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Speaker 1: I'm Kevin Cirelli, Chief Washington correspondent for Bloomberg Television and

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio. There's never enough time. And earlier on the program,

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Speaker 1: we had Eric Schaltz. He's senior advisor to President Barack Obama,

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Speaker 1: founder and CEO of the Schultz Group and now an

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Speaker 1: advisor on the Netflix show Designated Survivor. I have so

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Speaker 1: many questions, so I gotta I gotta like focus my attention,

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Speaker 1: litter Ripe. How did you become an advisor on Designated Survivors?

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Speaker 1: Start there? Uh, it's funny. We Um. I met the

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Speaker 1: showrunner through a friend. I don't even know what a

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Speaker 1: show runner is. A showrunner someone who runs the show

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Speaker 1: like but not the producer, sort of above the producers,

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Speaker 1: manages the entire sort of everything that needs to get

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Speaker 1: done from suit to nuts. And we had met through

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Speaker 1: a mutual friend. And this is at a time where

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Speaker 1: ABC was still considering what to do with Designated Survivor.

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Speaker 1: It had run two seasons on ABC and they were

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Speaker 1: deciding whether to do a third. And Um, his name

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Speaker 1: is Neil Bear, and he had worked a lot on

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Speaker 1: R and Law and Order SVU and he believes the

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Speaker 1: special sauces making it making those shows feel authentic and real,

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Speaker 1: and he wanted to inject that same sense of grittiness

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Speaker 1: to uh to Designated Survivor. ABC ultimately decided against renewing it,

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Speaker 1: but Netflix was super enthusiastic about his ideas, his pitch

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Speaker 1: to make the show edge here. And so you were

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Speaker 1: brought in to make the show edge here. So what

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Speaker 1: are those conversations like? You're like, first of all, they

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Speaker 1: got a curse, right, because no one in Washington has

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Speaker 1: a clean mouth. Yes, Um, so we uh, we had

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Speaker 1: a lot of fun. Um. The writers asked me for

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Speaker 1: a sense of how Washington really works, and I told

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Speaker 1: him about my experience not only in the White House

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Speaker 1: but also working for Congress. And we talked a lot

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Speaker 1: about sort of the banter between people out here, UM,

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Speaker 1: the nomenclature, how people talk, how people act, the cultural minutia. Um,

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Speaker 1: what what people wear, what people do wear the same

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Speaker 1: thing on Tuesday at the office versus a Sunday if

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Speaker 1: you have to go in over the weekend. Um. We

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Speaker 1: talked a lot about what the setting is like. Um,

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Speaker 1: A lot of people think the White House is a

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Speaker 1: very glamorous for it has to work and then it

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Speaker 1: was of course, I will say it is the best

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Speaker 1: place on the planet to work, but you know, the

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Speaker 1: phones are from twenty five years ago. There's mice, there's rodents,

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Speaker 1: there's it's it's the presser of bathroom is disgusting. It

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Speaker 1: has not been renovated in a while. And so we

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Speaker 1: wanted to convey a lot of that realness to give

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Speaker 1: you as a real sense of how Washington works. So

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Speaker 1: what was the thing that they were most surprised about

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Speaker 1: to learn off of your reflections of Washington. Well, if

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Speaker 1: you tune into season three, which I highly encourage, I'm

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Speaker 1: totally gonna binge it on my flight to Miami for

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Speaker 1: the debate, go ahead, glad to hear it. Uh we

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Speaker 1: we The arc of the season is about President Kirkman's reelection,

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Speaker 1: and so we talked a lot about That's Keith saw

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Speaker 1: the keeper Sutherland, who plays the president HUD's former HUD secretary.

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Speaker 1: When everything goes to Helenahan basket, he becomes president now

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Speaker 1: is campaigning for re election. Sorry, thank you, you're hired.

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Speaker 1: Thank you. Uh we do um uh. So we talk

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Speaker 1: a lot about how that campaign, how a sitting president

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Speaker 1: can campaign and believe it or not, the hatch Act

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Speaker 1: comes up really and we try and make it um

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Speaker 1: appear as though they are under the constraints that an

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Speaker 1: actual sitting president is under while campaigning for re election,

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Speaker 1: and what staff can do versus what what official staff

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Speaker 1: can do versus what campaign staff can do, and and

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Speaker 1: where political activity can occur, and so we we try

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Speaker 1: and dive into a lot of that which I think

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Speaker 1: will be interesting for viewers. And the Hatchack right now

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Speaker 1: very much, very much in the news. The writers in

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Speaker 1: the writer's room in l A would roll their eyes

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Speaker 1: when I mentioned the Hatchac, but I felt vindicated just

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Speaker 1: a few weeks ago, and it made actual Conway. Of course,

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Speaker 1: we're referencing Kelly and Conway, uh and and the Hatchack

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Speaker 1: saga that has been playing out, which in the White House.

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Speaker 1: By the way, according to the Bloomberg terminal, uh deciding

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Speaker 1: to Washington Post has barred Kelly and Conway from testifying

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Speaker 1: about the Hatchack. Tell a funny story, tell me a

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Speaker 1: funny story from behind the scenes story from the White House,

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Speaker 1: and how it's maybe gone on to designated survivor from

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Speaker 1: the real White House. Yes, uh, yeah, as I told

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Speaker 1: UM my friends on the show. Other than working for

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Speaker 1: the real president. This was the most fun job I've

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Speaker 1: ever had. Really, I was fortunate enough to work for

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Speaker 1: the Obama administration for six years. It was the best

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Speaker 1: job I've ever had, best job I will ever have.

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Speaker 1: And walking through those gates every day gave you chills.

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Speaker 1: I think, like most people when they watch these shows

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Speaker 1: and they and they're so edgy and gritty and whatnot,

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Speaker 1: very different. I remember when when House of Cards, literally

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Speaker 1: I was working at Political at the time, and I

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Speaker 1: got a preview of House of Cards and I was like,

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Speaker 1: this is not the West Wing. What do you think

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Speaker 1: it says? The reflection of Washington to the public right

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Speaker 1: now is edgier and grittier and darker versus like when

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Speaker 1: I was growing up and everybody watched the West Wings.

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Speaker 1: I actually think that if you if you do end

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Speaker 1: up watching Designated Survivor Season three now available to SOL,

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Speaker 1: there are definitely inspirational strands that UM President Kirkman is

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Speaker 1: someone who wants to do good. He is a principled,

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Speaker 1: sound public servant who is dedicated to the country and

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Speaker 1: moving it forward. And so I actually think that we

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Speaker 1: definitely deal with plenty of gritty, edgy issues, but at

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Speaker 1: the end of the day, I think we have a

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Speaker 1: show about public servants in it for the right reasons. Awesome, awesome,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna leave it there. Perfect spot to end on.

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Speaker 1: Eric Schaltz. He is advising Designated Survivor, which is just

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Speaker 1: back now on Netflix and you can stream it. He

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Speaker 1: is Senior advisor to President Barack Obama, founder and CEO

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Speaker 1: of the Schultz Group. Appreciate you coming on sound on.

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Speaker 1: Thanks Kevin,