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See Mitch McConnell Shredded: 'Sold His Soul For A Tax Cut' - YouTube
Channel: MSNBC
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rebuilding America with union labor is
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smart for business in the American
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public unions provide in one word
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democracy in the workplace by the way
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Amazon here we come
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[Applause]
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President Biden speaking in a labor
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convention there that was just days
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after the Amazon warehouse had workers
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celebrate the first ever unionization in
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the U.S the first labor union at Amazon
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it's a David versus Goliath story
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workers fighting the billionaire Amazon
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founder Jeff Bezos now there's news that
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well the company is fighting back
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there's a report that on internal Amazon
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documents they have a messaging app that
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employees can use but it would block
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employees from even using words like
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Union or pay raise or anything that's
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seen as a critique of the company
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internally according to reporting by The
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Intercept Amazon tells the guardian it
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would only screen words that it deems
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offensive or harassing I'm joined Now by
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Paul Krugman Nobel prize winning
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Economist and columnist the New York
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Times welcome back
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and there
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what is the significance of these
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workers
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unionizing at Amazon
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well if we're going to have a rebirth of
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the of unionization in America and Union
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you know Union unions are what made
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America once upon a time a middle-class
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country
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and it was the loss of unions that did
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so much to turn us into the you know
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extremely unequal Nation we are now
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um Amazon is exactly the kind of company
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where unions should be able to really
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make a lot of progress and the fact that
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the unions finally won one despite all
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of the attack tips that Amazon continues
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to use to try and suppress and that's
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that's at least potentially a very very
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big deal
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yeah we um we heard from the organizer
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uh Christian Smalls who led this uh
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here's a little bit of what he said when
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we spoke to him here on the beat
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I used to tell my new highs if you have
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a gym membership you have to cancel it
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because you're doing 10 to 12 hours of
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calisthenics
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um your break is only 30 minutes you're
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being tracked for every single second
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that you're not scanning an idol we're
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so disconnected from society uh all we
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know is Amazon and you know when
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customers support this company
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um they got to understand our voices
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matter too
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I'm curious Professor what you think
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about that part of big Tech that we
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don't always really face we hear a lot
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about the knowledge economy and working
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from home and and what people can do in
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informational sectors but big tech
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companies like Amazon are still built on
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what what that person who was involved
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in it says is really tough back-breaking
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labor
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yeah Amazon in a way thrives on uh an
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illusion it looks like I mean like a
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Star Trek replicator or something right
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you click a button and what you want the
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peers and it doesn't look as if there's
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any human toil involved but the reality
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is the the ability of Amazon to deliver
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stuff to you in the in a day or two in a
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major metropolitan area depends upon
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having this vast network of fulfillment
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centers
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close to places like Staten Island to
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serve Metro New York which employ a
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million workers now I mean that Amazon
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is it looks like this this cyberspace
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website but it really is it's a massive
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labor force and it's a labor force
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that's really really badly treated so
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the labor force that is
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um is policed is has very little
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personal freedom is paid low wages
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um it's exactly the kind of company
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where you ought to have a union and
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where you know the usual argument well
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we can't have unionization because how
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can we compete internationally well you
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know you can't replace a fulfillment
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center on Staten Island with one in
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China right so this is this is exactly
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the kind of company that can unionized
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and um but it has up until now been
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extremely successful at basically brow
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beating workers into not supporting
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unions and so it's a big deal that this
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time the workers won
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yeah no and you you put it very clearly
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and that's really interesting thinking
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about it like that I want to turn to the
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prices uh that everyone's paying for all
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kinds of stuff the inflation you know uh
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Professor you and Nobel prizes and
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accolades sometimes for for really
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spending years thinking about stuff that
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most of us probably never think about at
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all uh now here's an area where your
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expertise is something that everyone's
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thinking about and feeling and it's not
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fair the way some of this macroeconomic
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stuff works uh because as you know and
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you've given a lot of your your work uh
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to focusing on these problems it hurts
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worker people a lot more than really
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rich people when we see these price
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surges it's wiping out salary increases
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and other things here's what AOC had to
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say about her view of what companies are
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doing amidst uh the inflation take a
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listen
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when four companies control almost 60
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percent of an industry the normal Supply
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demand curve doesn't really set the
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price does it all of these things at our
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prices are fair and price hikes are just
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the result of just completely natural uh
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competitive environment that starts to
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fall away when the U.S economy
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transforms into an oligopoly
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my question for you is is economic and
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not political uh how much of this is
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about economic forces and how much of it
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is as some critics have alleged about
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companies taking advantage of these
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conditions to stick it to Consumers all
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the more
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well look most of the inflation is
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economic forces I mean Global oil prices
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are are up wheat prices are up there are
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supply chain problems the uh and the
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economy is running very hot it's like a
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car engine that's running way above the
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red line on RPM so all of that is not
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what AOC is talking about but and you
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should know that a lot of my colleagues
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in economics very much hate it when
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people like me say this but I think
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there is in fact something to what she's
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saying I mean in an environment when you
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have a lot of inflation for these other
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reasons uh companies that have the
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ability to set prices you know companies
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have always been greedy but they tend to
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be restrained by the outrage Factor if a
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company just suddenly slaps on a 20
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price increase for no obvious reason
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people get mad but if prices are going
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up on lots of things then the company
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may feel hey we can get away with this
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without getting a a customer backlash
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without getting a political backlash and
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that I think it's it's actually silly
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not to think that that isn't part you
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know it's only part it wouldn't be
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possible if all this other stuff wasn't
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going on but that that's part of why
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we're seeing so much inflation
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interesting um some people may not know
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this but uh whenever you agree to do an
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interview you say you always want to
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talk about Mitch McConnell for a few
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minutes of the interview just because
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you know you're so interested in him all
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right new to me too that's okay
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I'm kidding uh so folks know Paul
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doesn't have any conditions
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um but but we are living in these
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extraordinary times where the level the
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level of extremism and both political
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and policy hijacking is quite acute and
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so he was asked some questions here that
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I want to share just just how he puts it
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uh when it comes to whether there's any
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morality left in his leadership uh of
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the Republican Party in the Senate take
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a look
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where do you draw your moral red lines
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so moral red lights where do you draw
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them
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um I'm perfectly comfortable with the
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way I have conducted my political career
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you said Donald Trump's actions
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preceding the January 6th Insurrection
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were a quote disgraceful dereliction of
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Duty how do you go from saying that to
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two weeks later saying you'd absolutely
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support Donald Trump
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not at all
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not at all inconsistent and yet
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Professor this was someone who let it be
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known that he thought Donald Trump in
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the days after the sixth committed
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convictable offenses uh in an attempted
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coup and now is is in Reverse in public
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what do you what do you make of all this
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well Mitch McConnell I mean Mitch
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McConnell is not
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you know Steve Bannon I don't think that
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he is personally an ethno-nationalist or
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anything what he is is somebody who is
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willing to sacrifice everything
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sacrifice all the principles of
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democracy all the principles of fair
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play in order to have lower taxes on
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rich people basically uh the the amazing
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thing about Mitch McConnell is that he's
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he's somebody who has a you know
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probably got into trouble he sold his
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soul for the sake of a tax cut and uh
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um it's the most amazing thing that he
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does not at some point you know look in
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the mirror and say my god what have I
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done uh aren't there things that uh
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aren't there things that Trump uh the
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questions of of conservative Economic
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Policy but in McConnell's Behavior it
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the answer is no not nothing matters
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except getting the pushing the country
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towards a more unequal distribution of
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income pushing our economic policy to
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the right
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wow yeah well and as you say it's a
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distinct it's a really distinct contrast
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to people who have some set of beliefs
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whatever they may be but in a way it
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makes it all the more dangerous because
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of who he's dealing with and what he's
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willing to do uh Paul Krugman as always
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good to hear from you sir thank you
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