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Speaker 3: As we make our way through the day here on
Speaker 3: Bloomberg and through this hour with myself and Kaylee, because
Speaker 3: we've got news here Kaylee. In just a couple of hours,
Speaker 3: there's going to be a vote on the House floor
Speaker 3: for a continuing resolution that appears to be the path
Speaker 3: to avoiding a government shutdown at the end of this week.
Speaker 3: They're whipping votes now, but everything we're hearing would suggest
Speaker 3: that this is actually going.
Speaker 4: To pass something that needs to pass with two hundred
Speaker 4: and ninety votes since they aren't doing things through the
Speaker 4: usual rules process that is suspended, so you need a
Speaker 4: two thirds majority, and that means, Joe that it's going
Speaker 4: to take Democrats. Remember when we were here at the
Speaker 4: end of September and what McCarthy ended up having to
Speaker 4: do was pass a clean continuing resolution with Democratic.
Speaker 5: Support and he lost the gavel as a result. Well,
Speaker 5: let's go round too and see if Mike Johnson can
Speaker 5: hang in there.
Speaker 4: Longer.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he seems to be getting the past this time,
Speaker 3: although looks like he's short about fifty Republican votes. To
Speaker 3: your point, that just might not matter when Democrats show up.
Speaker 3: But let's talk to him right now. Congresswoman Gwen Moore,
Speaker 3: Democrat from Wisconsin, is with us right now live from
Speaker 3: Capitol Hill, and Congressoman, it's good to see you. Appreciate
Speaker 3: your coming along here. Are you about to get Mike
Speaker 3: Johnson fired?
Speaker 6: Well, you know, I didn't vote for him for speaker,
Speaker 6: so it'll be really interesting to see if he lasts
Speaker 6: longer than this vote.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, that's another way of me asking you if
Speaker 3: you will vote yes on this continuing Resolution.
Speaker 6: Well, you know, I'm still working through it. I don't
Speaker 6: want to see the government shut down. I do think
Speaker 6: there's deeply flawed in areas that are of grave concern
Speaker 6: to me, like Women, Infants and Children program, the whig program,
Speaker 6: which in Wisconsin we've seen a really big uptake in
Speaker 6: the use of that, and we're going to be about
Speaker 6: a billion dollars short. And of course we aren't meeting
Speaker 6: any of our emergency funding needs for all of the
Speaker 6: war and conflict that's going on. But I don't want
Speaker 6: the government to shut down, and it's very likely that I'm.
Speaker 7: Going to vote for this continuing resolution.
Speaker 4: So Congressoman, you just mentioned some of the emergency funding needs,
Speaker 4: be it Israel or Ukraine. Are Democrats losing leverage here
Speaker 4: if they vote for the CR to get those things passed?
Speaker 6: Ultimately, Well, this CR doesn't have that funding in it.
Speaker 6: And exactly, and of course we passed the resolution earlier,
Speaker 6: which I of course didn't vote for, which was a
Speaker 6: fourteen billion dollar package for Israel only, but only with
Speaker 6: a gun to our heads to take away the funding
Speaker 6: for the Eye, to take billions away from the IRS,
Speaker 6: thus crippling our ability to catch text sheets, and so
Speaker 6: that funding isn't going anywhere.
Speaker 7: So we're hopeful that.
Speaker 6: Separately the Senate or you know, will send us a package,
Speaker 6: but not only funding for these wars Ukraine and Israel,
Speaker 6: but humanitarian aid to the people in Gaza desperately needed.
Speaker 1: They're about sixty thousand people. Were told.
Speaker 3: I don't know if there's an account from the National
Speaker 3: Park Service. In front of the Capitol, on the west
Speaker 3: front of the Capitol, I've got caught in the traffic
Speaker 3: coming in this morning. Congresswoman, because so many streets are closed.
Speaker 3: It's a pro Israel rally. I can only imagine that
Speaker 3: there are some counter protesters out there as well, But
Speaker 3: you're a leader.
Speaker 1: Hakem.
Speaker 3: Jeffries and the Speaker of the House are among the
Speaker 3: many dignitaries who are speaking to this impassion crowd today.
Speaker 3: Do you think that moves the ball at all on
Speaker 3: the request for funding, Well, there.
Speaker 6: Is a willingness I think among Democrats and Republicans to
Speaker 6: support Israel, and of course people do respect the First Amendment.
Speaker 6: I think it's extremely important that we invite people and
Speaker 6: welcome people to the capital to voice their concerns of
Speaker 6: all kinds, and so unlike January sixth, I expect that
Speaker 6: this is a rally which will be basically positive, which
Speaker 6: will affirm Israel's right to exist, and even the counter protesters,
Speaker 6: if there are any, I think, are going to be respectful.
Speaker 7: Of this right.
Speaker 6: I don't know if that'll help or hurt, because, like
Speaker 6: I said, I think the votes are here to provide
Speaker 6: funding to Israel, but I do think that many of
Speaker 6: us want to see it coupled with efforts to provide
Speaker 6: humanitarian assistance to Gaza as well as providing funding for
Speaker 6: the Ukraine War.
Speaker 4: Well, and clearly, Congresswoman, just the very fact that there
Speaker 4: are tens of thousands of individuals they're representing on the
Speaker 4: mall today speaks to the intensity of the moment and
Speaker 4: the passion that is still very much front and center
Speaker 4: when it comes to this conflict in particular. I just
Speaker 4: wonder though, if that's still going to remain, if the
Speaker 4: same impotence will be there as time goes on. What
Speaker 4: do you think realistically is the timeline we're looking at
Speaker 4: for passage of funding for Israel.
Speaker 6: Well, what I'll tell you is that there's a lot
Speaker 6: of concern about tapping this war down on many sides.
Speaker 6: Even folks who support Israel and its right to defend
Speaker 6: itself or very concerned about making sure that our ally
Speaker 6: Israel really grounds itself and it struggled and is mindful
Speaker 6: of the humanitarian concerns and the Geneva conventions that revolve
Speaker 6: around how to conduct a war. You know, I am
Speaker 6: not kidding. It is very, very complicated on the war activity.
Speaker 6: You know, I sympathize with Israeli's mission to stop Hamas,
Speaker 6: but they have to be ever mindful of the cost,
Speaker 6: because you can win the war and lose the peace,
Speaker 6: and we do want to eventually what's going to happen
Speaker 6: the day after this war?
Speaker 7: And God willing the fighting will stop soon.
Speaker 3: How about the story in Ukraine, Congresswoman. That seems to
Speaker 3: be a much heavier lift right now on Capitol Hill,
Speaker 3: largely because of Republican opposition to continued funding or at
Speaker 3: least funding without quote unquote accountability, which hasn't really been
Speaker 3: defined by a lot of the members who.
Speaker 1: Are talking about it.
Speaker 3: It's starting to look like once the cr passes that
Speaker 3: that might be the last train to leave the station.
Speaker 3: Will all of this have to wait until next year?
Speaker 7: Well, you know, again there hasn't been.
Speaker 6: There there There hasn't been a funding initiative for Israel.
Speaker 6: And so I think we have another kick at the
Speaker 6: cat with this, with the with the not only the
Speaker 6: Democrats of the Senate, but with Mitch McConnell as well
Speaker 6: and Republicans to send us something over. We're going to
Speaker 6: be here, you know until at least.
Speaker 7: The middle of December, December fifteenth.
Speaker 6: I would I would, I would think, so another vehicle
Speaker 6: can move or this supplemental funding. What we have heard
Speaker 6: from our speaker is that they wanted to stop the
Speaker 6: government from shutting down and didn't want to obscure that
Speaker 6: mission with the funding for the wars. So I'm taking
Speaker 6: him at his word that the lane would still be
Speaker 6: open for that funding and it's never too late to
Speaker 6: get money.
Speaker 4: Well, it sounds like what you're saying, Congresswoman, is really
Speaker 4: this is something that we'll have to originate in the Senate.
Speaker 4: Given the House has passed more than fourteen billion dollars
Speaker 4: of Israel funding, but it rescinded money from the IRS,
Speaker 4: therefore making it dead on arrival in the Senate. When
Speaker 4: we think about all of these things, whether supplemental or
Speaker 4: just simple appropriation bills in terms of funding that are
Speaker 4: going to have to be reconciled between the Senate and
Speaker 4: the House. Assuming that this Continuing Resolution passes, gets signed,
Speaker 4: the government doesn't shut down this weekend, how likely is
Speaker 4: it in your mind that it either shuts down partially
Speaker 4: on January nineteenth or February second, as you try to
Speaker 4: reconcile these.
Speaker 6: Things, well, i'll tell you, you know, it all depends
Speaker 6: on whether or not the Freedom Cockus goes after Mike
Speaker 6: Johnson and deposes him for working with Democrats.
Speaker 7: Continuing Resolution is definitely not go back.
Speaker 6: Just this structure requires a super majority, so clearly Democrats
Speaker 6: would have to vote for this continuing resolution. And if
Speaker 6: that's the red line for some of the Conservatives that
Speaker 6: brought McCarthy down, then then that would be another wrinkle.
Speaker 6: It's for the life of me, it is hard to
Speaker 6: see why they we would want to go through another
Speaker 6: I mean, we're going to be anxious for two more months.
Speaker 6: It's going to be hard to stomach our Thanksgiving dinner
Speaker 6: and our Christmas dinner knowing that we've got to go
Speaker 6: through this again. And and you know, once they passed
Speaker 6: the twelve all twelve appropriations bills December, you know, eighteenth say,
Speaker 6: and you know, and and funding is going to run out,
Speaker 6: and they.
Speaker 7: Want us to vote on.
Speaker 6: Some of the crazy cuts that they're probably going to
Speaker 6: be proposing in our appropriations bills.
Speaker 7: It'll be another showdown.
Speaker 6: So, you know, I think stopping a government shut down,
Speaker 6: you know, by Friday, is admirable, but we're just setting
Speaker 6: ourselves up for a shutdown in January. If in fact
Speaker 6: they continue down the path of not observing the deal,
Speaker 6: that then Speaker McCarthy made with the President, which you know,
Speaker 6: we you know, we gave up a billion a trillion
Speaker 6: dollar in that deal.
Speaker 7: That was not a frivolous deal.
Speaker 6: And were we to have stuck with that deal, I
Speaker 6: think we'd be in a much better place.
Speaker 7: We shouldn't be here today.
Speaker 6: So it's hard for me to check what's going to
Speaker 6: happen on January nineteenth, but I do know that today
Speaker 6: will be nothing more than a stop gap.
Speaker 3: I'm guessing Kevin McCarthy would agree with you on that deal. Congresswoman,
Speaker 3: have you heard from Hakim Jeffreys. Is the Democratic leadership
Speaker 3: behind this cr or is he kind of telling you
Speaker 3: to vote your conscience?
Speaker 1: What's the word from upstairs.
Speaker 6: Yeah, he's not whipping on this at all. So we're
Speaker 6: free to vote, you know how we will. It's not
Speaker 6: the deal that we created. It's not the deal that
Speaker 6: Hakim Jeffries put together. They didn't put it together with
Speaker 6: our help and our support.
Speaker 7: So I think that he is leaving it up up
Speaker 7: to us.
Speaker 6: And like I said, I've been with my legislative director
Speaker 6: all afternoon working through UH some of the things that
Speaker 6: I find very disappointing. UH. And I mentioned, you know
Speaker 6: in particular the Wick funding women, infants in children. Uh
Speaker 6: and uh, you know, to me, that's very, very critical.
Speaker 6: So I may vote for the CR today, but I'll
Speaker 6: be I'll be watching and they'll need my vote.
Speaker 7: Or want my vote in the future. So they need to.
Speaker 6: Be mindful of the things that are important to people.
Speaker 3: Hanry Quaar says that he's opposing this bill because of
Speaker 3: the Wick funding.
Speaker 1: Kaylee, he might not be the only one.
Speaker 5: It sounds like, yeah, and again to the math here.
Speaker 6: Well, I'll tell you know, I'm I'm in a state
Speaker 6: it's governed by a democratic governor. So uh, the provisions,
Speaker 6: we may be able to negotiate our way through it.
Speaker 6: I think some of the children that are going to
Speaker 6: suffer the most come from those red states where there's
Speaker 6: a general opposition to accepting this support, you know, providing
Speaker 6: the maintenance of effort whatever. But I can see Henry
Speaker 6: Quay are not wanting to vote for it. You know,
Speaker 6: there's a lot of children in his district, a lot
Speaker 6: of needy children, and he's in a state you know
Speaker 6: where you know, you know people you know eschew government support.
Speaker 4: Well, Congresswoman, as we think about those who are needy
Speaker 4: and those who may be struggling with higher prices that
Speaker 4: they are facing because of inflation. Obviously, we got some
Speaker 4: better news on the inflation front today in that consumer
Speaker 4: prices did not rise as much as expected. Things are
Speaker 4: slowing down, and yet what we consistently see is that
Speaker 4: people still don't feel good about the economy. It's reflected
Speaker 4: and polls not just in terms of their overall sentiment,
Speaker 4: but in their feelings about who's in charge here, crowds
Speaker 4: in control of the White House. What do you think
Speaker 4: your party needs to change in terms of messaging what's
Speaker 4: missing here?
Speaker 6: Well, I tell you it's it's uh we we we
Speaker 6: we do need for some of these things to take
Speaker 6: hold in the economy.
Speaker 7: I think it's a really good sign.
Speaker 6: I don't think Jerome Powell and the Fed are going
Speaker 6: to raise interest rates uh anymore, uh anytime soon, So
Speaker 6: people will start to feel the impact of that and
Speaker 6: some of the investments that we have made, uh take
Speaker 6: time to seek into the economy. And so I do
Speaker 6: think that we're a year away from this election. We
Speaker 6: have made a tremendous investment uh in job creation, and
Speaker 6: I think that you know, we all saw.
Speaker 7: The streets and roads torn up this summer.
Speaker 6: Uh, and that that's that in addition to Jerome Poull
Speaker 6: not raising interest rates and credit becoming more available to people,
Speaker 6: I think people are going to start to feel the impact.
Speaker 6: There's a lot of effort to train people up to
Speaker 6: get them involved in brand new economy. And I do
Speaker 6: think that it's not a matter of messaging. It's a
Speaker 6: matter of being like the Missouri to show me state.
Speaker 6: I think we need to show people how they're benefiting.
Speaker 3: Spending time with Congresswoman Gwen Moore, the Democrat from Wisconsin,
Speaker 3: serves on the Ways and Means Committee, and I'd like
Speaker 3: to ask you lastly, if I dare in our minute
Speaker 3: and a half year congresswoman, about something called revenues. We
Speaker 3: talk a lot about cuts around here, and there's a
Speaker 3: lot of talk about balancing the budget and lowering the deficit.
Speaker 3: At what point is your committee going to start raising
Speaker 3: revenues to start closing the gap?
Speaker 6: Well, you know, from your lips to God's ears, I mean,
Speaker 6: we have tried by providing the monies to the I
Speaker 6: R S. One of the things that we discovered under
Speaker 6: our jurisdiction is that someone like Donald Trump's taxes for example,
Speaker 6: the IRS just didn't have the personnel to be able
Speaker 6: to go through a complex of.
Speaker 7: Tax return such as Donald Trump's.
Speaker 6: And there are many individuals who avoid taxes because they
Speaker 6: half complicated, you know, taxings. Some of these deductions are
Speaker 6: are ones to which they're entitled and others are just
Speaker 6: plain old a tax evasion.
Speaker 3: And you know, I'm going to get a bunch of
Speaker 3: hate mail for asking you that question, just for.
Speaker 1: Framing the question.
Speaker 3: Congresswoman, we're not allowed to talk about it, but I
Speaker 3: do feel like at some point we're going to need
Speaker 3: to go there. I wish we had more time. Congress Woman,
Speaker 3: thank you for being with us. Let us know how
Speaker 3: you vote. Congresswoman Gwen Moore with us live from Capitol Hill.
Speaker 3: I'm Joe Matthew with Kaylee Liones. This is sound On
Speaker 3: Live from Washington only on Bloomberg.
Speaker 2: You're listening to the Bloomberg Sound On podcast.
Speaker 1: Catch us live weekdays at one Eastern.
Speaker 2: On Bloomberg dot com, the iHeartRadio app, and the Bloomberg
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Speaker 3: Fascinating Conversation earlier with Citadel's Ken Griffin, an exclusive interview
Speaker 3: you heard with Bloomberg's Shanali Bossik Kaylee. It took the
Speaker 3: better part of an hour and we were glued to
Speaker 3: it as we tend to be when he's speaking, and
Speaker 3: got to a lot of territory here as you would expect.
Speaker 3: We talked about the economy, interest rates, and then veered
Speaker 3: into politics and geopolitics as the President prepares to meet
Speaker 3: with President Sheet tomorrow. We've got a lot to your
Speaker 3: balancing on both sides of the Atlantic.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Absolutely.
Speaker 4: Of course, we heard from the President himself before his
Speaker 4: departure to San Francisco where that meeting will take place tomorrow,
Speaker 4: and which President Biden said that he does not want
Speaker 4: to decouple from China. He's just seeking a normalization in relations. Specifically,
Speaker 4: he's looking at military to military communications.
Speaker 5: That's a very high priority.
Speaker 4: And maybe that's something that Ken Griffin would have would
Speaker 4: like to hear the President say, is we're not looking
Speaker 4: to decouple, because his warning today Joe was that that
Speaker 4: would have really serious consequences.
Speaker 1: Well, we're not decoupling, right, were we be? We were
Speaker 1: risking be risking.
Speaker 3: The last thing that we heard, here's what Ken Griffin
Speaker 3: said earlier today on Bloomberg.
Speaker 8: So it's really important that we try to find common
Speaker 8: ground to build a better relationship with China on rather
Speaker 8: continuing this downward spiral of tit for tat on trade
Speaker 8: policies and otherwise.
Speaker 3: A downward spy spiral on tit for tat trade policies,
Speaker 3: which you know, we talk a lot about the intervention
Speaker 3: that the administration has has tried to add with high
Speaker 3: tech chips trying to keep out of China. You could
Speaker 3: look to a lot of different areas, yeah, for that,
Speaker 3: And of course China is not the only economic partner.
Speaker 1: If I can use the word that we're dealing.
Speaker 5: With this, then yeah, it's a big one.
Speaker 4: And Ken Griffith pointed this out that the US, he says,
Speaker 4: imports circa five hundred billion dollars of goods from China
Speaker 4: a year. That these economies are just really closely tied together.
Speaker 4: But whether or not it is diversifying or de risking,
Speaker 4: whatever it is, though, the fact remains Joe that given
Speaker 4: a lot of the tension in this relationship, the US
Speaker 4: is turning to other partners as well, trying to do
Speaker 4: this friend shoring thing. We also sometimes hear about trying
Speaker 4: to protect national security interests, and what that means is
Speaker 4: that a lot of this is looking at supply chains
Speaker 4: elsewhere and just firming up relations with countries that aren't well.
Speaker 3: That's absolutely right, which brings us to our conversation with
Speaker 3: the Special Envoy. The former Congressman Joe Kennedy is with
Speaker 3: us now live on Bloomberg.
Speaker 1: You might not.
Speaker 3: Realize he is as well, the US Special Envoy in
Speaker 3: Northern Ireland for Economic Affairs, and Congressman, it's great to
Speaker 3: see you.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 3: We've really been looking forward to talking with you about this,
Speaker 3: and I know that you're recently back from a trip
Speaker 3: to Northern Ireland. You led a delegation with a couple
Speaker 3: dozen executives on that trip. Joe Biden when he made
Speaker 3: his trip to Northern Ireland earlier this year, and I
Speaker 3: think it was back in April, which I find hard
Speaker 3: to believe now, marking the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreements,
Speaker 3: talked about the impact of diplomacy here, sustained diplomacy. I
Speaker 3: wonder what the economic answer is to that diplomacy.
Speaker 9: So, Joe and Cayley, first off, just thanks for having me,
Speaker 9: Thanks for your interest, and I appreciate the opportunity. Being
Speaker 9: with President Biden in Belfast now back in April was
Speaker 9: an extraordinary moment because it was an opportunity to celebrate
Speaker 9: not just the people of Northern Ireland, but what partnerships
Speaker 9: can in fact do and how they can help transform communities.
Speaker 9: Northern Ireland has come a very long way and a
Speaker 9: very short period of time when you look at that
Speaker 9: trajectory over the course of the last twenty five years
Speaker 9: and even longer candidly, and the opportunities that are there
Speaker 9: before them at the moment are quite extraordinary. And the
Speaker 9: opportunities that the United States and the two hundred and
Speaker 9: thirty businesses that are doing already American business that are
Speaker 9: doing business there, the impact that they have had across
Speaker 9: their society is quite stunning. And so all of this
Speaker 9: I think builds in a unique moment and unique opportunities
Speaker 9: that Northern Ireland has at this moment to work alongside
Speaker 9: the United States and some of our strategic interests.
Speaker 4: When do you think US businesses are actually going to
Speaker 4: more firmly seize that opportunity?
Speaker 5: Though?
Speaker 4: Where did the real investment dollars show up in a
Speaker 4: more material way?
Speaker 9: Oh? I mean Kaylie. When we were over there just
Speaker 9: two weeks ago or so, the Controller for the State
Speaker 9: of New York announced fifty million dollars in investment further investment.
Speaker 9: He'd already put in over sixty million dollars into Northern
Speaker 9: Ireland over the course of the past several years, so
Speaker 9: he doubled down put in announced fifty million more. Coca
Speaker 9: Cola announced a twenty million dollar expansion for a bottling
Speaker 9: line in Northern Ireland, which has been one of their
Speaker 9: key facilities, employing a couple dozen more people. But look,
Speaker 9: I think one of the biggest challenges candidly that Northern
Speaker 9: Ireland faces isn't from some of the investment opportunity. It's
Speaker 9: actually from the perception that a number of American Americans
Speaker 9: have about when you say Belfaster, you say Northern Ireland,
Speaker 9: what comes to mind. And one of the big objectives
Speaker 9: what President Biden asked me to do was to say, hey,
Speaker 9: take some of these business leaders, walk them through downtown Belfast,
Speaker 9: walk them through the safest city of its size in
Speaker 9: the entire United Kingdom. Welcome through the happiest part of
Speaker 9: the United Kingdom. Welcome through the communities where if you
Speaker 9: have a college degree. The unplumb rate is essentially zero.
Speaker 9: Where City Group has nearly four thousand employees, PwC has
Speaker 9: nearly four thousand employees. Let them see the enormous gains
Speaker 9: that have been made here, hard earned and hard won
Speaker 9: by the people of Northern Ireland with support from their
Speaker 9: friends and support of businesses like Liberty Mutual, which at
Speaker 9: that time was headed by a Belfast native, Ted Kelly.
Speaker 9: After the Good Friday Agreement, that was a critical investor
Speaker 9: and friend alongside some of these businesses to help spread
Speaker 9: that as it's called a peace dividend more broadly across society.
Speaker 9: And that's what the Presidence asked me to do. But
Speaker 9: it's common and it was I think an extraordinary moment
Speaker 9: for us and our delegation to see that, sense it,
Speaker 9: and look at the opportunities provided by this new agreement
Speaker 9: and tribute to the British government and those windsor framework
Speaker 9: to actually incentivize Northern Ireland as a potential place for
Speaker 9: investment to all of Europe.
Speaker 1: Well, it sounds like a successful trip.
Speaker 3: Congressman, I'm guessing that you wouldn't mind taking a couple
Speaker 3: of your former colleagues on Capitol hill for a walk
Speaker 3: right now.
Speaker 1: The level of discord that we're seeing.
Speaker 3: I'd love to ask you about, but I wonder if
Speaker 3: it actually impacts deal making abroad, commitments from other countries
Speaker 3: when they see a legislature that sometimes lately does not function.
Speaker 9: Joe, Look, I talked to mild colleagues there. Almost every day.
Speaker 9: It's hard, it's raw, as you saw today, and you
Speaker 9: see most days. You can sense the feeling from a
Speaker 9: number of folks of despite the best intentions of some
Speaker 9: that are really trying on both sides of the dial
Speaker 9: and across both sides of the capital that are trying
Speaker 9: to try to find ways to make the place work,
Speaker 9: that there's forces there that are really set on making
Speaker 9: sure it doesn't. And you know, democracy is hard. It's
Speaker 9: easier to break than make work. But it does mean
Speaker 9: that we all share responsibility and trying to make this work.
Speaker 9: And you know, I think without question it makes it
Speaker 9: more difficult. That being said, you know, markets had a
Speaker 9: good day to day, and this is something that we
Speaker 9: all still need to work pretty hard to make sure
Speaker 9: that the United States, you know, politically, economically, legally, just
Speaker 9: the structural frameworks here remain sound so that we can
Speaker 9: continue to benefit from it.
Speaker 4: Well, so you say that democracy is hard, and maybe
Speaker 4: other democracies like the one you are wor working closely with,
Speaker 4: know that and can recognize it. But those countries that
Speaker 4: aren't let in a democratic fashion may say, well, why
Speaker 4: would we want that? And I wonder if if the
Speaker 4: real issue for the US in terms of perception abroad
Speaker 4: is with some of those other countries, Like say, I
Speaker 4: don't know China as President Biden is getting said to
Speaker 4: meet washijhin Ping tomorrow.
Speaker 9: Well, you've also seen Kaylee the And it's a good question, right,
Speaker 9: you've seen perceptions of Chinese A quarterat of recent polling
Speaker 9: of the United States has actually increased markedly over the
Speaker 9: course the past several months. And you know, I hesitate
Speaker 9: to wholly put you know, too much credit in in
Speaker 9: polling where you know, media isn't as free and open
Speaker 9: as it is here in the United States. And when
Speaker 9: you think of the ability of government to make decisions
Speaker 9: for its people, yeah, certainly those people making decisions think
Speaker 9: that autocracies might be better. Turn around and ask some
Speaker 9: of the other folks that on the other side of
Speaker 9: those decisions how they feel about living in an authoritarian
Speaker 9: system rather than one that is open, free and responsive.
Speaker 9: And look, we've got major structural issues in our democracy
Speaker 9: that we need to work on and we need to
Speaker 9: invest in, and that haven't gotten the attension that I think, well, candidate,
Speaker 9: I think some of us have taken for granted that
Speaker 9: we didn't need to invest it in these structures of
Speaker 9: democracy because we just figured that they were settled. Democracy
Speaker 9: has never settled. It is continually earned, and we as
Speaker 9: a society, I don't care where you are fall in
Speaker 9: that political spectrum, have to invest in it and when
Speaker 9: you don't, there's consequences.
Speaker 3: Well, I know that you've been busy in your own
Speaker 3: way with the Groundwork Project, helping to organize folks around
Speaker 3: the country, separate from your duties with the State Department. Here, Congressman,
Speaker 3: I wonder you and I have been talking for a
Speaker 3: long time since before you served in Congress. I wonder
Speaker 3: if you're just glad to not be in the middle
Speaker 3: of it right now, or if you'd like to come
Speaker 3: here and knock some heads together.
Speaker 9: Joe. As you know, I've got a young family. It's
Speaker 9: been nice and some additional time with them, and candidly,
Speaker 9: when you have a chance to when I talk to
Speaker 9: my colleagues that are still sitting in office and who
Speaker 9: are working very hard to try to make the system work,
Speaker 9: but can feel, you can feel it blocked right by
Speaker 9: forces beyond their control. A couple of good friends announced
Speaker 9: their retirement this past weekend, saying, you know, it essentially
Speaker 9: isn't worth it anymore. And while I understand that decision
Speaker 9: on a personal basis for them, I ache for our
Speaker 9: country because these positions are critically important to making the
Speaker 9: basic features of our nation work and of democracy work.
Speaker 9: And whether people understand it wholy or not, people around
Speaker 9: the world do look to the United States to be
Speaker 9: a place where government works, where people try to stand
Speaker 9: up and do the right thing. And when you've got
Speaker 9: some of the highlights that you're seeing coming out of
Speaker 9: the capital and out of our democracy in recent days,
Speaker 9: in weeks and months, that can be harder to do,
Speaker 9: but without question, it matters. There's still good people there,
Speaker 9: and good people on both sides of the island again
Speaker 9: on both sides of the Capitol. But this takes work,
Speaker 9: and this takes effort, and you know, for all of us,
Speaker 9: that isn't just going to happen because you want it
Speaker 9: to you got to put some muscle into it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so you are in communication, as you say, frequently
Speaker 4: with your colleagues who still are in Congress.
Speaker 5: What about the.
Speaker 4: Communication you're having in your role now you're trying to
Speaker 4: convince businesses that operate in the US to also invest
Speaker 4: in Northern Ireland. But when you're having conversations with those
Speaker 4: business leaders, what are they telling you about how they
Speaker 4: view the political environment.
Speaker 9: So that was part of the benefit of taking this
Speaker 9: group over fifty business leaders over to Northern Ireland was
Speaker 9: for them to get a sense of what it was
Speaker 9: like over there and to see it for themselves and
Speaker 9: not just you know, read about it or experience it
Speaker 9: or candidly hear what their parents or what other people
Speaker 9: might have thought about it. Because people transit through Dublin
Speaker 9: frequently or London frequently, but I haven't made that trip
Speaker 9: up to Belfast, or haven't gone to a border region
Speaker 9: like Newry, or haven't quite visited a city like Derry
Speaker 9: that has walls dating four centuries ago. But if you
Speaker 9: go to Derry, you'll also find out that Seagate, one
Speaker 9: of the world's leading manufacturers of hard drives, has had
Speaker 9: a facility there for decades. When you go to Belfast
Speaker 9: and find out it's the number one destination for cybersecurity
Speaker 9: investment in all of Europe, right, they're surprised. You go
Speaker 9: to Newry and you see that it's home to a
Speaker 9: billion dollar financial services firm and first to river. There's
Speaker 9: an extraordinary story to tell. And well, you can look
Speaker 9: back on these times of the troubles and the history
Speaker 9: of Northern Ireland and say, gosh, they've got a long
Speaker 9: way to go. I kind of turn that around and say,
Speaker 9: look how far you've come. Right, look at what the
Speaker 9: United States did in our founding. Right, We've wrote a constitution,
Speaker 9: we threw it out about a dozen years later, we
Speaker 9: wrote a new one. We still didn't recognize women as people,
Speaker 9: or anybody other than a white Protestant man at rich
Speaker 9: white Protestant man is having any sort of stature in
Speaker 9: our society. We fought a civil war and are still
Speaker 9: wrestling with the remnants of it. And so to turn
Speaker 9: back around and say for Northern Ireland that was in
Speaker 9: some aspect of conflict for literally hundreds of years, to
Speaker 9: see that they've come this far in twenty five is
Speaker 9: nothing short of extraordinary. They've done the hard part. There's
Speaker 9: an opportunity here for precision manufacturers, medical device companies, pharmaceutical companies,
Speaker 9: financial services companies that are looking for an opportunity, a
Speaker 9: landing pad to invest in Europe and gain access to
Speaker 9: Europe and gain access not just to the EU but
Speaker 9: the UK. Northern Ireland is the only region in the
Speaker 9: world that will have unfettered market access to both those areas,
Speaker 9: and so there's a real opportunity going forward for companies
Speaker 9: that are aware of it, one who invest in it
Speaker 9: and put some time in and I think they'll reap
Speaker 9: their rewards from it.
Speaker 3: Joe Kennedy, the former Congressman US Special Envoyd in Northern
Speaker 3: Ireland for Economic Affairs. We thank you for the long
Speaker 3: view and your perspective today. I hope your family as well.
Speaker 9: Thank you, Joe. Great to be with you. Thanks so
Speaker 9: much for having me.
Speaker 3: Thanks Kelly, it's great to have you with us here.
Speaker 3: I'm Joe Matthew with Kayley Lynes. This is Bloomberg Sound On.
Speaker 3: You might not be aware of what the Congressman was
Speaker 3: referring to early in that interview, but Kaylee, I don't
Speaker 3: even know what to say about some of the stuff
Speaker 3: that's happened today.
Speaker 1: Congress has become fight club.
Speaker 4: Yes, there's a few incidents we could talk about here,
Speaker 4: Joe one being evidently former speaker ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy
Speaker 4: elbowed one of his ousters, Congressman Tim Burchett of Tennessee.
Speaker 4: Then Burchett questioned whether he had any guts tried to
Speaker 4: chase after him. McCarthy says this was all innocent. There
Speaker 4: was no intentional butup, so that was one thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, he says he got a shot to the kidney.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And Matt Gates is now trying to open an
Speaker 4: ethics probe into this particular incident.
Speaker 3: Tim Burchett's been on with us, he has in this
Speaker 3: very space before the Congressman was talking to a reporter.
Speaker 3: He says McCarthy jabbed him from behind when he was
Speaker 3: like he talked about it unseen.
Speaker 10: And got elbowed in the back. And it kind of
Speaker 10: caught me off guard because it was a clean shot
Speaker 10: to the kidneys. And I turned back and there was
Speaker 10: Kevin and and I for a minute, I was kind
Speaker 10: of what the heck just happened? And then I, you know,
Speaker 10: I chased after him. Of course, he's a As I've
Speaker 10: stated it many times, he's a he's a bully with
Speaker 10: seventeen million dollars in a security detail.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: Okay, then he does have a lot of money, and
Speaker 3: I guess he has a security detail. We got uh,
Speaker 3: we got a response from McCarthy, yeah, and chased him down.
Speaker 1: They had a face off after that.
Speaker 4: McCarthy said if he hit somebody, they would know it.
Speaker 5: Okay, So that's one episode.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 1: Burchette says he did catch up with him and the
Speaker 1: security detail.
Speaker 10: Was as he always did. Dose he just denies it
Speaker 10: or blamed somebody else or something, you know, And it
Speaker 10: was just a little heated. But I just backed off
Speaker 10: because there was any I saw no reason. I wasn't
Speaker 10: gaining anything from it.
Speaker 1: So I think we're probably done with that.
Speaker 5: Okay.
Speaker 3: What happened in the hearing of the Senator Mark Wayne Mullen,
Speaker 3: I don't know what to say about though. Yeah, Sean O'Brien,
Speaker 3: the head of the Teamster's Union, who is sat at
Speaker 3: this desk.
Speaker 1: All these people have been on with us, they're real people.
Speaker 9: Yep.
Speaker 3: This blew up into something because I guess Sean O'Brien's
Speaker 3: been tweeting about Mark Wayne Mullen as we hear he's
Speaker 3: reading one of these.
Speaker 11: Twits, the Tough Guy Act and the Senate hearings. You
Speaker 11: know where to find me, any place, any time, cowboy.
Speaker 1: Okay, so this is the time. This is a place.
Speaker 11: If you want to run your mouth, we can be
Speaker 11: too consenting adults. We can finish it here.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's fine, perfect, you want to do it now.
Speaker 1: I'd love to do it right now? Do you stand up?
Speaker 9: Hold stop it?
Speaker 7: Okay? So they get up.
Speaker 3: Everybody's out of their chaired.
Speaker 1: Bernie Sanders the chair acted. Please can I resp hold it?
Speaker 1: What we can is going on.
Speaker 9: I'm sorry, this is all that you said.
Speaker 2: You'll have your time?
Speaker 1: Can I respond?
Speaker 7: No, you can't.
Speaker 1: This is a hearing the American people contempt.
Speaker 2: But Congress's I don't like rugs, and.
Speaker 1: I don't like you because you describe yourself. Oh wait
Speaker 1: a minute, they're gonna get up again.
Speaker 2: Time.
Speaker 3: This is what the American people are seeing today instead
Speaker 3: of an effort to fund the government, which apparently also
Speaker 3: will happen before this day is over.
Speaker 5: Yeah, about an hour and a half. Joe for a third.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we'll talk about it on Bower Leader meet Kaylee
Speaker 3: and I balance the Power of Bloomberg TV five o'clock.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Sound on podcast.
Speaker 3: Make sure to subscribe if you haven't already, at Apple, Spotify,
Speaker 3: and anywhere else you get your podcasts, and you can
Speaker 3: find us live every weekday from Washington, d C.
Speaker 1: At one pm Eastern Time at Bloomberg dot com.