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Speaker 3: Don Byer, he's with us now. I can't imagine how
Speaker 3: long it's been. The congressman from Virginia's eighth district serves
Speaker 3: on the Ways and Means Committee, the Joint Economic Committee,
Speaker 3: and if you live anywhere in the Washington, DC area,
Speaker 3: you know the name just from the dealerships. Congressman. It's
Speaker 3: great to have you back. The two questions everyone is asking,
Speaker 3: which ought to say a lot about the state of things.
Speaker 3: Is the government going to shut down? And is Kevin
Speaker 3: McCarthy going to get fired? You you want to take
Speaker 3: a stab at either?
Speaker 4: Those were good, by the way, I thought the interview
Speaker 4: with Megan Scully was great. She's very good insights and
Speaker 4: I don't want to repeat everything as she said, but
Speaker 4: she was right on the button.
Speaker 5: At the challenge.
Speaker 4: I do think though, that we Democrats in the minority
Speaker 4: in the House will have work to do. Among other things,
Speaker 4: we're going to have to really amplify and get the
Speaker 4: mess out that a MAGA shutdown will be terrible for
Speaker 4: the country, terrible for federal workers, terrible for all the
Speaker 4: things the government does for the American people every single day.
Speaker 5: And I also think you.
Speaker 4: Know, as as you have talked Joe, that Kevin's going
Speaker 4: to Kevin McCarthy. Speaker McCarthy is going to have to
Speaker 4: find a bipartisan deal to do this, which means he's
Speaker 4: going to need at least as many Democrats to vote
Speaker 4: for this continued resolution as the Freedom Caucus members that
Speaker 4: he loses on the Republican side.
Speaker 6: Do you talk to Speaker McCarthy?
Speaker 3: Does he speak, you know a lot with Democrats? Do
Speaker 3: you have a relationship with his office or do you
Speaker 3: really feel like you're you're reading about this in the news?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 4: No, Well, I have not talked to him during this
Speaker 4: very long break. I think Arsen will be forty eight
Speaker 4: to forty nine days. It's the longest breaking money fire.
Speaker 4: It's weird and not good. I talked to the Speaker
Speaker 4: a number of times. Is friendly relationship, but but you know,
Speaker 4: I'm not the Democratic leader, and I think his conversations
Speaker 4: with Hakeem Jefferies and Catherine Clark are the really important ones,
Speaker 4: and I am pleased that they seem to get along
Speaker 4: pretty well, and we're gonna need them.
Speaker 5: The country is going to need them to get along.
Speaker 4: The key, Joe, I think is if Speaker does the
Speaker 4: right thing, does not let himself be held hostage by
Speaker 4: the Freedom Caucus, he can easily get you say, one
Speaker 4: hundred and ninety or two hundred Republicans to vote for
Speaker 4: a continued resolution, and enough Democrats.
Speaker 5: Maybe all of them, but at least the eighteen or
Speaker 5: twenty to get it passed.
Speaker 4: The question then, is will the Freedom Caucus pull the
Speaker 4: trigger on this so called mostion to vacate the chair,
Speaker 4: which is basically a vote of no confidence in the Speaker,
Speaker 4: which could have him lose the speakership in a worst
Speaker 4: case for him, And I think that would be a
Speaker 4: terrible thing for the country.
Speaker 5: But that's something that he Well.
Speaker 3: I'm sure you're not probably getting drinks a lot with
Speaker 3: Chip Roy and Andy Biggs in company, But what are
Speaker 3: you hearing about that is this real talk?
Speaker 6: Do they actually make that move or does it depend
Speaker 6: on what's inside the c.
Speaker 5: Are somewhat depends.
Speaker 4: I think the three or four things that they're asking
Speaker 4: for are non starters for all the Democrats and most
Speaker 4: of the moderate and sensible Republicans. You know, they're asking
Speaker 4: for things that, you know, like basically slashing the budgets
Speaker 4: of the Department of Justice and the FBI. This from
Speaker 4: supposedly that the law enforcement folks. It's just craziness. But
Speaker 4: I also know that Chip Roy and some of those
Speaker 4: guys are Andy Biggs. They are true believers. They're not
Speaker 4: just out about raising money for their campaigns. And because
Speaker 4: they're true believers, they're not intended, not likely to compromise.
Speaker 3: I'll add another name here. I don't know if you'd
Speaker 3: refer to Marjorie Taylor Green as a true believer. She
Speaker 3: was thrown out of the Freedom Caucus, so maybe not.
Speaker 3: But she's floating this idea. She's not the only one
Speaker 3: that we actually tie government funding with a vote on
Speaker 3: an impeachment inquiry or just the fact that there would
Speaker 3: be an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden. Is that actually
Speaker 3: going to is that what this comes down, We're going
Speaker 3: to unlock government funding based on an impeachment inquiry.
Speaker 4: Well, first of all, that's really stupid politics, and maybe
Speaker 4: good politics, and Marjorie Green's Northern Georgia district.
Speaker 5: But everywhere else.
Speaker 4: All that would do would be to pump up Joe
Speaker 4: Biden distract us from the real work of government. They
Speaker 4: have yet to turn up a single fact that would
Speaker 4: justify any kind of impeachment.
Speaker 5: It's you know, the thought.
Speaker 4: That Marjorie Taylor Green had been sort of on Kevin
Speaker 4: McCarthy's side, got thrown out of the Freedmam Caucus. His
Speaker 4: puts her right back into the crazy group when it
Speaker 4: looked like maybe there was a chance that she was
Speaker 4: starting to grow up.
Speaker 6: We I wonder if the Speaker is going to do
Speaker 6: with though.
Speaker 3: I mean, Kevin McCarthy's been talking about impeachment every time
Speaker 3: he's in front of a camera lately, and it's difficult
Speaker 3: to tell what direction that would go in. But if
Speaker 3: he can keep the government running based on that equation,
Speaker 3: why not.
Speaker 5: Yeah. And although.
Speaker 4: I think he understands though, that if he wants to
Speaker 4: hand the House right back to the Democrats in fourteen months,
Speaker 4: impeachmentth's the way to do it. And you know, I
Speaker 4: think the Speaker's in a hard place because he has to,
Speaker 4: you know, give lip service and seem to be doing
Speaker 4: his best on the impeachment for the ninety ones in
Speaker 4: his caucaus.
Speaker 5: At the same time, I'm sure he does not want
Speaker 5: this to happen.
Speaker 7: Yeah right.
Speaker 3: I got to ask you about politics in Virginia. Every
Speaker 3: time I look at a national political story, all roads
Speaker 3: seem to lead to your state congressman, whether we're talking
Speaker 3: about Abigail Spanberger, your colleague in the House, potentially running
Speaker 3: for governor. More often, though, I hear about Glenn Youngkin
Speaker 3: and how he may have created a national model for
Speaker 3: Republicans here in a post Trump world, if we are
Speaker 3: in one. It doesn't feel like it at the moment.
Speaker 3: But could you see Governor Youngkin following the legislative session
Speaker 3: actually swooping in late in the game here to run
Speaker 3: for president.
Speaker 4: Yes, And in fact, I think the big Virginia worry
Speaker 4: is that if if the governor with his very deep
Speaker 4: pockets and his friends with very deep hooks, because throws
Speaker 4: too much money at the Virginia General Assembly, races at
Speaker 4: the end and somehow he flips the Virginia Senate and
Speaker 4: keeps the House, you know, we would expect him to
Speaker 4: be a presidential candidate the next day. And of course
Speaker 4: we're terrified that if he somehow got the trifecta, you know,
Speaker 4: by by next March, Virginia would be Florida.
Speaker 5: Do he do all the evil things that Florida?
Speaker 4: And we're the southernmost state that still is preserved a
Speaker 4: woman's right to reproductive freedom, and.
Speaker 5: I know he Glen Young would change that right away
Speaker 5: if he had to vote.
Speaker 4: So we're all in on making sure that we keep
Speaker 4: the Senate and flip the Virginia House and try to
Speaker 4: stop the Young.
Speaker 3: That's what we're talking when you say evil things though
Speaker 3: you're talking about abortion policy.
Speaker 6: Did I understand you're not.
Speaker 4: Being able to teach controversial subjects? No Holocaust, no slavery.
Speaker 4: You know a lot of the stuff going after trans
Speaker 4: kids just generally hostile to so many of the people
Speaker 4: who live, work, love and and.
Speaker 6: By the way, was a heck of a word.
Speaker 5: To overblow the youngin phenomenon.
Speaker 4: He won the election with less than fifty one percent
Speaker 4: of the votes after Governor mccalloff made, you know, a
Speaker 4: singular mistake in a debate about Paris not being involved
Speaker 4: in the kids' education.
Speaker 5: Absent that twenty seconds, he never would have been governor.
Speaker 3: That's something that's the name of the game in politics,
Speaker 3: which is why I don't know how anyone could make
Speaker 3: a living doing this.
Speaker 6: To be honest with you.
Speaker 3: I have to ask a car guy about what's going
Speaker 3: on in Detroit. Well, a lot of people outside of
Speaker 3: this area might not realize that you made a living
Speaker 3: in the car business as a very successful car dealer.
Speaker 3: And I wonder your thoughts on this conversation with the
Speaker 3: uaw A thirty two percent or I believe it's a
Speaker 3: forty percent increase in wages over the length of the contract,
Speaker 3: thirty two day work week. They're asking for things that
Speaker 3: these companies are clearly not going to be able to give.
Speaker 3: When you look at Ford and GM, some very strong
Speaker 3: language coming out of the union after the deal made
Speaker 3: with the UPS and the teamsters, don Byer, what do
Speaker 3: you think happens? Are we in for an auto strike
Speaker 3: in this country?
Speaker 5: Well, I sure hope not. I know the language is strong.
Speaker 5: I know you know, Joe, when you go.
Speaker 4: To sell a car, you try to start at list price,
Speaker 4: no matter where you end up. And it sounds like
Speaker 4: that's what the union has done, is they started with
Speaker 4: a very high manufacturer suggested retail.
Speaker 5: Agreement and they have to be ready to negotiate it down.
Speaker 4: By the way, this administration, Joe Biden and his folks
Speaker 4: have done a really good job of intervening.
Speaker 5: Again and again, you know, on the long storemen, on
Speaker 5: the ups.
Speaker 4: I certainly expect that we will see the White House
Speaker 4: intervening to make sure that they don't strike against the
Speaker 4: Big three.
Speaker 6: Would that actually take care of it?
Speaker 3: They did not intervene when requested in the Yellow trucking situation,
Speaker 3: and I realized that company may have had its own issues.
Speaker 6: This one's worth it though, you think.
Speaker 4: Now, it's definitely worth it, And the autoworkers have been
Speaker 4: strong supporters of Biden in the past.
Speaker 5: But the last thing to do, especially.
Speaker 4: After all the inflation that affected new cars and used
Speaker 4: cars in the last couple of years, yeah, we would
Speaker 4: to look at supply shortages again and driving up prices.
Speaker 5: That'd be a terrible thing for the American consumer.
Speaker 3: Next time you come on, I want to ask you
Speaker 3: about AI and the role that it will be playing,
Speaker 3: not only in these negotiations, but the future of the
Speaker 3: auto industry. We spend so much time talking weapons, Congressman,
Speaker 3: it's all around us, and I want to thank you
Speaker 3: for being with us on our first big day on YouTube.
Speaker 3: Congressman Don Byer, the Democrat from Virginia with us here
Speaker 3: on sound on Many Thanks to you. I'm Joe Matthew
Speaker 3: in Washington with a lot more to talk about.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Sound on podcast. Catch the
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Speaker 3: Mick mulvaney joins former OMB director I could do all
Speaker 3: the formers, a former staff, former member of Congress, former
Speaker 3: well co founder of the Freedom Cacus.
Speaker 7: That part never goes away.
Speaker 6: It's good to see you think.
Speaker 8: Am I supposed to look at you? Am I supposed
Speaker 8: to look at Yeah? I guess we just look at
Speaker 8: each other radio.
Speaker 3: I'm still practicing this myself now. I guess if you're
Speaker 3: I'm at show in them of course. Indeed, one of
Speaker 3: my favorites of the early days of CNB. I guess
Speaker 3: another trailblazer on getting radio on TV or something like that.
Speaker 9: Yeah, what about my posture.
Speaker 3: Where about my Honestly, yeah, it's really it's a little
Speaker 3: bit stressful here.
Speaker 6: I appreciate your being. I'd be all alone without you, Mick.
Speaker 9: We both have faces for radio.
Speaker 6: Well, let's find out together what's going on. I guess
Speaker 6: a lot.
Speaker 3: I keep hearing about this awful September that Speaker McCarthy
Speaker 3: has to prepare for.
Speaker 6: Here.
Speaker 3: You've you've obviously been here. You come back from Labor Day.
Speaker 3: Everybody's been gone for over a month of Marston parades
Speaker 3: last weekend. But there's some in this case, some really
Speaker 3: difficult decisions that need to be made, a tough debate
Speaker 3: over funding the government, and I'm hearing motion to vacate again.
Speaker 3: I don't know if that's real or not. But how
Speaker 3: difficult is September going to be for Kevin?
Speaker 9: It's difficult in a variety of ways. What a lot
Speaker 9: of folks don't realize is that August.
Speaker 8: Is really strange for members in Congress. They typically don't
Speaker 8: talk much to each other. We always think, oh, it's
Speaker 8: so easy to talk to each other and communicate, you text,
Speaker 8: you do it.
Speaker 9: No, it's right.
Speaker 8: They spread to the four corners literally of the world.
Speaker 8: I mean they go all around the world. I was
Speaker 8: in Italy and.
Speaker 9: Bumped into a couple of them.
Speaker 8: So there's not a lot of coordination in August as
Speaker 8: to what's going to happen in September. So the leadership
Speaker 8: team has been working and what's going to happen in September,
Speaker 8: But the ordinary members have been off doing whatever they
Speaker 8: do in August. So you come back after not having
Speaker 8: a lot of communication and boom, now you're stuck with
Speaker 8: each other for I think they're here three or four
Speaker 8: weeks in September, maybe all of September, how about that,
Speaker 8: And they've got a bunch of stuff to do. I
Speaker 8: think the government shutdown is a big one. The potential
Speaker 8: impeachment proceedings would be another thing. But of course I'm
Speaker 8: also hearing about the motion to vacate the chair as well,
Speaker 8: so that is real.
Speaker 3: It's not that we're reminded of this so we can
Speaker 3: talk about it in the media. And this is it
Speaker 3: just select members of the Freedom CAUCU is talking about this,
Speaker 3: or is it the brad Republican Conference saying wait a minute,
Speaker 3: if this doesn't work out, we're gonna have to talk
Speaker 3: again about a news speaker.
Speaker 8: No it's never been the auto Republican conference. It's always
Speaker 8: been sort of a rump group within the Freedom Caucus.
Speaker 8: And that's sort of what it grates on me and people. So, oh,
Speaker 8: it's a Freedom Caucus uprising, O, what is it? The
Speaker 8: Freedom Caucus? Don't they don't publish their members. We think
Speaker 8: they have thirty or forty members, and it was what
Speaker 8: a dozen or so that gave Kevin difficulties back in January,
Speaker 8: and he's trying to get sworn in. So this is
Speaker 8: not a freedom Caucus movement. Jim Jordan is in the
Speaker 8: Freedom Caucus. He's very firmly in McCarthy's camp. So it's
Speaker 8: not a freedom cause thing. It's a subgroup of that,
Speaker 8: but it's definitely real within that, especially when the margin
Speaker 8: is only what four or five votes in the House,
Speaker 8: any four or five members sort of hold that sort
Speaker 8: of demically is over at Kevin McCarthy's head.
Speaker 7: That's pretty remarkable.
Speaker 3: We're talking about a continuing resolution, so we don't have
Speaker 3: a shutdown when we roll into October, but that would
Speaker 3: only buy so much time. Apparently Speaker McCarthy's made clear
Speaker 3: he doesn't want to be bumping up against the holidays
Speaker 3: and having a you know, of course, we're very used
Speaker 3: to doing that. What's your thought, though, I mean, we
Speaker 3: seem to be guaranteeing ourselves a shutdown. Is it actually inevitable?
Speaker 8: Do you remember the ads for Ivory soap when we
Speaker 8: were little sure ninety nine point forty four one hundreds
Speaker 8: pure that's sort of my odds on a government shutdown.
Speaker 9: Oh, it is, and it is. And keep in mind,
Speaker 9: a government shutdown is not that big a deal.
Speaker 8: That's one of the things I learned when I ran
Speaker 8: the OMB, because you know, I had participated in more
Speaker 8: than one government shutdown in my day in Congress. And
Speaker 8: then I end up at the Office of Management Budget
Speaker 8: and they start talking about another shutdown, and they come
Speaker 8: to me and they go, you know, you run a shutdown.
Speaker 8: I'm like, I'm sorry, what the director of the Office
Speaker 8: of Managed Budget runs a shutdown? In fact, I actually
Speaker 8: signed the document shutting the government down. And that's when
Speaker 8: you realize it's not that big a deal. It can
Speaker 8: be manipulated to look like it's a big deal. You
Speaker 8: can manipulate it to close certain things, to close the
Speaker 8: national parks, you close the mindments here in Washington, d
Speaker 8: c all the big, high profile stuff, but generally speaking,
Speaker 8: most of the government continues to run, and the OMB
Speaker 8: director has a lot of say over what government continues
Speaker 8: to run and what doesn't, so it doesn't have to
Speaker 8: be the end of the world. I had a conversation
Speaker 8: with some freem Caucus members over the break. Then they
Speaker 8: asked me, said, you know why we you know, why
Speaker 8: were you against us on Kevin and and the debt ceiling.
Speaker 8: I'm like, you didn't have a plan on Kevin and
Speaker 8: Vin was the only person with the votes. You're never
Speaker 8: going to do better than Kevin. And on the debt ceiling.
Speaker 8: We've never breached the debt ceiling before, So I don't
Speaker 8: know what that world looks like. Government shutdown. I know
Speaker 8: what this looks like, and I've been there. We've all
Speaker 8: been there before. And I think Kevin sort of has
Speaker 8: to go through a little bit of a shutdown if
Speaker 8: nothing else, to sort of boost his bonafidies with the
Speaker 8: right hand.
Speaker 9: The right wing.
Speaker 6: How about that now?
Speaker 3: Of course we're hearing as well from the likes of
Speaker 3: Marjorie Taylor Green. I guess no longer in the Freedom
Speaker 3: Caucus that we're going to tie this to an impeachment
Speaker 3: inquiry that if there is a vote to launch an
Speaker 3: impeachment query into Joe Biden, I guess we keep the
Speaker 3: government open. This is why people hate Washington, right, they do.
Speaker 3: But that's a deal that a little bit beyond the film.
Speaker 8: People hate Washington for variety of reasons. There's no If
Speaker 8: you want to hate Washington, I got a list of
Speaker 8: reasons you can, right.
Speaker 3: But if the government's worth funding, can't we figure that
Speaker 3: out without triggering an impeachment inquiry?
Speaker 9: Yes and no.
Speaker 8: And here's why I tell people is that there's only
Speaker 8: one bill every single year that really matters as a
Speaker 8: fiscal conservatives, and and that's the spending bill.
Speaker 9: That's it. That's the only one that counts. You can
Speaker 9: do all the.
Speaker 8: Deals you want to on debt ceilings, you can have
Speaker 8: you know, sequesters like we did back in twenty eleven,
Speaker 8: twenty thirteen, It all counts for crap.
Speaker 9: It doesn't count for anything.
Speaker 8: The only thing that counts is the annual spending bill,
Speaker 8: the appropriation bill, every single year. And that's where the
Speaker 8: fight is going to be for the true fiscal conservatives.
Speaker 8: And if there's something else you want to try and accomplish,
Speaker 8: you know, try and leverage that everybody's That's what people
Speaker 8: do in Washington, d C. They leverage bills that they
Speaker 8: like to you know, that they want to get. So
Speaker 8: this is the natural place for this flight, this fight
Speaker 8: to happen. It should not have happened with Kevin was
Speaker 8: elected Speaker. It should not have happened as much on
Speaker 8: the debt ceiling. This is where the battle is going
Speaker 8: to take place because this is the only bill that
Speaker 8: really counts.
Speaker 3: The supplementals that we're hearing about that the White House
Speaker 3: wants billions more for disaster why not relief?
Speaker 7: What is it?
Speaker 3: We have Hawaii, we have Florida. But there's also supplemental
Speaker 3: for Ukraine. You and I've talked a lot about funding
Speaker 3: the war effort in Ukraine. This is about to come
Speaker 3: to a head once again.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean listen, I remember my very first year
Speaker 8: in the Budget Office and the Budget Committee beacgnized in Congress.
Speaker 8: There's a couple of guys who I'd never seen before
Speaker 8: at any of the committee meetings show up the.
Speaker 9: Last day before we vote.
Speaker 8: Turns out they're the appropriators who sit on the Budget
Speaker 8: Committee that hadn't been to a meeting the whole year.
Speaker 8: And they asked one question, which is are you restricting
Speaker 8: us on emergency spending? And we said no, and they
Speaker 8: got up and left the meeting. That's all they cared about.
Speaker 8: Because emergency spending is off budget, it doesn't go through
Speaker 8: the regular appropriations process.
Speaker 9: You have to vote on it.
Speaker 8: But you could You and I could agree, all of
Speaker 8: Congress could agree we're going to spend one hundred dollars
Speaker 8: this year, and we fight over that, and we agree
Speaker 8: on that, there's blood in the streets everything. We agree
Speaker 8: we're going to spend one hundred dollars, and then two
Speaker 8: days later, two days later, we can get together say oh,
Speaker 8: we want to spend another sixty on an emergency spending
Speaker 8: and that's and that's it, and that's a separate negotiation. So, yeah,
Speaker 8: emergency spending is important. Supplementals are important, There's no question
Speaker 8: about it. But that's why this spending fight is the
Speaker 8: fight for so many fiscal conservatives, because it's where the
Speaker 8: rubber really meets the road.
Speaker 3: What happens with those supplemental requests though, I mean, this
Speaker 3: is going to be the first fight that we hear about.
Speaker 6: Yeah, they get they get they get approved.
Speaker 3: So those will go through. Then we get a cr
Speaker 3: with something attached to it mostly.
Speaker 8: And by the way, a supplementer will be tied to
Speaker 8: something else. You talked about time understichment to the appropriations.
Speaker 8: There will be a bunch of Democrats who say, well,
Speaker 8: we want to tie supplemental for Florida, a Republican state,
Speaker 8: to something else that we want to have.
Speaker 9: That's the negotiation that takes place. Is the reason that
Speaker 9: was it could be you know, I don't know where
Speaker 9: Ukraine falls right now. It's really very interesting.
Speaker 8: It's becoming slowly one of those truly non partisan issues.
Speaker 8: There'll be folks who are against Ukraine and the Democrat
Speaker 8: Party and folks a growing group who are against it
Speaker 8: in the Republican Party. The Wall Street Journal article this
Speaker 8: week about the loss of money the corruption people forget.
Speaker 8: Ukraine before the war was one of the most corrupt
Speaker 8: countries in the world. We actually have special laws on
Speaker 8: the books in this country.
Speaker 6: You answering some questions about that in the brief, right.
Speaker 8: And how we spend money in Ukraine because it's just
Speaker 8: that corrupt. And so you've got fiscal conservatives in Washington
Speaker 8: now on the Republican side who are worried about spending
Speaker 8: more money. You've got war doves in the Democrat Party
Speaker 8: who might not want to spend this money. So yeah,
Speaker 8: it's morphing into a really interesting topic because it's moving
Speaker 8: towards one of those things that doesn't fall neatly into
Speaker 8: partisan lines.
Speaker 3: This is a conversation that I'm sure is not going
Speaker 3: to get easier as the year goes on, particularly if
Speaker 3: this counter offensive does not play out the way at
Speaker 3: least most wanted it to. Inside the Pentagon, there are
Speaker 3: doubts that they're going to be able to achieve goals.
Speaker 3: This almost becomes a political gain here where you want
Speaker 3: to invest in a winner, and if Ukraine does not
Speaker 3: look like one, what happens in Washington.
Speaker 8: Somewhere there may be a very intrepid Bloomberg reporter who's
Speaker 8: trying to figure out how many Ukrainian leaders have bought
Speaker 8: overseas residences in the last two years, how many of
Speaker 8: the friend of mine Italy in Italy who says that
Speaker 8: his neighbors used to be Russian oligarchs, now they're Ukrainian oligarchs.
Speaker 9: So there's all sorts of there's all sorts of that stuff.
Speaker 9: How much of that.
Speaker 3: Suggesting they're taking American dollars, and you put two and
Speaker 3: two together.
Speaker 8: You've got stories about corruption, about money they can't find
Speaker 8: about replace seeing the Defense minister. Yeah, there's gonna be Listen,
Speaker 8: Ukraine is a sloppy, messy thing and the war just
Speaker 8: made it even sloppier and messier.
Speaker 9: So it will.
Speaker 8: Continue to be, it will be become a more divisive
Speaker 8: issue as we go forward.
Speaker 3: And how about calls for an audit. If you're Speaker McCarthy,
Speaker 3: say look, we're ready to fund this war effort. Remember
Speaker 3: he said it wasn't not another dollar, it was no
Speaker 3: more blank checks. And that seems to make him different
Speaker 3: than Marjorie Taylor Green and Matt Gates.
Speaker 8: Yeah, and that's fine. And nobody likes blank blank Well
Speaker 8: that's not true. Folks love blank checks in Washington, d c. Well,
Speaker 8: some Republicans don't like them. So it's the right thing
Speaker 8: for Kevin to say. I don't know, I'm putting on
Speaker 8: my old Freedom Caucus hat on. Say okay, Kevin, I'm
Speaker 8: all for an audit.
Speaker 7: I want to pick the auditor, Okay.
Speaker 8: I want to be involved. I want to be able
Speaker 8: to trust the auditor. I don't want the Europeans to
Speaker 8: I certainly don't want the Ukrainians to do it.
Speaker 9: I want to do it.
Speaker 3: And yeah, okay, as long as it was American in another way,
Speaker 3: as long as it's as long as there's some accountability.
Speaker 8: Look, you're going to talk about They're gonna the Republicans
Speaker 8: are gonna want to start talk about spending less.
Speaker 9: You want to start having that conversation.
Speaker 8: And when you're spending so much money in a foreign
Speaker 8: nation on a foreign war, that's one of the natural
Speaker 8: places to sort of look to, which is Look, I
Speaker 8: don't want to start reducing spending domestically until we take.
Speaker 9: A real hard look overseas. It's the right conversation.
Speaker 3: Af We're spending time with Mick mulvaney here on Bloomberg
Speaker 3: Sound On.
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Speaker 3: I think it's uh, I think it's out of the bag.
Speaker 3: I have to ask you about Mitch McConnell. I don't
Speaker 3: know if you talk to him, if you talk to
Speaker 3: people around him. We're hearing about the three John's again,
Speaker 3: and that can't be a good thing when you're named Mitch.
Speaker 3: On the other hand, we should let everybody know he's
Speaker 3: out with the doctor's today another letter from the doctor
Speaker 3: from Mitch McConnell's office that makes clear this is recovery
Speaker 3: and there's a big difference there, not a discovery, not
Speaker 3: a stroke, not a seizure or a seizure or even
Speaker 3: they said something like Parkinson's. That's a big difference. Then
Speaker 3: does that buy him time to actually recover and get
Speaker 3: through this showdown in the fall?
Speaker 9: It does.
Speaker 8: Keep in mind, the audience here is not we have
Speaker 8: a discussion and we will have a discussion about Joe
Speaker 8: Biden's age and his mental capacities. Okay, that's a national discussion.
Speaker 8: The discussion about Mitch is actually much much smaller because
Speaker 8: we're only talking about him, not as a senator, you're.
Speaker 9: Talking about him as the leader of the Republicans.
Speaker 8: So there's what, there's forty nine of them who actually
Speaker 8: have a say in this. That's the universe of people
Speaker 8: who are following this. No one's talking about kicking Mitch
Speaker 8: McConnell out of the Senate because of his health issues,
Speaker 8: the questioning whether or not he has the ability right
Speaker 8: now to be the leader of the Senate. So you
Speaker 8: got to put yourself in the shoes of an elected
Speaker 8: Republican senator and you ask yourself, Okay, is he still
Speaker 8: capable of doing what we need him to do?
Speaker 9: And the answer is probably yes. Right now.
Speaker 8: If this turns out to be short term, then it's
Speaker 8: probably not that big a deal. Plus, he's got an
Speaker 8: excellent staff he can rely on. We all know what
Speaker 8: we're doing anyway, it's not like we're going into an
Speaker 8: election year or something like that. So right now, he's
Speaker 8: probably got time to prove that this is recovery and
Speaker 8: he's going to be fine if it goes on four
Speaker 8: or five six months. So you see four or five
Speaker 8: more episodes, then the members themselves start to say, hey, Mitch,
Speaker 8: you know look, we've got a really good bench here.
Speaker 8: Get healthy. You know, you stay in the Senate. Maybe
Speaker 8: you come back and leadership now. But for right now,
Speaker 8: we need somebody else to take over. But I don't
Speaker 8: think that conversation takes place for several months.
Speaker 3: In the meantime, you're out with a column today at
Speaker 3: the Hill, too old to serve the headline, a cause
Speaker 3: worth amending the constitution?
Speaker 6: We only have a minute left.
Speaker 7: How would you do it?
Speaker 9: There's pretty simple.
Speaker 8: Have an age maximum in the constitution, Pass a constitutional amendment,
Speaker 8: which we used to do relatively frequently, haven't done it now.
Speaker 9: In more than fifty years.
Speaker 8: It's exactly right. And we all know seventy five year
Speaker 8: olds who are in better shape than you and me,
Speaker 8: But we also know seventy five.
Speaker 9: Year olds who are not.
Speaker 8: And the question becomes, is there some common ground Democrats, Republicans,
Speaker 8: independences alike, and say, you know what, we've had enough
Speaker 8: experience with older people in our own personal lives. Maybe
Speaker 8: we shouldn't have a president over seventy five. Maybe we
Speaker 8: shouldn't have a Supreme Court justice over seventy five. Maybe
Speaker 8: we shouldn't have a US centered over seventy five. And
Speaker 8: just have a mandatory retirement age for those positions.
Speaker 7: That's your age, those seventy five.
Speaker 9: Pick a number. It's the debate. I want to have
Speaker 9: the argument.
Speaker 3: Yeah, as opposed to a cognitive test or something more personal.
Speaker 9: It's something that's hard to subjective.
Speaker 6: Yes, you picked quite a time to write it.
Speaker 3: We've got new numbers out at the Wall Street Journal,
Speaker 3: a new poll today that really illustrate the concern around
Speaker 3: Joe Biden's age and something we're going to talk about
Speaker 3: coming up with our panel.
Speaker 6: Mick mulvaney, it's great to see you. Thanks for coming back.
Speaker 9: It's great to see you live in person, head on TV.
Speaker 6: Let's do it again next week. This is Bloomberg.
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Speaker 3: I've got the letter from the attending physician at the
Speaker 3: Capitol and it's addressed to Senator Mitch McConnell. Pretty interesting
Speaker 3: to read from doctor Brian Monaghan. My examination of you
Speaker 3: following your brief episode August thirty, he writes, included several
Speaker 3: medical evaluations, you got an MRI and EEG, and consultations
Speaker 3: with several neurologists. He says, there is no evidence, this
Speaker 3: is the important part, that you have a seizure disorder
Speaker 3: or that you experienced a stroke, tia or movement disorder
Speaker 3: such as Parkinson's disease. This all of course coming off
Speaker 3: this freeze up that the Senate Minority leader experienced in
Speaker 3: front of the cameras while talking with reporters last week,
Speaker 3: the second time that this has happened to him in public,
Speaker 3: and the second time since he fell and suffered a
Speaker 3: concussion earlier in the year. And that's the important part
Speaker 3: as well. Here the final line in the letter from
Speaker 3: the doctor, there are no changes recommended in treatment protocols
Speaker 3: as you continue recovery from your March twenty twenty three
Speaker 3: full So that is how this is being framed, certainly
Speaker 3: by Senator McConnell's office, but through the eyes of his doctor.
Speaker 3: Here in this letter, the Capitol physician saying this is
Speaker 3: a recovery, not something new, which really gets to the
Speaker 3: heart of what we're talking about. In a day that
Speaker 3: we have new polling data, wall Street Journal. Not great
Speaker 3: if you're Joe Biden or frankly, Mitch McConnell. If that
Speaker 3: is the concern when it comes to age, let's assemble
Speaker 3: our panel here. Rick Davis and Genie Shanzano join Bloomberg
Speaker 3: Politics contributors. Look at that. We can all see each
Speaker 3: other now. It's kind of like when the whole thing
Speaker 3: turns color in the Wizard of Oz.
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Speaker 6: Everyone's back.
Speaker 3: Well, at least they're trickling back in the Senate here
Speaker 3: next week. It's the house coming off the August recess.
Speaker 3: That's why this letter is awfully important, Rick Davis. Does
Speaker 3: it do enough to give Mitch mcconnald a space he
Speaker 3: needs to recover?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think it does change the narrative a little bit.
Speaker 10: I mean, kudos to them for getting on top of
Speaker 10: this and getting it launched right before people got back to town.
Speaker 10: You know, it's a hallmark of the McConnell operation to
Speaker 10: not let vacuums exist. He likes to be the one
Speaker 10: who's dictating terms of the discussion. And you know, up
Speaker 10: until the time of this doctor's letter, everyone was talking
Speaker 10: about what's causing this, what could potentially be the problem.
Speaker 10: Is it threatening to his you know, standing in the
Speaker 10: caucus and things like that. Now we're talking about the
Speaker 10: doctor basically giving him a I wouldn't say clean bill
Speaker 10: of health, but a bill of health enough to operate
Speaker 10: and continue his role, you know, as the leader of
Speaker 10: the Republican Caucus in the Senate.
Speaker 6: So definitely it's worked.
Speaker 10: We're a prime example that we're talking about, you know,
Speaker 10: how this should be moving forward. Obviously he's not at
Speaker 10: one hundred percent, and that's going to be a big
Speaker 10: question as to whether or not he can retain and
Speaker 10: regain his standing, you know, to be able to power
Speaker 10: through a really critical election cycle for Republicans in the Senate.
Speaker 3: An election cycle in which age will be a factor
Speaker 3: age in health, certainly for Joe Biden as well.
Speaker 6: Genie, we've talked about this a lot.
Speaker 3: With new numbers out today, I bring this back up
Speaker 3: thanks to the Wall Street Journal poll showing a majority
Speaker 3: of surveyed voters worry that Joe Biden is too old
Speaker 3: to effectively serve for four more years. This is pretty
Speaker 3: tough here. Seventy three percent of registered voters tell the
Speaker 3: Wall Street Journal that Joe Biden is too old, Genie.
Speaker 3: There's not much Joe Biden can do about that, But
Speaker 3: does that look different next year if he's actually in
Speaker 3: a head to head matchup? How much stock do you
Speaker 3: put in these numbers?
Speaker 11: You know, first of all, Joe, Matthew and Rick Davis
Speaker 11: Liven in person, I'm very excited to see you. You know,
Speaker 11: I think the numbers all around were very bad for
Speaker 11: everybody except Donald Trump. That includes all of his Republican opponents.
Speaker 11: He's forty six points ahead of Ron DeSantis, up from
Speaker 11: where he was before some of these latest indictments. And
Speaker 11: of course, as you mentioned the age factor, I think
Speaker 11: it was notable last week after Mitch McConnell had this
Speaker 11: second episode publicly, it was Joe Biden who was his
Speaker 11: most forceful defender out there, for the obvious reason that
Speaker 11: the campaign on Biden's side does not want the issue
Speaker 11: of age to continue to haunt it. But of course
Speaker 11: these numbers reinforce what we heard last week from the
Speaker 11: AP N or C pole. This is a huge concerving
Speaker 11: factor for the campaign in including for Democrats. You know,
Speaker 11: I was almost close to saying over the weekend, I
Speaker 11: think this is likely more important and I've never said
Speaker 11: this before Joe than the economy for the Biden campaign
Speaker 11: going into the election next year. Now, they're both equally
Speaker 11: fraught as we know looking at these numbers, but age
Speaker 11: is something he simply cannot turn around. So they're going
Speaker 11: to have to continue to do what they've been doing,
Speaker 11: which is to say watch him. And one thing we
Speaker 11: do know about Joe, about Joe Biden, not Joe Matthew,
Speaker 11: Joe Biden. He's continued to be underestimated and he's come through,
Speaker 11: as have you, Joe, but he's come through. So you know,
Speaker 11: there is that possibility, and I think that's what they're
Speaker 11: banking on.
Speaker 7: I'm going to keep our Joe straight here, Genie.
Speaker 3: I want to ask you both about this new ad
Speaker 3: that that the Biden campaign is launching.
Speaker 6: But do you agree with Genie on that Rick, that
Speaker 6: that age could.
Speaker 3: Actually top the economy as an issue for Joe Biden
Speaker 3: here in this election.
Speaker 10: You know, look, it's obviously a hesitation, especially for independent voters.
Speaker 10: I think what was it eighty five percent of the
Speaker 10: independent voters in that Wall Street Journal poll said, you know,
Speaker 10: they had hesitations about you know Biden, but at the
Speaker 10: end of the day, the election will turn on the economy.
Speaker 10: There's not going to be a replacement to Joe Biden.
Speaker 10: He is firm control of the Democratic Party and he's
Speaker 10: the nominee, and so they're just going to have to
Speaker 10: figure out what they can do. Have lots of beach
Speaker 10: photos with him, you know, hopping around, but the bottom
Speaker 10: line is people are going to vote on the economy.
Speaker 10: And that's what this you know ad that you're just
Speaker 10: describing really tries to hit home.
Speaker 3: A twenty five million dollar campaign here to focus on
Speaker 3: the president's economic record that will last through December. Apparently,
Speaker 3: the ad it's if I've got a thirty second version
Speaker 3: of it here debuts with the football game. People want
Speaker 3: to sit down and watch Thursday night football, the big
Speaker 3: season opener, they're going to have to hear and see
Speaker 3: Joe Biden.
Speaker 12: Said millions would lose their jobs and the economy would collapse,
Speaker 12: but this president refused to let that happen. Instead, he
Speaker 12: got to work fixing supply chains, fighting corporate greed.
Speaker 6: Fixing supply chains.
Speaker 3: They go through all of the exercises that we talked
Speaker 3: about here in trying to fight inflation, growing jobs, and
Speaker 3: so forth. You see the President striding down the colonnade
Speaker 3: at the White House with Vice President Kamala Harris at
Speaker 3: his side.
Speaker 6: Will this actually improve people's.
Speaker 3: Thoughts on Bidenomics if we're going to call it that
Speaker 3: or annoy them that he's interrupting their football game?
Speaker 11: You know, I think they have to do this is
Speaker 11: it is a big ad by It's critically important because
Speaker 11: one thing that we do know is that his strong
Speaker 11: record on the economy is not being reflected in the
Speaker 11: polling as much as they've gone out and tried to
Speaker 11: sell Bidenomics. And I think critically important about this ad buy,
Speaker 11: and a particular concern to Democrats as we look at
Speaker 11: these numbers is the reality that you have to look
Speaker 11: at young people Hispanics and Latinos and African Americans. If
Speaker 11: Biden doesn't hold them as big as he did in
Speaker 11: twenty he's going to have a big problem. Hence the
Speaker 11: Wall Street Journal matchup with Trump. And so a lot
Speaker 11: of this ad spending is geared towards those folks who
Speaker 11: are critically important to the constituency and his numbers there
Speaker 11: have long been shown to be dropping off. So that
Speaker 11: is of a big concern, and it's rightly so. So
Speaker 11: he's got to push this out there. They hope it's
Speaker 11: going to change minds, but I do think one big
Speaker 11: issue here they need to focus on our interest rates
Speaker 11: and housing. All of this, coupled with the student loan
Speaker 11: repayment that's just gone back into effect, is troubling for
Speaker 11: a lot of these constituencies that he needs to win
Speaker 11: in large double digits in order to hold in twenty four.
Speaker 3: Got to work is the name of the ad Rick.
Speaker 3: Will people see it or hear it that way?
Speaker 5: You know?
Speaker 10: I think it's his pitch, you know, currently for you
Speaker 10: know why his administration today is, you know, doing its
Speaker 10: best in a difficult economy. And I think that he
Speaker 10: has to do more of this, frankly. I mean we've
Speaker 10: been talking about this for a long time. His numbers
Speaker 10: are completely underwater on his job approval for the economy,
Speaker 10: handling the economy, and he cannot win reelection against I
Speaker 10: don't care who you put up against unless he improves
Speaker 10: those numbers. And as Genie said, all across his constituencies,
Speaker 10: I mean, it's not just US people who care about
Speaker 10: the economy, it's virtually every voter is gonna basically give
Speaker 10: him a scorecard. Either he navigated his way through inflation
Speaker 10: and the economy or he didn't, and if he didn't,
Speaker 10: likely they're not going to vote for him.
Speaker 3: Well, Rick Davis, Genie Shanzano, great analysis. And as we
Speaker 3: look at the top line numbers on this Wall Street
Speaker 3: Journal poll, as far as the horse race is concerned,
Speaker 3: specific to the Republican presidential nomination, Trump fifty nine, Desantus thirteen,
Speaker 3: Ramaswami five, Haley eight interesting, and the rest in the
Speaker 3: two to three percent range. I'm Joe, Matthew and Washington.
Speaker 3: Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Sound on podcast. Catch the
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Speaker 3: So you get a letter from the leaders of three
Speaker 3: military branches, and you probably figure you're in a lot
Speaker 3: of trouble unless your name is Tommy Tuberville. In that case,
Speaker 3: the Senator from Alabama may be feeling emboldened.
Speaker 6: This, of course, all has to do with the blockade.
Speaker 3: Remember we talked about this quite a bit before the
Speaker 3: August recess blockade of military promotions, that this loan senator
Speaker 3: is holding in place an objection to abortion policy at
Speaker 3: the Pentagon. Now the update here senators returning to town
Speaker 3: when this might again be dealt with, comes as the
Speaker 3: secretaries of the Navy, the Air Force, and the Army
Speaker 3: write this letter published in the Washington Post calling on
Speaker 3: Senator Tuberville to drop the blockade. He talked about this
Speaker 3: a short time ago on what is it Center Point.
Speaker 3: There are now so many netw works I have to
Speaker 3: check on their names here. He's apparently not going to
Speaker 3: be changing his tune on this unless, of course, this
Speaker 3: comes to the floor of the Senate.
Speaker 6: He wants to vote here, he is, we a.
Speaker 13: Lot enough money to run a great military, but we
Speaker 13: don't need to get into these vote policies and run
Speaker 13: in the ground like they've done every other institution, like
Speaker 13: the DOJ, the FBI, our education system. That's exactly what
Speaker 13: they're trying to do. But this policy on abortion is
Speaker 13: way overboard. They're not supposed to be making laws, and
Speaker 13: I'm not going to allow them to do it. They're
Speaker 13: going to have to change this policy back and bring
Speaker 13: it to the floor. Un let's vote on it. That's
Speaker 13: the only way I'll drop the policy.
Speaker 3: Okay, you got that. Let's vote on it. That's the
Speaker 3: only way I'll drop the policy. Senator Truck Schumer Ford
Speaker 3: It's worth has said he would bring this to a vote,
Speaker 3: but there is no indication that he plans to do
Speaker 3: that at least anytime soon. And so this goes on
Speaker 3: and on and on. As we reassemble our panel. Gdi
Speaker 3: Shanzano and Rick Davis have both spoken passionately about this,
Speaker 3: and I.
Speaker 6: Don't suspect their opinions have changed.
Speaker 3: But when you get when you get to the letter
Speaker 3: here from three civilian military leaders, We've already had the
Speaker 3: Defense Secretary call him out as well. Rick Davis, does
Speaker 3: Tommy Turberville let this go forever? Does Chuck Schumer let
Speaker 3: this go forever? Why not bring it to a vote?
Speaker 10: Yeah, it is a significant departure from the norm. You know,
Speaker 10: prior to the holidays, we hadn't heard from the secretaries
Speaker 10: of the Navy, Air Force, and the Army, and now
Speaker 10: we have in very stark language, they need these people
Speaker 10: confirmed and the military needs to go about their business.
Speaker 10: And they even mentioned in this ed that that there
Speaker 10: are ways for people like Tommy Tuberville to change the policy,
Speaker 10: and that is through an Act of Congress. This is
Speaker 10: what they are elected to do. And so the fact
Speaker 10: that he is now Tuberville saying that he's willing to
Speaker 10: take a vote is a bit of a change in
Speaker 10: his approach.
Speaker 6: He wanted to try and get this done.
Speaker 10: Just as a deal in exchange for lifting his hold
Speaker 10: on all these over three hundred nominations that are waiting
Speaker 10: for confirmation. So, you know, the depression now is whether
Speaker 10: or not Schumer is willing to play ball with him.
Speaker 3: Of course, Chuck Schumer is not going to bring it
Speaker 3: to the floor if he doesn't have the votes to
Speaker 3: do this, right, Geenie, I mean, will Democrats not vote
Speaker 3: together here? Because it's an election year to deal with
Speaker 3: the abortion policy at the Pentagon, which they talk about
Speaker 3: on cable news a lot, but bringing it to a
Speaker 3: vote and putting your name on it is different.
Speaker 11: You know, I think that Schumer may end up having
Speaker 11: to bring it to a vote. But this is such
Speaker 11: a dangerous precedent for Coach Tubberville to push forward. I mean,
Speaker 11: imagine if a very left wing Democrat decides they don't
Speaker 11: like how the military is purchasing equipment because it's damaging
Speaker 11: to the environment. So they are just going to hold
Speaker 11: up and entire appointments and promotions in the military and
Speaker 11: impact are military readiness until the military cowtows to them.
Speaker 11: This can go on and on and on. It's why
Speaker 11: it is a very very bad precedent, regardless of what
Speaker 11: you think on abortion. And it's something that absolutely Topperville
Speaker 11: should not be doing, but he is doing. And you know,
Speaker 11: let's just think about it from the human perspective. It
Speaker 11: is September. You've got the children of military men and
Speaker 11: women starting school. They can't move to their new positions
Speaker 11: and get ready to go to school or start school
Speaker 11: because these five hundred plus or MIAs promotions now are
Speaker 11: held up and the number is ticking up. This is
Speaker 11: bad for them. It is shocking to imagine it is
Speaker 11: done by somebody reports to be a conservative Republican and
Speaker 11: it is bad for the United States military. And I'm
Speaker 11: very glad they wrote this piece. Pressure should be put
Speaker 11: on Tupperville, and I hope mcconel McConnell is well enough
Speaker 11: to do it, because this is really about a loan
Speaker 11: Republican senator who is going off the rails and trying
Speaker 11: to push through a policy that doesn't have the support
Speaker 11: to get the numbers to move it the way he
Speaker 11: wants to. You know what, Coach Dubberville, you want to
Speaker 11: change the policy, get enough people in Congress who agree
Speaker 11: with you, and to Rick's point, pass a law. That's
Speaker 11: how you change policy. You don't hold people hostage like this.
Speaker 3: Make things a lot more simple if that were the
Speaker 3: It's been six months, by the way, Rick, I was
Speaker 3: actually kind of amazed to see again, it's been six months.
Speaker 3: We're talking about hundreds of promotions at this point, including
Speaker 3: the fact the Army, Navy, Marine Corps do not have
Speaker 3: Senate confirmed service chiefs.
Speaker 6: Does Chuck Schumer need to bring this to the floor
Speaker 6: or is that an indication to us there that he
Speaker 6: does not have the votes to uphold this Pentagon policy.
Speaker 10: Yeah, it's kind of an interesting question. I mean, it
Speaker 10: is a hard question to determine whether or not he's
Speaker 10: got the votes to do this, especially an election year,
Speaker 10: where some people are going to be looking, you know,
Speaker 10: over their shoulder. But just to reiterate on this Tubberville example,
Speaker 10: I mean, he's to coach the Auburn football team, right
Speaker 10: I went to Alabama.
Speaker 6: We played once a year.
Speaker 10: It's called the Iron Bowl. Could you imagine him walking
Speaker 10: into his coaches meeting and saying, Hey, the chance for
Speaker 10: you know, like, I'm very upset that, you know, he's
Speaker 10: done something in the school about abortion, So I'm only
Speaker 10: going to play the third string against Alabama tonight. You
Speaker 10: imagine what the reaction would be, you know, to the
Speaker 10: Auburn alumni to that, Well, you know, this is more
Speaker 10: important than that. I know people in Alabama may disagree,
Speaker 10: but the reality is what he's doing is damaging our
Speaker 10: nation's national security. And frankly, you know, if you're Schumer,
Speaker 10: you almost don't even want to give him a vote.
Speaker 10: You just want to make him stew until the people
Speaker 10: of Alabama tell him change your policy or find a
Speaker 10: new job.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well that might be getting closer to Chuck Schumer's
Speaker 3: motivation right there.
Speaker 6: Spoken like a son of Alabama.
Speaker 3: Of course, Rick Davis and Genie Shanzo, this is why
Speaker 3: they are are signature panel here on sound On. I'm Joe,
Speaker 3: Matthew and Washington. Thanks for joining us back to reality
Speaker 3: today in Washington.
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