Sound On: McCarthy Peloton Rant, Musk Switches to GOP

what's peloton. This party is united and it's poised to take back the Senate and to say if this country Sloomberg Sound On with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio clicking. Senate primary in Pennsylvania still up in the air, but the youngest member of Congress is packing his bags and will be soon. Welcome to the fastest hour in politics. On this day after, we'll have the latest from Pennsylvania and the four other states that hit the polls with the Trump brand on the line in more and two

dozen races this week. We'll talk about it in a moment with Lincoln Mitchell, writer and political analyst at Columbia University. Analysis ahead from our panel Bloomberg Politics contributors Genie Chantano and Rick Davis in for the hour and later you may have added summer blackouts to your list of problems, and it's partly because of climate change, not why you think though a Bloomberg story you need to hear about

from our own Noreene Malick in New York. Today's destruction in the markets made its way to the White House by way of the press briefing today. Press Secretary Korean John Pierre. I've got to get used to saying that Bloomberg's justin sink in the briefing room, he asked the question. The White House prefers not to answer. Listen to this. We're now gotting into a point whereas some of the games that um have defined the president's tenure are being raised, and so is there a new level of a warm

within the White House of problems? Well, as you know when we say this all the time, Josh, you know, it's just a uh the fetch chair. You know, the Federal Reserve is independent. We leave them to make their own policy decisions. We do not get involved in that. And nothing has changed on how we see the start market. We do not. That's not something that we keep an

eye on every day. So I don't I'm not going to comment about that from here, I'm not going to comment on on what I thought was a very well framed question by Justin Sink referring to the gains that have been a hallmark of this administration, helped to define the early days of the Biden White House. The rebound in the stock market, just like the job market. It's one of the good stories the administration could tell, even

though it wasn't or I guess is not telling it. Now, let's dig into this a bit deeper before we turn to primary NiFe. Bloomberg Markets reporter Abigail Doolittle is with us a special treat here on Sound On, Abigail, Thanks for joining us. People keep trying to call the bottom in this market. Is that going to be possible though, as long as inflation remains such a big story. Tough business to do and great to be here with you,

Joe Uh. You know, it's clearly a difficult year and it's an interesting point that you're making there around the White House, and also the connection with inflation. Guess today, of course stocks plunging, as Charlie was outlining, and it has everything to do with one of investors worst fears coming true and that is that the soaring inflation picture

finally hitting the corporate profit outlook. Yesterday it was Walmart today target tumbling more than the worst day since that's an important point because that was panicked selling back then. That's the kind of selling we had today as investors are somehow caught off guard by the fact that the

company can't manage soaring inflation. Trying to call a bear market in this sort of environment, or excuse me, a bottom in this sort of environment, I think that that's probably a fool's game, especially when you after the bell have a company like Cisco bringing down guidance in a big way that reminds me of two thousand seven and ahead of the brutal selling in two thousand and eight.

So a lot of moving pieces here, which also probably means we're not bouncing back a thousand points tomorrow, right, Probably not now. I that said, I do think that there is the case the possibility for some sort of a bear mark get rally, but not in a straight line up, because we are still above last week's low, which suggests that the buyers, the dip buyers, could come back,

but in a very uneven, unpredictable way. The bigger picture though, and especially when you bring in the fundamental macros of the macro of UH. The SMP being a forecasting tool six months out, what is it telling us, Probably a recession at some point, plus the yield curve inverting back

in the beginning of April our recession. So if we have some sort of reprieve, and if you recall back into other periods, difficult periods two thousand, two thousand three, that was a rolling bear market where there was lots of rallies in there. Two thousand and eight there were a couple of very nice rallies. So again we might get a reprieve, but the pictures not so nice. Maybe you don't read into it too far. Abigail Doolittle, thank you. This stock market route is happening just as the primary

season gets underway in Earnest. Last night was the biggest one we've had yet, the biggest race on the map last night the Republican Senate primary, and Pennsylvania remains undecided. Right now, it's almost twenty four hours later. Here's out sounded last night with Dr Oz and David McCormick. Unfortunately we're not gonna have resolution tonight, but we can see the path ahead, we can see victory ahead, and that's all because of you, So thank you Pennsylvania. When all

the votes are tallied, I am confident we will win. Yeah. How about that? That was Dr Oz right there, trying to be definitive without knowing he of course endorsed by Donald Trump. Up by about two tenths of a percent now leading McCormick by fewer than two thousand votes. That's where things stand. And don't hold your breath for this to be called. It's not gonna happen during the program.

Here there are a hundred thousand mail in ballots I read that have to be processed and counted and Pennsylvania loss as elections officials can't start doing that till election days, so they're just getting into this now. As we get into this race. And a few others from last night with Lincoln Mitchell, author and political scientists from Columbia Universe City, Adjunct Associate Research Scholar in the Arnold Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia to get the business

card right, Lincoln, thanks for joining us. Uh. Some were surprised by David McCormick strength in the primary. Uh, would Dr Oz have been a contender without Donald Trump. He would have been a contender, but he wouldn't be neck and neck with with Dave McCormick without Donald Trump. And and the reason for that is that there were two very trumpy candidates in the race for that primary. In some respects a moment. Oz was not the most trumpy candidate.

That was Kathy Barnett. But Trump's endorsement of Oz, I think took votes from Barnett and gave him to Oz. And that is the margin if he wins this thing, that will be the difference. Why did uh Barnett not impressed last evening that the whole story leading into the primary was this surging out of nowhere candidate with little

money but kind of fizzles on voting day. Well, yes and no, Right, So she got almost a quarter of the vote in a race where is gonna no Kennedy's gonna gett most likely, So she was kind of in the thick of it. And you know, campaigns, the media coverage of campaigns tends to be about momentum and you know who's saying what, But a lot of campaigns are operational. Who has the most money, who can really kind of get the campaign trains running. And that's below the radar stuff.

But I suspect that Barnett did not do a strongly there as she would have liked. Donald Trump is urging I can't keep the calling of Dr Oz the rest of the year. Can't memit Oz not to wise? Doctor Oz? Trump posted on Truth Social doctors should declare victory. It makes it much harder for them to cheat. He wrote, with the ballots that they quote just happened to find. Uh, are you surprised Dr Oz has not done this? In fact,

declare victory? Well, first of all, congratulations for looking at truth and Social I didn't I lifted it from That might make you like the eleventh person outside the Trump family to do that. From from his strategic perspective, it's never you know this, this line that Trump keeps saying that every time he loses or someone he doesn't he likes loses, that the election was stolen is a lie and it's very damaging to democracy. And if that seems to be what Donald Trump wants to do, so from

that perspective, sure, why not. From a more strategic perspective, it's not a bad idea to declare victory, because then if the race is close, you know, if the race is close, if there are questions, and sometimes there are not because someone is cheating or not because some secretary of state is doing shenanigans, but because there are questions, you know, was this ballot spoiled or not, you have

kind of a strategic advantage. But realistically, it doesn't matter what oz says until all of the ballots are counted, and we're gonna have to count the ballots. And we went through this in Pennsylvania in November, when, as many expected, the absence votes pushed Biden over the top there, so Pennsylvania, you know, we know what Trump feels about Pennsylvania. Here we go again. Would oz or pose a stronger challenge to John Fetterman or is it the same race? My

sense is that this is the same race. And I say that for two reasons. One, the only thing we know for sure about electability is that we don't know anything about electability. So anytime some pundit like me says this one's electable, this one's not, we're just guessing. We don't know what we're saying. And you know, Donald Trump in January. In mid it was actuallymatic that Donald Trump

could never get elected president. In mid two thousand seven, it was actually matic that Barack Obama could never get elected president. So my sense is that this is going to be a very close race. Pennsylvania is always a close state. All of the kind of macro big picture trends say that this is going to be a Republican year of Pennsylvania may not be an exception to that.

On the other hand, the Democrats have nominated on unusual intrigue in candidate who may be able to pull some of those voters, particularly some of those younger male voters, away from Trump or the Republican Party back to Federman of the Democratic part With a drive to legalize marijuana, they say, may bring in voters who wouldn't otherwise vote Lincoln exactly, and it sends a message that he's not this kind of stagy old each of broccoli Democrat and

and and there's one other There's that's my point, right, one other one other point I would make is that for all of this talk about how this is going to be such a Republican year, and don't forget there was a competitive more or less Republican primary for governor in Pennsylvania. We haven't talked about that much, but there's a story there. There was not a competitive primary for Democrat. Jos Shapiro ran on a post and and only a

hundred thousand more Republican voters came out. So there's more, perhaps more Democratic strength in Pennsylvania than it seems at first cut rate. I want to get into that race with you, because Trump did have a win UH in the Republican cobinatorial race. Doug Mastriano got the nod UH described in almost every major news UH organization as a election and denier. He's the election denier who today prompted the Cook Political Report to turn the race from toss

up to lean Democrat. Here, by the way, if we can hear from the nominee, here's Mastriano on stage last night. They'd like to call people who stand on the constitution far right and extreme. I repudiate that that is crap okay uh. Lincoln the state Democratic Party actually sent out mailer's supporting Mastriano. This part of the story is great.

His Democratic opponent, who you mentioned, Joshapiro, spent over eight hundred thousand dollars on ads calling Mastriano too conservative and quote one of Trump's strongest supporters unquote, and it actually mean they looked like attack ads, but they boosted his standing among conservatives. UM. Right, And that is that the kind of confidence that I mean, is that appropriate for Democrats to be that confident? The short answer that is no, Uh.

The longer answer that is that those statements are in fact empirically true about Mastriano, And we shouldn't. You know, Jos Shapiro is not is an actual real person here, and he's a very good candidate. He's sharp, he's smart, he's a good looking guy. So I think he's the right guy for the Democrats uh to be nominating, and he has a real shot at winning. UM. But again,

you know, the Mastrianto can win. The Republican Party nominee in Pennsylvania this year is going to have a real shot for governor no matter who it is, and the damage it would do not just to Pennsylvania, but imagine the election if instead of Governor Wolf, who was a Democrat in office in Pennsylvania, there is a Republican governor to go along with a very likely be a Republican majority of the Pennsylvania state lection point, a Republican slate

of electors could overturn the will of the voters. So we are really getting into I know it's a it's overstated, but really uncharted territory as we approach. One big loss came in North Carolina. Madison Cawthorne. I have to ask you about before you go, the youngest member of Congress. He lost the state Senator Chuck Edwards. Can we even judge this as a Trump loss? I mean, with with all the trouble that Cawthorne made for himself, he sort of created his own reality, He created his own reality.

But look, Donald Trump has been creating his own reality for decades, and and part of Donald Trump's reality was that Madison Cawthorne should get reelected, and he went and endorsed him. So I think this is a defeat for Trump. I don't know that it means anything. Congressman ed Edwards, who is likely going to win that that that general election to go to Washington, is going to vote and and present and have the same impact on legislation and

policy as Madison Cawthorne will. He will probably have a better control over his personal life I suspect that wouldn't take a lot. Uh, No, would not. Lincoln. I'm glad you came to talk to us today. Great insights from Lincoln Mitchell Columbia University with us on the fastest hour in politics. Come back often Lincoln, over the course of his campaign cycle. We've got wild stories to talk about. We're really just getting into this now, if you can imagine.

I'm not sure if he can say last night was anything but a win for Donald Trump when you think about it, even the losers in some cases were Trumpier than the winners in the races he chose to endorse. Let's assemble the panel here. Great to hear Jeannie Chanzano and Rick Davis back together, and certainly a lot to talk about after last evening. Isn't that the truth, Jennie, We're not only talking about Trump all day and I'm

part of this. I'm lighting the fires again apparently in two But when you look at the contest, particularly this Senate race in Pennsylvania, they were all trying to get closer to Trump, no matter which candidate he picked. Yeah, and you know, even if a McCormick wins over oz Oz Endorsed by Trump and McCormick not. You know, McCormick has famously, you know, shied away from saying basic things like President Biden was the is the duly elected president.

I mean, that's how far to the MAGA portion of the party all three of these candidates are, and McCormick being the least of the three. So that's where we are. And you know, you were just talking about this with Lincoln Trump out today saying that Dr Oz should just do what he did in and just say I won the I have the votes right now I want. And of course, what's going to happen if McCormick pulls this through,

which on mail ballots he very likely could. Trump is going to claim that the election was once again stolen. So to your point, this is all about Trump and the candidates are supporting that. I've been looking forward to, uh, to your top line on the evening as a whole here, Rick is, and I do feel like Pennsylvania is sort of the focal point, uh, certainly that we have taken, although there were a number of other races around the country that speak to what happened. But you know, the

Republican contests coast to coast were resonating Trump. When you look at some of the folks who wont and in this case an undecided race between two Trump supporting candidates in Pennsylvania, what do you feel you know, look, I think you know, Donald Trump has the energy in the party. He doesn't have every ingle Republican the party that backs him, but he has the activists. And the activists really turned

out in this election. I mean, this was one of the highest uh GOP turnouts in a primary in two decades. I mean that's actually saying something. We keep talking about what the numbers are, but this was a really good turnout for Republicans. The story here is that that whatever got him excited, and we think it's probably Donald Trump's

involvement in this campaign. Uh As everyone has said, each one of these three candidates running for the Senate and the guy who won the governor's nomination, we're all Trump apostles, and so you got to give him some of that do and and he's turning people out. Not only was the election in two or twenty, you know, the highest turnout in a hundred years, but now we see it replicated here. The really bad news, uh is is that the Democratic Party seems to lack that energy, lack that

turnout capability. Um, you know, we know the intensities from the surveys we've read. And so while we're all talking about Donald Trump and his impact on the Republican Party, the Democrats are wishing they had somebody who could actually generate that kind of excitement. Well, sure, you read on the Senate primary, Rick, is this something that you think doctor memit Oz can pull out? You know, look, I mean most of the energy on the early ballots, you know,

the absentee or the mailing ballots were McCormick. He's winning those slightly above Oz. But Oz one election day, so you gotta assume Oz's numbers are in and and that he's gonna sort of lose dribs by drabs. I mean, in just the preparatory time of this, this this program, Um, McCormick picked up two hundred votes, I mean, like you know, and there's only seventeen hundreds of you know, dividing them. So, uh, if you do play the long game, you see, Uh,

could he could he make up that seventeen hundred? I think the answer is sure And within a half it's a half percent. This this this prompts a recount, right, this wouldn't be a runoff, but a recount, and then the fund begins. Genie, if we got to that point, oh, I think we're going to get there, and let's not forget we We not only may see a recount, we could see candidates filing lawsuits. That's where I'm going. Yeah,

this thing could extend and extend out one thing. I think Rick is right to talk about turnout, but I do want to say Democratic turnout in several of these states outpaced eighteen and a lot of people are asking why. Some people suggesting it may be abortion. I'm not sure. But when you look at Fetterman, he won every single county, you know, not a typical Democratic candidate. Certain commamb his opponent was the Biden candidate, if you will, lost big time.

So Democrats may have a candidate there who they could use across the country as sort of somebody who could break through what's otherwise a really good Republican year. They're hoping, Rick, do you put dr Oz in a hoodie and in shorts and get him out there if that's the race? I hope not. How do you bet John Federman? You know, look I mean, I think that first of all, it's gonna be um advantage Republicans, right, I mean, there's there's just noes disputing the anxiety that voters have towards the

current administration. Uh, Biden's going to be on the ballot along with Fetterman, whether he likes it or not. And in and in that regard, UH, you're probably advantage oz or whoever the Republican nominee is. Uh. Then they've got to run a good campaign. And there's no question Federman is a talented Paul who has done an enormous job, who is hopefully kind of get out of the hospital and campaign hard. Because we want to see the Rockham

Stockham campaign that Pennsylvania is known for. It's gonna be a riot. How about Doug Mastriano, what do you make of the the idea that Democrats helped to get him elected thinking that if he would be easier to knock down. Is that a fool's aaron? Well, I would say that's a dangerous aaron, because, Um, the only thing worse than them actually getting him the nomination is him being in position to be the governor and and and so who's

going to be held to blame for that at that stage. Um, trying to be too cute by half in politics usually doesn't work out well. Uh And again, I mean, like everyone's talking today about what an oddball this guy Mastriano is, and you know he's you know, really stunk up by the January six activity and that kind of thing. But this could be such a Republican year that people like

him even get elected. And that's saying something about the strength of the Republican cycle, but it also is a warning that be careful who you you put into the nominee spy. You could have Democrats having put thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars into adds that that that supposedly helped Mastrianna get elected to make more ads in a general with images of him in Washington on January six, and help him to win the whole thing with the same strategy. Yeah, and here's a guy with a very

radical message. You know, he wanted to he was fighting to overturn the election in he's somebody who is at the rally on January six. He wants to appoint a secretary of State that will throw out the voter rolls. It's very dangerous territory. Democrats have to be careful. You know. This is not to compare Mastriano to Ronald Reagan or Hillary Clinton, but you know they did the same thing in some of these races where they got you know,

overboard on sort of. You know, even when Ronald Reagan was running for governor way back when, in terms of saying this guy can never win, let's push him forward. And what did he do? He won? So that's dangerous territory. But Joe, if you if we have Fetterman on, we can all wear hoodies and shorts, including Rick Davis. So that's right, even at a presidential event. Hey, Rick, you're not gonna have Madison Cawthorne to kick around anymore. Huh.

All I can say after that last comment is it's a good thing we're on radio and no one'll ever know if I'm wearing a hoodie or not. Um. Yeah, Madison author, he's history toast. Put a fork in him. He's done. Turn the page. We're all back together, Rick, Genie, Joe back in the nation's capital following a lovely visit to the hub of the universe. Wasn't that fun? In Boston? Coming up next, they're talking blackouts because we needed more to worry about this summer. It's a climate change story.

We'll have it next. 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 nine and around the globe the Bloomberg Business app and Bloomberg Radio dot Com. This is Bloomberg Sound On

with Joe Matthew. The headline, I'm a terminal vast swath of US at risk of summer blackouts rates because high gas prices and a war in Ukraine were not enough. We'll talk about it next with Bloomberg's Noreene Malick. If you think about where the national consciousness might be come the depths of summer gas prices, maybe a new highs recent highs, possible food shortages because of everything going on

in the war. Can't get baby formula. The government now warning of possible political violence tied to the Roe v. Wade decision. But let's call that a worst case scenario for everyone for this administration, certainly until I read this story on the terminal. Today we could add another layer. A vast swath of North America from the Great Lakes to the West Coast at risk of blackouts this summer as heat, drought shuttered power plants and supply chain woes

strain the electric grid. This is real, and we get to talk about it with Bloomberg's Noreen Malick. Noreen, I was really taken. Thank you for coming into bring this important story to us, Taken by the cause. As you write, climate changes partly to blame. And it's not what people might think, uh, as much as the fact that it it's it's limiting supplies of hydro electric power. Are powers evaporating, isn't it? Yes? At these the US grids are facing

multiple stress factors right now. You know, for years we've been seeing on and off, like in California and the West where drought conditions, really dry conditions are reducing the amount of hydro power. So that lower snowpack in the mountains and just lower rain overfall means that there's sorry over the winter and in spring means that there's less water that's going into reservoirs to run these hydro plants.

So that's been UM an issue for years, and it's now being exacerbated by even more extreme weather conditions, so more severe droughts UM which can also um make the

heat and summer more intense. And then on top of that, the grids are facing um you know, like we're trying to like protect against climate change by pursuing this fast energy transition and by you know, adding more solar and wind, and but that's also adding a lot of stress to the grid because wind and solar, you know, they're going to supply power when their sunshine and when the wind is blowing, and so it's intermittent and part of and you don't have enough backup power to um smooth out

the variations, the fluctuations, especially at in the evening, like when the sun sets. You have such a massive drop in solar generation in California and increasingly in Texas that you need to quickly bring on within like that ages the equipment. You write that electricity supplies will be especially tighten the Midwest. How come so the stress in the Midwest has been growing for a while. There's a lot

of coal plants they're shutting down. You know, it's a trend across the country But what was really stunning is several weeks ago, you know, the Mid Continent into Independent System Operator or miceo UM. They run the grid from the Midwest to the Gulf Coast. They ran an auction to like secure supply lie for this summer um and they suddenly didn't have five giga watts. More than five giga watts show up and at least three giga watts

is coals and and the rest is natural gas. And they're shutting down faster than expected even a year earlier. So they also have a transition there are seeing demand um rebound faster post pandemic, and then they also just suddenly have a lot of supply missing. Well, this is a heck of a story. I hope that everyone gets a chance to read it. Norine, thank you for giving us a little bit of a chance to understand this. As we are now also at risk of summer blackouts.

Let's bring the panel back as promised, Rick and janr here. Rick, this is the kind of thing that the president, you know, I suppose is going to take the blame for. No matter what the administration does at this point, it's going to reflect once again on energy policy. People are gonna say it's the same guy who is causing me to pay almost five dollars a gallon for gas. Yeah, the gas is going to be a drain to uh to his ability to communicate with vote is because they're gonna

be so angry. Uh. I heard today that the Fed's misery index. I haven't heard that since Jimmy Carter was president, Uh is the highest now since it was in the nineteen eighties, Jimmy Carter and and I think those are the kinds of things we're gonna hear more and more of. I mean, misery is spelled in a lot of different ways economically, but um, for voters, Uh, they're already experiencing it. And when you then start stacking that onto Okay, what

does he talking about. Well, he can say that he got this trallion dollar infrastructure bill passed and we're gonna be building a billgraded grid and that kind of thing. And and you know, uh, someday he may get a plaque on a tower somewhere that says, Hey, this is the president who built this grid. But that's not gonna help in this November and maybe not November either, It's just not in time. Uh. Genie I don't know. Uh,

I don't know on this one. How does the White House get ahead of this problem when the lights start going out? Uh, that's not good obviously, as we'd we'd be you know, within three or four months of the mid terms. Yeah. While I'm listening to this, I'm thinking, you know, you're taking a population that's just got through

a one year pandemic. You're attaching onto that this great uncertainty in the markets, inflation, enormous gas prices, people out in California paying seven eight dollars a gallon, and you stack on that rolling if hopefully if they're blackouts, they're just rolling, but they may be more blackouts. And it's very very difficult politically for the Democrats to do anything.

And you know this is why this new generic uh, this new generic pole that just came out, Battleground Pole, shows Republicans beating Democrats by eight points as we go into the mid term, and it could get worse. So this could be a tsunami in terms of Republicans taking over Congress, unless, of course, Mitch McConnell's worst nightmare. They nominate candidates who can't win a general election, and that's where Democrats feel a little bit of hope as they

look at somebody like Mastriano. But as we were just talking about, you know, he could, to Rick's point, win in an environment like this, so very precarious for the White House to try to address these things and very few tools at their disposal to do so. You mentioned that, Rick earlier, I was talking to somebody. You start talking about blackouts. They say, boy, that's kind of like ninety eight. What else is going on around that song? Well, how

about those long lines. I don't expect you to remember this, but I actually had a car then, and uh, and you had to sit in the line to get gas. I mean, it's one thing to pay six bucks a gallon where we might be headed this summer, but it's another thing to have to wait an hour or so to get that gas. And I don't know how much patience is left in this electric I was in the back seat of my parents car. That was back when they could lock the back doors with the double locks

and before the windows though only went halfway down. Rick and Genie with us for the rest of the hour our political panel on sound on, We're gonna check the markets again for you. We'll check traffic to help you get home as well. I'm Joe Matthew. This is Bloomberg This he's Bloomberg Son on with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio. You know they like to say Washington is Hollywood for ugly people, and who could claim them. But the staffers on Capitol Hill are about to get in really good shape.

As we learned from the Republican leadership in our House of Representatives, Democrats are having the something called the House Center for well Being make Peloton corporate wellness benefits available two staffers. This includes members of the Capitol Police. The Peloton All Access and Peloton app as I read in the Hill, do not require a bike, but do include thousands of on demand classes. And Kevin McCarthy was worked up about this today even when after the company itself,

here's the Minority leader on the floor. You may be asking, what's Peloton. It's a bike that costs about two thousand dollars. Not only that, each month you pay a monthly subscription fee to ride your two thousand dollar bike. And best of all, it's stationary and they charge you about three hundred dollars to set it up. So it's a two thousand dollar bike that you pay to use and pay to set up, that doesn't go anywhere. What's a business

like that, That's a multibillion dollar business publicly traded. Actually, do you get a sense that he has one at home? Uh? Speaker Pelosi's office referred inquiries to the House Administration Committee, which referred reporters to the Chief Administrative Officer. But that's

not all. Was the peloton. That's not all that had Kevin McCarthy upset today as a sign outside the Food Service Administration in the House the Rayburn House office building, to be more exact, advertised six pack and more with dre inks on demand at drinks dot House dot gov. Beer, wine, liquor, juice, soda, more can be ordered for pickup or delivery to your

office with valid identification. The idea here is that taxpayer money is underwriting a liquor store, or, as we call it in Boston, a packy in the House of Representatives. The vendor SIDEXO, which operates the House cafeterias, now offering same day orders for alcohol online. As we reassemble the panel, Rick Davis, Genie Chanzano, Bloomberg Politics contributors, but you wish you had that when you were working on the hill, Rick, Well, I'm not saying we didn't have something like that. Well,

the thing is, you know everyone knows. Look, if you ever spend time on Capitol Hill, you know staffers frequently go out at night when there are meetings or the offices working late to get food, and there's usually a box of wine and beer something coming back in as well. The idea, though, is that Sadexo, which is funded in part by taxpayer money, that this is kind of offensive. Is that going too far? Well, I think you could

actually rack this up to being medicinal, not celebratory. Okay, So I mean I think those people working on Capitol Hill need this for their own well being. Speaking of well being, and I would argue that a good bottle of Jack Daniels will make you feel a lot better than a Peloton bicycle and Rix in damn good shape. I should add, you need Do you think Kevin McCarthy

is a Peloton at home? Joe? You got me at Packy Because of course I learned a long time ago nobody outside of like Connecticut and Massachusetts refers to the package stories. Yeah, that's what we said. Back in the day. Um, you know, I have to say, you know, to deny anybody who has the fortitude to work on Capitol Hill access to something to increase their mental and physical well being seems to be a bridge too far. And of course, you know, Zoe Lofgren and Nancy Pelosi said this was rejected.

It was access in terms of Peloton to the app I mean, you can go on and on, but the reality is, this is Kevin McCarthy trying to focus on something other than the craziness going on in his own caucus and trying to you know, appoint the American public to you know, crazy spending by the Democrats which did not actually happen. Unbelievable. Uh. As far as the Pelotons go here, Rick, you may, you may prefer a bottle of bourbon, but you could say that this is actually

appropriate as they compete for talent. I mean a lot of companies are doing this kind of stuff to retain or to attract or retain employees. Uh sure, Uh. And and there are all kinds of wonderful perks that goes along with working on Capitol Hill. Uh. You know, those eighteen to twenty two hour days. Uh, you know, they're they're extremely attracted to people who have insomnia. And uh so, look, I think I think you've never had a problem recruiting

Capitol Hill. I mean, it is the seat of government. It is where the action is. Uh and any young politico wants to spend a little bit of time up there. So hopefully the reason people want to gravitate to serving their country isn't because they can ride a stationary bicycle. Yeah, fair enough. I want to ask you both about Elon Musk while you're here. As he tweets today that he is now going to be voting Republicans, says he will

vote Republican, slamming Democrats as a party of division and hate. Now, this follows comments that he made last evening that I'd like you both to hear comments about the Biden administration versus the Trump administration, and as he's kind of criticizing Joe Biden here he well, I guess a backhanded complimented Donald Trump. Doesn't know what he said. I mean, this is administration just it doesn't seem to get a lot done, like and you know, um whatever, like the Trump administration,

leaving Trump aside. A lot of people in the administration who were effective at getting things done so uh but this this administration seems just just to not have like the drive to just get done. Okay, now, of course you have to leap the CEO of SpaceX Tesla maybe soon Twitter. But this kind of conversation, uh, Genie is actually what people end up talking about at the dinner table, I guess, as well as anything else when Elon Musk talks now politically, he does seem to be impacting the

political conversation. Uh. And this is an interesting development here that he's going to vote Republican all the time as he's trying to buy Twitter supposedly and getting people worked up about freedom of speech. How does this end? Well, you know it's interesting. You've got Jeff Bezos over the weekend, you know, attacking the di Biden administration. You have Elon Musk um saying he's to vote Republican taking them on.

And you know, one thing that Democrats can say is the billionaires seem to have a lot of problems with what's coming out of the White House, and in this environment that may not be such a bad message. Um. You know what happens with Elon Musk in terms of Twitter is anybody's guests right now. But as we look at what happened in Buffalo, and we look at the live streaming not on Twitter um that occurred in that context, all of his talk about absolute freedom of speech really

raises a number of questions. So as he talks about the Biden administration not getting things done, he has a point. There have been things not done, and of course Congress owns a lot of that, half of them those people being Republicans. But there's also a question of what Elon Musk would do if he bought Twitter in terms of

things like the speech that came out of Buffalo. So his you know, there's a lot of questions for Elon Musk, and the talk of you know, this being a democratic issue in a split Congress is something he also should answer for. In the past, I've got the tweet here, Rick the whole thing. In the past, I voted Democrat because they were, in parentheses, mostly the Kindness party. But he says they've become the party of division and hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican.

Now watch their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold. With a little popcorn emoji is his voice in the political discourse important in this midterm cycle? Sure, Joe, I think you touched upon it. I mean there are a group of American voters who want to and and spend time, uh,

both with the products that he makes. You know, Tesla solar panels uh uh, you know the benefits of the satellite business and or you know, uh, telecommunications and and and potentially UM and potentially Twitter and so you know, if there's a demographic that's forty and under gamers, technology people, folks who like to travel. I mean, like, the guy hits it hard and so I'm sure, look he's got what I forget, how many million Twitter followers. That is

no small thing. And so when he does speak, there are a lot of people who react to that. And if I were the administration, you know, I'd find out who was responsible for coordinating with him, because it's either the Department Offense or the Department of Energy here. So somebody was talking to a guy who has a lot of exposure to the federal government and say, what can we do to try and get this dialogue change because this is not productive for this administration. Well, Marty Walsh

was down at one of his plants. I think the Texas plant. We're wearing cowboy boots a couple of months ago, Genie. But Elon Musk was never invited to any of the electric car events, the many e V events that the White House had parking Gms and Fords on the south lawn. Would it have made a difference if they had acknowledged his his place in the universe at that point. I

think it may have. It's hard to tell with Elon Musk, but I think it may have, and he does deserve respect, and it is a big blunder if it wasn't blunder, which I'm not sure it was on the part of the White House, which made to be the start of some of his frustration. But again, if you look at what he's talking about, the administration doesn't get things done. Getting things done in Washington requires Congress. Congress is controlled half by Republicans. So let's just ask him what could

the Republicans have done differently? I mean, you know, we have a split Congress that is where action has to occur, and both parties bear responsibility. So I have a bit of a problem with the focus only on the Democrats in this case. Well, he did say though, that you know the Trump administration got there, save the president got things done? Is he is he suggesting Joe Biden needs

a better staff? Rick, I think that at this point where Joe Biden is, I think starting to chop heads and get a new staff is exactly what it is UH called for. Just wait till to get through November, right, Rick and Genie lead you back here tomorrow on the fastest hour in politics. It's great to have everyone back together again in a lot of good topics that we had to explore tonight. If you showed up late, subscribe to the podcast wherever you get your guests. This is Bloomberg