Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news. You're listening to the
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Speaker 2: I'm Joe Matthew alongside Kaylee Lines on a special edition
Speaker 2: of Balance of Power.
Speaker 3: Welcome to Election Day, Kaylie, we made it.
Speaker 2: After many twists and terms in this campaign, there's no
Speaker 2: more campaigning, only time to vote.
Speaker 4: Indeed, as we have just seen Donald Trump do. Kamala
Speaker 4: Harris of course is also and did her campaign. She
Speaker 4: will be in DC while Donald Trump is in Florida
Speaker 4: this evening as we all wait for the tally to
Speaker 4: come in. At this point, it is no longer about
Speaker 4: trying to convince American voters who to vote for. It's
Speaker 4: just showing up to vote at all, if they decide
Speaker 4: to do so today. Keeping in mind that to calculate
Speaker 4: to tabulate all of these votes to get that final
Speaker 4: tally could take some time. Knowing that more than eighty
Speaker 4: million Americans voted early before this election.
Speaker 2: That's absolutely right, a staggering number here, coming off of
Speaker 2: what we saw during the pandemic, these are numbers that
Speaker 2: many people never saw coming. Polls could not be tighter.
Speaker 2: This is an election that we have been set up
Speaker 2: here with a true tie. It's essentially fifty to fifty
Speaker 2: at the top of the ticket, and that goes for
Speaker 2: a lot of races down ballot as well. Even the
Speaker 2: voters of Dixville Notch couldn't figure it out, Kayley, six
Speaker 2: of them. They tied three to three after going on
Speaker 2: in for Joe Biden in twenty twenty.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and keeping in mind that at one point in
Speaker 4: this race, it was Joe Biden that was going to
Speaker 4: be the Democratic nominee for president. But clearly a lot
Speaker 4: has changed. This twenty twenty four election cycle has been
Speaker 4: unlike any other. And here's a reminder of what we've
Speaker 4: all been through.
Speaker 5: Well, the democracy is still America's sacred cause.
Speaker 6: Is the most urgent question of our time, and it's
Speaker 6: what the twenty four election is all about.
Speaker 5: They call it for Tuesday for a reason.
Speaker 6: This is a big one and we have no choice
Speaker 6: because November fifth right around the corner.
Speaker 7: If we finally beat medicare.
Speaker 3: Thank you, President Biden, President Trump, who He's right.
Speaker 5: He did beat medicaid, beat it to death.
Speaker 6: If I had not moved my head at that very
Speaker 6: last instant, the assassin's bullet would have perfectly hit its mark,
Speaker 6: and I would not be here tonight.
Speaker 7: You know, there is a time and a place for
Speaker 7: long years of experience in public life.
Speaker 6: There's also a time and a place for new voices.
Speaker 8: You can always trust me to put country above party
Speaker 8: and self.
Speaker 6: We have inflation like very few people have ever seen before.
Speaker 9: Donald Trump left us the worst unemployment since the Great Depression.
Speaker 6: America would be bigger, better, boulder, richer, safer, and stronger
Speaker 6: than before.
Speaker 8: We are optimistic and excited about what we can do together.
Speaker 2: To think we've gone through all of this together, bringing
Speaker 2: us now to this moment. On election Day, we start
Speaker 2: our coverage on the ground with Bloomberg's David Gora, who
Speaker 2: is in Philadelphia right now. Of course, the big prize
Speaker 2: tonight Pennsylvania, and David, we may not know by tomorrow
Speaker 2: who won it, that's.
Speaker 3: Right, Joe. And so you know, the weather here is beautiful.
Speaker 10: I want to say that first of all, and I
Speaker 10: think that's a positive sign for those who are going
Speaker 10: to cast.
Speaker 3: Their ballots today.
Speaker 10: This is a state that really put a lot of
Speaker 10: emphasis on voting early, and the way that's done here
Speaker 10: is through mail in ballots.
Speaker 3: People requested them, they were sent them, they.
Speaker 10: Could return them through the postal service or go to
Speaker 10: county offices to bring them back in. Those who didn't
Speaker 10: do that or didn't do that on time are going
Speaker 10: to the polls today and the lines are long across
Speaker 10: this state. I've been checking in with officials across the
Speaker 10: state from both parties, Democrats and Republicans, and they say
Speaker 10: turnout is good.
Speaker 3: But everyone is acknowledging the fact that this is.
Speaker 10: As you put it, a thin race at the top
Speaker 10: of the ticket and all the way down. And we've
Speaker 10: seen that narrowing in these recent weeks, looking at those
Speaker 10: most recent polls, the New York Times Siena College poll
Speaker 10: putting this as a dead heat.
Speaker 3: Looking at the Senate race.
Speaker 10: In this state, we've seen that narrowing as well over
Speaker 10: these last few weeks. So everyone aware of the stakes here,
Speaker 10: the importance of Pennsylvania, those nineteen electoral College votes, and
Speaker 10: looking at history acknowledging the fact that most routes.
Speaker 3: To the presidency do come through this state.
Speaker 10: And as I was in front of the Philadelphia Art
Speaker 10: Museum behind me last night, that was a refrain we
Speaker 10: heard over and over again from speakers who are there
Speaker 10: on behalf of Vice President Harris acknowledging the fact that
Speaker 10: this state is important to that campaign. Of course, you'd
Speaker 10: hear the same thing from the former president Donald Trump's
Speaker 10: campaign as well.
Speaker 3: They both know that this state is crucial.
Speaker 4: Well, certainly with its nineteen electoral votes. But David, you
Speaker 4: mentioned the down ballot race is there we are watching
Speaker 4: as well, including the incumbent Senator Bob Casey facing a
Speaker 4: challenger in Dave McCormick, former Bridgewater executive. Is there a
Speaker 4: sense that someone can win that Senate race if they're
Speaker 4: already does not also win the state at the presidential level.
Speaker 10: Republicans certainly hope. So when I mentioned that recent polling,
Speaker 10: for a while, Senator Casey, the incumbent Democrat, had a
Speaker 10: nine percentage point lead in that race. It has narrowed
Speaker 10: to five in that New York Times Siena College poll.
Speaker 10: And we have seen the way that that race has
Speaker 10: been framed here come into finer focus in recent days.
Speaker 10: So there have been kind of small missteps made by
Speaker 10: Dave McCormick. Him pronouncing jungling incorrectly was not a good
Speaker 10: move here at the beginning of the race.
Speaker 3: But he made some.
Speaker 10: Remarks about the Affordable Care Act more recently in a
Speaker 10: video that was recorded surreptitiously, saying he wasn't in favor
Speaker 10: of people up to the age of twenty six being
Speaker 10: able to stay on their parents' healthcare plan. That is
Speaker 10: something that we've heard Senator Casey bring up time and
Speaker 10: time again. Most recently is last night in that rally
Speaker 10: here in Philadelphia. It is something that got a lot
Speaker 10: of applause him saying that he wanted to keep that
Speaker 10: provision in place here in this race.
Speaker 3: I was in Wisconsin last week. This is an issue
Speaker 3: that came up there as well.
Speaker 10: This notion among Republicans that they might re visit the
Speaker 10: Affordable Care Act make changes to healthcare policy in this
Speaker 10: country is something that Democrats are sort of raising the
Speaker 10: specter of to state a voter's look, this policy is
Speaker 10: in place. Republicans who are trying to challenge it could
Speaker 10: make rather draconian or extreme changes to that piece of legislation.
Speaker 10: I should say Bob Casey comes from Pennsylvania, political royalty.
Speaker 10: His dad was the governor of the state two times.
Speaker 10: He's a known quantity not from Philadelphia, but from Scranton,
Speaker 10: and so he is trying his hardest here to secure
Speaker 10: that fourth term.
Speaker 4: All right, Bloomberg's David gera life in Pennsylvania on this
Speaker 4: election day, Thank you so much. Now we want to
Speaker 4: turn to another part of the Rustfeld, another battleground state
Speaker 4: we are watching this evening, and that to Michigan, where
Speaker 4: we find Bloomberg's remain bostic in Detroit. So remain. We
Speaker 4: remember during the primary season one hundred thousand voters in
Speaker 4: protest choosing not to vote for what was then candidate
Speaker 4: Joe Biden in Michigan. It's a question of what those
Speaker 4: one hundred thousand and of the rest of the voters
Speaker 4: in this state will do today.
Speaker 7: Absolutely, and both candidates spent the last final days of
Speaker 7: their campaign in the state of Michigan really trying to
Speaker 7: make their case. Of course, Trump closing it out in
Speaker 7: the early morning hours today in Grand Rapids, Michigan, not
Speaker 7: even taking the stage until after midnight. While his speech
Speaker 7: generally hit on some of the main themes that he's
Speaker 7: been known for through this campaign, he made it clear
Speaker 7: that voter turnout was going to be a big factor
Speaker 7: here in the state of Michigan. And there's a big
Speaker 7: reason why he joined here. While he did joke a
Speaker 7: little bit here about superstition, he closed out his twenty
Speaker 7: sixteen and twenty twenty campaigns in Grand Rapids as well.
Speaker 7: But Kent County, which where Grand Rapids sit, is a
Speaker 7: potentially big swing county. In fact, when you talk about
Speaker 7: the swing state of Michigan, most people talk about two
Speaker 7: swing counties.
Speaker 3: Oakland, the more prosperous.
Speaker 7: County that encompasses the Detroit suburbs right where I'm standing,
Speaker 7: and Kent County, a more middle class area out far west,
Speaker 7: closer to Lake Michigan. These have become big barometers here
Speaker 7: for how the state of Michigan goes. Remember, Kent County
Speaker 7: actually went for Trump back in twenty six team, though
Speaker 7: it went for Biden in twenty twenty. It also went
Speaker 7: for Obama back in eight before turning to Romney in
Speaker 7: twenty twelve.
Speaker 3: Make of that what you will here, but.
Speaker 7: Both candidates both campaigns feel that they have to went
Speaker 7: Kent County as well as Oakland County if they want
Speaker 7: to win Michigan.
Speaker 3: Great set up.
Speaker 2: Romaine joining us from the Northwest Activities Center polling location.
Speaker 2: Awfully busy in Detroit today, Romaine Bostik, thank you so
Speaker 2: much for being in the field for us on this
Speaker 2: election day. As we assemble our political panel. Can't have
Speaker 2: an election day without Rick Davis, partner at Stone Court Capital,
Speaker 2: Republican strategist, and Jeanie Schanzano, Democratic analyst, political science professor
Speaker 2: at Iona University. Great to see you both here. We
Speaker 2: finally made it. I just want to know what's going
Speaker 2: through both of your minds here. We're walking into a
Speaker 2: race that is absolutely deadlocked. Nobody knows what's about to happen,
Speaker 2: So how do you watch it?
Speaker 3: Rick?
Speaker 11: I love election days As a former campaign manager. It
Speaker 11: was the day that I had to myself you couldn't
Speaker 11: buy any more TV, no more rallies, no more mail
Speaker 11: programs to approve it's fantastic. You just got to make
Speaker 11: sure that your ground games out there turn vote, and
Speaker 11: I think that's critical. I think we're now in the
Speaker 11: closest race in modern history. It's the fewest number of
Speaker 11: targeted states swing states and has got the closest polling
Speaker 11: in any one of those swing states we've ever seen.
Speaker 11: So ground game matters.
Speaker 3: You know, when you interview.
Speaker 11: Polsters, what do you think, what do you think ground game?
Speaker 5: That's when they like punt.
Speaker 11: Forget all the data, it's ground game. And I think
Speaker 11: that's correct. And so we know that Kamala Harris is
Speaker 11: invested heavily. She's got thousands of employees all over the
Speaker 11: country and these targeted states turning out vote. And Donald
Speaker 11: Trump is relying on Elon Musk. So is must the
Speaker 11: hero of the Republican Party coming in, swooping in with
Speaker 11: his dollars in technology and saving the ground game or not?
Speaker 11: And so I think that's what's got everybody on edge.
Speaker 11: So we'll start seeing the results of that earlier tonight.
Speaker 3: Well, so as we.
Speaker 4: Consider the ground game genie, that can't really be captured
Speaker 4: properly in polls necessarily, right, for all of the talk
Speaker 4: about how tight the margin is, and pretty much every
Speaker 4: poll you look at, whether it's at the national level
Speaker 4: or in the battleground states, they can't capture enthusiasm in
Speaker 4: the likelihood of turnout.
Speaker 12: Really yeah, it's really difficult. And what we hear is
Speaker 12: that two percent if these polls are off by two percent.
Speaker 12: That could be the difference between changing this thing, that
Speaker 12: it's done fast and somebody runs away with it, or
Speaker 12: it's as tight as we've all been seeing. And you know,
Speaker 12: I too have been watching how close this is, and
Speaker 12: it is historically close. But I think the other thing
Speaker 12: we should remember is what's at stake here, because this
Speaker 12: is what the campaigns are telling us. On the Republican side,
Speaker 12: we hear from Donald Trump, the country is over if
Speaker 12: Kamala Harris wins. And from the Democrats we hear democracy
Speaker 12: is over if Donald Trump wins. I mean, those are
Speaker 12: some high stakes we're hearing from these campaigns.
Speaker 3: And think about it.
Speaker 12: Donald Trump, if he loses, is facing jail. If he wins,
Speaker 12: he'll have probably more power than any modern president in
Speaker 12: American history. And Kamala Harris, if she wins, breaks all
Speaker 12: kinds of glass ceilings, woman Indian. I mean, the stakes
Speaker 12: could not be higher tonight, And so I too love
Speaker 12: election night. I'm very excited, but I'm also a little
Speaker 12: bit a little bit of anxiety. I think so many
Speaker 12: voters have not knowing in the last two years we've
Speaker 12: been hearing so much of what our lives are about is.
Speaker 3: At stake here.
Speaker 2: We have no shortage of anxiety at the best care.
Speaker 2: I wonder Rick you hard thought on the closings. Kamala
Speaker 2: Harris on the rocky steps said the momentum is on
Speaker 2: our side and never publicly for a second day mentioned
Speaker 2: the name of her opponent, Donald Trump, went through a
Speaker 2: couple of swing states ended up in grand rapids. As
Speaker 2: Romayne mentioned referring to her low IQ, the contrast couldn't
Speaker 2: be greater.
Speaker 11: Yeah, one is finishing a campaign that has been framed
Speaker 11: on negativity. Donald Trump. It's how he campaigns, It's who
Speaker 11: he is, right, It's all about grievance and retribution. And
Speaker 11: he hadn't changed that at all, and he has the
Speaker 11: backing of the economy in his back. He could have
Speaker 11: focused on how he was going to change that, as
Speaker 11: he did in his first term in twenty sixteen, but
Speaker 11: he didn't. He went ahead and said, I'm going to
Speaker 11: be the guy that you know ruffles feathers, and I
Speaker 11: must admit I think Kamala Harris took a shot at
Speaker 11: that kind of strategy right coming out of her convention.
Speaker 11: She went negative on Donald Trump, and I think since
Speaker 11: then she's pulled up the Rudders. She's now sailing into
Speaker 11: a very positive close and I think she does think
Speaker 11: she has momentum, and being negative is not a good
Speaker 11: conducive act for being someone with momentum. So what she's
Speaker 11: trying to do is create excitement, create positivity around her clothes,
Speaker 11: obviously surrounded by celebrities and stars and big rallies and entertainment.
Speaker 11: That is the campaign of someone who thinks they're going
Speaker 11: to win. Donald Trump is wearing a campaign and thinks
Speaker 11: somebody's going to lose.
Speaker 4: And yet the polls would suggest that neither of those
Speaker 4: things are abundantly clear at this point. But some of
Speaker 4: these very same polls are, because we were just discussing
Speaker 4: with David Gera in Pennsylvania, for example, show that there's
Speaker 4: wider margins in the down ballot races and the Senate races,
Speaker 4: and some of these very seen battleground states we are
Speaker 4: talking about, the Democrats are pulling far ahead of Kamala Harris.
Speaker 4: So what does that indicate to you about how things
Speaker 4: are likely to go.
Speaker 3: It's not unusual.
Speaker 11: I mean, there's usually separation between the presidential candidate and
Speaker 11: the down ballot. For instance, in two thousand and eight,
Speaker 11: when I ran John McCain's camp, he ran nine percent
Speaker 11: higher in his ballot than the congressional ballot. In other words,
Speaker 11: all the people who voted for Republicans in Congress got
Speaker 11: nine percent less vote, So you had almost a ten
Speaker 11: percent vote swing between the top of the ticket and
Speaker 11: that down ballot. So it's always sort of, you know,
Speaker 11: moving around. In the case of the Democrats, it's reverse
Speaker 11: where the down ballot's doing better in the state. Now,
Speaker 11: the question that we all are going to find out
Speaker 11: tonight is was there e merging of that ballot? Did
Speaker 11: Kamala Harris get the benefit of a strong Democratic base
Speaker 11: in especially these blue wall states that elected three popular
Speaker 11: governors two years ago that were significantly higher in the
Speaker 11: percentages that they got than she's showing right now. If
Speaker 11: she gets their vote, she wins those three states.
Speaker 2: Want to get the sake of the Polster at the
Speaker 2: table here with the final calls, John Ralston, Nevada Independent
Speaker 2: Harris winning the state by three tenths of a point,
Speaker 2: Jackie Rosen getting back to Rick's point, winning by five.
Speaker 2: Big gap there. Larry Sabada, who we know from the
Speaker 2: program quite a bit. Larry's crystal ball predicting Harris winning
Speaker 2: the Blue Wall plus Nevada Republicans flipping the Senate dem
Speaker 2: slipping the House in five thirty eight gives Harris a
Speaker 2: fifty percent chance of victory Trump forty nine.
Speaker 3: What do you think of these numbers?
Speaker 12: Yeah, I mean, I'd never argue with John Ralston out
Speaker 12: there because he knows what's going on out there, and
Speaker 12: so those are, you know, very good signs for Rosen.
Speaker 12: It's been touch and go out there. Larry Sabato as well.
Speaker 12: I have a lot of Democratic friends who are very
Speaker 12: anxious right now. So the scenarios that they're describing are
Speaker 12: very very positive. But you know, it's just really not
Speaker 12: fair to call these if we're going to believe what
Speaker 12: the polls say. And I think one of the reckonings
Speaker 12: we have tomorrow with the polls, either they are right
Speaker 12: on target and this thing goes down to the wire,
Speaker 12: or they have miscalculated to the degree they did in
Speaker 12: twenty sixteen and twenty twenty underestimating Donald Trump's get out
Speaker 12: the vote. So it's really hard responsibly to say at
Speaker 12: this point who's ahead and who's behind.
Speaker 4: Well, as we consider the group of voters that has
Speaker 4: voted already is incredibly large. More than eighty three million
Speaker 4: people voted before election day of an eligible electorate of
Speaker 4: just two hundred and forty four million. Even Donald Trump
Speaker 4: was referencing this when we just heard him speak in Florida.
Speaker 4: Genie and the idea that Republicans showed up early to
Speaker 4: a degree which we did not see in twenty twenty.
Speaker 4: What is that signal about what we're likely to see
Speaker 4: as the results begin.
Speaker 3: Getting reported tonight.
Speaker 12: Yeah, we're probably not going to see as dramatic a
Speaker 12: mirage effect as we did in twenty twenty, where Democrats
Speaker 12: voting rather Republicans voting same day, So those numbers came
Speaker 12: in a little later than some of the early vote
Speaker 12: counts and vice versa in the West. But you know,
Speaker 12: it is interesting. One thing we don't give Donald Trump
Speaker 12: rather credit for is the fact that since he has
Speaker 12: been in our lives politically for the last decade, the
Speaker 12: voter turnout in this country has increased dramatically sixteen, eighteen,
Speaker 12: twenty twenty two, and now it looks like twenty four.
Speaker 12: He is the master of the get out the vote,
Speaker 12: and he is trying this time to do it with
Speaker 12: young people and young men who aren't likely to get
Speaker 12: out regularly. But he is very, very good at this
Speaker 12: get out the vote drive, and he's turned it over
Speaker 12: to Elon Musk, but you know, he doesn't really need
Speaker 12: much help. He's very good at it himself.
Speaker 2: Just a minute, Rick, If Donald Trump wins tonight, this
Speaker 2: will be a very loud message about early voting in
Speaker 2: the Republican Party and a huge win for the RNC
Speaker 2: who got the party's arms around this.
Speaker 11: You know, I think it started a couple of years
Speaker 11: ago when the party invested heavily in voter registration. We've
Speaker 11: seen massive voter registration increases with Republicans in these swing states.
Speaker 11: Arizona went from one hundred and twenty thousand advantage to
Speaker 11: three hundred thousand advantage in this election cycle. Very similar
Speaker 11: increases in Pennsylvania. So when you have more registered Republicans
Speaker 11: to turn out, it advantages you at the front end.
Speaker 11: Then on top of that, I do think Genie's got
Speaker 11: a good point. I don't think the Republicans that support
Speaker 11: Donald Trump need a lot of effort. They are low
Speaker 11: propensity voters. In other words, they don't show up to
Speaker 11: vote in every election, so they're a questionable group. But
Speaker 11: they show up when Donald Trump's on the ballot. And
Speaker 11: that's what got undercounted in twenty sixteen and twenty.
Speaker 4: We'll find out about twenty twenty four. Rick Davis and
Speaker 4: g Shanzino, our signature political panel.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast kens
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Speaker 1: Just Say Alexa play. Bloomberg eleven thirty.
Speaker 2: Remarkable, especially in the last drop we got Sienna and
Speaker 2: The New York Times. Abortion creeping up to challenge the
Speaker 2: economy in some constituencies as the number one issue in.
Speaker 4: This election well, and an important reminder that abortion is
Speaker 4: on the ballot in ten states today, including states like
Speaker 4: Florida for example, where we're watching a Senate race that
Speaker 4: is perhaps tighter than expected. And it is of course
Speaker 4: the first presidential election that we are seeing since the
Speaker 4: Dobbs decision and the overturning of Roe versus Wade, and
Speaker 4: it raises the question specifically of what kind of turnout
Speaker 4: driver it will be considering the force. We sow it
Speaker 4: to be in the midterms in twenty twenty two and
Speaker 4: in special elections that have followen.
Speaker 2: We know that this is an issue with a lot
Speaker 2: of potency. It's unquantifiable what the impact will be on
Speaker 2: the outcome. As we heard both campaigns lean into this
Speaker 2: issue on this campaign cycle.
Speaker 1: Let's listen.
Speaker 9: Who when he was president hands selected three members of
Speaker 9: the United States Supreme Court with the intention that they
Speaker 9: would undo the protections of Roe v.
Speaker 3: Wade.
Speaker 9: And they did just as he intended. And there are
Speaker 9: now twenty states with Trump abortion bands, including bands that
Speaker 9: make no exception from rape or incest.
Speaker 6: Every Democrat, every Republican, liberal, conservative, they all wanted this
Speaker 6: issue to be brought back to the states where the
Speaker 6: people could vote.
Speaker 4: Joining us now for more Here in balance of power
Speaker 4: is Democratic Senator of Illinois Dick Dervitt, who chairs the
Speaker 4: Senate Judiciary Committee. Senator, Happy election day, Thank you so
Speaker 4: much for joining us. I'm not sure your degree of
Speaker 4: confidence at this hour of Kamala Harris's ability to win
Speaker 4: this election. But if she does so, to what extent
Speaker 4: do you think the Dobbs decision and the Supreme Court
Speaker 4: will have played a role in that.
Speaker 13: I think it's a major factor. I can just tell
Speaker 13: you it motivates not just women to vote for Kamala,
Speaker 13: but a lot of men are joining in the ranks.
Speaker 13: And I see it with younger voters too. They look
Speaker 13: at the actual cases of these women facing miscarriages, trying
Speaker 13: to find competent physicians, and states where there are criminal
Speaker 13: penalties being threatened, and they understand that they don't want
Speaker 13: to be in that position. It doesn't sound like America
Speaker 13: to them, and it doesn't sound like it to me either.
Speaker 2: Well, how are you feel about things going into this
Speaker 2: election day, Senator? You've had a couple of them in
Speaker 2: your career. Illinois is not a swing state. It's not
Speaker 2: going to be one of the states likely to decide
Speaker 2: the balance of power in Washington, on Capitol Hill or
Speaker 2: the next president.
Speaker 3: So where are you looking?
Speaker 13: Well, I'll tell you what I'm looking for, and I've
Speaker 13: seen it this last weekend and before. We have literally hundreds,
Speaker 13: if not thousands of Illinois volunteers who are going into
Speaker 13: Wisconsin to help Tammy Baldwin in the Michigan to help
Speaker 13: Alissa Slotkin, into Pennsylvania to help Bob Casey in the
Speaker 13: bottom line to make sure that Kamala is elected president.
Speaker 13: These are real volunteers who care and are making personal
Speaker 13: sacrifices to help. I don't know what's going on the
Speaker 13: other side. There's no evidence of this similar and undertaking.
Speaker 13: And you can't buy this kind of support. It's like
Speaker 13: comparing mom's apple pie is something you bought at a store.
Speaker 13: It just isn't the same thing. These folks really care,
Speaker 13: and if we do well in the blue range, the
Speaker 13: blue wall that they talk about here, I think it'll
Speaker 13: be because of this factor.
Speaker 4: Well, as you raised the likes of incumbent Senators Tammy
Speaker 4: Baldwin and others who are facing tough re election fights
Speaker 4: today as well. Senator, it raises the question of even
Speaker 4: if Kamala Harris is able to pull off this victory,
Speaker 4: the prevailing wisdom is that you will become a member
Speaker 4: of the minority, that the Republicans will be able to
Speaker 4: flip the Senate, as they only need to pick up
Speaker 4: net two seats. How would Washington work in that scenario.
Speaker 4: Where are the areas for cooperation?
Speaker 13: That's a very good question, but I'm not going to
Speaker 13: concede your point that it's going to be a Republican Senate.
Speaker 13: We need one or two break through and I can
Speaker 13: point to the states you can too that are possibilities.
Speaker 13: If God forbid, the Republicans take control of the Senate
Speaker 13: and Kamala is our president, it's going to be a
Speaker 13: matter of negotiating questions like filling vacancies and judgeships and
Speaker 13: working together. I hope we can find that common ground.
Speaker 2: Well, how much, Senator, then, will the top of the
Speaker 2: ticket help to determine the balance of power in the
Speaker 2: US Senate? When we look at some of the Senate
Speaker 2: races in the Blue Wall states, for instance, how close
Speaker 2: they are Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin. Will the presidency help to
Speaker 2: decide the balance of power in your chamber?
Speaker 13: Well, I think you addressed that earlier in the program.
Speaker 13: In some years, it appears that it helps, In some
Speaker 13: it hurts. I will just tell you that those three
Speaker 13: senatorial candidates and many others we talked about, certainly have
Speaker 13: a strong record and a strong message to bring to
Speaker 13: the voters. Kamala is put together an amazing campaign in
Speaker 13: a little over one hundred days that she's been the nominee,
Speaker 13: and I think the fact that she's inspired so many
Speaker 13: volunteers to go door to door in these states going
Speaker 13: to make a definitive difference in these Senate races as
Speaker 13: well well.
Speaker 4: As we watch all of this and the issues voters
Speaker 4: will be considering as they make their choices up and
Speaker 4: down the ballot, Senator, do you feel that Harris campaign
Speaker 4: has done an adequate job addressing all of them? We
Speaker 4: obviously have heard a lot of her argument around reproductive freedom,
Speaker 4: especially casting Trump as a threat to democracy talking about
Speaker 4: the economy, Yes, but so too has Donald Trump, who
Speaker 4: has cast a lot of blame for the last four
Speaker 4: years and the inflation people have experienced on her in
Speaker 4: this administration, seeing those for the border. Are those the
Speaker 4: issues that she risks losing on if that's how it
Speaker 4: turns out tonight.
Speaker 13: I don't think so, and I'll tell you why. From
Speaker 13: the beginning, Kamala has made the economy the issue. That's
Speaker 13: what the voters are saying, and she's beckoning them up
Speaker 13: by saying that'll be a high priority in her administration.
Speaker 13: But I'll also tell you when she talks about the
Speaker 13: management style of Donald Trump, the question about the future
Speaker 13: of our democracy is at stake here. He's a candidate
Speaker 13: who's running and basically says, if I lose, it means
Speaker 13: that there is cheating and somebody stole it from me.
Speaker 13: He's stuck with that story for four years, the big lie.
Speaker 13: This is an even bigger lie if he does and
Speaker 13: that similar circumstance. I think she's talking about our democracy,
Speaker 13: which is a fundamental issue at stake in this election.
Speaker 2: Well, with that said, Senator, and based on your perch
Speaker 2: on the Judiciary Committee, donald Trump appointed over two hundred
Speaker 2: federal judges in his term. What would a Trump two
Speaker 2: point zero mean for the US judiciary.
Speaker 13: Well, that's a good question. Under the rules of the Senate,
Speaker 13: for example, we have something called a blue slip, which
Speaker 13: means that both parties and their senators have quite a
Speaker 13: bit of a say as to whether a nominee is
Speaker 13: going to move forward. So there has to be compromise
Speaker 13: in that regard. But I will tell you that Donald Trump,
Speaker 13: with the help of Democrats, had two hundred and thirty
Speaker 13: four nominations filled in his four years. We have filled
Speaker 13: two hundred and thirteen under President Biden, and have another
Speaker 13: twenty plus on the calendar for the remainder of the year.
Speaker 13: So we can matching.
Speaker 14: I hope we do well.
Speaker 4: If we consider as well the highest court in the land,
Speaker 4: the Supreme Court. Senator, there is a chance the next
Speaker 4: president will have some vacancies to fill. Would a President
Speaker 4: Harris have difficulty doing so depending on what the Senate
Speaker 4: majority looks like.
Speaker 13: Well, it is a simple majority in the Senate when
Speaker 13: it comes to filling the Supreme Court vacancies. And that's
Speaker 13: why Trump was able to put three anti choice justices
Speaker 13: on the Court. If we're going to move forward and
Speaker 13: the circumstances you're describing with President Harris and a Republican Senate,
Speaker 13: there will have to be compromises made. It's the only
Speaker 13: way we can pass something, even by majority in the Senate.
Speaker 3: Senator.
Speaker 2: Last time we sat down with you was in Chicago
Speaker 2: for the Democratic National Convention, and one of the big
Speaker 2: storylines going into the DNC it was the protest vote
Speaker 2: that we saw materialize in the primaries, the uncommitted vote
Speaker 2: that Joe Biden withstood and faced in many cases from
Speaker 2: Arab American voters and others who were not happy with
Speaker 2: many progressives not happy with the policy in Israel. Expectations
Speaker 2: for widespread protests that the DNC never materialized, though, and
Speaker 2: I wonder if you see that being a risk tonight
Speaker 2: for Kamala Harris, or if this is a media narrative.
Speaker 13: There are so many elements go into this decision making process,
Speaker 13: but the fear at the outset was that there would
Speaker 13: be a boycott support of Democratic candidates over Middle Eastern issues.
Speaker 13: I think once Donald Trump was articulate in his own
Speaker 13: way as to where he stood, people realize there's too
Speaker 13: much at stake to lose this race over that issue.
Speaker 13: It will affect some voters for sure, but I think
Speaker 13: by and large we understand that Kamala Harris has a rational,
Speaker 13: thoughtful approach to this which wants to end the conflict
Speaker 13: soon and help on a humanitarian side as quickly as possible.
Speaker 2: Any election day rituals, superstitions you want to share with us, Senator.
Speaker 13: There's a great delicatessen in Chicago called Manny's and Amona
Speaker 13: way there now every election day for the last twenty
Speaker 13: plus years, I've gone there, and I'm looking forward to
Speaker 13: Cornby Sandwiches.
Speaker 1: That sounds good.
Speaker 3: I hope you have a great lunch.
Speaker 2: Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, We thank you, as always
Speaker 2: for the time. We're also watching, of course, how markets
Speaker 2: are moving on this election day. This is a big
Speaker 2: part of the story for us here on Bloomberg, and
Speaker 2: we turned to Bloomberg Markets correspondent Abigail do Little for
Speaker 2: more on this. You wouldn't think it was a contested
Speaker 2: election with the way the markets are moving today, Abigail,
Speaker 2: what do you.
Speaker 3: Think you went at all?
Speaker 15: Given the fact that you have the S and P
Speaker 15: five hundred and the NAZAC both up more than one percent.
Speaker 15: For the S and P five hundred, this is the
Speaker 15: best day in about six weeks. We have the index
Speaker 15: at session highs. We've had more recently these small moves
Speaker 15: up and down the churn on the uncertainty. So when
Speaker 15: we connect today's move to the intersection between business and politics,
Speaker 15: one observation could be a potential Donald Trump administration could
Speaker 15: be harsh on big tech. Big tech is driving today's moves,
Speaker 15: so that might be a little bit of a nod
Speaker 15: against Donald Trump. On the other hand, when we take
Speaker 15: a look at the Trump trade over the last three
Speaker 15: months and basically the amount of time since VP Kamala
Speaker 15: Harris has been in the race, well it's doing pretty well.
Speaker 15: That tech index is higher, so again you could have
Speaker 15: that interpretation around Donald Trump. You have the Solar ETF
Speaker 15: in a nod toward Kamala Harris. But take a look
Speaker 15: at bitcoin, take a look at DJT. Both of these
Speaker 15: are higher. So market's a little bit mixed. But that
Speaker 15: Trump trade that everybody has been talking about really pretty
Speaker 15: strong into today.
Speaker 4: Well, as we consider these trades, Abigail, I know you
Speaker 4: always keep a close eye on volatility. That could go
Speaker 4: for both the equity market and the bond market. With
Speaker 4: the move index, what signals is it sending today?
Speaker 15: It's interesting, So we do have heightened volatility. That vix
Speaker 15: is above a twenty, and that does signal uncertainty on
Speaker 15: the part of investors. Now relative to the VIX, it's
Speaker 15: at some of the higher levels that it's been at
Speaker 15: more recently. Some could say that this is investors taking
Speaker 15: advantage of the uncertainty, candidate agnostic, that they're just trying
Speaker 15: to make money off of this volatility. However, there are
Speaker 15: some other folks on the street, including Steve Sasnika over
Speaker 15: at Interactive Brow course you yesterday told me that he
Speaker 15: sees a lot of big institutions hedging. That's why on Monday,
Speaker 15: the put to call ratio those bearish options versus bullish
Speaker 15: options at the highest level since twenty twenty. So this
Speaker 15: is not unusual for an election cycle. But right now
Speaker 15: that Vick's coming back in, so investors seem to be
Speaker 15: a little bit calm surprisingly on this election day.
Speaker 2: All right, Gil, what are we going to be in
Speaker 2: for tonight in the overnight session if we have no
Speaker 2: race call.
Speaker 15: Well, if there's no race call and there's any sense
Speaker 15: that there could be a contested election, you could see
Speaker 15: the futures go very negative. Back in two thousand, between
Speaker 15: I believe, let's call it twelve am of the day
Speaker 15: after election through the bottom in December, stocks down sharply.
Speaker 15: Investors don't like uncertainty. That is certainly uncertainty investors wuldn't like,
Speaker 15: and at that point you'd probably see that VIX spike
Speaker 15: back higher.
Speaker 4: All right, Bloomberg Markets correspondent Abigail Dolittle, thank you so much, Joe.
Speaker 4: As Abigail talks about the kind of calm we might
Speaker 4: be seeing, I guess that race is the question of
Speaker 4: how everyone is feeling on this election day. Keeping in
Speaker 4: mind there's not much more that can be done at
Speaker 4: this point. The arguments have been made. The ground game
Speaker 4: has been at work for months, and now it's just
Speaker 4: a matter of how many people show up and cast.
Speaker 3: Their Well, that's absolutely right. There's no more cramming for
Speaker 3: the test.
Speaker 2: Although it's interesting to consider the positioning for volatility in
Speaker 2: either direction. We've seen market fits in both directions when
Speaker 2: Trump was leading or Paris was perceived to be leading.
Speaker 2: There's going to be money to be made either way.
Speaker 2: We just have no idea which one that will be.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast. Catch
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Speaker 8: I think it's very important to not operate from the
Speaker 8: assumption that black men are in anybody's pocket. Black men
Speaker 8: are like any other voting group. You got to earn
Speaker 8: their vote. So I'm working to earn the vote, not
Speaker 8: assuming I'm going to have it because I am black.
Speaker 4: Joining us now for more from Bloomberg's Washington DC Bureau
Speaker 4: or two special guests. Martin Luther King, the third chairman
Speaker 4: of the Drum Major Institute and son of the late
Speaker 4: doctor Martin Luther King Junior and Andrea Waters King, president
Speaker 4: of the Drum Major Institute. Welcome to you both. Thank
Speaker 4: you for being here on Bloomberg on this election day. Martin,
Speaker 4: if I could just begin with you, Kamala Harris has
Speaker 4: not throughout her campaign leaned into the historic nature of
Speaker 4: her candidacy, not only that she would be a woman
Speaker 4: potentially elected president, but a black and South Asian woman
Speaker 4: at that. What does it mean to you as you
Speaker 4: spent so much of your life fighting for equality.
Speaker 16: Well, I think it demonstrates that people are very concerned
Speaker 16: about the issues, not necessarily the fnic and the fact
Speaker 16: that we've had a black president and not a woman
Speaker 16: that is extraordinarily important. However, I think stand on the
Speaker 16: issues is what people How is my life going to
Speaker 16: change under your leadership? And I think she's demonstrated what
Speaker 16: she intends to do if she becomes president of the
Speaker 16: United States.
Speaker 2: Ardfred, do you agree, because the potential to make history
Speaker 2: is very compelling to some voters here when you back
Speaker 2: off this race, that's been a major backdrop since Kamala
Speaker 2: Harris reached the top of the ticket. Or is it
Speaker 2: in fact, kitchen table issues that drive people today.
Speaker 17: I think it's a combination of both. Obviously as a
Speaker 17: black woman and as the mother of a black daughter,
Speaker 17: it is something that we are extremely proud of to
Speaker 17: have the vice president hopefully soon to be president heading
Speaker 17: our country. Also, we're also at a time when women
Speaker 17: have progressively lost rights, and so I think that you're
Speaker 17: seeing women coming together and standing together and in fact,
Speaker 17: we really might be the deciding vote in this election today.
Speaker 4: Well, it certainly could be women that ultimately make or
Speaker 4: break this thing for Kamala Harrison, although will depend on turnout,
Speaker 4: and that is what both of these candidates Andrea have
Speaker 4: been really fighting for in the final stretch here. Are
Speaker 4: you confident that voters are going to be getting off
Speaker 4: the couches and participating in this election.
Speaker 17: Absolutely. We have spent so many weeks and months ourselves
Speaker 17: out with the canvassers. We were just in North Fulton
Speaker 17: on Friday, and I'll tell you, the excitement that we
Speaker 17: are seeing is something that since the announcement of this
Speaker 17: candidacy up until now, is something that's continuing to grow.
Speaker 17: And we saw that in the numbers of early voting,
Speaker 17: certainly in Georgia breaking records, and we also are seeing
Speaker 17: that in early voting around the country. I do think
Speaker 17: that we're going to continue that's going that will uphold today.
Speaker 2: Mister King, I wonder your thoughts over the past couple
Speaker 2: of months some of the rhetoric that we've heard on
Speaker 2: the campaign trail. We just opened with comments that Kamala
Speaker 2: Harris made before the NABJ. Donald Trump had some comments
Speaker 2: to the NABJ as well that questioned her racial identity,
Speaker 2: and it's a narrative that he has pushed through the
Speaker 2: course of this cycle. Some have called it corrosive, some
Speaker 2: have called it dated, Some say it doesn't matter.
Speaker 3: What do you think?
Speaker 16: Well, I think that it should be irrelevant the ethnicity again.
Speaker 5: Of a person.
Speaker 16: It should be We maybe haven't gotten theiled with some people,
Speaker 16: but as it relates to black men, specifically black men,
Speaker 16: I believe are going to support overwhelmingly the candidacy of
Speaker 16: the vice president to help her become the president, along
Speaker 16: with a vast coalition of others.
Speaker 4: But Donald Trump has spent a great deal of time
Speaker 4: vying for the vote of black men and talking about
Speaker 4: how he is doing better with them than Republicans have
Speaker 4: in the past, and considering mister King that you said
Speaker 4: issues are ultimately what matters here. What issue is it
Speaker 4: that there is a disconnect with at least some black
Speaker 4: men and Kamala Harrison the idea she has put forward.
Speaker 16: So I think when you talk about the prospect of
Speaker 16: supporting small and disadvantaged businesses, when you talk about getting
Speaker 16: a loan that might be forgivable. I think when you
Speaker 16: talk about the fact that reducing prices, I mean black men,
Speaker 16: like every man wants to be able to take care
Speaker 16: of their families. Every woman wants to be able to
Speaker 16: take care of their families. And when you talk about
Speaker 16: these bread and butter issues, I believe there is an
Speaker 16: opening there, there's support. I just think that at the
Speaker 16: end of the day, the vast majority of black people
Speaker 16: are going to be supportive of the vice president.
Speaker 17: May I also add, we also are talking about someone
Speaker 17: who said that he won the last election, and we
Speaker 17: also are talking about someone who said that he had
Speaker 17: audiences the largest in inauguration history, or audiences that were
Speaker 17: larger than the March on Washington, no matter what photo
Speaker 17: evidence stated to the contrary. So let's talk about the
Speaker 17: facts when they come out. Let's not necessarily take Donald
Speaker 17: Trump at his word.
Speaker 2: Well, Andrea Waters King, tell me how you would describe then,
Speaker 2: some of the racial rhetoric that we've heard on the campaign,
Speaker 2: culminating with that massive Trump rally at Madison Square Garden
Speaker 2: that had jokes that we couldn't tell on the air.
Speaker 17: Not only jokes that we wouldn't tell on the air,
Speaker 17: those are things that we teach our children that are wrong.
Speaker 17: You know, I worked for many years monitoring hate groups
Speaker 17: and hate crimes such as the klu Klut's Plan, Neo Nazis,
Speaker 17: and skinheads, and it is very alarming for me to
Speaker 17: see the very rhetoric that we were researching at the
Speaker 17: time actually now being said from the anals of some
Speaker 17: of the highest levels of power in our land. And
Speaker 17: also to not only see this type of these words
Speaker 17: that are being saying, but also seeing those things being
Speaker 17: passed into laws. So it is very troubling, which is
Speaker 17: why I think that we're going to see, and we
Speaker 17: have seen, such a strong standing for unity in this country,
Speaker 17: for a path forward, for turning that page on the
Speaker 17: hate and the visiveness of the past.
Speaker 16: And let me add one thing, because the question is
Speaker 16: what is sustainable most people understand when we're building a
Speaker 16: world of peace and justice and righteousness, if you're advocating vitriol,
Speaker 16: it is not sustainable. My dad would say, we must
Speaker 16: learn non violence or we may face non existence. We
Speaker 16: don't want to face that. We're going to face building.
Speaker 16: What my father and mother would say is the beloved community.
Speaker 4: Well and so much, sir. Of what they were fighting
Speaker 4: for was the right to vote. And obviously many more people,
Speaker 4: in part because of their work, do have the right
Speaker 4: to vote today. But given in the lead up to
Speaker 4: this election some of the legal action, we have seen
Speaker 4: questions around who can and cannot be purged from voter
Speaker 4: rules this close to an election, how ballots can be counted,
Speaker 4: which ballots are valid if there are mistakes. Do you
Speaker 4: have concerns about the right to vote being rolled back
Speaker 4: for at least some segments of the population.
Speaker 16: I certainly always have concerns. I've always wondered why we
Speaker 16: purge people from voting. But yet we can drive as
Speaker 16: drivers forever and you're never removed from the driving roles.
Speaker 16: If you understand the analogy, The fact is you may
Speaker 16: not vote one year or two years, but you shouldn't
Speaker 16: be removed. You still have that right, but yet we
Speaker 16: orchestrate the kind of results that we want to see.
Speaker 16: And I think those who say, let's support the John
Speaker 16: Lewis Voting Rights Bill, which all people need, not any
Speaker 16: one ethnic group, that's the right course. And the hope
Speaker 16: is that Kamala Harris wins and in fact the legislative
Speaker 16: bodies will pass that legislation for once and for all.
Speaker 2: Or if there's an expectation that Democrats will take control
Speaker 2: of the House, do you see some hope for the
Speaker 2: John Lewis Voting Rights Bill in Washington if that happens.
Speaker 17: Absolutely. We have been working for that federal legislation for
Speaker 17: years now, and we have confirmation from soon to be
Speaker 17: President Kamala Harris that that is something that she will
Speaker 17: push forward. I think, with the power of the House
Speaker 17: behind her, that that will become an ultimate reality. And
Speaker 17: you know that people have talked about the fact that, yes,
Speaker 17: there's been record turnouts, that does not mean that we
Speaker 17: do not need to secure federal voting rights once and
Speaker 17: for all. Our daughter has progressively lost rights since the
Speaker 17: day that she was born. The crowning achievement of voting
Speaker 17: that was her grandparents' legacy has been eroded. Yes, we've
Speaker 17: had great organizers, but we should not continue to fight
Speaker 17: that battle. Voting rights are birthrights and should be in
Speaker 17: this country.
Speaker 2: I want to thank you both for an important conversation
Speaker 2: with us in our Washington Bureau. Martin Luther King the
Speaker 2: third ar Andrea Waters King, thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast Ken
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Speaker 18: Bleiden, where we had the highest inflation in forty years.
Speaker 18: The bottom fifty percent of workers are getting crushed.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 18: I call it the three eyes inflation, interest rates, and immigration.
Speaker 18: And if you want more of that, then you should
Speaker 18: vote for it.
Speaker 5: Biden wanted much higher taxes.
Speaker 2: Kamala Harris came into twenty eight percent for tax rate
Speaker 2: for cap gains and twenty eight percent for corporation and
Speaker 2: did not say a word and will not say a
Speaker 2: word about unrealized capital gains.
Speaker 3: And so I think she's completely different.
Speaker 2: Scott Bessen and Mark Cuban there with their views of
Speaker 2: the economic proposals coming from both campaigns, and it's an
Speaker 2: opportunity now to bring in Michael Wattley.
Speaker 3: We've been looking.
Speaker 2: Forward to talking with the Chairman of the Republican National Committee.
Speaker 2: He's with us from the Washington, DC area at RNC headquarters.
Speaker 2: Mister Chairman, welcome to Bloomberg TV and Radio bluftask and
Speaker 2: we'll get to the situation in North Carolina and your
Speaker 2: expectations for what happens tonight. But broadly speaking, this is
Speaker 2: our opportunity to ask the Chairman what he's hearing. I
Speaker 2: know you have people fanned out around the country looking
Speaker 2: at poles, looking at returns.
Speaker 3: Can you give us an update.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 19: What I would say is, coming into election day, Republicans
Speaker 19: were really poised to have a fantastic day. When you
Speaker 19: look at voter registration numbers, you look at the early vote,
Speaker 19: the absentee ballot requests and returns, all of that put
Speaker 19: the Republicans in a great position to win. We had
Speaker 19: an outright lead in states like Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, and
Speaker 19: North Carolina, and we substantially narrowed the leads that Democrats
Speaker 19: typically have going into election day in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
Speaker 19: So you put all of that together with a robust
Speaker 19: turnout on election day, that makes us feel fairly comfortable
Speaker 19: that we're going to have a good night tonight. As
Speaker 19: I told the President, if you know you're in a
Speaker 19: good position to win on election day, we just have
Speaker 19: to win on election day well.
Speaker 4: And it becomes a question of how that win would happen.
Speaker 4: Mister Chairman, what is the path your most confident in
Speaker 4: at this hour. Does it run through the sun Belt
Speaker 4: or the Rust Belt?
Speaker 5: I think you need a combination of the two.
Speaker 19: Right now, what we're seeing right is a good solid
Speaker 19: lead for the Republicans in Arizona, Nevadage, Georgia, North Carolina.
Speaker 19: We feel comfortable that we will be able to carry
Speaker 19: the day with those states given our traditional you know,
Speaker 19: election day patterns, and then we would need at that
Speaker 19: point in time to just pick off one of Wisconsin, Michigan,
Speaker 19: and Pennsylvania. We have small but durable leads in the
Speaker 19: polls in all of those states, very solid performance during
Speaker 19: the early vote period, so we're very anxious and ready
Speaker 19: to go for those three states.
Speaker 2: We'd love to hear from the aforementioned Mick mulvaney, mister
Speaker 2: Wattley talking about North Carolina.
Speaker 3: He just got back.
Speaker 2: From the state and described his trip across North Carolina
Speaker 2: what he was seeing on the ground.
Speaker 1: Let's listen.
Speaker 14: I drove from Raleigh, North Carolina to Charlotte this weekend
Speaker 14: through the back roads, and I got to tell you,
Speaker 14: I think you're going to see North Carolina go for
Speaker 14: Kamala Harris. I think Donald Trump is going to walk
Speaker 14: to Georgia a win in Georgia, but may well lose
Speaker 14: North Carolina.
Speaker 2: As the former chair of the state's Republican Party, Michael Watley.
Speaker 3: What do you say to that.
Speaker 5: I feel very good about North Carolina.
Speaker 19: The first time in the history of the state, Republicans
Speaker 19: actually have a lead coming out of the early vote
Speaker 19: absenteev of vote here, the pulling looks very, very solid.
Speaker 19: North Carolina has always been a purple state. It's always
Speaker 19: been a battleground state. It's a very tight It was
Speaker 19: our most narrow wind in twenty twenty for President Trump.
Speaker 19: But we do like the numbers and we have a
Speaker 19: great team on the ground there.
Speaker 4: We heard from former President Trump earlier today after he
Speaker 4: voted in Florida, suggesting that so far he thinks this
Speaker 4: election has been fair. He said that as of roughly
Speaker 4: noon today, mister chairman, and the question is going to
Speaker 4: be what we hear from Donald Trump later on this evening.
Speaker 4: Do you expect, regardless of whether the final tally is
Speaker 4: in or not, that Donald Trump will be declaring victory
Speaker 4: by the end of tonight.
Speaker 5: We'll just have to wait and see what those results
Speaker 5: look like.
Speaker 4: But you're not you're confident that he won't prematurely declare victory.
Speaker 19: I would just have to say, we will wait and
Speaker 19: see what those results look like. If we have fair, accurate,
Speaker 19: secure and transparent elections, then we would be glad to
Speaker 19: acknowledge those and move forward.
Speaker 2: Understood, Let's get into that for a moment, because we
Speaker 2: had a bomb threat turned out to be, according to
Speaker 2: Secretary of State Raffensberger in Georgia, a Russian hoax. What
Speaker 2: are you hearing around the cun free mister chairman. Is
Speaker 2: there funny business we should know about? Or has this
Speaker 2: been a fair and safe election?
Speaker 5: So far, so far, so good.
Speaker 19: We obviously are very concerned about what we saw down
Speaker 19: in Atlanta and think that the authorities took all the
Speaker 19: proper precautions to clear that voting location, conduct a sweep,
Speaker 19: realize that it was okay, and then allow voters to
Speaker 19: go back in. We also have seen usual types of
Speaker 19: issues where a polling location didn't open exactly on time,
Speaker 19: or a machine didn't work, or ran out of the
Speaker 19: ink at toner cartridge or something along those lines, which
Speaker 19: are going to be resolved very quickly and we'll be
Speaker 19: able to move on with the process well.
Speaker 4: And of course, as we watch the voting process play out,
Speaker 4: voters are not just selecting who they'd like to be
Speaker 4: President of the United States, but other candidates as well,
Speaker 4: including those that will represent them in the House of
Speaker 4: Representatives and the Senate. Mister Chairman, there is only so
Speaker 4: much a President Trump could do without the cooperation of Congress.
Speaker 4: So as you look from your purchase, the chair of
Speaker 4: the Republican National Can, how are you feeling about the
Speaker 4: odds of flipping the Senate and retaining the House.
Speaker 19: We feel very good about the Senate at this point
Speaker 19: in time. We're gonna win Montana, We're gonna win West Virginia.
Speaker 19: That will give the Republicans fifty one seats. We also
Speaker 19: feel very very good about Ohio. And then you look
Speaker 19: at a combination of states in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania,
Speaker 19: as well as Arizona and Nevada. Depending on what those
Speaker 19: overall numbers look like, we could have a very very
Speaker 19: good night for the Republicans when it comes to the House. Similarly,
Speaker 19: we are in a position to be able to expand
Speaker 19: our majority there. Right now, it's a two seat majority,
Speaker 19: and if this election night goes as we currently are tracking,
Speaker 19: then hopefully we'll be able to pick up four or
Speaker 19: five six seats there.
Speaker 2: Well, mister chairman, Donald Trump's been talking about you. He
Speaker 2: brought you up at a rally in North Carolina, considering
Speaker 2: the stakes in this election. He said, you better win.
Speaker 2: I want to get this right. You better win or
Speaker 2: you won't be able to come back here. He doesn't win,
Speaker 2: he says he won't be we at Urn City, will
Speaker 2: no longer be in North Carolina, will be looking for
Speaker 2: a job. I know that there's probably some joking going
Speaker 2: on there, mister chairman, But what kind of pressure are
Speaker 2: you feeling today?
Speaker 19: What I feel right now is cautious optimism. We are
Speaker 19: very upbeat about where we are. The infrastructure that we have.
Speaker 19: The campaign staff, the RNC staff have worked seamlessly together.
Speaker 19: President Trump has been out there in every single battleground
Speaker 19: state multiple times over the course of the last several weeks.
Speaker 19: We had three events on Friday, three events on Saturday,
Speaker 19: three events on Sunday, and four events yesterday, and so
Speaker 19: nobody is out working the president. We feel very good
Speaker 19: about where we are coming into election day and right
Speaker 19: now we're very happy with what we're seeing on the ground.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 4: Our NC Chairman, Michael Wattley, thank you so much for
Speaker 4: joining us on this election day. We appreciate your time.
Speaker 2: Serve thanks for listening to the Balance of Power podcast.
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