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We're back with another edition of The
Federalist Radio Hour. I'm Emil Jasinski,

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culture editor here at The Federalist.
As always, you can email the show

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at radio at the Federalist dot com, follow us on Twitter at ftr LST.

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Make sure to subscribe wherever you download
your podcasts, and to the premium

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version of our website as well.
I'm joined today by Robert Leinheiser, who

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is out with a new book,
No Trade Is Free, changing course taking

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on China and helping America's workers.
Thank you so much for joining us.

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I really appreciate it. Well,
thank you for having me on. I'm

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a big fan of The Federalist and
so this is a thrill for me.

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I had the opportunity to hear you
about an American Compass event recently, and

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I have a feeling that what you
were talking about there is a lot of

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you know, a lot of that
made it into the book if if I'm

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if my suspicions are correct, and
that was excellent. So I'm very excited

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to dive into the book and to
ask you some questions. And I want

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to start with one that it's kind
of a plays off of the subtitle of

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the book helping America's workers. That
in and of itself it sounds obvious to

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you know, people who understand the
problem, but I think a lot of

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people here in Washington don't. So
the obvious question to toss your way would

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be why do America's workers need help? Do they need help at all?

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As a question that some people seem
to still be grappling with so so emily

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I appreciate that's the sort of the
fundamental question I guess I would say,

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um, to go back to first
principles, what makes America great? Why

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are we the greatest country in the
world? And why have we had the

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biggest economy in the world since at
least in ninety and and we've been the

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you know, the greatest world power, either with someone else, serve by

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ourselves for a couple of generations or
more so to me, what makes America

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great Our American communities and they're made
out by American families, and they may

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have by American workers. So it
all comes down to the workers. So

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the question is what is what should
the objective of economic policy be? And

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then take a step inside of that
and say trade policy and the objective of

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that policy should be to make America
American workers better off, to have them

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have better jobs, make more money, stay together in their families, have

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children that they're proud of and and
hopeful form, and then that trades into

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that translates into communities, and then
that's what makes America great. So to

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me, it all comes down to
the workers. The alternative thought would be

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that, no, it's a about
corporate profits, or no, it's about

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having the cheapest consumption, right,
and those are you know, those are

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kind of alternatives, And some people
who think differently than I do would say,

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oh, no, it's really about
consumption. You want to consumers to

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be able to consume the most,
and that means the cheapest price, even

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if that cheap price comes from China
and from you know, slave labor,

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or from failure to enforced environmental laws
or the life. So and then,

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of course, as I say to
the third alternative, which is very much

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like the second alternative, is corporate
profits. You want to maximize what's good

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for business, and I just think
that's upside down, right. What's what's

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good for general motors is good for
America's the kind of shifting mentality when you

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have the CEO of Nike going to
China and saying we think of ourselves as

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a Chinese company or whatever. I'm
paraphrasing what he said. And that's another

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question. Just in the the subheading
of the book itself, taking on China

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and helping America's workers, your opponents, uh, you know, would probably

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counter and say taking on China to
the point you just made, you know

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that that will increase the cost of
goods and won't ultimately be good for American

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workers. So this is another kind
of huge question. But what is your

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response as to my taking on China? I mean, not only is this

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a huge question, this is like
the focus of your work, but why

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why do both of those things go
together? And is there a way to

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take on China that could end up
not helping American workers? But you have

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to sort of do it the right
way in order to help American workers.

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Well, look at look at I'm
a believer in sort of a two staff

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analysis. All right, the first
analysis. The first question is is China

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a friend or is it an axisential
threat, an adversary, a hostile military,

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aggressive power. Right, that's the
fundamental question. If you don't get

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that question right, then everything you
do looks wrong. Right, So I

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think it's easy to say yes,
all those things are true. I thought

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it was easy to say yes in
the nineties, and I said it in

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the op edge of the light.
But by now, with the help of

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seasing, paying, and all the
other things that China has done, it

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should be obvious to any person of
good will. So then the next question

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is how do we keep how do
we prevail in this all important competition?

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And I would suggest the first thing
you have to do is stop feeding the

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crocodile, right, you quit shifting
hundreds of billions of dollars of American wealth

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to China, and you take back
for American workers those jobs that we lost

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in the two thousands, largely because
of a very very serious all see mistake,

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maybe one of the most serious we've
ever made, and that is granting

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most favored nation treatment to a hostile
country in the in this case China,

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of course. So we're in a
competition with China. We have to do

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something about it. We've decided now
that they are a very very big threat

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to in the United States. Then
the question is what do we do for

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me? It is strategic decoupling,
because you can't continue to transfer well to

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them and technology and build up their
army and their navy and all of these

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things once you realize how hostile they
are now. The effect on American workers

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it's really quite simple. And the
American workers lose jobs and upward pressure on

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wages because of China. And people
say, well, you know, it

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was a popular view in the nineties
that oh, well, we'll just trade

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and transfer our wealth to China and
then they'll turn out to be like Switzerland.

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Well, you know, it was
a foolish thought then, but a

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very common one in the nineties.
But as I say, it's not a

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position that one can can legitimately take
in twenty and twenty three. So we

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need to bring war manufacturing back to
the hind States, manufacturing jobs and the

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jobs that are thrown off by manufacturing. We need to take care of our

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own people. If you drive through
the Midwest, you see town after town,

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and not just the Midwest, by
the way, the South and parts

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of the East and West too.
You drive through these places that it used

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to have a vibrant manufacturing base,
and you now see dilapidated ghost towns are

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worse, and we have to reverse
that. That was the result of a

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foolish policy. And now we know
that policy was wrong, we have to

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have to take care of those workers, give them jobs. And I always

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like to say a job is not
just about making money, although that's an

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important part of it. A job
is also about the dignity of work,

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right, That is, it is
important for a person, whatever their job,

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to see themselves as contributing to society, that their work is useful,

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and that they're reasonably compensated for it. So all of these things militate in

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favor of a different policy towards China, and for me, strategic coupling,

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and for me that has kind of
free pieces. One you put tariffs on

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too, so that you get to
balance trade. I'm not saying no trade

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with China. You know, they
didn't say completely coupling. I think that's

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unrealistic and probably not helpful. But
we ought to have balance trade with them.

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We ought to disngage our technology from
theirs, and then we ought to

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put restrictions, reasonable restrictions on outgoing
and incoming investment from China. So anyway,

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that's that's kind of prescription. And
you're right, and you talk about

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it in the book. And if
I said something in American Compass, it's

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not in the book. Um,
and it's really important to tell me because

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it's not just in the second book
that's a fantastic it's it's pretty much all

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in there from my dive into it. And and that's where you're write about,

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um, your USMCA and what the
next steps and all that could look

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like. So if you know,
there's a thirty thousand foot kind of assessment

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of how the Trump era trade policy, which obviously you are a big part

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of, what does that look like
now that there's some distance in the rear

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view mirror, and obviously the Biden
administration has kept some of the stuff,

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not all of the stuff. Um, what's your sort of overall take on

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the trajectory of those policies and whether
they worked, whether they didn't work,

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now that there's some distance there.
So it's kind of funny the d accident

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in his book, President of the
Creation, you made this point that when

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you write a book, it's hard
to say what it was life not knowing

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what the end would be at the
time you made the decisions, right,

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And that's a hard thing to convey. And the same thing is true here.

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We have to put ourselves kind of
back and say, what was the

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situation. Let's just focus on China, because there's kind of two points.

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One is China and the other is
a worker oriented trade policy US. This

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focus on China, what did people
think in two and seventeen? And people

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were still very much of the myth
that we could work together and accomplish things

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together. And one of the grail
contributions that President drum made and that those

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of the administration made was exposing to
the world that that's not true and convincing

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Americans that that's not true. That
we're in a competition and we're losing that

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competition and we're losing it because of
wrong policy choices that we're making a right

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so so so now I say,
do I think it was a success?

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The answer is yes, I think
it was. It was a great success,

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But it wasn't you know? On
this Every now and then I'll quote

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Churchill, I know, you know
that the famous you know is just know

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the the end or the beginning,
and then he ends up by saying,

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this is the end of the beginning. I think that what we did was

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the beginning of a very smart policy, uh strategy that will lead to strategic

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company. But anyway, no one, no rational person leaves that what we

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did is enough to tip the scales
ultimately and be the COUDI gross and now

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we're going to take over China and
we're going to be more powerful than I

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mean. Well, stay that this
week changes the trajectory so that now China

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is not catching up with us as
much. What we did was start a

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new policy, and it was a
month monumental start. But we need more,

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and I believe that if President Trump
had been elected, we would have

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gotten more. I think if he's
elected in twenty four we will get more.

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I think if some of the other
Republican candidates are elected, we will

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also get more. They will move
in the direction and continue what we started.

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But you don't want to diminish how
important it was to start, because

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we literally turned the ship around and
put in place tariffs and began the process

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of decoupling. We put export controls. Secretary Ross and others put export controls

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on. We did a lot of
very important fundamental things that had really never

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been done before like that. But
for sure more needs to be done.

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So I'm really happy with what we
did on China. I think it was

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one of the two or three greatest
accomplishments of the last administration. Now,

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in terms of the current administration,
like most administrations, it has people in

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it who would say yes, that's
correct and people who would say no,

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I'm sorry to get the opinion that
the president, President Biden is in the

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group that doesn't think we have a
serious problem, which ida that's a you

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know, a very very small group
of Americans who are thoughtful and think that,

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and he clearly does seems to want
a softer, more uh you know,

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kind of a policy that will allow
them to continue to take our technology,

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to take our wealth, and to
become the number one power in the

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world. That seems to be where
they're going now. I've said that they

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still have our tariffs in place,
and some of the people in this administration,

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I don't want to get into names, are very good on this issue

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and I but I just feel that
the President is not in that group.

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Every year, children are trafficked around
the world. And now there's a new

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movie aimed at raising awareness to this
often unseen horror. It's called Sound of

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Freedom from Angels Studios. Sound of
Freedom is based on a true story.

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It shines a light on even the
darkest of places. After rescuing a young

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boy from ruthless child traffickers, a
federal agent learns the boy's sister is still

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captive and decides to embark on a
dangerous mission to save her. With time

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running out, he quits his job
and journeys deep into the Colombian jungle,

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putting his life on the line to
free her from a fate worse than death.

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Starring Jim Cavizo, the actor renowned
for his unforgettable portrayal of Jesus in

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The Passion, and Academy Award winner
Mira Sorvino, the film is directed by

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Alajandra Monteverde. It's rated PG thirteen. Again It's based on a true story,

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and it will be theatrically released in
the US on July fourth, twenty

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twenty three. You can buy your
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00:14:56,600 --> 00:15:01,480
daily, so check out the website
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00:15:01,600 --> 00:15:05,759
dot com, slash Freedom and listen. I've seen the trailer. Check out

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00:15:05,759 --> 00:15:09,200
the trailer. I think you're gonna
want to go see this film, especially

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00:15:09,279 --> 00:15:15,639
in theaters. Just a fascinating glimpse
at again, something that is a true

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story. It explores these themes of
human trafficking, bravery, and justice.

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By supporting the movie, you contribute
to raising awareness and propelling a movement to

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save children around the world. It's
also a pay it forward initiative. That's

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00:15:28,679 --> 00:15:33,000
a concept where generous individuals provide free
tickets for others to see the film.

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00:15:33,240 --> 00:15:35,159
If you want to pay it forward
so that they can pack the theaters the

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00:15:35,159 --> 00:15:39,840
week of July fourth, you can
do so once again at angel dot com

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slash Freedom. And if the price
of a ticket is keeping you from going,

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generous fans have paid it forward tens
of thousands of free tickets worth of

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00:15:48,559 --> 00:15:52,159
money, so you can you can
see the film opening week and you can

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00:15:52,200 --> 00:15:56,879
get a free ticket also at angel
dot com slash Free Tickets help spread that

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00:15:56,919 --> 00:16:00,840
message worldwide. Sound of Freedom is
coming to theaters July, so you can

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00:16:00,840 --> 00:16:03,600
buy your tickets today to reserve a
spot opening week, and the more theaters

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are sold out, the more awareness
is raised on this issue that so often

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00:16:07,320 --> 00:16:12,679
does go unnoticed. Find a theater
near you by visiting angel dot com slash

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00:16:12,759 --> 00:16:17,519
freedom. Get your tickets today at
that same website once again, that's angel

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00:16:17,559 --> 00:16:23,320
dot com slash Freedom. You know
That's exactly what I was going to ask

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you next, because I wanted to
ask us about the Republican field ahead of

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us and just the Democratic Party in
general, because there has been Um,

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it does seem and things that I've
heard from from folks is that the Biden

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administration has people that are kind of
going in both directions, and it's sort

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of similar to the Trump administration.
And I know that you, I'm sure

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you had to fight um for a
lot of you know, your your policies,

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although the president himself seemed to very
clearly understand the problem. What would

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your expectation be, Um, you
know, what does the Republican field?

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What's your assessment of the Republican field
now? At absorb were being some of

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the very obvious lessons that you know, nobody was really talking about until Donald

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Trump came along and made them sort
of front and center in our political discourse.

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And does it seem as though some
Democrats, you know, you're shared

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Brown's Um, some of those people
who kind of understand what's happened to your

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homestate of Ohio are players of my
homestate of Wisconsin. M Are they are?

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Are there chances that another Biden term
would you know, see the starting

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to continue with the ball rolling down
the hill in the right direction. So

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so so I don't want to talk
about the Republican candidates and then I'll and

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then I'll talk about the let's just
talk generally about it there, I would

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say, first of all, no
one will run on a soft on China

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policy, because that's the equivalent of
saying, putting up your handasy, I've

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decided I don't want to be elected, right because their country is not there.

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So the issue for a candidate will
be if they're kind of a free

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trade let's you know, it's important
that corporation makes foodles of money and that

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a guy with two billion has a
fair chance to get the three billion.

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You know, that's a high priority. If you think like that, you'll

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say China batch, China bad,
China bad, Let's do nothing right.

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That'll be kind of your policy.
And that's kind of the globalist part of

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the Republican Party. That's kind of
where they are. And it's a it's

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a shrinking, shrinking group, right, It's a you know that they have

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almost no representatives in Congress, and
you know that's kind of a you know,

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kind of a Harvard Economics Department kind
of a view. But if you

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have that view, you'll say I
want to be tough on China, and

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you'll say I'll be toalugh on China
by doing nothing, all right. Then

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the other group are people who will
actually get it all right, and they'll

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want to do something. And there
are several that are in this group that

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are not, in my judgment,
globalists, and they'll want to do something.

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Then the question will be do they
have the actual the guts is sort

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of a crude word, but there's
an even cruder what's right? Do they

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have the guts to follow through and
do these things when all the clever people

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and all the businesses are on the
other side. And that's a question mark.

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I know how hard that is because
I had to do it, and

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I had the benefit of President Trump, right, who was because to stand

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up and do it was right.
I'll be damned right. So there's so

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you have people who really don't agree
with where we are. Then you have

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people who agree, and then the
question with them will be whether they really

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will be able to get to do
it when they get in. And then

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you have a few I told the
President drump is in this group who without

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question, you know what he'll do, right, he gets it, he

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understands that he'll do it. So
you know, that's kind of the analysis

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on my side. Do on this
on these two issues, the trade being

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worked or oriented in China? Do
I trust all the Republican candidates. I

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think every one of them, I
mean this, honestly would be better than

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President Biden. But I don't think
they would all be great. So then

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you look on the other side,
and you mentioned Jared Brown, and for

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sure he gets right. His background
is very similar to mine, and he

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gets it. He wrote a book
on trade years and years and years ago.

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So there clearly are parts of the
Democratic Party that are really good on

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this issue, both the China issue
and on the worker oriented trading issue.

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And I worked with a lot of
them. I don't want to start naming,

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you know, seven of them think
I've dropped him un intentionally, But

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those are the people I worked with, and that's why we got ninety percent

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of Republicans and ninety percent of Democrats
on the USMCA vote. Those there are

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a bunch of them who get it. The problem is there are also a

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bunch of globalists. And I believe
and people who are so conventional that they

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look at the old economics of years
ago that's been proven wrong and they want

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to sort of fall into line with
that, and they don't remember, No

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Republican Party is no longer the party
a big business. So if you're like

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a big banker and all of that, you have an extreme or big tech

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extreme interest in influence over the Democratic
Party and very little of the Republican Party.

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So on the Democratic side, there
are some very good members of Congress

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on these issues that I care about. The candidate will be President Biden,

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and I do not believe that he
understands it, or gets it, or

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will stand up to China. I
do not believe it. I was hoping

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for a long time because I think
that the people who got it his administration

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were prevailing. They were aided by
the fact that politically you couldn't For example,

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you're rid of the tariffs, right, you just couldn't do it.

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Just be the equivalent thing, I
surrender China, and that's not going to

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get you like, but I do. I'm more and more of the view

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that this administration is drifting into the
pro China camp, either for foreign policy

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reasons or because big business wants to
make money, or or because they have

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some personal state in China industry.
Right, So those are like the three

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positive I's probably a couple and more
than I haven't thought of. So overall,

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I am very pessimistic that if Joe
Biden is elected that we will even

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continue the tough policy that President Drum
started. I think we'll go back.

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I think the rid of the tariffs
and I think we're going to fall into

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them, have a real, real
and no political leverage to change it.

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So that's very scary to me.
As they say on the Republican side,

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is a mixed fact. There's two
or three people maybe three or four who

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I think would want to do the
right thing and would know what the right

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thing is, and the only question
to them is where they do it right?

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So you know, that's kind of
my analysis. Politically, I do

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think that with the American people in
both parties, the vast majority of them

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who think about this issue, we
have convinced them of the rightness of our

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position. Absolutely. And you just
said something so interesting about the Republican candidates

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versus a second Biden term. And
you know, when I talk to people

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on the left, I think it's
abundantly obvious. So a lot of folks

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on the right now that the Republican
Party is really no longer the party of

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big business that's sort of split with
the Chamber of Commerce, has been conspicuous

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and serious, But folks on the
left are still so deeply skeptical of that.

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They'll say, yeah, right,
what are you talking about out and

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from your perspective, having sort of
been inside the halls of power and you

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know, been being the subject of
plenty of attacks from that sort of Chamber

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of commerce wing, can you speak
to you know how clear that divorce really

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has been in recent years, well
in the verse way. So it's it's

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only my own experience, right,
And there's all kind of stuff going on

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that I'm not privy too, but
I think it's a fundamental shift. I

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think the Chamber of Commerce, who
I fought with the end the Business Roundtable,

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you know, I mean it was
a gentlemanly fight, but we've got

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a lot of issues. They post
me everything I did, not just with

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respect of China, but also USMCA
and Japan and Korea. Um, these

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are so much like the Business round
Table. It's it's it's the Chamber of

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commerce. They fought me because they
want because they're basically controlled by big business,

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and big business is making a lot
lots of money with the status quo,

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and what they're what we're really doing
is shifting the current policy, if

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you think of that in economic terms, is shifting resources away from workers and

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into the pockets into the pockets of
sort of rent seekers, if you want

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to use the old traditional terms.
Right. So, we are basically transferring

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the wealth of this country. And
that's why you see middle class people getting

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poorer, the bottom in the middle
class dropping out. You have this this

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inequity, and then you see the
very very rich get rich. And of

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course before we have programs for and
I think that is I used to say

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years ago, I used to say, they have a name for countries like

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that, they call them South America. Right, That's what it was.

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And now we are moving in that
direction. And it's very very troubling to

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me. It's troubling to me that
that that and I'm I'm so proud of

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the fact that the Republican Party has
become the party of the working people,

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right, I mean that that makes
me probably because I am a base rock

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conservative. I analyze everything through a
conservative prison. And the fact that that

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the Republican Party wants to preserve the
values, the greatness of the American middle

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class, the greatness of the American
workers makes me proud to be a Republican.

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I mean, it really does.
And and and in the fact that

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the Chamber of Commerce and these people
are trying to go in the other direction

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and opposing everything we're trying to do, that in a way is almost a

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00:26:42,880 --> 00:26:49,920
verification that what you're doing is the
right thing for the right people. The

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00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:55,759
Senator Rubio reflects on the Reagan administration, which you were a part of,

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and that gives you, I think, fascinating perspective on the sort of arc

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of the modern Republican Party, especially
since the approach to trade, the approach

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to industry and business more generally is
such an a central glimpse into all of

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that. He puts it well.
And so that Reagan was a man who,

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you know, understood the moment,
the conservatism that America needed in the

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moment. And uh, you know, Reagan would have been flexible enough to

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understand what version of conservatism is and
that version to mean they're different, but

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like what conservative policy agenda is needed
in this moment and given your vantage point.

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00:27:30,359 --> 00:27:33,960
Um, that's you know, it's
so helpful to that exact question I

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00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:37,680
wanted to ask. Regan had obviously
had a much more complicated legacy on trade

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than a lot of the sort of
libertarians in Washington like to pretend, although

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some of them are still salty about
it. Um, what is the what

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can we learn from the Reagan approach
to putting America first? Um? While

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also you know, putting America first
by making goods cheaper, but doing it

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in a smart way and approaching these
relationships in a way that puts American work

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first, in American families and communities
first. So there's a lot in that.

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It's it's it's just it's just fun
to have this conversation, and I

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hope that the listeners enjoyed as much
as I do. So there's there's an

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awful out there. First of all, you know, kind of what is

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the Republican Party. Let's think about
that exact So it clearly initially was an

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anti slave party, right, and
then they got rid of slavery, and

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it morphed into a big business well, let's just say a business party,

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because in a lot of the country, there was no big business like a

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00:28:37,200 --> 00:28:38,960
lot of things like this, we
went through a period where big business took

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over. But you always had if
you think of it analytically, you always

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00:28:44,359 --> 00:28:47,599
had two Republican parties, and you
sort of alluded to this. You had

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the Northeastern Rockefeller types, and there
were a lot of different people who carried

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that then. And then you had
the Robert Taft types, the Bob Dole

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types, kind of the Midwest workers, both small business, store owner Republican

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00:29:03,599 --> 00:29:07,160
party. Those are the two different
Republican parties. One was kind of elite

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and and basically, as I say, on the Northeast, the one was.

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The other was in the rest of
the country and largely in small towns,

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in country clubs, but not in
fancy country clubs. Um. The

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00:29:22,079 --> 00:29:26,200
that party through all that time had
one thing in common. For let's say,

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at least in July, is now
one thing in common, and that

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00:29:29,200 --> 00:29:33,799
is it was for tariffs to help
businesses, which I would say also health

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00:29:33,880 --> 00:29:38,839
workers. Um you saw. I
know it's kind of a complicated case.

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I will talk about that, but
what I can if you want. But

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we sort of jump ahead. Now
we have Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan is

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running against not just Jimmy Carter,
but remember he ran against Joe Ford,

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and Joel Ford was from the Middlewest, but he was very much of the

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00:29:56,799 --> 00:30:02,119
Rockefeller part of the Republican Party.
He he was not from the Northeast,

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00:30:02,519 --> 00:30:10,200
but that was the group that sort
of he came from. And now you

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00:30:10,279 --> 00:30:14,759
have Ronald Reagan, who's who's obviously
from the midwestern Italy too. But but

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00:30:14,759 --> 00:30:18,039
but now governor California from the West, and he runs basically a populous,

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00:30:18,319 --> 00:30:26,119
common sense, pro worker kind of
a you know, a rent for president.

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00:30:26,160 --> 00:30:29,720
He does not win in seventy six, is hard to be an incumbent,

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00:30:30,680 --> 00:30:36,599
but he does win in eighty and
and he's attacked. He's attacked by

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00:30:36,680 --> 00:30:41,960
the Democrats, but also attacked by
the sort of elite Northeastern Republicans who are

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00:30:41,319 --> 00:30:47,480
a shrinking and shrinking group and went
to the Union vote in eighty He won

390
00:30:47,519 --> 00:30:49,519
the union vote, right, well, I don't know if he won it

391
00:30:49,960 --> 00:30:53,480
or not. He may have,
but he certainly got a percent of it

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00:30:53,559 --> 00:30:57,000
that was out of scale from anyone
had ever done before, right, so

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00:30:57,039 --> 00:31:06,400
he for sure that was his group. Then you had the the let's just

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00:31:06,440 --> 00:31:11,039
say the bushes at sander Ridge frogs. They were very much of the Northeastern

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00:31:11,119 --> 00:31:15,720
group, right, and that was
a group that by the time they came

396
00:31:15,759 --> 00:31:21,119
in, was largely dead, right, think, we didn't have any governors,

397
00:31:21,160 --> 00:31:25,440
we didn't have we have very congressmen. We had no senators from that

398
00:31:25,559 --> 00:31:30,480
from the whole northeast. But yet
they were sort of of that group.

399
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And then you have around Reagan.
I'm sorry that you had Donald Trump who

400
00:31:33,880 --> 00:31:38,880
came along and he's like rank right, he's basically a populist. So you

401
00:31:38,920 --> 00:31:41,279
know, that's kind of the arc
of the party. And I think the

402
00:31:41,359 --> 00:31:48,200
party, now everyone would agree,
is a working person party. A part

403
00:31:48,200 --> 00:31:49,880
of what's happened, by the way, is that business has changed, right,

404
00:31:49,920 --> 00:31:53,559
and all of a sudden, the
banks are all Democrat, and tech

405
00:31:53,640 --> 00:31:57,200
is all Democrats, all the biggest
companies all as an exaggeration, of course,

406
00:31:57,200 --> 00:32:04,039
but largely so. So what is
Ronald Reagan's um legacy on trede You

407
00:32:04,079 --> 00:32:07,680
alluded to it, You're exactly right, not when when? When when he

408
00:32:07,839 --> 00:32:12,920
left office, the libertarian said he
was the most protectionist president since Hoover.

409
00:32:13,599 --> 00:32:16,839
They opposed everything that we did,
and I was part of that, but

410
00:32:16,839 --> 00:32:23,680
but he he saved the country in
a way not unlike the way that that

411
00:32:23,680 --> 00:32:30,039
that Donald Trump did in twenty and
sixteen. So he took on Japan,

412
00:32:30,079 --> 00:32:34,039
which was the big problem. He
limited their steely and while other people still

413
00:32:34,079 --> 00:32:37,519
lived at automobile, semiconductors, motorcycles, you know, the whole, the

414
00:32:37,519 --> 00:32:40,640
whole group of things, he was
at, you know, kind of an

415
00:32:40,720 --> 00:32:46,359
economic patriot. That's where he was
coming from. Um And and you know,

416
00:32:46,400 --> 00:32:50,039
then, as I say, we
lost that for a period of time,

417
00:32:50,799 --> 00:32:52,839
and then when Trump came in,
we got it back. And I

418
00:32:52,839 --> 00:32:58,200
would say when Trump came in,
the case was even clearer. But another

419
00:32:58,279 --> 00:33:05,799
kind of way to think about this
is Ronald Reagan talked about supply side economics,

420
00:33:05,799 --> 00:33:08,000
all right, cutting taxes to get
businesses to operate, blah blah blah

421
00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:15,839
blah blah. How different is that
than saying we are for the production side

422
00:33:15,880 --> 00:33:19,799
of the scale, which is kind
of something I mentioned a few minutes ago,

423
00:33:19,960 --> 00:33:25,240
rather than the consumption side of the
scale. Supply side and pro production,

424
00:33:25,480 --> 00:33:30,359
which is really where Trump was coming
from, are very much the same

425
00:33:30,400 --> 00:33:34,680
thing, and they had the same
things in common. Now, the trade

426
00:33:34,720 --> 00:33:38,640
situation had gotten much worse than rival
Reagan was there, so that became a

427
00:33:38,680 --> 00:33:44,119
far bigger job for President Trump than
it would have been for Reagan. But

428
00:33:44,640 --> 00:33:49,880
if you think about it, it's
cutting taxes, cutting regulation, getting a

429
00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:53,160
fair trade. All of these were
the basic things that Ronald Reagan did in

430
00:33:53,160 --> 00:33:57,880
his own time and that Donald Trump
did this time, and that I believe

431
00:33:58,880 --> 00:34:02,119
the next Republican can, and they'd
be a Trumps or someone else, because

432
00:34:02,160 --> 00:34:06,279
I don't think a big you know, a big bank kind of a guy.

433
00:34:06,359 --> 00:34:08,480
Can we in our globalists? Can
we in our nomination? And may

434
00:34:08,480 --> 00:34:15,239
be wrong by the way, I've
been wrong before, but not often so

435
00:34:15,679 --> 00:34:20,679
so I feel you know that that
we have changed the way we as a

436
00:34:20,719 --> 00:34:22,719
party are, that we are as
I said before, and I'm proud of

437
00:34:22,760 --> 00:34:30,719
the fact that we worry more about
those people that I grew up with in

438
00:34:30,840 --> 00:34:36,360
Asheville, Ohio, and where you
grew up with in Wisconsin, and a

439
00:34:36,480 --> 00:34:40,519
thousand other thousand. There's ten thousand
and twenty thousand other places. We worry

440
00:34:40,559 --> 00:34:45,480
more about them and their life than
I believe the Democrats. You know,

441
00:34:45,519 --> 00:34:47,920
they would argue with me, I
would say, no, they're worried about

442
00:34:49,000 --> 00:34:53,880
other things that have nothing to do
with economics and the quality of life of

443
00:34:53,920 --> 00:34:58,880
those people, they're they're worried about
other things, and that you know that

444
00:34:59,000 --> 00:35:07,360
the Republican Party is going to prevail
because it's the working class party. And

445
00:35:08,880 --> 00:35:15,039
it's so interesting that that perspective on
where people forget about Reagan sort of coming

446
00:35:15,079 --> 00:35:22,800
in and priming forward and being that
sort of populist opponent of the establishment my

447
00:35:22,960 --> 00:35:24,960
wing of the Republican Party, and
even at the time, this is the

448
00:35:24,960 --> 00:35:28,880
only thing that that sort of baffles
me always if I go back and look

449
00:35:28,880 --> 00:35:32,519
at, you know, someone like
what Murray Rothbard was writing about NAFTA and

450
00:35:32,559 --> 00:35:37,639
saying about NAFTA, there's the split
that just you go in these different directions

451
00:35:37,760 --> 00:35:43,599
around the time of NAFTA and then
into wto or the Republican Party. I've

452
00:35:43,639 --> 00:35:46,519
never fully been able to understand how
a lot of people, some of them

453
00:35:46,599 --> 00:35:52,039
were from the Reagan administration and involved
in what you all did and it became

454
00:35:52,280 --> 00:35:57,199
very very you know, sort of
open border, open market, all of

455
00:35:57,239 --> 00:36:00,159
that. And I wonder if you
have perspective on you know, why HI

456
00:36:00,280 --> 00:36:04,119
that side one out. I think
the obvious answer is probably money, because

457
00:36:04,159 --> 00:36:06,880
there was, you know, at
the same time, a good argument and

458
00:36:06,920 --> 00:36:10,119
a consource of money to be made, but why is it that, you

459
00:36:10,159 --> 00:36:15,280
know, sort of the Rothbart's kind
of fade into the background for a while,

460
00:36:15,320 --> 00:36:20,280
and this argument really took hold and
dominated the GOP until Donald Trump came

461
00:36:20,280 --> 00:36:30,639
along. You know, first of
all, there's a theology that people have

462
00:36:30,920 --> 00:36:35,760
that that you know, doesn't really
have much to do with sense of facts,

463
00:36:35,800 --> 00:36:38,639
and there's a lot of people just
have this infection, this theology of

464
00:36:38,719 --> 00:36:44,000
free trade. That's number one.
Number two, there was a misconception,

465
00:36:44,119 --> 00:36:47,320
but a very common conception, that
we are an agricultural party, by the

466
00:36:47,360 --> 00:36:52,440
way most conservative parties are in the
world, that we're an aggreend. Agriculture

467
00:36:52,559 --> 00:36:58,000
wants free trade. And the truth
is that in trade deals, agriculture tends

468
00:36:58,039 --> 00:37:04,840
to do better than manufact lecturing because
other countries want access to our manufacturing market.

469
00:37:06,360 --> 00:37:09,559
So there was there was some element
of that in it. Your senator

470
00:37:09,559 --> 00:37:13,559
from an agricultural state in the Midwest, you're going to be a free trader,

471
00:37:13,679 --> 00:37:17,320
that the agricultural groups are free traders. And part of what we did

472
00:37:17,480 --> 00:37:22,559
was convinced them and show them,
not really show them that nobody is treated

473
00:37:22,599 --> 00:37:27,119
worse in trade than agriculture. They
are lizard in the horstry because everyone is

474
00:37:27,159 --> 00:37:31,079
protections in that area. So so
part of it was just an infection infectious

475
00:37:31,159 --> 00:37:37,079
theology. Part of it was there
was this sort of sense about agriculture,

476
00:37:39,559 --> 00:37:44,880
you know. Part of it was
just a hope, right in other words,

477
00:37:45,639 --> 00:37:52,000
you hadn't seen enough damage done to
be able to look at the facts.

478
00:37:52,039 --> 00:37:57,679
If you look like at my my, if you look at my epigram,

479
00:37:57,920 --> 00:38:01,400
right, my epigram is I have
a quote from from John Wooden that

480
00:38:01,599 --> 00:38:07,360
says failure may not be fatal,
but failure to change maybe. And we

481
00:38:07,480 --> 00:38:12,360
had people that just wouldn't change.
And then the final piece is what you

482
00:38:12,440 --> 00:38:15,960
said, big business was making lots
of money, and as they became more

483
00:38:16,239 --> 00:38:21,440
importers, you know, they would, they would, they had a bigger,

484
00:38:21,599 --> 00:38:24,199
bigger stake, And so you ended
up with one trade round after another,

485
00:38:24,280 --> 00:38:28,239
and then you had to try what
I call it the tr effect of

486
00:38:28,360 --> 00:38:32,400
stupid, all of which was done
by Bill Clinton but could never have been

487
00:38:32,440 --> 00:38:37,320
done without the Republican Party supporting him, you know, And that is NAFTA

488
00:38:38,119 --> 00:38:42,199
the year A way around which you
could think of is the WTO and all

489
00:38:42,199 --> 00:38:46,280
the parts of that, and then
giving China Mfan all that happened in a

490
00:38:46,400 --> 00:38:55,760
very short period of time, right
around the end of Clinton's first term,

491
00:38:55,880 --> 00:39:00,480
and in the case of China,
as he's walking out the door and turning

492
00:39:00,480 --> 00:39:04,519
out the lights, he's given the
country to China. And that's those are

493
00:39:04,599 --> 00:39:09,199
three really bad policies. He gets
the blame, the condemnation for all of

494
00:39:09,239 --> 00:39:14,400
them, but they all couldn't have
been done without a lot of republic enthusiastic

495
00:39:14,480 --> 00:39:19,400
Republicans, you know, who kind
of bought this notion that we just trade

496
00:39:19,400 --> 00:39:22,039
and trade trade. Basically, when
they say trade, they mean by we

497
00:39:22,239 --> 00:39:24,800
just buy enough from China. They're
going to be good people. And they

498
00:39:24,840 --> 00:39:30,400
didn't understand communism, and they didn't
understand the threat. They didn't understand now,

499
00:39:30,880 --> 00:39:37,840
they didn't understand the history at all. So priture. It has changed.

500
00:39:37,880 --> 00:39:44,559
And the thing that's made it so
important is not just the intellectual side

501
00:39:44,559 --> 00:39:50,800
of the change, but it's the
practical political side of the change. Right.

502
00:39:51,320 --> 00:39:57,280
Our voters are those people. It's
no longer enough to be able to

503
00:39:57,320 --> 00:40:00,280
say the Chamber of Commerce supports me. That won't get you in anything.

504
00:40:00,440 --> 00:40:07,000
Our voters are those working class people, and they know it. The book

505
00:40:07,079 --> 00:40:10,639
is called No Trade is Free changing
course, taking on China and helping America's

506
00:40:10,679 --> 00:40:13,840
workers. And one of the things
I love about it is that you actually

507
00:40:13,880 --> 00:40:19,760
have You call it a short and
selective history of American trade policy, but

508
00:40:19,800 --> 00:40:22,800
it's it is really, really helpful
and touches on so much that you were

509
00:40:22,840 --> 00:40:25,239
kind enough to share with us here. Robert Leitheizer, thank you so much

510
00:40:25,239 --> 00:40:29,760
for joining us. Yeah, only
thank you for happy It was a ball.

511
00:40:30,280 --> 00:40:32,840
Of course, you've been listening to
another edition of The Federalist Radio Hour.

512
00:40:32,880 --> 00:40:36,920
I'm e Eleikashitsky, culture editor here
at the Federalist. We'll be back

513
00:40:36,960 --> 00:40:40,440
soon with more. Until then,
be lovers of freedom and anxious for the fray.
