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Sen. Mark Kelly: "People Do Not Want to be Dragged Back Into the Past" | Pivot at the DNC

August 22, 2024 / 14:30

This episode features Senator Mark Kelly discussing border policy, the upcoming presidential election, and the role of private industry in space exploration.

Senator Kelly shares his thoughts on the bipartisan border security bill and critiques Donald Trump's influence on border policy. He emphasizes the need for more funding for border patrol and fentanyl detection machines, highlighting the consequences of Trump's decisions on American lives.

The conversation shifts to the presidential race, with Kelly expressing confidence in Kamala Harris's chances of winning Arizona. He contrasts her policies with Trump's, particularly regarding reproductive rights and tax cuts.

Kelly also discusses the evolution of the U.S. space program, praising SpaceX's innovation while expressing concerns about its potential monopoly. He reflects on the importance of maintaining multiple options for space launches.

Finally, Kelly addresses educational policies, advocating for increased funding for engineering programs and the need for more scientists and engineers in the U.S.

TL;DR

Senator Mark Kelly discusses border policy, the presidential race, and the role of private industry in space exploration.

Video

00:00:00
all right we're here with Senator Mark
00:00:01
Kelly how you doing he just handed me
00:00:03
this you're a jokester aren't you it
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says
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Trump my brother yeah your brother the
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funnier one the funnier one yeah he is
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funnier he wants me to hand those out
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yes and you're doing it you're you're
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the first one you're the first I got it
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well thank you so much I'm GNA keep
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passing it along like like a virus um so
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we've known each other for a while we've
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known each other for a while and you
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were almost you were one of the top
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picks and you were Scott Galloway's pick
00:00:28
just so you know I picked Tim Walls
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sorry for vice president yeah yeah so so
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can you tell us anything about that are
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you sad that you're not up there I was
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very honored to be considered and Tim
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Waltz is a fantastic guy you know he was
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a freshman in the house with Gabby oh
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House of Representatives yeah they've
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known each other since 2007 right and
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they're very close and and Gabby loves
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Tim I've known Tim for a long time great
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friend yeah great choice so he Gabby's
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Choice then too no yeah I think I was
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Gabby's second choice second choice yeah
00:01:01
Scott explain why you wanted him to be
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this vice president uh out of Central
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Casting right astronaut border immunized
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Harrison walls from many questions
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around the Border served served in our
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uh served the country enough of that so
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let's talk an alien invasion there you
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go we're all set I'm hiding behind you
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so with respect to our border policy you
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said once I thought something really
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interesting you said Republicans aren't
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sincere and Democrats don't understand
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the Border or something to that effect
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what if you were and I imagine you will
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be advising Harris Walts on uh quote
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unquote our border strategy what are the
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few things you think we need to think
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about doing right away assuming uh that
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they in fact are successful in their bid
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for the White House well it's get back
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to the bipartisan border security bill
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that we had an opportunity to pass
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several months ago that Donald Trump
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told them told Senate Republicans that
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they were not allowed to vote for this
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right KLA Harris Joe Biden the White
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House worked on this with with us and
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Senate Republicans over an extended
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period of time to get that bill in a
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place right where it it was doing the
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things we needed to do certainly not
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everything that I would have wanted M
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and folks often say this was a
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compromise it wasn't meeting Republicans
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on the 50 yard line it was meeting them
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on the 10 yard line on their side of the
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field but there was a lot of good stuff
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in there things like more money for uh
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to hire more border patrol agents more
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more money for border patrol pay and
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overtime more CBP officers building
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facilities to hold Asylum Seekers
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temporarily as you adjudicate their
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claims and then on top of that money for
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fentanyl detection machines at Port of
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Entry and Donald Trump decided that he
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needs this issue for the campaign it's
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the most hypocritical thing I have seen
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while I've been withis and we're talking
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about Washington right right and we're
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talking about Donald Trump we're talking
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about Donald Trump we're talking about
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Washington this this is at the top of
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the list this shocked me more than him
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sending a mob to Capitol Hill to
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overthrone the election yeah to to talk
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about this issue all the time and we
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finally have a bipartisan agreement to
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to do something really positive on
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border security and he tells them no um
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I'll tell you what at least he was sort
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of honest about it he said you know he
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did he needed this for the campaign
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right but think about this for a second
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there was money in there for fentanyl
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detection machines to buy more of them
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so what that means is because he said no
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and he told them they couldn't do this
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that more Fentanyl has entered this
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country and has killed more Americans
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because the decision that Donald Trump
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made because he needed this he felt he
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needed this to get elect so how
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vulnerable is KLA Harris on this issue
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and how should she address it if you
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were she advising her on this when she's
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president and I am confident she's going
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to be the next president of the United
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States people do not want to be dragged
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back into the past by Donald Trump and
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have more rights taken away right and
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they certainly don't want to see more
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giant tax breaks for billions
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like him so when she's president she has
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said she would sign this legislation and
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my hope is that once Donald Trump is you
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know he's sent off to the dust bin of
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History here or the golf course
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whichever he prefers uh that we will
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have an opportunity with Republicans to
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bring this legislation back maybe we can
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make some changes to it I would love to
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see some more immigration reform in
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there Pathway to citizenship for
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dreamers and other things but if it just
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came back in the form that it was in she
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said would sign right so when you is
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that her most vulnerable area or is
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there an area what are you most worried
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about and then what do you think is the
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most positive part of what she's doing
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here besides she's the incumbent but she
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feels like the change agent right even
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though she's in office right now well
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100% because she's she's the person
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that's going to be sticking up for
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everyday Americans and families Bringing
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Down the cost of housing Bringing Down
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the cost of child care you know she led
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on the inflation reduction act which
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brought down the price of rtion drugs
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for seniors to $2,000 out of pocket a
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year insulin at $35 a month so an issue
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after issue she wants to move our
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country forward what does Donald Trump
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stand for he took away Reproductive
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Rights from women and in Arizona what
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that means is they've been bouncing back
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and forth between one abortion ban and
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another like back and forth so he did
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that he gave a 1.7 trillion tax cut
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trillion dollar tax C cut to the
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wealthiest Americans and big companies
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and he shredded our alliances around the
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world I think those are the three things
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at the top of the list you could put
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that he was what he really stood for
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what his administration stood for and
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when you look at you know what she
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stands
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for I mean the the contrast could not be
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more clear I was just speaking it's very
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close you know Statewide elections in
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Battleground states are often very close
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so I would expect it to be close this C
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is going to be close we had 15,000
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people in Glendale the other day and the
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amount of energy for her for Tim Waltz
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off the charts never seen anything like
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that now it's our job mine included to
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take that energy turn it into votes and
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we can do that in Arizona she can win in
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Arizona she can win in Battleground
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States and she's going to be our next
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president the other option is and I was
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about to mention I just went and talked
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to a bunch of veterans MH so Army Navy
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Air Force Marine Corps Guardians I think
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there maybe been a couple of them in
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there what the way he regards veterans
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like myself right I know I don't think
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you know in the history of our country
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we've had a president with with such a
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low regard for people like me that that
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have served our country calling them
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John McCain on he was from John from I
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mean John McCain and every single
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service member who has died defending
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our country he he thinks they're a
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sucker or a loser what he said about the
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Medal of Honor just the other day medal
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of freedom better than the Medal of
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Honor because you don't have to get shot
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up with a bunch of bullets or killed I
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mean he his his his level of regard and
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his sense of what it means to serve this
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country I don't think you can walk
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around and find somebody randomly on the
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street that has such a low level of
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consideration and in regard uh to
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service members than Donald Trump Scot
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so you one of a handful or a small
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number of people that have actually been
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to space and I don't mean the Karm line
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I mean actual space and now we have one
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man who controls satellites going to ask
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but go ahead yeah I stole your thunder
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go ahead uh and the majority of space
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launches now are are funded privately
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there's some good things about that
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there's some bad things about that how
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do you feel about our space program
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ultimately becoming a private Enterprise
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so when President Obama was in office
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and made this decision to transition
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from big government programs to really a
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smaller commercial model giving Private
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Industry some money to kind of get
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started and then allowing them some
00:08:15
space you know and allowing them to be
00:08:18
Innovative I didn't think it was going
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to work and when SpaceX said they were
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going to orbit a vehicle for the first
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time I think that was going to work it's
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really really hard to do this is
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something countries normally do MH
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got to give SpaceX a ton of credit I
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mean they have been wildly successful
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and have even changed the economics of
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launching stuff into orbit yeah no
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SpaceX Karen is the best Elon but go
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ahead that's my name that's what you
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call him SpaceX okay I haven't heard
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that yeah U I mean I mean the company is
00:08:50
just incredibly successful and you got
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to give him yeah ton of the credit and
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CEO Gwen Gwen Shotwell they're Engineers
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I full discl Ure I used to do some
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Consulting for them right you did you
00:09:01
know on on Dragon on the crude version
00:09:04
of the Dragon spacecraft and you know
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they they've had some a couple failures
00:09:10
along the way I mean his model of how he
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develops spacecraft is a little bit
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different than Boeing and locky Martin
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he likes to fly a lot he doesn't mind
00:09:19
having accidents yeah yeah and you know
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that's that approach is worked very well
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for him so I mean we're in a much better
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place today than than were just just
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consider the cost for a second of
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launching a falcon 9 with a dragon on it
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to get people up to the space station
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it's about a tenth of the cost of what
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it was right when I flew the space
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shuttle four times at the space station
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right so what does that mean you have
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someone who's doing this Innovation and
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yet is very allied with Trump is using
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Twitter or X to cause all kinds of
00:09:49
problems but Britain here pushing around
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misinformation hateful things organizing
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tech people to give money although
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there's plenty of tech B miles who are
00:09:59
on the Democratic side but still yeah I
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mean obviously that stuff concerns me
00:10:05
and um I everybody has a right to give
00:10:09
their opinion sure right I mean he has a
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he has a First Amendment right to do
00:10:13
that uh and you know I I don't listen to
00:10:18
and watch everything Scott was getting
00:10:20
at was we're beholden to one company now
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not beholden to them it's not Innovation
00:10:26
there's not a lot we got United launch
00:10:27
Alliance I mean if we made a a made a
00:10:29
decision we don't want to deal with
00:10:30
SpaceX any anymore we would figure it
00:10:32
out but the positive thing is we have
00:10:35
them as a as an option and if this is
00:10:39
when DOD and other government agencies
00:10:42
contract we've got to do currently we've
00:10:44
got to do what's in the best interest of
00:10:45
the American taxpayer and look for the
00:10:47
best option and it's often SpaceX now we
00:10:50
don't want them to have a monopoly
00:10:51
because then you run into an issue like
00:10:54
we had with the space shuttle when you
00:10:55
have an accident starlink in Ukraine
00:10:57
exactly also when you have like an
00:11:00
accident you it's nice to have another
00:11:02
another option to get people and
00:11:04
payloads into orbit MH um but the amount
00:11:08
of stuff that we're currently and the
00:11:10
and the The Innovation that we're seeing
00:11:13
especially in low low earth orbit is
00:11:15
trans transformational for our Eon yeah
00:11:18
yeah so one more question from Scott and
00:11:19
then me well just I'm a big fan of the
00:11:21
notion that no admissions are very low
00:11:23
admissions very low cost educate tens of
00:11:26
thousands as opposed to thousands do you
00:11:28
think what are your thoughts in terms of
00:11:30
uh that kind of policy of opening up or
00:11:32
increasing Freshman Class across
00:11:34
education federally you're a senator
00:11:36
what how would you approach what can we
00:11:38
learn from Arizona and ASU for in terms
00:11:40
of actual educ from Michael Crow at ASU
00:11:42
he's expanded the engineering program
00:11:45
there like a you know in size a number
00:11:48
of times so a lot more freshman but
00:11:50
what's uh even better than that is he
00:11:52
has a lot more sophomores and juniors
00:11:54
people that don't drop drop out he he he
00:11:57
has a very Innovative program I don't
00:11:58
know all all the details but to help
00:12:01
folks get through the math you know to
00:12:03
get an engineering degree and we need
00:12:05
more scientists and Engineers you know
00:12:08
other countries you know Japan I don't
00:12:10
know if this is still true today but it
00:12:12
used to be that Japan has creates three
00:12:15
times as many Engineers as attorneys and
00:12:18
we're the opposite that's correct we
00:12:20
create three times as many attorneys as
00:12:22
we do
00:12:23
engineers and our country speak of China
00:12:26
China's waye China yeah I don't know
00:12:28
what the statist STA are there but we
00:12:30
are a country and an economy that's
00:12:32
driven by Innovation so anything we can
00:12:35
to increase scientists
00:12:37
engineers money that we spend on
00:12:39
education in my view is the best dollar
00:12:41
we can spend of taxpayers money get it
00:12:43
back so final question Arizona is one of
00:12:45
the Battleground States and if K she has
00:12:48
a number of paths to win and Arizona a
00:12:50
lot of them go through Arizona um how is
00:12:53
uh the race for Senate sizing up does
00:12:55
that matter ker Lake versus Ruben GGO um
00:12:59
how do you look at Arizona for Comm
00:13:01
Harris and for the Senate because it's
00:13:03
critical cuz Chuck Schumer is just
00:13:04
saying we might win the Senate again or
00:13:06
we're going to increase there people
00:13:07
were worried that the Senate would be
00:13:08
lost you know Chuck I think is uh is you
00:13:11
know accurate in how he portrays the map
00:13:15
and the probability of winning the
00:13:17
Senate I think we're we're going to win
00:13:18
back the Senate nobody thought we had it
00:13:21
right well nobody thought we could in
00:13:22
2022 people thought I was going to lose
00:13:24
I won two competitive Senate races in
00:13:26
2020 and then the second one in 2022
00:13:30
it's tough Statewide elections are going
00:13:32
to be close there I won by 2.4 and then
00:13:35
5% uh Ruben gyo is going to win because
00:13:39
he is a much better candidate than
00:13:42
Carrie Lake conl Harris is going to win
00:13:44
Arizona because she is a much I mean
00:13:48
more accomplished experienced prosecutor
00:13:51
Attorney General Senator vice president
00:13:54
Donald Trump convicted
00:13:56
felon um she is the person to lead us
00:13:58
into the f future Donald Trump is not I
00:14:01
think
00:14:03
arizonans uh understand that and more of
00:14:05
them are going to understand that every
00:14:07
single day and when we get to November
00:14:09
5th I'm confident she's gonna win and
00:14:10
I'm going to do everything I can all
00:14:12
right well thank you so much we
00:14:14
appreciate it excellent vice president
00:14:17
thank you yeah they sh had a lot of
00:14:18
choices good choices really good Cho
00:14:20
really good choices and Beyond you guys
00:14:23
yeah absolutely

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 60
    Most shocking

Episode Highlights

  • Bipartisan Border Security Bill
    A bipartisan agreement on border security was sabotaged by Donald Trump for campaign reasons.
    “It was meeting them on the 10 yard line on their side of the field.”
    @ 02m 13s
    August 22, 2024
  • KLA Harris's Future
    Confidence in KLA Harris's potential presidency and her commitment to progressive policies.
    “I am confident she's going to be the next president of the United States.”
    @ 03m 49s
    August 22, 2024
  • SpaceX's Impact
    Discussion on the transformation of space launches through private industry, particularly SpaceX.
    “SpaceX has changed the economics of launching stuff into orbit.”
    @ 08m 34s
    August 22, 2024

Episode Quotes

Key Moments

  • Bipartisan Agreement02:13
  • Hypocrisy Shock02:56
  • Future Presidency03:49
  • Public Sentiment03:51
  • Space Innovation08:34
  • Political Commitment14:12

Words per Minute Over Time

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