Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Before we get into domestic policy and foreign policy, I
Speaker 2: want to ask you about this speech that the President's
Speaker 2: going to deliver tonight. Reportedly it's going to center on
Speaker 2: twenty twenty at election interference. One of your many jobs
Speaker 2: was in the White House as chief of staff. You
Speaker 2: had to think through putting together speeches like this one.
Speaker 2: And I wonder how you're thinking about this speech that
Speaker 2: the President's going to give tonight against centric on what
Speaker 2: happened now six years ago.
Speaker 3: Well, my view is I'd like to give him an
Speaker 3: extra thirty minutes because anything that's retrospective that's not prospective
Speaker 3: for the America where they are today, where their children
Speaker 3: are could be tomorrow, is going to get basically put
Speaker 3: on mute. And in fact, I think so I think
Speaker 3: the president's making a massive strategic mistake.
Speaker 1: It will come.
Speaker 3: Across interpret it as self serving for him. And I'm
Speaker 3: saying exactly what Republican strategists are saying to him, but
Speaker 3: the White House doesn't want to because this is mental
Speaker 3: health for the president. That's exactly what's going on. So
Speaker 3: my view, don't limit yourself to fifteen minutes. Much time
Speaker 3: as you want, mister President, spend a lot of time
Speaker 3: on twenty twenty, not twenty thirty.
Speaker 2: We're going to talk about the political terrain midterms, general
Speaker 2: election after that, but before we get there, I'm curious
Speaker 2: of how worried you are about this issue of election integrity,
Speaker 2: seeing what the president has been doing, what his advisors
Speaker 2: have been saying publicly, how worried are you about.
Speaker 3: The integraty the time of the right left one is
Speaker 3: I'm very focused on I think for Democrats winning, what
Speaker 3: does it take to win? There is a part less
Speaker 3: on the periphery, but on the other side that you know,
Speaker 3: Let's assume the Democrats win seven seats net get a
Speaker 3: majority every election, David, you have three or four seats
Speaker 3: that are two hundred and three hundred less than one percent.
Speaker 3: Some states have automatic recounts, others don't. The speakers showed
Speaker 3: that when it came to the Arizona race he wouldn't
Speaker 3: seat the member, and I worry a little. And it's
Speaker 3: growing that you're the January sixth that we on the
Speaker 3: steps of the capital will be driven inside the Capitol
Speaker 3: because this constitution is very clear the speaker has the
Speaker 3: right to call it organizes the House, so you got
Speaker 3: a seat. Members do have a new election, and I
Speaker 3: think they're going to basically until those elections are decided
Speaker 3: to say no, and they're gonna say there's no majority,
Speaker 3: there's no clarity, and they're going to postpone.
Speaker 1: Actually beginning anew.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about a pair of speeches you've given recently,
Speaker 2: centering on foreign policy.
Speaker 1: You went to Israel and spoke in Tel Aviv.
Speaker 2: This has been characterized, I think kind of clumsily as
Speaker 2: a critique of the Prime Minister of Benjamin Thattaho. But
Speaker 2: it was a larger speech than that. It was not
Speaker 2: just criticism. You laid out a plan for peace.
Speaker 1: Or at least you heard that.
Speaker 3: Unigating the show'st yes, I think the Prime Minister led
Speaker 3: Israel into basically a dead end. Here's what I would
Speaker 3: do to get out of that status, because I have
Speaker 3: concern for the Alliance and more than that, Japan and
Speaker 3: Ally very popular in the United States, NATO, very popular
Speaker 3: in America. We have a critical ally who is dropping
Speaker 3: precipitously in America, dropping precipitously in Europe, Canada, Australia have
Speaker 3: to have a breakout moment that actually establishes support for
Speaker 3: the country, not just a particular prime minister or government.
Speaker 2: What did you make of the reaction to the response
Speaker 2: to it? Again, it has been kind of distilled into
Speaker 2: something that it wasn't entirely.
Speaker 1: What do you think of that?
Speaker 2: What does it say about the way that we talk
Speaker 2: about US Israel people.
Speaker 3: At work on like without characterizing them sense? You know,
Speaker 3: President Clinton and I talked, you know, Hillary Clinton put
Speaker 3: out a comment. I know I've talked to Hakim Jeffries
Speaker 3: so one. I viewed the pariah status, the isolation of
Speaker 3: Israel strategically, diplomatically, militarily, economically, as a real threat to Israel.
Speaker 3: Big article today about the economists what this is in danger?
Speaker 3: So I laid out a strategy.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: The Saudi Arabia, which is kind of the Crown Jewel,
Speaker 3: was a sponsor of the twenty thirteen proposal by the
Speaker 3: Arab League for a twenty three state solution. Basically, all
Speaker 3: twenty one nations would recognize Israel if you came to
Speaker 3: some settlement agreement between sovereignty and security the Holy Grail.
Speaker 3: But Saudi Arabia now post October seventh, won't go singularly,
Speaker 3: but in a there's a comfort in numbers with all
Speaker 3: twenty one gay one. But you don't get to sit
Speaker 3: on the sideline, Arab League. You have to stand up
Speaker 3: a Palestinian authority.
Speaker 1: Because they're three strikes out.
Speaker 3: They got three times offered sovereignty, three times said no
Speaker 3: and returned violence. So you've made a cynical Israeli partner.
Speaker 3: That's not how you build trust. So I'm gonna give
Speaker 3: you a chance to get out of jail card a
Speaker 3: fourth chance. But everybody in the Arab League's got to
Speaker 3: stand up that partner. You've got to recognize it not
Speaker 3: only the state of Israel, but it's historic right. You
Speaker 3: got to stop rewarding terrorists for killing Israelis because they're Israelis,
Speaker 3: and stop teaching your children to hate Israelis now Israel.
Speaker 1: It's got to stop undermining And a classic example of
Speaker 1: this government.
Speaker 3: This government undermined the Palestinian authority, but they allowed Katar
Speaker 3: to send six billion dollars to Hamas. Hamas was not
Speaker 3: using that six billion dollars to build McDonald's franchise in Gaza.
Speaker 3: They were building tunnels, and.
Speaker 1: You knew it. That was a strategic failure of this government.
Speaker 1: The second.
Speaker 3: As you can see, I recommended the IMEC India, Mideast
Speaker 3: Europe economic cord or cables ports energy.
Speaker 1: You got to get around the strait of hermus.
Speaker 3: It puts Israel's technological prowess at the center of the
Speaker 3: most important trade route, so both economically and strategically, making Israel,
Speaker 3: as David Bengorion, the founding father said, a nation among nations.
Speaker 3: Second important is in the critique. Every country has four
Speaker 3: tools in its security toolbox military power, political persuasion, economic stakecraft,
Speaker 3: cultural attraction. The Prime Minister has after fied three of
Speaker 3: them to the point their non existence, and relied on
Speaker 3: only one.
Speaker 1: That is not.
Speaker 3: Acceptable if you're trying to be uh and have actually security.
Speaker 3: Example of that, and I'll pay the calling cards. You
Speaker 3: can use my AT and T calling card.
Speaker 1: You have.
Speaker 3: Assyrian government today they said Iran is our common enemy.
Speaker 3: Syria is the highway sixty six for Iran to has Bella.
Speaker 3: You can cut it off. And he wants to count,
Speaker 3: he said, the president of Syria, I want to come
Speaker 3: to a security agreement with Israel. The United States is
Speaker 3: now building or facilitating a building of Iraqi oil through
Speaker 3: cyrial Yeah.
Speaker 1: Call the Syrian president.
Speaker 3: It's not even a piece of agreement security agreement. The people
Speaker 3: in the northern galley of Israel would get security, and
Speaker 3: you would actually knock out the security. The trade route
Speaker 3: from Tehran two Beirut suburbs.
Speaker 1: That fund has beloup. That's it. Use your diplomatic tools.
Speaker 3: The Prime Minister likes to say he was raised with English,
Speaker 3: learned the letter D. It starts first letter in the
Speaker 3: word diplomacy. Try it.
Speaker 1: It works.
Speaker 2: You have a long professional, familial history with Israel. Your
Speaker 2: sense of the kind of reception that your speech got
Speaker 2: there as they look at their elections coming up here,
Speaker 2: is there an appetite for what you kind of proposed
Speaker 2: in that speech.
Speaker 3: Well, I do think so. I mean, look just as
Speaker 3: you can. There is a big interview on Channel twelve
Speaker 3: with Unique Levy. The Nacham Barnet, who is the premier
Speaker 3: columnist in Israel at Idiot wrote dedicated three full pages
Speaker 3: and the cover on a Sunday story which was Israel,
Speaker 3: are you listening?
Speaker 1: Ram has a message. We need to hear him.
Speaker 3: So now again, I didn't bust out of the country.
Speaker 3: I didn't make it up to Kira A Shimoni in
Speaker 3: the north of Brusheva in the south. But I was
Speaker 3: in the kind of Tel Aviv Jerusalem corridor.
Speaker 1: But everybody knows.
Speaker 3: An example of this, one hundred Israeli generals did an
Speaker 3: open letter that what's happening on the West Bank, they
Speaker 3: called it.
Speaker 1: I did not use this term.
Speaker 3: Those one hundred generals plus Hinnvett leaders called it Jewish terrorism.
Speaker 1: And said it's undermining Israels security.
Speaker 3: Nothing I said of the criticism has not been said
Speaker 3: by leaders of Israel's own security shin Bet.
Speaker 1: As well as IDF.
Speaker 3: Nothing and I never referred to it as terrorism. Their
Speaker 3: own generals and shim Bett members in an open letter
Speaker 3: to society.
Speaker 1: This is what the Prime minister is doing.
Speaker 3: And I have a long history going back to nine
Speaker 3: when he publicly I didn't need a war to know
Speaker 3: what Israel was doing. I publicly I told him what
Speaker 3: you are doing on housing in the West Bank will.
Speaker 1: Isolate Israel and lead to perpetual conflict.
Speaker 3: If there was If there was a conclusion I wanted
Speaker 3: to be wrong on, that was it. He then publicly
Speaker 3: accused me of self loathing j Now I believe opposing
Speaker 3: the settlements and encouraging the President Obama, which he did
Speaker 3: to fund the Iron Dome, are not contradictory but actually
Speaker 3: complimentary to Israel's security.
Speaker 1: They go their heads and tails are the same coin.
Speaker 1: I want to move to domestic policy now.
Speaker 2: If they couldn't look ahead to the next election. You've
Speaker 2: said you're thinking about running. You haven't made a decision yet.
Speaker 2: What are the factors that you're weighing. You've characterized this
Speaker 2: as a Baskin Robbins primary in the Democratic Party will
Speaker 2: be thirty one flavors, and I'm curious if you're lining
Speaker 2: up to be one of them.
Speaker 3: As I said, well, in twenty twenty four, the Democrats
Speaker 3: unfortunately didn't have a primary, didn't have a choice. I
Speaker 3: think that was bad for the party and I think
Speaker 3: it's bad but also for the electoral out come. And
Speaker 3: the truth is we didn't really have one in twenty twenty.
Speaker 3: I do believe in twenty twenty eight, I said it's
Speaker 3: going to be like Baskin and Robins and thirty one flavors,
Speaker 3: And if I decide to do it, I plan on
Speaker 3: being Rocky Road.
Speaker 2: I look at the travel that you've done, Yes to Israel,
Speaker 2: Yes to Europe. To give a speech on NATO. But
Speaker 2: you've been to Mississippi, you've been to New Hampshire. Yeah,
Speaker 2: talk about what we can draw from the places you've visited.
Speaker 2: Sort of what you're looking at here again, perhaps in
Speaker 2: the interest of you running in the next election.
Speaker 3: One is, America faces a series of challenges, but everything
Speaker 3: that ails America can be answered by what's working in America.
Speaker 1: So look in word do you say.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, I don't by a good way of example,
Speaker 3: I don't believe like I went to Mississippi where they're
Speaker 3: moved from forty ninth to ninth thund reading. If you
Speaker 3: actually have tests for other things, they're number one in America.
Speaker 3: I don't need to go by way of example and
Speaker 3: look at Manchester, England.
Speaker 1: It's right here in Mississippi. I don't need to go overseas.
Speaker 1: It's working here. How do we scale it?
Speaker 3: I'm going to assume in New Hampshire they have their
Speaker 3: own examples. In Lacrosse, Wisconsin, I don't need to go
Speaker 3: to Luxembourg. Lacrosse, Wisconsin's community college system, in their high
Speaker 3: school system, in their industry is an example of what's
Speaker 3: working in the integration of economic growth and educational opportunity.
Speaker 3: I will soon after Labor Day make a trip to Louisiana.
Speaker 3: They're the only states whose math and reading scores are now.
Speaker 1: Pre COVID numbers.
Speaker 3: They have figured out the combination to the lot. Now
Speaker 3: I partially care about education. I cannot believe the country
Speaker 3: has become complacent where fifty percent of our kids can't
Speaker 3: read at grade level. There is no getting from here
Speaker 3: to there for that student. If they cannot read, cannot
Speaker 3: do math, cannot not only graduate high school, but go
Speaker 3: into the armed forces, vocational ed community colleges, or go
Speaker 3: on to a four year institution. So my view is
Speaker 3: I'm going to go down to Louisiana learn what they
Speaker 3: have done. I've got started to read this report from
Speaker 3: both Stamford and Harvard and from a tu Lane professor
Speaker 3: I talked to yesterday, and I want to highlight what
Speaker 3: Louisiana has done as every other forty nine states are struggling.
Speaker 1: Our math and Reeney scores are anemic.
Speaker 3: And I don't think we as a country can give
Speaker 3: up on a single child in this country. Now, if
Speaker 3: you figured out the combination to the Locke, I want
Speaker 3: to take Louisiana to all forty nine states, and that's
Speaker 3: how we're going to reboot the Department of Education to
Speaker 3: actually do something for the future. There is no getting
Speaker 3: from here to there, ever, when only a third of
Speaker 3: your citizens are reading and doing math.
Speaker 1: At grade level.
Speaker 3: If you look at the four great moments of American
Speaker 3: economic growth, landgrand colleges, universal high school education, GI Bill,
Speaker 3: science and technology split in a challenge, the one through
Speaker 3: line in constant is when you invest in Americans, America wins.
Speaker 1: That's what I believe in.
Speaker 2: It's a question about your party, that the Democratic Party,
Speaker 2: going back to these thirty one flavors. Do you see
Speaker 2: this at all problematic that there is such I guess
Speaker 2: debate or discord within the party right now when it
Speaker 2: comes to the issue of you US as real policy,
Speaker 2: when it comes to all of these issues, is it productive,
Speaker 2: as you see it, to have conversations about I'm a
Speaker 2: policy book.
Speaker 3: I grew up in a family where dinner table conversations
Speaker 3: representing the gladiators. So I actually I'm four. I think
Speaker 3: one of the things this is my analysis of the party.
Speaker 3: We come out of it, and I'm as guilty as
Speaker 3: anybody else. In two thousand and eight, President Obama wins,
Speaker 3: and we were running around going demographics as Destiny look
Speaker 3: at his coalition.
Speaker 1: The future is ours now.
Speaker 3: We became, in my view, as a party intellectually flabby,
Speaker 3: and we're paying a price for that, both on the
Speaker 3: political grounds and the policy grounds, and ultimately not just us,
Speaker 3: but the country because we're not kind.
Speaker 1: Of sharp and rigorous.
Speaker 3: So I happen to think a debate is way way overdue.
Speaker 3: I happen to want I think we should engage in
Speaker 3: a policy debate. Look, somebody else has another education idea
Speaker 3: that doesn't agree with mine, great game on, let's go.
Speaker 1: You agree. I said, you serve two years national service,
Speaker 1: We'll give you the money for a down payment. You
Speaker 1: have another idea on how to solve that. Bring it forward.
Speaker 3: I believe, as I stated, a ten percent tax on
Speaker 3: the prediction markets, an online sport gaming goes into an
Speaker 3: innovation fund for the National Institute of Health, National Science Foundation,
Speaker 3: and the dark but double research dollars. You have another
Speaker 3: way to advance research and development.
Speaker 1: Bring it forward. Let's have this debate.
Speaker 3: Will be a better party to better serve America's future.
Speaker 3: My view is that the party has spent too much
Speaker 3: time just focusing on fighting Trump. I want to prove
Speaker 3: to the country, the majority of America we know how
Speaker 3: to fight for America, not just fight against Donald Trump.