Sean Hannity Show - Remembering Bob Beckel - February 22nd, Hour 1

Feb. 22, 2022 - Sean Hannity Show

31:02

Remembering Bob Beckel - February 22nd, Hour 1

Sean remembers former Fox News Host Bob Beckel who passed away today at the age of 73. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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	This is an iHeart podcast.
	Day number 192.
	And 205 days since Joe said he would not leave Americans behind.
	He did.
	God only knows when Ukraine is all said and all is done.
	How many Americans might get trapped behind enemy lines there?
	Who knows?
	Or in Taiwan, once China, they'll see the green light of a minor incursion, reunification argument, and the world's not going to lift a finger or do a thing.
	And we'll get to all of that in the course of the program today.
	I start with a sad note personally on this program.
	Many of you know Bob Beckle, who was on Fox for many years, started the five hit show.
	He was also a dear personal friend.
	And I don't know why, but we would just, we always got along.
	He was a fun guy.
	He was an interesting, you know, he wrote a book.
	He just opened his heart.
	I mean, he'd struggled most of his life with addiction issues.
	And then went through periods where he really was optimizing what he had learned to help so many other people.
	He leaves behind an incredible son and daughter, Alex's son.
	I talked to him at length last night and earlier yesterday.
	I knew about this.
	And he was just a dear friend.
	And when he started on the five, I just gave him a key to my house.
	He used to come over.
	When do you remember these stories?
	I used to come back and tell you about them.
	I mean, I'd get up at five, six, seven in the morning, and there's Bob in the, you know, out in the swimming pool.
	Didn't Bob have his own room at one time?
	Because the guys were so close.
	Hannity, I love the jacuzzi in your house.
	I'm like, what do you mean?
	I don't have a jacuzzi.
	And he goes, no, yeah, you do.
	He takes me into, we called it the Bob Beckle wing.
	It was just the room in the house.
	And I didn't know that that particular tub, because I used like four rooms in the house, actually had jacuzzi jets in it.
	I had no idea when I bought the house.
	I mean, he was a ride.
	He loved that house.
	He loved being around you and the kids.
	He was a great guy.
	My kids called him at the time, Uncle Bob.
	And he came on these freedom concert tours with us, and he was just a barrel of laughs, a lot of fun.
	I have so many incredible memories of him.
	And he went through some tough years without going into detail, but he had a heart of gold.
	And then it was Cal Thomas that started talking to him about God and Jesus and changing his life and really brought him to faith to the point where it was like such an important part of his life.
	And, you know, I just, I just missed my friend.
	He was an amazing, fun guy.
	He was probably America's most liked liberal, if you can even say such a thing.
	And he used to sit outside of Fox before every show smoking his cigars.
	He had these little shorty cigars that he'd smoke all the time.
	And he'd just sit out there and just talk to everybody.
	Everybody would come up to him.
	Hey, Bob, what's up, Bob?
	How are you, Bob?
	It's like he was holding court all day long.
	It was hilarious.
	And I put this together.
	It's kind of interesting.
	I read this story in the Epic Times today.
	The headline is, Atheist Dad is transformed after glimpse of heaven as a toddler's son is taken off life support.
	It's a tragic, sad story about a two-year-old little boy, and he was very, very sick.
	And they knew that they had to take him off life support and that he was brain dead and that they made a decision.
	They had a time.
	He was an atheist at the time.
	And anyway, so he's laying next to his son, knowing that this kid is going to be taken off life support in just a few hours.
	And he wrote about, you know, I'll read it.
	He said, right there at that moment, I was gone, lifted out of my body, gone, traveling with him.
	He was ahead of me.
	He was looking back at me.
	He had his right hand behind him, and my left hand was holding his hand.
	We were traveling.
	It felt fast, but it wasn't the wind.
	I could only see the blue, and there was communication happening with me.
	I'd get lots of information of what seemed like the atmosphere.
	My initial response to Griffin, his son, was, I can't believe this is happening.
	And he would look at me and smile.
	His smile was just so large, so alive.
	But when he would look away from me, I'd become very ill, similar to the state I was in when I felt I wasn't tough enough to comfort him.
	And then he would look at me again, and that feeling would go away.
	It was so intense, the love I felt.
	And then he would look away.
	And the third time he looked away, I was so sick and nauseated by my own feelings of not being enough.
	And I thought to myself, you've got to toughen up.
	This is a rare moment you're getting with your son.
	He's alive.
	And this time Griffin looked at me as a young boy, and he laughed and he knew my thoughts and he knew them deeply.
	And he chuckled and said, Dad, you're not sick.
	I knew all of what he meant at that moment, spiritually, emotionally.
	I was not sick.
	And then he says, I experienced the love of God.
	He was everywhere.
	He was the blue that I saw, totally encompassed me.
	And I could see the things that I had done in my life, the things that I thought were good decisions, but they weren't.
	I could see the business decisions I made that were so wrong because the perspective with which I made them had been selfish.
	I was supposed to be my brother's keeper.
	I didn't take care of people like I should have.
	I felt God say that he put people in my life to take care of them, but I hadn't.
	And I could see these things play out and God showing me in a very peaceful and very loving, not a critical way.
	It was harsh, but so loving at the same time, it all made sense.
	And he said, I could see eternity and see it precisely.
	It was outside of time.
	And it was very clear to me that Griffin, in his two years, did more than most men in 100 years could conceivably do.
	His life was truly precious and accomplished.
	And then they said, we got to what seemed like the end, and it seemed Griffin was trying to introduce me to someone, and his attention went somewhere.
	He looked back at me and he said, Daddy, may I stay?
	It was a yes or no question.
	I knew I could not say no, and that he would have been alive when I got back.
	It was crystal clear.
	But I said, no, you could stay.
	And I thought of that, because if you have a belief in God, faith, heaven, you know, it doesn't matter what religion, you know, I'm a Christian, a Christian want to be, really, because no one's a good Christian.
	We've all sinned and fallen short.
	But, you know, the Bible says to the effect that the eye had not seen, nor has the ear heard, nor has it ever entered into the hearts of man what God has planned for those that love the truth.
	And that guy was an atheist.
	And I just thought of it in the context of losing Bob and knowing Bob believed all of this.
	And that I just, if I, I just have this belief that we'll all see each other again.
	But when you lose a friend on earth, it's just painful.
	And Bob was a dear, dear friend.
	And for the times that we spent together, I mean, he was, he was just, you want to hang around fun people?
	I'll give you three.
	Bob Beckle, Geraldo Rivera, and Bo Dietle.
	And you'll never be the same again, each in their own unique way.
	Godspeed, Bob.
	We miss you, and we love you.
	And I know that you're in a better place today.
	I really believe that.
	Joe Biden said, this is the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
	That's what he said today.
	I'm going to, as I indicated and asked permission to be able to do this, I'm going to begin to impose sanctions in response far worse than the steps we and our allies used in 2014.
	There were no consequences in 2014.
	Nobody talks about Crimea anymore.
	If Russia goes further with this invasion, we stand prepared to go further with other sanctions.
	What are you going to do, Joe?
	There's not a thing that Joe Biden can do.
	And this is the sad part of all of this to me.
	You know, they're trying to act tough, and there's nothing tough about what Joe Biden is doing.
	And I look at all of this.
	I'm going to play a tape at the bottom of this half hour of Donald Trump with NATO in 2018, beating the crap out of NATO and how the United States is paying for security for all NATO-aligned countries.
	We're paying the bulk of the bill to protect them from Russia.
	And then they're going and making Russia and Vladimir Putin rich again by buying all of Vladimir Putin's oil, which is everything that I was telling you yesterday, what is at the heart of all of this.
	You know, Trump instinctively knew, and he did not stop.
	It was five straight minutes of a beatdown.
	He pulverized these people and said, this is not going to stand.
	You're going to pay your fair share.
	You're going to stop making Putin rich again.
	I'm not going into the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
	How stupid is that if the whole purpose of NATO is for us to help secure you from your perceived enemy of Russia or a real enemy in real life?
	And he was right.
	Just like he was right when he said, watch out for this guy, Osama bin Laden.
	You know, it's, you know, now Putin is out there, you know, calling it a peacekeeping mission.
	No, it's not.
	It's an invasion.
	And now he's going to take the world's temperature.
	He's only going to see weakness, and it's only going to embolden him.
	You know, there was then candidate Biden that said, Vladimir Putin doesn't want me to be president, doesn't want me to be our nominee.
	If you're wondering why, it's because I'm the only person in this field who's ever gone toe-to-toe with him.
	You know, when I look at, I am predicting China will take Taiwan, and I don't think the world will do a thing.
	I'm predicting that Putin will go further into Ukraine and maybe even beyond that.
	I can't say for sure.
	You know, Putin watched as Biden refused to hold China accountable in any way for COVID, the crackdown on Hong Kong.
	Nobody's held China responsible for their hostile, you know, their fighter jets flying into Taiwan airspace day in and day out.
	You know, Putin watched as Biden lifted sanctions and allowed the waiver for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
	How stupid is that?
	I mean, you know, he announced his intentions back on July 12th, as I told you yesterday.
	Russian troops and equipment have been amassing forever.
	And people say, no, he just wants to use it for leverage.
	I'm like, well, maybe you're right.
	I tend to doubt it.
	Because Putin never acknowledged that Ukraine was even a country.
	You know, Moscow, by the way, one of the ambassadors said to Sweden, yeah, we don't give an atom shift about sanctions.
	They don't care.
	Because now, by Joe Biden artificially reducing the world's supply of energy, that has jacked up the price to nearly $100 a barrel of oil.
	That has now made Putin rich again.
	And it has pushed our Western European and NATO allies into Putin's arm because they need his oil.
	And we should be out-producing Vladimir Putin because we've got more natural resources than he does.
	And unfortunately, it is Joe Biden that blocked the Keystone XL pipeline while he gave the waiver to Vladimir.
	He put drilling efforts in Alaska and were on a permanent hold.
	He disrupted all new exploration and development auctions in the entire country.
	He suspended new exploration on federal lands.
	He hurt American liquefied natural gas production by lifting sanctions of the Nord Stream 2.
	You know, it's at this point in time, what do you think inflation is mostly being caused by?
	Joe Biden's economic and energy policies.
	What has emboldened and enriched Vladimir Putin, Joe Biden's economic and energy policies?
	You know, how many of you know the United States import in 2021, Joe's first year as president, 232 million barrels of oil.
	Guess where we got it from?
	Anyone want to guess?
	Linda, where did we get it from?
	232 million barrels of oil.
	Under Trump?
	No, 2021.
	Where did we import 232 million barrels of oil from?
	From Russia.
	Russia.
	Yeah.
	And in Europe, you know, a third of Germany's gas comes from Russia.
	We have more natural resources, but he's beholden to this climate change new Green Deal socialist cult, and he will not bring us back to energy independence.
	By artificially reducing the world supply, as demand remains constant and gets even higher, that's why we're in a 40-year high of inflation, too.
	It's good for national security.
	It's good for economic security.
	It's good for job creation.
	It's good to reduce inflation.
	He's not going to do any of these things.
	Maybe politically, I should be happy.
	And Kamala, what an embarrassment.
	Oh, my gosh.
	It was humiliating this weekend.
	Think of it this way.
	How much leverage can Joe have?
	Joe is out there saying, we're going to act together and we're going to put more sanctions.
	This is a violation of international law.
	Do you think Putin cares what Joe Biden thinks?
	He doesn't care.
	You know, we're going to put sanctions on sovereign debt.
	That means that if the Russian government wants Western financing, he doesn't need your financing, Joe, because your energy policies made him richer than he's been in 20 years.
	Great job.
	So it's not going to matter.
	And where are you going to get the 268 million barrels of oil that you got last year from Russia?
	If you put all these sanctions, maybe he says, you know what?
	The hell with you.
	I'm not going to do a thing.
	OPEC has already turned you down, what, five, six, seven, eight times already in terms of saying no to increasing oil production as a means of reducing the price.
	And Joe Biden, his party will not let him go back to the energy policies he inherited.
	We were energy independent.
	We were net exporters of energy.
	And that's just not going to happen.
	European natural gas futures, especially sensitive to the latest news, they jumped nearly 15% today.
	It's not good.
	By the way, Michael Bloomberg is warning the Democrats are headed for a wipeout in November unless an immediate course correction is implemented.
	And we all know that's not going to happen.
	You know, it's sad Biden saying, well, we're not going to be able to get you out of Ukraine if you get trapped behind enemy lines.
	And now we have nonprofit groups stepping up.
	There's a combat veteran guy.
	I don't know who he is.
	Brian Stein co-founded a project to rescue Americans left behind in Afghanistan.
	Now they're switching to Ukraine while they still have maybe a fighting chance to get people, Americans, out of there.
	And I'm going to tell you something.
	This never would have happened under Donald Trump.
	And when we play this tape after the news at the bottom of the hour, you will fully understand the difference between a cognitively aware and up-to-speed president versus this guy who is a complete and utter cognitive mess that probably doesn't know today's Tuesday.
	All right, 25 to the top of the hour.
	I've got to give a shout out to our New York affiliate home base station.
	It is the 100-year anniversary of WOR.
	I grew up listening to this radio station, rambling with gambling, especially on a winter snowy day and waiting for my school's name to be called out by John Gambling.
	There's three generations of gamblings that had hosted the morning show on this great station.
	Anyway, a 50,000-watt flamethrower.
	And anyway, it was the first news talk station in New York.
	And just an amazing history and still to this day, impactful as ever in the city of New York and beyond New York, New Jersey, Long Island, you name it, and all across the East Coast at night.
	Congratulations to all our friends, Tom Cuddy, all the guys that are on the air, Mark Samoa.
	I can't name everybody, but we love you and we're honored to be a part of this team.
	I want to play this tape for you.
	Now, Hannity, why are you going to play a five-minute tape of Donald Trump?
	Because it is so relevant, and I'm going to show it tonight.
	When you see it, it's even better.
	And this is Donald Trump in 2018 just brutalizing NATO and the lack of them paying their fair share, how we are treated horribly, that we are bearing the brunt of protecting their countries from Russia, and they're doing all these energy deals with Vladimir Putin and Russia.
	I mean, it is so relevant to where we are.
	Now, this is the antithesis of what Biden and Winken blinken would be capable of.
	Mike Pompeo is sitting right next to Donald Trump, and Donald Trump does not stop.
	He brutalizes them.
	Listen.
	Well, I have to say, I think it's very sad when Germany makes a massive oil and gas deal with Russia where you're supposed to be guarding against Russia, and Germany goes out and pays billions and billions of dollars a year to Russia.
	So we're protecting Germany, we're protecting France, we're protecting all of these countries.
	And then numerous of the countries go out and make a pipeline deal with Russia where they're paying billions of dollars into the coffers of Russia.
	So we're supposed to protect you against Russia, but they're paying billions of dollars to Russia.
	And I think that's very inappropriate.
	And the former chancellor of Germany is the head of the pipeline company that's supplying the gas.
	Ultimately, Germany will have almost 70% of their country controlled by Russia with natural gas.
	So you tell me, is that appropriate?
	I mean, I've been complaining about this from the time I got it, and it should have never been allowed to have happened.
	But Germany is totally controlled by Russia because they were getting from 60 to 70% of their energy from Russia and a new pipeline.
	And you tell me if that's appropriate because I think it's not.
	And I think it's a very bad thing for NATO.
	And I don't think it should have happened.
	And I think we have to talk to Germany about it.
	On top of that, Germany is just paying a little bit over 1%, whereas the United States, in actual numbers, is paying 4.2% of a much larger GDP.
	So I think that's inappropriate also.
	You know, we're protecting Germany, we're protecting France, we're protecting everybody, and yet we're paying a lot of money to protect.
	Now, this has been going on for decades.
	This has been brought up by other presidents, but other presidents never did anything about it because I don't think they understood it or they just didn't want to get involved.
	But I have to bring it up because I think it's very unfair to our country.
	It's very unfair to our taxpayer.
	And I think that these countries have to step it up, not over a 10-year period, have to step it up immediately.
	Germany is a rich country.
	They talk about they're going to increase it a tiny bit by 2030.
	Well, they could increase it immediately tomorrow and have no problem.
	I don't think it's fair to the United States.
	So we're going to have to do something because we're not going to put up with it.
	We can't put up with it and it's inappropriate.
	So we have to talk about the billions and billions of dollars that's being paid to the country that we're supposed to be protecting you against.
	You know, everybody's talking about it all over the world.
	They'll say, well, wait a minute, we're supposed to be protecting you from Russia, but why are you paying billions of dollars to Russia for energy?
	Why are countries in NATO, namely Germany, having a large percentage of their energy needs paid to Russia and taken care of by Russia?
	Now, if you look at it, Germany is a captive of Russia because they supply.
	They got rid of their coal plants, they got rid of their nuclear.
	They're getting so much of the oil and gas from Russia.
	I think it's something that NATO has to look at.
	I think it's very inappropriate.
	You and I agreed that it's inappropriate.
	I don't know what you can do about it now, but it certainly doesn't seem to make sense that they pay billions of dollars to Russia and now we have to defend them against Russia.
	You know, NATO is an alliance of 29 nations, and there are sometimes differences and different views and also some disagreements.
	And the gas pipeline from Russia to Germany is one issue where allies disagree.
	But the strength of NATO is that despite these differences, we have always been able to unite around our war task to protect and defend each other because we understand that we are stronger together than apart.
	I think that two world wars and the Cold War thought was that we are stronger together than apart.
	But how can you be together when a country is getting its energy from the person you want protection against or from the group that you want protection?
	We closely understand that when we stand together also in dealing with Russia, we are stronger.
	I think what we have seen is that...
	No, you're just making Russia richer.
	Well, not dealing with Russia.
	You're making Russia richer.
	I think that even during the Cold War, NATO allies were trading with Russia.
	Then there have been disagreements about what kind of trade arrangements we should go on.
	I think trade is wonderful.
	I think energy is a whole different story.
	I think energy is a much different story than normal trade.
	And you have a country like Poland that won't accept the gas.
	You take a look at some of the countries, they won't accept it because they don't want to be captive to Russia.
	But Germany, as far as I'm concerned, is captive to Russia because it's getting so much of its energy from Russia.
	So we're supposed to protect Germany, but they're getting their energy from Russia.
	Explain that.
	And it can't be explained, you know.
	It can't be explained.
	I mean, he just had it down.
	Could you imagine any moment that Joe Biden could ever be that tough?
	I mean, this was Biden today announcing sanctions on Russia.
	Who in the Lord's name does Putin think gives him the right?
	And I'm like, oh, my, it is this is what it's like.
	You just heard America first.
	You just heard Make America Great.
	You just heard what peace through strength is.
	And you compare it to this cognitive mess.
	You know, I had General Kellogg on last night, and I said, well, what's the difference?
	You know, why did they go into Crimea with Obama-Biden?
	They did nothing during the Trump years, and now Trump's out, and immediately they go back, you know, back to their territorial ambitions.
	And he said it's simple.
	They believe Trump, and there was a genuine fear and a reality and unpredictability of Trump, and that he would act, and a belief that he would act in a forceful way that meant something.
	You know, what's Biden doing?
	All right, he evacuates State Department personnel from Ukraine to Poland.
	He pulls our delegation out of Moscow.
	Okay, none of this.
	It doesn't mean anything to the Russians.
	And yet, even Biden is still importing oil.
	You know, when we can produce as much oil as we need for ourselves in this country, why?
	What difference, if your argument is it impacts the environment, does it really make a difference if you drill the oil in the Middle East and Saudi Arabia, OPEC nations, Russia, or the U.S.?
	But if we do it in the U.S., it benefits our national security concerns because then we don't have to worry about what happens in the Middle East.
	Now, of course, we'll defend our friends Israel.
	We should be stopping Iran from getting a bomb.
	That's the third leg of this unholy trio of Russia, China, and Iran.
	I mean, and the world is watching, and there's no leader.
	And this is just setting the stage now for the next step.
	And the next step will be, I think, to take over the entire country of Ukraine.
	Belarus, watching, you know, troops now align on their border.
	What are the intentions there?
	If you listen to the same rhetoric of Putin on the Baltics, you get the same kind of feeling that he's got territorial ambitions there.
	This can spit out of control really, really quickly.
	And then what do we do?
	We had another huge embarrassment of a vice president on a world stage in Munich on Sunday, you know, literally contradicting herself, totally unprepared with this stupid mask on, gives a rambling, incoherent answer, falsely claiming that Europe's been at peace for 70 years.
	I've already corrected that record.
	And then it gets worse because then she says that sanctions will absolutely deter Putin.
	And then in the next breath, saying that Putin already made up his mind he's going to invade Ukraine.
	Okay.
	What is it?
	Tell us, Kamala, which one is it?
	I'd really like to know.
	Russian lawmakers, they're just falling in line.
	Not that Vladimir needs permission from Russian legislators to invade Ukraine, but he got it anyway.
	Russian lawmakers earlier today authorized Putin to use military force outside the country, and that could obviously be for a broader attack on Ukraine.
	The upper house of the federal council voted unanimously to allow Putin to use military force.
	Shortly after, Putin laid out three conditions to end the crisis that has threatened to plunge Europe back into war, raising the specter of massive casualties.
	He called for an international recognition of Crimea as part of Russia, and then to Ukraine's NATO membership bid and a halt to weapons shipments there.
	The West has decried Russia's annexation.
	By the way, Tulsi Gabbard actually thought that just saying that they would never be NATO members, he doesn't recognize them as the country.
	So that's a little problem in his proposal.
	If he wanted to have a peaceful solution, well, everyone was kissing his ass and begging him to have a meeting.
	Pretty, please, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, please.
	And Putin warned yesterday, Western rejection of Moscow's demands give Russia the right to take steps to protect their security.
	They're on a peacekeeping mission, they say.
	Okay, we'll believe that lie, too.
	Putin doesn't care.
	I'm telling you right now about Biden's sanctions.
	He doesn't care about international law, and all these people making these arguments are ridiculous.
	You know, Russia foresaw every single move the West was likely to make, and they're playing chess, and these idiots are trying to kiss the ass of a dictator who has territorial ambitions.
	Weakness like that is never going to work.
	Now, Germany, okay, give them credit.
	They suspended Nord Stream 2 pipelines.
	But you know what?
	Crimea has long been forgotten.
	And they still went into business with Putin.
	So why would they stop now?
	Tell me why.
	Give me the reason.
	Putin, by the way, is expected to use trapped American citizens as bargaining chips, according to some people that I've been listening to.
	I hope that's not true.
	What are we doing to get Americans out, Joe?
	Still no plan, I'm assuming.
	But Putin is going to interpret Biden's weak response in this ridiculous speech he had today.
	You know, Pompeo is right.
	He said we could have stopped Nord Stream two months ago when it was much further away from completion.
	They could have, by the way, you know what we could do?
	We could blow the thing up, too.
	Oops, I don't know how that happened.
	You know, covert operation, plausible deniability.
	They could have begun to put real sanctions in place before it happened, as he was building up his troops on the border.
	Well, maybe it'll only be a minor incursion.
	That seemed like a green light to me.
	As I said, this is not the first time the Biden White House claiming over the last few weeks it would be the largest military operation of its kind since World War II.
	The only problem is the 56 Soviet Union led by Nikita Khrushchev putting down the Hungarian Revolution.
	That would actually count as one.
	Anyway, European leaders are even disagreeing with Biden over whether Russia has invaded Ukraine because they're all beholden to Russia.
	And Joe's energy policies pushed our allies right into Russia's arms.
	Now, Robert Cahaley, Trafalgar Group, did a poll overwhelmingly.
	I agree with them.
	The American people oppose sending troops to Ukraine.
	No, we shouldn't.
	Only 15.3% of people polled said the U.S. troops.
	No.
	The way to defeat Russia is simple.
	We literally got to ratchet up, and I would call it warp speed energy production and out-produce Russia.
	That will scare Putin, and that will get Putin's attention.
	You know, Biden's issuing executive orders barring Americans from doing business in the rebel enclaves.
	What is that?
	What kind of sanction is that?
	He's violating, you know, for Lord's sake, what's he think he has the right to do this?
	This is a violation of international law.
	We're putting 8,500 troops on a heightened state of preparedness for what?
	What are you going to do, Joe?
	You think Vladimir is even taking that seriously?
	Because he's not.
	That's the point.
	He just sees weakness, weakness with NATO, and he'd love to break that up.
	He sees people dependent on him.
	He thanks Joe Biden for all of the gifts that Joe Biden's given him.
	And now is the moment to act.
	Now the question is, what's China going to do with Taiwan?

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