Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast. Catch us live weekdays at noon and five pm Eastern on Apple Coarclay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business App. Listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts, or watch us live on YouTube.
Thank you for joining us on this day after the first day of the year, January second. I'm Joe Matthew, and Washington as the nation's capital, steers its attention here to these two terror attacks we have just been hearing about, and we just did get an update from the FBI's Deputy Assistant Director of its Counter Terrorm Division, that's Christopher Rea.
You were just hearing from who says this was an act of terrorism point blank, and an individual here, shamsu Din Jabbar, who was quote one hundred percent inspired by isis unquote. The most surprising element to come from this news conference, which really answered one of the biggest questions that we had going into it, is they now believe Jabbar acted alone. Reya says, quote, we do not assess at this point anyone else is involved in this attack
except for shamsu Din Jabbar. Now of course, we also had the investigation in Las Vegas. They did take some questions on that, answering another one of the major questions we've been asking over the past twenty four hours. Knowing, of course, there's an FBI investigation in Las Vegas where the cyber truck exploded in front of the Trump International Hotel. Quote, we are following up on all potential leads and ruling
nothing out. However, at this point, there is no definitive link between the attack and New Orleans and the one in Las Vegas. Another quote from the FBI today, and what was a very newsy briefing here, knowing that the IEDs we've learned now that were planted in the French Quarter. In fact, we're done so after midnight and a couple of hours before that attack that took place just after a three amis on New Year's morning. We heard from the mayor of New Orleans as well, LaToya Cantrell, who
made clear that they have cleared Bourbon Street. The city is back in possession of Bourbon Street with a plea for additional resources. They did clean Bourbon Street starting at two am, and they are now getting back to what is going to be an important day in New Orleans, of course, with the Sugar Bowl set for four pm Eastern time, the Mayor of New Orleans saying, quote, not only are we ready for game day, but we're ready
to host large scale events in our city. We heard from Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry as well, as they try to put a real show of force here in front of this story and transparency to their credit with what we know and what we don't know. And I want to remind everybody that some of these details can change. We've already seen that, remembering that frequently the first round of reporting is not always true. We had a lot of different things that we heard about now beginning to
clarify some of them here on Balance of Power. Welcome to the Thursday edition. I know it feels like a Monday for many of you, but it is Thursday here and we've got a lot to talk about this day before the new Congress begins and some major national security events that are about to take hold here in Washington, d C. That's why connecting the dots on these two stories would have been very important if authorities had the
ability to do that. And we want to start our conversation today with Michael Sheppard, of course, joining us here in Washington as Bloomberg Senior editor for Technology and Strategic Studies. We wanted to talk with Michael though, because he's been covering politics and national security in Washington here for many years, and there are a lot of stories that cross over. Michael. It's great to see you, and I appreciate your coming in.
Happy New Year for starters. This was a terrible way for the year to begin for a lot of Americans, looking at scenes of terror from New Orleans, from Las Vegas, but to hear from the authorities today somewhat reassuring to believe, at least so far, that they are not connected.
Settling, especially as Americans look to, you know, since the pandemic, really be able to revel once again in these large scale events, going to a ballgame, celebrating New Year's Eve with friends in New Orleans, and attending major political events like we're about to host here in Washington, including the pre inaugural event that Donald Trump intends to host at Capital One Arena just around the corner from our offices here,
and of course the inauguration on January twentieth. But even before that tomorrow we have a new Congress being seated and a speaker election, and then on January sixth, remember that date, they will be certifying the twenty four election results. So people have in their memory, in their sense of things that can go wrong, and it is something that
they are concerned about. And this is what law enforcement and public safety authorities and political authorities, including the governor of Louisiana and the mayor of New Orleans are trying to express. This confidence and also this sense that they want to get back on their feet quickly.
There were a lot of concerns, not only seeing a cyber truck, but also the location of Trump International, that there might have been some timing here to coincide with the incoming president here or reaction to the election of some sort. But we have to remind ourselves that these just could be two deranged people that's, according to the FBI, had nothing to do with one another.
And yeah, the FBI was quick to say that they see no immediate connection between these two events. As terrible as they were, we know quite a bit less about what took place in Las Vegas based on what we've heard from authority so far, so we will have to see what more they can tell us about the nature of the explosion of this cyber truck, the fact that it was a vehicle produced by one of Elon Musk's companies at a hotel I'll owned by Donald Trump. In essence,
it really does raise a lot of questions. And must himself further those questions by suggesting yesterday on X that there could be a link between these two events and also suggesting that it was a bomb and not the vehicle itself that may have caused the explosion.
So we don't but we don't really know.
We don't have a definitive assessment from authorities about what took place.
What do you make of the reaction we're hearing by this an interesting scenario, and we've got an outgoing president and a president elect, both almost carrying equal weight when it comes to commenting on a story like this. We should let our audience know. By the way, about ten minutes from now, Joe Biden is expected with his national security team to sit down in the situation room for
a briefing on this. But a lot of people are looking at the reaction from Donald Trump, and while we heard from Joe Biden, yesterday actually went on national television. Trump took to truth social and started to blame the border to sort of prove some of hiss and a number of his correct Yes they did. Let's talk about what he said when I said the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country. That statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the fake
news media, but it turned out to be true. Of course, it's false, Michael, this is an American who served in the military.
An American who served in the military and served in the military for a number of years. He was somebody who apparently held a good paying job, lived in Houston, and is somebody you wouldn't necessarily connect to an event like this in the way that.
Donald Trump was trying to do.
The Republican Party has tried to make the border security question one wrapped around national security two in terms of terrorism by suggesting that the people who perpetrate these kinds of attacks with fealty or association with foreign extremist movements, that they have some now crept over the border into the US through some surreptitious means, when in this case
we saw that not to be the case. And the President elect was commenting well before anybody in the investigation I've been able to comment or offer any kind of clarification.
Yeah, I wanted to say the crime rate in our country is at a level that no one has ever seen before, which is also not factual. It brings us back a little bit to the tweet storms that we used to see in the first administration. What does it make you think, is you covered that White House, Michael, You helped our bureau edit coverage from that White House, and we're about to do it again.
Well, we remember it all well, And there was a question about Trump as he was being elected. We all talked about it that night, and I think we were discussing it, you and me election night and in the days after.
Will we see a different Donald Trump?
Will we see Trump two point zero that will be a little bit more restrained, a little bit more serene or above doing that kind of I guess, incendiary or provocative kind of challenge and communication to the world.
But we're seeing already.
Via truth social via his posts, that he is not holding back anything.
Rare in to go here on a day like this with a lot of misinformation.
You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power Podcast. Catch us live weekdays at noon and five pm Eastern on Apple Cockley and Android Auto 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.
If you're just joining us here on Bloomberg, we welcome you with some updates on the situation in New Orleans from the FBI and from officials in the city. We just heard from and brought you a briefing live here. The FBI is calling this an act of terrorism, but also making clear that shamsu Din Jabbar, as far as they know now, was not linked to the attack New Orleans and in fact acted alone. We are going to get further updates here, knowing that some of these details
can evolve. We heard a little bit earlier as well. Who do we have here, guys from that briefing. This is Christopher Rea again speaking for the FBI, who is Deputy Assistant Director for the FBI's Counter Terrorism Division. A short time ago in New Orleans. Let's listen.
There's also an FBI investigation in Las Vegas. We are following up on all potential leads and not ruling everything out. However, at this point there is no definitive link between the attack here in New Orleans and the one in Las Vegas.
Michael, I want to talk to you about journalism for a moment. This is your profession while you talk with authority about a lot of different things. I want to go back to something that I mentioned earlier, because you remember how frequently the first draft of history is wrong. Speak to us about the process of going through how little we still know at this point when you're crafting a story and the governor that you have to put on your own inclinations to cover what you're hearing.
We all remember the name Richard Jewell, and we remember the story about nineteen ninety six and the bombing at Sentenagal Park during the Atlanta Olympics, and how very quickly law enforcement authorities were putting blame on this man who actually was turned out a hero and trying to save lives and get people away from the scene, and how it up ended his life. It ended up being completely wrong,
and there was somebody else, a domestic terrorist. We should note Eric Rudolph, who was later blamed for it and so we can see that the first draft of history is quite rough, and that is one of the risks that we run and reporting on this. We have to make sure that we're attributing it, that we're gut checking it, and we're not just going through the motions of putting out there anything that we.
Hearing from authorities. It's important for.
Us to say with authority and clarity ourselves that it's early, there's still a lot of things we don't know, and also emphasize what it is that we don't know as well.
So we're bringing into the newsroom now these are literally the conversations that we have in This is why you can trust Bloomberg knowing that this is our approach here. We just knocked down another bit of misinformation. That was the idea that this man in New Orleans, Jabbar, was wearing a suicide vest. The FBI wanted to be very deliberate, was very deliberate and knocking that down.
Yes, they were deliberate and knocking that down and also debunking the number of improvised explosive devices that had been found. There were reports circulating in the hours after the three point fifteen am New Year's Day attack, that there may have been several devices, but the FBI was quick to say that there were only two found in the vicinity
of the scene. Ill scouring the area and the larger city of New Orleans, of course, ahead of the Sugar Bowl this afternoon, but they wanted to make clear that this was not as wide scale or coordinated as they had initially feared.
Yesterday.
I mentioned earlier, Michael, that we heard from Joe Biden. He spoke in the second half of the day yesterday. Let's listen to the president.
We're tracking the explosion of a cyber truck outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas. Law enforcement and the intelligence community are investigating this as well, including whether there's any possible connection, but the attack in New Orleans. Thus far, there's nothing to report on that score at this time. While this person committed a terrible assault on the city, the spirit of our New Orleans will never, never, never be defeated.
I'm sure Joe Biden didn't think he'd be spending his New Year's Day talking about this as they wind things down at the White House. Where's the line when this becomes an event that draws the president to that level where he needs to go before the cameras to try to get the confidence and trust of the American people in at a time of uncertainty like this.
Well, this is one of those moments where being presidential and acting presidential is so key because the public is looking for that reassurance. Now what rises to that level. There are certain moments that are unforgettable. We remember Sandy Hook and how that shook the nation to its very core and how them President Barack Obama reacted and his public display of emotion sharing what the nation felt in
the moment. And there are other episodes when it's critical for the president to really try to bring the nation together and offer that sense of security. And it's not just the president, of course, as we saw the governor of Louisiana Jeff Landry, the mayor of New Orleans doing the same thing, But for the president, it is an essential function where the president really provides that sense of reassurance, that sense of confidence, that sense we have things under control.
Yeah, it's something that only a president is capable of doing, and it reminds us of how impossible it is to prepare for moments like these. You simply have to be in the job Michael, we're talking about not only the Sugar Bowl later today, but a Super Bowl in the super Dome. We're talking about a presidential inauguration here, we're talking about January sixth. Do you already put your fingers on some of these massive national security events? How does all of this change them?
Well, it will further heighten the awareness and the alert level. But you and I both know that the alert level here in DC, even during normal time high.
It really couldn't be higher.
And yet they do have to be on their toes in a way that they think, hey, we have to take it up even further. We remember, going all the way back to nineteen ninety five, that was a time when you could drive on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House. That area has steadily been cordoned off and blocked off, and now you really can't even cross it.
And the amount of security around the US Capital too, has been heightened to a great degree, not only because of nine to eleven, not only because of January sixth, but if you go all the way back to the time when a deranged gunman first into the Capitol and shot several people, including a Capitol police officer, this is you know, these are the kinds of events that authorities are having to brace for in a way that you know,
it makes Americans uncomfortable. We like to think we would have access to these places, but you know, we live in a free and open society. But the security needs are really overwhelming us, the people and the officials who have to maintain those barriers.
Michael Shepherds were helping us bring back a lot of memories, a lot of tough ones in this case. I was in Washington on the day of the Oldenahoma City bombing when they shut down Pennsylvania Avenue. It never reopened. That wasn't the plan that day, You're right, but it never reopened. And I wonder if that's going to be the story for Bourbon Street. I know that it's back in the possession of the city. They cleaned things up this morning, but why shouldn't that be a pedestrian only way.
Well, and this would really further calls for that. They planned to put in some heightened security, some additional ballards to block vehicular traffic. That hasn't been carried out yet. We'll probably see that accelerated at some point in the wake of all this, and other cities will have to investigate whether to do this in other heavily traffic pedestrian byways too, Do they need to close some of those off as well to vehicular traffic for these same reasons?
And you know there are other aesthetic and urban planning reasons as well, where maybe you don't want cars on that street so people can enjoy it too.
Yeah, the ballards are coming, and boy, you wonder if that has an echo effect in other cities with congested pedestrian heavy areas like this. They were closing down Newbury Street in Boston just for shopping days because it's so difficult to get around. New York has its version of it.
Yeah, and Broadway in times where have long since been closed to vehicular traffic, giving pedestrians much much greater leeway to move around and enjoy the area. But it also does provide a measure of security for them too.
We have fourteen souls who were lost in New Orleans. That number fifteen you may have just heard by the way from authorities, does include the driver, does include jabbar. There are going to be funerals, tributes, remembrances. Will the president be part of them?
That's a good question, and it's unclear what those plans are.
We are as authorities were.
Quick to remind us during that news conference today only twenty four hours removed from the event itself, so the plans are still taking place, and the President will have a busy schedule too, because speaking of funerals, we also have the state's funeral schedule for Jimmy Carter on January ninth, and he is expected to give a eulogy there. So this is a real moment for the nation in terms of reflection and mourning and an appreciation of course for Jimmy Carter as well.
Of course, it's a sobering moment and one that we like to think Washington is ready for. But if there's anyone we could have spend time with today to help us make sense of this, it was Michael Sheppard and Michael I thank you so much for the time here reporting for Bloomberg in Washington, DC.
You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast. Catch us live weekdays at noon and five pm Eastern on Apple, Coarcklay, and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app. Listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts. Or watch us live on YouTube.
The confirmation hearings, and there's a lot of crossover here with what we're talking about. The events in New Orleans and Las Vegas has prompted John Thune himself, the incoming Majority leader, to call for a hastening or an advance in the schedule for these confirmation hearing so the national security team specifically can be put together in time for the inauguration. It's unclear if that's possible. And that's where we start our conversation with Laura Davison, who directs our
political coverage here in Washington, d C at Bloomberg. Happy New Year, Laura, it's great to see you. Is that something that will come from the events of the last twenty four hours and an accelerated confirmation schedule for Donald Trump's team.
You'll certainly see pushing for that. You know, we saw Stephen Miller sort of in the aftermath of all of this saying, look, this really just makes the case that, you know, we need to get all of these national security folks confirmed as soon as possible. You know, there's already some of these top administration officials. Pete Hegseth, you know, he already has his hearing confirmation hearing in the Senate
for January thirteenth, so you're starting to see those get scheduled. However, there's already sort of a pushback from Democrats saying, look, we're going to move methodically, We're not going to hasten things just because of the events of recent days.
Well, and there's also a question as to whether some of the pushback against these nominees, like Tulsi Gabbard, for example, who's faced a lot of scrutiny over her relationship with the now abst to dictator in Syria, Basher al Assade, if the scrutiny actually gets more intense, if there is concern about a resurgence of some of these terrorist groups or those affiliated them or pledging allegiance to them, as the FBI said, the Vegas the rather the New Orleans attacker specifically was inspired.
By isis this is going to be really interesting. Lawmakers are going to come back into town, you know, today, later tomorrow, and they've had you know, basically two weeks when they've been away from each other, they haven't been talking, and sort of some of the concerns of you know, sort of twenty twenty four are now old news, and these new things come to light, particularly you know, with
the events in Syria in December as well. That Tulsy Gabbert is one of those names that is coming up as someone, you know, who if Republicans are going to say, okay, we're there's one that we're not going to confirm, She's sort of at the top of that list. We'll see kind of how these things shape up going forward. There were at least signs that potentially the New Orleans attacker, the suspect there was inspired by Isis. We'll see how that, you know, moose forward is as investigators continue.
Just constantly blown away by how quickly the news cycle and the conversation can change. But I suspect these hearings are going to be difficult one way or the other. Does it make the others more likely, for instance, Pete Hegseth more likely to be confirmed? Will it maybe move up the date for cash Betel's not supposed to have a hearings to the middle of February at this point, it's certainly possible.
You know, on the heg Seth front, a lot of Trump's closest allies, you know, they said, look, if he can kind of survive those really raucous two or three weeks he had, he's probably good to go. And that if you didn't have more people coming out saying look, I can't support him, that ultimately people would fall in line. We saw that with Joni ORNs. She didn't say outright she would support him, but she said she would support
him through the process, whatever that means specifically. You know, on cash Betel, he's another one who you know, people have raised some concerns about. But the calendar is just going to get really tricky, you know, because the Senate has all these rules and procedures, and there's a lot of stuff they want to do. They want to do an immigration build, as you know in the Senate as one of the first things. The House doesn't necess agree on doing that yet we'll see what whoever the next
speaker is where they go. But there's just a lot of things that Republicans have said they want to do on day one, and Day one, like every other day, is only twenty four hours and only so much you could fit in.
Well, let's talk about who that next speaker is, because obviously Mike Johnson would like to stay in the job. Donald Trump has suggested he wants Mike Johnson to stay in the job, as does Elon Musk. But we have very serious questions as to whether tomorrow, when the new Congress convenes, Mike Johnson is going to be able to get the votes. How steep? Is this climb a hill he has to climb and is there anyone else who could climb it if not hit it?
So he could only lose you know, we'll see who actually shows up in the room that you know tomorrow to vote. But he could only lose a handful of votes. You have Tom Massey's saying no, he won't vote. There's not a clear person. If it's not Mike Jensen, Mike Johnson, then who you know you floated Chip Roy earlier. You know, he has someone who has sort of built a following the house, except he also has bad beef with Donald Trump.
They go back and he's supported DeSantis in the primary, and Trump is unlikely to come out and support him. You know, Jim Jordan's name has always come up during these discussions, but it's not clear. You know, Steve Scalice also he ran last time. You know, he has had some of his own health issues, that he does have
broad support within the conference. It's possible that we go through several rounds of voting, two or three or four rounds of voting for some protest votes that have the Republicans get out of their system, and then ultimately exactly so, this is going to be, you know, a real tense moment. It's possible he sails through and then that that particular drama is behind us. But his job is still on
the line no matter what happens. You know, you all you have to do is make a couple of Republicans mad and he could be.
Out of a job.
Narrowest majority we've seen in what almost a.
Century, Majority one is what we're on track.
It can be easy for him. Bloomberg's Laura Davison, our
politics editor here in Washington, thank you so much. Now, we are just learning from authorities in Las Vegas related to, of course, the cyber truck explosion that happened there, that the Las Vegas Police Department will be holding a briefing less than an hour from now at two pm Eastern time, pertaining of course to that incident, which authorities did tell us earlier today, they do not believe is necessary directly related, at least they can't say so definitively to the attack
that happened in New Orleans in the early hours of New York State.
Yeah, that's for sure. This also was a deadly event. As we learn more about the driver and the source that both of these vehicles came from, that same touro service, that had a lot of folks attempting to connect the dots, but as of now we don't have the ability to do that. No definitive link according to the FBI.
No definitive link. But what the FBI did say definitively was that the events that took place in New Orleans, an attack that killed fourteen people plus the suspected perpetrator, was terrorism.
Let me be very clear about this point. This was an act of terrorism. It was premeditated and an evil act. This was obviously a critical incident, and with that, lots of information and tips come pouring in from law enforcement, first responders, and the public.
We want to get more reaction now to these events and what they mean. Turned to Jane Harmon, who was chair of the Commission on the National Defense Strategy also former congresswoman from California and author of Insanity Defense. Why our failure to confront hard national security problems makes us less safe? Jane, thank you so much for being with
us here on Bloomberg TV and Radio. As we consider the FBI's characterization of this individual, Jabbar specifically as someone who at this time they believe was a lone wolf inspired by ISIS, it raises the question of how the US can better combat radicalize lone wolf terrorists like this.
Well, this continues to be a very hard challenge. Soft targets like three am in Las Vegas, when the ballards are down in New Orleans, when the ballads are down or Las Vegas are hard to protect totally. I mean New Orleans has to do a better job yesterday. But it is interesting that both attacks occurred right around the New Year, and the local authorities have said there's no connection. But I would just offer the fact that there are copycats and there could be more, and I hope we
don't have a failure of imagination here. It seems to me there would be motivation by ISIS because of how Syria has gone, and we have attacked them in Syria. We the US to hit more soft targets in the US, and let me just point out that they're not targeting Democrats or Republicans. They're targeting America. So we better pull together a little here as we did after nine to eleven, and understand that our country, not just one party, is under attack. And that motivates me to say one more thing.
These people were not illegals coming across the southern border. Let's get over this. I'm not saying there isn't a border issue, and a bill could have passed months ago if Trump hadn't blocked it. But I'm saying that there are other threats to America and to our infrastructure from many countries and many terror groups, and having a responsible group of people in chairs in there at the Pentagon and the DNI and all the other senior lawn and the FBI law enforcement positions matters well.
Indeed, the points taken Jane, and we haven't seen a correction on that truth social post. But I wonder your thoughts on what we heard from the outgoing director of the FBI, who has been framed as a sort of
bad guy by the incoming administration. He's basically been fired or forced to resign, but it was Christopher Ray, who repeatedly said in congressional testimony last year that the United States faced a significant threat from lone wolf terrorists inspired by the events in the Middle East specifically, and now we have this truck with the ISIS flag and basically what the FBI director was warning us was going to happen. Does he need to be acknowledged for being right?
He was right, and he's not the first person to say this. We've been talking about this since nine to eleven. Right after nine to eleven, I became ranking member on the House Intelligence Committe and we talked again, not on a partisan basis, about threats to America.
He is right.
I'm kind of sorry he's resigning. He has a ten year position, and he's now creating a circumstance where possibly the Trump appointee or whoever is confirmed for the position, may be forced out in less than ten years. The whole point of a tenure was to put him beyond political whims, sort of like the Supreme Court, but they have life tenure. But the point is to make the FBI an independent agency, and I worry a lot that that could change very quickly.
Well, you're alluding to Jane. Of course, Cash Mattel, who has been nominated to lead the FBI next needs to be confirmed, as does Tulci Gabbard, who has been tapped to lead or be the Director of National Intelligence. There's Pete Hegseth who's been tapped for Defense secretary as well. Do these events make all of those confirmations easier to achieve in the US Senate?
Unclear.
I know that that's what the Trump administration is pushing. But if I were a Senator, which I'm not, and I wanted to exercise my responsibility to approve these nominees, I would want this to go at a reasonable pace, not too slow, but not too fast. Putting the wrong people in these positions and the Senate has to determine if they're wrong really violates the senate responsibility to advise
and consent. And I would point out that the Senate hasn't passed budgets on time since twenty eleven, the year I left, kind of interesting, and they haven't done this function, or they may not do this function well. And they have passed on all opportunities to authorize wars, and we've been in a few of them, and you know at some point some voters going to say, hey, buddy, what are you doing in your job? And I really think
this is crunch time for the United States Senate. And there's some excellent senators in both parties who I hope will step up and do whatever they think is the right thing here.
How's Joe Biden doing, Jane in these final weeks of his administration? He was before the American people yesterday. I suspect you might speak again today or tomorrow after being briefed in the situation room on what happened in New Orleans and Las Vegas. Should he try to correct some of the information that Donald Trump is putting out here? What is the role as these two essentially compete for attention in the next three weeks.
Well, Joe Biden has a diminished audience. I think he has been pitched perfect. On the Jimmy Carter death and planning the funeral. I look forward to attending it myself since I was Deputy's Cabinet secretary in the Carter White House and have some very fond memories of Carter. And one of the things that's heartening is that his four years in the White House has been reviewed and reconsidered. He didn't do everything right, but he was a moral
conscience and we surely need one now and Biden gets that. Biden, I think endorsed Carter, was the first Senator to endorse Carter back to the day, and they were good friends, and he stepped up to that. And he does need to speak out here if he has an opinion, certainly he should. I think this claim that these people crossed the border to carry out these attacks, which is totally bogus, has to be corrected.
It's great to have you back, Jane, especially on this day. Happy New Year to you, despite the news that we've been discussing, and we look forward to another year of conversation with Jane Harmon, chair of the Commission on the National Defense Strategy, former congresswoman, of course, with a lot
of questions still to be answered. Kaylee, though the FBI has been doing a pretty good job knocking down misinformation, ideas of connections that may not exist, and the fact that he apparently the attacker in New Orleans was not wearing a suicide vest as had been reported early on, the FBI saying that's not true as well.
And again the FBI saying that They do believe that it was just a single suspect that was involved in that attack in Louisiana, a lone wolf at this time, and they do not believe the public is in danger. We'll have much more still ahead here on Bloomberg TV and Radio.
You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast. Catch us live weekdays at noon and five pm Eastern on Apple Cockley and Android Atto 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 Tomorrow is going to be a big hickoff as well in Washington, as the one hundred and nineteenth Congress takes its seats, and of course a pretty big order of business has to happen first in the House of Representatives, and that is an election of a speaker. It's required for the Chamber to get on with the course of the rest of its business, including the swearing in of members. Mike Johnson, of course, is the current
Speaker of the House. Donald Trump has said he would like Johnson to remain, so, as has Elon Musk, but already at least one Republican Member of Congress, Congressman Tom He has said Johnson will not get his vote, and he can only afford to lose one more with a very tight margin in the House at this time. Mike Johnson pled his case on Fox News this morning.
We're going to get this done. Look, I'm humbled, in honored to have President Trump's endorsement for the role again, as well as the endorsement of leaders across the conservative spectrum and the Republican Party, all my colleagues that are standing with us, and we will get this done. Look, the things that we're talking about this morning are an illustration that we live in very serious times. We cannot
afford any palace drama here. We have got to get the Congress started, which begins tomorrow, and we have to get immediately to work.
Did he say palace drama in this House of Representatives. Let's assemble our panel. They're with us on this first program of the new year. Jeanie Schanzano, Senior Democracy fellow with the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, Democratic analyst and Republican strategist. Rick Davis, partner at Stone Court Capital. They are both Bloomberg Politics contributors, and great
to have you both with us here. I don't know if the math is working for you here a genie, but I believe hackem Jeffries said not a single Democratic vote, So that means that Mike Johnson can basically only lose one. His name is Tom Massey. Are we going to have a speaker tomorrow?
I thought the same thing, by the way, about the palace drama. I guess he's fancying himself the king or prince or something.
You know.
Can I just throw a monkey wrench in this whole thing and say if I was Donald If I was Donald Trump, I would be on the phone with Matt Gates saying, get yourself to Washington, d C. And you make this a two twenty, because as you and Kayley keep talking about.
It's two nineteen.
He can only afford the one Gates gets in there. He can afford a little bit more. It wouldn't, you know, be a home run. But That's what I'd be doing if I was Donald Trump today. And let give Mike Johnson a little bit more breathing room.
I'm sure there are plenty of people on Capitol Hill right now that that exact scenario does not happen. Former Congressman Matt Gates has said he doesn't intend to take his seat that he was elected to for the one hundred and nineteenth, though I guess we can't rule anything out barring that scenario.
Rick.
We obviously know about Tom Massey. There have been other Republicans who have cast a lot of doubt on whether or not they would support Mike Johnson. Thinking here specifically of Congressman Ship Roy of Texas. How hard is this going to be tomorrow?
Yeah?
Look, I mean I think Genie kind of alludes to what the really magic could be here, and that is changing the denominator.
It's fifty one percent.
Of people, you know, members voting on the floor at the time, so anytime you take someone on or off the board, it changes the overall configuration. So you're right, he can't afford to lose two. But if there are fewer members voting, and that includes both Democrats and Republicans, then it could actually enhance his chances of winning. And I think, you know, the big question is Victoria Sparks.
Is she going to show up?
She said she's not going to cock She's not interested in playing party politics, so she could actually enhance Johnson's opportunity to be Speaker on the first ballot if she doesn't show up. And also there are others who have problems with Johnson, you know, some of the Freedom Caucus members. Andy Biggs from Arizona good example. He's not real keen on Johnson. He hasn't said whether he'll.
Support him or not. Just don't show up.
He'll make his case that he never voted for him, and at the same time he actually helps him get elected.
So that is a.
Pretty typical Washington parlor game. I wouldn't be surprised to see it play out here. My guess is that Democrats all show up in force, so the more Republicans that don't show up, the easier it is for them to actually get Speaker Johnson elected.
Rick just said something important, Genie that he passes on the first round, is that the job tomorrow or after what we saw with Kevin McCarthy, is that anything under fifteen is a when.
I think anything under fifteen, you know, listen, at this point, if they can get a speaker tomorrow, even if it takes a few rounds, that would be a good thing. And of course the person everybody is watching because we know, as Kayleie mentioned that Massey is a sperm no is what happens with chip Roy. And what we understand is he had said, maybe Mike Johnson names him chair of the rules committee, that may help him get to a yes,
because he's not a firm no yet. So in addition to the denominator issue that Rick was talking about, a lot of this is going to be what can you do for me, Mike Johnson? What kind of carrots can you give to get me to yes or at least to stay out of the chamber and so you can get to yes. And that's what we'll be watching as well. You know, if they were to name chip Roy chair of the committee he's already on it, that would be problematic for a lot of other Republicans. And you know
Democrats are going to be there in full force. Even Nancy Pelosi, who broke her kith recently, is going to be there.
Yeah, we heard that from the Speaker, Amrita herself today from the airplane. As we consider this notion that this obviously has to happen at some point to certify the results of the presidential election, which is scheduled to take place on Monday, January sixth.
Rick.
It speaks to the very serious nature of the business the House does have to deal with in pretty short order. Not just of course that, but then there's other things happening in January, including a state funeral for former President Jimmy Carter on the ninth, and there's the inauguration on January twenty. It's just given this very stacked calendar of events,
how much pressure does that put on this situation? And Mike Johnson specifically to try to find a resolution here by potentially, say, negotiating the rules package that was put out in the last few days.
That's right.
This is no typical year in transition.
Republicans now have each of the chambers of power, the Senate, the White House, and the House. There's an expect that because of that they'll step out lively and get a lot done in the first one hundred days.
You know even how much they can get done in.
The first year, and so I think there's enormous pressure there. And of course you point out the constitutional requirements. This is a presidential election year, so you have to actually certify the election on the sixth of January, and you have to actually have an inaugural on the twentieth, and so these are deadlines that are gonna really press hard on the willingness to have a lot of mischief in this first day. I think that it's actually going to
make it easier for Johnson. Nobody's that enthusiastic about him. Nobody thinks that his first year in office was particularly smooth or successful, and so there's not like a desperate want to have him in his leadership. But the reality
is he's short a couple of votes. Maybe today, everybody else on the list of likely successors would be short thirty or forty votes on the first ballot, And so the Republicans know that the minute they reject Johnson, they open themselves up to a lot of potential political harm and delays that could actually put pressure on these important constitutional dates. So yeah, it's not so much everyone's excited about Johnson getting another term a speaker, but they fear the.
Outcome if he's not, and that is enough probably.
To get him over well. For the benefit of our radio listeners, we had a graphic up showing the busy month of January starting tomorrow with the new Congress. As Kayleie mentioned, we go through the sixth, the election certification, Jimmy Carter state funeral on January ninth, we have the inaugural. Of course, on the twentieth, I'll add Donald Trump's rally here downtown at the Cap Center. That'll be the night
before the inauguration. Jeanie, there are a lot of questions about securing these events for what took place yesterday in Las Vegas and New Orleans. Realizing now, according to the FBI, these events, however, were not connected, does that make us feel better about managing these massive security events in the nation's capital.
You know, I don't know if it makes us feel any better. Even if we go before what happened in New Orleans and Las Vegas. We see the president elect, he was victimized by two attempted assassinations, just really unprecedented amount of violence in this last presidential election. Now, these two incidents, which as you mentioned, they're saying are not connected, but it is still an environment so scary in terms of the amount of violence. I'm even just thinking about.
The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court just issued his annual State of the Court report, and the number one issue he highlighted was the challenge that justices are facing as it pertains to threats to their life violence. We even have chief have a justice rather of the Supreme Court wearing a bulletproof vest. So I think all of these what's going to happen in DC over the next month, security is going to be very tight. They're already starting to plan boarding up the place, and I think it
really is going to be a big challenge. Are we up to the challenge, Absolutely, and we have enough notice of these events for sure. But as we've seen in the last few days, just one bone wolf can do enormous amount of damage.
Well, and we can add a few items to the calendar in January, Rick, For example, January fourteenth is when the confirmation hearings for the nominee for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth will begin. As we consider these national security oriented cabinet officials who want to join the second Trump administration, how much do the events of the last thirty six hours influence their confirmation prospects?
Well, it puts a lot more heat on them, right, So nobody's going to want to see delay in this process. So they've laid out a schedule for many of these national security appointees to have committee hearings, which would then trigger obviously votes on the floor of the Senate. And so yes, nobody wants to see that delayed. And of course on top of that, it'll put more pressure on things like background checks to be done on time so there are no delays to that process.
So it creates tension inside the system.
And as Genie was talking about the Supreme Court, I was reminded, in additional all these things happening in January, don't forget that.
The Supreme Court will be hearing the TikTok tape case and just a couple of days, and so we'll have.
Lots to talk about on balance of power throughout the month of January.
Oh, you best believe it, and you best believe we'll be talking to our signature political panel about all of these things. Rick Davis and Jeanie Shanzino here with us on our first show of the new year, twenty twenty five. Thank you so much to you both. Joe, I'm tired already and it's literally just begune.
Yeah, don't worry, You'll have this weekend the eat your wheaties. We'll come back full strength. We are full strength today. They're all with us in the bureau. Stay here on Bloomberg TV and radio.
You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast. Catch us live weekdays at noon and five pm Eastern on Alma Coarckley and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app. Listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts, or watch us live on YouTube.
As we try to get our arms around the start of this new Congress, we'll be right at this time tomorrow. We'll be talking with you on Bloomberg TV and Radio about what may be happening with a speaker's vote. Of course, to bring in the new Congress. To swear in the new Congress, you need to have a Speaker of the House and somebody who knows a little bit about that, as Britney Martinez, who works in Kevin McCarthy's Speaker's office,
Republican strategist and founder of Espina and Company. It's great to have you back, Britney. Happy New Year. What's your expectation for tomorrow when the one hundred nineteenth Congress attempts to begin?
Well, thank you for having me back in a Happy New Year. To you as well. You know what, I think that Johnson's going to get the vote. I don't know if it's going to happen on a first round. I do think that a little bit of chaos is going to ensue. But he did get the Donald Trump endorsement, so I think his speakership is safe for the most part.
Well, so let's talk about that Trump endorsement, because many people have suggested to us that that is what would make or break anyone's speaker's bid. But it doesn't seem that Trump is necessarily swaying the minds of those lawmakers that we have greatest question about. Tom Massey, as we've repeatedly said, is a firm no. But we are unclear
on people like Chip Roy or Andy Biggs. Keeping in mind, Chip Roy endorsed Ron DeSantis in the Republican presidential primary initially, So does Chip Roy really care what Trump says?
I think that the folks that are the most concerned are probably the ones that you mentioned and may not care that much what the former president has to say. But there were some folks during the cr who were very tough on Johnson Beyond those people, so I think in that sense, it'll help those people. The freshman coming in. I think they don't sway their vote. But yes, you're right, there are a couple of outstanding ones from the Freedom of Caucus especially who probably won't vote for Johnson, at
least not on the first or second vote. I would expect it to maybe go to three votes. If it went longer than that, I would be a little bit surprised. But it's one hundred and nineteen Congress. Hopefully things will be more normal than they have been. But it's been a weird few years, so I think that he doesn't have it on the first time.
All right, this is good though, Brittany Martinez tells us three rounds. I'm gonna remember this tomorrow. Brittany will play the tape back. We're hearing anything less than fifteen is a good look for Mike Johnson. There's a question though, about whether the gentleman from Florida shows up. Is Matt Gates going to show up tomorrow to be sworn in and help Mike Johnson and Donald Trump with the math.
I wouldn't be surprised if Gates shows up, but I think he just likes to be a little bit of a chaos agent. I don't know if he would go through the whole motions of being sworn in and doing a vote for Johnson. Maybe again, I know we talk about this every time. It's been a few weird years in politics, but I don't know if I see him going through all those steps, if he's going to just step back again. But maybe he shows up just like George Stantos keeps showing up just to sort of be involved,
and he starts. I think tonight is his first episode, if I believe. If I saw that correctly on Twitter, Ona and n So, I think he's ready got.
Us to talk about it free promotion.
Little did I know what I was star well.
But we should all keep in mind that it was Matt Gates, a single member of Congress, who brought the motion to vacate against your former boss, Kevin McCarthy, and he was able to do so, Brittany, because of what McCarthy had to negotiate to become speaker at the beginning of the one hundred and eighteen Congress, porting certain people on the Rules Committee and allowing anyone member to have that power to try to kick out the speaker. The rules that have been put forward this time are different.
It would take nine Republicans to oust a speaker. Do you think that will stay firm? Or if Johnson isn't able to get the votes he needs on ballot one, is he going to have to start negotiating as we saw McCarthy do.
I think going with nine was a smart place to start, trying to start from a place of strength, where what it had been for a few years had been five votes, what it had been historically for a while it was one vote. So McCarthy brought it back to the one vote. I believe that we started with the five and then
brought it down to the one. So yes, I think that was intentional and strategic in order to be able to negotiate with the chip Roys and Tom Massey's, the Freedom Caucus folks who aren't sold on him yet, and I wouldn't be. I don't expect that it'll be nine ultimately. I could see it ranging in the one to five range. And I might be wrong on this too. We'll see, you know what ultimately turns out tomorrow. But I don't see nine is way too many for these Freedom Caucus guys.
I think they'll try to do the fib or below.
How about for just Republicans. There's a proposal here to make it for Republican members only, so Democrats, for instance, would not be able to fire the Republicans. Speaker Jim McGovern's head exploded when he heard about this, and he put out a pretty stern warning that it would never happen in his statement, what does the final product look like?
There?
Is it d's and ours?
I think it should be both. Ultimately, you know, it's a Congress for the people. So why are Republicans, just because we're in the majority, the only ones who can bring forward that motion? You know when Democrats do. We want Democrats to do the same thing in a few years ultimately when the House flips again, because that's just
the way that Congress works. I think that when you're in the majority and you're in the position of power, you need to be careful about the rules and precedent that you implement because in a few years that might come around to bite you.
Well, especially when you're in a majority but just barely Brittany, even if Mike Johnson canned on round one, two, three, or whatever, however many rounds it takes to secure the gavel. Even if he can get that done, if it proves difficult to accomplish tomorrow, what does that signal about the way legislation is going to move through the House in this Congress. Knowing that Donald Trump has some pretty big ticket items he wants to see done in short order.
A lot of people are out there are saying that Trump really has his first two years to try to push his agenda forward, and that afterwards, it's going to be a lame duck. To be honest with you, I feel like we're already kind of going into a lame duck. Like you said, the majority is so slim in the House and the Senate. It's a little bit stronger, but it's going to be hard to be able to move the needle on some of these Trump things if Republicans
and Democrats don't work together. We saw that issue come up with CR funding at the end of the year. Well you only a couple days ago, I guess, But at the end of twenty twenty four, we saw that issue come up. We saw Elon come in and try to sway things his way. We see Vivek, we see you know, the doge folks, admin folks, so you know what, I am not going to be surprised if this solemn majority proves to be pretty tough to navigate.
You know, there's been an idea here that it's different this time Brittany than it was for Kevin McCarthy or even for Mike Johnson the first time around, because of the election of Donald Trump. That vote needs to be certified by January sixth. On January sixth, according to the US Constitution, and some think that's enough leverage to get every Republican member of the Conference to vote for Mike Johnson so Donald Trump can move into the White House.
I don't envision this going as long as McCarthy's vote did. It was the fifteen rounds, but it was also over the course of a few days. I think this will probably get done tomorrow. I wouldn't be surprised, maybe if it goes into the early hours of Saturday morning, sort of like it did when it was McCarthy on that final vote. It was very very early in the morning.
But I do think that Republicans are ultimately going to want to come together and push this speaker forward, and no one else is going to be able to get the boats, so they can be upset about it, they can use that to negotiate, but ultimately I think that's
all they have, is the tool to negotiate. I don't think anyone else is going to be able to be in that role unless Trump decided to put an endorsement behind somebody else, which is not going to happen, And so I think we'll see it ultimately come together tomorrow.
All right.
Brittany Martinez, founder of Aspina and Company. Of course, former staffer to Speaker Emeritus Kevin McCarthy, who had to go fifteen rounds to secure the gavel at the beginning of the one hundred and eighteenth Congress. Thank you so much. We still have, of course, a long day of events, it seems, Joe to look ahead to tomorrow.
Thanks for listening to the Balance of Power podcast. Make sure to subscribe if you haven't already an 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.