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Anti -- hands off, really, deregulation. >> right, pro business. >> pro business. >> right. >> and now here they are attempting to block the at&t/time warner merger -- of course, the parent company of cnn. interesting, because the top cop on antitrust legislation, he said in september of last year this about this very deal. and makan delrahim is an expert on this very subject and now in charge of the case. >> this is more of what we would call a vertical merger, a content with distribution, rather than two competitors merging. so, i anticipate that the fcc will have little, if any role, and it...

Call a vertical merger, a content with distribution, rather than two competitors merging. so, i anticipate that the fcc will have little, if any role, and it would be a pure antitrust. it shouldn't be, i think -- you know, just the sheer size of it and the fact that it's media i think will get a lot of attention. however, i don't see this as a major antitrust problem. >> that, of course, was delrahim long before he was in charge of this case, working for the trump administration, but you'll likely see that in court. at&t chief randall stephenson says necessary demand for cnn to be sold off as ...

So what's striking about this is that it is a departure from both the more liberal antitrust policies of the obama administration and it's a really big departure from republican administrations which tend to be more hands-off when it comes to antitrust enforcement. >> and brian stelter who is back with us, at one point this was a relatively uncontroversial merger. let's listen to what the head of the justice department's antitrust division said. this was last year of 2016. >> this is more of what we would call a vertical merger, a content with distribution rather than two competitors merging. ...

Merging. so i anticipate that the fcc will have little, if any role, and it would be a pure antitrust. it shouldn't be, i think -- you know, just the sheer size of it and the fact that it's media i think will get a lot of attention. however, i don't see this as a major antitrust problem. >> -- make of the trump administration's role in the business world now. typically, this would be something that would be hands off. >> absolutely. if we look at the precedent on this issue, this is not someplace where the government has intervened. there is a debate about this, and there are proponents and op...