John Thune on Rail Strike, Gov Funding, Trump in 2024

fear for our future. That's unconsortable. Shame on her, Shame on her. The voters spoke, they decided. It just happened to not be her. Bloomberg Sound On with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio. Congress to the Rescue, What could go wrong? Welcome to the fastest hour in politics, as lawmakers prepared now to vote on legislation to avert a nationwide rail strike, as President Biden urges them to act now to intervene,

and with an approaching deadline on government funding. We just discussed the agenda on Capitol Hill in an exclusive interview with Senator John Thune, the Republican whip in the Senate. Only here on Bloomberg Radio. Same sex marriage gets a vote in the Senate today and Carrie Lake makes it clear she will sue over results to the election in Arizona. We'll talk about it all with our signature panel Bloomberg Politics contributors Jeanie chantay No and Rick Davis with us

for the hour. So it's it's been a busy day in Washington. We've got a much better idea of where things stand on a possible rail strike. When President Biden called on Congress to intervene, that's not a good sign. And he started the day by meeting with leaders from the House and Senate today at the White House. Tomorrow morning, we will have a bill on the floor stand, he said.

We could come up as early as nine o'clock uh in the morning with the legislation that accepts the the original agreement plus the additional benefits that were gained in further discussion. Okay. Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the driveway outside the West Wing came outside with Chuck Schumer to talk to reporters after the meeting with the president. Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy also there. He spoke with reporters at the

stakeout afternoon. This is I think it will pass, but it's unfortunate that this is how we're running our economy today. This has all got to stop and change. And we heard a short time later from Mitch McConnell, Republican leader in the Senate, the President indicated support for legislation on the rail strike issue, and I believe I heard Senator Schumer say, uh, we're likely to see that on the floor.

This is where we begin our interview with Senator John Thune, the Republican from South Dakota Minority whip, sat down with us exclusively today on Bloomberg and I started by asking him about the rail strike legislation, whether Republicans will support it. I mean, I think right now, first off, we'll be acting on the House and we'll see what the outcome is there. Um. But if it comes, and if it comes from the House, I'm sure Schumer puts it on

the floor. Uh, And it would take some Republican votes for it to pass. Um. I would hope that it would. The administration could work this out. We've said that all along. They seem to have kind of thrown up their hands, but it's something that the President needs to own the Presidential Emergency Board, which he created, came up with a series of recommendations and uh, and that is what everybody

sort of agreed upon, with the exception of one union. UM. So we would like to see them resolve it without having Congress have to act. Um. If in fact we do, UM, my guess is that Congress will do the responsible thing in that case that there is obviously congressional authority here. Uh, it's we've seen this happen before, even though it's been

a long time. Why is it just the administration's responsibility? Well, I mean, I think largely, first off, it should be negotiated between the railroads and the and the and the labor unions. And they worked at this, I think, going back to en and sort of hit an impass, at

which point the Presidential Emergency Board gets triggered. But it is something in that this is a president who claims to be the most pro labor president ever in history, and you would think his relationships, you have enough influence with the unions to be able to get them to table and to get an agreement. Here. In fact, most of in most cases, the leadership of the unions agreed and a good member a good representation of their membership

did as well. But in the end, um, they don't have everybody, and since they don't have everybody, they're kind of punting into Congress. I think it's very rare. Uh, it shouldn't happen. And um, I think the last time it did happen and that wasn't that wasn't kind of the sort of circumstance that we're talking about here. To be clear, though, a shutdown is unacceptable to you. We've got a big date coming December when government funding expires.

What happens that thing? I think hopefully by then there will be an agreement on either a bill to fund the government through the rest of the fiscal year, whichould take us into next year septe or it will be probably some short term resolution that funds the government into some at to some point next year, which is not ideal. It is a but it is a reminder of just

the and I frankly I think this. I think that Schumer and the Democrats use us to their advantage because when you get to this point in the year, they have a tremendous amount of leverage and they usually use that leverage try and get more spending. But if we had been doing appropriations bills throughout the year, which is what Congress is supposed to do, we wouldn't be in

this situation. Um. But then it's really uh, it is going to be a question of whether or not there is support for some some sort of a long term funding solution that would take us into the end of the fiscal year next year or a short term punt into next year. Problems with either of those right there. On terms CR would mean the Pentagon doesn't get, for instance, what it needs uh in renewing its budget. But a short term CR brings the end of the beginning of

next year, could lead to a government shutdown. Do you

worry about that? Well, I do worry about you know, when you do these sort of short term cr short term cr short term cr um, eventually, you know something's got to give push, you know, there's there's got be some final resolution to this and UM and I would hope that wouldn't result in a government shutdown, which is why I think it's advantageous for everyone to try and work this out now and hopefully there is a path forward to a funding solution that would that would go

into you know the fiscal year next year, and there was some talk about dealing with the debt limit UH this year in this lame duck session. Are you waiting for a Republican lighthouse to manage that? I think it's in my view, at least right now, the likelihood is because we don't that doesn't get triggered until middle of next year, that it probably ends up being a next year exercise. There's some conversation around it, mostly among Democrats.

Are trying to do it this year? Um, But I do think it's a It's a challenge under any circumstance, and will certainly be that next year. Well. And and of course in that case, you say debt limit next year and people say, well, fiscal cliff next year, How concerned are you about reliving this from what was? Yeah? There there are examples in the past where we've been kind of up against this, um and unfortunately, as is typically the case around here, there nothing really happens until

you face a hard deadline. But that hard deadline it will be out there at some point. UM. I would hope we could avoid a crisis because I think you know, the markets get very rattled by that. By uncertainty. It creates a lot of volatility, and UM, and I think we ought to, if possible, try and come up with solutions in advance of these deadlines so we don't face that kind of a crisis same sex marriage. The Senate is apparently just about to vote on this. You're leaving

here to go deal with votes? Will you be part of codifying this in the law. I'm not going to be voting for it, but it will pass. UM. There are sufficient votes to pass it. There are several amendment votes this afternoon dealing with religious liberty protections and amendments that members of Republican members believe are essential, and there are there are more votes for UM the ultimate Bill. If any of these amendments is considered or adopted. If

they're adopted, you're still known. Well, I'm likely to know, but UM, I think it. But I do think it expands the universe of votes that are available for it. UM, if there would be a willingness by the Democrats to at least accept or or vote for some of these amendments. We understand seventies seventy one percent of Americans approve of this.

How come Uranova? Well, I mean I think it's a It did very state to state obviously, and in a different issue in my state than it would be in in perhaps you know, an area in this part of the country. UM, but I do think it's a settled issue. I think the courts did that. And my one of my arguments is that this isn't something again that Congress or the that we ought to have to intervene with. There's, in my view, no reason, there's no challenge out there

in any state in the country. Uh, the old burgha Felt decision is people. I think except is the law of the land, and so the need to codify it to me, um, doesn't exist. But that's not you know, we're gonna have the vote. Um, I think it will pass. Are you comfortable with Donald Trump remaining the so called head of the Republican Party now that he is running for president? I think that. Um, We've got a lot of emerging leaders, and I think you'll start hearing and

seeing more of them because you'd like to see a primary. Well, I think there's gonna be one, and I hope it's a robust one. I mean, I think we need Uh, you know, we've got a new, younger generation, new generation of leaders that are starting to emerge, and I think there are a lot of people around the congry country

that are hungry for that. Um and uh. And I think if we articulate the right vision for the future of the country, if some of these new leaders that are that are coming forward, I think we can be a majority governing party in the future. We just have to. We've got to come up with a way of articulating a message that attracts a lot of those middle independent voters, particularly in swing states that you need to win general elections. You were considered the giant slayer when you beat Tom

dash Well, how about John Do you remember that? Well, it was a long time ago. Um. Now, I've got my hands full of where I am. But I am, but I am excited about the field, and I think there are some really some really highly qualified and very effective leaders out there. Were you upset to see this dinner that took place at marral Lago? Do you have thoughts on this dining with a white supremacist. Yeah, I mean there's no place for that. I don't know how

that went slipped through the in. All you can say is I mean this is I Actually I don't know what you can say, you can't defend it UM and uh in our party. If if that's the kind of UM leadership that our party can expect into the future, we're going to be a minority party and uh. And so that's that kind of behavior, that kind of UM tolerance for those sorts of use is this is not acceptable speaking of the majority party, I'll end on this. What happens if herschel Walker wins next week? How does

that impact Republican plans for the Senate? I think to two things, one near term, one long term. Obviously long term sets us up better for four that that one seat matters a lot. But I also think in the near term there's a big difference between A and cent and a lot of it has to do with the way committees are composed and equal representation there and UM. So I think that we're in a much better place at than than to be at forty nine. And so

we're hoping hersh will come through. So that's a difference maker for you. It is, Yeah, it is. And thanks to Senator John Thune, the Republican from South Dakota, minority whip in the Senate and speaking exclusively with us here on Bloomberg. That was a wide ranging conversation, of course, and we have a lot to unpack ahead with our panel, which we will do. I do want to mention though, because it was he was called out on the program yesterday.

Kevin McCarthy, House Minority Leader likely to be speaker, was asked about this dinner at Marlago against they at the White House. Don't think anybody should be spending any time with Nick Flinch as he has no place in this Republican Party. I think President Trump uh came out four times and condemned him and didn't know who he was. Well, I condemn his ideology. It has no place in society. So Kevin McCarthy condemns that we haven't heard yet from

Donald Trump. Of course, the man who was at the table, well to saddle the panel next. Rick and Genie are on the way. This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg. You sound on with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio. The fastest hour in politics, of course, could not exist without our panel, and we want to tick through some of the highlights of our conversation are exclusive sit down with Senator John Thune today, Rick Davis and Jeannie Chanzano Bloomberg

Politics contributors and there with us. Now it's great to have, of course, both of you here, and I'm curious your thoughts on this. Why don't we just do this in order? Here? Remembering that this rail, this looming rail strike will likely be stopped by Congress. John Thune doesn't, however, think that it should be the responsibility of the House and the Senate.

It's something that the president needs to own. The Presidential Emergency Board, which he created, came up with a series of recommendations and uh, and that is what everybody sort of agreed upon, with the exception of one union. Um. So we would like to see them resolve it without having Congress have to act. Um if in fact we do, UM, my guess is that Congress will do the responsible thing. And it looks like that will happen. I don't know how many Republicans end up voting for this genie. But

is he right? He's echoing Kevin McCarthy that this was the White House's job to get this done, not Congress. Yeah. I mean we are hearing this from Republicans, and you know, Thune, I was, you know, really interesting to hear him say that, Marco Rubio coming out and saying he's not going to impose a deal that doesn't support rail workers, sounding a

bit more potentially like Bernie Sanders than a Republican. So you know, you do hear you know, when I was listening to them come out of the White House, there seemed to be some optimism this gets done. I still think it will, but we're going to have a strange bedfellows between progressives and potentially people like Thune and maybe Marco Rubio who decide they don't want to act or they think the White House has this responsibility. Of course,

that's not what the law says. And I think another really interesting facet of this is say echoes very much what Joe Biden himself said as a senator in the early nineteen nineties. So you know, you you it's a little bit easier to be senator and say you're not going to do something than to be president with high inflation in the holiday season saying you're gonna let the economy go one billion per week if that's what this

would be if there is a strike. Rick Senator Thune sounding a lot like Kevin McCarthy and his comments to reporters when he emerged from that meeting today with the President, Are they right? And and where did the White House go wrong here? If that's the case, should they have not pushed this as far as they did before getting

Congress involved? Well, I think that it is surprising, as Senator Thune said that the President United States, who fashions themselves as the greatest defender of unions in America, couldn't have gotten something done with the unions that that really haven't voted for it. And he pointed out it's really one union out of the group of I think a dozen unions now it's a big one. It's half the

members uh involved in this thing. But you would have thought that this administration really had the chops to get something done here and then just a to to Congress at the eleventh hour. You know, look, it is what it is. I can't imagine they're going to be anybody really opposed to doing something in Congress to avert the strike. But you do have to scratch your head and say, like so, the debate is over these union members not

getting any sick leave. So you're you have COVID, you gotta show one day, right, they go one day out of this one day and and so I honestly think there's more to this story than I think our top line, you know, media discussion has and and the missing element here is the railroads. I mean, where are those guys? Why why aren't they at the table saying yes, we can a fashion an option, right, Maybe give him a couple of days, maybe give him a week, uh, Senator

Chuck Schumer. Interesting, This is important for our listeners here, Genie, making clear that you keep hearing about this deadline the end of next week. That's actually not the timetable that

we're dealing with. In reality, our real deadline is sooner than that, because, as the speaker mentioned, many of the people who many of the supply ires, if they believe they're well may well be a shutdown, will then UM not send their goods chlorine desperately needed perishable UM and cities and towns throughout America need that chlorine for their

water supplies to keep them safe. So so the real deadline is sooner, and we're going to try to solve this a S A P. The point here, Genie, is that this involves a lot more than your Amazon packages that you might be waiting for at the front step. Does this need to be dealt with this week, no matter what it really does? And I thought Senator Schumer made a really important point. They're saying, we can't afford to wait until the deadline, and of course this likely

passes the House pretty quickly. The problem is Schumer's own Senate, where one senator one or two can object enough to drag this out. And again we are coming up in a very short deadline, and he's right, you can't wait till the eighth or the ninth. That's got to be

done before. And one or two senators, whether it's Sanders, Rubio, maybe John Thun, although I don't suspect he would dry this out by objection, we could go into a strike and that would have devastating economic consequences where the unforced errors or potentially going to happen, and certainly something the White House is aware of. Let's get to the issue of government funding. Senator John Thune a short time ago on Bloomberg recognizing we've got the funding expiration on the

sixteenth of December. So then what well I do worry about? You know, when you do these sort of short term CR,

short term CR, short term CR. UM. Eventually, you know, something's got to give pushing, you know, there's there's got to be some final resolution to this and um, and I would hope that that wouldn't result in a government shutdown, which is why I think it's advantageous for everyone to try and work this out now and hopefully there is a path forward to a funding solution that would that would go into the end of the fiscal year next.

The big question here, Rick, is do we do a short term CR, do they find an omnibus that or maybe it's a long term cigar gets us through the year. What's what's the what's the real outcome here? Um, Look, what I've been hearing is they'll they'll do a short term CR from the sixteenth of December to sometime around the twenty three The back'll be up against the wall because I want to get out for Christmas holidays and that's usually when good things happen. Uh, So my guests

would be that they do an omnibus. They've been working hard on getting this omnibus done. I'm not sure they've actually come to final agreement on top line numbers. That will then just flow down through this massive from and budget. But once they do that, this should put this to rest. We'll have a lot more on this with our panel. Rick and Jeanie stay with us as we also turned to the issue of same sex marriage getting a vote today in the Senate. The fastest hour in politics. This

is Bloomberg. We've got an eye and an ear on the U. S. Senate floor right now. They're voting on Senator Rubio's amendment on religious protections for faith based institutions to this marriage equality bill that is going to pass. Just a question what the vote is going to be

and who decides to take a stand here. Marco Rubio's amendment to strike language allowing someone to bring a civil lawsuit if they were denied the bills protections being considered along with Senator Mike Lee, He's got one where bar the federal government from taking discriminatory action against individuals or organizations who act based on a quote sincerely held religious belief unquote. And then Senator James langfordy he's got one

involving Native American tribes. It would include tribes under the bills provisions requiring recognition of legal marriages performed in States. The debate has been something now, as I mentioned with Senator Thune, more than seventy Americans polled say they support this. It doesn't always sound that way when you're on the floor of the Senate. Here's Senator Cynthia Alumus. The Bible teach us that marriage is between one man and one woman.

I accept God's word, including God's word as to the definition of marriage, but not all Republicans feel that way. Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, American people want us to settle this issue, and millions of them, couples who are married, including many in Ohio, are counting on us to recognize and protect their marriage and give them the peace of mind that they deserve. It's reassembled the handle, Rick Davis, Genie Schanzano or with us Bloomberg Politics contributors. Genie, this

is expected to pass. Just a question of how many Republicans vote. Yes, that's right. And this is all complicated because of course Raphael Warnock is you know, competing in his election, so he can't be there. They need all twelve of those senators. Um And you know it's interesting you just played the clip by Loomas she received some blowback from Christian leaders who asked her or requested that she reversed her vote, change her vote unless it includes

Lee's amendment the final version of the bills. So this is why this is such a tough vote for some of these Republicans. As Senator through noted, depending on where you live and depending on your constituents and their views. While seventy plus percent of Americans can support that can be narrowed in certain sectors of the country, and there are interests that are pushing against this bill unless it

includes these amendments. Recall John Thune's comment on this Rick before I hear from you, here's again the Senator from South Dakota. Well, I mean, I think it's a It did very state to state obviously, and in a different issue in my state than it would be in in perhaps you know, an area in this part of the country. Um, but I do think it's a settled issue. I think the courts did that, and my one of my arguments is that this isn't something again the Congress or the

that we ought to have to intervene with. There's, in my view, no reason there's no challenge out there in any state in the Country's no challenge out there, Rick. But of course when people here settled issue, they think Rov Wade talk to us about the politics here inside the Republican Party. For those of us who are in the so called bubble who think of this as kind of a layup culturally speaking, what does this mean for

Republicans having a hard time on this vote? Look, I mean all this was triggered by the Supreme Court decision on row and and we wouldn't be having this conversation if if that had not occurred. This was not on anybody's right oar screen until last summer when when the Court overturned and made the Dobbs decision. So the reality is it's kind of self inflicted if you if you call the Supreme Court you know, sort of right leaning. The reality too, is that most people really don't understand

how the game is played on this. Uh you know, almost all states recognize marriage same sex marriage licenses, but only fifteen give them, so it doesn't change that. So for people like you know, uh, John Tune who from South Dakota, highly unlikely they'll ever change their statute in South Dakota. It really doesn't force them to do anything.

They otherwise don't already do. And so I think it is symbolic though, and I think that this is a reaction and maybe not a uh too much of a reaction to to the Dobbs decision, and and people who feel threatened with what they thought were, as John Thune said, settled issues. Right. Remember Barney Frank at one point the come just s been from Massachusetts the first openly gay member of Commerce, Genie. He said, if you have a problem with gay marriage, then don't gay Mary, which I

thought was actually a pretty smart line. But the fact is, as Rick points out, you cannot gay marry in a lot of states in this country, and this legislation won't change that. That's right. But you know, I have to say and and gosh, I remember, Bernie, you just reminded me. And it's a great, great quote. Um. You know the reality though, you know, John Thune says it's a settled issue, it's certainly not a settled issue. Um. And you know

there's a reason we're here. It's because justices on the Republican side in the Supreme Court raised this issue, and of course it raised the specter that this could be overturned in Congress. So you know, the idea where in a settled, settled territory is not the case. But I will tell you there's a large group of women in

the country are saying, hey, what about us. We're talking about this issue of same sex marriage, rightly, so what about the issue of women's health care which isn't set to be codified in the Senate or Congress or in any in the in the you know, near off thing. So you know, there's a group of of you know people who are saying, there's you know, some question here as to why women are getting equal treatment on this issue.

Are you talking contraception or we're talking reproductive rights? What do you mean reproductive rights, contraception, all of the above. You know, there's a large group of women saying, hey, what about us? This all started with the Dabb's decision, and rightly so we're having it about same sex marriage, but what about what about the issues of health care for women? That's not come up and it's not going to come up as far as we can tell, in

any near in the near future. How come that is? Rick? Uh? Do we need more female lawmakers? That as simple as that. Uh, you know, look, the politics is a much more complicated, you know when it comes to reproductive rights. Uh and and right now, probably the divisions that are in place

are going to exist for some time. You know. We've just been through an election cycle where this issue played out in incredible importance, and I think lawmakers are gonna gonna have to let that it'll in and figure out what they're gonna do about in the future. Whether I doubt if they can put something together this quickly, but this issue is not going away, No, it's not. And oh my gosh, we'll be impressed if they can put a budget together at this point. So just hang on

with that. Rick and Jenie are gonna hang on. They come back. We've got a few other boxes to check here, including Senator Thune's statement on Donald Trump's dinner with Nick Fuentes at mar Lago. We're also going to turn to what's happening in Arizona. Rick Davis will surely weigh in

on this. Carrie l says she's gonna sue she's lawyered up in Wow, if you were in the room for the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors listening to people complain about the way the election was conducted, can't let your kid listen to half of it. We'll have more next. I'm Joe Matthew. This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg. You sound on with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio. So, Mitch McConnell denounced the dinner at Mara a Lago, the

dinner with a white supremacist Nick Fuentist. This is the Trump Kanye thing, Kevin McCarthy, as he heard earlier this hour. He denounced it in the White House driveway today. You can add Senator John Thune, who didn't waste any time when I asked him about it earlier this hour. I actually, I don't know what you can say. You can't defend it um and uh in our party. If if that's the kind of um leadership that our party can expect into the future, we're going to be a minority party

and uh. And so that's that kind of behavior, that kind of um tolerance for those sorts of us. Is this is not acceptable? A more convincing answer you might suggest than meet the prescott from Representative James Comer on Sunday. Well, he certainly needs better judgment and who he dines with. I know that he's issued a statement and said he didn't know who those people were. But at any rate, you know, my focus is gonna be on investigating the

current administration forty or fifty investigations. Let's reassemble the panel. Rick Davis, Jennie Janzano here, Bloomberg Politics contributors. Uh Rick John Thune has never been a Trump guy, right, that I'm assuming was not too difficult for him to come together on. No, But I don't think this is very

difficult for anybody within the Party of these days. Um. You know, there was a whole raft of folks today coming out even you know, his boss Mitch McConnell condemned it pretty widely and and made the point that, uh, he doubts if anybody can become president if they take this kind of approach, So a direct shot at Donald Trump and uh and and what I was really impressed by is a number of the Jewish leaders who served in the Trump administration, including his ambassador at Israel, UM,

you know, encouraged Donald Trump to throw the bums out. So there's there's really no opening here in the Republican Party for this kind of conduct. And Donald Trump's finding himself completely isolated on this issue, and it's all of his own doing. Kevin McCarthy had spoken earlier, Genie, I asked you that because was on this program last evening that that he was being called out for it, and and it was just today, this is a full week

later that it happened. Yeah, I mean, I think he should have spoken out earlier, but better late than never. And I think it was very interesting that Senator Thune said to you that he sees a robust primary and the Republicans future. I think he may be right about that. I think the big question in my mind is how long do they let a robust primary go, because of course the problem for Republicans, the more people in the race, the more likely it is that Donald Trump could keep

his thirty and squeak his way through. So are they going to coalesce behind somebody at some point and when is that going to be? Or are they gonna have another on their hands where he knocks people out one at a time. So I was very interested to hear him say he sees that. But how long he's gonna, you know, they want that to continue is going to

be the question? Were you surprised that. You know, he's frequently mentioned as a potential candidate himself, not only a potential Senate leader, Rick, but his name comes up every four years, is a potential Republican nominee or candidate for president. He wasn't going near that when I asked him, and I suppose you you wouldn't expect him to, But is he actually do you think looking at it is his future in the Senate. Everybody in the United States Senate

thinks they can be president United States. And uh, and so yeah, I mean, I I'm sure there are days when he's you know, sitting around home and thinking, God, I could do that, and and he could. He's very talented guy, and as John McCain said, probably the best looking senator in the United States Senate. So if looks have anything to do with it, that man is in the top ten and so so at the end of the stage, Uh, it's probably not his place. He's had his eye on Senate leadership for a long time. He's

made a lot of sacrifices. He was not even going to run for re election, and you know, got talked into, you know, trying to be a part of a new coalition. I'm sure, he's more disappointed than anybody. You know that we were not going to have the votes to get the majority in the United States Senate this year. So I think he's a he's going to stay in the Senate and he's gonna and he's gonna buy for leadership at some point in time and uh maybe four. You know,

he sees some window of opportunity there. But I would doubt if he's one of the folks who is going to throw their heat in the ring. Carry Lake thinks the window of opportunity is still open for her bid to be the next governor of Arizona. And I have to I have to bring you up to date on this. We've heard a lot too. She went online and you know, with the fuzzy background and all that stuff, to address

her supporters today because it's been a minute. If we do not stand up and speak up right now about the most dishonest elections in the history of Arizona, I truly fear for our future. And I'm working with the team a patriotic talented lawyers on a legal case to challenge the botch elections. Okay, so now this all comes after a difficult couple of weeks for the Amercopa County Board of Supervisors. We talked to Bill Gates here a few weeks back. He described the death threats that his

family has been receiving. I believe he had to relocate his family. But still a couple of a couple of days worth of hearings. It's the stream of people coming in to scream about the way the election was handled before the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. One of those supervisors, Steve Gallardo, has had it and he opened up on carry Lake today. You look at the Twitter feed of carry Lake and the carry Lake war Room. They put up twenty eight posts on Twitter of eight people speaking

with concerns and comments and yelling at us. But when it came down to answering every one of those questions, not one tweet from carry Lake. Just the tweet we saw today actually saying she's gonna fight this. When you have folks that are throwing rocks at the system but not wanting to tell the voters the truth, that's unconscionable. Shame on her, Shame on her. The voters spoke, they decided. It just happened to not be her or some of

the other candidates. It is what it is. The voters had the opportunity to have their voices heard, ballots were counted, and this election was safe, secure and accurate, and then they had their voices heard again. Now, imagine again, We've played some of the stuff for you's been going on for a couple of weeks. People screaming into the microphone, wearing crazy clothes, doing crazy stuff. You get you two minutes and they say thank you next. When you don't,

you can say anything about thank you next. And the last twenty four hours were wild. I came here today to get an up close and personal look at the seven Traders to the United States contints pleading at that desk. Every single one of us use a pull center right networker right now is making fun of you, every single one of us. You are the butt of our jokes. I'm not sure they can represent evil good versus evil.

All you've God fearing men and women out here need to understand that and get up every day and start donning your body armor before you step on this battlefield. Body armor. I don't know if that you guys don't or you are purposely disenfranchising the whole world with this gas lighting this stuff. Okay, the word of the year from Miriam Webster gaslight. Uh the world, disenfranchising the world. Rick, You've spent some time in Arizona politics, You've helped to

run elections in Arizona. Where's this going with Kerry Lake? Well, all I can say is welcome to Arizona. Look, I mean, you know, even Bill Gates, you know, chairman of the Americo PA County Supervisor, says, you know, look, if you want to sue, sue, you know, present your facts in the court of law and Mericopa County will do whatever you want the court the court instructs it to do. But he's got facts on his side, so he doesn't have to sort of demagogue it and and and say

all these crazy things. He can just say, sue me. We've already certified the election. So uh. You know, look, I think this is again a lot of smoke, uh no fire. Um, We've we've already spent two years here and from Donald Trump about his election loss being stolen and not a shred of evidence of Is this going to lead to some audit or something all over again, or does Arizona have the goods to shut this down? Well? Just remember the audit was a political audit that came

out of the legislature. Uh, there doesn't seem to be any real desire by folks in the legislature today to try to do what they did and failed last time. I mean they audited the elections in and Joe Biden got a few extra VOTs. I mean it was like, wow, that's really helpful. So look at this stage, really the big game is Coaches County. They are the only county in Arizona that did not certify its results as required by law, and even they are on the record have saying, oh, well,

you know, we're just posturing on this thing. So the Secretary of State, who happens to be the governor elect h is suing Coaches County. What I find incredibly ironic is it's an all red state. So if the Coaches County, for whatever reason, gets thrown out, the attorney who's only behind by five votes has no chance of getting elected because there will be thousands and thousands of votes for

him in Coaches County. So this is a This is a problem that we have where people try to undermine the integrity of perfectly normal elections, and even the supervisors met in Coaches. Oh, we had a normal vote, but we're doing this in solidarity to the people in the Copa County who got this enfranchised. So, Jeannie, what's next for carry Lake? Then? I mean, we're gonna watch this unfold for the next two years? Or does she become

Donald Trump's shoeing for a VP candidate. Well, you know, I'm a bit disappointed she's on Twitter and not on truth. But I hope she gets her I don't know where to find her, but I just want to follow up and ricks does you you guys talking about Coaches County.

The irony and the absurdity of that is if they failed to certify by Arizona law, then we could very well see a Democrat win the House seat in the sixth congressional district because they the fourteen thousand votes that the Republican won would not be counted and Kristin Ingle may well take that six district. So they are protesting. They say they did nothing wrong, it's in solidarity with Maricopa, and yet they may push a Democrat into that House.

So it's utterly absurd. And you know, carry Lake will continue, but I think you know, kudos to these election workers in Georgia and Arizona who are fighting this fight and doing the right thing. Leadership does matter. Carry Lake is absolutely wrong, and you know, got you know, let's all hope that there aren't some crazy people out there who act violently. It hasn't happened yet, but this kind of

incitement is the real danger here. And you know, she and Donald Trump they have to be very careful what they say. But did you hear the US beat Iran? I spoke to the coach and the players as said you can do this. They they did it. God love them. Anyway. I just thought you might want to hear. Yeah, Joe Biden runs back to the podium as the USA beats Iran. One zip. That's the football, the soccer, you know, Rick and Genie, thank you. We need more time on this thing.

The fastest hour in politics, Go USA. This is Bloomberg. H