Sound On: Biden Riyadh Trip Goals, Compromise in Congress

Senator Sanders says he'd be open minded. I believe him bipartisan trip, but more important, I believe we have a corrupt political Sister Floomberg Sound On with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio. Yes, President Biden is going to Saudi Arabia. Welcome to the fastest hour in politics, as gas prices hold at record highs and Republican criticism only gets worse.

We'll talk about the trip to Riyad and what Joe Biden's meeting with the Crown Prince might produce with Daniel Kurtzer, former Ambassador to Israel and Egypt now at the Princeton

School of Public Affairs. Analysis from our panel today with Bloombery Politics contributor, Democratic analyst Ginnie Chanzano, along with Republican strategist Doug High, former communications director for the Republican National Committee, back with Us today for the Hour and later a new experiment in politics, as the Edward M. Kennedy Institute in Boston kicks off a series of extended debates between

Republican and Democratic senators in the search for compromise. I love more on the first debate between Bernie Sanders and Lindsey Graham. President Biden trying to get his arms around five dollar a gallon gas. He talked about it today before the a f l C. I oh big meeting, the trip to Philadelphia, everything in my power. The blunt prudent gas price site just said she invaded Ukraine. It's gone up a dollar seventies four gallon because of nothing else but that. So I have a land to bring

down the cost of gas and food. It's gonna take time, but let the world coordinate the largest release. What I able to do for the largest release of oil from the Global Fund and history million barrels a day. You can now officially add a trip to Saudi Arabia, at least confirmed by the White House once and for all.

The trip, which will also include stops in Israel the West Bank is about more than oil, though, according to Press Secretary Karine Sempire, to view engagement with Saudi Arabia and energy security as asking for oil is simply wrong, uh, and a misunderstanding of both the complexity of that issue and are multifaceted discussions with the Saudias. So what else

is on the agenda? What about Jamaica? Shogi? We discussed with Daniel Kurtzer, former US Ambassador to Israel and Egypt's lecturer and Abram Professor of Middle East Policy Studies now at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. Ambassador welcome, thanks for being with us. Is that true that this trip will be about more than oil? Oh? Very much so. It's a very complicated, substantive agenda with very severe political

implications for failure. Surely, he's got to make good on his commitment to try to bring down the price of oil through increased supply and and other measures. But there's

the human rights situation with Saudi Arabia. You know, this president called Saudi a radio para state, and he'll be shaking hands with the man who was responsible for ordering the assassination of Kashogi, and then there's the Israel and Palestine stops, where Israeli policy and the territories is likely to come up, Palestinian demands to reopen their the American

Consulate General. Every aspect of this trip has complications. You heard the White House Press Secretary of there a moment ago, Kareene john Pair was asked by reporters day on Air Force One they were on their way to Philadelphia about the killing of Jamaica Schoki, for which, as you pointed out, Joe Biden has labeled or once labeled Saudi Arabia a pariah of the world. So how does he bring this up? Here is what she said when she was asked if

it would come up. Human rights is always part of the conversation in our foreign foreign engagement, so that will always be the case. It doesn't, it does regardless of who he's meeting with. We are not what we I want to say. We're not overlooking any conduct that happened before the president took office. Okay, not overlooking any conducts. So that sounds like a yes, Ambassador, What could Joe Biden say about this? Two MBS when we're the ones asking for help? You know, part of the issue here

is educating our own public. H the there was a backgrounder by a senior administration official who tried to lay out all the reasons why we have a strategic relationship with the Saudist and we do. UH. There's security and the Gulf UH, the oil or energy issue, the situation in Yemen, uh climate, you name it, UH. And then you have human rights, which at least in the public's mind,

seems to be overriding these other issues. So the President, on the one hand, has to tell the American people why he's going to do this, and he's got to impress upon Mbs Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince, that it's not it's not simply possible to to forget about what happened to Kashogi. The Saudis will have to find a way to deal with the perception that they kill people at will when they're uh dissatisfied with the policies. What if they don't care, Well, that's going to be

the problem when he comes back home. He already faced his problems from his own party, let alone the Republicans who are critical of his decision to go. Knowing that he's going to have to meet with the Crown Prince uh and he's going to have to find a way to impress upon the Saudiast. But our relationship is important enough to them as it is to us that they have to bend a little bit. This doesn't result in

an apology or something. Right. Well, America have to take Joe Biden at his word about what was said behind closed doors. I think that's going to be the bottom line. There's there's no way that MBS is going to apologize publicly. It would diminish the perception of his strength in Saudi Arabia. But the President can come out of a four Eyes meeting and say that, you know, we've reached an understanding that the Saudiast know that they did something wrong and

have undertaken not to do it again. Spending time with Daniel Kurtzer, former ambassador to Israel and Egypt now with the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, Donald Trump was very careful, as you well know, Ambassador, to not disturb this relationship, and specifically, as he would point out some big defense contracts, how important is it? And by the way, let's listen to him, this is just to

go back in time here, this is November. I'm not going to destroy the world economy and I'm not going to destroy the economy for our country by being foolish with Saudi Arabia. Was there truth to that, ambassador? And how important is it for the US to be working with Saudi Arabia as an ally for national security in the Middle East? Forget oil for a minute. Well, I think there are three things. Number One, UM, the rhetoric

around those contracts was much greater than the reality. The Saudiast did not produce UH the kind of commitments that President Trump suggested. Number Two, the Saudis are important for the United States and for security in the region. They've been an ally of ours for eighty years. They helped us in various UH difficult situations, for example the First Gulf War and in the War on Terrorism. UH. They

are now being helpful with the situation in Yemen. UH. And I think the third issue, though, is that we're a country that still pays attention to human rights, and the Saudi should know this by now. UH. You know, we usually find ways to mediate our differences of you on that, but the Saudis are going to hear that we are concerned about human rights generally in the Kingdom and the the ongoing concern over the Kashogi murder. Did Joe Biden say too much as a candidate in his

early commentary on this? Was that short sighted for a man who would become president. I think the rhetoric of candidates generally is overboard, and I think on this case, the use of the word pariah state was probably uh ill advised. Uh you know, it's taken sixteen months to kind of back away a little bit, and the importance of the trip to Saudi Arabia indicates that we both

may be sobering up after all. He When the president goes to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, it's not just to meet the Saudis, but there's a big summit meeting including the six Gulf Cooperation Council members Egypt, Jordan, and Iraq. So that's a quite important multilateral experience and it reinforces the idea that America is back in the Middle East,

that we haven't abandoned that region. How much did Donald Trump's service, for lack of a better word, to Israel and Saudi Arabia disadvantage the relationship with this president now or do you not connect those dots. Well, I think they are connected politically. Uh. You know, in Israel at that time you had a Prime Minister, Mr. Natonia, who who was quite overtly supportive of Republicans. Uh and the

Saudis were quite comfortable with Republicans and President Trump in particular. Uh. So there was a problem created not just for President Biden, but for the Democratic Party, and then both countries have had to kind of find their way back into a relationship. For Israel it's been a little bit easier because Nick Tanya, who is out of power, and the coalition, however shaky it is in Israel, has kind of reset the relationship with both the United States and particularly with the Democratic Party.

This trip will allow the Saudiast to do the same thing. And you know, one of the big deliverables is going to be on energy, as as you've been reporting. And if the President can come back and say the Saudiast are going to do what they can do to increase production and therefore reduced prices, you know a lot of people are going to say, all right, we'll swallow hard

on human rights and we'll live with with that. Situation. Well, this is America after all, Ambassador, what does it mean then, lastly, seeing this trip, hearing about deliverables to your point, what does it mean about a any possibility of a renewed Iran nuclear deal? Well, I've think in some ways that separate issue. It's certainly related in terms of the U, S,

Saudi and US Gulf security cooperation. Those countries are very concerned not only about the Iran, about Iran's nuclear program, but also about its malign activities throughout the region and Yemen, in Lebanon and in Syria. Uh So it's a it's a very critical issue. The j c p o A, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran, I think is not a certainty. The chances of its being concluded

are fairly low. But I think a lot of that responsibility lies with the Iranians, who have increased their demands for issues outside of the negotiations, for example, removing the Iranian Revolutionary Guards from the terrorism list, something the administration will not do. I can talk to you all our Daniel Kurtz are fascinating conversation with our former ambassador to Israel and Egypt now working on Middle East Policy Studies

at the Princeton's School of Public and International Affairs. You won't hear that anywhere else today, and you won't hear our panel. We assemble the panel next. This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg. You sound on with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio. The headline on the terminal Gaspers Biden pivot on Saudia's and as we just discussed with Ambassador Kurtzer, President Biden will meet with Crown Prince Mohammed ben Selman

m b S with a lot on the line. This president, unlike the previous president, is not afraid to talk tough with foreign leaders. So I have every confidence that Senate that President Biden will handle this very well. Chuck Schumer earlier today, the Senate Majority Leader, with his take, remembering how upset Chuck Schumer was with Donald Trump over all of this back in when it happened President ought to be taking the strongest possible action against the Saudis. There

are lots of things that can be on. That was just after details into the killing of Jamal k were reported. And that's where we begin with our panel with inside Bloomberg Politics contributor and Democratic analyst Genie Chanzano, along with Republican strategist Doug Highs, back with US Today former communications director for the Republican National Committee, Genie, is President Biden

making the right move here? And how does he manage this juggling act of somehow condemning MBS for the killing of Kashogi while asking for them to pump more oil in the kingdom? Boy, it is a tough needle to thread.

And I thought you and the ambassador laid it out so beautifully in your conversation, because he talked about, you know, this attempt to educate the public as to why we have a relationship with Saudi Arabian, why the relationship is so important, And yet in in an effort to do that, you have to say that security in the Gulf, oil and energy, the situation in Yemen climate, those are more important than human rights of somebody that even the U. S.

Intelligence community has said brutally murdered a Washington Post reporter and so threatening that and Nil was very difficult. And you listen to some of the President's friends in the Senate like Dick Durban and Ron Why Diden and Ben Carton and others. They are, you know, understanding why he is going, but they are saying if they were asked, they would say, you can't trust these people, and that

is what the President's dealing with. And throughout all of this, I was thinking, this is why it is so much easier to be a senator than it is to be president, because you don't have to make these tough choices. Can't trust them, Doug High, but apparently we need them. I mean that seems to be part of the messaging that

we're hearing from the White House. And you know the fact that they were so reticent to admit that this meaning that clearly was going to happen is in fact happening tells you that they're not entirely comfortable with where they're at right now. I am, and so you know, this is exactly that point. These are difficult times and difficult decisions. They knew this in advance, and it's why they tried to shy away from it for as long as they did. This will cap four days of travel

in the region, uh Doug. That will include stops as well in Israel the West Bank. As we discussed with the ambassador that they they kind of pad the schedule here to make it look like there was more involved, or is this in fact a necessary trip to the region as opposed to the country. Well, they both can be true simultaneously. Neither is mutually exclusive. But clearly they don't want the only footage, if we actually see footage or a picture of this, to be the meeting with MBS.

They want to have more to show. They want to show the President leading as a president should um, and Israel is a great place for him to do that. So it's not a surprise that they're that they're doing the two in tandem. I don't know how many Americans are going to be paying attention to this genie, or if we have a sense of that. There was outrage four years ago when when Jamal Ka Shogi was was murdered, and I mean this wasn't just you know, this was

grizzly stuff. There were stories about a bone saw being carried into the embassy where this happened. Americans are, though, obsessed with gas prices right now, and so I'm assuming the White House can see the other side of this. They can see the other side of this valley genie, and they hope it's a celebration for something less than five dollars a gallon. Yeah, and now I have a hypothetical for you, Joe. Imagine this. They go over there, they have him shaking hands with this guy who's accused

of this horrific, brutal murder. And yet you know, somebody you've talked to a lot, Dan Jurgen says, something that's not talked about is even if the Saudis pump more oil, there's not a lot more oil and Saudi in the UAE to significantly change the market. So imagine all of this. They pump it and then you know, it's a psychological wind, but it doesn't lower cost. And in fact, people have argued that that going towards so close to their spare

capacity could also make the markets very nervous. And so you've got, you know, a fraud situation for the White House. They sent him over there just for this purpose, and it doesn't end up achieving even that. I mean, that's a worst case scenario, but one that, according at least to what Dan's saying, could potentially happen. That's right, And Doug, looking, let's say he secures lots of oil, they found a missing well, something happened, it still doesn't overcome the refining

bottlenecks that we're dealing with in this country. If he gets a meaningful increase in production, could we actually handle it by could we turn it into gasoline in this country? It's it's really not clear that we'll be able to. So it's, as Jennie said, it's it's a psychological wind. But you know, psychology is really important here, and you're one of the things that Vladimir Putin ultimately decided was

he was going to make a bet. And the bet that Vladimir Putin made was that he was going to be able to get away with everything that he's done in Ukraine. If you're watching what's happening right now and you're Putin, you're more comfortable with your bet today than you were two weeks ago. Well what do you think about that? Jennie, Yeah, I think that's very possible. And that is also a real real problem for this White House.

And this White House just has tough decisions to make all around, including tariffs in China, which is he's addressing the a f l C I OH today, He's how to make a decision on something that will make his Union friends very unhappy. Yeah, a lot of talk about inflation today, about gas prices in front of the Union. Here are we headed for either a gas tax holiday or we're now hearing as a cur tax on oil profits. Doug, is that coming next? Um? You know it's it's gonna

be difficult to pass that through the Senate. But clearly this is part of the conversation politically that Democrats would rather be having um than everything else that we've already laid out. And this is more terror firmer for Democrats message wise than anything else they've got. Reminding us again how few options Washington has not just this White House in dealing with these problems. Genie and Dougs day with us for the hour. As we turn next to the

Senate Project an experiment in politics. This is Bloomberg. The very first debate in the Edward M. Kennedy Institute's New Senate Projects series took place yesterday There it isn't a scale replica of the Senate Chamber right there in Boston, Massachusetts. With Senators Lindsey Graham the R, of course, and Bernie

Sanders the D. They got together broadcast on Fox. This came from the faux Senate Chamber, moderated by Brett Bear, and we wanted to talk about the aims of this whole project and give you a sense of what was said as they got together just hours after this new deal on gun safety legislation was announced. And we're joined by the chair of the board at the E. M. K Institute, Bruce Percellet. Welcome to Bloomberg. Thank you very much. Congrats on getting this series off the ground. Why does

America need this now? We are as divided as at any point in recent memory, and some whould argue as divided as we then up to up to the Civil War. The Senate is not working and something needs to be done. It was fascinating to hear from Senator Sander and grahams

since they're so far apart in so many issues. Certainly displayed that over the course of an hour, but I was taken by one particular exchange Bruce at the end of the debate, as Senator Graham thought the two had found common ground on the gun safety legislation that's moving through the Senate actually just announced within hours of this debate taking place. Let's listen to Lindsay Graham we've made

some news here today. Senator Sanders says he would be open minded depending on how it's written to the package we've negotiated. That's a big deal because it's not what he would want. To his credit, there are things in there that you want that we can't put in the package for different because other people don't want them. So the fact that Bernie's will in Brett maybe to vote for this is very encouraging to me. Referring to Brett

Bear who was moderating, and that sounds pretty good. But when Senator Sanders spoke Bruce, things well didn't sound quite as hopeful. Here's what he said. Most people, frankly, whether they are conservative, Republicans or progressives, well told you help me that the Congress is way way out of huch with the needs of the American people. Now, you may disagree with Medicare for all, you may disagree with expanding Social Security, lifting the cup. Maybe that's not where the

American people are at. So yeah, I believe in bipartisanship. But more important, I believe we have a corrupt political system dominated by wealthy campaign contributors. So, Bruce, this gets to two very important issues. Number one My part isn't compromise is apparently still possible. But to Senator Sanders point, does the compromise in fact serve the middle ground in America? And is it possible to answer that? It really depends on who's up it bad. Bernie Sanders has very strong

views um somewhould are you strident? Use? But you know you if you want a hundred percent of your position, you can often find you have a percent of nothing. And I think that Lindsey Graham yesterday was very lear in his willingness to uh to compromise, and compromise means not getting everything you want. Uh. Bernie Sanders, indeed, is I believe going to sign the framework of the gun Um bill that they are now starting to put together, and if so, you will have both of them signing it.

Neither of them are going to be getting exactly what they want. But this is why we have a problem, and uh we need to just ship away at it. But I think some senators are going to be a little more receptive, receptive to the idea and offers how difficult has it been or not to convince senators to do this? You know what you ask a terrific question, and it surprised us. It has been very easy. And what does that tell you? It tells you that these senators want to be able to find an opportunity to

to be civil. And when they're in Washington and they are too close to their own party, they can be vilified for what might be considered, you know, fratnizing with the enemy. UM. In this case, UM, you know, this is a much safer venue for them to cross UM, that great divide and reach out to people who too often happened, you know, viewed as um, you know, the dark side and and and the enemy, when in fact, you know, we're all on the same team. Ultimately, I'm

curious what were the accommodations for the senators Bruce. Did they see each other yesterday before they were introduced? They did not, and that in part was because of where they were flying from and when they were flying in and so UM, they did not have the chance to kind of have a UM, you know, pre debate get together. But I will tell you that may be a good thing. By the way, you know, why why leave it in

the green room? I They say, yeah, exactly, we don't want to save the you know, the gracious handshake for for the green room. But at the end of the debate, I did present them both with a gift, and I assured them that neither had this particular gift. And what I did do was I gave Bernie an autograph picture from the Senator Graham, and I gave Senator Graham an autograph picture from Bernie. And they each had written you a very pleasant inscriptions to each other when I when

I caught them before. So I hope they sit on their mantele versus the circular file, or at least in the on the fridge. Bruce, what's the endgame here for for the Institute? You have several more of these debates planned, which makes it sound like the Institute is expanding its mission. Oh, there is no question. I don't see an endgame and that we want to continue this. We want to be

a convenient convener, We want to be a resource. The response that we have gotten, certainly from a media standpoint, has been extraordinary. I just got a clip that was written in the newspaper in India. Um, it has gone all over Europe. You know, the world is watching us. The world wants to know that we still are there the beacon of democracy, and I think it's very unsettling for the rest of the world when when we are showing the type of division that we have. So um,

we are definitely planning to elevate our institute. We have a facility that is extraordinary. I mean we literally have the exact replica down to the screw head of the night. I had to chuckle watching them look around the room in the chamber, Bruce. I think they were both wondering how they got back to Washington so quickly. Bruce personally, Chair of the board at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute, thank you for creating this forum for intellectual debate and

stay in touch with us as it moves forward. Thank you, and let the healing begin. Coming up, we put it to the panel speaking of healing. Looking ahead as well to the next set of primaries. It's Primary Day. Genie Chamzano and Doug High back with us next on the fastest Hour in Politics. I'm Joe Matthew. This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg. You sound on with Joe Matthew

on Bloomberg Radio. The Senate Project Debate. We just talked about between Bernie Sanders and Lindsey Graham was aimed at inspiring compromise, taking the time to air out our differences, finding common ground, and the two were more than cordial even when they did not agree, but they also found the line. And if you ask Senator Bernie Sanders, it's we have a form of president. His name is Donald Trump. It goes around the country telling people, hey, I won

the election. Bat I probably wanted by a landslide, but they stole it. They took it away from me. All right. Now, that happens to me what we call a big lie. And yet many of the Republicans that Senator Graham or asking you to vote for maintaining that big life. What does that mean? It goes beyond Trump, It goes beyond the election. It means what they are saying is the entire system. You can't trust anybody. And if you can't trust the election results, that what is the obvious old turnative.

We need a strong man. That would be Donald Trump. Now, if you ask Lindsey Graham, and he's kind of shaking his head listening to this, listen, listen closely to his answer, because he acknowledges for him it comes down to a different issue, crime and by extension funding the police. No, I'm voted to certify the election. President binds the president

and whether from the election. Yeah, okay, but what about all of the candidies out there, and we're trying to say that he did your Republican candidates, So you want people to vote for it? Well, you know, court about the people saying defund the police, You talk to them out talk of that. Crowds at larger than micro Okay, So look, you can't agree on everything, and I'm guessing they're not going to go talk to each other's crowds.

But a good time to reassemble the panel. I'm deeply curious to hear what Genie and Doug think of all of this. Bloomberg Politics contributor, Democratic analyst Genie Chanzyo. Doug High is back today, Republican strategist, former communications director at

the Republican National Committee. Doug, when you hear this, I suspect that that you appreciate the spirit of this exercise or experiment, if we should call it that, just getting to senators from opposite sides to actually come in there and talk about of course, one is an independent to be clear with Bernie Sanders, but you know what I mean. But there there are intractable points of disagreement. They found

that line on the election. Just as the January six Committee hearings are taking place, Doug, we're reminded that will compromise is within reach. We are still deeply divided over issues that don't seem like they're going to resolve anytime soon. No, no, they certainly don't. And as these hearings continue, it's clear that a case is being built, both a political case and a legal case. UM that is just more and

more damning every day. And I say that as recently as while we've been on break, seeing more video coming from the committee just over the past few minutes, and you know, ultimately, you know, this is a very strange time in Washington because we're seeing the first kind of bipartisan legislation potentially on a controversial issue in a long,

warm time, on guns and school shootings. And meanwhile, we have what's what's going on at um, you know, at the January six Committee and their Supreme Court decisions that are removing that could potentially be massively divisive as well. G D, were you inspired by this exercise or concerned by what you heard. I think it is critically important to have this discussion, and I applaud the institute for

looking for common ground. As you know, I wrote an entire book in another direction, So I have to say, as much as I support the idea of inspiring people to find common ground, the reality is with human beings you can't just inspire them, because some are inspired and some are not. You actually have to restructure the system to it impromise. And the other thing I would say is the problem is not necessarily division, but it is stalemate.

In other words, it's stalemate about things that the super majority agree with, as we've seen on things like background checks, and that stalemate is something that also you can restructure your weight out of. So I applaud the idea of inspiring compromise and looking for it, but more important to

have a conversation about restructuring to get there. So it's primary day and Donald Trump, I guess touches all of these stories because we're back to looking at the Trump impacts on the electorate here, uh, and we've got some important ones today. South Carolina is the one we're looking at. I suspect that Genie and Doug, you are as well, because we've got and this is the first case where we have a Republican candidate who is being challenged by

a Trump endorsed candidate after voting to support impeachment. That's Tom Rice. Representative Tom Rice, Republican from South Carolina. He is being challenged by a man named Russell Fry who has been endorsed by Donald Trump. And they're having fun with the commercials with the ads up there. Here's a Fry ad where they're in it like a support group meeting, and it's full of bad guys like Satan and the joker who's speaking now about this new guest they have

in the room. Okay, everybody, remember this is a safe space. Weird, get some things off of our chest. We've all done things proud of. We haven't had a congressman here in a while. So let's go ahead and start with the Tom is a Tom Tom Rice. You don't have to say. He talks about all the horrible things he's done in his life, including voting for impeachment. Now Tom Rice has his own approach, and it's a very different one. Listen to the language in his ad. I've delivered hundreds of

millions for schools, broadband, new roads, and more. Let's put progress over petting this. Let's put results over revenge. I'm Tom Rice and I approved this message. Results over revenge. Doug High, who are you watching as a potential winner tomorrow?

Can he defend this seat? He can look at you know, what we've seen is is the Donald Trump endorsement gets the candidate that he endorses to one third of the vote, and from there it's really up to individual districts, individual races and the candidates themselves and how they're running and what their success hasn't and will be. That's also true with the Arrington Mace race in South Carolina as well.

But when I'm hearing the most from from folks at the NRSC and the NRCC is not concerned about these races and who might emerge, but more other races where if somebody wins a primary, it might cost him a seat. And the example I hear more than any other is Missouri, where Eric Bryden's in the Senate race is leading by you know, six or eight points, depending on the poll that you look at, over candidates who would definitely Republican candidates who would definitely win an Eric Schmidt of Vicky

Harts there Billy Long. Both of those last two are members of Congress, and so in the prism of the two thousand ten, two thousand twelve, two thousand fourteen races where Todd Ache and Richard Murdoch, Sharon Angle Christine O'donnald cost Republicans Senate seats that were basically already in the bag.

Having a risky candidate like Eric Gryton's as the nominee is something that's putting real fear um into Republican minds more so than who may emerge on what something says about Donald tru Which is why it's interesting to watch Democrats put money behind some of these Republican candidates in the hopes that they can create a scenario like that. Genie, how important is it for Tom Rice to win this tomorrow just in terms of blunting the Trump effect? Yeah,

Tom Race is. It's so fascinating because he has been defiant. You know, he has said if this cost me the election, it would be a badge of honor. So you know, he's one of ten, you know who voted for impeachments. So this is going to be a real marker today. And you know, Joe, I told you earlier this ad that you just played by that Friedran is one of

my favorite of the season. I wouldn't know about it if you hadn't said it to him, if only because it's so weird, because if there's villains, wouldn't they you know, it was so strange because they're cheering him on because he's so bad. I mean, the whole thing was so bizarre. Um, So I was just fascinated by that ad. But you know, I think, you know, I agree with Doug, you know Rice and and Mace. You know, I think Rice, because of his district, they this may go to a runoff.

Mace has been a lot less vocal um. Of course. You know, her third day in Congress, she votes to certify the election, you know, getting Trump's you know, you know, vitriol and anger, and now she's got this opponent who she claims is is not electable. So you know, Mace also has a very different district, so I think she's probably got a slightly easier shot. But again, it's going

to be fascinating to watch. And then of course, as you go over to Nevada, You've got Adam Laxol, who's got Trump's endorsement, but he's coming up against this you know, Sam Brown, this newcomer who's outspending him and who also, fascinatingly enough, is a real you know, a real person who has been pushing this idea that the election was stolen. And his criticism of lax All is that Laxol did file a lawsuit, but he lost, and shame on him

for losing that he should have won. So you know, it's almost like who can out maga who at this point, Well, that's I guess that's true, Doug. I mean, it's it's shades of revenge here when it comes to Tom Right. And you you mentioned Nancy Mace. First, she did not vote to impeach Donald Trump, but she did criticize him for January six and has been paying for it ever since. It got to the point, thug, and I'm you probably

saw the video she went to New York. In fact, we spoke with her that same day and she stood in front of Trump Tower to take a selfie video to try to set the record straight on the fact that she, in fact, she supported Donald Trump's policies. I mean, this is really something for him to be inspired to endorse a candidate against her even though she didn't vote

to impeach. Yeah. Absolutely, And you know, it's it's interesting because what we see so often is regardless of your Trump nominates or endorses that a lot of the Republicans are going to run to be as trumpy as they can be. Anyways, Clearly that was the Pennsylvania Senate primary and right, so that's that's a real factor. Look, Republicans know that the that the base of power is essentially around Donald Trump, even if it doesn't follow specifically whom

Trump endorses or doesn't endorse. Madison Kawthorne, for instance, lost in North Carolina to Chuck Edwards. So Republicans are looking to see, you know, what is the size of the Trump electorate and generally the Trump endorsement carries a third and then we'll see from there and can they nominate Republicans who can win in November? And that's first and foremost on their mind, the big question, right. Analysis from Doug Hi Genie Chanzano. Thanks to you both for being

our panel these last couple of days. Happy primary Day will have results tomorrow. I'm Joe Matthew, this is Bloomberg,