Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Joining us now live from Capitol Hill is Republican Senator
Speaker 2: John Kennedy of Louisiana. He's a member of the Senate
Speaker 2: Banking Committee as well as the Budget and Judiciary Committee. Senator,
Speaker 2: Welcome to Bloomberg TV and Radio. It's great to have
Speaker 2: you on balance of power, especially on a FED day,
Speaker 2: of all days. If the FED didn't hike today, are
Speaker 2: you concerned that they might have to do so just
Speaker 2: ahead of the midterms.
Speaker 3: Well, they might. I guess I'd make two points. Number
Speaker 3: one a shot blue shide of the big picture. I
Speaker 3: wouldn't trade the American economy right now for any economy
Speaker 3: in the world, not China, not Germany, not anybody in Europe,
Speaker 3: not Canada.
Speaker 1: Number two.
Speaker 3: I think the FED didn't hike because they don't know
Speaker 3: what to do now. They're not gonna come out in
Speaker 3: front of the American people and Shay, we don't know
Speaker 3: what the hell to do. But they're a clairvoyant. They
Speaker 3: have to wait for the future like everybody else.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: The FED under Chairman Powell cut rates because they were
Speaker 3: worried about the labor market.
Speaker 1: Labor market's okay, it's.
Speaker 3: Not great, but we had we're not adding a ton
Speaker 3: of new jobs, but nobody's being laid out relatively laid
Speaker 3: off relatively speaking. But we've got inflation and it's caused
Speaker 3: about three things, and no particular Uh. Number one, all
Speaker 3: this AI spending. They're spending billions of dollars. I hope
Speaker 3: those guys know what they're doing, because they got to
Speaker 3: pay the money back. Number two to unless their extent tariffs.
Speaker 3: When when imports cost more, that contributes to inflation. But
Speaker 3: number three, the energy costs. I mean, you don't you know,
Speaker 3: you don't have to be on Stein's cousin to to
Speaker 3: figure that out. And so they want to just watch
Speaker 3: it and wait a little bit more. And that's what
Speaker 3: I would have done, just wait and see it and
Speaker 3: get a little bit more data. But let me say this, look,
Speaker 3: inflation is pernicious. You cannot let it get out of control.
Speaker 3: And I know the Fed supposedly has a dual role inflation,
Speaker 3: price stability, and full employment, but its main role is inflation.
Speaker 3: And they're going to have to if we don't get
Speaker 3: control of it, they're going to have to raise rates.
Speaker 3: Now I'm not saying that's going to make me happy,
Speaker 3: but they can't let this inflation get out of control.
Speaker 4: A lot of folks thought he would hike that the
Speaker 4: FED would hike rates. Today, I can't imagine what the
Speaker 4: market would have done in that world. Senator, what do
Speaker 4: you make of the performance today? Could he have communicated
Speaker 4: things differently? Because this market reaction is viscerally You've got
Speaker 4: a thirty year at five point two percent. I'm kind
Speaker 4: of scared to think of what's going to happen tomorrow morning.
Speaker 3: Well, let me say it again, the people at the
Speaker 3: FED are not clairvoyant. They have to wait on the
Speaker 3: future like the rest of us.
Speaker 1: Number two.
Speaker 3: I don't want to overstate this, but sometimes the economists
Speaker 3: that at the FED remind me of those late night
Speaker 3: psychic hotlines.
Speaker 1: Since you see on TV. I mean, they're about as
Speaker 1: accurate because they just don't know.
Speaker 3: But the Chairman can't come out today and say, hem
Speaker 3: if I know, you know, we know inflation is a problem,
Speaker 3: but we're not sure it's going to come down because
Speaker 3: we're not sure about what's going to happen in Iran.
Speaker 1: But that's the truth. That's what's going on.
Speaker 2: Well, on the subject of Iran, Senator, as I'm sure
Speaker 2: you well know, President Trump is threatening to retaliate against
Speaker 2: Iran after what the US described as a surprise attempted
Speaker 2: attack on US assets in Jordan. If we're responding to
Speaker 2: Iranian attacks, as Sentcom said was the case in the
Speaker 2: previous twelve days of strikes, we're just coming off of,
Speaker 2: is the US really in control in this theater.
Speaker 3: Very supportive of what President Trump has done in Iran.
Speaker 3: I think it was something we had to do. That's
Speaker 3: point one. Point two. There are limits to American air power.
Speaker 3: I don't have the intelligence that the President has, so
Speaker 3: I don't know about the additional strikes. But I think
Speaker 3: the two most effective things we can do right now.
Speaker 1: To get road to.
Speaker 3: Control to behave is number one, the sanctions on a
Speaker 3: sale of oil and number two that blockade. I think
Speaker 3: we're just going to have to starve them out now.
Speaker 3: That's going to be painful because energy prices could go
Speaker 3: even higher, and nobody wants that. I don't want that,
Speaker 3: but we we can't. Our credibilities at stake, and Iran
Speaker 3: is dangerous and we have to do something about it.
Speaker 3: I don't support putting true on the ground, and I'm
Speaker 3: not convinced. But again, I don't have the information that
Speaker 3: all these extra strikes are doing any good. But I
Speaker 3: know one thing at Blockade. If you leave it on
Speaker 3: long enough, Iron's going to have to start shutting down
Speaker 3: its wells because it's got no place to put its oil.
Speaker 3: And once Iran shuts down those old, old wells, they
Speaker 3: may not be able to get them going again. And
Speaker 3: I would if we can stay of the course a
Speaker 3: few more months, I think Iron will be easier, not easy,
Speaker 3: but easier to deal with. But you also have to
Speaker 3: remember that you're dealing with the son of Sam or
Speaker 3: Charles Mansk. These people are not just modeling insane.
Speaker 4: Well, that's why you have the chorus of call them
Speaker 4: iron hawks, who say that let's not play around at
Speaker 4: the negotiating table. We need to finish the job militarily. Senator,
Speaker 4: I know you're paying a little less than the national
Speaker 4: average in Louisiana said three sixty eight according to Triple A.
Speaker 4: But if there's a few more months of this, that
Speaker 4: puts a smack dab right around election day, Right, what
Speaker 4: does that mean for the midterms?
Speaker 1: Well, it'll be painful as hell.
Speaker 3: But number two, you can't you can't always look I'm mindful.
Speaker 3: This place is political as hell. Politics is in the
Speaker 3: blood of everybody here, kind of like herpes. Not me.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think sometimes.
Speaker 3: You've got to you gotta you've got to try to.
Speaker 1: Do the right thing.
Speaker 3: And I wish the President and his team could do
Speaker 3: a little better job of messaging about why we're in
Speaker 3: Iran and why we're staying the course. But he's the
Speaker 3: president and I'm not well.
Speaker 2: The President, of course, wants people around him that are
Speaker 2: of his selection when it comes to his cabinet, and
Speaker 2: he has told you and your colleagues on the Ishara
Speaker 2: Commedian Committee in the United States Senate that he would
Speaker 2: like Todd blanche to go from acting to the Attorney
Speaker 2: General of the United States. To your knowledge, Senator, will
Speaker 2: you be voting on his confirmation in the committee tomorrow?
Speaker 2: What is the status?
Speaker 3: Well, if I'm cold to vote, I'm going to vote yes,
Speaker 3: and I'll be glad to explain why if you care
Speaker 3: to hear it.
Speaker 1: Do you expect too, I don't know if we're going
Speaker 1: to have a vote.
Speaker 3: John Cornyn has requested the paperwork to resolve this issue
Speaker 3: of the Anti Weaponization Fund. John's a good senator.
Speaker 1: I know him well.
Speaker 3: He's he's a he's serious as an aneurysm about this.
Speaker 1: He's not going to back down.
Speaker 3: And if I were mister Blanche, I would give Corning
Speaker 3: what he wants. If he doesn't, he's not going to
Speaker 3: be confirmed. I'm not saying I agree with Senator Cornyn,
Speaker 3: but I know Senator Cornyn and he's not backing down.
Speaker 3: So that's where we all are. If I had to bet,
Speaker 3: i'd say we're not voting.
Speaker 4: Wow, well, this is quite a moment we're in, senator,
Speaker 4: And I understand that when you're not in Washington, you're
Speaker 4: a substitute teacher at McKinley Magnet Middle School teaching government
Speaker 4: and civics to public school students. Talk to us like
Speaker 4: your class for a moment.
Speaker 1: Well is this going?
Speaker 3: Well, Senator, I've been doing this for fifteen years, and
Speaker 3: I substitute teach. I try to do it three times
Speaker 3: a year. We need substitutes badly. They'll even take politicians.
Speaker 3: You ought to try. You ought to do it, and
Speaker 3: it'd be a real substante.
Speaker 4: What's our civics lesson?
Speaker 1: Professor?
Speaker 4: How is the system working right now?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 1: Every school's different, if you're lucky. No, I mean Washington.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, I mean Washington.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm not going to tell the kids this, but
Speaker 3: right now, as we're talking off the air, this place
Speaker 3: is a total cock up. As they say in England,
Speaker 3: it looks like the happy hour at an airport Chili's.
Speaker 3: There is no plan right now. I say that gently,
Speaker 3: but there is no plan. President wants one thing, a
Speaker 3: majority leader, who I support, wants another. Only the majority
Speaker 3: leader can put a bill on the floor. If it
Speaker 3: were up to me, I do it differently. I would
Speaker 3: put I mean, there's this mantra of we've got to
Speaker 3: work it out with the Democrats and we've all got
Speaker 3: to be happy. Look that's where that's where God made votes.
Speaker 3: You're not gonna make everybody happy. And I'd vote on
Speaker 3: the budget resolution. I'd call a vote on the Ron
Speaker 3: sanctions bill the final vote. I'd vote on a clean
Speaker 3: Sea R. If Senator Schumer wants to shut government down,
Speaker 3: he can vote no on a clean Sea R. I
Speaker 3: would vote Lafaiza renewal, I would have. I'd vote on
Speaker 3: all of our pending business. And I'm prepare to stay
Speaker 3: as long as we have to, if that means missing.
Speaker 1: The August break, so be it. We all to get
Speaker 1: our work done.
Speaker 3: But for six months I've been in meeting after meeting
Speaker 3: after meeting. That could have been an email to discuss
Speaker 3: these bills and who's happy and who's sad? What are
Speaker 3: my Democratic friends going to do? At some point, you
Speaker 3: got to vote, and we're not doing nearly enough voting
Speaker 3: and way too much talking. Well, in Louisiana, we'd say
Speaker 3: we're doing a lot of a lot of chopping, but
Speaker 3: no chips are flying.
Speaker 4: Well, I'll tell you what, I'd love to meet you
Speaker 4: in that classroom someday. I want to hear what you're
Speaker 4: saying to the students. And I'm sure you'd love to
Speaker 4: get back to Katahula as soon as.
Speaker 3: These kids are great. These kids are great. We learned
Speaker 3: something every time I do it.
Speaker 1: Well, we're glad to have you, Senator.
Speaker 4: We've been looking forward to this for longer than you know,
Speaker 4: and I hope this won't be the last opportunity were again.
Speaker 4: I'm Kennedy of Louisiana. Thank you for being with us
Speaker 4: on Blueberg TV and radio. It's great pleasure.