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Speaker 2: The mission with has been laid out for the incoming
Speaker 2: presuming she's confirmed Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, and it
Speaker 2: has nothing to do with wrestling. His promise, of course,
Speaker 2: to dismantle the department, to get rid of the Department
Speaker 2: of Education and quote unquote send it back to the
Speaker 2: States is something that we want to explore with someone
Speaker 2: who has run the department. As always, we try to
Speaker 2: bring you practitioners, people with experience, voices of experience here
Speaker 2: on Bloomberg, which is why we're glad to have Arnie
Speaker 2: Duncan with us today.
Speaker 3: He was the US Secretary of Education in the Obama administration.
Speaker 2: He's now managing partner at Emerson Collective, and mister Secretary,
Speaker 2: is great to have you back on Bloomberg. I appreciate
Speaker 2: the time, and I'm glad to have a couple of
Speaker 2: moments with you because we do have some questions, and
Speaker 2: it's clear to us that most Americans don't really have
Speaker 2: a great sense of what the Department of Education does.
Speaker 2: So if it were in fact remove or quote unquote
Speaker 2: sent back to the States, what would families, what would
Speaker 2: students lose?
Speaker 4: Well, first of all, I think it's almost impossible that
Speaker 4: he's going to eliminate the Department of Education. I honestly
Speaker 4: think that's just another empty campaign promise. And the fact,
Speaker 4: as you know, that the vast majority of funding kid
Speaker 4: to twelve actually comes from the States and locally in
Speaker 4: local our communities and districts. So send it back to
Speaker 4: the States. That's where the action already is. But your
Speaker 4: questions are good. One, what does the department actually do?
Speaker 4: And I'll give you a couple of examples. It works very,
Speaker 4: very hard to make sure you know, hundreds of thousands,
Speaker 4: millions of young children have access to high quality pre
Speaker 4: K and getting our babies off to a great starter
Speaker 4: is arguably the most important thing we can do. On
Speaker 4: the CAD to twelve side. Lots of funding for children
Speaker 4: with special needs, children with disabilities, that's desperately important, seven
Speaker 4: point five million children. Lots of funding for children who
Speaker 4: live below the poverty line at the higher education side
Speaker 4: obviously does a tremendous amount to make college more accessible
Speaker 4: and more affordable. So sort of whether it's from babies too,
Speaker 4: you know, folks in college. Department of Education plays a
Speaker 4: critical role, and to remove opportunity from children from families
Speaker 4: obviously makes no sense to me. Whatsoever.
Speaker 2: What would it mean for funding for disabled students?
Speaker 4: Secretary, Well, it's you know, against seven point five million
Speaker 4: children with disabilities, and last time I checked, those are
Speaker 4: children whose families some vote Democratics, some vote Republican. It
Speaker 4: just doesn't matter. And to see that funding disappear. To
Speaker 4: make sure that children now have access to a free
Speaker 4: and fair public education. That did not used to be
Speaker 4: the case. Many local districts used to discriminate and keep
Speaker 4: children with disabilities out of their public schools. It took
Speaker 4: the federal Department of Education and took the an invention
Speaker 4: at the federal level to make sure children had that access.
Speaker 4: To take that away, that's not going to fly with parents.
Speaker 4: That's not hurt children or hurt families. Honestly, it hurt
Speaker 4: their publican party. So you know, my best advice to
Speaker 4: them would be to not even think about doing anything
Speaker 4: to hurt our most vulnerable children, whether the children with disabilities,
Speaker 4: children special needs, children who live below the pobby line.
Speaker 4: Those are the kids that need the best education we
Speaker 4: can revive them. They don't need something less than that.
Speaker 2: Mister Secretary, I hate to interrupt you, but we have
Speaker 2: some breaking news that I need to mention.
Speaker 3: I'd love for you to just stand by for.
Speaker 2: One moment as I tell you and our audience that
Speaker 2: we have news on the former Congressman Matt Gates, who
Speaker 2: is apparently withdrawing his name from consideration to be the
Speaker 2: next Attorney General. Matt Gates on the ex profile, I
Speaker 2: had excellent meetings with senators yesterday, He writes that he
Speaker 2: appreciates their thoughtful feedback incredible support. While the momentum was strong,
Speaker 2: it is clear, Matt Gates writes, quote my confirmation was
Speaker 2: unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the
Speaker 2: Trump vance transition. He says there's no time to waste
Speaker 2: on a needlessly protracted Washington's scuffle. Therefore withdrawing my name
Speaker 2: from consideration to serve as Attorney General. He says Trump's
Speaker 2: DOJ must be in place and ready on day one
Speaker 2: at twelve, twenty seven pm Eastern Time. Matt Gates, the
Speaker 2: former congressman he resigned his seat for this opportunity, is
Speaker 2: no longer in the running to be the attorney general.
Speaker 2: We're gonna have a lot more on this with our
Speaker 2: political panel, Rick Davis and G. D. Shanzano, or with
Speaker 2: us coming up here as we spend time with Arnie Duncan,
Speaker 2: the former Secretary of Education. You can weigh in on that.
Speaker 2: By the way, Arnie, I don't know if you choose to,
Speaker 2: but you've been through the confirmation process and there's been
Speaker 2: a lot of questions about some of the names that
Speaker 2: have been brought forth. Does this tell you anything about
Speaker 2: the senators who are going to make the decision have
Speaker 2: been actually considering their next move here to see Matt
Speaker 2: Gates drop out this quickly, Well.
Speaker 4: That obviously had to happen, and unfortunately he and frankly
Speaker 4: so many other potential cabinet nominees by President Trump on
Speaker 4: one commonality. One common theme is that many of them
Speaker 4: have allegations of sexual abuse and being sexual predators. And
Speaker 4: for me, it's just mind boggling. It's stunning that folks
Speaker 4: of this character or lack thereof are being considered a
Speaker 4: cabinet post, so that was the right thing to do.
Speaker 4: He didn't. He never had a chance. And hopefully again
Speaker 4: maybe they'll pick somebody worse. And you don't know what's
Speaker 4: going to happen here, but to have someone who has
Speaker 4: broken so many laws that just preyed upon young girls
Speaker 4: having him somehow be the Attorney General of the United States,
Speaker 4: it boggles the mind.
Speaker 3: Well, instant reaction from Arnie Duncan.
Speaker 2: What do you remember from that experience walking the halls
Speaker 2: of the Senate meeting with senators? What happens when you
Speaker 2: go into these offices for the sit down.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a great question, and that's what's so said
Speaker 4: to me. What I, honestly, you know, feel is that
Speaker 4: what present like Trump and others are trying to do
Speaker 4: is really to weaponize and politicize education. And I always
Speaker 4: say education should be the ultimate bipartisan issue or non
Speaker 4: partisan issue. There's nothing left or right or Republican a
Speaker 4: Democrat about more babies having access to pre K and
Speaker 4: more kids reading at grade level, and raising high school
Speaker 4: graduation rates and trying to lead the world in college completion.
Speaker 4: So I worked with all of my Republican colleagues, UH
Speaker 4: spent time with them, visited their communities. I think my confirmation,
Speaker 4: I think it was a unanimous and was felt very
Speaker 4: grateful that I had that kind of bipartisan support because
Speaker 4: I think people understood that there was nothing political about
Speaker 4: me or about my mission to give kids a better
Speaker 4: chance at life. And somehow we have totally lost that.
Speaker 4: It doesn't mean we don't have legitimate differences in terms
Speaker 4: of policy disagreements. You're always going to have that. But
Speaker 4: I appreciated the chance to work with my republic and colleagues, congressmen, senators, governors.
Speaker 4: The confirmation process was definitely harrowe, and I was a
Speaker 4: new kid, new to DC and new to the ways,
Speaker 4: but was treated beyond fairly, thoughtfully, with consideration, and I
Speaker 4: tried to return that level of respect to the folks
Speaker 4: I worked with.
Speaker 2: I remember that very well as a matter of fact.
Speaker 2: And you were kind to come visit us when I
Speaker 2: was working in satellite radio for one of your first
Speaker 2: town hall conversations. And how your life must have changed,
Speaker 2: and how the lives of all of these nominees will change,
Speaker 2: I can't begin to imagine. But while we have a
Speaker 2: couple of minutes less left with you. I want to
Speaker 2: drill down a little bit more on what we were
Speaker 2: talking about, because while we did hear promises to eliminate
Speaker 2: the department, you don't seem to buy that, and I
Speaker 2: don't think Congress will either. We have some direction from
Speaker 2: the America First Policy Institute that has proposed changes on
Speaker 2: behalf of the Trump transition team, including stopping schools from
Speaker 2: quote promoting inaccurate and unpatriotic concepts unquote about American history
Speaker 2: surrounding institutionalized racism. This is critical race theory. I presume
Speaker 2: they're referring to secretary. What would that mean by the
Speaker 2: direction of a Trump run Department of Education?
Speaker 4: Right, and again, I just have to repeat myself. I
Speaker 4: hate the weaponization. I hate to the politicization of anything
Speaker 4: happening to two of education because it's so critical to
Speaker 4: our nation. What they do is they attack any three
Speaker 4: letter acronyms. So call it CRT, call it DEI call
Speaker 4: it SEL. They attack that. Those aren't the issues that
Speaker 4: people are worried about. What are the real issues. We
Speaker 4: have tens of millions of children who are very far
Speaker 4: behind academically coming out of the pandemic. We have to
Speaker 4: help them catch up as fast as we can through
Speaker 4: high doses tutoring. We have kids that are productally appsent
Speaker 4: who haven't come back to school. We have to go
Speaker 4: find them, knocking doors, bring them in. We need to
Speaker 4: attract and retain the best teachers we can. This is
Speaker 4: a very tough time to be in education. We have
Speaker 4: to continue to raise high school graduation rates because if
Speaker 4: you drop out of high school today, you're basically condemned
Speaker 4: to poverty and social failure. There are no good jobs
Speaker 4: out there for you. We have to educate our way
Speaker 4: to the better economy. We have to continue to make
Speaker 4: college more accessible and affordable. Those are the kinds of
Speaker 4: real issues that touch real parents and real children and
Speaker 4: real communities that whoever leads to the Department of Education
Speaker 4: should be focused on, not these distractions. They sort of
Speaker 4: manufacture fear about things that don't make sense instead of
Speaker 4: spending time on things that do. And if you talk
Speaker 4: to parents, what are parents worried about today? They're worried
Speaker 4: about their children's mental health, they're worried about bullying in schools,
Speaker 4: and they're worried about school shootings. And whether you attack
Speaker 4: the department or just Manthelm Department do whatever. That has
Speaker 4: nothing to do with helping parents and helping children be successful.
Speaker 4: Vast majority of parents in America they don't care. They
Speaker 4: could care less about the Department of Education. They care
Speaker 4: about their local school. They care passionately about their child.
Speaker 4: That's where the focus has to be, not on these political,
Speaker 4: made up, divisive issues. Really is disharm It's so troubling
Speaker 4: to me.
Speaker 2: Well, I really appreciate your honesty and answering these questions. Lastly,
Speaker 2: what do you think of Linda McMahon at the top
Speaker 2: of the agency. There's no reason to believe that she
Speaker 2: will do all the things that Donald Trump suggests. But
Speaker 2: you've got someone with no background in education, remembering, of course,
Speaker 2: you ran the school system in Chicago before you had
Speaker 2: that job.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I guess my bigger concern and obviously I don't
Speaker 4: know her, have never met her. But my biggest concern
Speaker 4: is that if you look at a number of his
Speaker 4: cabinet nominees, including starting with Matt Gates, these are not
Speaker 4: people who anybody can trust. And I really worry that
Speaker 4: he is very intentionally trying to create distrust of all institutions.
Speaker 4: He's done that with the media. He's done that with science,
Speaker 4: He's doing that with his cabinet nominees, trying to create
Speaker 4: distrust in our own government. I worry he's trying to
Speaker 4: create distrust in our neighborhood schools, and that, unfortunately, is
Speaker 4: what authoritarian leader do is they try and sow distrust
Speaker 4: in any institution and become the only source of knowledge,
Speaker 4: the only source of truth. So again, I've never met her,
Speaker 4: don't have any sense. Obviously, she has no background to
Speaker 4: do this job. The story was that she wanted to
Speaker 4: be the Commerce secretary, but the guy who he picked
Speaker 4: to do that gave him more money, so this was
Speaker 4: her consolation prize. I just hope she comes in, listens
Speaker 4: to children, listens to teachers, listens to parents, and does
Speaker 4: the right thing to help America. I always say our
Speaker 4: military is our best defense, but a great education system
Speaker 4: is our best offense. I truly hope we don't lose
Speaker 4: the plot here because the consequences for our children, families,
Speaker 4: and nation would be extraordinary, extraordinarily serious.
Speaker 2: Spoken from someone who's run the Department of Education. Arnie
Speaker 2: duncan appreciate your time very much. With Breaking News today
Speaker 2: from Washington, the former Congressman Matt Gates has withdrawn his
Speaker 2: name from consideration to be the next Attorney General. We'll
Speaker 2: have more from our panel next, Rick and Jenior on
Speaker 2: the way here on Bloomberg.
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Speaker 2: We do have a big breaker here and it's a
Speaker 2: redhead on the terminal. Matt Gates is out, of course.
Speaker 2: It's a Twitter announcement or X as we now call
Speaker 2: it elon Musk's platform. Brings us the news again. Matt
Speaker 2: Gates says he had excellent meetings with senators yesterday, but
Speaker 2: he's become a distraction.
Speaker 3: Quote.
Speaker 2: It is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a
Speaker 2: distraction to the critical work of the Trump vance transition.
Speaker 3: He says, no time to waste on a.
Speaker 2: Needlessly protracted Washington's scuffle. And the scuffle was already well underway.
Speaker 2: It was at this time yesterday and we were talking
Speaker 2: about the Ethics Committee in the US House meeting at
Speaker 2: an undisclosed location to vote on whether to release its
Speaker 2: report into Matt Gates and the salacious allegations against him
Speaker 2: that he has denied. No resolution, no agreement, split down
Speaker 2: the middle. Report still under wraps, but there's now a
Speaker 2: Democratic led effort in the US House to have this
Speaker 2: made public. Sean Caston who was with us just two
Speaker 2: days ago, Democrat from Illinois, that's some pretty strong words
Speaker 2: about Matt Gates and Donald Trump in our conversation.
Speaker 3: Has brought a privileged resolution to the floor.
Speaker 2: Easy for me to say that will force a vote,
Speaker 2: a full House vote on whether to make the ethics
Speaker 2: report public. Now that starts the clock. You remember how
Speaker 2: this works. We walk out here on balance of power
Speaker 2: on a two day countdown, So that means it's going
Speaker 2: to happen after Thanksgiving. Lawmakers will come back, they will
Speaker 2: vote on this. But maybe now it doesn't matter. We
Speaker 2: talked to by the way, no fan of Matt Gates.
Speaker 2: The Congressman from New York, Mike Lawler, Republican, talked to
Speaker 2: us just ahead of the news of Mack Gates dropping out,
Speaker 2: just to get a sense of where people's heads were.
Speaker 2: This is a Republican again talking. Here's Congressman Lawler.
Speaker 5: President Trump is certainly entitled as president elect to nominate
Speaker 5: whoever he sees fit to serve in that role, and
Speaker 5: the Senate obviously has the process by which to confirm.
Speaker 5: I stand by everything I've ever said about Matt Gates.
Speaker 5: I don't waiver in that belief. Do I think he's
Speaker 5: the right person? No, but ultimately that will be a
Speaker 5: decision by the Senate.
Speaker 3: Well not anymore. Let's assemble our political panel.
Speaker 2: Jeanie Shanzano is with a senior Democracy fellow, Center for
Speaker 2: the Study of the Presidency in Congress, Bloomberg Politics contributor,
Speaker 2: Democratic analyst, And I'm glad to say that Rick Davis
Speaker 2: is back with us today, Republican strategist, Bloomberg Politics contributor
Speaker 2: and partner at Stone Court Capital.
Speaker 3: Rick. This was a quick one.
Speaker 2: I don't know how this compares in history, but the
Speaker 2: withdrawal came within days of Matt Gates being announced.
Speaker 3: What do you make of this development?
Speaker 6: I think the key thing is he withdraws within twenty
Speaker 6: four hours after his meeting in the Senate yesterday, and
Speaker 6: we can only speculate that it obviously didn't go according
Speaker 6: to his plan. I think there was plenty of senators,
Speaker 6: probably more than he would need, to reject his confirmation,
Speaker 6: express serious reservations about his fitness for office, and I
Speaker 6: think that he took that literally and didn't want to
Speaker 6: walk the plank. Senators were saying things like this is
Speaker 6: going to be much worse than the Kavanaugh hearings, which
Speaker 6: we all remember were sort of out of control screaming fest.
Speaker 6: So rather than put himself through that and wind up
Speaker 6: without a job, I think he's taken the best route
Speaker 6: and withdrawn. Now we haven't heard that last of Matt Gates.
Speaker 6: I mean, he withdrew from the House of Representatives last Wednesday,
Speaker 6: and now he needs a job. So it'll be interesting
Speaker 6: to see what Trump team comes up with next.
Speaker 2: Does need a job, and I think they're going to
Speaker 2: need a senator in Florida if Marco Rubio is confirmed
Speaker 2: as head of the state Department. Jeanie, these must have
Speaker 2: been some pretty rough meetings yesterday. Unlet's Matt Gaye's got
Speaker 2: some phone calls last night? Or are you among those
Speaker 2: who think that this whole thing was a setup to
Speaker 2: begin with to get him out of whatever the Ethics
Speaker 2: Committee found in their investigation.
Speaker 7: No, you know, I have no evidence to suggest this
Speaker 7: was a setup. It seems to be in keeping with
Speaker 7: the way Trump operates. And you know, to me, this
Speaker 7: entire thing, if it wasn't bad enough with it in
Speaker 7: the last few hours, as we heard that, you know,
Speaker 7: he's doing things like transporting women to New York City,
Speaker 7: going to see Pretty Women on Broadway, you know, the
Speaker 7: ultimate show and movie about you know, a hooker with
Speaker 7: a heart of gold, and he's paying these women on Venmo.
Speaker 7: I mean it just it jumped the shark so long
Speaker 7: ago it became outrageous to think he could have survived
Speaker 7: in this contest, or that Republicans would would have wanted
Speaker 7: to put this thing out in the public. But you know,
Speaker 7: Rick is onto something. He needs a job, right He
Speaker 7: can skirt Senate confirmation if they put him in the
Speaker 7: White House. But don't forget he was elected to the
Speaker 7: House of Representatives. He only resigned from the seat he
Speaker 7: currently holds. He can move himself right back into the
Speaker 7: House of Representatives. And you know he's a flame thrower,
Speaker 7: so he may not mind so much because as of now,
Speaker 7: we know so much of what was in that report already.
Speaker 7: If Ethics decides to pick it up again, he could
Speaker 7: be there to make republicans lives miserable. So he's got
Speaker 7: a lot of options. And it's certainly not the last
Speaker 7: time we've heard of Matt Gates.
Speaker 2: Wow, a lot there from Genie. We just heard from
Speaker 2: Donald Trump. Truth social I greatly appreciate the recent efforts.
Speaker 2: I'm reading directly from his post of Matt Gates and
Speaker 2: seeking approval to be Attorney General. Donald Trump writes he
Speaker 2: was doing very well, but at the same time did
Speaker 2: not want to be a distraction for the administration, for
Speaker 2: which he has much respect. Matt has a wonderful future.
Speaker 2: Donald Trump says, I look forward to watching all of
Speaker 2: the great things he will do. Does that sound like
Speaker 2: somebody who wants to bring Gates into the White House?
Speaker 6: Rick Well, I think he has already made that pretty
Speaker 6: clear that he wanted him in the cabinet. There are
Speaker 6: plenty of sub cabinet level jobs that won't get the
Speaker 6: scrutiny that attorney general would have brought on to him.
Speaker 6: So yeah, I don't think they're going to just cut
Speaker 6: him loose. Frankly, he's probably more dangerous to Donald Trump
Speaker 6: without a job in the administration than he is with one.
Speaker 6: You know, that way they can at least keep track
Speaker 6: of what he's up to. But you mentioned it earlier,
Speaker 6: there is going to be a vacancy, you know, in
Speaker 6: the United States Senate from Florida. You know that's certainly
Speaker 6: not out of the realm of possibilities that Matt Gates
Speaker 6: would show up in that same caucus that just beat
Speaker 6: him up yesterday. Won't be the first Senator that comes
Speaker 6: up there with some wounds, but it would be certainly
Speaker 6: a rock thrown against the glass of the Republican caucus
Speaker 6: in the Senate if he winds up A colleague.
Speaker 2: Wow, Jeanie, this has taken the light off of Pete Hegseth.
Speaker 2: Today Hegseeth, the Secretary of Defense nominee is actually walking
Speaker 2: the halls of the Senate meeting with senators today as MATC.
Speaker 3: Gates did yesterday.
Speaker 2: And I look, I don't know about the timing here,
Speaker 2: but it's just last night that a police report came
Speaker 2: out from Monterey, California about his experience with a woman
Speaker 2: in twenty seventeen who accused him of sexual assault.
Speaker 3: It goes further than that.
Speaker 2: Genie, and I'm sure you've read this. The records release
Speaker 2: show the woman told an emergency room nurse that she
Speaker 2: may have been drugged and was then assaulted by a
Speaker 2: man she later identified as Pete. Hegseth, where are we
Speaker 2: going with this nomination? What are these meetings today?
Speaker 7: You know he had he was in those meetings today.
Speaker 7: The report is very damning. He said something that at
Speaker 7: least caught my attention today speaking to reporters, when he
Speaker 7: was asked about that report, he said something like, as
Speaker 7: far as the media is concerned, I have been cleared.
Speaker 7: And it was that prefaces about as far as the
Speaker 7: media is concerned. That is very strange way to preface that.
Speaker 7: Of course, he wasn't He wasn't cleared. He just was
Speaker 7: not charged in with this. And he did then pay
Speaker 7: off this woman. And you know, the question I think
Speaker 7: for Donald Trump and the transition team here once again
Speaker 7: is number one, did he tell them about this or
Speaker 7: did he pull the wool over their eyes? You know,
Speaker 7: it's one thing if he is not honest with say
Speaker 7: viewers on Fox News for those years he's on there.
Speaker 7: But it's another thing if he didn't tell the transition team.
Speaker 7: Who of course, has put their own hands tied behind
Speaker 7: their back by not using the FBI to investigate and
Speaker 7: to vet these folks, So you know, it's all part
Speaker 7: of that. But I think the big thing about Pete Hegseth,
Speaker 7: even more damning if you can say that are equally damning,
Speaker 7: is his absolute lack of qualifications to run this department
Speaker 7: by any stretch of the imagination. And that's true of
Speaker 7: many of these nominees, but Pete Hegseth and Matt Gates
Speaker 7: take the cake for that, and that's what I think
Speaker 7: Democrats need to focus on.
Speaker 3: Well, it's it's crazy we're talking about this.
Speaker 2: I even get a special background for it if you're
Speaker 2: with us on YouTube. Rick, So look, I'm running out
Speaker 2: of questions for you guys here. Yes, we have the
Speaker 2: police report, but we have something else. Maybe I should
Speaker 2: say it. We have someone else, Rick, someone actually I
Speaker 2: think you know named Jony Ernst. Pete Hegseth says women
Speaker 2: should not be allowed in combat. There are going to
Speaker 2: be some Republicans, including Jony Ernst, a combat veteran on
Speaker 2: the Judiciary panel, who have a problem with that approach.
Speaker 3: Rick.
Speaker 2: What is more challenging to heg Seth's confirmation the police report,
Speaker 2: which by the way, he denies the allegations, or his position,
Speaker 2: for instance, on women in combat.
Speaker 6: Well, I think you acdically made to point Joe, it's
Speaker 6: his past position. You know, he wouldn't be the first
Speaker 6: Cabinet point e to go to his confirmation hearing and
Speaker 6: do a little bit of flip flopping. I was at
Speaker 6: a national security conference yesterday and this was addressed by
Speaker 6: a lot of the four stars that were there, and
Speaker 6: their point was, we can be genderblind and if you
Speaker 6: are ready for the job, you should fill it. And
Speaker 6: I wouldn't be surprised that that's the comments that he makes.
Speaker 6: If he gets as far as getting a confirmation hearing,
Speaker 6: it won't be just Joni Ernzt going after him on
Speaker 6: these issues. This is a bipartisan approach to the military
Speaker 6: that has been frankly rewarded by enhancing our security with
Speaker 6: women in combat, and he's not likely to hold onto
Speaker 6: that stream if he wants to get through confirmation unscathed.
Speaker 3: As we spend time.
Speaker 2: With Rick and Jeannie our signature panel here, if you're
Speaker 2: with us on YouTube today, I'm now in the upside down.
Speaker 2: Oh no, look, we're back in Washington, Jennie, what's your
Speaker 2: take on this. The police report or the position on
Speaker 2: women in combat create a greater challenge to the nominee
Speaker 2: for sectif.
Speaker 7: Can I have a third choice of all of the
Speaker 7: above and more. You know, you mentioned Jonie Ernst, and
Speaker 7: it's a great example. Let's look at Tammy Duckworth. She
Speaker 7: is a double amputee VET, and she is going to
Speaker 7: face this man who has said in the past, and
Speaker 7: we'll have to hear what he says if he actually
Speaker 7: gets to confirmation hearings that women shouldn't serve in combat.
Speaker 7: I wonder how that's going to go over with Senator Duckworth.
Speaker 7: And you know, he can claim that these positions are
Speaker 7: in the past, so he will have to defend those.
Speaker 7: If he decides to waffle on them and change his mind,
Speaker 7: he's going to have to defend that. But there's far
Speaker 7: more where that is. And I go back to the
Speaker 7: fact that Pete Worth, hegseth Rather, for all of his
Speaker 7: military service, has never ever shown the ability to run
Speaker 7: an organization as big as the Department of Defense in
Speaker 7: terms of the budget, in terms of the personnel, and
Speaker 7: so the qualifications issue alone is one that has to
Speaker 7: be addressed in addition to all these other things. And
Speaker 7: this is what's so concerning to so many people in
Speaker 7: the defense area, is the fact that he has absolutely
Speaker 7: no background in this.
Speaker 2: Genie Shanzeno and Rick Davis, our signature panel.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast Ketch
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Speaker 8: We want to get more on this now as we
Speaker 8: dissect what exactly has happened here and what it means,
Speaker 8: and turn to our signature political panel. Genie Shanzeno is
Speaker 8: what that. She's senior Democracy Fellow at the Center for
Speaker 8: the Study of the Presidency and Congress alongside Stone Court
Speaker 8: Capital partner Rick Davis. Theyre a Democrat and Republican analyst, respectively. Rick,
Speaker 8: I would love to hear from you here, just on timing.
Speaker 8: While we all knew the writing might be on the
Speaker 8: wall with us, when it looked like it was going
Speaker 8: to be a steep uphill climb for Gates to be confirmed,
Speaker 8: he was just on Capitol Hill yesterday with the Vice
Speaker 8: president elect JD. Vance trying to fight the fight here.
Speaker 8: Why give it up when November is not even over.
Speaker 9: Yeah, it was pretty precipitous.
Speaker 6: We can only speculate that the meeting with the senators
Speaker 6: was not positive. If you saw Lindsey Graham's reaction coming
Speaker 6: out of the out of the Capitol last night, he
Speaker 6: was not particularly happy. And of course he would be
Speaker 6: the chairman of the Judiciary committee that would process that
Speaker 6: hearing in his committee. So I think he is a
Speaker 6: telling person who was by the way, up until the
Speaker 6: end of yesterday strongly supporting Matt Gates and confirmations. So
Speaker 6: he's another one who's probably been injured by this since
Speaker 6: he leaned in so hard on it. The reality is
Speaker 6: it's a little unusual because also Donald Trump was making
Speaker 6: phone calls to senators, which is not an unusual into itself,
Speaker 6: but you would have thought he'd want to see how
Speaker 6: that meeting took place before he weighed in directly with
Speaker 6: the senators on that committee. So i'd say set back
Speaker 6: for Team Trump on their transition. They're going to have
Speaker 6: to fall back. I have no doubt that they were
Speaker 6: up until this announcement fully prepared to charge ahead with
Speaker 6: his confirmation, and now they're going to have to fall
Speaker 6: back and figure out who else to put up Gudi.
Speaker 2: There was a democratic led effort, I should say, is one,
Speaker 2: because it's still underway under privileged resolution to have a
Speaker 2: full House vote on whether to release formally publicly the
Speaker 2: Ethics Committee report into Matt Gates. Is there any point
Speaker 2: in pursuing that? As the Democrat on our panel, do
Speaker 2: you still want that to be made public?
Speaker 7: I don't think there's a rush to do it. Certainly,
Speaker 7: the committee is going to meet again next week on
Speaker 7: the fifth, if they keep to that schedule, and you know,
Speaker 7: I think it's important that they do work together and
Speaker 7: respect the rules of the House, and so I don't
Speaker 7: think there's any real reason to rush that out. But again,
Speaker 7: it depends on what happens with Matt Gates next. Where
Speaker 7: does he go, you know, does he fight Laura Trump
Speaker 7: to become Senator of Florida, Does he come back to
Speaker 7: the House as you were talking to Wendy about, does
Speaker 7: he get into the White House, you know, skirting confirmation
Speaker 7: by the Senate. But I would say, you know, for
Speaker 7: all of Trump's bravado in this process, and his attempts
Speaker 7: to try to skirt around the confirmation process and talk
Speaker 7: about recess appointments and those kinds of things. It is
Speaker 7: to the credit of the Senate that whatever happened, they
Speaker 7: stood up and the GOP in the Senate and apparently
Speaker 7: were at least able to commit some gates that this
Speaker 7: was a no go. And that is a win for
Speaker 7: James Madison. So here here to James Madison for giving
Speaker 7: us these checks and balances, because it is a win
Speaker 7: for him and for all of us.
Speaker 9: Well.
Speaker 8: It might also be a win for Senator John Foon,
Speaker 8: the incoming Majority leader Rick, who was going to have
Speaker 8: to navigate what could have been a really tricky situation
Speaker 8: with this confirmation. And I wonder if this now opens
Speaker 8: a window for instead scrutiny and perhaps a little bit
Speaker 8: of pushback on the president elects from the majority in
Speaker 8: the Senate in regard to other nominees, thinking here Pete
Speaker 8: Hegseth or Tulca Gabbert.
Speaker 6: Yeah, there seems to be a realization in mar Lago
Speaker 6: that these things could inure to the detriment of the
Speaker 6: president elect.
Speaker 9: So pulling the plug this early.
Speaker 6: On met Gates was I think a surprise to all,
Speaker 6: and I'm sure they are monitoring the media and the
Speaker 6: Senator's reactions to other controversial cabinet picks that you've just described.
Speaker 9: So I think this is TBD.
Speaker 6: The good news about the Senate is they weren't the
Speaker 6: ones who had to pull the plug on Matt Gates.
Speaker 6: Certainly some in the caucus weren't happy with this. They
Speaker 6: made themselves known yesterday, probably enough to thwart the nomination
Speaker 6: if it came to a floor vote. But the reality
Speaker 6: is they were able to see his nomination pulled by
Speaker 6: his withdrawal without actually having to spend any political capital themselves,
Speaker 6: so they have plenty charged up the majority. Leader Thune
Speaker 6: is indicated that this process will move forward, different from
Speaker 6: some early indications that there might be a mass recess
Speaker 6: appointment of the cabinet.
Speaker 9: So we're learning as we go along with this.
Speaker 6: New Trump cabinet, and it seems to be more balanced
Speaker 6: with the Senate than I think many people many observers
Speaker 6: thought it might be.
Speaker 2: It seems we're learning more about Pete Hegseth is well, Genie,
Speaker 2: and I wonder your thoughts on how this breaking news
Speaker 2: about Matt Gates, the reaction he apparently got in the
Speaker 2: Senate yesterday might inform what happens to Donald Trump's nominee
Speaker 2: for Defense secretary. It was just last night, interesting timing
Speaker 2: that a police report was made public. As we've been
Speaker 2: discussing about accusations by a woman that heg Seth, she
Speaker 2: says sectually assaulted her. There is some new information in here,
Speaker 2: as the record show the woman told an emergency room
Speaker 2: nurse that she may have been drugged that night. This
Speaker 2: is something we were looking at in a vacuum until
Speaker 2: this Matt Gates headline broke today. What could this mean
Speaker 2: for Pete Hegseth.
Speaker 7: You know, I think it is a reflection of the
Speaker 7: inadequate vetting that has gone on here, particularly in the
Speaker 7: case of Pete hegg Seth. I mean, it's you know,
Speaker 7: I can't imagine that they didn't realize about Matt Gates
Speaker 7: because that investigation had been going on in the house
Speaker 7: for so long. But Pete Hegseth, apparently the transition team
Speaker 7: was surprised to get this news about the payoff, and
Speaker 7: now yesterday the police report. So this is what happens.
Speaker 7: And you know, Carl wrote said this yesterday. Inadequate reading rushing,
Speaker 7: disregarding people's qualifications first for revenge. All of those things
Speaker 7: have left a Trump team which had a pretty good
Speaker 7: first week of nominees with these really difficult nominees. And
Speaker 7: you know, I think it's going to fall on jd Vance,
Speaker 7: who is the sherpa. He was the sherpa of Gates.
Speaker 7: He is now the Sherpa of Heagseth, to see what
Speaker 7: inroads they can make in the setting in the Senate rather,
Speaker 7: but there are very very many questions in the Senate
Speaker 7: and in the defense area about Pete Hegseth, not just this,
Speaker 7: but his qualifications and his views. All of those things
Speaker 7: are going to come through in a confirmation process. And
Speaker 7: the question for the Trump team is do they want
Speaker 7: to put themselves through this? If there were more particularly salacios,
Speaker 7: you know, things.
Speaker 2: To come out with instant analysis to news that Matt
Speaker 2: Gates is withdrawing his name from nomination to be the
Speaker 2: next Attorney General. Geenie Shanzano and Rick Davis, our signature panel,
Speaker 2: thank you both so much. As we add the voice
Speaker 2: of a Congressman in Don Bayer, a member of the
Speaker 2: Democratic Conference in the US House. Don Bayer of Virginia
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Bloomberg TV and Radio. Congressman, I'm sure
Speaker 2: you have some thoughts about the day Matt Gates must
Speaker 2: have had in the US Senate. But regarding the House,
Speaker 2: and I understand we're going to talk a bit later
Speaker 2: with your colleague Sean Caston, who had a privileged resolution
Speaker 2: to force a floor vote on whether to make public
Speaker 2: the Ethics Committee investigation the report into Matt Gates.
Speaker 3: Do you think that should still happen?
Speaker 10: Yes, I do, although there will be less pressure to
Speaker 10: do it now that he is no longer a candidate
Speaker 10: for Attorney general. But you know, Matt had alienated so
Speaker 10: many people on both sides of the aisle that we
Speaker 10: expected quite a few Republican votes to actually see the report.
Speaker 10: It's less important now unless he decides to come back.
Speaker 10: And he won the election. He resigned from this Congress,
Speaker 10: but he hasn't resigned from the next congression, so this
Speaker 10: may be not moot yet.
Speaker 8: Well, so, Congressman, is it your understanding that he could
Speaker 8: just simply take that seat. Does he have to take
Speaker 8: the seat in order to then resign it? So does
Speaker 8: he have to show up on January third? Just what
Speaker 8: exactly is the proceduring.
Speaker 10: Kaylee, good question, and we relied on Joe Morelli, who's
Speaker 10: the Democrat who leads the House Administration Committee, and he
Speaker 10: basically said, we don't know. We're not really been in
Speaker 10: this position before. But it's not clear that he can
Speaker 10: resign a seat that he's not been scorn into yet.
Speaker 10: But if he doesn't show up, what happens then in
Speaker 10: any case, I think an awful lot of peace people
Speaker 10: think that whether he serves or not, that the people
Speaker 10: have a right to know what that ethics report says,
Speaker 10: and certainly that's the way I will vote to release it.
Speaker 2: We did hear from the aforementioned Sean cast in a
Speaker 2: statement following the news of Matt Gates's withdrawal. While I
Speaker 2: welcome the news, he says it remains important that the
Speaker 2: Gates report be made available to the American people. If
Speaker 2: he's not serving in Congress, Don Bayer, why would that be.
Speaker 10: Well? Part of it, Joe is the larger picture that
Speaker 10: we have. Pete Hegseth also credibly accused of rate. We
Speaker 10: have some I think it's in the double digits numbers
Speaker 10: of cabinet and sub cabinet officials that are circulating right
Speaker 10: now that have had charges a sexual assault, including RFK Junior,
Speaker 10: that this seems to be the new qualification for Trump cabinet.
Speaker 10: I think the more we address this directly and hope
Speaker 10: with the clear message that we want people who are
Speaker 10: have high integrity, that treat women with respect each other
Speaker 10: with respect, should be part of what it means to
Speaker 10: be a cabinet member in this United States.
Speaker 8: Well, and as we think about women here in particular, Congressman,
Speaker 8: I'm sure you've seen as many of us had the reports,
Speaker 8: the police reports specifically of the incident in twenty seventeen
Speaker 8: allegations of sexual assault regarding a different cabinet nominee, the
Speaker 8: Defense Secretary designate Pete Hegseth. Now that some of the
Speaker 8: scrutiny will be taken off of Matt Gates since he's
Speaker 8: withdrawn himself from consideration, it could put a greater spotlight
Speaker 8: on that individual in particular. Do you expect he will
Speaker 8: face an uphill battle to send it confirmation over some
Speaker 8: of these very same issues you were just alluding to.
Speaker 10: Very much so, kay Lee. And it begins with the
Speaker 10: sexual assault allegations.
Speaker 9: Some of his.
Speaker 10: Family pass. But it is going to quickly move on
Speaker 10: to the fact that a National guardsman with.
Speaker 9: Service overseas, which we very.
Speaker 10: Much respect, has never managed an organization more than thirty people.
Speaker 10: Moving on to one of the largest and most complicated
Speaker 10: organizations in the world. You know, when you move in
Speaker 10: somebody like Lloyd Austin or Jim Maddison, who have managed
Speaker 10: in the tens of thousands, the hundreds of thousands, that's
Speaker 10: a very different set of management leadership skills than what
Speaker 10: Pete Hegsth has shown us so far. And what we
Speaker 10: mostly know of him is his advocacy for returning of
Speaker 10: Navy seal bad As to somebody who shot a handcuffed
Speaker 10: man in the back of the head and was convicted
Speaker 10: of murder.
Speaker 2: I don't know anything about that, Congressman, but I do
Speaker 2: want to ask you about the looming choice for Treasury Secretary.
Speaker 2: Is this something that you're concerned about because it's taken
Speaker 2: so long, even though we're pretty early in the game here.
Speaker 2: But following the names that you've seen already, a lot
Speaker 2: of folks with the aim of torching the agency that
Speaker 2: they've been put in charge of have been named by
Speaker 2: Donald Trump, to the joy of many of his supporters.
Speaker 2: Are we going to get a name like that for
Speaker 2: Treasury based on who you're.
Speaker 10: Hearing, Joe, my great concern is that not so much
Speaker 10: that a Treasury secretary will try to tear down the
Speaker 10: US dollar, but rather that he or she will buy
Speaker 10: into the Trump commitment to ten and twenty percent tariffs
Speaker 10: on every one of our trading partners and sixty percent
Speaker 10: plus on the Chinese. We've already discovered the American people
Speaker 10: hate inflation, and yet he's about to do the most
Speaker 10: inflationary thing possible, which is drive up consumer prices all
Speaker 10: across our country. It'd be wonderful if you would appoint
Speaker 10: a Treasury secretary who would be a constraint on really
Speaker 10: bad economic policy that's coming out of the twenty twenty
Speaker 10: five playbook and out of Donald Trump.
Speaker 8: All right, Congressman, thank you so much for joining us
Speaker 8: here on Bloomberg TV and radio. We appreciate your time
Speaker 8: that as the Democratic Congressman representing Virginia's eighth district, Don Byer.
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast Ken
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Speaker 2: Great to have you with us on Bloomberg TV and Radio.
Speaker 2: The Thursday edition of Balance of Power Live from Washington.
Speaker 2: It's been a pretty busy day around here with breaking news,
Speaker 2: and the more news breaks, the more.
Speaker 3: Questions we have.
Speaker 2: As we learned a little more than an hour ago,
Speaker 2: Matt Gats, former congressman from Florida, has withdrawn his name
Speaker 2: from nomination to be the.
Speaker 3: Next Attorney General.
Speaker 2: This was, of course, among the most controversial of Donald
Speaker 2: Trump's picks to fill out the cabinet. He resigned his
Speaker 2: House seat, as we told you, upon the announcement of
Speaker 2: that nomination last week. And so there's a concerted debate
Speaker 2: underway right now, Kaylee lines about whether to release the
Speaker 2: Ethics Committee report, the investigation into Matt Gate's salacious allegations
Speaker 2: he has denied, and our next guest, who is with us,
Speaker 2: just a couple of days ago, brought a privileged resolution
Speaker 2: to the floor of the House to bring a full
Speaker 2: house vote to potentially force the release of this ethics report.
Speaker 2: We could still see this even though he is no
Speaker 2: longer in contention.
Speaker 8: Yeah, and that's really what we want to get into now,
Speaker 8: as the clock has started on two legislative days, knowing
Speaker 8: that Congress is about to embark on a week long
Speaker 8: recess for the Thanksgiving holiday, what's going to happen when
Speaker 8: we come back in early December. So let's turn now
Speaker 8: to Congressman cast In Shawn Caston, of course, the Democrat
Speaker 8: representing Illinois sixth District, to put forward this privileged resolution.
Speaker 8: As Joe says yesterday, Congressman, thanks for coming back to
Speaker 8: balance of power. If he is not going to be
Speaker 8: Attorney General, having withdrawn his name from consideration here, and
Speaker 8: if he is no longer going to be a member
Speaker 8: of the House of Representatives, why would this report need
Speaker 8: to come out if it's just a report looking into
Speaker 8: what would then be a private US citizen.
Speaker 11: Well, look, I'd put the question to you or reviewers
Speaker 11: in any workplace, if if you and your office knew
Speaker 11: that there was someone in the office who had serious
Speaker 11: allegations of sexual misconduct, including sex with a minor, and
Speaker 11: that person resigned from their office, would you be satisfied
Speaker 11: working in that workplace if they said we're not going
Speaker 11: to continue this anymore. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter
Speaker 11: what we know that would be inexcusable in any other office.
Speaker 11: It was appropriate for it. Remember, the Ethics Committee was
Speaker 11: prepared to release this information in July because of the recess.
Speaker 11: They then punted that into a few weeks ago. They
Speaker 11: then punted again, and they now, based on their vote
Speaker 11: yesterday on a straight party line basis, the Republicans on
Speaker 11: Committee deadlocked with the Democrats and voted to punt again.
Speaker 11: This information should come out. We will continue to push
Speaker 11: in our office to make sure it comes out, because
Speaker 11: the allegations are serious, and it is in the good
Speaker 11: of the House, and it is in the good of
Speaker 11: making sure that the American people trust that the households
Speaker 11: itself to account, that we know what's in this report.
Speaker 2: Your workplace analogy having been made a congressman, I wonder
Speaker 2: if you're also concerned about Matt Gates serving in a
Speaker 2: different capacity in this White House, or maybe more so,
Speaker 2: if he were to show up for one hundred and
Speaker 2: nineteenth congrets to which he was elected and actually take
Speaker 2: his seat back in January.
Speaker 11: All those things are possibilities, and we can't predict the future.
Speaker 11: All we can do is to make sure that we
Speaker 11: we make the right moral decision in the point we're
Speaker 11: in right now, and this one to me, to my mind,
Speaker 11: is fairly unambiguous.
Speaker 8: Well, so as we consider the path forward here, we
Speaker 8: had understood the Ethics Committee was going to be meeting
Speaker 8: again on this matter on December fifth. The ranking Democratic
Speaker 8: member of that committee, Susan Wilde, said so herself. There's
Speaker 8: been Congressman, as I'm sure you're well aware, a lot
Speaker 8: of chatter in the last week about whether or not
Speaker 8: this is going to come out either way through formal
Speaker 8: means or otherwise. Would it be your hope if the
Speaker 8: Ethics Committee can't find a way forward and your vote,
Speaker 8: your privileged resolution can't force this to happen, that this
Speaker 8: would leak out, or if the formal institutions of the
Speaker 8: House have made it not so, should it indeed remain
Speaker 8: a secret if that is what your colleagues decide.
Speaker 11: Well, I think there's a series of questions there, and
Speaker 11: let's unpack each of them. The Ethics Committee report is done.
Speaker 11: Notwithstanding what mister Guest has said, remember that they were
Speaker 11: prepared to vote on this in July. There was no
Speaker 11: discussion if the report wasn't done, so the Ethics Committee
Speaker 11: can make all of this go away by simply releasing
Speaker 11: the report that they were prepared to release in July.
Speaker 11: If the Ethics Committee is unable to do their ethical responsibility,
Speaker 11: then we can use the privileged resolution that we've introduced
Speaker 11: to compel the House to vote on that, provided that
Speaker 11: we have the votes on the floor. And it is
Speaker 11: tragic in the moment that we're in that we have
Speaker 11: to wonder whether the Republicans in the House will vote
Speaker 11: to condemn someone who's been accused of sexual misconduct. This
Speaker 11: is the moment we're in, and that's unfortunate. The third
Speaker 11: part of that, if those things don't happen, should it leak.
Speaker 11: I'm not going to take a position on that. I
Speaker 11: think it would be better for us to use formal procedures,
Speaker 11: But we should keep in mind how we got to
Speaker 11: this point. There were there are multiple women, it's our understanding,
Speaker 11: who have come forth and testified anonymously to the Ethics
Speaker 11: Committee with the understanding that they were providing reports to
Speaker 11: an Ethics committee that would keep this in confidence. That
Speaker 11: takes tremendous courage, right. All of those women are well
Speaker 11: aware of what happened to Christine blazey Ford when she
Speaker 11: came out during the Kavanaugh hearings, which is of course,
Speaker 11: only the most recent time in memory the Donald Trump
Speaker 11: send a candidate with allegations of sexual misconduct to the
Speaker 11: Senate for confirmation. How much her life was upended by
Speaker 11: being public and if this information leaks out in dribs
Speaker 11: and drabs from other people, it makes it very hard
Speaker 11: to make sure that we that we protect those women
Speaker 11: and respect them. And the right way to do this again,
Speaker 11: the way we minimize that is by the Ethics Committee
Speaker 11: doing their job. That would be my hope, But we'll
Speaker 11: see what happens over the next few weeks.
Speaker 2: We're spending time with Congressman Sean Casta, the Democrat, is
Speaker 2: leading the charge here to force the public release of
Speaker 2: the Ethics Committee report into Matt Gates, who, if you're
Speaker 2: just joining us, has withdrawn his name from consideration from nomination.
Speaker 3: To be Attorney General.
Speaker 2: Does that withdrawal, Congressman, change the vote count to the
Speaker 2: extent that you had a sense of support for this
Speaker 2: resolution for when you come back from Thanksgiving, does withdrawal
Speaker 2: of Matt Gates impact the outcome of your resolution? I?
Speaker 11: Mean, obviously, this news has come so quickly, I've not
Speaker 11: had the time to talk with any of my Republican colleagues.
Speaker 11: I don't think it changes the calculus run of my
Speaker 11: Democratic College.
Speaker 3: Did you have the votes before?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 11: There were there were certainly Republicans that were were you know?
Speaker 11: I think I think one came out publicly, Derek Van
Speaker 11: Orden came out and said that he would support release
Speaker 11: the information. There are other privately who look at this
Speaker 11: is not betraying any confidences. There are a lot of
Speaker 11: Republicans who don't particularly care for Matt Gates. If this
Speaker 11: is purely about a personal question, I think that's an
Speaker 11: open question.
Speaker 9: I think it is.
Speaker 11: I think it's an easy question. I think the separate
Speaker 11: question of are there Republicans in the House who are
Speaker 11: prepared to take actions that would be oppositional to Donald
Speaker 11: Trump's desire? Even if Donald Trump's desire is to nominate
Speaker 11: someone who was alleged to have committed sexual misconduct, would
Speaker 11: they stand up to that. I don't know, But to
Speaker 11: the extent that there's a tension between those points than one,
Speaker 11: I suppose could speculate that it would be politically easier
Speaker 11: for Republicans in the House to vote based on their
Speaker 11: feelings for Matt Gates rather than based on their fear
Speaker 11: of Donald Trump.
Speaker 8: Well, Congressman, we appreciate you joining us on this and
Speaker 8: look forward to seeing the outcome here of this privileged
Speaker 8: resolution as we deal with this one piece of breaking news,
Speaker 8: but we've gotten some other breaking news within the last
Speaker 8: hour as well, I would love you to weigh in on.
Speaker 8: As a member of the House Financial Services Committee, the
Speaker 8: Chair of the SEC, Gary Gensler, has said now officially
Speaker 8: he will be resigning on January twentieth. For many, this
Speaker 8: will not be surprising. Donald Trump had promised to fire
Speaker 8: him anyway. But considering your role in the Financial Services Committee,
Speaker 8: the idea that the SEC could be critical in these
Speaker 8: next four years and in forming the path forward for industries,
Speaker 8: including the crypto industry, what is your hope here on
Speaker 8: who will be selected to replace him, what kind of
Speaker 8: person that will be.
Speaker 11: So first, I just to have tremendous respect for Chair Gensler.
Speaker 11: I think he's done has certainly done a lot of
Speaker 11: work as you all know during his tenure, and I
Speaker 11: think has been a very loud advocate for investor protection.
Speaker 11: There is always a tension, a healthy tension within the
Speaker 11: SEC between how far do you go towards investor protection
Speaker 11: and how far do you go towards maximizing access to
Speaker 11: capital markets. Everything you push in one direction hurts the other,
Speaker 11: and vice versa. I would like to see anybody at
Speaker 11: the SEC who understands that balance and who frankly skews
Speaker 11: more to the investor protection side, because I've always felt that,
Speaker 11: you know, you part of public service or any position
Speaker 11: of powers to make, or that you're you're advocating for
Speaker 11: the people who aren't in the room as much as
Speaker 11: you are for the people who are, and the you know,
Speaker 11: the work that Gensler has done to look at for
Speaker 11: you know, for the the less sophisticated participants in our
Speaker 11: financial markets, I think has been important. We'll see what
Speaker 11: happens on the Trump side, but I you know, I
Speaker 11: do I do fear that this is not an administration
Speaker 11: that has shown nearly as much commitment to investor protection
Speaker 11: as I would like.
Speaker 2: Well, on the market side, it's a celebration certainly in
Speaker 2: the crypto market. We're getting closer to one hundred thousand
Speaker 2: dollars for bitcoin. Congressman, I know you're not necessarily guided
Speaker 2: by the markets on this, But what does that tell
Speaker 2: you potentially about the person who may replace Gary Gensler.
Speaker 11: Well, look, the there is a huge problem and has
Speaker 11: been a huge problem in the crypto sector for a
Speaker 11: long time. That the structure of those those crypto exchanges
Speaker 11: and markets, the use of anonymous wallets, the use of mixers,
Speaker 11: the use of cross chain bridges. It is very easy
Speaker 11: to cover your tracks and has been very attractive as
Speaker 11: a result two folks who want to londer money, want
Speaker 11: to get around know your customer rules, want to get
Speaker 11: around finsend.
Speaker 2: And.
Speaker 11: Has also been been attractive to a lot of people
Speaker 11: who want to take advantage of less sophisticated players. To
Speaker 11: be clear, that's that's not saying that one cannot imagine
Speaker 11: a legal use case for crypto, but a lot of
Speaker 11: what the crypto industry has not liked about mister Gensler
Speaker 11: is that he has been pushing for a disclosure based
Speaker 11: regulatory environment that says, if you're going to buy and
Speaker 11: sell something of value, you need to have the same
Speaker 11: types of protections whether whatever that is. And we can
Speaker 11: we can quibble about is this a you know, the
Speaker 11: Howie test and all those sorts of issues. But the
Speaker 11: crypto industry has clearly been pushing for a long time
Speaker 11: to move themselves out of a disclosure based regulatory regime
Speaker 11: at the SEC and into a purely market exchange based
Speaker 11: regulatory structure at the CFTC, and one can't assume that
Speaker 11: the advocacy for that move accrues to the benefit of
Speaker 11: investors who depend on those disclosures.
Speaker 8: Congressman, we just have a minute left here, But obviously
Speaker 8: the current chairman of the Financial Services Committee will see
Speaker 8: his time in Congress come to an end at the
Speaker 8: end of this session. Is there someone you think would
Speaker 8: best work with Democrats on a bipartisan basis as the
Speaker 8: next chair of the Financial Services Committee? Is there a
Speaker 8: candidate you favor for that role?
Speaker 11: You know, in general, I think the Financial Services Committee
Speaker 11: has done, in general, a very good job of avoiding
Speaker 11: some of the more you know, rancorous, vitriolic debates on
Speaker 11: some of the other committees. You know, I would say
Speaker 11: that virtually all of the Democrats on committees on the
Speaker 11: Committee have a very good working relationship with Franchill. A
Speaker 11: lot of us have a good relationship with Andy Barr,
Speaker 11: A lot of us have a very good relationship with
Speaker 11: Frank Lucas, and we will certainly have our disagreements on
Speaker 11: policy issues, and some of those, of course will be animated.
Speaker 11: But I think all three of those candidates are are
Speaker 11: candidates who have a respect for the institution and a
Speaker 11: respect for the work of the Committee, which is important.
Speaker 2: Congressman, it's good to have you back. Let's meet up
Speaker 2: after Thanksgiving and see how this FOC goes. Sean Casten,
Speaker 2: we appreciate all of your time this week, the Congressman
Speaker 2: from Illinois sixth Thanks for listening to the Balance of
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