Speaker 1: We have no doubt and when the counts finished, Senator
Speaker 1: Harris and I will be declared the winners. We think
Speaker 1: it's going to be a lot of litigation because we
Speaker 1: have so much evidence, so much proof. I ask everyone
Speaker 1: to stay calm. The process is working. It's going to
Speaker 1: end up perhaps at the highest court in the land.
Speaker 1: This is special coverage of the election from Bloomberg Radio,
Speaker 1: and this is a Bloomberg day Break special report. I'm
Speaker 1: Nathan Hagar, I'm Amy Morris. The votes are still being counted,
Speaker 1: legal challenges remain, but the path to the White House
Speaker 1: is there for Joe Biden. Coming up over the next hour,
Speaker 1: we examine the vote, the legal battle, and the path
Speaker 1: ahead for a White House policy, plus how the next
Speaker 1: steps could play out in the days and weeks to
Speaker 1: come leading up to December's electoral College vote. That is
Speaker 1: all straight ahead for now. Let's bring in Derek Wallbank,
Speaker 1: Bloomberg's senior editor for breaking news. And Derek, of course,
Speaker 1: the Biden team was hoping the news would break last night,
Speaker 1: that they'd get to that magic number of two seventy.
Speaker 1: What are the chances we see that news actually break
Speaker 1: this weekend? Well, Nathan, I think that the chances of
Speaker 1: getting a real sign of of where this is actually
Speaker 1: going this weekend are actually fairly good. Um, you were
Speaker 1: looking now overnight as you wake up in America. The
Speaker 1: thing to know is that everything kind of kept pushing
Speaker 1: the same direction that it was going. In Pennsylvania, you
Speaker 1: saw the Biden lead expand again a little bit. It
Speaker 1: expanded again in Georgia a little bit. In Arizona narrowed
Speaker 1: a little bit, but not by enough that Donald Trump
Speaker 1: needs to go and take over that state. So you
Speaker 1: still see as as America wakes up today, Joe Biden
Speaker 1: sort of standing on the precipice of victory with any
Speaker 1: one of a couple of states possibly putting him over Derek.
Speaker 1: The Trump campaign has already said it would pursue all
Speaker 1: legal path in a vote fight. So catch us up
Speaker 1: if you could about how many more paths the president
Speaker 1: might have. Well, in terms of the legal challenges, you
Speaker 1: are seeing a lot of things start to be filed
Speaker 1: or threatened or or somehow previewed. Um And and it
Speaker 1: kind of is. It's every single state. There's something going
Speaker 1: on to various levels of severity. I think the biggest
Speaker 1: one probably and where where a lot of the focuses
Speaker 1: is in Pennsylvania, where um, the Supreme Court has gotten
Speaker 1: a little bit involved to say that some of these
Speaker 1: uh late arriving ballots need to be kind of put
Speaker 1: to the side. And that was a fight that we
Speaker 1: knew was coming, we we knew would be there. But Amy,
Speaker 1: one of the things that I noticed here is it
Speaker 1: might be a fight that's actually numerically irrelevant. And what
Speaker 1: I mean by that is it's very, very possible that
Speaker 1: when Pennsylvania stops counting all of the votes that everyone
Speaker 1: agrees are regularly cast um, that the Biden margin is
Speaker 1: so large there that the total votes in question in
Speaker 1: this in this dispute, um will be will be less
Speaker 1: than the Biden margin, and in which case it wouldn't
Speaker 1: change the outcome. So that's when I think we're following,
Speaker 1: though in Pennsylvania were definitely following that. UM. I think
Speaker 1: that both sides are kind of agreed on the idea
Speaker 1: that every vote should count, but Republicans are trying to
Speaker 1: make a distinction to say every legal vote should count,
Speaker 1: and then they're making some different definitions of the word legal.
Speaker 1: But in practice, I think I would sum up by
Speaker 1: saying that Biden right now is on track for a
Speaker 1: victory that would be large enough to offset any of
Speaker 1: these potential challenges that we have seen seriously filed. Assuming
Speaker 1: numbers continue trending where they are, it does seem, Derek
Speaker 1: as though Pennsylvania could very well be the decisive stay
Speaker 1: as we do the math up to to seventy. But
Speaker 1: we also know that there is probably going to be
Speaker 1: a recount in Wisconsin. The margin is uh slim enough
Speaker 1: there that it could trigger a recount should the Trump
Speaker 1: campaign ask for one. And Georgia's secretary of state has
Speaker 1: already said that the margin is so tight they're at
Speaker 1: current count only about four thousand votes. There's definitely going
Speaker 1: to be a recount. How could that sway things? Well, yeah, Nathan,
Speaker 1: And and in Georgia, the overnight numbers are are ticked
Speaker 1: up enough that when the AP updates it's totals, you'll
Speaker 1: see that rise to about seven thousand for Biden, but
Speaker 1: still well within that recount territory. UM. I do think
Speaker 1: that that is a thing that's definitely in play. If
Speaker 1: there's a recount. You're unlikely to see the AP call
Speaker 1: one of those states because they tend not to do that,
Speaker 1: uh in Pennsylvania. This is the one. This is the
Speaker 1: one that I think we're all watching very very closely. There.
Speaker 1: I'll give you a little bit of math that I
Speaker 1: did during my day uh here overnight, which is which
Speaker 1: is to say that under Pennsylvania rules, um, if the
Speaker 1: margin is within point five of a percent, then you
Speaker 1: can get to a recount. If it's above that, you
Speaker 1: don't necessarily have to have that. So what does that
Speaker 1: mean in raw votes? Somewhere in the ballpark of forty
Speaker 1: thousand votes as a margin between Biden and Trump, and
Speaker 1: right now it's in the upper twenty thousands. So it's
Speaker 1: a reachable thing for Biden to be able to get
Speaker 1: to a recount proof uh majority in the in the
Speaker 1: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. And if that happens, that helps there.
Speaker 1: The other things that we're watching really really early, I
Speaker 1: think in the day are that Nevada and Arizona should
Speaker 1: have some additional numbers for us and those if those
Speaker 1: put the counts in both of those states to bed,
Speaker 1: then Pennsylvania is academic Derek Wallbank. We have quite a
Speaker 1: lot to watch in the hours and potentially days to
Speaker 1: come in these battleground states. It's just amazing to think
Speaker 1: that so many battlegrounds remain in flux this far after
Speaker 1: election day. But we knew with a pandemic on it
Speaker 1: very well could have been like this. Derek Wallbank, Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Senior editor for Breaking News, Thanks so much for being
Speaker 1: with us this morning on this special edition of Bloomberg Daybreak.
Speaker 1: I'm Nathan Hager alongside Amy Morris, and this is Bloomberg.
Speaker 1: This is special coverage of the twenty election from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: And this is a Bloomberg Daybreak special report. It is
Speaker 1: seven seventeen on Wall Street. I'm Nathan Hager, I'm Amy Morris.
Speaker 1: The votes are still being counted, Legal challenges remain, but
Speaker 1: the path to the White House is there for Joe Biden.
Speaker 1: Let's bring in Kevin's really now. Kevin is the chief
Speaker 1: Washington correspondent for Bloomberg Radio and Television. Kevin, good morning
Speaker 1: to you. Let's get caught up on what we may
Speaker 1: have missed overnight. Joe Biden remains ahead in four key states,
Speaker 1: ballots still being counted as we speak. President Trump continues
Speaker 1: to push the idea of stopping the count that there
Speaker 1: are some conspiracy theories surrounding this election. Where are we
Speaker 1: right now? Good morning, Amy. Last night, Joe Biden speaking
Speaker 1: from Wilmington, Delaware, delivering what largely what he was his
Speaker 1: team was hoping would be an acceptance speech or a
Speaker 1: declaratory speech of sorts. It turned into another speech urging
Speaker 1: patience and calm, But he went on to say that
Speaker 1: he is going to make sure that every vote is counted.
Speaker 1: He also said that he believes he will win in
Speaker 1: the battleground states of Georgia as well as Arizona, and
Speaker 1: if he were to do that, Amy, he would be
Speaker 1: the first Democratic candidate to do so since Bill Clinton. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: the Trump campaign, they're saying that they're willing to take
Speaker 1: this all the way to the Supreme Court if they
Speaker 1: if they want to. But behind the scenes, yes your day,
Speaker 1: when I spoke with Republican members of Congress, they were
Speaker 1: the President was met with a deep source of skepticism
Speaker 1: about what the strategy is and how long the President
Speaker 1: was willing to continue onward with this approach. Well, in
Speaker 1: the meantime, as the president pursues this approach, Kevin, we
Speaker 1: do have this very slow, protracted counting of mail in
Speaker 1: votes that many of these states hadn't been equipped to
Speaker 1: deal with up until now. Give us a sense of
Speaker 1: where we are in terms of where the count is
Speaker 1: in some of these battleground states, particularly Georgia, where the
Speaker 1: where the margin is so razor thin right now, precisely
Speaker 1: so Georgia, it's a it's it's incredibly a razor thin margin,
Speaker 1: and it's it's something like less than a percentage point
Speaker 1: according to some counts. But they're headed for a recount,
Speaker 1: and recounts typically take at least several days. And that
Speaker 1: is a very optimistic estimate. Uh, it can take several weeks,
Speaker 1: and so we could be in mid November by the
Speaker 1: time Georgia gets gets a result. Uh. In terms of Nevada,
Speaker 1: UH that we're anticipating new vote counts from Clark County
Speaker 1: of course, that's where Las Vegas is. We're anticipating new
Speaker 1: vote counts sometime Nathan, within the next couple of hours
Speaker 1: and throughout the weekend. And then in Pennsylvania where Joe
Speaker 1: Biden yesterday surpassed President Trump in the vote total. Uh,
Speaker 1: they're waiting for military absentee ballots and they're continuing to
Speaker 1: count as well. To be frank with you, the Biden
Speaker 1: campaign had wanted there to be one more state called
Speaker 1: before he spoke at Wilmington, Delaware last night. He was
Speaker 1: gonna speak at like seven o'clock at night. And then
Speaker 1: I checked in with the source on the campaign and
Speaker 1: what they told me was, well, they're still, you know,
Speaker 1: they're waiting and optimistic that when he spoke, he would
Speaker 1: get to that magic number, or at least one of
Speaker 1: the networks or ap would have put him at to seventy.
Speaker 1: But that just didn't have in and you know, and
Speaker 1: now it's becoming a situation where you very much could
Speaker 1: have someone declaring at to seventy uh, Joe Biden saying,
Speaker 1: you know, thank you, I'm we're looking forward to being president,
Speaker 1: and President Trump not conceding. Let's talk about the mood, Kevin.
Speaker 1: You've talked to operatives on both sides at the aisle,
Speaker 1: Trump supporters and Biden supporters. Have you been able to
Speaker 1: gauge the mood, the sense of optimism or the sense
Speaker 1: of determination. What's the temperature now? As I mentioned yesterday,
Speaker 1: I spoke with several Republican members of Congress and and
Speaker 1: they actually had a a a call with the Republican
Speaker 1: Conference yesterday uh in in what would have been on
Speaker 1: Capital Hill. But this obviously because of covid on via telephone,
Speaker 1: and there's a sense amy of, well, we we made
Speaker 1: gains in the House of Representatives and we're still competitive
Speaker 1: in the Senate and when everyone was predicting a blue wave.
Speaker 1: But at terms of the press residential level, I would
Speaker 1: say that while publicly you're hearing potential candidates like Senator
Speaker 1: Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton and others deliver statements saying every
Speaker 1: legal vote must be counted, what you're not seeing is
Speaker 1: a rush to a campaign war room or a legal barroom.
Speaker 1: And that's where there's a lot of division. The president's
Speaker 1: inner circle, his members of his family, they are in
Speaker 1: contact very much and in some cases on the ground
Speaker 1: in these battleground states. The president's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani,
Speaker 1: still very much briefing the president, talking to the President
Speaker 1: about what's going on. But again, they it they don't
Speaker 1: appear to necessarily have the entire Republican Party fullheartedly behind them, um.
Speaker 1: And that's a that's a marked difference from other fights
Speaker 1: that the president has been in, including impeachment and Mueller
Speaker 1: and all that. And in terms of the legal strategy
Speaker 1: that the President's team is pursuing Kevin. During the campaign,
Speaker 1: we've been talking about how there had been such a
Speaker 1: cash drain on the Trump side. Is there enough resources
Speaker 1: for the President's side to mount the kind of multi
Speaker 1: pronged legal fight that they're hinting at that they want. Well,
Speaker 1: they have said that there is, and that that their
Speaker 1: attorneys are are willing to file, you know, a state
Speaker 1: by state claims and and they ultimately do feel that
Speaker 1: if it should end up in the Supreme Court, that
Speaker 1: it would be in their favor, you know. But it's
Speaker 1: it's difficult to talk about the multi state legal approach, Nathan,
Speaker 1: as you and I have talked about before, because we
Speaker 1: don't have any source material in front of us, and
Speaker 1: we and we there have not been briefings in the
Speaker 1: sense typically with with this type of situation, you would
Speaker 1: anticipate round the clock briefings and updates coming from the
Speaker 1: President's re election campaign, and that just hasn't really started yet.
Speaker 1: But it's unknown if they're working on that now. We
Speaker 1: got reports yesterday Maggie Haberman at The New York Times
Speaker 1: reporting that David Bossey had been hired to be a
Speaker 1: lead figure on the legal fights by the president's re
Speaker 1: election campaign. He had fallen out a favor at one
Speaker 1: time with the President. Now apparently he's back in based
Speaker 1: upon those developments. But that's what's going on on that side.
Speaker 1: On Joe Biden's side, they are continuing to have meetings
Speaker 1: about COVID nineteen updates. I can tell you I've spoken
Speaker 1: directly with sources who are connected to his transition team.
Speaker 1: They're having transition meetings. Yesterday, Uh, dal Jones reported that
Speaker 1: Gary Gensler is going to be in a Biden administration,
Speaker 1: the Wall Street oversight advisor. Uh So they're they're continuing
Speaker 1: onward in terms of a transition. But it's interesting because
Speaker 1: they also have to be careful because he still hasn't
Speaker 1: reached two seventy and we got a lot more to
Speaker 1: come as we continue to dive into the legal challenges
Speaker 1: and just the simple vote count itself. As Uh, this
Speaker 1: election certainly has gone into much more than overtime now.
Speaker 1: Kevin Cirelli, Chief Washington correspondent for Bloomberg Radio and Television,
Speaker 1: Thanks for being with us this morning. We're gonna be
Speaker 1: checking back with you throughout this special edition of Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Daybreak on the election process. Coming up, we'll have more
Speaker 1: on the vote, the legal battle, and the path ahead
Speaker 1: for White House policy straight ahead on this Bloomberg Daybreak
Speaker 1: special report. I'm Nathan Hager alongside Amy Morris, and this
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg. This is special coverage of the twenty election
Speaker 1: from Bloomberg Radio. And this is a Bloomberg day Break
Speaker 1: special report. I'm Nathan Hager, I'm Amy Morris. The votes
Speaker 1: are still being counted, but the path to the White
Speaker 1: House is there for Joe Biden. Coming up, we'll look
Speaker 1: at the future of policy at Pennsylvania Avenue. Let's bring
Speaker 1: in Greg Valiate now. He is the chief US policy
Speaker 1: strategist at a g F Investments. Greg, good morning, do
Speaker 1: you always a pleasure to have You want to pick
Speaker 1: your brain a little bit this morning about Joe Biden.
Speaker 1: We know he has a slight lead now, and if
Speaker 1: he does hold on to that, and if the count
Speaker 1: for Congress does remain the same, we could have a
Speaker 1: Democrat in the White House, a democratically held House, and
Speaker 1: a Republican Senate. I want to ask you about that scenario.
Speaker 1: Do you see gridlock, a divided government, potential for cooperation?
Speaker 1: What do you see, well, good morning, Amy, I'd say
Speaker 1: primarily Gridlock. I think that if the Republicans hold onto
Speaker 1: the Senate, and we can't be positive because of runoffs
Speaker 1: on January six in Georgia, But if the Republicans control
Speaker 1: of the Senate, I don't see a lot getting done,
Speaker 1: and I certainly don't see big tax increases. Although, Greg,
Speaker 1: we heard from Biden last night, of course, uh saying,
Speaker 1: you know, expressing a message of patients, while at the
Speaker 1: same time trying to look ahead, saying that he has
Speaker 1: a lot of work to do on the pandemic, on
Speaker 1: the economy, racial justice, and climate change. He's obviously laying
Speaker 1: out an agenda. There is it possible for him to
Speaker 1: pursue something of that agenda? Does he have a mandate
Speaker 1: to do so? He might, Nathan, But at the same time,
Speaker 1: I think a lot of the proposals that he's talking
Speaker 1: about would run into stiff opposition from McConnell and McConnell's
Speaker 1: Republican truths. So maybe a few things. The real tip
Speaker 1: off will be how quickly we get confirmation of Biden's
Speaker 1: cabinet secretaries. That could That could be a rocky process.
Speaker 1: Now this count Greg is taking a very long time,
Speaker 1: and I want to get your thoughts on what that
Speaker 1: means for the nation. What I mean is, on the
Speaker 1: one hand, it seems like it would be a good
Speaker 1: thing that is taking a long time. It means a
Speaker 1: lot of people voted, they participated the elections. Officials are
Speaker 1: being exceedingly careful. But on the other hand, everybody's in limbo.
Speaker 1: The whole country is just holding its breath. Is this
Speaker 1: good or bad? It's bad. I think talk about how
Speaker 1: this could be fraudulent, that the the election was rigged.
Speaker 1: Some of the rhetoric from the President and his aids,
Speaker 1: I think are not helpful. I do worry a little
Speaker 1: about social unrest. If this UH persists for weeks without
Speaker 1: any final resolution by the courts, I think that you
Speaker 1: could see a lot of protests. Joe Biden has tried
Speaker 1: to pitch himself as the kind of president who can
Speaker 1: cool the temperature of the country and try to reach
Speaker 1: out to those voters who supported President Trump. What kind
Speaker 1: of challenge could he face if he does get those
Speaker 1: two seventy key electoral votes and make it into the
Speaker 1: White House. What kind of challenge does he face two
Speaker 1: try to bind the nation's wounds. Well, primarily, I would
Speaker 1: say from the Senate. Again, the most intriguing angle here,
Speaker 1: I think, Nathan, is the relationship between Biden and McConnell.
Speaker 1: They've known each other for decades, they've worked together pretty well.
Speaker 1: Both are known as the expert dealmakers. So to be
Speaker 1: a little optimistic this morning, I do see a glimmer
Speaker 1: of hope that the two of them could get together.
Speaker 1: And it would have to be close to the center,
Speaker 1: not on the far left or far right. But I
Speaker 1: think the two of them could get things done. So
Speaker 1: that speaks a cooperation between the White House and the Senate.
Speaker 1: But what does the next president, whether it's Trump or Biden,
Speaker 1: face immediately on day one, what is the very first
Speaker 1: job for that president? Covid, covid, covid. I think that
Speaker 1: is by far the number one issue. I think that
Speaker 1: first of all, Biden will bring back Dr Faucci from
Speaker 1: you know, he's been in Siberia. I think Fauci thought
Speaker 1: she becomes a be a big big player once once again.
Speaker 1: They'll have to be a debate internally whether you shut
Speaker 1: things down. I don't think that Biden would. I think
Speaker 1: there'll be much tougher guidelines on masks and social distancing.
Speaker 1: But I think it's more than anything else. It's COVID
Speaker 1: and just quickly, Greg, I mean that raises the question
Speaker 1: of stimulus as well, doesn't it. Yes, it does, big
Speaker 1: issue for the markets. There will be a stimulus bill
Speaker 1: steerless forecast. I can't tell you when, I can't tell
Speaker 1: you how much it will cost, but I do think
Speaker 1: in the next couple of months we have to have
Speaker 1: another stimulus bill. All right, Greg, I want to build
Speaker 1: on something that you said earlier about civil unrest. It
Speaker 1: does seem like what the electorate wants to know is
Speaker 1: not just who wins, but then what happens when one
Speaker 1: candidate is declared the winner. Because businesses are still boarded up,
Speaker 1: folks are not letting their guard down. What could possibly
Speaker 1: happen over the next few weeks, Well, there could be
Speaker 1: protests that there already are protests in New York, Portland's
Speaker 1: many cities. And if the rhetoric over a rigged election
Speaker 1: gets more harsh if a final winner has not been determined,
Speaker 1: I think protests could spin out of control. Does it
Speaker 1: make a difference that there could possibly be a split
Speaker 1: within the Republican Party over whether to fight this vote
Speaker 1: count and how far to take the fight. The key
Speaker 1: is of the centrist Republicans. Will they start to speak
Speaker 1: out more forcefully. We saw on the Wall Street Journal
Speaker 1: this weekend and editorial saying that perhaps Donald Trump passed
Speaker 1: to gracefully concede, but if the president does not gracefully succeed,
Speaker 1: that's going to raise the temperature all around the country.
Speaker 1: Greg Valier, chief US policy strategist for a GF Investments,
Speaker 1: Thanks for being with us UH this morning. Greg on
Speaker 1: this election special edition of Bloomberg Daybreak, and coming up
Speaker 1: we'll get more on the legal battle for the White House,
Speaker 1: how the pending and current lawsuits could play out potentially
Speaker 1: on their way to the High Court. I'm Nathan Hager
Speaker 1: alongside Amy Morris, and this is Bloomberg. This is special
Speaker 1: coverage of the twenty election from Bloomberg Radio. And this
Speaker 1: is a Bloomberg Daybreak special report. I'm Nathan Hager, I'm
Speaker 1: Amy Morris. The path to the White Houses there for
Speaker 1: Joe Biden, but a protracted legal battle could be in
Speaker 1: the offing. Bloomberg Law host June Grasso is with us
Speaker 1: now our resident legal expert. We take a look at
Speaker 1: the flurry of legal activity that has accompanied this election.
Speaker 1: Count June good Saturday morning. What are the cases? Good morning,
Speaker 1: What are some of the cases that you're watching right now?
Speaker 1: Obviously we've had quite a lot of them. What's got
Speaker 1: your focus this morning? Well, the main case that we're
Speaker 1: watching is the case in Pennsylvania. First because Pennsylvania is such,
Speaker 1: you know, a swing state and so important in this election,
Speaker 1: but also because that's the case. And by the way,
Speaker 1: when I say Pennsylvania, there are several cases in Pennsylvania,
Speaker 1: but there is one in particular, several cases, one that's
Speaker 1: already been dismissed. But the case that I'm talking about
Speaker 1: is the one that probably everyone has heard, and that
Speaker 1: is about the ballots that come in late. And this
Speaker 1: has already gone to the Supreme Court once. So the
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania Supreme Court said it's okay to count ballots that
Speaker 1: come in that three days after election day as long
Speaker 1: as they're post my Violet and day. That went up
Speaker 1: to the Supreme Court in a four to four decision.
Speaker 1: The justices said we'll leave that in place for now
Speaker 1: because the for the for the conservative justices said, you know,
Speaker 1: we're open to leaving to discussing this later, maybe after
Speaker 1: the election, because you have those ballots segregated, so that
Speaker 1: makes it easier. Even so, that's why people are so
Speaker 1: focused on Pennsylvania, because the Supreme Court has left the
Speaker 1: door open to considering that again. And then there was
Speaker 1: also an order by Justice Alito yesterday. This is sort
Speaker 1: of kind of odd because the Republicans went to the
Speaker 1: Supreme Court again and said they're not keeping those ballots segregated.
Speaker 1: And Justice Alito was the justice for that um that
Speaker 1: handles uh any special requests from that area, and he said, okay,
Speaker 1: he ordered them to keep it segregated to the state officials,
Speaker 1: which the state officials say, well, we're always already doing that.
Speaker 1: So it's sort of it's unclear why the Pennsylvania Republicans
Speaker 1: went up to the Supreme Court again. You know, it's confusing,
Speaker 1: it's a little Well, that's what I wanted to ask about,
Speaker 1: Jin because my original question to you was going to
Speaker 1: be about the trip to the Supreme Court and how
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court may receive a case like this. But
Speaker 1: from where you're from, what you're telling me, it sounds
Speaker 1: like it may not be just one trip to the
Speaker 1: Supreme Court. We may see this go over and over
Speaker 1: to the Supreme Court because our system of election is
Speaker 1: decentralized all the way down to the district level. So
Speaker 1: if the Trump campaign has cases it wants to bring
Speaker 1: from district you know, just hypothetically one thirty nine out
Speaker 1: of Nevada and District one seventy eight out of Pennsylvania,
Speaker 1: you know, these different districts, we could see trips over
Speaker 1: and over and over again to the Supreme Court. Could
Speaker 1: be not well, theoretically you could, but remember something else.
Speaker 1: You don't just go automatically to the Supreme Court. You
Speaker 1: just can't. You know, even President Trump can't say they
Speaker 1: did they they're not counting correctly. In Michigan, justices take
Speaker 1: my case, you have to go through the steps. You
Speaker 1: have to go to the lower court, and then the
Speaker 1: lower court has to usually send it to the higher court.
Speaker 1: So it's it's a process. And also not every kind
Speaker 1: of case would go to the Supreme Court. Then the
Speaker 1: Supreme Court has to decide are we going to take
Speaker 1: this case or not. It takes four justices to decide
Speaker 1: whether or not to take the case. So it's a
Speaker 1: process and it's not quite as easy as President Trump
Speaker 1: makes it sound when he says, I think the highest
Speaker 1: Court is going to decide this, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: steps in between. And also the question has to be
Speaker 1: a question that the Supreme Court will deal with. Remember
Speaker 1: Bush by Gore, that was the one case in our
Speaker 1: history where the Supreme Court decided the outcome of an election,
Speaker 1: and that was such a odd Your combination of circumstances
Speaker 1: where you had five thirty seven votes in the state
Speaker 1: that mattered in the election, the pivotal state, So that's
Speaker 1: a very unusual circumstances. And I hope. I heard an
Speaker 1: election law expert in one of the panels I was
Speaker 1: listening to, said, I just hope for the sake of
Speaker 1: the American people that it doesn't come down to Philadelphia,
Speaker 1: to Pennsylvania because the laws there are the Republicans legislature
Speaker 1: didn't really take care of the pre election laws the
Speaker 1: way they should have. It didn't pass enough laws to
Speaker 1: make it easier. And of course, the big difference this
Speaker 1: type around June is that we have the potentiality of
Speaker 1: having a number of states that could be decisive as
Speaker 1: the as the vote county continues. And when you mentioned
Speaker 1: the steps that have to be gone through. As you've
Speaker 1: been watching this legal process play out, we know you've
Speaker 1: already seen that the Trump side has been stymied and
Speaker 1: a number of the steps that it's already tried to take.
Speaker 1: The lower courts have thrown out a number of the
Speaker 1: Trump sides complaints on the merits. What is the Trump
Speaker 1: strategy right now? Is there a consistent legal strategy that
Speaker 1: is being pursued at the moment, as far as you
Speaker 1: can say, not that, And I can see and not
Speaker 1: that any of the election law experts I've spoken to,
Speaker 1: the many election law experts I've spoken to over the
Speaker 1: last month, I can see what happens is they're what
Speaker 1: they seem to be doing is just throwing everything at
Speaker 1: the wall and seeing what sticks. So you have a
Speaker 1: lot of these suits are about election law observers. So
Speaker 1: you have Trump campaign observers that want to see what's
Speaker 1: going on as they're counting the votes. Well they're allowed
Speaker 1: to be there, but they're complaining about the access that
Speaker 1: they have. For example, President Trump the other day said
Speaker 1: we want a great victory in Pennsylvania. That victory was
Speaker 1: that they got to get to within six feet of
Speaker 1: where the uh the counters were the people counting the
Speaker 1: ballots were as opposed to they were about ten or
Speaker 1: twenty feet before. And remember something else, this is all
Speaker 1: being live streamed, so the public can actually see what's
Speaker 1: going on in these most of these places where they're
Speaker 1: counting ballots. So that was the big victory that he
Speaker 1: referred to. Those are the there's all there was. Also,
Speaker 1: and you talked about cases being thrown out. The case
Speaker 1: in Michigan was thrown out for that reason, and um,
Speaker 1: these cases don't come back. You can't come back later
Speaker 1: and say my people didn't get close enough, so let's
Speaker 1: discount all the ballots. That's so that's sort of a
Speaker 1: dead issue now. And in Georgia, one of the issues
Speaker 1: they raised was someone claimed where the election observers claimed
Speaker 1: that he saw a worker put ballots that came in
Speaker 1: late with ballots that were on time. That was there
Speaker 1: was no evidence of that when they took it to
Speaker 1: the court. So there has to be evidence to support
Speaker 1: these claims, and so far, in none of these cases
Speaker 1: has there been an evidence. Legally, can the loser in
Speaker 1: a presidential election continue the court fight even after January,
Speaker 1: even after the inauguration, Can they amy that's a good question. No,
Speaker 1: I think they probably after January. He's not the president
Speaker 1: anymore and UM any so, any kind of lossy you
Speaker 1: have to bring would most likely be dismissed by the
Speaker 1: court because you have to say, well, what's the what
Speaker 1: do you have at stake here? What's you're standing in
Speaker 1: this case? You have to have a There has to
Speaker 1: be a case or controversy for the court to consider it.
Speaker 1: So what's the case or controversy at that point? I mean,
Speaker 1: you could file the lawsuit, but I believe that it
Speaker 1: would be dismissed outright. And at what point do you stop?
Speaker 1: That's you know, that's a great question, because you know
Speaker 1: President Trump and UM an election expertise I spoke to,
Speaker 1: Justin Levitt, said that President Trump, if a doctor hit
Speaker 1: him on the knee with a rubber mallet, would sue.
Speaker 1: And that's been his history. I mean, that's he's sued
Speaker 1: so many times in the past, and a lot of
Speaker 1: those suits have gone nowhere. So would he suit. Possibly
Speaker 1: he would, But at some point it's time to stop
Speaker 1: the lawsuits and and move on. We have about a
Speaker 1: minute left here. June. Of course, the president has been
Speaker 1: questioning the validity of mail in ballots, at least rhetorically
Speaker 1: in terms of that being a legal strategy. What kind
Speaker 1: of threshold would the president have to meet to question
Speaker 1: the validity of a mail in ballot in court? Well,
Speaker 1: the whole issue here is that they have to show
Speaker 1: evidence that there were some kind of fraud involved with
Speaker 1: the mail and ballots. And I do have to say
Speaker 1: that there is a mail in ballots are a little
Speaker 1: more difficult than regular ballots, So there is a slightly
Speaker 1: higher percentage of them that may get tossed or discounted
Speaker 1: because people forgot to put it in the right envelope
Speaker 1: or sign it. There are a lot of different steps
Speaker 1: and a lot of people are not used to it,
Speaker 1: So there is that. But the point is that he
Speaker 1: would have to have a state where the number of
Speaker 1: mail in ballots it's called the marginal litigation, so the
Speaker 1: number of the mail in ballots has to be enough
Speaker 1: for him to have victory in that state. So that's
Speaker 1: a lot of mail in ballots. And if you look
Speaker 1: at these cases that are that are pending there, they're
Speaker 1: talking about a thousand ballots here, a thousand ballots there.
Speaker 1: Even in Arizona it's ten thousand ballots, so not a lot,
Speaker 1: not a lot of margin. June Grosso, host of Bloomberg Law,
Speaker 1: are resident legal expert. Thanks for being with us this morning.
Speaker 1: Stay tuned for another hour of complete coverage on the
Speaker 1: election in the future of White House policy. I'm Nathan
Speaker 1: Hagar alongside Amy Morris. This is Bloomberry. We have no
Speaker 1: doubt that when the count is finished, Senator Harris and
Speaker 1: I will be declared the winners. We think there's going
Speaker 1: to be a lot of litigation because we have so
Speaker 1: much evidence, so much proof. I ask everyone to stay calm.
Speaker 1: The process is working. It's going to end up perhaps
Speaker 1: at the highest court in the land. This is special
Speaker 1: coverage of the twenty twenty election from Bloomberg Radio. And
Speaker 1: this is a Bloomberg Daybreak special report. I'm Nathan Hagar,
Speaker 1: Hi'm Amy Morris. The votes are still being counted, legal
Speaker 1: challenges remain, but the path to the White House is
Speaker 1: there for Joe Biden. Now coming up over the next hour,
Speaker 1: we'll examine the vote and the legal battle, plus the
Speaker 1: path ahead for White House policy, plus how the next
Speaker 1: steps could play out in the days and weeks leading
Speaker 1: up to December's Electoral College vote. That's all straight ahead.
Speaker 1: We bring in Wendy Schiller, chair of the Political science
Speaker 1: department at Brown University. Good to have you with us
Speaker 1: this morning on this special program, Professor, and I want
Speaker 1: to take a look at how this election process, this
Speaker 1: protracted count is really affecting the political tenor in this country.
Speaker 1: How much soul searching needs to be done by either
Speaker 1: of the parties. Uh, now that this is all going on, well, um,
Speaker 1: good morning, amazing, Good morning, Amy. I think that what's
Speaker 1: interesting about the slow processes it's very frustrating, I think
Speaker 1: now to people who voted for Joe Biden, who support
Speaker 1: Joe Biden, who want this to be declared and to
Speaker 1: move on. But in some ways it's actually you know,
Speaker 1: it's giving people time to sort of get used to
Speaker 1: this idea, and particularly people who who supported Trump. Now
Speaker 1: we've seen examples of people who support Trump are going
Speaker 1: down to the polling places, and you know, very few
Speaker 1: cases seem to be sort of more agitated than not
Speaker 1: mostly peaceful. But you know this, the longer this takes,
Speaker 1: the more methodical it is, the more explanation of what's
Speaker 1: going on, you know, the harder it is to challenge
Speaker 1: the ultimate result as being fraudulent, and you're seeing that
Speaker 1: now from Republican leaders who are kind of walking this
Speaker 1: tight line. You're also seeing it from some conservative media
Speaker 1: sources that are you know, strident, and there are sort
Speaker 1: of in prime time but starting to say kind of
Speaker 1: looks like Joe Biden's we president. We've got to get
Speaker 1: used to the idea. So in some ways, the slowness
Speaker 1: of the process, Nathan, maybe one of the blessings actually
Speaker 1: of such a huge turnout and and absentee ballot and
Speaker 1: mail in ballot, because it's giving people sort of time
Speaker 1: to explain and time to get used to the idea.
Speaker 1: Professor Schiller, we know the country is politically divided. You
Speaker 1: can see that in these razor thin margins in this vote.
Speaker 1: But i'd like to get your take on where we
Speaker 1: are politically in this country where counting votes in a
Speaker 1: presidential election seems to have become a source of political debate. Well, Amy,
Speaker 1: it would be great to think, oh, this is the
Speaker 1: first time people have far by counting votes, you know,
Speaker 1: but I'm definitely all enough to have set through Bush v. Gore,
Speaker 1: And of course we've had these controversies for you know,
Speaker 1: a hundred and twenty years minimally, you know, we turned
Speaker 1: to a different balloting system in the late eighteen hundreds,
Speaker 1: about eighteen eighty eight going forward, which is sort of
Speaker 1: office block, meaning you voted not for your party per se,
Speaker 1: but you voted for individual offices and candidates. And ever
Speaker 1: since then we've had a much more complicated voting apparatus,
Speaker 1: So we've been challenging votes forever, you know, And I
Speaker 1: think that's I think that's the interesting part. People are
Speaker 1: so glued into its starting, glued and tuned in that
Speaker 1: there now I know what a provisional ballot is, Like
Speaker 1: I knew what it was before, but I didn't know
Speaker 1: quite right. Right, You're gonna have people talking Thanksgiving about
Speaker 1: provisional ballots in America. You know that's not bad thing.
Speaker 1: Does this point to the deed for reform in how
Speaker 1: the electoral process is done in this country? Yes? I think, Makedon,
Speaker 1: I think I think. Listen, you know you speaking with
Speaker 1: this idea that you're gonna have two million ballots coming
Speaker 1: in on election day and you don't let people count
Speaker 1: them when they come in. That's what the Pennsylvania State
Speaker 1: Legislature did, because you can't start counting until election night. Clearly,
Speaker 1: now we're looking at Pennsylvania, that is not good public
Speaker 1: policy for anybody, for Trump supporters or for Biden supporters.
Speaker 1: So there are some decisions that were made, I think
Speaker 1: to process the enormous mail and ballast. But I think
Speaker 1: the good news is that people will have more ways
Speaker 1: of voting going forward. I do think they're going to
Speaker 1: insist on having a lot of these options, and hopefully
Speaker 1: that means more turnout, greater numbers of turnout in the future.
Speaker 1: What does this mean looking ahead at for the electoral college?
Speaker 1: How will the electoral College handle uh all of this
Speaker 1: and what does it mean for the future of the
Speaker 1: electoral college. There are those who have been calling for
Speaker 1: it to be banned. So the electoral causes is to
Speaker 1: two things I'll try to get in. One is state
Speaker 1: legislatures can turn it from lunatic all to proportional representation.
Speaker 1: That's all you need. You don't need to change the constitution.
Speaker 1: You just change the way you allocate your electoral College delegates,
Speaker 1: the way that the main in a breast that have done.
Speaker 1: Every state can do that and it would be more fair.
Speaker 1: Would it changed the outcome? In the end? We don't know,
Speaker 1: but it would be more fair. And that is something
Speaker 1: people can agitate at the local level for for the
Speaker 1: their state legislature. So that's something you can do on
Speaker 1: the ground going forward. The second thing is I am
Speaker 1: a little nervous about the electoral college. It just turns
Speaker 1: out to be super narrow, you know, faithless selectors of
Speaker 1: Screme Court case this summer said basically, you can't really
Speaker 1: do that. States can sort of punish you, pull you back, whatever.
Speaker 1: But it's still nerve wracking if it's super close that
Speaker 1: some people who go to electoral college um can defect
Speaker 1: and from the popular vote in their state. Screme Court
Speaker 1: decision is pretty clear that they believe the intent is
Speaker 1: that you should follow a popular vote in your state,
Speaker 1: whether it's legally bound or not. But still it's nerve wracking.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people are a little nervous
Speaker 1: that we've got to get to that point to know
Speaker 1: that this election result, whichever way it goes, will be
Speaker 1: you know, solidified and cemented now. And it's really interesting,
Speaker 1: even as we continue to watch the votes being counted,
Speaker 1: President Trump is once again tweeting this more and he
Speaker 1: sent out three tweets, uh, talking about tens of thousands
Speaker 1: of illegally received votes after eight pm Tuesday, election day,
Speaker 1: he says, totally and easily changing the results in Pennsylvania
Speaker 1: and certain other razor thin states. It goes on from there,
Speaker 1: But the rhetorical strategy that we're seeing from the President
Speaker 1: as this count goes on, of uh, separating legal from
Speaker 1: illegal votes as he sees them, is going to be
Speaker 1: something to continue to watch very closely. Wendy Schuler, chair
Speaker 1: of the Political Science Department at Brown University, thank you
Speaker 1: for your insights this morning as we continue to watch
Speaker 1: the count. Roll in of Nathan Hagar along with Amy Morrison,
Speaker 1: and this is Bloomberg. This is special coverage of the
Speaker 1: twenty election from Bloomberg Radio. And this is a Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Daybreak special report. I'm Nathan Hager, I'm Amy Morris. The
Speaker 1: path to the White House is there for Joe Biden,
Speaker 1: but how much power will he have with a divided Congress.
Speaker 1: Now we want to bring in Kevin Seilli, chief Washington
Speaker 1: correspondent for Bloomberg Radio and Television. Kevin, A, good morning
Speaker 1: to you. We have been high. We've been listening to
Speaker 1: two very different messages from the candidates, Joe Biden talking
Speaker 1: about unity, asking for people to be patient and stick
Speaker 1: by him. President Trump meanwhile demanding the count be stopped.
Speaker 1: How are those messages resonating. Well, Look, I think in
Speaker 1: terms of what we saw last night from former Vice
Speaker 1: President Joe Biden when he spoke in Wilmington, Delaware, quite frankly,
Speaker 1: he wanted it to be a declaratory victorious speech, but
Speaker 1: he wasn't able to get that because the state has
Speaker 1: not been called that would get him to that magic
Speaker 1: two hundred and seventy threshold. The count as it stands
Speaker 1: now in the electoral College amie to sixty four to
Speaker 1: two fourteen, with Biden leading. Meanwhile, Uh, they're still optimistic,
Speaker 1: they're still earning urging patients. And he said something yesterday
Speaker 1: though that I think many of the sources that I
Speaker 1: was talking to throughout the day yesterday wanted to hear,
Speaker 1: which was that they are making the legal threat still
Speaker 1: seriously enough to make sure that they're prepared for it.
Speaker 1: And he had a line in a speech where he
Speaker 1: said that he would make sure that every vote was counted. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: President Trump also continuing to work with his inner circle
Speaker 1: Jared Kushner Rudy Giuliani in order to pursue legal actions,
Speaker 1: and they have been deployed, uh, some of them throughout
Speaker 1: the country to some of these battleground states. So the
Speaker 1: Biden team is exuding patients. The Trump team is indicating
Speaker 1: that it is willing to take this fight through every
Speaker 1: legal channel. If there is that sort of trepidation from
Speaker 1: House Republicans, does that put pressure on the Trump side,
Speaker 1: uh to perhaps not go as far as they have
Speaker 1: expressed rhetorically that they're willing to go legally. Kevin, I
Speaker 1: think that's a really smart point, Nathan, what you just
Speaker 1: said about rhetorical arguments and media arguments versus the actual
Speaker 1: nuts and bolts on the rounds in some of these
Speaker 1: battleground states. Um, it's been difficult, I think for everyone
Speaker 1: in the media to cover the legal elements of this
Speaker 1: because we haven't really seen a cohesive legal message nor
Speaker 1: strategy that could change. This is a very quickly evolving strategy.
Speaker 1: But that that frustration, based upon my reporting, even when
Speaker 1: I talked to members of Congress and who are Republicans,
Speaker 1: they're feeling that as well. Um, And so the law
Speaker 1: it's a long way of saying that I'm not sure
Speaker 1: the president's legal team, with the addition of David Bossi,
Speaker 1: who they've brought on, Jared Kushner has brought on, I'm
Speaker 1: not sure they yet. As of now, UH have clearly
Speaker 1: articulated nor rallied the Republican leadership and thought leaders at
Speaker 1: this point behind them to get them all on the
Speaker 1: same page. They know they're not speaking from the same
Speaker 1: playbook today. And now, Kevin, there are some Biden supporters
Speaker 1: who want to see Biden go ahead and act like
Speaker 1: a president elect. You know, President Trump came out early
Speaker 1: Wednesday morning and said he won. So they're looking at
Speaker 1: Biden as someone who can stand up and say he won.
Speaker 1: Why they're asking why Biden doesn't just go ahead and
Speaker 1: claim that well, and Speaker Pelosi also mentioned him as
Speaker 1: president elect Biden as well. So this is a I mean, Amy,
Speaker 1: it's it's just remarkable to see the both sides in
Speaker 1: terms of declaring victory. And I can tell you, based
Speaker 1: upon my own reporting, that there was some internal deliberations
Speaker 1: on the Trump side about how far he should have gone.
Speaker 1: Some wanted him to go further on that speech on
Speaker 1: election night in the early morning hours after um and
Speaker 1: and the short answer is, well, some would some of
Speaker 1: my sources tell me that what Biden already is doing
Speaker 1: that uh he And it was reported yesterday that uh
Speaker 1: Gary Gensler will be his Wall Street oversight advisor. Um,
Speaker 1: based upon my reporting sources, you know, continue to tell
Speaker 1: me that that Biden is being briefed on COVID nineteen,
Speaker 1: that he is being briefed on the economy on yesterday's
Speaker 1: unemployment numbers at six and you use you heard him
Speaker 1: make mention to that, and so in practice, yes, in
Speaker 1: in rhetoric, not yet the declaratory statements. It's not an
Speaker 1: assessment of his tone right now. Always, Uh, Lame duck
Speaker 1: sessions are tough stuff to get anything done in the
Speaker 1: laptock session. What you have this kind of protracted count
Speaker 1: going on, legal maneuvering and the need for a stimulus
Speaker 1: or some sort of response to this resurging coronavirus pandemic.
Speaker 1: I mean, there are a lot of factors uh coming
Speaker 1: in here, Uh that could make it very difficult to
Speaker 1: get something done in a lame duck cabin you know.
Speaker 1: But here's here's the variable that I don't think we've
Speaker 1: we've we've talked enough about and that's the uptaking COVID
Speaker 1: nineteen cases, right, because you're seeing the uptick really have
Speaker 1: to implement the policy in Europe, whether it's the k France, Germany,
Speaker 1: and those governments, mind you, ideologically diverse in terms of politics.
Speaker 1: So here the United States, we have been so focused
Speaker 1: on the election that I don't think, uh, and maybe
Speaker 1: we're a couple of weeks out from this, I don't
Speaker 1: think that we've fully had a reconciliation of the upticking cases.
Speaker 1: Hundred thousand plus cases in the United States. Another day
Speaker 1: of a hundred thousand plus cases in the United States,
Speaker 1: and mind you are Jennifer jacob scooping yesterday that Mark Meadows,
Speaker 1: the President's chief of staff, also contracting COVID nineteen as well.
Speaker 1: So you know that I say all of that because
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen really could place pressure on local governments around
Speaker 1: the country to to add more restrictions, and as a
Speaker 1: result of that, that could force Congress to act in
Speaker 1: terms of fiscal negotiations. Secretary Revenution and Speaker Pelosi, mind you,
Speaker 1: both saying publicly uh this week that they're still going
Speaker 1: to continue their deliberations. Kevin, let's build on a little
Speaker 1: bit of what Nathan just asked you about. What Because
Speaker 1: what we're basically boiling this down to is the business
Speaker 1: of government and how it can continue while all of
Speaker 1: this limbo is ongoing. What would the path ahead be
Speaker 1: for White House policy even while we are in this
Speaker 1: period of uncertainty? Does that have to freeze as well? No?
Speaker 1: I mean, the US just took the weaker groups off
Speaker 1: the terror lists yesterday and so and I mentioned that
Speaker 1: because the government is still very much going on, and
Speaker 1: I think that they're rightfully. The American people are are
Speaker 1: focused on what's going on in terms of their elections. Uh.
Speaker 1: And Amy, you and I have have talked about this
Speaker 1: before almost you know, with millions and millions of Americans
Speaker 1: voting um and you know, for the first time ever
Speaker 1: such a dramatic increase in mail in ballots. Uh. It's
Speaker 1: taking a couple of days at least for this process
Speaker 1: to play out. But the process is playing out, whether
Speaker 1: it's down in Georgia where there's going to be a recount,
Speaker 1: or in Nevada, where we're anticipating over the next couple
Speaker 1: of hours additional reports on ballots from Clark County, where
Speaker 1: Nevada of course is low caated or in the judicial
Speaker 1: system where the Trump campaign is continuing to exports legal options.
Speaker 1: There's multiple process, process proceeds, Amy play, but they're playing out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and when you have a pandemic going on, we knew
Speaker 1: this was going to take some time, and with a
Speaker 1: resurgence of cases, it just reinforces the fact that this
Speaker 1: count needs to be done not only carefully but safely.
Speaker 1: So it's gonna take a while. Kevin cereali chief Washington
Speaker 1: correspondent for Bloomberg Radio and Television. Thank you for getting
Speaker 1: us up to speed. Here. I'm Nathan Hagar alongside Amy Morris,
Speaker 1: and this is Bloomberg. This is special coverage of the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty election from Bloomberg Radio. This is a Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Daybreak special report. I'm Nathan Hagar, I have Amy Morris.
Speaker 1: The votes are still being counted, but the path to
Speaker 1: the White Houses are for Joe Biden. Let's bring in
Speaker 1: Emily Wilkins, now Bloomberg Government reporters. She is with the
Speaker 1: Biden campaign in Wilmington, Delaware. Good morning to you, Emily.
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you about the Biden camp, which
Speaker 1: obviously has been holding its breath ready to release the
Speaker 1: balloons and shoot the confetti cannon. They thought they might
Speaker 1: be able to do that last night. Didn't work out
Speaker 1: that way. So where are we now? So, as we
Speaker 1: just heard, Biden is up in four major states. UH.
Speaker 1: If he wins Pennsylvania day, if that is called for him,
Speaker 1: that's it. UH. Nevada and Arizona is another pathway to
Speaker 1: its victory. We're also looking at Georgia. We saw Biden
Speaker 1: address the nation last night, and his remarks were far
Speaker 1: more substantive than anything else we've heard since election night.
Speaker 1: They were also forward looking. Biden began to talk about
Speaker 1: uniting the country, putting anger aside, bringing people together, and
Speaker 1: also began to talk about the response that his administration
Speaker 1: would have the coronavirus. He's still not declaring victory, but
Speaker 1: the speech we heard tonight from Biden was the speech
Speaker 1: that we would expect from the next president of the
Speaker 1: United States. What we expect Biden to make that speech
Speaker 1: definitively once a projection at or past to seventy is reached,
Speaker 1: or is he still going to put in that note
Speaker 1: of caution given the uh seeming unwillingness of the current
Speaker 1: president to um end this fight That's a great question.
Speaker 1: At this point, the Biding campaign has been taking the calls, um,
Speaker 1: the network calls and the AP calls for the states
Speaker 1: as they come. The AP and Fox News declared Arizona
Speaker 1: for him, and the Biding campaign has been counting that
Speaker 1: in their total, despite the fact that some of the
Speaker 1: other networks haven't called that state yet. But Biden does
Speaker 1: have to be cautious here, you know. His message to
Speaker 1: voters over the last several weeks has been that he
Speaker 1: cannot declare victory, that Trump cannot declare victory, that it's
Speaker 1: rather the networks, the polsters, the people counting. Who are
Speaker 1: the ones who will say is definitively who is the
Speaker 1: next president? Emily? What measures is Biden taking now in
Speaker 1: order to hit the ground running when that presidential transition
Speaker 1: gets underway, assuming he maintains his lead, wins the court battles,
Speaker 1: and as officially declared the president elect. So Budden has
Speaker 1: already started reaching out to individuals to help with his
Speaker 1: transition team. UM A couple that we've heard of the
Speaker 1: other day, a former Commodity Futures Treating Commissioner chairman Gary
Speaker 1: Gensler and Keeping and executive down Grave are being tapped
Speaker 1: to oversee financial regulations under a Biden administration. So we've
Speaker 1: got a couple of names there. We also know that
Speaker 1: Biden's reaching out to a number of other individuals trying
Speaker 1: to put together that transition team. You got to think
Speaker 1: there's a lot of jocking going around behind the scenes
Speaker 1: as well for high senior administration official positions, even in
Speaker 1: cabinet level positions. What are hearing in terms of who's
Speaker 1: trying to get Biden's here right now? Well, I think
Speaker 1: an important thing to keep in mind here is what
Speaker 1: the Senate is going to look like at this point.
Speaker 1: We don't know if we're headed for Republican controlled Senate
Speaker 1: that's the most likely scenario. There is a potential that
Speaker 1: you have at Senate which gives Democrats the slightest of
Speaker 1: slight advantages. And look in a Senate like that, uh,
Speaker 1: it might be a little bit hard to see uh,
Speaker 1: Treasury Secretary Elizabeth barn or Labor Secretary Bernie Standards because
Speaker 1: there's going to be some concern that that those individuals
Speaker 1: need to remain in the Senate and needs to remain
Speaker 1: solid Democratic vote. Biden is also probably going to have
Speaker 1: to put forward a number of cabinet nominees who are
Speaker 1: a little more moderate rather than some progressive names that
Speaker 1: could face a lot of turbulence their nomination process in
Speaker 1: the Senate. Emily, which states are the Biden campaign taking
Speaker 1: note of at this hour? Pennsylvania, maybe an obvious one.
Speaker 1: In Georgia, maybe the Surprise, But I'm wondering about Arizona
Speaker 1: and Nevada. Well, the Biden campaign is pretty confident in
Speaker 1: the AP and Foxes call of Arizona, but I think
Speaker 1: everyone is still watching that one very closely at that point.
Speaker 1: Um Nevada is obviously the other one. That Pennsylvania has
Speaker 1: always been within the sites of the of teen Biden,
Speaker 1: but I didn't spend so much time there. He started
Speaker 1: election day there, he was there the day before election
Speaker 1: day and the day before that. Pennsylvania has always been
Speaker 1: a really key state for Biden in sort of building
Speaker 1: back that blue wall of Wisconsin in Michigan and Pennsylvania
Speaker 1: in the Midwest. And that's definitely one that his campaign
Speaker 1: and I think the rest of us too, are watching
Speaker 1: very very closely today and just thirty seconds here, Emily,
Speaker 1: of psychologically, Pennsylvania is important as well as his childhood
Speaker 1: home absolutely. When Biden visited Scratton, he visited his childhood home.
Speaker 1: This is on election day. He met with the people
Speaker 1: there and I think wrote on the wall some variation
Speaker 1: of from this house to the White House, with the
Speaker 1: grace of God. All right, We're going to continue to
Speaker 1: see how it goes. It's Pennsylvania and a handful of
Speaker 1: other states still in flux. On this Saturday morning, Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Government reporter Emily Wilkins with us from Delaware, where biden
Speaker 1: campaign headquarters is located in the capitol of Wilmington's Thank you,
Speaker 1: Emily for joining us this morning. And straight ahead on
Speaker 1: this Bloomberg Daybreak special report, We're gonna look ahead at
Speaker 1: the path ahead for policy with the potential for gridlock
Speaker 1: in Washington if it turns out that the blue wave
Speaker 1: doesn't fully materialize. On Nathan Hagar along with Amy Morris
Speaker 1: and Michael Barr nine on Wall Street, and this is Bloomberg.
Speaker 1: This is special coverage of the twenty election from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: And this is a Bloomberg Daybreak special report. I'm Nathan Hager,
Speaker 1: I'm Amy Morris. The path to the White House is
Speaker 1: there for Joe Biden, but how much power will we
Speaker 1: have with a divided Congress. We bring you Greg Garow
Speaker 1: are Bloomberg Government reporter covering Congress, which, like the presidential race,
Speaker 1: remains somewhat influx, particularly uh in the In the Senate,
Speaker 1: there's still a pretty good chance. Greg, I think it's
Speaker 1: safe to say that Republicans retain control of the Senate,
Speaker 1: but two key races in Georgia we're going to run off.
Speaker 1: That's right. Um, So basically the Senate is forty to
Speaker 1: forty eight. The Republicans are leading in races in North
Speaker 1: Carolina and Alaska, which means those two runoffs in Georgia
Speaker 1: could determine whether Republicans keep their majority or if the
Speaker 1: Democrats can pull to a fifty fifty tie, which would
Speaker 1: allow them to organize the Senate as a with a
Speaker 1: tie breaking vote of a Vice President Kamala Harris. Provided
Speaker 1: the Biden Harris ticket wins and Democrats are able to
Speaker 1: unseek two Republican senators, that's the only way they can
Speaker 1: do it. It's gonna be a tall order. So Republicans
Speaker 1: are mortally than not to have a very narrow majority
Speaker 1: when the new Congress convenes. You know, Greg, back in
Speaker 1: two thousand. It was Florida, Florida, Florida that was the
Speaker 1: pivotal state. UM break this down for us this time,
Speaker 1: which state is more pivotal because it seems like Joe
Speaker 1: Biden has several paths. He does have several paths. And
Speaker 1: I think maybe the watchwhere this time is Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania,
Speaker 1: or that's not easy to say three times. We could
Speaker 1: We could be here all day if we said all
Speaker 1: the states that were so close three times, but Pennsylvania
Speaker 1: is one of them. Twenty electoral votes that alone would
Speaker 1: get Joe Biden the presidency. So right now Biden's up
Speaker 1: at about twenty nine thousand votes in that state. They're
Speaker 1: about eighty nine thousand mail in ballots left to count
Speaker 1: as of this morning, plus so called provisional ballots. Most
Speaker 1: of these mail in ballots are in Philadelphia or in
Speaker 1: the county that has Pittsburgh. These are very democratic counties,
Speaker 1: and Biden has been winning these votes with more than
Speaker 1: seventy percent of the vote because Biden had his wanted
Speaker 1: his supporters to vote early, and Trump had his supporters
Speaker 1: want to vote on election day. So these votes have
Speaker 1: been trunning, very democratic. I would expect Biden's lead in
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania increase. There was so much betting ahead of the
Speaker 1: election greg of a blue wave in the markets, uh,
Speaker 1: that we would see a Democratic takeover decisively, and obviously
Speaker 1: we didn't get that this time around. Uh. That looks
Speaker 1: like the House will hold onto its majority, though not
Speaker 1: as uh as deep as it was in the current Congress.
Speaker 1: What could that mean potentially for how leadership is made
Speaker 1: up in the House. Well, I think it's hard to say, um,
Speaker 1: how it's gonna affect the leadership structure. It could be
Speaker 1: the same Democratic leadership. I mean, you do have some
Speaker 1: leaders who one of the leaders Ben ray Luhan, a
Speaker 1: top ranking House Democrat, did get elected to the Senate,
Speaker 1: So there'll be a shuffle in the leadership down there.
Speaker 1: But at the top of the leadership structure is Speaker
Speaker 1: Nancy Pelosi, and she said she'd want to be Speaker
Speaker 1: for one more term. I presume she would have the
Speaker 1: votes to do it. Although there is some uh, you know,
Speaker 1: frustration within Democrat ranks because they underperformed in this election.
Speaker 1: They're going to lose seats when they fully expected and
Speaker 1: predicted publicly multiple times that they would gain seats. But
Speaker 1: they're going to have a reduced Democratic majority. How reduced
Speaker 1: that is remains to be seen because we still have
Speaker 1: a lot of uncalled races. But it just makes uh
Speaker 1: pelos Seas that weakens the pelos sees negotiating power a
Speaker 1: little bit because she doesn't have as many votes at
Speaker 1: her disposal she did before. But Democrats will still have
Speaker 1: a majority, but a narrow one. Does that then translate
Speaker 1: greg into a mandate for those who are still holding
Speaker 1: on to their seats in the House, And does that
Speaker 1: then lead to not just gridlock, but maybe an opportunity
Speaker 1: I try to be so sunshiny here, maybe an opportunity
Speaker 1: for cooperation. Yes, well, one would hope there'd be opportunities
Speaker 1: for cooperation, but it's really hard to see how that happens.
Speaker 1: You're going to have a you know, if Biden is
Speaker 1: elected president, that would be by uh, I mean he'll
Speaker 1: win by four or five million votes, but you know,
Speaker 1: uh by two, you know, three or four percentage points.
Speaker 1: But in the Senate of the House, the Senate is
Speaker 1: going to be fifty fifty or Republican or Republican. And
Speaker 1: in the Senate, to get a lot of things done,
Speaker 1: you often need sixty votes to advance major legislation in
Speaker 1: the House. As we mentioned, it's gonna be a very
Speaker 1: narrow majority for Nancy Pelosi and her Democrats. So you
Speaker 1: have to wonder what kind of big things can pass
Speaker 1: a Democratic controlled House, a Senate that's probably going to
Speaker 1: be controlled by Republicans by very narrow margin and be
Speaker 1: signed into law by a President Biden if he does
Speaker 1: win the win this election. Pandemic relief, I think is
Speaker 1: one thing you're gonna watch out for. But can they
Speaker 1: agree on big ticket things like infrastructure? The two parties
Speaker 1: are still very very uh divided on some major policies
Speaker 1: on taxes and spending. And when you have a Senate
Speaker 1: that is held by such tight margins, no matter which
Speaker 1: party ultimately gains the majority, greg it gives leverage to
Speaker 1: just about every Senator depending on whether they want to
Speaker 1: try to pass something or hold up legislation, which often
Speaker 1: happens in the Senate. How could this potentially come up
Speaker 1: the works on the Senate side of the Capitol. Yeah, Senate,
Speaker 1: it's going to be close to fifty. It does kind
Speaker 1: of magnify the importance of maybe, you know, the few
Speaker 1: senators remaining who are sort of in the middle of
Speaker 1: their respective political caucuses. Ideologically, you want to look at
Speaker 1: somebody like a Joe Mansion of West Virginia. We're probably
Speaker 1: the most conservative Democrat and the Senate. Um he'll, I
Speaker 1: mean he and he and Biden are friendly and they
Speaker 1: agree on a lot of things. But he's not from
Speaker 1: the progressive wing of the party. So um so, I
Speaker 1: mean he could be an important dealmaker in the Senate.
Speaker 1: On the Republican side, Senator Susan Collins from Maine was reelected.
Speaker 1: Uh perhaps you know, perhaps in a surprise. He was
Speaker 1: trailing in most of the polls. She's one of the
Speaker 1: rare moderates in the Senate. She's also someone to watch,
Speaker 1: someone who's gonna try and forge compromises with people like
Speaker 1: Joe Mansion on the other side of the aisle on
Speaker 1: things like pandemic relief. So those are senators to watch
Speaker 1: Senate because if just a couple of senators from one
Speaker 1: party joined the other party, they can you can get
Speaker 1: a majority that way and advance legislations. Will have to see,
Speaker 1: we have to see what the final result of the
Speaker 1: Senate is. Uh, have an idea of what kind of
Speaker 1: bipartisan opportunities there are in a in a Senate that's
Speaker 1: gonna be closely divided. We've been talking this morning about
Speaker 1: what job one might be for whomever does win the
Speaker 1: presidential race. But I want to ask you what job
Speaker 1: one might be for the House and Senate once the
Speaker 1: dust settles, and will it be the same job one. Well,
Speaker 1: the first things are going to do is they're going
Speaker 1: to organize their leadership. And in the Senate there's still
Speaker 1: some you know, suspense at least about who's going to
Speaker 1: be majority Leader's most likely going to be Mitch McConnell.
Speaker 1: But if if the Biden Harris ticket wins and the
Speaker 1: Democrats win those Georgia seats, you will have a fifty
Speaker 1: Senate with a Vice President Harris as a tie eyebreakers.
Speaker 1: So that could allowed Chuck Schumer to become the majority leader.
Speaker 1: But I do I do think the Republicans are more
Speaker 1: favored than not to hold their Senate majority. But Job one,
Speaker 1: I think is the pandemic relief um. You know, the
Speaker 1: latest tranche of aid ran out months ago and the
Speaker 1: two sides, the two parties could not agree on a
Speaker 1: on a relief package next to relief package before the election,
Speaker 1: and you know, we've all been so heavily focused on
Speaker 1: this election, we maybe we lose sights sometimes the fact that,
Speaker 1: you know, we had a record number of cases in
Speaker 1: the last couple of days, more than twenty five thousand.
Speaker 1: So I think once the dust settles for the elections,
Speaker 1: I think we're gonna come to the We're gonna come
Speaker 1: close to the hard realities of governing and realize that
Speaker 1: we have to really tackle this pandemic. I think that's
Speaker 1: on the minds of lawmakers and when it comes to
Speaker 1: longer term domestic policy issues. Greg Zorov Bloomberg Government, Uh,
Speaker 1: you got to think that it's going to be difficult
Speaker 1: for h a President Biden should have come to that
Speaker 1: to to pass something that could be a really uh
Speaker 1: big bore. Uh, it's gonna be a lot more difficult
Speaker 1: for him to pass something like a like a big
Speaker 1: tax package that could fund things like infrastructure or a
Speaker 1: some kind of overhauls of the health care system. Uh.
Speaker 1: What kind of domestic policy uh proposals could actually get
Speaker 1: through in the months to come under a divided government
Speaker 1: working with potentially a Senate majority. Leader Mitch McConnell, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a very good question. I think pandemic relief, I
Speaker 1: think they have to come in agreement on that. Just
Speaker 1: what the specifics are Um, I think, yeah, we have
Speaker 1: to watch out for that, but I think it would
Speaker 1: include some aid to businesses and hospitals. They have disagreed
Speaker 1: on aid to state governments. But I think you will
Speaker 1: see the two parties finally come together after the election
Speaker 1: on a next tranche of aid for pandemic relief. And
Speaker 1: we've talked about infrastructure for many months. Maybe the two
Speaker 1: sides finally agree on that, but we always people always
Speaker 1: joke about is it's going to be finally be infrastructure week?
Speaker 1: So you think they could probably agree on that, although
Speaker 1: we have that remains to be seen. But you're right though, Um,
Speaker 1: the Biden if if Joe Biden is elected president, he
Speaker 1: had a campaign platform that you know is very aspirational. Um,
Speaker 1: Now it's going to come to the hard realities of governing,
Speaker 1: and you know, you're not gonna be able to get
Speaker 1: a public option added to Medicare or or to the
Speaker 1: Affordable Care Act, or you're not gonna be able to
Speaker 1: increase taxes on people making four thousand dollars a year
Speaker 1: or more as Biden wants. You're not gonna get that
Speaker 1: through the Congress as we expect it will be currently composed.
Speaker 1: Greg what's on your agenda for today? What are you
Speaker 1: watching for in the next few hours on this Saturday, Well,
Speaker 1: the counts continue in the four states where voting Uh,
Speaker 1: I mean, I should say the talion continues that haven't
Speaker 1: been called. That's Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona. We should
Speaker 1: get updates, uh later this morning from Arizona and Nevada.
Speaker 1: In Arizona, that's the state where the president has been
Speaker 1: gaining on Biden in the tally, but not at the
Speaker 1: rate that he needs to overtake Biden in Arizona. In Nevada,
Speaker 1: Biden is up by almost two percentage points, and with UM,
Speaker 1: if he quinches Nevada and Arizona, the race is over
Speaker 1: because you'll have two hundred and seventy electoral votes. But
Speaker 1: as you mentioned earlier, Amy, Biden has several pasts of
Speaker 1: the presidency. He is also leading in Georgia, in Pennsylvania,
Speaker 1: and if he wins all four states, Biden will have
Speaker 1: three hundred and six electoral votes, well above the two
Speaker 1: seventy needed to win Greg Gerald, Bloomberg Government. Thank you
Speaker 1: for joining us on this very busy Saturday morning. Stay
Speaker 1: tuned for another hour of complete coverage of election and
Speaker 1: the future of White House policy. I'm Nathan Hagar with
Speaker 1: Amy Morris. This is Bloomberg. We have no doubt that
Speaker 1: when the countess finished, Senator Harris and I will be
Speaker 1: declared the winners. Do we think there's going to be
Speaker 1: a lot of litigation because we have so much evidence,
Speaker 1: so much proof. I ask everyone to stay calm. The
Speaker 1: process is working. It's going to end up perhaps at
Speaker 1: the highest court in the last This is special coverage
Speaker 1: of the from Bloomberg Radio, and this is a Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Daybreak special report. I'm Nathan Hagar, Hi'm Amy Morris. The
Speaker 1: vote still being counted, legal challenges remain, but the path
Speaker 1: to the White House is there for Joe Biden and
Speaker 1: coming up over the next hour, we'll examine the vote
Speaker 1: and the legal battle, as well as the path ahead
Speaker 1: for White House policy. Not only that, but how the
Speaker 1: next steps could play out in the days and weeks
Speaker 1: leading up to December's electoral College vote. All straight ahead.
Speaker 1: For now, we bring in Terry Haynes, founder of pangea policy.
Speaker 1: We should note Terry pushed back against the blue wave
Speaker 1: expectations that much of the market was looking for prior
Speaker 1: to election day. Terry, it does look as though we
Speaker 1: are going to have a divided government once all the
Speaker 1: dust settles. What is that going to mean for the
Speaker 1: mandate that Joe Biden is trying to put out there
Speaker 1: for things like UH, climate policy, UH, dealing with the
Speaker 1: economic setback, UH, dealing with the coronavirus. Well, I think
Speaker 1: that Vice President Biden is following in a long political
Speaker 1: tradition of trying to put the best face and in
Speaker 1: the most emphasis on exactly what he's what he's got
Speaker 1: out of this election. But the fact is there's no
Speaker 1: mandate for either side UH. And this is about as
Speaker 1: closely divided an election as possible. UH. And he's going
Speaker 1: to have to work with a Congress that is still
Speaker 1: very likely marginally Republican, but marginally Republican in the Senate
Speaker 1: and even more marginally Democratic in the House. What that
Speaker 1: means in practice is that you don't really have coherent
Speaker 1: or cohesive party structures. UH. You're gonna have a bunch
Speaker 1: of shifting coalitions that probably deal well with the fiscal
Speaker 1: things that need to happen. Probably you'll end up with
Speaker 1: a another stimulus in the one point five trillion to
Speaker 1: two trillion range, and you will continue you to have
Speaker 1: the parties agreeing on funding government pretty much in the
Speaker 1: realm that they've been doing for the last decade. But
Speaker 1: beyond that, I wouldn't look for a lot of policy changes.
Speaker 1: You mentioned the smaller margin of the Democratic majority in
Speaker 1: the House, and now how Speaker Nancy Pelosi's leadership there
Speaker 1: is being questioned, how's that factor into your outlook? UH? Well,
Speaker 1: I I I thought all along that the uh, the
Speaker 1: House was going to be less less democratic than it was.
Speaker 1: It was already a tiny majority of around seventeen seats,
Speaker 1: and it stood to reason that the there would be
Speaker 1: a lot of pressure on the Centrists that had won
Speaker 1: in twenty eighteen in Trump districts. Um. I think what's
Speaker 1: gonna end up happening is that I think there's an
Speaker 1: important part here with Pelosi that most people miss, which
Speaker 1: is that the deal that she made when she became
Speaker 1: Speaker against UH last year was that she would only
Speaker 1: serve two more terms. So going into this she'll be
Speaker 1: in her last term. Assuming she survives, at which I
Speaker 1: think she probably does probably continue to speaker but it
Speaker 1: but but no longer will the loyalty be there among Democrats. Uh,
Speaker 1: And no longer will the ability of Speaker Pelosi be
Speaker 1: there to uh to to bring these people into line
Speaker 1: and have them vote on a on a unified basis
Speaker 1: as they did on contentious things like safer impeachment for example. Uh,
Speaker 1: that won't be there. Uh. So you're gonna see less
Speaker 1: discipline in the Democrats, and you're gonna see more jockeying. Paradoxically,
Speaker 1: that might uh that might lead to more coalition building
Speaker 1: and more solutions. Uh, people start reaching across the aisle
Speaker 1: a little bit more, which would be a good thing
Speaker 1: for the country. Well, the President Biden be able to
Speaker 1: work that way, obviously, He's got decades of legislative experience
Speaker 1: in the Senate. Particularly how much pressure can he put
Speaker 1: on the House uh to uh to enact the kinds
Speaker 1: of policy agenda items that he campaigned on. I think
Speaker 1: almost none. In in reality, what you have is, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, the Biden Biden has two problems and you
Speaker 1: I will get to your question because yours is the
Speaker 1: second one, and it's important the first problem problem is
Speaker 1: that uh, he's gonna have to negotiate with a Republican
Speaker 1: majority Senate just to even put cabinet officials and senior
Speaker 1: regulators in place. Uh. There's about I think four thousand
Speaker 1: positions that are political positions in the United States government,
Speaker 1: the top that are required to be confirmed by the Senator,
Speaker 1: about thousands to fift hundreds somewhere in there. Uh. You know,
Speaker 1: unless the Republican Senate agrees with Biden on who should
Speaker 1: be in there, he doesn't get nominees. So he's already
Speaker 1: gonna have to trim his sales and pushed back against
Speaker 1: the progressives in his own party, which uh, which have
Speaker 1: had two conflicting things going on. The first thing is, uh,
Speaker 1: they haven't been enthusiastic about the Biden Harris ticket. And
Speaker 1: the second thing is, now that it looks like Biden's
Speaker 1: gonna win, Uh, they're starting to demand things uh and
Speaker 1: demand things which of course they can't get in this
Speaker 1: divided government. Now to the House, and much more shortly, Uh,
Speaker 1: you have still even although you still have some of
Speaker 1: those centrists in place, the vast majority of the House
Speaker 1: is the progressives and on the Democratic side, and those
Speaker 1: progressives are people who don't want any part of a
Speaker 1: moderate agenda, and we'll push back strongly against it. So
Speaker 1: I think Biden has almost no ability to extract discipline
Speaker 1: from his own party. Terry Haynes, founder of Pangia Policy.
Speaker 1: Always giving us a clarity when it comes to the
Speaker 1: policy path forward, uh, something that's sorely needed as we
Speaker 1: continue to navigate a vote count that is still not
Speaker 1: entirely clear, although the focus is coming in a little
Speaker 1: bit more as we head through this weekend. Terry Haynes
Speaker 1: of Pangia Policy, Again, thank you for being with us
Speaker 1: this morning. I'm Nathan Hagar along with Amy Morris. This
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg. This is special coverage of the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: election from Bloomberg Radio, and this is a Bloomberg Daybreak
Speaker 1: special report. I'm Nathan Hagar. Hi'm Amy Morris. The votes
Speaker 1: still being counted, legal challenges remain, but the path to
Speaker 1: the White House is there for Joe Biden. Want to
Speaker 1: bring in Kevin's really now Chief Washington correspondent for Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Radio and Television and Jennie Zo, Bloomberg News contributor and
Speaker 1: political science professor at Iona College, and Kevin let's just
Speaker 1: start with you, President Trump on Twitter claiming voter fraud.
Speaker 1: Twitters are already flagged at least one of the President's
Speaker 1: tweets about legal observers being refused admitutes admittance to those
Speaker 1: rooms where the votes are being counted. What does all
Speaker 1: of this do beyond just creating some confusion and delay, Well,
Speaker 1: two things. I think that analytically speaking, First and foremost,
Speaker 1: it it once again raises the issue about big tech
Speaker 1: organizations and the the puns and the clout that they
Speaker 1: have in the national and global conversation. And it's a
Speaker 1: conversation that quite frankly, policymakers here in Washington, d C.
Speaker 1: Even having for quite some time, you know, and we
Speaker 1: just saw the other week where big tech ceo is
Speaker 1: like Jack Dorsey were testified virtually on Capitol Hill, and
Speaker 1: and quite frankly, I think that conversation is going to continue. Secondly,
Speaker 1: in the more immediate news developments. Based upon my reporting,
Speaker 1: what I can tell you is that the President will
Speaker 1: be meeting throughout the weekend with his legal team, some
Speaker 1: of which he has deployed in battleground states like Georgia, Nevada,
Speaker 1: as well as Pennsylvania. The question becomes for President Trump,
Speaker 1: and this is a question not being asked by the
Speaker 1: media but by members of Congress within the president's own party,
Speaker 1: is what is the strategy in the short term and
Speaker 1: in the long term. And that is a question, quite frankly,
Speaker 1: that they are still trying to sort through. We can
Speaker 1: talk about all of the different ins and outs of
Speaker 1: the legalities, and I know Jeanie's I know who has
Speaker 1: been all over this and the new wants of this,
Speaker 1: but at the end of the day, it has to
Speaker 1: come down to a simple message, and Republicans are still
Speaker 1: asking for that message to be more clearly articulated. You've
Speaker 1: seen some tweaks of it amy in which they're saying
Speaker 1: they want to have all of the legal votes counted,
Speaker 1: and that's what they're continuing to to intensify with. But
Speaker 1: we don't have one singular court case, for example, that
Speaker 1: has made this easily digestible. Well, let's bring in Geniezo
Speaker 1: of I own a college. Because the President, as he
Speaker 1: has once again done this morning, Professor, can say that
Speaker 1: there are legal votes versus illegal votes, But it does
Speaker 1: come down to what the election officials themselves are finding
Speaker 1: and counting as this tally continues, do we see any
Speaker 1: evidence at this point that there are actually illegal votes
Speaker 1: being counted right now? At this point, we do not.
Speaker 1: I mean, the reality is we simply do not have
Speaker 1: evidence of voter road or this kind of mouth seasons
Speaker 1: that the President has been talking about at the polls
Speaker 1: or with the count That's not to say we won't
Speaker 1: find evidence of it or that they won't produce that
Speaker 1: in the future in court, but again, at this point,
Speaker 1: it's just we don't have it. And you know, look
Speaker 1: at what the Wall Street Journal editorial board is saying.
Speaker 1: Look at what Kevin was just mentioning members of the
Speaker 1: president's own party in the Senator, saying, you have to
Speaker 1: have an argument to make in court. It's one thing
Speaker 1: on Twitter and and and Facebook and elsewhere to proclaim
Speaker 1: that there are these problems at the polls, to proclaim
Speaker 1: there's widespread fraud, It's another thing to prove it in court.
Speaker 1: And as of this moment, as we've all seen, the
Speaker 1: courts have been unwilling and you know, just not accepting
Speaker 1: any of the arguments at least at this point. And
Speaker 1: it's still early that have been made, and so the
Speaker 1: President remains sort of screaming in the wind at this
Speaker 1: point without evidence to back up, and I you know,
Speaker 1: I'm so here is to hear. As Kevin says, they're
Speaker 1: going to be meeting with their legal team over the
Speaker 1: weekend what they come up with in terms of a
Speaker 1: legal strategy, because that is where their focus needs to be.
Speaker 1: You know, George W. Bush in two thousand had a
Speaker 1: legal team behind him. They were making a solid case,
Speaker 1: whether you agree with it or not, that the courts
Speaker 1: were willing to listen to. We haven't heard yet what
Speaker 1: that might potentially be from the President and his team.
Speaker 1: I would like to follow up on that if I could,
Speaker 1: Jeannie with just going back to because none of this
Speaker 1: is really that big of a surprise. Remember in President
Speaker 1: Trump then when he was still candidate, Trump said he
Speaker 1: would accept the results of the election if he wins.
Speaker 1: He was very clear on that point, same thing this time,
Speaker 1: and he's already said he'd be taking this fight as
Speaker 1: far as he can legally. But what we're seeing now
Speaker 1: is a split in the Republican Party over whether to
Speaker 1: fight this and how far to take this fight. What
Speaker 1: could this possibly mean for the GOP down the line,
Speaker 1: it's a great question, because you know, we just think
Speaker 1: about it at the at the state level. In Pennsylvania,
Speaker 1: the President has indicated that there are problems at the polls,
Speaker 1: he doesn't trust the count coming out of certain aspects
Speaker 1: certain counties, particularly Democratic counties in Pennsylvania. Yet on the
Speaker 1: down ballot you have important racist sided for Republicans in
Speaker 1: that state. Well, how do you square those two things.
Speaker 1: The Republican Party is bigger than Donald Trump. Of course
Speaker 1: he's the leader of the party as President of the
Speaker 1: United States. But to your point, his arguments have an
Speaker 1: impact on down ballot, and Republicans didn't do so badly.
Speaker 1: Down ballot looks like and again you were just talking
Speaker 1: to specials in Georgia, looks like they will probably hold
Speaker 1: the Senate. They picked up seats in the House, you know,
Speaker 1: really unexpected. We thought Democrats would gain. They got at
Speaker 1: least six seats, if not more, in the House, and
Speaker 1: they did well at the state and local level in
Speaker 1: certain states. So the President claiming flaunt fraud has implications
Speaker 1: on all of those races, and Republicans are going to
Speaker 1: have to think really hard about how they go forward
Speaker 1: and make these arguments. Not to mention Unlike in two thousand,
Speaker 1: we're talking multiple states where he may be contesting and
Speaker 1: asking for recounts in some states, wanting votes counted, in
Speaker 1: some states wanting the vote counts stopped. That makes it
Speaker 1: that much more difficult for attorneys to go into court
Speaker 1: and make a solid case on behalf of the president.
Speaker 1: I'm watching the headlines continue to cross this Saturday morning
Speaker 1: on the Bloomberg terminal. The Biden campaign is speaking to
Speaker 1: MSNBC this morning saying they feel frustrated with the networks.
Speaker 1: They expect a race call today. Kevin CILLI, what are
Speaker 1: you hearing in terms of where the margins are right now?
Speaker 1: Are we at a point where we can see more
Speaker 1: states called by the major networks today? Well, I mean,
Speaker 1: and this is a really fascinating conversation that is that
Speaker 1: is now emerging publicly, which is how networks and news
Speaker 1: organizations call a state for a candidate. And you know,
Speaker 1: I go back historically, speaking to two thousand, when quite frankly,
Speaker 1: Americans learned, maybe in real time, about the importance of
Speaker 1: that you could win a popular vote but losing an election.
Speaker 1: And I think this go around in two thousand and twenty,
Speaker 1: Americans are learning about just how complex mail in voting
Speaker 1: and ballots and ABSENCEEE ballots, and and the impact accounting
Speaker 1: in the data and the trends, and the impact of
Speaker 1: all of this in real time how long it can take. Uh.
Speaker 1: That said, based upon the conversations that I've had with
Speaker 1: uh Biden's campaign as well as his political strategic orbit, UH,
Speaker 1: they're incredibly frustrated. And we still have to remind people
Speaker 1: that it doesn't come down to the network calls. It
Speaker 1: comes down to raw votes in each state. Kevin's really
Speaker 1: Chief Washington corresponded from Bloomberg Radio and Television, along with
Speaker 1: Jeanie's a know Bloomberg News contributor, political science professor, and
Speaker 1: Iland College. Thanks to both of you for joining us
Speaker 1: this morning. I'm Nathan Hagar along with Amy Morris. This
Speaker 1: is Bloomberg. This is special coverage on the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: election from Bloomberg Radio, and this is a Bloomberg Daybreak
Speaker 1: special report. I'm Nathan Hagar, I'm Amy Morris. The votes
Speaker 1: are still being counted, but the path to the White
Speaker 1: House is there for Joe Biden. Let's bring in Josh
Speaker 1: wind Grove now. Bloomberg News White House car responded and Josh,
Speaker 1: it's right there in your title, White House Correspondent. You're
Speaker 1: at the White House on a regular basis. I'm curious
Speaker 1: about a sense of optimism or hopeful determination. What the
Speaker 1: mood might be at the White House at this hour. Well,
Speaker 1: I think I think they're in pretty dour moods, or
Speaker 1: at least more dour than they were a couple of
Speaker 1: days ago. You know, rewind to Thursday, the Trump campaign was,
Speaker 1: you know, doing call after call with the press, press
Speaker 1: conference after press conference, saying that they think the account
Speaker 1: would go their way, particularly in Arizona. Uh in Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: That all sort of dried up yesterday and has continued
Speaker 1: to drive up today. It looks like, uh, it's unclear
Speaker 1: what Trump's doing today. It could be golfing, we don't
Speaker 1: know yet. So, you know, the numbers are really ticking
Speaker 1: in one direction. There is no call at this point,
Speaker 1: the AP or none of the major networks have called it,
Speaker 1: but it feels like it's only a matter of time
Speaker 1: because every batch about coming in in Pennsylvania just drives
Speaker 1: Biden's bleep up higher. You know, Georgia is similar. They're
Speaker 1: pretty much almost done counting and Georgia overseas ballots, which
Speaker 1: is members of the military and other folks overseas, which
Speaker 1: doesn't actually skew necessarily as trumpy as you would think
Speaker 1: it would. Um, But you know, we're headed for a
Speaker 1: recount there basically in the four crucial states. Biden leads
Speaker 1: in all of them, and there aren't a lot of
Speaker 1: signs that there's a bunch of Trump boats waiting to
Speaker 1: be counted. One thing we do know, Josh, is that
Speaker 1: the President has been tweeting this morning claiming a lack
Speaker 1: of transparency, talking again about illegally cast votes. Beyond rhetoric,
Speaker 1: is there any more in terms of strategy for how
Speaker 1: the president plans to pursue this fight over the ongoing
Speaker 1: vote count. No, not really. Um. You know, they've been
Speaker 1: filing suits in particular in those four states Pennsylvania, George, Arizona, Nevada. Um.
Speaker 1: The pushback yesterday, it was weird watching Fox News yesterday.
Speaker 1: I watched Fox for a living essentially, you know, and uh,
Speaker 1: the tone changed a little bit. There was pushback from
Speaker 1: Republican allies of the president saying, you know, essentially put
Speaker 1: up or shut up. But where is the proof? You know,
Speaker 1: the campaign has not provided proof widespread fraud. In fact,
Speaker 1: the only one case that they brought forward is a
Speaker 1: case of a woman in Nevada who says that she
Speaker 1: went to vote in person and was told that her
Speaker 1: mail ballot had already been cast uh and the Clark
Speaker 1: County registrars said that they looked at the mail ballot
Speaker 1: and their view that it's her signature. In other words,
Speaker 1: they're accusing her of trying to vote twice. So the
Speaker 1: only the only evidence that they's been brought forward so
Speaker 1: far by the Trump campaign is a woman who the
Speaker 1: part who the county registrar basically says attempted to vote twice.
Speaker 1: So that's that's that's all they've gone so far soever
Speaker 1: this one. There, you know, we're waiting for evidence. There
Speaker 1: isn't any yet. Well well, Josh, I think the judges
Speaker 1: have also said publicly that there they too are waiting
Speaker 1: for evidence. They want to see more evidence before they
Speaker 1: continue to proceed with these court cases. I want to
Speaker 1: ask you, though, to pull the curtain back a little bit.
Speaker 1: Who is in the President's ear to advise him, to
Speaker 1: tell him how to either concede gracefully or take the
Speaker 1: fight to the courts. Who will the president listen to
Speaker 1: At this point, his circle is essentially what it always
Speaker 1: has been. First of all, is this family, um, and
Speaker 1: what the signs are seeing from the family, our mixed
Speaker 1: Donald Trump Jr. Has been you know, publicly urging Trump
Speaker 1: allies to go on offense, you know, hold press conferences,
Speaker 1: raised pressure to what end I'm not sure, but essentially
Speaker 1: get out there in fight. Um A. Banka. Trump on
Speaker 1: the other hand, has been pretty quiet. Uh. And so
Speaker 1: it's it's not really clear what his kids would be
Speaker 1: telling him. And then outside of that you get into
Speaker 1: like the Mike tents world. Mike ten has been pretty
Speaker 1: low profile since it all happened. Um Uh, loyal foot
Speaker 1: soldier for the president. Um So, I think I think
Speaker 1: it's sort of that in a circle. But then of
Speaker 1: course you mentioned um Mark Meadows as a COVID case.
Speaker 1: Um A little. We missed a couple of zeros on
Speaker 1: that total. It's not twelve hundred, it's a hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty thousand cases that we've had in the US yesterday
Speaker 1: hand the day before. Um So, you know, we've got
Speaker 1: a resurgent pandemic right now that seems to have hit
Speaker 1: Trump world pretty again. And I've got sort of the
Speaker 1: chief of staff, the Trump campaigns battleground director and not
Speaker 1: one of its most loyal congress and Matt Gave reportedly
Speaker 1: also having COVID. Kudos to the Bloomberg White House team
Speaker 1: for uncovering that scoop that White House chief of staff
Speaker 1: Mark Meadows and sever several other people in the Trump
Speaker 1: orbit have come down with COVID nineteen In our last
Speaker 1: thirty seconds here, Josh, what does that do in terms
Speaker 1: of the disarray that we're seeing from the Trump side
Speaker 1: as this account goes on. I mean, Trump released the
Speaker 1: statement yesterday that was combative, but you could read it
Speaker 1: as the start of a climb down. If the numbers
Speaker 1: keep going the way they have been going, then it
Speaker 1: will you know, we we can't. We're going to get
Speaker 1: a call sooner or later. I thought it would be yesterday.
Speaker 1: I was wrong, you know. But if if Pennsylvania Friends
Speaker 1: is called today, I'm sure we'll see last gasps of
Speaker 1: legal fights. But this feels like it's marching in one direction.
Speaker 1: We're certainly seeing a lot of care being taken by
Speaker 1: the networks with these margins. As the count goes on,
Speaker 1: Josh wind Grove Bloomberg News White House correspondents. So great
Speaker 1: having you on with us this morning on this special
Speaker 1: report from Bloomberg Daybreak on the ongoing election fight coming up,
Speaker 1: the legal battle for the White House, how these lawsuits
Speaker 1: could play out as President Trump has said he's willing
Speaker 1: to take them to the Supreme Court. I'm Nathan Hagar
Speaker 1: along with Amy Morris. This is Bloomberg. This is special
Speaker 1: coverage of the election from Bloomberg Radio. This is a
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Daybreak special report. It is on Wall Street. I'm
Speaker 1: Nathan Hagar Morris. The path to the White Houses there
Speaker 1: for Joe Biden, but a protracted legal battle could be
Speaker 1: in the offing. We bring in June Grosso, host of
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Law, are resident legal expert, as we watch breaking
Speaker 1: developments across the Bloomberg terminal this morning June, as Michael
Speaker 1: alluded to, President Trump announced his legal team will be
Speaker 1: holding a news conference in Philadelphia. He now says it
Speaker 1: will be at the Four Seasons at eleven thirty this
Speaker 1: morning on the East Coast to deal with what he
Speaker 1: calls the Four Seasons uh landscaping. Not quite sure what
Speaker 1: that means, whether that's some kind of UH term that
Speaker 1: he's trying to put out in terms of what's happening
Speaker 1: with the vote. What will you be watching for, uh,
Speaker 1: in the Pennsylvania legal fight, Well, I'll be watching for
Speaker 1: some actual allegations of voter fraud. So President Trump has
Speaker 1: been saying that there's voter fraud, and that's what a
Speaker 1: lot of the the Trump surrogates have been saying as
Speaker 1: well in lawsuits. But the lawsuits have been getting dismissed
Speaker 1: time after time. Every time I look and check, there's
Speaker 1: another judge who has dismissed another lawsuit because they make
Speaker 1: the allegations, but they don't have the evidence to back
Speaker 1: it up. So, for example, just yesterday in Nevada, there
Speaker 1: was an allegation that they shouldn't be using the signature
Speaker 1: matching machines. They should be checking them by hand because
Speaker 1: the signature matching machines don't do a good enough job. Well,
Speaker 1: the judge said there was absolutely no evidence, that there
Speaker 1: was no proof whatsoever, even though there were some there
Speaker 1: were some some papers that were filed and some a
Speaker 1: lawyer attributed to it, but you know, no real evidence.
Speaker 1: And that keeps happening time and time again, that the
Speaker 1: judges are just dismissing these lawsuits without any evidence. So
Speaker 1: I can't imagine what the legal team is going to
Speaker 1: be alleging in Pennsylvania today. Well, June, you and I
Speaker 1: have talked about this before, and you know, confusion and
Speaker 1: distraction can be a strategy, if not a just a
Speaker 1: delaying tactic. If you were the president's attorney, how would
Speaker 1: you advise him at this point? Does he have a
Speaker 1: path to the presidency through the courts, assuming there may
Speaker 1: be some evidence somewhere. Even if there's evidence, it has
Speaker 1: to be in a state that's pivotal. It has to
Speaker 1: be enough concerning enough votes that will make a difference
Speaker 1: in that pivotal state. And even you know, in Pennsylvania,
Speaker 1: everyone is really focused on Pennsylvania because the president has
Speaker 1: to win Pennsylvania, and there have been a lot of
Speaker 1: cases filed in that in that state. However, none of
Speaker 1: the cases have really come through for the president except
Speaker 1: for one that allowed his election observers to be a
Speaker 1: little bit closer to watching the process. So I mean,
Speaker 1: that's the critical thing. And even in Pennsylvania, where they're
Speaker 1: trying to focus on the number of ballots that were
Speaker 1: counted after election day received after election day. That's what's
Speaker 1: up at the Supreme Court. From what I have been told,
Speaker 1: those are just ballots in the thousands, not even in
Speaker 1: the tens of thousands, So where would they get the
Speaker 1: numbers to turn any of these states? So far, none
Speaker 1: of these lawsuits that I've seen concerns itself with anything
Speaker 1: more than perhaps ten thousand votes. So it doesn't seem
Speaker 1: to me like there either is a path through the
Speaker 1: lawsuits unless they come up with some new theory that
Speaker 1: will attack the substantial number in the margin of victory
Speaker 1: in one of these states to make a difference. So
Speaker 1: wanna pass on a little more information about this news
Speaker 1: conference that the president says his legal team will be
Speaker 1: holding later this morning in Philadelphia, And thanks to Bob Bragger,
Speaker 1: producer for passing this along. That it's going to be
Speaker 1: held at four Seasons Total Landscaping. That's a that's a
Speaker 1: business in Philadelphia where the news conference is going to
Speaker 1: be held. As we wait for much more information on
Speaker 1: what the president's legal team could be pursuing. But June Grosso,
Speaker 1: host of Bloomberg Law, given how the cases have gone
Speaker 1: for the president's team, uh since election Day, where do
Speaker 1: you see this going? What do you make of the
Speaker 1: strategy that has been put out thus far and does
Speaker 1: it point to where the Trump team could take itself
Speaker 1: as as it tries to pursue further remedies for whatever
Speaker 1: it sees as going wrong with this vote. You know,
Speaker 1: a member of the US Federal Election Commission said today
Speaker 1: on CNN that there's no evidence of voter fraud, there's
Speaker 1: no evidence of illegal votes being cast, and yet the
Speaker 1: Trump campaign they are going, as you said, have that
Speaker 1: very It will be very interesting for all of us
Speaker 1: to hear what they're going to talk about and what
Speaker 1: kind of allegations they're going to come up with. They've
Speaker 1: also sent legal teams to Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: So they're looking for their looking for fraud. They're looking
Speaker 1: for something to be able to sue on. But that's
Speaker 1: not an easy task. I mean, as I just said,
Speaker 1: you have to have evidence. And an interesting thing is, uh,
Speaker 1: looking at the lawyers so far, we're not seeing any
Speaker 1: of the heavy hitting lawyers that you're used to seeing
Speaker 1: in these kinds of election battles. So and um, I
Speaker 1: understand there was a reporting on CNN again that President
Speaker 1: Trump was upset with the legal team that was put
Speaker 1: together by his son in law, Jared Kushner, because you
Speaker 1: don't hear those big names you'd see, for example, Rudy
Speaker 1: Giuliani was the last time they had a conference in
Speaker 1: Philly was the was a lawyer out front, and he's
Speaker 1: not an attorney that deals with election law. Election law
Speaker 1: so specific to each state. It's different from other law,
Speaker 1: very specific to each state. And you have special litigators
Speaker 1: in those states that are usually used to deal with
Speaker 1: these issues because they're just so complex. Because the procedures,
Speaker 1: especially in until in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, the procedures aren't
Speaker 1: really minute, and they sometimes conflict with each other, and
Speaker 1: there's been no legal there's no not been clear legal
Speaker 1: guidance in Pennsylvania about a lot of the vote counting procedures.
Speaker 1: June I asked how you would um how you would
Speaker 1: advise the president. Now I want to ask how if
Speaker 1: you were one of Joe Biden's attorneys, because both sides
Speaker 1: have lawyered up. If you were advising the Biden campaign,
Speaker 1: would you just tell them to sit tight, keep your
Speaker 1: head down, and keep the faith. How would you advise them?
Speaker 1: What is their role? Right? Now as the president continues
Speaker 1: to take all these different courses through the courts, their
Speaker 1: role is defense. That's simple. It's been that way since
Speaker 1: these lawsuits over the accounts started. They come in and
Speaker 1: they debunk whatever the allegations are. You have a top
Speaker 1: lawyer in Mark Elias, and he was the one who
Speaker 1: who debunked the Nevada case, one of the Nevada cases
Speaker 1: that I talked about before the signature matching machine, saying
Speaker 1: there's just no evidence here. That's what they do. They
Speaker 1: come in and they look at the allegations that the
Speaker 1: Trump campaign is aching, and then they first say, where's
Speaker 1: the evidence here, where's your proof, which is what most
Speaker 1: of the judges have been saying in these cases in
Speaker 1: Michigan that its cases have been dismissed in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada,
Speaker 1: and the judges all say the same thing, there's no
Speaker 1: evidence for this. So it's easy to make these claims.
Speaker 1: Anyone can make these claims, but you've got to come
Speaker 1: up with evidence. And remember something else, It's really important
Speaker 1: that once the vote is cast, it's really difficult for
Speaker 1: a court to come in and say, no, we're not
Speaker 1: going to count that vote because the voter has reliance
Speaker 1: on the machinery, on the rules of the election, the
Speaker 1: voter has cast the vote. So even the Supreme Court
Speaker 1: will find it very difficult to say these votes that
Speaker 1: you've cast, voters that you relied on and you exercised
Speaker 1: your franchise, these votes won't count. That's different from what
Speaker 1: happened in Bush by Gore. The Supreme Court there didn't say, oh,
Speaker 1: these votes are not going to count. They said you
Speaker 1: can't recount these. So I think it's a really big
Speaker 1: step for a court to take to discount any of
Speaker 1: the votes that have been cast. JOm Grosso, host of
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Law, thank you for joining us on this special
Speaker 1: edition of Bloomberg Daybreak on the election count. Stay with
Speaker 1: us throughout the weekend and again first thing Monday morning.
Speaker 1: Is we tracked the latest on the election, the legal battle,
Speaker 1: and the path ahead for White House policy. I'm Nathan
Speaker 1: Hagar with Amy Morris. This is Bloomberg