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Former AmEx CEO: Companies shouldn鈥檛 comment on Georgia voting law - YouTube
Channel: Fox Business
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all right beware
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corporate ceos who take matters into
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their own hands and respond to uh
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political developments within certain
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states as did
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uh major league baseball right now when
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it moved the site of the
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all-star game to colorado to protest
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what was going on
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with the georgia vote uh other ceos from
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delta to coca-cola have weighed in
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harvard olive is here the retired
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american express ceo former aig chairman
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he wrote a fascinating piece of today's
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wall street journal
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essentially saying be careful what you
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wish for um
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harvey you are you had great respect for
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all of these men and women who run
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these massive conglomerates but you said
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that it can come back to boomerang
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on them you you mention in the end
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there's no limiting principle to this
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problem if business heads can be
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pressured to comment on issues unrelated
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to their businesses
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they will be compelled to weigh in on
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more current events
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and be in a position of having no
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meaning to refuse in other words they'll
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be tested on it
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time and again so what do you recommend
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they do
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what i recommend is what i said in the
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article and that is
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not get involved in a public way
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in issues that are political in nature
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divisive and unrelated to their
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businesses
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if they stay if they stay out of it then
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they can
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stay out of the next one if they get
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involved
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in some fashion they inevitably will be
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forced to comment on a whole range of
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issues and refusal to do so
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uh will engage the woke warriors
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then what happens if you think about it
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is that whatever their position we live
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in a day and age
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where uh individuals themselves whether
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they're investors or in this case
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residents of georgia
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um very very woke in your face groups
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who are saying
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uh you have got to speak out against
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this uh
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and and it puts further pressure on them
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doesn't it so how do they respond to
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that
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they have to say if it doesn't relate to
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my business i'm not going to comment
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publicly
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this is a political matter and it's to
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be decided in political means
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if you don't like a particular action
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then
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take it to the voting booth but it's not
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the role of my business
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to comment on political issues neil if
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if you start you can't stop you know do
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do a
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a sort of mental test suppose there was
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a walk group from the right
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that doesn't like abortion laws
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that allow abortions in the third
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trimester
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and they started to to pressure ceos in
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new york and illinois
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to come out against it there's no doubt
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in my mind that those ceos would say
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this is not my business i'm not going to
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say anything
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but once you start there's no principle
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that limits
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where you stop and to believe that the
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woke warriors
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will impose a reasonable discipline and
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exercise reasonable requests
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is is the height of of
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fantasy you know harvey shouldn't they
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run this by their boards though before
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they do so in a lot of cases
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i saw in the case of major league
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baseball that the baseball commissioner
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acted unilaterally and the other owners
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just simply
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said wow i guess we're not playing the
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all-star game
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you know in atlanta and i could extend
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it even to the ceos of delta and coke
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who weighed in
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before even bouncing it off their boards
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aren't they obligated to do that
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i i don't know whether they did or not
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have no particular knowledge of that
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neil
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um i i would have uh consulted my board
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on that
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i think i think that that is a major
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change in
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how ceos operate and how they
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communicate with the public
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and the positions they take and and that
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is something
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that ought to have been discussed at the
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board at least i would have done that
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i don't know what factors they
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considered and
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and whether or not they they took that
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step or not
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you know i'm not here to debate the pros
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and cons of the georgia law
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i think it's a huge leap however to call
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it jim crow
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or overtly racist and i think what
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happens is as long as people keep
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repeating that
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without looking into the details of the
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law whether you like it or not whether
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it's your cup of tea or not
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but you keep saying this then people
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believe this but when even the
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washington post calls out the president
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for some comments he made that it was
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jim crow that it was
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overtly racist and gives him four
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pinocchios for saying that
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um it doesn't seem to matter the facts
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don't seem to matter
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generates its own emotional wave uh
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that there's no stopping it yeah it does
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it really doesn't seem to matter
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um i i read most of the of the georgia
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law i think i understand it
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and as i said in my op-ed piece i i have
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the
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i have a personal point of view that the
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law
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uh reaches a reasonable balance between
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ease of voting and security of the vote
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i think it's a reasonable balance others
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may disagree with that but that's
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that that was my point if you want to
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put it in the article simply to indicate
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that that is what i thought but was
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unrelated to my comment about
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ceo actions the accusations
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of of racism and the war culture
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um predominate and and
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get all of the press and the ceos that
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get caught up in it
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i think will ultimately regret it uh it
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is something they should stay away from
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it is not germane to their business
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you know mitch mcconnell famously said
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you know republicans buy coca-cola
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republican flight delta
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um and that the ceos don't appreciate
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the magnitude of the reverse
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um effect it has to to the point that
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you just made
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but it also talks about a backlash for a
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backlash you talk about um
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baseball's relationships with the cuba
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and china for example
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uh you talk about how it generated calls
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to boycott two major atlanta based
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companies
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this won't be the end of the backlash so
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at face value from your column
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this doesn't end here it's only going to
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fester from here
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sure because when when you take a
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position like that
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the the the most um negative charge that
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can be made against you is that
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you're being a hypocrite that you're
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taking a position
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for political reasons not for moral
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reasons
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and so um any examples that would
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indicate
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actions counter to your statements will
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be
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will be magnified and reverberate
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and then you'll have to respond to those
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so it it's a never
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it's a never-ending process
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thank you very much go ahead finish that
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i was just saying i i think ceos ought
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to ought to stay away from it
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there are political matters in which
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they should talk when they affect
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their businesses but these are not those
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got it got it harvey thank you very very
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much
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uh we should be thinking about all this
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because their implications for every
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decision
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and an opposite reaction sometimes than
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what the
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the intentions were originally very good
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seeing you again harvey
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much appreciated
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