Sound On: Midterm Election Special Coverage

Have y'all heard Ricky? But I think if Democrats can keep the losses in the low twenties, that is a good night. She had five, a margin of five, and they got a lot done. Bloomberg Sound On with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio. Now that's up to you. Welcome to the fastest hour in politics on what is Christmas Day for wants like us? Election Day two, Here we are and you know we've got you covered on Sound

On with reports from battlegrounds of ross America. For this next hour, we'll hear from Bloomberg's Kaylee Lions in Pennsylvania. From Bloomberg's Ed Ludlow and Arizona National political reporter, Marketiquette in Ohio tonight, and Bloomberg's Billy House in Georgia. The states that will decide the balance of power, and of course, our signature panel in place to help make sense of it all. Bloomberg Politics contributors Rick Davis and Jeannie Chanzano are here for the hour and back with us for

special election night coverage. The headline at five thirty Gate says it all the forecast. It's more or less back where it started. Nate Silver writing on this election day that when they launched mid terms in their forecast on June thirty, Republicans had a fifty three percent chance of taking over the Senate from Democrats and a seven percent chance of taking over the House. He writes, we could

almost have turned off our servers and let the forecast stand. Today, Republicans have a fifty nine percent chance of winning the Senate, in eight percent chance of winning the House, and we've

got a lot of toss ups around the country. This is going to be a late night and early morning, a long week, and potentially a long month as we wait for results from states, including Pennsylvania, which is where we find Kaylee Lyons, We're gonna be hearing from the best minds in politics at Bloomberg over the course of the hour. Kayley is in Philadelphia right now, John Fetterman,

of course, and Dr Oz. This is one that we have been tracking very closely, right through the big rally over the weekend with Donald Trump closing arguments from the candidates today. Sometimes I'm gonna miss some words, sometimes I'm gonna mush two words together. But one thing I absolutely will always get right is making sure that we stand for the important things in Washington, d C. The Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, still recovering from a stroke and speaking

to supporters earlier. Doctor Oz as well within a point now again endorsed by Donald Trump, the Republican trying not to fully embrace him at times. They'll found himself on stage with Trump over the weekend. Pay Ways that a very clear bestage to Washington. We want that's radicalism for this, so I encourage less your dramadicalism, he says as he went out to vote himself. Kaylee Lions again is in

Philadelphia and has been reporting all day there. Kayley, it's great to have you with us this is one of the states, and of course we could say that about a couple of them that could decide the balance of power in the Senate. It is and the reason why is because the Senate seat in question is that of retiring Republican Senator Pat Toomey. So this is seen as

the Democrat's best opportunity to flip the seat. Of course, John Seederman would have to win in order for that to happen, And as you alluded to, this is an incredibly,

incredibly tight race. Settlement had been leading for pretty much the duration of the campaign, but in recent weeks, after a debate performance in which he really unfold of display showed he is still struggling from the effects of that stroke you mentioned earlier type material and if I thirty eight now has odds a head by about half of one percent. So this is absolutely going to be a nail biter, but we're not actually gonna know to ultimately

run this race, probably for several days. Pennsylvania as a state in which they can't begin counting mail in ballots until seven am on election day, so this morning and election officials have learned they will not have all of those ballots counted tonight or even necessarily tomorrow. And as we know, Joe, the majority of mail in ballots tend to be Democratic. One point two million mail in ballots have been returned here in Pennsylvania. Of those, about seventy

percent were from registered Democrats. So that could be why we may see a red mirage effect where when in person voting is made public more quickly those results it could look more red, and as the mail in ballots begin to be counted, it could turn more blue. And of course there's a lot of legal issues around mail

and ballots in this state as well. After the state Supreme Court ruled last week that unless the date was printed on the outside of the envelope, that ballot could not be counted, Fetterman and other UH National Democratic groups has filed the lawsuit to challenge that, So there could be a lot of litigation around this. And Joe, we may be talking about this race and what the results of it could be for days to come. Yeah. Well, yeah, you ought to get comfortable up there. It's softly nice

this time of year, Kaylee. You guess you could call this a week by the time we're done. But you know, we saw this race start to narrow before following the stroke and before the debates when a lot of money went in for Dr Oz, a lot of ads that really focused on issues like crime. Is that what you're

hearing people talk about? Yeah, it definitely is top of mind for a lot of voters, and Odds has been really pushing the narrative that Setterment is stoft on crime, highlighting his role on the board of proles and commuting sentences. Settlement of course says he just is about giving people second chances. But crimes front and center here in Philadelphia as well. We're just days ago over the weekend in attending to neighborhood there was a mass shooting in which

nine people were injured. So it's definitely a big issue for voters, as is abortion. I was outside of polls here in Philadelphia, which of course is heavily Democratic leaning, talking to voters about what they were thinking about as they went into the polling station, and a lot of them said women's reproductive right. So that is top of mind too, and as well as we know true here

in Pennsylvania. Really across the country, the economy and inflation also weighing heavily on the minds of the American people

on this election day. Killy, thank you joining us live from Philadelphia, and we'll see you starting at eight pm Eastern time in our special election night coverage, turning our attention to what's happening as well in Arizona, another awfully important state here that has has kind of worked its way to the top of the conversation here following allegations of fraud by Carrie Lake, of course, the Republican gubernatorial

candidates backed by Donald Trump. I woke up this morning, and within minutes of the polls opening up, I started getting people calling voters and tears, calling my personal number, saying what's going on. The tab leaders aren't working. They told me to put my ballot into a box and they would drive it downtown to count it. This is not normal stuff. Kind of an interesting concept here. Now.

I'm pretty sure that everyone has a specific precinct that they're set to vote in, but she says they went to when other precincts where the machines were more trustworthy. We switched from a Republican area to vote. We came right down at the heart of Liberal Phoenix to vote because we wanted to make sure that we had good machines and guess what, they've had zero problems with their machines today. She wanted to say that there would be a come to Jesus about voting law in Arizona. Very

unclear what in the world that means. And it's a good thing. We have Ed Ludlow on the ground right now in Phoenix. Bloomberg's Ed Ludlow there to cover all of the races that we're going to be tracking tonight. And Ed, I appreciate you're giving us sometime. Can you tell us what in the world actually is happening in

Maricopa County. Yeah, I think it's it's worth stating in the first instance that the claims carry Lake is making about elections fraud or unsubstantiated, and actually Maricopa County elections officials have been out ahead of this for most of

the day. Very early on on Tuesday, they said they'd identified twenty of voting locations that were having tabulation and issues where if a ballot does not successfully get passed through the tabulator the electronic machine, there's redundancy in those machines. If a ballot is not passed through successfully, it can be added to a safe box built into the tabulator, removed after polls closed, which is seven pm local here, and then tabulated manually, but specifically addressing one of Lake's

claims about the locations. If a voter who's already checked in casts the ballot that is not successfully passed through a tabulator, they could actually check out an elect to go and cast their ballot another location if they so choose, under the laws of this state. So Maricopa County has been communicating this pretty concisely for a number of hours now, and they say they found a fix for the tabulators

that are being impacted. And she says carry like that that she's going to be journalists worst nightmare for the next eight years. Have you bumped into her yet? Do you have something to worry about? You know, I've not bumped into her face affair ace. I've seen plenty of videos that she and the rest of the media have followed.

I mean, I think what's really interesting right is that there's a really tight Senate race here in Arizona, and the Republican Party is confident that they can tip the balance of Senate split here in Arizona through Blake Masters, who has really narrowed the gap, but really it's the it's the gubernatorial the governor's race that is putting Arizona on the map because if Carrie Lake wins, a big part of her campaigning has been based on unsubstantiated claims

the Democrats told the presidential election, and a big part of the strategy if she's successful is to keep that narrative going into presidential election. And of course we expect next week former President Trump to make a special announcement. Carrie Lake is a Trump GOP candidate, and she's made no secret of that. There may well be his running mate if he runs again. And thanks so much. We'll see you in our special election like coverage starting a

pm Eastern time. Ed Ludlow live from Phoenix. I'm looking at Mr Arizona right now. That would be Rick Davis and Jeanie Chanzano is here. Of course, we couldn't do this broadcast without our signature panel. Rick, after everything you've heard, and I know you've been in touch with your sources in Arizona, is it that Carry Lake would like to

create a narrative if she wins or if she loses. Well, she famously declared fraud when she won the primary, and so she won and it was still a fraudulent election. And we know, as you say, she claimed fraud in the election, and my guess is she'll claim fraud if she wins or loses in this general election. So I do know that the Democrats have done a really good job of getting early voters in a in a in

a percentage that they typically don't get. In other words, they were exceeding uh their standard amount, which means that it puts a little bit more pressure on carry Lake's campaign to turn out the vote on election day today. And they've been telling people all throughout the selection don't vote early, right, and so that's even added more pressure

to today. So I can imagine that if the machines aren't working correctly, and your entire campaign strategy was have people show up on election day, you're feeling like you're under enormous pressure. Well, she had some things to say about journalists as well, Jennie, as you might have heard, I'm gonna do two terms. I'm gonna be your worst freaking nightmare. So is that that's the way to work the base in the media, right, You're making friends already.

That is she is going to be your worst nightmare. Joe Matthew, I know, um, you know, I don't think this is much of a surprise. Uh. We've had forty five million Americans vote early, many of them by mail, some of them in person. As Rick just mentioned, her strategy has been same day voting for her her supporters, and when you're in that situation, there is a real concern. When it's Kaylie mentioned of state like Pennsylvania, seventy of

those early turnout voters are Democrats. So she's got to get her base out to vote, and they got to have machines on which to do it. Million. It's an incredible number. Rick and Jennie with us. We turned to Ohio next. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg Son on with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio. On to battleground Ohio. Although it's not quite the battleground, it used to be

trending red quite a bit lately. And that's a good thing for j d Vance, who actually has cleared a couple of points in the polls in his race against Congressman Tim Ryan. J d Vance out today to cast a vote, well, of course, for himself, something he's never done. But pretty cool feeling for guy's never run for office before, to cast cast a ballot for yourself in general election, I guess for the first time, it's a very good feeling. But I feel very good about today. We'll see how

it goes, but I'm feeling pretty confident. And we bring in to Ohio right now with Bloomberg National politics reporter Mark Niquette, continuing our stretch across the country. Mark, You've been writing about a number of different races. This one is awfully important when we consider again the balance of power in the Senate and in this case, an attempt by Democrats to flip a seat that looked more promising

a couple of weeks ago. What's the latest year. Yeah, this was a seat that Republicans thought at the beginning of the cycle would be safe. It's replacing retiring Republican Senator Rob Portman. And as you said, Ohio has been trending. Republican Donald Trump won the state twice pretty easily, but the Democrat Tim Ryan really made it a competitive race. He outraised and outspent j d vance Um. He ran a campaign running against his party and trying to appeal

to moderates and independence Um. But in the in the last few weeks here the polls are shown that Judy Vance has has opened up a lead, and well Tim Ryan is still projecting confidence that he can pull an upset. Here. The Republicans are pretty confident Vance is gonna win tonight pretty comfortably. Yeah, that's really incredible. I mean, this is somebody who would not be nominated without Donald Trump, right, I mean j d Vance was not the pick of

the establishment, yet here he is to win. Mark. Yeah, he was running in the middle of the pack. It was a crowded Republican primary in May um and it was only with Trump's endorsement that Judy Vance spandage to to win the nomination. In fact, he only also won because he had support from the billionaire entrepreneur Peter TiO, who put fifteen million dollars into a super pact at support Advance. That was really the funding that carried Advanced

to the nomination along with Trump's endorsements. Fascinating. We're gonna be watching the governor's race as well here that that should not be a major problem for Governor Dwine from the way you're looking at this, right, No, the poll show that Dwine is going to win pretty comfortably tonight

by eight. And interestingly, there was some some tickets splitting going on in Ohio to which which gave the Ryan people some hope that they could still pull an upset here where the polls were much tighter in the Senate race than in the governor's race. So some Republicans we're voting for Dwine, but not for advance. Mark. Thanks for being here. Thanks for being part of our coverage on a very busy day for you. Mark Niquette is Bloomberg

National politics reporter and joining us live from Ohio. Rick and Genie or with us. Now as you consider this race, it wasn't lost on me, Gennie to see Tim Ryan drinking a Miller light out of a can on MSNBC last night as he held the can up and said shears and asked people for their vote. He really tried to rewrite the Democratic plan here for beating a Republican in Middle America. It just doesn't seem to be getting

them quite far enough. What do you make of this race? Yeah, the numbers in Ohio may just be too much for him, But I think everyone who has watched this race um has to agree that he has run, as you were

just talking about, a really competitive, strong race. He may not be able to pull it over the finish line if the polls are to be believed, but he has He is really, in my mind, laid out a playbook for Democrats as they struggle to try to reconnect with the working class people in the Midwest and people in the central part of the country who he seemed to have lost. This sort of working man that Joe Biden was supposed to appeal to and they seemed to have lost.

And Ryan has really shown we can get these people back. And the Democrats are going to have to if this is close. I think they're going to have to really think about why they didn't try to put more money into this races. He has said many times when he's drinking beer and not this race was well underfunded by the Democrats. He raised money, Democratic Party did not put much money into it. And same thing in North Carolina. They're going to have to reconsider if Beasley is close

there as well. He's Vance is up by a little over six points on the composite here five eight Rick. This really broke in favor of of j D. Vance. But and again as we were discussing with Mark this was a Trump candidate, right, This wasn't someone who was supposed to be that competitive. Yeah, I mean when he first got into the primary, everyone thought he was sort of a nuisance candidate. And by the way, he was

a Trump candidate late. I mean, he ran his campaign most of the way through the primary in third place, and all of a sudden, you know, Trump endorsed him and boom here here he came on. So it does show an incredible ability, uh for Trump, and especially states like Ohio and Pennsylvania where he pulled over Oz the

same way to tol impact the state's primary. The question tonight is whether or not, as Genie was saying, um, Democrats can get more competitive in these rural, blue collar districts, and so looking in places like Putnam County where Republicans have held a pretty big edge, is Ryan gonna cut into that at all? If not, I'm not sure they're going to learn any lessons from the Ryan campaign about being able to pull those votes. What does the governor, uh,

the governor's race do for j D vance. If the wine is gonna have a big night, how does that work on the ballot work? Well? It only helps Vance, right. I mean, there's no such thing as you know, a top of the ticket candidate like Mike the Wine running well ahead of his opponent, hurting the Republican down ticket. Uh, it's only gonna help and uh. And so part of his cushion is the fact that he knows that he's gonna get a big push from the top of the ticket.

And I and I think that frankly, that's probably one of the reasons why you've seen Republicans coming home to J. D. Vance recently, which has ballooned up his margin. One of the things Tim Ryan ran on Jeannie was pushing back on Nancy Pelosi. Sometimes he talked about her like a Republican did up there. Do we then learn that that type of infighting does not work on the trail? Well, you know, he he ran against Nancy Pelosi. He tried to knock her out as ahead of his party as speaker.

You know, this is somebody who reflects the views of the people in his home state and some moderate, independent thinking Democrats across the country. And I do think there's a lesson for Democrats to learn there, as they seem to have veered too far to the left for many of the voters in these states. There's gonna be a long post mortem on this one. We'll do it with Frick and Jeannie. As the days passed, I'm Joe Matthew and Washington. This is Bloomberg. We throw the mics open

on a special election day edition of Sound On. I'm Joe Matthew in Washington, as the President himself has to room find you as well. This is it the same advice we're giving everybody, just slow down a little bit. More and more ballots are cast in early voting or by mail in America, and we know in many states don't start counting those ballots so after the polls closed. And remember eight if that means in some cases we won't know the winner of the election for a few days.

Until after few days after the election. It takes time to count all legitimic ballots in a legal and orderly manner. It's always been important for citizens and democracy to be informed and engaged. Now it's important for citizens to be patient as well, so have patients. It's gonna be, as he just said, probably days until we have a real

sense of what went on tonight. But that is not going to keep us from trying to project a bit and look for early indicators reading the the leaves along the East coast here and through other time zones as we make our way through the night. That's why I wanted to spend some time with Zach Cohen, who specializes in Congress and in this case, the election of members of Congress. Bloomberg Government Reporter, Zack, it's great to have you with us. Happy election Day, Happy election distin morning

for all of us wants. As I said, now, we've spent a lot of time talking about a couple of districts in Virginia. Abigail Spanburger comes to mind in the seventh district. Why is that the case because they are so closely contested or because of factors in their districts? Are both, It's a combination of a couple of different things. These there are three really competitive races, some more than others.

You've got Abigail Spamburger in the DC suburbs. Watching the World Series last week, I was just bombarded with ads for that South District race. Um, and then you know she's running against yesli Vega in a really contested race, and Spamburgers is nearly not even an incumbent because of redistricting, a lot of these new lines. You know, you've got voters who are looking at new members of Congress that

they have never represented them before. But really the race to really watch is down to Virginia Beach where Confers Woman Elaine Laurias in the January six Committee is up against Jen Kiggins to the Republican there, and she looks like she's in some trouble. Yeah. I mean, the Virginia second is really the like the median race in the country. If you look at the most competitive and the least competitive, Virginia Second is right down the middle of that. So

what extent does January six inform that? Because Lauria has not been hiding from this, She's been running on you know, this election is about saving democracy, where her candidates are

an opponent rather's telling a very different story. Yeah. I think actually Lauria is probably one of the few candidates Democrat or Republican that's talking about January six and or you know, paid media advertising because it's so intrinsically linked to her biography and it's something that Democrats have talked about. I think something like a fifth of advertising has sort of mentioned, you know, the insurrection or election denialism, what

have you. Um, But certainly you know that if you're gonna pick one candidate that's going to really make a make their point on on that issue, it's gonna be her. Most of the ads are focused on the economy and abortion and whatnot or else you're looking tonight. In in these first couple of hours, you mentioned New Hampshire in North Carolina as well. Yeah, New Hampshire, I think will be interesting. Is obviously a really competitive center race up there.

Senator Maggie Hassan is for reelection facing Republican Don bulldock Um was not really seen as very terribly competitive, but a lot of outside money has exactly, and it's one of these races where Republicans have sort of made some momentum at the at the last stretch here, and in a really good Republican year, you could see Hassan, who only one by a thousand votes in her last race, to actually get kicked out of the Senate after just

one term. That would said tell us a lot about what's about to happen for the rest of the night, right exactly. And then there's a House race to that sort of overlaps with that the first stich with the Congressman Chris Pappas that's also based in that sort of Manchester Sea coast area of New Hampshire, the most populous part of the state, and so I think that that state is really going to hinge on that area particularly.

It's pretty incredible when you think, and we've talked about this a lot with our panel over the months here that you know, when Chris and NWN who decided not to run for that Senate seat, Republicans kind of threw it out, well, geez, you know that. I guess that's the beginning of the end here. Maybe we only get

the house. Von Baldin has just proven to be a very competitive force, and it really came late in the game, and I saw it when I was on the ground actually a couple of months ago during the primary where establishment forces were coming in for a guy named Chuck Morris who's the state Senate president up there, really trying to get him over the line because they thought Buldock was it was too radical or too extreme to win

a general election. And despite spending basically no money to win the primary and is basically spending very little money now has sort of this grassroots energy, some of it I think built up for He ran for Senate in twenty against Senator Geane Shakeen and didn't do as well. He didn't get through the primary. Um, but Um clearly has some sort of grassroots support in New Hampshire that has got him through the primary and potentially into Senate.

I understand that you have been obsessed with one particular race, and it's one that will You'll have to talk to Rick about this effort. I am a mama grizzly and all were up on my high lets. Somebody comes after my cos she's running Sarah Pale in Alaska? What is it that has your attention? How long are we going to have to wait this one? I'm probably gonna be filing stories from my in law's house in Michigan before Thanksgiving.

That's the deal, right, exactly. Yeah. Alaska is a very strange state in many ways, and one of them is the way they sort of conduct their election. It's one of the few that does ranked choice voting. When you go into the ballot box, you don't just pick your preferred candidate. You also talk about your second and your

third choice. And so in Alaska, former Governor Sarah Palin is running again after losing a special election this summer for a House seat there a lask only has one House seat, but it flipped the Democrats over the summer in a special election, making one more go of it. You've been writing about this. Palin has been for Congress, hinges on voters liking her second best, and that is

the deal when it comes to ranked choice, right. So I think if we see similar results as we saw in the special election, you'll see the Democrat, the incumbent Congresswoman Mary Pultola, actually get the most support because there are multiple Republicans of the race, both Palin and a guy named Nick Bagott who actually comes from the Bigots family um while though it is a Republican and not

a Democrat like the rest of his family. Uh. And so what I expect expect to happen is that Paltola will get the most on that first ballot question is do enough voters say, well, my first choice didn't get through, whether it's Nick Bagas or the libertarian on the ticket, and then vote for Sarah Aileen instead. And so that will take a couple of weeks to figure out if Peltola does not win on the first ballot, what's the first three you're writing tomorrow about how we don't know

who has control of Congress. I've been working on all the spending that we've seen in this election. It's billions of dollars that have been spent, billions with a B. And you know, when you're talking about races with six seven million dollars being spent exactly, I mean hundreds of millions in some of these Senate races. And you know, when you think about it, you know, control of Congress comes down to trillions of dollars every two years. So it's not a bad investment if you think about it.

It's order of a billion. I believe in Georgia and that's where we're gonna go. Imagine that. That's where we're gonna go. Next. Billy House will be with us from Atlanta and we'll bring in Rick and Genie. On the fastest hour in politics, zac CO and thank you. I'm Joe Matthews. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg. So on with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio. He's somewhere between Raphael Warnocks elect and Night party and herschel Walkers. But isn't that the whole state of the race in Georgia too

close to call a toss up? Which one do we go to tonight? And that is the question right now for Billy House Bloomberg Congress reporter is making his way across Atlanta, having been trailing Senator Warnock today and now headed to the herschel Walker party. Raphael Warnock trying to make the case in the closing hours that herschel Walker is not your man. I mean, he thinks he's a police officer, he's not. He thinks he's an FBI agent, he's not. He thinks he was valed dictorian of his class,

he was not. You think he graduated from the University of Georgia, he did not. Just goes on by the way. I could do a minute of this. Another one he said he started a business that does not even exist. He has another business, he says, that has eight hundred employees. It only has eight. Yeah, so you got the point. This goes on by the for quite a while. Uh, herschel Walker. All the while he's leaning into this thing. They asked me why I'm running. I'm running because I'm

sick and tired of people not loving this country. And then they said make America great again? Like that is a bad turn. Have y'all heard of Ricket Bobby? That's what they need to get back to it. You're not first, you last, and America does not last. I can tell you that right now. Billy House is gonna be seeing him in just a little bit here, Billy, you are Rickey Bobby fan? Oh yeah? Are you? I mean? Who is? Well? Yeah? I mean I love the movie. It took me a

couple of weeks to figure out the reference though. It's the if you're not first, your last? I get it now. He repeats it it up so you could have looked it up. So sometimes I'm slow, Billy? Are you being redeployer? Are you just following both candidates today? I don't want to say there was ever any uncertainty, but I moved out him now almost at the herschel Walker Camp Pauler Venue by the way, then the Warnock Senator Warnock has

set up what do they have waiting for you? A cramped little bunch of rows for reporters to sit on our way in the back? Does that tell this sounds fun? This is the real stuff. Okay, Billy had to get out of some hotel somewhere to to go chase Herschel Walker, and this is what he's doing tonight. Would that indicate maybe an early word and then and then you go home early because we don't know how this race is

gonna end. I think that's absolutely maybe the case. I mean, that sounds like I'm iagine, well I am, but keep in mind we have that caveat in Georgia that the winner has to have plus one and and that's a wrinkle that adds to the closeness of the race as it is. Uh. The closing arguments have been interesting, and I understand where Raphael Warnock is coming from as a

sitting UH senator. Here, he's got democratic talking points. He's trying to poke holes in the Herschel Walker story's essentially calling him a liar every time he gets in front of a microphone. What's Herschel Walker's clothes? I mean, he's he's doing. You know, he was quoting JFK earlier today. What is the closing argument for the Walker campaign? Well, the coaching argument is this, First of all, in response to Warnock that, uh, I've opened up all my events

with prayers. Uh, my people, and it is true. Know that I've been forgiven for all my sins and uh, and that I represent uh, somebody who doesn't foul or cow tow to Joe Biden, does not vote with him of the time. That's kind of his comeback, but it seems to be working. This thing is too close to call, right Uh, Paul's show that actual with all his baggage. Herschel Walker has been kind of making inroads in the last couple of weeks. Yes, are you covering the governor's

race while you're there as well? Billy. This is one that's obviously getting national attention, and Brian camp is looking pretty good at the moment he is. And Uh, I'm not covering it directly, but I'm watching it certainly because it's going to have an impact. The experts here say in Georgia on herschel Walker. In other words, we're talking hotels whether they're gonna be strong enough to get him over the line or not. Uh. A lot of people think that you're just simply going to a runoff. We'll

know in a couple of hours. We will know in a couple of hours that's the sixth of December, if that happens, Billy, is that right? It is? And that's a shorter time frame than in two thousand twenty one when Raphael Warnock one a runoff in January. They've condensed that, and the Democrats have suggested that that, of course is a GOP move to limit organization. Uh and and voter thought. But you know, say what you want. It's a shorter

period and December six would be the runoff. If they have one great to talk with you, Billy, come see us when you're back in town. Billy House Bloomberg, Congress reporter joining us live from Atlanta on his way to the herschel Walker party. That governor's race, by the way, five thirty eight has Brian Kemp up by eight points

seven point nine points over Stacy Abrams. Uh, you were probably ahead of me on the rickey Bobby stuff, right, Rick Davis if your eight first year last, it took me a minute first your last, you know, don't talk about that praise trademark, not about producer Ricky Baby. I hope that herschel Walker's banned the trademark Genie. That's all I can say. You lost me with this whole discussion. Sorry, if you're not a NASCAR fan, you are a comedy fan,

and it is truly a funny movie. Uh. This is one that we've maybe talked or at this round table, on this panel about more than any other Georgia Senate. Rick, how do you make sense of the closing arguments here? Does it even matter? Is this Trump versus Biden? Uh? It's a little bit of Trump versus Biden. I mean, there's no question that being an incumbent senator has put Warnuck on the defense and he's had to, you know, respond to the questions about things like, you know, criming

the economy. That the downside for Repolken's is herschell. Walker really hasn't talked that much about crime in the economy. You know, he's talking about his history and his reputation and of course he's got a hundred percent name I d because he's a football superstar and and why step

on that? Um, I would say one of the things, you know, Billy House was talking about this that you know, you've got this short period of time between the election and the runoff, and but you don't have Bryant Kemp on the ballot at that point, and he said, Kemp has coat tails. That makes sense to me. He's blowing out his opponent and and and herschel Walker is not

going to get the benefit of those coat tails. Come run off, and he's gonna have to earn all that vote himself, and it'll be interesting to see whether or not that poses a problem for him. We'd also have weeks of listening to reminders Jennie or voters certainly would about these allegations that he paid for abortions for not one, but two women at least have come forward so far. Uh, boy, this is a survival story so far. If nothing less,

it is. And of course we're all having flashbacks to when we had, as Billy said, lived through this for you know, a couple of months. And we're not in Georgia. I mean, imagine the poor voters in Georgia. This has been going on and on, inundated with millions of dollars worth of advertisements. That is this goes to a runoff is going to intensify. Boy, their thanksgiving will be impacted by this race if it goes to our runoff. But that could also be very damaging. Ricky, remove the top

of the ticket there, Brian Kemp coat tails. You get three weeks of NonStop abortion talk. Maybe another woman comes forward. We've got the card, We've got the check. Glauria alright has involved good lord, the walls are closing it. Yeah, and I don't even think that's the biggest. Donald Trump says he's going to be a president a week for now and then shows up in Georgia to campaign for herschel Walker. I mean, he ran off too good Republican senators last time he did that. Is he gonna do

it again? And and and how do you keep him from this race if he's an announced canidate for president? That okay, So let's go there. We haven't even mentioned this yet. I was going to bring it up with Mark Niquette, who was there at the JD Vance rally. This is the Ohio rally where Donald Trump sucked all the auction and out of the room and they were outdoors. I'm going to be making a very big announcement on Tuesday, November, Florida. Yeah. I have to admit I thought that he would do

the magic escalator thing. He loved that escalator at Trump Tower. Rick is going to do it at marl Lago and is that what he's talking about. I don't think they have a sand bank. They don't have an escalator. Mar Lago trap would be kind of interesting. Does he come out with flip flops and you know beer? Can you? Hey, We're gonna get off the beach today and run for president. That's what he's saying, though, Right do we do we expect an announcement GNI or is he playing with you? Oh?

We expect it. And I don't know. Joe Matthew you call it. You said it was a j D Vance rally, but I'm not really sure. Did j D vince? I don't know that anyone saw Trump. But he's in good shape. Right even if Trump stepped on the headline. Uh, that's gonna be a very different matter. To Rick's point, if this goes to a runoff in Georgia, it will now so far, I can't believe him to use these words in the same sentence. The Trump has been disciplined about Georgia.

He has not been down there monkeying around so far in this race. But if he doesn't, if there's a runoff and he does, that could have a real impact, especially if he is announced for president as a Tuesday. Next week, we will officially be in campaigning and he will be down there, and that's going to have a huge impact. And let's not forget he's announcing in the home state of his home state now and where Rond Sanctimonious lives. And he's after Ron De Santis as of today,

saying he's got unflattering information, he better not run. Pretty remarkable piece in the Wall Street Really he voted for him, Jenny, hours after he voted for Rhonda Santis, he started talking to the Wall Street Journal about this, uh, suggesting that he's got dirt on Rhonda Santis. This it's just a little preview of what might be to come. Uh. He didn't pull back on Nancy Pelosi last night. Either said, please don't call them animals. They human beings. I said, no,

they're animals. Of course, I think she's an animal too. You want to know their crells. Wow, big round of a pause for that. Just listen to it go. They'll say, oh, what a horrible thing she said about she impeached me twice for nothing. Nothing. They'll say, oh, these people, the fakers back there, They'll say, what a horrible thing he

called Nancy Pelosi an animal. This came after or within hours of her appearance on CNNA, which she got choked up brick talking about learning of Paul Pelosi being attacked. She said this would impact her decision though to retire. She wouldn't say what it was. But does this embolden her or make her want to call it quits? Well, certainly, Um, She's used to being insulted by Donald Trump, so whether or not it even makes a bit of difference would surprise me. I think she's very much focused on her

family and what's going on in at home right now. Obviously, her legacy plays an important role in what she does from this point on. Uh And look, I mean, Donald Trump is gonna be Donald Trump, and you can never expect anything more from him than what you just heard. Does Nancy Pelosi retire next, Gene? I think she does, and I think she does, And I think Trump's use of this phrase is what authoritarian leaders do. They dehumanize

and he's trying to do that. The best panel in the business there with us in our special election like coverage on Bloomberg TV and radio starting a p of Eastern time, Rick and Jeannie, I'm Joe Matthew, this is Bloomberg,