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Speaker 1: Hey, Michael Steele podcast listeners. Michael Steele here with another

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quick take from the Michael Steel Podcast. Check out what's

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going on right now. Welcome back, everybody to Michael Steele Podcast.

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We are having a wonderful conversation with my friend Jennifer Horne.

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She's the former chairwoman of the GOP in the great

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state of New Hampshire. She is the host of the podcast.

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Is it just me or have we all just all

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lost our minds? I just I just love I'd love that,

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and I look forward to coming in your podcasts. I

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understand we're gonna be We're gonna be doing so yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, look for us next week on my podcast as well.

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Speaker 1: That's right, it'll be good fun. So a lot can

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happen between now and a year from now. A lot

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will happen. Donald Trump will likely be convicted. But if

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my little spidery sense is correct on that, it won't

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matter that Donald Trump has been convicted, because you've already

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had six out of eight Republicans running against him for

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the nomination say that they will still endorsed and support

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him even if he's convicted of felonies. So tell me

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where I'm getting this wrong. And why there is what

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do these numbers say today about the state of mind

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of voters across the country.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, first I would say, I don't think that

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you're necessarily getting it wrong. Everything you've said is actually correct, right,

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But I admit that I look for the opening. Where

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is her an opening that would make this okay or

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it would convince me that we could end up being

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back on a good path or taking a reassuring path

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toward the next presidential election. And there were a few things.

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The first is Obama was in this position once a

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year out and didn't lose. You know, we know that,

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and in a healthy manner both times. So that's a

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little bit encouraging to me right there, that historically there's

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an example that we can look at. And then I thought.

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Speaker 1: Obama losing to Mitt Romney or oor generic Republican at

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that time because Mitt Maromney was not the nominee. Necessarily

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we're going into the second term at this point. It's

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not the same as the guy's got ninety one felonies

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against him. It's not now, I mean, it's not like

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he could have.

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Speaker 2: I am not making I will never make the argument

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that what's happening with Trump is somehow normal and historically

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reflective or anything like that. I am. I am as

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opposed to Donald Trump as a person could possibly be,

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And I'll be honest, I am horrified at what some

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folks from my former party say and do and vote for.

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It's horrifying to me. But I believe that there is

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a segment of the American people who are who care,

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who are bright, and who are looking at this through

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a different lens. And if we're just looking for a

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couple of little pieces of hope, Donald Trump was well

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over fifty in New Hampshire. He's down at around forty,

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ahead by forty instead of being over the fifty percent.

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He's ahead by forty, but he's not over the fifty

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percent mark. I can't got to speak clearly about it.

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We see that DeSantis is starting to not starting, but

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continuing to decline, and those votes aren't necessarily going to Trump.

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We see Nikki Haley starting to move forward a little bit.

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I don't know how important it is to me, frankly,

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to have somebody other than Trump win the Republican primary,

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because I think in the end, it's the same party

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no matter who's nominated, no matter who's nominated. It's still

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Trump's party, It's still Trump's people. It's still and the

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only thing that I can imagine that would keep Trump

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from becoming the nominee is if he was literally like

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ailed and suddenly everybody else got behind one candidate to

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prevent a jailed person from becoming president of the United States.

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But we know there's thirty percent. Well yeah, but you

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know that there are thirty percent of them out there

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who are going to vote for him no matter what,

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no matter what, you know. So so, but I do

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think I have more optimism about the American people because

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I think that a lot of people out there have

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shown us clearly who they are, but that they are

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not everybody. We know that we have a measurable percentage

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of Republicans who voted for Biden back in twenty twenty.

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We know that all the things everything you just said.

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You know, I think that I hate to say this,

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but I believe that it's true that too many Americans

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have become entitled and lazy when it comes to democracy.

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That they're sitting here, to your point, whining about things

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that aren't even really accurate. You know, you know, we

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have a lower rate of inflation post COVID than any

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other country in the world. And people are complaining that

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they're going to you know, they can't support Biden because

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of inflation. They can't you know, thet everything you said,

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it's all real, it's all true. And so I worry

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about the laziness of so many Americans when it comes

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to understanding what's actually happening in the world and how

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it impacts us and all of that sort of thing.

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But I believe that there are enough good people out

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there who care deeply about the concept of democracy and

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about what next year and two years and four years

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and eight years after that is going to look like

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for their own children and their own grandchildren. I feel

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it deeply, and I think that it's very much a

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part of the equation for a lot of folks out there.

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So I'm not giving up on Joe Biden this early.

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You know, we can have an argument or a debate

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about should Joe Biden have one run to begin with,

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because that but that's a different conversation, you know. And

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now instead of just talking about the Republicans and the

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idiocy you know that leads them to Donald Trump, we

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also have to, you know, have a little firm talking

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to with the farthest left of the Democratic Party, because

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if you know who are refusing to stand up and

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defend the president and stand with the president over a

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single issue, granted a very important issue, but a single one.

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So if Biden ends up losing next time around by

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a couple of points, guess who we get to point

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at when that happens.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, there's a lot more to it. You touch

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on an important aspect of this when you look at,

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for example, the gen Z voter who overwhelmingly supported Biden's

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election in twenty twenty and now the prospect that they

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could very well turn on him, literally having this conversation

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today with with a gen Z er because they don't

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want our money, US dollars being spent to support the

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genocide of babies in Palestine. And so they're very much

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it's not so much that they're anti israel Is that

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they're pro the Palestinian people. So the fact that the

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administration has not been able to create the appropriate nexus

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between we stand with Israel to defend it against the

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attacks of Hamas, as we also stand with the Palestinian

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people to defend them against the attacks of Hamas Because

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they live the way they live because of what Hamas

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has done to them.

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Speaker 2: The President has not has not done a good job

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of expressing the narrative as it exists or as it

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needs to be politically strategically for him, right right, And

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I agree completely.

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Speaker 1: So that lack of communication and inability to effectively communicate

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the storylines for the administration, to me, has been it's damning,

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has been a damning indictment since the very beginning, when

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we spent the first eighteen months of the president's term

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talking about Philibuster. And the only thing the American people

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are asking themselves is well, who's phil and who's Buster?

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Speaker 2: Because they exactly.

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Speaker 1: They didn't know that that's not something that they're concerned

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about in their everyday lives, particularly as they're still being

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ravaged by the leftover remnants by the remnants of COVID.

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They're still now moving into a space where their dollars

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going farther, their gas prices are getting higher, and they're

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concerned about whether or not their daughter who's getting married,

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will be able to buy her first home. So you

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have all of these other concerns that again not part

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of the narrative for the Democrats. Not part of the narrative, specifically,

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specifically for the president. So it begs, just how how

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do they turn that corner to begin this conversation that

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literally they only have ten months to make because you

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and I know very well, by the time you get

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to the conventions next year, voters start making up their minds,

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and particularly when the decision is such a stark one,

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they will decide fairly early on whether they're going to

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vote what I would call and you know, I know

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a lot of people hate me for this, but you

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know what I would call a selfish vote because they're

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concerned about things other than the democracy. Instead of saying, look,

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I get it. Biden is not perfect. No one ever

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claimed he was, and he even said himself, don't compare

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me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative. And

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there's good political sense in that, but I don't know

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if it's enough to con vinced the American people to

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use common sense when it comes to you have a

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guy who's standing there with a hatchet and a chainsaw,

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ready to go after you and the Constitution and your

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rights versus the guy that you're having a spatover about

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inflation policy and Middle East relationships. Hey, everybody, thanks so

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much for listening today. Please go to Apple Podcasts and

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give us a five star review. Hey, give us two

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five star reviews. I love it or it catch us on,

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stitch your iHeart, tune in or wherever you get that

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podcast thing on. You know how that goes? Peace out?

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Speaker 3: Is it just me? Or have we all lost our minds?

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It's a question more and more people are asking themselves,

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afraid to admit they already know the answer. It's also

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a podcast one about people coming together in a time

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of division and uncertainty to talk about culture and politics,

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compromise and connections. It's about challenging the norms we've come

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to accept as a society and working together to find

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common ground. Fierce and unfiltered host Jennifer Horn is a

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former Republican strategist and party leader turned independent sanity activist.

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One way or another, we've all lost our minds. Joined

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Jennifer Horn in the search to find them again.