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April 26, 2022 - Firebrand - Matt Gaetz
36:14
Episode 38 LIVE: Leaders & Liars (feat. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene) – Firebrand with Matt Gaetz
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Time Text
Yeah.
I mean, here's the meeting.
I can't find when you're at the meeting.
How long are you?
Something is this.
I mean, we've gone anywhere from 30 to 50.
I catch it when I talk.
I'm not going anywhere from 30 to 50.
Matt Gaetz.
Gaetz was one of the very few members in the entire Congress who bothered to stand up against permanent Washington on behalf of his constituents.
Matt Gaetz right now, he's a problem for the Democratic Party.
He can cause a lot of hiccups in passing applause.
But we're going to keep running those stories to get running.
If you stand for the If you want to build America up and not burn her to the ground, then welcome, my fellow patriots!
You are in the right place!
This is the movement for you!
You ever watch this guy on television?
Like a machine.
Matt Gaetz.
I'm a cancelled man in some corners of the internet.
I'm a marked man in Congress, a wanted man by the deep state.
They aren't really coming for me.
They're coming for you.
I'm just in the way.
Welcome back to Firebrand Live.
We've got Elon leading a purchasing Twitter.
We've got Joe Biden lying on the border on marijuana policy, Fauci fascism, the latest in GOP leadership.
And to break it all down, the unbeatable, unstoppable Marjorie Taylor Greene.
If you're watching, make sure to leave us a comment.
We can read those, respond to them on air.
The very first comment we got...
From Christy Porter Knapp, tell us what is going on with MTG! Only her district should be allowed to keep her off the ballot.
We're going to break down that hearing and everything in just a moment, but Congresswoman, you have just returned from the border, and I want you to give our viewers and listeners the direct report what you saw at Eagle Pass on your trip that you're literally just landing back in Washington from.
Well, I'm just going to say it's far worse than people realize.
It's one thing to see it on the news.
It's one thing to read about it on the internet or in the paper.
But it's a true invasion every single day with an average of 7,000 illegals.
Those are the ones they know about coming across the border.
And Joe Biden is absolutely fueling it.
He is the greatest business partner to the cartels they have ever had.
And he's the king of the cartels.
This is a...
The largest human trafficking operation in the world, Matt, and the United States taxpayers are paying for it.
If Joe Biden was the king of the cartels, it would be his greatest accomplishment.
It is his greatest accomplishment.
Here's what a lot of people, I think, want to know.
Is the border open in America because these people are utter fools and don't know what to do?
Or is the border open in America because they have purposefully destroyed Trump's policies and the stuff that they know works?
It's absolutely intentional.
They have purposely destroyed his policies, and this is a worldwide organization.
It is a funded, intentional operation to invade America, and it's happening every single day.
People are coming—well, I sent you that clip, our friend Ben Berkwam.
He was down in Panama.
I sent you that because I wanted you to...
I said, let's go, Matt.
We should go there.
And I'm still going to push you to go.
But people are coming...
Here we come, Panama.
Firebrand Live from Panama is going to be real interesting.
But...
Well, we always go where no one else goes.
But you are checking both ends of this chain of people.
It's not just about standing there, you know, on a CODEL with Border Patrol and hearing it firsthand about how...
How they're so frustrated.
Their hands are tied.
They're suicidal.
They hate the Biden administration, don't they?
They hate the Biden administration.
I mean, these are the folks that turned their back on Mayorkas when he went down to the border.
They feel disrespected by this administration.
They are disrespected.
And then you watch.
Here they are.
They're basically the welcoming committee.
They're forced to be the welcoming committee and it's a slap in their face because that's not what they were trained to do.
That's not why they have the jobs they have.
As a matter of fact, it's the opposite.
Then they take them in, they process them, and ICE gives them not an ankle bracelet, Matt, but a free cell phone, courtesy of Joe Biden.
Barack Obama gave out cell phones for votes.
Well, we got Joe Biden gives you a cell phone when you invade our country illegally.
Well, we are going to cover a great deal more of that in the coming week.
Alexander Mayorkas has a number of appearances before Congress.
We're going to be bringing folks the clips from that, the highlights, frankly, a lot of the lowlights.
One lowlight for the Republic occurred during this last congressional work period where a bizarre administrative process in Georgia Had you giving testimony for like five hours on whether or not you're an insurrectionist.
And what I really appreciated kind of looking back on it and having been there to observe it is that this is like a lot of kind of the anti-MTG attacks.
They think that if they treat you worse than everyone else and subject you to unspeakable things that no one else has to go through, that that will weaken you.
And what they never expect is that it will make you stronger.
They did that when they stripped you from committees.
Then you got oversight on all committees.
They don't like that very much.
Now they're going after your ability to stand before your voters.
This is the issue lighting up the comments section right now.
People all across the country and in Georgia saying they stand with you.
Let's start with this.
How have your voters reacted to this effort to disenfranchise them?
That's the greatest question.
You know, no one wants to talk about in the media and the mainstream news, you know, on CNN and Sunday shows and the New York Times, etc.
They don't want to talk about how my district actually feels about it.
And they are so angry.
My district offices are receiving phone calls.
They can't even answer the phone because so many people are calling in.
Our phone lines are completely shut down with so many phone calls of support.
But people in the district saying, how do we stop this?
How do we stop?
We are so angry.
They cannot affect our ability to vote for us.
Well, they're standing up for themselves.
No one cares about their right to vote.
In Georgia, there's a lot going on right now that would lend some people to believe that their vote is not precious.
Because you have a Secretary of State and you have an election administration system in Fulton County that dilutes the votes with fraudulent activity and And then their vote isn't even precious enough for them to be able to give it to you, according to some group of people, I bet, largely funded outside the state of Georgia.
Oh, 100%.
Let's talk about that.
Do you think this is an effort to distract you from the very important work you're leading in Congress?
Well, this is the playbook of the left.
It's create chaos.
Chaos after chaos after chaos after chaos.
Crisis after crisis after crisis after crisis.
And it's flood the system so that everyone is just overwhelmed with this intense level of chaos and crisis.
Failing flat on their face.
This is a group.
These aren't my voters.
You know, we have over 700,000 people in Georgia 14. And guess what?
Congratulations to Free Speech for People.
They found five.
Five voters.
Guess what?
One of them happens to be the Democrat chairwoman for our district.
So everyone knows what's going on here.
You know, at the end of the Civil War, there was a concern that former Confederate officers would run for Congress and be elected and then take action That wasn't in service of the Union or reconciliation or reunification of our country, but instead would continue to be in service of the Confederacy.
So these novel features of state law have laid dormant since the era after the Civil War.
And now you have partisan, well-funded groups doing everything they can to try to exercise these novel elements of state law, particularly against Madison Cawthorn, Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar, and you.
And here's the thing, in the matter of Biggs and Gosar in Arizona, in the matter of Cawthorn in North Carolina, federal courts stepped in and they issued injunctions against that bizarre state process.
But in your case, didn't the federal judge have some weird nexus to the mainstream media?
Well, it happened to be related to a certain person that works for NPR, her sister.
Oh, great.
So when Clarence Thomas' wife sends text messages, all of that is immediately imputed to him.
Of course.
But you can have somebody, you know, with this familial relationship with NPR, who I'm sure they've said some pretty nasty things about you.
Not a problem at all.
And then ruling on this case.
But what I thought...
Was really one of the most bizarre things I'd ever seen in a courtroom in my life was when they tried to accuse you of calling for bloodshed and violence by referencing the year 1776. Right.
Of all things.
So let's go to a clip from the hearing and take a listen.
And you know that the term 1776 is actually a term that's sometimes used in politics today.
I don't know if you've noticed our state seal here in Georgia.
I know you're not from Georgia.
But as you can see, we enjoy our history and we're proud of our freedoms.
1776 is on our state seal.
Great.
Wow.
I don't know how the court could possibly rule that a reference to 1776 was coded insurrection, while 1776 is literally hanging over the judge's head in the courtroom.
It was really an unbelievable moment.
Interesting thing about that lawyer questioning you, he had a tremendous amount of cat hair on his suit, which was my favorite thing about him.
But what do we know about the folks that are funding that nonsense?
Well, I know they're not from Georgia, that's for sure, because they don't quite understand how we feel about 1776, that we're proud of our freedoms and our country's founding, so much so that we have it on our state seal.
And by his definition and the way he was framing everything or trying to frame and lie about me, that very courtroom would be guilty of trying to wage an insurrection because the seal is hanging on the wall behind the judge and it says 1776. I just wonder if that irony smacked him in the face as he was staring at the seal with 1776. There are moments, like, as a lawyer in a courtroom where you know this is not going well.
And that was particularly a courtroom riddled with those moments from the petitioner.
Any word on when we expect a decision?
Not a decision.
The judge in this case, under this bizarre feature of novel state law, makes recommendations to Brad Raffensperger.
So I guess, you know, democracy...
Rests in the fragile and shaky hands of Brad Raffensperger on this one, but what's the window of time for the judge to issue findings of fact and conclusions of law?
It should be within a week or two.
I do want to point out something since we're members of Congress and I want to discuss this with you.
So this group, they're a funded group of attorneys.
They're more like activists.
They're not interested in my...
I know the type.
They don't care about democracy.
They don't care about my district's vote.
They don't care about free speech as a matter.
They're trying to silence my district's speech by ripping me off the ballot, taking away my district's ability to vote for me when I've done absolutely nothing wrong.
They're funded.
They're funded by a lot of groups, you know, groups like Cloud Mountain Foundation, Kohlberg Foundation, Overlook Foundation.
This is all public information.
Park Foundation, San Francisco Foundation, Schumann Media Center, and so forth.
Here's what's interesting, Matt.
The views that they hold, the policies that they want, the laws that they want in place in our country, are things like they want illegals to vote.
They want to...
They not only fund abortion, they fund Planned Parenthood, Narrow, and they protect it.
They go after the most...
They pursue the most radical left policies that I completely oppose and work against.
This is what this is really about.
That's what this case is about.
It has nothing to do...
With what happened on January 6th because we all know and they know and everyone knows all we did was object.
But this has everything to do with pursuing the radical left's policy and pushing their policies and they have to remove people like me, people like you, the strongest fighters in Congress to do it.
Well, I know how proud your district was of you, and certainly as your colleague, I was proud of you because you handled that effort with, I think, a tremendous amount of grace, and I would not have been so graceful.
So I give you all the credit in the world, and a lot of folks right now giving credit to Elon Musk for putting his money where his mouth is on Twitter.
Yeah.
Elon, restore Trump, restore the Babylon Bee, and restore the account of my colleague Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Make Twitter fun again.
I feel like Elon has basically been carrying the platform without you there.
Are you expecting a reinstatement?
I should get a reinstatement.
I was supposedly banned for COVID misinformation.
But, you know, a lot of people don't understand.
They're like, well, she is on Twitter because of her RepMTG account.
But that's not necessarily true, as you know.
As members of Congress, we have rules about what we can and can't say on our congressional social media platforms where we have our free speech on our personal accounts.
And so my personal account is permanently banned.
For what Twitter said was COVID misinformation, but there was not misinformation there.
It was my opinion, free speech, and then quoted information.
You were telling people that they would be more resilient against COVID if they lived healthier lives and lost weight and went to the gym, which started as misinformation and then ended up being medical doctrine.
If you are not reinstated, what does that tell us about the Musk era of Twitter?
If my personal account is not reinstated, which I can't imagine it not being reinstated, Dr. Robert Malone, I saw he had his account back today, and he was taken off permanently banned for...
COVID misinformation.
I've noticed an uptick in like the last 48 hours.
I think the shadow ban like clasp may be coming off.
I think it's kind of going back and forth.
Right.
Maybe the grip's loosening.
It's not off.
Well, I think there's like some people in there still like trying to apply it maybe back and forth.
I've gotten a lot.
I know we've gotten a lot more followers.
Some of my tweets have just...
There could be any number of reasons why you're getting more followers.
Talk about compounding factors.
And really what we stand for is free speech.
Just the notion that in a world in which people are confronted with challenging information, that they can review sources, that they can be critical of arguments.
I believe in an America that is strong enough to face disinformation without the Twitter overlords, like being the arbiters of truth.
I believe in people.
People are smart enough to figure it out.
Well, one thing that I think a lot of folks are figuring out is what's going on currently in GOP leadership.
And it was much the talk of the Sunday shows of the mainstream media, comments attributed to Kevin McCarthy, comments made by Kevin McCarthy.
The New York Times originally publishing the article that I guess McCarthy held the view that Donald Trump should resign, and then after that we saw Kevin McCarthy issue a pretty unequivocal denial, denying the veracity of those things, and after that denial we heard the words of Kevin McCarthy.
Liz, you on the phone?
Yeah, I'm here.
Thanks, Kevin.
I guess there's a question.
When we were talking about the 25th Amendment resolution, and you asked what happens if it gets there after he's gone, is there any chance, are you hearing, that he might resign?
Is there any reason to think that might happen?
I've had a few discussions.
My gut tells me no.
I'm seriously thinking of having that conversation with him tonight.
I haven't talked to him in a couple days.
From what I know of him, I mean, you guys all know him too.
Do you think he'd ever back away?
But what I think I'm going to do is I'm going to call him.
This is what I think.
No one will pass the house.
I think there's a chance he'll pass the family even when he's gone.
And I think there's a lot of different ramifications for that.
Now, I haven't had a discussion with the Dems that if he did resign, it would not happen.
Now, this is one personal fear I have.
I do not want to get into any conversation about Pence pardoning.
I mean, the only discussion I would have with him is that I think this will pass, and it would be my recommendation we should resign.
I mean, that would be my take, but I don't think you would take it.
I do know there was never a chance that Donald Trump was going to resign the presidency.
He is not a quitter.
He's a fighter.
He's still fighting.
He's still not quitting on behalf of the American people and the changes we need.
And there's always a problem when you ever have leadership express a viewpoint that is wildly out of touch with where the majority of the conference is.
And I could tell you there was never a moment where you had a critical mass of Republicans believing that Donald Trump either would or should resign.
But the second problem is that you have McCarthy making this very specific denial followed by audio that seems to contradict that denial.
And so that then doesn't become about the truth of the matter asserted.
It comes to bear around whether or not someone's statements are reliable in the future going forward.
We heard this from Kevin McCarthy when pressed on that specific subject in the last several days.
Congressman, have you spoken with President Trump recently?
Did you speak with him last night?
No, I spoke to him twice today.
I just spoke to him an hour ago.
How was your conversation?
Did you talk to him about the New York Times report and the conversation you had about...
Oh, the conversation is very good because the conversation here is what they said we did, we never did.
I mean, I've never asked President Trump to resign.
We both talked about that.
You spoke with him about resigning?
No, let me be very clear.
I have never asked the president to resign.
So what the book said was not true.
I never asked the president to resign.
So I guess the spin there is that Leader McCarthy believed that Trump should resign, but never said to Trump that he should resign, even though he was telling other members of the leadership team that he was going to say that to President Trump.
What do we make of all this?
Well, I was just, when I was thinking about it, I was remembering when all that happened, I think, I remember just boldly defending President Trump because I know that's how the people felt.
And I remember you were doing the same thing.
There was only a few of us that jumped out like right in front right away because we knew he didn't plan it.
We knew he had nothing to do with it.
None of us knew that was going to happen.
We were shocked and we were upset, remember?
It stopped our ability to object.
People were accusing Lauren Boebert of leading, like, reconnaissance tours.
What, with her children?
Right.
And they were accusing you of laying pipe bombs.
And here's what people don't know.
The reason Marjorie Taylor Greene has a total alibi from the pipe bomb thing is that I have never seen this woman in a hoodie.
We travel all around the country together, and I don't even think you own a hoodie.
I don't think you'd be caught dead in a hoodie.
You don't have to respond to that, just my sense, my read of the facts.
But we were out doing those things.
And did you sense that there was ever a critical mass of Republicans who believed that Trump should have resigned?
No, the people didn't.
The people were, I mean, still are solidly behind President Trump.
And I remember we were boldly saying that, and there were, you know, folks here that were just falling apart because they were being pressed by the media.
They've been here too long.
They don't know how to function.
They forget how real people feel.
But by us boldly saying how much we support President Trump, we're standing with him, and all of this, and fighting impeachment, well, there was a turnaround, wasn't there?
Yeah.
And we saw a turnaround from those that thought they needed to say things against him.
And you know what?
We should always invite people to join us if they have a change of view.
Maybe they saw some of the arguments we were making.
And I don't think that has to be a reason to bash anyone or any leader.
I don't think it's disqualifying for someone to change their mind and come to the view that we held.
Absolutely.
And I am concerned, and we haven't had any tapes on this, I am concerned of reports that Leader McCarthy would say that people like Lauren Boebert need to be removed from Twitter.
I worry about that greatly, but I don't just believe anything written in the New York Times.
So on the issue of whether or not he called for other people to be removed from Twitter, if he says that didn't happen, you know, it's his word against the New York Times, and I don't believe the New York Times.
I know that they lie about us.
Absolutely.
I will very seriously say I would hope that no one in leadership in our party or in our party period would call for another member of Congress to be removed from social media.
What would be the consequences if that's true?
That is a complete violation of our freedom of speech.
Would it be disqualifying for a leader of our conference?
Well, I'll tell you why I have a particular concern.
I hope that none of that is true because I lost my Twitter account and I don't think it was COVID misinformation, Matt.
Well, I think it's that it was probably too much truth you were saying that some people didn't like.
Some people didn't like it, but I sure don't want to think that anybody here in this place has anything to do with anyone losing their social media accounts because our job is to protect the First Amendment.
I don't even want the Democrats to lose their social media accounts.
No, I don't want them to either.
I don't even want the Taliban to lose their social media accounts.
I love the stupid things they say.
Yeah, I mean, I just think that, like, I am not afraid that a tweet is some dangerous thing.
Maybe one day we'll all come together and actually work for the people of this country and protect our country.
Maybe we'll all agree one day.
I'd love to see that happen.
The Sunday shows discuss this, as you might imagine, and we came up in a couple of those circumstances.
This will be ABC This Week and Fox News Sunday.
Take a listen.
Give us the long view on the impact of this leak, both for McCarthy and for House Republicans.
Well, I think it's a blip.
I don't think it's going to be consequential in the long term.
McCarthy has very strong ties among most of the elements of the Republican conference.
There may be a few dissidents, the sort of Matt Geitz, Marjorie Taylor Greene wing of the party, which seems to consist of basically two people.
But I don't think this is going to be a significant blip.
Kevin McCarthy is afraid of Trump.
He needs Trump in order to become Speaker of the House.
And he's afraid of turning off his base.
I think the real part of that conversation that came out this week that we should all be talking about is what he said about his members.
He said they should be taking off social media.
Now, I don't know what the prosecutor will say about that, but I can tell you what the partisan political person will say about that.
Tell me that, you know, Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert and others are not upset that Kevin McCarthy insinuated that they should be, you know, taken off Twitter and Facebook.
And right after that, Chris Christie reflected that, well, he didn't need our votes anyway.
Do you think that there's a coalition That can lead a Republican conference and a Republican majority that is able to just ignore and cast aside those of us who are a little more outspoken on things.
I want to tell you about Karl Rove.
Karl Rove's wing of the party is the failure part of our party.
They're very much the operating component that led us into never-ending foreign wars.
That killed American soldiers, brought them home missing limbs, gave them PTSD, gave them addiction to narcotics and medications that led to addiction to meth, that led to addiction to heroin, that just destroyed people's lives.
Their wing of the party led us to this massive debt the American people are in.
Their wing of the party sent our jobs overseas.
Their wing of the party is the complete failure that exists here in this town, Matt.
And nobody cares what Karl Rove has to say.
Everyone cares about what you have to say.
People care about what I have to say.
People care about what Donald J. Trump, the 45th President of the United States, has to say.
People care about our wing of the party, but you want to know why?
Our voters are our wing of the party, the vast majority of them.
So Karl Rove can go kiss my ass, because I could care less what he has to say about any of us, and he's dead wrong.
He's disconnected, and shame on Fox News for constantly having him on there.
Well, I do not believe that there is a single Republican running in a single primary in America that would rather stand on stage with Karl Rove or Chris Christie than Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz.
You know, the proof's in the pudding.
Actually, bring them on.
I would love to debate them.
We should have a debate with Karl Rove and Chris Christie, you and I. I'm for it.
You know what?
We'll do it on Fox or on ABC. Either one.
We'll go to you guys.
With our track record, ABC would have it before Fox, maybe.
Maybe.
I don't know.
I'd love to be surprised.
I would love it.
Well, and I think more importantly, the shaping of our party is not just a difference in style.
And I think that the Chris Christie's and Karl Rove would say, well, because we have stylistic differences than the traditional ways of Washington, we should be ignored.
But the reality is, on the policies that you just laid out, with a more focused foreign policy, with a view of the American worker that is an ambitious one and a supportive one, the border...
I mean, we are in a position that a lot of these rhinos are not.
And I think that the energy is with us.
And you know what?
There might be more of them inside the beltway of Washington, D.C., but there's more of them that are like us, that are going to be voting in these primaries that run from now through September.
So the proof will be in the pudding, and it's my expectation that we'll continue to have a great way to shape that discussion.
One discussion that you led, you were the first one, was on the Fire-Fauci Act.
And I was struck It was perfectly logical for the CDC to say, wait a minute, we were planning on ending this mandate on a certain date.
Let's wait a period of time until May 3rd, which was a very sound public health decision.
So for a court to come in and interfere in that is really unfortunate.
It's unfortunate because it's against public health principles, number one.
And number two is because that's no place for the courts to do that.
This is a CDC decision, and that's very bad precedent when you have courts making a decision and looking at what the basis of the decision was.
It was not sound.
So it goes, Fauci, God, and then somewhere below that, the courts.
So we live in a world where they're trying to use the courts to kick you off the ballot and not allow your voters the opportunity to choose you or to choose a different candidate, and yet they think that the courts have no role in reviewing something so long as the great wizards of public health decide that that's what the control is that they want to have over us.
Shouldn't Americans be more worried about someone with this much power just blatantly expressing a view that is neo-fascist?
Everyone is worried and that's why they hate him.
You know, he talks about a court intervening.
You know who intervened and ruined people's lives?
Our government.
Our government intervened with their tyrannical shutdowns that ruined our children's education for two years.
That killed our grandparents in nursing homes, caused people to die alone without their family, caused my father not to go to the doctor and get a cancer diagnosis because he and my mom were afraid to go out of the house because of the dreaded COVID-19 that Dr. Fauci's gain of function research led to creating.
You know, Dr. Fauci has a lot of nerve saying something like that right there, especially after he led the effort That shut down small businesses.
That pushed people at home into depression and suicide by themselves.
That still has people running around.
Perfectly young people.
I mean, I see them all the time.
Healthy young people, but they're still wearing a mask because they've been brainwashed by the stupid television.
And Dr. Fauci and everyone else, that they have to wear masks.
Oh, and that masking is caring.
Masking is, that is insanity.
All of this insanity came from Dr. Fauci's power trip We're good to go.
Right.
So these people who want to cast us in the role of these, like, dangerous authoritarians are trying to throw you off the ballot despite the wishes of your voters.
And they're trying to say that Anthony Fauci somehow rests in some place above the U.S. judicial system so long as there's a public health nexus to the government's desire to get power.
So don't fall for it this week.
There's going to be a lot going on.
Marjorie, how can folks follow you and stay up with your work this week in the Congress?
And what's at the top of your desk before we get out of here and get back to work?
Oh, RepMTG is my Twitter handle.
MTG, look for that.
Any verified account on all the social media platforms, that's me.
Don't follow the non-verifieds.
Those are...
The fake ones.
Also, my website is green.house.gov.
You can see a lot of my bills there, a lot of my work.
You can also read the report that is on my website about the January 6th pre-trial defendants.
And it is still shocking and we are still working on getting a date, waiting on Mayor Muriel Bowser-Matt to give us a date to go take our trip back to the D.C. jail and go Check on conditions there in the pre-trial January 6th defendants that are rotting away.
While Antifa BLM rioters enjoy freedom and still enjoy that fact that Kamala Harris and Ilhan Omar bailed them out of jail by sharing the Minnesota Freedom Fund link.
Every week she is working on this.
Every week she is fighting for civil rights for folks and ensuring that there is due process and fairness.
We're not these people's lawyers, but we do have an oversight responsibility as members of Congress, and you take it as seriously as any.
The unstoppable Marjorie Taylor Greene, thanks for being back on Firebrand Live.
Let's go have a great week in the Congress.
Sounds good.
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