Sound On: Paul Pelosi Attack, Twitter Takeover

believe that? Though it's like a Bloomberg sound on with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio, the Speaker of the House was the intended target. Welcome to the fastest hour in politics, as we end the week with new concerns about political violence. Hours to Nancy, Pelosi's husband was attacked inside their San Francisco home, the intruder chanting Where's Nancy amid new calls

for lawmakers security ahead of the elections. We're joined tonight by Leon Panetta, former Director of the CIA, former Secretary of Defense, once a lawmaker from California himself and a longtime friend of Pelosi. Will be joined as well by Tim Romer, former Ambassador former congressman and architect of the nine eleven commissioned. Later, we widen our focus to political speech and the digital town square. Now that Elon Musk

owns Twitter. We'll talk with Katherine Kenneally of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, and our signature panel helps us make sense of it all. Bloomberg Politics contributors Rick Davis and Jeannie Chanzano here for the hour. When we start with what little we know about the attack on Paul Pelosi, who is being treated for blunt force trauma following what

appears to be an attempt at home invasion. San Francisco police say no motive has been confirmed, but we've been doing a lot of reporting today, and a source close to the investigation tells Bloomberg that the man identified as David de Peppe was yelling where's Nancy when he entered the home. Indeed, Nancy Pelosi was the intended target. Police Chief William Scott on what officers saw when they arrived at the scene. Here he is. When the officers arrived

on scene, they encountered an adult mail and Mr Pelosi's husband. Oh. Our officers observed Miss Pelosi and subspect both PODi the hammer. The suspect pulled the hammer away from its Pelosi and violently assaulted him with it. Chief says. The officers tackled the man they got ahold of the hammer. Nancy Pelosi was in Washington when all of this happened, leading us all to wonder how this would have gone if she and her security detail had been in her home at

the time. And of course we all know that political violence is on the rise and it's touched members of both parties. Just ask Steve Scalise, asked Lee Zelden, who was attacked at the podium during this cycle. And the idea of this man yelling where's Nancy recalls the sounds of rioters on January six, remember this as they marched up the stairs at the Capital to the Speaker's office. It's chilling to hear it now. That was from tape

provided by the January six Select Committee. We're joined now by someone who has not only seen the underbelly of political violence as director of the CIA, and a lawmaker himself who worked closely with Nancy Pelosi for many years. Leon Panetta, also former Secretary of Defense, wants a congressman from California to be more specific, Mr Secretary, welcome back to Bloomberg. I do appreciate your being here today. People have great concerns in the Capitol and around the country.

How worried should Americans be about radicalized political violence here in the US? Well, this is another chilling threat. Uh, that domestic terrorism is very real in our society, particularly the kind of violent terrorism that's aimed at political leaders. Uh. And what you saw happen today is a chilling echo from what happened on January six when a mob I was going through the capital basically yelling uh and and

trying to go after Nancy Pelosi at that time. Bottom line, as words have consequences, and people need to understand that Capitol police reported more than threats against lawmakers, more than double the number in Mr Secretary. Many more have been recorded this year. Senator Susan Collins, Republican from Maine, tells The New York Times she wouldn't be surprised if a lawmaker were killed. Should the government provide security details for

all members of Congress? Well, I I think they have to give consideration to providing security, particularly to those who are in fact threatened. Uh. And UH. The amount of threats has gone up to a to a high these these last few years, since January six. It is incredibly important that we take these threats seriously. Violence is real and uh, you know, I I've seen in as Director of the CIA, al Qaeda used to use uh social

media sites in order to recruit other terrorists. Uh. And they were successful at it, and people tuned into those sites became terrorists and engaged in violence. And we're seeing that right now. With regards to domestic at terrorism. The House Sergeant at Arms, as I'm sure you know, rolled out a program earlier this year that would pay ten dollars to install or improve equipment and lawmakers residences, along

with the monthly maintenance fees and so forth. But we're hearing stories, Mr. Secretary, from people like Liz Cheney you have had to use their own campaign money to pay for personal security. I know this would be a very expensive endeavor, but how should it be done? Well? Look, I think that the security people, particularly with the Capitol Police, I ought to be giving serious consideration to what steps can be taken that can help protect lawmakers. But this

is not a Republican or democratic issue. This involves members on both sides of the aisle. As you pointed out, Steve Scalise was a target of terrorism at the same I'm Gabby Gifford's was a target of terrorism. Uh. This thing is on the increase. Uh, and therefore, I would encourage the Capitol Police to sit down and take steps to try to provide protection to those members, particularly those members who are receiving uh. You know, the heaviest threats

that are out there. Nancy Pelosi obviously has her security team, but here's her husband at home alone and suddenly this guy jumps into the house, going after Nancy Pelosi and attacks him. Uh. We have got to provide better protection for our members of Congress. Yeah, this is a real issue here. And I don't want to cross the line with you here, uh, Mr Secretary, but I know that you are close to the Pelosi's Has has any of the reporting been out of bounds today? And have have

you spoken with the speaker to know that she is well? Uh? Put in a call to the office there to express my concerns about what happened. Uh. You know that families have been through hell as a result of these kinds of threats and attacks. Uh. And I particularly feel Uh, feel really great condolences for Paul and what he's going through. But I just think it's important, frankly for both Republicans

and Democrats. I'm glad that the leaders from both parties have expressed their concerns about the violence that took place. I think the leaders from both parties have to take steps to try to deal with this plague of words of violence that that's out there on social media, because, frankly, it's that it's that hate that's being planted in social media that is poisoning the minds of people. I don't know how you get to that, Mr Secretary of what

I do. Thank you for being with us today. Leon Panetta, former Secretary of Defense, the former director of the CI, A former White House Chief of Staff, and chairman of the Pinetta Institute for Public Policy. Of course, longtime California lawmaker, who clearly knows the Pelosis and is as concerned about this as anyone some of the other reporting that we did on this. Look, this has been a tough year for Paul Pelosi, right, my goodness, arrested for d u y.

He's been accused of insider trading in the media. Now this there's also a story about crime, of course, which has become a huge issue on the campaign trail, one that Republicans have tried to capitalize on. And we looked at some of the numbers earlier today. You know, we

are data driven here at Bloomberg. Uh, and the data do not support the whole hug a thug narrative surrounding Democrats and cities like San Francisco, like Chicago, like Philadelphia, a Third Way, the center left group Third Way, and you hear some of their representatives with us Kessler Times here on this program. They put a big project together on this and found that crime is a problem for Republican run cities and states just as much or more

than the Democratic ones. The the incredible fact that I found earlier there was the city of Jacksonville, Florida. Of course, a Republican mayor had a hundred and twenty eight more murders in San Francisco. So is this a crime story, yes? Is this a political violent story, Yes, it's that too, as we try to make sense of it together here on Bloomberg sound On. By the way, I will recall as well commentary it's not just crazy people on social media.

The Minority Leader of the House in auguste Remember, Kevin McCarthy was criticized heavily for trying to land a joke at a fundraiser. Was a Tennessee Republican fundraiser is talking about I'm gonna get this gavel back from Nancy Pelosi. Remember what he said. Listen, it will be hard not to hit her with it, he said. Fast forward to today, Glenn Yuncan on the campaign trail, making I guess light

of the situation, on the way that he framed this. Listen, enough of Abigail Spanburger, enough of Joe Biden, and uh listen, I want to stop for a minute, and and uh listen, Speaker Polos. He's husband, Uh had a break in last night in their house and he was assaulted. There's no room for violence anywhere. But we're gonna send her back to be with him in California. That's what we're gonna go do. That's what we're gonna go do. I'm treating

it like a laugh line there. Maybe it's the way the crowd responded that made it noteworthy, but people need to be careful here. I've been looking forward to talking with Tim Romer about this former US Congressman from India, a member of the nine eleven Commission, former US Ambassador to India. Ambassador, it's great to have you here once again on Bloomberg Radio. Would you go into politics now?

If you were a young man looking at this political landscape that we're describing today, would would you do it over again? Well, Joe, good to be with you again. Uh. I probably wouldn't because we need young people to get in there. Okay, But if you were a young man, Flood, if I was a young person, my dream had always been since the fifth grade to run for office, and I accomplished that dream at thirty two years old. It ran and won and served our country. It makes you

scratch your head now, Joe. Uh, you know you're worried about your family, and you're worried about your kids. You're worried about your safety. Uh. I was worried about, you know, getting home at eleven o'clock at night after knocking on doors. I was worried about, uh, you know, showing up at the chamber commerce at seven am in the morning. Not

about my life. So when you consider everything that we know, and I realized it's not a lot and we need to stress that will still learn much more about what happened in San Francisco at the Pelosi's home. But considering the trend that we were just talking about with Leon Panetta, Steve Scalise, of course Gabby Gifford's years earlier, Lee Zelden, Now what's the answer here? I mean, how do you put this genie back in the bottle? Well, this is just horrific, This is this is tragic, This is uh

a real stain on our country at this point. I just got back from a trip from India, and I can't tell you, Joe, the number of comments that I received from people as I travel now around the world, and people kind of sadly look at America now and say, what happened to you people on January six? That you would attack your own capital, hurt your own police off officers, try to uh derail your own constitutional process here. You're

you're you're the standard bearer. You're you're what we looked up to and what we want to be and do, and you guys are having real problems there. Uh, this is a problem for US worldwide. If we want to project power, we will will compete against China. We will be a shining city on the hill. But we've got

to get this under control, Joe. Whether it's you know, somebody going after the speaker, whether it's somebody you know shooting Steve Scalise, whether it's somebody beating up a a poll worker a canvas or down in republic a Republican campus or down in Florida. This has to stop. The

rhetoric has to calm down. The parties can't be saying things like, you know, the Democrats want to destroy the country, or are Democrats saying about Republicans you know they're racists or they're all you know, the same kind of We have to tone down the rhetoric. Enemy of the American people, uh, Donald Trump calling Nancy Pelosi evil and so forth. You were a member of the nine eleven Commission, as I mentioned, you were, of course congressman from Indiana. If I missed

a syllable there, Indiana and India sometimes bump into each other. Ambassador, Does there need to be another commission like that one? I mean, as opposed to what the January six committee did, and they've by the way, done some incredible work, a deep investigation here, just a massive presentation that they've put together, but it's also been you know, labeled as as political. Well, I do think we have to take a step back and first of all, make sure that this doesn't happen

again between now an election day. The Department of Homeland Security just released the bulletin saying, um, you know, uh, domestic or azations are now more inclined between now an election day to harm poll workers or candidates, and that the FBI and the Homeland Security Department are issuing this warning to Americans. You know, this is enough, and we need to make sure that our neighbors who are poll workers, you know, Democrats and Republicans and Independents, go to make

sure the votes are counted the right way. We want them protected. Now, what do you do about this long term? Joe? I've been thinking about this. You know, do you do you create a commission? Uh? I don't know about that yet, but I do know there are things we can do in the short term things. So in our own lifetime, my wife and I have Republican and Democratic and independent friends over for dinner. We don't try to just self select only people we agree with to be friends with.

I was at a university last night George Washington University. They asked me about this even though the Pelosi event hadn't happened yet, and I said, you folks need to invite people on campus and invite a Democrat and a Republican at the same time to be on stage together and talk respectfully and listen respectfully to one another and not be an example of hatred and selling distrust about each other and saying one party wants to destroy the other.

And long term, Joe, maybe we need national service in this country to bring people together for a year, people from Alabama to New York, from California to Indiana. A year after high school, we all get together again in our lifetimes. We understand rural and urban life, north and South. We work on projects. Rich can't get out of it. Everybody has to do it equally. Um, you know, we we've got to do some things to bring the United States of America back together again where there's a lot

to be said there. I'm really glad you could join us. Tim Romer, former Congressman, former nine eleven commission member, former U S Ambassador to India, a lot there to consider. We haven't even talked about Twitter yet. We thought we'd be leading with Elon Musk today because this is all tied in here. This is one big story about political speech, and I should know. The headline a redhead on the terminal. Right now, look at that. This will not come as

a surprise to you if you've been following this. General Motors temporarily suspending ads on Twitter following the Musk deal. Yeah, well, he's got another company. It's called Tesla. Let's assemble the panel. I'm glad to say Rick and Jeannie are both with us Rick Davis and Jeanie Schanzano Bloomberg Politics contributors. Genie, what was your thought this morning when you heard about this news? Obviously this is chilling, this is troubling. We're very glad that the speaker was not at home, but

my god, what if she had been. That's right, you know, chilling, um, you know, it is the word that comes to mind. But you know one thing I did thought of not surprised. Not surprised, And I'll tell you why. Because the day shows that this is a widespread challenge. There's a really recent study from the University of Chicago. Percent of respondents, that's one in eight Americans said the use of force

is necessary. Five percent said they would believe that violence is necessary to reinstate Donald Trump to the White House. That's about thirteen million Americans. And so when we talk about this as sort of a one off or you know, some individual who has acted, the data shows that this is much, potentially more widespread in terms of people who believe the use of force and violence is justified. And that is the reality we're facing. You know, less than

two weeks before the mid term. This was not another January six. Obviously, Rick, this is a lone wolf, but doesn't matter now there are no lone wolves. I mean, he's one of many that have made a tax on public officials in this case, you know, public officials. Husband. Uh.

It's really a disturbing aspect to society today. And just to build on what Genie was saying, that Capitol Police has have reported it since two thousand seventeen, there were three thousand, just just under four thousand UH threats against Congress Uh in one it was over nine thousand, five hundred and already two thousand in the first quarter of

this year. So, you know, these are disturbing. We've got heard anecdotes about you know, Adam Kinsinger and Liz Cheney and Liz Elden and all these people that we talked about. But it's it's universal. And I do think um Tim Romer made actually, I think a good point. He's like, maybe we do need a bipartisan Commission on hate because right now it's boiling over. It's in our politics, it's

in our society. It's presenting itself not just on the Internet, but in people's homes and where they work, and that is unacceptable. Well, I'll tell you, Look, you spent a lot of time on Capitol Hill, Rick, uh. Since but remember what a big deal it was when the gunman uh shot his way into the Capitol in it's been going on a long time. Rick. What security should lawmakers

be provided by the government. Well, you know, look we've had things like the anthrax attacks, you know that shut down the Capitol for a month, and and and and look, I mean, you don't want to have to protect people with security, you know, around the clock. Uh, you know, just because they're members of Congress and and you know we're going that is said. Uh, if there are specific threats against a member, they can request security. And and

and by and large, the leadership gives it to them. UH, there's no interest in putting anybody at risk on either side of the party. But the reality is this is enormous undertaking. UH. And and and frankly, I think it rather than being defensive, you have to be offensive and go after the cause. I mean, the FBI says the number one throw against the country is UM, you know, domestic terrorism. Well, you know this is just one aspect of domestic terrorism. A terrorist attack is an attack on

an elected official. And and so you know, where's the seat, Where where's the defense to part, where's the FBI? Where's I mean, like, it's not just the Capitol Hill police who need to provide UH security for for these members. I don't know if this is going to be a piece of legislation that comes out of the next Congress, Genie, to create new security details, provide more funding. By the way, she's there are still headlines coming in right now. Paul

Pelosi UH is coming out of surgery successfully. This is great to read. Paul Pelosi's skull fracture procedure was successful, according to the Speaker's office. Genie, this is as we've made this point clearly, UH an issue on on both sides. What does that tell us when when people from both sides of the political spectrum I think it's it's okay to resort to violence, how do you tackle that it is both sides. You mentioned Scalise, Zelden, Kavanaugh, You can

go right down the line. Governor Whitmer in Michigan. Um, you know Nancy Pelosi had a pig head and a spray painted house graffiti spray painted on her house before January said, Um, you know. And there's two aspects of this. One is the immediate issue that has to be addressed right away of security and protection for people. And it's not just members of Congress, it's also judges. It's also justices.

Look at this, you know, the son of this judge in New Jersey who was brutally murdered inside her home by an assailant. So this is going on with public officials across the board. But the other part of this, which Rick was talking about, is the source. We have to do a better job of understanding what is causing thirteen million Americans or more to tell a polster that

they feel this much anger, that violence justified. Well, and you know, leampathetic that it might be social media, you know, there might be other aspects, but that's where we have to understand. We have to address the issue at the cause and the source, not just try to protect these members, because you can't protect against thirteen million or more people who feel this way. Well, as I said, what a day to be talking about free speech, political discourse, the

digital public square. As Elon closes the deal on Twitter and there are a lot of questions about what that will mean. As a layer of this conversation, we'll talk to Katherine Kenneeley coming up next, Institute for Strategic Dialogue. 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 XM Channel one, and around the globe

the Bloomberg Business app and Bloomberg Radio dot Com. This is Bloomberg Sound On with Joe Matt Hughes. Do not worry about Twitter. The Content Moderation Council will fix everything. That seems to be the idea from Elon Musk today, speaking after he closed the deal. Many thought would never happen. Will explore what it means next for political speech with Katherine Kenney of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. But first, kind of weird to do a ticker search for Twitter

on the terminal. Have you tried that? Because you don't get a price it says acquired by private investor on two. Yeah, you know that guy Elon Musk. With everyone now asking my gosh, what's his plan and what's he gonna do? There was such a period of time there where people didn't think this deal would happen at all. Of course, other than the terminal, good place to get news on

Twitter as well Twitter, where Elon Musk himself tweets. Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints. The Content Moderation Council like something they pulled straight out of uh. Elon Musk, of course, told us months ago what his plans were for Twitter in what was an exclusive and market moving interview with Bloomberg. This brings us

back to June Listen. I don't think my inspiration for it, or in general for the Digital town Square, would be that it is as inclusive in the broader sense of the word as possible. Um about it is it is an appealing as system to use. And at the time what else? What else did he say? Remember about offending people, letting people back onto Twitter? The whole Donald Trump story, it was all about well, your own experience, he said. He wanted to get half the world on here, half

the world's population on a Twitter. Basically, let people do whatever the heck they want to do and let people control their own experience your zelon musk Again, if your preferences are to see anything or read anything, then well you'll get that and I But if your preferences are, well, you preferred not to see, uh, you know, comments that you find offensive in one form or another, then you you can have that as a setting and not see

It all comes down to the settings. Wasn't that something though? That was back in It was June one talking with Bloomberg News. Now it's a done deal and as he says, no major decisions on content or account reinstatements Donald Trump will be made until the Content Moderation Council is part of the picture. Katherine Kenneley must have this all figured out already, Senior research manager at the Institute for Strategic dialogue. Catherine,

I'm really glad you could join us here today. Everyone's speculating. No one really knows the impact that Elon Musk will have on Twitter. Are you worried about what it means for political discourse? Sure? And thank you for having me. So, we certainly are already seeing an emboldening, emboldening of hate

actors that are expecting him to discard these safeguards. But what we really want to see is that if Musk really wants this to be the digital public square that he mounts, he should really start by addressing the systemic issues that he's already raised over the past a few months. Be it's increasing their algorithmic transparency and addressing an authentic activity. Um. Doing that, it'll finally give us insight into the platform

that we we really don't know. But yes, we are certainly aith that, right, yeah, yeah, exactly, show us what about the algorithm, Like the algorithm is compared to the you know, the secret recipe for coke? Isn't that? Isn't that private corporate? Uh information? Why why make that public? Sure? So, we don't actually have a federal self or regulation for

social media right now? So it is private. The reason why it should be made public is without that information, we do not know what makes us vulnerable to online manipulation, be it misinformation, disinformation, hate content, And without having that algorithm or algorithmic access um, we really just don't know how it works or and because we don't know how it works, we can't protect vulnerable users from abuse on

the platform. When you hear a story like today, We've been talking this whole hour, Catherine, about the attack on the Pelosi household, the attack on Paul Pelosi specifically, the number of threats that are coming from social media alone are overwhelming law enforcement when they're trying to investigate these things. How does Elon must control that? I think what's important is there's no need, there's no requirement for him to control it. And this is not just a Twitter probra problem.

This is a social media problem. What we really need is regulation across social media that comes from government, because what we've seen from the last decade or so is self regulation just simply isn't working. M self regulation, although he seems to think that he's going to be putting some guardrails in place here, What do you make of this idea of of the content Moderation Council. Does that

encourage you or scare you? I mean, I'm glad to see that he's thinking about these things, that he's already considering how content is going to be monitored. But we're just going to have to wait to see how how that plays out and how it's forms A certainly skeptical good speculation right now? Does he put Donald Trump back on the platform? Should he? I don't. I don't know, um he should. I don't think that's where I should

come in. Do you think he will? Though? I mean, that seems to be inevitable right if he's He's now the owner of a profitable business. I understand GM has just pulled its ads they compete with Tesla. Does does Donald Trump make this a more buzzworthy property? I don't think it makes it a more buzzworthy property, but I certainly would be considering whether advertisers want to remain on

that platform. Should Trump be brought back on fascinating. I'll tell you We've got a lot to learn about this still, and I want to thank you for being with us. Katherine. She's the senior research manager at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.

Katherine Kenneely with us here on Bloomberg Sound On, I'm Joe Matthew and Washington as we wrapped the week with just an incredible set of headlines here as Elon Musk closes the deal to buy Twitter, just hours away from a whole new front in the conversation about political violence

following the attack on Nancy Pelosi's husband. We'll talk about both once again as we reassemble the panel with Rick Davis and Jeannie Chanzano coming up here on sound On Bloomberg Politics contributors, the best political panel in the business Traffic and Markets, as well, as we get ready to cross the threshold to the weekend together. I'm glad you joined us. I'm Joe Matthew. This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg you sound On with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio.

The big question, of course, about Twitter, remains the same. Are they going to let him back while they reinstate? The former president of the United States, And I'm not sure how that's gonna go. Does he come back if Helon asks him? Do they have to kind of arrange

that in advance? Would be embarrassing if he didn't because well, he's got his own social media platform and came out with a statement today on the deal closing Donald Trump quote truth social It's become somewhat a phenomenon, he writes. Last week it had bigger numbers than all other platforms,

including TikTok, Twitter, Facebook and the rest. If to see those numbers, it also looks and works better to my eye, he writes, I'm very happy Twitter is now insane hands and will no longer be run by radical left lunatics and maniacs. He says, the truly hate our country. This is same day of the Pelosi attack. Twitter must work hard to rid itself of all the bots and fake accounts. He says, this is the one they're looking for. It'll be much smaller, but better, and he ends by saying,

I love truth all caps exclamation points. So uh, let's recall how much he did love Twitter, because remember, he had millions of people at his fingertips here. It helped him become the president of the United States. Kick back, what six years now? This is Donald Trump in six talking about this platform He's on. This stuff is great,

This Twitter, It's so incredible. I have like between Twitter and Facebook and Instagram, I have like eleven or twelve million followers eleven it that's like it's sort of like owning the New York Times without the losses. Can you believe that? No, it's like incredible, boy, lots happened since then. Even sounds kind of different. Rick Davison, Jeanie Schanzana, we're here Bloomberg Politics contributors are signature panel to embrace the

weekend along with us. Right now, Rick, does he make the jump because you've pointed out, you know, he's making money on this thing, truth Social. Yeah, I mean, look, the truth Social thing could be a huge boom for him if he's able to, you know, continue to add people to it and get advertisers and then take it public, which is all part of the plan. Uh, this was a spack deal, right, that never was a spack deal.

It's run into some trouble, but it doesn't mean it can't rise up for another day and and and just remind everybody he didn't get paid to be on Twitter, right, I mean, and the one thing we knew about Donald Trump before he became present is he didn't get out of bed unless someone was going to pay him. So, uh, you know, I I suspect regardless of what he thinks about Twitter, he thinks truth Social as he just text is much better and so because it's his and of

course it must be much better. So my guess is he stays right where he is because of the economic upside that he's got for potential there. The funny thing is we always knew when he was getting out of bed, because that would be when he'd start tweeting. It was every newsroom he's up, He's up. You know, could be eight in the morning, eleven when the first salvos gone out. And I guess now it's it's just not the same with truth Social Genie. I know that you're you're a user,

but what what does this say here? This is Elon's tweet today, no major content decisions or account reinstatements before the Content Moderation Council convenes. There's just something authoritarian sounding about the Content Moderation Council. Who's going to be on that thing? I hope? He asks us, Joe, And can you feel the wind? As Musk back pedals very hard from his absolute free speech stands, Yeah, it's very breezy in here. And the question now is which Elon Musk

is showing up. Right. You know, we've all of a sudden got an Elon Musk who at you know, one time Elon Musk was you know, dissing all the advertisers. He was saying, you know, very critical things. He was critical at the people at Twitter, who were you know, cow towing as he liked to describe it, to the advertisers.

And yet the businessman in him knows it's their revenue, and all of a sudden, within hours of owning it, he all of a sudden he is feeling very you know, sort of um much more friendly to the idea of content moderation, which, by the way, is a good thing. But it also raises the question as to how he's gonna walk both of these tracks at the same time.

It's it's gonna be tough to pull off. And of course, all this follows him actually spending some time in the building, right, I know, he excused uh some management rick, but actually being in the building, becoming the owner of this platform might actually change the way he feels about some of these things. Yeah. Look, I mean it's kind of hard to tell how all this is going to shake down,

because by the way. Part of what is also happening, Joe is there's a balkanization amongst all these different ideological groups into their own space around social media. You know, there's been a proliferation of new organization, not just true social that are you know, either uh, streaming information or doing Twitter like messaging. And so I think we're entering in this phase where uh, you know, everybody's sort of migrating to their own space. And it'll be interesting to

see who migrates to Twitter. We've already seen, as you pointed out, you know, some advertisers uh looking to withdraw meet some very high profile Hollywood people are like, we're out of here, We're not gonna stick around. Um and and if he unleashes Twitter and let's the you know, um uh yeah, and other people come back on Yeah, how long I've been dying to do that? How long

is it before other people bail out? Right? I mean like, so, uh it's I think we're going to see like the wild West of social media for a while, which is exactly probably what the country doesn't mean. But that's what happened to cable news, right. So the balkanization that Rick says Janie moves over to social media. Let's follow that for a second. What does that mean about the public discourse?

Because Twitter could be left to be irrelevant at that point, right if the if the left goes it's way, the right goes its way. Everybody gets their Fox News away in an MSNBC. What's the point of this thing? That's right? And by the way, if Rick Davis can just say yea a thousand times over, that made my week, thank you? Reck um? Yeah, I mean that is the reality, right, and that's the that's what Elon Musk is trying to avoid. He wants to make Twitter the go to place for

for speech of all kinds. But the reality is it could be a really ill conceived and bad idea to buy the thing. Because forty four billion was overpaying it at the beginning, it's certainly overpaying it now. He's stuck with it now, and he's of two minds on it, you know, free speech versus content moderation. But he needs also to have this thing be at least fairly lucrative or at least hold its own and it can't do

that at this point without advertisers. So I think the real question here is how are you going to keep this afloat without advertisers? And if you're going to have after advertisers, they are going to walk off the platform if it becomes a home for crazy talk, and does it become just a home for milk coast rick the way you're talking, if left and right both go in their own direction, what's left in the middle? Yeah, well, um,

a good question. I mean I think that, uh, I think that that's gonna be one of the things we're gonna find out, because like even Ya has been flirting. Didn't he buy parlor? Isn't that now this is platform? I mean, like is he coming back to Twitter? I mean like maybe he and Donald Trump can do you know a whole merger or something? And you know so so I don't know. I mean like it's uh, it's it's like this organization GAB that's a new right wing

alternative to Twitter. You know, are people gonna move off a Twitter and on the gap because we don't like to be with people who aren't like us? And as as as you pointed out, the cable news sorted itself out, but now look what we have. Maybe CNN is saying, oh, maybe we've got to get back to the our roots of being just a news organization. Well, that's the most helpful thing that could possibly happen, I would think, with with the proliferation of MS dis and malinformation. So um,

hopefully it's a movement in the right direction. Who knows. I mean, I'll be the last one who will have the front row seat on how social media develops. I guess well, you're probably choosing wisely, Genie. All of us wants can just meeting in the boring zone here on your favorite channel, c SPAN. That's the way we do it, right. There is nothing boring about c SPAN. Joe Matthew, take it back right away. Is a compliment for crying out

like they're more essential than ever. In my gosh, how c SPAN going to get along when all their money comes from cable TV? If everyone's cutting the cord. That's a show for another day. But as far as this is concerned, Elon Musk could look like a very different person rick to Genie's point with this Content Moderation Council, is he about to let down conservatives who think that this is you know, he's about to unleash whatever fire they've been looking for on Twitter? What idiot would join

a membership into the council. I mean, like you gotta be nuts, right, I mean like I'd like to paint a target on you today, Joe. I've never give this free pass into the Content Moderation Council. And so that everybody who's on Twitter can complain to you that that's really true. But I guess to your point, g And he's hearing about this now, right. He's hearing from advertisers,

he's hearing from people inside the building. I do find it fascinating that GM has pulled out a lot of folks were wondering if something like that would happen, not because of politics as much as he owns a car company. Uh, do they want to reveal their digital media strategy to the guy who runs Tesla Genie? That's right? I mean,

those are the other complications here. And you know, this content oversight board he's planning sounds very much like what Facebook has done, and and that you know, people got a good chuckle out of what Facebook has done there, and today they were tweeting they welcome the opportunity to talk to Twitter about their plans and content moderation and let's not forget Twitter already had a content moderation or a security area, if you will, and he, you know,

Elon Musk used to joke about that and laugh about it. Those people are gone now as of yesterday, and he's putting something similar with a much more you know, ominous sounding to your point name in place, and hard to imagine that people who are free speech absolutists are going to feel like this is the place they want to be. And oh, by the way, he also said, you know, he's not going to end the permanent bands quite yet.

That's going to come after the board meets, so will start a punk rock band called the Content Moderation Council. Somebody get it done. Let us know. We'll play your music. Genie, thank you, Rick, thank you. What a week? My god? How does all of this stuff happen all in one day? Rick Davis and Jeannie Chanzano our signature panel helping us walk into the weekend. As we leave you with the sounds of the killer, Yeah, there he is, did you hear?

Jerry Lee Lewis died today. This time it was real eighties, seven years old, son of a Pentecostal preacher. His cousin was Jimmy Swagger. Did you know that taught himself how to play and he was a walking scandal after marrying his thirteen year old cousin. But much like politics, she left us breathless. I'll see you back here Monday on the fastest hour in politics. This is Bloomberg, readyless