targeted Americans around the globe.
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  Speaker 6: Defensive officials have said this operations about finishing a fight
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  Speaker 6: Iran has been waging for years, not starting a new one.
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  Speaker 6: And even more importantly, early intelligence assessments now say that
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  Speaker 6: Iran's capabilities have been significantly degraded as a result of
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  Speaker 6: these new strikes. That's not speculation, that's literally the results
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  Speaker 6: of the actions taken by the Trump administration. And while
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  Speaker 6: Democrats are focused on second guessing the timing, the Trump
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  Speaker 6: administration is focused on outcomes, stopping nuclear escalation, protecting American lives,
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  Speaker 6: and reasserting to terrans in a region where weakness has
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  Speaker 6: major consequences.
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  Speaker 4: Let's be honest about what's happening here.
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  Speaker 6: Democrats are debating process and President Trump is acting on prevention.
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  Speaker 6: They're arguing about whether the threat was imminent enough. The
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  Speaker 6: administration is saying, we're not waiting for Americans to die
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  Speaker 6: to prove it. And politically, this is a familiar pattern
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  Speaker 6: because every time decisive action is taken against an adversary
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  Speaker 6: like Iran. The same voices emerge questioning whether we should
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  Speaker 6: have acted at all, but the Trump doctrine is different.
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  Speaker 4: In fact, it's really simple. If you threaten Americans, if you.
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  Speaker 6: Move towards nuclear capability, if you destabilize the world, you
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  Speaker 6: don't get the benefit of the doubt. You get stopped.
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  Speaker 6: And that's exactly what this administration believes it has done
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  Speaker 6: so far and will continue to do. I want you
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  Speaker 6: to tell you a listen to what Speaker Johnson had
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  Speaker 6: to say on Fox News Channel, not only about Joe
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  Speaker 6: Kin's resignation, but the reality of the situation in DC
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  Speaker 6: and the presence decision to act.
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  Speaker 4: How is that not an imminent threat?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a great question. I'm not sure what Joe
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  Speaker 1: Kent is reading, but it's not the same intel that
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  Speaker 1: I've seen. Look, I'm on the Gang of Eight. We
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  Speaker 1: got all the briefings before this operation in Iran began,
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  Speaker 1: we got briefings during and and then after it commenced,
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  Speaker 1: and the intelligence was exquisite. It was very clear this
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  Speaker 1: was an imminent threat to the United States and America's interest,
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  Speaker 1: and the Commander in chief did exactly the right thing.
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  Speaker 1: He had to protect American lives. We knew that those
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  Speaker 1: ballistic missiles that they were stockpiling and preparing, we're going
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  Speaker 1: to be fired at our troops and our civilians and
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  Speaker 1: our installations in the region. And so the Commander chief
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  Speaker 1: did what he had to do. Joe Kent seem to
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  Speaker 1: understand that until about twenty four hours ago. I'm not
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  Speaker 1: sure what happened there. There's lots of discussion about it
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  Speaker 1: on Capitol Hill, as you can imagine, we're trying to
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  Speaker 1: get down to the bottom of it. But he is
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  Speaker 1: an outlier, I'm telling you. As we noted earlier, Bongino
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  Speaker 1: and others have said, everyone else in the administration and
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  Speaker 1: everyone who sees the actual intelligence understands clearly that the
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  Speaker 1: president did what he had to do.
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  Speaker 3: All right, And Speaker Johnson, I think you would confirm
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  Speaker 3: as I know, as Dan Bongino knows. Anybody that knows
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  Speaker 3: the president knows he is the same man of his
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  Speaker 3: own mind. He will listen to everybody, He'll listen to
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  Speaker 3: all points of view, and he's going to make up
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  Speaker 3: his own mind. Then it's the job of those people
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  Speaker 3: around him to support the policies he was elected Commander
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  Speaker 3: in chief. Them some of them need to learn.
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  Speaker 4: That that's right. We appreciate You're exactly right.
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  Speaker 1: And he's restoring peace through strength and in America's better
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  Speaker 1: for it, and so is the all of the free world.
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  Speaker 4: Well, okay, peace through strength.
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  Speaker 3: He learned the lesson of the last century, where over
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  Speaker 3: one hundred million people died because we didn't take action
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  Speaker 3: when we could have sooner on many occasions. And he
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  Speaker 3: also doesn't want to get into a quagmire, and that
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  Speaker 3: has been and will be the Trump doctrine throughout his
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  Speaker 3: presidency that I can pretty.
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  Speaker 4: Much Speaker Johnson is absolutely right.
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  Speaker 6: Joe Kent, Well, he's not reading the same intel that
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  Speaker 6: many others have seen. And unfortunately he wasn't on the
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  Speaker 6: A team. He was on the B team, and he
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  Speaker 6: wasn't in the room for the decisions that were being made.
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  Speaker 6: So yeah, he's a useful idiot to our enemies and
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  Speaker 6: a Tucker Carlson and Candice Owens and Meghan Kelly.
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  Speaker 4: But the reality is the majority of.
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  Speaker 6: Americans are trusting Donald Trump, and when he says that
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  Speaker 6: Iran is an imminent threat, well the American people overwhelmingly
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  Speaker 6: seem to believe him.
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  Speaker 5: Thank you for listening to the forty seven Morning Update
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  Speaker 5: with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever
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