Speaker 1: Now from our nation's capital. This is Bloomberg's sound On.
Speaker 1: I will very, very very probably do it again. Okay.
Speaker 1: The only crime victim you hear about from Democrats and
Speaker 1: the media is Paul Pelosi. You know, settler differences in
Speaker 1: America with a riot, mob or bullet or Hamloomberg sound
Speaker 1: on politics, policy and perspective from DC's top names. They're ready,
Speaker 1: They're ready to fire. Kathew Hope. You know why nothing
Speaker 1: change in the state of New York because I'm the governor.
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Sound On with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio. Donald
Speaker 1: Trump stokes the fires again, publicly flirting with a run
Speaker 1: in even before the elections next week. Welcome to the
Speaker 1: fastest hour in politics as we walk into the final
Speaker 1: weekend of the cycle. Here we are crazy time, fully intact,
Speaker 1: with almost three hundred so called election deniers on ballots
Speaker 1: across the country, and power on Capitol Hill in the balance.
Speaker 1: Will bring you a special conversation for the moment. Major
Speaker 1: Garrett is here with us, long time Washington correspondent of course,
Speaker 1: now with CBS News and co author of the new
Speaker 1: book The Big Truth. Later, Paul Pelosi out of the
Speaker 1: hospital as we learned new details about his attack. While
Speaker 1: Nancy Pelosi considers her political future, Bloomberg Government's Emily Wilkins
Speaker 1: covers the leadership in the House and joins us tonight
Speaker 1: along with our signature panel Bloomberg Politics contributors Rick Davis
Speaker 1: and Genie Schanzano here for the hour and so here
Speaker 1: we are the threshold of the last weekend of the
Speaker 1: mid term campaign. It's Donald Trump's steering attention away from
Speaker 1: the candidates he has endorsed and onto himself, leaking first
Speaker 1: of all that he may announce a run for reelection
Speaker 1: on or around November four. They actually got the date
Speaker 1: out there, start building the risers, and then this little
Speaker 1: tease last night at a rally in Iowa. Here he is,
Speaker 1: I will very very very probably do it again. Okay,
Speaker 1: very very very very very very very those T shirts
Speaker 1: are already out there, right. Yeah, it doesn't take a lot, boy,
Speaker 1: not on this night in Iowa. Chuck Grassley in the house,
Speaker 1: who was outdoors, Actually John Deer hats everywhere. Oh that's nice. Well,
Speaker 1: get ready, that's all I'm telling Yeah, get ready, okay.
Speaker 1: And then the reports are everywhere, no, which is all
Speaker 1: you know, it's basically what he's already said, just two
Speaker 1: more berries, so people like me will play it for you. Uh.
Speaker 1: And of course Donald Trump is not on the ballot
Speaker 1: next Tuesday, but a lot of his chosen candidates are,
Speaker 1: and as we've discussed, many including those who continue to
Speaker 1: question the outcome of the election and are poised to win.
Speaker 1: President Biden spoke about that last night. To listen, it's
Speaker 1: estimated after more than three election deniers on the ballot
Speaker 1: all across America this year, we can't ignore the impact
Speaker 1: this is having on our country. Is damage, is corrosive,
Speaker 1: and it's destructive with candidates for Secretary of State, attorney General,
Speaker 1: of course governor, potentially stacking states like Arizona with yes,
Speaker 1: the election deniers, and boy, I know that can be
Speaker 1: qualified in a lot of different ways, and I'll have
Speaker 1: to deal with that after. But that's why I wanted
Speaker 1: to talk with Major Garrett tonight as everybody goes into
Speaker 1: it hopefully a big thinking weekend. The CBS News correspondent,
Speaker 1: Chief Washington correspondent is out with a new book, but
Speaker 1: he co wrote with David Becker. It's called The Big Truth,
Speaker 1: Upholding Democracy in the Age of the big lie. There
Speaker 1: are a few working journalists in Washington who have his
Speaker 1: sense of history, and I want to welcome you a
Speaker 1: major to Bloomberg Sound On. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1: I'm very very very very very very happy to be
Speaker 1: with you. Very very well done. You not only work
Speaker 1: the debunk conspiracies in this book surrounding the twenty election,
Speaker 1: but you move the ball forward here to next week
Speaker 1: and and beyond. Could you have imagined when you started
Speaker 1: writing this that so many politicians to say Joe Biden
Speaker 1: stole the election would be nominated and poised to win.
Speaker 1: I feared it might be true. And one of the
Speaker 1: reasons that David and I felt compelled to write the
Speaker 1: book was to have something permanent, comprehensive, one place where
Speaker 1: you can get all the answers you're looking for about
Speaker 1: this fundamental question. And look, I don't consider it an
Speaker 1: unimportant question. Was the election stolen? That's a really important question.
Speaker 1: It's an important question about any election, and it should
Speaker 1: and deserves to be answered, and it has been I
Speaker 1: like to sometimes talk about this in NFL term. There
Speaker 1: have been more than one hundred video reviews of the
Speaker 1: same play. They've all upheld the original call okay, and
Speaker 1: it's not close. It's not as if there is one
Speaker 1: part of the cleat hanging ever so slightly over the
Speaker 1: sideline making the difference between a first down or fourth down,
Speaker 1: or a touchdown or a non touchdown. It's not close.
Speaker 1: All the video reviews, all of the courts, all of
Speaker 1: the people who have been asked for the quote unquote
Speaker 1: evidence have either provided evidence that doesn't exist, that doesn't
Speaker 1: say what they say it does, or walked away. And
Speaker 1: let me give you a very specific, contemporary, very recent example.
Speaker 1: There is a documentary out there. It has the number
Speaker 1: two thousand in it. I won't grace it with its
Speaker 1: full title, but it has the title two thousand is
Speaker 1: a minute's say, thirty dollars to watch it, you have
Speaker 1: to be thirty dollars. Okay. This is one of the
Speaker 1: parts of this and two jurisdictions in our country, Arizona
Speaker 1: and Georgia. Yeah, said you know what, this looks interesting
Speaker 1: to us, and went to the producers of this film
Speaker 1: and said we would like to see your evidence. Nothing
Speaker 1: was given to the law enforcement entities in Arizona and Georgia. Nothing,
Speaker 1: because it would have to withstand what scrutiny. It would
Speaker 1: have to actually prove what is tantalizing Lee but deeply
Speaker 1: deceptively suggested. And that's what's part of this whole carnival
Speaker 1: allies around the election. And there's actually a very good
Speaker 1: news story not only about the election, but about what's
Speaker 1: going to happen on Tuesday, which is, our elections are local.
Speaker 1: There is no federal Department of Elections. We do this locally.
Speaker 1: We do this at the city, county, neighborhood, and precinct level,
Speaker 1: ten thousand of them across our country. Americans do your
Speaker 1: neighbors do this hard work. Many of them volunteers, many
Speaker 1: of them professional election administrators, some Democrats, some Republicans, some Independents,
Speaker 1: but all devoted to one thing, making sure people can
Speaker 1: cast their ballots calmly, safely, assessibly, and that those ballots
Speaker 1: are accurately counted. And we do that work in our
Speaker 1: country now better than we've ever done it before even close.
Speaker 1: Joe Biden or whoever is writing the speech last night,
Speaker 1: crystallized your point pretty well last evening. Listen to how
Speaker 1: he puts it. The great irony about the two twenty
Speaker 1: elections is that it's the most attacked election in our history.
Speaker 1: And yet and yet there's no election in our history
Speaker 1: that we can be more certain and of its results.
Speaker 1: How do we rationalize that? Uh, knowing the stark numbers
Speaker 1: of people who still believe this, So I, as you
Speaker 1: might imagine, I've given this a lot of thought. And
Speaker 1: when you read the book, and I hope people who
Speaker 1: have questions about election will take the time to read
Speaker 1: the book or ask somebody who has because David and
Speaker 1: I go out of our ways to say Trump supporters
Speaker 1: who have doubts about this election are not all rioters.
Speaker 1: They're not all insurrectionists. Their patriots who love this country.
Speaker 1: We believe they love this country. We're not trying to
Speaker 1: lecture them. I, of course, ever sound as if I'm
Speaker 1: lecturing them. I just want to say, to use a
Speaker 1: phrase that Abraham Lincoln used to use with some frequency,
Speaker 1: I just asked them to disenthrall themselves from the idea
Speaker 1: that something happened in the election to overturn a just
Speaker 1: result because somebody got into the system. It simply did
Speaker 1: not happen. And the former president of the United States
Speaker 1: lost that election baron Square. It wasn't as close to
Speaker 1: the election, and down ballot, meaning in races where Donald
Speaker 1: Trump was not on the ticket. As we all know,
Speaker 1: Republicans prevailed very well, surprisingly well, and they were elected,
Speaker 1: as you know. And I want to go onst to
Speaker 1: bring into their soul on the same ballot, with the
Speaker 1: same process. So if they have the conferred authority at
Speaker 1: the state level or the federal level to say that
Speaker 1: election was corrupt, they're saying their election was corrupt, and
Speaker 1: they never ever say that. Look, that breaks apart right
Speaker 1: right at the right, at the edge. It just breaks
Speaker 1: apart right there, which is why it's important to acknowledge.
Speaker 1: You put that perfectly. It's important to acknowledge that it
Speaker 1: took a lot of Republicans to elect Joe Biden. Is
Speaker 1: also what you're saying, Yes, yes, And guess what they
Speaker 1: did either, they didn't vote off of the presidency in Georgia. More,
Speaker 1: the twenty tho people who cast ballots down ballot did
Speaker 1: not cast a ballot either or Joe Biden or Donald Trump.
Speaker 1: That almost never happens. Usually it's the other way around.
Speaker 1: As you well know, people vote the big east and
Speaker 1: leave the little ones. No, no, they've made a concert
Speaker 1: At twenty Trump lost by about ten and a half
Speaker 1: thousand in Georgia. If he'd only persuaded half of the
Speaker 1: people who couldn't stompa voting for either of them to
Speaker 1: vote for him, he'd have won in Georgia. And so
Speaker 1: here we find ourselves, Major Garrett, in a time of
Speaker 1: great stress and in a real conversation happening in this
Speaker 1: country about whether political violence is appropriate, which is incredible
Speaker 1: to witness. And as you write in your book, more
Speaker 1: than a year after the attack on the capitol, the
Speaker 1: public is still searching for accountability. The case cannot provide it.
Speaker 1: So how do you get to the next step from here?
Speaker 1: So there are mechanisms by which accountability and accountability sometimes
Speaker 1: takes a long time. So there are defamations law lawsuits
Speaker 1: against those who, in a quasi journalistic way pushed the
Speaker 1: big lie. And those defamation suits, they've been asked over
Speaker 1: and over to get rid of them. They're not foundational,
Speaker 1: they have no basis, and courts have set over and
Speaker 1: over again, Oh no, there's a basis, And you've got
Speaker 1: to explain why you did what you did in public
Speaker 1: to harm the reputation of these companies. That's one level
Speaker 1: of accountability clear to the prosecutions of those who attack
Speaker 1: the capitol and committed acts of violence and destegration. That
Speaker 1: accountability is coming, and for the attorneys involved, some of
Speaker 1: them are losing their law licenses, some of them are
Speaker 1: having other financial stresses placed upon them. Arizona's Attorney General,
Speaker 1: Mark Bernovitch, who has said, and he said on sixty Minutes,
Speaker 1: very recently, I looked everywhere I could to find evidence
Speaker 1: of fraud. I couldn't find it. What has he done recently?
Speaker 1: He has recommended that you dot Justice Department look into
Speaker 1: possible RICO charges against people who perpetrate and profit from
Speaker 1: the big law in an organized, systematic way, knowing it's wrong,
Speaker 1: but defrauding people who send them money because they believe
Speaker 1: they're being told the truth. These levels of accountability take
Speaker 1: a very very long time, and sometimes the profiteers will
Speaker 1: make lots more money and pay fines and the accountability
Speaker 1: will not be proportional, but accountability will come. I do
Speaker 1: believe in our system because the one thing I know
Speaker 1: about this election in those facts will never move, they
Speaker 1: will never change, and they will never yield because of
Speaker 1: the reporting that you did. But of course, next Tuesday
Speaker 1: there could be a new crop of politicians to your point,
Speaker 1: as you right here, Let's be clear the fight is
Speaker 1: occurring at the local and state level where election denialism
Speaker 1: continues to fester. These are the people, of course, who
Speaker 1: will have if they win, jurisdiction over counting these votes,
Speaker 1: over certifying the votes in some cases depending on how
Speaker 1: the state works. None. None, None more than Arizona here
Speaker 1: where you have Carry Lake, who's running for governor, and
Speaker 1: Mark Fincham. Uh both could really uh clean up next week.
Speaker 1: Mark Fincham set for to be the next Secretary of
Speaker 1: State of Arizona. Listen to Carry Lake two days ago
Speaker 1: and it was just a remarkable moment that you probably
Speaker 1: heard major talking about conspiracies or I'll just remove that
Speaker 1: word the election. Here's Carry Lake. The truth is that
Speaker 1: Joe Biden did not win with eighty one million votes
Speaker 1: laugh another laugh track. And if you believe he did,
Speaker 1: then you are the conspiracy theorist. All right, yeah, right,
Speaker 1: if you're if you were with us in sound on,
Speaker 1: you heard that last night or yesterday. Mark Finchham of
Speaker 1: course again the candidate for Secretary of State of Arizona
Speaker 1: talking about uh, Carry Lake's rival, who is who has
Speaker 1: that job right now, Katie Hobbs, And how my goodness,
Speaker 1: you know, just imagine what could happen with this person
Speaker 1: who's not resigning. He thinks there should be a law
Speaker 1: forcing one to resign before they run for higher office.
Speaker 1: Here's Fincham, Well, it's not in law. So the current
Speaker 1: Secretary of State ain't gonna do it, even though she
Speaker 1: is the senior elections director. Over all of that's kind
Speaker 1: of like, to use a baseball analogy, the guy who's
Speaker 1: up first to baton is also the umpire. What could
Speaker 1: possibly go wrong? Major Garrett? What could possibly go wrong?
Speaker 1: So that's completely wrong. Not surprisingly, yes, in a certain
Speaker 1: constitutional way, Katie Hobbs is the highest election official in Arizona.
Speaker 1: But as the experience, the grinding experience that's gone on
Speaker 1: for the better part of two years in Maricopa County
Speaker 1: illustrates elections are administered at the local level. And when
Speaker 1: there were challenges before the Arizona State Legislature to what
Speaker 1: happened in Maricopa County, and the state legislature empowered the
Speaker 1: creation of a recount by a rogue outside agency or
Speaker 1: entity called the cyber Ninjas that was to inspect a
Speaker 1: local jurisdictions handling of ballots. The Secretary State had no
Speaker 1: power over that whatsoever. Okay, the Secretary of State in
Speaker 1: Arizona can't change election results. They are certified through a
Speaker 1: process administered locally and then verify. And here's the thing
Speaker 1: that's worth remembering about the election of our ballots were
Speaker 1: cast on paper. The percentage in an election that Donald
Speaker 1: Trump duly one and became the forty present nited states
Speaker 1: as a result of at about seventy three paper ballots.
Speaker 1: Georgia didn't have paper ballots in Pennsylvania didn't Trump won
Speaker 1: both of those states. Okay, why does a paper ballot matter?
Speaker 1: Because it is a verifiable paper and permanent and non
Speaker 1: hackable reflection of voter intent is exactly a chain of custody.
Speaker 1: They use the terminology, but they use it in ways
Speaker 1: that make it sound like they know when more than
Speaker 1: they actually know. They don't know. What they know is
Speaker 1: just enough to be deceptive and to continue this idea
Speaker 1: that there was some big ghost in the machine, to
Speaker 1: go back to my college days when I had that
Speaker 1: album by the rock band Police. Okay, there isn't a
Speaker 1: ghost in the machine. You can't hack paper. You can
Speaker 1: never hack paper. That's what about the satellite? Don't answer that.
Speaker 1: Which country it rotates? Wait a minute, No it's Norway,
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, Venezuela. No, no it's Berundi. Wait a minute,
Speaker 1: Brundi doesn't have satellite, or maybe it's someplace else. So
Speaker 1: then let me ask you, lastly and more broadly, Uh,
Speaker 1: what happens? What could go wrong when you have a
Speaker 1: state like Arizona, and and and we could find other
Speaker 1: examples where you have a new governor in a secretary
Speaker 1: of state who are in fact election deniers going into
Speaker 1: So let's be clear, we don't know the results of
Speaker 1: this midterm election. I was talking to a Republican and
Speaker 1: Democratic strategy just about Arizona today and they're like that
Speaker 1: racist tightening things are things are going on that that
Speaker 1: whatever the pro polls were a couple of three days
Speaker 1: ago showing carry Lake kind of rolling this thing up,
Speaker 1: there's been that's receded a little bit. They're not sure
Speaker 1: how that's going to come out, So it's very much
Speaker 1: up for graphs. Um. What is important to remember about
Speaker 1: whatever the outcome is in that Arizona election, the process
Speaker 1: by which that certific certified election result will be determined
Speaker 1: is precisely the same one as in so if carry
Speaker 1: Lake wins, she will be endorsing the process that she's
Speaker 1: been slandering for two years. And I do believe that
Speaker 1: there is a disinfectant quality to that kind of rank
Speaker 1: public hypocrisy. It's great to talk you's been a long time,
Speaker 1: Major Garrett. Thank you for the the time here on Bloomberg.
Speaker 1: It's fascinating and and a read that I would recommend
Speaker 1: the Big Truth upholding the mock pricy in the Age
Speaker 1: of the Big Lie, Chief Washington correspondent for CBS News,
Speaker 1: and he wrote it with David Becker, the election elections expert.
Speaker 1: Let's assemble the panel because it's something that we've talked
Speaker 1: about a lot around here with Rick and Genie, Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Politics contributors and our signature panel. Uh Rick Davis, your
Speaker 1: thoughts on this with only days to go, and as
Speaker 1: Major pointed out, some of these races are tightening. Nothing
Speaker 1: is set in stone here, but as the President said,
Speaker 1: what is it? I think so called deniers, as identified
Speaker 1: by the Washington Post, a lot of them are gonna
Speaker 1: get elected next week. Yeah. First of all, kudos to
Speaker 1: Major Garrett for writing a definitive tone on what the
Speaker 1: facts were related to the election. That's really important to
Speaker 1: have out. Their history is something we have to care
Speaker 1: about a year from now or two years from our
Speaker 1: ten years from now, I would say, Um, the only
Speaker 1: thing I'm surprised is by his you know, outlook on
Speaker 1: Arizona's competitiveness. If anything, that that I'm saying is the
Speaker 1: Republicans have come home to roost. Um. Democrats haven't been
Speaker 1: able to sort of cut through the three biggest issues
Speaker 1: in the state right now, which are you know, inflation,
Speaker 1: crime and immigration and and you know, I think the
Speaker 1: only lagger on this is the Secretary of State race,
Speaker 1: where you know, uh, Benjamin is behind by more than
Speaker 1: the marginal error, and everybody else seems to be there
Speaker 1: up or dead even, and dead even is not good
Speaker 1: for an incumbent Democrat. So um, you know, it'll be
Speaker 1: interesting to see what comes out, but it is definitely
Speaker 1: a state we'll be talking about all next year. New
Speaker 1: numbers show Mark Kelly doing better than he was a
Speaker 1: week ago. Rick, do you believe them? You know? Look,
Speaker 1: I mean there's been this talk about a sort of
Speaker 1: democratic bubble, uh, towards the end of October. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: we saw a little of that in the in some
Speaker 1: of the public polls and towards the end of October,
Speaker 1: But in the last two weeks, everything I've seen is
Speaker 1: sort of a Republican base coming back and being recharged.
Speaker 1: And uh, and I you know, I think I'd rather
Speaker 1: have the momentum going to elections that pull from October.
Speaker 1: Fair enough, Jenny, what's your thought on on this and
Speaker 1: what it could mean for twenty four That's really what
Speaker 1: we're talking about here, right If election deniers in fact,
Speaker 1: you uh, find themselves in office and in control of
Speaker 1: election apparatus, that's the next stop here. And it's looking
Speaker 1: a lot like Donald Trump is going to be running
Speaker 1: if we believe what he's leading onto here and saying
Speaker 1: for Joe Biden, they both look like they're they're ready
Speaker 1: for a rematch. How do you how do you prepare
Speaker 1: to cover that? And how do you trust? How does
Speaker 1: how does the public trust what they're hearing in terms
Speaker 1: of numbers? I very very very believe that Donald Trump
Speaker 1: will probably run. Joe Matthew, Um, I'm buying it too. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, I think there's two scary aspects And I
Speaker 1: echo what Rick said about Major's book, it's in critically
Speaker 1: important and what does history tell us and what are
Speaker 1: we hearing even just today and on the ground, we're
Speaker 1: hearing people like Ron Johnson, who are running today for
Speaker 1: Senate in Wisconsin, saying he cannot commit to accepting the
Speaker 1: results of the election because quote unquote, he doesn't know
Speaker 1: what the Democrats have planned. So we have what looks
Speaker 1: like it will be a large number of contests from
Speaker 1: people should they lose. That's gonna happen immediately as the
Speaker 1: results start to come in and may carry on for days,
Speaker 1: if not weeks or months. Then you go to the
Speaker 1: historic aspect of this, which is what you were talking about.
Speaker 1: You know, some people are saying three in our fifty
Speaker 1: election deniers on the ballot, many of those people will win.
Speaker 1: And what history tells us is that's how democratic backsliding occurs.
Speaker 1: People are elected democratically and then they begin to dismantle
Speaker 1: the system from the inside. And that is the really
Speaker 1: scary part of this. As we move from two to Trump,
Speaker 1: Biden's announcements in twenty four and other people, and we
Speaker 1: move to a system in which it is election deniers
Speaker 1: who are in control of these systems, and it's very
Speaker 1: Orwellian and very very very scary. Joan, Well, sure, and
Speaker 1: in some cases, Genie, it's because Democrats paid for their nominations.
Speaker 1: I mean, some of these candidates were talking about we're
Speaker 1: not the choice of the mainstream Republican party, and we
Speaker 1: do have to remind ourselves of this, and that's going
Speaker 1: to have to be a you know, a little bit
Speaker 1: of reckoning for Democrats if they win. It is and
Speaker 1: and in the case of Bulldock, which we talked about yesterday,
Speaker 1: it's a big reckoning. It was not the right move.
Speaker 1: And my friends on the Republican side tell me often
Speaker 1: not to forget, and I think it's critical, critically important
Speaker 1: to be balanced. Democrats too have questions, have questioned the
Speaker 1: outcome of elections sixteen in Georgia, the presidential election. Obviously,
Speaker 1: we've heard that in the governor's race in Georgia. And
Speaker 1: I'm not saying, you know, they're wrong to question the results,
Speaker 1: but it has been denial on both sides, and it
Speaker 1: has now come through the system and it is going
Speaker 1: to be implanted in a very scary way. So Rick,
Speaker 1: what do you believe or what's your thought on this story?
Speaker 1: Here that Donald Trump's working up a an announcement November
Speaker 1: on or around, uh, financially speaking, what it makes sense
Speaker 1: for him to do that knowing that he doesn't want
Speaker 1: to lose money or spend more than he needs to,
Speaker 1: or is clearing the field more valuable right now? Well,
Speaker 1: sometimes clearing the field means having a big pocketbook out there,
Speaker 1: right and that you're prepared to use it. And I
Speaker 1: think that's an important distinction with Trump. First of all,
Speaker 1: this is exactly what Donald Trump said over the summertime
Speaker 1: that he was going to announce very very very likely, um,
Speaker 1: right before this election, and everybody was freaking out about it.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, what a crazy movement would be. Well
Speaker 1: it turned out he even agreed with that, and so, um, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's what he says, But you can't always trust what
Speaker 1: he says. Um. John McCain used to say when he
Speaker 1: was talking about Trump, listen to what he says, but
Speaker 1: like you know, it's usually different than what he does.
Speaker 1: And so see what he does. Um. The reality too
Speaker 1: is he doesn't spend his own money. So this idea
Speaker 1: of clearing the field, because you've got a hundreds of
Speaker 1: millions of dollars in account um may not hold true
Speaker 1: only because he doesn't spend Rick and Jeannie our signature panel.
Speaker 1: We're bringing Emily Wilkins next. As Paul Pelosi gets out
Speaker 1: of the hospital. This is Bloomberg. Thanks for joining us
Speaker 1: on Bloomberg Sound On. As we have just finally heard
Speaker 1: from speaker. Nancy Pelosi didn't hold a public event or
Speaker 1: anything but a virtual call with supporters and spoke for
Speaker 1: the first time here following the attack on her husband
Speaker 1: Paul Pelosi one week ago today. That's what we were
Speaker 1: talking about last Friday at this time here she is.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be a long haul, but he will be well,
Speaker 1: and it's just so tragic how happened, but nonetheless we
Speaker 1: have to be optimistic. He's surrounded by family, so that's
Speaker 1: a wonderful thing and doctors and back home as well.
Speaker 1: As we've been telling you, Paul Pelosi has been released
Speaker 1: from the hospital in San Francisco, and as the speaker
Speaker 1: just indicated, it's gonna take a long time to repair
Speaker 1: a skull fracture that he had surgery on for that
Speaker 1: to heal other injuries as well that were sustained during
Speaker 1: the attack, and we've learned more about it. It's just
Speaker 1: the horrifying stuff here. Uh And newly obtained court documents
Speaker 1: prosecutors say this started just after two am. Uh, David
Speaker 1: de pap is that what we're going with now? I
Speaker 1: hear everything? My god is everyone that's de Peppie de
Speaker 1: pep I believe it's David de pep stood over Paul
Speaker 1: Pelosi sleeping in bed. Okay, so he woke up to this.
Speaker 1: Just put yourself in this, you know, because you're in
Speaker 1: bed alone, spouse is gone, apparently no security, at least
Speaker 1: physical security, and you wake up to somebody calling your
Speaker 1: name asking if you're Paul Pelosi. Guys holding a big
Speaker 1: hammer in his right hand and zip ties in his
Speaker 1: left hand. The PEPs says, where's Nancy. That's when this
Speaker 1: all started. Where's Nancy? Paul Pelosi is waking up. She's
Speaker 1: not here, and so he wanted to know, well, when's
Speaker 1: she gonna be back. And when he said she's, well,
Speaker 1: she's in Washington, he says, okay, well I'm gonna tie
Speaker 1: you up. He told him this was the end of
Speaker 1: the road for him, pulled him out of bed, and
Speaker 1: of course told the police he was on a suicide mission.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of questions here about obviously motivation
Speaker 1: and some pretty scary stuff as this becomes in some cases.
Speaker 1: And I'll tell you what I mean in a moment,
Speaker 1: a point of almost comedy for some of Nancy Pelosi's critics.
Speaker 1: Emily Wilkins has been all over this. Of course, you
Speaker 1: know where well from this broadcast because she covers the
Speaker 1: leadership in the House. This is like Emily's crew here
Speaker 1: reporting for Bloomberg Government and keeping us up to date
Speaker 1: with everything that's going on. Emily, thanks for being here.
Speaker 1: I know you're in the throes of mid term coverage
Speaker 1: as well, but this is all connected here, and what
Speaker 1: a massive distraction for the speaker here essentially on the
Speaker 1: eve of mid term elections. What are you hearing about
Speaker 1: her well being? It's been a week since she's been
Speaker 1: out in public. Are we gonna be seeing her over
Speaker 1: the weekend? And certainly there there are many concerns, um,
Speaker 1: you know, for Pelosi, for her husband, Paul Pelosi. We've
Speaker 1: heard that from from Democrats. We have heard that from
Speaker 1: Republicans who have spoken up um. Certainly, we've heard other
Speaker 1: Republicans who have tried to make light of the matter,
Speaker 1: who have tried to, uh, sort of parlay it into politics.
Speaker 1: You heard Glenn Young can be like, you know, we're
Speaker 1: gonna send Pelosi home to California. I mean that you
Speaker 1: know there. So it's been a bit of a mixed
Speaker 1: response here. Really, I have to say though, at a
Speaker 1: certain point. I mean, we're at this moment where a
Speaker 1: lot of other folks within the Democratic Party are out
Speaker 1: there on the campaign trail. I mean, you've got Biden
Speaker 1: going places, You've got a Vice president Kamala Harris going places.
Speaker 1: You had Hillary Clinton show up in New York, you
Speaker 1: have a number of surrogates criss crossing the country. And yes,
Speaker 1: Pelosi is a machine when it comes to fundraising. She
Speaker 1: is one of the best fundraisers out there. But as
Speaker 1: far as doing individual events, I mean, this is something
Speaker 1: that that everyone's just having to work through at this point.
Speaker 1: I think there are a lot of folks out on
Speaker 1: the trail, although I would be I would imagine that
Speaker 1: we are going to be in hearing from her next week,
Speaker 1: um as the elections get underway, as well as after
Speaker 1: the elections, because the big question in d C post
Speaker 1: the elections is what her future is going to be
Speaker 1: and That's what I want to ask you about here,
Speaker 1: because something like this happens to you, Emily, it's either
Speaker 1: gonna I mean, it's gonna impact your worldview. It's going
Speaker 1: to impact the way you look at yourself and of
Speaker 1: course the role that you play in your family and
Speaker 1: all this other stuff. Um, does it make her want
Speaker 1: to run more, which I could see by the way
Speaker 1: in her the history of her personality, her character, or
Speaker 1: just say, you know, what the hell with it. I'm
Speaker 1: just I'm going to retire after this. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: that's such a great question, Joe, And I think Pelosi
Speaker 1: is always um sort of this this master strategist who's
Speaker 1: always you know, she's she's playing that sort of three
Speaker 1: dimensional chest. I mean, say what you want about Pelosi,
Speaker 1: but she has someone who from a legislative perspect different
Speaker 1: a policy from a politics perspective, certainly knows how to
Speaker 1: play the game. Will what happened with her husband factor
Speaker 1: and training decisions she makes it absolutely must, But certainly
Speaker 1: she's been thinking about this moment for some time now.
Speaker 1: I mean we saw her four years ago say I'll
Speaker 1: only do two more terms as speaker and then give
Speaker 1: the gabbl to someone else, especially if Republicans win on Tuesday,
Speaker 1: win control of the houses, they're expected to do, so
Speaker 1: it really seems like that kind of maybe opens up
Speaker 1: a path for new Democratic leadership to come in. But
Speaker 1: you know what, Joe, you talked to folks all throughout
Speaker 1: this city, and you'll get a lot of speculation, you'll
Speaker 1: get a lot of thoughts, but but really there's no
Speaker 1: consensus here about what anthy Pelosi is going to be
Speaker 1: doing and keeps things nice and tight around there. Although
Speaker 1: hackem Jeffries, I mean, he's going to be reelected, right,
Speaker 1: and the and the talk really is that he's the
Speaker 1: he's the speaker in waiting. The question is, I guess
Speaker 1: what would she do potentially for the next two years
Speaker 1: in the minority. That certainly is a austin and we're
Speaker 1: certainly expecting Closi to continue to hold the gabble to
Speaker 1: be speaker throughout the Lane duck session. There's more that
Speaker 1: Democrats want to do. There's things that they think that
Speaker 1: they can do that they can't get over the finish
Speaker 1: line in between November and January three next year, and
Speaker 1: she'll be there to guide it. I mean, she's had
Speaker 1: a very tough job these last two years working with you.
Speaker 1: Know it's a it's a five vote margin, but sometimes
Speaker 1: it's been as low as four or three. Keeping everyone
Speaker 1: in her Lucus together has has been no small task.
Speaker 1: How true? Well, I always love talking to Emily. Good
Speaker 1: luck with your coverage this weekend. We'll be together on
Speaker 1: election Night. Of course, Emily will be on Capitol Hill
Speaker 1: as part of our special election coverage. Listen to Donald Trump.
Speaker 1: Remember I told you was in Iowa last night, referring
Speaker 1: to the Speaker of the House. We're going to end
Speaker 1: crazy Nancy Pelosi's political career once scar. Yeah, a lot
Speaker 1: of that going around. And when you hear what Marjorie
Speaker 1: Taylor Green was saying even more the reaction at that
Speaker 1: same rally, you'll know what I'm talking about. As we
Speaker 1: reassemble the panel. Next, Rick and Jeannie in waving here
Speaker 1: on the fastest hour in politics, Joe, Matthew and Washington
Speaker 1: will check traffic and markets for you as you would expect,
Speaker 1: and get back to the conversation. This is Bloomberg. You're
Speaker 1: listening to Bloomberg. You sound on with Joe Matthew on
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio. The listener tweets that I just said there's
Speaker 1: a conversation in this country about whether political violence is appropriate.
Speaker 1: I may not have said it the right way, Miguel,
Speaker 1: but it's not a lie. We've been talking about this
Speaker 1: a lot here, and specifically that Paul. Remember this from
Speaker 1: the COVID States Project that family a quarter of Americans
Speaker 1: say it's sometimes okay to use violence against the government.
Speaker 1: One in ten Americans say violence is justified right now.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know, I didn't take the poll,
Speaker 1: but twenty three thousand people around the country. We're part
Speaker 1: of this project, and when you hear the rhetoric out there,
Speaker 1: I mean, my goodness, it seems like somebody's talking about it.
Speaker 1: We reassembled the panel. Rick Davis and Jeannie Schanzana were here,
Speaker 1: of course, as always on Bloomberg Sound On. Marjorie Taylor
Speaker 1: Green was at the Trump rally in Iowa and mentioned
Speaker 1: Paul Pelosi. By the way, it was less about what
Speaker 1: she said, although that made headlines, and more about the
Speaker 1: crowd reaction. Listen, Americans are robbed, stabbed, raped, kidnapped, carjacked,
Speaker 1: and murdered, but only the only crime victim you hear
Speaker 1: about from Democrats and the media is Paul Pelosio. Paul
Speaker 1: Pelosi was brutally attacked by a drugged out illegal alien
Speaker 1: that should have been deported, and Paul Pelosi should have
Speaker 1: been a gun owner and shot his attacker. Right. Look,
Speaker 1: I don't know that that part, but yes, he's an
Speaker 1: undocumented he's from he's Canadian. You've heard that, right, But yeah,
Speaker 1: the Pelosi brand, I'll tell you what is about as
Speaker 1: divisive as it gets in American politics, Genie, what does
Speaker 1: it tell you when you hear a crowd respond like that?
Speaker 1: You know, it explains in part why she has raised
Speaker 1: millions of dollars, why Kevin McCarthy has her standing behind
Speaker 1: him when he's making speeches, why she is saying that
Speaker 1: if McCarthy doesn't listen to her, he's going to have
Speaker 1: a very difficult time if he is elected speaker. Because
Speaker 1: this is what is selling to the base of the
Speaker 1: Republican Party, and they are buying into it. And that's
Speaker 1: where we have to say, shame on us. Um. She
Speaker 1: is doing this because it has been lucrative for her,
Speaker 1: and there is no leadership and the Republican Party who
Speaker 1: will stand up and say enough is enough. And that
Speaker 1: is where leadership really does matter. She's not going to
Speaker 1: be shot down or you know, quelled at all by
Speaker 1: Kevin McCarthy or anybody else in the leadership. And so
Speaker 1: she will continue to raise money and she will continue
Speaker 1: to be a powerful force in this party until somebody
Speaker 1: comes in and you know, tamps down on this kind
Speaker 1: of rhetoric that is so violent and so divisive. Rick,
Speaker 1: this is this guy tweeting at our conversation right now
Speaker 1: says that, uh, that the conversations about whether people like
Speaker 1: Joe will be permitted to blame Republicans when a Democrat
Speaker 1: has attacked and then either ignore when Republicans are attacked
Speaker 1: or just call it mental illness. Um I I really
Speaker 1: we all, I think all three of us try to
Speaker 1: play this is down the middle as we can here
Speaker 1: and look at and we have referenced cases on both
Speaker 1: sides here of political violence going back years. But to
Speaker 1: what extent of Democrats missed the mark on not addressing
Speaker 1: the crime issue, because that, Rick, is where this has
Speaker 1: been going. When it comes to Republican critics, they say, Okay,
Speaker 1: yes this happened to Paul Pelosi, but it's another instance
Speaker 1: of crime in a city like San Francisco that Democrats
Speaker 1: won't talk about. Yeah. I think this is really the
Speaker 1: fundamental thing. I mean, I think Marjorie Taylor Green, you know,
Speaker 1: she just uses all these kinds of divisive rhetoric to
Speaker 1: you know, divide people and and create anger amongst the base,
Speaker 1: which then I think she thinks will help turn them out.
Speaker 1: We'll see. But um, yeah, this is a missed opportunity
Speaker 1: by Democrats. They control virtually every major city, uh there
Speaker 1: make a mayoral leadership in the country, UM, where most
Speaker 1: of this record um crime wave is going on, and
Speaker 1: yet they've really just sort of kicked it down the road.
Speaker 1: I mean, you can see governor's races after government races, uh,
Speaker 1: state wide, UM, constitutional offices, Senate where where Democrats are
Speaker 1: in peril. And one of the reasons, it's not the
Speaker 1: only reason, but one of the reasons, is because voters
Speaker 1: are telling us that they want something done on crime,
Speaker 1: and and there doesn't seem to be an answer forget
Speaker 1: a policy or program, but even an answer on the
Speaker 1: part of the Democrats, it's too late to fix that.
Speaker 1: If that's the case, Genie, with what are we four
Speaker 1: days to go? But what do Democrats have a reckoning
Speaker 1: ahead when it comes to that issue, they absolutely do.
Speaker 1: I live in New York and this is the number
Speaker 1: one issue according to most polls, on the minds of
Speaker 1: New Yorkers as they head to the polls. And this
Speaker 1: is why our gubernatorial race is so close at this
Speaker 1: point in a state that's overwhelmingly Democratic, and Democrats have
Speaker 1: had signs of this that they have gone unnoticed and
Speaker 1: unheeded for a long time. Go back to Democrats were
Speaker 1: getting hit in the suburbs on this very issue and
Speaker 1: haven't addressed it. And so it is something that they
Speaker 1: are going to have to reckon with. You're right, it's
Speaker 1: far too late. I sent out to you and Brick
Speaker 1: and and other people today a great piece that I
Speaker 1: recommend to everybody by Stanley Greenberg talking about I think
Speaker 1: it's titled how Democrats mishandled crime and um, you know
Speaker 1: in my own state. I will just give an example
Speaker 1: for your listener. Bail reform is something that has been
Speaker 1: an issue for several years. Democrats miss made a huge
Speaker 1: misstep on that the governor may pay for it come
Speaker 1: up in every debate and the head of the d C,
Speaker 1: d apple See, may pay for that very mistake. So
Speaker 1: it is something to be reckoned with. And the reality
Speaker 1: is people who Democrats claim are their base constituency are
Speaker 1: very concerned about crime and it hasn't been addressed by
Speaker 1: their own party, so they start to look elsewhere. And
Speaker 1: that's why Republicans are making inroads and blue states. Before
Speaker 1: I changed the topic slightly here, Genie, does that mean
Speaker 1: that Lee's Elden is going to be your next governor?
Speaker 1: He could be. I still think Kathy Hook will likely
Speaker 1: pull it out just numbers wise, but it's going to
Speaker 1: be far too close for comfort. But if it goes
Speaker 1: zeld In early on Tuesday night, we know that we
Speaker 1: are in for a tsunami on the Republican side because
Speaker 1: he should not be winning a state with these numbers.
Speaker 1: It's is an uphill battle. If he does it, it's
Speaker 1: because Democrats really flubbed this well. He's really seized on
Speaker 1: that issue in a successful way that that a lot
Speaker 1: of other Republicans have as well. Uh, you know, speaking
Speaker 1: of tweets, the tweeting and as while we're talking here,
Speaker 1: which I always love and invite people to do twitters
Speaker 1: in the news just all day every day. Now because
Speaker 1: of Elon who's he's man a week Elon Musk has
Speaker 1: had uh he says, the advertisers are they're going away
Speaker 1: here and a quote massive drop in revenue unquote, even
Speaker 1: though no changes have been made this whole thing. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm assuming what do I know about how they cook
Speaker 1: up the algorithms on these social media pages. But the
Speaker 1: fact the matter is nothing has actually been announced. They
Speaker 1: have announced some layoffs apparently, but we've had audiego away,
Speaker 1: Fiser pulled General Mills, all temporarily pausing spending on ads. Well,
Speaker 1: they wait to see what happens under Elon Musk's leadership. Uh,
Speaker 1: he tweets extremely messed up exclamation point. They're trying to
Speaker 1: destroy free speech in America, referring to uh activists who,
Speaker 1: of course you know these Can you imagine these advertisers
Speaker 1: were hearing from them all day long. Enter Ao c
Speaker 1: Alexandria Costio Cortez always just highly capable in seizing the moment.
Speaker 1: Here for for some publicity, she was criticizing Elon Musk
Speaker 1: about a blue check costing. You know they're going to
Speaker 1: charge you now for the notification, which is why a
Speaker 1: lot of us will see our blue checks go away
Speaker 1: eight bucks a month. She thought that was ridiculous, and
Speaker 1: she says that Elon Musk in fact retaliated. Listen, so
Speaker 1: I pulled my Twitter app and it's like gone, like
Speaker 1: when you pull up your mentions and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: It's just like literally like a blank screen, totally gone.
Speaker 1: And I was like, hmm, that's weird. So it turns
Speaker 1: out we got under a certain little billionaire skin. I
Speaker 1: made fun of a chilly little plan to charge people
Speaker 1: for verification and priority placement. You play eight dollars to
Speaker 1: people see your tweets more. I'm just silly, silly, She says.
Speaker 1: She's eating, eating the whole time she's at the camera talking,
Speaker 1: and it was about bagel. What the heck was going
Speaker 1: very hungry. I couldn't get the video done yet. Uh.
Speaker 1: And went on to talk about this because you know,
Speaker 1: then he were taliated with a tweet photographing something on
Speaker 1: her website, a sweatshirt that he thought was going for
Speaker 1: too much money. Uh. And she comes back for Warriors AOC.
Speaker 1: Whenever you have one person that has a massed that
Speaker 1: much socially influential wealth, usually off of the backs of
Speaker 1: skimming off of an underpaying working people or exploiting them
Speaker 1: or the planet in some way, like when they've amassed
Speaker 1: that much, it does not help society. In fact, it
Speaker 1: hurts society. Okay, Rick Davis, that's the message though, really,
Speaker 1: But that that she's making here billionaires are bad? Is
Speaker 1: that the message of the Democratic Party. That's certainly been
Speaker 1: her message. She wrote it to an election victory and
Speaker 1: when she first got elected and subsequently and and and
Speaker 1: it's been her entire platform for financial policy. Right, let's
Speaker 1: let's have billionaire tax tax charges and things like that.
Speaker 1: So do you she's just being consistent, right, I mean, like,
Speaker 1: and he just happens to be the largest target in
Speaker 1: the world. He's the richest man, he's got Twitter, he's
Speaker 1: got all these other assets, and and I think that
Speaker 1: you're gonna see, especially the liberal progressive caucus in the
Speaker 1: Democratic House unleashed on people like him. Right, anybody with
Speaker 1: any well too upsets their cultural appetite is gonna get
Speaker 1: hammered the way this is happening now. At the same time,
Speaker 1: you know, you can argue with how he's administering his
Speaker 1: leadership over Twitter, and you know, she might have some
Speaker 1: points on some of this stuff, but to do it
Speaker 1: with a McNugget in your mouth. I mean, come on,
Speaker 1: clean up your act. Your mother didn't teach you to
Speaker 1: go and do things on you know, Twitter, with food
Speaker 1: in your mouth. I still believe the time and a
Speaker 1: place for everything. The congresswoman does everything on purpose is
Speaker 1: my my personal theory, Genie, Like, I mean, everything is
Speaker 1: so carefully calculated. You wanted to do that almost as
Speaker 1: a way. I don't know, to show disrespect to Elon Musk.
Speaker 1: What did you make of it? It made me hungry,
Speaker 1: I have to be honest, I was hungry listening and
Speaker 1: I don't know, sweet and sour sauce for God, that's right,
Speaker 1: you know. So, yeah, she does things on purpose. She
Speaker 1: does them well. Um, I think you should get sound
Speaker 1: on sweatshirts and sell them for fifty bucks. Joe Matthew
Speaker 1: fastest our sweatshirts. Go ahead, Yeah, yeah, I think I
Speaker 1: think you'll make a killing there, Joe Matthew, you'll be
Speaker 1: able to afford your verification check. Well, get ready to
Speaker 1: hear a lot more about billionaires in the next two years. Genie,
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, and Rick Davis our signature panel
Speaker 1: thanks to Bearded Micguel on Twitter. You guys, have a
Speaker 1: great weekend. I'll meet you back here Monday. I'm Joe Matthew.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg