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🗓️ 18 January 2025
⏱️ 37 minutes
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The Washington Roundtable discusses this week’s confirmation hearings for Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense and Pam Bondi as Attorney General, and the potential for a “shock and awe” campaign in the first days of Donald Trump’s second term. Plus, as billionaires from many industries gather around the dais on Inauguration Day, what should we make of President Biden’s warning, in the waning days of his Administration, about “an oligarchy taking shape in America”?
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0:00.0 | What was the first inauguration that you guys went? |
0:04.0 | Oh, boy, do I remember mine. |
0:05.8 | Yeah. |
0:06.0 | Oh, my God, yeah. |
0:07.1 | Yeah. |
0:07.6 | Now, I came down to Washington. |
0:09.5 | I'd hardly ever been to Washington before. |
0:11.9 | I was here right when they were setting up the barricades for Reagan's inaugural. |
0:16.0 | I think I was in school. |
0:17.2 | And I'll never forget. |
0:19.0 | It was just such a sea change about what was going to happen. |
0:22.9 | I mean, that was a gigantic change, a hinge moment in American history. |
0:27.4 | And even I knew that then. |
0:29.7 | I mean, it had a momentous feeling to it. |
0:33.2 | And, okay, since I know we're going to talk about money and how many, you know, insane amount of money is going into this inaugural. |
0:40.0 | There was a great term that was created at that point in the Washington Post, the term limo lock. |
0:46.4 | And the limos were lining up and locked in traffic for that inaugural. |
0:54.1 | And all the fur coats, right? |
0:55.5 | The fur coats. |
0:56.0 | That was a big thing. |
0:57.5 | This is supposed to be, I believe, the coldest inaugural since then. |
1:01.6 | Why did they do it this time of year? |
... |
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