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Speaker 2: To get a real read on what is happening on
Speaker 2: the ground and what needs to happen in the evacuation zone.
Speaker 2: We turn now to the Democratic congressman representing Florida's fourteenth
Speaker 2: congressional district, of course, in the direct line of this storm.
Speaker 2: Congresswoman Kathy cast is with us now here on Bloomberg
Speaker 2: TV and Radio. Thank you for joining us. Congresswoman. I'm
Speaker 2: sure this is a harrowing time. We hope you have
Speaker 2: found your self to safety. What is your degree of
Speaker 2: concern about residents in your district who may be remaining
Speaker 2: and what they are about to face in this storm.
Speaker 3: This is an epic.
Speaker 4: I mean, Hurricane Colleen was less than two weeks ago,
Speaker 4: and thousands and thousands of my neighbors have debris their
Speaker 4: lives out on the street. I was home shortly after
Speaker 4: the Congress finished and out Saturday morning after Heleen hit
Speaker 4: and folks are in shock. They cannot believe the size
Speaker 4: of that storm surge from a storm that was one
Speaker 4: hundred miles off the coast of Tampa Bay and now
Speaker 4: this double whamming that has poses a triple threat with surge, rainfall,
Speaker 4: and wind at the same time. Folks are they're very scared,
Speaker 4: and they're heating the evacuations. But there are still some
Speaker 4: people I've heard from them even this morning, who think, Okay, well,
Speaker 4: I'm going to go to the second floor and ride
Speaker 4: this out, even though I'm in an evacuation zone. They
Speaker 4: need to take stock of their lives because that is
Speaker 4: a dangerous situation and the local authorities have already explained
Speaker 4: they're not going to be able to save them. Remember
Speaker 4: after when Helene surged in there were many water rescues.
Speaker 4: They're not going to be able to do it if
Speaker 4: there is a surge that is higher this time. So
Speaker 4: folks have got to get out. And if you hear
Speaker 4: my voice right now and you're in that evacuation area,
Speaker 4: you need to leave now. There's a rapidly closing window
Speaker 4: for you to take care of yourself.
Speaker 5: Well, Congresswoman, we should mention for our viewers and listeners
Speaker 5: that you represent the fourteenth district of Florida, which is Tampa, St. Petersburg,
Speaker 5: Hillsboro County. These are the areas that are apparently going
Speaker 5: to be right in the path of this storm.
Speaker 6: We heard from the mayor of.
Speaker 5: Tampa on CNN last evening, who also has the name
Speaker 5: castor no relation, who said, point blank, if people do
Speaker 5: not leave the evacuation areas tonight, they will die.
Speaker 6: Is that accurate, Yes.
Speaker 3: It is, Yes, it is there.
Speaker 4: This is an unprecedented storm and with the hotter temperatures,
Speaker 4: record temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico, that is like
Speaker 4: jet fuel for these storms.
Speaker 3: That's why it intensified so rapidly.
Speaker 4: I led the Climate Crisis Committee in the Congress for
Speaker 4: four years where we examined the costs and the risks
Speaker 4: and developed an action plan, and many of those recommendations
Speaker 4: were included in the Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act.
Speaker 4: What wasn't able to be included was a lot of
Speaker 4: the resiliency because so many of these neighborhoods were built
Speaker 4: in the nineteen sixties and seventies. A lot of the
Speaker 4: critical infrastructure back then. It is not It was never
Speaker 4: planned for these type of intense storms and disasters, So
Speaker 4: folks need to understand that this is unprecedented and they
Speaker 4: need to get out of harm's way immediately.
Speaker 2: Well for those who have already fled and are wondering
Speaker 2: what they will return to, what resources they will need
Speaker 2: available to them. It does raise the question here of
Speaker 2: the state and the federal response. Is anything needed currently
Speaker 2: to help facilitate the evacuation effort? Are you concerned at
Speaker 2: all about resources being available in the storms aftermath? How
Speaker 2: has both the Florida government under Ron DeSantis and the
Speaker 2: federal government reacted so far in the aftermath of Helene
Speaker 2: and embracing for this.
Speaker 4: I've seen incredible cooperation between our local authorities, the cities
Speaker 4: and the counties, and the state and the federal partners,
Speaker 4: especially FEMA.
Speaker 3: They have been on the ground.
Speaker 4: FEMA Administrator Dan Chris Welb was here yesterday hers she
Speaker 4: met with Mayor Jane Caster of Tampa, Mayor Ken Welch
Speaker 4: of St.
Speaker 3: Petersburg.
Speaker 4: FEMA has sufficient funds to respond to this emergency. To
Speaker 4: all of the response, The Coast Guard is ready for
Speaker 4: search and rescue. You see the National Hurricane Center and
Speaker 4: Weather Service doing their job. What is going to be
Speaker 4: critical though, and what is left out? When President Biden
Speaker 4: Vice President Harris requested in the last Continuing Resolution that
Speaker 4: passed the Commerce weeks ago, they asked for additional funds
Speaker 4: for long term disaster funding to help us rebuild our
Speaker 4: communities and that critical infrastructure. That has got to be
Speaker 4: a bipartisan priority going forward. And it's not just this
Speaker 4: impending catastrophe in Florida. It's also the Francis Scott Key
Speaker 4: Bridge in Baltimore. It's the communities that have been wiped
Speaker 4: by wildfires. The climate crit isn't just about the weather.
Speaker 4: It's about your wallet in this day and age, and
Speaker 4: the FEDS are going to be there, but we've got
Speaker 4: to think about building back in a much more resilient
Speaker 4: way to guard taxpayer dollars.
Speaker 5: That's your governor doing down there at Congress Woman a
Speaker 5: lot of reporting yesterday that he refused to take a
Speaker 5: phone call from Vice President Kamala Harris. He later said
Speaker 5: that he wasn't aware she tried to reach him, or
Speaker 5: politics creeping in here.
Speaker 6: What would they have to talk about anyway?
Speaker 4: You know, Governor de Santis is really going to need
Speaker 4: a President Harris, if she's elected for the rebuilding effort,
Speaker 4: I'm here what our economic engines in the Tampa Bay area,
Speaker 4: McDill Air Force Base that's home to Special Operations Command
Speaker 4: and Central Command, our Coastguard station. You know they're doing
Speaker 4: their search and rescue. But our Coastguard Air station flooded,
Speaker 4: had catfish.
Speaker 3: They are in the hangar.
Speaker 4: Same with the Coastguard station in Sane Pete Port, Tampa Bay.
Speaker 4: When Helene washed through, it wiped out all of our
Speaker 4: channel markers and Booie's where ships can safely come in
Speaker 4: and out. Now they were fortunate to get they scrambled
Speaker 4: to get right back out there. But these are the
Speaker 4: kind of investments that we're going to have to work
Speaker 4: together on. I don't care if you have a D
Speaker 4: or an R by your name, so it would it
Speaker 4: sure wouldn't hurt the governor to take the Vice president's call,
Speaker 4: just knowing that the chances are she may be president.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 2: And of course voters have a decision to make on
Speaker 2: that front, Congressman, if they are able to vote at all.
Speaker 2: This is a concern we also had in the aftermath
Speaker 2: of Helene, specially in areas of western North Carolina, where
Speaker 2: actual transit infrastructure has been completely destroyed by that storm. Obviously,
Speaker 2: we have more immediate humanitarian considerations here first, But we're
Speaker 2: four weeks out until election day. Are you worried that
Speaker 2: it may be disruptive to the act actual electoral process
Speaker 2: when it's not just presidential and congressional people on the ballot,
Speaker 2: but also ballot initiatives like in Florida abortion.
Speaker 4: Yes, and after Hurricane Ian Hurricane Irma, there were additional
Speaker 4: flexibilities granted to local communities and supervisors of elections. They're
Speaker 4: clearly going to have to do that here. The vote
Speaker 4: by mail ballots arrived in most mail boxes here in
Speaker 4: Hillsborough County on Saturday, So think about that.
Speaker 3: So thousands of people had been.
Speaker 4: Washed out of their homes and now with this storm,
Speaker 4: So where are those ballots and will they have additional
Speaker 4: flexibility to get a replacement ballot to go vote early
Speaker 4: in a safe and secure location.
Speaker 3: And these are things that.
Speaker 4: It's not the it's not my top tier issue today,
Speaker 4: but it sure will be in the coming week.
Speaker 5: Well, it's great to have you with us, Congressoman. I
Speaker 5: hope that you are somewhere safe and that your family
Speaker 5: is as well. We love to keep tabs with you
Speaker 5: and stay in touch as this storm approaches, but thank
Speaker 5: you for making time for us today. Congress Woman Kathy
Speaker 5: cast a Democrat from Florida's fourteenth district. The language that
Speaker 5: we're hearing from Florida, Kayley, is really something Public officials,
Speaker 5: of course, are in the business of warning people when
Speaker 5: they're in danger, but to leave or die is quite
Speaker 5: the decision that's facing Floridians right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and at this point with the storm what thirty
Speaker 2: hours away potentially from making landfall, As we heard from
Speaker 2: the congresswoman, the window to do so is closing and
Speaker 2: closing quickly.
Speaker 6: That's for sure.
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Speaker 5: Welcome to the Tuesday edition. I had to check to
Speaker 5: make sure this is the world we're in. Yeah, it's
Speaker 5: still just only Tuesday. With what's already happened so far
Speaker 5: this week and what could come the big media blitz
Speaker 5: today for Kamala Harris. We'll talk more about that. She's
Speaker 5: already done the view. It's on to Howard Stern and
Speaker 5: then Stephen Colbert as Joe Biden leaves the bubble today
Speaker 5: having gotten the hurricane briefing earlier, to travel to Milwaukee,
Speaker 5: where he's going to talk about cleaning up lead pipes,
Speaker 5: remembering from the infrastructure law. He also goes to Montgomery County,
Speaker 5: Pennsylvania later on a campaign event for Senator Bob Casey.
Speaker 5: As I mentioned Kamala Harris in New York, jad Vance
Speaker 5: is in Detroit today, the swing state of Michigan. But
Speaker 5: the hurricane, of course is top in the headlines today
Speaker 5: and it will be tomorrow. This is something else. Milton,
Speaker 5: now at category four, down from five yesterday, is being
Speaker 5: described in Florida as a once in a century storm,
Speaker 5: a once in one hundred year storm. We haven't seen
Speaker 5: a direct hit on Tampa Bay, they say, since nineteen
Speaker 5: twenty one.
Speaker 6: So there you have it.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 6: This is only twelve.
Speaker 5: Days after Hurricane Helene, and there are a lot of
Speaker 5: worries about the extent to which this is going to
Speaker 5: stretch resources. Knowing Helene came beryln right through that same
Speaker 5: area on the Gulf Coast a little bit further north
Speaker 5: in the Big Bend area, but the southeast is having
Speaker 5: some trouble here. We heard from the mayor of Tampa,
Speaker 5: Jane Caster, on CNN last night. It's not often to
Speaker 5: hear public officials talk this way.
Speaker 6: Quote.
Speaker 5: I can say this without any dramatization whatsoever. If you
Speaker 5: choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you
Speaker 5: are going to die.
Speaker 6: Unquote.
Speaker 5: Glad Lauren Rosenthal is with US live from New York,
Speaker 5: Bloomberg Weather reporter, joining us now for the second time
Speaker 5: in two weeks on a major natural disaster. Lauren, it's
Speaker 5: great to see you. What do we know about landfall
Speaker 5: and windspeed?
Speaker 7: Sure?
Speaker 8: I know that Milton is still going to be a
Speaker 8: major hurricane as it finishes its journey across the Gulf
Speaker 8: and gets really close to making landfall in Florida, probably
Speaker 8: sometime tomorrow night. So its top winds will still be
Speaker 8: very destructive, and what forecasters are really worried about is
Speaker 8: the risk of storm surge. Milton is getting a lot
Speaker 8: bigger as it crosses the ocean, and it's going to
Speaker 8: pick up a lot of water and bring it ashore
Speaker 8: inundating communities in Florida that are still cleaning up from
Speaker 8: Helene less than two weeks ago.
Speaker 6: What does this mean for Tampa.
Speaker 5: It looks like there will be a direct hit or
Speaker 5: something close to it in a city that is in
Speaker 5: a very precarious situation geographically.
Speaker 6: What are we about to witness?
Speaker 8: Yeah, so Tampa sits on the edge of the West
Speaker 8: Florida Shelf, which is this really gently sloping land formation.
Speaker 8: There's shallow waters sitting there, and a storm doesn't have
Speaker 8: to be very strong to be able to pick it
Speaker 8: up and push that ashore. So we're expecting to see
Speaker 8: surge of up to fifteen feet that, you know, rapidly
Speaker 8: approaching the second story of a two floor home. You know,
Speaker 8: folks are just trying to clean up as best they
Speaker 8: can from Helene to try to clear the path for Milton,
Speaker 8: you know, before it arrives tomorrow night. But those cleanup
Speaker 8: efforts take a long time and resources are really strapped,
Speaker 8: so it's definitely been a struggle.
Speaker 5: What'd you think about that statement from may Or Castor
Speaker 5: on CNN last night?
Speaker 6: Is that accurate? If people don't leave, they die.
Speaker 8: You know, it's always a good idea to heat emergency warnings.
Speaker 8: I talked to Tampa's emergency manager, Barbara Trip yesterday, and
Speaker 8: she said, you know, folks are just used to extreme
Speaker 8: weather in Florida. She saw people out in the surge
Speaker 8: from Helene, which was half as bad as Milton's expected
Speaker 8: to be. She really wants people to pay attention to
Speaker 8: the warnings coming out of the US National Hurricane Center
Speaker 8: coming from the city of Tampa. Get out of the
Speaker 8: way of the path of this storm. You know, it's
Speaker 8: not worth trying to stick around if resources are tight,
Speaker 8: if you can't find a way out on your own.
Speaker 8: The state of Florida is offering shuttles to evacuation centers,
Speaker 8: and I think I saw that ride sharing apps like
Speaker 8: Uber are also offering free rides. So you know, if
Speaker 8: folks can figure out a way out, they do need
Speaker 8: to pay attention to those warnings just to be safe.
Speaker 5: Well, this will be even more urgent tomorrow, Lauren, and
Speaker 5: we'd love to stay in touch with you to the
Speaker 5: extent that you can join us here on Balance of Power.
Speaker 5: Lauren Rosenthal reporting on the storm for Bloomberg in New York.
Speaker 5: It's scary stuff. And again the proximity to the most
Speaker 5: recent storm makes this even more complicated. We're still trying
Speaker 5: to get to some areas. When you talk about the response,
Speaker 5: trying to get to some areas in western North Carolina
Speaker 5: that were devastated by Hurricane Halid, massive flooding, people displaced
Speaker 5: from their homes and areas where they never thought they'd
Speaker 5: be having that kind of a conversation. And it's been
Speaker 5: compounded by what is being called a misinformation campaign in
Speaker 5: some publications, and it's hard to argue with that. At
Speaker 5: Donald Trump, of course, has been leading the charge to
Speaker 5: some extent and questioning the federal response, issuing statements in
Speaker 5: speeches and putting statements on truth social about the seven
Speaker 5: hundred and fifty dollars if you lose your house and
Speaker 5: so forth. There's been some pretty good reporting on this.
Speaker 5: Politico was leading the charge on it this morning, the
Speaker 5: consequences on full display. They spoke with a state official
Speaker 5: from North Carolina who described the overwhelming deluge of false
Speaker 5: information in what it has meant for people in need
Speaker 5: at best, a distraction. At worst, it is obstructing needy
Speaker 5: Americans from getting the help they need, falsely suggesting for
Speaker 5: instance that victims, as I mentioned, are entitled to no
Speaker 5: more than a seven hundred and fifty dollars check. He
Speaker 5: described it as the thunderdome and people are just pumping
Speaker 5: the noise in. It's where we start our conversation with
Speaker 5: Jeffrey Lane Blevins. We wanted to talk to an expert
Speaker 5: on misinformation at a critical time and the response to
Speaker 5: this storm, professor in the Department of Journalism at the
Speaker 5: University of Cincinnati, and appropriately for our conversation, author of
Speaker 5: Social Media, social Justice, and the Political Economy of online networks.
Speaker 5: Mister Blevins, welcome back to Bloomberg. It's spent some time,
Speaker 5: and appreciate your being with us here as we try
Speaker 5: to figure out what in the world is going on.
Speaker 5: There was a time when a natural disaster like this
Speaker 5: would bring out the gougers, right, you'd see gas prices
Speaker 5: go through the roof. Maybe scammers would be afoot trying
Speaker 5: to do stuff in a storm zone when people were vulnerable.
Speaker 5: Now it's a political opportunity to use misinformation, but to
Speaker 5: what end.
Speaker 9: Right, Well, first of all, thank you for having me on.
Speaker 9: It's good to be with you again. Although it's disappointing
Speaker 9: what we're talking about. But when we think about misinformation,
Speaker 9: I think we should also consider the term disinformation because
Speaker 9: we have entities that are putting this information is false
Speaker 9: information out there for political purpose, uh, you know, to
Speaker 9: undermine the credibility of of you know.
Speaker 10: Government institutions. Uh.
Speaker 9: And are you know, our credible uh news outlets?
Speaker 10: Uh?
Speaker 9: And when people you know, are they when they have
Speaker 9: access to that and for you know that that disinformation,
Speaker 9: they are likely to believe it's true, and so they
Speaker 9: spread it. And that's what I would consider to be misinformation.
Speaker 9: And it's an unfortunate, you know thing to see.
Speaker 6: Well, it sure is.
Speaker 5: We've heard reports of some folks turning away help from
Speaker 5: FEMA because they're reading on social media that that federal
Speaker 5: officials are confiscating their goods. How do you are we
Speaker 5: in a in a place where where it's not possible
Speaker 5: for the federal government to succeed in recovering from a storm.
Speaker 10: Well, I think that's the you know, is part of
Speaker 10: the goal.
Speaker 9: And actually I think that the goal is actually a
Speaker 9: little bit cheaper than that is simply to you know,
Speaker 9: discredit you know, the Biden administration. And what an awful
Speaker 9: way to try to score political points, you know, at
Speaker 9: you know, you know, at the at the lives of
Speaker 9: people who have already been you know, affected by a
Speaker 9: natural disaster. This is the time that we need to
Speaker 9: be able to rely on and you know, trust our
Speaker 9: government and trust our.
Speaker 10: Our our federal resources. It's it's despicable to me, frankly, well.
Speaker 5: Speak to me about the role that Elon Musk is
Speaker 5: playing in this. When we talk about online disinformation. There
Speaker 5: have been a number of posts, a couple dozen in fact,
Speaker 5: that have been challenged, that are still up on his
Speaker 5: x platform, what we used to call Twitter, that are
Speaker 5: reinforcing the rhetoric we're hearing from Donald Trump and even
Speaker 5: some kind of wackier conspiracy theories. Does this alliance between
Speaker 5: Donald Trump and Elon Musk results in an even more
Speaker 5: dangerous situation?
Speaker 10: Well, it certainly, you know, doesn't help.
Speaker 9: And you know, in the past, I used to give
Speaker 9: someone like Musk kind of the benefit of the doubt
Speaker 9: when he was just a user of then Twitter, and
Speaker 9: I'm like, well, you know, maybe he's you know, really
Speaker 9: you know, misinformed, but he does seem to be part
Speaker 9: and parcel you know, of this now at the very
Speaker 9: least he should take more responsibility for for.
Speaker 10: What he shares.
Speaker 9: Uh, this is you know, kind of the message of
Speaker 9: you know, my recent scholarship is that you know, as audiences,
Speaker 9: we have to take more responsibility for what we like,
Speaker 9: what we repost. And that's especially true for politicians, for influencers,
Speaker 9: for for public figures. It's not enough to say, oh, well,
Speaker 9: this is you know, this is out there, and how
Speaker 9: am I supposed to know you know, what's a credible
Speaker 9: source and what and what's not.
Speaker 10: Uh, that's that's a really cheap out.
Speaker 5: Well, it's pretty amazing to see anti Semitic attacks against
Speaker 5: some of the elected officials, for instance North Carolina who
Speaker 5: are trying to deal with the storm. A lot of
Speaker 5: this really brings us back to North Carolina, and much
Speaker 5: of it has been born on X. The Washington Post
Speaker 5: died some reporting here, focusing on thirty three recent viral
Speaker 5: X posts that spread misinformation about Hurricane Helene and caused
Speaker 5: at least two hundred and thirty one deaths, of course
Speaker 5: widespread devastation. The posts collectively attracted one hundred and fifty
Speaker 5: nine million views. How do you combat that wave of
Speaker 5: false information?
Speaker 11: All?
Speaker 10: Right?
Speaker 9: Well, and this is you know, again where I think
Speaker 9: our political our influencers and our politicians have to take
Speaker 9: more responsibility. A lot of times, you know, folks want
Speaker 9: to blame it on you know, the the algorithm and
Speaker 9: or algorithms in general.
Speaker 10: Well, here's the thing.
Speaker 9: Algorithms they only do what they what they are programmed
Speaker 9: to do, and they are our programmed to keep users engaged.
Speaker 9: And you know, so whatever you know, whatever you you know, like,
Speaker 9: whatever you you know, respond to comment on whatever you
Speaker 9: you share. Well, you know, the algorithm takes note of that,
Speaker 9: and so it feeds you more of that type of
Speaker 9: information or in this case, misinformation, and it really creates
Speaker 9: a disinformation or misinformation bubble if you will. Well you're like, well,
Speaker 9: this is being you know, this has gone viral, so
Speaker 9: many different you know, users have have shared it, and
Speaker 9: so it makes it seem credible when it's not.
Speaker 5: To what extent is AI making this a more difficult
Speaker 5: situation to manage. Here, a lot of the posts we're
Speaker 5: talking about include AI generated images of things that never happened.
Speaker 9: Right, and not everyone you know, not every user has
Speaker 9: access or knows how to use a reverse image. You know,
Speaker 9: you know a look up tool or you know, thinks
Speaker 9: to you know, use a fact checking service, and you know,
Speaker 9: there are several of them. USA today, for instance, has
Speaker 9: a whole team of fact checkers. You know, they they
Speaker 9: take tips to run these these things down. But it
Speaker 9: always takes a long time for the for the truth
Speaker 9: to catch up while while these things are you know,
Speaker 9: are going viral, and it makes it, you know, incredibly
Speaker 9: difficult once that you know that genie is out of
Speaker 9: the bottle, so to speak to you know, to put
Speaker 9: it back in and say, oh, wait a minute, that's
Speaker 9: you know, that's not accurate.
Speaker 10: And I think, well, you know what what we we
Speaker 10: can I'm sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 5: It just says a lot about where we are, Professor,
Speaker 5: when I go to FEMA's website FEMA dot gov and
Speaker 5: they've got a rumor response page. In fact, if you
Speaker 5: search for this on Google, it's the first result that
Speaker 5: you get. Have you ever heard of anything like that?
Speaker 10: You know, it's it's it's unfortunate that that it comes to.
Speaker 9: What I would add is that you know, a lot
Speaker 9: on the on the far political right has spent decades
Speaker 9: uh you know, demonizing uh you know and other cutting
Speaker 9: you know, government agencies, so that you have a lot
Speaker 9: of people that are primed not to trust.
Speaker 10: Them, not to believe them.
Speaker 9: So you know, the very agencies that they should be
Speaker 9: looking toward, they're they're simply you know, going to discredit.
Speaker 9: I think what we what we need to do as
Speaker 9: you know, as media audiences, so is we need more
Speaker 9: you know, media literacy and be aware that hey, there
Speaker 9: is something out there that you know, AI that can
Speaker 9: generate these things that can look really persuasive, and we
Speaker 9: have to be you know, on guard and be willing
Speaker 9: to check multiple sources and also be willing to have
Speaker 9: some of our preconceived you know, political dispositions challenged.
Speaker 5: Maybe that's what I'll do in my next life, I'll
Speaker 5: do a media literacy class.
Speaker 6: Professor. It's great to have you back. We thank you
Speaker 6: for the time.
Speaker 5: Jeffrey Blevin's Department of Journalism, University of Cincinnati.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast kens
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Speaker 2: New York where Kamala Harris is spending some time today
Speaker 2: after the interview. Her sit down with Sixty Minutes aired
Speaker 2: last night. We've already seen her today on the View
Speaker 2: on ABC, just heard her on the Howard Stern Show
Speaker 2: on radio. She still has the late show coming up.
Speaker 2: And as we keep track of the headlines that are
Speaker 2: being generated from these interviews, there's one in particular making
Speaker 2: the rounds in Trump and Republican circles. It has to
Speaker 2: do with this administration and any differentation between her and
Speaker 2: President Biden. Here was the exchange on the View.
Speaker 7: Which you have done something differently than President Biden during
Speaker 7: the past four years. There is done a thing that
Speaker 7: comes to mind in terms of and I've been a
Speaker 7: part of most of the decisions that have had impact
Speaker 7: the work that we have done. For example, capping the
Speaker 7: cost of insulin at thirty five dollars a month for
Speaker 7: our seniors is something I care deeply about.
Speaker 5: So nothing let's assemble our political panel. Genie Schanzano is
Speaker 5: with us, of course, Democratic analyst, Bloomberg politics contributor, political
Speaker 5: science professor at Iona University, joined today by Lester Munson,
Speaker 5: Republican strategist from BGR Group. Great to see you both.
Speaker 5: Welcome back here in our two balance of power. Genie,
Speaker 5: surely she was rehearsed to answer that question.
Speaker 6: Was that the way to handle it?
Speaker 12: No, I don't think so. You know, it's interesting, you know,
Speaker 12: Kayleie mentioned this is making the rounds in the Republican
Speaker 12: circles Toms campaign a few days ago, when Joe Biden
Speaker 12: made his first foray into the press room at the
Speaker 12: White House, he said something very similar, and I've never
Speaker 12: seen a campaign make a commercial as fast as Donald
Speaker 12: Trump's campaign did. These are not the messages that the
Speaker 12: Harris campaign wants to be sending out, especially since today
Speaker 12: on this issue of change, she got.
Speaker 3: Some really good news.
Speaker 12: The New York Times Siena poll said she's closed the
Speaker 12: gap on change that many many Americans, many more than
Speaker 12: before with Joe Biden, see her as the candidate of change.
Speaker 3: She's made that now within the margin of errors. So
Speaker 3: I think this was a misstep on the view.
Speaker 12: I think it was a misstep by Joe Biden in
Speaker 12: the press room the other day. She's got to differentiate
Speaker 12: herself from Joe Biden because change and forward looking is
Speaker 12: what wins campaigns, not backward and looking, especially when so
Speaker 12: many people are not happy with the direction the country
Speaker 12: is taking right now.
Speaker 2: Just to emphasize those numbers you're referring to, Genie. In
Speaker 2: this New York Times Siena poll, which was conducted September
Speaker 2: twenty ninth to October sixth, when asked who represents change,
Speaker 2: forty six percent said Kamala Harris. Forty four percent said
Speaker 2: Donald Trump. So as we consider the changes potentially voters
Speaker 2: do want to see between this administration and the next one.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to think how we might see this ad
Speaker 2: in particular showing up or how this phrase in particular
Speaker 2: maybe showing up in campaign campaign ads. Words are difficult today, Lester.
Speaker 2: Is this going to be images of people coming over
Speaker 2: the border, statistics on a legal migration than Kamala Harris
Speaker 2: saying that she wouldn't have done anything differently? Is it
Speaker 2: going to be statistics around the economy same message or
Speaker 2: on the left? Could it be what's happened in Israel
Speaker 2: and Gaza over the course of the last year In
Speaker 2: one day now, as we marked one year since October
Speaker 2: seventh yesterday, that gets her in trouble with progressives.
Speaker 13: Look, I have a rare disagreement with Genie here. I
Speaker 13: think this was the only option Kamala Harris had. You know,
Speaker 13: Joe Biden's out there saying President Biden's out there saying
Speaker 13: she and I agreed on everything. She was involved in
Speaker 13: all the decisions. She can't really go out in public
Speaker 13: the next day and say the President is wrong and
Speaker 13: she is tied to him. She's the vice president. She
Speaker 13: was there for three and a half years. She owns
Speaker 13: all all of these things, whether she admits it or not.
Speaker 13: I think better for her to say, yes, I was
Speaker 13: there for all of those decisions. I believe they were
Speaker 13: the right ones. That doesn't mean we're not going to
Speaker 13: have change going forward. And here are the places where
Speaker 13: I think we need to pivot to a new approach.
Speaker 13: And maybe it's the border and parts of the economy,
Speaker 13: and if she wants to kind of go into that
Speaker 13: minefield the Middle East. But so I just think it's
Speaker 13: a smarter in the long run for her to say, yes,
Speaker 13: I am with the President on these things, come hell
Speaker 13: or high water, because I'm going to be with him anyway,
Speaker 13: So I'm going to defend that and then pivot to
Speaker 13: these other new opportunities. Yes, it leaves her a little
Speaker 13: open to the attack from Trump, but to divorce herself
Speaker 13: from Biden would open her, I think, to a much
Speaker 13: bigger attack of being, you know, mendacious and disloyal and
Speaker 13: having no anchor whatsoever.
Speaker 6: Really interesting.
Speaker 5: I want to ask you a little bit more about
Speaker 5: this New York Times, Sana pol You've got a national
Speaker 5: number that we looked at. You've got a Texas number,
Speaker 5: not a bit big shot. Donald Trump leading by six
Speaker 5: points there. But then there's Florida. Guys, I don't know
Speaker 5: what you make of this, a staggering thirteen point lead
Speaker 5: for Donald Trump fifty five percent to forty one percent
Speaker 5: in Florida, the state that is bracing for the storm
Speaker 5: right now. And it's an interesting bit of analysis from
Speaker 5: Nate Cone in the New York Times, who says this
Speaker 5: is not an outlier, Genie, that the demographics essentially of
Speaker 5: Florida have changed post pandemic. How do you see this
Speaker 5: as a polling expert.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I.
Speaker 12: Don't think we know yet. And it was very interesting
Speaker 12: to read Nate Cohen's piece where he said, you know,
Speaker 12: I'm not going to say this is an outliar, as
Speaker 12: he has done in the past, because of course this
Speaker 12: is not in line with the rest of the polling
Speaker 12: that we have seen come out of Florida. That said,
Speaker 12: I think this number does suggest, and it continues to
Speaker 12: suggest in the other polls we've seen, that Florida is
Speaker 12: going to look more like twenty twenty two than twenty twenty.
Speaker 12: I think that's for sure. I think Donald Trump, it's
Speaker 12: his home state. He is popular there. I think he
Speaker 12: wins the state. I'm not so sure he does that
Speaker 12: in a thirteen percentage point victory. So there's that. I
Speaker 12: would also just you know, add about the New York
Speaker 12: Times Siena very curiously, why didn't we see the Senate
Speaker 12: numbers from Florida and Texas when they released these? That
Speaker 12: has been the practice for the Times. They did not
Speaker 12: do that this time, which leads some of us to speculate,
Speaker 12: in its peer speculation that maybe those two are looking
Speaker 12: quite different than some of the other pollings. So it's
Speaker 12: going to be interesting to see when those important races
Speaker 12: come out.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm glad you mentioned those Senate races, Genie, because
Speaker 2: those are the kind of incumbent Republicans that we're seeing
Speaker 2: that could be might be a stretch. I know you
Speaker 2: don't think so. In Texas, potential pickup opportunities for Democrats.
Speaker 2: But when we consider Florida specifically in the incumbent Senator
Speaker 2: Rick Scott, who of course was governor. I was having
Speaker 2: a conversation with a few people this morning about how
Speaker 2: his experience as governor, his handling historically of natural disasters,
Speaker 2: could benefit him. Here ask hurricane Milton barrels toward Florida.
Speaker 2: I would remind everyone that Senator Scott did show up
Speaker 2: and meet with Joe Biden when he traveled to Florida
Speaker 2: last week. Lester, is this storm something that actually could
Speaker 2: work to his benefit, whatever humanitarian cost it may come at.
Speaker 13: Yeah, I mean these storms are always you know, in
Speaker 13: addition to, of course the vastly more important human tragedy
Speaker 13: of folks who may lose their lives or their livelihoods,
Speaker 13: or their property and whatnot. Is there's a political aspect
Speaker 13: to all of these storms. You know, I'm from Chicago,
Speaker 13: where we had a mayor, Michael Blandick, who lost reelection
Speaker 13: because he didn't plow the streets very well after snowstorms.
Speaker 13: So you think about Hurricane Katrina during the Bush administration,
Speaker 13: you know, President Bush's reputation was impacted by what people
Speaker 13: saw as his response to that crisis. So these things
Speaker 13: are always political. We should expect our politicians to position
Speaker 13: themselves to look like responsible stewards of the government resources
Speaker 13: that are going to be needed. And it's the incumbent government,
Speaker 13: it's the party in the White House who's actually more
Speaker 13: vulnerable here. Will the FEMA response be deemed as adequate?
Speaker 13: Are the real issues in delivering aid on the ground?
Speaker 13: What should we make of some of these kind of
Speaker 13: crazy misinformation campaigns. I think Scott if he's if he's
Speaker 13: true to his kind of chief executive roots as governor,
Speaker 13: does have a real opportunity to kind of demonstrate some
Speaker 13: leadership here, whether it's working with the administration or challenging
Speaker 13: the administration to do a little bit better.
Speaker 5: You go to the FEMA homepage, Genie, and you see
Speaker 5: the first entry on Hurricane Milton, and then there's something
Speaker 5: called Hurricane Helene rumor response. They've had to put up
Speaker 5: a whole section of the website to knock down some
Speaker 5: of the misinformation that's been put out there on social media,
Speaker 5: including some things that have been suggested by Donald Trump
Speaker 5: on the stump, like you lose your house, you get
Speaker 5: a seven hundred and fifty dollars check and that's the
Speaker 5: end of it.
Speaker 6: What does that tell us.
Speaker 5: About where we are that FEMA has to have somebody
Speaker 5: put this on the website.
Speaker 12: Yeah, I mean it.
Speaker 3: Is utterly stunning.
Speaker 12: There was a time when a disaster like this people
Speaker 12: are really seriously impacted. They We've had two hundred and
Speaker 12: fifty dead or more by Heleen, and now we have
Speaker 12: Milton coming and the idea that politics would be played
Speaker 12: like this is, you know, still stunning to me. And
Speaker 12: the fact is you had the governor of Florida refusing
Speaker 12: to take phone calls from the sitting Vice president and
Speaker 12: then bragging about it on TV. You've had Donald Trump
Speaker 12: out there with a misinformation campaign, and the reality is
Speaker 12: a scary reality. You talk about FEMA, they're saying now
Speaker 12: only nine percent of their workers are available to respond
Speaker 12: onto these disasters.
Speaker 3: That's a huge decrease from.
Speaker 12: Where we were. And I was so glad you had
Speaker 12: the congresswoman on and talking about the economics of climate
Speaker 12: change because it is here to stay and all of
Speaker 12: us Republicans and Democrats have to address that. And that
Speaker 12: begins of course in Congress. So a lot of important
Speaker 12: conversations to be had not this misinformation that we're hearing.
Speaker 2: On the subject of Congress, Lester, we heard from the
Speaker 2: Speaker of the House in the aftermath of Helene that
Speaker 2: the resources were there for FEMA, there was no need
Speaker 2: to call Congress back for a special session before the
Speaker 2: election to address supplemental funding. Does Hurricane Milton change that calculus.
Speaker 13: Well, it certainly could, And it sounds like this is
Speaker 13: going to be an epic storm for the ages, and
Speaker 13: if it does play out that way, then I don't
Speaker 13: see why Congress could, you know, wouldn't be able to
Speaker 13: come back, even though it is a very important election cycle,
Speaker 13: come back and do what's necessary to make sure the
Speaker 13: people of Florida and who are or else may be
Speaker 13: impacted by this storm get the resources they need. And
Speaker 13: as we know, FEMA is pulled in a bunch of
Speaker 13: different directions by recent storms and some other issues, and
Speaker 13: so it is Congress's responsibility if they're going to need
Speaker 13: more resources. We're going to need you guys to come
Speaker 13: back and vote for.
Speaker 14: It, all right.
Speaker 2: Lester Munson of BGR Group and Jeanie Shanzino of the
Speaker 2: Center for the Study of the Presidency in Congress and
Speaker 2: Bloomberg politics contributor our political panel today, thank you so much.
Speaker 2: As we consider a landfall that could be made late tomorrow.
Speaker 2: The back half of this week, Joe clearly going to
Speaker 2: be dominated by the storm and its potential aftermath. And
Speaker 2: as we've mentioned, Joe Biden was set to travel internationally
Speaker 2: leaving Thursday. He has now canceled that trip to be
Speaker 2: here to respond to the storm.
Speaker 5: Both Senator Marco Robio Congressman Jared Moscowitz both describing this
Speaker 5: was the black Swan event that they had been presented
Speaker 5: with by FEMA officials and here it is happening before
Speaker 5: our eyes.
Speaker 6: We'll have a lot more ahead.
Speaker 5: On the fastest show in politics, This is Bloomberg.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast. Can
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Speaker 5: Yeah, this is Balance of Power on Bloomberg TV and Radio.
Speaker 5: As we welcome our global television and radio audiences to
Speaker 5: this daily conversation about politics, live from Washington and today,
Speaker 5: it's taking on a bit of a new form as
Speaker 5: Kamala Harris leaves the bubble and the Vice president conducts
Speaker 5: the start of a massive media blitz. Sixty minutes last night,
Speaker 5: kayleie today, as we've been telling everyone, it was the
Speaker 5: View made a little bit of news there, Howard Stearns.
Speaker 5: She's talking to you right now just down the dial
Speaker 5: from a channel one twenty one here on Sirius XM,
Speaker 5: where we broadcast every day on Bloomberg, and then it'll
Speaker 5: be Colbert tonight a town hall and Univision Thursday. Will
Speaker 5: the Republican campaign be able to still criticize her for
Speaker 5: not doing interviews?
Speaker 2: Well, I guess that's the question, considering she did do
Speaker 2: sixty minutes, which aired last night, Donald Trump did not.
Speaker 2: This thing may go both ways. But as you allude
Speaker 2: to her appearance on the View, of course, we played
Speaker 2: you earlier this hour, the clip of her being asked
Speaker 2: if she would do anything differently than Joe Biden, she said,
Speaker 2: nothing comes to mind.
Speaker 14: She then did come.
Speaker 2: Back though, to that kind of question, she said, and
Speaker 2: this is a quote you asked me, what's the difference
Speaker 2: between Joe Biden to me? That will be one of
Speaker 2: many differences. I'm going to have a Republican in my
Speaker 2: cabinet because I don't feel burdened by letting pride get
Speaker 2: in the way of a good idea. Unclear if that
Speaker 2: pride is Joe Biden's or just this general idea of
Speaker 2: not putting someone from the opposing party in your cabinet.
Speaker 2: What we do know, though, based on an exclusive interview
Speaker 2: with Bloomberg earlier today, is that Jamie Diamond, the CEO
Speaker 2: of JP Morgan, might like that idea. This is part
Speaker 2: of what he told are Lisa Bromwitz.
Speaker 15: It's about growing the economy, it's not about putting business
Speaker 15: people there. I also, I think we should insult each
Speaker 15: other as citizens try to understand each other. And I
Speaker 15: think it'd be great at the next president they really
Speaker 15: want to set where they say unify, you know, put
Speaker 15: someone from the other part of your cabinet.
Speaker 2: All right, So Jamie Diamond might like this idea. Let's
Speaker 2: see if Kevin Walling, like said Joe, he's joining us here.
Speaker 6: He does in our Washington, d C.
Speaker 3: Studio.
Speaker 2: He of course is a democratic strategist. So we've heard
Speaker 2: from her on the view. We've heard from part of
Speaker 2: her interview with Howard Stern. We saw her on sixty
Speaker 2: Minutes last night, Kevin, by and large, for someone who
Speaker 2: has not been doing that much media up to this point,
Speaker 2: how's the blitz going?
Speaker 10: Well?
Speaker 11: Even the campaign to your point, he's calling it this
Speaker 11: media blitz, previewing it among her campaign spokespeople.
Speaker 14: I think it's great. It's perfectly timed.
Speaker 11: We saw kind of a similar strategy with Donald Trump
Speaker 11: over the summer where his numbers were up before Joe.
Speaker 14: Biden dropped out of the race.
Speaker 11: Again, the key factor is this five to ten percent
Speaker 11: of folks that are undecided or are thinking that they
Speaker 11: may change their vote. You know, so much of this
Speaker 11: focus is on this Trump obviously Harris dynamic in terms
Speaker 11: of who folks are going to pull for. I think
Speaker 11: the more important factor is that five to ten percent,
Speaker 11: where it's not a matter of choosing between the two
Speaker 11: of them. It's a matter between choosing to vote at
Speaker 11: all or just stay on the couch. And I think
Speaker 11: appealing to these wider audiences is part of this splitz,
Speaker 11: as you call it, and the campaign calls it, is
Speaker 11: a smart strategy.
Speaker 5: This began again with an interview on sixty Minutes which,
Speaker 5: by the way, she could have been sharing with Donald
Speaker 5: Trump and he chose not to take part. Scott Pelly
Speaker 5: was pretty deliberate about explaining how that all worked out.
Speaker 5: But an interesting moment here, And I wonder if this
Speaker 5: kind of leads us into the other interviews this week,
Speaker 5: because it strikes me that we're not talking about policy here,
Speaker 5: We're talking about personality. These are interviews that tell us
Speaker 5: more about who she is than maybe what she's proposing.
Speaker 5: Interesting moment last night, as they were discussing the Second
Speaker 5: Amendment and her revolution here in the public talking about
Speaker 5: I own a gun in the debate, if you break
Speaker 5: into my house, you're going to get shot in.
Speaker 6: The Oprah interview, and.
Speaker 5: Then last night we actually got down to the make
Speaker 5: and model of the weapon.
Speaker 6: Here's Comm. Harris on sixty minutes.
Speaker 7: I have a glock, and I've had it for quite
Speaker 7: some time. And I mean, look, Bilt, my background is
Speaker 7: in law enforcement.
Speaker 5: And.
Speaker 14: So there you go.
Speaker 10: Have you ever fired it?
Speaker 7: Yes, of course I have at a shooting range.
Speaker 5: Yes, of course I have.
Speaker 6: I have a glock. Who are we talking to here?
Speaker 5: Is this an effort to make her appear like less
Speaker 5: of a threat that some Democrats might pose to the
Speaker 5: second Amendment, or are we trying to reinforce the law
Speaker 5: enforcement bona fides knowing that a lot of progressives have
Speaker 5: a real allergy to gun violence.
Speaker 11: Yeah, jud it's a good question. You know, we were
Speaker 11: all out in Chicago for the convention. So much of
Speaker 11: her bio emphasis was on her record with criminal justice, right,
Speaker 11: being that attorney general, being that border state ag.
Speaker 14: Taking on transnational gangs.
Speaker 11: That was in every bio video and things like that,
Speaker 11: because again, I think women in general, and I work
Speaker 11: with a bunch of women candidates have a higher bar
Speaker 11: in a lot of people's estimations in terms of an
Speaker 11: executive role. Right, are they tough enough to take on
Speaker 11: some of those challenges? And I think the dynamic that
Speaker 11: you're seeing from the Vice president is an emphasis on
Speaker 11: some of those kind of taking on those character questions
Speaker 11: when it comes to a lot of undecided men in
Speaker 11: this country in terms of the matchup between Donald Trump
Speaker 11: and the vice president, she's shoring up those folks. On
Speaker 11: Howard Stern Today last week with the podcast with the
Speaker 11: two former NBA players, right, especially appealing to long largely
Speaker 11: to young black men. Right, The key component of her
Speaker 11: tent well.
Speaker 2: And call her daddy, potentially reaching out to young women
Speaker 2: the Alex Cooper podcast she did over the weekend. Is
Speaker 2: there still something she needs to tap into an interview
Speaker 2: or a place where she could get that audience she
Speaker 2: needs that she is not going because, as Joe alluded
Speaker 2: to earlier, there might still be some criticism that she's
Speaker 2: going to friendly or outlets, people who are throwing her
Speaker 2: softball questions sympathetic to her cops.
Speaker 11: Yeah, I mean, I think that argument goes out the
Speaker 11: window now with that sixty minutes. That's the toughest, one
Speaker 11: of the toughest interviews that we've seen going back generations
Speaker 11: of both sides of the nominees showing up for that interview. Obviously,
Speaker 11: something Joe mentioned with Scott Pelly condemning Donald Trump's pull
Speaker 11: out of that, So.
Speaker 14: I think that goes out the window.
Speaker 11: I think later in this week, as Joe alluded to,
Speaker 11: we're going to have that Univision town hall. Obviously, hispanics
Speaker 11: aret of key concern and focus, especially in key states
Speaker 11: like Arizona and Nevada still for this campaign. But again,
Speaker 11: I think it's a matter of reaching as many people
Speaker 11: and that key factors at five and ten percent, not
Speaker 11: to signing between Trump and Harris necessarily, but deciding whether
Speaker 11: to actually show up and vote. And she's got to
Speaker 11: go outside these bubbles. They're not watching US sadly, most
Speaker 11: likely they're not watching CNN, They're not watching MSNBC or Fox.
Speaker 11: These are folks that are outside of that mainstream where
Speaker 11: the conversation is happening.
Speaker 15: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Well, not that Donald Trump is a stranger, just speaking
Speaker 5: with friendly interview your He has typically gravitated toward right
Speaker 5: leaning programs and right leaning interviews. Is back on Hewitt
Speaker 5: yesterday talking about whether it would be possible to turn
Speaker 5: Gaza into another Monaco, for instance. Both campaigns have decided
Speaker 5: to largely issue the sort of traditional, hard hitting journalist interview.
Speaker 5: Is that smart politics?
Speaker 11: I think it's a reflection of where the changing dynamics
Speaker 11: are with regards to the media landscape. To your point,
Speaker 11: Donald Trump, the twenty seven and the last thirty media
Speaker 11: appearances have been before conservatives, listen to you with the
Speaker 11: since he's doing Ben Shapiro for the first time, that's
Speaker 11: today as well that the campaign the Trump campaign just previewed.
Speaker 11: I think it's a matter of going where eyeballs and
Speaker 11: ears are and the shifting dynamics of the media landscape
Speaker 11: more than anything.
Speaker 2: Well, as we consider the media landscape and what people
Speaker 2: are consuming, it isn't just news broadcasts and interviews. They
Speaker 2: are seeing things in between those actual produced segments. They're
Speaker 2: seeing ads. So at this point in the cycle, is
Speaker 2: it the interviews, the new information that maybe gleaned from them,
Speaker 2: that actually make a difference, or is it just the
Speaker 2: flooding of the airwaves with the same messages we're seeing
Speaker 2: over and over and over four weeks out? What actually
Speaker 2: matters here?
Speaker 11: I think what actually matters to your question, it's a
Speaker 11: really good one, is just content?
Speaker 14: Is everything? Right?
Speaker 11: The matter for this campaign to get out, both campaigns
Speaker 11: to feed that beast?
Speaker 14: Which is content? Right?
Speaker 11: The thirty second spots on TikTok that you know we're
Speaker 11: all on our phones watching Instagram videos to flood the zone,
Speaker 11: which you know a lot of these long form interviews
Speaker 11: to your point earlier, you know, it was a forty
Speaker 11: minute conversation with you know, with that podcaster in terms
Speaker 11: of call me what is it called color Daddy?
Speaker 14: Callored? Yeah, I see, I'm like this. I'm already probably
Speaker 14: more my demographic than well.
Speaker 11: Those clips were broken up right in terms of getting
Speaker 11: that element out there, and that's you know, that's again
Speaker 11: content is critical and winning the content game in addition
Speaker 11: to the paid advertising campaign, which the campaign is just dominating.
Speaker 14: The airs campaign is dominating.
Speaker 11: You look, one hundred and fifty more million dollars spent
Speaker 11: since the conventions ended through October fourth. I mean, that's
Speaker 11: just an onslaught of ads. The Trump campaign would say
Speaker 11: it's still relatively even despite this spending. So that's maybe
Speaker 11: a good indication for the Trump campaign. But again, flooding
Speaker 11: the zone is critically important.
Speaker 5: Well, so take us to school for a minute, a
Speaker 5: little clinic with a media consultant. With this massive you
Speaker 5: talk about flooding the zone. This is a big zone.
Speaker 5: Four weeks with no debate, there's no other major event left.
Speaker 5: That's this big thing called October, and it hasn't been
Speaker 5: very kind on the news front to either campaign. Quite frankly,
Speaker 5: we're about to witness this massive hurricane slamming into Tampa.
Speaker 5: Do you just reserve ads across the country and then
Speaker 5: remove them as needed? Do you focus on the seven
Speaker 5: swing states? How do you make the decisions when it
Speaker 5: comes to the closing arguments like that.
Speaker 14: It's a really good question.
Speaker 11: I think also too, as we've seen every cycle, right,
Speaker 11: more states make early voting more available. Yes, back in
Speaker 11: twenty twenty we had about an eighteen percent leap point
Speaker 11: leaned right now in terms of the early vote in
Speaker 11: terms of requests and returns, that's at a twenty five
Speaker 11: point differential for Democrats.
Speaker 14: So that's certainly something that the Hairs campaign is looking at.
Speaker 11: They've also previewed the the idea of maybe doing thirty
Speaker 11: second infomercials and some of these key states as well,
Speaker 11: because of that funding advantage that the Hairs campaign just
Speaker 11: blowing the doors off thirty second nutes, thirty minutes half
Speaker 11: our advice in some of these broadcast DMAs into your point.
Speaker 14: The seven key states.
Speaker 11: You're not going to see that in the Boston media
Speaker 11: market or anything like that, but in some of these
Speaker 11: key states where where funding is is what your dollar
Speaker 11: goes a little bit farther again, we're also bumping up
Speaker 11: to you know, from a media consultant perspective, we're also
Speaker 11: bumping up into the holidays too, right, so not just
Speaker 11: politics driving the cost of advertising higher, but November, you know,
Speaker 11: late October and November are very expensive, especially on broadcasts
Speaker 11: in some of these key DMAs.
Speaker 2: Kevin just reminded me it's prime day todayotentially to do
Speaker 2: today and tomorrow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so much like the holiday season.
Speaker 2: I'm not even but to your point with early voting,
Speaker 2: it's also election season. It's no longer just yes, that's
Speaker 2: right day. As we consider to Joe's point about what
Speaker 2: has happened already in October, what could happen remaining in
Speaker 2: this October. It's not just natural disasters, it's man made
Speaker 2: tragedies as well, including war in the Middle East, specifically
Speaker 2: in Michigan, with the news flow that we have gotten
Speaker 2: with intensifying and fighting rather than cooling off. Having just
Speaker 2: marked one year since October seventh, are you worried that
Speaker 2: the campaign is not paying adequate attention to the potential
Speaker 2: votes that could be lost on the Democratic side for
Speaker 2: those who are opposed to her position or this administration's
Speaker 2: position on supporting Israel, which she said on the View today,
Speaker 2: there is no issue that she would have tackled differently.
Speaker 11: So I'm a Democrat, so I worry about everything, every population,
Speaker 11: every state up until you know, we're notorious for being badwetters.
Speaker 11: And I think, you know, to your point, at least
Speaker 11: Lockin has previewed some of those concerns. She's obviously the
Speaker 11: Democratic candidate running in that state. Most battleground state polls
Speaker 11: have the vice president up, but it's within the margin Nevara.
Speaker 11: But again, you know, to your point, there's a huge
Speaker 11: issue with Arab American voters that are traditionally in our camp.
Speaker 11: There's new stories about Korean American voters that were a
Speaker 11: core element of Joe Biden flipping Georgia for the first
Speaker 11: time since Bill Clinton.
Speaker 14: And you're going to see these campaigns.
Speaker 11: You know that the Hair's campaign has touted three hundred
Speaker 11: and thirty field offices, twenty four hundred staff. So many
Speaker 11: of those folks are dispatched to those communities that are
Speaker 11: a part of those communities as well that aren't new
Speaker 11: to those areas, and lifting up those voices is going
Speaker 11: to be critically important.
Speaker 5: I'm going to throw something actually here with a minute left.
Speaker 5: It's totally unfair, but there are reports of not only
Speaker 5: all the way in the Sezo, not only misinformation in
Speaker 5: western North Carolina, but laying the groundwork in some cases
Speaker 5: for claims of fraud. They are voting, as you just mentioned,
Speaker 5: in some of these states that have been hit by
Speaker 5: massive tropical storms. What is that going to mean at
Speaker 5: the beginning of November.
Speaker 14: It's going to be more in certainty. Right.
Speaker 11: The fact that we're now politicizing disaster response is something
Speaker 11: a road that we haven't gone down.
Speaker 14: Before in this country.
Speaker 11: You know, you see the Trump campaign bringing on recruiting
Speaker 11: more and more poll watching volunteers as opposed to actually
Speaker 11: feel people going out and knocking on doors.
Speaker 14: They just want people at the polls, challenging folks.
Speaker 6: So this is another reason to contest results.
Speaker 14: This is a huge reason to contest results.
Speaker 11: Luckily, I think you know this is not new to
Speaker 11: both sides, and everyone's gonna be lawyered up certainly. But
Speaker 11: again it's a problem because people like certainty and we
Speaker 11: likely won't have that on November fifth.
Speaker 6: It's great to have you back at the table.
Speaker 5: Yes with us early the early edition of Ballots of Power,
Speaker 5: the Democratic Strategistic.
Speaker 6: Thanks for listening the Balance of Power podcast.
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