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Speaker 3: Live from Washington. Hey, you made it to Tuesday. All right,
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Speaker 3: us right now search Bloomberg Business News Live. Because as
Speaker 3: always we've got a lot to catch up on. It's
Speaker 3: good to see you. Thank you for joining. Here's the
Speaker 3: baseline when it comes to politics. Today President Biden wrapping
Speaker 3: things up in Africa. He's in Angola where he wraps
Speaker 3: the trip three day trip done today, the Trends Africa Summit,
Speaker 3: wrapping things up today before he gets on Air Force
Speaker 3: one and heads back to Washington. Congress also coming back
Speaker 3: to Washington. Senators, members of the House flying in last
Speaker 3: night and today we actually get down to business. Senate's
Speaker 3: already in session.
Speaker 4: The House.
Speaker 3: We'll get back to it tonight. We've got a funding deadline,
Speaker 3: you know. To listen to this program the deal there,
Speaker 3: No one's talking about a shutdown. So when you see
Speaker 3: the countdown clocks later on cable news, you can sound
Speaker 3: smart at the cocktail party. We don't, however, have a deal,
Speaker 3: and we'll get to that later this hour with Nathan Dean, who, yes,
Speaker 3: of course, is running odds on a shutdown. Now, while
Speaker 3: lawmakers are doing this dance on Capitol Hill, Donald Trump's
Speaker 3: picks for Defense and Treasury are doing their own dance
Speaker 3: on the Senate side.
Speaker 4: You know how this works.
Speaker 3: You get the sharper, they bring it through the meetings
Speaker 3: and you actually sit down in the office with the
Speaker 3: senators who are going to be deciding your fate. That's
Speaker 3: an easier job for some than others. Right now, ask
Speaker 3: Matt Gates, and there's a big difference between Scott Bessett
Speaker 3: today and Pete Hegseth. As the walls start to close
Speaker 3: in a little bit more around Donald Trump's choice to
Speaker 3: run the Pentagon. Remembering this is a military combat veteran,
Speaker 3: also a veteran of Fox News, and he's facing a
Speaker 3: series of allegations involving sexual assault, which he was asked
Speaker 3: about again today as he made his way through the
Speaker 3: corridors in the Senate, reporters have one question on their
Speaker 3: mind here.
Speaker 4: It is how do you feel about the women in combat?
Speaker 4: Amazing women, it's amazing.
Speaker 5: What do you think they should be in combat?
Speaker 4: I think they're already in combat.
Speaker 3: I think they're already in combat. He's talking about women
Speaker 3: in combat. It's not just the sexual assaults. It's what
Speaker 3: role women should play in the Pentagon. As he just said,
Speaker 3: we have amazing women who serve in the military. I
Speaker 3: think they're already in combat. When asked if he thinks
Speaker 3: they should be, this is where we follow the bouncing
Speaker 3: ball today with Ashley. Davis was delighted to hear that
Speaker 3: Ashley was coming on with us. Of course, a Republican strategist,
Speaker 3: but an insider when it comes to national security and
Speaker 3: this idea of subverting FBI background checks. I've got a
Speaker 3: lot of questions for Ashley, principal that West Front Strategy's
Speaker 3: former special assistant to the Director of Homeland Security.
Speaker 4: Ashley, it's great to have you back.
Speaker 3: This is quite the dance to witness no matter who
Speaker 3: the candidate is. But I wonder your thoughts now that
Speaker 3: Matt Gates is out of the picture. It is all
Speaker 3: the fire now turned to Pete Hegseth.
Speaker 6: Well, that's what it looks like is happening right now. Obviously,
Speaker 6: if you've seen who he's been meeting with up to
Speaker 6: this point, they've been more on the friendly side in
Speaker 6: regard to true Trump believers, I mean Senator Tulberville yesterday,
Speaker 6: and so there have been the support that he needs
Speaker 6: from them. However, you've seen a lot of Republican senators
Speaker 6: say they want to make sure that they see his
Speaker 6: full vetted FBI background check. And to kind of answer
Speaker 6: that question, which I think is really important, is if Trump.
Speaker 6: If President Trump says we're not going to do a
Speaker 6: background check onness, these senators have the ability to just say,
Speaker 6: then fine, I don't get it, then we're not going
Speaker 6: to vote for him. And remember he can only lose
Speaker 6: really three votes, and we all we don't know where
Speaker 6: Mitch McConnell with Susan Collins Elisa Murkowski will be, So
Speaker 6: these senators can really vote with what they say if
Speaker 6: they really want an FBI by background check, and obviously
Speaker 6: that's that standard procedure.
Speaker 5: So I would think that you see that happening.
Speaker 3: Well, so okay, let's get into that for a minute,
Speaker 3: because Ashley, you know a lot more about this than
Speaker 3: most Americans, having had a security clearance, having worked in
Speaker 3: national security in the Bush administration and what became the
Speaker 3: Homeland Security Department. Is Donald Trump about to set a
Speaker 3: new normal because there is a standoff here between the
Speaker 3: transition team that does not trust the FBI and the
Speaker 3: senators in the case of Senator Wicker, for instance, running
Speaker 3: a committee that's got a clear The next Secretary of
Speaker 3: Defense sees this rather differently. These senators want the traditional
Speaker 3: FBI background check.
Speaker 4: Where's this going.
Speaker 5: It's going to yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 6: Again, I think the senators have the power here because
Speaker 6: if they don't get the FBI background check, then they
Speaker 6: can say very easily, then we're not.
Speaker 5: Going to vote for him.
Speaker 6: And so you know, they kind of have that threat
Speaker 6: to be able to do that in order to get
Speaker 6: the FBI background check. If you even look at Jony
Speaker 6: Ernst to women in the military is very important topic
Speaker 6: for her. She's on the Armed Services Committee, which the
Speaker 6: Doe Secretary will go through as for the first you know,
Speaker 6: part of the nomination process, and she also has a
Speaker 6: big been a big vocal supporter of making sure that
Speaker 6: they assault and women in the military is dealt with
Speaker 6: in their proper way. So what she has said publicly
Speaker 6: several times is she really looks forward to the background.
Speaker 1: Checks that.
Speaker 5: Seth will have.
Speaker 6: So if she doesn't get those background tech checks, she
Speaker 6: can just be like, hey, then I'm not voting for him.
Speaker 6: So I do think they have the ability to play
Speaker 6: chicken here a little bit with the President elect.
Speaker 3: You know what they're talking about here. It's not they,
Speaker 3: it's Jonathan Martin. You see this piece today Politico. He
Speaker 3: took to Twitter with the idea that Hegseth goes down
Speaker 3: surrounded by scandal involving sexual assault allegations. His ideas about
Speaker 3: women in combat and to the rescue is Senator Joni Ernst.
Speaker 3: Of course his potential foil here. She's a veteran who
Speaker 3: has made a great issue of sexual assault in the military.
Speaker 3: Would she not be the smartest pick if Pete Hegseth
Speaker 3: doesn't work out here because she would sail through confirmation right?
Speaker 7: Well?
Speaker 5: Absolutely.
Speaker 6: I mean, I'm obviously I'm a huge fan of her,
Speaker 6: so I'm very biased about that question, but I think
Speaker 6: she would be wonderful. You know, there are the dynamics
Speaker 6: of when at that point a governor would have to
Speaker 6: appoint a senator, you know, a temporary senator. So how
Speaker 6: long is that process would that take? And I don't
Speaker 6: know the answer to that question off the top of
Speaker 6: my head. So you know, there is this point of
Speaker 6: getting tax reform done early on in the administration, so
Speaker 6: you don't want to have empty Senate seats either, which
Speaker 6: would be something that could potentially work against her.
Speaker 5: That would be open for a while.
Speaker 3: Interesting if Donald Trump gets nominees like Pete Haig Seth
Speaker 3: through committee without an FBI background check, realizing that may
Speaker 3: not be what happens here to your point, senators have
Speaker 3: the leverage. But if that took place, would he not
Speaker 3: be able to simply give them the background check or
Speaker 3: the security clearance rather once they got into the White House.
Speaker 3: He did that with Jared Kushner in his first term.
Speaker 3: He could just as president give everyone security clearance.
Speaker 6: Right, Yes, I mean, I guess in theory obviously he
Speaker 6: can as president. I agree with you, and I think
Speaker 6: many people that are listening right now would agree that that.
Speaker 6: I understand the point that he doesn't trust the FBI
Speaker 6: for various reasons. However, there is a process in place,
Speaker 6: and one of the main issues when you go through
Speaker 6: these security clearances is obviously the general stuff that you
Speaker 6: would think that you haven't done anything horrible in your past,
Speaker 6: but one of the most important things is the financial.
Speaker 5: Any financial issues that.
Speaker 6: You would have that you would be a target to
Speaker 6: foreign governments to take bribes, and so that to me,
Speaker 6: with some of the people that you know that are
Speaker 6: obviously serving presidents no matter who it is, is probably
Speaker 6: one of the most important things, because you're not going
Speaker 6: to really normally nominate someone that has criminal pasts. But
Speaker 6: this whole financial aspect is something that's really important for
Speaker 6: some of these nominees.
Speaker 3: Well, okay, and well stated here when it comes to
Speaker 3: the various levels of security clearance, I know you could
Speaker 3: give us a clinic on this, and I don't want
Speaker 3: to get too far into the weeds, but how many
Speaker 3: are there? If you're going to run an agency like
Speaker 3: the Pedagon for instance, or a law enforcement agency like
Speaker 3: the FBI, that would require obviously the highest But when
Speaker 3: we start talking about Scott Bessont, for instance, some of
Speaker 3: the other nominees, how many different shades of clearances are there?
Speaker 6: Well's there's a very interesting fact here which I learned
Speaker 6: when I was going through MIND. So the normal or
Speaker 6: top secret and then to something called ts SCI which
Speaker 6: is a higher level, which is kind of what someone
Speaker 6: like the Secretary of Treasury would get. So it's a
Speaker 6: high level higher than top secret, which is more the
Speaker 6: general clearance. But the interesting dynamic here or there's code
Speaker 6: words that you that you can get and so that
Speaker 6: means that you can read into certain programs throughout the
Speaker 6: federal government. And there's not one person, including the President
Speaker 6: of the United States, that has the ability to read
Speaker 6: into every single code program in the country. So like Treasury,
Speaker 6: for example, has they deal with a lot of terrorism
Speaker 6: ensurance or terrorism funding through the department. So obviously those
Speaker 6: programs the Secretary Treasury would be read into, but he's
Speaker 6: not necessarily going to be read into programs of something
Speaker 6: that's happening in the.
Speaker 5: Ground war in Afghanistan. So there's but someone.
Speaker 6: Like DoD he would read he would be read into
Speaker 6: obviously all the different programs of the Department of Defense
Speaker 6: would be involved, and however he may not necessarily be
Speaker 6: read into programs that have to do with critical infrastructure in.
Speaker 5: The United States.
Speaker 3: Fascinating that's what really interest join us. Yeah, you're not
Speaker 3: going to hear this anywhere else. Well, it sure is,
Speaker 3: because we're talking about this every day here, and it
Speaker 3: kind of helps when you know what you're talking about.
Speaker 3: Keep this in mind when you hear about these confirmation
Speaker 3: hearings and the security clearances that come with the FBI
Speaker 3: background check. Ashley, It's great to have you back. As always, you're.
Speaker 2: Listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast kens just
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Speaker 3: We turn our attention to the topic of energy, and
Speaker 3: of course this is the fastest show in politics, so
Speaker 3: we're going to do this through policy here in Washington
Speaker 3: by way of Alaska. And I mentioned this just twenty
Speaker 3: four hours after we saw the price of a gallon
Speaker 3: of gas fall below three dollars nationally that according to
Speaker 3: Gas Buddy, it was at two ninety nine when we
Speaker 3: drove home last night.
Speaker 4: Hits back above three today.
Speaker 3: But there's been some progress here and certainly when you
Speaker 3: look at what's happening in the crude oil market, remembering
Speaker 3: we had a high WTI West Texas intermediate of about
Speaker 3: eighty seven dollars a barrel. That was back the beginning
Speaker 3: of April. Today we're about twenty dollars below that level
Speaker 3: right now, sixty nine dollars at the moment, actually, but
Speaker 3: still holding below seventy. And that's the baseline for what
Speaker 3: we're going to see in the new administration. Donald Trump has,
Speaker 3: of course, promised to cut energy prices by half as
Speaker 3: the centerpiece of his policy to combat inflation across the board.
Speaker 3: And the refrain that we heard in Milwaukee, much like
Speaker 3: it was in the Twin Cities in two thousand and eight,
Speaker 3: was drill, Baby, Drill. Now on the other end of
Speaker 3: these promises, at least in some cases, is the governor
Speaker 3: of Alaska, and I'm glad to say that he's in
Speaker 3: Washington today. He came here to warm up in our
Speaker 3: twenty five degree whether Governor Mike Dunleavy. It's great to
Speaker 3: see you in the nation's capitol.
Speaker 4: Welcome back. Great to be here in the sub Indian radio.
Speaker 3: On a summer day with I think it was twenty seven.
Speaker 3: I'll be fair here. I want to know what your
Speaker 3: state is going to look like the year or four
Speaker 3: from now. Knowing that Donald Trump has talked a lot
Speaker 3: about not only unwinding regulations, but unwinding limits on drilling
Speaker 3: in your state, specifically in anwar, how quickly will you
Speaker 3: get to this and what changes in the offing.
Speaker 8: It's a great question, Joe. So it depends on the
Speaker 8: executive orders. Some have said that the President's going to
Speaker 8: drop executive orders immediately, maybe even on the first day.
Speaker 8: Hopefully some of those executive orders will repeal with some
Speaker 8: of the Bide administration folks have done to Alaska. Our
Speaker 8: sener Dan Sullivan has an interesting chart that shows about
Speaker 8: sixty six sanctions against Alaska is what we call them,
Speaker 8: since the Biden administration came into play. So, for example,
Speaker 8: in twenty seventeen, anwar was opened under the Tax and
Speaker 8: Jobs Bill, and the Biden administration has really done everything
Speaker 8: they can to stop those leases from actually going into play.
Speaker 8: We're supposed to have a sale again, a second sale
Speaker 8: for leases in an war in December. We're not sure
Speaker 8: if that's even going to happen. This is required by law,
Speaker 8: but We'll see when December comes along, but we were
Speaker 8: questioning whether this administration is going to go through with that.
Speaker 8: But I would say what Alaska's going to look like
Speaker 8: is what it's supposed to look like. What this country's
Speaker 8: supposed to look like is tremendous opportunity under the Trump administration,
Speaker 8: just like his first term, great conversations with the President
Speaker 8: during his first term, he always asked this, what does
Speaker 8: Alaska need? What can we do for Alaska? And under
Speaker 8: President Trump, we got anwar, we were drilling more, we
Speaker 8: were moving west than the NPR, which is the National
Speaker 8: Patrolling Reserve. About twenty seven million acres of land in
Speaker 8: Alaska that was designated oil production and gas production very
Speaker 8: supportively is of our gas line project that is fully
Speaker 8: permitted that we're trying to finalize. Timber industry. Timber industry
Speaker 8: disappeared in the longest National Forest under the Clinton administration.
Speaker 8: Hopefully that comes back. But between oil, gas mining, timber,
Speaker 8: we have tremendous opportunity in Alaska. All we want is
Speaker 8: the opportunity to be able to develop those resources on
Speaker 8: federal land, and we're very hopeful with President Trump coming back.
Speaker 3: You mentioned the leases under the Biden administration, seven of
Speaker 3: them that had been acquired by the Alaska Industrial Development
Speaker 3: and Export Authority were canceled and two others were abandoned.
Speaker 3: As a result, You're in an interesting position here as
Speaker 3: a policymaker, with one hand on Washington the other on industry.
Speaker 3: There's been a bit of a lucy with the football.
Speaker 3: According to some oil producers who want assurances before they
Speaker 3: start investing in these leases.
Speaker 4: What would you tell them.
Speaker 8: Well, that's another thing that the Trump administration will bring certainty.
Speaker 8: So part of the problem with the leases in anwar
Speaker 8: as you as you mentioned is when you're selling leases,
Speaker 8: but on the other hand, you're telling folks to not
Speaker 8: invest in the Arctic, to not put money in the Arctic,
Speaker 8: to not put money into oil. You know, it provides
Speaker 8: an uncertain future for those investors, and so I think
Speaker 8: under the Trump administration that's gonna change. The other thing
Speaker 8: that's very important, you know, realize, is we're gonna need
Speaker 8: two to three times as much energy as we're producing
Speaker 8: right now because of data farms, yes, supercomputers. That's rapidly
Speaker 8: changing that. You know, a giga a gigawat of electricity
Speaker 8: powers about eight hundred thousand homes. We only have seven
Speaker 8: hundred thousand people in the state of Alaska, so some
Speaker 8: of these data farms are using more than the power
Speaker 8: we generate for all of our residents. You're going to
Speaker 8: have to have as much energy as possible coming from
Speaker 8: various sources, and we're gonna need it sooner than later.
Speaker 3: You're sitting on oil, but a lot of people are
Speaker 3: talking about nuclear. Now do you support that?
Speaker 8: Yeah, We've support all forms of energy, doesn't matter if
Speaker 8: it's renewables, oil, gas, nukes, any all forms of energy.
Speaker 8: And we actually passed a new exciting bill two years
Speaker 8: ago that's going to make it easier for nuclear office
Speaker 8: to come up and take a look at a lot.
Speaker 2: Is that right?
Speaker 3: So Alaska could be the home of the new.
Speaker 4: Nuclear reactor in the United States? Well, I hope so.
Speaker 8: And we're also looking at a nuclear reactor on one
Speaker 8: of our military bases at Aileson, So yes, we hope.
Speaker 8: So you need as much energy as possible, again, from
Speaker 8: any source we can get it from.
Speaker 3: Or will we see an auction in the early stages
Speaker 3: of the Trump administration when it comes to these leases,
Speaker 3: or do you not have a sense of exactly so
Speaker 3: that procedure will be.
Speaker 4: I hope so.
Speaker 8: And I hope that also pertains the offshore oral leases
Speaker 8: which were also negaibily impacted by the Biden administration. So
Speaker 8: on shore offshore again, we hope that there's a couple
Speaker 8: of these sales like go up pretty quick.
Speaker 3: The prize for you, unless you tell me otherwise, is
Speaker 3: a pipeline, a natural gas pipeline that the Trump administration
Speaker 3: has promised. You actually retweeted a statement by Donald Trump
Speaker 3: on this. What's your expectation? What has he told you?
Speaker 4: Well, we have all the.
Speaker 8: Permit for this pipeline. It's a massive pipeline project where
Speaker 8: I think we're battling our last court case. So this
Speaker 8: pipeline project is really coming together with buyers and sellers
Speaker 8: of gas. The President has been very consistent. President Trump's
Speaker 8: are very consistent, and he supports this gas line concept.
Speaker 8: What people don't realize is Alaska pioneer energy export for
Speaker 8: North America in late nineteen sixty sixty eight sixty nine,
Speaker 8: we've sent gas to Japan energy out of the Kiski, Alaska,
Speaker 8: which is south of Anchorage. That occurred for fifty years
Speaker 8: until our gas got depleted in the Cook Inlet. But
Speaker 8: we're talking about North Slope gas, which is one hundred
Speaker 8: trillion qb feet to two hundred trillion qubic feet of gas.
Speaker 8: Tremendous amounts of gas. But we're very close to consummating
Speaker 8: this gas pipeline and I'm pretty excited about it.
Speaker 3: Well, Chris Wright and Doug Bergham, hope you.
Speaker 4: Make that happen.
Speaker 8: Well, I know Doug, Doug's a former governor, comes from
Speaker 8: an energy state. I think I don't know mister right well,
Speaker 8: but from what I understand, he's going to do a
Speaker 8: great job as well. But Doug is going to be
Speaker 8: terrific because it's that interface between tenechnology, supercomputing, and energy,
Speaker 8: and his role as the energies are I think is
Speaker 8: going to pay amazing dividends for those.
Speaker 4: Country energies are.
Speaker 3: But also the Interior Secretary might have something to say
Speaker 3: about the lands we're talking about.
Speaker 8: Yeah, we have more of more blm lands, more parklands
Speaker 8: than any other state in the country in terms of acreage.
Speaker 8: Our population has more Native Americans than any of any
Speaker 8: other state as a percentage, twenty percent of our population
Speaker 8: as Native American, and so a lot to do with
Speaker 8: the Apartment of Interior Alaska has and so we look
Speaker 8: forward to working with Doug on solving some problems for
Speaker 8: the state and the country.
Speaker 4: The biggest tribe in Alaska supports your move on.
Speaker 8: Energy, most most Native Alaskans, most Alaskans support our moves
Speaker 8: on energy.
Speaker 4: This is something that's been mischaracterized absolutely media.
Speaker 8: How come because it doesn't play to the narrative On
Speaker 8: the left, My wife is ani pak Eskimo. My kids
Speaker 8: are Eskimo. They're tribal members and their members of our
Speaker 8: native corporations up there. My three girls work at the
Speaker 8: largest legending mine in the world. It's the resource you know,
Speaker 8: extraction industry. Most Native Americans, they're Americans. They want to
Speaker 8: be able to turn their lights on. They want to
Speaker 8: be able to warm their homes. They want to be
Speaker 8: able to drive their machines, their cars, their snow machines,
Speaker 8: whatever it is. And so yeah, energy is important to
Speaker 8: all of us.
Speaker 3: They also want to drink clean water and breathe clean air.
Speaker 3: Do you worry about the impact on climate change that,
Speaker 3: for instance, the LNG exports because lifting that moratorium looks
Speaker 3: like a day one endeavor for Donald Trump.
Speaker 8: Welly, I hope so and I don't because Alaska takes
Speaker 8: care of this environment probably better than any other place
Speaker 8: in the country, excuse me, any other place in the world,
Speaker 8: and probably any other place in the country. When you
Speaker 8: shift your resource development overseas, the places like China, places
Speaker 8: in Africa, the Middle East, they don't have the environmental
Speaker 8: regulations that we do. And so by doing it here
Speaker 8: in America, you get the benefits of taking care of
Speaker 8: the environment, jobs, wealth creation, and really opportunity. And this
Speaker 8: energy is really going to be the underpinnings for the
Speaker 8: supercomputing age, the AI age that we need to be
Speaker 8: leaders of.
Speaker 3: You've got your eyes on data centered Absolutely, that's a
Speaker 3: big deal for Alaska. Does the distance make it difficult
Speaker 3: to put the data centers themselves in Alaska or is
Speaker 3: it about procuring energy in Alaska that will feed the
Speaker 3: data centers here.
Speaker 8: Well, what we have going for is in Alaska's energy. Yeah,
Speaker 8: we have continuous acres of land. You need large tracks
Speaker 8: of lander.
Speaker 2: Have that.
Speaker 8: We have three times the fresh water of any other state.
Speaker 4: So set up the farms in Alaska and we have
Speaker 4: cool temperatures there you go. Absolutely, cooling is a big
Speaker 4: part of this. That's fascinating.
Speaker 3: I want to talk about you, Governor in your personal
Speaker 3: trajectory because a lot of people are watching us right now.
Speaker 3: Joe's talking to the governor of Alaska. Is this big
Speaker 3: timberman looking guy logging. You're from Scranton, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, and
Speaker 3: after you graduated from college, after spending a life hunting
Speaker 3: and fishing and being outdoors, you decided to just move
Speaker 3: your life to Alaska. Through a connection you got a
Speaker 3: job as a logger, as a kid from Scranton, which
Speaker 3: more people associate with Joe Biden than with Mike Dunlavy.
Speaker 3: What was the scratch or the itch you were trying
Speaker 3: to scratch by making that move?
Speaker 8: Always love the outdoors and the ultimate outdoor?
Speaker 4: Was it culture shock when you got there? Not really?
Speaker 8: Great people in Alaska just like great people in Scranton.
Speaker 8: So not really. But it was the outdoors, the willderness
Speaker 8: that drew me there back in nineteen eighty three, So
Speaker 8: right out of college went to Alaska.
Speaker 3: I never looked back, never looked back. How much time
Speaker 3: did you spend logging?
Speaker 8: Well that was what learn doing this several months in
Speaker 8: southeast Alaska. Then I moved up north close to the
Speaker 8: Arctic Circle, and I was a teacher for over a
Speaker 8: twenty two years.
Speaker 3: You were a teacher for a long time before you
Speaker 3: got into politics. What did you learn as a logger
Speaker 3: from Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 8: That jobs are incredibly important, especially for low income folks,
Speaker 8: Opportunities very important, and resource development is what Alaska is
Speaker 8: all about. That's why the US acquired Alaska from Russia
Speaker 8: was resource development. And again, we do it better than
Speaker 8: anywhere else I think in the world.
Speaker 4: You then became a teacher.
Speaker 3: Yes, Do you think that Donald Trump is on the
Speaker 3: right track to eliminate the Department of Education?
Speaker 4: As an educator yourself, I do.
Speaker 8: I do because education was one of those rights that
Speaker 8: the States never gave up in the Constitution where we
Speaker 8: formed the federal govern because the states believe that their
Speaker 8: control over education was critically important, not the federal government's control.
Speaker 8: And so the Department of Education as a new department
Speaker 8: came in under Jimmy Carter and a number of us
Speaker 8: that were teachers, administrators, school board members, which I was
Speaker 8: as well. We think you can do things better at
Speaker 8: the local level than you can thousands of miles away
Speaker 8: from Alaska, thousands of miles away from other states, and
Speaker 8: so certainly support the elimination, if possible, of the Department
Speaker 8: of Education.
Speaker 3: What do you do for funding for disabled students some
Speaker 3: of the other expenses that might be hard for us.
Speaker 8: To run that money through health social services. There's many
Speaker 8: ways to get money to certain groups in the educational umbrella,
Speaker 8: doesn't have to be through this department that currently exists.
Speaker 4: A lot of people suggested you for a number of
Speaker 4: jobs here in Washington. I heard that, Yeah, you might
Speaker 4: have as well.
Speaker 3: You're here right now. I don't know if who you're
Speaker 3: talking to. Would you consider working for this administration? Maybe
Speaker 3: you should run the Department of Education.
Speaker 8: Well, I think he's already got a great pick and
Speaker 8: McMahon for education. But the President I never talked about
Speaker 8: a job. He knows I have two years left in
Speaker 8: my term. I barely enjoyed this job, and as mentioned earlier,
Speaker 8: we're on the verge of some big projects that we
Speaker 8: want to make sure you get across the finish line.
Speaker 8: So I've got my hands filled over the next two
Speaker 8: years with Alaska.
Speaker 3: Sure, A lot of governors, though, say that. The stock
Speaker 3: answer is, oh my god, Washington, nothing gets done there.
Speaker 3: I'm better off here. I'm an executive running my own
Speaker 3: state right where I want to.
Speaker 4: Be truth to that too?
Speaker 3: Is there truth to that? Does anything get done in
Speaker 3: Washington with Donald Trump?
Speaker 8: At the other end of time, I think with President Trump,
Speaker 8: he really wants to change things. He really wants to
Speaker 8: disrupt things. And I say that in the positive. If
Speaker 8: he really wants to give power back to the states,
Speaker 8: give power back to the people. So I'm excited about
Speaker 8: the possibilities. I saw what he did this first term,
Speaker 8: and he said four years to plan for this term.
Speaker 8: I think it's going to be a great four years
Speaker 8: for this country.
Speaker 4: Can he really drop energy prices by fifty percent if
Speaker 4: we produce more? Yeah, if you produce more, that's what
Speaker 4: we're talking about. Yes.
Speaker 8: And for Alaska, what we want to have is more production.
Speaker 8: Not necessarily higher prices because higher prices hurt Americans heart
Speaker 8: Alaska's but more production. That's where we'll get revenue from
Speaker 8: as well. More production.
Speaker 4: Nice to see you in town. Come see us again.
Speaker 3: The governor of Alaska, Mike Dunleavy. Now you know where
Speaker 3: he's from.
Speaker 2: You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast. Catch
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Speaker 3: Thank you for being with us on the Tuesday edition
Speaker 3: of Ballots of Power. We're live from Washington on Bloomberg
Speaker 3: TV and Radio. With the big question, how far will
Speaker 3: they kick the can? Of course, I'm referring to Congress lawmakers,
Speaker 3: or back last night into today. Senate's getting back into session.
Speaker 3: The House will a little bit later on with seventeen
Speaker 3: days until we run out of money. Now noteworthy, nobody's
Speaker 3: running countdown clocks, at least not yet. No one's really
Speaker 3: talking about a shutdown. But the fact is we might
Speaker 3: have to kick the can. So we can kick the can.
Speaker 3: We'll explain with our political panel Rick Davi. This joins
Speaker 3: us now partner at Stone Court Capitol, Bloomberg Politics contributor
Speaker 3: and Republican strategist, alongside Kristin Han, Democratic strategists partner at
Speaker 3: Rock Solutions.
Speaker 4: Great to see you both here.
Speaker 3: Kristin, you spent enough time in the House of Representatives
Speaker 3: to have seen this movie more than once. They don't
Speaker 3: even have an agreement on top lines right now, and
Speaker 3: the government runs out of money on December twenty so
Speaker 3: you can probably tell us how this is going to work. Right,
Speaker 3: We'll have a short term resolution, kicks the can into
Speaker 3: the start of the new year. Everybody come back in
Speaker 3: January when they have a lot of other things to
Speaker 3: do to try to figure out how to get us
Speaker 3: into the new year. So Donald Trump can affect the budget.
Speaker 3: What's it going to look like?
Speaker 1: I mean, I think you pretty much laid it out
Speaker 1: pretty well. I mean, they're looking at, like you said,
Speaker 1: we run out of money. Thement runs out of money
Speaker 1: on December twentieth. Congress has a history of running up
Speaker 1: against deadlines. I don't think that would be much different here.
Speaker 1: You're looking at potentially funding the government through maybe March
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty five, although they'll have to come to
Speaker 1: an agreement there. And of course you have the Republicans
Speaker 1: who are looking forward to taking over control of the House,
Speaker 1: the Senate, and the White House, and they have a
Speaker 1: lot of pinions that they're looking at. But there's a
Speaker 1: lot on the docket between now and then. It's just
Speaker 1: depends on whether they can get it all done with
Speaker 1: so few legislative days.
Speaker 5: Left on the calendar.
Speaker 3: Rick Davis is about to scream regular Order. Rick, we
Speaker 3: have to remind everybody, we've been punting for a while here.
Speaker 3: They punted in September, which got us to this point.
Speaker 3: They're going to punt again so they can do it
Speaker 3: again in the new year.
Speaker 7: Right, Yeah, I think regular Order is punting now, so
Speaker 7: you won't hear me scream that anymore, at least not
Speaker 7: between now in March. Look, the reality is the biggest
Speaker 7: issue is that top line number. You know, they can
Speaker 7: fill in whatever budget they want as long as they
Speaker 7: have an agreement on how much total spending will occur.
Speaker 7: And you know, I have to remind you, in addition
Speaker 7: to the spending, we have to tuck into that, you know,
Speaker 7: a supplemental for disaster relief. And after the winter weather
Speaker 7: has already pounded the Great Lakes, I suspect there'll be
Speaker 7: more money needed for that. So that's becoming a more
Speaker 7: and more urgent spending issue. And then, of course, what
Speaker 7: everyone says, the National Defense Authorization Act will be fine,
Speaker 7: we always pass it. Well, it hasn't passed yet, and
Speaker 7: it's just another thing that's going to come up the
Speaker 7: works in this process. So yeah, I'm glad they're back
Speaker 7: in town. I'm glad they're working. It's not great for traffic,
Speaker 7: but it's good for the country. So hopefully they don't
Speaker 7: get too grinded down to a stop here soon.
Speaker 3: Got two weeks to get this done here, I guess
Speaker 3: two and a half. Really, when you look at it, Kristin,
Speaker 3: this won't be decided until the last minute, right, or
Speaker 3: we're going to be in a world where lawmakers are
Speaker 3: held over. Might have to work a little closer to
Speaker 3: Christmas than planned.
Speaker 4: How do we end the year?
Speaker 1: I mean, there's always the chance that that can happen,
Speaker 1: But in my experience, particularly the Christmas holiday has been
Speaker 1: a motivator for members of both the House and the Senate.
Speaker 1: I would project they would come to an agreement. But
Speaker 1: you know, as I said, like we've got you've got
Speaker 1: naa to deal with, potentially a farm bill, all these
Speaker 1: things that you know that still have to happen or
Speaker 1: should happen. I would love, like Rick, you know, if
Speaker 1: the government can get back to regular order, that's not
Speaker 1: you know, this seems to be the case times soon,
Speaker 1: and I would not expect it to be the case
Speaker 1: with such a slim majority in the House. Even next
Speaker 1: year when the Republicans take over.
Speaker 3: Yeah, could be a majority of one if Donald Trump
Speaker 3: gets all of his nominees through their couple coming out
Speaker 3: of the House, which makes life a little more difficult
Speaker 3: for Speaker Mike Johnson. Of course, those nominees are making
Speaker 3: the rounds right now, not necessarily from the House. But
Speaker 3: in the case of today, we've got Scott Bessent, Donald
Speaker 3: Trump's pick for Treasury Secretary, walking the halls of the Senate,
Speaker 3: meeting with the senators who will help to determine his
Speaker 3: fate when he gets into the confirmation process and the
Speaker 3: actual hearings. The other making the round still is Pete Hegsath,
Speaker 3: Donald Trump's pick for Defense Secretary, who has been enshrouded
Speaker 3: by controversy here not only some sexual assault allegations, but
Speaker 3: also his comments on women serving in the military serving
Speaker 3: in combat role, something he was asked about yesterday as
Speaker 3: he made his way through the halls of power in
Speaker 3: the Senate. Let's listen, how do you feel about the
Speaker 3: women in combat?
Speaker 4: Amazing? When it's amazing, What do you think they.
Speaker 5: Should be in combat?
Speaker 4: I think they're already in combat.
Speaker 3: If you couldn't hear that if you're with us on
Speaker 3: the radio, so you agree that women should be in combat?
Speaker 3: He said, I think they already are in combat. Rick,
Speaker 3: does that sound like somebody who might be backing off
Speaker 3: some of the harder lines he's taken in interviews and
Speaker 3: commentaries before he actually found himself in the United States Senate.
Speaker 7: I'd say, not just backing off, but full retreat. Yes,
Speaker 7: declaring the obvious women are in combat. He said he
Speaker 7: didn't want to have so Look, I mean, I think
Speaker 7: that he's starting to figure out that the comments he
Speaker 7: made before being nominated don't stand the test that he
Speaker 7: needs to stand, so he's starting to clean some of
Speaker 7: that up. I would think he would find something more
Speaker 7: inventive and positive to say about women in combat. But
Speaker 7: the fact that he recognizes that they are serving in
Speaker 7: combat now is a huge step forward. And remember, the
Speaker 7: people he's meeting with right now are the members of
Speaker 7: the Armed Services Committee, the same people who are anxious
Speaker 7: to see the National Defense Authorization Act pass And and
Speaker 7: you know he's got to get through that committee before
Speaker 7: he gets to the full floor. And so they're the
Speaker 7: real tests, and margins will be slim just probably one
Speaker 7: more Republican than the Democrats have, and so you want
Speaker 7: to have that vote coming out of committee positive, at
Speaker 7: least with all the Republicans on board. And of course
Speaker 7: the biggest one on that committee that seems to have
Speaker 7: real interest in working him through the paces is going
Speaker 7: to be Tony ernst Centered from Iowa and another woman
Speaker 7: who has served in combat.
Speaker 4: That's right, Kristin.
Speaker 3: When you read the tip sheets, the commentaries and op eds,
Speaker 3: there is this feeling that hag Seth could be the
Speaker 3: other one who doesn't make it much like Matt Gates.
Speaker 3: Then again, we're hearing from a lot of Republican senators
Speaker 3: who say they want to give him the benefit of
Speaker 3: the doubt. That answer he just gave on women in
Speaker 3: combat as a Democrat. Does that make you feel better
Speaker 3: about this selection?
Speaker 1: I don't think I feel good about a lot of things.
Speaker 1: You know, from his mom's email to what he said
Speaker 1: about women in combat. He was very clear before he
Speaker 1: said women have no place in combat, and there's only
Speaker 1: so much. I mean's clearly he's had to back off
Speaker 1: and retreat from that position, as Zerk said, But you know,
Speaker 1: he was very adamant about that, and it wasn't very
Speaker 1: respectful to women, are women in uniform who served this
Speaker 1: country well, And in addition to that, seemed like he
Speaker 1: was more making a problem where a problem didn't it
Speaker 1: already exists. So I'm glad that he's changed his tune
Speaker 1: on that. It's clear that that was important for him
Speaker 1: to do leading into these discussions with his with the
Speaker 1: Republican senators in particular. But does it make me feel better?
Speaker 7: Not?
Speaker 1: Not necessarily.
Speaker 3: Interesting Kristen to see Democrats conduct their leadership elections in
Speaker 3: the Senate today, no big surprise is a guy named
Speaker 3: Chuck Schumer will be the Democratic leader in the Senate.
Speaker 3: Also Dick Durbin whip Amy Klobashar stepping into the number
Speaker 3: three spot, which also forced the creation of a job
Speaker 3: for Corey Booker, a newly created position of Strategic Communications chair.
Speaker 3: Does this team represent the new blood the Democrats need?
Speaker 1: I mean, I think that they've done a fairly good job.
Speaker 1: Chrey Booker has been a leader and one of the
Speaker 1: younger members of the Democratic Caucus in the Senate. I think,
Speaker 1: you know, if you look towards the House as well,
Speaker 1: you've got some interesting potential changes in committee chairmanship or
Speaker 1: ranking members, which is the top Democratic spot on each committee.
Speaker 1: The Republicans, I've long said, have a standing rule that
Speaker 1: you can only be a committee chairman or hold that
Speaker 1: top spot. For so long the Democrats have not had
Speaker 1: that in place, which has led to kind of stagnation
Speaker 1: on the committees, with younger members not being able to
Speaker 1: move up as easy in the ranks. And I think
Speaker 1: that you're seeing some potential movement on some critical committees
Speaker 1: like Judiciary, potentially Agriculture.
Speaker 3: Rick, you were a creature of the Senate for many
Speaker 3: years here and you saw Mitch McConnell hang on through
Speaker 3: good times and bad. Are you surprised to see all
Speaker 3: of these same names, essentially the old guard continuing on
Speaker 3: the Democratic side of the aisle.
Speaker 7: Yeah. Different from the House of Representative, Seniority still matters.
Speaker 7: People who want to serve in leadership are kind of
Speaker 7: self selected. It's not for everybody in the Senate, and
Speaker 7: so I'm not surprised to see the sort of typical group.
Speaker 7: Ammy Klobuchar, very very well thought of Democrat, ran for
Speaker 7: president and I'm glad to see Corey Booker taking a
Speaker 7: new role because he's i think been an underutilized democratic
Speaker 7: asset and Republican has already gone through their leadership selections
Speaker 7: and fights, and we've got our team in place, and
Speaker 7: I would say, you know, really strong leaders on both
Speaker 7: sides should be able to get something done in the Senate. Remember,
Speaker 7: last two years, the Senate has been surprisingly bipartisan by
Speaker 7: anybody's estimation, and we'd hope that some of that can
Speaker 7: continue into this first two years of the Trump administration.
Speaker 4: That is that is very true, Krista.
Speaker 3: We started talking this conversation about government funding and a
Speaker 3: potential shutdown. No one sees that happening the this year
Speaker 3: or the beginning of next. A lot of people do
Speaker 3: see it happening in March, though, when that next Continuing
Speaker 3: Resolution concludes, right around the time we're talking about renewing
Speaker 3: the Trump tax cuts and some of the other issues
Speaker 3: dealing with the fiscal cliff. Do you see a shutdown
Speaker 3: in the new year?
Speaker 1: I mean, I think that I won't speak for the Republicans,
Speaker 1: but I think they would be loathed for that to happen,
Speaker 1: as the you know, one of the first things you know,
Speaker 1: they do, as as you know, having control of both
Speaker 1: the House, Senate and the White House, to shut down
Speaker 1: the government. I think that there will be people in
Speaker 1: their ranks who will want to use that, you know,
Speaker 1: as a kind of a political football in order to
Speaker 1: get some of the government cuts and other priorities through.
Speaker 1: So I think that the Republicans was such a narrow majority,
Speaker 1: particularly in the House, will eventually probably have to once
Speaker 1: again come to democratic leadership and look for some of
Speaker 1: the votes on the Democratic side to get any government fund.
Speaker 3: She is Kristen Hahn, Rock Solutions partner, democratic Strategisty, of course,
Speaker 3: is Rick Davis, Bloomberg Politics contributor, Republican strategist and partner
Speaker 3: at Stone Court Capital.
Speaker 4: Thank you both for a great conversation.
Speaker 3: Thanks for listening to the Balance of Power podcast. Make
Speaker 3: sure to subscribe if you haven't already, at Apple, Spotify,
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