Sound On: Trump 2024 Fury, GOP Leader Vote Delay?

He's an African American Conservative. They hit belittle him. Bloomberg Sound On with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio. The election week is not over yet. Welcome to the fastest hour in politics. With thousands of votes still to be counted in the balance of power on Capitol Hill still this Friday up in the air. Republicans appear to be crawling towards a slim majority in the House, but Democrats still have a path and they feel good about the Senate.

Will review the landscape with Major Garrett, the CBS News Washington correspondent, author of the book The Big Truth, is back with us one week later to discuss what we've learned our Signature panel is with us to to review the big races yet to be called and Donald Trump's latest assault on his own party. Bloomberg Politics contributors Rick Davis and Jeannie Chanzano have lived through it all with us this week, and they're here for the hour. So yes, here we are on d plus three and still no

official call on the House or the Senate. We told you this could happen, and it will likely be days more until all this is done. The Republicans are getting pretty close in the House, seven seats by my count away from claiming majority that which Kevin McCarthy claimed on Tuesday night. Democrats who have lost nine here would essentially have to run the table. But there it's still mathematically possible.

And by the way, still no call in Lauren Bobert's race, Colorado's third she's leading Democrat Adam Fish by I guess it's heading for a recount, most likely on the Senate side. It's still a best of three. In Nevada, Senator Catherine Cortes Mastow trailing Republican Adam Laxalt by about nine thousand

votes about one percent. Democrats that were optimistic about the mail in balance yet to be counted, and Senator Mark Kelly in Arizona is leading Blake Masters still by about five percentage points, and it sounds like they're counting through the weekend. Carry Lake, the Republican candidate for governor in Arizona who's trailing Democrat Katie Hobbs, is accusing the state of purposefully slow rolling the count something that she's been

claiming since actually before election night. This was her own election. I listened, if we have to fight through the bs and the garbage, then we will fight through the bs and the garbage. But how do you get fair and free elections? You have to fight and win to make them fair and free. And we needed another stark reminder that we have incompetent people running the show in Arizona. Well you know, officials Amercopa County disagree as you might.

Well imagine, here's Bill Gates, remember he was with us a couple of days ago, the county supervisor who was here on sound on today, reacting to carry Lake. Listen, it is offensive for Carrie Lake to say that these people behind me are slow rolling this when they're working fourteen to eighteen hours. So I really hope this is the end of that. Now we can be patient and respect the results when they come out, and so the

count will continue into the weekend. The outcome of these two again will determine whether Georgia is the tiebreaker when the runoff between Senator Warnock and herschel Walker happens on

December six. And we spoke one week ago, right at this time about what was about to happen in these mid term elections, in a fascinating conversation with Major Garrett, the CBS News Chief Washington correspondent, author of the book The Big Truth, and we wanted to bring him back exactly one week later because of his unique perspective on the stakes in this cycle, and because he's a connoisseur of Kentucky bourbon. Major, welcome back. That's great to be

with you. When we spoke last week, did you think the House would still be up in the year on Friday? I thought it was possible, But like many reporters who were talking to Republicans very closely watching the House races and the underlying polling data and Democrats who are doing the same, it felt as if there would be more

Republican victory sooner on election night than manifested. We're all looking at Virginia and Rhode Island and Connecticut and Indiana's first congressional districts early bellweathers, and by about nine thirty on election night, those were coming back either as toss ups or lean Democrats. In many cases the Republicans only one one of three races they targeted in Virginia didn't win, the one in Rhode Island didn't win, Indiana didn't win anything.

They had circled the map on in Pennsylvania, and so it became clear that this was if there was going to be a Republican resurgence or enough to get a majority, it would probably have to happen out west, and my co author David Becker dead too many outlets, including CBS, we may not know for days upon days upon days, because California votes counts its votes slowly, and typically that doesn't matter because margins are so wide, they're well, they're

close in several house races. Those races are still awaiting verdicts, and that's why we don't have a House majority yet. And they've got a good half a million votes or something that count in California's So here's the way here's the way CBS News calculated. Some networks and cables have

projections up. We don't. What we do is we describe where we think the floor for both parties in the houses, and we believe the floor currently for the Republicans in the House is to thirteen and the floor for Democrats is two oh six. We don't offer projection numbers then say plus or minus off that we think that's too confusing. We believe the floor are for Democrats too oh six, the floor for Republicans to thirteen. Meeting Republicans are closer

to that magic number of two eighteens. They sure are in the Senate. We talked a lot last week about the fact that democracy was on the ballot, the fact that we could have states stacked with people who deny the results of election. It didn't happen quite that way. I know a lot of things are still up in the air in Arizona and things could still happen, but there seemed to be largely a rejection to that type of rhetoric. And what's really been turned into a narrative

that it was a bad night for Donald Trump. But we're people saying no to the phenomenon that you and I were talking about. They were and look our book. The big truth wasn't on the ballot in any respect. But what we argue in the book, and it's really not an argument, it's a celebration first of all of election administrators and pull workers around our country and pull observers who do this work every election and do it

better than any other country on the planet. Celebration of that end, a complete declaration of the facts of the election and how we can believe in election results going forward. All of that was vindicated on Tuesday night because all the procedures worked and the results are believed, and many Republicans who were once playing with the notion of denialism conceded exactly what they should do in America. You try

your best, and if you lose, you concede. And we began to see that there really is a noticeable vote her rejection in many places, under lots of different circumstances of the idea that denialism is a believable thing. It's not. And not only that for Republicans, I would say this to this entire party. It's destructive. If you have a candidate who tells swing voters you might be conspirators in

a crime against democracy, and it's not true. You know what they're gonna do, They're not going to vote for you. And that played out over and over and over again. What a scenario imagine if you're down at the MGM at National Harbor later tonight, major, what do the odds look like for for Democrats keeping the House? Is that even a conversation we have with a straight face. Yes, you can have a plausibly, but look, the trajectories do favor Republicans and probably at the two to twenty maybe

twenty two margin. More important fact there is, and look, whoever controls the House has supervision of the purse strings in our federal government and the taxation. That's a constitutional prerogative of the House majority. But House majorities matter in their ability to enforce their will. The House, not elect. The Senate is a majoritarian body. Well, when you only have three or four or five votes to give, every vote then becomes dramatic because if you have anyone walk

off the reservation and trust me. In the House Republican conference, there are a lot of people who have already anounced they want to walk off the reservation. If Kevin McCarthy doesn't please them as the presumptive speaker, their problems only begin to multiply and become more visible once they crossed that to eight team threshold. This is a be careful what you ask for a situation for Kevin McCarthy, right.

I mean, either he gets the gavel and has an incredibly slim majority, maybe even less than Nancy Pelosi had, or uh, you know, the Caesar games begin here, and we were already hearing about several different challenges to his authority in the Republican Party in the House. They're also challenging leadership in the Senate right now. But is this is this a good week or a bad one for Kevin McCarthy. I think it's a very complicated week for him,

far more complicated than he imagined. Look, he raised a ton of money, traveled all over the country. He gave a lot of assurances to Trumpian House Republicans that they would get their way and get prominent positions, did all the things you have to do to nail down your speakership. But already today, Jason Miller, an adviser to former President Trump, said, unless Kevin McCarthy declares right now that he supports Trump in four, shouldn't be speaker. That's a shot across the bell.

What what possible role should that play in deciding who the next Speaker of the House is Well in a Trumpian world, apparently a lot. When you look ahead to a Trumpian world, potentially in twenty four and you see the media, the conservative media assault on him, from the Murdoch media, you see Donald Trump lashing out at Glenn Yuncan do you think he actually announces next week? Every indication I've gotten, and my colleague Robert Costa has gotten,

is that Tuesday is not an exploratory thing. It's not a dipatone in the war. He's already got a committee. There's nothing he needs to explore. It's a full on declaration that he's running. And then does that clear the field or are we in a different world? Does not know it does not talk about split screen political programming. At the very same time or near the same time, Trump will be making an announcement if all goes on

schedule at marl Lago. Rhonda Santists will be just north of West Palm Beach in Orlando, and of an event with the Republican Governor's Association, and I guarantee you this, they'll be more big party donors listening to Ron Santis and watching Donald Trump on television. Wow, that's a lot to think about. Major, thank you for coming back to check in with us. It's a it's a pleasure to

compare notes. Major Garrett is the CBS Chief Washington correspondent, and the book is called The Big Truth, Upholding Democracy in the Age of the Big Lie, and now that we're through the midterms, it's actually even more relevant. I would suggest our panel is with us for the rest of the hour. This is a great opportunity to walk through everything that's happened the past twenty four hours. I'm gonna bring you sounds from all over the country since

we last spoke. Some of it will concern you. Some of it, as ever, is amusing because we are talking about politics after all. But we're walking into a weekend with a lot of uncertainty here. Some races could be called likely. The big ones are gonna last until next week. As we discussed with Rick Davis and Jeannie Chanzino, coming up our signature panel right here where you would expect on the fastest hour in polite six. I'm Joe Matthew and Washington. Stay with us, will check traffic markets on

the way. Can you believe it's Friday. It seems like it's been two weeks in one here. Stay with us. This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg. You sound on with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio. Carrie Lake is not at the moment at least winning the race for governor in Arizona. She's trailing by just a little bit here,

trailing Democrat Katie Hobbs. But the narrative remains the same, well ever since election day, that they're slow rolling the count, that ballots were being put in boxes and brought to different places, that the tabulators were not working. And Bill Gates, the the supervisor of the county, Maricopa County, forgive me, he was with us a couple of days ago here on Bloomberg Sound On. It's just asking everybody to bring

it down to not listen. I'm concerned about getting this count done, and that's what everyone in this building is concerned about. Everybody needs to calm down a little bit and turn the rhetoric. Count. Yeah, he's telling reporters they're going to be counting for the weekend. So that's not just the Kerry Lake race, that's the Senate race as well, Mark Kelly, who's up by about five percentage points five and a half percentage points here in Democrats feel pretty

good about it. Let's assemble the panel and start the conversation right there with Rick Davis and Gen Chanzano, Bloomberg Politics contributors. Rick, you've been pretty consistent about this. You didn't expect to call in Arizona last night, You don't expect one tonight. How long are we looking? Probably through the weekend. Um, this is not unusual. This is pretty

much how Arizona counts ballots. And uh, you know, Mark Cope is one of the largest counties in America, so it's it's a lot of ballots account and and they get a lot of criticism, but they do a pretty thorough job. Remember when they were protested and investigations occurred in turned out that, you know, the account was incredibly accurate. So, uh, if you want it right, you gotta do it right. And I think you know that's exactly what they're doing.

So you know, they've got three more ballots account it'll take through the weekend and probably in a Monday, and that gives carry like plenty of opportunity to spread some pretty wild conspiracy theories. Uh here, Jeanie, are we at the point of of of danger when when someone like Bill Gates comes out to brief reporters and asking Carry Lake to call off the dogs, remembering the environment we were in with people stalking drop off boxes ballot boxes

in the days leading up to this. That's right, and she is helped in this effort by Donald Trump, who has been out saying similar types of things. But the reality is is the way in which they count the ballots, as Rick just talked about, is long been known. They have said how long it was going to take. It may not be the way everybody wants it. We may have wanted the results on election night, but that's simply

not the way they do business out in Arizona. And Kelly had a lead when the Maricopa County ballots came out last night, but by about so we extended his lead overall about six percent versus Masters. You know, we don't know how it's going to turn out, but there's going to continue to be updates and they think they're not going to really finish counting until after the weekend, so everybody has just got to hold their fire. But of course that doesn't work politically for somebody like carry Lake,

so she certainly won't. Looking at Nevada, it's it's kind of a similar situation here, Rick, where you've got a race that is, you know, not they're not able to call it, but Democrats feel pretty good about it. Over a hundred thousand at last. I heard ballots that that had to be counted. Still many of the mail in from urban areas, and so they feel like they might

be able to close this deal. Could you see a world in which Arizona Nevada both go Democrat in the next Arizona The trajectory in the Senate is already pretty much baked, right, It had something extraordinary would have to happen for Kelly to lose that race. So when you look at Laxalt being up by what less than nine thousand, nine thousand votes, and you know, with over a hundred thousand left and and trending towards the Democrats, I mean, it's a slippery slope. Uh. And there's no question that

Cortis Masto could get there. But again, this is gonna be you know, like somebody wins by fifteen thousand votes or ten thousand votes, and and so sure, and I'll probably go to a recount. Will be still be talking about this by the end of next week. But at the end of the day, I think Democrats are right.

I mean, the trend is with them. Accounting takes a while, and at the end, if I were a betting man, I would have to say that courtis mast overtakes Laxault by a few thousand votes, you know, by by Monday or Tuesday. Interesting challenge to the leadership in the Senate. Everyone's been talking about Kevin McCarthy and I see it. Punch Bowl got a copy of a letter from Senators Rick Scott, Ron Johnson, Mike Lee calling for a delay

in the leadership election. Dear colleagues were all disappointed their red wave failed to materialize, and there are multiple reasons it did not. It says we need to have serious discussions within our conference as to why and what can be done to improve our chances in Uh, does Mitch McConnell have something to worry about? Rick? You know, look, I mean this was a bad year and and he's in leadership, so yeah, sure. And Rick Scott, well, you know,

probably not. I think the there's a lot more insulation in the Senate than there is in the House when it comes to like, you know, influenced by people like Donald Trump and trying to move leadership. Um. But look, I mean there are people like Rick Scott who had been saying all along that you know, he wanted to see a leadership change. What's interesting is no real um uh leadership types are calling for a change. So my guess is this is the fringe um commit sing uh

and it won't amount much more to that. Uh. And look, I mean nobody said it more than Mitch McConnell. If you'd had better cast of characters to run this cycle, he might have had a better cushion of victory. Jennie, I see you over there are Democrat canalysts sort of smiling through this whole conversation, even though we're not in

the same room. But uh, is this not the like the best thing that could have happened to Democrats here they're sort of not losing a huge number of seats, but hand the majority over to Republicans so they can take the blame for things that happened over the next two years and then set up Joe Biden and Biden

or whomever for a re election. The idea that the Democrats could impossibly we don't know yet, not lose a single Senate seat in this election cycle, you know, or maybe just lose one or two is a stunning development. So yeah, Democrats have to be careful, but they're smirking

a little bit. And even if they lose the Senate, it's it's not as bad because they still have the filibuster and of course that allows Joe Biden to have a smoother pathway if he decides to run in twenty four to say, you know, I I couldn't work with the Republicans in the Senate. So it's it's positive all around for Democrats. Blaming goes with the gavel. We'll continue our conversation and looked at Georgia next with the panel. This is Bloomberg. Thanks for being with us on Bloomberg

Sound On. I'm Joe Matthew in Washington. As we wait for December six, we just don't know if it's going to be the vote that decides control of the Senate or potentially a little extra gravy for somebody here. Another vote, another seat wouldn't hurt if you want to get something done, particularly if you're trying to keep up with the other chamber. Raphael Warnock, boy, imagine this being told you've got another

month of this. You can feel it listening to him today, the senator from Georgia here he is, Are you all ready to fight? Are you ready to get this done? I need you to show up and vote because the vote is a kind of prayer for the world we desire, for ourselves and for our children's resell the panel, Rick Davis and Genie Schanzano, Bloomberg Politics contributors. Jennie, this is, you know, hitting the reset button like this is tough. They've just lived through a grueling number of weeks here

on the campaign trail. Have the final arguments been made or do you still have to be out there campaigning every day in this environment when it's just one race. They're going to be out there campaigning, you know, And obviously Warnock just did this last time around. He's going to have to do it again, you know. Thankfully for him, it's not the two months that they had last time. They have shortened the window here because it was January last time. This is now December. But it's kind of

ruined his Thanksgiving for sure. And he is going to be happy out there fighting as his walker for every vote. And there's gonna be a lot of money spent, but of course it's going to depend a lot on Arizona, Nevada, how much the party's invest We certainly got Lindsay Graham at his back here. My goodness, uh Graham on Fox last night he was talking to Sean Hannity about this, became emotional and then it became a meme. But he's been in Georgia a lot stumping for herschel Walker, certainly

before of midterm elections. That apparently he's gonna be hanging around a while. And he's been hitting a similar note here, which doesn't frankly sit well with everybody. Listen to Senator Lindsey Graham. If herschel wins, he's gonna inspire people all over Georgia of color to become Republicans, and I say all over the United States. Herschel Walker is a nightmare for liberals. He's an African American conservative. They have belittled him. They have treated him like crap. His family stand by

Herschel tonight. If you can give, give, if you know somebody that can give, ask him to do it. Is he emotionally involved in this rick? You know, he gets emotional. We've seen him, you know in Supreme Court, Uh, confirmation hearings, get emotional. Uh. He's passionate about politics. He does believe this stuff. I mean a lot of people think he's you know, sort of contrived, but this is Yeah, this is Lindsay Graham. He gets himself in the middle of

these things and gets very excited. Uh. We certainly had the benefit of all his excitement, you know, when John mcamb's running for president. But the bottom line on it is is, I mean, like you know, he's got a hard job, and that is to find a way to get Republicans to go out again after these big races just this last week and and cast another ballot at which point when there's nothing else at stake but Herschel Walker And arguably Herschel has done a good job of

mobilizing that base. But how much of that was from Governor Kemp and the extraordinary election victory he got, and how many hotels he had that helped herschel Walker. So unfortunately for Lindsay, it's all about herschel now. And I can see why Lindsay wants to try and make it exciting for people, because up until this point in time, I think a lot of Republicans descritch and head going

where did this guy come from? Well, you know, Lindsay Graham has been getting a lot of talk on social media since that appearance and frankly since his prior appearances just just before uh the elections, Genie and and you know, look, some are asking, is he aware that there's another black candidate in this race, that there's a black reverend on

the other side of this conversation? Yeah, that's right, you know, the way the way he makes it sound in that clip from Sean Hannity, he has no idea about that, but of course I don't know. It's kind of misleading, it is, And of course I think what he would

probably say is he's talking about African American conservatives. Um, I think he would stress that he sounds, you know, sort of a trying like he's trying to be a reverend himself out there, very emotional and sort of calling people to arms, but to Rick's point, the question is is it going to be enough? You know, will people in Georgia get out? And I would say the same thing for Warnock. Democrats have to be very careful here.

Sometimes the enemy is when your party does better than expected and people say, hey, we had a good time, why do we have to go out again? So they're really going to have to make the case on both sides to get the base out again. It's asking a lot of voters in Georgia. And to be fair, he did say conservative. I don't misleading is not the right word. Maybe tone deaf, Rick, I don't know some of the

criticism that Lindsey grahams geting on Twitter. Uh that that he's he's simply not framing this appropriately with regard to having a so called black conservative on the ballot. Yeah, look, he's being blunt. And that's not the first time Lindsay Graham was ever blunt. Uh. Look, I mean he he

shares uh duties in South Carolina with Tim Scott. You know, a conservative African American who has done incredibly well and is this inspiration to many African Americans who want to be a Republican and want to know whether or not, they'll be welcome. So he's seen firsthand how how much that can benefit a party in South Carolina like it has. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with saying, you know that if if herschel Walker can get elected, um, you know,

he will be an inspiration to African American conservatives. The problem. The problem is you want herschel Walker to be an inspirational person before you say that you're going to do it because he's an African American. Scott is an inspirational person and he just happens to be freaking American. Well, it's really very well put, Rick, and that's why I had to throw this at you guys. I don't know what the next leg is in this race, but there's

a lot of opo on both sides. Jennie, what are we gonna learn about Raphael Warnock or you know from here, guy can't even imagine herschel Walker. I know that the idea that there can be more to come. We've heard enough already. You know, we don't want to hear more, but we absolutely might. And you know, Democrats response to what Lindsay Graham is saying is they don't oppose herschel

Walker because of his race. Obviously, they oppose his conservative values, his ideals, and the fact that he doesn't have the character in their mind to serve as Senate. So there is a response for them to make. But I do fear that with all of the dirt out there on Walker, and we know there is some potentially on Warnock, this may get vicious, particularly again if the Senate comes down to Georgia, which we may not know till early next week.

You keep something in your pocket for times like this. Rick, Yeah, rabbit's foot. We'll see. They stay with us the best panel in the business, Rick and Genie on Bloomberg Sound On, as we turned to Donald Trump's war against his own party. I'm Joe Matthew and Washington. This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg Sound On with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio. The headline on the terminal De Santis blowout, Biden's lifts

stir Trump fury ahead of twenty four. Mark Niquette and Jordan Fabian share the byline for Bloomberg and boy, this has been something to watch. We talked last night about the Trumpty Dumpty bit and the back and forth with the Murdoch media. But boy, Donald Trump was just in firing mode and still is late last night, early this morning now aiming at Glenn Yuncan of all people, I mean, I could just point and click here and pick any

number of folks he's calling out, but this Glenn young Can. Uh. Well, I won't call it a tweet, it's a truth. Right. It's pretty remarkable remembering this is where Donald Trump was the day before I believe the elections. He spoke with News Nation just to sort of set the baseline for everything that was about to happen. Listen, Well, I think if they win, I should get all the credit, and if they lose, I should not be blamed at all. Okay, but it'll probably be just the opposite. When they went

I think they're gonna do very well. I'll probably be given very little credit. Now. So of course he went on this wild salvo one after the other against Rhonda Santis right around the time we were coming off the are yesterday. So, like I said, last evening into this morning, after he talked about the day that Rhondda Santis came

to him a shambles and revived his political career. He now takes aim at the other Republican who could be king or so we here Glenn Yuncan, of course right he He wrote the recipe in Virginia with Donald Trump's support, but not appearing with Donald Trump. Donald J. Trump writes young Kin in parentheses. Now that's an interesting take. Sounds Chinese, doesn't it? Young Kin in Virginia couldn't have one without me.

I endorsed him to the very big Trump rally for him, telephonically, got Maggot a vote for him, or he couldn't have come close to winning. But he knows that, admits it, besides having a hard time with DEM's in Virginia. But he'll get it done. We actually heard from Glenn Yunkin today. I didn't know if he'd respond to this, but you know, sometimes you have no choice. Reporters were surrounding him at an unrelated event. Glenn Uncan, in reaction to being called

young Kin sounds Chinese, doesn't it? From Donald Trump? Here? He is. First of all, I didn't see it, and I have to I have to be honest. I've been busy all morning. Um listen, I you you know me. I do. I do not call people names. I really work hard to bring people together, and that's what we're working. Only well, I'm saying, and I just that's not the way I roll and not the way I behave, and and I think again, this is a moment for us

to come together. Uh so that's not the way I roll, but says he didn't see it, which is pretty amazing because it's certainly made the rounds. Let's reassemble the panel, Rick Davis and Jeanie Schanzano or here Bloomberg Politics contributors. Uh, we don't know what's going to happen, Rick, with the election, is that the best move for glenn yncan to just

stay a hundred miles away from this? So are you telling me he's not following Trump on true social I mean his own that's a violation of decorum amongst Republicans, I mean around mon Governor young ken Um. Look, I mean, you know he wants to avoid Donald Trump. He did a really good job avoiding him during his own campaign. I mean to the point where you made is everyone was thinking, hey, maybe this is the model. You just

don't have him come your state. Uh. There're probably a lot of people, including you know, mement Oz and others who wish they'd followed a similar pattern. Uh, you know, it's interesting to see how so many people, literally within the same week of the election are trying to run for the back door within this Republican Party dominated by

Donald Trump. I mean, you know, it's it's it's it's almost like the entire future of the Republican Party has gone into reverse, where being a part of the Trump operation is now all of a sudden, somehow a bad thing for you to be if you're in the Republican Party. And we've seen this before in previous elections, but uh, it's it's taken an extra cycle to have it come around to Donald Trump. I don't know if you saw the shot against RHN de Santis or Glen you can here, Genie,

I'm assuming you've seen both. But is he just trying to scare people away potentially days before he announces his run, or is he really starting to feel like he might not be the guy anymore? You know, i'mlike Governor, you can I do follow truth social so I do you know for you Joe Matthew, Yeah, so you don't have to. So you know, he is playing the old Trump playbook of trying to clear the field before he announces. Um, he did it before in twenties fifteen, he's trying to

do it again. You know who I feel sorry is for here is Tiffany Trump. Imagine that she is going down to mar Lago for her wedding and her father is literally out of control, angry down there. You wouldn't want to be Tiffany Trump. They may have to have an intervention at this point. And let's not forget when he announces. You know you were talking to Major Garrett. Looks like that announcements going forward. Apparently all kinds of

invites have gone out for that. You know. At the same time, the Republican Governor's Association is meeting, and that's where all the power in the party is. So the fascinating juxtaposition of those two things, with the sanctimonious and young Kin and all of these people there who have real power, and him, you know, in Mara Lago announcing he's going to do this again. It's quite going to

be quite a blitz screen. Although we probably won't get into the Republican Governor's Association because I think that's going to be private. Trump writes, Ron came to me in desperate shape. In seventeen, he was politically dead, losing in a landslide to a very good add commissioner at H. Putnam who was loaded up with cash and great poll numbers.

That's the kind of stuff we used to hear. But then he starts to invoke the FBI rick and suggests that he may have somehow rigged the election for Rhonda Santis. Is that what we're to believe? That's certainly the way I took it, that he instructed the Justice Department to go down there and like, you know, stop counting ballots because you know the Santis was gonna lose if they kept counting ballots, and and you know, look, you can't. This is what's so ironic. He's it's just like when

he was on Twitter. We follow this stuff. We can't help ourselves. It's like driving, you know, past a wreck. You gotta look and and and the man's just nothing but a big train wreck. Look, there's no indication, And I think the Just Department even said that there's no indication that we had anybody go down there, at least former Justice Department people. And I think that the other guys have too much to do investigating Donald Trump right

now to actually respond to these things. But the bottom line is, um, you know, we can't really look backwards all the time and see Donald Trump in the rear view mirror, right. I mean, like he's got to do something that actually makes him relevant to the future. And so far he spent two years talking about the pass. If he's going to continue to talk about the pass, this is the wind is gonna blow and he will not be on the other side of the fence. Boy.

And so therefore, Rhonda Santis and Glenn Young, can you just keep plowing forward, don't look left for right, keep your hands on the wheel, and don't react to him, right, Jeannie, Yeah, that that's what they're going to try to do. But let's not forget people tried this before, you know, and it didn't work so well. And that's what Donald Trump is banking on. And the reality is is that this is really up to Republican voters. It's not necessarily up

to the powers that be. They have tried to distance themselves from Trump. They have tried to do what Rick said, you know, in urge people to look forward. It's up to Republican voters. If they stick with him, he can really really make a mess out of this primary as they move into twenty four and that is going to be something that Democrats have the ability to look sit back and watch as they, you know, beat each other up. And that's a pretty good position for Democrats to be in.

So are we believing this as a real announcement next week Rick that he's not gonna, you know, kind of duck out on the hurricane or do anything that Republicans are urging him to do, which is not announced until after the runoff in Georgia. Well, the lesson we've learned with him and you can't really believe anything he does or says until he actually does it or says it. So, Um, he's teased this out for months. Um, we thought it would maybe this summer. We thought it might be the

night before the election. I mean, there's all these kind of scenarios. So I wouldn't put it past him on Tuesday to like break a toe nail and claim he's got to go to the emergency room. I can't do the announcement, I would say the real actions Jean, he says, is in Orlando with the Republican governors member. These guys all banded together to help out people like Kemp in Florida or in Georgia when Donald Trump was going after him. They like their own They're very powerful. They are going

to be the future of this party. I guarantee. Part of the conversation you're having is what do we do with Donald Trump? Uh in an effort to try and win a national election coming up in two years. That's something else the Democrats, UH have to worry about that conversation, Jeanie. Or should they worry about themselves for the next two years? They should worry about themselves for the next two years. You know, you take Donald Trump out of the equation.

Republicans have some really strong governors in place, and we saw it Tuesday night. Everybody from Kemp to Abbott, to the Santis to the Wine who we don't talk about enough and and Sonon knew who who you know it does a masterful job in New Hampshire. So Democrats have to worry about themselves. And I think that one of the things we saw on Tuesday night, at least in my mind, was that, you know, Biden does get the credit for what happened, UH, because he is the president.

But it was more of a rejection of extremism, and it wasn't necessarily an embrace of democrats. So they're going to have to continue to focus on addressing people's real problems, starting with the economy and inflation. Rick and Jeannie, you guys have been incredible this week and I can't thank you enough here on Bloomberg Sound on on Balance of Power, all of the political programs, including our election like coverage.

I just can't imagine spending it with anyone else. On this Veteran's Day, we leave you with sounds from Arlington National Cemetery. It was a rainy morning here when everyone gathered at the tomb of the Unknown, and we do thank everyone who served this country on this Veteran's Day. We'll see you back here next week. I'm Joe Matthew. This is Bloomberg. M H what what sh