Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Sound on podcast. Catch us
Speaker 1: live weekdays at one Eastern on Bloomberg dot com, the
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Speaker 2: President Biden is back on vacation at Lake Tahoe as
Speaker 2: the White House prepares what is expected to be billions
Speaker 2: of dollars in additional disaster relief funding, made more urgent,
Speaker 2: of course, by the wildfires in Hawaii. That's on top
Speaker 2: of a separate request coming for extra money in Ukraine.
Speaker 2: And helping us put all of this together is Bloomberg
Speaker 2: White House correspondent Jordan Fabian, And it's great to have
Speaker 2: you here.
Speaker 3: Jordan.
Speaker 4: Thank you. You're just back from the trip to Hawaii.
Speaker 2: You were on Air Force one for that trip with
Speaker 2: President Biden, so we might as well start there. I'd
Speaker 2: like to ask you a little bit about what you saw,
Speaker 2: but importantly, the President is going to be asking for
Speaker 2: billions of dollars for FEMA was already in need of money.
Speaker 2: How much worse did this make the financial situation?
Speaker 3: Joe? It seems to get worse by the day.
Speaker 5: Just being on the ground there, the pictures in video
Speaker 5: don't do it justice the damage. It's as if you
Speaker 5: know a foreign army had dropped incendiary bombs on the city.
Speaker 5: There's just nothing left and it all went away in
Speaker 5: an instant. So you're not even not only talking about rebuilding,
Speaker 5: but in the moment you're still trying to recover people
Speaker 5: who may have died.
Speaker 3: You need to take away all of.
Speaker 5: The hazardous material from all the buildings that burned down,
Speaker 5: and then you need to start thinking about rebuilding.
Speaker 2: So this is going to take years, and it's going
Speaker 2: to take billions and billions of dollars. Billions is what
Speaker 2: we're talking about here. And all we keep hearing about
Speaker 2: is that the government is about to shut down because
Speaker 2: nobody can agree on just basic government funding.
Speaker 4: So what are we in for here? I didn't even
Speaker 4: ask yet about Ukraine?
Speaker 3: Right, It's going to be very complicated.
Speaker 5: September, as you just laid out the fiscal year and
Speaker 5: September thirtieth, Congress needs to figure out the budget for
Speaker 5: the next year, and that you know, that's on discretionary spending,
Speaker 5: all the all the line items. And then in addition
Speaker 5: to that, they're talking about this supplementary package for twelve
Speaker 5: billion dollars in disaster relief, and then also that about
Speaker 5: thirteen billion dollars is in there for Ukraine military assistance.
Speaker 3: And so the thought now, you know.
Speaker 5: People hypothetically speaking, that that money might get attached to
Speaker 5: a stopgap bill to kind of stop the government from
Speaker 5: shutting down right while they figure out the bigger questions
Speaker 5: about the federal budget.
Speaker 2: And while Speaker McCarthy and others in the Freedom Caucus say, no,
Speaker 2: it's got a clean cr how's this going?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 5: This, yeah, the House Freedom Caucus, which is this radical
Speaker 5: group of conservatives in the House who have really forced
Speaker 5: McCarthy's hand throughout his entire speakership, say they want things
Speaker 5: attached like, you know, border new border security provisions, you know,
Speaker 5: stripping money from the perhaps the prosecutors investigating Donald Trump,
Speaker 5: and some things that Democrats just won't go for. So
Speaker 5: that complicates the immediate question of whether they will be
Speaker 5: a shutdown.
Speaker 3: Not to mention the broader budget debate.
Speaker 2: White House has two separate I know we're getting wonky here.
Speaker 2: What are these two separate requests or one big ask
Speaker 2: for disaster relief in Ukraine?
Speaker 3: Right now, it's one big ass.
Speaker 5: The entire package is forty billion dollars, and that has
Speaker 5: a lot in it, you know, a lot of emergency requests.
Speaker 3: Now there's a chance that could get split.
Speaker 5: And now I want to throw something else at you, Joe,
Speaker 5: which as I talked to Senator Brian Shotts of Hawaii
Speaker 5: when you're out there, and he was saying that the
Speaker 5: delegation is actually thinking about about making an additional request
Speaker 5: just for Hawaii because the building costs could be so high.
Speaker 5: Right now, the disaster estimate is five point five billion dollars,
Speaker 5: and if you think about the twelve billion dollar figure,
Speaker 5: that's almost half of that. And that's for every natural
Speaker 5: disaster all around the country for a whole year. So
Speaker 5: we're talking a lot of moving parts here.
Speaker 2: So this was quite a trip. The President's not getting
Speaker 2: a lot of credit for it. I just keep seeing
Speaker 2: stuff on Twitter's falling asleep and a meeting. Whether that
Speaker 2: I don't know if that actually happened. The narrative is
Speaker 2: that he was talking about how hot the ground was
Speaker 2: and that he almost lost his corvette in a fire.
Speaker 4: You were there.
Speaker 3: Is that fair?
Speaker 2: After all the people he met, with all the touring
Speaker 2: that he did. Realizing it was later than some people
Speaker 2: might have wanted.
Speaker 5: Yeah, look, I think a lot of what the president
Speaker 5: struggling with is that first impression he made when you know,
Speaker 5: he spoke, He spoke about the fires, and he took
Speaker 5: five days in between talking about it again. And in
Speaker 5: between is when he was asked about the death toll
Speaker 5: and said no comments. So a lot of people have
Speaker 5: that in their mind. I think a lot of the
Speaker 5: things on the ground with him were cherry picked. The
Speaker 5: thing about the ground being hot. He was actually meeting
Speaker 5: a cadaver dog who's been going through the wreckage wearing boots,
Speaker 5: wearing boots, and so you know, that's what he was
Speaker 5: commenting on. And you know, we drove in his motorcade
Speaker 5: along the road. You know, there were certainly some Trump
Speaker 5: supporters there, people raising their fingers, middle fingers to Biden.
Speaker 5: There were, yeah, there were some of that, but there
Speaker 5: were a lot of people who were all so excited
Speaker 5: to see him. We were in a community meeting where
Speaker 5: he gave some remarks about how the US will rebuild
Speaker 5: the way the people now he wanted to be rebuilt,
Speaker 5: and he actually stuck around for over an hour afterwards
Speaker 5: to talk to people one on one.
Speaker 3: And so, yeah, there's definitely a lot of people.
Speaker 5: Look, there's a lot of people who are angry about
Speaker 5: what's happening, and so there's gonna be a lot of
Speaker 5: raw motion. But he did go out there and try
Speaker 5: and make a good impression. Yeah, understood.
Speaker 4: Did you see this from the air or was it
Speaker 4: by traveling?
Speaker 3: We saw both, Joe.
Speaker 5: So at first we were in helicopters accompanying the Presidential
Speaker 5: helicopter Marine one. We did a flyover of Leahina, which
Speaker 5: is the historic town there that was the hardest hit.
Speaker 3: And then we landed and drove.
Speaker 5: In to Front Street, which was really the epicenter of
Speaker 5: the damage. And they were just as I said, good,
Speaker 5: entire city blocks just gone twist and metal. You can
Speaker 5: still smell the smoke in the air. The President spoke
Speaker 5: up beside the famous Bandyan tree there that's been standing
Speaker 5: for one hundred and fifty years that's really become a
Speaker 5: symbol for the community, and he used that as sort
Speaker 5: of a metaphor to say, you know, this tree may
Speaker 5: have been scorched, but we will rebuild.
Speaker 4: I'm sure you'll never forget it.
Speaker 2: And I really this is one reason why I really
Speaker 2: wanted to talk to you is that story is being told.
Speaker 4: Terribly well right now, so I appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Jordan Fabian many thanks for talking to us as always
Speaker 2: here on Bloomberg sound On My Pleasure.
Speaker 1: Jeff, thanks, you're listening to the Bloomberg Sound On podcast.
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Speaker 2: As we move to the Congressman looking forward to talking
Speaker 2: with Congressman Seth Molton, the Democrat from Massachusetts with us
Speaker 2: here on the fastest show in politics. Congressman, thanks for joining.
Speaker 2: It's great to have you back. Of course, your view
Speaker 2: is a Democrat from Massachusetts, about the whole debate tonight
Speaker 2: might be interesting, and I'm going to ask you about that,
Speaker 2: but I do want to start with the matter at
Speaker 2: hand here. As we were discussing with Jordan, he's just
Speaker 2: back from Hawaii, he's seen the damage firsthand. And as
Speaker 2: we juggle these requests, the supplemental requests for billions and
Speaker 2: disaster relief for Hawaii on top of what is needed
Speaker 2: in Ukraine, hearing threats of a government shut down. Do
Speaker 2: you see any of this actually being approved in Congress?
Speaker 6: Well, Joe, first of all, it's great to be back,
Speaker 6: thanks for having me. And yes, I think that people
Speaker 6: understand that we need to get aid to Hawaii. Most people,
Speaker 6: including most Republicans in Congress, understand that we need to
Speaker 6: get aid to Ukraine. They're just afraid to say it
Speaker 6: publicly because they get so much backlash from the far right.
Speaker 6: The question, of course, is how long it will take
Speaker 6: to actually work out a deal and the way that
Speaker 6: the far right extremists in the Freedom Caucus have a
Speaker 6: stranglehold on Kevin McCarthy's speakership. That's I mean, you said
Speaker 6: it yourself. That's exactly the problem here, that's the political
Speaker 6: obstacle to getting these things done.
Speaker 2: Is this all the same conversation congressman about funding the
Speaker 2: government as well as these supplemental requests? Or could it
Speaker 2: be that congre risks emergency a disaster relief through for instance,
Speaker 2: and then has a longer argument about funding the next
Speaker 2: fiscal year.
Speaker 6: Well, there are a lot of different ways that could
Speaker 6: this The gould play out but the problem is you
Speaker 6: don't have reasonable people in the room. And let's also
Speaker 6: step back a second, Joe. The reason we're here in
Speaker 6: the first place is because of the total dysfunction of
Speaker 6: the Republican House, which hasn't passed hardly any appropriations bills.
Speaker 6: I mean, I said in the House Armed Services Committee,
Speaker 6: and one thing that we hear year after year after
Speaker 6: year is you can't just give us continuing resolutions that
Speaker 6: basically just copy last year's budget for this year because
Speaker 6: they can't make any changes. They can't innovate, they can't
Speaker 6: invest in new things that we need to keep our
Speaker 6: nation safe. Guess what the world changes, technology changes. We
Speaker 6: don't want to be buying the same weapons systems, the
Speaker 6: same ammunition, whatever it is, the same computers, the same
Speaker 6: software that we bought a year ago, five years ago,
Speaker 6: ten years ago. I mean, that's common sense, and yet
Speaker 6: we're debating whether we can just get a continuing resolution
Speaker 6: through that in and of itself, is not what we need.
Speaker 6: We're in this place to begin with because under Republican
Speaker 6: leadership of the House, they can't even pass basic appropriations
Speaker 6: bills to fulfill the budgetary needs and requests of For example,
Speaker 6: the Department of Defense, and even the things that we
Speaker 6: in Congress have already approved in our debate through the committees,
Speaker 6: like sitting on the House Armed Services Committee. We have
Speaker 6: a very bipartisan bill come out to fund the Department
Speaker 6: of Defense. But if we can't update the budget to
Speaker 6: meet the requirements of that bill, because they're just going
Speaker 6: to copy what we had last year, they can't even
Speaker 6: pass the appropriations bills. That's a terrible place to begin with,
Speaker 6: and now it's looking like it will be even worse
Speaker 6: because they can't even do that.
Speaker 4: How much.
Speaker 2: Well, we've got a supplemental request as well for funding
Speaker 2: in Ukraine, and I know that's becoming a more difficult
Speaker 2: conversation and some doubts in the intelligence community about whether
Speaker 2: this kinter offensive was worth the investment, whether it might be.
Speaker 4: A partial failure.
Speaker 2: Should these be pulled apart so we can deal with
Speaker 2: the matter in Hawaii and deal with FEMA separately from
Speaker 2: the war in Ukraine.
Speaker 6: I think realistically they should not be pulled apart, because
Speaker 6: the only way that you're going to get the kind
Speaker 6: of Republican support you need for Ukraine. Even though like
Speaker 6: I said, there's a lot of hypocrisy going on here
Speaker 6: because behind the scenes, most of these Republicans are supportive
Speaker 6: of Ukraine. They understand how important supporting Ukraine is for
Speaker 6: our national security and happy to go into that in detail.
Speaker 6: But the point is that despite the fact that behind
Speaker 6: closed doors a lot of Republicans support Ukraine, they're not
Speaker 6: going to do so publicly. They're real hypocritical about it,
Speaker 6: and so therefore it's really important that you do put
Speaker 6: these together in a larger funding package so that we
Speaker 6: can get it across the finish line. That might not
Speaker 6: be the answer people like to hear, but that's the
Speaker 6: political reality of the dysfunction that we have right now
Speaker 6: in the Republican Caucus.
Speaker 2: It's hard to not discuss the political reality in Russia
Speaker 2: as we talk about Ukraine. Congressmen, we have breaking news
Speaker 2: right now from Interfacts that have any Pregosion.
Speaker 4: The Wagner Head were former Wagner Heads.
Speaker 2: Has been listed among passengers aboard a private jet that
Speaker 2: has just crashed in Russia. Inter Facts reporting this citing
Speaker 2: Russian aviation authorities. This is just breaking news. We've heard
Speaker 2: a lot of things about mister Progosion, but if this
Speaker 2: is real, Congressman, we had folks on this program saying
Speaker 2: he should avoid tall buildings after what happened with Vladimir Putin.
Speaker 3: What does this tell us?
Speaker 6: I mean, frankly, this is like the least surprising news
Speaker 6: of the day, because we all expected that he wouldn't
Speaker 6: last long after threatening Vladimir Putin, and some people said, oh,
Speaker 6: he'll survive a year, some people said less than that.
Speaker 6: But there's no question that Putin's out to kill his rivals,
Speaker 6: and it sounds like that's exactly what he's done to
Speaker 6: Progosion today.
Speaker 2: Remarkable if this turns out to be true next week.
Speaker 2: In our remaining moment here, Congressman, I know something that
Speaker 2: is very important to you and your colleagues on the
Speaker 2: Armed Services Committee.
Speaker 4: You, as a combat.
Speaker 2: Veteran and a marine, the anniversary of our withdrawal from Afghanistan,
Speaker 2: bringing back some tough memories of the war and for
Speaker 2: the administration. What are your thoughts as we approach that day.
Speaker 6: Well, it's a solid anniversary because it was a disastrous withdrawal,
Speaker 6: and I'm here as a Democrat not afraid to say that,
Speaker 6: you know, so, don't think I'm just a partisan critic here,
Speaker 6: I'm I'm bipartisan here. Of course, there were failures under
Speaker 6: multiple administrations. President Trump clearly had no plan for the
Speaker 6: withdrawal whatsoever, but nonetheless it happened on President Biden's watch,
Speaker 6: and the Biden administration still has a lot of work
Speaker 6: to do to help clean up the mess. We have
Speaker 6: some estimates around two hundred thousand allies that we served alongside,
Speaker 6: that we pledged our lives to protect, that we've just
Speaker 6: left behind, and they're being hunted down by the Taliban,
Speaker 6: as we talk in the radio today, every single day
Speaker 6: and night. The Taliban are after these guys because they
Speaker 6: worked with us, because they risked their lives, not just
Speaker 6: for Afghanistan, but for the United States of America. They
Speaker 6: did a lot more than most Americans will ever do
Speaker 6: for our country, and we got to get them out,
Speaker 6: and the process is moving too slowly. There are veterans
Speaker 6: across the country, and I should say across the world,
Speaker 6: because of course it was an international coalition over there.
Speaker 6: I've got friends in the British military who're trying to
Speaker 6: get their Afghan allies, for example, and so the veteran
Speaker 6: community is very upset about this situation because we don't
Speaker 6: leave people behind and yet here we have, though it's
Speaker 6: still within the power of this administration to get these
Speaker 6: people out. It's hard. There's a lot of euroaucracy. You've
Speaker 6: got to contend with the domestic politics of Republicans, who are,
Speaker 6: you know, refuse any immigration whatsoever. But this is a
Speaker 6: place where among veterans there's a strong bipartisan consensus that
Speaker 6: we've got to get these guys out, we've got to
Speaker 6: protect them and their families, and we're not going to
Speaker 6: rest until that job is done.
Speaker 2: We talked around the anniversary of the Iraq War invasion
Speaker 2: about the authorization for the use of military force. This
Speaker 2: is still on your to do list, Congressman, When does
Speaker 2: it happen?
Speaker 6: There's a lot that's still on my to do list,
Speaker 6: I'm sorry to say, but you know, the point is
Speaker 6: that it's Congress's responsibility to have a real serious debate
Speaker 6: about sending young Americans to fight and die in our wars,
Speaker 6: and Congress is just completely pushed aside that responsibility by
Speaker 6: just having administrations, again democratic and Republican administrations, just go
Speaker 6: back to these authorizations or the use of military force
Speaker 6: there were past twenty years ago, in a totally different world,
Speaker 6: and that's because the colleagues of mine are afraid to
Speaker 6: just have the debate before the American people about whether
Speaker 6: we should have troops in these places overseas. Just like
Speaker 6: so many Republicans right now to support Ukraine and classified briefings,
Speaker 6: but then go out on box news and say that
Speaker 6: they don't want to see more money going to Ukraine.
Speaker 6: I mean, they're just lying because we know that what
Speaker 6: they really believe or really understand. But the point is
Speaker 6: we've got to have some political couradge heare to have
Speaker 6: this real debate. We owe that to the American people,
Speaker 6: whose sons and daughters we asked to fight, and most
Speaker 6: of all, we owe it to the troops who were
Speaker 6: telling to go put their lives.
Speaker 2: On the line.
Speaker 6: So this is a place again where veterans on both
Speaker 6: sides of the aisle tend to agree, and you've got
Speaker 6: a bipartisan consensus that we have to have these political debates.
Speaker 6: But under Democratic leadership of the House, under Republican leadership
Speaker 6: of the House, saving you say the same thing for
Speaker 6: the Senate, it basically hasn't happened in twenty years.
Speaker 4: Twenty years.
Speaker 2: I'll end with this Congressman, and I appreciate your time today.
Speaker 2: We've gone a little bit over here, but everyone's talking
Speaker 2: about the debate, and I suspect that that Afghan withdrawal
Speaker 2: will come up, along with funding for Ukraine and a
Speaker 2: number of things that we've talked about.
Speaker 4: Here are you watching? What are you watching for?
Speaker 6: Look, I'm not going to watch this first debate. I'm
Speaker 6: going to get the you know, I'll read the reports
Speaker 6: from you and others the day after to see what
Speaker 6: I should know. I think I'm going to take my
Speaker 6: kids out to dinner because I'm home for a change,
Speaker 6: which is not all that common in this job. But look,
Speaker 6: this is basically a circus when it should be a
Speaker 6: really serious debate, and there's going to be everybody's talking.
Speaker 6: Everybody's just going to be talking about what this means
Speaker 6: in terms of Trump, when they should be talking about
Speaker 6: what they're going to do for the American people. And
Speaker 6: I think that's a good question that anyone watching the
Speaker 6: debate should take into this this circus. If that's what
Speaker 6: it is, you'll hear a lot of complaints. But the
Speaker 6: question everyone should ask is what's your plan? What are
Speaker 6: you going to do to actually change things? Don't just
Speaker 6: complain about whatever political hot button issue of the day is.
Speaker 6: Ask how these candidates are actually going to lead. That's
Speaker 6: the question that we should ask.
Speaker 2: Hope you have a good dinner with the kids on
Speaker 2: the North Shore. Congressman Seth Moulton, Democrat from Massachusetts. He
Speaker 2: serves on the House Armed Services Committee, among others, including.
Speaker 4: The China Select Committee. We thank you as always.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Sound On podcast. Catch us
Speaker 1: live weekdays at one Eastern on Bloomberg dot com, the
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app and the Bloomberg Business app, or listen on
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Speaker 2: Kayleie, we knew that Rudy Giuliani was in Atlanta. He
Speaker 2: flew from New York this morning saying I'm a big boy,
Speaker 2: I can handle it. And apparently he does now have
Speaker 2: a bond for his release.
Speaker 7: Yeah, this is great reporting from our Eric Larson, who
Speaker 7: works on our legal coverage here at Bloomberg. Apparently bond
Speaker 7: is one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in this case
Speaker 7: in Georgia. Of course, a lot of the bond deals
Speaker 7: we've seen coming through, like Sidney Powell earlier, around one
Speaker 7: hundred thousand dollars for former President Trump, who we expect
Speaker 7: to appear in Fulton County tomorrow.
Speaker 4: It's two hundred grand, two hundred thousand and four.
Speaker 2: The former president here is Rudy Giuliani, of course, the
Speaker 2: former mayor of New York, walking out of his apartment
Speaker 2: this morning on his way to the jet, where he
Speaker 2: was greeted by a group of I don't know.
Speaker 8: If I flee today, but if I do, I plead
Speaker 8: not guilty and I get photographed. Isn't that nice? A
Speaker 8: mugshot for the man who probably put the worst criminals
Speaker 8: of the twentieth century in jail. You find a prosecutor
Speaker 8: who has a better record of mine in the last
Speaker 8: hundred years. I bet you own or a mayor, they're
Speaker 8: going to figurd to degrade themselves by doing a mug
Speaker 8: shot of me.
Speaker 4: A mug shot. Indeed, that's going to go for Donald
Speaker 4: Trump as well.
Speaker 7: It's interesting that he chooses to highlight his record as
Speaker 7: a prosecutor, because, of course he used the Rico Act, yes,
Speaker 7: and a lot of different individuals, including going after all
Speaker 7: five leaders of the Five Families at once several decades ago.
Speaker 7: And now here he is being charged with a violation
Speaker 7: of the real Act in Georgia's.
Speaker 2: Incredible stuff, and is Rick Davis reminded us last hour
Speaker 2: the man who invented the purp Walk as we know it,
Speaker 2: taking CEOs out of their offices in handcuffs, parading them
Speaker 2: before the press. It's just just an incredible moment, if
Speaker 2: not an ironic one. Sydney Powell, by the way, still
Speaker 2: set to unleash the Kraken has bond set at one
Speaker 2: hundred thousand dollars, so we've seen a few.
Speaker 4: Shades of bail here.
Speaker 2: I guess Wendy's with us, which I'm glad that Wendy
Speaker 2: Benjaminson is here at this moment. Bloomberg Washington Senior Editor,
Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for Rudy Julian.
Speaker 4: He's not worth two hundred, That's.
Speaker 3: What I'm wondering.
Speaker 9: I'm waiting for the true social post to come out
Speaker 9: any minute now, to go way a minute. How come
Speaker 9: I had to pay two hundred thousand dollars Donald Trump?
Speaker 9: How come Rudy gets away with one hundred and fifty
Speaker 9: and Sydney only one hundred. I don't know what they're thinking,
Speaker 9: except maybe it's the number of criminal accounts against them.
Speaker 9: I'm sure there's actually logic rights, but you know, I
Speaker 9: don't think Donald Trump's going to be happy about that.
Speaker 7: Well, and of course it's going to be his turn tomorrow, right,
Speaker 7: he said himself on True Social God. Arrest is Thursday
Speaker 7: for him in Fulton County, when we get the mug shot.
Speaker 7: We have all been waiting for Wendy.
Speaker 9: Maybe the mug shot there's he's you know, the Fulton
Speaker 9: County sheriff at one point said absolutely anyone else. But
Speaker 9: then there's some talk about whether Fannie Willis will actually
Speaker 9: do that or not, because it's not like we don't
Speaker 9: know what he looks like, so you know, they may
Speaker 9: do it. But I think I think if anyone we're
Speaker 9: going to do it, it would be the Fulton County
Speaker 9: people because they're going they're treating this like any other
Speaker 9: state case.
Speaker 2: We heard from John Eastman when he showed up yesterday, this,
Speaker 2: of course, the former attorney who helped to kind of
Speaker 2: craft the scheme allegedly with the fake electors and the
Speaker 2: effort to overturn results of the twenty election.
Speaker 4: He says he's going to fight.
Speaker 2: He's these apparently not going to cooperate and that isn't
Speaker 2: a real surprise. But listen to his commentary on this moment.
Speaker 10: It represents a crossing of the rubicon for our country,
Speaker 10: implicating the fundamental First Amendment right to petition the government
Speaker 10: for redress of grievances as troubling. It targets attorneys for
Speaker 10: their zealous advocacy on behalf of their clients, something attorneys
Speaker 10: are ethically bound to provide, and which was attempted here
Speaker 10: by formally challenging the results of the election through lawful
Speaker 10: and appropriate means.
Speaker 2: You can weigh in on that defense if you want.
Speaker 2: I know you're not a legal analyst. But is this
Speaker 2: the crossing of the rubicon? Or do we crossed the
Speaker 2: rubicon on January sixth?
Speaker 9: Well, that is the heart of the question, Joe, I mean, yes,
Speaker 9: the country has crossed the rubicon. Now we have a
Speaker 9: former president of the United States under four criminal indictments,
Speaker 9: we have top attorneys under criminal indictment. But yes, is
Speaker 9: John Eastman putting the cart before the horse? Was the
Speaker 9: moment the tempted coup on January sixth? And the question
Speaker 9: that we're still wrestling with and the prosecutor seems to
Speaker 9: believe is whether the acts these people took were actually
Speaker 9: crimes or not. It feels like it. It walks like
Speaker 9: a duck, it quacts like a duck. But I'm not
Speaker 9: a lawyer. I don't know, and that will be actually
Speaker 9: for twelve jurors in each case to decide. But you know,
Speaker 9: he's not wrong that we're in another reality here.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and you mentioned the fact that this is indictment
Speaker 7: number four we're talking about. It's by far the largest.
Speaker 7: They've asked for a trial date early next year. But
Speaker 7: when you have nineteen individuals to prosecute, it seems like
Speaker 7: the general consensus is that this is not going to
Speaker 7: happen anytime soon. It is within the next week though,
Speaker 7: on the twenty eighth, so just five days from now
Speaker 7: that in Washington, there will be hearing to set the
Speaker 7: date in this In the January sixth case that was
Speaker 7: brought federally by Jack Smith, they want that one to
Speaker 7: start on January second. So we're going to get some
Speaker 7: further indication here on how quickly these things are going
Speaker 7: to move forward. At the same time, we're talking about
Speaker 7: a debate, the first Republican primary debate today, and it
Speaker 7: just goes to show you how many different distractions there
Speaker 7: are going to be in this campaign cycle when you
Speaker 7: have all of these legal issues.
Speaker 9: Right, I mean, the front runner is not going to
Speaker 9: show up at the debate, but he's going to surrender
Speaker 9: to the Georgia State or Fulton County authorities tomorrow. It's completely,
Speaker 9: completely bizarre. But the debate tonight will be really really
Speaker 9: interesting to see who the possible alternative to Trump will be.
Speaker 9: Every Republican voters ever decides he's not their guy anymore.
Speaker 2: There are different ways to look at this. That's one
Speaker 2: of them. Is this actually the best thing that happened
Speaker 2: to all the other candidates, Because some would say, hey,
Speaker 2: look there's going to be no ratings.
Speaker 3: It's a tree that falls in the woods.
Speaker 2: They're all going to just kind of yell at each
Speaker 2: other waiting for the real candidate to show up. But
Speaker 2: maybe this is a huge benefit for somebody who could
Speaker 2: not otherwise break out absolutely.
Speaker 9: I mean, tens of millions of people have watched primary debates,
Speaker 9: and even though those who aren't getting attention or saying, well,
Speaker 9: no one pays attention to laughter Labor Day, but tens
Speaker 9: of billions of people watched the Democratic first primary debates
Speaker 9: in August of twenty nineteen and in August of twenty fifteen,
Speaker 9: there was that first Republican debate where Trump was the
Speaker 9: breakout guy. He was in the single digits of polling
Speaker 9: and then you know, he he had his viral moment
Speaker 9: insulting Megan Kelly, the Fox former Fox broadcaster, and then
Speaker 9: he you know, had Rosie O'Donnell and with the list
Speaker 9: goes on if people he insulted in that but these
Speaker 9: but that's where he had his breakout moment. These guys
Speaker 9: are not Trump in terms of marketing themselves. But these guys,
Speaker 9: I'm sorry, these people, including Nikki Helly and we'll we'll
Speaker 9: see tonight, but tonight is their first and biggest chance, yes,
Speaker 9: to break out of the Trump and the eight other people.
Speaker 7: Yeah, but they're going to be forced to talk about him.
Speaker 7: Our understanding is that the Fox moderators are planning to
Speaker 7: use soundbites of the former president in their questioning to
Speaker 7: work him in.
Speaker 9: Well, they can do it from the X interview interview
Speaker 9: that yes, it's going to be going on exactly at
Speaker 9: the same moment talking.
Speaker 2: Which is a more important conversation. Kayley, I mean, you
Speaker 2: can't really have one without the other.
Speaker 7: Right, Well, this is the question. I mean, we were
Speaker 7: talking just in our last segment with Libby Cantrell of
Speaker 7: PIMPO about the policy substance we could get, and my
Speaker 7: question was how much policy substance matters from all of
Speaker 7: these other candidates who are not the front runner, when
Speaker 7: ultimately the policy that the market may have to contend
Speaker 7: with is the one who actually has been non an
Speaker 7: me ultimately and at the moment at least it looks
Speaker 7: like Trump. So as we're looking for policy clarity, maybe
Speaker 7: it's not yet time for financial market participants.
Speaker 9: Spain, I think the one way these guys can break
Speaker 9: out because it's all Trump and the other people. So
Speaker 9: now maybe one of them could break out with some
Speaker 9: really interesting policy. Whether Ramaswami breaks out with his let's
Speaker 9: find out how many federal agents were on the nine
Speaker 9: to eleven planes He said that today with some of
Speaker 9: his other odd out of out of step and say
Speaker 9: with the mainstream Republican orthodoxy on Ukraine funding, you know,
Speaker 9: we'll we'll get to see a little more about who
Speaker 9: these people are. If Brett and Martha, the the moderators
Speaker 9: of the debate actually get to ask them those questions.
Speaker 2: I wonder if the real show ends up being in
Speaker 2: the spin room. Yeah, because they've banned the RNC has
Speaker 2: banned Trump surrogates. But Marjorie Taylor Green and Matt gats
Speaker 2: Gold anywhere? Is that going to be the real fight
Speaker 2: we're talking about?
Speaker 6: Yes?
Speaker 9: Yeah, absolutely. And I can't imagine a locked door that
Speaker 9: Marjorie Taylor Green doesn't try to go through, so we'll
Speaker 9: have to see how that works.
Speaker 7: There's a loophole, right, they can be invited by someone.
Speaker 2: That's true if they're a guest on a news network,
Speaker 2: that's there. But would you like to be that news
Speaker 2: network the one inviting Donald trumps surrogates into the tent.
Speaker 4: And who's going to organizers might not love that.
Speaker 9: I don't know a Fox would do that. It's that
Speaker 9: would be upstaging their own show, that's right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and they're not inviting.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 3: This is going to be interesting?
Speaker 7: Can I just asked quickly, how would you stickle? Are
Speaker 7: you going to do this tonight, Wendy? You watch the
Speaker 7: debate live and then watch the X thing after. I'm
Speaker 7: trying to figure out how to divvy up my time.
Speaker 9: Yeah, how I appreciate it. I'm gonna have a lot
Speaker 9: of screens open at once. But we do have people
Speaker 9: assigned to the Trump Show, we have people assigned them
Speaker 9: the debate, and we're going to try to put it
Speaker 9: all together in one big.
Speaker 2: That's going to be advantage Elon, advantage Trump. I'm thinking,
Speaker 2: because you can go back and watch that anytime you want. Right,
Speaker 2: people get you know, you check out an hour a Milwaukee,
Speaker 2: then they.
Speaker 4: Go on X or whatever the heck we call it.
Speaker 2: Is Elon going to do something special, Like when you
Speaker 2: log on tonight, there's a big is there fireworks or something?
Speaker 4: I don't don't. You have a lot to learn.
Speaker 7: We'll find out more.
Speaker 2: Questions than answers, even with Wendy Benjamins and great to
Speaker 2: have you.
Speaker 4: Thanks for listening to the sound On podcast.
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Speaker 4: d C.
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