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Feb. 28, 2013 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:51
February 28, 2013, Thursday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of The Rush 24 7 Podcast.
I don't know, folks.
I don't know.
I'm just not sure that what we're dealing with here is a you're gonna have a dead horse in your bed tomorrow morning kind of threat.
I don't think that's what we're dealing.
I do think I do think the White House are gonna take care of Woodward with a death panel down the road.
That's how they're gonna deal with this.
We'll never know.
We'll never just Woodward's gonna get sick and the death panel will come in there and that'll be that.
Um, no, no, they're not gonna be a drone with his name on it.
Just they'll just do it with a death panel.
They just handle this with a death panel.
Hi, folks, how are you?
Oh, yes, that's great to be here.
L Rushbo and the Excellence in Broadcasting Network, the one and only all carrying, all feeling Maha Rushi, Rush Limbaugh at 800-282-2882 and the email address, L Rushbow at EIB net.com.
So you can go either way on this, and by the way, I've I I do not doubt that the White House has threatened reporters.
I don't doubt that.
And I think one of the one of the probably most prescient things that Woodward said was in explaining, and he thinks he was threatened.
And Lanny Davis is raising his hey, I I was threatened too, and I have poof.
I have poofed and I was threatened.
And then Robert B. Rice is saying if they were threatened, it's outrageous.
And what Woodward said was that he can take it, that he's been around.
He's an old timer, he's seen it all.
He's dealt with Nixon.
And that's by the way, I think what he meant when he said madness that he hasn't seen in a long time.
I think he's comparing Obama to Nixon.
There's no question about it.
He said, Look, I can handle it.
They threaten me.
I can hit the young reporters who want access.
Somebody in the White House threatens them, they can get them to snap right too.
And I don't I totally believe that that's happened.
I just not sure that that's what this was.
I've read Sperling's email.
That's the email that contains the um you'll regret this.
And the way I read it, Sperling is telling Woodward you're gonna regret this because you're wrong.
You're gonna regret it as a journalist.
But uh but Woodward is taking it as a threat, so that's how we're gonna deal with it.
Well, you'll regret this in Chicago speak means that you're gonna have a dead horse bleeding in your bed tomorrow morning or or some morning at Chicago's.
But Sperling, I don't know.
Look, the the the conventional wisdom is it's a threat, that's what everybody's going with.
To me, here's the story.
This is the story to me.
Who is Woodward?
Woodward is the reason that 99% of these so-called journalists got into the business.
And they are throwing him overboard in favor of Obama.
That's the story.
The guy who is the most respect, he is the Walter Cronkite today.
That's if you in in the journalist circles.
Woodward is it.
Woodward, Bernstein are the reasons people, but Woodward primarily the reason people went into journalism.
That in 60 minutes.
Because 60 minutes you got to destroy people while on TV.
But Woodward, he destroyed a president.
That's another reason to go into journalism.
And they're throwing him overboard.
I mean, the the the the for the most part, the drive-by's are siding with Obama.
They're siding with the White House.
That to me is the big story out of uh out of all this.
So that's that's the umbrella.
There's a lot of stuff underneath that that we'll get to uh on today's program.
Other stuff we're gonna get to.
Here's a story out of New York.
A 32-year-old Brooklyn man is suing his parents, claiming he wasn't loved enough by them, and that their neglect has caused him to be homeless and jobless.
What are you nodding your head for?
You agree?
It's about time, you think?
Well, bad parenting government needs to take over.
If the government were loving him when he was a kid, this probably wouldn't happen.
At least if he were homeless, he'd be paid for it.
Guess I get it.
Okay.
And the National Football League is going to investigate alleged impermissible combine questions by certain teams.
In light of the Mantai Tao situation.
Questions that the NFL's scouting combine during player interviews appear to have touched.
Strange choice of words here.
Appear to have touched on some subjects that are not supposed to come up in job interviews.
Well, sexual orientation.
Apparently, they're asking prospects, "Are you heterosexual?" I don't know that they're saying, "Are you gay?" They're saying, "Are you heterosexual?" Now, for most of them, that's a question on an IQ test.
You gotta know what that word means.
So I don't know what kind of I d I'm sorry for I'm like I'm in a mood today.
I I don't know what kind of reaction that's gonna be.
Sequester.
We are what counting down the hours now.
Surprised I don't see a countdown clock at MSNBC.
They don't they'll count down the hours until a press conference.
They'll count down the hours until Obama has dinner.
They'll count down the hours until he'll throw Netanyahu out of the White House.
There's no sequester countdown here.
Anywhere.
There's no sequester countdown at CNN.
They've all been preoccupied, not pre, they've all been occupied with the with the Pope quitting and flying off to Castel Gondolfo.
Have you seen that place?
It is stunning.
It is absolutely gorgeous, Castel Gandalf.
Overlooking the lake there.
It's about 15 miles away from Rome.
I first heard of it in a in a novel by Robert Ludlam.
Road to Gondalfo.
I never heard of it.
So I always said, what's this?
And it's the uh summer residence of the Pope.
Now the what the sequester uh it's gonna cut they're saying 85 billion dollars.
We actually know it's 22, but we'll go with their 85.
We're gonna cut 85 billion dollars this year, right?
Look at this story.
Wall Street Journal today.
Secretary of State John Kerry, who served in Vietnam, said that the United States is preparing for the first time to directly provide non-lethal assistance to rebel Syrian fighters as part of a bid to change President Basher Al-Assad's calculations and to expedite his removal from office,
meaning we're gonna pay Freedom Fighters in Syria some money to get rid of Basher Assad.
You know how much?
Sixty million dollars.
Sixty million dollars in assistance.
Now it's just chump change at sixty million dollars here.
But do you think maybe we could save that sixty million and keep some firemen employed?
Save the si we get sixty million dollars to Syrian freedom fighters here on the eve of the sequester.
I hadn't planned on offering grief counseling services for those hurt by the sequester tomorrow, but I'll be glad to help them through their darkest hours.
And there will be some dark hours starting tomorrow.
You know, speaking, speaking of which, Grab Sound by number nine.
No.
Grab sound by number ten.
I want to take you back to February 19th.
Nine days ago.
You heard this once, twice.
If you haven't heard it, I want you to hear it again.
It's President Obama at the Eisenhower executive office building on February 19th.
Emergency responders, like the ones who are here today, their ability to help communities respond to and recover from disasters will be degraded.
Border patrol agents will see their hours reduced.
FBI agents will be furloughed.
Federal prosecutors will have to close cases and let criminals go.
Air traffic controllers and airport security will see cutbacks, which means more delays at airports across the country.
Thousands of teachers and educators will be laid off.
Tens of thousands of parents will have to scramble to find child care for their kids.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans will lose access to primary care and preventive care, like flu vaccinations and cancer screenings.
This is not an abstraction.
People will lose their jobs.
The unemployment rate might tick up again.
That sounds like it's going to be pretty dark out there, folks.
Dark hours, dark days, all starts tomorrow, right?
That's Obama nine days ago.
Here's Obama last night.
This is not a cliff, uh, but it is a tumble downward.
It's conceivable that in the first week, the first two weeks, first three weeks, first month.
A lot of people may not notice uh the full impact of the sequester.
But this is going to be a big hit on the economy.
They're getting cold feet out there.
They tried to get the Republicans to cave.
They did everything they could to get the Republicans to cave and go along with raising taxes and making some kind of deal.
Now the sequester's gonna hit, and guess what?
The president has to go out there and say you're not even gonna notice it.
The first month.
It's gonna happen.
It's gonna really kill the economy.
But you're not gonna notice for the first week, first two weeks, first three weeks, first month.
A lot of people may not notice the full impact.
May not even notice.
There was no need to release the illegal alien prisoners.
By the way, we find that that decision was made last week, folks.
And they found a fall guy for that.
Who is resigning.
He's not ret or retiring.
He's not resigning for return.
They found a fall guy.
So how about this?
How about this?
No big deal.
Nobody's gonna even notice it for the first month.
You're not gonna notice it at all, is the bottom line.
I mean, here it is.
The Republicans, for whatever reason, held firm.
They didn't buckle.
Well, there's still time, though.
They didn't buckle and they didn't cave, and so the regime and it's not just Obama.
The Democrats all over the place are now in a big CYA mode, uttering things similar to what you just heard Obama say.
You're not even gonna notice it.
And of course, the low information voters.
We had the poll yesterday.
Only 25% of the American people are paying attention, so it ain't gonna matter anyway.
You and I know, but it's about it.
So we'll take a break.
That's the umbrella.
There's more on this.
Yeah, much more in the sequester, much more in the prison release.
I'm just setting a table here.
We'll take a brief timeout and we'll come back and we'll dig deep, complete with audio sound bites and stuff on this Bob Woodward stuff.
And whether or not he actually was threatened.
Now keep in mind, I'm I'm not sure that Woodward was actually threatened, but he thinks he was, and that's what counts.
If he was offended, that's all that matters.
We've learned that.
He thinks he was threatened, and that's that's the key.
And he's telling everybody, Lanny Davis, he is poofed that he was threatened.
And I don't doubt the White House.
I mean, that's how this type of president and regime operates.
I have no doubt they threaten reporters every.
Cheryl Atkison, do you remember her?
She she was the CBS info babe Who really dug deep on Fast and Furious?
And she did a report on the air on CBS about how they were yelling at her and screaming at her on the phone for what she was doing.
So there's no doubt that the regime attempts to intimidate reporters.
And there's no doubt that they threaten them.
They don't have to, is the bottom line.
They're throwing Woodward overboard.
The drive-by's are throwing MSNBC is throwing wood.
Media matters for America's throwing Woodward overboard.
That's I will admit kind of surprise.
I was I was waiting for this.
This is this is what was interesting to me about this since it happened.
On whose side will the drive-bys come down?
Obama or Woodward.
And I I actually thought that more people would defend Woodward than R. That they're coming out of the woodwork and ripping him to shreds.
Oh, and one other thing, before we go to the break.
Woodward, when he said it's been a long time since he's seen this kind of madness.
There's no question he's talking about Nixon.
That's that's his formative experience.
He destroyed the Nixon presidency.
Nixon was mad.
And I just wanted, I just was on the cutting edge here, folks.
I want to take you back August 21st, 2009.
This Obama's first year, basically seventh month in office, seventh or eighth month.
And I offered this comparison to those of you in this audience.
You know, to Obama, the devil is anybody who doesn't blindly follow him.
I think Obama's coming off as two levels below Nixon, even on Nixon's best day.
That's right.
It was I, El Rushbow, who first drew the comparison to Obama and Nixon.
And I think I even did it during the 2008 presidential campaign.
Anyway, let's take our first obscene profit timeout of the day.
We'll come back and resume with all the rest of the program before you know it.
And we're back, Rush Limboy and the EIB network, and I'm having I'm having a uh what's the word?
Um two things that Woodward reported.
And the the I'm I can't remember one of them.
Two two things here that have that have caused the White House to get upset.
The one of them is Woodward reported that Obama was the one who came up with the idea for the sequester.
But that's not the email, that that's not what Sperling wrote Woodward about.
And darn it, I'm having a metal block here on what it was that that Sperling was chastising Woodward for.
There was a another aspect to to Woodward's reporting about this.
It wasn't the uh.
Well, there was something about uh the the Woodward's comment about madness uh was Obama's refusing to deploy an aircraft carrier, for example, uh in the Middle East because of a budget document.
Uh, and he started comparing other presidents who would certainly not have failed to defend the country, who would not have failed to do their presidential duty because of a budget document.
Uh but it I I'm having a mental block.
There were two.
The thing that I think the White House is really ticked about, and this was not what Sperling's email's about.
Uh that Obama did not come up with the idea.
Obama's trying to create the impression that the sequester was not his idea, that it was the Republicans' idea.
And the first thing that got this off and running was was Woodward writing a column and going on television and reminding everybody sequester was indeed Obama's idea.
And then the idea over who had control of what does get cut during the sequester, and that's also Obama, and Woodward was also pointing that out.
I tried to find it during the break, and I I just remembered it.
And the reason I'm doing this, folks, is because uh a lot of people disagreeing with me here that Woodward actually wasn't threatened.
And it got me to thinking that that the the Sperling email to Woodward saying you'll regret reporting this was not about Woodward uh accusing Obama of of being the architect of the sequester.
it was his idea.
There was something else.
It's that I can't remember.
And it's that that makes me think that Sperling was not.
But regardless, Woodward thinks he's being threatened, and we know the regime does.
They're entirely capable of it.
It is how they operate.
They do use intimidation.
They do fear.
I mean, they try to scare the American people.
The idea they wouldn't try to fearmonger reporters about access or anything else is uh is ridiculous as well.
So when we get to the break here, I'm um I'm gonna I'm gonna find out what I'm talking about here just to I don't have these mental blocks very often.
They really frustrate me, so sit tight, we'll come back in a moment.
Okay, I found what I was looking for.
Everybody, I think I shouldn't say everybody, I think a lot of people are laboring under a misunderstanding.
I think that people think that the White House threatened Woodward because Woodward was writing that the sequester was Obama's idea.
That's not what they were threatening him about.
What they were threatening him for was Sperling said that Woodward was going to regret writing that the president was trying to move the goalposts by trying to replace the sequester with a mix of tax increases and spending cuts instead of solely spending cuts.
So Sperling to Woodward, you're gonna regret writing that.
Meaning you're gonna regret saying that the president was trying to move the goalposts, otherwise change the deal so that no deal could be reached.
And by the way, Obama does do that.
If you recall the fiscal cliff.
Boehner, in a moment of frustration, gave Obama everything he wanted on the so-called revenue tax increase side, and Obama refused it.
Because he didn't want a deal.
He'd never they can't be a deal.
There can't be any common ground, because that would require Obama putting his name to something.
Obama can never be seen governing.
None of this that happens can ever be seen to be happening because Obama did something or agreed to something.
Everything must happen because somebody else is doing it, in this case the Republicans.
And that's why I've always said there is no common ground.
There is no way for the two sides to come together.
Bipartisanship is impossible because two reasons.
The two sides don't agree on anything, but secondly, Obama doesn't want an agreement.
And he didn't want an agreement on the sequester.
So Woodward is writing that Obama is moving the goalposts.
Essentially saying what I just said, that Obama doesn't want a deal.
He's moving the goalposts.
And that's what Sperling was re reacting to.
Now and that's what Woodward thinks that he was threatened over.
But don't forget also that it was Woodford, Woodward who who wrote and was on television saying that the sequester was Obama's idea.
So there are two things going on for here.
Now the White House now claiming the note suggested that Woodward would regret the observation he made regarding the sequester because that observation was inaccurate, nothing more.
And Woodward responded to the AIDS email in a friendly manner.
And this is exactly what Obama did with the grand bargain during the fiscal cliff.
So I just talked about.
Basically, Obama gives Obama or Boehner gives Obama everything he wants, and Obama says nope, not enough.
And then asks for more, making a deal impossible.
So there are two things that are uh working here, and the bottom line of this is that whether I think the White House was threatening Woodward or not is irrelevant.
He does.
And they yelled at Woodward.
There was a 30-minute shout session after the email was sent.
Maybe it was before it was sent.
Let's go to the audio tape.
And let's actually listen to Woodward on this.
this is last night's CNN situation room.
He's on with Wolf Blitzer.
And Blitzer tr it conflicted.
All these media guys are conflicted.
They love Woodward.
Woodward is God.
Woodward's their idol.
But Obama's the creator.
Who do they side with?
They can't believe that Woodward is actually not helping Obama here.
So Blitzer says you're used to this kind of stuff, being threatened by presidents and stuff.
But share with our viewers what's going on between you and the White House, Bob.
Well, they're not happy at all, and some people kind of, you know, said, uh, look, we don't see eye to eye on this.
They never really said, though afterwards they've said that this is factually wrong, and they and it was said to me in an email by a top.
It was uh said very clearly, you will regret doing this.
Who sent that email?
Well, I'm not gonna say I mean it's a senior person at the time.
A very senior person.
We now know it was Gene Sperling as an economic advisor, been around with Clinton, he's been around a long time now with Obama was Gene Sperling, and uh the email said that you are going to regret doing this.
And again, that is in reference to Woodward reporting that Obama was moving the goalposts, thereby preventing a deal from being made.
Blitzer said, Well, you're used to this kind of stuff, but share with our viewers wait a second.
Um, I forget Woodward's next question, or blitzer's next question was asking Woodward to expand on what he had just said.
It makes me very uncomfortable to have the White House telling reporters you're gonna regret doing something that you believe in, and even though we don't look at it that way, you do look at it that way.
And I think if Barack Obama knew that was part of the communications strategy, let's hope it's not a strategy, but that it's a tactic that somebody's employed.
Say, look, we don't go around trying to say to reporters, if you in an honest way present something we don't like that you know you're gonna regret this.
It's Mickey Mouse.
Well, you notice Woodward saying, I think if Obama knew that this was going on.
So Woodward himself is throwing up a little cloak of defense there.
He's accusing the regime of threatening him, but not Obama.
Obama doesn't even know.
And if Obama knew, I'm sure he wouldn't appreciate this.
That's Woodward.
I think that's a tantamount admission.
Woodward's scared.
That's why I think he thinks he feels threatened.
He's absolving Obama of any role in this.
And folks, I hope by now.
Now we've had all these how does how does a guy like Van Jones end up in an administration rush, how's Obama get fooled with a guy like he's not fooled.
He picked Van Jones.
I'm telling you, everybody in this administration, Obama knows them, he wants them doing what they're doing.
The idea that Obama doesn't know.
Here's the way to put this, Obama issues the orders.
Obama is the teacher.
Obama tells these people and shows them how to deal with these reporters.
The idea that in this man's administration we have so many freelancers that are operating off the grid or outside the proper boundaries is ridiculous.
We don't have the Obama's not the kind of guy that's gonna tolerate freelancers like this.
He's not gonna tolerate people off the reservation issuing their own threats unless well, they're just not gonna do it unless they know that he's entirely comfortable with it.
Of course, he's there's no question he's the head of the family, if you want to put it that way.
There's no qu there's look at this administration is a reflection of Obama.
It's not a bunch of renegades who are acting without Obama's knowledge.
He is not one of these Distant, unattached chief executives.
Not when it comes to the media.
I think what we have here is plausible deniability.
You won't, you know, Richard Daly didn't personally have to issue threats.
His lackeys did it, but they all knew where it was coming from.
And I think I don't want to put words in Bob Woodward's mouth, but I think this business, I think of Obama knew that this was part of the strategy, and let's hope it's not a strategy, it's a tactic.
See, Woodward later on expresses fear for what they how how this would would would work on a on a younger reporter, not him.
You see, he'd been around a long time.
Woodward, he's seen it all.
He's dealt with these kind of people, he said.
But you get some young whipper snapper in there, they will be frightened of such threats from high-ranking regime officials, and they can be kept in line.
The bottom line is I don't think they have to crack the whip.
And the fact that so many people in the left on the media and and outside the media on the left are throwing Woodward overboard is a tantamount admission.
And by the way, Obama's from Chicago.
This is the daily way.
I mean, this is this is as they said in the movie The Untouchables, the Chicago Way.
This is uh this is it.
But the fact that Woodward acknowledged well, if Obama knew about this, I don't think he would like this at all.
That's that says uh that says a lot to me.
And Lanny Davis this morning on our blowtorch affiliate in the nation's capital, WMAL, the radio program Mornings on the Mall.
I talked to Lanny Davis, the uh lawyer that was on TV during the Clinton years defending him to the hilt during the Lewinsky scandal.
That exact thing happened to me.
When I had my column in the Washington Times with the editor uh John Solomon, received a phone call from a senior Obama White House official who didn't like some of my columns.
Even though I'm a supporter of Obama, I couldn't imagine why this call was made.
And he did threaten that if he continued to run my columns, he would lose or his reporters would lose their White House credentials.
Well, that's that's not unique.
Other regimes have threatened reporters with the loss of credentials.
What is of note here is to the extent that any low information people are paying attention, this has to come as a surprise to them.
I don't think they see Obama this way at all.
And maybe I'm wrong.
Maybe they do and they like it.
Maybe the low information voters look at Obama as a king, want him to act like a king.
Want him to be able to make anything happen with a signature.
In fact, they probably do.
Many of the low information people had voted for Obama.
So Brian Wilson of WMAL said, Lammy, we're gonna take away your White House press credentials.
That threat was actually made to you.
I called three senior people at the White House and one from outside the White House, who is close to the White House, and I said, uh I want this person to be told this can never happen again.
It's inappropriate.
I got a call back from someone within the White House saying it will never happen again.
First of all, you don't threaten anyone.
Secondly, you don't threaten Bob Woodward.
He's one of the best reporters uh ever.
He's factual.
You can disagree with facts that he reports, but he's factual.
Don't mess with him about his facts.
You can mess with him about the interpretation of his facts.
But this is not a reporter you tangle with.
See what I mean?
This is infallible.
Woodward is infallible, and the reporters are throwing him overboard.
The reporters, as he said.
Woodward calls them reporters.
And the reporters are being thrown overboard here.
They're throwing Woodward overboard.
And but he's infallible.
You just heard Landy Davis.
You can challenge his facts, but he's factual.
All you can do, you can challenge the interpretation of his facts, but you don't you don't threaten Bob Woodward.
Well, the White House did threaten Woodward and the rest of the media siding with the White House.
Now last night on CNN's Aaron Burnett out front.
She spoke with the former Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich about all of this.
And she said, that's impressive.
You'll regret doing this from someone in the White House.
Well, I think that's pretty outrageous if that came from somebody in the White House.
That's pretty outrageous, says former Labor Secretary Reich.
I'm pretty outrageous if that happens.
Wow.
Well, I thought we longer pronounce his name than hear his sound bite.
The reason, for those of you new to the program, I'm not making fun of the former labor secretary.
He uh he used to have commentary on the nightly McNeil Larrer News Hour.
And at the end of his commentary, he would always sign off by saying, I am Robert B. Reich.
As a signature way of having so I just, as all good impersonators do, exaggerate the signature item, and that's why we um pronounce it that way.
Gotta take a break.
We'll be back.
Don't go away.
By the way, David Rodham Gergen, CNN, agrees with Woodward.
He can't believe what Obama's doing here.
David Rodum Gurgen, we got the sound bites coming up, actually thinks Obama is harming the country.
The way he has been dealing with this sequester, and don't forget now, Obama is now saying that nobody's gonna notice the sequester for the first month.
After all of the fear mongering, and after all the threats and all the dire predictions.
Now that we're one day away, and now that it isn't uh much of anything at all, Obama's gotta come out.
Hey, by the way, you're not gonna notice it first week, two weeks, three, maybe first month.
You won't notice anything.
Here is Lou in Verde, Nevada.
Great to have you as you're up first today.
Hello.
Good morning, Rush, and thank you very much.
And to get right to the point, I think that anyone who lived in California in nineteen seventy-eight can put the sequester in perspective.
That's the year that the Proposition 13 was on the ballot to freeze property taxes.
That's right.
At the time I was in law enforcement in LA County, and we were bombarded with tales of massive layoffs, substation closures, and the end of life as we know it.
In briefings, we were told to tell everyone we knew or had contact with that Prop 13 passing would put everyone's safety at risk.
Yep, I remember it was the same for the fire department.
We were actually told that the county had leased land in the desert to store fire equipment that would be removed from service with fire station closures.
Stop and think of that.
Stop just wait a minute now, just think of it.
Because he's right, Prop 13, property tax freeze, California 1978, the same threats, and to the fire department are gonna move the equipment to the desert.
Because they have to shut down the fire state.
It was absurd then, and it's absurd now.
Yes, sir, it certainly is.
And you know something?
It passed, life got better, and it was not the end of the world.
It was a much better world.
Well, there's no question, and it it's but you know that prop tax uh prop Prop 13 still to this day agitates the left.
To this day, it well, they've they've repealed some of it, but for the longest time they were blaming everything that was going wrong in California in Prop 13.
But he's right, the same stuff was predicted in California.
That state was gonna basically have to have to shut down.
And it actually improved a whole lot of economic circumstances.
Freezing property taxes.
It improved the quality of life in California for uh millions of people for uh for quite a while.
So Lou, I appreciate the call.
I'm glad for that reminder.
David Pluff, Obama campaign aide, tweeted the following about Woodward.
Watching Woodward the last two days and like imagining my idol Mike Schmidt of the Phillies facing live pitching again.
Perfection gained once is rarely repeated.
That's the regime's guy basically saying Woodward is old, he's over the hill, he's never going to be great again.
That's a slice and dice, folks.
Okay, there's still more to discuss in the Woodward business, but also the release of illegal alien prisoners.
It turns out there's much more to this than we even knew yesterday.
Details coming up, plus more of your phone calls.
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