Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: But first, a briefing on your Washington Henrietta Trees where
Speaker 2: Anna joins us from VEDA Partners. This morning, Henrietta, we
Speaker 2: could do a two hour conversation. I got about eight
Speaker 2: minutes here is well, how's a Secretary of Defense doing
Speaker 2: inside the Beltway?
Speaker 1: There are reasons for Hegsith to be very concerned. One
Speaker 1: of the biggest things I'm going to be watching when
Speaker 1: the Senate gets back into session on Monday night is
Speaker 1: whether Republican leadership feels compelled to call Hegxith or other
Speaker 1: Defense Department officials to the Senate for hearings. There are
Speaker 1: three Republican senators who got obviously very perturbed by the
Speaker 1: President's commentary his sort of end of civilization talk over
Speaker 1: the last couple of days. That would be Senator John Curtis,
Speaker 1: a Republican from Utah, Lisa Murkowski, and the tried and
Speaker 1: true efforts of Rand Paul. But what I think really
Speaker 1: stands out we should be watching for is whether Hegsith
Speaker 1: gets called up to brief the committees in public. I
Speaker 1: think that's a real risk.
Speaker 2: I look at the news slow, Henrietta and maybe an
Speaker 2: open question.
Speaker 1: Her.
Speaker 2: Paul's got like he's got a list over here. He's
Speaker 2: like Scarlett fut Scarlett taught you this. I've got eight
Speaker 2: questions lined up, Henrietta, an open question. What is your
Speaker 2: question to the Trump administration and to the president this morning?
Speaker 1: I mean, my question is, you had seven more days
Speaker 1: to wage this war? Why did you box yourself in
Speaker 1: the strait is closed? The President's talking about a joint venture,
Speaker 1: which seems preposterous and would raise taxes on gas globally
Speaker 1: if ultimately it comes true. He had all the way
Speaker 1: until at least midway through next week to continue perpetuating
Speaker 1: the war. I want to know why there was an
Speaker 1: early drawdown. He talked himself into this massive escalation after
Speaker 1: for eight hours, and it was totally unnecessary politically, has
Speaker 1: all the way until, you know, at a minimum Wednesday
Speaker 1: of next week, before war Powers resolution would come up,
Speaker 1: before any kind of political leache would be put on him.
Speaker 1: And I think they had until five dollars gasoline. So
Speaker 1: he stopped this pretty quickly. He didn't need to. And
Speaker 1: I think that's really interesting.
Speaker 3: So what brings us to that brings us obviously to
Speaker 3: this ceaspire or Henrietta, what do you make of it?
Speaker 3: What's the feeling in Washington, DC? About this seaspire and
Speaker 3: maybe where we go from here.
Speaker 1: It's really strongly suggestive of the very negative numbers that
Speaker 1: Republicans are seeing in polls nationwide. I feel like I've
Speaker 1: said this ever since the November elections, but we saw
Speaker 1: swingings of fifteen to thirty points across Georgia and Wisconsin
Speaker 1: last night. There's a fifty six percent swing in the
Speaker 1: Latino vote outside of Milwaukee. This is like eighteen year
Speaker 1: high numbers. So the Republicans are plainly seeing this. They're
Speaker 1: seeing gas hit four dollars and sixteen cents. If my
Speaker 1: analysis is off, it's really that they didn't have until
Speaker 1: five dollars. It's still four dollars.
Speaker 3: So what are next? When Congress does come back, will
Speaker 3: they weigh in it all here? Because they really have
Speaker 3: been silent for the last six weeks.
Speaker 1: I think that they will, and I think that the
Speaker 1: president's wind down on the war before he needed to
Speaker 1: suggest that the backlash amongst Republicans and amongst American voters
Speaker 1: is too extreme, especially from independent voters, for it to perpetuate. So,
Speaker 1: you know, accepting this ceasefire. I think it's the end
Speaker 1: of the window. The number one question for investors right
Speaker 1: now is with will this hold? This was the last
Speaker 1: best free reign that he had to wage the war
Speaker 1: and he called it off. So I think that's really telling.
Speaker 2: Okay, this is timestamp seven thirty eighth this morning. It's
Speaker 2: about fifty minutes ago. This is Julian Lee outstanding out
Speaker 2: of London with Julia prem as well. They have literally
Speaker 2: a horror Mouz tracker available on the Bloomberg terminal. The
Speaker 2: headline is simple, no pickup in traffic yet on us
Speaker 2: around ceasefire fire. So, Henrietta, I think it's a fourteen
Speaker 2: day season fire. Where are we day seven, day eight,
Speaker 2: day nine? What is the political sweat that we're going
Speaker 2: to face into next week?
Speaker 1: I mean, I think they've got to be hoping that
Speaker 1: the eight hundred tanker backlog is starting to clear up
Speaker 1: a little bit. You know, it's a twenty one mile straight,
Speaker 1: but you can't push eight hundred tankers through a twenty
Speaker 1: one mile straight all that quickly. So I think they're
Speaker 1: going to really be following gas prices most closely. I
Speaker 1: would follow whether the Senate Budget and House budget committees
Speaker 1: move forward with a reconciliation instructure, or whether they're like, look,
Speaker 1: we don't need to move in this dramatic fashion. How
Speaker 1: serious those are? Whether we get a war powers resolution
Speaker 1: pass in the House and Senate. I think the President
Speaker 1: is going to be able to stave off passage in
Speaker 1: the Senate. But it's dicey.
Speaker 2: And one more question, because Paul's looking at me like Tom,
Speaker 2: put a cork in your mouth, Hendrianta, As simple as
Speaker 2: I can, did Johnson and Thune have control of the troops.
Speaker 1: I think they should be okay for right now. I
Speaker 1: really do the President wound down the war far enough
Speaker 1: in advance that they can sell some good news. Like
Speaker 1: I said, I think they can get away with having
Speaker 1: a public hearing about the military escalation and the war
Speaker 1: generally to keep them behind them on the war powers resolution.
Speaker 1: I think they're okay for now.
Speaker 3: Is there a sense that Republicans or Democrats may request
Speaker 3: intelligence briefings that are not private, that maybe the public
Speaker 3: can learn some things here as well.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, no question. I would say Senator Galleo is really
Speaker 1: leading the charge on that. He's been stressing that these
Speaker 1: private you know, behind closed doors briefings are a not
Speaker 1: very informative and b need to be out in public,
Speaker 1: so Democrats are absolutely going to press for that, no question.
Speaker 2: Hender Edda, we got to run. Thank you so much,
Speaker 2: day in and day out for your perspective with Veda
Speaker 2: Partners