Sound On: Hurricane Ian, Ginni Thomas Testimony

out Friday at midnight, roughly forty hours from now. On the very first day our very first bill Bluie Peel the eighties seven thousand I R. S. H. Schloomberg Sound On with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio. Dean heads back to hurricane strength after leaving a hundred fifty mile path of destruction in Florida and forcing two political rivals to work together. Welcome to the fastest hour in politics. Has rescue efforts begin and focus now returns to weakness in

our infrastructure. We'll get an update shortly from out Florida and talk about the job ahead with former FEMA administrator at Craig Fugate. Later, the Senate passes legislation to fund the government's actually got it done sending it to the House ahead of a Friday deadline. We'll talk about what's

next with Bloomberg Congress reporter Laura Davison. Analysis from our panel today Bloomberg Politics contributor and Democratic analyst Ginnie Schanzano, along with Republican strategist Adam Goodman from Tough Fletcher School, catastrophic damage in Florida as hurricane and carves a hundred fifty mile path of destruction through the state. Governor Rhonda Santa says it's historic. The amount of water that's been rising and will likely continue to rise today even as

the storm is passing. Uh is basically a five hundred year flood of ap The Santis staying in close contact with President Biden. As we told you yesterday, that continues both today. We're speaking fairly well of each other. I just spoke with the President this morning. He offered support. I told him the thanks for this, but because the storm has moved inland and caused a lot of potential damage in the center part of our state, that we were going to be asking for those counties to be expanded.

And of course President Biden was asked about the same thing. Their relationship their conversations. What did you guys say he made a visit to FEMA headquarters in Washington. It's totally irrelevant, but I'll answer it. Okay. In fact, very fine. He complimented me, He thanked me for the immediate response we had. He told me how much he appreciated it, said he was extremely happy with what was going on. This is not about whether or anything having to do with our

disagreements politically. This is about saving people's lives, homes, and businesses. That's what this is about. And so I've been I've talked to him four or five times already, and it's not a matter of my disagreements with them on other items that's steering around politics today as they deal with the matter at hand. Clearly, we begin our coverage on the ground in Florida. Bloomberg's Will Wade specializes in power

and renewable energy, has been traveling through the state. He's now in Tampa, which mercifully dodged a bit of a bullet. Will thank you for being with A. Is there any power there? Yeah, Tampa mostly has power, although I can tell you there's a gasolene shortage. I just had to fill my tank after looking at eleven gas stations, and Tampa is lucky that it has power to pump the gasoline pumps. I was down in Port Charlotte most of

the day. There's no power there. The whole area has no power and it's going to be several days a week before they can get the power back up. There's a lot of damage to all the power lines. What's the situation statewide in terms of the power grid? Is that typical of what you're seeing across the state? Yeah, it is typical. I think I heard that there's at least two million homes and businesses that don't have electricity.

The storm came ashore in southwest Florida, basically went to the middle of the state, turned north, went all the way up through the center of the state, across all the Orange Groves, pasted over Orlando. Disney World has been shut down, so I guess that's a lot of power demand that they don't need. Headed out near Jacksonville towards the Alantic. So there's people without power all across Florida. This is what happens when a huge hurricane passes by, well,

certainly like this one. What kind of flooding if any are you seeing at this point in Tampa And how does that compare to where you were earlier? Oh? Nothing in Tampa. Tampa got a lot of wind, a lot of rain last night. It was definitely serious. I was glad to be indoors. But when I was down in Port Charlotte there were flooded roads, lots and lots of huge trees had blown over, some on tops of houses. Uh. You know what was interesting is that a lot of

intersections the street lights had blown down. They were literally, you know, big red, yellow, green traffic signals hanging down from their wires in the wood of the intersection. Some of them they were gone. It's like blown them completely away. So even when the power gets back gets gets turned back on, it's gonna be a while before they can get the signals going and traffic moving. Well, thank you so much and appreciate all the reporting that you've done today.

Will Wade Bloomberg Energy reporter with us to start things off on sound on, and we had a voice of experience now in Craig Fugate, who famously oversaw the Big Four of OH four if you remember the four major hurricanes of that year when he was administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency now Chief Emergency Resilience officer at one Concern Craig thanks for joining us today. I know how busy you are. How much trouble is Florida in

right now? Well, this is gonna be a long recovery. Um. Yeah, I think the power outages across the areas to the north and northeast, those are gonna come back quick. Those were trees on parallels, busted transformers. Uh, the utilities will get that back up relatively quick. Down where your reporters at, the systems destroyed, so they're not just gonna be fixing it, They're gonna have to rebuild it. And the storm serves

damage down there. I mean, people through the turnaround catastrophic a lot, but this area, this is the worst hurricane impact they've ever had in their history. It is their version of Hurricane Andrew on that southwest coast. Yes, well that's saying something them Governor to Santis earlier today, essentially saying that Santa Belt Island, large portions of Santa Belt Island are just wiped out. The road getting out there, Uh,

is is underwater or destroyed. How long is it going to take Craig before we actually have have a real sense of the level of destruction that's been done. I would say over the next couple of days. Again, the big focus is just getting back in these areas to do search and rescue. You get the people that have been cut off and trapped. But as you're doing that, you'll get a better sense. But this is why, you know,

we've always talked about this. You've heard the hurricanes that are talking about they were really emphasizing storm surge and water. You know, a lot of times people focus on with but a lot of this you're seeing where these bridges were taken out, the overtopping and cutting some of these islands in the destruction. This is mainly the water storm surge. The federal government is going to play a huge role here, obviously President Biden today pledging you know, whatever Florida needs

and states of emergency are already in place. Is this going to be a record center? I mean the amount of money and the amount of funding and manpower that will be needed to to fix this into your point, to rebuild it. It's gonna be up in the top ten. I don't know if it gets up to the top five. We'll find that out. But let's remind everybody we talked to federal government, we're talking about you and me as taxpayers, and this is one of the things that we do

as a nation. We come together for states that are hit and both ours and D's. You know, I've been on both sides of this. But this is our tax dollars at work, and this is going to be an expensive recovery. Well, it sure is. And there's a big conversation going on right now about our infrastructure and whether we have the funding necessary to to not just rebuild in places like Florida hit by storms, but to upgrade

around the country so they are more resilient. Does that create an opportunity to to do something that might help Florida in the future. Craig absolutely. I mean, if we build it back the way it was, were fools, because it's gonna get hit again. I mean, this is where we need to really think seriously about it's better to spend a little bit more money on the front end and build residency into our communities and infrastructure so when storms happen in the future, you have will be damaging,

but they won't be catastrophic and will recover faster. And that's something that we need to think about across the nation. Just going by our past history is not preparing us for what is happening with these extreme weather events, and we cannot continue it forward to go back and rebuild and rebuild and rebuild after these disasters few gate. When you look across the state, how does the how does

the the inland area compared to the coast. I mean when you when you watch this storm go right up over Orlando, how severe will the damage be away from the water. You know, it's gonna be kind of spotty. One good thing is because Florida has been strengthening the building code since Hurricane Andrew and after two thousand four hurricane seasons, a lot of newer construction will do pretty good. We did have some pockets of flooding. You saw nursing homes.

Another place is that had to be evacuated where we get ponding. You know, Florida is not a very high elevation. Where we get water, it's gonna go to the low spots and pond up, So it's gonna be pockets of damage. Like right now in uh St Augustine, they're getting flooding downtown, So there'll be pockets of it, but it won't be the catastrophic damage that's very concentrated on that part of

the southwest coast. You know, we heard Governor de Santis repeat words from the sheriff of Lee County earlier today that there could be reports at least there could be fatalities in the hundreds. Craig, what did you make of that? And and how does that uh square with with the level of storm that we're talking about. You know what I found a long time ago, and this goes all

the way back to Hurricane Andrew. But if you remember her, the tornadoes that hit Joplin, the early estimates, it's very hard to get good numbers, and so you know, when I was at Florida, we had a pretty ironclad rolled that until uh, the medical examiners able to certify the death, we didn't give out official numbers because it's just such such a range. And you gotta remember, we got loved ones here that don't know, and you want to make sure you're able to notify next akin before you know

that starts coming out. So uh, and if you remember Joplin, we had up to three thousand people reported missing that we're possibly concerned that they may be fatalities. Turned out was duplicate list, and though the loss of life was horrific, it wasn't three thousand. It was in the hundreds, which

was you know, that was tragic enough. But again, I think been doing this long enough, uh is we really need to have a process to make sure that uh we have accurate counts, that we don't dismiss this that we probably have had fatalities, But we also have to make sure that we're getting the right information because families are evacuated, are worried, sick, and these numbers, unless we

can verify them, are causing a lot of stress. I think, yeah, yeah, there's potential there, but let's let's be very specific and make sure that we're getting the right information, that we're getting Mexican identifications, and that we're you know, keeping this as we identify it, are able to confirs and then

add that to the numbers. Well, that's good perspective, Craig, thank you, And in our in our remaining moment, I would ask you what you consider the most dangerous thing right now for the people to Florida, those who are particularly in the flooded areas. Is it? Is it? Is it? Power lines? Is it? People just being away from their homes? What what concerns you tonight? People getting out and about.

It's a very hazard situation. We got paral lines down, We've got flooded roads, You've got all kinds of debris, you have all kinds of things, sewage, gas and whatever in the floodwaters um in Florida. We know people are more likely to lose their lives even in the days after a hurricane because of the hazards. So it's like the hardest thing is getting people just that they're safe, stay where they're at, and not trying to get out.

You just heard it from the former administrator of FEMA now chief Emergency Resilience officer at one concerned, Craig Fewgate. Thank you so much for the insights the expertise. Were going to assemble the panel next and explore the politics surrounding this rescue and relief effort on the fastest hour in politics. This is Bloomberg. I see pure devastation, pure devastation. Uh. And I pray that the majority of people listen and

left before this storm. I pray the amount of water that's been rising and will likely continue to rise today even as the storm is passing. UH is basically a five year flood of that this could be the deadliest hurricane in Florida's history. The numbers of still are still unclear, but we're hearing early reports of what may be substantial loss of life. I don't know in that debris, I don't know. There's there's no more buildings in some places, no more homes. Homes are washed away. So do we

know there's gonna be a death hold? We believe there will be, and I know there will be. I just don't know. The numbers is coming up my way in South Carolina, so we'll we'll all be ready. So we want to let everybody know we're thinking about Landslides are threatened our mountains, and there's a chance of cornadoes statewide. This storm can still be dangerous and even deadly. My message the people of Florida the country is at times

like this, America comes together. We're gonna pull together as one team, as one America sounds from a tough day in Florida and soon to be in the Carolinas as Hurricane Ian set to regain hurricane strength. The headlines scary too. On the terminal, Biden says, reports suggests substantial storm deaths. As we were just discussing with Craig few gave here

on sound On, I'm Joe Matthew in Washington. As we assemble the panel today, Genie Schanzano is with US Democratic analyst in Bloomberg Politics contributor, joined today by Adam Goodman, partner at Ballard Partners, Edward Armorrow, Senior Fellow at tuss University. It's great to have you both back here, Genie. This is a big test politics never removed from an event like this, and what a what a contrast to see President Biden working with Governor Rhnda Santis for the better

of the people. I guess it's a reminder of what they're their jobs really are for both of them, but also something that's good to see here. And what's a very challenging situation it is. And you know, I thought Craig Fuiate in your conversation made a really important point. This is the job of all the state and federal governments together to work together to do this, and it does require a substantial amount of investment, and it's important that we are there to help rebuild this community in

the best way possible. As you know me personally, is a year ago got hit very very hard in pursion by by storm Ida, not nearly as much damage as they're experiencing down in Florida, So certainly thinking about everybody there, it we still have not recovered here and it wasn't

even you know, nearly as big of a storm. Yeah, And of course this is uh still a very dangerous situation and there is a potential, Adam Goodman, for a lot more damage and a lot more people to be in harm's way here over the next hours as this thing moves up the eastern seaboard. Here. The argument though for investing in a more resilient infrastructure, could never be louder. Couldn't. Absolutely.

It's one of the things that Craig Foodgate actually talked about was were the new building codes that went into play after the last major hurricane. Uh. That's gonna end up saving a lot of buildings and maybe saving lives. Uh. And I think we're gonna need to do even more of that. But what also is going to is em play here that was happy name long before Ian was named. UH is a property insurance crisis of sorts in Florida where property homeowners were really getting squeezed Joe by rapidly

rising premiums um. I could only imagine what it may be moving forward. But to the one point that was made up front here about the nonpartisan nature of the response, Holly right that instead of a retreat the partisan corners, uh, the President and the governor of Florida had a reunion in the middle of the ring. And that's something I think everyone can feel good about. Well, I sure hope. So. I remember Chris Christy being you know, just criticized heavily

for for for hosting Barack Obama following Superstorm Sandy. Granted, you're not gonna see run to Santi's hugging Joe Biden, Genie, at least, I'm assuming that's not going to happen here. But but but Genie, of course, these these moments can frequently be followed by the blame game. It's it's probably in both of their interests to keep this going as

long as they can. That's right. And Charlie Kristen Florida and Obama they had as he had a similar situation as Chris Christie that we remember, well the embrace on the tarmac that you know, really you know, went viral your career, killing hug and and you know, we've seen politicians who have been undermined by storm response. This is when you know whether you've got somebody who can truly govern, who is truly capable and competent as they see you

through a crisis and it's aftermath. The reality is the media will leave in a few days a week. These people will be dealing with a devastating impact of this for a lifetime. And this is the job of the governor, of the president, and quite frankly, of our entire political class. And so they do deserve credit for working together and they should be working together. Important news. By the way, for those even who watched this might not have heard

of the president was off Mike. Somebody shout at a question. He is not only planning to go to Florida, and boy, that's going to be a pectical because he will be I assume, greeted by Governor de Santis when he shows up, or maybe he loves something busy, would be busy with something else to do. But he also said he planned to go to Puerto Rico, Adam, how difficult a trip is that going to be to pull off? Uh, It's it's a good trip. It's a very trip. It's an

important trip. It's important to show up, you know. And as with everything in life, Uh, it's showing up that really counts. Uh. When every all the chips are on the table. I applaud the President for for that intention and for going to Florida. But I think what we saw, what I don't want us to lose in all this is in the state of Florida. You know, I'm a Floridian. I have just a couple of seconds left at him. Yeah, Okay.

All I can tell you is that it's a test of fier for Florida governors when you have to face a hurricane. And I think the governor of Florida last night came up big Adam Goodman with us and more to follow. 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 nine sixty to the Country Serious x M General one nineteen and

around the globe. The Bloomberg business app and Bloomberg Radio dot Com. This is Bloomberg Sound On with Joe Matthew. And so now it's up to the House. With a little more than twenty four hours to the deadline, the Senate passed legislation to fund the government. It happened today, of course, without Joe Manchin's permitting bill, which by the way, included upgrades to the power grid with an eye on Hurricane Ian. We'll talk next to Bloomberg Congress reporter Laura

Davison on this vote. The yas are seventy two, the nays are twenty five. The sixty vote threshold having been achieved, the bill as amended is passed. There it is seventy two twenty five on the House. Senator Tina Smith there presiding over the chain as the Senate pass legislation to fund the government through the middle of December. Right, December sixteen, I think is the magic date here, and boy, that's gonna be fun. But no one is popping corks yet.

As Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy urges all of his members to vote no on the bill feasibly tomorrow. Laura Davis and Bloomberg's Congress reporter is watching all of this and always great to have you with us, Laura. Is that going to make a difference? I mean, can Kevin McCarthy really get the entire caucus to vote no on avoiding a shutdown? You know it's possible, But even still, if Democrats stick together, this will still pass. So you know,

I expect that the vote will be close here. You might see a couple of Republicans break with McCarthy and vote with Democrats, but it's going to be largely lopsided of Democrats voting yes and Republicans voting no. But really it'll pass without a lot of drama. The real question is sort of what happened post mid terms and both the control for both chambers very close. We don't know

what's going to happen. Lawmakers will come back in December and there's a bunch of things they need to do and sort of who it come at came out on top in the midterms. Is good to determine who has leveraged in those year negotiations, you know, and we'll be talking about another possible shutdown just in time for Christmas, right. We we love doing it like this every year. Yes, schoolmakers like to give themselves these little deadlines, usually right

before a holiday or a break. You know, they're itching to get home to go campaign for the mid terms. December sixteenth, right before the holidays. Uh so you know they usually can you know, give themselves an extra week. You'll see, you know, there's kind of a week in there. If they can't get a deal by the sixteenth, they can still stay in for a couple more days and still be home by Christmas Eve. But that's really the goal here. And and there's there's a lot that they

need to get done. There's some stuff that we're left off this bill permitting reform for energy projects. Mansion had a proposal that got dropped. That's one of the things that they're going to have to come back and the dress Well want to ask you about that because you know, with the with the hurricane just ravaging the state of Florida,

it's not lost on us that that legislation. Of course, it did a lot more than reform permitting itself, but it would actually it would boost the fed Will government's authority to approve electricity transmission lines. This had a there was a large component that was focused on the electric grid, not just you know, drilling for oil here high capacity wires, uh that that send electricity to cities and towns that

would be more resilient in times like these. Republicans knew this though, right they wanted to have their own bill without Joe Manson's name on it. That might be a bit wider. Is that what you expect? Yeah? So, really, you know the issue years, Republicans and Democrats aren't that far apart on what they want. But remember, this is a deal that Mansion and Schumer struck way to facilitate the passage of the inflation reduction at So put anybody

else's name on it and Republicans will vote yes. Right, really, and and Senator selling more capital you know, Mansions colleague from West Virginia has another bill. I suspect we'll see, you know, a little bit of horse trading when they come back in November December, have a bill that is substantially similar, but that will have the votes to pass on the floor. You've mentioned post midterms a couple of times, Laura,

and you were probably there today. Kevin McCarthy, who I already mentioned, was on the steps of the House with the Republican leadership. If not the entire caucus. Well it couldn't be the entire but there was quite a crowd on the steps there as he talked about their vision going into the midterm elections and their plans to come out of this as the as of course, the the

party in control of the House. Here's what he said, on the very first day, our very first bill really peel the eighties seven thousand I R S. Agents got a big round of applause for that. And we've heard this before because your government should be here to help you, not to go after you. But considering all of the challenges in the world right now, Uh, Laura, you know,

it's an interesting tax for the party to take. I know that the Republican Party of CHRISTI it's easy to bash the I R S. But would wouldn't that imply that the party was somehow endorsing tax fraud? What's the problem with enforcing the law? Yeah, this is really an a key line that Republicans are going to have to

balance here. The other thing too, that they're also going to have to, uh, you know, deal with is that they you know, really don't support more money for the I R S, but they say they want better customer service and better technology systems from the i r S. And those don't come free. So they're going to have to try to figure out what level of funding they

are comfortable with, what level of increased enforcement. You know, there's the current i RS Commissioner estimates that there's a trillion dollars in tax fraud that it basically taxes that aren't being collected each year. And remember this is a Trump appointee, this is a this is a Republican. So this is a problem they're going to have to deal with. Democrats are a little bit more comfortable saying yes, go after the tax sheets. That's a you know, a little

bit less comfortable for Republicans. Yeah, well, I mean look eighty seven thousand. Of course, there was a there was a line out there that was not true, that they would be armed and banging on people's doors and so forth. It's really become uh, kind of a political football in In the meantime, they do we know the status of those agents are they actually have they been hired? Yeah? So the I R S is giving eighty billion dollars

to spend over the next decade. They got this money, you know, last month they don't even have the plan yet. They're working on that of how to deploy all that money. But it's not one It's not gonna be eight seven agents. That was sort of a number that was extrapolated from a report, So that's a little bit of a fact check false on that. But they will be hiring a lot of staff, both for auditors as well as for customer service agents, people to answer the phone, customer service

reps um. So these are these are things that they're working on and will be doled out over the next decade. Fascinating stuff here. There's twelve billion dollars by the way, in this continuing resolution for Ukraine. Uh, it was even more than the administration asked for. When we see numbers like that, will that be debated in the House sent back to the Senate or do they have not enough time and simping? You have to approve what the Senate sends over the Senate is really jamming the House here.

You know they are voting on this, you know, the day before the deadline giving it to the House. The day of the deadline, the senators are are on their flights headed home. So that's not something they'll be able to negotiate, we'll fee from the fall, so you gotta go with what you got. That's the deal for the House. And welcome to Washington everyone. Laura's great to talk to.

You really knows her stuff. Laura Davidson, great conversation. Bloomberg Congress reporter looked for her byline on the terminal as our Washington and specifically Capitol Hill team cover this thing right up to the line. Yet again, I mean, it really does sound familiar, and at least lawmakers were not threatening. Well, actually that's not true. There was a group of Democrats threatening to shut down the government weeks ago, but nobody was talking about it like that right up to the line.

Wall Street has enough to worry about. Then have to deal with the government shut down in the middle of this weeks before, of course, a midterm election cycle. We're gonna reassemble the panel next. Adam Goodamen and Jeannie Chanzano are with us here on the Thursday edition Little Friday

on Bloomberg Sound on the Fastest Hour in Politics. Marjorie Tayler Green wants to go hog hunting and is inviting you and the January six Committee sits down with Jenny Thomas today, just some of the topics that will touch with our panel. Next that we'll check traffic and markets for you on the way. Thanks for being with us. I'm Joe Matthew and Washington. This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg. You sound on with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio.

I suppose it's easy to tell your members to vote no on something if you know it's going to pass anyway. But what if it didn't. Wouldn't Kevin McCarthy then carry the blame as the party that forced the government shut down here in the middle of political games. There is a risk, of course, As we reassemble the panel, Genie Chanzano, Democratic analyst and Bloomberg Politics contributor joining us today with Adam Goodman, Republican strategist, partner at Ballard Partners. Edward R. Murrow,

Senior Fellow at Tufts University. It's great to have both of you here. What do you make of that, uh, Genie, When you consider the possibility of this going down with mid term elections looming, the blame game would be fierce. It could be fierce. I think they'd be pointing fingers at both sides. But it's you just discussed. The Democrats have the vote to get votes to get this through, and I think that's part of the reason that McCarthy can make this. There probably won't be an even defections.

I don't want to I don't want to say no because if I show up here tomorrow and we're in a shut down, then I'll feel very badly. But you know, I think you know Kevin McCarthy. You know his point is he doesn't want his members to have to go back home to their districts and defend this vote a vote of yes and going along with the Democrats. Nor does he want them to have to defend it if they win the House and and they're battling over what the budget is going to be, because of course this

is just another stop gap measure. We're going to do this all over again after the mid terms. Adam, I want to ask you what I asked Laura a couple of moments ago. This this line from Kevin McCarthy today on the first thing that Republican kins would do if they won the House on the very first day, our very first bill really peel the eighties seven thousand I R S Agents I'm wondering your thought on that and

the rational behind it. I realized it's easy to hate the I R S. And maybe it's just as simple as that. You know, get people wound up about the I R S. But isn't that saying that we prefer not to enforce the tax code? Well, I hate to

say it's as simple as that. If you were to see a focus group, Joe, uh and that question we're asked, and not just among Republicans, say even independence and the question is should we hire eighty seven thousand more I R S agents at a time when there's economic pressure from inflation that's out of control, from government spending the historic levels? Is this the time to hire eighties seven thousand new agents? You'd have people breaking that two way glass.

So it's just good politics. Just throw it out there, right, Yeah, it's it's politics. Um, and I think you know the point that was made in your in your previous segment is it's over ten years, so it's not like seven thousand people a doorsteps tomorrow. U big news today in Washington. I want to ask you both about what you're supposed to have a January six hearing. Yesterday we don't know when it's going to happen. It was postponed out of deference to those in in the storm track in Florida

in the path of the storm. But we we saw today that Jenny Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, actually sat for a deposition, actually testified before the committee today. Reporter from CNN captured her walking by It's really it was kind of odd. She's walking with the legal team, probably a security guard, and was just smiling. She was all smiles. Clearly you know, knew how to

do this and would only say thank you to every question. Thomas, why do you feel like you need to speak to the committee to clear your name? Can keep from being here? Did you speak with your husband and your beliefs to the election being stolen? Thank you for your question. Forward to answering member, and in they went, and now I see on the terminal here. The conservative activist wife of Justice Thomas, reiterated to the House panel the last year's

storming of the Capitol on that day. Her belief was that there was something wrong with the election results. She told the panel that the election was flawed. Genie, there were questions today about whether the committee postponed this hearing so they could include her testimony that was shot down. But there's something to that, isn't there? Yeah? I think there is. And you know, they'd have to have a whole other hearing with this if they didn't get it in. Yeah, yeah,

they would have to. But you know, I think that what startling here is we're coming close to the first Monday in October when the Supreme Court's new term comes into play. Gallup has a all out which shows Americans trust in the Court has declined dramatically, a twenty point dropped from two years ago. You have Jenny Thomas testifying today saying she didn't discuss these issues with her husband. Many people, whether they find it hard to believe or not,

that's what she's saying. But she also apparently reiterated her belief that the election was stolen. So we are talking about the legitimacy of and trust in a very important branch of government. And you know, the politicization of the Court is real and it is very problematic, regardless of which party you are in. Benny Thompson, the chair of the committee, was asked if he believes that Justice Thomas should recuse himself. This has been a question in Washington

since this whole Jennie Thomas thing emerged. He said, quote, I think members of the Supreme Court ought to be held to the same ethical standards that other judges are held to unquote. Should Justice Thomas refuse himself? I think I don't believe so. I think to Jennie's point out the declining reputation of the Court, which, by the way Joe put it in the context of the declining faith

Americans have in almost every institution there is. In fact, the only things that are still relatively popular are the military Small Business, Court of Pew Research, the military small business, and at times the police. Everything else is below the cut line of confidence. Uh, Jenny really believes that the

there was a problem with the election. She believed that back when she believes that now she's not alone, and which raises the bigger question, which is when are we going to do something to restore faith in the in the integrity of the ballot where people believe that a winner is actually a winner as opposed to just an excuse to say that one was stolen. And suddenly the legitimacy of everyone who stands for election is being questioned.

Oh my gosh, I don't know where this is going here, uh, Gennie, but the calendar is sensitive. We've also got the midfterm elections that could be coming, you know, depending on where this lands two weeks later. Yeah, that's right, and you know we are staring down at the mid term election. Um. You know it's accused of thumbing the scale exactly. And you know, just to follow up, I was just looking at the data that Adams talking about in the early

ninete of Americans had trust in the government. That is down close to one out of five, you know, depending on what you're you're looking now, it's a dramatic decrease in a really frightening, you know, picture of where we are today in American government. But have you heard about the hog hunting? This is stopped me dead in my tracks today, Marjorie Taylor Green. I suppose it's not the

first time Adam saw it. I can already tell out with a new ad inviting people to enter a contest to not only go hog hunting, but go hog hunting from helicopter, complete with the rock sound track rocketing inflation, high discol fuel, and the perhaps America last policies. Democrats aren't the only one destroying farmer's ability to the table. We've got wild hogs destroying farmer's field. So we decided to go hog honey. Did you see her actually with an a R fifteen or whatever the heck style of

assault weapon. She's hanging out of the door of a helicopter shooting hogs from the air and then is posing with the dead hog on the ground. Sign up, blow and let's go in the helicopter and gog honey. I feel like we should maybe just enter. I mean, it would be good for the program. But you know, it's interesting as it turns out, Genie, as I read uh on the internets. While hunting may seem like the answer, Newsweek reports the U. S d A says it actually

makes things worse. The pigs become nocturnal and we'll travel more than a hundred miles to avoid hunters. So she seems to be sending the hogs to someone else's farm. A you're gonna sign up for this, Genie? I did. I too, watched the video or the the ad, and you know, these these hogs are under attack. We had Bill Cassidy talking about Farrell hogs. Now she's talking about hogs, you know, likening them to Democrats, and you know, poor hoggs,

as you mentioned, they're gonna run away. They're gonna all run to d C to see you, Joe, and you know they're gonna be multiplying nocturnally. Um. You know, listen, she's talking about, you know, the harm that Biden did to farmers, hence this need to uh, I guess, destroy the Farrell hogs. She never mentions the harm that Trump did to two farmers in the trade war with China and the you know, the amount of stimulus that followed that.

So the little bit of problem I had with the logic and you know, just putting aside the great music and the unfortunate chasing of these hogs. Adamu. This ad has been watched more than three hundred and seventy thousand times on Twitter since it went up two days ago or something. What what is this? What is her brand? What would her brand be in a new Republican House majority? And I asked you that, remembering that she was sitting right behind Kevin McCarthy at his Commitment to America speech

on Friday. I think that you if you put a caption underneath her right now, uh for and give it a name. It would be hog wild. Right, she's gone hog wild, she has She's going from the atlantist to the outrageous. She's never had a problem with that. She likes getting action. Clearly, this is what this is. I feel sorry for the hogs by the way, for the record, but you know, sometimes the rush to go viral is

not always good for your political health. I think at some point, yeah, this the price will be paid for this. It's for effect, it's a it's a it's a compelling that if you if you're if you're talking about recall, but it's a kind of a repulse that when you talk about what was really going on here shooting from helicopters. Genie Well, although, Gennie, she'll be back on committees though, right, yeah,

I think she will. Yeah. And Kevin McCarthy is going to rue the day she was right behind him because she's going to be pushing him, right if he's speaker. That's the truth suit. Jeanne Chanzano, thank you, Adam Goodman, thank you a great panel and a great conversation today on the fastest hour in politics. I'll meet you back here tomorrow. They say it's gonna be Friday. This is Bloomberg