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As we assemble our panel, didn't think we'd be talking about this, but need to hear from Rick Davis and Genie Shanzano, Bloomberg Politics contributors on News that Mitch McConnell is in fact stepping down as leader. Rick, you spent a number of years, I think, as we all know, working with John McCain in the United States Senate. You have every sense of the importance of this particular tenure. What does it mean that it's coming to an end now?
It's really the end of an error. We saw Nancy Pelosi and her eighties be retired, and now we have Mitch McConnell eighty two retire from this leadership post. We're going to have a whole new generation that comes into power power positions in Washington in the very near future, and I think that era is going to be ushered in as to youthful leadership. It'll be interesting to see what happens in the Senate as far as the elections go, and whether or not we're picking a minority leader or
a majority leader in this cycle. But at the end of the day, we're going to lose a master strategist at legislation and politics. I was actually happy to hear that he talked about his grasp of politics. I've never met a member of the United States Senate who knew more polling and strategy than Mitch McConnell did. He was a real study in politics, and for people like me that helped have conversations with him about the impacts of what happened in the United States Senate. They weren't in
a vacuum politically. He calculated the politics of every move he made.
The quote that stuck out to me, Janie, the end of my contributions are closer than I'd prefer. And you wonder how much of this had to do with his age or the impact of Donald Trump on his party. Maybe you can't separate the two.
What do you think?
Yeah, I mean, I think I agree with you. I think it's really hard to separate the two and I was struck by that as well, because, of course this is a party that has changed enormously in the last several years, but certainly since Mitch McConnell took the helm in the Senate and since he joined the Senate, this is not the same Republican Party of Mitch McConnell's time.
And we have seen challenges to his leadership in the Senate very very recently, and so I think that's part of it, and I think we have to take him at his word that he feels like it is now time to hand over the mantle. And this is something so many of our leaders are grappling with right now, right up to our presidential leading contenders in Joe Biden and Donald Trump. As you see new generations saying wait a minute, is it time for you to exit stage left?
So so many you know, of our leaders grappling with this challenge, and I think Mitch McConnell makes a really important point. Part of being a leader is having a succession plan, and we know that he's got the three Johns in waiting, and I would hope a couple of the women as well in the Senate leadership on the Republican side who may be able to fill his shoes. But that's a critical part of being a leader, is knowing when to exit and hand over the mantle to
the next generation. He is right about that part of it.
So what do you think about the succession plan here? Rick?
It's always been about the three Johns in terms of recent history, Barasso, Thoon, and Cornyn. Will it in fact be one of them?
It could be. There's no question that the caucus itself is going through some turmoil. We saw attacks against Mitch McConnell earlier in the year related to his efforts to try and pass Ukraine funding, and so I think you'd have to sort of see it as an opportunistic situation. Obviously, the three Johns, who have been participating in leadership for a very long time, know how the strings are pulled, understand how to get legislation passed, understand the dynamic within
the caucus probably better than anyone else. But there are other people who have ambitions in leadership, people like Tom Tillis, who I think have you know, studied Mitch McConnell's leadership for quite some time and may be ready to emerge. And so I think you can see also potentially a right flank attack. You know, Ted Cruz and some of his buddies have been very vocally opposed to Mitch McConnell and may put up a candidate that represents their point of view.
Do you wonder, Genie, with all the talk lately of conversations happening that might bring Mitch McConnell to it dom Trump endorsement, which we talked about yesterday and some think is inevitable, was this this way of saying no, that I'm not going to be part of this.
I was thinking about that. You know, I think it's a hard call. I think I veer on the side that Mitch McConnell is a real institutionalist, and he is somebody who is deeply committed to the Republican Party. Since he committed to supporting whoever is the nominee, I believe he will probably in the end support Donald Trump. He may hold his nose like some other voters and do that, but I think he will as Donald Trump goes to
take that mantle as the nominee this year. Again, you know, I would also again just let's add to the list of possible successors Ernst and Iowa Shelley Moore Capito in West Virginia. There are women in the House Republican leadership
who could really play a very important role. And so you know, in addition to all those folks that Rick just mentioned in the Three Johns, I think we also have to look to that because they have a very sort of interesting perspective and a path to the Senate and a lot that they could do in their House Republican I mean, sorry, Senate Republican leadership.
Yes, right, yeah, A lot to consider here as we move into this election cycle or further into it. Rick, I don't know, if you see a McConnell endorsement of Trump in the offing, does he want to be remembered as a tried and true Republican or in this case, the guy who said no.
I don't think it was an accident that he wistfully discussed on his floor speech just now how much he was impacted by Ronald Reagan's leadership, basically given credit to Rob Reagan for his marriage.
But the reality is that is.
The Republican Party that Mitch McConnell has fought so hard to be successful in the isolationist policies of Donald Trump. May as well be in Democratic Party, right, That's what he's thought his entire career, And so it wouldn't surprise me that in conjunction with a decision that I suspect has a lot more to do with being eighty two years old than anything political. Right now, Remember he's had
some challenges with his health this last year. Yes, that he uses the opportunity to not feel compelled to have to play in this presidential election and may just skip an endorsement. You know, if it's Donald Trump's to.
Have Genie, I wonder what Joe Biden is going to make of this. He's of course a similar age to Mitch McConnell, of course a former senator, and they've been through a lot together. They've found themselves on the same side of history lately on a number of issues. Is Joe Biden going to deliver a Mitch McConnell tribute in that speech next week?
You know, I think he probably will say something in the State of the Union about Mitch McConnell, his service to the country, their relationship, you know, they famously have a have had a you know, contentious and close relationship at the same time. So I suspect he will. And I think to your point, this also does raise questions again about Joe Biden and Donald Trump. And this is the same thing that Nancy Pelosi was dealing with. This
is the same thing Dianne Feinstein was dealing with. Now, Mitch McConnell, you know, leadership requires a plan to move on and leave the role in the institution better than you found it, and to do so with grace and with young people to come forward and take the mantle. And you know, Mitch McConnell, he made several statements in his speech before the Senate today and he was indicating that this is something that he needs to do. And I suspect Joe Biden knows the reality that at some
point he'll need to do the same. I don't suspect we'll see it now. But is this god away heavy on him as well?
Well, that's for sure.
Wendy Benjamin said said something fascinating earlier this hour when we saw the headline cross Rick. She said, the transformation is now complete, of course, referring to Donald Trump's influence on the Republican Party. I suspected a statement like that might hit you the wrong way and I wonder if you think it's true.
You know, it's hard to tell.
I mean, there's no question that the rank and file Republican voter is more like Donald Trump and his views than they were of Ronald Reagan and his views in nineteen seventy six and nineteen eighty, right. I mean, like the party has changed demographically, and so that demographic shift has to be represented in this leadership, and that's Donald Trump.
I mean, these are you know, white, rural, mostly male, lacking college education voters who make up the majority of the Republican Party right now, and they represent a different ideological shift. It's not any more or less conservative, it's a different kind. As I mentioned earlier, it represents an isolationist wing of the Republican Party that we've always had
Rand Paul people like that represent it. But this is the first time that someone like Donald Trump would be able to reach in twenty sixteen, the leadership of that party. So there is a different party. That being said, the one thing I would watch Mitch McConnell do is he will work overtime to ensure that there's a Republican majority in the United States Senate after this election. I mean, this will be his commitment. It always is during an
election year. He loves the rough and tumble of politics, and my guess is what we'll see is a little less legislative activity which you would see anyway during an election year like this, but a lot more effort to ensure that part of his legacy is he left with a Republican majority.
There you have it from a Republican who made a career in the United States Senate, Rick Davis. It's great to have you with us, Rick, he and Jeanie Shanzano. Of course our signature panel here on Balance of Power.
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Of course, hearing Washington, there is one thing dominating's thought at the moment, Joe, and that is the fact that Mitch McConnell has announced today that he will step down as the leader of the Republicans in the Senate after the election in November.
He's going to be part of the rank and file, which I can't quite imagine on him imagining, and he says he's actually looking forward to it, which says a lot about the straits that he's been in as leader. Certainly in this session of Congress, but over the past couple of years, dealing with Donald Trump has not come easily.
Mitch McConnell.
He's seen his wife disparaged publicly by the former president, and he's seen politics move away from him. I think we can argue and us what we want to talk about with Bloomberg's Michael Shepherd, who of course helps to lead our bureau and our coverage of Capitol Hill and the White House here in Washington, DC. Michael, it's great to see you at the table here. You know, it's important when Michael Shepherd is in the room, and so I wonder your initial reaction to this. Wendy said earlier,
the transformation is complete. You might not want to go that far, but we have to acknowledge the evolution of this party.
It may not be complete. We're taking another big step in that direction, Joe and Cayley. Wendy, my colleague, is absolutely right that this is another signpost that we will look at in the history books for evidence of Donald Trump's growing hold.
On the party.
And Mitch McConnell, even in recent months and weeks, has been advocating against Trump over Ukraine EID. The former president has expressed great reluctance and urged the party to reject measures further back in Kiev ahead of anything that would be done on the US southern border. And Mitch McConnell has really tried to push this through. He's tried to
make that his legacy. Other parts of his legacy also will be seen not only on the international stage but domestically, and one in particular is the right word shift of the judiciary, and that's really helped shape a lot of social issues, especially abortion, as they play out here in the US.
Well, it was noteworthy Mike here McConnell in that speech talking about how he's going to continue to defend American exceptionalism. He also specifically called out the National Security supplemental that you mentioned he worked incredibly hard on. And so he's been so passionate about this Ukraine issue and really his advocacy for ad Ukraine at a time when a lot of Republicans don't necessarily seem with him on that may already have been evidenced of his diminished hold over the
party at large. Now that he has said eight months from now, I will no longer be your leader, does he lose more leverage and trying to push for his policy priorities.
That's a great question because this gives his opponents and his rivals even more purchase an opportunity to try to move in and try to head off the things that McConnell might have been pushing, including more aid for Ukraine. And this is another opportunity for the next generation, and he talked about that in his remarks to step in. Some of the people we could look at as immediate successors would be his number two, John Thune from South Dakota,
or John Barrasso, the number three from Wyoming. They've both endorsed Trump. That's a step that so far Mitch McConnell has not yet done. For the twenty twenty four presidential race. The two men, McConnell and Trump have really grown a strange since Trump left office, and especially since the January sixth Capitol insurrection.
You wonder if this is an early answer to the questions of whether he will endorse Donald Trump because he might have just given himself an out. He was emotional during that floor speech. Michael, we all stopped to watch and listen.
Is he doing this reluctantly?
I think that he, like he said in that speech, And you're right. I noticed it right away too. You could see his voice catching, and it was a fraud moment and freighted moment for him.
Think about it.
He has been serving in that chamber since nineteen eighty five. That's a lifetime, and that is more than a career. And he has felt so vested, and he said he still gets a thrill walking through the chamber. Now the challenge for him has been it is much tougher these days to do it. His health has been declining visibly.
Our reporters up on Capitol Hill have noticed how much more slowly he is moving, and of course he had that high profile fall last year and a few more recent episodes where he froze in public appearances.
All right, Michael Sheppard, who helps lead our coverage here in our Washington bureau for Bloomberg, thank you so much for joining us on what is a historic day. Joe McConnell in that speech, talking about how he came into the Senate. As Mike just said, nineteen eighty five, it was the Reagan era. It is now twenty twenty four, and in many ways this is still Trump's a Republican Party at this point. It's just a very different time as he steps down from being leader to when he
entered Now. Of course, as we pay attention to these power dynamics changing in the senat or at least they will have changed come November, we also want to get the view from the House and police to say. Joining us now is a Democratic Congressman from California, John Garramendi. He is with us live from Capitol Hill on both Bloomberg Television and radio. Congressman, thank you so much for being with us. I know it is a busy time
as you return to the House today. First, though, I would love to get your reaction on Mitch McConnell's announcement in the other Chamber that he will no longer be serving as Republican leader. What does this reflect to you about the way your colleagues on the other side of the aisle have changed on Capitol Hill over the course of not just McConnell's tenure but really more immediately the last several years, I.
Think there's extraordinary changes taking place from the Reagan period, which was optimistic. Reagan was an optimist. Now, whether you liked his policies or not, he thought America's future was well taken care of into the future. That's not where we are today. The Republican Party is led by Trump, who is a downer. He sees nothing but problems and hate and disarray, and he has said it very very
clearly that America's future is trashed. So we really see an enormous difference in where the Republican Party is in the leadership of it. And McConnell has been very, very much a part of denying Americans they're basic rights. You take a look at what McConnell did with Trump and others to form the Supreme Court, the most conservative in many, raged, outrageous Supreme Court that we've had, perhaps in the history
of this nation. If you're a woman, you can count on Mitch McConnell having played a critical role in denying you the rights to your own health care, the abortion issue, and beyond also voting rights. Mitch McConnell had everything to do with setting up a Supreme Court as well as other lower courts, in putting in place justices that have no use for the notion that every citizen has a right to vote, so taking away fundamental civil liberties as well as the right of a woman. McConnell did that.
He did that by using his power to establish a Supreme Court and lower courts that are extraordinarily conservative.
So no love lost, certainly over Merrick Garland, Congressman, I think I hear what you're saying. Will the Senate be better served in the hands of a MAGA friendly leader.
Absolutely not. You take a look the two gentlemen. I know him well. I think of them as people that I have worked with, But they're coming from extremely conservative states. I represent more people in my district than they do in their entire state. The nation has shifted, and yet it looks as though the future leadership of the Senate is going to be dominated by two people who represent
very very few people and an extraordinary conservative states. So what we're seeing is the Republican Party giving way to the mega extremist and that's going to have long term implications for this nation, and it will clearly have implications in the upcoming Senate races where we should be arguing, Wait a minute, in America, is this really what you
want in the future. The answer, I think is very clear. No, we don't want the Senate controlled by the extreme mega Republicans, which is what is now going to happen.
Well, Congressman, of course, this announcement from Mitch McConnell comes at a especially precarious time on Capitol Hill, as we are just days away, potentially from the start of a partial government shutdown if there is not some deal reached to avert one. It's really unclear what exactly the standing plan is of House Speaker Mike Johnson. But we were told by the House Majority Whip Tom Emmer just a few weeks ago before the recess that it would not
be another continuing resolution. I'd like you to just listen to what Congressman Emmer told us earlier this month.
Here he is, You're not going to get another continuing resolution out of our conference in Congress. The last one was difficult, and that was done because our speaker recognized that there just wasn't enough physical time to process all the bills. Once the House and the Senate had agreed on the top line number. When we come back, the key is going to be what are the packages that are put on the floor. We should be there before the first deadline of March first.
So Congressman, you are now back, what is your understanding of what exactly is going to happen to avert a partial shutdown come midnight Friday? Will it be a CR?
Well, currently the House of Representatives is run by the Chaos Caucus. It's total, absolute chaos. I'm a good guy, but he's going to prove to be proven wrong. There will be a CR for how long we don't know. Let's keep in mind that the Republicans are incapable of governing, totally incapable of governing. The major pieces of legislation that kept this government functioning have been by the minority party, by the Democrats. We're the ones that have governed over
the last year. You take a look at the dead limit that was sixty percent Democrats, forty percent Republicans. Democrats were governing, then we're the sane, rational group that have been able to keep this government functioning. The crs of the past Republicans couldn't put their own cr out there. Each one of the crs that have brought us to this this week have been done by the Democrats. We're the ones that have kept the government functioning. You take
a look at the National Defense Authorization Act. The Republicans didn't put up the majority of votes. It was the Democrats once again that put up the legislation that allows for our national security. Not the Republicans. They are the chaos Caucus. And now we're looking at where are we today. It'll be a continuation of that. They're continuing to try to put onto the appropriation bill. Absolutely crazy writers, dealing with women's rights, dealing with voting rights, dealing with the border,
on and on and on. None of us solve any problem but make the situation worse for Americans. It's the Democrats put up their votes.
Yes, but that said a Congressman.
The speaker says, if there's no agreement on these four spending bills that are set to expire Friday, that he will not entertain a cr We're just trying to figure out not even who's the blame right now, but whether this thing's going to start shutting down or not.
What's your gut check.
Well, we're going to find out, aren't we do The Republicans want to be responsible for shutting down about it. You don't know, We don't know, but we do know. This total chaos and the Republican cough Conference. They cannot govern, they cannot get their act together. Speaker Johnson has no power whatsoever. One member of the Republican Party can terminate his office. And he has no power if he ever knew how to use it in the first place. The answer to that is probably he doesn't know how to
use it. And keep in mind that he is an extraordinary conservative person. His record on voting, his record on conservatism is way beyond, way beyond the MAGA conservatism. So he's coming at this from a radical conservative point of view personally trying to govern a caucus that is total chaos. It will I'll tell you what will ultimately happen. There will be a CR and that CR will be put forth with Democratic votes. It will be the Democrats that once again put up the majority, probably as much as
sixty sixty or two thirds of the votes. The Republicans, a few of them, will sign on and then will continue to operate the government. Is that the way to do it? Absolutely not. But the Republican leadership if they would today allow the vote to go forward on funding Ukraine. And by the way, the Republicans like to fancy themselves as being the national security program that they're out there beating their chests saying, oh, it's all about a strong
military really, but they won't fund it. They won't fund Ukraine. Most of that money for Ukraine is to rebuild our supplies in our depots in America and around the world, the United States depots, and also will provide ambunition for Ukraine. It is absolutely unconscionable what the Republicans, who fancy themselves as being national security advocates are standing down. They're not lining up to support America's national security or the border funding.
They want border they won't vote for it. They want funding for the voter, for the burder, but they won't fund it. I mean, it is absolute, total chaos.
The congressman from California, Democrat, serves on the Armed Services Committee, John Garamendi, It's great to see you again, Congressman.
Don't be a stranger.
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Mitch McConnell announcing his plans. He's going to keep his seat.
If you're just joining us, it's an important breaking story today. He's going to leave his leadership post in November, and we'll continue to serve the state of Kentucky. This is not only a generational leader in the Republican Party in the Senate here.
But a member.
He's been a Senator since nineteen eighty five, kle and he spoke lovingly about Ronald Reagan being his inspiration to enter politics. He did not mention Donald Trump as an inspiration.
He did not mention Donald Trump by name. But he did speak on the Senate floor earlier today about how he's aware of the politics politics of the Republican Party right now, kind of alluding to the fact that the politics are no longer the politics of the Reagan era of nineteen eighty five. This is twenty twenty four. Donald Trump is at this point far and away expected to be the Republican nominee. And he hasn't always agreed with
Donald Trump in the past. As we know, he said he was practically and morally responsible for January sixth, twenty twenty one, when we saw the attack on the Capitol. And of course Donald Trump has also had some really harsh words about Elaine Chow, Mitch McConnell's wife, who he spoke fondly of on the Senate floor earlier.
Today, he sure did talked about the fact that he was reaching the end of his tenure here in words that you could only hear really from Mitch McConnell. The end of my contributions are closer than i'd prefer. And that's why we wanted to spend some time again today talking with Rojick Kumar.
We had him here yesterday to talk.
About negotiations involving Mitch McConnell Kaylene, not knowing that this development would take place today.
He's at PwC now, but spent many.
Years working with Mitch McConnell, including his time as Deputy Chief of Staff. Rohan, it's great to have you welcome back twenty four hours later.
What did you make of this news when it broke.
Look, I am a proud alum of the McConnell operation, and so I was a little bit sad I won't lie. I have a lot of affection for the leader. He was great to work for. He was an incredibly gracious boss. You don't see it, you saw hints of it in his remarks today, but he has an incredibly sharp and dry sense of humor, and it made him a really great boss to work for. Even I think even those who don't always agree with his policy positions or the choices that he made sort of over time came to
respect the way in which he handled himself. I certainly saw that up close and personal. And while this was the announcement today was certainly a surprise, it was not something that I knew yesterday when we last spoke. At some level, one of his superpowers has been a deep sentence of self awareness, a trait that is perhaps not always so commonplace amongst elected officials, not just in this country but everywhere.
Well you speak to the surprise of the timing of this announcement, and maybe it is a product of his self awareness. As he said essentially that his time has come. But if he's saying he's no longer going to be the leader post the election in November, this is more than eight months away. Rohit why do this now.
Oh, that to me makes I mean, at some level, I think the timing was, as he said, and his remarks driven by the personal tragedy in the family with the death of his sister Laana car accident. But I think it's also if you know this is coming level, you owe it to the conference not to surprise them in November and saying, you know, everyone thought I was going to be leader, and he almost surely would have had the votes to be re elected leader again had
he run. To give everyone notice right that I'm not going to be doing this again. You all will have to pick a different leader, and to give those that are running, and there have been at least three names that have been widely discussed in the press as potential successors, you know, a chance to make their case to the conference, so that it's not an artificially truncated race that the
conference will have. Senate Republicans will have time to engage in a thoughtful conversation about who they want their next leader to be. And as he said in his form marks, if he has his brothers to be the next Senate Majority leader, not just Senate Republican leader, a.
Big question that everyone's asking, and I bet you've been asked it already, is why now? And some folks look to Donald Trump for an answer, Some folks look to Mitch McConnell's age for an answer.
Where do you look?
I look.
I take the man at his word, which is that you know there was a family tragedy causes a moment of introspection. He realizes, you know that, as he said, you know, the end of his contributions are closer than the beginning of his contributions, and it's time to pass the mantle. And as I said, and I really I can't emphasize how much I saw this just in working with him for the seven years I worked for him directly, and then four years prior to that, when I worked
for Senator First he was the Senate Republican Whips. We worked very closely together for an eleven year stretch, being self aware, right and understanding that the time has come to pass the baton. Now. I can't tell you why today versus yesterday or tomorrow or next week. Only he can answer that question. But I think at some level, once you've made the decision, or putting myself in his shoes, once he'd made the decision he wasn't going to run again.
There was no reason to keep that a secret from the conference, And at some level it was a final act of service to the conference to give notice with sufficient time for the potential candidates to make their case in a fulsome way.
Well, as we consider the fact that really he's just stepping down as leader here in November he said he is still sticking around to serve as the Senator from Kentucky, why not just leave the chamber entirely. If he's talking about how he mentioned, you know, time and the fact that he is eighty two years old, that a new generation is needed, why not let that actual generational change happened sooner and just call time on a Senate career that's lasted four decades.
Well, I mean, I think he has a tremendous sense of duty. And the voters of Kentucky elected him to a six year term. They knew how old he was when he was elected. They knew how old he would be at the end of his term. And you know he is in this. You just can't state this. I will surely understate this, even though I will attempt not to. He is not a quittor you know, he rather famously overcame polio as a child, and that has just been ingrained in his personality from an early age. It's a
lesson you're taught early as an early McConnell staffer. There is just no quit in him. This is a passing of a baton. It's not really a quit. And I think for him, serving out the term is sort of an important sort of feature of keeping the commitment he made to the voters of Kentucky and honoring the term that they elected him to. And there will be, of course a natural time for that to change. He sort
of effective announced he's not going to run again. He'll serve out until January of twenty twenty seven, and then the voters in Kentucky will have a chance to have their say in presumably November of twenty six.
We got news here on an endorsement already. It just gives us a sense of what we might be in for between now. In November, row Hit, the chair of the Freedom Caucus, has endorsed Rick Scott to run the Republican Party in the Senate. And we know that that's something Rick Scott, at least at one time was interested in doing. Is there going to be a bigger field than we're allowing for right now?
I mean, I think it's too early to say, you know what the field will look like. Senator Scott ran last time, no idea if he's planning on running again. In my several years, almost two decades of service to the Senate, I have found that senators were rather uninterested in the House's thoughts about how this organized their affairs.
Fair enough, but it does raise the question, real hint of what kind of Republican could succeed McConnell, because as we kind of began this conversation talking about how McConnell was a Reagan era Republican, perhaps representing an internationalist wing of the Republican Party, whereas Donald Trump represents another wing and has growing influences we see evidenced on Capitol Hill
almost each and every day among Republicans. Who could be realistically the next Senate leader who could get support from both sides.
Well, it's a.
Little bit hard to tell, because the electorate hasn't even been deciding, right, it will be the Senate Republican conference of the upcoming Congress, not the one that we have today. Shot weld Side and Centater McConnell alluded to he is certainly hoping and doing everything within his power to elect more Senate Republicans. Cent are there now that would you know, in an effort to put Senate Republicans in the majority.
So without knowing who the electorate is, it's very difficult to predict who's going to win an election.
Ro Hit, thanks for coming in.
It's good to see you, especially in an emergency situation like this at PwC. Former deputy chief of staff for Mitch McConnell, who's going to be stepping down as Republican leader in November. Kayley, It's just another layer to the drama that we're going to be covering for the next year.
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We have an opportunity to have a special conversation right now with the chief executive from one of America's great cities, the mayor of Atlanta is with us from World Headquarters in New York. Andre Dickens as part of the conversation today on Bloomberg. Mister mayor, I appreciate your joining us.
You should know that we're fans of mayors around here because as we cover Washington in and out every day and the madness that you just heard us talking about, we are well aware that you do not have the luxury that lawmakers in Washington have when it comes to making decisions. And so I'll start by asking you would a government shut down mean anything for the city of Atlanta.
Yeah, you know, mayors are just different. I'm a part of the US Conference of Mayors, and we say, you know, no Democrats, Republicans. Mayors got to get the job done on the streets of our cities, and so we could not tolerate a government shut down from a city perspective. You know, the federal government is dealing with that every other quarter or so. It gives us a little heartburn.
We're hopeful that get through this one as well. But there are federal agencies that are within the city of Atlanta, from TSA to the FAA at the world's busiest airport, to of course there's some national parks, like the King Center is a national park in the city of Atlanta, which is one of the most visited places in the United States, and so many other things that the federal government.
Of course, there's federal employees from the IRS to the various institutions, So a government shut down by the fees affect our cities across America in a major way. We'll get through it, We'll still be able to do what we need to do. But think about all the funding that goes to various households through the federal government. It's just intolerable to see all this wrangling each end every.
Time for those watching on YouTube and elsewhere. Right now, clearly the mayor is at home in Atlanta with that beautiful skyline behind you. Mister Mary, didn't mean to confuse that I know exactly where you're sitting. As a matter of facts, we've been talking about dysfunction here in Congress for I guess months and months. You're talking about, though, one of the biggest bipartisan victories that we've seen in
the capital in some time, and that's infrastructure. And you've got your own seven hundred and fifty million dollar infrastructure project that you're talking about in Atlanta. I'd like to hear more about it, beginning with how you're paying for it. Will that be helped by the federal law.
Yeah, So we are very thankful for the Biden and Harris bipartisan Infrastructure law that really brought a lot of dollars to the city of Atlanta and all the cities across this country. That's been very helpful, as well as the infrastructure, the Inflation Reduction Act, the Chips Act. We're taking it all to be able to help the residents
of Atlanta. We also did our own bond last year, which is the Moving Atlanta Forward Bond, because we have this great credit rating, the highest in the city's history. So we're capitalizing on that because of being good stewards of our public trust. The public has said, let's go forward and do all of this new road infrastructure, new parks and recreation centers, new fire stations, as well as
a new police station. So we're taking all of this great bond infrastructure that we have and putting it to use for the public. So we're now deploying those resources with contractors to get these things built so that the public can enjoy these new amenities.
So you're at the contracting stage already. Do you have the workers to do all those jobs?
Well, some of this we're at the procurement stage where we are out there looking for bidders, and you know, some are in the design stage so that we can you know, properly build it to make sure that it is sustainable. But you know, once we are at the contracting stage, and some of these we are open for business in Atlanta, and we want to make sure that the contractors have enough staff. So we're utilizing as many incentives as possible to be able to get them to
do that. We would love to do more workforce development so that individuals can learn these trades to do more construction jobs so they can have middle income wages. That's part of the bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which was to not only do the construction, but to have workforce development for people to have a skill. And we're, you know, we're working on all ends to be able to do that.
I'd love to get your view on crime in your city, Mayor Dickens, part of the national conversation. We're hearing a lot about it on the campaign trail now is about crime in America's cities. Republicans tend to criticize Democrat run cities. Your office those says you've managed to lower homicides by twenty one percent in the last year.
How'd you do it?
Yeah, we are so thankful that last year we reduced homicides by twenty one percent, the third highest drop across the nation for cities. We're very proud of that. We did it through policing and non policing activities. The policing activities were we went after gangs, guns and drug dealers. We really cracked down on violent crime in that way. Fifty percent reduction in rapes also as well as reduction
in robberies and burglary. So we were everywhere with our police force, our great police chief, and our partners at the GBI, the FBI, our District Attorney's office, etc. We worked together on the policing side. But make no mistake about it, we reduced crime before crime even started by working with our youth. I declared last year the Year
of the Youth. We had kids insted. We made investments in midnight basketball where you were able to play basketball from seven pm to midnight, and I got out there a few times. We had the highest summer youth employment ever, five thousand young people between the ages of fourteen and twenty four, making an average of seventeen dollars an hour. They were so busy making money they couldn't be out doing crime or doing any other thing that we wouldn't
want them to do. So throughout that year we invested in nonprofits that had a really good hand on our young people to help them with stem, with robotics, with sports, with dance, and arts. So we did every thing we could to keep youth busy. We brought down youth crime by forty six percent. So when you bring down youth violent crime, you bring down overall crime. And we had
an overall message through our violence interrupters. We were going out there talking to grown folks telling them, hey, no retaliation, Let's learn how to de escalate issues because so much of the crime that we saw was intrapersonal people that knew each other. So overall, we're thankful. Now when you get twenty one percent homicide, people are thankful about it, but they're like, let's do it again this year and again and again. So we While you say that Republican's point,
the Democrat led cities as crime ridden. We don't see it that way. I work very closely with a Republican governor and I'm a Democratic mayor, and we work together to bring down violent crime. And that's true policing and non policing.
Efforts as we consider law enforcement.
Mister Mayor, I have to ask you about District Attorney Fannie Willis now a household name because of her case against former President Donald Trump.
You made a personal appearance in court to support her.
Considering the sensitivity in this case, I wonder if you can talk in a remaining couple of minutes about this, why not turn to someone else who is not shrouded in controversy to lead this case.
Well, first of all, if we talk about somebody who's shrouded in controversy, that would be the former President Donald J. Trump. So when someone says Fannie's in some controversy, we've literally watched the president that's been in controversy for most of my entire life and definitely my political life. So I wanted to go to court the other day to say
that Fannie Willis is actually not on trial. Who is on trial is the former president of the United States, who has been accused of trying to steal an election, where four people in his orbit, four people that work with him or for him, have been have played guilty to that in that very same court. And so what we're what I came there to say was Fannie Willis is not on trial. She's standing up here looking, you know, like she's on trial, but she's not. And I didn't
want her to feel like she was alone. She needs to continue to do the job that she's doing, which is to bring prosecution forth on this case as well as all the other cases. As I mentioned, this is a group project in Atlanta of how we bring down violent crime. Fannie Willis and the DA's office has been very instrumental in our gain charges and our drug dealing, you know, prosecution of drug dealers as well as those gun runners and the various people that do harm in
our community. We want her to continue to do that work. Take the spotlight off of her for you know, the things that she's being accused of and the things that are personal her personal life. You know, she can manage that and others can help her manage that. For me, I need a DA that's going to help bring down violent crime and make sure we have trusted elections in America.
The Mayor of Atlanta, Andre dickens with us from our bureau in Atlanta. Mister Mayor, I appreciate your joining us to talk. I hope we'll do it in person sometime in your city. Thanks for listening to the balance of power. Make sure to subscribe if you haven't already, at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and you can find us live every weekday from Washington, DC at Noontimeeaster at Bloomberg dot com.