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Speaker 3: I'm going to be a single day countdown.
Speaker 4: Yes, please soon enough, let's speed up silly season. I
Speaker 4: think we can say with some of the stuff that
Speaker 4: we're chewing on here, but that's the way this goes.
Speaker 4: We know it's like that in the final throes. They're
Speaker 4: just more outlets. There are more podcasts, there are more interviews,
Speaker 4: it seems than ever.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and we certainly saw that on full display yesterday
Speaker 3: with Kamala Harris sitting down for an interview on NBC
Speaker 3: as well as on Telemundo, and then of course on Friday,
Speaker 3: we're expecting Donald Trump to sit down with Joe Rogan
Speaker 3: for his podcast not the only podcast, Kamala.
Speaker 4: Harris to do the same. She's supposed to talk.
Speaker 5: With them very well.
Speaker 3: Might though I don't think call her Daddy, which Kamala
Speaker 3: Harris did, has been drawn out or Trump has been
Speaker 3: drawn towards in the aftermath. They're not necessarily one for
Speaker 3: wanning each other on these podcasts, but it's something we
Speaker 3: want to discuss with someone who is an expert on
Speaker 3: the media. Jane Hall is with us. She is American
Speaker 3: University Associate Professor of Journalism and Media Studies and also
Speaker 3: author of Politics and the Media, Intersections and New Directions. Jane,
Speaker 3: Welcome back to Bloomberg TV and Radio. As we look
Speaker 3: at the media strategy here in these final weeks of
Speaker 3: the race, trying to reach out to, in some ways
Speaker 3: very targeted groups of voters, how would you rate each
Speaker 3: campaign's success on that front.
Speaker 5: Well, you know, I think they've had their successes. Each
Speaker 5: of them has had a success I mean, I think
Speaker 5: it's striking that the GOP is coming out early voting.
Speaker 5: I mean that to me potentially shows how much loyalty
Speaker 5: Donald Trump has because he's now saying, oh, no, go
Speaker 5: ahead and come out and vote. I mean, it's very
Speaker 5: hard to know how this is all going to end up,
Speaker 5: but I personally think that Harris has done some very
Speaker 5: interesting things by going on Brett Bayer. People who might
Speaker 5: have doubted her, she stood her ground. You know, she
Speaker 5: might even go do Joe Rogan. Trump is not going
Speaker 5: into hostile territory. You know, he had a town hall
Speaker 5: which was pretty much packed with people that were his
Speaker 5: supporters and saying he was, you know, the protector of women.
Speaker 5: I think that they are not that. The Trump campaign.
Speaker 5: He is doubling down on the bro culture and on
Speaker 5: immigration and on the language around that. I think more
Speaker 5: than trying to go and convince people who are not
Speaker 5: already with him, that would be my estimation. She is
Speaker 5: going and I believe trying to show that she can
Speaker 5: be the person that can overcome whatever doubts people have
Speaker 5: about the first woman president, and also doubts about whether
Speaker 5: they understand or know her well enough. These are things
Speaker 5: that have come up over and over. I think that
Speaker 5: her strategy probably is a stronger media strategy. How that
Speaker 5: all plays out, We're really just going to have to see.
Speaker 4: Jen. You're an expert on politics and the media, and
Speaker 4: I'm struck by how in this campaign. Remember in two
Speaker 4: thousand and eight it was the Internet election because the
Speaker 4: internets were new. This is being called, I think David
Speaker 4: Gora earlier in the broadcast called this the podcast election.
Speaker 4: Donald Trump didn't do sixty minutes, and it might turn
Speaker 4: out that he didn't need to. But this Joe Rogan interview,
Speaker 4: for instance, could have a major impact on mobilizing bros
Speaker 4: as you call them, in other young voters he's trying
Speaker 4: to reach. Are we resetting the deck on the must haves?
Speaker 4: The must do is when it comes to media in
Speaker 4: a presidential campaign.
Speaker 5: Oh, you know, I think that's such a great point.
Speaker 5: I think this could be the podcast election. You know,
Speaker 5: Kamala Harris going on on Call her Daddy got a
Speaker 5: bigger audience that she might have gotten in many of
Speaker 5: the so called legacy media. I will say that. At
Speaker 5: the same time, you know, one of the things that
Speaker 5: is happening is that the sixty Men MIT's interview Trump
Speaker 5: didn't show up for, and he's been out there saying
Speaker 5: and convincing a lot of people that somehow it's wrong
Speaker 5: that they edited it. You know, she's trying, I think,
Speaker 5: to say that she's the one out there doing things.
Speaker 5: But to your point, I believe very strongly that podcasts
Speaker 5: are definitely playing a huge role. People are going to
Speaker 5: partisan podcasts, They're going to places where they are reaching
Speaker 5: out beyond their normal audience. I mean, that's why I
Speaker 5: think it was very smart for Kamala Harris to even
Speaker 5: consider and then go on with Brett Mayer. You know
Speaker 5: that's cable. But the podcast audience is huge. They've been
Speaker 5: courting them, they've been trying to you know, if you
Speaker 5: go to the spin Alley, the podcasts are definitely a
Speaker 5: factor in a way that they have not been before.
Speaker 5: And they tend to be partisan, not all of them,
Speaker 5: but many of them reach an audience of like minded people,
Speaker 5: and I think they've been a huge factor this time.
Speaker 3: Well, that's a really important pointing. This isn't necessarily journalists
Speaker 3: conducting non partisan interviews in many of these instances. And
Speaker 3: when we consider the way in which podcasts, which are
Speaker 3: often audio clipped, many of them have a video component
Speaker 3: now just parts of them are circulating on the Internet's,
Speaker 3: as Joe calls it, across social media, many of these
Speaker 3: things are being consolidated, not necessarily put into context. How
Speaker 3: concerned are you are by what you're seeing around media
Speaker 3: consumption behavior in this election and whether or not people
Speaker 3: are getting access to the factual information that they need
Speaker 3: to inform their vote.
Speaker 5: I think that this is the biggest question we face
Speaker 5: in media and politics. I mean, I will say don't
Speaker 5: count out the legacy media. I mean the fact that
Speaker 5: the New York Times put out their interview with Kelly immediately,
Speaker 5: the fact that NBC put out their interview immediately with
Speaker 5: Callie Jackson says to me that they also want to
Speaker 5: in any way answer the question of you edited it,
Speaker 5: you did something, you know that is something that Trump
Speaker 5: has been promoting it. Really, I think that it is
Speaker 5: an issue. It is an issue as to what kind
Speaker 5: of information are people getting. I think asking people to
Speaker 5: sort this out is more than we should be asking.
Speaker 5: I think these you know, it's a very complicated question.
Speaker 5: We should have fact checking, but it's very hard in
Speaker 5: real time right now when you have when you have
Speaker 5: Donald Trump saying that you know, what he said previously
Speaker 5: isn't true anymore, and you have to go back and
Speaker 5: say no, no, the media, you have to say no, no,
Speaker 5: he actually did want to overturn Roe v.
Speaker 6: Wade.
Speaker 5: I mean, we're we're in a fast, fast moving environment.
Speaker 5: I think maybe after the election we can try to
Speaker 5: look back at this and see what can be done
Speaker 5: to try to help people. And also, frankly on the internet,
Speaker 5: check and fact check, I mean, under Elon Musk, you know,
Speaker 5: fact checking is going away in many ways, and that
Speaker 5: is not a good thing.
Speaker 4: Well, the meantime, to quote Terry Haynes at Pangaea Policy,
Speaker 4: we're all drunks leaning on lamp posts. Jane, there's a
Speaker 4: great note that Terry is out with today and he's quoting,
Speaker 4: of course, the late Hall of Fame Dodgers announcer Vin Scully. Quote,
Speaker 4: statistics are used much as a drunk uses a lamp
Speaker 4: post for support, not illumination. And he calls out three examples,
Speaker 4: pushing the betty markets as we've seen as somehow accurate,
Speaker 4: pushing Harris's economic plan benefits the reality. Picking between he says,
Speaker 4: Harris and Trump is like picking which terminal cancer you want,
Speaker 4: and Harris supporters seeking to spook markets on Trump Terris.
Speaker 4: When the analysis is siloed and admittedly speculative, it brings
Speaker 4: us back to the impact of media and personality, the
Speaker 4: use of celebrity, When in fact, if we're all drunks
Speaker 4: leaning on lamp posts, we don't have a lot of
Speaker 4: data here to count on.
Speaker 5: Jane Dewey, Well, you know, I hope we can sober
Speaker 5: up after November fifth, and frankly, we're not going to
Speaker 5: be done after November fifth, you know, this is going
Speaker 5: to go on for a while. I think that this
Speaker 5: election has been exciting in many ways and also something
Speaker 5: we want to reflect on because you do need to
Speaker 5: have some consensus about what the facts are, and frankly,
Speaker 5: that has been undermined pretty dramatically, and we're gonna have
Speaker 5: to see how they saw plays out. I hate to
Speaker 5: say we're gonna have to see, but it's pretty true.
Speaker 5: I think in the you know, I think that we're
Speaker 5: gonna have to look back and say, should we have
Speaker 5: more regulation? Should we have you know, what should how
Speaker 5: should this all look? Because right now we're in the
Speaker 5: midst of I'll use another analogy, a car going down
Speaker 5: the road one thousand miles an hour. It's very hard
Speaker 5: to fix the car when you're running down the road.
Speaker 5: And I think we're gonna have to get through this
Speaker 5: and then see what the impact of this environment has been.
Speaker 5: Nobody particularly likes the environment that we're in, and that's
Speaker 5: that's something maybe we can go forward on.
Speaker 4: It's great to have you back with us. Jane Hall,
Speaker 4: American University Professor of Journalism, Media Studies through Politics in
Speaker 4: the Media, Intersections and new directions. I think we're finding
Speaker 4: a couple of them right now. Jane, Thank you and
Speaker 4: great to have you with us once again on Bloomberg
Speaker 4: TV and Radio. I'm Joe Matthew alongside Kaylee Lines in Washington.
Speaker 4: If you're just joining us, welcome to the fastest show
Speaker 4: in politics. We are less than two weeks out in Kaylee,
Speaker 4: impressive early voting numbers driving the conversation today from the
Speaker 4: likes of Georgia and Nevada, where Republicans are snapping to
Speaker 4: attention here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, breaking from the norm at least compared to what
Speaker 3: we saw in twenty twenty. In Georgia, more than a
Speaker 3: quarter of the voting population has already cast their ballots.
Speaker 3: So for all of our conversation about the media tour
Speaker 3: of the Swing state Blitz in these final days, a
Speaker 3: lot of people have already made up their minds and
Speaker 3: have already acted on that thinking.
Speaker 4: Twenty seven percent in the bag in the swing state
Speaker 4: of Georgia. We'll assemble our panel next. Rick Davis and
Speaker 4: Kristen Hahn with us today on Bloomberg TV and Radio.
Speaker 2: You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast kens
Speaker 2: just Live weekdays at noon Eastern on Applecarplay and then
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Speaker 2: Just Say Alexa playing Bloomberg eleven.
Speaker 3: Thirty thirteen days to go until election Day. We spent
Speaker 3: a lot of time talking about the closing arguments we
Speaker 3: have heard or will hear in these next thirteen days.
Speaker 3: Kamala Harris focusing in part on Donald Trump's character and
Speaker 3: what she describes as his unfitness for office, in addition
Speaker 3: to abortion rates, which will be spotlighted by a visit
Speaker 3: to Texas on Friday. Whereas Donald Trump has a bit
Speaker 3: more mixed messaging, shall we say when it comes to
Speaker 3: Kamala Harris, but one thing he has focused on. Frankly,
Speaker 3: both of these candidates do seem to be putting emphasis
Speaker 3: on is the economy. We heard from both of them
Speaker 3: on that issue in an interview in a rally, respectively yesterday.
Speaker 7: My plans are focused on working people, the middle class,
Speaker 7: and what we must do to strengthen hardworking people to
Speaker 7: be able to do what they dream and aspire to
Speaker 7: be able to do. His plan are about giving tax cuts,
Speaker 7: massive tax cuts to billionaires in big corporations.
Speaker 6: With four more years of Kamala Harris, North Carolina will
Speaker 6: be an economic wasteland.
Speaker 4: That's what's going to happen.
Speaker 6: The rest of your companies are going to move out.
Speaker 6: Everybody knows that smart people now, we don't need another.
Speaker 4: For No country could take that. And of course now
Speaker 4: Kamala Harris is pushing a federal minimum wage of at
Speaker 4: least fifteen dollars an hour in answer to Donald Trump's
Speaker 4: foray at the McDonald's in Pennsylvania with optics that are
Speaker 4: still resonating on the campaign trail. Let's assemble our political
Speaker 4: panel with us today Rick Davis, Bloomberg Politics contributor, Republican
Speaker 4: strategist and partner at Stone Court Capital, alongside Democratic strategist
Speaker 4: Kristin Hahn, partner at Rock Solutions. Great to see you both.
Speaker 4: This is quite a contrast, Rick Davis, when you have
Speaker 4: Donald Trump and what you I think already described on
Speaker 4: the air as very effective optics. We're in the apron
Speaker 4: handing out the frat restaurant open or closed, people pre
Speaker 4: selected or not, and Kamala Harris answering that with a
Speaker 4: fifteen dollars minimum wage. James squarely at those McDonald's workers,
Speaker 4: which is a more effective pitch in this eleventh hour.
Speaker 8: You know, look, I think they both work. Certainly, the
Speaker 8: optics around being in a McDonald's and showing support for
Speaker 8: people who are earning a living doing that, you know,
Speaker 8: as I said earlier, has been an effective tool, and frankly,
Speaker 8: the Democrats reacted so badly to it, it's actually probably
Speaker 8: hard for the Harris campaign to get back into talking
Speaker 8: about it because everyone panned so badly on the Democratic side.
Speaker 8: The reality is she should have been visiting a McDonald's
Speaker 8: and announcing this minimum wage policy in order to create
Speaker 8: the optics that would get her more attention. We're talking
Speaker 8: about it today because on Bloomberg we care about minimum
Speaker 8: wage issues, but her ability to convert a lot of
Speaker 8: talk about Wall Street issues, taxes, trade policy, all that
Speaker 8: stuff that's been going on to a main street issue,
Speaker 8: like you know, working at a McDonald's and earn in
Speaker 8: seven bucks an hour is something that requires optics, not
Speaker 8: just a press release.
Speaker 3: Well, I was also struck Kristen by how she immediately
Speaker 3: hedged her remark on a fifteen dollars federal minimum wage
Speaker 3: by saying we'll work with Congress on that we got
Speaker 3: to work it out, acknowledging that for something like that
Speaker 3: it will require congressional action. This is not just up
Speaker 3: to the power of the president. When the same acknowledgment
Speaker 3: isn't necessarily being made for other economic proposals from both
Speaker 3: candidates sprinkly when it comes to taxes or anything else.
Speaker 3: So where is the realism element here?
Speaker 1: I mean, I think she's right. I mean for any
Speaker 1: big policy change, whether it's minimum wage or the taxes
Speaker 1: that are going to sunset and that we all know
Speaker 1: that we're going to have to deal with at the
Speaker 1: end of twenty twenty five, it's gonna first president of
Speaker 1: United States is going to have to work with both
Speaker 1: chambers and likely both parties to get it done. You know,
Speaker 1: I do think I agree with rick On on the
Speaker 1: optics of Trump, even though it was a total sham
Speaker 1: and they shut the restaurant down, But the optics are
Speaker 1: are you know, are are important and probably were a
Speaker 1: net positive for him. You know, people criticize Kamla for
Speaker 1: not being more substive. What she did was very substive,
Speaker 1: but you know, like Rick said, sometimes it requires more
Speaker 1: than just a press release. But the reality is that.
Speaker 1: You know, anybody who's president is going to have to
Speaker 1: work with both sides on these on any issue.
Speaker 4: Really, I'm compelled by gas prices when you add that
Speaker 4: to the story of a rising minimum wage at least
Speaker 4: being proposed, and falling gas prices. Here Rick triple A
Speaker 4: has the average price down eleven percent from this time
Speaker 4: last year, and in fact, average gas prices are now
Speaker 4: below three dollars a gallon in nineteen states, including the
Speaker 4: swing states of Georgia, Carolina, and Wisconsin. I know that
Speaker 4: a lot of Harris critics try to tie her to
Speaker 4: the Biden administration. She's, of course a big part of
Speaker 4: it when it comes to issues like the border. Does
Speaker 4: she get the benefits of incumbency on a story like
Speaker 4: this when it comes to gas prices.
Speaker 8: She could if she spent more time demagoguing it. I mean,
Speaker 8: and I mean that in a positive way. Donald Trump,
Speaker 8: you know, demogogue's anything positive that happens if the if
Speaker 8: the if the stock market goes up, it's because, according
Speaker 8: to Donald Trump, they know he's going to win. If
Speaker 8: it goes down, it's because they're worried that Biden or
Speaker 8: the Harris campaign is getting successful. I think this is
Speaker 8: a lesson that at White House and the Harris campaign
Speaker 8: have never quite understood, is at some point you actually
Speaker 8: have to take credit for something positive. You can't just
Speaker 8: sort of assume that's your day job. And so the
Speaker 8: policies of the Biden, you know, Harris administration, you know,
Speaker 8: to bring down prices to cost you know, cutting costs
Speaker 8: of living. You know, like that's still the number one
Speaker 8: thing that voters are thinking about when they go to
Speaker 8: the polls. And the fact that that isn't on the
Speaker 8: lips of the candidate for president, Kamala Harris every single
Speaker 8: day just stuns me because they have a story to tell,
Speaker 8: but they just refuse.
Speaker 7: To tell it.
Speaker 3: Well, the story she seems to be telling, at least
Speaker 3: in part today, as we just heard her speaking outside
Speaker 3: the Naval Observatory her residence, is about the reported remarks
Speaker 3: in the New York Times and The Atlantic of John Kelly,
Speaker 3: Trump's former chief of staff, what he said about Hitler,
Speaker 3: what he said about Trump qualifying in the definition of
Speaker 3: a fascist. And we understand, based on New Washington Post
Speaker 3: reporting that just hit the wire Rick that on Tuesday
Speaker 3: next week, Kamala Harris is planning to deliver a closing
Speaker 3: argument speech on the National Mall, where, according to sources familiar,
Speaker 3: at least in part, she'll mention Trump's role in the
Speaker 3: January sixth attack on the US capital. What do you
Speaker 3: make of the focus on the threat of Donald Trump
Speaker 3: toward democracy? It's feeling very Joe Biden esk the final
Speaker 3: stretch of the race here.
Speaker 8: Yeah, it is. It's such a drug to criticize Trump
Speaker 8: and to call him a threat to democracy. And when
Speaker 8: someone with such credibility as General Kelly comes out and
Speaker 8: goes on the record something that nobody would have really
Speaker 8: expected him to do because of his patriotism, you know,
Speaker 8: it's just you want to grasp you want to hold
Speaker 8: that in. And yet this has been a major portion
Speaker 8: of the Harris closing argument, is swinging away from issues
Speaker 8: like the economy and going back into direct attacks on
Speaker 8: Trump as being non democratic. And look, they've got pulling data,
Speaker 8: they're making a judgment call. You know, they're seeing something
Speaker 8: there that I haven't seen that somehow voters that still
Speaker 8: haven't cast ballots or made up their minds are going
Speaker 8: to be motivated by that. It's just amazing to me that,
Speaker 8: you know, she would make her closing arguments in Washington,
Speaker 8: d C. Washington used to kryptonite. You know, if a
Speaker 8: canon for president came to Washington, they immediately fell into polls.
Speaker 8: And so good luck to you with that mall rally,
Speaker 8: because I'll be darned if I ever thought that would work.
Speaker 4: Love to hear from you on this, Kristen. This is
Speaker 4: a remarkable story that Kayleie mentions. The Washington Post is
Speaker 4: pointing to the permit application that would put this between
Speaker 4: fourth and seventh Streets on the mall. So imagine Kamala
Speaker 4: Harris on what appears to be here a forty foot
Speaker 4: stage with the Capital behind her right. This would be
Speaker 4: right on the mall where tourists would otherwise be milling
Speaker 4: around here about seven thousand people. A thousand chares the
Speaker 4: full treatment. Here are these the right optics, which will
Speaker 4: be one week before the election.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think I don't think it necessarily hurts her,
Speaker 1: as you're saying that as a Washington DC resident, I'm
Speaker 1: just thinking about the traffic that I'm gonna have to
Speaker 1: do with around then. But you know, I think that
Speaker 1: you can have an event like that, you know, look
Speaker 1: very presidential and and you know, She's been all over
Speaker 1: the country and still be in all of these swing
Speaker 1: states and where she needs to be, and in Georgia
Speaker 1: and you know, in Arizona and all these places, and
Speaker 1: so I don't think it's one or the other. I
Speaker 1: think that, you know, there there's some optics there, and
Speaker 1: then she can also be in a diner in Wisconsin,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, talking with voters in Michigan. So
Speaker 1: I think, you know, it just goes to show that
Speaker 1: this campaign, like Rick said, you know there, it's not
Speaker 1: that they're doing this in a vacuum. They've got data
Speaker 1: that's telling them, you know, that's informing these decisions. So
Speaker 1: I would be loath to second guess those, but I
Speaker 1: think that you know, you can do all of the above.
Speaker 3: Well, Kristin, If it in part is going to be
Speaker 3: a speech about democracy democracy she stands on the National
Speaker 3: Mall as Joe paints the picture, or with the capital
Speaker 3: behind her, does she need to make it about something
Speaker 3: more broad than that? What do you think, based on
Speaker 3: your deep knowledge of democratic politics, her closing argument needs
Speaker 3: to be beyond that? Is there something she could be
Speaker 3: better spending her words on, not just her physical presence?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I think clearly with the capital in
Speaker 1: the background, you know, drawing them those memories of January
Speaker 1: sixth and democracy. And we see some national polls where
Speaker 1: democracy maybe makes the top list or the top five,
Speaker 1: but at the end of the day, it's really the economy, healthcare,
Speaker 1: women's healthcare, those types of issues. So I would like
Speaker 1: to see her weave some of those concepts in, and
Speaker 1: she has been doing it about looking forward. You know,
Speaker 1: there's kind of on a dual messaging track where we're
Speaker 1: talking about this man over here is a danger to
Speaker 1: democracy and for you Republicans, maybe he'd be able to
Speaker 1: hold your nose and vote for me, you know, but
Speaker 1: also reminding people that she has a path forward on
Speaker 1: these issues that really hit close to home to them,
Speaker 1: including like them being able to put food on their table.
Speaker 1: And I will go back to the gas prices. I
Speaker 1: was just in Texas and gas prices are about like
Speaker 1: two thirty eight gallons. So I agree with Rick, you know,
Speaker 1: really taking advantage and like holding onto that and reminding
Speaker 1: people that some things have gone well. All right.
Speaker 3: Kristin Han Rock Solutions partner and Rick Davis, partner at
Speaker 3: Stone Court Capital, thank you both so much for joining
Speaker 3: us our political panel on this Wednesday edition of Balance
Speaker 3: of Power, and we still have much more coming up.
Speaker 3: We're going to head to the swing state of Wisconsin
Speaker 3: next show. Congressman Bryan's Style, the Republican, will be joining us.
Speaker 3: Have a lot of questions for him, so stay with
Speaker 3: us right here on Bloomberg TV and Radio.
Speaker 2: You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast Ketch
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Speaker 2: wherever you get your podcasts, or watch us live on YouTube.
Speaker 4: A very loud argument that's underway between free trade, what
Speaker 4: some call fair trade, and what others call isolationism.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you're seeing this reflected not just in terms
Speaker 3: of actual outright tariff policy when we're talking about where
Speaker 3: goods are made and if they're brought into the United States,
Speaker 3: but increasingly on the part of Donald Trump, you're seeing
Speaker 3: it reflected in things like tax policy. He already had
Speaker 3: proposed a lower corporate tax, right to fifteen percent for
Speaker 3: companies that manufacture goods in America. Then yesterday in North Carolina,
Speaker 3: he was talking specifically about offering a tax break on
Speaker 3: auto purchases, but only if it's an American made vehicle,
Speaker 3: not necessarily European or Asian models, all kind of focusing
Speaker 3: on America's manufacturing economy in the final stretches.
Speaker 4: That's right, which would a ligne I suppose with Donald
Speaker 4: Trump's prior proposals. But a lot of this just brings
Speaker 4: us back to the argument, which in many ways is
Speaker 4: not so much an argument. It's a bipartisan look at
Speaker 4: our relationship with China. It's just a question about which
Speaker 4: campaign in which administration will be carrying the ball on that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And of course if anyone wants to be able
Speaker 3: to form an administration, the path runs few, just through
Speaker 3: just to select few states, one of them being part
Speaker 3: of the Blue Wall, the state of Wisconsin. And that's
Speaker 3: where we go next, where we're joined by Republican Congressman
Speaker 3: from Wisconsin, Brian Style. He's chair of the House Administration
Speaker 3: Committee and member of the House Financial Services Committee. Welcome
Speaker 3: back to Balance of Power, sir, Always great to have you.
Speaker 3: If we could just begin with a wide view at
Speaker 3: your state somewhere where yesterday we saw Tim Walls and
Speaker 3: former President Obama spending time. How close is the race
Speaker 3: in Wisconsin. Wisconsin right now, from your view the presidential race.
Speaker 6: It feels like every two years the state of Wisconsin
Speaker 6: is always close. It's going to be once again. And
Speaker 6: at the end of the day, this is going to
Speaker 6: be a decision based on turnout. And this is where
Speaker 6: making sure conservatives and Republicans utilize early voting in the
Speaker 6: state of Wisconsin to turn out the vote. That's what
Speaker 6: former President Obama, Governor Walls was in town doing. I
Speaker 6: myself voted in person early in my hometown of Janesville.
Speaker 6: This is the opportunity to make sure that every voice
Speaker 6: is heard, and I think now to the end it's
Speaker 6: going to be a push to make sure our voters
Speaker 6: get out.
Speaker 4: Well, glad you mentioned that, Congressman, welcome back. It's good
Speaker 4: to see at least ninety seven thousand people, according to
Speaker 4: the Associated Press cast absentee ballots in person the first
Speaker 4: day they could in Wisconsin. But we saw some very
Speaker 4: long lines and there were reports of overwhelmed computer systems
Speaker 4: that clerks used to process ballots. Is this just par
Speaker 4: for the course or is there any concern that you
Speaker 4: have about the way this is being conducted overall?
Speaker 6: I think yesterday went well in an environment where a
Speaker 6: large number of people showed up to vote in a
Speaker 6: reasonably new system in the state of Wisconsin. I think
Speaker 6: most of the challenges were navigated through reasonably quickly. There's
Speaker 6: a small line in my polling location, but overall, I
Speaker 6: think most people were satisfied with our first day of
Speaker 6: in person early voting, and we continue to encourage folks
Speaker 6: to utilize that tool to make sure that they get
Speaker 6: out and vote. While the weather's nice this week in Wisconsin, well.
Speaker 3: It's nice here in Washington too, Sir. I have to
Speaker 3: have to admit that it's not feeling like Halloween is
Speaker 3: around the corner, or an election for that matter. But
Speaker 3: we are just thirteen days away, and I do wonder
Speaker 3: what you make, sir, of the closing arguments we're getting
Speaker 3: from both candidates. If Donald Trump is becoming specific enough
Speaker 3: in his messaging to win those voters in Wisconsin that
Speaker 3: may yet be undecided, what is the winning message that
Speaker 3: he needs to drive home.
Speaker 6: I think President Trump has done a good job and
Speaker 6: will continue to talk about the two key policies that
Speaker 6: everyone is discussing in Wisconsin, and that's the impact of
Speaker 6: inflation and the cost of living in the second being
Speaker 6: border security. In the contrast between the Biden Harris administration
Speaker 6: and the President Trump administration on these two issues could
Speaker 6: not be more clear. If we're focused in bringing cost
Speaker 6: down for families that can afford the things that they need,
Speaker 6: and we're focused in on the importance of securing the
Speaker 6: US Mexico border, which is having a direct impact here
Speaker 6: in the state of Wisconsin, we have an opportunity to
Speaker 6: be successful this election.
Speaker 4: Kamala Harris is also making a democracy argument here. Congressman,
Speaker 4: you might have heard that next Tuesday, there's going to
Speaker 4: be a rally or a speech on the National Mall,
Speaker 4: and Kamala Harris has pulled a permit to straddle the
Speaker 4: mall with the Capitol behind her to talk about the
Speaker 4: threat to democracy that she sees Donald Trump posing here
Speaker 4: and will recall the events of January sixth. We're hearing
Speaker 4: a lot about retired General John Kelly's remarks today, Donald
Speaker 4: Trump invoking Adolf Hitler. He too talking about the quest
Speaker 4: for absolute power, and I wonder what the Republican answer
Speaker 4: may be. Your answer in a state like Wisconsin is
Speaker 4: when you hear questions about this.
Speaker 6: The rhetoric over the last two weeks will most likely
Speaker 6: continue to increase. That said, I think we're best served
Speaker 6: when we're focused in and having a conversation on the
Speaker 6: policy differences between these two candidates. And I think when
Speaker 6: you have that conversation, you ask people, were you better
Speaker 6: off on your four years under President Trump or four
Speaker 6: years under the Biden Harris administration. The answer is clear,
Speaker 6: people are better off when President Trump was in office.
Speaker 6: And so this is a unique election where we effectively
Speaker 6: have two previous incumbents. There are going to be a
Speaker 6: lot of attempts to distract from the economic policies of
Speaker 6: the Trump administration, in large part because they were so successful.
Speaker 6: And so I think at the end of the day,
Speaker 6: this is going to come down to a discussion about policies,
Speaker 6: and the two policies that are front and center is
Speaker 6: the impact that inflation is having on families and the
Speaker 6: importance of securing the US Mexico border.
Speaker 3: What about securing the capital. Congressman is Joe mentioned that
Speaker 3: Kamala Harris maybe calling back to January sixth in her
Speaker 3: speech next week. We did learn yesterday that fencing around
Speaker 3: the US Capitol will be in place here in Washington
Speaker 3: from January fifth through the twenty first, can you tell
Speaker 3: us anything, given your seat on the Administration Committee as
Speaker 3: to what exactly is planned around the security of the
Speaker 3: actual certification of the vote and of the inauguration itself.
Speaker 6: As chairman of the Canyon House Administration, we oversee US
Speaker 6: Capitol Police and other security apparatus in the Capital. What
Speaker 6: is key here is that what we are doing is
Speaker 6: reacting to any threats that we see, and we make
Speaker 6: sure that our law enforcement agencies have the resources they
Speaker 6: need to keep the capital open and to keep visitors,
Speaker 6: staff in members safe. In my conversations with US Capitol Police,
Speaker 6: with the House Sergeant at Arms and others, I do
Speaker 6: believe that we're acting to make sure that they have
Speaker 6: the resources, that they will have the resources, and that
Speaker 6: we will be able to make sure that the public
Speaker 6: as well as staff and members are able to be
Speaker 6: safe here on Capitol Hill.
Speaker 4: That's important, Congressman, and I appreciate your talking about that
Speaker 4: to the benefit of our listeners and viewers who are
Speaker 4: concerned about this. There have been still so many questions
Speaker 4: about what law enforcement should have been and could have
Speaker 4: been doing that day. Have you heard of any threats
Speaker 4: are we talking about the Proud Boys again. Is this
Speaker 4: going to be a peaceful day in the Capitol?
Speaker 6: It needs to be peaceful and safe in the United
Speaker 6: States Capital, as it should be every day. That said,
Speaker 6: the security teams here in Washington, d C. And at
Speaker 6: the United States Capital are actively monitoring for any threats
Speaker 6: from anyone, whether or not that's domestic or foreign, from
Speaker 6: the left or from the right, or somewhere in between.
Speaker 6: My role as the policymaker is to make sure that
Speaker 6: we have the resources we need to keep the US
Speaker 6: Capital safe and to do that while we keep it
Speaker 6: open and accessible to the American public. That can be done.
Speaker 6: I feel confident that we are well positioned to make
Speaker 6: sure that that's the case well.
Speaker 3: And before we can get to those days in January,
Speaker 3: we do have to get through the election. And I
Speaker 3: know in this cycle you have been paying close attention
Speaker 3: to campaign finance, looking specifically at Act Blue, but there's
Speaker 3: been a lot of questions around campaign finance raised just
Speaker 3: within the last week Congressman surrounding Elon Musk giving a
Speaker 3: million dollars to a registered voter in a sweepstakes if
Speaker 3: they sign a petition regarding the right to free speech
Speaker 3: and bear arms. Do you share campaign finance concerns about
Speaker 3: the activity of mister Musk.
Speaker 6: I don't have full visibility into exactly how that sweep
Speaker 6: stakes operates. Obviously it's incumbent upon everyone to follow campaign
Speaker 6: finance law. I think broadly we should be encouraging people
Speaker 6: to vote, obviously only doing that under the guise of law.
Speaker 6: I would trust that somebody is smart as Elon Musk,
Speaker 6: as a series of attorneys who've explored that I don't
Speaker 6: know the inner workings of the sweep stakes, but I
Speaker 6: trust that his attorneys are determined it.
Speaker 4: To be legal.
Speaker 6: That said, I just broadly encourage everyone to make sure
Speaker 6: that their voice is heard this November and that they
Speaker 6: take advantage of the opportunity to vote in in an
Speaker 6: absolutely essential November election.
Speaker 4: Congress from Brian's style, Republican from Wisconsin's first district Congressman,
Speaker 4: it's good to have you back. We still taste the
Speaker 4: cheese kurds from you singers in Milwaukee. It's good to
Speaker 4: see you here. On Balance of Power, I'm Joe Matthew
Speaker 4: alongside Kaylee Lines in Washington. Just think every day we
Speaker 4: come on the air here and we add more events
Speaker 4: to the schedule in real time. Now, We've got a
Speaker 4: national address on the Mall, the National Mall Tuesday from
Speaker 4: Kamala Harris. Donald Trump's putting together Madison Square Garden, and
Speaker 4: we've got two weeks to go.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and there's still concerts that will be in play.
Speaker 3: Bruce Springsteen's going to be in Pennsylvania with Obama. We
Speaker 3: may have more musical appearances as well. Podcast to look
Speaker 3: forward to Joe Rogan on Friday with Donald Trump. It
Speaker 3: is going to be a lot of information and sound
Speaker 3: by what will be coming at us.
Speaker 4: That's true. We're watching and listening, so you don't have to.
Speaker 2: You're listening to The Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast can
Speaker 2: just live weekdays at noon Eastern on Applecarplay and then
Speaker 2: ron Oro with the Bloomberg Business app. You can also
Speaker 2: listen live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station,
Speaker 2: Just say Alexa play Bloomberg eleven thirty.
Speaker 4: I'm Joe, Matthew and Washington as we zero in on
Speaker 4: Georgia specifically. Now, we just have new numbers and this
Speaker 4: is truly fascinating. Here, brand new numbers that I got
Speaker 4: my hands on here from producer James This is from
Speaker 4: the Secretary of State's Election Data Hub Georgia now early
Speaker 4: voting as of ten thirty two am today, these numbers
Speaker 4: are something million, eight hundred and fifty nine eight hundred
Speaker 4: thirty early voting ballots accepted. That puts turnout close to
Speaker 4: two million already in Georgia, twenty seven percent of registered voters.
Speaker 4: When you start looking down the list here beyond Georgia,
Speaker 4: we can do this North Carolina, Wisconsin, Nevada. This is
Speaker 4: arguably the most important part of the story right now,
Speaker 4: two weeks election day. Yes, but people are voting now,
Speaker 4: and in some of the states where we get to
Speaker 4: see the actual party registration adjacent to the ballot, we're
Speaker 4: seeing Republicans do a much better job than they have
Speaker 4: in the past of getting out early, if you at
Speaker 4: least consider that to be a good strategy. And that's
Speaker 4: where we start with Andre Gillespie, Emory University, Associate professor
Speaker 4: of the Department of Political Science. Professors back with us
Speaker 4: on Bloomberg and it's great to see you, Andre, give
Speaker 4: us your take on what's happening on the ground right
Speaker 4: now in Georgia where this election is already being decided.
Speaker 9: Yes, well, at voters and Georgia are choosing early voting
Speaker 9: in record numbers, and I think that that says something
Speaker 9: about the debate about whether or not there should be
Speaker 9: in early voter seizing, or whether or not election day
Speaker 9: should only be one day. Georgia voters, regardless of party,
Speaker 9: regardless of region, are choosing to exercise their right to
Speaker 9: early vote, and so that seems as a policy discussion,
Speaker 9: we shouldn't be talking about trying to eliminate early voting.
Speaker 9: I think that there would be a lot of people
Speaker 9: on both sides of the isle who would be really
Speaker 9: upset with this. The other thing that I think is
Speaker 9: really important.
Speaker 4: Please, The other thing.
Speaker 9: That's really important from this debate is that people have
Speaker 9: made up their minds already, and people knew this already.
Speaker 9: I think this reinforces the idea that this is a
Speaker 9: base election and the candidate who wins is the one
Speaker 9: who has the best ground game.
Speaker 4: Tell me what that means for the rnc's effort then
Speaker 4: to get Republican voters out early. U is some of
Speaker 4: the mixed messaging that we've heard from Donald Trump, who
Speaker 4: was calling this idea stupid as recently as a week ago.
Speaker 9: Well, we'll still be testing this after the fact, but
Speaker 9: this does kind of lend credence to the efficacy of
Speaker 9: early voting and some of the efforts that the RNC
Speaker 9: was making quietly. You know, we'll see whether or not
Speaker 9: people change their mind because Donald Trump actually said early
Speaker 9: voting was okay a couple of weeks ago. But I
Speaker 9: think we have to acknowledge the fact that the RNC
Speaker 9: had actually quietly been encouraging people to use early in
Speaker 9: absentee balloting. The other thing I think is also important
Speaker 9: to keep in mind is that before twenty twenty, absentee
Speaker 9: and early voting had been the province of Democrats or
Speaker 9: older white voters in particular. And so if we think
Speaker 9: about why older people would be more likely to engage
Speaker 9: in early and absentee voting because of their age, because
Speaker 9: they can do so, they have flexibility during workdays to
Speaker 9: go out early, or because it might be easier from
Speaker 9: a health standpoint to go out and vote early or
Speaker 9: to mail in a ballot. I think what we're seeing
Speaker 9: as a return to the equilibrium where early voting it
Speaker 9: tends to be something that older, whier voters do because
Speaker 9: our older population is less racially diverse.
Speaker 4: Returning to the equilibrium, consider the balance then in Georgia
Speaker 4: between Tucker Carlson and Bruce Springsteen. You've got some real choices. Tonight,
Speaker 4: Professor Tucker Carlson with Donald Trump in Georgia. They're going
Speaker 4: to have an event a little bit later on that
Speaker 4: apparently is going to be part of a Tucker Carlson program,
Speaker 4: will be in the Atlanta suburbs at an arena in Duluth, Georgia,
Speaker 4: as Bruce Springsteen meantime gets on a stage with Barack Obama.
Speaker 4: Who are the audiences for these two very different presentations?
Speaker 9: So I don't think that the audience members are going
Speaker 9: to be conflicted about where they're going to go. People
Speaker 9: are not going to be showing up to these events
Speaker 9: specifically for Bruce Springsteen or Tucker Carlson. They're also there
Speaker 9: for Kamala Harris and for Donald trum And I think
Speaker 9: the other thing that's important about celebrity endorsements, the literature
Speaker 9: in political science is actually somewhat dubious about whether or
Speaker 9: not celebrity endorsements matter in terms of persuading people to
Speaker 9: change their minds. The types of people who are going
Speaker 9: to show up to these events are already committed partisans
Speaker 9: who are already committed to Trump or Harris before they
Speaker 9: knew who was going to headline this particular rally. There's
Speaker 9: new data out of Harvard that suggests a celebrity endorsements
Speaker 9: do matter from a mobilization standpoint, particularly with respect to
Speaker 9: voter registration. Now, in Georgia, the voter registration deadline is
Speaker 9: a month before the election, so nobody knew was going
Speaker 9: to register to vote as a result of seeing these
Speaker 9: headliners at these events. But imagine what that impact could
Speaker 9: be in a state that has same day voter registration
Speaker 9: like Wisconsin. So if you're in a state where the
Speaker 9: voter registration deadline is either zero to seven days ahead
Speaker 9: of an election, having celebrity endorsements could actually help get
Speaker 9: some new people to the polls. But I think most
Speaker 9: important thing about rallies, and the most important thing about
Speaker 9: celebrity headliners is the earned media. So we're talking about them,
Speaker 9: we're giving free advertising to both the Trump and the
Speaker 9: Harris campaigns because of the facts that they got cool
Speaker 9: people to show up for them at a campaign. Depending
Speaker 9: on what your definition.
Speaker 4: Of cool is earned media. Although I let I guess
Speaker 4: if you're Donald Trump, You're still spending one million dollars
Speaker 4: to appear on stage at Madison Square Garden on Sunday night.
Speaker 4: A lot of people are compelled by this because he's
Speaker 4: not really running to win the state of New York.
Speaker 4: He might help a couple of Republican House members, but
Speaker 4: this is really seizing on the idea that this is
Speaker 4: a national election, right and he's going to get a
Speaker 4: heck of a lot of earned media coverage, a lot
Speaker 4: of free media that's probably worth more than a million
Speaker 4: dollars for a night at Madison Square Garden. Professor, how
Speaker 4: do you see it?
Speaker 6: So?
Speaker 9: I mean that certainly could be part of the strategy.
Speaker 9: To the extent that there is a strategy, I mean,
Speaker 9: there are things that I question about Donald Trump's decision making,
Speaker 9: you know, in general about this. If he is coupling
Speaker 9: this appearance with a major fundraiser in New York, then
Speaker 9: I would argue that that is a pretty sound strategy.
Speaker 9: And so the only reason for candidates to go to
Speaker 9: decidedly red or decidedly blue states and cities if they
Speaker 9: have lots of donors in those areas who can actually
Speaker 9: help build up the coffers of that campaign. But Donald
Speaker 9: Trump's four ray is into places where it's clear he's
Speaker 9: either going to win them hands down or he's going
Speaker 9: to lose them decidedly. Doesn't make sense unless you're thinking
Speaker 9: about other aspects of the campaign, like earned media and
Speaker 9: like fundraising capabilities.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's difficult to gauge the strategy in some of
Speaker 4: these states. Of course, he was at Coachella about a
Speaker 4: week ago as well. Ore where are you specifically in
Speaker 4: Georgia when it comes to the middle, the undecideds or
Speaker 4: the deciders as the New York Times I believe was
Speaker 4: calling them in their most recent poll. You talked about
Speaker 4: the get out the vote effort and the ground game.
Speaker 4: Here are we beyond turning non voters into voters or
Speaker 4: d's into ours or whatever. This is people who are
Speaker 4: uncommitted one way or the other and simply going with
Speaker 4: the names and phone numbers that the campaigns have to
Speaker 4: get people out. That is what is going to decide
Speaker 4: the selection.
Speaker 9: Well, that small sliver of undecided voters doesn't matter unless
Speaker 9: the base turns out to vote at expected rates. If
Speaker 9: you have lackluster turnout amongst your base, you're not going
Speaker 9: to be able to make it up with a small
Speaker 9: sliver of undecided voters. So that's the important thing. The
Speaker 9: base always matter, The base still matters. As to these
Speaker 9: undecided voters, some of them may be KOI in terms
Speaker 9: of what they're reporting to polsters. Some of them may
Speaker 9: be truly undecided, and I think the bigger risk here
Speaker 9: is that they don't show up to vote at all,
Speaker 9: and then there'll be a question of, well, how are
Speaker 9: these people breaking One of the things that was really
Speaker 9: interesting is that the Atlanta Journal Constitution released a poll
Speaker 9: in Georgia last week or yesterday, and it suggested that
Speaker 9: eight percent of respondents were undecided in the race. If
Speaker 9: we break it down by race, it was a higher
Speaker 9: percentage of African American voters who were saying that they
Speaker 9: were undecided. Again, the coynesses quession, you know, I think
Speaker 9: is certainly on the table with this. But this may
Speaker 9: also suggest, you know, that the campaigns need to do
Speaker 9: more outreach in these communities and that there are people
Speaker 9: who might be withholding their vote until they feel that
Speaker 9: they've been properly contacted.
Speaker 4: Right, yeah, Well, this is in many ways an endangerous species,
Speaker 4: the undecided voter. Lastly, Professor, interesting move by the Georgia
Speaker 4: Supreme Court rejecting this push by the Republican Party to
Speaker 4: reinstate election rules that would have required hand counting of
Speaker 4: all ballots. So meet you back here in six months
Speaker 4: to see who won Georgia again rejected. But there's a
Speaker 4: challenge to that most recent ruling. How is this going
Speaker 4: to end for Georgia by November fifth?
Speaker 9: So I am only a casual observer of courts.
Speaker 8: I'm not a lawyer.
Speaker 9: I think it's a question of the timetable whether or
Speaker 9: not with thirteen days out from an election, there's enough
Speaker 9: time to follow the briefs and have a judge issue
Speaker 9: a ruling before election day.
Speaker 4: It's great to have you back under. Let's talk again
Speaker 4: before everyone gets to voting. Under Gillespie, with record levels
Speaker 4: of early voting around her in Georgia, Emery University, Professor
Speaker 4: in the Department of Political Science, always break to spend
Speaker 4: some time together. Thanks for listening to the Balance of
Speaker 4: Power podcast. Make sure to subscribe if you haven't already,
Speaker 4: at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and
Speaker 4: you can find us live every weekday from Washington, DC
Speaker 4: at noontime Eastern at bloomberg dot com,