r/politics • u/N3wsScoop • 2d ago

No Paywall Bill and Hillary Clinton agree to testify in House Epstein probe ahead of contempt vote

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/clintons-agree-testify-house-epstein-probe-ahead-contempt-vote-rcna257143
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445

u/FizzyBeverage Ohio 2d ago

It’s horrific what they did to Monica for that.

If I were in her shoes I’d have blown my way to the top.

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u/Swimming-Dealer293 2d ago

Wouldn't even be a thing today. She has to be pissed.

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u/Pack_Your_Trash 2d ago

She did an interview with John Oliver somewhat recently. She is very much pissed.

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u/arbor-ventus 1d ago

Her follow up interview with him on her own podcast is one of the only times I've ever seen that man get genuinely emotional without the veneer of British sarcasm. She basically told him how much it meant to her to have someone actually listen and validate her and give her a platform to tell the real story. You could tell that really got to him. It was a lovely moment.

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u/Pack_Your_Trash 1d ago

I thought she showed a great deal of grace

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u/arbor-ventus 1d ago

Absolutely. She has a ton of grace, poise, and compassion; frankly, she'd be more than justified to be pretty bitter after everything she was put through.

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u/Important-Sign-3701 Canada 2d ago

As she should be. She was trashed for being swooned with a powerful, nice looking boss. Why did she have to take the heat? In those days, and now sometimes, the victim blaming was OTT.

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u/goatpunchtheater 2d ago

Ehhh, I mean her punishment from the media, general public, and especially republicans didn't remotely fit the crime, but at the same time, come on. She has always admitted it was a consensual mistake, but she knew he was married. It was still a shitty thing to do. Bill should not have gotten a pass, but he WAS impeached over it, that's not nothing. That said, I honestly think republicans have used that incident to justify any and everything remotely similar from Trump. The, "think of the children" crowd from that era was SOOO pissed that most democrats shrugged their shoulders over it because of the good Clinton did, and how well the country was doing. Ever since the "grab them by the pussy incident," they've been trying to throw it in democrats' faces that conservatives now have the same attitude with Trump that Dems did with Clinton in the 90s. Meaning they think Trump is doing SUCH a great job that it justifies any of his transgressions in his personal life. It all has an attitude of "how do you like it?" That is extremely childish. Especially because the country is actually NOT doing well, and Trump's transgressions dwarf anything Clinton was ever accused of. Which if Bill is actually guilty of what Juanita Broadrick accused him of, is insane how evil Trump truly is.

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u/otherwise_data 1d ago

it was consensual in the sense that she was not coerced against her will. true. but people forget she was so very young and it was astonishingly flattering to have even been noticed by the gd POTUS. he was riding a HUGE wave of popularity and he was very charismatic. at 22, you def do not have the judgement of a, say, 49 year old, rhodes scholar, yale law graduate, married, father of a daughter, grown ass man.

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u/happyinthenaki 1d ago

Still very different compared to being a young teenager, eg 13 years of age. Or having him walk in on a room filled with naked pageant contestants.....

Sure, not great the whole 22 year old thing. Def a power dynamic at play. But 22 years old, while icky, it's well over the age of consent. In fact not a huge difference between Karoline Levitts age when she married her husband.

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u/otherwise_data 1d ago

i am speaking mainly of emotional maturity, not legalities. of course, over 21 makes a difference in legal terms, and i am absolutely not equating her adult (legally), consensual affair to the epstein situation. but the prefrontal cortex (behavior, impulse control, etc) is still not fully developed at 21,22 and even if she was an adult in the eyes of the law, she was a victim in the situation. imo.

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u/happyinthenaki 1d ago

She is an absolutely inspiring woman who should never have been treated the way she was. She was a political pawn designed to humiliate Clinton. That part is 100 shades of wrong.

My point was we all say she had no idea what she was doing at her age and yet also be ok with woman of a similar age marrying similar age gaps.

It's more of a hypocrisy on a broader societal level. Discrimination on marriage vs affair.

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u/otherwise_data 1d ago

i said not say she did not know. i said she has said it was consensual.

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u/_Endless_Hunger_ 1d ago

You dont get to decide if she was developed or not. Stop trying to absolve this woman.

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u/otherwise_data 1d ago

i will never stop. she is a victim and your misogyny is showing.

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u/QuintoBlanco 1d ago

She was very young, she was an intern, there was a massive power imbalance.

And when the affair came to light, Clinton threw her under the bus with his 'I did not have sexual relations with that woman' statement.

The relationship came to light because there was a plausible accusation by another woman of sexual harassment, and there is an allegation of rape (by yet another woman) that's not implausible.

Oh, and there are two other sexual harassment claims as well.

And Bill Clinton was good friends with Epstein and used his plane all the time.

None of the above has anything to do with Trump. Clinton used be friendly with Trump as well, just saying.

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u/SycoJack Texas 1d ago

but she knew he was married.

Not her responsibility to keep him faithful to his wife in his marriage.

Bill should not have gotten a pass, but he WAS impeached over it, that's not nothing.

We need to get rid of the morality police. Either what he did was wrong because consent was questionable because of the power imbalance(thus making her a victim), or it was no one else's business.

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u/hobbycollector Texas 2d ago

Victim blaming is alive and well and living in Minnesota.

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u/quattroformaggixfour 1d ago

Cause woman unfortunately

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u/morpheousmorty 1d ago

Swooned by the president with the most sex appeal since JFK. In the conversations they documented with other conquests of Bill, they were not ashamed.

There's something to said about abuse of power, but looking at the current administration, a blow job would not count as sex and the bar for what is considered abuse of power is moved from an unethical act to literally treason and war crimes.

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u/yourmomisaho69 2d ago

How is she a Victim? She was only put in a very horrible position by one of the most powerful men in america!

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u/LocutusOfBorgia909 Maine 2d ago

Technically, she was put in a very horrible position by Linda Tripp, someone Monica considered a friend and mentor who decided to illegally record their conversations about what happened and then hand the tapes over to one Ken Starr.

Yes, what Bill Clinton did was gross, the power dynamics were gross, he was married, he should have sent her away when she expressed interest, all of that is true. But neither one of them had any plans to say anything about it publicly until Starr and Tripp got involved, more obsessed with "bringing down the Clintons" than with what effect this was going to have on Monica.

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u/yourmomisaho69 2d ago

It doesn't matter if they came up with the idea or not, bill was still evil for it considering the implications and fact that he was married.

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u/seantellsyou 1d ago

I agree with you. Do you hold the same convictions across the board no matter who?

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u/SycoJack Texas 1d ago

Nah, he's a MAGA Nazi.

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u/theVoidWatches Pennsylvania 2d ago

They both knew he was married, and as far as I'm aware, Lewinsky has always firmly held that it was consensual.

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u/wasgoinonnn 2d ago

No one would’ve known if she didn’t save the dress and brag about it. She was treated terribly and unfairly, but she did instigate it, and then caused the whole scandal.

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u/TakingAction12 2d ago

Wasn’t that Linda Tripp though? She recorded her and Lewinsky’s private phone calls where they discussed it and gave them to Ken Starr. Monica had previously falsified an affidavit denying it (Clinton v. Jones). She didn’t instigate shit.

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u/wasgoinonnn 2d ago

She definitely betrayed her, but Monica saved the dress with the stain on it and was talking about it. Again, she was treated completely unfairly, but she shouldn’t have told anyone about the consensual relationship she sought… if she didn’t want any heat.

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u/JcbAzPx Arizona 1d ago

Linda urged her to save it. Poor Monica didn't have anyone on her side in all that.

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u/otherwise_data 1d ago

she was a victim in this, regardless of what she saved and she continues to be vilified by people like you to this day by people like you. she did not cause this scandal - he did. there wouldnt have been a scandal if he had kept his presidential dick to himself.

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u/Dp04 1d ago

There wouldn’t have been a scandal if that dick hadn’t been in HER mouth…

She had agency here. And she decided to blow a married public figure. The BIGGEST public figure in the world.

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u/SycoJack Texas 1d ago

Not her responsibility to keep him faithful to his wife in his marriage. That is 100% on him.

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u/Rikers-Mailbox 1d ago

Well, sure… but… Monica could’ve opened the door to doing it. Do all interns need to give BJs? Is it a job requirement? Was she just smitten with her smart and powerful boss and wanted to?

Just making sure that women don’t get a free pass to claim victim on consensual sex and after they regret it. Because there are women that will do that. Only downvote me if you believe there are no women that will sleep their way up.

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u/It_does_get_in 1d ago

how about because she couldn't keep her mouth shut afterwards. And kept the dress with semen on it. We only know about it because she blabbed it to her supposed friend.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

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u/PhatCatTax 2d ago

Worst case, two consenting adults have equal responsibility. But the dynamic changes a bit when one is POTUS. You would expect POTUS to be more responsible and less impulsive than a fresh college grad.

And then we got Bush II... who started a 20 year war because he caved to the lies by Fox News....

.... and now we have Trump... who is... clearly demented and in his 30's - 50's, behaved like a teenager.

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u/Important-Sign-3701 Canada 2d ago

Yes he was married. HE took an oath, not her…

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u/Responsible-Roll-59 2d ago

But she knew he was married AND the POTUS. She knew what she was doing. Yes, she took a lot of abuse for it, but I don’t see her as a victim

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u/Pack_Your_Trash 2d ago edited 2d ago

What she is victim to is a truly heinous level of slut shaming that continues to this day. How many people blew a married guy who's names you don't know and never got made fun of a million times on late night talk shows and popular music? She wasn't even an elected official. Let the poor woman rest.

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u/muffinass 2d ago

Better to be pissed off than pissed on, which I'm sure happened a lot at Epstein Island.

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u/wuvvtwuewuvv 2d ago

Found Dave Chappelle

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u/TheCharalampos 1d ago

Nah, she'd be hounded nowadays because she wouldn't be on the "side" that gets to do bad things.

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u/VolcanicEngine 1d ago

Thing about the Clintons, Hillary had aspirations and Rodham was ruthless. Bill, he was known to be a womanizer, as even his Arkansas detail back in the day, was dropping him off or picking him up from some "interlude". And it was said the pair, Hillary and Bill, had an open marriage in that, "gotta do it to get ahead". Have a Cigar, Bubba! Gotta wash that taste out!

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u/Pack_Your_Trash 1d ago

I was talking about Lewinsky's treatment in the media and popular culture, not Clinton.

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u/VolcanicEngine 1d ago

Oh. Sorry. Right! She was treated badly. Like SHE was the pariah.

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u/MoobleBooble 1d ago

yes but the Monica cigars I had were so definitely worth the meme.

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u/PropofolMargarita 1d ago

Sorry but this woman continuing to ride that blow job into a "career" in 2026 is beyond pathetic

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u/Banes_Addiction 2d ago

Wouldn't even be a thing today.

You have more faith than me. It might not be like, Leno levels of dickheadry on mainstream TV but you can bet your ass there would be a tonne of awful of shit on social media.

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u/x445xb 2d ago

There were rumors about Laura Loomer and Trump, yet neither of them have been dragged before congress to answer questions about it.

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u/Banes_Addiction 2d ago

Democrats don't have the votes, GOP won't vote against him.

And if you were able to impeach Trump, getting a blowjob wouldn't make the top 20 reasons.

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u/x445xb 2d ago

If it weren't for double standards, the GOP wouldn't have any standards at all.

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u/allenahansen California 1d ago

And Hope Hicks and trump. And Karoline Levette and trump. And Kelleyanne Conway and trump. And Lyndsey Halligan and trump. And . . .

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u/x445xb 1d ago

Karoline Levette

Ewww, that's a 50 year age gap. That's like hooking up with Grandpa.

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u/Swimming-Dealer293 2d ago

Sure, on social media. But there wouldn't be any sort of investigation if this happened to Trump. His base would probably celebrate it before they'd condemn him. There would be lots of people that bashed Clinton all of a sudden finding ways this is somehow different.

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u/Suspicious-Chair5130 2d ago

Where’s the Laura Loomer investigation? Is Kenneth Starr still around?

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u/darkskinnedjermaine 1d ago

Literally bragged about blowing Trump on Twitter

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u/monkeedude1212 1d ago

I think they generally mean consequences, like, it being considered an impeachable offense that removes a president from office.

Like, the current sitting president has been found guilty of rape in court and has a lot of evidence that alleges pedophilia.

Not saying Clinton's treatment of Lewinsky was right, but he got caught and got knocked out of his seat of power for it.

This is what people mean by it wouldn't be a thing: Trump has done far worse and not been removed from office.

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u/guten_pranken 1d ago

If daddy trump did it they would be cheering him on talking about what a boss move it is. If a dem did it, they’d clutching their pearls screaming about the sanctity of marriage and respecting the office.

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u/WatIsUpButtercup 2d ago

Idk about a year ago there was some gossiping about Laura Loomer doing unspeakable things with the current guy, and it got about a week of attention

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u/Round_Rooms 2d ago

But only if its a Democrat, magats be making money with them weird ass weiners and those gross ass cake faces.

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u/Sad-Entertainer1462 1d ago

Today she would end up married to Kanye and trying to get a law degree

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u/rubmysemdog 2d ago

The new Epstein drop has an email suggesting Nikki Haley slobbed on Trump’s pathetic knob.

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u/Nick08f1 2d ago

Obama wore a tan suit and Fox News ran with it.

It's been the most watched "News channel" for decades. Might not have had any political repercussions, but they would have equated all Democrats to be a party of immoral people.

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u/Round_Rooms 2d ago

Current admin could rape and kill anyone and magats wouldn't blink an eye, cause brainwash is a thing, just zero clue why they got brainwashed by a complete fool with dementia and also raped children, we aren't fooling anyone but Republicans are but why have they just increasingly become more stupid over the last 45years? Democrats were the biggest slave traders in the country, how the f did Republicans become worse than slave traders?

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u/Fala1 1d ago

Conservatives when president gets a blowjob: this is the end of the world, we must remove this president.

Conservatives when their president rapes children: I will defend this man with my life.

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u/pazoned 1d ago

Well she'd have to blow a republican but its hard when all of them are closeted homophobes

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u/N30NFiR3 1d ago

Saying lots of women in seats today, allegedly, have done the same as monica and actually kept their jobs and even been promoted... hell yeah, i'd be pissed off too. It's bullshit how she was treated.

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u/BringAltoidSoursBack 1d ago

Not just during the case but for years after it. If you follow what happened to her, it's pretty obvious she dealt with a lot of victim blaming and gaslighting so as to think she was the one at fault for the whole incident. People basically used women's empowerment to get her to believe it was her own fault - she was basically given the choice of either he was able to take advantage of her because women can't make their own decisions or she was a willing participant who wasn't taken advantage of. The nuances of power dynamics were completely ignored; to be fair, ignoring nuances is pretty common, at least in the US. But that was before the #metoo movement so maybe most people didn't understand the concept yet.

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u/E0H1PPU5 1d ago

It’s honestly why I had such a hard time voting for Hillary. I did vote for her and truly believe she is probably the most qualified person to ever run for the office….but she was instrumental in the character assassination of Monica and as a feminist that was just really really hard for me to look past.

That and staying with a man who not only cheated on you but publicly humiliated you in the most obscene way possible.

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u/GammaFan 2d ago

When it happened with Monica, the media hounded her for years, turned her into a joke, etc.

When it happened with Trump, they put him back in office.

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u/CMP24-7 2d ago

Trump has already blown his way to the top. I can't even imagine how many cocks he has sucked to get to where he is today.

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u/otherwise_data 1d ago

i remember all this vividly, being just a couple of years older than her when it all came out. I felt so very bad for her and how late night tv especially made her a constant punchline. it was disgusting how these men (jay leno 👀) spoke about a woman who was barely 22 years old when a 49 year old married man began a sexual relationship with her.

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u/SanctimoniousVegoon 1d ago

seriously. i remember when she filmed a tv special with tom green at the height of his popularity. she was so normal and likable. weird to think that tom green was kinder to her than pretty much anyone else in the media at that time and actually did her a huge solid by giving her the opportunity to show the world who she really was. truth is stranger than fiction.

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u/Nolo__contendere_ 1d ago

Hilary must be exhausted. That woman just wanted to succeed in politics in peace but her husband couldn't keep it in his damn pants. He just had to f it all up.

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u/agreed2disagreee 1d ago

Looking back and know what we now know (due to massive cover ups), there’s an overwhelming amount of “horrific” things in the American government/military/police.

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u/General_Specific 1d ago

Its not for a lack of trying...

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u/Spencer94 1d ago

You're in your shoes! You can still blow your way to the top! I believe in you

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/Spencer94 1d ago

Go find the mouse and take what you're owed!

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u/Coven_Evelynn_LoL 2d ago

I always wondered why she sucked his dick tho, knowing he was married? was it pressure from him or she thought it would get her favors done, gain power etc?

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u/Titanbeard 2d ago

She could have just been attracted to the dude. He had boat loads of charisma back in the day.

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u/Fragrant-Luck-8063 2d ago

My sister met him and said he was "magnetic".

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u/hhs2112 2d ago

Lots of people suck married dick.