Now from our nation's capital. This is Bloomberg Sound On. We had a good discussion on ensuring global energy security. We just heard from Jamaal Ka, Shogi's wife. I was straightforward and direct in discussing it. I made my view crystal clear. Bloomberg sound On Politics, policy and perspective from DC's top name. They don't seem to have many answers.
If not a nuclear agreement which is not going to satisfy Israel, then what Russian and Chinese are lambing hard throughout the g c C to find friends and and extend their influence. At Bloomberg Sound On with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio, it was the fist bump heard round the world. Welcome to the fastest hour in politics. As President Biden makes his way to Saudi Arabia at last fist Bumps, MBS talks shog but does not get very specific about oil. We'll have a lot more on the
trip coming up. As Senator Joe Mansion back home puts Democrats reconciliation hopes on ICE and the Chip Act. They move all on its own now we'll discuss it all coming up with Congressman John Katko Republican from New York and with our panel al modern democratic strategist, joined by Rick Davis, of course, Bloomberg Politics contributor partner at stone Court Capital. Later on we turned to COVID cases surging in cities around the country thanks to a new sub variant.
I spoke earlier today with Dr Anthony Fauci, and later we will discuss the return to work here in New York with Sally Bakewell of Bloomberg News. That President wrapping the trip to Saudi Arabia, at least almost He arrived in Jettah today. This is a four day trip abroad to the Middle East, and says he expects further oil supply increases from Saudi Arabia after meeting today with the kingdom's rulers. Yes, that included MBS. People were breathless as the two met on the red carpet and a fist
bump happened. I'm hearing more about the fist bump, though, than the policy. When it comes to energy, Let's hear it from the president's own words. He did speak and
take questions from reporters. A short time ago. We had a good discussion on ensuring global energy security and adequate oil supplies to support global economic growth, and that will begin shortly and uh, and I'm doing all I can to increase the supply for the United States of America, which I expect to happen as Alreadys shared that urgency, and based on our discussions today, I expect we'll see
further steps in the coming weeks. So that's it, though, no three million barrels in the back of Air Force one as he flies back. The whope here is I'm guessing what we've been hearing, and that is creating a bit of a stir and submergency underneath the next OPEC meeting. This is where we start our conversation today with Congressman John Katko, Republican from New York, ranking member on the House Homeland Security Committee. It's great to have you back, Congressman.
There's a few things I'd love to talk about with you. Starting with this trip is the president's journey to Israel and now Saudi Arabia. One that makes a man a safer well, I don't know if it makes Americas safer, but what it does is at least gives them, uh some attention, which is critically important as we all know the Middle East is a hornet's nest of issues, some positive,
some negative. Of course. On one hand, unfortunately now that we're a net import of oil again as as opposed, I'm that export like we were in the previous administration in the way some more important. So Saudi raid is actually a very important partner. On the other hand, there are human rights. The record is abysmal, and we have to deal with that. And showing some love and recognition to Israel is always good. There are they're they're the bastion of democracy in the Middle East, and that's a
very very important thing to do as well. So lots of thorny issues about any time we go over there. I think it's a good thing. Okay, this is uh, that's a good place to start when you start talking about remaining you know, spare capacity. Though there are a lot of questions about what Saudi Arabia or or the UAE would be even capable of doing, and then of course what we might be able to do here. Congressmen, we we haven't taken a refinery off mothballs in a
long time. If we suddenly got an influx of oil, would be able to refine it. Well, it depends on the type of crude. Of course, there's different types of crude, like crude, sweet crude, and and that that's that's the problem, right.
But the bottom line is and and this is the fact that I'm saying this through the lens of being the most bipartisan member the past four terms in Congress, but the fact that I'm early on in this administration, the the emphasis was not on domestic oil production, and that's kind of caused us to be in a situation right now, and we need to get back to that. But we also need to have better relationships with our international partners. And this is going to Strabe is never
going to be a bad thing. Going to Israel is
never a bad thing. They need to know that we know from we have mutual interests and that is fighting back against the RAND and whatever Ran is trying to do with the nuclear capabilities, and very important, I'm sure solidarity with some of our friends in the last Is it a sign that that's working When you hear that Vladimir Putin is going to Tehran next week, well, it's certainly go see anti for uh Iran and the run should steal the heat from us together, togetherness that we're projecting.
That's a very important thing because Iran really is a very dangerous and destabilizing element of Middle East. And let's not forget not so long ago there was there was some bombings of oil your founderies by Iran and Saudi Reda for not mistake, and so uh, there's there is the constant threat. And the more that the folks in Middle East that are our friends uh and allies, more they don't feel like we have their backs, the better alfare gonna be a long term allel of us collectively.
Cogress from Katko, you mentioned Saudi Arabia's human rights record. This is another big part of the trip. And whether the president or how the President was going to speak about the Kashoki murder. He did get to this even in his opening remarks, and he was asked about it quite a bit. I'd like for you to give a listen to what he said. I raised it at the top of the meeting, making it clear what I thought of it at the time and when I think of it now, and it was exactly. I was straightforward and
direct and discussing it. I made my view crystal clear. I said very straightforwardly for an American president to be silent on an issue of human rights? Is this consistent with inconsistent with who we are and who I am? How did he do with that? How is the wording? How is the post? And did you believe him? Um? Well, listen, of course I believe he's a president. I'm going to give him a credit. But he's saying it is the truth of what he said. But the bottom line is,
what are we supposed to do? I mean, human rights violations are are if we call him on it and say this is wrong, it's got to stop. And we pushed them. That's a good thing. Um. Should we turn a blind eye to it? Of course not, and we should never do that, and it doesn't sound like he did. But in the end, we gotta put that into the total mix. Like I said at the beginning, it's a very very complicated place in the Middle East, and you know, you got to take that into consideration with everything else
we're working. He said, NBS told him he didn't do it. Congressman, what's that he said that MBS told him that he did not kill because showed you that it was not him and that he brought those who were responsible to Justice. Well, I'm sure that Challengance Committee he knows otherwise, but take what it's worth. We're spending time with Congressman John Katko of New York. There's been quite a couple of days
on Capitol Hill. My goodness, the back and forth between Joe Manson, Democrats, Mitch McConnell, and Republicans with regard to a reconciliation bill versus a China Competes bill has become basically exhausting. Congressman. There is a bipartisan plan, though, to get the China Competes Bill, which includes the Chip Act past.
You've got a version of the House, there's a competing version in the Senate, and there's a great worry that they're going nowhere fast now, especially as Mitch McConnell threatens it's a pull Republican votes in the face of a reconciliation built by Democrats. Do you like this idea of just chipping it, should say, passing the Chip Act as a standalone. Listen, we gotta take a look at this by by order of priority right and by order priority um.
Bringing back chip manufacturers in the United States. There's got to be a huge priority. God forbid, if China decides to go with this Taiwan tomorrow and takes over Taiwan and then gets as triangle hold on that high end
chip manufacturing, which is about of the market. If I'm not mistaken worldwide, If we don't domesticate some of that stuff to guard against that hup the possible eventuality, we are we are not being smart and so read re shoring or bringing back some of that domestic chip production and incentivizing it is a good idea. But let's not forget it's a relatively smaller investment you compared about to consider how much money going to be put in the
chip manufacturing nationwide. It's a small investment because I'll give an example, uh in searchus A contemplating a possible possible chip by manufacturing plan. It would be a hundred billion would it be a hundred billion dollar investment in Syracuse, New York over a ten year period and would create fifteen to twenty thousand jobs at an average a hundred sixty thousand pop immediately that's just one location. We need
those all over the country. That's what they're complaints. So providing the seed money would be an excellent investment and from a natural security point, well, that's where I was going. As the ranking member on Homeland Security. Do you tell your your colleagues how important this is from a national security standpoint or do they know this already and this is bogged down by everything else. I always say, economic
security is national security. We don't have economic security with respect to chip manufacturing, and that's one of the central components of modern manufacturing. Now it's in vehicles, it's in your refrigerators, it's in your microwaves, it's in every device you have. And if we don't, if we don't have a good handle on that, and the bad act of like China decides to go with the time on which is highly likely at some point we are really being fooled.
So the sooner we get this done, the better. And I couldn't. I couldn't supported enough. I heard about an issue that that you were trying to get your arms around today. They had to ask you about because it was hard to believe at first that that that the Department of Homeland Security will not provide information on terror plots, not not attacks, but things that have been plotted until
Congress gets waivers from accused non citizens. First of all, am I am I representing that accurately that we need the accused to sign a waiver for us to know what they were intending to do. Yes, well with our job, our central job and Homeland Security, and I'm the ranking member for Homeland Security. Our central job is conduct oversight of Homeland Security Committee and also to ensure that we
do everything to kind of keep the country safe. You can only do that if information is flowing back and forth. Information is the lifeblood of national security and homeland security. And so we asked for information about two things. One is the attempted assassination of President Bush, former President Bush, which was done by a criminal alien who was going to utilize the poorer southern border to bring more people across.
That was one. The other one was two illegal aliens in the United States who are plotting to have a mass shooting and a Virginia Fourth of July celebrations. So we asked Homeland Security, as they always do, Hey, what's going on? Give us a background in this, and they said, We're not going to give any background unless you get waivers from the accused. I'm like, okay, we want to
get waivers. From people accused of territing that our American citizens, which we never had to do before, which is insane. I don't think isis is in the business of signing waivers that one on from July four? Is that the the the attack or the attempted attack from Richmond, Virginia that was foiled. Yes, we talked to the mayor about that today. As a matter of fact, How the heck, How the heck can you uh figure out where the threats are if you're not even getting briefings on them
and this has never happened before, it's my knowledge. Is crazy. Congressman. I don't want to sneak up on you because only have thirty seconds left. But you're a former prosecutor. You're also one of ten Republicans who voted for impeachment. Should the January six committee refer what it knows for criminal charges against the former president, whether whether they do so officially or not, they're they're essentially doing it in the court of public opinion, and so then is such the
property justice to make our decisions. So we'll see what happens with that. Send it to d O J. It sounds like, Congressman, thank you. I think someone's calling. John Katko of New York with us on the Fastest Hour in Politics. We've set the baseline. Now we assembled the panel. Rick Davis coming in along with Al Motor today on Bloomberg This. He's Bloomberg sound on on Bloomberg Radio. President Biden has already heard from Jamal Ka show gis fiance
via Twitter. At least it came up during his news conference. Not good this after he brought it up with m B s as he said he would kind of. He had demurred on questions about whether he would raise the killing directly, but he sure did today as we've already gone through. But the response was remarkable. He didn't include this in his opening remarks. It was in the questions
and there weren't too many of them. Questions and answers with reporters after what was the reaction from Mohammed Ben Solomon, here's the president. He basically said that he, uh, he was not personally responsible for it. I indicated I thought he was. He said he was not personally responsible for it, and he took action against those who were responsible. And uh, and we heard from as I mentioned fiance, this came up. It was one of the NBC reporters brought it up
in a question, was here here you go. We just heard from Jamaal Ka, Shogi's wife, who said, after this visit, the blood of MBS next victim is on your hands. What do you say to Mrs Kashoki. I'm sorry she feels that way. I was straightforward back then. I was straightforward today what I this is a meeting not I
didn't come here to meet with the Crown Prince. I came here to meet with the g c C and nine nations to deal with the security and and the needs of the free world and particularly the United States, and not leave a vacuum here which was happening as it has in other parts of the world. I've been talking about that vacuum quite a bit lately with our panel. Let's assembled the panel right now. Rick Davis joins us for the Friday edition Bloomberg Politics contributor, joined today by
Al modern democratic strategist and partner at Brownstein Hyatt. Al, Welcome back, Rick. Always great to have you. We've talked Rick a lot about this trip leading up to it. In his final arrival today in Jetta, how did he do you know? Look, I mean, he got through the day. He did exactly what he said he was gonna do. Uh. I actually thought he gave us more insight into the
meeting with MBS than I thought he was going to. Uh. It would have been very easy to say that uh, um that you know MBS gave him a response and he's not you know, you preferred not to go into the handling. You know. Look, I mean he's a fourth right guy. He loves to talk to the media and you know, I mean, it is who he is. This is a brand of Joe Biden that you get all the time, and so it has its pluses and minuses.
It obviously had a negative reaction from Kashogi's fiance, which you would expect, right, I mean, family members would not
want this meaning to ever take place. But there are higher priority for this administration and I think, you know, filling that vacuum, ensuring that Russia and China do not take advantage of us in UH this period of time UH in the Middle East, and in securing a stronger relationship that can result in in in more hydrocarbon's is what his task was and it sounds like that got done, although we're not sure, right he says, well, we'll see in a couple of weeks what we get out before
we start getting into some of the other issues. How did the President comport himself? How did how did you how did the wording work for you on on the specifically the Kogi issue. Sure, well, I should just disclose to your listeners. I do do some work with the Kingdom, so I need to say that upfront. But I thought the President was as Rick said, he is always forthright,
he was resolute. He expressed his disgust and disappointment apparently in person, which reflects what his position has always been, and frankly, the US position has always been. And so I give the President credit for that. I think what's important coming out of this are the myriad substantive accomplishments that were named Israel flying directly into the Kingdom, an
expanded piece fire in Yenen. I can go on, but the President listed five or six major subption of accomplishments, and I think, as Rick said, uh, it's terrific for the region and as terrific to the United States interests. Did he need to be more specific about energy? Rick, he's talking about energy security is more of a concept and saying that in a couple of weeks time, will we'll see more. I mean he is he waiting for
the next OPEC meeting. Well, let's let's be clear. In the last OPEC plus meeting, they increase production that has helped to start bring down energy prices in the United States already, right, and so you could argue that this trip was as much a thank you to that effort to get us to where we are today as it is to encourage even more in the future. The bottom line is we're getting a bigger flow from OPEC, uh, Saudi Arabia and others. Uh. It is not without its cost,
which was today's meeting, and UH ensure, Yeah, I think that. Uh. You know, we've already seen a pretty precipitous drop in the last dirty days for gasoline prices in the United States, and that's what we hope to see continuing for the month of July and August. So, um, by the time he gets a labor day, if the price of gas is reduced by a dollar dollar and a half from it's high, Uh, he'll be able to declare victory specific
about that. Yeah, should you have been more specific about the energy agreement Yeah, I mean just to quickly point out to particularly those who are progressive who really didn't want the President to make this trip at all. In addition to the oil expansion, the United States and the Kingdom agreed on a significant partnership on green technology. So if you care about the global environment and global economy being more green, this meeting result will result in that.
And so that's a tremendous accomplishment. The takeaways diplomatically, Rick, we talked a lot about the Abraham Accords and how it could potentially be expanded to include Saudi Arabia. Was the foundation laid for that? Yeah, there's been a lot of work to date. UM and AL would know probably a lot more about it than I do. But UM, I think there's optimism that that um Saudi Arabia would take the same steps that Morocco and and and Ua and others have taken. UM and and and it is
the interest UH of MBS to modernize his country. I mean, he's done a lot in the sort of domestic realm that we don't talk about because we have so much anxiety about what he's done his foreign policy. Al, could Saudi Arabia join the Accords? In our lifetimes. I think it's certainly possible. Um, you look at what they just did with respects those islands of the North Red Sea, allowing Israeli tourists coming in. You look at what they did.
Guess anything is possible with some of the takeaways that we heard al Modern Stay where you are, Rick Davis, our panel for the hour on Sound On. This is Bloomberg, broadcasting live from our nation's capital, Bloomberg to New York, Bloomberg eleven, Frio to Boston, Bloomberg one, O six one to San Francisco, Bloomberg nine six to the country Serious x M General one and around the globe, the Bloomberg Business app and Bloomberg Radio dot Com. This is Bloomberg
Sound On with Joe Matthew. Have you started shaking hands again? Are you still fist bumping like the President has been trying to do on this trip of the Middle East. I actually asked Dr Anthony Fauci about it earlier today on Balance of Power here on Bloomberg. Along with the drive to get people back in the office. Just as this new sub variant takes hold, we'll start to get into this coming up next with Bloomberg's Sally Bakewell, who covers the banking industry in Wall Street, has of course
had a patchwork of policies on this. We'll see if any of them are working. Interesting conversation with Dr Anthony Faucci that we're going to discuss with Sally Bakewell in just a moment about interactions. I have to ask you, Sally, first of all, thanks for coming in. You cover banking. How did you end up with me here? This is but it's there's actually a method to the madness because Wall Street was really kind of leading the curve on getting people back to work right the post COVID return,
and I want to ask you about that. Having discussed a lot of this with Anthony Fauci today, starting with the fist bumps, are you shaking hands justin with people? Here's what the doctor said, Well, I'm not going to talk about what the president should be doing or not. He is quite protected, he's vaccinated. About the rest of us very carefully. My own self is that if you are in a situation where you you don't know the status of an individual, you should do what you can
to avoid contact that might be spreading infection. I mean, I don't want to be on record saying you shouldn't be shaking hands. That becomes a sound bye. See he didn't want to go there, I guess, Sally, thanks again for being here. Is everyone shaking hands where you are when you're covering Wall Street or you're putt in the elbow up? You know. I was just about to say, I did shake hands earlier today and it felt a little bit awkward. Um, but I'm going to try and
shake more hands, is okay? Yeah? Did you like run and wash it right away? Was it an awkward thing? No? I didn't. I just felt the mood shift a little
bit as I did. And the other thing I was going to say is that when we talk about Wall Street and return to office, I wanted to start by talking about what happens when they aren't in the office and why it is important if I may, Okay, because they're out partying and spreading COVID, they probably are doing that, but also, as we all know finance firms, they're required to be very scrupulous in how they monitor their communications, um, you know, to head off any kind of improper conduct.
And of course that system has been challenged by the proliferation of mobile messaging apps like WhatsApp and so on. Um. But when everyone went home, this was further strained, and of course people started to use those more and more. And now a number of banks are under investigation for improper use of unauthorized devices. UM. And we had we've had bank earnings. UM. So this is creating more than health issues, clearly, and this is another reason why I think,
you know, being back in the office is important. There's a kind of compliance and regulatory layer here. Well, let's listen to what Dr Faucci said about it, because you look where we work at a lot of other places. Uh, the plexiglass is coming down. Not seeing a lot of masks sometimes you do. It depends on what workplace you're in, of course, what city you're in. But there's a patchwork of policies out there and companies are trying to update them.
This is what Dr Faucci suggested about their attempt to do so. Well, it depends on what you mean, Joe, buy back into the office. I mean we are. I am right now in my office at the National Institutes of Health. I'm alone now in this room. But when we have people who are coming in and out who are here on business. We're wearing masks. So therefore companies have no idea what to do. How many Wall Street firms or do they all have their own advisors on
us UM? So I think it's Wall Streets kind of divided into two camps here and sort of harsher one and a slightly softer one. And you have the likes of Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, UM Citadel there among the firms, and Morgan Stanley there among the firms that have really pushed people. They've been at the forefront to try and
get people back into the office UM. Morgan Stanley's chief executive officer, James Colman, he said last year and it became quite a famous comment that if you can go to a restaurant, you can Johnny Well come into the UM. And JP Morgan CEO Jamie Diamond has been one of the most vocal critics of remote work. You know, say, there's no substitute for spontaneous ideas. Do anything to that. We've got be a five Now. I I live in Washington, but coming back to New York to do some work here.
I can see all of the testing tents are back on the corners. People are lined up to get COVID tests. I just wonder if there's going to be a turnaround here, because Eric Adams, it's not just the firms, the government as well as telling people to get back on the train, go back to work. Even the President is is that is there time for pause? Have you seen any indication
of that? Well, earlier this year, actually, despite that very hard stance, there was kind of an indication that some of the banks were starting to soften, probably because they had had feedback and resistance like a number of companies, you know, Apple, Airbnb, a handful of law firms. They've resisted some of the stricter policies, and there was kind
of some evidence that there was softening again. Jamie Diamond he said he that he would allow, you know, the hybrid model to become a kind of permanent model um which you know, is a bit of a sort of difference in his very sort of forthright stance at the beginning. So I think probably because that softened it a little bit, the urgents of you know what, whichever variants, probably they now have a little bit more flexibility than perhaps way back in September when the push was really on to
bring people back for all the aforementioned reasons. Is the three day work week still a thing? Um? I think a citadel for example, I think most staff are back, or can we say that everyone's back, that New York is back none the traffickers. So I think I was reading a stat that nearly half of all office visits this year were just once a week. Um, I don't
think New York is quite back. And indeed, the other camp, the non JP Morgan's, the non Morgan standis there's banks like City, which is run by Jane Fraser, and they've been incredibly flexible and they have, you know, offered this hybrid form of working. Um. So when you have that kind of approach, slightly different approach, I think, you know, we're probably not ever going to get back the numbers in on Wall Street that we used to have. That's a pretty scary thought. At the same time, it doesn't
matter what city you're in. At this point, there's there's no traffic on Monday or Friday. Right Everyone's stare on its zoom, doing their meetings as late as they can on a Monday and starting their weekend as early as they can. I don't know if that keeps anybody safe or not. But to your point, it's kind of a new lifestyle. Yeah, I think it is. UM. I mean, you know, people still sort of complain that they're being dragged into the office and then they're still doing these
zoom calls. And you know, we had we have bosses like the chief executive officer of Jeffreyes who kind of has made emotional appeals to sort of the mental health side of UM their staff saying, you know, we are mentally healthier when we are around each other regularly, regularly, and you know, for juniors and for mid level partners, they need they need the empathetic seniors to help them
and mental Well, you you're a journalist. You work in a newsroom that's supposed to be the ultimate shared environment. Are you more effective in the office? I think probably in terms of spontaneous deer generation. I think that probably happens a bit more when when we're in the office. We did, we made it work, did and she's still making it work. The US finance team leader at Bloomberg News, Sally Bakewell, great to have you on sound Off. This
is Bloomberg, This is Bloomberg. Sound On on Bloomberg Radio. So much talk about COVID today in our conversation with Dr Faucci, and then monkey pox as well as the Department of Health and Human Services moves ahead with securing more vaccines for monkey pox. As we reassemble the panel with an eye on the money here, that becomes the issue.
I asked Dr Faucci today about things running out therapeutics, vaccines. Remember, they never got the COVID funding that they were looking for months and months ago, a twenty two billion dollar requests from President Biden. It was whittled down to ten billion and then left on the floor. And based on what we're seeing following our conversation earlier this hour with Congressman Katko, there may not be much room left for much more spending on Capitol Hill as we had for
August recess and then of course midterm elections. Great panel today. Rick Davis is with US Bloomberg Politics contributor along with Al Modern Democratic strategist and partner at Brownstein Hyatt. Uh Rick, what's the reality check on this? If we really are going to start running out of therapeutics and vaccines and the administration told us that we would already be by now and this be a five variant becomes something real, we get it. What is it the sixth wave or something.
Since the beginning of COVID, this administration will be blamed for not being ready, right sure, absolutely, they have the obligation to use government to support the public health of the nation. And nobody's gonna look back and say, wow, you know your your building pass and right for I
can't get my treatments. Uh, They're gonna have to find a way to ensure that these things are available, and and they're they're doing a good job of actually make in the more readily available, in other words, making it easier to get them, which means they may likely run out sooner than they otherwise would. So, um, I think it's a bit of a quantity for the administration. And of course the last thing they want to do is start focusing their public rhetoric around COVID again, right, I mean,
it's just the political issue that won't go away. The Reconciliation Bill might have been a vehicle for that, al I don't know if that's true. It would have been as well for Obamacare subsidies. But how how could Democrats get to this money? If if it's not through uh, you know, through legislation, do we simply run out Now. I don't think that will happen, and I think the administration will need to be very targeted. And look, it's not just Republicans who complain about the money. It's people
like Joe Manson and Cinema and other moderate Democrats. We've overstimulated the economy to a degree with our COVID relief. But if they're targeted, the Congress will respond and give them the money they need. In my opinion, remember the whole issue of clawing back COVID funding from the state's al that's what got this thing bogged down to begin with. I mean, what kind of accountability should come with the
spending of extra money. I think there ought to be plenty of accountability if that's a perfectly reasonable request to make, particularly given the inflationary pressures we have in our country, and we have thrown trillions of dollars into our economy. So that's a reasona request. The administration ought to be okay with that, and I think that, you know, in addition to war in Ukraine and gas prices, there's a lot there's a reason why we have high inflation in
this country. So that's fair. Rick. We've talked a lot about the congressional agenda, the short timeline. It seems to be a little bit different every day. I just wonder what your thought is now after Joe Mansion dropped the gauntlet on this whole thing last night, reconciliation, Now wait till September, we're going to see another inflation report. Is that his way of saying that he's out? Yeah. I think he made himself pretty clear in the interview he
did today. Are you certainly out of any conversation it's going to massively increase uh this administration's approach the climate UH and try to find revenue raisers on wealthy Americans. You know, I think that was unequivocal his statements related to those two things. On course, those are core to this administration's efforts around this latest reconciliation bill. So we thought it was a tight squeeze to get something in before the recess, and I think he's now made that
an impossibility. And and so the question is will this administration turn and and focus on the Chips Act or getting something done around USEKA so that they can at least declare victory before the cycle, you know, before the recess in UH, in August. Once you come back from August, it's a different world out. Could they get anything done then or is it too late? It's not too late, And this I'm going to disagree with Rick here. I talked to the Mansion folks fairly often, and they are
open to doing a bill in September that includes climate provisions. Uh. They just need to see a signal inflation is coming down, and they will have a signal whether it's good or bad by then. And if it is coming down, he will be negotiating on climate in September. Mark my word, Well, my goodness, it keeps going up and coming in hotter than expected. If that's the case, the deals off. Yes, inflation keeps going up, he will not do that. He
would be willing to agree. I believe to a narrow bill that deals with prescription drug prices in the A c A subsidies. But that's probably it. Our panel on Bloomberg sound On with Al Matter and Rick Davis. We're about two thirds of the way through primary season. Here, gentlemen, I want to talk about the Senate race that's well underway now. In Pennsylvania, as they were earlier on in
the calendar. This, of course would be the race featuring television personality Dr Oz along with John Fetterman, the Lieutenant governor, who has had some of his own issues here regarding his health and so forth. But this has been essentially too close to call. The race as called by five thirty eight a toss up real clear has Fetterman at
fifty odds at forty. These are really close numbers for this stage, which must be I'm assuming why John Fetterman has gone to the extent of drafting Snooky into his campaign these this is real. John Fetterman has remembering that Dr Oz memod Oz is from New Jersey. This is a race in Pennsylvania. John Fetterman tried to find the ultimate troll, and by that I mean trolling to go after his opponent. This is just posted on Twitter. Listen to this, Hey May, Matt, this is Nicole Snooky, um,
and I'm from Jersey Shore. I don't know if you've seen of it before, but I'm a hot mess on a reality show basically, and I enjoy life. Um, but I heard that you moved from New Jersey to Pennsylvania. To look for a new job. And personally, I don't know why anyone would want to leave Jersey because it's like the best place ever and we're all hot messes. Um. But I want to say best of luck to you. I know you're away from home and you're in a new place, but Jersey will not forget you. I just
want to let you know I will not forget you. Um, And don't worry because you'll be back home in Jersey soon. This is only temporary, So you got this and Jersey loves you like kid informed me. Oh and with the kiss that no, Snooki is bigger than ever. I guess there are clothing lines and all this stuff. But politics, Rick Davis, is this a clever move? Absolutely? John McCain and Snooky had a relationship on Twitter and everyone was scratching her head because they couldn't figure out what the
connection was. But Snookie loved John mckatt. Means you've spent time with She's a player. She gets into the politics very well. And uh, is that what this is about? It? Does she actually care about who wins? Oh? I think I think she probably has a point of view. Uh. And it's a carpet back, and it's pretty it's pretty entertaining that they go after a moment for leaving New Jersey. I mean, like, I think, you know, send him back. I guess the message. It's a funny way to get
to it. Al, I don't know if if you're if you're laughing along with us here, But to create this sort of the seemingly unknowing, snooky saying hey, it's okay, you're going to be back before you know it certainly drives home the message, doesn't it. Hey, I love it. I mean I saw this on Twitter yesterday and I was laughing out loud. I mean, Fetterman is authentic. I
think that voters like authentic candidates. And he subtly exposes Oz for being unauthentic, as he did earlier when he pointed out that ODZ actually filmed a campaign message from his New Jersey house and so you can't escape facts like that. It's not positive for him, and I think, you know, it's a it's a great way to expose the hypocrisy and help Pennsylvanians understands views on their side. So what do you do if your doctor Oz, if your moment oz here, Rick Davis do you do you
get the situation to endorse your campaign. Yeah, I wouldn't get anyone from New Jersey to endorse my campidate. But but I would definitely be looking for some well known celebrity from you know, Pittsburgh that give me a lift up, because he needs to approach this with the same level of humor that the Feederman campaign approached it. And uh and I think that can disarm it a lot. We're just looking at his endorsement. P He's got Ted Nugent in there, Matt. That's true, right, Ted Nugent can go
a long way on the campaign trail. I just don't know if it is in Pennsylvania. Al what do you think. I think if he hires Rick Davis, he might have a chance, But otherwise he's in a bit of trouble. As long as Fretterment's health rebounds and he gets out on that campaign trail. Usually the more positive, optimistic, authentic candidate wins in these statewide races, and that's John Fan. But this race is too close to call here, Rick.
I mean, we can be wise guys about snooky, but but Dr Roz has the endorsement of Donald Trump, and he's been doing incredibly well despite the fact that he's coming from New Jersey. Yeah. I mean, look, it's a it's a good Republican year, and a lot of Pennsylvania politics have been drifting towards the Republican column. Picking up support in these white blue collar districts are really giving Republicans a much better chance statewide than we used to have.
And so, uh, this really should be a great opportunity to hold the too May seat. But I must say, Uh Fetterman has done a good job of being you know, Mr everyman. I would say the cloud hanging over Uh Fetterman right now is just you know, getting back up and into the campaign and and showing voters that that he's been able to, you know, get beyond the health scare and um and and I doubt if Memo Oz is gonna let him move too quickly beyond that. How
does he shut that down? Now he's going to go out there and do push ups in the street or something. How does Federman make people feel better about his health? Well, he started doing public appearances and that helps a lot. And yes, I mean he's a big guy. He needs to show he's healthy and vibrant and and that'll come um and then once that's behind him, I think it'll be a pretty robust race. But look, if if he does have lingering health problems, that of course will be
a concern. It's fair for Oz to wait. Remarkably, how about this, none of his former TV show co stars endorsing his campaign to be continued on the Fastest Hour in Politics. Thanks to Rick Davis, as always an al matter for joining us today along with the rest of our guests, Congressman John Katko and Sally Bakewell. Great conversation to learn a lot this week. I'll meet you back here Monday. This is Bloomberg.