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We are following the breaking
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news of President Trump
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threatening to slap China
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with additional tariffs.
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Let's go live to CNN senior
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white House reporter Kevin Liptak.
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what is the president
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saying about this potential escalation
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Yeah, and it's a major escalation
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in this tit for tat
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between Washington and Beijing.
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Remember him?
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President Trump
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applied that 35%
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reciprocal tariff on China.
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China retaliated,
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applying its own 34%
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tariff on the United States.
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Now, President Trump saying this
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if China does not withdraw
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its 34% increase above their already long
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term trading abuses by tomorrow,
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April the 8th,
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the United States will impose
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additional tariffs
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on China of 50%, effective April 9th.
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He goes on to say that
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additionally, all talks with China
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concerning their requested meetings
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with us will be terminated.
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And I just want to break down
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the math for you
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here, Pamela,
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because remember,
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President Trump had already applied a 20%
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tariff on China for its role
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in the fentanyl crisis.
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He applied that 34% reciprocal
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tariff last week
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that goes into effect later this week.
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Now he's threatening this
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additional 50%
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retaliatory tariff on China.
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This tit for tat back and forth
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that would bring the total tariffs
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on China by the United States to 104%,
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which is a huge number.
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the world's second
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largest economy,
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one of the United States's
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largest trading partners.
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This could have a serious effect
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for American consumers,
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given the amount of goods
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that come into the United States.
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And I think just as we have seen
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today, the markets
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clearly looking for some kind of off
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ramp here for some kind of easing
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on the part of the president.
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This shows that the president
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is very much committed
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to this tariff plan. Exactly.
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Not what the markets were looking
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for, Pamela.
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Yeah. No, you're absolutely right.
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And you know,
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the white House has been talking
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about all these countries more
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the 50 countries have come and,
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you know, reached out to the president
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wanting to negotiate.
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But the white House is also sending
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messages on whether the president
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is willing to negotiate.
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Where do things stand on that front?
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Yeah, it seems to be this
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that the president
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is willing to talk to these countries
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about potential trade deals,
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but that the bar will be very high
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for him to lift these tariffs.
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That seems to be the combination
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of what you're hearing from
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white House advisers today.
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We do know this morning
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that the president spoke
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to the prime minister of Japan,
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that country
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looking to ease up
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some of the tariffs on them,
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saying that they will be sending
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a high level delegation
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to the United States to talk about trade.
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The president will also discuss this
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with the prime minister of Israel,
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Benjamin Netanyahu, later today.
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He imposed a 17%
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tariff on Israel last week.
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But in a way, that's a cautionary tale.
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Remember, Netanyahu lifted
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customs duties on U.S.
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imports to Israel,
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but the president
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went ahead with that tariff and exactly.
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That's absolutely right. Kevin Liptak.
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Thank you so much, Wolf.
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All right, Pamela,
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I want to get some more
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of the breaking news right now.
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Joining us, Democratic Congressman
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Mike Quigley of Illinois.
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Congressman,
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thanks so much for joining us.
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First of all,
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what do you make of the president's
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decision to escalate his trade war
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Do you see any chance for an offer
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AMP, before this gets a whole lot worse?
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I don't see it coming from
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the president of the United States.
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It talks about a very strange world
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I'm what the liberal Democrat
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from Chicago
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agreeing with headlines
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from the Wall Street
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Journal, the dumbest
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trade war in history.
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And I'm very concerned,
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as are my constituents,
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with extraordinary cost
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increases, recession,
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and the volatility in the markets
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uncertainty and,
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great economic peril for our country.
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I think the bigger concern right now
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is it's part of a larger issue
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where this country,
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through the president,
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thinks that we can stand alone
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4% of the world's population.
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we're going to be less
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secure financially,
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and we're going to be more vulnerable
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in every other way from threats
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from across the seas.
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Do you want to start by talking
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about this sort of tit for tat
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trade war between the US and China?
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a lot of threats in the air
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between both countries.
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Donald Trump
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now threatening to slap an additional 50%
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tariff on China
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if China does not pull back its 34%,
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tariff hike.
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Just explain to us
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the potential consequences
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and which economy stands
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to lose more from this escalating
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Well, it's hard to know which
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is going to lose more,
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but it's easy to tell you
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which consumers will lose more.
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And that's us, right?
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we consume in the United States
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and throughout the West,
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huge amounts of Chinese,
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goods for everyday life.
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think about,
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just to take the most basic example,
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an iPhone, which now markets at, what,
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$1,100 for the newest, models of them.
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And, if you ended up doing the,
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the 50% hike on, on components,
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you know, you're probably adding,
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another, $500 or so to that.
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And, of course, there's
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everything you're looking at at Walmart
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and much of what you're
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looking at on Amazon.
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So these would flow through
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what really sort of struck me
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about President Trump's
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truth social posting,
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which was just less
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than an hour ago, was,
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if you know much about the Chinese,
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structure and about XI Jinping,
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the idea of setting him a deadline
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to back down in 24 hours,
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he's not going to do that.
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He's not going to end up
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looking weaker to Donald Trump.
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And it's
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in the DNA of the Chinese leadership
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right now, because you will think
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that will transfer
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to the confrontation
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over Taiwan or something else.
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So I don't think the ultimatum strategy
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is likely to work.
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we had Rahm Emanuel on last week
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the irony here is here's
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who campaigned on ending all wars.
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And he starting one.
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And he said,
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no, it's not a combat war
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involving F-16s or anything like that,
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but it's a trade war.
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And if you think about
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one of the purposes
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that free trade
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or any type of trade
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relations and trade
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alliances, serves is to hopefully
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avoid physical wars as well.
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and you have a president now
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who has fired his U.S.,
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cyber security,
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chief cyber command chief,
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because of a conspiracy theorist
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apparently reportedly
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coming to the white House and suggesting
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he's not loyal.
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You have a president who continues
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to conflate friend and foe.
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And in saying that that even
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our friends are treating us
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worse than our foes.
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Just give us a sense of where
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that puts us in terms of,
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security risks here in the United States.
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Well, first of all, I
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any reading of the history of the past
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century is trade conflict can frequently,
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spill into military conflict.
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We've seen that happen
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time and time again.
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Was the source of the War of 1812
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with Britain. Right.
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But you also saw elements of that
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in World War one and so forth.
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separate apart
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from the history
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lesson here, the conflation of our,
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adversaries with our allies
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is bound to come back and haunt
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the United States.
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you know, the
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what is our greatest military strength
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as a country
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beyond our nuclear weapons,
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which you can't really go use.
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And the answer is,
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it's our alliance system.
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Who is it that we have tariffs heavily
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in the course of this?
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Japan and South Korea,
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who are lynchpins of the effort
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Chinese expansion, to say nothing
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of North Korea?
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why poison that relationship?
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I don't know,
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and if the president turned around
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and said, well, this is about trade,
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not about politics,
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go explain what we heard,
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over the weekend
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about why it was that he did not put any,
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tariff penalties on Russia
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because we're in the middle
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of a negotiation for peace in Ukraine,
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by the way, there are tariffs
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that were put on Ukraine.
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so obviously politics has entered into
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the setting of these tariffs,
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not with our main allies
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in Europe or Asia.
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David Sanger live for us there.