Sound On: DeSantis "God" Ad, Midterms Forecast, Ballot Splitting

way we deserve. But I know in three days it's gonna be a new day in PA. Bloomberg Sound On with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio. Final Countdown to the Election. Welcome to the fastest hour in politics on this election eve, with final polls and predictions out, final arguments by the candidates on the trail. We're joined by Jessica Taylor of

The Cook Reports. Straight Ahead, we'll check in with Maryland centered Ben Cardon on his way to see President Biden tonight at a rally for Democrats on the very same night Donald Trump is stumping in Ohio. We'll talk with Bloomberg's Ryan tigue beckwith on voters splitting the ballot, and we'll run it all past the panel. Bloomberg Politics contributors Rick Davis and Genie Schanzano are with us for the hour.

We're gonna get you set for everything that may happen tomorrow as we lay out the possible scenarios here for what could be by the way, not just tomorrow, but days ahead, figuring out what in the world happened in the mid term campaign. The mid term elections polls open tomorrow morning. So today was the last full day of campaigning and followed a weekend very busy one on the trail with Donald Trump out there, President Biden out there too.

This election isn't a referendumous at choice. It's a choice between two fundamentally different visions of America. I've set from the beginning. My objective when I ran was the building a conifer in the bottom up, in the middle out And I tell you what, it's a fundamental shift. It's working compared to the mega mega Republican trickle down economics.

Yet it's not supposed to matter. Based on the polls, we're seeing Republicans set to win the House, and it looks like the Senate too, and that's where we begin with Jessica Taylor. Things have changed a lot since we started talking with Jessica a few months ago, Senate and Governor's editor for the Cook Political Report. She's with us now on election. Even Jessica, the momentum has been in the Republican direction. Now it seems for weeks will Democrats

both lose chambers tomorrow. The House is a farm looked further gone in the Senate. The Senate is still very I think we're still going to be very, very close. But Democrats wish this election had been held about a month ago, and I think they could have kept the Senate at that point. But the closure it gets to election day, the more worried um Democrats that I've talked to have gotten and the more bullish Republicans strategist that

I talked to have gotten. So we changed our range from you know, a cup back in September we said Democrats, we had a range of anything from Democrats picking up one seat, two Republicans picking up two seats um and right now we have changed it to just no net change, which would mean that Democrats continue to keep the Senate. But it's fifty again. Vice President Harris is the deciding vote, up to a Republican gain of three seats. So there

are a couple of different scenarios in there. We could happen, We could see happen, but three out of four of those could be could be Republican slepping the Senate. Yeah, that's for sure. Well we're talking about the Senate. You consider Pennsylvania and Georgia too close to call. One could go to recount, what could go to run off? How long will it be before we know who controls the Senate? I don't think it's going to be on election night.

All the we could see candidates channel Trump had come out there in and declare victor read it's I don't think the ballots are going to be as lopsided as they were amidst the pandemic two years ago. But you have places it can't even start to count mail in ballot until election day. Um. So the states that have other laws where they can at least start hearing them

and counting them, we know those results even more. We know that Democrats are more likely to vote early or to vote absentee, whereas Republicans usually turn out on election day. And if we're seeing big turnout. That's something that could benefit Republicans. It could be a couple of days, maybe even a week um to fully know if Pennsylvania is

really really close. It was in the UM and the and then the Republican primary there the Senate was decided by less than a thousand votes between Dr Oz and David McCormick there, and you're right, Georgia, it could go. If no candidate gets over, then it could. It will go to a run off. That's on December six, a month earlier than we saw two years years ago, so only maybe ruining one holiday and that other one. So

that's the and that's the question. And I think the scenario changes based on whether it's that race is for Senate control. It could be deja vu again that it comes down to Georgia there, and that's not a scenario that Democrats like in their favor. But I also think you have, of course the Republican nominee, their football star Herschel Walker, who has been a weaker candidate. He benefits from having the Governor Bryant Hemp on the ballot. That

actually could help him. The Republicans hope get above fifty and the runoff question is moved, right, but well you're also the governor's editor. As I mentioned, we're talking about the Senate here, this being a mid term cycle with with no presidential election, Jessica, how important will governors be as voters work their way down the ballots and states

like Georgia, governor should be more important. I mean, they're very important, and I hope that voters have realized in the past, you know, two years, how to three years, how important they have been because we saw them making critical decisions during COVID. Really those decisions affected you more closely than national decisions did, based on where you were, based on how many people were getting vaccines, if areas were shut down, if schools were shut down, a lot

of different things in there. And then the governor's races also took on an extra mportance. I think this summer when the Supreme Court jobs decision overturned Robe Wade and sent the question back to the state. So in many answers, if there were they trigger law on the books for such as such as there is in Michigan. The Democratic

governor there, Gretchen Whitmer, due to block that um. In Wisconsin, uh to the Democratic Governor Tony Tony Evers, who is very in danger, even more so than wimmer Um, said that he, you know, it would be an eight eight eighteen hundreds law that would go back into effects and the would even criminal is doctors for doing the procedure. He said that he would essentially pardon, uh, you know, those people that do so. You have a lot of

different scenarios happening here and in the abortion question. Jessica Taylor with us from the Cook Political Report. Lastly, Jessica, what what's the house projection here? We've we've heard from uh quite a quite a spread here. Does does Cook have a number? Is it fifteen? Is it twenty? For Republican seats in the House. So our final call from uh my colleague David Wasserman, who is our House editor, is at this point. But if it's a wave night, that could go up to thirty or so. Got it. Jessica,

thanks for being with us. I wish you luck in your coverage tomorrow and come back and see us again soon here on Bloomberg Sound On. She's the Senate and Governor's editor for the Cook Political Report. You offully busy tomorrow. I'm Joe Matthew in Washington as we bring in our panel on this night before. Genie Schanzano is here and so is Rick Davis with me in studio here at Bloomberg in Washington, d C. Fifteen to twenty. I wonder how that sounds to both of Eugenie, what's your thought?

And it's interesting because some are already suggesting that that'd be a pretty darn good night for Democrats when you look at say, Donald Trump losing forty right in the last minute. I am one of those people. I am one of those people. I think if Democrats can keep the losses in the low twenties, that is a good night historically for the president's party. Um, you know, obviously much better to win. I know Rick Davis is going to counter if you lose, you can't be celebrating it.

But you know, historically, as you mentioned forty sixty, that's what we've been looking at. In the modern era, with the president's approval rating the way it is, with inflation the way it is, and all the other factors working against Democrats, a loss of you know, the low twenties is okay night for the Democrats, and it robs Kevin McCarthy of a huge majority that he needs to try to push forward some of the policies they want. So

for Democrats that would be good. Do you see the Senate going to I think it turns and I mean, you know, I think we're looking probably at I'm estimating a fifty two but which you know, hopefully I am wrong on that um but that that's what we're probably looking at at this point. And you know, that's probably in keeping with history, if it's any guide here, that's probably what we're going to see. We're throwing numbers around here, Rick, But basically, what Genie is telling us his Republicans own

Capitol Hill after tomorrow. Genie is making me very happy. He's like, she's she's got all my talking points. She's obviously been listening all your long. We don't even Republican dominance of Washington. Yeah. Look, I mean, twenty new Republican House members, and like, he can't get done what he wants to get done. Plus he had five a margin of five, and they got a lot done primarily because they had in the presidency. So Joe Biden is gonna be vetoing a lot of legislation. Yeah, I think I

think that that's probably the case. I think that there'll be a lot of investigations. I think there'll be a lot of oversight. I think they'll they'll they'll be um some pressure on, you know, financial issues like the budget and the debt ceiling and things like that that otherwise by didn't have too much of last time around. And so yeah, I think that that you've got that's a plenty in your side. You know, a margin of twenty is the number to do whatever you want to do

to accomplish. I don't want to put numbers in your mouth. I think it could be bigger than that. I mean, I think you could come out of the early part of the night with just coming through the Northeast potentially with five or six pickups, or even up the mid Atlantic before Florida, before you know, Pennsylvania, before Michigan. Um, so I think you have the potential. Really, as Jessica said to Ye, I wouldn't call it a wave, but I mean, to thirty new Republican House members is ten

or fifteen less than historical average. And I'm not sure we're bucking history here. I mean, it feels like history. It feels like every other mid term for the party out of power gets she lacked, has Barack Obama like to put it, And I think these Democrats are gonna go close to the sixty was that was a record, right, Yeah, I'm not gonna see that tomorrow. You see the Senate flipping like Jeanie does too. Yeah. Well, look, I mean

it's kind of like what Jessica said. I mean, like every poll in the last two weeks has been favorable to Republicans. The economy, uh, and Biden's administration. When you look at independent voters, it's less than thirty percent approval, less than thirty percent. So if you expect independence to break your way on the number one issue and your party in power the president has a twenty eight percent approval rating, you're probably pushing a big rock up a hill.

So yeah, I think I think Republicans are going to get the breaks that you get when you have momentum coming into election day. The Senate is interesting to me because they're so close to call, like eight Senate races that are toss ups right now. That's a really pretty high number. John Fetterman, of course, out over the weekend with President Biden, with President Obama, My God, every president, it seemed was walking around here three or more at

least with Donald Trump as well. Of course, this is the lieutenant governor who suffered a stroke in May, and his health main is still a major issue on the trip by January. I'm gonna keep feeling better and better, but but Dr Oz will still be a fraud. Well, Doctor Oz actually was out there with Donald Trump in Pennsylvania that same nime. We'll bring change to Washington so they treat us the way we deserve y'all in we all win. God bless you. I love to get both

of your reads on this. We've been talking about this race for the better part of a year, certainly since the primary. Uh, Genie, it's uh what it's within a point here. This is arguably the state that's going to decide the balance of power. Are you still looking at it that way? Yeah? I think we are, you know, And that's why everybody to your point, descended on Pennsylvania this weekend, and it has been a fight, particularly for

the suburbs. And you know, here's the reality. As much as I would like to make Rick Davis happy today and think that I am right about this, the reality is these polls are so close that if there is a huge turn out, particularly among African Americans, particularly among young people, then it could work in the democrats favor and some of these tight races and there could be

a very different night. We simply don't know. And that's why you had Barack Obama and Joe Biden out there trying to weave together a coalition based on the issue of democracy, based on the issue of abortion, based on the issue of character. And I think if the Senate holds democratic, it will be a fifty fifty And if that happens, the number one reason will be character of

these candidates that Donald Trump largely pushed forward. And number two will be Donald Trump himself saying for the last few days and certainly we're hearing it right to this minute, that he's going to announce for presidency. Those are the kinds of things supposed. Yeah, I'm very that's the best thing that could happen to the Democrats. Well, you know, I guess that. I mean, jeez, you know, leave it to Donald Trump to take the attention away from the

candidates who actually running. But tonight does it matter? If that happens tonight, we can get into this more later, But I mean the dice essentially cast here, isn't it? Yeah, the dies cast. I've never seen anything happen the night before an election that actually had a material believe me. And I've tried so many different things now, I've never tried a Donald Trump announces for president the night of

an election. Uh. That would definitely make history. But I can't imagine he would get in the way of what will otherwise be a declaration of victory by him. Virtually all the nominees that he endorsed are running in this general election, and a lot of them are going to get elected. So why get in the way of declaring victory tonight or tomorrow night for him by stepping on his own story. There was concern inside the campaign about having him not share a stage so much with Donald

Trump but with Doug Mastriano over the weekend. It's, of course, the Republican nominee for governor. It looks like he will likely lose based on the numbers we're seeing now, but he of course has been, you know, a steadfast supporter of Trump, an election denier, and he was on stage two. Failure is not an option. We have to win the future for our children and our freedom is at stake. But I know in three days there's gonna be a new day in p a is I mean, is that

baggage for doctor Oz or our voters in Pennsylvania? Rick, Are Republicans in Pennsylvania able to draw the line between the two? Yeah, they will draw the line between the two. I mean indication that you know, uh Oz has coat tails, right, which would drag in Mastriano and and in Mastriano is not obviously driving any vote, right, I mean, he's not got enough money and enough attention, uh to have any power around the vote, So he'll he'll be sort of

left behind by voters. And that's the ballot splitting that we could see in multiple states, Genie, we can you know, we expect maybe to see that. For instance, in Georgia you may have yeah, yeah, or people don't vote down ballot,

that's a possibility as well. But I think the you know, Ozz appearing on stage with Mastriano, that is problematic for Oz because Oz is the last few days been trying to sell himself as a moderate to attract these very important suburban, moderate independent voters, and appearing on stage with Mastriano and also Donald Trump. He's walking a very fine line and that's a difficult thing for him to swallow. He did it, We're gonna have to see if it

paid off. You know, we famously remember young Ken did not do that, He did not hug close to Trump, and he won. So if Oz doesn't win, we're going to be looking at this weekend to see did this rally and his appearance with these two uh you know, these two Republicans impact turn out amongst independence and support for him. We're going to connect in a moment with Senator Ben Cardon, who's going to be taking part in a pretty big rally tonight involving President Biden, you know,

closing arguments. As I mentioned in Bowie Maryland. Before we do though, just to get for both of you in terms of the House goes, you're gonna be watching early tomorrow a couple of important races in Virginia. Well, Abigail span Burger and uh Ellen, Laura tell us what's going to happen the rest of the night. Rick, Yeah, I think they are a strong indication, right, these are flipper districts.

Both of them are slightly Biden districts by three percent and six percent and um and and and if you are having anything close to a red wave, they go down um early in the evening. And I would say watch out for Virginia ten too, because if it is a red wave, Wexler goes down in the same pile that the other Democrats will and and that will be the first indication at a plus six plus eight democratic district is going Republican. And and then Katie bar the door.

You're at thirty or forty. So if we see those two lose, those Democratic incumbents lose the early hours tomorrow, Genie, it's trouble for Democrats. It could look like a wave. On the other one, I would watch. An addition to Virginia ten would be Indiana one. If we see that flip, that is going to signify something of a tsunami on the Republican side. Experts here on how to watch this take place tomorrow, Rick and Genie or with us for

the hour. As we now bring in Senator Ben Carton, as I mentioned, democrat from Maryland is not up for reelection. Here on his way to see President Biden at an event in Bowie. Senator, welcome back to Bloomberg it's good to be with you, particularly at this time when the nation is so focused on the mid term elections. Well, you're on your way, in fact, to a rally with President Biden later on tonight. God Love Bowie state, is the President an asset, senator or a liability at this

stage of the campaign. Oh, it's an asset. His record is very much appreciated by the people of Maryland. I think you're gonna find that the results on tomorrow would be very positive in regards to the Democrats and response to what President by has done. It's interesting he started this campaign cycle in Montgomery County, Maryland, is ending it in Prince George's County, Maryland. So we're very proud of President Biden and the fact that he has been in

Maryland so frequently. I see West Moore is up by something like thirty points in the race for governor. I think five thirty eight gives him uh out of a hundred, which is got to be a pretty good feeling going into a race. Is it nice to not be running, though, to to be able to to to rally and and act as as surrogate and not have to worry about

your own campaign, Well, quite frankly it is. I love campaigning, but particularly now I can campaign and not worry for my own election, but can really focus on where I can help other candidates. So I've been spending my time not only in Maryland, but in other parts of the country in order to help Democrats. Poll show a real uphill climb for Democrats on Capitol Hill as opposed to in the state of Maryland, House and Senate were told

could turn Republican. Do you believe these numbers? Well, we know the traditional thoughts about mid term elections for the the party that where the president is in power. So we recognize the historic trends here. Well, we think we have a good story to tell. We think has been receptive to the voters around the country. So we have great candidates running for the United States Senate, for Congress, so and governor. We're we're optimistic that we're gonna beat

some of the projections. Well, you know, Republicans say they're better equipped to manage the economy with inflation being the big issue in the campaign. You don't need me to tell you that. Uh. This, of course, though, is a global problem where it's hold. The feed is busy hiking interest rates. How if Democrats allowed Republicans to own that issue. You just passed the Inflation Reduction Act. Centator, Well, I

think President Biden has a really strong record. But the truth is that American families are hurting through no fault of President Biden or the actions in Congress. It is a global situation, as you pointed out, particularly before and you crane and energy crisis. But the facts are that people are upset. They're upset about their energy costs, they're upset about their food costs, they're upset about being able

to afford the essentials of life. And we fully understand that and at times that could very well have a negative impact on the party in power. So we recognize the risk factors here. Life isn't always fair, elections aren't always fair, but the voters get the last say. Well, it's interesting because you know, the Democrats have accused Republicans of, you know, being the dog that caught the car when

it comes to Roe. V Wade, Are you going to say the same thing about inflation when Kevin McCarthy or someone else is in charge. Well, no, I believe in being very partisans on elections. Again, so many Democrats elected as possible when when elections are over, you've got to govern, whether you're in the majority or the minority. So I am hopeful that once the election results are in, we're gonna find a new sense of purpose and we get

things done. Why is west More up more and thirty points, but other Democrats around the country are locked in such tight racist Senator, I think Westmore's message is one that resonates with the people of Maryland. I think people in this country. Uh. He says that we're all in this together and want to leave no one behind. He wants to invest in areas to improve education and opportunity for all Marylanders. Uh. It's a very strong message. He's a

charismatic speaker. He gives hope, he's a visionary for our future, and he's type of leader I think Mariland Marylanders want to see. I'm gonna ask you lastly about two things that are very close to your heart. One would be workers, the other crabs temporary worker visas. Senator. Of course, huge for the seafood industry. Which party can get more workers here, more manpower to responsibly far Maryland crabs. Well, we are very proud that President Biden has used all the discretion.

He has to increase states to be worker. Visa said that we have the seafood industry has what it needs. So I think Democrats have delivered in regards to seasonal workers. Congress needs to respond. And here's where we need to have Democrats and Republicans working together. But to modernize our immigration laws and provide an adequate number of worker pieces. I'll take a dozen large right now. Senator, I'm figuring

you feel the same way. If you know what the weather was today, I think people who wanted to be outside eating steve crabs. I agree with you. I'm yeah, I'm in d C. I'm ready for it, but I need I need some vinegar and spices on the side. How do you take it? Well, I agree with you. I'm a somewhat of a purist, but so but it's a it's it's a great tradition in our state. Only Maryland knows how to make a crab gig or how that air crab. So we're very proud of our role

in regard to the Maryland crabs. There's no such thing as a Democratic crab or a Republican one. Senator, Well, you know they're blue crabs. I stand correct it, Senator Ben Cardon, Democrat from Maryland, are regards to the President and booie State. While we're at it, coming up Ryan take Back with on ballot splitting tomorrow. I'm Joe Matthew and Washington. This is Bloomberg. It's a pretty impressive number

for a mid term election cycle. More than forty million people have already voted early votes that of course have been controversial in themselves, at least in terms of, you know, concept following the campaign with a lot of election deniers, including Donald Trump, suggesting that they are somehow compromised. Carry Lake would tell you that Ryan take Beckwarth joins us now Bloomberg News National Politics Report. Has been an awfully busy guy and sure will be for the next couple

of days here. Ryan, You've been very helpful helping us understand some of the trends across the country in this cycle. What does that forty million number tell you? I mean, I think that shows that early voting is here to stay. We're really only have three or four states left in which there's no option to either early vote in person or by mail, and one of those is Connecticut, where they're going to be voting on that in November. So I think, well, we pretty much should get used to

this being the pattern. What we have seen, like in recent days is some in Arizona, some Republicans now suggesting that, hey, maybe you should get out an early vote, um after they have spent a lot of time telling people that they should vote only an election day, which I think as an indicator they're a little nervous about this. Well, we've also seen it in some states, uh, fairly split between Democrats and Republicans. Right, this is not this is

not just a progressive trend. No, and and actually it's long been older voters who really appreciate the option to vote by mail and to early vote. Uh. And you can see if you look at the information from the US Elections Project that older voters are in fact the ones who have taken the most advantage of the early voting UM. But I do think that we're seeing more of a part of and split now with these early votes are really democratic and they banked a lot of these.

The question is whether there's a real surge of people showing up an election day Republicans that offsets that. Well, that said, of course, it is also gonna take us a little bit longer to find out who the heck won some of these races. UH, A state like Pennsylvania, for instances, not begin counting the early votes until the polls closed, right that's gonna start at eight o'clock, which could mean days before we know right now, it's not

the counting even, it's the processing. So when you vote by mail, you have to put it in in a special envelope and sign it, and they have to they have to take it out of that envelope, they have to double check that your signature matches and all of that. That takes time to do that. The counting is pretty fast once you're done with that, but they don't allow them to begin processing them like they do in some

other states, like Florida. So that's why in some states so they have vote by mail, they immediately have results when the polls closed because they can just click tabulate on those machines. But in Pennsylvania, it's going to take them awhile to unpack those and flay them Latin, run them through the machine confirmed the signature. So we may not know Pennsylvania um, other than the governor's race. We may not know until Saturday, So how does Ryan T.

Beck With tackle this? Then tomorrow? What are you watching in the early hours, Ryan, I think tomorrow should be pretty quiet. It's an election day. Those are usually pretty boring during the day, But once the polls closed and we start to get a sense of where the votes are headed, I am really on high alert for similar efforts to where someone decides that this isn't right, our

side should be winning or whatever. Particularly looking at the city of Detroit, there's election denier's running for multiple statewide positions in Michigan who have already kind of indicated that they may contest it if they lose. Uh So I'll be watching that closely tomorrow. Fascinating. Stay with us, Ryan, We look forward to talking with you again, whether it's tomorrow the day after. Ryan T. Beck With find his

work on the terminal. He has been just doing incredible work here tracking the so called deniers and exactly what will happen to them tomorrow night. We'll find out on Wednesday, hopefully in a conversation with Ryan. I'd love to follow up there. As we reassembled our panel. Rick and Jeanie are with us considering the impact of early voting or at least the phenomenon of early voting. Uh. Rick, Donald Trump and carry Laker telling people there's something wrong here.

But a lot of Republicans are are enjoying this as an option. And as Ryan said, it's here to stay. Why not embrace it? Yeah, why not embrace it? I'm totally with you. Uh, A lot of Republican strategists and operatives I know all around the country just scratch your head. If I can get a vote, you know, early, I can count that vote. It's in my pocket. I can focus on other voters, take them off the list, don't have to call them ten times on election day. Uh.

It's a good thing. And these are the laws, right, and people regardless of whether they were on the books before COVID or after. Uh, it's a real convenience item for voters. And we've always tried to find ways of spurring higher voter turnout. And there's a lot of evidence in the last three election cycles that we are having record voter turnout, not in small part because we've made it easier for people to vote. That's a good thing. Right.

This was a democratic uh sort of idea, at least it was framed in GIE but As Ryan points out, a lot of older retirees who might vote Republican really like this option as well. Is this the future of voting? I think it is. I think early voting mail in balloting any way to make it easier for people to exercise this right. I have to tell you, I was telling Rick earlier, this is the first year I've ever early voted by mail. I've always gone to the polls,

and I really relish the idea. Couldn't do it this year, so I early voted. It's convenient, and it does give people an option that they don't have for people who are working, people who are elderly, people who can't get to the polls on that day. So I do think we're going to see more and more of this. And to Rick's point, from a campaign perspective, it allows the candidates and the campaigns to focus on voters they may not wise be able to focus on, and that is

a boon for any campaign. Donald Trump telling people not to vote may have cost them the Georgia Senate both of those seats. In he shouldn't be repeating that we have seen that movie because it's popular for both parties. Though Ricky can't I mean, how do you tell who's

this who who these forty million votes are favoring? Well in Arizona is pretty easy, right, because you track votes by counties and by precincts, and you actually get updates from the Registrar's office on a regular basis, so as they can hold the ballot then, but on who returned one, who returned one? Or where they live? Right, what's their

zip code? Because like everything, we live in the places we have common political interests, right, and so you know, you can pretty much bracket any community in Arizona and most other states that aren't you know, vote by registration and know uh where the Republicans live, where the Democrats live, and what the tendencies are. Would say that things are pretty even the rightness day like Arizona. Yeah, I mean,

at least in terms of the early vote. The reality is early votes should be substantial in the Democratic favor. That's the typical Arizona voting pattern. Uh. We've seen in the last two cycles though, that Republicans started taking advantage of early voting, uh maybe even starting around COVID, and they've adopted it. So talking them out of it is just adding a hurdle to election day. Uh. And the other thing I would say is it does make it a little easier to count, right, I mean, like if

you're able to get to it first. Yeah. Absolutely. We had to do this because while it is the final countdown, Genior, you're ready from coming across the table here like you wouldn't believe. I have one more opportunity to talk to these two about some important trends. You're including some of what we heard from Donald Trump and might here tonight. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Son on with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio. It was almost the biggest applause

line of the night for Donald Trump. That would be when he decided to swear it doesn't take a lot. And I realized today as I'm preparing for the show and I'm bleeping the former president of the United States once again, I've never had to bleep a crowd before. So the speech he made was total. You know what, I won't use it because my wife always is she always is darling, don't use the word book, So I'm not going to use it. Intelligence first, one of his

favorite words there. But this isn't a play. Please don't use that word see please. It almost has a rhythm to it as we reassemble the panel, Rick and Genie or with us of course Bloomberg Politics contributors. Really, I never had to bleep a crowd before. But that wasn't the real applause line of the night. It was the stay tuned, stay tuned to tomorrow night in the great state of Ohio. Stay tuned, we have a big we have a big rally there for j D We have

a big, big, big rally. Stay tuned tomorrow night in Ohio. After he added another very it was very, very very very probably going to announce for the White House? Does he do that tonight, Jeanie, I heave a voting. Let us hope he does. I would love to see it. I'd love to see if it really up ends the campaign. I don't think he will because it makes little sense. But then again, can't predict what Donald Trump is going

to do. We talked about this last week, and they were seeing the four of November at that point, and I think I asked you at the time, Rick, if it was actually beneficial to clear the field as opposed to deal with the financial implications of announcing now do you feel any differently tonight? Only that maybe his lawyers met with him and said, hey, the indictment is pending any time now, and sooner you're a candidate, the more

likely as you'll slip the legal not um. But I would really be curious to see um j D kiss my gluteus maximus Trump on the stage when he announces for president tonight. That would really be entertaining. Yeah, that's that's one way to interrupt the news flow here. I mean that would be the front page headline to mar

Ginie instead of j D. Vance poised to win. Yeah, poor j D. He's going there to get some support, get some more votes tomorrow, and he's you know, it'll be stunning at Donald Trump puts his own interest ahead of somebody else. A lot of people made a big deal about the he's got a nickname. Now, by the way, how did rond to sanctimonious play with you guys? I thought that was pretty good. Anytime you can insert yourself in a commercial with God, you're probably over reaching a

little bit. But but you know, look, so I don't know how Donald Trump tests out the nicknames. He might have one for each of you. I don't know, but this one really actually they loved it. He was reading poll numbers on Friday night. Rondo Sanctimonia said, Mike Pence at seven. Oh, Mike's doing better than I thought. Liz Cheney, there's no way she's at four. There's no way, Rhonda sanctimonious. Uh did he come up with that? In the day after this? This you know, given by God ad came

out on the eighth day. Are there other ones out there? It makes you wonder? But this is the ad if you didn't see this that apparently inspired the nickname. This came out on Friday, a Rhonda Santis campaign ad on the eighth day. And on the eighth day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, I need a protect her. So God made a fighter. Black and white footage, God said, I need somebody willing to get up before

dawn kiss his family. Good buy travel thousands of miles for no other reason than to serve the people, to save their job, their livelihoods, their liberty, their happiness. Of course he doesn't travel thousands of miles. He was a little closer to the office, right, Rick, Did you ever think about invoking God and I mean, he's so the anointed one. He's according to Donald Trump, to sanctimonious. Yeah, no,

this is a stretch. I think that he's carving new ground on sort of what people are willing to buy in the package of he's my governor. I like him a lot. But did God really make santis on the eighth day? Was that God? Or? By the way, how come we're getting hurricanes if we've got God on his right side? True enough? That didn't sound as much like God to me. Remember this is Paul Harvey. He kind of had the voice of God, Genie, I guess. But are they trying to by the way, Paul Harvey, you know,

god fearing evangelical. He was incredibly popular among evangelical Christians and conservatives. Not an accident. They made a sound like him, right, No, it's not. And and if if we didn't know this was real, Joe, I would think you would stayed up all night or this was some kind of snl skit. You know, I have to burst one bubble, which is that Donald Trump did not come up with a de sanctimonious monitor. Because I like to do research for you, Joe.

It was actually Roger Stone who posted it on telegram. Yeah, and he came up with and he warned Ron to Sanctimonious not to try to run against Trump and he would regret it. And Trump has invoked it. It's a little shocking. He took away from the candidates the other night to talk about himself, but he did. But this run the Sanctimonious ad invoking God ten times that God made him governor. It's it's too much to believe until you watch it. And it's the most viral video that's

we've seen this this cycle. So they did something right. Yeah, maybe it worked, then, Rick, this is just good politics. Well, just because it's viral doesn't mean it's having a positive I mean, you know, we're talking about it almost as if it is a joke. Genie's right. I mean when I first saw it, I thought, oh, somebody made this up. But the fact that it was quote sent out by his wife brings it pretty close to home. Right. It wasn't like he can say, hey, I didn't know what

she was doing. I mean I would have never agreed to that. We should note, yes, his wife tweeted that, uh tweeting today Elon Musk, I didn't think this is gonna be a daily thing, guys, but I guess it's gonna be for a minute. Uh. This is the new owner of Twitter, of course, the richest man in the world, Testless SpaceX and so on quote. Shared power curbs the

worst excesses of both parties. Therefore, I recommend voting for a Republican Congress given the presidency as democratic unquote to his more than one ten million followers, is Elon Musk aiming to be the most important endorsement in politics? Is that what this new platform has for him? Yeah? I think he is. He's pushed Kathy Griffin off the office Twitter, and you know, and and you know, just as one example,

what does it do when you have divided government? You know it a lot of people believe what he is saying. But the reality is it makes it harder for voters to know who to hold accountable. When you have divided government. It makes democracy harder because as people go to vote in four who do they hold accountable for what has or hasn't happened. And so it works to the politicians, it works to the people in government, It works to the people who are in office. It doesn't work so

well for voters. And that's where one of the fallacies of this argument that divided government is a good thing. Well, you know Wall Street always said gridlock is good Rick or the market's going to love that idea. Well, we're gonna see changing things. Just stop doing things, watch do nothing for a while and let the rest of the country, you know, take care of itself. And look, that's always been um one theory of government, right, the less they do,

the better off the country. Is the power of the market systems and what we can accompl Shawn, our own. Uh, we're not a nanny society, right, we don't expect to be taken care of. And sometimes the government overreaches into those kinds of things. So sure, absolutely it could be uh one of those sort of impacts. But Genie could be right too. I mean, you know, people want to

get things done. We've gotten used to, especially during this COVID period, government intervening and virtually every aspect of our lives. What happens when I go cold Turkey for the next two years. If Republicans win in the Senate, in the House, there may be a few pieces of legislation that the president would be willing to sign, but probably not many, and so the question is, you know, how's the country

going to react to that? And at that point, if we're trying to climb out of a recession with a rising unemployment rate, Genie, you're not going to get any stimulus money to fix it, are you. You're not. I mean, government will go into a certain extent grind to a halt unless a miracle occurs and Republicans and the President can agree to pass legislation. And of course then you defer power to the states and you get vastly different

policies out of these fifty very different states. If you get anything at all, and you get a patchwork of government, you get a patchwork of policies. If people want change, governmental division of power is not the way to get it. If they want things to remain the same, He's absolutely right,

go divide your vote. If people were already concerned about Elon Musk owning and running this thing Twitter, he could have tweeted that as just a member of the universe, But as the owner of Twitter, how much of an impact might that have? And is that any different than the head of any media company doing this, or the

head of a fortune company endorsing a candidate or a party. Look, as chief Twitter, he has sort of a higher you know, profiled and he even had with his original hundred million Twitter followers, right, and so certainly for the moment, there's no question that eyes are on Elon Musk and and he has influenced now whether or not he's really using it. You tweeting the night before the election, Um, it really ways raises questions, right, Who's who's he really trying to

motivate here? Right? Is anybody going to change their vote based on what they read by him today? Um? And uh? And I'd say that he was being more political than persuasive and so having fun though, right, we'll see. I think he's trying to buy influence, right, I mean, like, if you're the head of Twitter and you see what's going on on Capitol Hill, you're about to go under the gun. Right, whether Republicans or Democrats win in the House and Senate, big tech is going to be on

the hot seat. And that includes Elon Musk and the twitters. Wow to me as well, career a little bit of favor. Now you have the chance, Jennie, you see motivate Democrats to get out tomorrow because they're so upset about everything Elon Must does right now, Well that could be too And you know there's always a question whether you know these endorsements like go per win for your Elon Musk speaking out matter And I think we're going to have

to see that. Tomorrow night, the next time we talked, the polls will be just about to close, and I'll be walking down the hall into the studio with Rick and Genie for special coverage. I hope you come along. I'll beat you back here tomorrow. The fastest hour in politics. This is bloom