Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Yes, we welcome now our radio and our television audiences
Speaker 2: together as we speak to the Governor of Virginia, Glenn Youngkin, Governor,
Speaker 2: thank you very much in Deefer stopping by once again.
Speaker 1: Did you great to be with you?
Speaker 3: And we were together last year in Paris and here
Speaker 3: we are in Farmborough and there's a lot of planes
Speaker 3: flying today.
Speaker 2: We've hopefully got a quiet patch in the air display
Speaker 2: that we you and I can have a conversation and
Speaker 2: we can both.
Speaker 1: Hear each other. So that's fantastic.
Speaker 2: Look, the big things obviously over the last twenty four
Speaker 2: hours is Joe Biden's stepping a size A. Is this
Speaker 2: a surprise B?
Speaker 1: What does it mean? Do you think?
Speaker 3: Well, so, I'm a Republican governor and so I'm seeing
Speaker 3: it from the other side. But the amount of pressure
Speaker 3: that his party was placing on him to step aside
Speaker 3: was enormous, and there has been chaos in the Democratic
Speaker 3: Party and we've all watched it. With the performance, of
Speaker 3: course of Joe Biden's administration and the realization that Donald
Speaker 3: Trump is now ahead in polls and states that Joe
Speaker 3: Biden won by ten points like virgin where Joe Biden
Speaker 3: won by ten and twenty twenty and now Donald Trump.
Speaker 1: Is either even or up in the polls.
Speaker 3: And on top of that, you really do see Joe
Speaker 3: Biden faltering on his ability to campaign.
Speaker 1: So no, not a huge surprise.
Speaker 3: I do think that it's important that the polls really
Speaker 3: haven't moved much in the last day, and I think
Speaker 3: that reflects the fact that Virginians and Americans recognized that
Speaker 3: it was the Biden Harris administration and she owns the
Speaker 3: performance and it's not going to be any different than
Speaker 3: the one that Joe Biden had.
Speaker 2: Sounds like you think they should select somebody else.
Speaker 1: Well, it's their choice to select who they want.
Speaker 3: But I will say that they haven't really selected anybody yet.
Speaker 3: And I do think the chaos that we've seen in
Speaker 3: the Democratic Party selection process is only matched by the
Speaker 3: chaos that they've unleashed on the world. In the country,
Speaker 3: we've had foreign policy chaos, and I firmly believe that
Speaker 3: if Donald Trump for president, we wouldn't have war in Ukraine,
Speaker 3: we wouldn't have the chaos in the Middle East that
Speaker 3: we have, nor will we see China threatening Taiwan like
Speaker 3: they are, and if Donald Trump for president, we would
Speaker 3: certainly have a secure border, and therefore every state like
Speaker 3: Virginia wouldn't be seeing violence, the drug overdoses and the
Speaker 3: illegal and the legal immigrant crisis that we've got. And
Speaker 3: if Donald Trump were president today, I don't think we
Speaker 3: would have seen the runaway inflation that Joe Biden unleashed
Speaker 3: and Kamala Harris on America.
Speaker 2: So it is Tamala Harris. Do you think Virginia is
Speaker 2: still winnable? Does it change the arithmetic in any shape
Speaker 2: or form.
Speaker 3: I think that Virginia is still in play. And what
Speaker 3: we're seeing, of course, is Virginians are stating that they
Speaker 3: want strong.
Speaker 1: Leadership, not weak leadership. Yep.
Speaker 3: They know that Kamala Harris and Joe Biden led this
Speaker 3: administration together and that that track records her track record,
Speaker 3: and I think that Americans are reflecting the same sentiment.
Speaker 3: They're ready for strength in the White House, not weakness.
Speaker 2: Why do you think that the Ukraine War wouldn't have
Speaker 2: happened if President Trump had been around and running things
Speaker 2: at that point in time.
Speaker 3: Because I think he projects strength and we know that
Speaker 3: there is peace through strength, and Joe Biden starting with
Speaker 3: his disasters, withdrawal from Afghanistan all the way through to
Speaker 3: playcating China to empty threats on the international stage only
Speaker 3: elicits other countries to do bad things.
Speaker 1: I mean he completely he completely.
Speaker 3: Funded the Iranian assault in the Middle East because when Joe,
Speaker 3: when Joe Biden became president, he undid all of the
Speaker 3: sanctions and all the isolation that Donald Trump and placed
Speaker 3: them in.
Speaker 1: To stick with Ukraine.
Speaker 2: If you can for a moment, would the Republican pose
Speaker 2: continue to support Ukraine? Should should the Republican posse? Should
Speaker 2: President Trump and his vice presidents continue to support Ukraine?
Speaker 1: Do you think that eight should be dead?
Speaker 3: Well, let me just begin with with the clear statement
Speaker 3: that the Republican Party as a whole is is is
Speaker 3: for defeating Putin. I think what we'll see, of course,
Speaker 3: is all all elements brought together. First thing we'll do
Speaker 3: is we will secure the border. And that has been
Speaker 3: the biggest complaint from the Republican Party is we're sending
Speaker 3: a lot of money overseas and we haven't even secured
Speaker 3: our own border. And I think on day one, President
Speaker 3: Trump will secure our border and stop the chaos that
Speaker 3: is ensued with with illegal immigration with with uh. Well, listen,
Speaker 3: we've had We've had terrorists come across the border and
Speaker 3: we had two tear two illegal immigrants try to crash
Speaker 3: the front gate at Quantico Marine Corps base in a
Speaker 3: box struck in Virginia. And of course the free flow
Speaker 3: of drugs is killing people left, right and center. We
Speaker 3: have five a day that on average die in Virginia.
Speaker 3: Job one, secure the border. And then I do believe
Speaker 3: that that support around the world in order to bring
Speaker 3: peace back through strength will be real.
Speaker 1: And this is this is the two.
Speaker 3: This is the double approach that I think we'll see
Speaker 3: under a Trump administration.
Speaker 2: Because because from a European perspective, it looks like we've
Speaker 2: got to see a more isolation this government. What Trump
Speaker 2: to win?
Speaker 3: Well, I do think what we're going to see as
Speaker 3: a government that is one going to be very clear
Speaker 3: about what we're going to do, and one that is
Speaker 3: going to require all of our partners to play a
Speaker 3: full role.
Speaker 1: And I believe our partners will. I think what we
Speaker 1: have to what does it playing a full role mean?
Speaker 2: Then that too and a half percent?
Speaker 3: Nay?
Speaker 2: Too? Is that three and a half percent? Naya?
Speaker 3: Well, I think Historically it was asking NATO to pay
Speaker 3: two percent of their GDP and defense, and we've seen
Speaker 3: a lot of a lot of the NATO countries come,
Speaker 3: They're not all of them. But I think this is
Speaker 3: also a recognition that putin is not going to stop
Speaker 3: at the U grade and everybody needs to do their
Speaker 3: fair share.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: So it's too huf enough, it's three what is the
Speaker 2: number in your mind?
Speaker 3: Well, that that's gonna settle out as we see what
Speaker 3: the overall spending is going to be to do what
Speaker 3: we need to do. But I will say this that
Speaker 3: I think that the United States will constantly be a
Speaker 3: great partner, but we also require great partners and I
Speaker 3: think that's really what our that's what peace through Strength
Speaker 3: is all about.
Speaker 1: To debate here.
Speaker 2: The fumbers show is, Yeah, if we have to spend
Speaker 2: more money, we're gonna try and spend it here. A
Speaker 2: lord of the defense companies are based in your states.
Speaker 2: You comfortable with that. If Europe's gonna spend more money,
Speaker 2: should you have to spend that money domesticate them.
Speaker 3: But again, there's gonna need to be a capabilities match
Speaker 3: to the need, and a lot of the capabilities have
Speaker 3: been developed in the United States the Europe's capable of
Speaker 3: to I think there are certain elements, yes, and there
Speaker 3: are certain areas where the US capabilities are going to
Speaker 3: be paramounts, and I think the combination of that is
Speaker 3: really important. We've got a lot of European companies that
Speaker 3: want to come set up in the United States. A
Speaker 3: lot of them want to come to Virginia. It's one
Speaker 3: of the main reasons why I'm here. You may have
Speaker 3: heard we were ranked top state in America for business,
Speaker 3: and that's one of the reasons why a lot of
Speaker 3: them want to come to Virginia. But this idea of
Speaker 3: European companies coming to the United States and manufacturing and
Speaker 3: building is really important. And I do think the blending
Speaker 3: of capabilities on the global stage will provide the best outcome.
Speaker 2: We all of the reasons they might be coming to
Speaker 2: the United States and manufacturers because they're worried about taris.
Speaker 1: Should they be worried about tarras well?
Speaker 3: I think they should be worried about tariffs if their
Speaker 3: country is imposing tariffs on the United States goods. And again,
Speaker 3: free trade has not always meant free trade, and I
Speaker 3: think it needs to be fair and reciprocal. And when
Speaker 3: we look at just the evolution of the trade agreements
Speaker 3: with China over the last few decades, China had unlimited
Speaker 3: access to the US market, restricted access to their market,
Speaker 3: and it wasn't until President Trump struck a really tough
Speaker 3: China trade deal that we began to really treat them
Speaker 3: like they are, which is really an adversary, an adversary
Speaker 3: who's trying to dominate the world, and they're doing it, yes,
Speaker 3: through economic coercion and imperialism, but also through military saber rattling,
Speaker 3: and their surveillance of the world is unparalleled, and so
Speaker 3: we have to treat them as such. And that means
Speaker 3: we've got to stand up and use the tools in
Speaker 3: our toolkit in order to combat it.
Speaker 2: Would those tariffs, with the tools that you're talking about
Speaker 2: being in the toolkit, if they were applied sing that's
Speaker 2: inflationary for the average American.
Speaker 3: The short answer is competition is what combats inflation, and
Speaker 3: as long as we have strong competitive, strong competitive markets,
Speaker 3: and the short answer is most likely not. But what
Speaker 3: we do need to recognize is that what is inflationary
Speaker 3: for the average American is unlimited runaway spending, which is
Speaker 3: what we saw in the Biden administration.
Speaker 1: It was irresponsible.
Speaker 3: They flooded the market with government spending on an unnecessary basis,
Speaker 3: and that's why we saw inflation like we haven't seen
Speaker 3: for four decades.
Speaker 1: And that's why the.
Speaker 3: Average American when they go to the grocery store, they
Speaker 3: they literally it's a gut punch every time they go in.
Speaker 3: Gas prices are run away from them. And why sixty
Speaker 3: six percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck because
Speaker 3: they can't keep up with the runaway inflation we've seen
Speaker 3: over the last three and a half years.
Speaker 2: Governor, great see, thanks for starting byes boys it.
Speaker 1: Blush come to Virginia. I will look forward to it.
Speaker 1: I've been I love it.
Speaker 2: Thank you, very muschen Deep Governor. Governor dun Youngkin of
Speaker 2: Virginia