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☆ G.O.P. Congressman’s Wild Claim: F.B.I. Entrapped Jan. 6 Rioters
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-04 | by ( Luke Broadwater | Alan Feuer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Even by a conspiracy theorist’s standards, the wild claims made by Representative Clay Higgins, Republican of Louisiana, stand out. The hard-right congressman, now in his fourth term in the House, has said that “ghost buses” took agent provocateurs to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to instigate the riot. He has claimed that the federal government is waging a “civil war” against Texas. And he has called the criminal charges against former President Donald J. Trump for mishandling classified documents a “perimeter probe from the oppressors.”But far from relegating Mr. Higgins to the fringe of their increasingly fractious conference, House Republicans have elevated him. None of it has dampened Mr. Higgins’s penchant for spreading unsupported theories, many of which portray law enforcement and the government in an evil, conspiratorial light.

Persons: Clay Higgins, provocateurs, Donald J, Trump, Higgins, Mike Johnson Organizations: Republican, Capitol, Texas, House Republicans Locations: Louisiana

Compounding the problem is that Trump is facing a lot of legal troubles, which have been quite expensive. And let’s be clear, Trump is not paying this out of his own pocket. [MUSIC PLAYING]So there’s been a lot of discussion as to how these legal bills are going to get paid going forward. And Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law, has basically been installed as the co-chair at the Republican National Committee, because, of course, it’s a family business, whatever. [MUSIC PLAYING]And she was asked whether she thought that Republican voters would be cool with the party paying her father-in-law’s legal bills, and she was like, “absolutely.”

Persons: I’m Michelle Cottle, I’m, Donald Trump, he’s, Trump, MAGA, We’re, They’re, Biden’s, there’s, Lara Trump, it’s Organizations: “, Republican Party, Republican, Trump, Republican National Committee

☆ Johnson Outlines Plan for Ukraine Aid; House Could Act Within Weeks
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-01 | by ( Catie Edmondson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Speaker Mike Johnson has begun publicly laying out potential conditions for extending a fresh round of American military assistance to Ukraine, the strongest indication yet that he plans to push through the House a package that many Republicans view as toxic and have tried to block. The move would also hand Mr. Johnson a powerful parochial win, unblocking a proposed export terminal in his home state of Louisiana that would be situated along a shipping channel that connects the Gulf of Mexico to Lake Charles. “When we return after this work period, we’ll be moving a product, but it’s going to have some important innovations,” Mr. Johnson said on Sunday in an interview on Fox News. That strongly suggests that the aid package for Ukraine, which has been stalled on Capitol Hill for months amid Republican resistance, could clear Congress within weeks. to sending more aid to Kyiv.

Persons: Mike Johnson, Biden, Johnson, “, Mr, Johnson’s Organizations: Kyiv, Democratic, Fox News, Capitol Hill, Republican, Republicans Locations: Ukraine, Louisiana, Gulf, Mexico, Lake Charles, Kyiv

The Republican outrage machine kicked into gear over Easter weekend after President Biden noted that Sunday was being celebrated for more than one reason. International Transgender Day of Visibility is observed every year on March 31. This year, for the second time since Transgender Day of Visibility was established 15 years ago, and the last time until 2086, the two happened to coincide. President Biden publicly honored both of them, as he has done every year since he took office in 2021. He centered the poor,” Mr. Warnock said on CNN on Sunday.

Persons: Biden, Mr, ”, ” Karoline Leavitt, Donald J, Trump, Jesus Christ, Mike Johnson, “, Marsha Blackburn of, Raphael Warnock of, “ Jesus, Warnock, ” Ms, Leavitt, Johnson, ” Andrew Bates, Bates, Bud Light, Biden’s Organizations: Republican, CNN Locations: Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Raphael Warnock of Georgia

☆ Opinion | Trump Is Financially Ruining the Republican Party
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-31 | by ( Michelle Cottle | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Which leads me to gently note: Hey, Republican Party, pay attention! You are being herded toward potential financial ruin. One might assume that a presidential nominee who generates as much devotion as Mr. Trump would be a financial boon to his party. With Mr. Trump, everything is about Mr. Trump. ($44.8 million).” While the Republican base may be smitten with Mr. Trump, plenty of big-money donors are skittish about bankrolling his nonsense.

Persons: Donald Trump, barker, aren’t, Trump, MAGA, Biden’s, Axios, “ The Organizations: Republican Party, Congress, “ The Biden, Trump, Republican, Miss Universe

☆ Opinion | The Great Tension Inside the Trump G.O.P.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-29 | by ( Ross Douthat | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

How might these commitments be paid for if these pro-government Republicans had their way? A different poll, from Bloomberg and Morning Consult, suggested one possible answer: Surveying voters in seven swing states, it found that 58 percent of self-described conservative Republicans strongly or somewhat supported raising taxes on Americans making $400,000 or more a year. These populist perspectives — tax the upper class and spend on health care and income support — aren’t especially surprising, given the Republican Party’s slow transformation into a more downscale coalition, a process in which it has gained blue-collar and non-college-educated supporters and lost affluent suburbanites to the Democratic Party. But good luck finding evidence of this populist transformation in the party’s current policy proposals. Consider, for instance, the latest budget proposal from the Republican Study Committee, the conservative House caucus that claims about 80 percent of Republican representatives as members.

Persons: Newt Gingrich, Paul Ryan Organizations: American Compass, Republican, Social Security, Republicans, Bloomberg, Morning, Democratic Party, Committee, House, Trump

☆ Opinion | Bidenomics Is Making China Angry. That’s OK.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-28 | by ( Paul Krugman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

case against Biden’s China policies, by the way, was that he was showing his softness by not banning TikTok. Biden, on the other hand, has quietly taken a very tough line on trade, especially with China. I’ve been pointing out for a while that Biden’s sophisticated economic nationalism is a very big deal, much more so than Trump’s protectionist thrashing. In fact, Biden’s policies are so tough on China that, while I support them, they make me a bit nervous. But in case you don’t believe what I’m saying, let me point to someone who apparently agrees with me: the Chinese government.

Persons: Biden, Donald Trump’s, Trump, relabel, I’ve Organizations: Republican Locations: China

☆ Opinion | One Purple State Is ‘Testing the Outer Limits of MAGAism’
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-27 | by ( Thomas B. Edsall | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Pope McCorkle, a Democratic consultant and professor at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy, argued in an email that the results of this year’s Republican primary election on March 5 demonstrate that “the North Carolina G.O.P. is now a MAGA party. With the gubernatorial nomination of Mark Robinson, the N.C. G.O.P. is clearly in the running for the most MAGA party in the nation.”As they are elsewhere, MAGA leaders in North Carolina are confrontational. In February 2018, Robinson, the first Black lieutenant governor of the state, described on Facebook his view of survivors of school shootings who then publicly call for gun control.

Persons: Trump’s, Pope McCorkle, MAGA, Mark Robinson, Robinson, ” Organizations: Democratic, Duke’s Sanford School of Public, Republican, North Carolina G.O.P, Facebook Locations: North Carolina, G.O.P

☆ Why Obamacare Is in Grave Danger, Again - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-25 | by ( Paul Krugman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Obamacare — signed into law on March 23, 2010, although many of its provisions didn’t kick in until 2014 — you probably wouldn’t have been able to get health insurance. Today you can, thanks to provisions in the law that prevent insurers from discriminating based on medical history and that subsidize insurance premiums for many Americans. And President Biden strengthened the program, notably by extending provisions eliminating the “cliff” that cut off subsides for many middle-class Americans. and almost succeeded in passing a bill that the Congressional Budget Office estimated would have left 22 million more Americans uninsured by 2026. wins control of Congress and the White House in November, it will once again try to bring back the bad old days of health coverage.

Persons: Obamacare —, Biden, Donald Trump, John McCain —, Trump Organizations: Republicans, Congressional, White House, Republican Party

☆ If Your Demographics Can Predict Your Politics, Are They Really Yours? - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-24 | by ( Neil Gross | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

If you’re trying to guess whether people are Republicans or Democrats, knowing a few basic facts about them will take you a long way. What part of the country do they live in and is their community urban, suburban or rural? Between 2016 and 2020, for example, white Americans without college degrees favored the Republican Party by nearly 24 percentage points. Or consider gender and attitudes about crime and public safety: Men are about 10 percentage points more supportive than women of the death penalty and 10 percentage points less supportive of gun control. Relative to Latino Americans, non-Latinos endorse “increasing deportation” as a partial solution by a 22-point margin.

Persons: “ Organizations: Republicans, Republican Party Locations: Maine

☆ Republicans Who Do Not Regularly Watch Fox Are Less Likely to Back Trump
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-23 | by ( Ruth Igielnik | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Republicans who get their news from nonconservative mainstream media outlets are less likely to support Donald J. Trump than those who follow conservative outlets. And sizable numbers from the first group say they think Mr. Trump acted criminally, according to a recent New York Times/Siena College poll. This division could affect his standing among Republicans in the general electorate — a decidedly different group from G.O.P. One hundred percent of the Republicans in our poll who said they got their news from Fox News or other conservative sources said they intended to support Mr. Trump in the general election. This stands in contrast to Republicans whose main media sources are outlets like CNN and major news organizations: Seventy-nine percent of them plan to vote for Mr. Trump, and 13 percent said they planned to vote for President Biden.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Biden Organizations: New York Times, Siena, Republicans, Fox News, CNN, Mr

☆ George Santos Says He Is Done With the G.O.P. (The Feeling Is Mutual.)
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-22 | by ( Grace Ashford | More About Grace Ashford | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

There has been little evidence that Mr. Santos had done much campaign work or fund-raising for the contest. Nevertheless, he said he would stay in the race and take his “Ultra MAGA/Trump supporting values to the ballot in November as an independent.”If he does so, he could potentially draw some votes away from Mr. LaLota, which would benefit the undetermined Democratic candidate in a district that Donald J. Trump won by just under 2 points in 2020. Even so, neither Mr. LaLota nor Jesse Garcia, the Suffolk County Republican Party chairman, seemed particularly concerned by Mr. Santos’s threat. “George Santos is irrelevant to the electoral process,” Mr. Garcia said upon hearing the news, adding that the announcement was nothing more than a ploy for attention. Mr. LaLota said in a statement that just as Mr. Santos’s expulsion had been good for the nation, his resignation from the Republican Party was good for “common-sense conservatives.”

Persons: Santos, Ultra MAGA, Donald J, Trump, LaLota, Jesse Garcia, “ George Santos, Mr, Garcia, Santos’s, ” Organizations: Trump, Democratic, Suffolk County Republican Party, Republican Party Locations: Suffolk

☆ As More Members Leave, House G.O.P. Will Be Able to Spare Just 1 Vote
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-22 | by ( Annie Karni | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Republicans in Congress continue sprinting for the exits. Representative Mike Gallagher, Republican of Wisconsin, announced on Friday afternoon that he would resign from Congress months earlier than expected on April 19, bringing the already minuscule Republican majority down to a lonely one vote. After his departure next month, Republicans will control 217 House seats to the Democrats’ 213, allowing the G.O.P. to afford only a single defection from the party line on votes when all members are present. He said simply that “after conversations with my family, I have made the decision to resign my position,” and that he had “worked closely with House Republican leadership on this timeline.”But leaders had not anticipated it.

Persons: Mike Gallagher, Gallagher, “, Mike Johnson Organizations: Republican, Chinese Communist Party Locations: Wisconsin

☆ Election Updates: Five states vote today. Here are the races to watch.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-19 | by ( Chris Cameron | Jonathan Weisman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +7 min

In today’s newsletter, I’m going to tell you about some fascinating primary races that will shed light on some broader trends in U.S. politics. Mike Bost, a Republican and Marine Corps veteran, was first elected to the House in 2014. Don’t say ‘age’Democrats have their own issues that are captured in races in their stronghold of greater Chicago. But to the Democratic establishment, “age” is a word not spoken aloud, not with President Biden in the White House. But similar issues driving their primary fights will play out in swing House districts and swing states across the country.

Persons: Mike Bost, He’d, Darren Bailey, Donald J, J.B, Pritzker, Bailey, Bost, Mike, ”, Trump’s, Matt Gaetz, Trump, Danny Davis, he’s, Melissa Conyears, Ervin, Kina Collins, Biden, Davis, Davis’s, “, Jesús, García, Raymond Lopez of, Lopez, Jennifer Medina, Ruth Igielnik, Krystle Kaul, Jennifer Wexton, Eileen, Jennifer Boysko, Dan Helmer, Helmer, Kaul, Suhas, —, Kaul bristled Organizations: Illinois’s, Congressional, Republican, Marine Corps, State Legislature, Committee, Veterans ’ Affairs, Trump, Trump Republican, Democratic, House, The Chicago Tribune, Congressional District, American Democrats, Chicago, Mexican American, Republicans, Washington , D.C, Virginia, Army, Democrat Locations: Illinois, Lincoln, Washington, Chicago, Lake Michigan, Illinois’s, Chuy, Raymond Lopez of Chicago, García, Mexican, Virginia, exurbs, Washington ,, Virginia’s 10th, America

As Mark Robinson completed his rapid six-year rise from conservative internet sensation to the Republican nominee for North Carolina governor, he worked relentlessly to sell his political vision to evangelical Christians. Traveling from church to church and thundering away on social media, he condemned “transgenderism” and “homosexuality” as “filth.” He said Christians should be led by men, not women. And on at least one occasion, he explicitly called to upend American tradition on God’s role in government. “People talk about the separation of church and state,” Mr. Robinson, North Carolina’s lieutenant governor, said in a speech in October. Trying to find it in the writings of any patriot, anywhere, and I cannot.

Persons: Mark Robinson, “ transgenderism, ”, Mr, Robinson, North, “ I’m Organizations: Republican, North Locations: North Carolina, America

That same day, Mr. Trump’s campaign announced that the former president would appear alongside Mr. Moreno on Saturday in Dayton, widely interpreted as a sign that Mr. Moreno could benefit from an 11th-hour boost. Simultaneously, Mr. Moreno and his backers have portrayed Mr. Dolan as not sufficiently supportive of Mr. Trump. After Mr. Trump overwhelmingly won the former battleground state in 2016 and 2020, Ohioans sent J.D. Image Mr. Moreno has been endorsed by, and campaigned with, several Republicans with ties to Mr. Trump, including Gov. Mr. LaRose and Mr. Moreno have banded together to attack Mr. Dolan as disloyal to Mr. Trump, while both Mr. Dolan and Mr. LaRose have accused Mr. Moreno of shifting his views on everything from gun control to Mr. Trump himself.

Persons: Donald J, Trump’s, Bernie Moreno, Sherrod Brown, Moreno, Matt Dolan, Frank LaRose, Dolan, Mike DeWine, Rob Portman, LaRose, Mr, Trump, Donald Trump, ”, Ryan Stubenrauch, DeWine, Portman, Brown, Ohioans, J.D, Vance, Biden, Moreno’s, “, Mitch McConnell, McConnell, Donald Trump Jr, ” Mr, ” Reagan McCarthy, won’t, Jim Renacci, “ Trump, Katie Smith, they’ll, Kristi Noem, Vivek Ramaswamy, Vance of Ohio, —, Noem, Donald Trump isn’t, Mitzi Baird, ” Ms, Baird, Michael C, Bender Organizations: Republican, Republicans, Democrat, Senate, Mr, Democratic, Cleveland Guardians, Trump, Republican Party —, National Republican Senatorial Committee, Ohio Democratic Party, U.S . Army, Washington , D.C, ”, Lincoln Locations: Ohio, Dayton, Arizona, Cleveland, Washington, G.O.P, battlegrounds, Pennsylvania, Georgia, South Dakota, Cincinnati, Washington ,, Columbus, Elyria, Vermilion

☆ White House Calls on Republicans to End Biden Impeachment Inquiry
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-15 | by ( Peter Baker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The White House insisted on Friday that House Republicans end their effort to impeach President Biden, declaring that “enough is enough” after their monthslong inquiry failed to turn up promised evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors. “It is obviously time to move on, Mr. Speaker,” Edward N. Siskel, the White House counsel, wrote in a four-page letter to Speaker Mike Johnson. “This impeachment is over. A number of Republicans have cast doubt on the venture, and even some champions of impeachment have now concluded that they could not muster a majority if they sent articles to the floor charging Mr. Biden. The White House hopes to capitalize on Republicans’ disarray, in effect calling their bluff and daring them to put up or shut up, although the hard-liners in the G.O.P.

Persons: Biden, ” Edward N, Siskel, Mike Johnson, “, Hunter Biden Organizations: Republicans, Republican

☆ The House Races That Tell a Bigger Story
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-15 | by ( Jonathan Weisman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But three heated House primaries in the Land of Lincoln next week illustrate the broader vulnerabilities of both major political parties going into the general election: age, extremism and immigration. In today’s newsletter, I’m going to tell you about some fascinating primary races that will shed light on some broader trends in U.S. politics. Let’s start with Illinois’s 12th Congressional District, in the southern part of the state. Mike Bost, a Republican and Marine Corps veteran, was first elected to the House in 2014. Democrats tried to tar him as “Meltdown Mike,” highlighting his angry outbursts in the State Legislature and warning, “He’d make Washington worse.”Well, those were simpler times.

Persons: Mike Bost, He’d, Darren Bailey, Donald J, J.B, Pritzker Organizations: Illinois’s, Congressional, Republican, Marine Corps, State Legislature, Committee, Veterans ’ Affairs, Trump, Trump Republican, Democratic Locations: Illinois, Lincoln, Washington

☆ Mainstream G.O.P. Group to Target Bob Good as It Shifts Mission and Members
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-15 | by ( Annie Karni | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Republican Main Street Partnership, a group that supports center-leaning House Republicans, plans to direct half a million dollars into a bid to defeat Representative Bob Good, a hard-right lawmaker from Virginia, making an unusual push to oust a sitting Republican member of Congress. The move is notable not just because the group, through its campaign giving arm, is inserting itself into the kind of intramural fight against an incumbent that it typically avoids. Its Capitol Hill headquarters serve as something of a counterweight to the Conservative Partnership Institute, which operates nearby as the nerve center of the right. But as the Republican Party has veered toward the extreme right, purging itself of what was once a sizable and influential bloc of centrists, the Main Street Partnership has also shed the “moderate” label and changed the nature of its mission. The group has recently expanded its membership to include far more conservatives, and has begun focusing less on centrism and bipartisanship and more on ridding Congress of G.O.P.

Persons: Bob Good, — John J, McGuire, Donald J, Trump, ” Organizations: Republican Main Street, House Republicans, Republican, Navy SEALs, Main, Capitol, Conservative Partnership Institute, Republican Party, centrists Locations: Virginia, G.O.P

☆ As Biden Impeachment Flails, House Republicans Explore Criminal Referrals
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-14 | by ( Luke Broadwater | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Facing the prospect that they may never be able to impeach President Biden, House Republicans are exploring a pivot to a different strategy: issuing criminal referrals against him and those close to him. Despite their subpoenas and depositions, House Republicans have been unable to produce any solid evidence of wrongdoing by Mr. Biden and lack the votes in their own party to charge him with high crimes and misdemeanors, the constitutional standard for impeachment. lawmakers have begun strategizing about making criminal referrals against Mr. Biden, members of his family and his associates, essentially sending letters to the Justice Department urging prosecutors to investigate specific crimes they believe may have been committed. The move would be largely symbolic, but it would allow Republicans in Congress to save face while ending their so far struggling impeachment inquiry. of aligning with former President Donald J. Trump’s vow to prosecute Mr. Biden if he wins the election.

Persons: Biden, Mr, Donald J, Trump’s Organizations: House Republicans, Republicans, Justice Department

Their November collision began to look even more likely after Mr. Trump scored a decisive win in Iowa in January. Already, Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden had shifted their focus away from the primaries. But Mr. Biden has already been using the political and financial apparatus of the Democratic National Committee. Mr. Biden is viewed unfavorably by a majority of Americans — a precarious position for a president seeking re-election — although so is Mr. Trump. Mr. Biden and his allied groups also have a significant financial advantage over Mr. Trump, whose legal bills are taking a toll.

Persons: Biden, Donald J, Trump, Mr, Nikki Haley, Biden’s, “, Joe Biden, ”, Haley, Trump’s, California’s, Robert F, Kennedy Jr, Dean Phillips, Marianne Williamson, Juan M Organizations: Tuesday, Associated Press, Democratic, Republican, Mr, Washington State, Democratic National Committee, Republican National Committee, D.C, Dean Phillips of Minnesota, Manhattan Locations: Iowa, Georgia, Georgia , Mississippi, Hawaii, Vermont, Washington, Gaza, New York

☆ Hunter Biden Refuses to Testify Publicly, Calling G.O.P. Inquiry a ‘Circus’
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-13 | by ( Luke Broadwater | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Hunter Biden, the president’s son, on Wednesday rejected a request from House Republicans to testify next week at a public hearing in their impeachment inquiry into President Biden, blasting the G.O.P.’s plans as a “made-for-right-wing-media circus act.”House Republicans had asked the younger Mr. Biden to appear at a hearing on March 20 alongside three of his former business partners. Two of them have been convicted in fraud cases, and the other is angry over being cut out of a deal. But Abbe Lowell, Mr. Biden’s lawyer, cited a scheduling conflict while slamming the proceeding in a letter to Representative James R. Comer, Republican of Kentucky, the chairman of the Oversight Committee. “Your blatant planned-for-media event is not a proper proceeding but an obvious attempt to throw a Hail Mary pass after the game has ended,” Mr. Lowell wrote, adding: “Mr. Biden declines your invitation to this carnival side show.”

Persons: Hunter Biden, Biden, Abbe Lowell, Biden’s, James R, Comer, Mary, ” Mr, Lowell, Mr, ” Organizations: Republicans, ”, Republican Locations: Kentucky

☆ Opinion | Why Haley Supporters Should Turn to Biden, Not Trump
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-13 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Shortly after Nikki Haley exited the presidential race, Joe Biden issued a statement welcoming her supporters to the Democratic Party. In this audio essay, Times Opinion columnist David French implores Haley fans — specifically Reagan Republicans — to join the Democratic coalition. “If you want to preserve Reagan conservatism and its ideals, its temperament, its character, its ideology,” French says, “the best way to preserve it is by ending Donald Trump’s stranglehold on the G.O.P.”(A full transcript of this audio essay will be available within 24 hours of publication in the audio player above.)

Persons: Nikki Haley, Joe Biden, David French, Haley, —, Reagan Republicans —, Reagan, ”, “, Donald Trump’s Organizations: Democratic Party, Reagan Republicans, Democratic

What’s clear is that Mr. Trump is no longer the outsider voice that resonated with these voters in 2016. Still, their concerns about him do not necessarily make Mr. Biden or Democrats look better by comparison. For all but one of these voters, Mr. Trump’s shortcomings do not translate into increased support for Mr. Biden at this point. But could Mr. Biden win some of them over, especially those whose top issue in this election is protecting and defending democracy? We put that question to these lapsed Trump voters, and the scale of Mr. Biden’s challenge was clear in their answers.

Persons: Donald Trump, —, Trump, Robert F, Kennedy Jr, Kennedy, MAGA, Lago, Biden, Mr, Biden’s Organizations: Republican, Republican Party, Republicans, Mr, Trump

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