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All right, good afternoon, everyone.

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My name is Ashling with Senator Baldwin's office, a few notes of housekeeping before

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we get started.

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The senator will start us off with remarks on President Trump's alleged deal with Iran,

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and afterward, we'll have time for a few on-topic questions.

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Please submit any questions you have to the Zoom chat Q&A function, and I will relay them

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to the senator for any questions we do not get to or off-topic questions.

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Please follow up with me or our press team, and we will work to get you responses.

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Please note that because we are doing this webinar style, you will not be able to record

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the meeting within the Zoom app.

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However, you are welcome to use the third party platform to record, otherwise our office

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will send a recording via email afterwards to all participants.

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Now I'll hand it over to Senator Baldwin to make some remarks.

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Senator.

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Thank you, Ashling.

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Good afternoon, everyone.

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I want to thank you all for joining us on this call today.

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So over the weekend, President Trump told the American people that his war of choice

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in Iran was over.

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He told the American people that Iran had agreed to a deal.

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But I know better than to take President Trump's word for it, and so do most Wisconsinites.

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From his trade wars to peace negotiations, President Trump often claims victory without

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any work to show for it, and this time is no different.

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The truth is, President Trump has not reached a deal with Iran.

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There's no agreement to end their nuclear program.

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We have no assurances that war won't continue, and no evidence that Americans are any better

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off today than they were before this all started.

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In fact, we are told, without any paper to back it up, that President Trump has merely

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reached an agreement to keep talking about a deal over the next 60 days.

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On this deal to make a deal later, we have zero details and are told just to take the

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President's word for it.

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The Trump administration and the Iranian government cannot even seem to agree on what is included

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in the agreement.

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Look, peace is unequivocally a good thing and something I have been fighting for since

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this President launched this unnecessary war.

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In fact, it has been something I've advocated for my entire career, but we need to make

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sure that whatever is in this agreement is real and also good for the American people,

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because so far this President's war has simply been a disaster for Wisconsinites.

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Trump's war has cost 13 service members their lives, wasted more than $30 billion in taxpayer

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funds, and raised the cost at the pump for American families.

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In fact, on that point, Wisconsinites have had to spend $877 million more on gas since

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the beginning of the war than they would have had the war not begun.

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That means the average family in Wisconsin has spent $378 more on gas in the same period

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of time.

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For Wisconsin farmers, diesel hit record highs last month, right in the middle of planting

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season.

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One farmer told me his fuel costs skyrocketed from $120,000 to $200,000 over the last year.

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Nearly 70 percent of farmers reported not being able to afford the fertilizer they needed

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this year.

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Across the board, President Trump is asking working Wisconsinites to foot the bill for

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a war they did not choose and do not like.

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Meanwhile, he's saying he loves the inflation he's caused.

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I mean, he literally said that.

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Now he's claiming victory without even sharing what his plan is for a temporary solution.

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That's why Donald Trump's wink and nod promise is simply not enough.

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Wisconsin families need details and a guarantee that this expensive and unnecessary war is

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over once and for all.

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Diplomacy and negotiation are hard.

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We know that, but it has always been the path forward.

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And I would be remiss if I did not point out how the president got himself into this situation.

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In his first term, Trump tore up the Iran deal.

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We negotiated that limited Iran's nuclear capabilities.

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He tore it up.

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And now the president is seeing that this is not a situation you can just bomb yourself

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out of.

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So here's what he needs to do.

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He needs to show the American people what is in this agreement.

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What our plan is to reach a real long term peace deal and explain how any of us are better

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off now compared to three and a half months ago.

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Now a long term peace agreement is signed and sealed and any nuclear agreement is delivered

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to Congress.

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I'm going to continue to do my job and force the Senate to vote to stop this war.

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This wishy-washy hypothetical deal with zero details is just not good enough for me.

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It's not good enough for our service members or Wisconsin farmers and families who are

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shouldering the high costs because of Trump's illegal war of choice.

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It's time to end this war and the president really needs to get serious about doing it.

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Ashley, I'll hand it back to you.

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Great.

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Thank you, Senator.

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Just a reminder that questions should be submitted to the chat Q&A function.

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We will get to as many on topic questions as we can with Senator Baldwin.

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If you have any follow-up questions, please direct them to our office via email afterwards.

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It looks like we already have a few coming in, so I'll jump right into it.

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Senator, how suspect are you that the president refuses to release the actual text of the

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deal and Trump saying, quote unquote, it's a very strong deal.

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Nobody knows what it is, but it's very strong.

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Yes, I didn't get a chance to hear or watch his rambling press conference at the G7,

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but I've had it sort of described to me, look, this president as of last week has indicated

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at one time or another that this war is over.

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Media accounts say that he has said so 38 separate times.

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The war is over.

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We reached agreement, agreements around the corner, et cetera.

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I don't know why anyone should view this as any different from that.

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The idea that it's strong, but nobody's seen it and no one knows what's in it is ridiculous.

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It's absolutely ridiculous.

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And so I have no confidence in this president when he says that there's an understanding

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or, as I said earlier, an agreement to start working on another agreement.

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This is not enough and we need to bring this war to an end.

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Senator, will Senate Democrats pursue the War Powers Resolution now that a MOU between

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the US and Iran has been agreed to?

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Look, even if there is truly an MOU, a memorandum of understanding to pause for 60 days for

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further negotiations, this is not an end to the war.

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And so, yes, Congress absolutely needs to continue acting to end this war once and

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for all.

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And I want to say just a word or two about our efforts to do so.

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When this president brought us into his war of choice, we weren't under attack.

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We weren't under any imminent threat of attack from Iran.

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He brought us into an illegal war.

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We responded by saying that no business as usual, this cannot be allowed to stand.

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And my colleague, my Democratic colleagues and I introduced War Powers resolutions and

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each one of us has brought ours up in turn, week after week, to demand a vote.

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And at first we had one Republican join us, then two, then three, then four.

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We are going to carry on until we are able to bring this to a close.

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But I take no solace in the idea that this president insists that we're on the verge

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of a 60-day pause or a ceasefire to negotiate a final end.

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We've got to keep holding my Republican colleagues' feet to the fire and have them vote to end

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this war.

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Thanks, Senator.

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And a bit of a follow-up question to that one.

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What was your reaction when the War Powers vote failed again, yesterday?

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Well, sadly, we didn't have full attendance for various reasons.

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And so that was at least a part of the issue.

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But I think it's quite possible that some of my Republican colleagues who had previously

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joined us were taking the president's word that a deal to end the war, an agreement

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to end the war was upon us and around the corner.

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I think they'll soon find out that that's not the case.

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And as the president said, apparently in his press conference, his rambling press conference

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that we can go back to bombing at any moment.

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That type of rhetoric does not assure me that this is nearly over.

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Thanks, Senator.

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And you touched on this at the tail end of that answer.

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But another question for you, Senator Baldwin.

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President Trump today said the potential U.S. run agreement isn't final and bombing

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could resume if they don't behave.

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And that's a quote.

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Do you have a response to those comments?

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Well, it just underscores that there is no deal.

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If there was, we would need to see what's in it.

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And from what I can tell, there's no grand deal to end the war or stop Iran's nuclear

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program.

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You know, I said in my opening remarks that we have to remember that President Trump tore

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up the nuclear deal that had been reached.

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That was reached through diplomacy, international, multilateral diplomacy.

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And it took months to get all the details down and to get the agreement through.

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Congress had a role in signing off on it.

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None of that is lined up at this period of time.

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I can't see possibly how we could end up with a stronger deal curtailing Iran's nuclear

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program 60 days from now than we did back in 2015 after months of multilateral negotiation.

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But again, Trump ripped up that deal.

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And we're going to possibly, probably end up in a much worse place when we finally see

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this wind down an end.

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Thanks, Senator.

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Next question is what kind of agreement between the U.S. and Iran would be good enough?

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Look, first of all, this should never have been.

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This was a war of choice on President Trump's part.

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And this should have been the subject of negotiations and diplomacy from the very beginning.

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We need a political and diplomatic solution to Iran's nuclear ambitions.

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I'm one who agrees, in fact, I think all my colleagues agree, that Iran should never

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have a nuclear weapon.

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And therefore, there need to be safeguards and curtailment, in fact, probably the end

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of Iran's nuclear program.

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And so we need to get to the table and do what was done in 2014, 2015, and come up with

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a comprehensive agreement that includes intrusive inspections of Iran's nuclear program to

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assure the world that they will never have a nuclear weapon.

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But that has not been the course that this president has pursued, and instead has started

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a war that's cost 13 members of our armed services, their lives, has caused dozens of,

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well, hundreds of service members to be injured some very significantly.

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And its cost taxpayers $30 billion, diplomacy in a political course is the action, is the

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answer.

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Thank you, Senator.

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And last question here, Senator Johnson and Congressional Republicans in Wisconsin have

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said that this war was needed to stop Iran's nuclear program, and therefore it has been

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worth it.

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What's your response to that?

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Let me just underscore, this war was 100% unnecessary.

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It matters to me that we follow the Constitution on the laws of this country.

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The president, as Commander-in-Chief, has the authority, without consulting Congress,

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to defend our nation against an attack, to repel an attack, or an imminent attack against

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the U.S. or its assets and interests around the world.

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None of that was in question when Trump started his war of choice in Iran.

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And there was obviously a deal reached a little over a decade ago through hard work and negotiation

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diplomacy.

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There's no reason why that couldn't have happened once again, despite Donald Trump having had

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ripped up that agreement.

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That's what we're seeing now as this war is causing more damage, and we may end up much

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further behind than we were before it began.

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But certainly it is costly for Wisconsinites, for Americans, and we're getting a worse deal

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than before this war started.

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Thank you, Senator, and that's all we have time for today.

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To the press box on the call, I'll be sending around a recording of this meeting to all

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participants in the next 30 minutes or so, please feel free to reach out to me with any

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follow-up questions.

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Thank you all for joining.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.