Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. You're listening to the
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast. Catch Just Live weekdays at
Speaker 1: noon Eastern on APO CarPlay and then roud Oto with
Speaker 1: the Bloomberg Business app. Listen on demand wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts, or watch us live on YouTube.
Speaker 2: And now we're joined here in our studios in Wisconsin
Speaker 2: by the Governor of Mississippi, Tate Reeves. Welcome to Bloomberg
Speaker 2: TV and Radio. Governor, it's great to have you as
Speaker 2: we look ahead to the speakers of this evening, and
Speaker 2: of course the headliner, the vice presidential nominee jd Vance.
Speaker 2: What are you hoping that he focuses on. What message
Speaker 2: do the people of Mississippi want to hear from him?
Speaker 3: Well, what I will tell you is I believe that
Speaker 3: jd Vance is the candidate that is most likely to
Speaker 3: govern like President Trump is going to govern. I also
Speaker 3: think jd Vance is a huge addition to the ticket
Speaker 3: because jd Vance's story speaks to rural voters in places
Speaker 3: like Mississippi, but also rural voters in Wisconsin, the state
Speaker 3: that we're in now, and rural voters in Ohio obviously,
Speaker 3: but Pennsylvania and Michigan, and we find ourselves at a
Speaker 3: time in American history where every day Americans are struggling.
Speaker 4: They're struggling because of inflation.
Speaker 3: They're struggling because every time they go to put gas
Speaker 3: in their car, it costs significantly more today than it
Speaker 3: did four years ago. Every time they go to the
Speaker 3: grocery store and they buy bread and milk and other essentials,
Speaker 3: it costs significantly more than it did four years ago.
Speaker 3: And I believe that JD. Vance's story and what he
Speaker 3: will tell tonight is going to highlight those facts that
Speaker 3: he grew up in a difficult environment, and quite frankly,
Speaker 3: all of those things are true because of policies enacted
Speaker 3: by the Biden administration that were intentional. They intentionally increased
Speaker 3: government spending significantly, which led to higher and higher inflation,
Speaker 3: and it's hurting people back home.
Speaker 5: Well, obviously, that spending they came out of COVID followed
Speaker 5: enormous spending by the Trump administration that added trillions to
Speaker 5: the debt. And we're talking to economists every day here
Speaker 5: almost governor who are deeply concerned about a ballooning deficit,
Speaker 5: maybe trillions more if the Trump tax cuts are made permanent,
Speaker 5: which could have an inflationary effect, and this problem you're
Speaker 5: outlining gets even worse.
Speaker 3: Well, what I will tell you is just I mean,
Speaker 3: you don't have to be a math major to figure
Speaker 3: out that if you have thirty trillion dollars in debt
Speaker 3: and interest rates are arising as they have done, and
Speaker 3: let's just say five percent of thirty trillion dollars, we're
Speaker 3: going to spend a trillion five a year as a
Speaker 3: country just on interest expense, without even paying back any
Speaker 3: of the principle. And so I think that these are
Speaker 3: issues that maybe are not top of mind for every
Speaker 3: single voter across America, but it's certainly important to those
Speaker 3: of us that operate in the states.
Speaker 4: You know, we have to have a balanced budget.
Speaker 3: In Mississippi, when I came in twenty years ago, we
Speaker 3: had a nearly twenty five percent shortfall in revenues compared
Speaker 3: to the expenditures of the previous administration.
Speaker 4: And what we did is we went and we fixed it.
Speaker 3: And so I think good strong policies, a growing economy
Speaker 3: will lead to more revenues for the government, and we're
Speaker 3: going to have to get control of spending.
Speaker 2: So if we need to get control of spending and
Speaker 2: everything you just said about how interest rates are higher,
Speaker 2: it's going to take a lot more just to maintain
Speaker 2: the high debt levels we have. Why then pursue further
Speaker 2: tax cuts. Doesn't that not work mathematically?
Speaker 3: Well, actually, I will tell you, I believe very strongly
Speaker 3: that government doesn't have anything that it doesn't first take
Speaker 3: from someone else. And the reality is that as you
Speaker 3: look at where we find ourselves, every single American knows
Speaker 3: better how to spend their money than any governmental entity
Speaker 3: ever will. Certainly the federal government has proved that, but
Speaker 3: we have proved it in Mississippi as well, and we
Speaker 3: try to be smart and conservative with the people's money.
Speaker 3: But we've been cutting income taxes in our state. In fact,
Speaker 3: there are nine states in America that have no income tax,
Speaker 3: so the forty one that have one, Mississippi has the
Speaker 3: fifth lowest in America, and our economy is booming unlike
Speaker 3: other parts of the country. Mississippi has the lowest unemployment
Speaker 3: rate in our state's history right now. Mississippi also has
Speaker 3: more people working than at any time in our state's history,
Speaker 3: and that's because we have a tax friendly environment. We
Speaker 3: have a business friendly environment, We showed during COVID that
Speaker 3: as difficult as those times were, our people got up.
Speaker 4: And went to work and took care of themselves.
Speaker 3: We need more Americans in the workforce, we need more
Speaker 3: tax payers. We need more people pulling the wagon and
Speaker 3: less people sitting on the wagon.
Speaker 5: You're talking about winning over rural voters, and I know
Speaker 5: that that's very close to your heart for obvious reasons.
Speaker 5: We talked to Congress from Brian Style the other day
Speaker 5: talking about the hunting territory in northern Wisconsin that he's
Speaker 5: looking at. But we've been told by a lot of
Speaker 5: smart people that this election will be cited in the suburbs,
Speaker 5: that it will be women, that it will be young
Speaker 5: black men. What's the message to them.
Speaker 3: Well, I will tell you President Trump is currently polling
Speaker 3: better with young African American men than probably any Republican
Speaker 3: has ever done this right, And that's because that particular
Speaker 3: group also recognizes the same thing that every other American recognizes,
Speaker 3: and that is inflation. The fact that when they go
Speaker 3: and they put gas in their car, the money that
Speaker 3: they are earning is going less and less far.
Speaker 5: But it's an every days we can talk about a
Speaker 5: lot of issues you're striking the economy each way.
Speaker 3: I think at the end of the day, particularly those
Speaker 3: who are undecided. I mean, obviously, if you've got the
Speaker 3: hardcore conservatives on one side and the far left on
Speaker 3: the other, obviously there are hot button issues that those
Speaker 3: individuals care about. But the ones who are undecided, those
Speaker 3: in the middle, those that are independents, those are right
Speaker 3: leaning Republicans that maybe not have not always voted for Trump.
Speaker 3: I believe it's pocketbook issues. I believe it is economic
Speaker 3: message that is going to win the day.
Speaker 2: Just because you said pocketbook issues. I would point to
Speaker 2: a study that was just done by the Peterson Institute
Speaker 2: for International Economics that found that the tariffs that both jd.
Speaker 2: Vance and Donald Trump have advocated for a ten percent
Speaker 2: levey universally sixty percent on all goods coming out of
Speaker 2: China what amount to an annual cost for the average
Speaker 2: middle income family of seventeen hundred dollars. Are tariffs the
Speaker 2: right policy for middle income people in Mississippi.
Speaker 3: Well, what I would tell you is the right policy
Speaker 3: for America and the right policy for Mississippi is for
Speaker 3: us to bring those jobs that are in China, particularly
Speaker 3: those production jobs, and those other jobs that are situated
Speaker 3: throughout Asia, bring them back to America. It's about making
Speaker 3: America great again. It's about creating jobs for those individuals
Speaker 3: that we would just mention that live in rural places.
Speaker 4: You know, we've got the in our state.
Speaker 3: Our message of bringing economic development and better and higher
Speaker 3: paying jobs to our state.
Speaker 4: Is a message that is winning the day.
Speaker 3: We've announced three different projects over a fifteen month period
Speaker 3: of over two billion dollars in capital expenditures in companies
Speaker 3: that are coming back to our that are building in America,
Speaker 3: building in Mississippi, and creating jobs that are paying twenty
Speaker 3: five to thirty thirty five percent above the state average
Speaker 3: on wages. And that's the message that I think people
Speaker 3: want to hear is we need to be producing more
Speaker 3: things in America and less things in China.
Speaker 5: Let's pick through a couple of other issues, and I
Speaker 5: know one that is important to you is abortion. This
Speaker 5: is something that we've seen addressed in the platform that'll
Speaker 5: ask you about. But I want to bring our viewers
Speaker 5: and listeners back to your conversation. I remember it distinctly
Speaker 5: in twenty twenty two on Meet the Press.
Speaker 6: Here's the governor.
Speaker 3: What I would say, Chuck is at the end of
Speaker 3: the day, there is no right to an abortion in
Speaker 3: the United States Constitution. That the issue with abortions that
Speaker 3: makes it very different is that there is a life,
Speaker 3: there is an American child in that womb, and it's
Speaker 3: incumbent upon those of us who are elected to stand
Speaker 3: up for the rights of those individuals that can't stand.
Speaker 6: Up for themselves.
Speaker 5: Governor Reeves on Meath the Press two years ago. Now
Speaker 5: with this RNC, the platform proved on Monday does not
Speaker 5: include an abortion ban, a national ban for the first
Speaker 5: time in something like forty years.
Speaker 6: Is that a disappointment.
Speaker 3: Well, I certainly support the opportunity for a national abortion ban,
Speaker 3: but what I will tell you is for that to
Speaker 3: ever pass the US Congress, it's going to be an
Speaker 3: abortion ban at twenty weeks or twenty two weeks. Yeah,
Speaker 3: And there are very few abortions even in states like
Speaker 3: California and New York as a percentage that are conducted
Speaker 3: at that late stage in our state. And when we
Speaker 3: filed suit to overturn Roe v. Wade, arguing exactly what
Speaker 3: I argued on Meet the Press, that the Constitution doesn't
Speaker 3: guarantee a right to an abortion. Our entire case was
Speaker 3: these are decisions that ought to be made by individual states.
Speaker 3: And so to give you an example, in our state,
Speaker 3: we enacted a law which I understand is not politically
Speaker 3: palatable in some other states, but we enacted a law
Speaker 3: that has exceptions, but does not allow for the right
Speaker 3: to abortion in the state of Mississippi. My ultimate goal
Speaker 3: is to save as many babies' lives as possible, and
Speaker 3: there are a lot of different ideas as to how
Speaker 3: to make that happen. But the reality is, just because
Speaker 3: of our case that went before the United States Supreme Court,
Speaker 3: there are hundreds of thousands of babies that have been born,
Speaker 3: that have been saved, that are in American society now.
Speaker 3: And I will tell you that's not the end of it.
Speaker 3: That's not all being pro life is about is being
Speaker 3: anti abortion.
Speaker 4: We also in our.
Speaker 3: State have worked very hard to create a culture where
Speaker 3: we're investing in moms, investing in babies, investing in pregnancy
Speaker 3: crisis centers to help those who are in need.
Speaker 4: We've made a.
Speaker 3: Call out to our churches, to our congregations and telling
Speaker 3: them how important it is that they get involved and
Speaker 3: engaged because I believe very strongly that it's our churches
Speaker 3: and our charitable organizations can do a far better job
Speaker 3: helping expected moms than any governmental entity can. It's just
Speaker 3: a fact that governmental entities tend to be inefficient, even
Speaker 3: in states like mine that are focused on this issue.
Speaker 2: Well, Mississippi also, and I know you were just talking
Speaker 2: about some of the economic statistics you're proud of, the
Speaker 2: unemployment rate, etc. Consistently has one of the highest child
Speaker 2: poverty rates in the country. Do you see no relationship
Speaker 2: there between very restrictive abortion laws and children who Yes,
Speaker 2: thousands of them perhaps have come into existence because of
Speaker 2: that law, but their lives may be a poorer quality
Speaker 2: for it.
Speaker 4: Well, I can tell you this. I would much rather see.
Speaker 3: A baby that is not killed in the womb or
Speaker 3: otherwise that has maybe a challenging upbringing. What we're trying
Speaker 3: to do is improve education to give every kid an
Speaker 3: opportunity for success. We have had some real progress being
Speaker 3: made in our state, but look our state and virtually
Speaker 3: every other state. There are very few societal problems that
Speaker 3: can't be solved by more people having better and higher
Speaker 3: paying jobs. And that's where our focus is. And we
Speaker 3: have a laser focus on it in Mississippi, well, to.
Speaker 5: Put a finer point on it, Mississippi has the highest
Speaker 5: fetal mortality rate in the nation, highest infant mortality rate,
Speaker 5: highest pre term birth rate, Black women nearly three times
Speaker 5: more likely to die due to childbirth than white women.
Speaker 6: Is that the cost of a pro life policy?
Speaker 3: I do not believe it's the cost of a pro
Speaker 3: life policy. I think that, as is often the case,
Speaker 3: there are areas in which we can improve. We are
Speaker 3: trying to address these issues. We have done certain things.
Speaker 3: I'm not I do not support a medicaid expansion, yet
Speaker 3: we have done things like guaranteed medicaid for any pregnant
Speaker 3: mom in our state. We just did that during this
Speaker 3: legislative session, just this past a year ago, we passed
Speaker 3: legislation to allow for medicaid expenditures used to expected mom
Speaker 3: could only get Medicaid up to two months after childbirth.
Speaker 4: We worked very hard with our state.
Speaker 3: Health officer and one of the things that he in
Speaker 3: his studies determined, which was surprising to me because when
Speaker 3: I looked at those statistics, I just assumed it was
Speaker 3: really young people, teenagers, etc.
Speaker 4: That were having these challenges.
Speaker 3: And that's not all the case, most of these terrible outcomes,
Speaker 3: and they are terrible, they're tragic, but most of these
Speaker 3: terrible outcomes are actually older females that are having not
Speaker 3: their first child, but their second child, and typically it's
Speaker 3: their second child within a twelve to fifteen month period.
Speaker 3: And so because of that, we thought that we would
Speaker 3: at least try the process of giving those moms that
Speaker 3: have babies. Rather than two months of medicaid post delivery,
Speaker 3: we're going to give them twelve months of medicaid to
Speaker 3: ensure that they continue to go back to their ob
Speaker 3: continue to go back to their physicians, so that those
Speaker 3: individual physicians can help coach, can help teach, and can
Speaker 3: help do the work to try to drive those numbers down.
Speaker 2: Governor, we just have a minute left. But given what
Speaker 2: you said about wanting to bring more babies into the world,
Speaker 2: if not a national abortion policy at the federal level,
Speaker 2: what about federal protections for IBF.
Speaker 3: Look I support of protections for a If I'm a
Speaker 3: supporter of that particular policy, and whether it's done at
Speaker 3: the local level or at the state level, or done
Speaker 3: at the federal level, that'll be a debate that we
Speaker 3: have upcoming. But I do not believe that we should
Speaker 3: we should eliminate that option for potential moms because again,
Speaker 3: I believe that we need to protect babies and we
Speaker 3: need to love life and get get more and more
Speaker 3: policies in place to give kids an opportunity for success.
Speaker 5: Long term Governor, thank you for spending time.
Speaker 6: With us talking about some pretty serious issues. We appreciate it.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much for having.
Speaker 6: Them a great convention.
Speaker 5: Yes, indeed, Mississippi Governor st reeves with us in studio
Speaker 5: in Milwaukee. Coming up on Balance of Power, will assembled
Speaker 5: our political panel. They're back Rick Davis and Genie Shanzano
Speaker 5: on day three of the convention, alongside Kaylee Lines. Oh, Matthew,
Speaker 5: it's next on Balance of Power. On Bloomberg TV and radio.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast kens
Speaker 1: just Live weekdays at noon Eastern on Applecarplay and then roun.
Speaker 7: Oo with the Bloomberg Business App.
Speaker 1: You can also listen live on Amazon Alexa from our
Speaker 1: flagship New York station, Just Say Alexa play Bloomberg eleven.
Speaker 5: Thirty alongside Morgan or Tegas, founder of Polaris National Security,
Speaker 5: former State Department spokesperson during the Trump administration.
Speaker 6: Lovely to see you at the table.
Speaker 8: Thank you.
Speaker 5: But the convention's going well for you, and it's great
Speaker 5: that you're here today because this is Geopolitics Day, International
Speaker 5: and national Security as a theme at this convention.
Speaker 6: We're going to hear from JD. Vance tonight.
Speaker 5: What doesn't love the direction that the United States has
Speaker 5: gone in with Ukraine?
Speaker 6: For instance? What are we going to learn in that speech?
Speaker 8: So it's interesting that it is foreign policy national Security Day,
Speaker 8: which is what I've done for the past twenty years.
Speaker 8: That never happens at a Republican convention, right, foreign policy
Speaker 8: is never the theme of an entire day, and I
Speaker 8: think from a Republican perspective, it just goes to show
Speaker 8: how wrong things are going around the world. We think,
Speaker 8: you know, obviously, in August of twenty twenty one, we
Speaker 8: saw thirteen of our best young men and women killed
Speaker 8: and that disastrous withdraw from Afghanistan. We of course in
Speaker 8: the Trump administration, I was a part of the Abraham
Speaker 8: Accords team. We handed historic four historic peace deals over.
Speaker 8: Then you have Afghanistan fall. Then of course you have Russia,
Speaker 8: you have putin in Bade Ukraine, and then last year
Speaker 8: on October seventh, we saw the horrific murders from Hamas
Speaker 8: invading Israel, and I would I'm sure we will get
Speaker 8: reminded tonight. Ten months later, we still have five Americans
Speaker 8: that are held hostage by a terror regime. Not only
Speaker 8: do you have the president of the United States with
Speaker 8: an attempted former president of the United States with an
Speaker 8: attempted assassination over the weekend. As I've been saying for years,
Speaker 8: this isn't new news. The Iranian regime has active plots
Speaker 8: on US soil against former President Trump, against my former boss,
Speaker 8: Mike Mompeo, Brian Hook, and other senior administration officials. It's
Speaker 8: unprecedented that an enemy state of the United States would
Speaker 8: have these many plots against officials where they require for
Speaker 8: the past three and a half years, twenty four to
Speaker 8: seven security never happen in US history. And then, of course,
Speaker 8: you know, you're worried about what's happening with China around
Speaker 8: the world, and I think that Americans are very concerned.
Speaker 8: They're not only concerned about what's happening at the grocery store,
Speaker 8: but they're concerned because there feels like there is a
Speaker 8: chaotic world out there, and that nobody is really in control.
Speaker 2: Well, so let's pick a few parts of the chaoshaw.
Speaker 2: Well you mentioned, for example, the war in Ukraine, which
Speaker 2: we know that jd. Vance is not an advocate for
Speaker 2: continuing to fund in the US. He thinks some kind
Speaker 2: of negotiated piece is the most realistic outcome. President former
Speaker 2: President Trump, of course, has said he could end that
Speaker 2: war in one day. Do you actually believe that what
Speaker 2: would a Trump Vance ticket by president and vice president
Speaker 2: ultimately mean for a resolution to that war?
Speaker 4: So?
Speaker 7: JD.
Speaker 8: Vance is a good friend of mine. I think he's
Speaker 8: a great pick, but it is the president of the
Speaker 8: United States, if Trump is reelected, who sets the foreign policy.
Speaker 8: And he does that with the Secretary of State, and
Speaker 8: so the foreign policy will be up to the president
Speaker 8: having served in the last two years of his administration.
Speaker 8: And by the way, I've served in four administrations, Republicans
Speaker 8: and Democrats, so I've got a lot of background here.
Speaker 8: In the last administration, for the last two years, we
Speaker 8: actually provided lethal weapons to the Ukrainians. We had more
Speaker 8: sanctions and more actions against Russia than any president in
Speaker 8: modern history since the Cold War, since Reagan. And so
Speaker 8: when you look, not only were we providing lethal weapons
Speaker 8: to Ukraine. We were renegotiating new Start, we were sanctioning
Speaker 8: Nord's dream too. This is an energy discussion that I
Speaker 8: know you guys have.
Speaker 4: Had on Bloomberg.
Speaker 8: Why does that matter, because it's not like we're pontificating
Speaker 8: about what foreign policy would be. We know that we
Speaker 8: actually took a very strong stance against Russia and supportive
Speaker 8: of Ukraine in the last administration. Unfortunately, there's a series
Speaker 8: of probably ten to twenty different deterrence failures from the
Speaker 8: Biden administration that led to where we are today. I'm
Speaker 8: one of those Republicans who are incredibly critical of the
Speaker 8: delay of weapons over the past two years, unless if
Speaker 8: you look at it from an economic perspective, you know
Speaker 8: we have. The truth is that the Russian economy is
Speaker 8: doing better than it was before the invasion. The initial
Speaker 8: sanctions tranch and I spent years of my life at
Speaker 8: the Treasury as an analyst doing sanctions. The initial sanctions
Speaker 8: trench that the Biden administration did with the Europeans was fantastic,
Speaker 8: but it was never followed up on secondary sanctions. We
Speaker 8: never put never took Russian banks off the market, We
Speaker 8: never prevented them from exporting oil and energy or from
Speaker 8: their minerals and mining, and so you know, even our
Speaker 8: LNG export ban in January, for example, we've seen billions
Speaker 8: of dollars twenty one billion dollars just in twenty twenty
Speaker 8: two that Russia gained from their energy exports that they
Speaker 8: were able to use to fund their war machine. So
Speaker 8: the sad reality is they actually have figured out how
Speaker 8: to circumvent our sanctions and they have this what I
Speaker 8: call supply chain of terror between Russia, Tehran, North Korea,
Speaker 8: and China where they were able to resupply themselves from
Speaker 8: ammunitions perspective with drones, ballistic hardware. They're not They're actually
Speaker 8: resupplying themselves faster from a munition's perspective than the West can.
Speaker 8: And that's I think should be incredibly concerning to all
Speaker 8: of us.
Speaker 5: Well, it's interesting, I don't know if you're implying that
Speaker 5: a Trump two point zero would pursue secondary sanctions, because
Speaker 5: we've asked a lot of lawmakers.
Speaker 6: I would operate it.
Speaker 5: Mere That's really interesting, Yeah, cause Donald Trump says he
Speaker 5: can end this war on day one, that it's a
Speaker 5: phone call, this thing is over. You don't need secondary
Speaker 5: sanctions in a world like that. You've been in this game.
Speaker 6: For a long time. Do you take a commander in
Speaker 6: chief seriously talking like that?
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean, listen, I think he has a There's
Speaker 8: no doubt if you look at it from a policy
Speaker 8: perspective and not a writer perspective. We were much tougher
Speaker 8: on Russia than the Biden ministry.
Speaker 6: End the war in one afternoon.
Speaker 8: Well yeah, I mean, listen, we don't know if Trump
Speaker 8: is elected. We have no clue what we will inherit
Speaker 8: in January twenty twenty five, So who knows what you're
Speaker 8: going to get there? So you'll have to deal with
Speaker 8: the situation there. Obviously, he's going to have to have
Speaker 8: a tough negotiation. So you ask yourselves the people now
Speaker 8: who are negotiating to get five Americans out ten months
Speaker 8: later from a terrorist group. They can't get these Americans out.
Speaker 8: They can't finish a negotiation between Israel and Hamas. These
Speaker 8: are the people that you think will be better negotiators
Speaker 8: than we are when we negotiated the abrahamccards. Sorry, I
Speaker 8: know the negotiators. I was a part of the team.
Speaker 8: I'd bet on the Trump negotiating team every day of
Speaker 8: the week.
Speaker 2: Who are you betting on will be Secretary of State
Speaker 2: as part of that team.
Speaker 8: I think that he has a ton of people to
Speaker 8: choose from. I don't know if these people are interested,
Speaker 8: but I will just tell you what I think. Rubio
Speaker 8: is incredibly impressive. Bill Haggerty my senator. Listen, I'm biased.
Speaker 8: I'm from Tennessee. He's my senator. Rick Garnell has a
Speaker 8: very close relationship. Tom Conton is another senator who's been
Speaker 8: in the foreign policy side for a long time. So
Speaker 8: I wouldn't be surprised if the President picks an ally
Speaker 8: from the Senate.
Speaker 2: All right, Morgan, it was great to have you here
Speaker 2: in the LAKEY appreciate your time. Former State Department spokesperson
Speaker 2: Morgan or Tagis, We appreciate it.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Eleens of Power podcast Ketch
Speaker 1: just live weekdays at noon Eastern on Emo.
Speaker 7: Car Play and then Roudoto with the Bloomberg Business app.
Speaker 1: Listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts, or watch
Speaker 1: us live on YouTube.
Speaker 2: And I want to continue this conversation on China. Now
Speaker 2: we're joined by a member of the House China Select
Speaker 2: Committee Congressman Carlos and Menez of Florida, who's here with
Speaker 2: us in our studios in Milwaukee on Bloomberg TV and Radio. Congressman,
Speaker 2: thank you so.
Speaker 4: Much for your time.
Speaker 2: We talk a lot about China because Jade Vance, just
Speaker 2: earlier this week, after it was announced that he was
Speaker 2: the vice presidential pick, said that it is the number
Speaker 2: one threat the US faces.
Speaker 9: Yes, it is for now and the foreseeable future. China
Speaker 9: is the number one threat that we face.
Speaker 2: And how do you expect a Trump Vance administration would
Speaker 2: address that. Is this purely tariffs or is it something else?
Speaker 9: No, No, it's a Look, China has made no secrets
Speaker 9: that it wants to be the number one economic power
Speaker 9: in the world. It wants to be the number one
Speaker 9: military power in the world. They're now aligning themselves with
Speaker 9: Russia and North kore Iran to create a new world order.
Speaker 9: And the new world order doesn't doesn't include the United
Speaker 9: States of America. So that is the number one threat.
Speaker 9: It's a it's a very brutal communist dictatorship. It oppresses
Speaker 9: its own people, it's accused of genocide, it uses slave labor,
Speaker 9: And I've been saying for a long time when we
Speaker 9: need to start to decouple from China as soon as
Speaker 9: we can. Much of our supply chain comes from China.
Speaker 9: We've become way too dependent on China. We need to
Speaker 9: bring back manufacturing to the United States, especially manufacturing that
Speaker 9: deals with our security, our defense industries.
Speaker 10: You know we're lacking. Look in World War Two.
Speaker 9: During World War Two, for every for every carrier that
Speaker 9: Japan built, we built six, and so we outproduced Japan.
Speaker 10: Right now, China holds.
Speaker 9: An edge of two hundred and thirty two to one
Speaker 9: in shipyards. That's just one example of why China is,
Speaker 9: to me the biggest threat that we face, not only US,
Speaker 9: but the world face and now in.
Speaker 6: The foreseeable future, you talk about tea coupling.
Speaker 5: Congressman, there's a Bloomberg report out today that has led
Speaker 5: to some pretty tough moves on Wall Street. We're watching
Speaker 5: semiconductor stocks fall sharply. And we've been through this before
Speaker 5: with trying to keep in Nvidio chips, for instance, away
Speaker 5: from China. But this report now suggests the Biden administration
Speaker 5: is considering using the most severe trade restrictions available if
Speaker 5: companies keep giving China access to these advanced chips.
Speaker 6: Would Donald Trump do the same thing.
Speaker 10: I think he would.
Speaker 9: I think that he understands the threat that China poses.
Speaker 10: They frankly stole munch of the stuff they're selling to
Speaker 10: us right now.
Speaker 9: They stole on us. All right, we invented the chips.
Speaker 9: Now their threat to Taiwan. Taiwan controls eighty percent of
Speaker 9: the chips, right, and so if China were actually to
Speaker 9: invade Taiwan and actually then control Taiwan, they've controlled ninety
Speaker 9: percent of the chips in the entire world, which is
Speaker 9: kind of like what they do in everything they do.
Speaker 9: And so they subsidize an industry, They target an industry,
Speaker 9: soidize it. Then they fled the market, the world market
Speaker 9: with that with that product, they drive all the competition
Speaker 9: out of business, and then they become the sole source.
Speaker 10: Right.
Speaker 9: That's a pretty good way to you know, run a business,
Speaker 9: but it's not a way to be, you know, a
Speaker 9: good partner in.
Speaker 10: The world stage.
Speaker 9: And so I wasn't like this before, you know, I thought, maybe,
Speaker 9: you know, you you open up China and trade, et cetera,
Speaker 9: and then they'll they'll find that, you know, democracy, democracy
Speaker 9: is the right way.
Speaker 10: But they've gone the other way.
Speaker 6: When did you change?
Speaker 10: I changed when I went to China.
Speaker 9: I went to China when I was the mayor of
Speaker 9: Miami Dade County, thinking that, well, maybe we can get
Speaker 9: some Chinese transportation accets for Miami Dade County, et cetera. Okay,
Speaker 9: maybe they get invested in Miami Dade County. And when
Speaker 9: I walked out, I said, I want nothing to do
Speaker 9: with them, zero. Why because every time that I that
Speaker 9: I was dealing with supposed to be a company, all right,
Speaker 9: I was dealing with the executives of the company.
Speaker 10: There's always a.
Speaker 9: Couple of people right over there, okay about that that
Speaker 9: whenever I asked them a question, they would always look
Speaker 9: to those people over there. That was a Chinese Communist Party,
Speaker 9: the PRC and the CCP was there, okay, And so yeah,
Speaker 9: I said, well, no, not really. And then I didn't
Speaker 9: see the sun for about two weeks when I was
Speaker 9: there because with all the coal they were burning. And
Speaker 9: so here they are a champion supposedly of green energy
Speaker 9: and part of the Paris Climate Accord, and yet they
Speaker 9: are polluting. You know, they're the world's biggest polluter by far.
Speaker 9: So no, I didn't like the way they did business.
Speaker 9: I didn't trust them, and so I came away completely
Speaker 9: different opinion than when I walked into China.
Speaker 10: So that was very beneficial to me. And you know what, President.
Speaker 9: Trump was right, Senator Marco Rubio, who I'm pretty good
Speaker 9: friends with him, he was right.
Speaker 10: Yep, they're the biggest threat that we have.
Speaker 2: Well, you bring up Senator Rubu, another Florida man obviously
Speaker 2: who was not selected for the vice presidential pick. But
Speaker 2: Florida is an interesting case study. Is there has been suggestions,
Speaker 2: given abortion, for example, that it may be some a
Speaker 2: state in which Democrats could more easily play this cycle.
Speaker 2: I'm I'm sure you probably don't actually believe that, but
Speaker 2: we are seeing interesting demographic shifts, even if it's not
Speaker 2: an entire state being up for grabs. Yeah, Latino voters
Speaker 2: going over to Donald Trump, same with black voters. And
Speaker 2: what do you assign that to? Why is that happening?
Speaker 9: You know, Ronald Reagan once said back in I think
Speaker 9: back in the eighties or maybe in the eighties here
Speaker 9: when he was president of that Latinos, Hispanics or Republicans,
Speaker 9: they just don't know yet. They're starting to figure it out.
Speaker 9: We hold our same values. We're you know, we have
Speaker 9: family values. We're people of faith, we believe in hard work,
Speaker 9: we believe in the American dream, and so and we
Speaker 9: are Americans who want the same thing everybody else does,
Speaker 9: you know. So, yeah, they're coming over. We're coming over.
Speaker 9: And no, Florida's not in play. Florida is going to
Speaker 9: go big time to President Trump. Even in Miamide County,
Speaker 9: my home county, which is pretty you know, it was
Speaker 9: historically much a big Democratic stronghold that's lessening by every
Speaker 9: single election. And you see that in the polling down.
Speaker 9: You see that in the results from sixteen to twenty one,
Speaker 9: from sixteen to twenty to twenty two, the huge shift
Speaker 9: in Miami Dade County itself. And if the Democrats don't
Speaker 9: come out of Miami Dade County.
Speaker 10: With a huge lead or buffer, right, they're toast. And
Speaker 10: so they're not going to come out of Miami Day
Speaker 10: County so much.
Speaker 9: I think I think Donald Trump has a really distinct
Speaker 9: possibility of actually being the first Republican president in a
Speaker 9: very long time to actually win Miami Dade County.
Speaker 5: Well, at this Republican National Convention, the party has more
Speaker 5: than seventy influencers as they are known, credentialed as part
Speaker 5: of this convention to try to deliver the message, reach
Speaker 5: out to younger people, talk about the platform, and so forth,
Speaker 5: many of them using TikTok as a platform to do that.
Speaker 6: Does that bother you?
Speaker 10: Yeah? It does absolutely?
Speaker 6: Should they do that?
Speaker 10: I my advice.
Speaker 9: Look, I mean I know that that there's still the campaigns.
Speaker 9: There are over one hundred million users of TikTok. I
Speaker 9: understand that, including Donald Trump. But eventually yep, but eventually, look,
Speaker 9: we passed, you know, we passed legislation on that that
Speaker 9: TikTok needs to divest itself from a Chinese communist influence
Speaker 9: or divest self from ownership within six months or also
Speaker 9: a year and then or else it has to, you know,
Speaker 9: cease operations in the United States. So TikTok has concerned me,
Speaker 9: continues to concern me. But you know, as long as
Speaker 9: there's still over one hundred million users, I understand the
Speaker 9: reasons why, But does it bother me?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 10: It bothers me.
Speaker 5: Well, thank you for bringing us your view from the
Speaker 5: Select China Committee and from here in Milwaukee.
Speaker 6: Congressman, it's great to see you at the table. Thank you.
Speaker 5: Florida Congressman Carlos Semen is with us here on Balance
Speaker 5: of Power especial once again from Milwaukee on what is
Speaker 5: now day three of the r NC, And Kaylee, we're
Speaker 5: not only covering the Republican National Convention, but a lot
Speaker 5: of headlines that have to do with Joe Biden.
Speaker 6: He's about to do another interview today on Univision.
Speaker 2: And now this Congressman Adam Schiff, a Democrat, obviously now
Speaker 2: calling on Biden to drop out of the race. This
Speaker 2: is according to the Los Angeles Times. Shift, of course,
Speaker 2: is running for Senate in the state of California. We
Speaker 2: have had seen this trickle trickle of Democrats coming out
Speaker 2: in favor of Joe Biden leaving the race. It was
Speaker 2: on pause for a bit after the assassination attempt last
Speaker 2: weekend of Donald Trump, but Adam Schiff apparently joining the ranks.
Speaker 5: He had been talking with donors saying that the Democrats
Speaker 5: would lose, according to reports. Now he's saying it out loud,
Speaker 5: it seems, Kayley, this is something that we'll talk about
Speaker 5: coming up later with our political panel.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast kens
Speaker 1: just Live weekdays at noon Eastern on Applecarplay and then.
Speaker 7: Roud Oro with the Bloomberg Business app.
Speaker 1: You can also listen live on Amazon Alexa from our
Speaker 1: flagship New York station, Just Say Alexa play Bloomberg eleven thirty.
Speaker 5: Not just on Republican politics, but in fact democratic politics
Speaker 5: and specifically the Biden campaign. Kaylee, you know you're on
Speaker 5: something when Donald Trump takes to truth.
Speaker 6: What was the post?
Speaker 5: From a political standpoint, Donald Trump writes, an unprecedented event
Speaker 5: is happening.
Speaker 10: The Dems are.
Speaker 5: Trying again to get Biden off the ballot, and that's,
Speaker 5: of course because a prominent senator has just waited.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we have had a number of voices weigh in
Speaker 2: obviously at this point, well over a dozen members of Congress,
Speaker 2: sitting members Congressman Adam Schiff, the Democrat from California, who
Speaker 2: is running to be a Senator from that state, now
Speaker 2: calling for Joe Biden to drop out of this race.
Speaker 2: In part, his statement says, a second Trump presidency will
Speaker 2: undermine the very foundation of our democracy. And I have
Speaker 2: serious concerns about whether the president can defeat Donald Trump
Speaker 2: in November.
Speaker 4: And as we've.
Speaker 2: Learned in recent week's show, he is not the only one.
Speaker 2: The question is does Joe Biden have those concerns about
Speaker 2: his ability to feed Donald Trump?
Speaker 6: Well, that's right.
Speaker 5: A lot of questions here that we pose to our panel.
Speaker 5: Rick Davis, the Stone Court Capital is with us, alongside
Speaker 5: Genie Shanzano of Iona University, Bloomberg Politics contributors. They are
Speaker 5: our signature panel. How nervous does this make you?
Speaker 11: It does so. Adam Schiff was reported to have said
Speaker 11: this to private donors before. It is something that he
Speaker 11: is concerned about, not just that we lose at the
Speaker 11: top of the ticket, that they can't hold the Senate
Speaker 11: and that they lose Congress. And coming from Adam Schiff,
Speaker 11: this is an important statement and I am curious to
Speaker 11: see if others do follow. We also understand that the
Speaker 11: President had words with Jason Crowe, a war hero in
Speaker 11: the House, who was yeah, who was saying that, you know,
Speaker 11: President Biden, apparently people aren't getting the message of what
Speaker 11: you positive things you've done on foreign policy, given the
Speaker 11: convention is about foreign policy tonight, and the President responded
Speaker 11: by saying, you need to do better job getting out
Speaker 11: and speaking on my behalf. But it is Joe Biden
Speaker 11: who's got to speak on his own behalf, and that
Speaker 11: has not proven to be something he is capable at
Speaker 11: this point at least of doing and reaching voters and
Speaker 11: convincing Democrats that he should stay on the top. I mean,
Speaker 11: Rick just told us a while back seven out of
Speaker 11: ten saying he should get out. So he can tell
Speaker 11: Jason Crow he needs to communicate better. But Joe Biden
Speaker 11: has to own the fact that he is misstepping on
Speaker 11: communication on his own behalf.
Speaker 2: Okay, so let's talk about some of that communication. As
Speaker 2: we know, yesterday he sat down for an interview with
Speaker 2: Ed Gordon of BET News. Excerpts of that have now
Speaker 2: been released, and in part Brick according to what he
Speaker 2: said to be et he says that if some medical
Speaker 2: condition emerged and his doctors told him it was a
Speaker 2: serious medical condition, then he would consider dropping out of
Speaker 2: the race. He says his doctors have not told him that,
Speaker 2: to be clear, But is this the kind of thing
Speaker 2: you should be saying when you're trying to plead your case.
Speaker 12: Well, maybe being eighty one is a medical condition on
Speaker 12: to itself. Look, that's a big departure from where he
Speaker 12: was just a day ago, where he was reiterating that
Speaker 12: only the Almighty could get him out of this race.
Speaker 12: Now you know where there are cracks, there's a break,
Speaker 12: and we know that Adam Schiff's comments only reflect a
Speaker 12: much broader debate going in to through the Democratic Party
Speaker 12: that just hasn't broken out publicly. Right, there's a universal
Speaker 12: concern about this ticket's ability to win, and the fact
Speaker 12: that Republicans are doing better all over the ticket. They
Speaker 12: have a reason to be concerned. And yet the time
Speaker 12: is running out. They have a convention coming up in
Speaker 12: three weeks, and they have a nominee that they want
Speaker 12: to try to dump, and there's only so much time
Speaker 12: to do that. They have to prosecute a campaign in
Speaker 12: the fall, and they are not ready for it. And
Speaker 12: this is the kind of thing that I think will
Speaker 12: just fester now because even Joe Biden, President the United States,
Speaker 12: has said there's a condition under which I will get out.
Speaker 6: Of the race.
Speaker 5: This call that you mentioned Jeanie with House Democrats including
Speaker 5: Congressman Jason Crowe, Donald Trump and some reporters got their
Speaker 5: hands on the zoom call, which is why we know
Speaker 5: about this.
Speaker 6: This was not public.
Speaker 5: Donald Trump said, you saw what happened recently, in terms
Speaker 5: of the meeting we had with NATO, I put NATO together.
Speaker 5: Name me a foreign leader who thinks I'm not the
Speaker 5: most effective leader in the world on foreign policy.
Speaker 6: Tell me who the hell that is? He yelled? Is
Speaker 6: that kind of trumpy?
Speaker 11: For a moment, you think you are reading Trump's words,
Speaker 11: and it is that kind of argument to a war
Speaker 11: a hero like Jason Crowe. You know, that makes Democrats
Speaker 11: feel uneasy or more than uneasy about what is going on.
Speaker 11: The reality is, people in Congress know that their future
Speaker 11: in the future of the Democratic Party, and quite frankly,
Speaker 11: for many Democrats, the future of the country depends on
Speaker 11: keeping Donald Trump out of the White House, and they
Speaker 11: feel that they are at risk right now, and so
Speaker 11: they are desperate for the president to look at the
Speaker 11: data that they are seeing on the ground, particularly those
Speaker 11: folks in red districts or purple districts who feel they
Speaker 11: should be running ahead of the Republicans and they could
Speaker 11: be doing a better job at the top of the
Speaker 11: ticket remains two weak, and the bar the president keeps
Speaker 11: moving is problematic. First it's God, then it's the data.
Speaker 11: Now it's his health. He should look at what the
Speaker 11: people are saying, give us a better choice. You've done
Speaker 11: a fabulous job. Step out and we will thank you.
Speaker 11: But give us somebody who can move this ticket forward
Speaker 11: and keep Donald Trump out of the White House.
Speaker 2: Well, if you listen to what fifteen thousand voters are
Speaker 2: saying across the seven swing states that were surveyed in
Speaker 2: interviews by Blue Labs that just released a polling memo,
Speaker 2: they said effectively that basically all other Democrats would do
Speaker 2: better than Joe Biden. Alternative Democratic candidates ran ahead of
Speaker 2: Biden across those seven swing states by an average of
Speaker 2: three points. Nearly every tested Democrat performed better than the president,
Speaker 2: including Vice President Kamala Harris. But Harris runs behind the
Speaker 2: average alternative. So it's one thing to have the question
Speaker 2: about the fate of Joe Biden. It's another about who
Speaker 2: would step in in his place. Is Vice President Harris
Speaker 2: going to be just as big of a problem for
Speaker 2: Democrats potentially?
Speaker 12: Look, I think that once you crack it open, once
Speaker 12: you start having this discussion that says, you know, somebody
Speaker 12: other than Joe Biden, then I think all the cards
Speaker 12: go on the table. I think you start looking for
Speaker 12: who's the best candidate to run against Donald Trump, and
Speaker 12: I think you've now pointed out what I think a
Speaker 12: lot of Democratic strategists I know would prefer find me
Speaker 12: a governor from a targeted state in the northeast, like Michigan,
Speaker 12: like Pennsylvania, where we have a chance of locking down
Speaker 12: a couple of the key blue wall states in order
Speaker 12: to prosecute a campaign. I mean, there are going to
Speaker 12: be lots of reasons in addition to the pulling data
Speaker 12: that Democratic strategists are going to think through how to
Speaker 12: manufacture a ticket if it starts with no more Joe Biden.
Speaker 12: I don't think there's a right to the nomination by
Speaker 12: a sitting vice president. If the president in the top
Speaker 12: of the ticket withdraws.
Speaker 5: That's important because a lot of people think that she
Speaker 5: does deserve that. But we're also talking about this idea
Speaker 5: of what a mini primary, maybe a series of town
Speaker 5: halls or debates. I think Rick has been implying that
Speaker 5: a deal needs to be made here, Genie, what would
Speaker 5: Democrats think if there was an announcement of a new ticket.
Speaker 11: It would not fly. I mean they are going to
Speaker 11: have to hold we saw, like James Carville others have
Speaker 11: been talking about how they could do this. There is
Speaker 11: no easy way to do this. But if Joe Biden
Speaker 11: decides to step down, I don't think somebody can be
Speaker 11: anointed from a back room. That is not the democratic
Speaker 11: way of doing things. They are going to have to
Speaker 11: find very very quickly at this point a series of
Speaker 11: town halls or some methodology of allowing people on the
Speaker 11: ground to hear from these folks, whether it's Shapiro, whether
Speaker 11: it's Whitmer. You know, there's a lot of people Gavin
Speaker 11: Newsom and many others hear from them and have a
Speaker 11: voice in the decision anointments. We go right back to
Speaker 11: sixty eight. They don't work quite so well, and nor
Speaker 11: should they well.
Speaker 2: I thought it was very interesting last night in her speech,
Speaker 2: Nikki Haley specifically talked about Kamala Harris when she was
Speaker 2: talking about how during the course of her primary campaign,
Speaker 2: she said, a vote for President Biden is a vote
Speaker 2: for a President Harris, and she hit that repeatedly. I
Speaker 2: wonder if we'll hear more of the safe inter options
Speaker 2: over the next two days here at the RNC. Rick
Speaker 2: Davis of Stonecourt Capital and Jeanie Shanzena of Iona University.
Speaker 2: Our political panel will be sticking with us. We'll be
Speaker 2: back with you in just a few minutes. But let's
Speaker 2: get some more insight into what exactly we could expect
Speaker 2: to hear in tonight's speech. Is Bloomberg Tyler Kendall is
Speaker 2: here with a preview, and of course the headliner tonight
Speaker 2: is jd Vance Tyler and the theme is foreign policy.
Speaker 13: Yeah, hey, Cayley, Well, it's interesting that Jade Vance's speech
Speaker 13: comes on the night when foreign policy is the theme
Speaker 13: because he's been one of the staunchest opponents to Ukraine
Speaker 13: aid in the Senate. Now, I've had the chance to
Speaker 13: catch up with him multiple times in the halls of
Speaker 13: Congress throughout the year on this issue, and he has
Speaker 13: been consistent that one of the biggest reasons why he
Speaker 13: is against this is that he wants to see the
Speaker 13: US defense industrial base revitalized.
Speaker 2: First.
Speaker 13: Interestingly enough, that was actually the argument that got by
Speaker 13: partisan approval for that big supplemental security assistance package that's
Speaker 13: a to Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo Pacific. But the
Speaker 13: difference here, so we saw by Parson, lawmakers talking about
Speaker 13: how this would create more jobs and revitalize our factories.
Speaker 13: But the difference here when it comes to Vance is
Speaker 13: that he wants to see our stockpiles replenished first before
Speaker 13: we send those weapons abroad. And he normally talks about
Speaker 13: this when we're talking about competition with China and China
Speaker 13: boosting its own domestic manufacturing, and also when it comes
Speaker 13: to American jobs building this equipment instead of sending those
Speaker 13: jobs overseas. So Kaylee, We're definitely going to be watching
Speaker 13: how Jdvance threads the needle on Ukraine, aide, and then
Speaker 13: also on China, which shortly after he received the nomination
Speaker 13: called the US's biggest threat.
Speaker 5: Of course, JD is the headliner Tonight's JD. Vance Tyler.
Speaker 5: But we just got our first glimpse of the official
Speaker 5: speaking schedule. Who else are we going to hear from?
Speaker 13: Yep, Well, we're going to hear from foreign President Trump's son,
Speaker 13: Donald Trump Junior, as well as some other members of Congress.
Speaker 13: That includes Congressman Michael Watz of Republican from Florida, who's
Speaker 13: a veteran and also serves on House Foreign Affairs. That
Speaker 13: kind of goes with the policy and the theme of
Speaker 13: foreign policy tonight. Also, Doug Burgham is going to take
Speaker 13: the stage. He of course, was one of those names
Speaker 13: floated around as a potential vice presidential pick for former
Speaker 13: President Trump, and now there's talk about whether or not
Speaker 13: he could end up with a cabinet position and also
Speaker 13: his ties to some big donors that might help the
Speaker 13: Trump campaign moving forward.
Speaker 6: Really interesting.
Speaker 5: Doug Bergham not with the rest of the runners up
Speaker 5: we saw last night. Tyler Kendall, thank you, reporting from
Speaker 5: Milwaukee for Bloomberg as part of our coverage here at
Speaker 5: the Republican National Convention. As we now reassemble our panel,
Speaker 5: Rick Davis at Stone Court Capital and Jeanie Shanzino Ioni
Speaker 5: University are with us here in Milwaukee with a lot
Speaker 5: more to talk about ahead of tonight. We mentioned some
Speaker 5: of these names already. What does that mean when you
Speaker 5: see a Burgham like that not lumped in with all
Speaker 5: the other losers last night? Does that mean Donald Trump
Speaker 5: has bigger plans for him? I say, you think secretary literal?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 12: No, I think that it's definitely a status symbol, right.
Speaker 12: You know, there's a hierarchy to where you have, what
Speaker 12: day you have the speech, and what time of the
Speaker 12: slot you have. So he's getting an A slot on
Speaker 12: a on a B night, okay, And so I think
Speaker 12: it's definitely shows how much cooperation he's given to the campaign,
Speaker 12: how much they think of him as a surrogate.
Speaker 7: Uh.
Speaker 12: And I think you'll see him a lot, you know,
Speaker 12: in the fall campaign promoting the ticket. So yeah, I
Speaker 12: think it's a definite endorsement of Governor Burgham's rise in
Speaker 12: the Republican Party.
Speaker 2: Well, so the question becomes, does Governor Burgham have a
Speaker 2: role in second Trump administration? Because it's not just about
Speaker 2: Senator JD. Vance and the vice presidential nominees, also about
Speaker 2: what the rest of the cabinet is going to look like?
Speaker 2: Is the speaker itinerary a peek into what Donald Trump's cabinet?
Speaker 2: To you boy, okode Genie.
Speaker 11: It absolutely may be. And that is a fun bingo
Speaker 11: game to play. Who's going to be in this cabinet?
Speaker 11: And I think Doug Burgham, I mean I remember when
Speaker 11: he announced his run, so many people outside of his
Speaker 11: home state said who. And now, of course he is
Speaker 11: almost a household name, so he is somebody who could
Speaker 11: very well be tapped for the cabinet. He has an
Speaker 11: awful lot to bring to the cabinet. He of course
Speaker 11: represents a more I would say established traditional view of
Speaker 11: the Republican Party, so he would be a really interesting pick.
Speaker 11: But there are so many others out there, and we're
Speaker 11: hearing from some. But the thing I like about Doug
Speaker 11: Burgham today is he may break up some of what
Speaker 11: will be the sort of more red meat we will
Speaker 11: hear from people like a Matt Gets or you know,
Speaker 11: some of the other folks who we know are going
Speaker 11: to be speaking. Donald Trump Junior, who is obviously not
Speaker 11: only son but one of the president's closest advisors, and
Speaker 11: with Tucker Carlson, likely had a big hand in the
Speaker 11: decision to appoint Givan. So it's gonna be I think
Speaker 11: one of the most interesting fun nights if I can
Speaker 11: say that at the convention.
Speaker 2: Well, how lucky are all of we to be here
Speaker 2: in Milwaukee to bear witness. Rick Davis of Stonecard Capital
Speaker 2: and Jeanie Shanzo of Iona University, our Bloomberg Politics contributors,
Speaker 2: Thank you both so much.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast kens
Speaker 1: just Live weekdays at noon Eastern on Appo.
Speaker 7: Car Play and then Roudo with the Bloomberg Business app.
Speaker 1: Listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts or watch
Speaker 1: us live on YouTube.
Speaker 10: Let's have the voice now.
Speaker 5: Bloomberg Hadriana Lowencron, who has been covering this convention for
Speaker 5: US in Milwaukee. Coming off a remarkable weekend. Adriana was
Speaker 5: a witness to the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at
Speaker 5: that rally in Pennsylvania. It's great to see you at
Speaker 5: the table. Thanks for joining us. You've had quite a week.
Speaker 5: You've seen a lot of wild things, and I wonder
Speaker 5: how you're connecting the dots in your own line between
Speaker 5: what you saw firsthand on Saturday. So what's unfolding right
Speaker 5: now in Milwaukee? We've heard a lot about unity. Are
Speaker 5: you seeing it?
Speaker 14: Are you feeling I definitely am. I mean, this was
Speaker 14: a historic event, and you know, I'm glad I'm safe.
Speaker 14: You know the former president is safe, and you know
Speaker 14: the fact that we are still here carrying on business
Speaker 14: in a sense as usual. It's still something that I'm
Speaker 14: trying to wrap my head around. But of course notable
Speaker 14: because the goal here for the Republican Party is to
Speaker 14: be united as Republicans are trying to take back the
Speaker 14: White House. And so we know from our reporting that
Speaker 14: the former president who's set to speak tomorrow, has revamped
Speaker 14: his speech to do just that. We know that both
Speaker 14: his former rivals on the trail, Ron De Santis Nikki Haley,
Speaker 14: they came out kind of throwing your support and trying
Speaker 14: to do just that, which is unite the party.
Speaker 2: Well as we consider the idea that it is business
Speaker 2: as usual, I guess that's just means you know, the
Speaker 2: is still ongoing, because I'm imagining Milwaukee is not usually
Speaker 2: like this with the security barriers that are up in
Speaker 2: the checkpoints. I mean, it is pretty intense here towards
Speaker 2: for good reason. But talk to us a little bit
Speaker 2: about that going in and out of this convention. Just
Speaker 2: how tight that security is, especially in the aftermath of
Speaker 2: this past weekend.
Speaker 14: Yeah, I mean it's definitely a process to get from
Speaker 14: A to B. If you look at the map, I think, oh,
Speaker 14: I only have ten minutes to get there, it should
Speaker 14: be fine, and then you find out you go over
Speaker 14: a bridge, over another bridge just to go back to
Speaker 14: where you are. But there definitely has been an increased
Speaker 14: security presence. You're going through the metal detectors, which I
Speaker 14: will not there were metal detectors and security at the
Speaker 14: rally and previous rallies as well. I've been doing this
Speaker 14: for so long, it was definitely unexpected. But yes, you
Speaker 14: can feel that height intensive security here, but you also
Speaker 14: feel the excitement from people who are here.
Speaker 5: I don't know if you've had a chance to spend
Speaker 5: much time inside the hall, but with Saturday in mind,
Speaker 5: we're seeing delegates on the floor showing up with bandages
Speaker 5: on their ears. This has become one of the I
Speaker 5: guess novelties points of tribute in this convention hall. In
Speaker 5: some cases just a piece of white paper stuck to
Speaker 5: the ear.
Speaker 6: How does that hit you when you see it?
Speaker 14: Honestly, the first thing I thought there was that scene
Speaker 14: in Mean Girls where you have that you know, the
Speaker 14: person who has power and is respected to doing one
Speaker 14: thing and then everyone everyone else doing the same thing
Speaker 14: following in the sas. But again, it really shows he
Speaker 14: is the party's leader. The fact that he after the
Speaker 14: assassination attempt took place, stood up, you know, with the
Speaker 14: fists in the air. He was trying to remind everyone
Speaker 14: and let everyone know things are going to go on.
Speaker 14: That has been kind of a pattern that we've seen
Speaker 14: with his legal woes, with the trial, fundraising off of
Speaker 14: all of these things showing everyone that he is back,
Speaker 14: He is in power, and we're really seeing that here
Speaker 14: well as we talk.
Speaker 2: About him being in power. Obviously, he had a great
Speaker 2: hand in the platform that was adopted at this convention,
Speaker 2: including the lack of a federal abortion band call for
Speaker 2: the first time in decades, for example. There was a
Speaker 2: lot of talk coming into this convention though to what
Speaker 2: extent Donald Trump would be communicating with the Heritage Foundation
Speaker 2: when it comes to Project twenty twenty five. This has
Speaker 2: been an attack line from the Democrats. They are running
Speaker 2: with this. Donald Trump has tried to him distance himself
Speaker 2: from it. I believe you've been at a Heritage Foundation
Speaker 2: event or two while here in Milwaukee. What is your
Speaker 2: sense of what that relationship actually is when it comes
Speaker 2: to these policy ideas, right, So.
Speaker 14: I mean, as you said, we know that a lot
Speaker 14: of the people who put this together were former allies
Speaker 14: of the president. So for him to come out and
Speaker 14: kind of distance himself, we have our reporting to say
Speaker 14: the opposite. And so the reason I went to this
Speaker 14: Heritage event was to really get a sense talk to
Speaker 14: some of the people there and see how they were
Speaker 14: addressing Project twenty twenty five. You know obviously how Democrats
Speaker 14: have been landing that we have what Trump has said,
Speaker 14: but this gave me the opportunity to speak to people there.
Speaker 14: And you know, Tom Homan from our ICE was there
Speaker 14: and he and I chatted for a bit. He kind
Speaker 14: of said he didn't have much to do with it,
Speaker 14: but he did say that in general, it's common for
Speaker 14: think tanks to kind of put forth policy proposals, and
Speaker 14: he did say that at the end of the day,
Speaker 14: it is going to be up to Trump to decide
Speaker 14: what to do if he were to get reelected.
Speaker 5: Well, were they talking about Donald Trump connecting the dots
Speaker 5: or are they running cover for him when it comes
Speaker 5: to twenty twenty five.
Speaker 14: Well, when I spoke, when I spoke to Kevin Roberts,
Speaker 14: who kind of at the Helm of Heritage Foundation, he
Speaker 14: said that there is what the RNC is doing, there's
Speaker 14: what the campaign is doing, get the Heritage is doing.
Speaker 14: But he did say there is an overlap.
Speaker 4: So take with that what you.
Speaker 2: Will, all right, And I guess we will. We'll see
Speaker 2: how this is messaged at the Democratic Convention in Chicago
Speaker 2: as well more it I am sure that we will
Speaker 2: and Hadriana, of course, we'll be there with us too.
Speaker 2: Bloomberg's Hadrian alone and Crown great reporting, and we also
Speaker 2: are glad you are safe. Thank you so much for
Speaker 2: joining us from here in Milwaukee now on set in
Speaker 2: the steat that he Adriana is sitting. And we had
Speaker 2: several guests yesterday, including one that is not only a
Speaker 2: member of the Trump family but now finds herself to
Speaker 2: be the co chair of the RNC. She was here
Speaker 2: with us yesterday on balance of power. Here's a little
Speaker 2: taste of our conversation.
Speaker 15: There is such support for this man out there, and
Speaker 15: we are so blessed obviously to have these great supporters,
Speaker 15: but we're bringing in new supporters, and I think that
Speaker 15: is what ultimately matters, and so we're going to continue
Speaker 15: on that trajectory. We're going to continue fundraising, and we're
Speaker 15: going to put all that money to good use of
Speaker 15: Election season is right around the corner. I think we're
Speaker 15: sixty some days away from early voting starting.
Speaker 2: Well, so as we consider the use of the money,
Speaker 2: Knowing you were just talking about all these people who
Speaker 2: are using their dollars to express their support for Donald
Speaker 2: Trump for president, there's only so much he can do
Speaker 2: as president without the buy in of Congress. So the
Speaker 2: composition of the House and Senate is also going to
Speaker 2: matter for actually getting his agenda across. To what extent
Speaker 2: do you plan to allocate those resources into some of
Speaker 2: those more difficult to either flip the Senate or retain
Speaker 2: the House.
Speaker 15: Well, it's huge, it's everything, you know. It's obviously we
Speaker 15: want to win the White House. But to your point,
Speaker 15: you can't do that much other than executive order if
Speaker 15: you don't have a House and a Senate. And we
Speaker 15: certainly want to expand the lead in the House and
Speaker 15: take back the Senate. And obviously we have our partners
Speaker 15: at the NRCC and the NRSC who are primarily responsible.
Speaker 6: For those races.
Speaker 15: But look anywhere we as the rn C think we
Speaker 15: can be a value at and give a boost that
Speaker 15: is needed, we certainly will turn our attention. You look
Speaker 15: at a lot of very important congressional races in states
Speaker 15: like New York and California.
Speaker 11: We have some.
Speaker 15: You know, Montana is a big state as well, and
Speaker 15: so wherever we see that we are needed, we will
Speaker 15: be there.
Speaker 6: As the RNC.
Speaker 5: Our conversation with Laura Trump aspocat the Republican National Convention
Speaker 5: last night. As we turn now to the Congressman from Arkansas,
Speaker 5: Republican French Hill is with us in Milwaukee. It's a
Speaker 5: who's who here in Wisconsin, and now the convention is
Speaker 5: real for us, sir, It's great to see you. We
Speaker 5: have spent river. I'm talking in Washington about policy frequently
Speaker 5: financial regulations, crypto. But I think of you first and
Speaker 5: foremost as an establishment Republican, an old line GOP guy,
Speaker 5: and we're hearing a lot of different ideas at this
Speaker 5: convention that might reevaluate what that actually means to be
Speaker 5: a Republican. When we're talking about tariffs in the case
Speaker 5: of JD Vance, a higher minimum wage. Is this still
Speaker 5: the Republican Party that you recognize?
Speaker 6: Sure?
Speaker 16: I think the Republican Party has always been a big
Speaker 16: tent party, and since the Reagan administration forty years ago,
Speaker 16: we've made an effort how do we get working Americans
Speaker 16: back engage with the Republican Party. And one of those
Speaker 16: things is to be talking about jobs, opportunity, workforce, bringing
Speaker 16: jobs home from overseas locations. Many many rural communities were
Speaker 16: devastated in the nineties when so many companies took their
Speaker 16: manufacturing offshore. And President Trump in his first term used
Speaker 16: his leadership to redo the North American Free Trade Agreement
Speaker 16: of the USMCA. He brought jobs and investment back to
Speaker 16: the US with that has made us the preeminent place
Speaker 16: to come do manufacturing. And of course he got some
Speaker 16: trade concessions from China and Japan during his term. So
Speaker 16: my view about Donald Trump and tariffs is that is
Speaker 16: the ultimate stick to bring people to the table. And
Speaker 16: over my career in economic policy, I've seen a lot
Speaker 16: of presidents use that. President Reagan himself voluntary auto restraints
Speaker 16: VREs against Japan limiting semiconductor in imports back in the eighties.
Speaker 16: So this is not an unfamiliar territory for Republicans.
Speaker 2: But when we think about what, for example, increased tariffs
Speaker 2: on China will actually mean economically, not just for China
Speaker 2: but here at home. I've asked this questions to a
Speaker 2: lot of your colleagues, and I'm not sure I'm really
Speaker 2: getting a straight answer. Because economists and you sit on
Speaker 2: the Financial Services Committe. You are hoping to be its
Speaker 2: next chairman, so I know you know how this works.
Speaker 2: Higher tariffs raise the cost of goods. This is going
Speaker 2: to be an inflationary policy, is it not.
Speaker 16: We have two trends, major macro trends that are both
Speaker 16: inflationary aside from the overspending in Washington and lacks monetary policy,
Speaker 16: and that is tariffs and reshoring. Both are going from
Speaker 16: low cost supply single sources in a far away land
Speaker 16: to trying to benir shoring or friend of friend shoring
Speaker 16: if you've heard that term. Those things also raise prices
Speaker 16: in the short run. They may be better in the
Speaker 16: long run for redundancy and resiliency in supply and fair pricing.
Speaker 16: And also across the board of tariffs can be very inflationary.
Speaker 16: That's why I say if you use it as a cudgel,
Speaker 16: it's a good economic tool. If you use it across
Speaker 16: the board period of full stop and just say we're
Speaker 16: going to penalize one country in all product categories, you're
Speaker 16: going to create in those product categories high prices for
Speaker 16: American consumers. So I think it's about that constructive tension.
Speaker 16: My days in public policy, we use it as a
Speaker 16: cudgel to open up markets for American export, American intellectual
Speaker 16: property to be treated fairly, and I know that's where
Speaker 16: the President wants to achieve with China, for example.
Speaker 6: Yeah, with China and mine.
Speaker 5: We're looking at the Nasdaq tumble here today, it's done
Speaker 5: about three percent at the moment ASML have you seen this,
Speaker 5: Kaylee down one hundred and twenty six dollars a share?
Speaker 6: Twelve percent in video is lower.
Speaker 5: This Bloomberg story that's driving a lot of this that
Speaker 5: Joe Biden is going to make even more strict the
Speaker 5: restrictions on high tech chips from China, think AI.
Speaker 6: Of course, when.
Speaker 5: We see a move like this, knowing that Joe Biden
Speaker 5: is down in the polls, you're looking forward to another
Speaker 5: Trump term. Do you think that the Wall Street reaction
Speaker 5: is appropriate? Would Trump do the same thing?
Speaker 16: Well, I believe that the President's executive order about limiting
Speaker 16: outbound investment in critical technologies like AI or chips is
Speaker 16: too broad, and I prefer a green light rid light
Speaker 16: approach where we name a particular technology, particular intellectual property concern,
Speaker 16: or even an exact company and say this company is
Speaker 16: off limits for American investment. I think that's the better
Speaker 16: way to go. When you say, well, we're going to
Speaker 16: limit technological innovation and AI, what.
Speaker 1: Does that mean?
Speaker 16: Every company, every entity is thinking about AI, and I
Speaker 16: think that does not give clear market signals about what
Speaker 16: US policy is for national security purposes. We all want
Speaker 16: to limit China's access to our dual use intellectual property
Speaker 16: that they're now turning and using against us in an
Speaker 16: international warfare sets.
Speaker 5: So that's true, you like this policy. I don't just
Speaker 5: want a more direct approach.
Speaker 16: I think I think the kind of approach that President
Speaker 16: Trump used, where we had lists of at the Commerce Department,
Speaker 16: commerce list, at the O fact list, at the Treasury,
Speaker 16: a DoD strategic company list, that's a better way to
Speaker 16: go because it's a green light rid light situation and.
Speaker 4: Not a broad ban on global.
Speaker 16: Investing by US investors in a I think it's too vague.
Speaker 16: I think we need to keep working on this.
Speaker 2: I like to talk about another form of technology, crypto technology,
Speaker 2: which of course you are passionate about. You share the
Speaker 2: Digital Asset Subcommittee in the House. Both Donald Trump and JD.
Speaker 2: Vance are pretty crypto positive, it seems Donald Trump increasingly so.
Speaker 2: But we both know there's only so much power The
Speaker 2: president has to assist with regulation. Congress has to write
Speaker 2: a lot of those rules. What could Trump and Vance
Speaker 2: do on their own if they don't have both chambers
Speaker 2: of Congress. Knowing how difficult it has been to get
Speaker 2: legislation through the House. It has happened obviously during this Congress,
Speaker 2: but the Senate is a whole other ballgame.
Speaker 16: Well, I think being pro innovation for digital assets is
Speaker 16: a good position for President Trump. He's been very outspoken
Speaker 16: on it. He's against a central bank digital currency where
Speaker 16: the FED at retail offers a digital currency. That's a
Speaker 16: bad idea, But being ro innovation is good. So how
Speaker 16: could he do that? Well, he can appoint people at
Speaker 16: the CFTC and the SEC that are actually for economic
Speaker 16: growth and for limited regulation and for focusing how to
Speaker 16: build a digital future instead of relying on old laws.
Speaker 16: We wrote the FIT twenty one Act, which specifically does
Speaker 16: that we give authorities direct authority to the SEC and
Speaker 16: the CFTC to regulate digital assets. Some of that could
Speaker 16: have been done by exemptive relief or by regulatory proposal
Speaker 16: by the SEC, and Chairman Genzler chose not to do it.
Speaker 16: So we're giving him the direction that he needs to
Speaker 16: do a good job. And I would hope President Trump
Speaker 16: if we don't get that bill passed in this Congress,
Speaker 16: I would hope be the first bill that we could
Speaker 16: get on his desk from the House Financial Services Committee
Speaker 16: in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 5: To Kaylee's point, Donald Trump says he wants to be
Speaker 5: the first crypto president, but then you read this.
Speaker 16: Book, it does have an NFT.
Speaker 5: Well, that's true. No, he's making money on crypto. Bitcoin
Speaker 5: went nuts at the beginning of this week, and of
Speaker 5: course around the whole conversation of Joe Biden's acuity, it's
Speaker 5: been crypto positive for prices. He also set in an
Speaker 5: interview with Bloomberg BusinessWeek that he'd keep j. Powell on
Speaker 5: to serve out the rest of his term. Is that
Speaker 5: surprising to you? And do you agree with it?
Speaker 16: Well, I think Chairman Powell. I don't agree with every
Speaker 16: decision that Chairman pal has made as FED chairman, particularly
Speaker 16: by letting inflation run transits, which he did in twenty
Speaker 16: twenty and with his policy change and then saying it
Speaker 16: was going to be transitory, when many of us on
Speaker 16: Capitol absolutely were on the record saying it absolutely is not.
Speaker 16: And Larry Summers, Democrat, agreed with that point of view.
Speaker 4: But J.
Speaker 16: Powell is a capable leader at the FED, and I
Speaker 16: think it makes complete sense in a presidential transition to
Speaker 16: let that FED chairman serve out his term and then
Speaker 16: make a determination. Then the president can appoint, reappoint mister
Speaker 16: Powell or pick someone out.
Speaker 2: Should the FED chair and the rest of the FMC,
Speaker 2: for that matter, feel comfortable cutting rates before the election
Speaker 2: if the data warrants it, I.
Speaker 16: Think only if the data warrants it. I've been very
Speaker 16: as you know on this show.
Speaker 7: I've been.
Speaker 16: Not seeing that data warranting a cut here in the
Speaker 16: their term, but we're looking at it every month, and
Speaker 16: they need they need to have the independence to do
Speaker 16: the job they think's appropriate in the FED. I value
Speaker 16: FED independence. We've had it both ways in the American history,
Speaker 16: and I prefer an independent FED.
Speaker 6: We heard in J.
Speaker 5: Powell's hearings on Capitol Hill last week a few Democrats
Speaker 5: suggest that a cut or even a hike in September
Speaker 5: will be billed as political because if its proximity to
Speaker 5: the election, well go buy into that.
Speaker 16: Look. I think, I think everyone on the Open Market
Speaker 16: Committee knows that any thing they say or move they
Speaker 16: make one way or the other between now and the
Speaker 16: first Tuesday November is going to be deemed political by
Speaker 16: one side.
Speaker 7: Or the other.
Speaker 6: Should that keep them from doing No.
Speaker 16: I think they've got to stick to their knitting. But
Speaker 16: this is why I prefer rules like the tailor rule.
Speaker 16: I prefer an analytic approach instead of a Kentucky Win
Speaker 16: Diedge approach, or is my friend Jim rent says, a
Speaker 16: PhD standard for setting rates as opposed to the goal
Speaker 16: standard or a mathematical approach.
Speaker 10: But look, they're going.
Speaker 16: To be under criticism regardless, and I think they need
Speaker 16: to do what's right because inflation is costing our families
Speaker 16: thousands of dollars more. And it's a key reason why
Speaker 16: I suspect that President Trump will be re elected because
Speaker 16: of Joe Biden's mishandling of the economy at a key moment,
Speaker 16: which is how it calls for households and property and
Speaker 16: casual insurance and rent and gas and groceries, all the
Speaker 16: things you cover every day.
Speaker 2: All right, well, Congressman, we always appreciate you here at Blueberg.
Speaker 16: Great to be with you.
Speaker 2: Congressman Frenshill of Arkansas, course of the Financial Services Committee
Speaker 2: and hoping to be its next chairman.
Speaker 6: Thanks for listening to the Balance of Power podcast.
Speaker 5: Make sure to subscribe if you haven't already, at Apple, Spotify,
Speaker 5: or wherever you get your podcasts, and you can find
Speaker 5: us live every weekday from Washington, DC at noontime Eastern
Speaker 5: at Bloomberg dot com