Sound On: Beto Crashes Abbott Presser, Primary Recap

Think about the people who were hurt. Floomberg Sound On with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio and on the day after the massacre in Texas, Washington is paralyzed. Welcome to the fastest hour in politics, as we bring you the latest from Texas and the response from the nation's capital as some lawmakers tackle the question what can be done

to stop gun violence. Will be joined by Congressman Mike Thoms and a head Democrat from California who sponsored the background checks bill you've been hearing about that passed the House and languishes in the Senate. Later, we'll talk with Jessica Taylor of the Cook Political Report about an important primary night, and we'll get analysis from the sound on panel. President Biden addressed the nation a short time ago, as you heard on Bloomberg before signing an executive order on

police reform. That's what he was up to, and use similar language to what we heard last night as he spoke to Americans late upon his return from Asia, calling for what he calls common sense gun laws following, of course, the school shooting in Texas series. So they clearly will not prevent every tragedy. We know certain ones will have significant impact and have no negative impact on the Second Amendment.

Second Man is not absolute. When I was passed. You couldn't own a you couldn't own a canon, you couldn't own certain kinds of weapons. It's just always been limitations. But guess what these actions we've taken before they saved lives, the President repeating it's time to stand up to the gun lobby. While in Texas, Governor Greg Abbott delivered a briefing with the latest known on the shooter. There has

been no criminal history identified yet. He may have had a juvenile record, but that is yet to be determined. There was no known mental health history, making us wonder if he would have been scooped up in a background check. Now, while he was talking at that briefing Governor Abbott, things went off the rails for a bit. Just as he was introducing Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, none other than bettle Or Rourke walked in, went right up to the stage

and started to call them out. Excuse me, Senator Ted Cruises on the stage embarrassment. He was escorted out of the room. And we'll talk a little bit more about this later on with Jessica Taylor. Better or or than held a sort of impromptu news conference outside. The temperature is rising, and as we consider the idea of gun controls, as we consider political solutions here, if I can use either term, today, there is legislation on Capitol Hill that

could get that ball rolling. Congressman Mike Thompson, Democrat from California, chairs the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force and sponsored the background checks bill that passed the House and has yet to move in the Senate. He's with us now. Congressman, welcome back to Bloomberg. Thank you very much. I'm just

sad to be your a diseased circumstances. I wish we were here to talk about something else, of course, but I appreciate your being with us as the background checks bill that you sponsored and saw past the House is beginning a lot of talk since yesterday. I'd like to start by asking you how it works. This would cover all gun sales nationally. Correct, that's correct right now. The federal floor is that if anyone buys a gun from

a licensed dealer, they have to get a background check. Uh. And sadly, in many states, that floor, that federal floor is the ceiling. So someone can go into a gun store, attempt to buy a gun, find out that they're prohibitive moaning the gun. Maybe there are a criminal, maybe they're

dangerously mentally ill, a domestic abuser. Uh, there refused the sale, and they can go out, and they can go to go to a computer store next door and go online and and find someone who's selling the same gun, but not a dealer by the same gun in the McDonald's parking lot. And it's just it's it's just flawed system. And by requiring a background check for all gun sales, you'll stop a lot of people who shouldn't be getting

guns from buying firearms. Governor Abbott today in Texas says there has been no criminal history identified at least yet there was no known mental health history. Congressman, would your bill have stopped him from buying those two rifles? I don't know all of the particulars about that individual, but I have never pretended to believe that any bill mine or anybody else's can stop all gun violence. It's just one step we can take to make our communities safer.

The only, the only, only law that would stop all gun violence is a law that would do away with all guns, and no one is proposed in that. We're just trying to take an incremental step to be able to make our communities and our schools UH safer. Background checks are something that we know works, and we know that if we expand them to include all gun sales, we will in fact make our community safer. It's something that has broad bipartisan support across the country. So we

need to take this well. Your bill passed the House with the help of eight Republicans. One Democrat voted against it. All I keep hearing is this couldn't possibly pass a fifty fifty Senate. Do you believe that, Well, it would, It would pass UH if it could come up for a vote. But the problem in the Senator, as you know, you need ten Republicans over there to allow a bill

to come up for a vote. So they if if we could find ten Senate Republicans who had the courage that it would take to help make their communities safer, we could bring that bill up and it would pass. So you can't clear that culture vote. Senators Joe Manson and Pat Toomey, as I'm sure you know, are offering a bit of a compromise bill that requires background checks on all commercial sales, including gun shows, but not individual private sales to family or friends. Is that a loophole

in your view? Congressman, I think we need to expand background checks to cover all guns. The bill that I have uh takes care of the issue of passing the gun onto a family member. Uh. But uh, that that that that bill, that the amendment, actually that mansion that to me offered a way back when I think, uh, there's a much lesser thresh gold for community safety. We're

talking with Congressman Mike Thompson, Democrat from California. I know, Congressman, you're a lifelong gun owner and a Vietnam War veteran, and you've drawn the distinction between guns for hunting in sport and guns that are weapons of war. As you put a Governor Abbot again said at the n r A convention in that the cause was specifically not about hunting in sport. Listen to what he said, and we'll

have you respond. These men and women understood the necessity of the individual rights to keep been bear arms, not for hunting, not for supporting, but to defend themselves from dangerous attacks. What's your response to that, Congressman. I don't have a problem with someone having a firearm for personal defense. My issue, again is to make sure that the people who home guns are not a danger to themselves or other people. What does the n r A think about

your bill? Do they have your number? I don't think the n r A likes to build UH. But it's important to note that the belt Way n r A UH isn't reflective of n r A members across the country. My bill is supported by over of the American people. It's supported by an overwhelming majority of n r A members. It's the Beltway gun lobby that is stopping this from happening, not regular citizens. Are they trying to stop your bill? Though? Is the n r a putting money against your bill. Well,

they lobby pretty hard against it, as you know. And you know you you did the research on the number of Republicans in the House that voted for it. If you dig a little bit deeper, you'll see that there were some Republicans that voted for it the time before who didn't vote for it this time. So they must have been here in an air full from somebody. So what's your message to the n R A. We're not going to stop. We are not going to stop working on making our communities safer. We're not going to stop

working on gun violence prevention measures. And they ought to start representing the responsible gun owners in the United States of America and do the right thing and get on board and work with us to make sure that every gun owner isn't isn't painted because they're stopping us from doing gun safety legislation. Congressman, is there anything that President

Biden can do from the executive to change this? He has actually, uh, he's he's nominated a permanent director of a t F, something we haven't had for a while. That's uh, those hearings I believe we're going on now. Hopefully, hopefully he will be confirmed. Uh. President Biden also came out with some pretty good regulations regarding ghost gun Yeah, we covered that as a matter of fact. But he spoke last night about the assault weapons band. Congressman, will

there be a move to make that law again? I think there's always been a move to do that. I don't think is there anything that President Biden can do to bring that back. I don't know. I don't think that's something that can happen administratively. But the ghost guns

thing is important because the ghost guns are kids. They're kids guns that you can buy without a background check, and you can put them together in fifteen twenty minutes an your couple table, and then you have an unserialized firearm that you can use for the theorious um purposes that can't be traced if it's picked up in a crime state, Mike Cops. In my congressional district in California, I've picking ghost guns up off the street every day.

I hear from them all the time. Congressman, do you have any sense of optimism now that you didn't have twenty four hours ago? Why is this different than, for instance, after Newtown? Well, I I feel optimistic that folks like yourself for interested in this and talking about it. Then I remember that every time there's a mass shooting and a tragedy like this, there's a lot of discussion about the media fixed it up. They talked about it for

a couple of days, and then it goes away. And you know, we all have a responsibility to keep this going. And I'd appreciate your continued um effort to make sure people know about how dangerous this situation is and how important it is for us to UH to address it. Congressman Mike Thompson, thank you for your insights today. We'd like to follow progress on this build and stay in touch with you. Coming up, we assembled the panel, Rick Davis, Jeanie Chanzano. Next on sound On, I'm Joe Matthew. This

is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg. You sound on with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio. Do you remember the Sutherland Springs church shooting Sutherland Springs, Texas. Twenty six people were killed, including an unborn child, more than twenty wounded, the deadliest mass shooting in Texas. The shooter killed himself, but not before a man named Stephen Williford got involved. Plumber is at home when he heard the gunfire. His daughter told him what was going on the church, and so he

went to his safe. He grabbed his a R fifteen and ran to the sound of the guns. In this case, Senator Ted Cruz picks up the story as he told the crowd at n r A convention in Texas, what played out next was a gunfight. The shooter opened fire on Stephen. I've stood by that pickup truck riddled with bullet holes. The small house behind Stephen had bullet holes in the wall. The shooter, as you know, was wearing body armor. But Stephen is an n r A rifle instructor,

otherwise known as the media's perfect nightmare. Well not Actually, he was made a hero out of this. Not only picked the guy off a couple of times, he got a couple of shots in him. They got into a car chase, and the shooter ended up in a ditch and killed himself in the car. Stephen Williford was honored at that convention repeatedly. He was called out by Governor

Abbott as well. That story was laid out as the example of what should happen, and so you're asked, I guess left asking the question is that the option is it gun control or vigilante justice. This is where we start with our panel today. Bloomberg Politics contributors Jeannie Chanzano and Rick Davis make our signature sound on panel. They were with us last night at this very moment as we all learned together what was going on, and Genie, is that the choice we're talking about here, this is

what the American public is often being told. And this idea that you should purchase a gun for protection is one that resonates with a lot of people, and that's why we now have more guns in the United States than we have citizens. There's about four hundred million firearms in the United States today and three thirty one million people. And as we talked about yesterday, the number of guns being sold has risen by as quadrupled in the last

couple of decades. And part of the reason not all those people are hunters, of course, part of the reason is personal protection. People believe, and we're going to see it after this horrific shooting. There's going to be a surgeon gun sales again because people believe what Ted Cruz is talking about that you need a done to protect yourself, and if you don't get it now, legislation is going to come and take it away. And you know that that legislation is not really in the offing. But that's

what's being talked about. The idea of personal defense versus hunting in sport Rick interesting when you consider the contrast there. Maybe it's all the same thing. But if this is the answer from the n r A that everybody should get a gun and good guys shoot the bad guys, where are we Well, you're playing into the n r A talking points. I think one of the things that we got to do is take a step back and

and understand why we think this way. When when our when our leaders tell us that there's nothing we can do about the shooter, the perpetrator of the criminal, and all we can do is arm up so that we can protect ourselves from them, then then then that's what

people are going to respond to. If our leaders take a different position and say there's got to be something we can do to avoid having another fifty percent jump in one year and active shooter incidents, to curtail the thousands of incidents we've had in mass attacks like this over the last three or four years. Then then then

that's the debate that we need to have. And I think we have a shot right now, pardon upun to, to actually have a discussion about trying to avoid somebody's incidents so we don't have to grab our a R fifteen or a R five from the safe and go after somebody in a church. I mean, like that should be the last possible option, not the first one. And I think that that's one of the things we've got

to hold our arming teachers or whatever it might be. Rick, what is it like to run Republican campaigns and interface with the n r A. You've actually been in that conversation.

When we consider n r A scoring for incumbents, when we consider their endorsements, what is that relationship like In the two thousand after the two thousand UH presidential campaign that I ran for John McCain in the primary against George W. Bush Um, John McCain joined a couple of Democrats and co sponsored a gun show loophole bill very similar to the Mansion to Me bill, and and and the n r A started running ads in Arizona even though he was out of cycle right just to punish

him for his intransidence to actually have the the timidity to to break ranks as a Republican the dur we got a vote on the back of a must pass bill and we have fifty eight votes for that. We didn't need sixty because it was a bill that was already through UMU, the filibuster rule and and and Mitch McConnell and majority of the time pulled it off the floor even though it was a must pass bill because our amendment had made its way on there. So it shows you the level of influence that the n r

A has. Hopefully it has weekend over time, they've been ref with all kinds of scandal and issues. But but it's a systemic problem within the Republican Party because every year the n r A puts money into the elections of these members, and they have a grip on their their budgets and and so it's it's gonna take brave people to fight back like John McCain did back in two thousand two and and last I heard, he did pretty well after that, even though the n r A

ran adds against him. Rick Davis and G. D. Schanzano are panel They're going to be back in just a bit here. As we also add Jessica Taylor from the Cook Political Report to the Conversation. We're gonna look at primary night through the guys of this shooting in Texas. The fastest hour in politics. Stay with us. I'm Joe Matthew.

This is Bloomberg broadcasting live from our nation's capital, Bloomberg to New York, Bloomberg eleven, Frio to Boston, Bloomberg one, O six one to San Francisco, Bloomberg nine sixty to the Country, Serious x M General one nine and around the globe, the Bloomberg Business app and Bloomberg Radio ker. This is Bloomberg Sound On with Joe Matthew. Headline on the terminal. Kemp defeats Trump pick per Due in Georgia GOP governor race. I should say so, who wins a

high profile primary by fifty points. Of course, most of the nation was distracted by the Texas shooting the President's speech last night. So next we're gonna look at what happened in Georgia and consider the impact the shootings could have on the mid terms. With Jessica Taylor of the Cook Political Report. It was another primary night in America.

Georgia of course, the biggest among the states voting. As we prepared you here on sound On, and it's a pleasure to welcome Jessica Taylor, the Senate and Governor's editor for the Cook Political Report, to talk about some of the results and some of the themes here on this day after the shooting in Texas. Jessica, welcome back to Bloomberg. Thanks for having me. It's hard to tackle the mid terms today without considering the impact of the shooting in Texas.

I know we heard statements from a few candidates last night, including Congressman Henry quay Are in Texas, who actually one it looks like one has run off. Does this speak to the issue of crime or gun control on the campaign trail in this midterm cycle, Jessica or is it both? I think it can be both. But also this is something that unfortunately we as Americans are dealing with. You know, only a few days ago that the Buffalo shooting happened

and others in California. So I mean it just to me, it shows just how partisan and divided our politics aren't right now, because it almost feels like everyone agrees something needs to be done, but there is still not a consensus on what that either party can get to a sixty vote threshold to change things. I mean, you're clearly seeing a lot of frustration among Democrats. The gun issue, though,

can really have a galvanizing effect for people. It's reinforces their beliefs rather than having an event like this change their minds. Do you say, well, I mean you are saying, I mean Republicans are saying, you know, any talk about gun control is simply um, you know, trying to politicize the issue, while Democrats point that, you know, listen, something has to be done. And I'm sure you saw a better Aurorica interrupt Governor Abbott's briefing today in Texas. It

was pretty dramatic stuff. He said. The response was totally predictable by the Abbot administration. Here's a little bit of what it sounded like. Shot right now and you're doing this is totally predictable. When to give usher him out of the womb and Jessica. He held a kind of an impromptu news conference outside. Right after Santa Fe High School was the time to stop the next shooting, Right after El Paso was the time to stop the next shooting right after Midland Odessa was the time to stop

the next shooting. And in each case we say this isn't the time? Now is the time? Like literally right now? That's why I'm here. Did he help himself today? And I wonder is this now the defining issue in this race? Again? Just he's right? I mean, this has been things that have happened in Texas, which is certainly more has more loose gun regulations in many states. Um, And clearly you know when he was running for president that didn't last too long. He made I'll pass though a critical um,

a critical spot. But again I'm not sure. I think it is, at least in this moment, but whether that lasts again, I think the election is about many things, and I have a hard time thing, even after this devastating incident, that it will have any sort of meaningful, meaningful change, because I do feel like as a country, we've these things happen and then we rail against it

and we move on to the other things again. And I think it just reinforces just how politicize this issue has become, and that there's really hard to find metal grounds. This is incredible. Everyone I've asked in the last twenty four hours who follows politics or is involved in politics. Not politicians themselves, but people who have been living in this country paying attention. All answer that the same way. The fact is n r A endorsements and n r

A scores for incumbents, Jessica, get Republicans elected. That's not going to change today, right Look at Brian Kemp. Yeah, I mean it is an incredibly powerful lobby. They give millions to mostly Republican lawmakers, and you want that endorsement if you're running in a Republican primary, and it's just hard to see that changing. And you know it's the group overall we're going to, you know, say okay, maybe

we can do these red flag laws. We can talk about background checks in different things, but regulations in many places are becoming looser instead of tighter. I did want to ask you about a couple of races. This is why you came to talk to us, Jessica about an important primary night, and I mentioned the governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp fifty points. That was remarkable. We also saw, of course, the Secretary of State Ravensburger keep his uh are the media making too much of the Trump effect

in this cycle. Well, given how much Trump went all in on these races, I think it was clearly the most stinging rebuke that the president has faced since he left office, because he made Kemp and Ravensburger sort of public enemies number one in his book because they refused to bend his will and overturned the election results. So these were it. Probably if he could have taken only picked only two candidates of his that we're going to lose,

I think he probably would have picked these two. But I think it shows clearly that the Republican electorate wants to move on, and that when you saw their opponents running essentially a one note campaign on saying that the election was solan, you know, and even Perdue went into how his beclaming his Senate seat was stolen, I think people wanted to talk about more than that that they were sort of really ready to move on. And yeah, I mean I expected Kemp to win, but nothing in

the dropping line. So I mean, it's just it was Jessica Taylor looks like a recount in Pennsylvania. Will this lead to a conclusion or are we going to spend all summer in court? That is what Republicans do not need. Um, the fact that they do not have a nominia in one of their biggest Senate races can quickly become problematic. Well, we'll be covering that closely here, of course on Bloomberg Radio. Dr Oz versus David McCormick in the Republican Senate primary

in Pennsylvania. Jessica Taylor, Senate and governor's editor for the Cook Political Report, Thanks for coming back to talk to us again on Bloomberg. I hope it's a different conversation next time. Let's bring in Genie Genie Schanzano, Bloomberg Politics contributor, for a quick comment. If I can just go back to Georgia for a second here, Jeanie, how are you calibrating these two losses, I mean not losses? I believe

Jessica used the word shellacking. Brian Kemp fifty points. Ravensburger keeps his job, Jody, heis is going to be unemployed. What's the message to Donald Trump? I think the messages voters in any state, but Georgia, being the center of the United States political universe right now, do not want to look backwards. They have enough issues to contend with right now and going forward. Brian Camp has delivered for them.

Ravensburger has delivered for them. They like Donald Trump, they say it, but they also like their governor and their secretary of state, and they're gonna stick with him because they have delivered. And so the key to Donald Trump is, don't make endorsements based on a vendetta. Make them based on what voters want and what's going on in the moment, the old vendetta tour. I know Rick has feelings about

that too, and we'll reassemble the panel. Coming up next, Genie and Rick Davis with us here on sound On. We'll get a check on the markets from Doug Chrisner. Interesting after our session here you'll want to hear about and of course traffic as always on the Fastest Hour in Politics, I'm Joe Matthew and Washington. This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg you sound on with Joe Matthew

on bloom Heard Radio. As we reassembled the panel, Rick Davis and Jennie Chanzano with us on the Fastest Hour in Politics. Thanks for spending part of your day with us here on Bloomberg. Sound On if you're just showing up, subscribe to the podcast Bloomberg sound On, search for it wherever you get your podcasts, and just basking in the glow of another primary night. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite the

night that we had bargained for. You know, typically you're watching the returns come in, you're kind of getting a sense of the narrative. Maybe there's a couple of late night nail biters, but last night it was it was all about Texas. Who was about the president's speech, which actually ended up being pretty latest he returned from the trip to Asia. But there was big news on this primary night, including Georgia, as we just discussed with Jessica Taylor,

Rick and Jennie here. I had a minute to compare notes with Genie on this Rick, I'm curious just your first blush reaction to a fifty point spread, a double loser for Donald Trump. Yeah, this was a real repudiation of the vengeance tour. Uh, everybody was watching this race all around the country, primarily because Donald Trump told us

to watch this race. He put a target on Brian Camp and his administration and recruited David Purdue, a failed Senate candidate, from the from the runoffs, the rerun of the election in to run against him, funded it and campaign hard for him and got as your previous guest said, Shehall lacked and in in in in politics, that's a big deal. Uh, you know, A a six hundred thousand vote margin of victory, and so it wasn't even actually

a really a race. I mean, I'm actually surprised we didn't pick up this huge margin coming into the election, you know, as as it turned out to be. But it is a repudiation of Donald Trump and in his efforts to go after people who refused to deny the outcome of the election and in this case actually took action against it. So does put Donald Trump completely into the back seat. No, he will continue to claim victory.

He will continue to do these things against people you think kept him from being able to steal the election. And uh, and we haven't heard the last of him. But I think this is a good example of the fact that, um, no matter how tough a situation Donald Trump tries to bring on you, uh, you can you can flourish in the opposition. So what's the general gonna

look like here? Jeannie? But part of what Brian camp ran On was I'm the guy who can keep Stacy Abrams out of the governor's office and from becoming president. Here this conversation about the Texas shooting, the fact that he is endorsed by the n r A. Does that inform the electorate in this race or again galvanized existing physicians? You know, I voters will be informed by it. I'm not sure that there will be moved by it. We

haven't at least seen that historically. And of course this rematch between Stacy Abrams and Brian Kemp is going to be one of the most watched. Unfortunately for Stacy Abrams, it's going to be a much tougher year, not because of anything she did, but because of where the president is in the polls, and of course the inflation and all the other issues. So much tougher year for her just because she's a Democrat. But it's going to be fascinating to see this rematch. And Joe Matthew, I love

your double loser comment. I'm hoping that that gets picked up. We'll see see what the foreign president Trump has to say about that. Joe, I did not trying to make a nickname. I know, do you remember the gun ad that that Brian Kemp put up. This is He's got this kid sitting next to his. Name is Jake. I think the name of the ad was Jake. Jake, Rick remembers. And Brian camp is sitting there, has got a shotgun across his lap. He's got a whole bunch of you know,

snazzy them. Oh my god, these massive pistols lined up on the the table next to the couch. Well, listen, I'm Brian Kemp. This is Jake young and interested in one of my daughters. Yes, sir, Jake asked while I was running for governor, I said, one cap government spending to take a chainsaw to Regulations three make Georgia number one. Here in two things, if you go on date or one of my daughters, respect and a healthy appreciation for the Second Amendment. Sir, he cocks the gun and a

lot of people were offended by this. It helped him, then, Rick, does it potentially hurt him now? Uh? No, I think that this is a very polarized issue, stated Georgia. The reason he's running that ad is because he can get the majority of the people to back him. Uh. He's not gonna He's not gonna do that in two thousand eighteen unless he sees it in the polling data that he can win with that issue, and and he won't run that ad this year if he doesn't think it

has the same impact. So I think you gotta you gotta take the different times in a different place for definitely. But you know Stacy Abrams would like to start running that. They're probably retweeting it now from back then. And what does this mean for the role that the n r

A might play publicly in the campaign cycle? Rick? I mean, you know, we've got the convention coming up here, and when you consider the way the n r A has reacted to tragedies past, the shootings in the past, well, listen to Wayne Lapierre, the CEO of the National Rifle Association here at convention. He is powerful anti freedom, gun hating, anti Second Amendment elites. They gaslight tragedy, They exploit victims to advance their ultimate agenda, kill the n r A

and napalm the Second Amendment right out of existence. They marched themselves into a frenzy. They yell, and they shout every nasty name they can think of to call us, and they demand our surrender while predicting our demise that was held in Texas. The president then President Trump spoke at that event, as did Senator Ted Cruz. Does that line continue here, Rick, You're gonna hear language like that this year? That could be a winning message for Republicans.

I don't know. Well, we're gonna We're gonna find out on Friday where the n r A is holding a conference in Houston. Uh, right after the heels of this So so I think pay attention to what Wayne Lapierre says this year versus what he said in two thousand

and eighteen. Um. Uh. And And the reality is what Representative Thompson said earlier in the program is that there is a big difference between the leadership of the n r A and and their financing of influence in Washington and the membership of the n RA and and and I think what smart candidates like Kemp, and he's proven his medal by defeating Donald Trump in this election, uh, is that is that he's gonna side with the members

of the n RA. He's gonna have a conversation with them in his next ad not with Wayne Lapierre, because there's nothing Wayne Lapierre can do for him in Georgia. But these are real voters in the state of Georgia who are members of the n r A, and and they're not buying in many cases what Wayne Lapierre selling. We heard from the senior Senator in Texas, John Corny and Genie Uh personal UH spokesperson citing personal reasons for him to back out of his convention speech UH prior

to the tragedy to day in Vivaldi. The statement says, we had already informed me in r A he would not be able to speak due to an unexpected change in his schedule. He now has to be in d C for personal reasons. Awfully carefully written Genie. It is and and you know, we have to wait and see if there's any other change of schedules that come up.

Ted Cruz, Dan Crenshaw, Governor of South Dakota. Yeah, Donald Trump will probably go, but I know, you know, speaking if we could just underscore the connection between these primaries and what happened in Texas, they do have the most permissive gun laws in the country, but pole after poll from has showed majority is of texts and voters support common sense gun gun gun laws. Rather, the disconnect is a lot of the power in Texas is decided in the primaries, and the fewer voters who turn out, the

more they moved to the right. And so you know, we as voters own this. Voters have got to get out in primary elections. They can't just vote in general elections because state legislatures in particular are decided and that's true in New York on the Democratic side, are decided in these primaries, in these one party states and districts. You saw better or or uh interrupts Greg Abbott today. Uh we played a little bit of that at last,

powerful anti phrase. Not the moment I'm talking about. This is that there's some of this stuff I can't even play on the air. Things got a little bit ugly, and then of course he stepped outside where the cameras were waiting for him. It is absolutely wrong. It is insane the government talks about mental health. It is insane that we allow an eighteen year old to go in and buy an a R fifteen. What the hell did we think he was gonna do with that? This one

is on us. What's this governor's race gonna look like in Texas? Rick, Well, you know we talked yesterday is this crisis was unfolding about a hope that we could actually take a step back from the demagoguery and partisanship and try to find solutions to this rather than take advantage of it for political purposes. This is a classic example of taking advantage for political purposes. There was no productive discussion today when he crashed the press conference. He

knew what was gonna happen. He knew what was gonna happen. It's a crass political move. Um. You know, I doubt if this is actually gonna do anything but get him on the evening news. And I doubt if he's going to convince one voter who's on the fence of this because of the horrible thing that has occurred, uh, that that somehow he's he deserves their votes. So I think

people need to take a step back from this. I don't think these kind of stunts are the way to salute solutions and and if anything, it just starts to harden up everybody else's approach to this at a time when people are are still grieving in that community. So um, you know, look, I I would not have encouraged anybody

to do what he did. I would have suggested that there's another way to make your point without, you know, trying to crash a press conference where they're trying to inform the public and inform the community of what what just happened. There's still a lot of questions about this young man who you know, uh, stormed this this elementary school and slaughtered these kids. So I think I think we need to take a step back here and just take a breath and hope we can actually get real

reform done in a in a more benign environment. Jennie will bettle 'rourke regret that or is he raising money already? He's been raising money all along and he'll raise more. You know, I agree the politicization is a problem, but you know what, he also displays the kind of urgency that many people are asking for as students and kids are slaughtered in their classrooms. So I give him kudos. His message is right, the timing may have been wrong. Wow,

you will not hear conversations like this anywhere else. That's why we welcome you every day to the fastest hour in politics. Many thanks to my colleagues Rick and Jeannie, I'm Joe Matthew and Washington Will meet you here tomorrow as we follow the conversation from the nation's capital. This is Bloomberg