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
Transcript
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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