Americans for Intelligence Reform

Brad Johnson, President, and retired CIA Senior Officer and Chief of Staff. Insight into current events from an intelligence angle.

Brad Johnson on John Bolton leaving, and his replacement

https://youtu.be/R0Sn987rKvI

For the entire transcript of this interview, please continue reading.

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Brad Johnson it is September 11th 2019

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and the president has just let go of its

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national security adviser so what John

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Bolton was yes who had certainly there

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was some conflicts there was some major

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decisions and and mr. John Bolton’s been

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let go what do you know about that and

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what does the future look like well it’s

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kind of an interesting development I

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wouldn’t it’s one of those things where

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you know I wouldn’t attach too much

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importance to the fact that John

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Bolton’s leaving in and of itself we’ve

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known for months that John Bolton was

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leaving I’ve said to you in a number of

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interviews previous interviews that

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we’ve done that he would be gone by the

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end of the year and sure enough here we

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are in September and it’s a it’s a done

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deal now this is something that had been

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decided upon months ago and John Bolton

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had agreed to leave which is why you see

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the discussion publicly he was left

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yesterday it’s why you see the public

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discussion as to whether he you know

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quit essentially submitted his letter of

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resignation or was fired by the

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president and the reason that Bolton

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considers himself having resigned is

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because he agreed to leave a couple of

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months ago and just said well ok let’s

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you know let’s see when it gets actually

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done and so on but I’ll agree and you

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know whenever it becomes convenient at

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this certain time then I’ll go ahead and

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go alright well yesterday the president

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decided it was the right time and said

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you’re done and so both left submitted

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his letter letter of resignation and

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left so I would actually say kind of in

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a sense you know both are right I mean

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you know he did in fact kind of sort of

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resigned because he agreed to leave you

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know months ago and now has finally left

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and the president is sort of right

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because he did say yesterday ok you’re

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done so you know that’s why you hear

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this back and forth and nothing

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definitive has come out on that because

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it’s kind of you know you could describe

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it either way pretty easily and be and

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not be wrong at least I’ll put it that

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way

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so John Bolton is out it’s we’ve all

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known this is coming as I said it’s

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something I’ve mentioned in multiple

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interviews that it was coming so it’s

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absolutely no

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surprise to anybody the motives for him

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leaving have also been discussed

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publicly to some degree it’s certainly

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negotiations with the Taliban leaving

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Afghanistan and John Bolton was a very

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dedicated to regime change in Iran now

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he had essentially conflict with

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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo over many

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of these issues the according to a lot

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of what people are saying that

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loggerheads that you would see or the

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disagreement that you would see taking

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place led by Pompeo on the one hand and

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Bolton on the other was something that

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the president didn’t mind he liked that

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because it would force different ideas

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to be discussed and I’m sure Moulton

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wants someone lost some and Mike Pompeo

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want someone lost some and I’m not the

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first to point out that when John Bolton

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left yesterday that Pompeo was out on an

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interview talking to the oppressor and

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was talking to the the press at that and

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was quite jovial and and seemed very

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pleased with life which may be a

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complete coincidence but it’s probably

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also look you know linked to the fact

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that his protac

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you know his is the opposition probably

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is the better word left and so was now

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gone so I think Mike was quite pleased

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with the situation to see John Bolton

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leave but that I don’t think that’s

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again that important John Bolton and

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Mike Pompeo are good examples of the two

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types of people that you see in

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Washington John Bolton was free to argue

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strenuously for regime change in Iran as

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by way of example the reason he was free

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because his ambitions in life are not

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political he doesn’t particularly want

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to run for political office that’s not

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what he’s after

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nor do I think he would be a

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particularly good candidate or

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particularly electable so he could but I

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don’t think that’s just in in in the

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game plan for Bolton that provides a

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certain level of freedom to him to say

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whatever he believes in and that’s what

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you saw

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whereas Mike Pompeo is sort of the

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opposite

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Mike Pompeo absolutely does have onward

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ambitions

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so that greatly governs his behavior and

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how he handles himself what he argues

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for with the president what he doesn’t

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argue for with the president all of that

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because he’s taking into consideration

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his future run for probably president

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and you know after Trump second term I’m

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imagining is the plan and he’s a young

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enough man that that he could he could

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do that so that’s a perfect example of

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sort of the two general types of people

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that you commonly see on the hill and

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leadership positions now him leaving now

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what you’re seeing the the yesterday

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when he left in the morning it was

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announced early there were three

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candidates being discussed to replace

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him by the afternoon it’s four and by

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this morning it’s ten so the number of

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that are supposedly on the list is is

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growing now the president whoever now

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some of these names that on the list are

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people promoting their guy and there’s a

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lot of interest in Washington DC so

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there’s a lot of me people promoting

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their guy many of those people that you

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see on the list probably don’t stand any

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chance whatsoever but they come up some

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of them need a job some of them would be

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your good guys that are well connected

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within a support group or a system of

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organizations that want to see that

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person be in their to voice their

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perspective on things so that’s what

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you’re seeing the jockeying right now

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and those ten names have grown not

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because the president has released them

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but because you have factions pushing

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for them so that’s why that list has

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gotten so big now in the reality of it

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is the president is going to be doing

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interviews here fairly soon he’s going

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to start bringing these people in to

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discuss it with him he said he wants to

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announce next week if that’s the case

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you know he’s going to have to start

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these interviews really quickly so over

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the next week at the most I would

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suspect he’s gonna have to start

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bringing people in to discuss it with

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him now the president I know of other

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discussions he’s had with other people

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for example the Director of National

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Intelligence sloth that was filled by

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Dan coats dan coats was let go as well

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has has not been filled yet I don’t

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believe so

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those interview interviews that were

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going on in that process were quite

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quick he made up his mind

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he’s that’s sort of his wheelhouse if

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you will is getting people and

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interviewing him for the job trying to

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decide if you like him or don’t like him

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and making that decision and moving on

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to the next candidate or trying to push

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to get him in so the president’s

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perfectly capable moving very quickly on

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this so we’ll see what he does but there

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was one candidate in particular that I

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wanted to mention let me say I don’t

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have a dog in the fight so I’m not

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promoting my guy I’m promoting the

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interests of the United States of

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America which as president of Americans

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from national or for Americans for

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intelligence reform which supports

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national security that is my objective I

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want the best guy for the job

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not necessarily pushing my best but our

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friend into those positions so the guy I

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want to mention is a colonel named

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Douglas McGregor and the reason I

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mention him is he’s not Scott now i’m an

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ops guy so i there’s a certain affinity

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there he was military i’m agency but

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still ops is ops in many ways so it

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provides a certain understanding that he

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has a lot of the guys that trump is has

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liked and picked our retired generals

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now absolutely nothing against retired

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generals military very pro military in

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every way and but there are certain

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realities that have to be acknowledged

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in hiring those you don’t become a three

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or four star general admirals as well

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without being political it just doesn’t

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happen anymore you might see if you get

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your first star you automatically after

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a period of time get your second star

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you might see some second star to star

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generals that are not very political but

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they don’t go past that because to get

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the third or the fourth they must be

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political so generals as a whole tend to

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be very political not all but very much

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so it’s certainly a trend and what I

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like about Colonel McGregor retired is

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that he recognizes that very much and he

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talks about the mentality at the

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Pentagon among the leadership which is

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very political and have you’ve heard me

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say it many times I don’t point only the

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finger at the military’s but certainly

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the Pentagon is that way the CIA is that

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way NSA is that way DOJ is that way FBI

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is that way they’ve become overly

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political so the

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guys not he is a an ops guy so we’re all

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of those generals are moving around

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pieces on the map and that’s all they

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think about no thinking about the

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political aspects of that Colonel Gregor

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is not as an ops guy he knows that those

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pieces on the on the map that they’re

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moving around are there’s people on the

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ground that those things represent and

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he understands what that is what that

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planning is he’s been definitely

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involved in leading a you know attack in

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Iraq and planning and all of those

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stages he’s an ops guy so I like that

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very much because who is it we need

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helping the White House now the the

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president means more of that practical

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ops experience that says yeah you could

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do that or no you can’t do that you know

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that just wouldn’t work because of X Y Z

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that practical operational hands-on

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boots on the ground experience that this

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guy brings the table makes him unique

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and so that’s what’s best for the United

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States of America which I my I would

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argue makes it best for stability in the

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world at that at that position and he’s

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somebody that’s been on TV I think he’s

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been on Fox News and different news

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programs and but he’s got that practical

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operational experience that I big

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believer and I wish we had more of that

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in these positions because the guy said

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we bring in and put in those positions

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are political there and you’ve heard me

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rail about a number of different things

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like the 9/11 Commission they filled the

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room with a bunch of retired congressmen

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and Senators and lawyers and all these

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guys that are political and didn’t put a

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single operator in the room with them so

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what did we get out of the 9/11

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Commission more bureaucracy more

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political stuff we didn’t get anything

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that was practical and if you’d filled

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the room with guys like myself I would

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include myself in that and certainly

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Colonel McGregor if you if you feel the

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room with guys like that what you’re

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going to get our practical solutions to

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real world problems because we all

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understand you know you want X to happen

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that means we got to go get somebody and

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put them on the ground there to go do

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that and is that plausible that that

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could be accomplished or not and so how

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do you make those judgment

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when your politician you don’t you need

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the ground truth guys and that’s that’s

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why I like him so like I say no dog in

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the fight if you’ll allow me that saying

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to use in this case I don’t know him

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never met him I know he’s around the DC

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area like I am so certainly possible to

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bump into him at some point but he would

0:11:26.880,0:11:30.630
be my first choice that would be the guy

0:11:28.530,0:11:32.610
I’d recommend president Trump if you’re

0:11:30.630,0:11:35.250
listening to me please give very serious

0:11:32.610,0:11:37.380
consideration to the kernel here and and

0:11:35.250,0:11:38.790
and and understand the value that he

0:11:37.380,0:11:42.080
would bring to the table for you with

0:11:38.790,0:11:45.060
that true honest-to-god operational

0:11:42.080,0:11:46.470
insight and understanding that none of

0:11:45.060,0:11:49.290
the other candidates would bring to you

0:11:46.470,0:11:50.910
so I I’ve got my fingers crossed we’ll

0:11:49.290,0:11:54.180
see what the president does I don’t know

0:11:50.910,0:11:58.260
how much the president recognizes that

0:11:54.180,0:12:00.090
gap in what he has so we’ll see hey

0:11:58.260,0:12:01.620
this’ll this should according to the

0:12:00.090,0:12:03.600
president this will unfold very quickly

0:12:01.620,0:12:06.110
and we’ll know probably within a week to

0:12:03.600,0:12:06.110
two weeks

0:12:12.100,0:12:14.160
you

 

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