Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast. Catch us live weekdays at noon Eastern on Applecarplay.
And then Roudo with the Bloomberg Business App.
Listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts, or watch us live on YouTube.
Not just any Thursday, is it Welcome to the fastest show in politics, live from Washington. This is Balance of Power and Bloomberg Radio on the satellite and on YouTube, where you can find us right now by searching Bloomberg Global News. Our live feed is up and running, and we always save you a seat in the studio. On this sixth of June, the eightieth anniversary of the D Day invasions, President Biden, speaking earlier today from France, you
heard and saw the remarks on Bloomberg. He did not mention Vladimir Putin, and he did not mention Donald Trump, not by name. But his remarks at the American Cemetery earlier Colville Sumer were a remarkable ceremony unfolded with American veterans a century old sitting in wheelchairs in the first part of the day today, wrapped in blankets. It was cold outside to see President Biden, to see President Macron, to see the King, and President Biden did have a message to those who were not named.
Here's what he said.
Mark's unique ability to bring countries together is a undeniable source of our strength and our power. Isolationism was not the answer eighty years ago and is not the answer today.
Remarkable Outside of the speech, and we can talk about this, we will with Garrick Graff, we will with our panel. But to see the ceremony unfold, with the President of the United States, the Commander in Chief there in person, the President of France.
Bestowing a great.
Honor of French legion upon each veteran who is there. They introduced themselves to each individual and kissed and hugged him in a truly emotional and moving moment. And I'm glad that we can have Garrick Graft with us. As I mentioned, he's an historian and journalist and has been reporting in Washington for a long time. But his new book Today, When the Sea Came Alive, an oral history of D Day, is why we are together. And Garrett, it's great to have you. I welcome you back to Bloomberg.
Before we get into some of the stories that you heard, absolutely the significance of this moment, as I just described it. To see these two presidents with one hundred year old veterans, many of whom are marking the last anniversary of D Day that they will have the opportunity to with only a couple of thousand left on this planet. How important was that ceremony this morning.
I think that that's the point and undertone of all of this week's remembrances of D Day is that this is a moment when we're also marking the final passing of that greatest generation, the generation that won World War Two, saved Western democracy for us, and that this is, you know, a moment where I think, in ways that you were just talking about, you know, we're going to reflect a lot, not just on their legacy and what they did for freedom and democracy eighty years ago, but just how willing
we are in this generation to fight for freedom and democracy in the way that they did on D Day June sixth, nineteen forty four. You know, D Day has this important part in our national cultural mythology because of
what it represents. You know, it is the most audacious human endeavor ever undertaken before or since a million Allied personnel in motion across the English Channel on D Day and you know, seven thousand ships, the largest armada ever assembled, three thousand airplanes carrying paratroopers into Normandy, and it was a It was an invasion launched, unlike almost every invasion in human military history, not to seize or conquer, but
to liberate. You know, the cause that those men fought for on the beaches in Normandy, in the hedgerows of Normandy eighty years ago was among the most noble humans have ever fought.
Really well put.
You spoke with many of these veterans to create your book, and we read yesterday in Stars and Stripescaret of a one hundre a two year old veteran Robert PARASHITTI seventy fourth reunion that I'm looking at a photograph here now on this eightieth he died on his way there, reinforcing.
The importance of this moment.
Yeah, great Britain believes you know that there are just six living British D Day veterans left alive, you know, just to give you sort of some sense of how small this pool really is now and that was really my goal in trying to do this book at this moment in history, which was you know, we have at this time effectively every first person memory of D Day we will ever have. You know, this is a moment when D Day is moving from living memory into permanent history.
And so my goal with this book was to try to assemble the story of D Day told in the voices of those who participated in it in the first person. And so, you know, for the I collected about five thousand oral histories for this, mostly archival, and the finished book has about seven hundred voices, trying to tell that huge, audacious, courageous story in the voices in the first person as
they lived it. And I think one of the real strengths that you get in oral history that makes it unique as a form is I think when you read and write narrative history, and I've written plenty of narrative history myself, there's a tendency to make it seem you know, neater, cleaner, simpler, more linear, more predetermined than any of the participants at
the time actually felt. And so you know, we view D Day as this historic triumph, I mean, one of the greatest days, not just of the twentieth century, but of all of Western democracy.
When you talk to.
You know, when you read the letters of the soldiers crossing the English Channel on June fifth, that they're writing in their bunks aboard those landing craft. When you listen to the oral histories of the paratroopers flying into Normandy, there's not a lot of sense of courage and heroism
and bravery among them. You know, they are, they're young, They're impossibly young, you know, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen years old, you know, led by grizzled twenty one year old sergeants, and you know they are you know, they're scared, they're lonely.
They're wondering whether they have what it takes to make it in combat, whether they're going to let down their friends, their comrades that they've trained alongside for so long for this very moment, and they're wondering, of course, whether they're going to live to see the end of the next day. And of course, for about four thousand of the Allied troops, they didn't.
You know, it's interesting we talk today about the great success and scale of this operation, and the scale of your oral history here is appropriately massive. To reflect the story in its truest sense, but this could have gone more than one way. And I'm always compelled by the story of also I think of a lonely, if not also scared Dwight Eisenhower who wrote a second letter and filed it away in case the invasion was a failure. Doesn't that tell us a bit about the humility of the moment as well?
Yeah, And you know, in some ways, the most dramatic chapter of this book is not the combat. It's the decision that Ike and the other supreme Allied commanders have to make in you know, over that weekend June third June, fourth June fifth, of whether to launch the invasion at all. They have this incredibly narrow window of just three days at the start of June, when the tides and the moon align, and they have you know, these ships already loaded,
already in motion. You know, all of the Allied forces have now been briefed on what their missions are, what
the target is. You know, the secrecy is at risk, and they know if those if the weather doesn't cooperate in the notoriously uncooperative English Channel, they might have to postpone the invasion for two weeks or even four weeks to wait for the moon, and that would mean bringing all the ships back, unloading all of them, putting all of the secrecy of this operation at risk, not to mention whether there would be enough time on the European continent to carry out the build up necess before winter.
And so you know, that weekend, of course, as everyone knows, the English Channel is hit by one of the worst storms in its history. June fifth is sort of near hurricane force winds and gales up and down the English Channel, and the American meteorologists that weekend, the Allied meteorologists detect just the tiniest possible window for an invasion to actually happen on June sixth, after they'd already delayed it from
June fifth, which was the original target date. And what's amazing, of course, is you learn this story is that the Germans didn't have that meteorology as advanced, and so the Germans don't seize this opportunity. They don't have their air reconnaissance out, they don't have their naval reconnaissance out, and Irwin Rommel, the German commander, actually looks at the weather says, no way, the invasion's coming this week, and takes off for Berlin to go back and celebrate his wife's birthday
and meet with Adolf Hitler. And so the title of this book, When the Sea Came Alive, is actually from a German soldier on Omaha Each waking up in his bunker that Tuesday morning looking out at the horizon totally totally surprised to find it packed with Allied ships.
What a vision you paint for us?
You talk to Private Frank Pallace Garrett, Regiment S two, Section five hundred and six Parachute Regiment on hundred and first Airborne, This quote stands out to us. I was just a young kid like the rest of them. He told you, try to free the world from the Nazis. We did that, but we still haven't learned a damn thing. That sticks with me. I'm sure it's stuck with you. And as we listen to the President today speak in Normandy, knowing that there were lawmakers there by the way, the
Speaker of the House did not attend. Having listened to this six month argument overfunding for our allies in Ukraine, it's hard to ignore the politics of the moment.
Were they appropriate?
Yeah? And I think the answer has to be yes. I mean this is the legacy that this generation fought for. You know, Ronald Reagan did so much to lionize and valorize and sort of reframe the Battle of D Day with that famous speech at Point to Hawk in nineteen eighty four, and he said, in one of his speeches, you know, democracy is only ever one generation away from extinction.
And I think that that is one of the messages we really have to wrestle with as a country, as a West right now as we watch, you know, a significant D Day anniversary carried out at a time when and democracy has probably never seemed as fragile at any other D Day anniversary. This is you know, there's a land war going on in Europe. You know, democracy is on the ballot. The President and his allies will say
here at home this fall. And you know, I think that there's a real question of is America is the West? Are the allies from World War Two as willing to fight for democracy now as that generation was then, Well.
That's a big question.
You essentially asked that in a great ed a guest essay in The New York Times, Garrett writes, across the next few months, we'll be hearing a lot of argument about what America is and isn't. There's a simpler answer to that question that many would like to admit. What we'll fight for is who we are, and as we look ahead, we must decide if we're still as willing to to fight for democracy as the generation to storm
Normandy was eighty years ago. I only have a minute left, Garrett Well, Joe Biden, channel Ronald Reagan and the boys of Point to Hawk when he speaks tomorrow.
I think his hope is to do that, you know. I think the White House sees this as an incredibly important moment for setting the stakes of you know, not just our national politics, but the geopolitics of the world at this moment. Yeah, and what better way to kick that off by honoring, you know, that small group of living survivors who made it back to Normandy to remind us of the human cost of defending democracy.
I'm going to congratulate you on this important project, Garrett. I'd love for you to come and see us sometime in the studio. Garrett Graff, author of When the Sea Came Alive and Oral History of D Day, Thank you for being part of our coverage.
Sing to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast kens Just Live weekdays at noon Eastern on Applecarplay and then.
Roud Oro with the Bloomberg Business Ad.
You can also listen live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station, Just Say Alexa playing Bloomberg eleven thirty.
And our eyes of course overseas today with President Biden delivering the address we've been talking about from Normandy on this eightieth anniversary of D Day, it was a spectacular ceremony. Though politics were, of course part of the President's speech. He did not mention Vladimir Putin or Donald Trump, but the message was clear as he called on the world
to preserve democracy. We're living in a time when democracy is more at risk across the world at any point since the end of World War Two, he said, knowing of course, that Joe Biden is going to be meeting on the sidelines with our European allies. President Manuel Macrone was part of the ceremony this morning, as was King Charles.
And it's onto the G seven next week with Israel of course in the air, not just Ukraine as the President talked about today in this speech, but the potential for a cease fire something we've been talking about now for almost one week. It was last Friday that President Biden held forth that the White House rolled out the three phased plan, and since then it's been a war of words between the White House and Benjamin Etna, who has made clear that Israel is not prepared to sign
a permanent ceasefire until Hamas has destroyed. Hamas is not willing to sign a ceasefire unless it's permanent. And so we still sit here today, with the help of Sealia Mosen, the host of of course, the Big Take DC podcast. That's the topic of the show on the podcast that drops today, Sleya with us at the table on Bloomberg TV and Radio. It's great to see you. This is
one of these stories you cover that's fluid. It's going to be different in an hour maybe, but the slow drip of news has been really something considering that the President stuck as now on that level last week.
Absolutely, it's been just six days. I've been really curious as to why Biden chose that day, that moment to make this announcement. It's easy to say that, oh, he's looking for political points domestically here in the US, but we also have to remember that every time he speaks about the conflict between Israel Hamas, no one's ever happy with what he says. So there's more to it than what we think.
Well, look, that's true.
He's got folks on both ends of the political spectrum doubting him right now, and he's hearing a lot from progressive Democratic voters who don't like what's been happening and are waiting for a cease fire announcement. So how do we judge how far Joe Biden went beyond his conversations with Benjamin netnya who in rolling out this comprehensive plan that apparently Netanya who was not prepared to sign.
Yeah. Absolutely, Look, the world is watching. Everyone is wondering how Biden is able to wield his influence, wield the power that he has, and the friendship that he has with Beebe, who he's known for more than three d since he was a junior senator in his forties. We are seeing some surprise from the Israeli Prime minister. Some of that has to do with how the Israeli government is made up. It's a parliamentary system and there's a
lot of in the coalition. The ruling coalition. There is strife over this deal, whether there should be a ceasefire, what kind of deal they want, So the contours of it are muddied just within Israel, and then you're trying to go and talk abroad and openly at the same time you're dealing with Hamas and what they want out of this deal.
Remarkable, and Bill Burns, the CIA director, is dispatched back to the region, which gave some folks hope that tends to lead to things. When Bill Burns is at the table, what are you hearing though about the timeline, the amount of patience that the White House.
Is going to have.
It sounds like the ball is in Nyahu's court. Hamas has made some comments showing their hand a little bit that there are contours of this dealer are parts here that do make sense to them. Biden is in Europe right now. He goes back to Europe next week for the G seven. He's trying to project strength, but we really just need to see what Natanyahu wants to do.
So far, the comments that he's made kind of show that he is more interested in a prolonged conflict, but he hasn't stated unequivocally what he wants to do next.
How are you getting to this on the podcast?
We're getting to this with We spoke to the Israel bureau chief for Bloomberg White House, corresponding to Justin Sink trying to find out what is going on inside the White House, inside the Israeli Parliament, the Kanesse, and why there are so many domestic concerns on each side that spill out into this global conflict.
Fantastic.
I'm looking forward to this and you've got sync on a microphone. You're going to have to tell me how you pull that off. Later, Salia Molson with.
The Great Big Take DC podcast. It drops today.
Subscribe on Apple, Spotify and all the same places you do your podcast stuff.
Se Leiah, thank you.
We have this conversation every week to remind you when the show drops. And I want to add the voice now of Jane Harmon. What a great opportunity to focus on geopolitics on this eightieth anniversary of the D Day invasion, Chair of the Commission on the National Defense Strategy, President Emerita for the Woodrow Wilson Center. Jane, it's great to see you. Thank you so much for joining us here. We're talking about Israel. We're talking about Ukraine, both of
which are in the air. As the President addressed this very important ceremony earlier today.
The politics of the moment are hard to ignore, aren't.
They very hard to ignore. But let's not lose what happened earlier today. Let's just linger there for one minute. It was so moving to see the President of France present the Lejondonnero Awards to the surviving soldiers, who not only stood haltingly, but one of them even saluted. I can't tell you how many people must have shed tears over that. It was a moment of unity, and it was a salute to American leadership with partners and allies.
Let's not forget that Ukraine was part of the President's speech, and boy, oh boy, his commitments to stick with in Ukraine mattered a lot onto Israel. I think the US is trying to lead. I think the deal is a
good deal. I don't know whether Biden mentioned it too soon or not, but I think today was also the deadline that Benny Gantz, a member of the War Coalition but not a member of BB Netanyahu's party, said was his deadline for pulling out of the coalition, I'm guessing, and I don't think we have to talk about it live on TV. I'm guessing that a lot is going on behind the scenes to try to figure out a way forward where BB achieves two things that he desperately wants.
One is staying in power. We can decide whether we love that or not, but it's up to Israel. And the other is staying out of jail. And if those things can be resolved, then maybe we can make progress. The hostages are dying, and the hostages are also the only leverage that Hamas leadership has at the moment, which is why they're not giving them up.
But we have more.
Leverage, and I'm glad Bill Burns is there, and I'm glad he's in Doha and other capitals urging that the political leadership of Hamas be told that they have to put pressure on their folks to end this and take this deal and then hopefully the similar things happening inside Israel and US leadership has to stay.
Gee, I'm so happy that you slowed us down to recall that moment we talked about it earlier. To see the legion of honor bestowed on these eleven US veterans with the Commander in Chief, with President Biden there, with President Emmanuel Macrone. They kissed and hugged individually each of those men, and it was an incredibly moving moment. The President went on to say, we're living in a time when democracy is more at risk across the world than at any point since the end of World War Two?
Do you believe that?
Yes, and we have to fight for it.
There is a clash of values, if you want to call what Russia and China believe in values.
But there's a clash of values.
US values plus partners and allies prevailed in nineteen forty five eighty years ago, or just before nineteen forty five eighty years ago, and that is our best weapon, our values. And I thought Biden was pitch perfect this morning.
I really did.
And I don't mean this to be a partisan comment, because if we lose our freedom, what is it exactly that America is two and a half years from now, our declaration of independence will be two hundred and fifty years old. I was recently in Philadelphia and I saw the little house where Thomas Jefferson wrote it.
That moves me.
I'm the daughter of a refugee from Nazi Germany, and my family found its way here and I had every opportunity here, and I would never have had those opportunities had they moved to Russia or China.
No way.
It's great to hear you talk today, Jane.
The President's going to try, as we keep hearing in the White Houses not being quiet about this, to channel Ronald Reagan tomorrow and his boys of point to hawk speech. The President will be doing his own tomorrow. What does it say about where we are now when the Democratic president is trying to channel this Republican from the nineteen eighties.
Well, I have called myself a Reagan Democrat in the sense that Reagan's peace through Strength agenda really resonates, certainly resonates with me, and I think Biden is right to remember that time. If you've been to Plantuhak and you see where these brave men skilled sheer cliffs with fire coming down, you will remember that there was air cover. I'm mentioning this for a reason.
Air cover. I don't think they would have prevailed without it. And that is why.
Think Ukraine we have taken way too long to provide adequate airpower to Ukraine I'm glad we're finally moving to do so. But Ukraine needs everything it can get from the West to win this challenge against Russia. And if they don't win this challenge against Russia, think what we went through in nineteen on d Day eighty years ago. We may have to muster all that as we, as
a partner in NATO, defend our freedom. So, I mean, there's just so much on the table right now, and it will be great to see the President at Plantu Hak and to hear a message that's bipartisan. It's not a dirty word, bipartisan unity.
It's not a dirty word on this program. Mitch McConnell was writing in The New York Times Jane, it should not take another catastrophic attack like Pearl Harbor to wake today's isolationists from the delusion that regional conflicts have no consequences from the world's most powerful and prosperous nation.
Who was he talking about.
Gee, I can't imagine. Who do you think he was talking about? Unfortunately, in our country now, there is an alliance on both ends of the spectrum of people who really don't don't get it that we can't build walls high enough to keep this country out of the world, nor would we want to. We're the beacon of freedom. The whole American dream is based on integrating with the world, and our role again since D Day or on D Day and actually before that, has been to lead.
And that's what Mitch McConnell is saying.
And you know, bipartisan leadership channeling both Biden and Reagan will be very necessary right now, and I hope we rise to the moment.
Well, I'm glad you could talk with us today, Jane, on this eightieth anniversary. Isn't that remarkable of the D Day invasion? Jane Harmon, Chair of the Commission on the National Defense Strategy, President Emerita Woodrow Wilson Center, and of course former Congresswoman.
You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast. Catch Just Live weekdays at noon Eastern on Evocar Play and then broun.
Otto with the Bloomberg Business app.
Demand wherever you get your podcasts, or watch us live on YouTube.
On an important day in politics across the ocean, as President Biden spoke from the eightieth anniversary of the D Day landing spoke from Normandy earlier today with a call after greeting veterans in a beautiful ceremony that took place earlier, a call to this global audience to preserve democracy.
Here's part of his speech.
Mark's unique ability to bring countries together is undeniable source of our strength and our power. Isolationism was not the answer eighty years ago and is not the answer.
Today with multiple audiences. As we assemble our panel now, Genie Shanzano is with us, Bloomberg Politics contributor and of course Democratic analysts, joined today by Republican strategists Chape and Faye Actum.
It's good to have you both, your Genie.
This was a moment for Joe Biden, without mentioning the names Trump or putin, to deliver a poignant message. He's going to speak again tomorrow. But there were some lawmakers who were there today, not including the Speaker of the House, who were somewhat responsible for slow walking funding for Ukraine, which he talked about a lot. The cause in Ukraine, the cause against authoritarianism. Was this the right stage for that message?
It absolutely was? And can I just say I'm on pins and needles about these astronauts docking potentially eighty years after D Day, it's very exciting and so glad you're covering it, and you know it was I thought a very moving ceremony. It was the right message. He did not mention Trump or putin by name, although you didn't take much to figure out who he was talking about. But the message is critically important, and that is the
message that isolationism makes us weak. And it is exactly juxtaposed to the message that Donald Trump campaigned on in twenty sixteen, twenty twenty and again now, which is this whole notion of make America great. He has made isolationism fashionable again, if you will, and attractive to voters. And it is Joe Biden's job as president to use this as a teaching moment to explain to people, most of us, not around eighty years ago, why we cannot isolate from the rest of the world if we want to be
strong ourselves and to save democracy. So absolutely the right message, and hopefully he's able to hit it on the park again tomorrow as he has these two other big events chape It.
I don't know the politics of all these veterans who were actually on the stage behind Joe Biden. The staging included many veterans in their late nineties, one hundred years old, many in wheelchairs this morning listening to the president, the political nature of this speech cannot be ignored.
Was it appropriate?
So he's the.
President, he could talk about whatever he wants whenever, And like you said, I don't think you can separate the politics from that particular speech. And I think the president, you know, he's smart to be doing what he's doing for his side. Right in his campaign, veterans and military issues usually skew more conservative or at least right of center,
and it's a voting group that President Biden needs. As far as the messaging and the substance of the message, you know, I don't know that that's appropriate, and I wouldn't necessarily call it isolationism, But there were no new wars that began under President Trump, and the world was just safer under.
His presidency than it is now. There are various reasons for that, but.
Joe Biden is president, and the buck stops there. The world is less safe now than it was under President Trump. So you could call it isolationism, you could call it any number of things.
But it was.
But what it was was that we were safer America was safe for, the world was safe for. There were fewer wars under President Trump. And that's just a fact. And we could argue about.
Why that is so, is the fact, Yeah, and we're not here to argue. But I would point you to Mitch McConnell's outbed in the New York Times this morning. Pretty fascinating to see the Republican leader of the Senate. Quote, it should not take another catastrophic attack like Pearl Harbor to wake today's isolationists from the delusion that regional conflicts have no consequences for the world's most powerful and prosperous nation unquote. Is there some wisdom to that chapin?
Of course?
And again I think what you're seeing is there is sort of I wouldn't call it, you know, civil war like the other side does. But you are seeing some tension within the Republican Party. You have a the younger generation is very much aligned with what President Trump is saying about foreign policy and wars, and Mitchell Center McConnell, who I have the utmost respect for for many reasons, is part of the old Guard, right. They are sort of the nation building camp of two generations or a
generation from to go. I do respect his opinion, and of course, I you know, I think isolationism is the wrong way to describe it. And I do think isolationism is a problem. But you know, supporting our allies, uh, you know, doesn't always mean, you know, getting into wars. You know, you see the conflict with with is between Israel and Hamas right now. I mean, you know, Israel is our ally and I'm not sure we're seeing like full backing of them in this particular war. So these
things are very complicated. And again, you know, under President Trump, and we can debate it, we could talk about why, you know, what the reasons were. But under President Trump, you know, these things didn't.
Happen as often right around the world.
Chape and Faith, it's great to have you back, Republican strategist, managing director at Actum, and of course Jeanie Shanz, no Bloomberg Politics contributor and also a Senior Democracy Fellow with the Center for the Study of the Presidency in Congress. Great conversation today on Balance of Power. As always, you're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast.
Kench just Live weekdays at noon Eastern on Applecarplay and then.
Roun Oo with the Bloomberg Business App.
You can also listen live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station. Just say Alexa, play Bloomberg eleven thirty.
Hundreds of millions of dollars now being invested in the downtown d C.
Area.
If you've been to the nation's capital, maybe you've seen a Wizard's or a Caps game. All of this is due in part to a deal that fell apart. Ted Leonsis, the chair and CEO of Monumental Sports and Entertainment, had a two billion dollar deal in principle, a handshake deal to bring the company across the river to Virginia. It fell apart, and he is now in his second chapter here in Washington, d C. And a deal with the mayor and the city council worth a half a billion
dollars to reinvest, reimagine, and recreate the downtown area. We sat down earlier here on Bloomberg and asked him about the politics that he blamed for killing that deal in Virginia.
Here he is, I never signed anything. That's the most remarkable thing in it was a handshake. Yeah, it was a handshake deal. And you know, Washington d C. I came here from Lowell, Massachusetts on a Greyhound bus and the mid seventies, fell in love with the city, went to Georgetown University, and then we stood up AOL and built really the commercialization of the internet not too far away in Virginia.
And I've always looked at this.
Community, the DMV if you will, being the District Maryland in Virginia. It's the most important market. It's ten million people. It's the third or fourth largest DMA in the country. And so you know DC. We need a strong DC, We need a strong downtown. And we owned the building, we owned the teams, we own the network, the studios here, and so why you've made a big commitment, and we'll work with the mayor and help to reimagine what should the next version of downtown rebirth look like.
Yeah, I want to ask you about what that looks like.
But did Governor.
Glenn Youngkin get a little over his skis when he shook your hand on that deal?
What happened?
I think the governor is a really great executive, and he dealt with what basically everyone is dealing with, a real bifurcated view of what is best for people and when I said Paula Tooks took over, this was a great, great business deal. And we were told that your business isn't wanted here. And so that was done not through where we were being located in Alexandria, but by the political machine in Richmond. And you know, you get to the point where you say, there's no place like home.
And we work to deal with the mayor and the city council, and you know, we're a part of that team. And the country needs a functioning, strong, safe, clean growth mindset.
Washington, d C.
Where a bell weather, if you will, for the entire country. And we fell behind a bit pre pandemic, during the pandemic post pandemic, and I'm really glad that there's been this reckoning, if you will, and it's happening in all major metro areas and now we can move forward in
coordination with business and the philanthropy community. We have a unique set of issues here because of the federal government overlay, and you know, just every day we have to deal with things that connect Virginia and Maryland in DC, like the metro, like the track effect that needs to be mitigated, like the infrastructure dollars that are being spent on roads and road closures and so all of that. I think we can play a big social responsibility role in helping them make things better.
Well, you're going to play a pivotal role in the future of the city in the downtown area. I heard you mentioned the other day you might be interested in, speaking of talking like a politician an honorary title vice Mayor of the d DC Downtown DC, because that's kind of what you are. You joined city officials on a trip to Las Vegas to a retail conference a couple of weeks ago to bring business here. You're representing the city and what is truly a balance of politics and business.
Isn't it.
Yes, you may not know this, but I was once mayor elected mayor of my town in Florida.
I serve for six years as mayor.
Every time I see many of Bloomberg, we choke and call each other honorable. So you should pay a little more respect.
To me there, mister mayor.
Appreciate it.
Yes, I understand the role that we can play in attracting businesses. And frankly, I said, I was surprised at you'd always heard how well managed the state of Virginia is it has low taxes. It's a great state. But I found it easier.
To negotiate and work with.
The City of DC than I did with the State of Virginia. And so yeah, I'm going to go out and be an evangelist for the city, for the mayor, for the city council. I want a higher quality of life for our employees. We bring two and a half million people into the city every year for our concerts, for NCAA tournaments, for the Capitals, for the Wizards, for the Mystics. We have back to back Mystics games WNBA
tonight and tomorrow night. There'll be thirty thousand people or so in those two nights coming into DC, and most of them come in from Maryland in Virginia, and they'll spend money in DC pay tax dollars here.
Well, people are talking about the Caitlin Clark effects in the local media today. You're right, You've got four games now for the WNBA this season. I believe tonight tomorrow are going to be huge at the Capitol One Arena. You've also said that you want DC to be the world capital of women's sports. You've described this as a growth stock how do you make that happen.
Well, I think what we'll look to do is we're second longest tenured owners of a WNBA team, and Mystics are a growing business. I'm chairman of the Media Committee at the NBA. I know what's going to happen with the WNBA media rights. It will be a very nice increase there. We own our network. I know what the ratings are locally for women's sports, and so what I'd like to do is make a monumental w Right. We own multiple teams and venues and a network.
Let's use the Mystic says.
Kind of the foundation. And I would love one day to have a women's hockey team here. I would love one day to have women's volleyball professional. We should make d C the professional women's sports capital. We have a very broad base of ownership executives Sheila Johnson, Lareene Powell, jobs, Michelle Freeman.
We have the gravitas for d C through.
Our WNBA Bona FIDE's and through our ownership group.
Yeah, We'll make those.
Investments and I think you'll see DC emerging as that capital.
Well, TV is a big deal with an important story right now about NBA rights. You can speak directly to this, or maybe I should say TV is not as big a deal as it used to be because we're looking at a proposal now it's Amazon, NBC, ESPN, A big chunk of the.
Games will be streamed exclusively.
And I wonder if the owners are going to sign off on this and what you see as the future here.
You know, nothing's been announced yet, There's been lots of reports on it.
What I'll say is that the.
Convening power of sports, both bricks and mortar, bringing people into an arena and then being able to watch the game on multiple devices, your television, your iPad, your iPhone on a global basis.
We've proven how valuable.
Our ip is, our content is, and my expectation is that this deal will be very very strong for the players, for the owners, for the league itself, and it allows us to continue to invest because the game has never been better, both hockey and basketball, the play offs, the competition, women's basketball, their entertainment value, the competitiveness is off the chart, and so we now have to take more control and
be digital first companies. That's essentially what the movement is. Yes, Terrestrial is going to play a huge part of it. You know, I look at Bloomberg. I've spent a couple hours here today. You were a forerunner in it. You built the platform. It was digitally based. You bought print properties, you have television properties.
You stream, you have private networks. Well, that's what we should to be everywhere, is what you're saying at TV.
But what's the endgame? Is it direct to consumer?
A company like Monumental subscribes to me, say ten years from now, I'm at home watching a Wizard's game on my headset gambling at the same time.
Is that the future?
We want to have deep engagement relationships with consumers however they want, and I do believe that subscriptions I look at it more like a software company.
We have a.
Software services business model where we get a subscriber. Our season ticket holders, as an example, they were new in a bad year eighty eighty five percent, in good years ninety nine percent. Someone has to die if you will, and you know, for the family to lose their season tickets, and many cases here, no, no, no, my dad left it to me. I'm stepping into issues, right and so subscriptions business is great, and if you build a big audience the people value by paying. That's the difference than
like a website. Right, people are paying to come to the games. People are paying to watch these performers. Then we license our content to terrestrial, to cable companies, and then more and more we're saying, well, if you don't have cable, if you don't subscribe to a service, we need to get it to you directly.
Well, that's just like a subscription, sure, And so we've.
Made a big investment in Monumental. We own our network, the Monumental Sports Network. It's available on cable, on satellite. We've done deals with Amazon and Prime. We're doing deals where we get subscribers directly. And I think we want to control our IP and be able to distribute it for and wide.
It sounds endless if you do it right when it comes to.
Well, I think partnerships lead to prosperity. And these are some of the greatest companies, media companies and tech companies.
And that's been the new phenomenon.
Now that the Microsoft's and the alphabets, Googles, the Amazons, the Apples, they are placing a lot of value in the IP itself.
As are the TV people.
Right, although I don't think the Comcast NBC views itself as a TV company anymore, Right, It's a tech company, a big distribution platforms.
You couldn't have imagined this when you were watching Celtics games with rabbit ears at Lowell High School.
No, this is.
Another universe that we're in now.
But you couldn't have imagined having a second chance to revitalize the nation's capital. We hear a lot about crime, the balance between safety, innovation and openness. How do you make it safe enough for someone to want to invest, but free enough for.
People to have a good time.
Well, the city has to continue to find ways to make fair and equitable laws that service businesses and the populace and the voters.
Obviously, so business and politics meet again.
Very much so.
And I think that was the big breakthrough over the last six months that people understand that if the federal office buildings aren't open and people are taking metro or driving and parking and coming into the city and having lunch in the city and buying apartments renting apartments in the city, that's a bad thing for the local economy. And if we warrant here those two and a half million people who come in. They'll come in, arrive at five o'clock today, they'll go drink, they'll go eat at
the local restaurants, they'll take metro. Metro ridership needs to be increased so that it can do longer hours and make more investments in technology and safety and security. So I think what's happened is there's been awakening that everything is connected. That Metro, that the police, that the traffic mitigation, that the infrastructure investments and roads, all of that comes together to make a higher quality of life. We have to integrate it and not take anything for granted that.
You know, this a very competitive world. Maryland Virginia want to steal DC's companies. DC wants to bring those companies into back into downtown, and so you know, you get judged by what kind of results that you get. And I think d C now is on a rebirth. We're seeing crime go down, we're seeing Metro coming up, We're seeing tourism having record numbers.
And tourism we have to.
Find ways to get the tourists to downtown to eat and dine because right now there seems to be almost like a fence, you know, that keeps them on the.
Other constitution Avenue Barrier exactly.
It's a real thing. When are you going to buy the NATS?
I would very much like to buy the NATS and be very respectful to the process and the family. I think it makes a lot of sense in this super city vernacular to have one platform, year round teams and to have the size and scale so that we can compete in terms of payroll, in terms of talent, in terms of infrastructure with Los Angeles, with New York.
That you know, just have bigger markets.
And so we're seeing in media, We're seeing in most industries that scale really matters, and you know, you have to have a growth mindset.
And so for us, because we own.
The Winter Sports if you will, and we own the network and we own the venues, adding that team I think is really really important to the business. But I want to win championships, and the way that you win championships is by having great farm teams and great infrastructure and great coaches. Takes money, and then to have the patients to rebuild the teams, and the Nationals are.
Well on their way to rebuilding a great team.
Is it right on a regional TV deal.
Right now?
Well?
I think it's a whole new game in local TV. I don't know what will happen in baseball. I know that I know that we've controlled our destiny locally by buying our regional sports network. Now you know, it's no no longer at NBC. It's a monumental sports network. There's the Masson network. It's it's on its own, if you will. It's not part of a bigger property, and it carries the two baseball teams. There's a lot of turmoil going on in that industry. We've inoculated ourselves and our fans
to that. We've just opened the most advanced technology invested almost sixty million dollars in a digital first real studio.
It's nicer and bigger than this one.
Wait, I need to come over.
You should. That's right, We've raised the bar for you.
I think you'll go and come back and say, how come they can do that.
Let's do the next one of these in your studio.
I'd love to do that.
We're invested here, obviously, and we're here to stay in downtown Washington, and.
I'm glad we can talk about it. We'd like to continue following your story here.
It is time honored to come here, and it's amazing the investments that you've made downtown right on New York Avenue, and we're almost neighbors, so love to come see you.
Ted leonsis the CEO of Monumental Sports and Entertainment, talking with us Today in Washington exclusively on.
Bloomberg TV and Radio.
I don't know.
It's a pretty nice studio. It's like the Starship Enterprise in here. Thanks for listening to the Balance of Power podcast. Make sure to subscribe if you haven't already, at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and you can find us live every weekday from Washington, DC at noontime Eastern at Bloomberg dot com.