Speaker 1: It's the big take from Bloomberg News and I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: I'm West Gsova today. Why it really does matter who
Speaker 1: wins that one single U. S. Senate seat that's up
Speaker 1: for grabs in Georgia. We we always knew that this
Speaker 1: race would be close. That's where we are, so y'all
Speaker 1: just hanging there. I'm feeling good. I feel good. I'm
Speaker 1: telling you right now, I'm like Ricket Bobby, I don't
Speaker 1: come to lose. And uh and I told you he's
Speaker 1: gonna be tough to beat. He's gonna be tough to beat.
Speaker 1: But let me tell you why you got the wrong Georgia. Here,
Speaker 1: once again, the balance of power in the US capital
Speaker 1: comes down to a Georgia Senate seat. This time, the
Speaker 1: race between Democrat Raphael Warnick and a Republican Herschel Walker
Speaker 1: won't decide who controls the Senate. Democrats have already locked
Speaker 1: that up, but adding just one more vote to that
Speaker 1: slimmest of majorities would give Democrats and President Joe Biden
Speaker 1: a surprising amount of power that they won't have if
Speaker 1: Republicans win it. Instead, to explain why that is and
Speaker 1: paint a picture of what's in store, in Washington. I'm
Speaker 1: joined by Mario Parker, who leads Bloomberg's US politics coverage,
Speaker 1: White House correspondent Nancy Cook, and Craig Gordon, Bloomberg's national editor.
Speaker 1: Thanks for having us West really appreciate it. Yeah, we're excited. Craig,
Speaker 1: maybe I'll start with you. We know Democrats have hung
Speaker 1: on to their majority in the Senate by the narrowest
Speaker 1: of margins, So why did it matter if they're able
Speaker 1: to get just one more seat from Georgia. I mean, look,
Speaker 1: anybody who watched the United States Senate for the past
Speaker 1: few years and the Democrats were ostensibly in control found
Speaker 1: out that a fifty fifties Senate with Kamala Harris as
Speaker 1: a tiebreaker is not that great of a Senate majority
Speaker 1: when you have people like Joe Manchup in West Virginia
Speaker 1: himself probably facing a tough race next in a couple
Speaker 1: of years Christian Cinema there from Arizona. So anything they
Speaker 1: can do to sort of pad that margin and make
Speaker 1: not every single vote sort of uh you know, you know,
Speaker 1: perilous last minute thing where they have to drive the
Speaker 1: Vice president of the Capitol is pretty important. I think
Speaker 1: it's even more important now that we know the Republicans
Speaker 1: will control the House. Um. You know, Biden had both
Speaker 1: the Senate and the House for the first two years, uh,
Speaker 1: and did get some stuff done over the summer. But
Speaker 1: now he's gonna he'd be dealing with, you know, the
Speaker 1: House Republicans. There are probably a lot of investigations of
Speaker 1: his son, of the border, of every other thing. So
Speaker 1: having a little bit of a cushion in the Senate
Speaker 1: to try to get some stuff through there and you know,
Speaker 1: passive bills, and try to put some pressure on the
Speaker 1: House Republicans to say, hey, you want to be just
Speaker 1: obstructionist or do you want to actually get some stuff
Speaker 1: done for the country. I think it's really crucial. Um.
Speaker 1: I think that's kind of a subtle argument to make
Speaker 1: in the state of Georgia, but we in Washington know
Speaker 1: that's a that's a pretty big deal. And I think
Speaker 1: to Craig's point, we've all seen the cutaways during the
Speaker 1: consequential votes where it's like Vice President Kamala Harris is
Speaker 1: heading back to the Capitol again. I think for her politically,
Speaker 1: this will be a relief because she doesn't have to
Speaker 1: be asked tethered to Washington, and that has ramifications for
Speaker 1: that field as well. Right Republicans have this deep bench
Speaker 1: of people behind former President Donald Trump. Kamala Harris wants
Speaker 1: to be the air appearance to Biden, but she just
Speaker 1: hasn't had the same opportunity to get out in campaign.
Speaker 1: This frees her up a little bit more to to
Speaker 1: really boost her profile outside of Washington, d C. That's
Speaker 1: really good point, and we're gonna come back to the
Speaker 1: consequences for the four race just in a little bit, Nancy,
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you. Craig had mentioned Joe Manson,
Speaker 1: the Democrat from West Virginia who tied up Biden's agenda
Speaker 1: with all kinds of demands, greatly shrank it in the
Speaker 1: amount of money, in the scope of of the thing.
Speaker 1: How would more democratic seat if Raphael Warneck the Democrat
Speaker 1: and Georgia wins, how would that affect Biden's ability to
Speaker 1: kind of push things through at least the Senate side
Speaker 1: of the Capitol. Well, and there's a bunch of things
Speaker 1: that he will want to push through, particularly like judicial nominations.
Speaker 1: That's a very key thing um over the next two years.
Speaker 1: But just not having to cater to Joe Mansion would
Speaker 1: be such a big deal for this White House if
Speaker 1: they can hold that Georgia Senate seat. There is a
Speaker 1: whole apparatus in the White House that's basically like the
Speaker 1: catering to Joe Mansion department. Remind people what exactly Joe
Speaker 1: Mansion do. That's so hamstrung the Biden administration. Well, basically
Speaker 1: the sweeping legislative package that the Biden team was originally
Speaker 1: calling Build Back Better, which was worth trillions of dollars
Speaker 1: and had clean energy stuff but also more money for
Speaker 1: childcare centers and community college and pre k. Basically, Mansion
Speaker 1: singularly totally scaled that back because he said he was
Speaker 1: worried about inflation and didn't like the size of it.
Speaker 1: So they did end up passing sort of a a
Speaker 1: secondary version of it called the Inflation Reduction Act, but
Speaker 1: it was much much smaller and centered around things like healthcare,
Speaker 1: clean energy tax credits, um and it's it's just it
Speaker 1: really shrank the ambitions of the Biden team. So, Craig,
Speaker 1: you know, if you have that one extra vote, like
Speaker 1: you were talking about, it's easier to be a single standout,
Speaker 1: but kind of hard to have two standouts that can
Speaker 1: withstand the full pressure of the White House and the
Speaker 1: Party to get something done that's right. And in the
Speaker 1: case of Mansion, um, he being from a cold state,
Speaker 1: took a lot of these sort of green energy proposals
Speaker 1: very seriously thought I thought they were sort of a
Speaker 1: threat to his hometown economy. Basically, I don't think christ
Speaker 1: and Cinema sort of shares his passion on some of
Speaker 1: those issues. So green, green jobs, green tech, electric vehicle subsidies,
Speaker 1: things like that that Biden might want to try to
Speaker 1: do it in the next two years, probably have an
Speaker 1: easier road. But you know, she was pretty feisty on
Speaker 1: on the budget deficit stuff. I mean, she was very
Speaker 1: sort of fiscally conservative, So I could see places where
Speaker 1: Mansion and Cinema still lock arms and even with the
Speaker 1: one extra if Nack pulls it off, still not enough.
Speaker 1: But I do think it just makes his road better,
Speaker 1: and it sounds like it puts a lot of people
Speaker 1: in the in the what do we do about Joe
Speaker 1: Mansion Department out of work inside the by and the
Speaker 1: White House. And just one more thing I would want
Speaker 1: to point out is that the map for Democrats in
Speaker 1: the Senate is much tougher, and so I think that
Speaker 1: they want to have all the winds that they can
Speaker 1: have now because I think in two years, defending the
Speaker 1: Senate and holding onto it will be much trickier. And
Speaker 1: I think that that's something that the White House is
Speaker 1: aware of. It's also not crazy to imagine a Supreme
Speaker 1: Court nomination coming up potentially in the next two years.
Speaker 1: God only knows what could happen there. We've seen some
Speaker 1: real big surprises obviously with bager Ginsburg and such. So
Speaker 1: then even there, just that one vote could could make
Speaker 1: the difference between someone getting onto the Supreme Court and
Speaker 1: not getting on the Supreme Court. Yeah. And aside from
Speaker 1: that court picks obviously a big deal, and just having
Speaker 1: that extra vote, there's the whole mechanics of the Senate
Speaker 1: and in Senate committees and how their divided it in
Speaker 1: the votes. To Mario, can you just kind of layout
Speaker 1: why having one extra Democrat really affects the way just
Speaker 1: the business of the Senate gets done. Yeah, President Biden.
Speaker 1: I think over this past weekend he was asked about
Speaker 1: why fifty one matters, and he said, it's just better,
Speaker 1: It's right. So you take that's a former Saturday exactly,
Speaker 1: exactly and exactly, and it's that's the that's the Joe
Speaker 1: Biden that was in the Senate for what almost four decades,
Speaker 1: And so you get an extra seed on and cushy
Speaker 1: committees like the Intelligence Committee, the Armed Services Committee, the
Speaker 1: Foreign Relations Committee. I mean that's quite important, particularly given
Speaker 1: what we've seen from Republicans talking about Ukraine AID as well,
Speaker 1: and some of the things that are going on in
Speaker 1: Europe and in the Middle East also, so you get
Speaker 1: the Democrats get an advantage and some of those key committees. Nancy,
Speaker 1: Craig and Mario please stick around. We'll continue this conversation
Speaker 1: after the break. Nancy, we've talked about why this Georgia
Speaker 1: Senate seat is so important. Bring us up to speed.
Speaker 1: What's the latest in the race between Walker and Warnick. Well, um,
Speaker 1: it's getting really ugly and dirty down there, I would
Speaker 1: say in Georgia there's a lot of mud slinging from
Speaker 1: both candidates as to you know, what they stand for,
Speaker 1: a lot of accusations. M Herschel. Walker is saying that,
Speaker 1: you know, um, Raphael Warnock his church oversaw housing complex
Speaker 1: that did not treat tenants. Well, well, I don't want
Speaker 1: anyone evicted that people behind us right now is being evicted. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's true, and he knew about it. You know, there's
Speaker 1: been a lot of allegations from women, not necessarily the
Speaker 1: Democratic Party about Walker's own stance on abortion. We do
Speaker 1: know that my opponent has trouble with the truth, but
Speaker 1: I am focused squarely on the healthcare needs of my constituents,
Speaker 1: including reproductive healthcare, and so they've really sort of been
Speaker 1: going after each other in a in a pretty extreme way,
Speaker 1: and that just keeps ramping up um. I think that
Speaker 1: the concern sort of a few weeks ago was what
Speaker 1: would the turnout look like? But what we have seen
Speaker 1: so far is the turnout has been gangbusters on both sides,
Speaker 1: and we're seeing that Black Georgians are outpacing other demographic
Speaker 1: groups in terms of the turnout um, which could potentially
Speaker 1: favor the Democrats or does historically in elections. And so
Speaker 1: but it's interesting because I think people were really feeling
Speaker 1: like whoever had the best turnout would win the election,
Speaker 1: and we've just seen a huge number of people voting.
Speaker 1: So when thing you mentioned is how Black Georgians are
Speaker 1: turning out more obviously in Georgia, like a lot of states,
Speaker 1: cities tend to be more democratic, the suburbs and in
Speaker 1: the rural areas tend to be more Republican. Do we
Speaker 1: know how the voting is going breaking down? From what
Speaker 1: we've seen from all these early votes, it looks like
Speaker 1: it's as as you kind of outlined West, A lot
Speaker 1: of the metropolitan Atlanta is having a strong turnout by
Speaker 1: all indications. There's been just rams of pictures on social
Speaker 1: media with the long lines that were you accustomed to
Speaker 1: sing and Georgia elections, And at one point, I think
Speaker 1: that's important. We just spent a bit of time talking
Speaker 1: about why fifty one matters were all Washington insiders, right,
Speaker 1: even though we don't want to be told that we
Speaker 1: we understand some of the parliamentarian rules, the average voter doesn't, right.
Speaker 1: So the fact that Democrats were able to withstand a
Speaker 1: red wave, it kind of removes the Republican argument that, hey,
Speaker 1: this seat is so consequential, it's a it's a way
Speaker 1: to change the control of the chamber. Republicans don't have
Speaker 1: that advantage as they seek to stoke that some of
Speaker 1: their voters, So you mean that that may just make
Speaker 1: it to the Republicans who thought there was a lot
Speaker 1: of stake with show upen this time. They're like exactly,
Speaker 1: especially when you have a candidate as you mentioned, like
Speaker 1: herschel Walker who uh is unorthodox to say the least,
Speaker 1: and uh and a lot of the base had a
Speaker 1: problem with him. And you see some of the ads
Speaker 1: with Warnock right out, he's attacking that weak spot where
Speaker 1: he's running ads with Republicans, particularly as Nancy mentioned, Uh,
Speaker 1: black Georgians are important, but what Warnock is doing is
Speaker 1: running as with white Republicans saying, hey, you know what
Speaker 1: this guy, herschel Walker, I'm not sure about him, right,
Speaker 1: So he's trying to punch that weak spot at herschel
Speaker 1: Walker head Craig, that's an interesting point, um that you
Speaker 1: see a lot of Democrats who are kind of excited
Speaker 1: about Warnock. They feel like he's good. Kennedy obviously one once.
Speaker 1: He's got a pretty good record in history to tell.
Speaker 1: Whereas herschel Walker, you know, he's got a baggage with
Speaker 1: abortion where he you know, asked UH women to get abortions,
Speaker 1: which he's denied. He has a problem with the residency
Speaker 1: where it turns out of lived in Texas until five
Speaker 1: minutes ago. In political terms, Um, you see a lot
Speaker 1: of big Republicans, like the governor of Georgia, like Minority
Speaker 1: Leader Mitch McConnell, and the Senate all coming around Walker.
Speaker 1: But they don't seem like they're all excited about herschel Walker.
Speaker 1: They just seem like they're excited about the idea of
Speaker 1: a Republican winning. And as we said earlier, that's a
Speaker 1: very subtle argument to try to make, you know, just
Speaker 1: we need to get our guy into the Senate. It's
Speaker 1: not gonna make a difference on the majority, but it's
Speaker 1: better to have our guy than their guy. I just
Speaker 1: think I think, you know, a pretty honest political assessment
Speaker 1: would be there's a certain amount of Republicans that kind
Speaker 1: of held their nose and voted for herschel Walker. Um,
Speaker 1: them shows a lot of people that love them. Certainly
Speaker 1: was a massive football star for the University George down there.
Speaker 1: I'm sure he's got a legion of followers, but I
Speaker 1: have a feeling there's a not insignificant sliver of people
Speaker 1: who pulled the lever for him that day that maybe
Speaker 1: didn't love that so much. And now that Senate controls
Speaker 1: off the table. It's a little bit harder to see
Speaker 1: them getting excited, you know, to sort of get out
Speaker 1: and vote on, you know, during during the runoff. All
Speaker 1: of which is a way of saying, if I were
Speaker 1: I would much rather be playing Warnox hand right now.
Speaker 1: He's doubled his fundraising during the runoff. He's doubled his
Speaker 1: ad spending. Warnock had ads on during the Macy's Day
Speaker 1: parade on Thanksgiving. Politics these days is often used to
Speaker 1: divide us, but Thanksgiving offers us an opportunity to consider
Speaker 1: all the things we share and come and so it
Speaker 1: does feel like there's a little tiny bit of momentum
Speaker 1: building up, building up for Warnock, who haven't seen a
Speaker 1: stream of Republicans coming into the States to stand with her.
Speaker 1: Shol and all of that. And remember he already underperformed
Speaker 1: Kemp by two hundred thousand votes on election day. So kemping,
Speaker 1: of course, the governor of Georgia, the Brian Kemp, the
Speaker 1: governor Georgia who won handily over Stacey Abrams, a Democrat. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, so there's just a lot of he's facing
Speaker 1: a lot of headwinds right now. Um. The early voting
Speaker 1: numbers hundred fifty six thousand people voted this weekend in Georgia,
Speaker 1: heavily in Black Metro Atlanta, places like Athens, Savannah, Columbus.
Speaker 1: I mean, these are these are Democratic voters, heavily of
Speaker 1: African American voters. These are really good signs for Raphael Warnock.
Speaker 1: And remember Brian Kemp, the governor. Kemp kept kept Walker
Speaker 1: at a distance throughout its hell. It's hell, he was
Speaker 1: saved himself, So I may voters see that. We we
Speaker 1: can't take for granted the voters intelligence on that issue,
Speaker 1: so they they can tell the difference between the fact
Speaker 1: if Kimp was absent for a long period of time
Speaker 1: until he was okay himself. Well, listen, I was focused
Speaker 1: on making sure that I got re elected. And it
Speaker 1: wasn't just helping me, it was helping our whole ticket.
Speaker 1: We had a really good night here in Georgia. We
Speaker 1: want every you know, statewide race. Republicans did Nancy. One
Speaker 1: interesting thing we're seeing is that evangelical voters are backing
Speaker 1: herschel Walker even though Raphael Warnock is a minister. And
Speaker 1: so there's that unusual split that we've seen. We saw
Speaker 1: it with Donald Trump versus Joe Biden, Donald Trump versus
Speaker 1: all Democrats, really where Evangelical closed backed him up in
Speaker 1: part because he was pushing Supreme Court justices, which was
Speaker 1: a really big issue, in part on the abortion issue.
Speaker 1: But for Herschel Walker, abortion is a much more complicated thing.
Speaker 1: It definitely is because there have been all these I've
Speaker 1: sort of lost track. I think at least two or
Speaker 1: three women who have said at this point that Walker
Speaker 1: asked them personal to get abortions. As you said, he
Speaker 1: has denied it. But I think that what has been
Speaker 1: important with evangelical voters is just what these politicians promised
Speaker 1: to do with their vote when they have it, not
Speaker 1: necessarily their personal action. We saw the same thing with Trump.
Speaker 1: We saw Trump making comments during the twenty sixteen campaign
Speaker 1: on the Hollywood Access tape where he talked about women
Speaker 1: how you can just grab them. Evangelical still voted for
Speaker 1: him based on his policy stands and what he said
Speaker 1: he would do with abortion, and I think we're seeing
Speaker 1: the same dynamic play out with Walker. Um. I just
Speaker 1: think the one interesting thing to look at is, you
Speaker 1: know a lot of the Trump backed candidates in the
Speaker 1: midterms did not win, and Walker is a Trump back candidate.
Speaker 1: So I think that this will be a final test
Speaker 1: ahead of about how much Trump's endorsement and the candidates
Speaker 1: that he has hand picked how well they actually do well.
Speaker 1: Of course, Donald Trump is going to walk into any
Speaker 1: conversation like this, so since he did, let's spend just
Speaker 1: a minute on that. Uh, Trump is not going down
Speaker 1: to Georgia. I guess he's in Florida, going oh to
Speaker 1: Georgia to campaign in person for herschel walk her Um,
Speaker 1: And there's some speculation that is because Walker and Republicans
Speaker 1: don't want Trump near him for exactly the reason you
Speaker 1: just said, Nancy Craig, Um, what is Trump's uh sort
Speaker 1: of value or possibly his you know, lack of value
Speaker 1: to this race. Yeah, He's definitely you know, he's doing
Speaker 1: some fundraising calls and doing some you know, sort of
Speaker 1: email appeals. So his name is is around in Georgia,
Speaker 1: heavily targeted, highly targeted to the voters that where that
Speaker 1: would be an appeal. But I think Donald Trump motivates
Speaker 1: Democrats to get to the polls a lot more than
Speaker 1: you motivates Republicans to get to the polls. These days,
Speaker 1: it would have been criminal malpractice for Donald Trump to
Speaker 1: show up in Georgia and stand next to Herschel Walker,
Speaker 1: just because if you're a Republican and you're gonna you know,
Speaker 1: you're thinking about Walker Trump showing up, It's hard to
Speaker 1: imagine it sways you all that much one way or
Speaker 1: the other. You're with Herschel and you're gonna go when
Speaker 1: you're gonna vote Democrats. They get blood in their eyes
Speaker 1: when they see Donald Trump and there he is right
Speaker 1: in their state, reminding them of all the reasons why
Speaker 1: they know voted for Joe Biden twenty of the narrow
Speaker 1: wind that turned Georgia, then why they would for warnut
Speaker 1: the first time, why they want to vote for him
Speaker 1: a second time. So, you know, a rare bit of
Speaker 1: discretion from the former president who usually doesn't much like
Speaker 1: to be told where he can and can't go. Actually
Speaker 1: a smart move on his part, But boy does that
Speaker 1: just shout about his devalued status as is a Republican
Speaker 1: U kingmaker. Obviously, his hand to candidate in Pennsylvania, Mdaz
Speaker 1: lost his hampy candidate in Arizona for governor loss, Gary Lake.
Speaker 1: There's an argument to be made the Republicans could control
Speaker 1: the Senate right now if Donald Trump had a little
Speaker 1: bit less to do with picking their candidates and some
Speaker 1: of these races. Um and so I think as we
Speaker 1: all watched that pretty flat announcement the past couple of
Speaker 1: weeks of some pretty rough commentary on the former president,
Speaker 1: again a rare moment when he actually kind of did
Speaker 1: the right thing for his party and for his candidate
Speaker 1: by just staying the heck away. When we come back,
Speaker 1: we're gonna look ahead to the next couple of years
Speaker 1: and believe it or not, the next presidential race Murrio
Speaker 1: now looking ahead passed this election. Democrats have held on
Speaker 1: to the Senate, but they did lose the House, which
Speaker 1: means Republicans there will be trying to block Biden's every move.
Speaker 1: What do the next two years in Washington look like
Speaker 1: when it comes to getting anything done? Yeah, well, it
Speaker 1: gives it gives a president Biden a bit of a buffer, right, So,
Speaker 1: I mean, he doesn't have two chambers giving him a
Speaker 1: headache as as he will have the one in the House,
Speaker 1: which is as we mentioned earlier, there will be investigations
Speaker 1: on everything from the Afghanistan withdrawal to his his son
Speaker 1: Harnson Biden as well. Uh, so the Senate at least
Speaker 1: he doesn't have to worry about that, and and he
Speaker 1: could still try to find earnestly, try to find some
Speaker 1: ways to compromise, right, Uh, score some political points, as
Speaker 1: Craig mentioned, by by having some legislation come out of
Speaker 1: the Senate and force House Republicans to either be obstructionists
Speaker 1: or go along with the with with the president. Let
Speaker 1: me ask you about that, because you know, Biden does
Speaker 1: have that senator's sensibility where he believes in the better
Speaker 1: angels and people can really compromise on policy and ideas.
Speaker 1: And you know, it seems pretty quaint now because it
Speaker 1: seems like politics and d C is about not just
Speaker 1: winning but about punishing the other side. And if you
Speaker 1: look at the House, do they really want to be
Speaker 1: seen as compromising with Joe Biden in any kind of
Speaker 1: way or do they actually think it's better to be
Speaker 1: seen as obstructing That obstruction used to be a bad
Speaker 1: we're in Washington now for certain people it seems to
Speaker 1: be what you want. Yeah. Well, I've mentioned the word headache, right,
Speaker 1: So if Biden has a headache from the House, you
Speaker 1: gotta imagine what Kevin McCarthy is gonna have and that's
Speaker 1: Kevin McCarthy. Of course, the minority leader wants to be
Speaker 1: Speaker of the House exactly. So he's got one wink
Speaker 1: of his party that wants nothing but revenge for everything
Speaker 1: going back to twenties twenty and then some of the
Speaker 1: investigations under former President Donald Trump. She got voters, they've
Speaker 1: got a very thin majority, underwhelming performs in amidstorms, voters
Speaker 1: are showing that they have little appetite for this vengeance
Speaker 1: tour as well. So he's going to have to figure
Speaker 1: out how to corral his His clock is there, Nancy Um.
Speaker 1: Joe Biden is looking at running for president, kind of
Speaker 1: looks like he's gonna run. He hasn't said he's gonna run.
Speaker 1: There's questions about his age, there's questions about whether somebody
Speaker 1: else should pick it up or if Biden is the
Speaker 1: only one. All that's swirling around. You cover the Biden administration,
Speaker 1: What do you see? So I see a president and
Speaker 1: a top White House staff that was very, very emboldened
Speaker 1: by the mid terms. Um even though they lost the House,
Speaker 1: it was by a much smaller margin than they thought.
Speaker 1: They held the Senate, which they were super excited about
Speaker 1: and they did that amid like the highest inflation in
Speaker 1: forty years, and amid the presidential approval rating which was
Speaker 1: pretty low. And so they are feeling great. They're feeling like,
Speaker 1: you know, Biden just you can tell when you're around them,
Speaker 1: they're they're like in a good boot, their jovial, all
Speaker 1: the presence, in a great mood. Do they think it's
Speaker 1: cause Biden? Like, do they think that this is proof
Speaker 1: that Biden's agenda is working? They do, they believe that.
Speaker 1: In a press conference the day after the midterms, a
Speaker 1: reporter asked the president, are you going to do anything differently?
Speaker 1: You know, it seems like you have lost the House.
Speaker 1: You know, what do you plan to do differently? And
Speaker 1: he said, I thought this was such an interesting, amazing answer. Nothing,
Speaker 1: because they're just finding out what we're doing. The more
Speaker 1: they know about what we're doing, the more support there is,
Speaker 1: so they really feel like they were vindicated. And I
Speaker 1: you know, he hasn't made a decision yet about whether
Speaker 1: or not he's going to run, but my money would
Speaker 1: be on him running again. And he's eighty and so
Speaker 1: he would be at the end of a second term
Speaker 1: if he got re elected eighty six, and so I
Speaker 1: think the real question in the Democratic Party is that,
Speaker 1: you know, it's an age thing. Is that too old
Speaker 1: to run? Craig. You know, Joe Biden and his team,
Speaker 1: like Nancy says, are taking their victory lap on this
Speaker 1: one because at least they held off you know, the
Speaker 1: worst outcome. But Biden's numbers are looking pretty bad. Do
Speaker 1: you think the American people think that Joe Biden won
Speaker 1: this election? Like, do they think that he's doing a
Speaker 1: great job? Yeah, I mean, in ratings are not where
Speaker 1: they need to be. But in a lot of ways,
Speaker 1: I would argue that sort of makes the the enormity
Speaker 1: of the victory a few weeks back, as you know,
Speaker 1: as enormous as it is. Um he went up against
Speaker 1: historical trends, one of the best you know, mid terms
Speaker 1: for any president, you know, and memory almost a low
Speaker 1: approval rating one of the main things you look at
Speaker 1: in that historical trend. His isn't great and he still
Speaker 1: managed to pull it off. So they have they have
Speaker 1: some real justifiable reasons to feel good about this. I
Speaker 1: guess I sort of look at it as the you know,
Speaker 1: it was sort of like your country needs you, Joe
Speaker 1: in and he pulled it off and he beat Donald Trump.
Speaker 1: I think he would have a pretty good shot to
Speaker 1: beat Donald Trump again. The danger for Joe Biden if
Speaker 1: he does run, and I'm I'm with Nancy thinking that
Speaker 1: he will run. Anyone who watched that day after the
Speaker 1: election press conference that that's the guy who's running for president. Um,
Speaker 1: if it's not Donald Trump, that's a much tougher thing.
Speaker 1: You know. Obviously a lot of buzz around round to Santis,
Speaker 1: the Florida governor who had an enormous victory on election night,
Speaker 1: twenty points carried Miami Dade County, heavily democratic Miami Dade
Speaker 1: um area. There he is, he is riding very high.
Speaker 1: So now you have with Trump, you don't have so
Speaker 1: much of an age contrast or roughly similar to Santis
Speaker 1: is very young, much much difference, very much the next generation.
Speaker 1: Americans always like to pick the next generation for their
Speaker 1: president and not really look backwards. So you know, tell
Speaker 1: me who his opponent is going to be, and I'll
Speaker 1: tell you how he does. I actually do think he
Speaker 1: could sort of replicate the Biden you know, the Biden coalition,
Speaker 1: for lack of a better word, in to be Donald Trump.
Speaker 1: Isn't enough to beat any of a few other people.
Speaker 1: That's a much higher hill to climb. But it probably
Speaker 1: with the Democrats is their bench is not is not great.
Speaker 1: And there we come to Vice President Kamala Harris. Um again,
Speaker 1: I think she would be almost the guaranteed successor. She
Speaker 1: is the vice president, historic figure. I was the first
Speaker 1: African American South Indian American. Very hard for the Democratic
Speaker 1: Party to say, you know what, Kamala, you didn't do
Speaker 1: such a great job as vice president, We're going to
Speaker 1: go with a Gavin Newsome or fill in the name
Speaker 1: of somebody else. Not a lot there beyond her obviously historic,
Speaker 1: the historic nature of her own vice presidency to get
Speaker 1: excited about for Democrats as an electoral force in twenty
Speaker 1: four Do we hear Craigs bailing out this kind of
Speaker 1: dilemma that the Democrats have where it would be really
Speaker 1: difficult for them not to make Kamala Harris if Joe
Speaker 1: Biden didn't run for one reason or another, but not
Speaker 1: a whole lot of enthusiasm about her as a candidate.
Speaker 1: What do you see from sort of inside the White
Speaker 1: House about that question of is Kamala Harris the default
Speaker 1: Democratic pick if Joe Biden isn't running again, well, I
Speaker 1: think that that is part of the reason. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think Trump and and also that quandary is exactly
Speaker 1: why Biden would run again. Like there's not I don't
Speaker 1: think that the White House views her vice president see
Speaker 1: is something that has been you know, it's been a
Speaker 1: real mixed bag. There's been a lot of stuff turnover,
Speaker 1: a lot of problems, and so I don't think it's
Speaker 1: something that people inside the White House would feel totally
Speaker 1: comfortable having her be the successor um and so, you know,
Speaker 1: I just think they're really conscious of that, and I
Speaker 1: think that that will factor into Biden's decision, along with
Speaker 1: the idea that like he's the one that can stop Trump.
Speaker 1: You know, he is a centrist Democrat at a time
Speaker 1: and a lot of progressives are pulling the party very
Speaker 1: far left. There's a firm belief inside the White House
Speaker 1: that that is a very key part of him running, too,
Speaker 1: because regular Americans, they think, want and more centrist approach
Speaker 1: than you know what some of the Hill Democrats are proposing. UM.
Speaker 1: But I do think if she did, if Biden didn't run,
Speaker 1: and she ran, there would also be a bunch of
Speaker 1: Democrats who would jump into the race, governors like Pritzker,
Speaker 1: m Or in Illinois, Gavin Newsom of California. It would
Speaker 1: just be like a much more wide open field. Um.
Speaker 1: But it's just been tricky because Democrats haven't really had
Speaker 1: as much success building the just as Republicans. And I
Speaker 1: think there's a much wider Republican field of people who
Speaker 1: have eyed or expressed interest in writing for the presidency. Mario,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get the last word here. Um. You heard
Speaker 1: both Craig and Nancy said they think that Joe Biden
Speaker 1: looks the guy who's running. Um. You covered Donald Trump
Speaker 1: as White House correspondent. Do you think Biden versus Trump
Speaker 1: to Biden or Trump wins? And if it's not Trump
Speaker 1: and it's someone like de Santis in Florida under stantists,
Speaker 1: can Biden beat him? Great question. Well, I think in
Speaker 1: terms of Biden Trump, the poll show that Biden would
Speaker 1: steal is former President Donald Trump two point o rematch.
Speaker 1: I think that as we we talk about this right
Speaker 1: now at this moment, what's uh you call it symmetry, poetry,
Speaker 1: whatever your favorite term is. But Biden has often said
Speaker 1: this Charlotteville was the impetus for him running, the white supremacists, etcetera.
Speaker 1: As we're recording this right now, Donald Trump is still
Speaker 1: dealing with aftermath of sitting with a white supremacist as well,
Speaker 1: right so that has to inform the beginner that he
Speaker 1: had in Florida exactly exactly. So if you're one, if
Speaker 1: you're Biden, and you're deliberating on too as to whether
Speaker 1: to run again, this is a nice sign if you
Speaker 1: want it, right for for you to be emboldened Biden
Speaker 1: versus the Santis again. Right now, the polls show many
Speaker 1: of the posts show Biden edging him, but I think
Speaker 1: that Republicans will welcome that one for sure. Mario Parker,
Speaker 1: Man c Cook, and Craig Gordon, thanks so much for
Speaker 1: coming on the show. Thanks for having us. Thanks. You
Speaker 1: can read more from Craig Gordon, Mario Parker, and Nancy Cook,
Speaker 1: and follow all of Bloomberg's politics and election coverage at
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