Just because the Swamp is “Normal” doesn’t mean it is OK

Saagar Enjeti blasts Biden’s potential administration after reports from The American Prospect detail how strategic consultants will define Biden’s cabinet.

Cited Piece

The American Prospect: How Biden’s Foreign-Policy Team Got Rich

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all right Sagar what’s on your radar
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well the RealClearPolitics average has
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Joe Biden up 8.7% Achon average over the
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last three weeks nationally and in every
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single battleground state and yesterday
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we featured this map on the show it
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shows that the upper bound of what is
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electoral possibility in November is a
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massive electoral landslide none of this
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is a guarantee as we learned in 2016 but
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what does it mean is that we have to
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start taking very seriously what it
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actually means for Joe Biden to become
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President of the United States and
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commander-in-chief this is especially
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relevant after the most recent deep
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state plot to derail Afghan peace
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negotiations and the bipartisan push to
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keep thousands of troops in Afghanistan
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for no reason our friends over at the
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American Prospect gave us a distressing
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look into what exactly we’re dealing
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with here on the national security front
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if Biden ever ascends to the Oval Office
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and just how deep the swamp will extend
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inside the prospect details how to close
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Biden associates Anthony blinken and
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Michele Flournoy decided to start a
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boutique consulting firm for defense
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contractors and fortune 100 companies
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after they unexpectedly found themselves
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without a job in here with Hillary
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Clinton’s administration blinken and
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flora Noyes practice entails helping
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tech companies try to get Pentagon
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contracts helping defense contractors
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get more contracts and basically
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advertising itself as a one-stop
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consulting shop for any massive
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corporation that wants help influencing
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the national security or diplomatic
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swamp now in a particularly galling
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section of their website the pair
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literally advertise that they can help
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major companies quote develop a strategy
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for expanding market access in China
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blinken and Flournoy are not going to be
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low-level aides in a Biden
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administration floor annoy was well
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known in Washington to be the next
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Secretary of Defense in waiting under
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hillary clinton administration i
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personally attended an event with her
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and biden in 2016 in which biden
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jokingly called her Madame secretary and
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which she jokingly referred to Biden as
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mr. president blinken on the other hand
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was deputy national security adviser
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under Obama and a Deputy Secretary of
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State
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recent Biden campaign event he was
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introduced as quote senior foreign
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policy advisor and the rest of Biden’s
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foreign policy team is exactly the same
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as the prospect lists including Nicholas
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burns of the Coen Group Kurt Campbell of
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the Asia group Tom Donilon of Blackrock
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Investment Institute Wendy Sherman of
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the Albright Stonebridge group and
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former Hillary adviser Jake Sherman of
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macro advisory partners you beginning to
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sense a theme here former very high
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ranking national security officials now
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working as outright consultants for
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finance Sears and Chinese companies and
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defense contract or companies who take
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those people on as clients does any of
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this bother Joe Biden
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well when the prospect asked his
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campaign for comment this is what they
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had to say quote there’s a difference
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between consulting and lobbying and that
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here’s a pretty strong line there so
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presumably we don’t have to have a ban
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on people who were consultants at one
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time on another since I am one myself it
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is just too good to be true
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what’s disgusting about this is the pure
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nakedness of it all Michele Flournoy as
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they point out literally serves on the
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presidential intelligence advisory on
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the CIA directors external advisory
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board on the Pentagon’s defense policy
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board she has access to very classified
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and important information who knows what
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she is and isn’t using to influence her
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advice to the most powerful corporations
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in the world under Biden they will this
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is only going to ramp up a member of the
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firm that floor annoyin blinken found it
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even admitted to the prospect that Biden
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would be great for business saying quote
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think about it if Biden were to win we
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do think that companies will start
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coming to West exec for hey what is the
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Commerce Secretary thinking the clear
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picture we’re getting here Biden and his
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team is that they’re not rigidly
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ideological if they were outright
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neo-cons
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in a way I would respect it more but
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worse they are transactional neo
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liberals who will tell you with a
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straight face that they believe in
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making the country a better place while
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enriching themselves off perpetuating
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the status quo that can’t afford to get
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out of Afghanistan because it would hurt
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their clients they can’t afford to pull
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back from Europe because it would hurt
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their a bit
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consult companies who want to do
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business with NATO the grifting list is
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on and on and on and the wholesale
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ownership of Biden’s foreign policy team
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by this system and his inability to push
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back against it is a signature of some
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very troubled times to come in the next
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four years if he ever ascends to the
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presidency and crystal I mean I don’t
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know if you read this piece but it is
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stunning because it’s not just blinking
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and floran wise he points out every
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single person works for some consultancy
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group and then not even that it’s just
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it’s the naked lack of reporting why
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does this have to come from a
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progressive left outlet you should in
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the new york times be investigating this
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is manna ford stone level stuff right
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yeah they don’t care because it’s just
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normal it’s like a normal grift of
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washout yet that everybody is just like
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oh yeah you know she made a couple
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million bucks here a couple million
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bucks they’re gonna be the next defense
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secretary who knows how many contracts
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gonna steer their way to somebody’s
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friend oh good just normal now they’re
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like the fish swimmin in the ocean they
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can’t see the water this is just like
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the way things are done indeed I mean it
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reminds me a lot of you know when we
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were talking about hunter Biden
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congressman Ted Louise like people serve
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on boards right make money the fact that
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is normal doesn’t mean it’s okay that
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actually makes it so much worse and I
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really encourage people to go read this
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piece it’s it’s such an important look
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inside the way that policy is actually
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made and the human beings who are at the
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table and the interest sometimes that
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are secret by the way they’re not
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upfront about life they don’t have I’m
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also you know I’m also working with
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Northrop Grumman just so you know so
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when I’m advocating for like this
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missile system that they have to make
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you might want to know that piece of
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information I mean that is literally
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laid out in this piece and it is
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completely common operating procedure in
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this town so on the one hand it’s just
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like it’s so normal that they don’t even
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think to report on it and look into who
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the individuals are who they represent
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how that might influence their policy
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and on the other hand the other piece of
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this is like so much of our political
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coverage I touched on this yesterday
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when we were talking about Susan Rice’s
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potential VP
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or any of the other potential VP picks
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it’s all just treated as horserace yes
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and personality driven and like
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demographic driven like what boxes do
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they check rather than actually digging
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into the substance and the policy and
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what that might mean for an
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administration especially when you do
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have someone like Joe Biden that’s the
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other piece that’s interesting here is
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they talk about the way that he’s a
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perch for the policy it sounds actually
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a lot like Trump yeah it’s very
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personality driven he has this like
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glad-hand approach he he believes in
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these personal relationships many of
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which have gotten him into a lot of
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trouble in terms of his decision-making
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trusting people and leaders that he
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really has arrested one of the best
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parts of the piece yeah about I forgot
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actually this because this is my
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background he was the guy who backed
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Nuri al-maliki right Iran who is the
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person who started a sectarian civil war
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gave rise to Isis Andrew into the
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country after he was like his but yeah
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and it was like fighting walked into
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Iraq thinking he was dealing with to
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Delaware political bosses is like yeah
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it turns out the sunni-shia conflict is
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a lot more complicated right and then
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maybe we should apply a little bit more
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intellectual rigor there that is
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actually the piece that worries the most
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because you can see it right now on
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Afghanistan because Biden and his team
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are like Oh Trump wants to get out of
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Afghanistan they’re gonna abandon Biden
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has a record of pushing restraint in
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Afghanistan his entire record was saying
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hey don’t do this let’s do the
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counterterrorism thing even in 2006-2007
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he was writing op-eds against the surge
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which is a long history of being anti
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intervention whenever that was the
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politically convenient kind of
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contrarian thing to do right but this
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goes to show with Susan Rice doing the
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Afghanistan thing and I played his
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comments here over last week we talked
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about dereliction of duty for Trump and
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all of that about how we have to stand
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up to the Russians I just that’s when
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you really knew this is a truly
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transactional non-ideological figure who
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will go wherever the winds blow that is
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a disaster that is how you got Libya
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Libya was the politically convenient
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thing to do how did it work out for
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everybody right maybe it would’ve been
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better to have somebody hot saying yeah
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nobody talks about that one well and
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here’s something too exactly like what
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you’re saying when you
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have someone who doesn’t have like a
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fixed ideology that they’re committed to
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or an agenda overseas that they’re
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committed to then the people that you’re
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talking about here blink it in Flournoy
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and all the rest they’re the ones that
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fill in the gaps they’re the ones that
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actually drive the policy then once it’s
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set the range of options that are
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available so just like we’ve seen with
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Trump where he’s like I want to get out
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of out get it like that’s just not even
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an option that’s put in on the table
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they’re like your options are you can
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increase by five thousand ten thousand
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or seventy-five thousand right it’s like
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but I want to get out I don’t understand
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that’s how they get you that’s what they
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do every single time it’s and it’s not
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just and some of these people are
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ideological and then some of them just
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have you know personal professional and
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monetary direct monetary interests in
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serving this particular role because
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yeah why that well look if they go in
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the administration they’ll cut all the
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ties specifically those industries
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they’ve got all those connections still
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they know where their breads gonna be
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buttered after they exit the
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administration so don’t think that just
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because they technically cut ties at
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that point means that they have really
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like the independence of thought doesn’t
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even matter they admit it they’re on off
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basically on background to this prospect
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reporter being like yeah you know if
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Biden being the president that’d be
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great for us great for people we’ll call
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for us and be like what is the former
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West deck partner who’s now the Commerce
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Secretary think about X that is worth
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billions to companies right if they’re
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like hey we need to know which way the
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administration is probably going to
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swing on the new Chinese tariffs that is
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literally worth hundreds of billions of
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dollars same on the defense secretary if
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they’re gonna on Yemen that was the
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example that was given there whenever
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she was talking about how Michele
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Flournoy was advocating I think of more
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Patriot missiles for for Saudi Arabia
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she failed to disclose we’re not
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disclosed nobody knows she won’t even
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admit which defense contractor she works
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for and wouldn’t deny that Raytheon who
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manufactures these Patriot missiles was
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one of her company the only thing they
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would say is quote one of the defense
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primes which is one of the five largest
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defense codes and they said like it’s
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one of their contracts it’s in the
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ballpark
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know if you really want to understand
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why we have the foreign policy that we
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have why we keep getting into these
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conflicts overseas that we can that’s
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what once we get in that you can never
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ever get yourself out of this piece
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really lays
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like the nitty-gritty of how that works
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and look it is the norm basically almost
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without exception with a few outlier
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exceptions almost anyone who ended up in
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the presidency these the type of people
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who would come in and it’s by partisan I
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mean the same ideology the same monetary
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interest pervades both parties we saw it
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with the Afghanistan peace that we
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covered yesterday the amount of support
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in Congress bipartisan support to
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prevent the president from drawing down
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troops in Afghanistan a place that we
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have been for years and years and years
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and where American lives are still being
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put at risk for what for what this piece
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really lays out like the internal
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details of how exactly that girl highly
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recommend everybody read it and I’m
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looking forward to your raid our next
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crystal