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May 5, 2016 - Rush Limbaugh Program
37:13
May 5, 2016, Thursday, Hour #2
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Meeting and surpassing all audience expectations every day.
I am Rush Limbaugh, America's real anchor man and truth detector, as well as the Doctor of Democracy.
Great to have you all here, as always.
Telephone number, if you want to be on the program, 800-282-2882, the email address, lrushbow at EIBnet.com.
Okay, so Trump in a reversal has expressed his openness to raising the minimum wage.
And now, I checked the email during the break, and some people, I can't believe you're not mad at that.
I can't believe two or three emails.
You just seem so cavalier about it.
Folks, let me tell you, the best way for me to describe for you my mindset here, we're in uncharted territory.
I don't have any expectations.
The one thing I'm not going to do is start attaching what I think are demands, expectations.
Well, I'm going to have expectations, but demands.
I mean, I just not under any illusion here that Trump is something that I don't think he is.
I'm holding out the possibility that he's going to be more so than a lot of people think.
But I don't know, folks.
This is what I mean when I'm the mayor of Rielville, and my favorite phrase is a cliché.
It is what it is.
And my objective is to make the most out of everything.
I try whatever's going on to be optimistic about it.
And people say, well, how can you stay so optimistic?
And if people ask me that, we're in the midst of Obama's doing what he's doing and then the possibility of Hillary nailing the final nails into the coffin.
I remain optimistic that what we're doing down the road is finally going to arrest and stop all this.
I'm not, because I don't blow up here and get mad does not mean that I am tolerating it, accepting it, or acquiescing to it.
And I should also tell, I'm not surprised that Trump would say that he's, look, let's remember some things that we've already heard from Trump during the campaign.
We heard him praise Planned Parenthood.
We heard him rip George W. Bush on the war with Iraq.
I mean, it's not hard to figure out where Trump falls on a lot of these things.
And Ted Cruz said it.
When Ted Cruz said New York values, this is what he was talking about.
He was not talking, he was talking about liberalism and views that are consistent with the Democrat Party.
But at the same time, I know that Trump is aware, too.
He had the presence of mind in the debate last November.
He said, yeah, I wish I didn't have to say it, but yeah, it's got to stay where it is.
And it was a tantamount admission.
Hey, I'm trying to win this as a Republican, and I know what I better not say here at this point.
Now, I think one thing to always keep in mind, this is not a cop-out, although many of you aren't going to believe that.
But I think I really do believe that Trump's a New Yorker.
He's grown up a New Yorker.
That means something.
There aren't a whole lot of people like you and me in New York.
They're there.
I mean, there's some, but I mean, the vast majority of people are not conservative and certainly not conservative ideologues.
And at the same time, I do know that Trump, one thing I do know is that Trump wants a lot of votes beyond Republican votes.
And Stan, put yourself in Trump's shoes for a minute here.
He just won the Republican primary.
And he did not have to act as though he was a big-time right-winger in order to do it.
He won the Republican primary going away by saying things like his support plan.
It did not bother his supporters.
We had some people called here yesterday that, you know, if he really wants to win, he's going to have to get some conservative people around him.
He's going to have to get some people.
And I agree that he's going to have to go through the process of doing that.
But he's going to, I think, reach out, just like his strategy was to win every state in the primary.
It's going to be the same thing with this presidential campaign.
He's going to try to get as many votes as he can.
But I don't, this is not pandering.
I mean, when you, in a reversal, Trump expresses openness to raising minimum wage.
He said, I'm looking at that.
I'm very different from most Republicans.
That happens to be true.
And that shouldn't be news to anybody.
It's why so many Republicans are upset and angry and piqued.
But folks, here's another thing to help you understand.
I don't want anybody thinking that I'm ambivalent about any of this.
I just don't see the value in blowing my stack here every day about this stuff.
It isn't going to change anything.
And furthermore, my livelihood doesn't depend on the Republican Party.
I have always said from day one of this program, my success is not determined by who wins elections.
I have steadfastly made sure that that was the case.
That's why I don't do endorsements in primaries.
It's why I don't tie myself to people that I don't know who could change on a dime and leave me to explain to angry people who believed me when I endorse somebody and then they go do a 180 on something.
I don't want to be in that position.
My attitude's always going to be, I'm going to be here as long as I want to be.
I don't want my fate type to that of a political party.
You're one.
So I don't look at this stuff personally.
When Trump comes out and changes his mind on the minimum wage, I'm not somebody that's aggrieved and ticked off about it because it might harm me professionally.
Whereas a lot of Republican establishment types, that's the only way they look at any of this from the self-preservation standpoint.
And with Trump, again, you never know in this case, is he simply reaching out to Democrats already?
He did that during the primaries.
We know he wants Democrat votes.
We know he wants independent votes.
By the way, here's unrelated thought that just something made me remember it.
Exit polls, Indiana.
Did you see the number of independents Trump got?
The vast majority.
Now, you might be saying, well, so what?
Well, so what?
So what?
I'm not praising Trump.
Back off.
I have a simple observation.
What have we always been told about independence?
Well, not only that, yeah, you have to get the independence.
What else have we been told?
We've been told that you don't dare criticize.
You don't raise your voice.
You don't say mean things about people.
You don't say mean things about Obama, the president, you don't criticize because the independents, they don't like that.
And they'll go running right back to the Democratic Party if you do that.
Really?
That hasn't been proving out here.
Romney won a majority of independence.
And here's Trump cleaning up with independence, at least within the Republican primary universe.
I mean, there are a lot of tricks that the media and the Democrats have had to get Republicans to shut up.
And they've worked.
They have worked on mainstream Republicans.
They're literally in fear of being critical of any Democrat, particularly Obama, with the racial component.
The media is going to come down on them and so forth.
So they don't criticize Obama.
And then this fear that doing so is going to be independents.
We're on the verge of winning the rush, on the verge of winning independence, and somebody comes along and starts saying mean things and they're just going to drive them right back.
I've never understood that because the Democrats are the meanest, extremist bunch of cold-hearted SOBs I've ever worked with.
With acknowledgments there to John Boehner, I've never seen it actually be the case because if the independents don't like all this fighting and they don't like the confrontation, why the hell do they run to the Democrats for refuge?
So that's why I'm not going to sit here and get exercised over each and every one of these things because they haven't happened yet, number one.
And just not time yet.
Now, there are things out there to counter that too, counterbalance it.
I've got two things here.
The first is from Reuters.
Trump wants to help U.S. businesses by lifting a slew of regulations, CNBC.
You know why this story is interesting to me?
I can't remember all the things that I read, but it was either last night or the night before I was reading who knows what website or publication or blog, but it was somebody, don't remember who either, saying that Trump is so ignorant of the Constitution.
He doesn't care about the Constitution.
And Trump, he doesn't even know about it.
He can't tell you Article 1, Article 2, the Bill of Rights, he doesn't know what they are.
He doesn't care.
He's not sophisticated.
He's not educated.
Trump doesn't, he doesn't care about traditional economic theory.
He's never heard of Friedrich Hayek.
He doesn't know about Milton Friedman or any of this stuff.
He's just a bull-in-the-china shop kind of guy.
He's a potential dictator.
I'm listening to all these criticisms of Trump that make him out to be totally not stupid, just not interested in things that everybody in politics is interested in, like political theory, economic theory.
And whoever I was reading is going on and on about what a neophyte Trump is in this area.
And you don't have any expectations because Trump, Trump, in fact, it was specifically stated that Donald Trump, when looking, I wish I could find it.
I would love to be able to quote it now because it's almost verbatim, almost specifically said, when Donald Trump looks at businesses and sees ways to fix them, he does not even think about reducing the size of government.
That's what it was.
It was somebody railing on Trump because the size of government, limited government, he's never heard of it.
He doesn't care about it.
It doesn't mean anything to him.
What government is to Trump is an instrument to be used to bully people, is what this guy was saying, whoever it was.
He doesn't know that making government smaller is the way you help business.
He doesn't look at things.
Well, right here is a Reuters story.
Trump wants to help U.S. businesses by lifting a slew of regulations, the CNBC, actually.
Donald Trump said on Thursday today that if elected, he would scrap a slew of federal regulations that he said are even more of a burden on American business owners than high taxes are.
And they would try to refinance long-term U.S. debt.
Now, I've always, when I read this thing last night or the night before, I forget which, I was puzzled.
How does whoever it was say that Trump has no interest in reducing intrusive government?
Trump doesn't care.
All he wants to do is use government as an instrument.
This is a guy that's had to go up against government with every building he ever built.
And if there's anybody who understands burdensome regulations and what they add to the cost of things, it would be Trump.
Why do people assume the guy is a neophyte and does know anything about him?
And that's what I mean.
They plug him in to a standard political profile that he doesn't fit.
It's square peg roundhole.
And then they immediately conclude they're dealing with an idiot.
And then the CNBC story comes along.
Trump says he will get rid of a tremendous amount of regulations.
You know, the first thing he said he's going to start with is repealing Obamacare.
He said, we're going to lower taxes very substantially.
We're going to be getting rid of a tremendous amount of regulations.
He's going to close the border.
He says.
He says he's going to appoint conservatives to the Supreme Court, going to repeal Obamacare.
Understands lifting regulations and getting them out of people's way.
And then the New York Times.
Now, would you think that the New York Times wants Trump to look good or look bad?
You would think that they want him to look terrible.
If there's anybody that is unalterably in a tank for Mrs. Clinton, it would be the New York Times.
Well, right here in my formerly nicotine stained fiction New York Times story, President Trump, here's how he says it would look.
Donald J. Trump is now the presumptive Republican nominee, but he is also keenly aware that many in his own party and many Americans, frankly, are scared and anxious about the idea of him in the oval orifice.
And even he is not sure how a deeply divided nation would adjust to his first 100 days.
What he does know is what he wants to do in those early months.
In a series of recent interviews, by the way, this doesn't jibe at all with what we've been told was the Trump editorial board interview that hasn't been released.
Trump supposedly told the editors of the New York Times, no, I'm not going to build a wall.
No, I'm not going to be deporting anybody.
I'm just telling them that.
That's what reporters there tried.
Well, they leaked.
They didn't try.
They leaked.
But nobody's ever heard the tapes because nobody authorized their release.
This doesn't sound like anything we've been told that that editorial interview sounded like.
In a series of recent interviews, Trump sketched out plans that include showdowns with business leaders over jobs, key roles for military generals and executives, and possibly even his family members in advising him about running the country.
Shortly after the November 8th election, Trump said that he would begin interviewing candidates for the open Supreme Court seat and settle on a nominee quickly in the mold of Scalia on Auguration Day, Inauguration Day.
He'd go to a couple of gala balls or two, but he would focus mostly on rescinding Obama executive orders on immigration.
He would call corporate executives to threaten punitive measures if they shift jobs out of the country.
And by the end of his first 100 days, the wall with Mexico would be designed.
The immigration ban on Muslims would be in place.
The audit of the Federal Reserve would be underway.
And plans to repeal Obamacare would be in motion.
Trump told the New York Times, I know people aren't sure right now what a President Trump will be like, but things are going to be fine.
I'm not running for president to make things unstable.
So make of that what you will.
But that's how you think so?
You think so?
You think if that was his agenda the first 100 days, and he actually tried and began to implement that, that he would lock up his reelection in the first.
Well, now, you know damn well, let's take all this stuff, first 100 days.
I've got to take a break, I know, but you're going to have the entire Democrat caucus in the House and Senate, and a lot of Republicans are going to be saying, oh, yeah, Mr. Trump, oh yeah, President Trump, screw that, screw that, screw that.
We're not giving you any of that.
You know that's going to happen.
For those of you worried about him becoming a dictator, we'll be back after this.
Half my brain tied behind my back just to make it fair.
Do that every time so that we're not too intimidating to liberals who we love hearing from when they deign to call and get in.
Back to the phones we go.
Larry and Tucson, thank you for waiting, sir.
You're next.
Hello.
Hey, Rush, great to get through to you finally.
Thank you, sir.
Hey, I was supporting Ted Cruz.
Yeah.
But he lost.
So I'm going to vote for Donald Trump.
But I've got friends, conservative friends, who refuse to vote for Donald Trump.
They'd rather stay home and let the looney left ruin our country for four more years.
I mean, so I don't know how to convince these people.
I don't know how to argue with them, how to persuade them.
Well, let me ask you some things about them.
They're close friends of yours, correct?
Yeah, acquaintances.
Okay, well, I'm just trying to gauge how freely you can speak to them.
Oh, I think pretty freely.
Okay.
Do they agree with you and me that our nation is in a structural crisis?
That if we're really right here on the precipice of another four years of the last seven and a half that we've had could be utterly devastating culturally, economically.
Do they agree with you on that, or are they not of that opinion?
I think so.
I think they agree that this has been horrible and they don't want to see any more of it.
But they're not using, it's like they're not using logic.
They're not using reason.
Right now they're not.
Just look at there's a lot of people that are depressed and despondent.
And they were really, you know, there were a lot of people that are really looking forward to a contested convention.
I mean, the Cruz campaign was made up of a lot of people that thought if he could just, man, win Indiana, that would be it.
And they could go to a contested convention, the second, third, fourth ballot.
Who knows?
There's a lot of people right now really deflated and let down.
And does that – can you hang on?
I've got a break coming up here.
It'll just be a couple more minutes.
All right.
Be patient.
I'm glad that you can do that.
We'll continue when we get back here, folks, after another brief, obscene profit timeout.
A man, a legend, a way of life.
And now back to Tucson.
This is Larry.
So, Larry, your friends really believe that we're here at a crossroads or a precipice, that if we have another four years of this, that it's dicey.
I mean, do they agree we're in the middle of a Democrat-led transformation of America that is uprooting the culture, uprooting the capitalist system and turning it socialist?
Are they aware of all this?
They agree with you about that?
Yes.
But here's the problem.
We got like really conservative Christians who think that Donald Trump is a jerk.
And this is bizarre that we've got Christians enthusiastically supporting Trump and Christians enthusiastically saying, no, I'm not going to vote for him.
It's just really bizarre.
Well, now, if this is religious, I don't even want to wade into that because that's, you know, I'm not a theologian or a don't deliver sermons here.
But what I was going to say is, if you've got a lot of people still disappointed that Cruz was going to win, they were ardent supporters of Cruz.
They're disappointed.
And I'm sure that is in itself a depressing thing.
Oh, my God.
There's so much tied up in this.
I mean, Cruz was it for so many.
He was the classic conservative that we have been waiting for that could go in and actually nobody would have to worry about the guy being genuine or not.
He was the real deal.
And so he loses, and there's this massive disappointment over it.
But I'll tell you, there's no comparison.
This Leicester of Two Evils argument, there is no way under the sun, if your friends are as concerned as I am and as you are, there's simply no way you vote for Hillary Clinton.
There's just no way you do it.
She is the reason.
She and Obama and that whole party are the reason.
Well, the problem is they're going to stay home.
They don't want to vote for...
I know.
There's some people that are promising to do that.
It's a matter of principle and a matter of honor and so forth.
I don't want to argue with people about their principle.
That's not for me to talk them into or out of.
But when you just get down to the brass tacks of simple logic to me, if you believe that the Democrat Party is responsible for the things that make you unhappy,
the things that scare you, the things that frighten you, the very idea that we are on the verge of losing, many people think we already have, by the way, but we're on the verge of losing the country is founded, that the whole notion, the whole concept of individual liberty is gone.
The whole concept of limited government gone.
The whole concept of the Bill of Rights, the whole concept that the purpose of the Constitution is to limit the government, not limit the people.
If you're on the verge of thinking we're losing that, I mean, that's that, to me, that's it.
That's ballgame.
That's a nutshell.
And anything that you do, either voting for Hillary or staying home or voting third party, that ends up benefiting her, is an unwise thing to do.
And if I were you, what I would tell them, but I'd give it a week or two.
You've got six months here.
Is it six?
You get four months.
You've got time here.
But you're going to have a tough time talking to them right now.
They're still in an emotional state, as you said, over the outcome of the primaries.
You want?
Give it a couple of weeks.
Ignore it for now.
Go back to it in a couple of weeks.
You'll see that they've had to soften on some of it.
The passage of time takes care of some things.
And have another go at it.
Because I think it's really important.
I think it's crucial.
Lesser of two evils.
That seems to be what we're always faced with every election, lesser of two evils.
And of course, that concept, there's nothing affirmative in it.
There's nothing positive, nothing uplifting, nothing exciting.
Gee, here we are going to lesser of two evils.
I don't see it that way.
Just for whatever it's worth to the rest of you, I don't see this as lesser of two evils.
I see one serious, serious threat and problem that has to be dealt with.
And we've got one way of doing it.
One effective way of doing that.
And that's electing somebody besides her.
And it's somebody that has a legitimate chance to win.
That's a factor as well.
Third party is not going to win anything.
It's going to allow people to beat their chests, maybe have a clear conscience and so forth, but it isn't going to have a thing to do with advancing the objective.
I appreciate the call.
Thank you for waving, too.
Robert in Athens, Georgia, you're next.
Great to have you with us, sir.
Hey, Russ, can you hear me?
Yeah.
Why wouldn't I?
You're shouting.
Yeah, I hear you fine.
Bitter Klinger dittos to you.
Yeah, we're, in my family, we're really, really down because Cruz is out of it.
I mean, for the first time in my marriage, we've given money to a political campaign.
My kids, my 18-year-old daughter, my 15-year-old son, they both worked in the Cruz campaign.
And, you know, I'm looking at Trump and I'm just, I just don't trust the guy.
And, you know, those things that you were mentioning earlier on the show today, they sound really great if he's really going to do that.
But, you know, then we're hearing that maybe he's not going to build the wall.
You know, and I don't think people have listened carefully to what he said he's going to do with the people he's going to send back because apparently he wants to fast track them back to this country.
So, you know, what are people like me supposed to do?
I know you're saying, listen, I'd never, I don't want Hillary at all.
That's obvious.
But how do I know Trump's going to be any better?
Well, that's what I meant a moment ago by the lesser of two evils.
And then I don't look at it that way.
This is my point.
Trump is not Hillary.
There's no Trump is not Obama.
Trump is not these guys.
Now, understand, there are all kinds of people, even my friends, even some on my side disagree with me about this, who think that I'm just wrong, that I'm too accepting, too open-minded, and that I'm ignoring what my instincts ought to be telling me.
But let me ask you this about, I just read this New York Times story about what Trump told them his first 100 days are going to be.
Can you give me a reason why?
And by the way, just because he wants to do it doesn't mean it's all going to happen.
People have got to understand here.
The only reason Obama has gotten away with what he's gotten away with is that the separation of powers hasn't mattered the last seven years because our party hasn't stopped him.
Our party has bent over and let Obama do whatever he wanted to do for all the reasons we've been through.
But the Democrats are not going to do that if Trump tries everything he mentions as his agenda, 100-day agenda, in this first 100 days in this New York Times story.
If he tries it, the Democrats are going to be standing up and trying to stop him at every turn.
It's not axiomatic that it's all going to happen.
He's going to try.
But if he doesn't, if he's lying through his teeth through all this, you tell me, what does he have to gain?
What's the point?
But the only thing you could tell me is that he's not really who he says he is, that this has all been a giant subterfuge and that Trump is actually a Democrat and he is running for one of two reasons, either to make sure Hillary Clinton gets elected or to get elected himself and finally totally destroy the Republican Party.
Well, I really think there's a third option there.
What is it?
And the third option is he's like Bill Clinton and he'll do whatever's expedient to keep power and whether it's reaching out to the left or the right.
Yeah.
Well, so then what you're saying is, what you have to be saying is that whatever Trump says that he cares about, whatever he claims is an important item in his agenda really isn't.
He's just saying all this to gin up support.
But if it doesn't work out, well, okay, no big deal.
I tried.
I'll try to do something else.
You're essentially saying he really doesn't believe all this.
He's just trying to make people think he does.
I have no idea.
I don't know the man.
But I will tell you, I just don't trust him.
I mean, he just seems to waffle too much.
And I know there are people who, I mean, I have friends, Christian friends, who are rock-solid Trump supporters.
I never could quite understand that, but they think he's going to do great things.
I'm concerned that he's not.
And by the way, the gentleman they called earlier as far as the Christians and the Christians voting for Trump and all that, that's an easy one.
Most Christians don't want to do smash mouth politics.
So they're hiring a bully to do it for them.
And that's exactly, I mean, that's my perception of him.
What a great, great way to go to a commercial timeout.
Thank you for that, Robert.
And we will be.
Somebody said that just a moment ago, a caller said he's very worried that Trump could end up being the next Bill Clinton.
Just end up doing whatever's convenient, whatever his way, go whatever way he has to go.
Clinton's been in the news again.
This was in San Diego yesterday at a Hillary campaign event.
And during his remarks, some woman in the audience shouted at him, hey, Bill, you look great.
It's been a long time since a girl said that to me.
I usually get you look good for a man your age.
That last phrase is a killer.
Yeah, see, this guy's now been revitalized.
So women are starting to say, hey, Bill, you look great out there.
So they'll need to press gaggle to follow him around.
Yeah, it's been a long time since a girl said that to me.
Who was it?
What was her name?
What was the last one that said that to me?
Sally Miller.
Yeah, she's talking about me the other day.
Here's next his name, Nell, in Matthews, North Carolina.
It's great to have you.
Welcome to the program.
Hi.
Hey, Rash, it's Neil.
Listen, I saw in the Drudge headline that the Bushes aren't going to endorse Trump, and it finally dawned on me that there's a growing list of people not endorsing or supporting Trump that have already been branded and vilified by Democrats as right-wingers that are wrong to the country.
So I actually believe this is the best thing to happen to Trump in a national election because there's possibly millions of independent voters and maybe even moderate Democrats who will now be more comfortable supporting Trump because these anti-Trump Republicans have distanced themselves.
You know, I'm sorry.
Your name is Neil.
It looked like Nell to me because I didn't see the little dot over the eye.
My bad.
I need, I guess, some more powerful glasses here.
But I'm sorry for that.
But, you know, you have a good point.
So both Bushes, George W. Bush and Jib, have both said, actually, three, George H.W. Bush has said they're not going to convention.
And Romney said he's not going to the convention.
And now, what the reaction to that's supposed to be, oh, no.
Oh, God.
You realize what that, oh, the party is not going to be unified.
Oh, I think, oh, Neil here may have a point as far as the reputation image perception of Trump.
I think one thing that I figured out late, one of the things that I came to late, and I always knew that the left hated George W. Bush.
That was not a mystery.
I didn't know that it was beyond Iraq.
I thought it was just the Iraq war.
I didn't know that it's stupid, too.
It was all happening right in front of me.
But I didn't know how deep the hatred for Bush was.
It was always irrational to me, no matter what it was, no matter how deep.
I always thought left-wing hatred for George W. Bush was irrational.
And I knew it was there.
But, for example, the exit polls in 2012, four years into the Obama administration, 65% of the people who voted were still blaming Bush for the economy after four years of Obama and the stimulus bill.
And they blamed Bush for TARP and they blamed Bush for the financial crisis.
They blamed the Republicans for all of this stuff, not just the Iraq war.
And a lot of Republicans ended up feeling the same way.
So we fast forward to this year, and the former figureheads and presidents of the party are not showing up.
And I think Neil's got a good point here.
By not being there, it cements that Trump is not of the Republican Party of four years ago, ten years ago, eight years ago, or whatever.
And with these guys not endorsing Trump, same thing, it leaves little doubt that Trump is quote-unquote outsider, independent, what have you.
Same token, if at the convention George W is there and George H.W. is there, and if they spoke and if they lauded Trump, a lot of people not Republican who might be interested in Trump for a whole host of reasons would immediately, it would kill the deal simply by virtue of the reputation that Bush has.
And let's not forget why they were able to do it.
The Bush White House never fought back on one thing.
And Karl Roe has admitted that it was a miscalculation that they made.
They thought that they were preserving the dignity and the honor of the office by not getting in the gutter and answering all of these political charges.
And it was a miscalculation because not defending yourself, let all those charges stand.
But it also frustrated your supporters because by extension, they were being accused of the same kind of thing or supporting the same kind of thing.
So it was demoralizing to many people.
Anyway, I appreciate the call, Neil.
We have to brief time out here with much more straight ahead on the EIB network.
Hang tough, folks.
Folks, I went back, I looked at this story on CNN about Trump and the minimum wage, and I think it's being misreported.
I'm not so sure that Trump came out in support of raising the minute, but I don't think that was his point.
I think we have an example here of CNN trying to make it look like Trump flip-flop, but he may not have.
I will share with you what I think I might have picked up when we resume.
And no, I'm not being a Trump apologist.
I just, you know, want to get things right here, which has always been the objective and always will be.
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