Sound On: Pelosi in Taipei, Trump Impeachers Face Voters (Radio)

Who knows you know? We're proving conservative fighters shot or intimidation and efforts to suppress her block people is illegal. Bloomberg Sound On with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio. Nancy Pelosi is in Taiwan. China is furious. Welcome to the fastest hour in politics, says the speakers. Visit prompts Beijing

to schedule military drills surrounding the island. We'll talk about a new level of tension between the two countries and whether this is a turning point with Douglas Luke, former US Ambassador to NATO and former White House Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan. Later this hour. Five states voting this primary day will be joined by Bloomberg Elections reporter Greg row with some important races to watch as Donald Trump stumps Missouri by endorsing Eric even though

two candidates have that name. Analysis from the panel. Bloomberg Politics contributor Democratic analyst Jeanie Schanzano is here alongside Doug High Today, former communications director for the Republican National Committee. It's just after five o'clock in the morning now in Taipei, or Speaker Pelosi spent the night after touching down in darkness. Still caught a good glimpse though, of Pelosi's welcome on the tarmac, even though it was nighttime live video streaming

from the airport on the terminal. It was remarkable to see it. And as soon as you landed, Beijing issued a series of scathing comments saying the visit severely impacts that's a quote, severely impacts the China US Foundation, and then announced military drills that well apparently surround the island starting on Thursday with live ammunition. Back here in Washington, the White House is still playing it cool. Retired Admiral John Kirby here speaking for the National Security Council. Here

he is. This trip was the Speaker's decision. Congress is an independent branch of Government, y'all know that when we're obviously monitoring her travel as we always do for members of Congress, and we've taken all appropriate measures to ensure the safety of her travel throughout the region. We get the view of former Ambassador to NATO Douglas Lute, now

with the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He was Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan and the w Bush administration carrying into the Obama years, former Director of Operations for US Central Command. Mr Ambassador, welcome back to Bloomberg. Thanks, it's good to be with you. It's great to have you here. As we consider the long term impacts of this visit. Do you think it was a good idea for the Speaker of the House

to visit Taiwan? Well, I have to question the timing. I'm not sure exactly what benefit we're getting from the trip, and it comes to the comes to a sensitive time, just as the three senior Executive Branch officials have regained contact with their Chinese counterparts and begun to discuss the ramifications of the war in Ukraine. So it sort of sets us back. I think from some momentum that's been established in the last several weeks momentum in our relationship

with China. How do you mean that? Yeah, it's not clear that the relationship itself will change, But I'm of the view that dialogue, even dialogue with your opponents or your challengers, is not a bad thing. Does this save the chances of a face to face meeting? I don't

think it faces it, but it sets it back. I don't think the Chinese leaders are in a position right now to justify a face to face meeting to their public, especially as they moved towards the Party Congress UH in the falls, so it'd be difficult I think for them

to justify it domestically. Some argue that that that twentie Party Congress reference and this timing now is actually a good reason for Nancy Pelosi to go that this is this is the United States finally showing up for Taiwan and and not taking UH orders in this case from Beijing. If she had canceled this trip, what would we be

saying then? Well, I think the difficulty here is that trip was announced wall and advanced and publicized, right, so there were any number of options where Speaker Pelosi could have made her point in a more subtle way and not sort of generated a Chinese reaction um which was inevitable given the very public announcement of the trip. So, for example, she could have met with Taiwanese counterparts elsewhere, or she could have done a stop and go without

all the prelude. So I think there are any number of ways to handle this that would have perhaps lessened the downside. The trip was originally set for April, as I'm sure you know, nobody was fussing about this. Then, of course she got COVID and had to postpone the trip. What if she had just own up in Taiwan then and did not have all the weeks of rhetoric as as you mentioned, the sort of publicity that came before this worst kept secret, even the president saying that the

military thought it was a bad idea. Would this be a completely different scenario. I think so. The less public these things until they actually happen, or perhaps even after they've happened, the more digestible they are by both sides. China will stave stage live AMMO drills starting Thursday, apparently, exercises that will surround the island and go through the weekend. Uh does this response match the occasion or is this completely over the top? Well, I think it's over the top.

But again, this response is much more in my view, about President she addressing his position inside China than it is to have some sort of meaningful signal to us. I mean, look, they conduct live fire exercises quite frequently. Uh, and and and I don't think that's especially threatening if there is an element of risk here, though it is. We are also operating in the area now not includes

proximity to the Chinese forces. But any time you get too sophisticated, large um military sort of in close proximity, there's always the chance of an accident or a miscalculation, and of course we want to avoid that at all costs. We've actually seen it before, and it wasn't that long ago, right when a Chinese fighter plane apparently clipped the wing of a Navy reconnaissance plane I think it was a

P three. The the Chinese fighter went down, the pilot was lost, and uh, our our sailors and airmen on that on that airplane ended up in custody for some time. These little mistakes can go a long way, I think can set back progress that should be at least able to be discussed between the two leaders. So that's the sort of risk here, and what we have to do is compare that risk, which we're incurring now against the benefit of the trip. And it's not clear to me

exactly what the benefit is. So, Ambassador, is this a turning point in US China relations? Are we were rethinking the One China policy? Or is this just another chapter in a troubled relationship. No, it's I don't think it's a turning point. I mean, I think the President has been quite clear. Last week. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan was very clear that we stand by our longstanding policy One China UH and and and yet we reserve the

right to continue to support Taiwan's defensive capabilities. So I don't think it's a turning point. Ambassador. You were the White House Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan the George W. Bush administration. You carried on the Obama administration in a slightly different role. But talk to us about the significance of this announcement last night from the President, of the significance of ZA how are you killing knowing that the country as well as you do. Do you

believe the Taliban is in fact harboring terrorists? Is that a breach of our withdrawal deal? Yes, in both cases it is they are harboring. I think that's quite clear. I mean, we have the clearest possible evidence now, having found Zawari in downtown Cobble, apparently, at least according to two reports, in the house owned by a senior Taliban affiliate. UH. And it's it's quite clear to me that someone of Zawahi's prominence wouldn't be in Cobbal at all without the

Taliban officials knowing about it. So they're clearly in breach of that uh that provision of the February agreement. Did the administration prove the effectiveness of over the horizon mission capability or is that being overdone in the conversation today. I think, at least in this case, in this specific set of circumstances, they did prove the over the horizon capability, which, of course, you know a year ago many were doubting

that we could actually do this. So this is a significant step forward both in terms of our intelligence over the horizon, finding Zawari and putting him in a place and time where we could strike him, but also the capability to strike that with precision. So I think this is a significant advance. What does it tell you when you you knew this guy has been around for a long time and he's been running or was running al

Qaeda for the better part of a decade. The significance of the imagery of Zawahiri hanging out on the patio or on the balcony. I guess you'd like to go out there every day. We've been watching him for weeks. The idea of of seeing this safe house presented to the President of the United States. I guess the intelligence community made it into a model. Maybe that's something that

you used to be involved in. But clearly living with no fear in the middle of the capital, you know, he was an open public view with his family in the city of over five million people um controlled by the Taliban, So I mean, I think it's quite clear

that he was comfortable there. Um. I think what's really important here, however, is to put the responsibility back on the Taliban, who did sign an agreement, an agreement, by the way, which we abided by with regard to our full withdrawal last year right, and which now they have proven they have not abided by the counter terrorism provisions of this UH, and they've also not UM, they've not abided by their agreement that they would UH support an

inclusive government not inclusive UM, and that that all Afghans would benefit from the same sense of human rights and so forth. How do you manage any of that when you're gone? I mean we we Withdrew, who do we deal with or do we just walk away? Well, I don't think we can completely walk away because we still have responsibilities there first and foremost a counter terrorism responsibility, which is just demonstrated, right, I mean we have that's

in our own interests. But you know, Afghanistan is now a failed state attempted to be ruled by the Taliban. But the Taliban are finding that their ability to resist the previous Afghan governments to be an insurgency, that that

is much easier than actually governing. And they've got significant problems now trying to run a failed state, a failed state that's suffering and poverty, drought, so there's a food crisis and they're largely unvaccinated against COVID, so it's it's a real crisis where do you think the intelligence came from on his whereabouts? Do we have people who are are providing information who are on the ground. Was this

the million dollar bounty working for us? You know, we've had multimillion dollar bounties on terrorist leaders across the years. Frankly they haven't often paid off. But I suppose, and I have no inside knowledge on this, but based on experience, I suppose this was a combination of different forms of intelligence. I do suspect that there were human intelligence assets, sources,

if you will, on the ground. I suspect that we probably had some element of signals intelligence, so intercepted communications, maybe not from Zawahie himself, perhaps family members for still its right. And then I think all of that was was tied to image intelligence, so either SAD light based intelligence or unmanned aerial vehicles. And it's the composite of all that info that that draws the conclusion get together,

that's right, and that's what takes weeks. First of all, to arrive at the time and the place that you can reliably count on him to be, and then to strike with precision, walking us through a dangerous world. Ambassador Douglas Looke, we thank you for being with us again on Bloomberg. Thanks for the insights today at all. We'll assemble the panel next as Nancy Pelosi sleeps. This is Bloomberg.

This is Bloomberg. Sound on on Bloomberg Radio. Nancy Pelosi today, at least Taiwan time today, will meet with the President of Taiwan President's side with a joint press briefing to follow, remembering that just the news of her landing hours ago sent Beijing on a tear announcing missile test military drills that will encircle the island starting later on this week. The image dree ought to be something, if only for the domestic audience. President, she is trying to impress. Let's

assemble our panel. Jennie Schanzana was with us Bloomberg Politics contributor and Democratic analysts, joined today by Doug Highes, Back, Republican strategist, former r n C communications director, former deputy chief of staff to Erik Canter. Alright, Jennie, she's there. Last time we spoke, it was believed that she would be there, but she actually touched down. Things went smoothly. It was in the in the dark of night, which I understand was by design, but we still saw her

pink suit a warm greeting on the tarmac. Now that you've seen it, was this a smart move? You know, I love the pink suit. Um, you know that is pure Nancy Pelosi. She doesn't go quietly. But you know, I think there is a question to be asked, and and you know she has a right to go, yes, But the question is doesn't make sense for her to go? And you know we've all been talking about Tom Friedman's editorial in the New York Times Day calling it utterly reckless.

And you know, the real question in my mind is what's the upside? What's the point? You know, when you look at this from a long term perspective, does it serve the United States interests? Or does it just serve her short term domestic interests. So I think there's a lot of questions here, and I'm really on the fence. I know there's a view that she had to go once it was announced. I'm not so sure it's in the bench best interest of the United States at this point.

How you just heard from Jeannie Chanzano, listen to Mitch McConnell, and I'm starting to think that Nancy Pelosi just just struck the most bipartisan chord she could have found. Here's the minority leader in the Senate earlier today. I think it's important that the Speaker did go to Taiwan. I don't think the Chinese uh tell members of Congress where they can go. He signed a letter with twenty five

Republican senators supporting the trip, Doug. This is this is a brand new day when Nancy Pelosi's stock is rising with Republican leadership. Do they mean this or are they kind of goading her on? They do? And I'll tell you you know, in two thousand ten, Joe, when I was at the Republican National Committee, I was part of what was called the Fire Pelosi campaign. And right now I'm drinking from my red fire Pelosi cup, but I'm

also raising the cup to her. You know. One of the things that Republicans are very mindful of when it comes to Nancy Pelosi, once you get away from the political jargon and so forth, is that she's Nancy Dallassandro, a street fighter from from Baltimore, and she does not back down. And Republicans, you know, quite often hate her so much because she's so effective, and when it was clear that once it was leaked that this may happen, it was very clear that she was never going to

back down. I think it's smart to be there, though I guess those are two different questions. Well, they are different questions, and and I think we can ask about what this strategy behind it was um but clearly she was not going to back down. And she's mindful of the fact that, you know, while so much of our focus is on Ukraine, what happened in Ukraine very easily could have or could happen in Taiwan. And she definitely wanted to send a message that the United States stands

with Taiwan. If you think about it the other way, g D If Taiwan is off limits to the speaker, if that's the new rule here, Speaker of the House in the United States not allowed to go to Taipei, Don't we have bigger issues to address? Is it not time to take another look at the One China policy? Or is that just kicking the hornet's nest. We do have a bigger issues to address, and I don't think the fact is she's not allowed to go. Clearly she has a right to go. I think the question is

about US foreign policy. We need to take a long term view the way China does, and you know, we need to understand the sensitivity to the issue of Taiwan. And is this sort of you know, raising the level of humiliation that they feel they suffered in the late nineteenth century into the early twentieth century visa VI Taiwan. Does it make sense then for her to go at this point, and you know you mentioned Ukraine, Well what about if China turns around and starts supporting Russia and Ukraine?

We can't as as Freedman was saying, fight on both fronts. So you know, US foreign policy, you know, and she's not obviously in charge of it, and she has every right to go and grant her that But doesn't make sense, I think is a real big question. And I'm not so sure it does. And she's not just a congress person, she's Speaker of the House, she's third in line to the presidency. Doug, you're a communication specialist. This didn't have

to be quite as intense as it has been. It strikes me if we hadn't heard from the President himself that the Pentagon didn't want to see this, If the the leaking hadn't happened weeks in advance. Could this have been contained a little bit more effectively. Yes. Look, certainly, one of the challenges in Washington is what we focus so much on the partisan issues. There are very real differences between the House and Senate and Congress and the administration.

This is one of these. They have different priorities. The fact that we heard that the President speak on this was certainly surprising, and that up to the level of

the US you know, significantly. And you know, one of the reasons that Pelosi now is being applauded by some Republicans and obviously that will be short term applause, is that it became clear to McConnell, to Kevin McCarthy and other Republicans that backing down to China would essentially send China the message that they can get away with whatever

they want to. And you know, as we see what's going on in Hong Kong just over the past few years, China's betting that they can do whatever they want and flex whatever muscles they wants. That's why Pelosi made such I think an important statement, and when she landed, her plane was greeted but with applause, um, and and that was certainly a message that was being sent to the

people of Taiwan. And tell you that joint news conference tomorrow is going to be a delicate dance and we'll talk more about all of it with Jeanie Schanzano and Doug High are sound on panel today the fastest hour in politics, as we round the bends and turned to primary day next with Greg Darrow. This is Bloomberg. Congressman Peter Meyer had only been in the US House for a couple of days when the Republican from Michigan voted

to impeach Donald Trump, who since vowed retribution. We've heard this story before, choosing to endorse John Gibbs in today's primary to defeat Congressman Meyer first term or Donald Trump really does not like Peter Meyer. He doesn't even like his name, as we learned at a recent rally. Listen, one of the ten impeachers a guy who spells his name Emmy I j e Er, but they pronounced it Meyer. The hell kind of a spelling is that Meyer? Meiser,

It's Meser, but it's actually pronounced Meyer. I said, how the hell do you pronounce this guy's name, nobody knows if he's done nothing in Washington. I said, how do you pronounce his name? Is it major Meijer? They said, it's Meyer. How the hell do you get Meyer out of it? Well, it's Meyer, and I don't know. Maybe

he helped with the name recognition there. That's back in in April at a Save America rally in Washington Township, the former President of the United States guessing maybe the first time he read it he didn't realize it was Meyer. But again, you heard the president. One of ten Republicans who voted to impeach, Three of them are facing primaries today. And that's where we begin with Bloomberg Elections Reporter Greg Darrow. It's a big one, Greg. We actually have what five

states in play here as far as this race goes. Though, Peter Meyer, who's who's gotten a fair amount of media attention. How much trouble is he in? He's in trouble? Um about that Donald Trump rally, though, it's kind of a curious strategy to make fun of a duck surname in western Michigan. But that was very odd to hear Trump do that. But a war veteran, we'll see we'll see

what the voters have to say later today. In Michigan's third district, which includes the Grand Rapids area that Jerry Ford used to represent, UH, Meyer's in a tough spot.

He has that Trump endorsed challenger John Gibbs, as you mentioned, and what's uh, He's also getting opposition from the Democratic Congressional Campaign COMMNTEE, which has decided to spend money on TV ads boosting Gibbs because the Democrats think that after redistricting, the district now leans a little bit Democratic and that Gibbs would be an easier candidate to defeat than Meyer. We're gonna have a few instances of that, I realize

in this conversation. Other than Meyer, as you point out in your column on the terminal, UH, You've got Jamie Butler in UH and Dan new House, both in Washington State. Those are the other two Republicans voted to impeach Donald Trump. Are they in the same situation? I don't think there isn't as perilous a situation as Meyer. Tough races and only the voters will only will know from the voters later today, and it takes some time to count the

ballots and Washington State. They have a very drawn out process, so it may take some time to know the verdict. The other difference is that Washington State uses what's known as a top two primary, under which all candidates of all parties run on one ballot and the top two advance of the general election. So two Republicans could advance and that could give a little bit of a boost to um Jamie Horrera Butler in the third district and

Dan new House in the fourth district. So not quite the straits that Mr Meyer is in, right, Yeah, Meyer has a straight up you know what they call a closed Republican primary against John Gibbs. That's a little bit different than the Washington races some of the other races to watch. It's hard to ignore what's happening in Arizona,

and you've got Trump effect there as well. In fact, it's a Trump Pence proxy in the gubernatorial race here with Karen Taylor Robson endorsed by Doocey the the the the governor now Doug Doozy, along with Mike Pence carry Lake, a former television news anchor endorsed by Donald Trump. This is actually a pretty close one. It really is it looked like Lake was a you know, a clear front runner for most that but it looks like Karen Taylor Robson.

Robson has really cut into the lead and it's probably you know, I don't know if i'd want to call or predicted race today should be pretty close, but it is one of those one of many races where Donald Trump has a cast his lot in with the preferred candidate. Not only the governor's race, but you go down about the secretary of State's race, which is open because the Democratic secretary state is running for governor attorney general's race.

So Arizona is definitely a state to watch. Then I'm glad you mentioned both of those because they might not get as much attention, not being you know, national, uh type races, but they're very important as Donald Trump tries to plant seeds with election deniers. Right, if either of them won those primaries and won those races, you could have election deniers essentially running the election and one of

the most important battleground states in the country. Yes, and those down don't bound down ballot races, excuse me, deserve a lot more attention than they're getting. The Secretary of States primary for example, Trump is backing Mark Fincherman state representative who's advanced Trump's bogus claims of widespread voter fraud. He has a candidate in the attorney general's race, and the incumbent attorney General, Mark Bernovitch, is a came under

fire from Trump. He's running for the U. S. Senate, and Trump didn't endorse him because he felt that Bernovitch didn't agree with his false claims about widespread fraud. So he did endorse Blake Masters in that race. As I see he's leading by gosh, almost twenty points. Is that is that a done deal for Masters and Trump? It looks like Blake Matches is going to win the nomination.

Polling has has shown him with a consistent double digit lead, and I think the Trump endorsement will help there as will you know at least fifteen million dollars that was donated to a pro Master superpack by Peter Thield, the technology billionaires backing his protege in that election. I need to bounce around too much, but we do have a number of states in play, and I have to ask you about the erics. I mean, what a bizarre story

we're talking about here. Eric Brighten's the former governor of Missouri, Eric Schmidt, the former attorney general, both running to replace Senator Roy Blunt. There has been a great effort, as you see in a lot of these races, to get the backing of Donald Trump. And so he says last night, after advertising it on social media, I endorse Eric with no last name, and so they both ran to take credit for it. Greg, how does that end? Yeah, that's one of the more bizarre endings of a U. S.

Senate Republican primary I've seen in sometimes Donald Trump's fooling around. Yeah, I'm not, you know, he's Donald Trump is someone who likes to boost his win loss record in endorsements in primaries, and I think, you know, endorsing Eric Gryden's even though Gryden's has been running a full throated you know, pro Maga, you know, anti Mitch McConnell campaigned very much alliance with Trump's views. Um, you know, I don't still be a risky endorsement for Trump to take, and he doesn't like

losing on endorsements. Well, I guess that's one way to do it. Just give them one name. Greg, Happy primary day, Thanks for being with us. As always, will throw this to the panel. Next the Battle of the Erics on the fastest hour in politics. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg sound on on Bloomberg Radio. It's from the KOFEFI playbook. I can only assume or was that kofif I never

quite got it right? From the former president endorsing Eric without a last name, even though there are two Eric's running in the Republican primary in Missouri, and you're gonna recognize at least one of them before we pull the panel into this. Eric Brighten's the former governor, and he actually he left as governor. He stepped down and was facing all kinds of allegations, including domestic abuse, which his challenger, Eric Schmidt, has been glad to remind people of. Eric

Schmidt is the attorney General. But Gryten's and Schmidt seized opportunity. They saw the statement, Eric says he endorsed Eric. Well, that's me, and of course they both jumped for the ball. Here's Eric Graighten's the former governor. In a social media post immediately after team we just got President Trump's endorsement and we are honored to have it. He was very clear that he wants a maggot champion. That's what I am. My opponent, Eric Schmidt, He's a rhino. President Trump was

clear he wants a warrior. I'm a Navy seal, Eric Schmidt's career politician. Is it coming back to you? Navy seal rhino rhino hunting. Remember the ad Eric Riten's kicked out, the ad that was really made for, you know more to get people like me talking about it. The name. He was walking down the street with a with an assault style weapon and comes upon a house where apparently rhinos live. Listen, remember this, I'm Eric Brighten's Navy seal

and today we're going to rhino hunting. That's the rhino corruption and is marked by the stripes of Cowardice Wild World of Animals. So they blow their way into this house. There's smoke Bob's guy's bearing armor and action movie music. That guy Eric Righten's who again said, you know, Eric Schmidt, he's no warrior. This is the Attorney General and so did to to keep up with well the Griten's Eric Schmidt puts up an ad of him holding a blowtorch

and lighting it on camera. Listen, I'm Eric Schmidt, and I think Joe Biden is a total disaster. That's why I'm taking my blowtorch to a socialist agenda. It's just massive flamey standing in a very manly looking workshop, and I start thinking, boy, I really should have gone into the political ad business because it's too fun. Ask Doug High as we reassemble our panel. Doug High as with us former comms director at r N c UH Republican strategist,

and Jeannie Schanzano Bloomberg Politics contributor, Democratic analyst. What's going on here, dougus? Is Donald Trump playing a plactical a practical joke? Is this cofefy Part two? Oh? Absolutely, Look, he likes getting attention, and what better way to do it than to have a weird endorsement that gets people talking. But I've actually I was actually in Missouri the week before last in Kansas City and Lake of the Ozarks, and it's interesting, especially in Lake of the Ozarks that

is still Trump country. You still see a lot of Trump flags, some frags flags about a guy named Brandon as well, and talking to voters there, it seemed very clear from what we also see in the polling that this was really a race between Eric Schmidt and Vicky Hartchler with Eric Wrighton's fading. And you know this, this may becomes too little, too late, even if it is

a real endorsement or not um for Grighten's. But what I heard so often from voters in um in Lake of the Ozarks was that they just weren't Brighton fans because of all the personal baggage that he has gets into some kind of nasty stuff. I remember one lady told me when I asked about right, and she said, he's a real sick. Oh. So that's language you don't always hear every day. Tells you a lot about this.

And indeed, I'm glad you mentioned Vicky Hartzler here. Uh, if this is what it's come to with a Trump endorsement, we're actually not sure which candidate he's chosen A genie.

How do he engage the impact? Yeah, and it's nice to hear what Doug is talking about that the people are on the side of the Republican Party, who's definitely afraid that if they get an endorsement, or if Eric Rayton's does win this primary seems unlikely at this point, but he could that they will be spending a lot of time with this seat and trying to get this seat, hold the seat that they should be able to hold, and look out elsewhere. So this is a real problem

for them. But I think that my favorite part of this story is the fact that when the idea of this dual endorsement of Eric, which he puts in all caps, came up, President Trump Report Lee Alex Eisenstadt has a great piece on this, reportedly asked if it was spelled the same, which is a good question, because you can spell Eric with a K, you can spell it c H. He said, it's not going to work unless the names are spelled the same, and good thing for Trump, they're

spelled the same, and so he was able to proceed with this, and they were very happy about that. It's apparently he also called both of these candidates. I mean, he's just playing with them. Yeah. Absolutely, Again, this is all about Trump being Trump, getting attention, having fun, you know, getting in on the joke himself and and so forth. It's not anything serious about this race or other races.

But one thing I should add, and sort of the genie's point is, you know, Republicans in Washington are very mindful that this looks that it could be a good year for Republicans, but they've got challenging can candidates out there who could cost them seats. And in Missouri, you know, the feeling at the Republican Senatorial Committee is if it's Vicky Hartzler, the race is over. If it's Eric Schmidt, the race is over. If it's Eric Rayton's it's a

real race about that. Uh boy, I need to get both of your takes on the three Republicans who voted for impeachment. As we discussed with Greg Darrow, this is not looking good for Peter Meyer in Michigan. By the way, remember that you heard Donald Trump. You couldn't believe that's how you pronounced his name. I don't know if you heard Greg mentioned, but that that is if you're not from that part of the country. The Meyer superstore chain is his family. Everyone knows how to pronounced that name.

But I digress. You've got two others in Washington State here, as Greg wrote about Dan new House, Jamie Herrera, Butler, uh, Jeanie. This is probably not going to be a clean sweep for Trump, but looks like he picks off another He may pick off another and I think what we're starting to see is that you can win even if you

didn't support the big lie. And didn't and I voted to impeach or voted to impeach Trump, but you're probably going to have to do it the way we've seen, you know, the governor of Georgia do it um you know, which is that you've got to and and the governor of Virginia, quite frankly, is that you've got to not take him on. You've got to sort of go around him if you will. And some of these candidates have

done that and some of them have not. And you know, I think Peter Mayer is fascinating because there's an add out in Michigan where he is saying that with the Triple C and you know, pushing Gibbs, he is now pushing that back on Nancy Pelosi. So while she's talking about democracy in Taiwan, he is saying that this is, you know, the height of sort of hypocrisy, and she's

pushing this guy who believes in the big Lie. So this has been a continuing sort of controversy as we've talked about on the Democratic side, should they be pushing these big lie candidates. Good thing. This isn't confusing for anyone. We've seen a couple of different results here at David Valladio in California kept his job, Tom Rice in South Carolina not so much. How how does this cut or or we just you know, back to going district by

disc trick different feelings about Trump and their own incumbent. Yes, I mean that's that's exactly where it stands now. Part of this also is happening, you know, in in the atmosphere of redistricting, where members are also running in slightly different districts than than they used to, which which presents its own challenge. We often see member versus member primaries, which has played itself out to where their campaigning to

be who can be the most Trump like? And what we see is that, you know, Donald Trump is still the alpha dog to the party. It's a diminished alpha dog that was a smaller alpha dog. His endorsement gets you the vote, for sure, That's not what gets you the other third unless voters feel that basically you're not representing them by opposing not all things Donald Trump, but one big thing Donald Trump. Well, we'll be talking a lot more about results of course, at this time tomorrow.

The other incumbent on incumbent is a Democratic race we're watching in Michigan, Andy Levin Hayley Stevens, who have both been on this program multiple times. One of them will not continue on in the eleventh aggresitional district newly redrawn

at suburban Detroit. You might have heard mentioned, were seen the headline on the terminal that Nancy Pelosi tomorrow is going to t SMC The Washington Post is you will meet with the chair of Taiwan Semiconductor to talk about, you know, the chip acts of fifty two billion dollars. Take a little bit of credit for that. T s MC stands to benefit as they open a chip plant

and expand potentially those plans uh into Arizona. Of course, voting on this primary day, Genie, is this getting to be a little bit too big of a visible trip here or is this the type of itinerary you were expecting. She's going to have a joint news conference with the President of Taiwan in the morning. I think it's very much in keeping with Nancy Pelosi. You know, Doug described her as a street fighter. She certainly is. She was

never gonna go do this quietly. Um, you know it's it's and it's going to be a very very sort of fraud fort you know, ninety six hours as China has to respond to us, and we've seen some of that already. But the bolder she gets, the more bold potentially their responses. Although I don't think they'll go over a line. Doug. We have less than a minute. But are you worried about her safety in departing? Do we have to worry about Chinese fighter jets fooling around or

anything like that? No, I'm not. They know that that would be the ultimate kind of escalation, which you know China doesn't want to do either. Um, they want to see how much they can get away with. But you know, Genie talks about a line. This would be the biggest and brightest line that there could be no interceptions. Doug Hide, it's great to have you, Genie. Chancey. No our panel for today. They'll be back with us tomorrow. Here on the fastest hour in politics? Where does it go? If

you showed up late? Subscribe to the podcast Bloomberg Sound on Objeck Traffic and Markets keep you FEDS straight through daybreak Asia and I'll meet you back here tomorrow with a lot more to talk about on Pelosi's trip to Taiwan. I'm Joe Matthew. This is Bloomberg.