Sound On: Gun Control, Ukraine and Tom Cruise

on Politics, Policy and Perspective from DC's top name. Snaith Wilson has responsibitive prevent this war from escapator is in our vital national interest to ensure peaceful and stable Europe and make clear that Mike does not make rush Bloomberg Sound On with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio. President Biden again urges Congress to act on guns. Welcome to the

fastest hour in politics. A day after the rare evening address from the White House, we'll talk about the President's ideas and those from the other side of the aisle in a special conversation ahead with Frank DeAngelis, the former principle of column find High School now with the groups Safe and Sound Schools. The war in Ukraine reaches its one hundred day and the US reopens its embassy with

a new ambassador installed and Kiev. We'll talk about that with former Ambassador to Poland Daniel Freed, and analysis from our signature panel Bloomberg Politics contributors Jeanie Schanzano and Rick Davis with us. It's not often we get an evening address from the President of the United States, but that was the venue for Joe Biden's latest attempt to get gun legislation moving in Congress. Here he is, we need

to ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines. And if we can't ban assault weapons, and we should raise the age to purchase them from eighteen to twenty one. We're joined not by a lawmaker to talk about the president's speech, but a former school principal. Frank DeAngelis was principal at Columbine High School for almost twenty years, including yesterday the shootings happened now with the groups Safe and Sound Schools, Frank, welcome to Bloomberg. Well, thank you for having me. How

the President do last night? Is he hitting the right notes for you these past days? Well, we need to make changes, and you know, I think back to where we were, um right after Park when we were having these discussions, and we're right back, you know, and the kids were back then, sane enough to enough. You adults have let us down, and unfortunately, I hope I've seen this happen time and time again after these school students occur and everybody is passionate and it kind of goes away,

and I just hope it continue. This what is happening now, we need to come together and say it's about our kids and what can we do. There have been five presidents, as I'm sure you know, during and since Columbine, all of whom Democrats and Republicans spoke to the nation about addressing the issue of gun violence following a terrible event, like like you're describing what what could make this time different? Well, hopefully both sides will come together and at least have

the discussions. And that's what worries me. You know, I grew up during the sixties and you know, its right towards in Vietnam War and our country was divided. But nothing in my recollection is like it is right now, and people are disagreeing, take time to listen to each other. So hopefully both sides of the aisle can get together and come up with the solution, because our kids are paying for it, you know, and some of the things that we addressed. I think in addition to gun control

and things of that nature, that's one piece. And then we also have to make sure that we're providing support and help for our kids in these schools. Um I want to get specific with you because we're actually hearing about policy proposals now and and with your experience, I want to know what your thoughts are on some of them.

It does seem like a lot of the ideas being considered would not have prevented some were any of these recent shootings that have started the conversation or restarted this conversation. So starting with what seems to be the most realistic right now, based on the talks that are happening in the Senate, would be a red flag law, we understand, or a bill to I guess the bare minimum would be a bill to incentivize states to pass their own red flags. And I know a lot of them have already.

Would that make a difference. Well, in Colorado we have the law red state, you know, red flag law. And I guess the question, and I'm not avoiding it, you know, I think everybody's looking. I think it's a combination of all these things that I just I guess where I struggle is with an eighteen year old being able to walk in and buy a you know, an automatic and their weapon and that type of thing. But I think you have to look at the states. Is it as it worked in Colorado? And I think it has school

safety protocols. Another part of this possibly including adding we're hearing adding armed guards and also having only a single door of entry. That's one thing I wanted to ask you about. You know more about school facility these than most people, having spent over a quarter century working in them. Is it smart to have a single door? It is.

But one of the issues that we confronted is we had two entrances in uh for the students, you know, one down towards where they parked, another one where parents would let their kids off, and we did. We had school resource officers who own a strong component of you know, having school resource officers police officers in the building not is referred to as cops, with people there to support

our kids. But one of the issues I think where you've got to really look at things is a Columbine we probably in addition to having those two main entrances, we also had twenty five doors in a large high school such as Columbine. And so it's important that if you do have those doors that I constantly tucked our staff members and students about keeping those doors shut things of that nature. You know, to check if from and did go out the door, unless if you do have

someone uh, you have alarms on every door. But if you do have alarms and a kid goes out, and then that becomes disruptive. But I think you know, single entrances are important. But unfortunately what happens is if these kids building, someone's gonna open a door for him. I'll give you a prime example. I was at a school within the past couple of weeks here in Colorado, and all of a sudden, I'm walking, boy, I'm gonna go

to the main entrance. Some kid comes, Hey, you want to come in this door, and it says on there do not let anyone in that you know. And I have a discussion saying, you know, I used to be a principle you want to make sure you just don't let anyone in here. And so I think in addition to having cameras, in addition to having you know, some of these other things that they're looking for, you also need to train your students and your staff on some of these daily things that are You're not going to

cost anything. It's just the general premise of hardening schools is something that you support. Well, I am. But with that being said, and I'll share something that affected me directly at the Columbine, I think parents were concerned is the school safe, as I'm sure many people now in your Balti texts are wondering schools are safe, and we were. I told our parents that we were probably the safest

school in the world. We had people at every door, we had armed guards, we had security cameras in And it was about two weeks, three weeks into school year. Kids came to me and they said, Mr. De we know you care about us, we know you love us, we know you want to keep us safe, but you're making us more anxious by all of this stuff that's in this building right now. It doesn't feel like a school.

So when I do have these conversations with school, you want to make them safe, but you also want to make sure that you're not creating an atmosphere of anxiety. I think that's that fine line that we have to find. That's a tough balance to find I'm sure I want to ask you about what's also in the House right now. It is a very different set of proposals. Uh. We saw the Judiciary Committee yesterday move this package. Uh include a number of different ideas from banning some semi automatic rifles,

banning some high capacity magazines. Congressman ken Buck, the Republican from your state in Colorado, testified before that committee about sort of a gun culture, uh in Colorado. And and I guess what a false effort this would be? Listened to what he said in rural Colorado in a R fifteen is a gun of choice for killing raccoons before they get to our chickens. Uh. It is a gun of choice for killing a fox. It is a It is a gun that you control predators on your ranch,

on your farm, on your property. Uh. The idea that that somehow we're going to deny access too. I think there are twenty million A R fifteens and circulation in this country. Um. It makes absolutely no sense if there are that many of these guns around. Is it possible to to put the toothpaste back in the tube? Is this a waste of time to try to prohibit some semi automatic rifles. Well, I think you gotta look at it.

How are they purchasing? And I guess the question if I if I, you know, and I know the sender or I know the representative, But the question I would have is there other ways to control these animals that you don't need an a R fifteen things of that nature, you know, And one of the things does seem like pretty heavy firepower for a raccoon or whatever. Isn't that

that's kind of overdoing it? Yes, and that I would agree, you know, and I know a lot of times, Uh, the argument will be, well, we need an a R fifteen or automatic weapon or a hundred round magazine for self defense. Well, I think there's other ways that you can protect yourself with self defense than you know, these automatic weapons. So, you know, I do struggle with that comment. Frank, I'm hitting you with all this policy stuff as I sit here in Washington. Uh, you have pulled us back

to the human side of this a couple of times. Well, this is being debated right now. It's very difficult to tell if anything is going to come from it, and people skepticism, uh, you know, is is warranted. It seems to me after after so many turns. What's your message to fellow educators, people who are actually in the middle of this right now in rooms with children who are

in many cases, uh, concerned about their own safety. Well, I think one of the things, uh, that I share is we do continue to hear about these events that happened, just like Ryan Elementary in other places Oxford this past year. But what we do not hear about, what is not publicized in the media, is how many have been stopped by things we have in place now that we didn't have in place at Columbine with the police response. Now it would secure the perimeter, wait for SWAT to arrive. Well,

now hopefully single officers are going into the buildings. We have a threat assessment programs we did not have in place prior to column. We have. You know, unfortunately after Sandy Hook, you know, one of the lessons with lock all doors, what they didn't anticipate with a gunman to shoot through glass. Well, now many of our schools are equipped with bulletproof for shield glass that it's going to

be more difficult for the bullet to penetrate. So I think there have been many things in place that are saving wise, But Unfortunately it's one more life loss is one too many, and we do need to come together. And if I could talk to the legislators is let's put aside Republican Democrats. They're all of our kids, and

what are we going to do to keep them safe? Boy, Frank, I never thought we would end this conversation on a high note, but I appreciate that to think that we are safer now than we were in a place to begin in. Frank de Angelis, I thank you for being with us sharing your thoughts today on Bloomberg. Thank you have a good weekend. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg

so On with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio. Well, I guess I'll never know if you actually need in a R fifteen to keep the squirrels away, like Congressman Buck said, but it's unlikely an assault weapons ban of any sort will be passing the Senate anytime soon. It's just the reality of the votes. Right now. Let's assemble the panel on a Friday, and here from Rick and Genie. Bloomberg Politics contributors Jeanie Schanzano and Rick Davis are with us

for the hour. Rick, I was struck by an important story from Bloomberg Business Week, n r A lobbying curbs

research that can prevent violent deaths. Madison Muller did a great job reporting the story, suggesting that this has been decades in the making, going back to a study supported by a grant from the c d C that was called gun ownership as a risk factor for homicide in the home, and the whole idea here is actually treating gun violence like a public health problem, as it's one of the leading killers, as the President said last night

of kids. Uh. Madison writes the study did not sit well with the n r A, which introduced a now thirty year long campaign against the agency. Would we be in a different place right now, maybe having a different conversation with more creative solutions if that did not happen. Sure. I think that the fact that we're not looking inside the home as a way to prevent violence is a big mistake. We've talked about it on the show before.

I mean, you know, one of the things that that the n r A used to make a regular thing of is talking about securing your weapons at home, getting safe. Uh. There was a whole movement in the nine eighties and nineties around gunlocks to try and improve safety. Doesn't it mentioned safe stories last night? Is that exact could come out of the Senate? Absolutely? Um, you know, there's a lot of the Senators who are opening on this right

now and trying to figure out what to do. Remember the n r A at a time when it was all about gun safety, you know, it was never a lobbying organization. In the first thirty years of its existence. It was about training and making sure that people took care of their weapons, knew how to operate them, you know, and understood about safety, and that was really the the

number one thing. Then they migrated into this lobbying organization much like the tobacco companies did to protect the franchise and all these rules, things like opposing the c DC bill or getting UH and the President brought this up the other night, getting um immunity for gun manufacturers. All of a sudden that became the function of the NRA. So uh, It's it's been a long time in coming, but I think revisiting these issues is probably what's happening

right now in the House and the Senate. The President reached for a statistic last night that helped to generate this story from Bloomberg business Week. Listen. According to new data just released by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, guards are the number one killer of children in the United States America, the number one killer more than car actions, more than cancer, more than drug overdoses. Yet, as Madison writes, public health funding to prevent child gun deaths as miniscule

compared with other, far less lethal threats to children. Genie, look at this. Leukemia, for example, the most common form of childhood cancer, causes fewer deaths than gun violence, but receives almost ten times more funding from the government. Where would we be if there was parody here? Well, you know, it was stunning, and I thought the President did a very good job last night of laying that out and and making that reality clear to all Americans who were listening.

But we also need to underscore that as much attention as the n r A gets, they are not the

number one lobbying group on behalf of gun rights. It's it's you know, you've got the National Sporting National Shooting Sports Foundation spent five million and one the gun owners of America make the n r A look like they're liberal so you know, you've got a lot of lobbying going on, a lot of money going there, and you know, I thought, um, the President said last night was after saying all of that, he said something that is out the fact. The fact is majority of Senate Republicans don't

want the proposals debated. They don't want him to come up for a vote. And that's the reality of the situation we find ourselves in. And the President, having spent so many years in the Senate, knows that. Intuitively. You know, if you don't get passage of these bills after Sandy Hook with fifty four Democrats and twenty six deaths of kids, or I guess it was twenty kids at that point, what it's the likelihood today. So President Biden knows that. And then of course he followed that up today by

saying he's not directly involved in the negotiations. I'm not saying he should be, but it's hard to imagine this getting moved forward in any capacity that deals with weapons. Maybe doing school safety, maybe doing health issues, mental health, but weapons hard to imagine because gun restrictions aren't really on the table at this point. Rick, I'd like your

take on the speech last night, including the optics. The President came down the cross Hall what some people like to refer to as the been loaden walk, remembering Barack Obama that day, lined with candles, lined with candles on the floor, and reached the podium in the East Room, from where he addressed the nation. How did he do? You know? Look, I think that he was trying to galvanize public attention on this. Uh. These kinds of speeches

do that. They echoed, well delivered, and and I didn't think it was uh too much in the sense that a lot of people try to demagogue this issue, use these moments to try and split it up. Even did a shout out to responsible gun owners in the speech, which I thought was very smart on his behalf, because he's got to have a message that brings everybody to the table. It's not good enough just to have his party ginned up on this and wanting to make reforms.

He's got to bring in Republicans too, And I thought that was the nature of the speech. So he's created some pressure, but left the opening and I think, you know, now the will of Congress has to work and pox on their house if they're not able to get it done. I mean, Republicans and Democrats alike are going to be seen as an effective It's not just one party is going to not have the ability to walk away from this. So we'll see, we'll see what happens. This next week

is going to be an important week for that. When they all returned from from break, we're out of time. Of course, Genie, would you expect a news conference with an announcement of some sort of compromise next week? I hope for it. The President did not go to filibuster reform um. And also we heard Representative Chris Jacob's first term from New York, a GOP from Buffalo. He supports an assault weapons band. He's out of the race right now.

That's the reality of where we are. He has pulled himself out of the reelection because of his support and the pushback he got from Republicans. On that. Rick and Genie with us for the Hour on a Friday on sound on the fastest hour in politics, coming up the

hundred day War in Ukraine. This is Bloomberg broadcasting live from our nation's capital, Bloomberg to New York, Bloomberg eleven Frio to Boston, Bloomberg one oh six one to San Francisco, Bloomberg to the Country, Serious x M General one nine, and around the globe, the Bloomberg Business app and Bloomberg Radio dot Com. This is Bloomberg Sound On with Joe Matthew.

The war in Ukraine has now been underway for a hundred days, and as the intelligence community warns of a Russian military gaining momentum in the east, the US plants the flag once again in Kiev, where the embassy reopens with a new ambassador, Bridget Brink, the first ambassador in three years appointed to Ukraine. We're gonna talk with a former colleague of hers, next Ambassador, Daniel Freed. The new

US ambassador has arrived in Kiev. As I mentioned, after our diplomatic corps left the capitol when it became a war zone a hundred days ago. We've we've hit the hundred day mark. Bridget Brink is the first ambassador of the US has appointed to Ukraine in three years. She spoke from Kiev. It is in our vital national interest to ensure peaceful and stable Europe and make clear that

might does not make right. A Michigan native, former ambassadors to Slovakia and expert on the region and Eastern Europe as a whole. We're joined now by a former colleague of Ambassador Brink, and that's Daniel Freed, former Ambassador to Poland, former Assistant Secretary of State for Europe, now wiser family,

distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council. Ambassador, welcome back. It's great to have you beyond the obvious just show of of of I won't say force, but presence for the United States to have a diplomatic presence in Kiev and and be there to show unity. What is this change in terms of our diplomatic relations with Kiev in the future of the war? Rinchie Drink is an inspired choice

for US Ambassador to Ukraine. And what it means is the US will have basically a twenty four or seven connect to the Ukrainian government during a time of war. It means that when Washington to sleep, uh Richard Brink in Kiev will be active. It means whatever happens, whenever the Ukrainian government needs to contact the US government, she will be down hand as a trust the interlocutor. And this is before we get the bridget bring herself. I

think she's a fabulous choice for ambassador to Ukraine. Does it hasten the end of the war? Does this somehow created a new off ramp diplomatically or am I is this wishful thinking? I don't think just having a US embassy presence back in Kiev or a U s ambassador

in Kei is going to end the war. The war will end either with the Ukrainian success on the battlefield or the Russians being fatigued and wanting to get out, which is possible horrible end if the Russians succeed in seizing and holding enough territory uh that they can simply stand their ground. We're not at that point yet. Much depends on the battlefield, Much depends on US support militarily for Ukraine and the support of other European countries, particularly Poland.

And this is something no one can predict right now. It's a war and the fortunes of all will decide a lot. Does having a diplomatic presence in Kiev protect that city or make it more of a target Neither. The Russians are going to go after Keys if they can. They stop their offensives in Kiev because they had lost the Ukrainians and beat them. They retreated. Now the Russians are trying to take ground in the east. Having a US embassy in Keys does and make it a target

anymore than it was. It doesn't provide it protection. What it does is give the US eyes and ears on the ground, working with President Zelenski's train and his team. That's awfully important to have. We could be going into a difficult weekend here. We've said that a lot of times Ambassador Freed, but the word from British intelligence is that the the Luhansk region could fall in the next two days. If if Russia starts to rope up territory like that in the Don Boss, does that make this

war a much longer one. I don't know how difficult it would be for Russia to hold those towns, but this was already, of course, a very dangerous region before the war began. The Russians have been advancing very slowly in Lohansk and then, yes, particularly the Lohansk region. They have been advancing at great cost to themselves. It's not clear whether they can hold the ground they've taken. The Ukrainians have launched locally successful counter attacks, so the battle

is still being fought. The Russians, if they succeed in capturing all of the Hansk could always proclaim a ceasefire and claim victory on the basis of what they've already managed to conquer from from Ukraine. But it's not clear that they can hold that territory. They don't have a lot of troops, They're facing a hostile and united population, so this is not this is not a done deal

for the Russians. Ukrainians still have certain battlefield advantages because they have an army that knows what it's fighting for. They're getting more weapons from the U S and other countries, and their population is is engaged. They're fighting for their lives. The Russians are fighting for Vladimir Putin's cause, and Russian morale doesn't seem to be high, so the battle is

still it hangs in the balance. Vladimir Putin says Russia will allow grain exports by sea coming out of Ukraine, which has been a real sticking point over the last couple of weeks. Ambassador, is that the type of sign is that maybe a glimmer of hope where you say, okay, that we could add to that conversation and maybe progress at the negotiating table. It would be good if President Putin allowed Ukraine's grain to go to the world markets

in Africa and the Middle East that needed. The Russians have been blocking this brain They've been stealing some of this grain and selling it as their own, which is theft. It's not clear that the Reds are going to allow the Ukrainians to export grain. They've the Russians have sometimes said they'll allow it to be exported only in return for lifting of sanctions. That's no deal. That's no deal

right now. One of the chief one of the priorities for the US, for Ukraine and Europe in general, is to unlock Ukraine's grain exports so Putin can't use the weapon of starvation as additional leverage. And there are a lot of ideas about how to do this. Escorts military involvement under a U N flag possibly well, this this hopefully is is one that that that is a positive development here as we report on the terminal that Russia will allow grain exports by see we'll see if it

actually happens. Many thanks to the honorable Daniel Freed, Ambassador with US again on Bloomberg Sound on and we'll reassemble the panel next. Rick and Genie on the Fastest Hour in Politics, This is Bloomer, This is Bloomberg. So long with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio. I'm starting to think that maybe Joe Biden and Elon Musk are not big fans of one another. Of course, they don't seem to like each other at all. Elon is not invited to

the electric car events at the White House. He's using non union labor now, he says he's going to vote Republican. All the time, it goes on, and it did not get better today after Musk wrote in a letter to Tesla executives that actually moved the stock that he has a quote super bad feeling unquote about the US economy and he wants to cut jobs and talking about a ten percent cut to the workforce. Here, according to Reuter's super bad, of course being shades worse than just plain

old bad. President Biden was asked about it today at the podium. Here's what he said. Has asked, has said that he has a super bad feeling about the US economy, is slaying off tempercent of his workforce. What do you say, Elon Musk about his feeling about the economy. Jamie Diamond has said some one thing. Well, I'm gonna tell you well, Ian must is talking about that Ford is increasing their investment overwhelming. I think Ford is increasing investment in bibilding

new electric vehicles, six thousand new employees, union employees. I might add in the Midwest, UM, the former Chrysler corporations to launds, they are also making similar investments and electric vehicles. Intel has about twenty thousand new jobs for making computer chips. Um. So you know, lots of luck on his trip to the moon. I mean, I don't, I mean you know. So that's the line that good luck on the trip to the moon, Biden tells Musk after economy warning. That's

the Bloomberg story. By the way, this the got going on Twitter as well. The Elon Musk tweets thanks Mr President with the news released from NASA that actually is all about SpaceX, his company to land next Americans on the moon. It's really something Biden versus Musk there. That's they're like a microcosm of American politics, these two. And on that note, our panel reassembled with Rick Davis and Jeanie Schanzano Bloomberg Politics Contributors. Was that as satisfactory answer

for starters, Genie? You know, he took a card out of his pocket. I will note to run through those stats that he had on the Ford and the Intel investments and so forth. They knew that this was going to come up today. Yeah, I think given the tension between these two for supper months now, I mean Elon Musk was like fact checking the state of the Union in real time at one point. So it's it's been pretty touch and go. I think the President handled this

pretty well. He could have, you know, criticized him. He he pivoted right to Ford an Intel, and then of course, you know Elon Musk, Look, he wins out. He's got the President talking about him, as if he needs anybody else talking about him, He's able to go on and trumpet you know, the work that he's doing. So you know, I thought it was all in all pretty good for

both of them. And you know, the President and the wealthiest man in the world, he's also an innovator, Rick and my god, he's he's literally giving us our own venue to get back to the space station and the moon after we've been paying Russia to do this for years and years, lots of luck on his trip to the moon. What does something bad happen on that trip? Is that appropriate for a president to say? No, he

totally sucked into the whole thing. I mean, I'm and I'm shocked that this actually went through some vetting inside the White House staff and someone thought it was a good idea to get a fight with Elon Musk. I mean, like, well, I don't know if it was on the card, but at least got their head on the button in there. I mean, like that's I'm starting to get worried about these guys. Uh No, it's it's it's ridiculous. Why pick a fight with a guy who I mean, like, I

understand they don't like each other. Elon must doesn't have unions and Joe Biden is the biggest union promoting president in our time. I get it, But like, if you're the president United States, you don't give a guy who's actually gonna own Twitter a chance to come after you. I mean that's like, that's like incredibly bad idea, and so I I think it's all crazy. Uh And I

agree with with what you're saying, Joe. I mean, like Elon must doing a lot of really good things for our country right now, and without his SpaceX, a lot of our satellites wouldn't be going up in orbit because they would have otherwise been shot on Russian rockets that were not used now, thank goodness. So um, you know, I think both of them need to go back to their nucle neutral corner and pay less attention to each other.

Russia's bailing on the the I S S project at some point here apparently Genie, they have no money really for a space program, and we're gonna see to that. Would it be maybe not a bad idea of a little beer so that here or something? You know, I have to disagree with you guys. I think the President handled it fine. Listen. I don't think they wrote on the card the thing about you know. But you know, listen, you know the president, he is known to say things

off the cuff. He said it today, but he didn't go after him and the way he could have. I mean, let's not forget Elon Musk has been going after the president for a while now. And you know, the President, I think pivoted and talked about some good things, got his message out there. I don't think it was so bad. And hey, if they want to have a beer summit, that's fine with me. Let him go have it. That'll be good. Yes, Joe Biden's a teetotaler. Rick, right, that's

not gonna happen. I don't think it should happen. Nothing good will come out of the first Nothing good came out of the first beer summit? Why would it h And you know, I don't mean to be too cute about that, but to Genie's point, one of you, you've got the richest man in the world here. To your point, Rick Um, he's he's impacting civilization as as an innovator and an employer, uh, driving the ev movement and of

course the Space Company among other things. Maybe uh, I don't know, maybe maybe bring him to the White House for for one of these events. I think, just be kind to him when you're in public, I mean, like uh, and and certainly include him when you're doing things related to EVS. I mean, he wouldn't that diffuse the whole thing? Absolutely well? I don't know if it will diffuse. What do you think? I thought that was a misstep from the start. But but let's be clear, this is this

White House communications team. I mean, just just look at what happened when they were talking yesterday. Uh, you know that this keeps going on and on, so I'm not surprised it was a missed up from the start. They could have gotten this under control. I think the President probably making light of it today as he was trying to do, is probably the best thing we're going to get out of this team. So what's more enjoyable than a Friday afternoon checking out of work, little time with

Rick and Jeanie our panel here on sound On. I'm Joe, Matthew and Washington. Glad you came along. If you're just joining us, you showed up late. I will remind you to subscribe to the sound on podcast. You can find it wherever you get your podcasts. And So I finally saw a top gun. Did you? You saw it right? Everyone's seen it. From what I'm reading here, this thing crossed the two million dollar mark yesterday. Top gun Maverick. Of course, I had to go. Any American male around

my age has to go. But I didn't really fully understand that until I found myself in a dark room with a whole bunch of other middle aged dudes, and none of them with dates or friends for that matter. Everyone was there alone. I thought, you know, I'd be cute and go to a mattinee, save a little money, sneak into this thing. And I'm sitting here thinking what

am I doing? But I was sucked in, as I'm sure you were if you saw it within seconds of the open the music roles, and as somebody who has actually done a catapult shot and a tail hook landing on an aircraft carrier and survived and once pulled nine g s in an F sixteen, I am here to tell you that what you saw in this movie was the real thing. This is what these guys go through. Add the patriotic overtones, complete by the way, with showing

the Taiwan flag. Did you see that on Maverick's flight jacket? Made a very bold statement? And so is that why it's doing so well? I mentioned across the two million dollar mark yesterday and it's now on track to become Tom Cruise's biggest domestic grossing film ever. All right, I can't talk over the music and any longer, as cool as that is, but the panel, at least half the panel saw it. Rick Davis there is almost a need

right now. I think remember when the first Star Wars movie came out and people were stuck in this malaise and it gave them a great escape. It's something to feel good about. Here was a more patriotic version of that at a very difficult time in our politics. It's the biggest movie to ever hit the theaters apparently. Yeah. I've been waiting for this for two years. It went song last Saturday, and I could not have been more thrilled.

I was actually happy that it didn't come out during COVID because I wouldn't have gone to a theater to see watch it on you know, a streaming service, and I would have been I would have been still impressed, but not not overwhelmed. It When you see it on

a big screen, it's just a different thing. And when you're in a big room with people you know, who are cheering when a good guys win for a change, you know, I couldn't imagine a better You wouldn't have used the name Maverick for John McCain without the first movie, right, Uh No, he was a Maverick before. I mean he was, but that brought it into Alexica. Uh. You know it was. It was used as a derisive phase within the GOP. Refer to John McCain. I mean, it wasn't wasn't the

same thing, but but yeah, it was. It was. It was all the same kind of emotion that tugged at your heartstrings and your mind when you thought of someone as a maverick. And I just thought the first movie was great, and I think this one has surpassed it. Uh and and we'll we'll live on forever, as you know,

probably as you said, Tom Cruise's best film. Jimmie, I know you didn't see the movie, but what do you make of this sort of feeling right now that there there's kind of a hunger for something to feel good about the country that you live in into Rick's points see the good Guys Win. I know that simple, but it's apparently worth a lot of money. Joe Matthew, I could not see the movie because I'm not a middle aged man who could get into the theater too to get a seat. So look a girl came in. Yeah

we're not allowed. And and and I told you before, I'm sacrificing my seat until they booked Tom Cruise on the show. And then I'm going to see it, and don't fool me with any old Tom cruise. It's got to be the real one. But that's the deal. Yeah, thank you, But you know I I do think there's a hunger and look at it's a good sign. The box office is up tremendously as a result, somebody's going back to the movies. Rick and Jeannie meet us back here on Monday. This is Bloomberg.