Sound On: Truss Resigns, Biden Stumps for Fetterman

fox hole, I want John federman Ino with it. Is the normal election time, Doggan County Show, Bloomberg Sound On with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio. Another prime minister resigns. Welcome to the fastest hour in politics and one of the fastest turns in politics today in London. Yeah, Liz Trust is out and a new search begins with some familiar names already in the mix helping us understand the chaos today. Bloomberg Senior Executive editor Dave Merritt with us

in Washington. Later, the President hits the campaign trail in battleground Pennsylvania, where the Senate race is too close to call. Right now, we'll talk about it with Jacob Rabashkan from Inside Elections and with our panel. Bloomberg Politics contributor Democratic analyst Jeanie Schanzano is here today along with Lester Monthson of b g R Group, there with us for the hour. It's already over for Liz Trust's announcing her decision to quit,

only forty four days into her tenure. We woke up today hearing that this could happen as a possible people didn't really think it would be, and by eight thirty a m. Eastern time, she spoke live from Number ten downing I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party. I have therefore spoken to His Majesty the King to notify him that I am resigning as leader of the Conservative Party. Short and sweet turned and went back inside. And of all days here

we're fortunate to have a real expert from Bloomberg. Gave Merritt, Bloomberg Senior executive editor, was in Washington when the news broke, and we're delighted to have them with us now on sound on. Dave, Welcome, Thank you so much for having me. You know, I'm going to have a couple of dumb questions for you here because in many cases Americans don't know what to make of this. Not alone, we're struggling to know what to make of it. That's fine, but

I mean, forty what is it? Forty four days? Forty four days? It's a record? How is it possible? By quite a long way? As well? I mean it's been a little bit like time has sped up. In the last few weeks. We had this very protracted leadership contest that lost it all over the summer, and we heard Richie Sunac and this Trust debate the economic issues, two very competing views. Liz Trust going from massive tax cuts to try to stimulate growth, Richie Soon saying you can't

do that, it's going to set interest rate surging. We've got to get inflation under control. Well, Liz Trust one that argument with the constituents of the Conservative part to put in place her tax cuts or announced them. And what happened it was exactly what she soon said, interest rates surge, bond market went into term or the Bank of England had to step in um and rescue Britain's

pensions industry. And at that point, really her credibility was shredded and it became very clear from that point it's gonna be very difficult for her to continue once that the U turn happened, if I can call it. Then she started pulling back on these plans. Was it over? Yeah, I mean I think it was the I think it was the mother of all U turns. She gave a press conference after sacking her chancellor, Quasi Quarteng, who, by

the way, was one of her oldest political allies. They wrote a book together years back called Britannia Unchained, where they laid out this vision for a low tax, high growth Britain. So this really was their kind of lifelong work, very much in partnership. She sacked him, replaced him with Jeremy Hunt, who shredded all of her agenda, and then she stood up. She gave a very bizarre press conference. I think it was only about eight minutes long. Didn't

take any questions. I mean, she looked like someone frankly, he was hollowed out from the inside. She was a husk, a shell of her former self, someone whose entire vision had just been dismantled in front of her eyes. She carried on at that point, said she was going to carry on, but I think it was clear to most observers that it was only going to be a matter of time before she had to step down as Prime Minister.

It was less than twenty four hours before her resignation, and you know, this was the cut that went viral. I am not a quitter, Mrs Baker. I am a fighter and not a Did she know at that point that it was over? You know, It's an interesting thing about leaders isn't it. And I think we saw this with Boris Johnson as well, that they seemed to be the last person to acknowledge that really, you know, times up is that they're eagle or the bubble they're in,

or the bubble they're in. It's possibly that to do with the personalities involved. I mean, let's trust has got of notoriously, she's got a very sort of thick political skin. You know, she has had lots of personal criticism thrown at her over the years, lots of kind of memes about her rather wooden presentation staff, and she kind of spun that around in the leadership contest. She said, you know, I'm not the slickest presenter, is the way she kind of spun it. But then when this sort of big

moment came. She was then found wanting and yes she she hold herself up in the bunker a little bit in number ten. Not for as long. I mean, Johnson lasted, the speculations swirling him lasted weeks really before he finally stepped out and decided to leave. The same thing happened to Theresa May. I mean, you know, this is the third prime minister in a road at the Conservative Party has jettisoned without there being an election, and each one seems to get a little bit more careful than the last.

And they're promising a successor by October. What's going to happen in the next I mean, the last time they told us it was gonna they're gonna have a fair process, it was going to take um several months, a couple of days later a week, And now it turns out you can do it in a week. It might even be shorter than that, Joe, Because really, what the Conservative Party wanted at this point um is for everyone to

coalesce around someone who can bring stability. Now, if you remember, or maybe people don't remember, but when David Cameron resigned after the Brexit referendum in twenties sixteen, there was a leadership contest, but in the end it didn't get to the final stage because all the other candidates dropped down. Everyone in the party sort of rallied behind Theresa May,

and you know, initially that worked. That kind of that gave a sense of the public that a bit of stability was was back, that the party was united, and that maybe this rather traumatic result of this Brexit reference bit of a shock to half the country, um was it was all going to be okay because Theresa was going to kind of steady the ship. They're kind of hoping, i think against hope for a similar effect now, like, yes,

this has been a rocky time. I mean most people say the rockiest of all the last few days that they've ever witnessed in Westminster. But perhaps if they can all just come together and agree on one person, we might even know the name of that person. But by the beginning next week it's a big ift, though it's a big if because the party is really at each other's throats. What are the ads that name is Boris Well,

you know, it's remarkable, isn't it become back? It is being reported, not confirmed at this point, but it is being reported. Maybe we'll hear from him soon. He's apparently, by the way, on holiday in the Caribbean. So I learned from you this morning exactly learning about this, but it will be Apparently he's he's cutting short his holiday

coming back to London. Um. It's been reported quite a few, quite a few times in the recent weeks that he has been eyeing a comeback, you know, watching from the wings silently the missteps of his successor. I'm thinking, well, you know, maybe there's a space to me to come back. He always felt aggrieved by the way he was turfed out of office, and he thinks, you know, this is he's good at the job. And it's interesting actually, if you compare the resignation speeches of Boris Johnson to Liz Trust.

Boris turned it into a bit of a hut, as he always does, used a bit of humor, had a few kind of choice terms of phrase. Let me say that I am now like one of those booster rockets that is fulfilled its function, and I will now be gently re entering the atmosphere and splashing down invisibly in some remote and obscure corner of the Pacific. There were some rice smiles and people thinking, oh, well, you know

he's still got the gift of the gud there. You know, he's got the way with the words very different thirty seconds just you know, icily reading out the words in front of her um and then retreating it was there was no emotion there, Theresa May if you remember, um, you know, welld up was over common emotion when she did, and then Boris turned it into a bit of a joke. But let's trust nothing really going on. So in those big moments, Boris Johnson will be thinking, you know, there's

a space for me to come back here. Now he's to have a mountain to climb. Well, yeah, how does he consolidates enough support to make this happen? Yeah, and it's gonna be what is it missed me yet? So the rules that they've just announced, and you know Tory Party, you know they've got this great ability to make up the rules as they go along. But the latest rules that they have agreed on or announced is that they're going to try and whittle down over the weekend the

final candidates. But any candidate needs a hundred MPs to back them. That means you've got a maximum shortlist of three. So it may well be a challenge for him. I think, you know, people are crunching the numbers furiously as I speak. A couple of MPs, some of Johnson's former cabinet have come out and said he's the man for the moment, so he will get some votes. Can he get over a hundred? I think it's going to be challenging for him. But we can still have this conversation with a straight face.

This is nice, we can have it. Only he's dreaming about. This is not beyond the realms of fantasy that he actually gets it onto the final ballot. And if it does go to the members, we know for a fact this is a fact. If it if he gets down to a canvassing of the members between say Richie's soon at Kim Johnson, Boris Johnson will probably win that vote and he'll be back in Downing Street within a week. You just unbelievable. You just heard it from Dave Merritt.

Now what does that mean for all this trust? What does she do now? Well, she still remains an You know, this is the British system, it's a parliamentary system. This is why Johnson can make a comeback, because he didn't leave politics. He went back to what we call the backbenches, so he became an ordinary constituency MP. Liz Trust will

do the same. UM. I don't resign though she's still I mean some it depends some some prim treason may never It is still a constituency MP, and she serves a role she's always been had that kind of public service Americans, you know, you know, but not all the Tony Blair did. And Tony Blair was gone I think pretty much after he stepped down UM and went into one of the things, and there was then I think of by election in his place. I think David Cameron

also Gordon Brown sticks stuck around. As an MP said, it's sort of it's a it's an interesting reflection on the character of the prime minister where they sort of zoom off to do bigger things or whether they just sort of gently fade back into the background. Big kind of that was supposed to be the American plan, right. Thomas Jefferson said, you know, you move away from your career, you serve a term or two and then you go back. Yes,

public service, that's that's correct. Yeah, we don't do that here. We just stay forever if we if they if they can, but you know comebacks, I think you know we would be on the minds here shorty right. I mean if if if you get Boris back in Downing Street, what does that that empowered Donald trum So you know, are they going to get the band back together? What? What a thought? We've got a lot to cover in the months ahead, don't we? Absolutely? I mean, you know whatever. Next,

I'm delighted that you're here in Washington. Come see us again soon. I will absolutely thank you, sir. An historic day in politics and great to have Dave Merritt with us, our senior executive editor at Bloomberg. I'm Joe Matthew in Washington, where we assemble the panel. Next, I want to hear from Jeanie Chanzano, Bloomberg Politics contributor, and Lester Munson is with us today from b g R Group. You couldn't even outlast the Lettuce. This is Bloomberg. You're listening to

Bloomberg Sound On with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio. The economist called her the Iceberg Lady, and it was not a reference to the Titanic. They meant Liz Trust could not outlast, ahead of Iceberg Lettuce. That got everyone going online, to the point where the Daily Star newspaper launched a live cam, a live stream of their camera aimed at ahead of Lettuce. At least it was their version of one. It had eyes in a blonde wig. Huh. But yeah,

the Lettuce one. Let's assemble our panel today. Genie Chanzano is here Democratic Analysts and of course Bloomberg Politics contributor, joined by Leicster months and back with US principle at Government Relations Firm b g R Group, former staff to after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Great to have both of you with us here, Jeanie. I believe someone else put it differently. I think it was four point one

scaramuchis who would have thought forty four days? Who would have thought, you know, Joe, it's just the tip of the iceberg. Well done. Have to say thank you. I practiced that for you. Um, you know, it is stunning. I saw Scaramucci say that. Um, you know, it's been

quite a day. It's really head spinning. And I think one of the biggest challenges here, as you know, the Conservative Party attempts to go forward and you were just talking about that with David and how they've changed the you know, the rules so they can make this happen. Is they not only have the challenge of dealing with the economic crisis that they are in, but they also have a crisis in this Conservative Party. I mean, this

is a crisis that's deep. It is you know, what is the Conservative Party in Britain gonna look like post Brexit as she goes And it's pretty clear that this idea of a you know, small state, low taxation idea that was so attractive to the members of the party who wanted to support her and did in the last election, is no longer a viable way for the Conservative Party to go forward. So they've got quite a challenge on

their hand. And let's not forget they're dealing with post COVID of war in Ukraine and everything else they've got to deal with. My god, you know that. And we're now saying that the Premier maybe decided Monday. The headline maybe Monday as Tories set contest rules. Is that realistic lester things moved that quickly. Huh Well, and they just went through this exercise, uh, you know, for Scaramucci's ago.

So presumably the muscle memory is pretty good. Uh yeah, I I feel like the British We're looking at political chaos here in America and said, hold my beer, uh, watch what we can do. Um and they and they seem to have done a better job of being chaotic than we than we have done. That's saying a lot lester. Although I don't know when you step back from this, it's a pretty straight shot from Brexit to the chaos that we've been experiencing now, right, how did Brexit inform

Liz Trust's demise? Well, I think you're absolutely right. Uh, that was a dispositive event, a real uh inflection point. The Conservatives, the Tories, uh, in Great Britain became a different a different construct in the wake of Brexit, much more populist, much more kind of in ah, what we would call a Trumpian mold. It's a it's a different party than it used to be. And we see the schizophrenia. The old model is still there with the new model,

they're not sure which way to go. They're not totally compatible. We're seeing that in our own politics with the populist wing and the more establishment wing and a lot of name calling and things like that. In Great Britain that's manifest in these changes. It's hard to underscore the cultural influence of the United Kingdom. Uh And you know it's it's it's significant role in history, genie. But as you look at what's going on now, are we going to be able to call it, you know, a major world

economic power in a couple of years. You know, we're going to have to see going forward. And one of the you know, the most amazing things as we look at this from the United States perspective is that, you know, what happened to Liz trust and what she did arguably couldn't have taken place with the checks and balances we have here. So we don't often get to pat ourselves on the back or pat Madison on the back, but

these Madisonian checks really do well. There's a lot of chaos, as as Lester was just talking about, in both parties, but it's hard to make the kind of swift policy changes she tried to make over there. It simply could not have happened. And you know, in that case would have allowed her quite frankly, to stay in a lot longer. So you know, it is quite a difference between what we would see here and what they see there, and you know, whether they're going to be an economic power

house going forward. I suspect they will find their way back, but it may require a re examination of what conservativism is in Britain after Brexit. Leicester is a Boris Johnson comeback something that you're taking seriously right now? And if that really happened, Let's let's be hypothetical for a moment. We just go back to the policies that that he was overseeing. You know, I'm taking it seriously. The policies. I'm not sure we're the issue with with Bojo. I

think it was his behavior. Yeah, yeah, So if he comes back a more as a more sober prime minister, then I think he he'll be more successful. And then again, he wouldn't be Boris Jenny. That's right. You know, that's like an oxy moron to think of a sober Bojo. Would he be popular as a sober Bojo? I mean, I'm being serious, he may not be, you know, but the reality is is that his policies were fairly popular. It was the personal behavior that got him into some trouble.

And so but you know, is Boris Johnson going to change his ways, I seriously doubt it, you know, and I was amazed to hear David say he thinks that there's a real shot that Boris Johnson can come back. We know that he has been expressing real frustration that he was pushed out and did not want to resign obviously and wanted to find a path back. So amazing

he could find himself back there. At this point, President Biden had only nice things to say, very brief remarks as he was leaving the White House today for Pennsylvania. It was great working with you. Hardly knew you a great partner in the supporting of Ukraine with its war against Russia. We're gonna pick up on that, by the way,

the President today in Pennsylvania. Back on the trail. This is Bloomberg broadcasting live from our nation's capital, Bloomberg to New York, Bloomberg eleven, Frio to Boston, Bloomberg six one to San Francisco, Bloomberg nine six to the country, Sirius x M General one nine and around the globe of Bloomberg Business app then Bloomberg Radio dot Com. This is Bloomberg Sound On with Joe Matthew. Much as the names of President Biden's schedule, his lack of campaign travel in

the weeks before the mid terms. But he's back out today, flying to battleground Pennsylvania to help John Fetterman and what's one of the closest Senate races in the country. Will it make a difference to last Jacob Robashkan from Inside Elections.

President Biden back on the trail today. The one scheduled stop this week battleground Pennsylvania, as I mentioned, the place that he likes to call home, right Scranton, Pennsylvania, even though he lives in Delaware now a rare campaign stop to help John Fetterman, and and visited the site of the Fern Hollow Bridge in Pittsburgh as well as the bridge that collapsed January. You might remember that, you know, really became kind of a symbol of the nation's infrastructure deficit. Here.

President said his policies were focused on rebuilding the middle class. Uh. And sitting right there in the front row, look at that John Fetterman, the lieutenant governor, and he was wearing a suit today we're in a suit when he met the President at the airport. Here's Joe Biden, go very much for for running. I really do appreciate it. And Joel, you're gonna You're gonna be a great, a great lady in the center. Wasn't that worth all of the trouble?

All right, Let's bring in Jacob Robashkin, inside elections analyst with an eye on this contest. Jacob, we've really seen this one narrow and in a lot of other so called battleground states, you name it, Ohio, Georgia, they've kind of asked the president to stay away. How come Pennsylvania is different? Look, I think there are a couple of different factors that contribute to Biden making the trip here to Pennsylvania. First, of course, Biden carried the state in

the election. That's always helpful. Second, as you said, Um, you know, Biden has a particular affinity for Pennsylvania. It's it's the place where he was born, it's close to Delaware, and so I think that when he's deciding where he wants to go out on the trail, is probably ranks pretty highly. And then finally, what John Futterman needs to do right now is uh staunch any sort of momentum that dr Oz has picked up over the last couple

of weeks. And one of the places where he really has to lock down full and total supporters from Democrats in the state. Right, it's not just about winning over independence, but at the moment where we see Futterman lagging, for instance, Josh Shapiro, the Democratic nominee for governor, is that he doesn't have quite as much to the fort among Democrats. So bringing the president in as a surefire way to get Democrats excited and bring more attention to the race,

which is what Futterman needs. Thirty eight. Let's see, they've got Fetterman forty seven point seven to oz Is forty three point two. That, of course is an average of polls here. Uh, there's a very short amount of time left. Right, we've got less than three weeks. Are these numbers essentially what we have baked in going into election day? Well, I don't think that they're quite baked in yet. This is a race where we have seen some interesting movement.

Of course, Dr Oz began the general election in the thirties coming out of that bruising Republican primary against Dave McCormick, husband of DNA Powell mcgormick, the next head at the Robin Hood Foundation. Apparently um. And we've we've seen Oz pickup steam as he's consolidated Republican voters and now he's working on winning over independence as well, and so he is running a real campaign that is trying to use their head of steam over the last couple of weeks

to close that gap. I think Spedderman's job at the moment is prevent defense. He's got to hold on to that forty eight percent of the vote that he has right now and make sure that he can scoop up a little bit of undecided the voters that will need to get him to fifty or close to it. And if he's able to do that, he should be fine here. But ODS is clearly picking up steam and gaining on him in the closing weeks. It's been remarkable actually, the

progress he's made. By the way, the real clear poll of polls has UH a smaller gap, Fetterman up by two and a half um. Dr Oz put some real money into ads, negative ads framing Fetterman is soft on crime and suggesting that h that he might be a drug user. Donald Trump says he's you know, he's smoking pot and his mom's basement, and that they try to frame him with the hoodie and the whole thing is essentially not a serious person. Is that what actually helped

to narrow the numbers. I'm sure that is partially what it's about the specific messaging. I think more importantly is that Oz was running any sort of ads at all, because the things we saw over the summer was that after Oz and won that primary, he really went dark on TV, and Fetterman and his allies had free reign to define odds in a negative way and build up

Betterman and his own positive image across the state. And so really where we begin to see the narrowing of the races when OZ woke up started giving a little bit more money to his own campaign and running any sort of ads on TV, including the specific ones about Fetterman and crime. And I think, you know, the crime issue matters more perhaps when it comes to the larger questions about crime and what we've seen happen in Philadelphia, and less about the kind of specific attacks. You know,

Betterman has tattoos and things like that. Yeah, right, member of the crips. I think it was one of the interesting lines that I heard floated. Um, then there's the matter of his health of course, John Federman suffered a stroke. Uh and you know, look, he he took quite a bit of time off the trail. There were questions about that interview. He did use in clothes capturing, and some actually tried to make it a cause, saying this is,

you know, you're supporting a disabled American here. Has that actually been a factor in people's decisions or sort of a national sideline story? I mean, he was out with a medical report from his doctor yesterday. How important is that in this race? Look, it's always going to be important if voters think that you're capable or incapable of performing the job and responsibilities of a senator. I'm not so sure that this is a make or break issue

for Fetterman at the moment. I think there's there's evidence to suggest there's some skepticism from voters that they're getting the full story about his current health condition. But there's also evidence to suggest that voters do empathize with him because a lot of voters have people in their family or themselves who have gone through significant health challenges. Betterment has really leaned into that aspect. At his rallies these days, he asks everyone in the audience if you've ever had

a stroke, raise your hand. If you have a family member who's had a stroke or a serious health condition, raise your hand, and tries to turn that against us. I think it's notable that OZ isn't really using those lines in is paid advertising. It's much more Republicans uh it out in the media space who like to bring up Setterman's recovery from the stroke. Jacob, thanks for your insights,

Jacob Robashkan from Inside Elections. Perfect set up for our panel. Next, I want to get into this issue of the medical report. We haven't had a chance to talk about if the doctor says Fetterman spoke intelligently without cognitive deficits. He's still got a debate though, to prove that. Our panel is next. I'm Joe Matthew. This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg

Sound On with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio. That John Fetterman went to the doctor on October four, Dr Clifford Shen's office, and the doc wrote, and what has now been released publicly a medical report on the Lieutenant governor, the Democratic candidate nominee for Senate in Pennsylvania. That key quote continues to exhibit symptoms of an auditory processing disorder,

which can come across as hearing difficulty unquote. This is, of course, something that we talked about quite a bit when he sat for an interview I guess it was a week ago with NBC, and he had to use was captioning to to capture the questions properly, which is, you know, not unheard of. As he points out, most politicians use teleprompters when they're standing in front of people.

But he also was reaching for his words and correcting himself in some cases, struggling to kind of complete a thought. And so there are questions about his ability to perform in a televised debate, which is hard enough as it is, and of course those around doctor Oz and he's had to be very careful about this, particularly as a doctor.

While he might criticize Fetterman's eating habits following the whole crude detae uh situation, um, he's let other people kind of poke holes and in Fetterman and sort of asked the question is he fit for office? Let's reassemble the panel.

Jennie Schanzano is here, of course, Bloomberg Politics contributor Democratic analysts, and Lester Munson is with us today principle from b g R Group, former staff director in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and it it's worth knowing out that Lester was the chief of staff for Senator Mark Kirk who had a stroke when he was in the Senate and had to manage a situation that's very similar to the one we're in here. Lester is his campaign doing it right?

You know, I've been impressed by how Mr Fetterman has kind of soldiered on, taken on challenges, gone straight at this thing. It's clear, you know, he's working hard on his recovery and I truly wish him the best. Uh, And that makes a full recovery He's not. There are clearly some issues that he's still dealing with and working on, but he's out there and putting it before the voters.

And I say good for him. It doesn't mean I agree with his platform or that if I were in Pennsylvania would necessarily vote for him, but I admire his courage and his steadfastness. Well, look, that's awfully nice of you to say. I mean, you can take a couple of different paths here, obviously, right, Um, you can try to act like a tough guy and and act like nothing's wrong. And some people accused him of doing that, by the way, and not being completely transparent at the beginning.

Obviously we've learned a lot since then, and he's been talking openly about it a lot. It's part of his stump speech now. Uh, as we were just discussing with Jacob, or you can also open the door a little bit more, you know, Bob Casey was was a surrogate on his behalf Lester going on TV to say that, look, we have, uh, we have legislation in this country to protect people with disabilities like this. He's like a lot of Americans who are going to work with challenges like this. He's not alone.

That's why he's asking people to raise their hands, those who have had a stroke, who are who are in the crowd, who have you know, likely recovered. Um, is that the effective path? Uh? It's it's it's a it's tempting to go down that path. It's really and it's

fine to talk about that, but it's not enough. When Mark Kirk ran for re election in Illinois, the Chicago Tribune came out and endorsed his opponent it was now Senator Tammy Duckworth, because they said Mark Kirk couldn't totally fulfill his duties as a senator because of the consequences of the stroke. Uh So, I think we need to be hard eyed about what what being in the Senate means. It is a very difficult job. It requires all of

your faculties. If you really want to represent the people of your state, you need to be operating at a percent. I think that's I think it's fair to consider whether a candidate who does who may not be a dent, is going to be able to carry out those duties as it's certainly a fair question to be asking about these candidates. I think Mr Fetterman has done a good

job of getting out there and addressing them. There's some things where they've kind of implied that if he can't fulfill his duties, his wife might be appointed to reply as him. We're going to have to address that directly if they haven't done so already. Wow, But I think that, you know, the people need to consider all of these things. It's it's it's a really tough question. It's not much

just to be a sympathetic figure. You saying, someone who's going to be really aggressive in the siding work work like crazy for their state. So I guess all of that said, Jennie Chanzano, how important then, because I'm guessing we cannot underscore enough the importance of his performance in a live debate. That's right, and we're going to see

next week and the voters will get a chance to decide. Um. You know, but there's a school of thought, and I think I think it's worth considering that this health scare, unfortunate as it was, has made him more empathetic to many people on the ground. As you talked about. He's been using it in his stump speech often the image that's right, and um, you know, makes him more relatable. Um, he's had to go through what so many of us have gone through in the United States, dealing with the

health care system and serious conditions. Absolutely, I agree with lesser health is critically important. Voters have a right to consider it. But what shouldn't happen is we shouldn't confuse issues. Many people used closed caption, Many people use wheelchairs, We use a whole lot of things, and you know, the Senate should be equipped to accommodate that if it's not, that's got to change. There was a long time there

was no female restroom near the Senate floor. Quite frankly, you know, these are things that the Senate needs to accommodate. If his doctor is coming out as he has said, there is no work restrictions, he is fully capable and he is fully functioning, then you know that is something that you know voters will consider certainly, but it does speak volumes. So I think Federman, You're right, the debate is going to be critically important for voters. But I

think Fetterman has handled this right. Well, let's back off this whole thing and get back to what I was discussing earlier with Jacob. Was it helpful for Joe Biden to be there today or is he a liability? Lester Well, Joe Biden, Uh, you know, still does have a connection to the working class. He's he's got Pennsylvania roots. I think it can only help Futterman. I don't think it helps him a lot. Uh. You know, Joe Biden's numbers

are not fantastic. There's some prevailing wins going against Democrats and the president, and this election we're seeing a little bit of a surge towards the Republicans. So I'm not sure it's going to be the answer that gets him over the finish line, but I'm sure it helps him a little bit. That's the one he chose to go to. Genie I still is it because of the Spranton thing? I mean, John Fennerman didn't want to appear with him in some instances earlier this year. Yeah, that's right. That said.

You know, this election for Biden, I think he has played this right. There's been a lot of attacks on the fact he's not doing big rallies, he's not echoing what Donald Trump and Barack Obama have done. But let's be realistic. Two thousand and ten, fourteen eighteen, they didn't go so well after those big rallies. And you know, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say him focusing this week on what he has done or promises to do on abortion, gas prices, you know, marijuana,

student loans tomorrow in Delaware, infrastructure today. Those are things that are popular with the base. And so if this is going to be a turnout election, you know, the headwinds are against Democrats. Certainly this is looking like it's going to be a traditional year and the Republicans should do well. But I'm not convinced that Biden has made a misstep. And Biden is going to do tonight what president should be doing. He's going to raise a heck of a lot of money for the campaign. This is

his eighteenth trip to Pennsylvania. Next week will be his nineteen. So I think it will you know, is it going to change it big? No, it won't. But it's gonna help Federman at least around the edges. If it can get out some Democrats that's critically important. Well, and you know, he's got a good story to tell in Pittsburgh. What happened at that bridge is just you know, people forget

very quickly. People have very short memories. Google that story and remind yourself of how horrifying it was when the bridge came down. Uh. I want to turn to Georgia while I still have some time with both of you, because you want to talk about another close win here this Georgia's Senate races within three and a half points now according to the average on five thirty eight, Raphael Warnock herschel Walker forty four point one. After everything that

has happened. He's handing out badges at rallies. Now he has turned this thing around to his benefit and is holding up incredibly well, if not closing the race in some polls here and he feels empowered. Listen to Herschel Walker today going after Raphael Warnock on the stuff. Don't let him ride your back no more, Senator, get that side off your bike. You're straighten your back up. You're letting that president ride your back. You're doing everything they tell you to do. Hey, let me tell you I

don't dancing scene for nobody. I never have. I'm from Rights Fire Georgia. The Lord had washed me in the blood of Jesus. So right now I know I represent Georgia. It's like a new candidate here. I don't dance and saying for nobody. Lester, what's he saying about Raphael Warna. Well, I think there's there's a lot of imagery and things to unpack in that statement. Yeah, I'm not sure I want to be I'm not sure I want to be

the person to do it. But I think what Mr Walker is doing is is that that maybe we can address directly, which is he's saying I'm for Georgia. My opponent is with the president of the National Democrats. I'm the guy who's the local guy. That's going to be a pretty effective message. How does the Reverend push back on that? With so little time left here, Genie, because it does feel like there's some momentum for herschel Walker. Well,

Warnock has released adds. You know, just in the last day or so, he is on the air big time, hitting Walker on abortion, saying he's a hypocrite for coming out against it without any exceptions except for anybody but himself. They referenced the sun, they referenced the girlfriend. So this is how he's hitting back, and it may be effective. He increased his numbers when this story came out. He may increase him some more. What a way to make a living, Genie. Thank you as always, Jeannie Chanzy, No

Lester months in our panel today. Thanks to Jacob as well for being with us, and of course David Merritt with his great analysis on the chaos in the UK. I'm Joe Matthew. This is Bloomberg