WEBVTT

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By Billy Cunningham, the Great American
of course, tonight, starting at nine

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oh one Eastern time. It'll be
a unique presentation. I've looked back in

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American history the last time there was
a sitting president debating a previous president.

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It might have happened in nineteen twelve
when tr of the Bull Moose Party was

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running against William Howard Taft from Cincinnati
against Woodrow Wilson. But I don't think

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in nineteen twelve there are any debates
going on, so this might be the

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first debate of its kind. Joan, you and I now is Lauren Tomlinson.

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She's a Republican strategist who worked in
the Trump administration. And Lauren Tomlinson,

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welcome to the Bill Cunningham Show.
And Lauren from the Democrat and or

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Republican position, what does in your
view that Trump needs to do tonight and

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what does Joe Biden need to do? If anything? So Trump tonight,

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We're looking for him to be more
disciplined version of himself, for him to

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stay on message and make sure to
pivot to the issues that voters currently care

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about to stay in the future.
You know, this is a unique time

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in which the economy is top of
mind for voters. Inflation is still super

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high. It's keeping those interest rates
high, which is preventing people from buying

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home. Lots of trickle down effects
there that are affecting people's everyday lives.

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And by talking about that and making
the nostalgia about the economy as it was

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under Trump, he can have a
really successful night. For Joe Biden,

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what he's looking at is how do
I remind people of what they didn't like

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about Trump in twenty twenty, the
reason why I want in twenty twenty,

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the chaos, the drama, the
unscripted moments, and the Twitter rants.

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How can I remind people constantly that
he isn't presidential. So for Trump,

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as long as he can maintain the
focus on the future, not get dragged

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into personal grievances, and make sure
that he doesn't take debate on revisiting the

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pass, which Joe Biden will continuously
try to do, he should have a

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good night. Let's talk about the
two moderators. And I would like to

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think Donald Trump did not receive good
advice on this one. But Jake Tapper

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worked for many years as a Democratic
staffer on the Hill. Some of the

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comments he's made about Trump being Adolph
Hitler, and in twenty twenty, Jake

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Tapper CNN said the long national nightmare
is over and Dana Bash has a long

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history of anti Trump rans and raves
on air. Couldn't the Trumpster? I

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guess he didn't have a choice of
having someone from Fox News or Breitbart or

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Newsmax from talk radio come on,
and didn't he kind of lose the It's

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not a debate so much as a
forum because they're not going to debate each

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other. But isn't it a problem
when CNN picks the moderator so to speak,

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and all the parameters of the debate. Was that a mistake? I

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think it's interesting that both campaigns agreed
to go outside of the non partisan by

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partisan presidential debate for him, so
or commissioned because with the commission you get

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things like that, You get to
negotiate the host, you can bring in

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people from other networks, you can
ensure more of a balance moderator panel.

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Since they decided to work directly with
the network, you're kind of limited in

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the talent pool. So he could
have maybe, you know, he maybe

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could have pushed for Chris Wallace,
who is now a c and an anchor

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who's formally a Fox News to be
there with him. But either way,

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it wasn't going to be a favorable
outcome for Trump in that regard. Now

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on the flip side, in September, there's going to be another debate that

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you know, the Biden campaign will
say that the that the moderators are unfriendly

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towards him, so at least it's
balanced in that set. But for this,

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for this debate, because they chose
to go with the network, there

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really wasn't a lot of negotiating from
of who they were going to get.

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The one positive though, I will
say about Jake Tapper, he has been

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very vocal about the Israel Hamas war
and anti Semitism in this country currently,

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and so I think that that could
actually play to Trump's favor, reminding people

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how weak Biden has been on this
issue, how he hasn't been standing with

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our ally, how he hasn't been
standing up for Jews in this country,

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And so Trump can focus on the
positive there, then he could also make

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a really strong foreign policy point with
a sympathetic moderator. And the other thing,

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Lauren, is that Trump is the
only president in American history that has

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Jewish grandchildren, and the idea that
somehow Trump's going to be an isomitic would

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be a joke. And is this
a debate? Isn't it more or less?

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The format? There's no pros,
there's muted microphones, there's two commercial

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breaks, I guess potty breaks,
there's no studio audience. And instead of

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going back and forth, CNN as
they're hand on the mute button. And

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I watched yesterday the sound coming out
of the out of the podium with a

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mute button on, and you couldn't
hear anything it was being said. And

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so isn't it isn't all the fourmats? I say, Trump's playing an away

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game and Biden has picked the officials
and are paying them, And is this

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a debate when the parties can't go
at each other? You know, it's

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funny because the muting of the mic
makes it less of a debate one hundred

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percent. But they will be allowing
the candidates to address the at least do

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rebuttals. But I'm sure you've seen
this as well. But at least with

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my work with congressional candidates, almost
every local election has TV debate in a

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similar format, So you walk in
the studio, it's kind of awkward because

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there's no audience. You get two
guests and you get to debate each other,

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and so congressional candidates are kind of
very used to this format, and

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it's a little awkward not having the
audience feedback when you land those singers and

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not being able to play off of
the crowd, But it also can be

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beneficial in that part of the goal
of a debate from a campaign communications perspective

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is to make sure that you are
reaching those secondary audiences. So here we

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are. We're in the middle of
June, almost July fourth holiday. People

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are with their kids, they're preparing
for Fourth of July barbecues, they're not

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really paying attention. This is it's
very early, you know historically for us

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to be having these debates. They're
not tuned in. And we know from

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the polling that this is going to
be a very tight race. So there's

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basically ten percent of persuadable voters out
there that will make the difference in this

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race. So those ten percent are
probably not watching the debates tonight, and

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it's going to be really important,
and the studio provides this opportunity. I

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think if you have this goal in
mind to make sure that you get a

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good clip of your message and then
push it via paid advertising and social media

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after the fact. So the spin
room and the campaign apparatus will be really

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important because these messages and the effects
of this debate won't be seen for weeks,

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because the campaigns will be actively pushing
moments for weeks to come to voters

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who aren't paying attention. And I
think that's going to be the opportunity here

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where it won't feel like a normal
debate like we've seen previously because of the

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cross talk that you've talked about in
the limits there. But it does provide

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a real opportunity for the candidates to
have those viral moments and make a campaign

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ad and make a difference for some
of those persuadable voters. It's only a

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prediction, but I would think that
come September, if Joe Biden is still

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denominated the Democrat Party and I got
hot fudgs Son, he bets all over

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saying that he's not going to be
the nominee of the Democrat Party, they

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can't be that stupid to put him
back up again. But nonetheless, if

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he is and Trump's up five or
six percentage points, Trump's gonna not want

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to debate Biden. If, on
the other hand, Biden stumbles through tonight

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and doesn't mumble, stumble and fumble
too much and have a senior moment,

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a Mitch McConnell moment, and just
stare into space, and if Biden comes

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out of that in the media declares
him to be the winner, which they

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want to do. That case comes
September. If Trump's up, he's not

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gonna want a debate, and if
Biden's up, if he's still the nominee,

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he's not going to want a debate. And either way, I think

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that's why this is more significance.
But you're right, I don't think a

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core Democratic voter is going to say, man, that was a bad performance

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by Joe Biden. I'm gonna vote
for Donald Trump. And I can't imagine

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Ohio and a Kentuckian or a Hoosier
but being a Trump supporter saying, you

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know what, the trump'ster didn't do
that, well, I think I'm gonna

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vote for Joe Biden. And so
it's hardened already as to you're gonna,

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as you say, go to the
five to ten percent cent of occasional voter,

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and that they're going to decide the
election and they may not be watching

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it all because they don't pay attention
to politics until October. And secondly,

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I would say this that the Trumpster
has Are you better off today than you

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were four years ago? Inflations up
about twenty percent, you have a duke,

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Energy bills up about thirty percent,
real estate taxes are through the roof,

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Mortgage interest rates are about seven to
eight percent. Gasoline has almost doubled

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in price since twenty nineteen. Everything
that should be up is down. Everything

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that should be down is up.
And all the Trumpster has to do is

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point out the obvious and stay away
from personal attacks. Ignore what happened on

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January the sixth, move on from
that, and uh, don't go after

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Hunter Biden very hard because everyone knows
his situation. Uh, and move on.

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So, if you were gonna whisper
in Donald Trump's here before before he

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takes the stage at eight fifty five
pm, what would Lauren Tomlinson say to

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the Trumpster? I would say,
stay calm. Remember your pivots don't act

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like in the first debate, act
like in the second debate. In twenty

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joint exactly the second debate of twenty
twenty and and like you were saying,

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pivot, pivot, pivot, you
know, every time that they want to

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talk about something else, bring it
back to the economy, bring it back

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to inflation, bring it back to
crime and immigration, because those are the

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issues that people care about right now
because they're affecting their lives. And if

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you can keep reminding people of where
they are right now and what you can

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do to fix that, it's going
to be very impactful. Because voters don't

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care about the personal grievances and the
politics and the personalities. They know these

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guys, it's one hundred percent.
Name might be they both have first term

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presidencies under their belts. What they
do care about is do you understand what

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I'm going through right now and what
I'm seeing? Because it doesn't feel that

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way Lauren that Oh no, I
was just gonna say. The person they

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can reflect that will win. Lauren
Tomlinson, you're like a woman and geop

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strategistan, you're not a birthing people. You're like a woman. And I'm

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watching Fox News right now. They
have a list of all the crimes,

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the vicious rapes and the torture that
illegal aliens have put women through inside this

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country, and the murder migrant gangs
from Venezuela that are burglarizing homes, large

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number of migrants if smuggled guns and
New York City shelters, that the rapes

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of so many women in the South, especially at the hands of legal migrants,

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wouldn't that be a good ploy for
the Donald to route off the names

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of five or six women who were
raped, tortured, and murdered at the

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hands of the illegal immigrants that Joe
Biden brought into this country one hundred percent.

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And I think also tying that back
towards the larger issue of there's a

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reason why we have immigration laws and
why our order is unsecure, is a

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threat to national security. I mean, a lot of these laws are put

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in place because of nine to eleven
right in the terrorist attacks and the we

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need to know who and what we're
coming into our country. There was just

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a report that four hundred ISIS linked
migrants are at large in the country right

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now because they came through the southern
border, and so it's a it's not

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just uh, you know, the
horrible crimes that are happening at the communities,

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which people are very upset about,
and rightfully so, there's a broader

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national security argument to be made there, and Democrats have denied that this is

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happening for years. I mean even
when I was working in the administration,

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we knew that people with affiliations to
ISIS were trying to enter the country or

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coming into the country. They very
much view transnational criminal organizations know that that's

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the way to get in, and
we have to know who is coming in

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from a safety perspective. And so
you know, even the Biden's going to

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be taling his recent measures to women
asylum claims and how that's dropped the numbers

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at the border. But unfortunately,
two thousand people coming in illegally is still

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too much, right if you limit
it per day, it's not enough,

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right, Like you have to change
the policies there. So I think as

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long as Trump can make sure to
tie it to broader national security and make

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sure to connect to people that this
is a big threat. I think he

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went there lastly about a minute remaining. I see that ron Klain and Susan

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Rice and others. They've taken Biden
away from his job as the president for

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a week to get ready. I
think you'll overload many people that are mentally

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not up to snuff by putting too
many facts in their head. They can't

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rattle them off sufficiently. From a
national perspective, I have this thought that

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democratic operatives that run the executive branch
of government, not Joe Biden, wanted

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this debate early, unpresidented, so
that if he does particularly bad, there's

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six weeks between now and the middle
of August and Chicago to substitute out either

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Michelle Obama or Newsome or god forbid, Kamala Harris to be the nominee.

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Is there a thought this is Joe
Biden's last chance to prove that he's mentally

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alert. I think that there's there. I hear that rumor that this gives

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them enough time before the convention to
nominate someone else. I think that we

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also have a situation in which there
is early voting in some states as soon

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as September, so we have a
much shorter cycle to influence those voters with

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the new early voting laws. And
then three, I think that there's also

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a thought that if Joe Biden stumbles, even if they stick with him as

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a nominee. There's so much time
between now and November that there can be

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enough cleanup to be done, and
like you said, they can forego the

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second debate. So there's a lot
of benefits for the Biden camp for doing

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it this early. And number one, I do think it's influenced by the

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early voting, and then number two, the ability to switch out before the

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convention. Right, Lauren Tomlinson,
You're a great American GOP strategist, also

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worked in three or four different positions
in the Trump administration. The truth will

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set us free. I like to
think God Almighty's in charge, and I

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hope that some light has shined upon
Donald Trump tonight. I set a rosary

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for him two days ago. I
want him to do well, and it's

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up to up to him to perform
up to snuff. And the country cannot

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survive four to ten more years of
what's happening on the southern border and what's

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happening all around the world. We
can't survive this. We can't put up

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with another fifty to one hundred million
people coming into the country illegally with bad

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intentions, and we just can't.
We just can't. We can't survive this

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is the most important presidential election I
think since eighteen sixty and we'll see what

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happens. But Lauren Tomlinson, once
again, thank you for coming on the

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Bill Cunningham Show. And may God
bless you and God bless America. Thank

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you very much, Thanks for having
me. All right, Lauren, thank

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you very much. Let's continue with
more your thoughts five, one, three,

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four, nine, seven thousand plus
Reds Baseball begins about six ten tonight

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in Saint Louis on the home of
your Reds News Radio, seven hundred WLW