Speaker 1: Now from our nation's capital. This is Bloomberg's Sound On
Speaker 1: Instead of Infrastructure Week, which is a punchline for four years.
Speaker 1: Under my predecessor, its infrastructure decades. It is not a
Speaker 1: race to see how many ribbons we can cut before
Speaker 1: the end of the year. Doing this is going to
Speaker 1: require a balance O. We're actually out there making these
Speaker 1: improvements to bridges, roads, airports. Bloomberg Sound On Politics, Policy
Speaker 1: and Perspective from DC's Top Names from You talked about
Speaker 1: Joe Biden a lot, but you're running for governor. The
Speaker 1: only worn out old donkey I'm looking to put out
Speaker 1: the pastor is Charlie Criss. Bloomberg Sound On with Joe
Speaker 1: Matthew on Bloomberg Radio. The Infrastructure Law is about to
Speaker 1: turn a year old, but is it too young to
Speaker 1: help Democrats in the mid terms. Welcome to the fastest
Speaker 1: hour in politics, two weeks to election day, and we're
Speaker 1: joined by the man in charge of implementing that infrastructure law,
Speaker 1: Mitch Landrew white House senior advisor, former Mayor of New Orleans,
Speaker 1: will join us in a moment to talk about the
Speaker 1: punch list, the work that's already been done in the
Speaker 1: impact it may have in November later, the man who
Speaker 1: could face Trump in twenty four squares off and a
Speaker 1: televised debate with his Democratic challenger will bring it to Florida,
Speaker 1: where Governor Rhonda Santis and Congressman Charlie Chris went at
Speaker 1: it last night. Bloomberg's Emily Wilkins joined us later with
Speaker 1: more that we'll have analysis from our signature panel Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Politics contributors Rick Davis and Jeannie Schanzano. The Infrastructure Bill
Speaker 1: passed almost a year ago now, right November five. I
Speaker 1: have on my notes here. It was historic because so
Speaker 1: many presidents had tried and failed. But now a year later,
Speaker 1: it is unclear to a lot of people exactly what
Speaker 1: work has been done, what work has yet to be done,
Speaker 1: what projects are about to begin, and what it means
Speaker 1: for the elections two weeks from today. The White House's
Speaker 1: infrastructure coordinator, Mitch Landrew, was asked about the latter with
Speaker 1: regard to the elections the midterms on President Biden's trip
Speaker 1: last week to Pittsburgh. They're all on Air Force one.
Speaker 1: This is, of course, you know where the bridge collapse
Speaker 1: took place a europe for Here's Mitch Landrew talking to
Speaker 1: reporters on Air Force One. I can't speak to the
Speaker 1: to the politics and the immediacy of it, but I
Speaker 1: will say this, when people are thankful for good policy
Speaker 1: and good investments that impact their lives, they have a
Speaker 1: tendency to want to keep doing that. And that's from
Speaker 1: a man who has been traveling the country now to
Speaker 1: help doll out the money and promote the projects. And
Speaker 1: I want you to listen to him in action. This
Speaker 1: is again the former mayor of New Orleans in this case,
Speaker 1: and I've seen him in action before. I don't think
Speaker 1: he's any happier than when he's actually out talking to people.
Speaker 1: He was in a neighborhood in Milwaukee last July to
Speaker 1: highlight more than eight hundred million dollars from the infrastructure
Speaker 1: law in place to replace lead pipes. Listen to Mitch
Speaker 1: Landrew walking into the neighborhood. What you're looking at is
Speaker 1: a representative of the president of the United States standing
Speaker 1: in the middle of this street, in this neighborhood. And
Speaker 1: you have federal officials here, you have state officials here,
Speaker 1: you have city officials here, you have folks that are
Speaker 1: working for the entity that handles the water here. You
Speaker 1: have the neighborhoods here, you have the residents here, and
Speaker 1: then you have the men and women whose lives they're
Speaker 1: changing and whose lives are being changed by the work
Speaker 1: that's being done. This is the message that Mitch Landrew
Speaker 1: has been laying out there, and he's having a very
Speaker 1: different conversation with people about things in their own backyards.
Speaker 1: Then a lot of us are having on national political shows,
Speaker 1: and he's with us right now from the White House.
Speaker 1: Mr Mayor, it's great to have you back on Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Sound On. When you hear talk about the polls and
Speaker 1: the balance of power in Washington and where are the
Speaker 1: results from this administration? Do you feel like you're living
Speaker 1: on another planet? First of all, Joe, it's great to
Speaker 1: be with you, and thanks for those clips. That was
Speaker 1: a great trip to Millwall. Remember that really hard felt.
Speaker 1: Oh I remember it well. But I actually remember standing
Speaker 1: outside of the house and talking to the mama and
Speaker 1: talking about her two kids and how they don't have
Speaker 1: to drink water out of lead pipes and get potential
Speaker 1: brain damage. That's the thing to get you up in
Speaker 1: the morning and keeps your feet moving really really quickly.
Speaker 1: So listen, there's a midterm coming up. I mean, we're
Speaker 1: in the politics of electing people that do good things
Speaker 1: for America, which is why I think the president is
Speaker 1: going to do very well. You mentioned at the outset
Speaker 1: that many, many, many presidents have talked about rebuilding America,
Speaker 1: but this president actually put points on the board one
Speaker 1: point two trillion dollars. We have five thousand projects coming
Speaker 1: out of the ground. As you have said, I've criss
Speaker 1: crossed America and gone to places that people you know,
Speaker 1: don't really think about Lounge Cannon County, Alabama, or Coachville, Pennsylvania,
Speaker 1: or Saginaw, Michigan, where actually this this work is hitting
Speaker 1: the ground and impacting people's immediately in real ways. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you build a water tower in a small city
Speaker 1: that helps keep the pressure where it needs to be
Speaker 1: so that the water can stay fresh, people feel that
Speaker 1: in a real way. If you rebuild the train station
Speaker 1: in the middle of a town that has gotten left behind,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden generation of wealth gets built. If
Speaker 1: you go into Syracuse and you take down a highway
Speaker 1: that's divided communities forever, communities come back together and they
Speaker 1: see this president actually not just talking to talk, but
Speaker 1: walking the walk Well, with that said, you're a wellow
Speaker 1: aware of the politics that we're all living through right now.
Speaker 1: You're you're obviously a lifelong, lifelong politician. You talked to
Speaker 1: Democrats and Republicans every day. You know. There's a poll
Speaker 1: that came out recently. I believe it was from CBS
Speaker 1: News that found eight percent of Democrats think Republicans are
Speaker 1: going to destroy the country and a similar number of
Speaker 1: Republicans think the same about Democrats. Is it because nobody's
Speaker 1: talking to each other. We love, we love each other.
Speaker 1: That sounds like a family at Thanksgiving. But listen, well, um,
Speaker 1: you don't want to be with my family and Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1: Everybody knows that failed. But listen, let me say this.
Speaker 1: One of the great virtues of this piece of legislation
Speaker 1: is it's going to teach us how to work together again.
Speaker 1: I venture to say that most everybody in America will
Speaker 1: agree with this statement that there's no good Democratic way,
Speaker 1: a good Republican way to fill a pothole. Just fill
Speaker 1: the damn pothole. Just let's get it done. Let's figure
Speaker 1: out a way how to rebuild America together. But this
Speaker 1: is about the president's leadership. He said that if you
Speaker 1: gave him the power that he would actually get this on.
Speaker 1: Nobody gave him a chance of it in this done.
Speaker 1: If you told people when Joe Biden got elected president
Speaker 1: that he was going to create ten million jobs, have
Speaker 1: the lowest unemployment rate in the last fifty years, had
Speaker 1: the lowest number of unemployment claims that have been filed
Speaker 1: since nineteen seventy, creates seven hundred thousand manufacturing jobs, they
Speaker 1: would have said, you lost your mind. And if you
Speaker 1: would have told them that he was going to pass
Speaker 1: for major pieces of legislation, they would have told you
Speaker 1: to go to the doctor and get your head check.
Speaker 1: He did all of those things. But listen, inflation is
Speaker 1: a real problem for Americans and by the way, for
Speaker 1: everybody in the world. There are a hundred economies in
Speaker 1: the world that have significantly higher inflation rates than we do.
Speaker 1: And that's why the presidents so fighting so hard to
Speaker 1: keep cost down and to lower costs for average Americans,
Speaker 1: which is what really elections are about. I can't speak
Speaker 1: specifically to the day to day elections because of my position,
Speaker 1: but I can say as a politician that that you know,
Speaker 1: people should reward good choices and the choices that the
Speaker 1: President has made has put America in a position better
Speaker 1: than any other country to withstand this incredible pain that
Speaker 1: we're feeling from inflation, because Putin's war and because of COVID. Well,
Speaker 1: you know the narrative out there right now, there's a
Speaker 1: fair chance that Democrats could lose the House. I don't
Speaker 1: need you to weigh in on that today, but you know,
Speaker 1: when you consider that what you just told me, this
Speaker 1: laundry list, this this so this list of of of
Speaker 1: accomplishments that the president has. There's been a lot of
Speaker 1: talk about a late pivot to the economy, mayor that
Speaker 1: maybe you should have been out there all summer talking
Speaker 1: about infrastructure instead of Democrats talking about the Roe v.
Speaker 1: Wade ruling, for instance. Is there still a chance to
Speaker 1: tell your story. Well, let me say that since last
Speaker 1: November fift not only have I been out there, but
Speaker 1: Cabinet secretaries have been out there, The President has been
Speaker 1: out there. Members of Congress and the Senate they've been.
Speaker 1: Over a thousand events they have been. And as a
Speaker 1: matter of fact, if this wasn't important to Republicans, can
Speaker 1: somebody please explain to me why they've taken credit for it?
Speaker 1: I mean they voted against it, as as a speaker said,
Speaker 1: they voted no, and they want the dope. And every
Speaker 1: Republican that I'm aware of who was actually against the
Speaker 1: bill is actually out there touting the fact that the
Speaker 1: Moneys are coming to their communities to build roads and
Speaker 1: bridges and amples. So what do they tell you when
Speaker 1: you're at events with internet, Well, they're like, again, there's
Speaker 1: no Republican a democratic way to do it. Let's get
Speaker 1: it done. But look, there's politics and then there's politics.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, there's policy that
Speaker 1: transforms America and makes a better America. So this is
Speaker 1: what I'm working on, is a two, three, five, seven
Speaker 1: year program to teach America because this is what the
Speaker 1: President's vision was, how to do great things again. And
Speaker 1: history is going to record really, really well that if
Speaker 1: we do this investment appropriately, that this was a point
Speaker 1: in time when America actually got itself right and got
Speaker 1: it headed in the right direction, and it'll be because
Speaker 1: of President Biden's vision. Well, Mitch Landry, I think of
Speaker 1: you as kind of like the Democratic Santa Claus. This
Speaker 1: you're the Cajun Santa Claus. This year for the White
Speaker 1: House because you're the guy with your dolling out all
Speaker 1: the money here, what kind of a story can you
Speaker 1: tell voters about what they have not seen yet. There
Speaker 1: are a lot of projects in the pipeline, in fact,
Speaker 1: a lot more than you've even had a chance to begin.
Speaker 1: And I realized that was the story originally. But people
Speaker 1: have short memories. They want to know when the crane
Speaker 1: are coming. Well, thank you for first of all, thank
Speaker 1: you for calling me Santa Claus. I love of Santa Claus.
Speaker 1: What do you in the But but I'm doing a lot.
Speaker 1: We'll look, we're building a team up here so that
Speaker 1: the federal government was working with state and local governments.
Speaker 1: We're actually getting money out of the door a hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty billion, and then we're actually telling the story.
Speaker 1: So the story is that we're rebuilding roads and bridges
Speaker 1: and airports and ports. We're making sure that we lay
Speaker 1: down high speed internet so no little girls got to
Speaker 1: sit in the backup her mama's car outside of McDonald's
Speaker 1: to find out how to do her homework or to
Speaker 1: realize that God given talents. We're cleaning up the air
Speaker 1: on the water, and we're getting ready for a clean
Speaker 1: energy economy. And by the way, the stuff coming out
Speaker 1: of the ground as we speak. I was in New
Speaker 1: Hampshire the other day at an intersection that's being built,
Speaker 1: um the in Dairy that's actually gonna completely reconstruct that
Speaker 1: particular area of of that particular state. And that's happening
Speaker 1: all over the country. I was in East Las Vegas
Speaker 1: the other day. It's given out a twenty five million
Speaker 1: dollar check for them to recreate the road. So get
Speaker 1: this so the kids can just safely ride their bike
Speaker 1: to and from school to church and then back across
Speaker 1: the street without getting run over because someone decided to
Speaker 1: put a highway down the right down the middle of
Speaker 1: that community. Those are the things that are happening now.
Speaker 1: Five thousand projects and then many many more to come.
Speaker 1: But if we get it right, if we figure out
Speaker 1: how to do it together, if we don't let politics
Speaker 1: get in the way, and we invest in our future,
Speaker 1: will have a great future together. Well, well, I with
Speaker 1: that in mind, you get through this midterm election cycle.
Speaker 1: I wonder, miss Lander, are you gonna stay on this
Speaker 1: job as infrastructure coordinator passed the election? Well, I'll work
Speaker 1: at the Pleasident at the president's pleasure. He could tell
Speaker 1: me to go home tomorrow, so we'll see how that work.
Speaker 1: But if you ask you to stay, that's something you'd do.
Speaker 1: We're gonna have a conversation about it again, I want
Speaker 1: to say. But I work at his pleasure, and that's
Speaker 1: why I'm here in the day he tells me to
Speaker 1: get out of here, I gotta go home, and I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna let the door hit me on the way out.
Speaker 1: Are you taking lessons right now? Speaking of that, Doris
Speaker 1: always swinging, Mr Mayor, and you know that as well
Speaker 1: as anybody. Are you taking notes right now on your
Speaker 1: own run for president? No, sir, I'm not. I'll work
Speaker 1: for the president and he's gonna run again. He's gonna
Speaker 1: win again, and we're gonna build a better Americans together. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't mean twenty four I mean anytime down the road.
Speaker 1: You've you've got a story to tell. A smart politician
Speaker 1: you never say, you know Joe Biden. Joe Biden is
Speaker 1: my president. I love him. I'm thrilled that he got elected.
Speaker 1: He's doing a great job. He is a decent, kind, tough,
Speaker 1: smart person who's led America in a beautiful way, and
Speaker 1: he's gonna keep doing it. I think people are gonna
Speaker 1: be surprised at how well we do in a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks. Joining us live from the north lawn of
Speaker 1: the White House, Mitch Landry, thank you, the former mayor
Speaker 1: of New Orleans. Thank you, sir for being with us
Speaker 1: on the fastest hour in politics. We're joining you live
Speaker 1: today from World Headquarters in New York. Rick Davis is
Speaker 1: in the house. We'll have Jeanie Schanzano our signature panel. Next.
Speaker 1: Stay right here. We'll check traffic and markets after hours
Speaker 1: to this is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg. You sound
Speaker 1: on with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio. Can you believe
Speaker 1: a year went by? I had to ask Rick, is
Speaker 1: it just me? It's not a year since infrastructure? I
Speaker 1: thought that was gonna change our lives. It definitely changed
Speaker 1: Mitch Landrew's life, and arguably actually a lot of others.
Speaker 1: You have just played for you the cut of him
Speaker 1: talking to these people taking lead pipes out of their houses.
Speaker 1: That's pretty real stuff, you know, when you talk about delivering.
Speaker 1: But it doesn't seem like it's going to make a difference.
Speaker 1: In November. The polls are at least if you believe
Speaker 1: them not looking great for Democrats, And we've been talking
Speaker 1: about this on a daily basis. As we assemble our panel,
Speaker 1: Rick Davis is with me in studio here at World
Speaker 1: Headquarters in New York. Genie Schanzano joins us as well
Speaker 1: to make our signature panel. It's great to have both
Speaker 1: of you with us. Rick. You saw and listen to
Speaker 1: our conversation with Mitch Landrew. When you hear about a
Speaker 1: former mayor like that talking to people about the gritty
Speaker 1: stuff on the street, how do you project that on
Speaker 1: a national level? So it makes a difference because no
Speaker 1: one's talking about it right now. Yeah, I actually thought
Speaker 1: you're you asked a really good question, which is, you know,
Speaker 1: how do you break this out? And he gave a
Speaker 1: good response saying, I've had over a thousand events and
Speaker 1: members of the cabinet all over the place, But you're right,
Speaker 1: it isn't punching through, right, I mean, And so for
Speaker 1: whatever is happening, maybe they need to stage more demonstrations
Speaker 1: of you know, here's some cranes, here's some podles. I
Speaker 1: it's not totally clear to me how you could actually
Speaker 1: better communicate the impact of a trillion dollar infrastructure bill
Speaker 1: that we've been waiting twenty five years to get passing
Speaker 1: the Congress. At this president finally did. But um, and
Speaker 1: and maybe that falls on the president who probably should
Speaker 1: have taken a month do nothing but go around to
Speaker 1: the states and say here's what you're getting out of
Speaker 1: this chunk of change. But um, you know, look, as
Speaker 1: he pointed out, President's busy guy, and he's got a
Speaker 1: lot of things going on. But now we're in mid
Speaker 1: terms and that didn't punch through, and Republicans in many
Speaker 1: cases are criticizing it or you know, in some money, Now,
Speaker 1: what did he say, you vote and take the though
Speaker 1: it's one or the other, but that was a bipartisan achievement.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's not helping Democrats. Now, yeah, I think there's
Speaker 1: some defensiveness that that the Democrats can have by saying,
Speaker 1: you know, they're getting criticized for spending packages that raise inflation,
Speaker 1: but one of those spending packages is creating all these
Speaker 1: jobs and has the potential to transform communities, like the
Speaker 1: infrastructure package. But like when when you pass seven trillion
Speaker 1: dollars worth of bills in two years, it's kind of
Speaker 1: hard to distinguish if this were the only thing that
Speaker 1: happened this year. This is all we'd be talking about,
Speaker 1: Jennie if if the cage in Santa Claus can't get
Speaker 1: this done. And I'm sticking with that, by the way,
Speaker 1: I think he accepted that. Uh Moniker, How does Joe
Speaker 1: Biden do it? I think that he did a very
Speaker 1: good job. And I love the Cajun Santa Claus, so
Speaker 1: you should make sure you copyright that. Joe. Yeah. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I think he did a very good job
Speaker 1: doing what Democrats should be doing. And we've heard this
Speaker 1: from Polsters. We've heard it from the best in the business,
Speaker 1: people like Stan Greenberg and Patrick Gaspard and Salinda Lake.
Speaker 1: They've come out and they've said to Democrats, this is
Speaker 1: a hard argument to make, but you can't buy into
Speaker 1: this idea that we don't have a winning message on
Speaker 1: the ec enemy and on inflation. And you've got to
Speaker 1: talk about it. And there's plenty to celebrate about what happened,
Speaker 1: and also you need to talk about what the Republicans
Speaker 1: tried to do as well. I mean, if you just
Speaker 1: look at some of the things that the Republicans try
Speaker 1: to do, they are not very popular with the American
Speaker 1: public and so you know, those kinds of things can
Speaker 1: be put out there. The American Rescue Plan had a
Speaker 1: child tax credit relief for the poor in the middle class.
Speaker 1: The I r A brought prices down for pharmaceuticals for
Speaker 1: health insurance. And what did the Republicans try to do?
Speaker 1: They tried to stop it. They also announced they'd reinstate
Speaker 1: Trump tax cuts for wealthy and wealthy corporations. These are
Speaker 1: the kinds of messages Democrats have to be talking about.
Speaker 1: We started to hear it, and hopefully it's not too
Speaker 1: late for Democrats, and Nancy Pelosi over the weekend was
Speaker 1: talking about it. They've got to say this more. And
Speaker 1: you know, the mayor made a very good point when
Speaker 1: he said about, you know, democrats Republicans rather voting no
Speaker 1: and wanting the dough. That's exactly the point that they
Speaker 1: have to underscore. These are popular policies. Democrats can't shy
Speaker 1: away from them. You think about what we talked about
Speaker 1: here in the long pipeline of projects, Rick, this is
Speaker 1: gonna be going on for years, right, this will outlive
Speaker 1: potentially this president if there's only one term. But then again,
Speaker 1: is this really a story? Is this the story that
Speaker 1: that boomerangs back around to help Democrats in two years. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would say one, it's a little disingenuous to say
Speaker 1: vote now and and and take the dough. It was
Speaker 1: a bipartisan bill. It would never have been signed in
Speaker 1: the law, would have not passed the House or the
Speaker 1: Senate um without Republican support if we got to remember,
Speaker 1: there were a lot of renegade Democrats on the left
Speaker 1: who were complaining about this bill. So bottom line is, Uh,
Speaker 1: this on a localized basis is going to give benefits
Speaker 1: to politicians for a decade. I mean, if you are
Speaker 1: getting that new bridge built, if you are getting the
Speaker 1: new water purification replacing those lad hypes, yeah, you know
Speaker 1: that's going to be where the impact has felt as
Speaker 1: a national issue. Democrats can stick their chest out and say, hey,
Speaker 1: we passed a once in a generation infrastructure bill that
Speaker 1: rebuilt our highways, rebuilt our systems, rebuilt our power grid,
Speaker 1: and that will be a good talking point for two
Speaker 1: thousand twenty four. But Republicans can also say, yeah, and
Speaker 1: I was for that till you couldn't have done it
Speaker 1: without me. I asked him if he was going to
Speaker 1: run for presidents or something along those lines, because I
Speaker 1: can't help myself. Jeannie. Uh, Mitch Landrews said that Joe
Speaker 1: Biden's gonna run and he's gonna win. Is that news?
Speaker 1: You know? I don't think it's news because I think
Speaker 1: we have to hear it from from Joe Biden himself.
Speaker 1: But you know, Mitch Landrew, you know, I think he
Speaker 1: is a viable up and comer. If if Joe Biden
Speaker 1: decides he's not going to do it, but you know
Speaker 1: Mitch Landrew working for him, of course he's gonna say
Speaker 1: he's gonna run. And you know, I wasn't even thinking
Speaker 1: twenty four though, Rick, I mean, what's what's down the
Speaker 1: road for Landrew? Yeah? I wasn't thinking of that either
Speaker 1: when you said it, but like he took the bait
Speaker 1: right away, so it was on his mind. Let's do
Speaker 1: that again soon. Thanks. Rick and Jennie are paneled for
Speaker 1: the hour, and of course, Cajun Santa Mitch Landrew with
Speaker 1: us again on Bloomberg. Sound on, We're gonna bring you
Speaker 1: down to Florida for one heck of a debate last
Speaker 1: night to Santis and Chris next, this is Bloomberg. We've
Speaker 1: also got a debate later on. We're gonna talk about this.
Speaker 1: Dr Roz, Jhon Fetterman, this is a big one tonight.
Speaker 1: And last night it was Florida, Rhonda Santis and Charlie Chris. Now,
Speaker 1: of course, Rhonda Santis is the man that everyone keeps
Speaker 1: talking about right as the alternative to Donald Trump, that
Speaker 1: he may in fact even run against Trump in twenty
Speaker 1: four unless he's just waiting to find out, but he's
Speaker 1: running for re election as the governor of Florida. And
Speaker 1: Charlie Chris last night really wanted to spend some time
Speaker 1: on this and when just opened by hearing this exchange
Speaker 1: in their debate last night, starting here with Charlie Chris
Speaker 1: going after this idea of Rhonda Santis actually keeping his
Speaker 1: eyes on the White House. Listen, Ron, you talk about
Speaker 1: Joe Biden the uh. I understand you think you're gonna
Speaker 1: be running against him. I can see how you might
Speaker 1: get confused. But you're running for governor. You're running for governor,
Speaker 1: and I have a question for you. You're running for governor,
Speaker 1: why don't you look in the eyes of the people
Speaker 1: of state of Florida and say to them, if you're
Speaker 1: re elected, you will serve a full four year term
Speaker 1: as governor? Yes or no? Yes or no run? Will
Speaker 1: you serve a full four year term if you're re
Speaker 1: elected governor of Florida? Answers looks no, he's not answering, Ques,
Speaker 1: it's a fair question. He won't tell you. We did
Speaker 1: not agree when the candidates asking, well, listen, I know
Speaker 1: that Charlie's interested in talking about four in Joe Biden,
Speaker 1: but I just want to make things very very clear.
Speaker 1: The only worn out old donkey I'm looking to put
Speaker 1: out the pastor is Charlie Triss. Okay, somebody was sitting
Speaker 1: on that line for a while, and by the way,
Speaker 1: the moderator was correct. They had agreed not to ask
Speaker 1: questions of each other. Of course, doesn't matter when you're
Speaker 1: on TV and no one can get to you. Emily
Speaker 1: Wilkins is with a Bloomberg Government Congress reporter who has
Speaker 1: been on the trail last couple of weeks and keeping,
Speaker 1: of course a close eye on all things mid terms
Speaker 1: for us here at Bloomberg. It's great to have you
Speaker 1: with us here, Emily. Quite a show last evening here.
Speaker 1: Knowing well correct that Rhonda Santis is likely to win,
Speaker 1: he is Joe. But look, I mean, if you're if
Speaker 1: you're going to have one debate, you may as well
Speaker 1: bring the fire for that particular one. Sure, and yes,
Speaker 1: I mean Rohn de Santis is considered very likely to
Speaker 1: to be Florida's next governor. It's interesting because Florida, you know,
Speaker 1: you still kind of have a lot of really competitive
Speaker 1: race for governor for senator, and this year it's just
Speaker 1: very clear Rhonda Santas is hugely popular in Florida, UM,
Speaker 1: and he does sort of have this this platform in
Speaker 1: which he could make a run for president in you know,
Speaker 1: polls don't show him for beating Trump for the nomination,
Speaker 1: but they kind of say that his Trump decides not
Speaker 1: to run for some reason or something happens. You know,
Speaker 1: he would be a very likely next pick for a
Speaker 1: lot of Trump supporters out there. And he's a little
Speaker 1: bit more mainstream as well, so he could probably appeal
Speaker 1: to a broader swath. I think really the goal that
Speaker 1: that Charlie Chris tried to do last night was to
Speaker 1: undercut the Santis as much as humanly possible, knowing that
Speaker 1: if he is the nominee two years from now, folks
Speaker 1: are going to more than than likely be looking back
Speaker 1: on all of his past statements, including this particular debate.
Speaker 1: But I think, you know, Florida governor is not going
Speaker 1: to be one of the races that I'm watching closely
Speaker 1: when that's not going to keep you up really real
Speaker 1: clear poll of polls Emily has Rhonda Santis up by
Speaker 1: ten points. I mean, he could have fallen off the
Speaker 1: podium last night, probably wouldn't have mattered, right, Not, not
Speaker 1: really at this point. I mean, yeah, there is always
Speaker 1: the chance that a debate could change something, but we're
Speaker 1: seeing just less and less and less of that as
Speaker 1: time goes on, to the point where we're seeing plenty
Speaker 1: of races where they're not even debates going on. Either
Speaker 1: the Republican candidate or the Democratic candidate or both have
Speaker 1: just decided that it's it's in their best interest to
Speaker 1: never get up on that debate stage at all. I
Speaker 1: want to hear another back and forth between Rhonda Santis
Speaker 1: and Charlie Christ's Emily. This is when the issue of
Speaker 1: abortion came up. And I'm bringing this up because the
Speaker 1: messaging is important here is Democrats have learned that this
Speaker 1: may not be the game changer they thought it was
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago, a couple of months ago,
Speaker 1: in favor, of course, of the economy and inflation and
Speaker 1: so many of the issues we talked about. Listen to
Speaker 1: this back and forth beginning with Governor Rhonda Santis. I'm
Speaker 1: proud of the fifteen weeks that we did. I know
Speaker 1: Charlie christ opposes that even though the baby is fully formed,
Speaker 1: has a heartbeat, can feel pain, and can suck their thumb.
Speaker 1: He also supports such selective abortions, which is used to
Speaker 1: discriminate against little girls. He supports dismemberment abortions where they
Speaker 1: literally will tear the baby limb from limb, And he
Speaker 1: supports taxpayer funding of abortion all the way up until
Speaker 1: the moment of birth. And that is wrong, drown that's
Speaker 1: a slot the truth, and you know it. You know it.
Speaker 1: He wouldn't answer your question, do you want to ban
Speaker 1: abortion completely? He never got to it. He talked about Jamaica.
Speaker 1: I don't want to ban abortion. I want to make
Speaker 1: sure we keep a woman's right to choose available to
Speaker 1: the women of the state of Florida. And I want
Speaker 1: to make sure that we don't have a governor in
Speaker 1: the future who wouldn't even allow exceptions for rape or incest.
Speaker 1: It's actually kind of amazing to me, Emily that no
Speaker 1: matter the debate, it's almost word for word on this issue.
Speaker 1: The Republican won't answer anything about exceptions, the Democrat won't
Speaker 1: talk about restrictions, and both accuse each other of things
Speaker 1: that aren't real. Uh, is this moving the needle at
Speaker 1: all in terms of polls? Not really. I mean there
Speaker 1: is a sense that Democrats should still continue to talk
Speaker 1: about abortion and abortion access because it is important to
Speaker 1: Democratic voters and they need to come out for the
Speaker 1: mid terms. Mid Terms are so much about turnout, as
Speaker 1: you know, Joe. But one of the other things is
Speaker 1: that really at this point the spotlight is the economy
Speaker 1: and inflation, and that's really one of the things that
Speaker 1: Democrats simply cannot ignore at this point in the game.
Speaker 1: And as far as how they talk about abortion, you're
Speaker 1: absolutely right. We've seeing kind of Republicans and Democrats kind
Speaker 1: of pick their talking points and it really does moil
Speaker 1: down a lot to painting the other side as an extreme.
Speaker 1: And this, of course is because most Americans they're not
Speaker 1: at the extremes. Most Americans either support abortion with some limits,
Speaker 1: or they oppose abortion with some exceptions, and so what
Speaker 1: they're trying to do is basically show the candidates are
Speaker 1: are too far to one side or the other in
Speaker 1: hopes of knocking off some of that support. But in
Speaker 1: you know, in reality, if you look closely at most
Speaker 1: of these candidates and what they support, you find that
Speaker 1: most of them are actually in the middle. Of course,
Speaker 1: that you know, it really does remain to be seen.
Speaker 1: A lot of Democrats who have talked with will quickly
Speaker 1: point to Kansas, They'll point to Alaska, They'll point to
Speaker 1: that special election in New York and say, look, we
Speaker 1: have seen abortion move the needle. There's still hope out
Speaker 1: there that it will, but at this point it's just
Speaker 1: become clear that they can't rely on abortional loans. They
Speaker 1: have to talk about the economy and inflation. Looking, it's
Speaker 1: great to spend some time with you will reassemble the panel. Next.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg. You sound on
Speaker 1: with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio. It's not just pulling
Speaker 1: Rhonda Santis also leading in the money race. My goodness,
Speaker 1: look at this on the terminal. Since January of the
Speaker 1: Governor of Florida has raised a record hundred sixty four
Speaker 1: million dollars. He's only booked sixty two for ads, broadcast, cable, satellite, TV, radio,
Speaker 1: and so on. According to add Impact, that's more than
Speaker 1: seven times the eight and a half million that Charlie
Speaker 1: christ is spending. So we'll see if he actually ends
Speaker 1: up spending what is left there. He of course, may
Speaker 1: not need it. As we reassembled our panel, Rick Davis
Speaker 1: is with us here at World Headquarters in New York.
Speaker 1: Genie Shanzon Sano is here to our signature panel on
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Sound On. I'm going to get into this issue
Speaker 1: of the migrant flights in a second here, Genie, but
Speaker 1: I wonder before we do, your thoughts on some of
Speaker 1: the issues we already heard about, including their performance. I'd
Speaker 1: like to hear from both you and Rick on this
Speaker 1: because Rohde Santis has become a meme today. There's all
Speaker 1: kinds of animations of him on Twitter, and his the
Speaker 1: facial expressions. He looked uncomfortable. He had to actually look
Speaker 1: down and read that zinger line about the old donkey.
Speaker 1: I know that this isn't going to change the trajectory
Speaker 1: of the race. Likely Jeannie. But how did they perform? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, when he was staring into the camera not
Speaker 1: responding when Chris was trying to ask him, you know,
Speaker 1: are you going to run for in and then he
Speaker 1: went to that donkey comment, Um, it is me making
Speaker 1: and that's definitely not what you want out of a debate. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, Charlie christ came in trying to in some
Speaker 1: way up end the campaign, and also, I think more importantly, um,
Speaker 1: because he doesn't have much of a shot of winning
Speaker 1: at this point, is to try to show people who
Speaker 1: this potential twenty four Canada it is. And I think
Speaker 1: he did show some you know, some of the problems
Speaker 1: that you know, de Santis had out there in trying
Speaker 1: to address some of these issues, including his failure to
Speaker 1: say whether or not he'll serve a full term, not
Speaker 1: to mention some of the other issues they talked about.
Speaker 1: So it wasn't a Santis's best performance. I think sometimes
Speaker 1: when you're in office, it's hard to switch back to
Speaker 1: debate mode. But if he's going to run for president,
Speaker 1: it's good training ground for him to get back in
Speaker 1: that game. Is it safe to say that Rhonda Santis
Speaker 1: was not as prepared as his challenger last night. Rick, Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: he certainly wasn't very smooth, even you know, aside from
Speaker 1: the sort of violations of the rules of the debate
Speaker 1: by asking direct questions, he clearly had made a previous
Speaker 1: decision not to respond. But even then, I mean, it
Speaker 1: wasn't really a relaxed, confident debate performance that you would
Speaker 1: expect from a guy with the kind of headwinds that
Speaker 1: he has. In fact, it makes people. I got a
Speaker 1: couple of calls after the debate from Republican operators to say,
Speaker 1: oh my god, you know there's another governor wants to
Speaker 1: run for president, is not ready, and so, you know,
Speaker 1: I think he sent a message that there's some work
Speaker 1: to be done there, at least internally within the Republican Party.
Speaker 1: That being said, as Jeannie says, this is not about
Speaker 1: the governors race. This was all about trying to take
Speaker 1: some pieces out of him by Charlie Cris, you know,
Speaker 1: for the future. Uh. And in that regard, I thought,
Speaker 1: you know, it was relatively effective in doing that. We've
Speaker 1: talked about the migrant flights to Martha's Vineyard. Uh, there
Speaker 1: were other flights to Washington, d C. But the vineyard flights.
Speaker 1: He really owned. He had two airplanes, went to Texas.
Speaker 1: You know the story by now. Charlie Chris of course,
Speaker 1: is going to make a big deal out of this,
Speaker 1: and you know Rhoda Santis was ready for it. Let's
Speaker 1: start with Charlie crist on the migrant flights. We have
Speaker 1: a problem at the border. We need to secure the border.
Speaker 1: I agree with all of that, but it doesn't mean
Speaker 1: that you use Florida taxpayers dollars to charter two jets,
Speaker 1: go to Texas, lie to people to get them onto planes,
Speaker 1: fly them up to the northern part of our country,
Speaker 1: and and one of them is a one year old baby,
Speaker 1: another as a pregnant woman. You're willing to use people
Speaker 1: like that in this case, they were Hispanics Venezuelan in particular,
Speaker 1: and have them as props for your political game. You
Speaker 1: could imagine how that would work. Now, Okay, so you
Speaker 1: have de Santis on the ropes. I'll tell you what
Speaker 1: he was unapologetic. Listen to the governor of Florida, knowing
Speaker 1: that he's got a good issue here. That's testing well,
Speaker 1: it's only when they go to d C, New York
Speaker 1: or of course, Martha's vineyard. Then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: this is you know why, because we have elites in
Speaker 1: this country that want to impose policies on you, but
Speaker 1: they don't want to have to suffer the same consequences
Speaker 1: that you may have to in your community. What we did,
Speaker 1: it's sad that it comes to this, but what we
Speaker 1: did put this issue front and center. They're both saying
Speaker 1: very different things here, Jeanie, but it seems like Rhonda
Speaker 1: Santis owned that last night. How did you feel, you know,
Speaker 1: I think he was stronger in these areas when he
Speaker 1: was defending some of these um you know, issues that
Speaker 1: he has confronted that quite frankly, are popular with his BA,
Speaker 1: They're popular in Florida and other parts of the country
Speaker 1: with the Republican base. He did seem more sure footed
Speaker 1: on those. I did think Charlie Chris made a really
Speaker 1: important point, and he couched it by saying, there is
Speaker 1: a problem at the border, but you don't want to
Speaker 1: use human beings as props for political gain. That's an
Speaker 1: important statement that he made. But but De Santis had
Speaker 1: a response to it, and quite frankly, De Santis has
Speaker 1: a point when he says this did get attention to
Speaker 1: an issue that deserves attention. But I wish Chris was
Speaker 1: able to follow up and say, what is your solution
Speaker 1: to the problem at the border beyond sending people to
Speaker 1: Martha's vineyard and that's not anywhere where they ever got. Well,
Speaker 1: it's interesting because Chris wants to make this about the people, right.
Speaker 1: Ricky even pointed out that they were Hispanics, which felt
Speaker 1: a little bit blatant, uh in that line of attack
Speaker 1: last night. But de Santis is effective in turning it
Speaker 1: around to say, no, this is about the elites who
Speaker 1: aren't honest about their positions on this. Does he win
Speaker 1: that back and forth? Yeah? Well, look, first of all,
Speaker 1: the reaction was that the news media and the democratic elites,
Speaker 1: if you want to call them that, really reacted negatively
Speaker 1: that right, Maybe if they just said, hey, we are
Speaker 1: sanctuary cities, welcome. You know, we'll put you to work,
Speaker 1: We'll find a place to say, well, well, that wasn't
Speaker 1: the reaction. Uh. And even today James Carville, you know,
Speaker 1: the one of the most successful Democratic strategists there ever been,
Speaker 1: he said, you know that the coastal elites and our
Speaker 1: party are killing us because we are out of touch
Speaker 1: with the problems that occur in these cities, and one
Speaker 1: of them is immigration. And so I think that that
Speaker 1: there's got to be, regardless of what this election turns out,
Speaker 1: that Democrats have to get real with themselves and decide
Speaker 1: who do we who do we represent? Do we represent
Speaker 1: New York City in l A or everything in between.
Speaker 1: And it's not mutually exclusive, but in this case, the
Speaker 1: only way we get a solution to immigration is comprehensive
Speaker 1: immigration reform and only will happen if it's bipartisan, and
Speaker 1: right now we're nowhere near that opportunity. Well, Sebastian just
Speaker 1: pointed me to this great story on this term, reddle
Speaker 1: De Santa's biggest donor is budget hotel tycoon with a
Speaker 1: passion for UFOs. Does anyone know anything about Robert Bigelow?
Speaker 1: Is he a friend of yours? Rick? I wish he
Speaker 1: was a friend of mine. I get better raided at
Speaker 1: ten million dollars a ten million dollar contribution back on
Speaker 1: July seven, the Budget Suites of America hotel tycoon reached
Speaker 1: out to the Santiss office to help deliver this uh.
Speaker 1: In the past he had given small amounts apparently, but
Speaker 1: he's going for the big one here, and they often
Speaker 1: in the past at least advanced his well known passions
Speaker 1: researching UFOs aliens and Rick whether the human soul can
Speaker 1: outlive the body after death. Of course, someone with that
Speaker 1: pursuit would go to Florida, right, Genie, is this someone
Speaker 1: you know? It's not someone I know, but I too
Speaker 1: am fascinated by UFOs, So you know, if he wants
Speaker 1: to support me, I will passionately research them as well.
Speaker 1: Is this the kind of guy to million dollars you
Speaker 1: want to have three to one? Yeah? I want. I
Speaker 1: want to commune with this guy. If he knows something
Speaker 1: about UFOs, I just as soon like to know when
Speaker 1: the countdown to oblivion starts. Let us know. Yeah, Look,
Speaker 1: I think people contribute money for all kinds of reasons.
Speaker 1: This is at least something entertaining here here the afterlife.
Speaker 1: While I still have a Rick and Genie with us,
Speaker 1: We're gonna go back to the White House. Uh, just
Speaker 1: for one more here today, one more shot. And I
Speaker 1: mean that literally here Joe Biden is He's getting his
Speaker 1: booster shots on camera all the time now, and it's
Speaker 1: become like, you know, we don't have fireside chats but
Speaker 1: they're like booster side chats. Now, if you want to
Speaker 1: get questions to Joe Biden, go to this event because
Speaker 1: it takes a long time to roll up your sleeves.
Speaker 1: Sit down, say hi to the nurse. Sit there, get
Speaker 1: the shot at He's just a sitting duck up there
Speaker 1: on stage. Let's bring you into the room now because
Speaker 1: serious stuff came up today. He rolls up the sleeve,
Speaker 1: he gets the shot here. He is the dirty bumps
Speaker 1: as it relates to Ukraine. Do you believe that this
Speaker 1: is the beginning of a false flag operation? Is Russia
Speaker 1: preparing to deploy a dirty bomb itself for a nuclear weapon?
Speaker 1: It puts the jacket on for this answer. I spent
Speaker 1: a lot of time today talking about that. Let me
Speaker 1: get back up to the podium, back on the mic.
Speaker 1: Should be making incredibly serious mistake for to use a
Speaker 1: tactical nuclear weapon. I'm not guaranteeing you that it's a
Speaker 1: false flag operation yet, don't know, but it would be
Speaker 1: a serious, serious mistake. I'm bringing this up not only
Speaker 1: to talk about Joe Biden's optics today, Rick, but also
Speaker 1: the White House has had a pretty great track record
Speaker 1: predicting what Russia is going to be doing by simply
Speaker 1: taking their word for it. They're now telegraphing that they
Speaker 1: might use a dirty bomb in Russia to try to
Speaker 1: get some sort of false flag operation going. Is a
Speaker 1: smart for the White House keep seeing it out loud? Well,
Speaker 1: I do think it prepares the American public for what
Speaker 1: could be you know, very important period of time. And look,
Speaker 1: this administration has done an enormously good job of using
Speaker 1: intelligence as propagandis and also as information for both the
Speaker 1: Ukrainian military and as people and and the rest of
Speaker 1: the world. So kudos to them for smoking these guys
Speaker 1: out and try to try to stop bad things from
Speaker 1: happening before they happen. Uh. And so I think he's
Speaker 1: I think he's doing the right thing. I'm not sure
Speaker 1: I would do it, you know, with a fresh shot
Speaker 1: in my arm. I mean, I think this is an
Speaker 1: important thing that could use a presidential address out of
Speaker 1: the Oval Office. Does that mean it's going to happen
Speaker 1: or not going to happen, Jennie, Hopefully it does not happen.
Speaker 1: And he's right to say he can't confirm or deny it,
Speaker 1: but it is certainly a possibility. And kudos to him
Speaker 1: for doing it right after a shot. I agree with shot.
Speaker 1: It reminded me I need to get my shot. Meet
Speaker 1: you back here tomorrow. Rick and Jennie will be with us.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg.