Sound On: Vigilante Ballot Security, Ambulances for Ukraine

on Politics, Policy and Perspective from DC's top name. Russian aggression does pose an immediate and sharp threat to our interests and vote. Nothing more than an effort to brutalize the people of Ukraine. Bloomberg Sound On with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio. The Justice Department says it may be illegal voter intimidation. Welcome to the fastest hour in politics, as the Feds respond to armed groups gathering around dropboxes in the state of Arizona may violate the Federal Voting

Rights Act. Will talk about the impact of vigilante security and how it's being controlled with Bill Gates, Chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. Later, Russia knocks the lights out across Ukraine and a continued assault on civilians will be joined by another American who's trying to make a difference. Former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly is now raising money for the war effort as a new ambassador to Ukraine's United four and with a week to the election,

our signature panel is in place. Bloomberg Politics contributors Rick Davis and Genie Schanzano. They're here for the hour. The Department of Justice now getting involved in some legal action over groups of people hanging around outdoor ballot drop boxes. You've probably seen videos of them at this point, it's dark out. They're often armed, sometimes wearing tactical gear kevlar

vess and they're filming and photographing voters. Says, they drop off their ballots presumably you know, on the way home from work, and in many cases posting these videos and pictures online. Six cases of alleged voter intimidation at dropbox locations throughout Arizona have been referred to the Justice Department, which has now filed a statement of interest in a consolidated case brought by the League of Women Voters of Arizona.

It says, in part quote, when private citizens form ballot security forces, an attempt to take over the state's legitimate role of overseeing and policing elections. The risk of voter intimidation and violating federal law is significant. We heard from Maricopa County Sheriff Paul pen Zone the end of last week. He told reporters, actually this was just yesterday. He's working with the do O J now locals working with FEDS to identify incidents of intimidations undermining who we are as

a nation. And I think that it's um self serving in many ways. And what I see now as a sheriff of one of the biggest counties of nation, I see that every day I'm dedicating considered amount of resources just to give people confidence so they can cast evoke safely. And that is absurd. It is absurd, and that's why we're talking about it. And joined by someone at the center of this whole story, Bill Gates, is chairman of the Republican led Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, and Bill,

I thank you for joining us today on Bloomberg. Have you had additional reports of incidents at drop boxes the last couple of days, Well, first of all, thanks for having me. Uh, I have not um heard of anything in the last couple of days. I am very grateful to Sheriff pin Zone, who you just had some audio from in his work and his team, But as he said, it really is absurd that in two in the fourth largest country in the United States of America, we're having

to talk about law enforcement being uh. They're being available to protect people's right to vote. Have you made plans to or have already beefed up security at drop boxes uh and polling places. I've seen video as well of law enforcement responding, and that's what we're talking about here with Sheriff pen Zone. But is there something more deliberate you can do in architecture you can build with with

such little time left? Yeah. So I've been in actually multiple meetings over the past few months with Sheriffin Zone, our county recorder who shares election and responsibilities with the Board of Supervisors, and both local law enforcement and federal are federal law enforcement partners. It's something that we take seriously and it's something that we continue to look at the best way to structure this to keep everyone safe.

But it's important for people to keep in mind as well that we're not going to turn this into a police state. When people come to the polling places, they shouldn't expect and they will not find that we have uniformed officers everywhere, because that that doesn't send the right message either. But trust me, there will be an appropriate uh structure put in place to help people to feel comfortable. Some uniformed, but a lot of also folks playing closed

and other uh. You know, we have a lot of life stream cameras, for example, on these drop boxes, so when people go there, they need to know both being there to vote and then also those that might stand there in the attempt to intimidate folks that we are watching that. So it's safe to say you are monitoring the monitors we are. Have you considered things like panic buttons, hardening doors and so forth that polling locations and I

realized that's a different matter than outdoor drop boxes. But with the idea of you know, voting in person next Tuesday, there's another matter to consider there too. Yeah. Again, we have put a structure in place, and we've been having these discussions really on a daily basis with the whole team to make people feel comfortable. We it takes three thousands in a counting of our size three thousand temporary workers to pull off this election. So we're grateful to

those folks. Those people are our family members. There are neighbors, Uh, there might be uh, you know, folks that we've worked with in the past, and so we want to make sure that they feel comfortable as well, and we're doing that. So again, I want people to know how much we appreciate their involvement in this election, but also that they're going to be safe. Well, we couldn't do it without them, and that's a great concern is that these volunteers are

being tracked uh as well. Here are are you ready to deal with allegations of voter fraud? Do you have you know, the so called army of lawyers ready? How is this going to deal with with dealing particularly with these ballots? And when does counting begin? Bill? Yeah, So

actually we've already started. We started early last week with the counting of the early ballots that came in and so as we will continue to vote account those early ballots through uh the through this weekend, and so at eight pm on Tuesday night, we will be reporting hundreds

of thousands of votes. These are of the of the early ballots already at the same time, we continue to have people were running early voting locations around Maricopa County now will run those through election day of course, so there's still hundreds of thousands of people who are to vote. But to respond to your question of will we be ready to respond to allegations of fraud, yes, number one, if there's anything going on that people are aware of,

we want to be made aware of it. We're we're not going to say that there couldn't be some attempts. We know that there are things here and there, maybe someone trying to vote, you know, for a dead spouse or something. Those things go on and we're going to follow up on those. But if there are people who are alleging systemic fraud at Maricopa County like we experienced in like was alleged in the so called cyber Ninja audit, uh, we will be ready to respond to that as well.

And look, you talk about lawyers, we have a county attorney here, Rachel Mitchell and her team who do incredible work defending what's going on at Maricopa County elections. We're getting sued all the time. Unfortunately, there's a whole cadre now of people who want to disrupt the election, and they're using these lawsuits, frivolous lawsuits, I would add, as part of that effort. But again, we'll be ready to

respond to whatever happens. Uh. And we will once this election is complete, once any sort of allegations have been addressed in the courts. The important thing is we need each and every candidate in these elections to acknowledge the

results and be willing to move forward. Obviously that did not happen in but our democracy requires that that happened this time in I was reading before our conversation about the National Ballot Security Task Force that was organized by Roger Stone back in nineteen one to help a New

Jersey gubernatorial campaign, and it at Tom Keane. Uh. And this led to legal action, in fact that really changed the way Republicans, a consent decree that that essentially forced the Republican Party to operate under a special set of rules in New Jersey. Could that happen again in Arizona? Well, I certainly hope not. And I have a personal vested interest in this because before I was a member of the Board of Supervisors, and then before that, the Phoenix

City Council. I actually used to work on behalf of the Arizona Republican Party look at making sure that there wasn't any fraud going on on election day. We followed the law, we worked with other lawyers, we worked with poll observers. This is actually part of the process. What is not a part of the process is, for example, UH dressing up in military gear outside of drop boxes

trying to intimidate voters. What's also not part of the process is once all of the legal attles have been completed, continuing to allege fraud, continuing to allege that the election was rigged. Like I said, here in Arizona, two years after the election, we're literally defending what are good people did in the election every day here Americopa County, and unfortunately a lot of that is coming from the leaders of my party as a Republican. But will continue to

do that. I will defend what happened in and I will respond to allegations of fraud as long as I have to, because there's nothing more important I've ever worked on as an elected official, trying to defend this democratic republic in our election system. Bill I, you've been out there speaking. I saw you recently on sixty minutes. I have to ask you what the personal impact has been on you talking openly about this. Threats against your team, threats against your family. Are you safe? We are safe.

Thank you for asking. Again. We've got a great team here in Maricopa County. But it's been hard. I'm a lifelong Republican, like I said, you know, I've I've been I've been a good soldier for the Republican Party, and now that I've been speaking out about the truth, I've been censured by members of the Arizona Republican Party. A lot of people call me a rhino, you know, Republican in name only. They called me a trader in my colleague traders against it just because we're telling the truth.

But we'll keep doing what we've been doing because we know that that we're doing the right thing. And again, if there are things that are being done that are wrong with this election, I know you'll point them out. Bill. I'm delighted you could come on with us. Stay safe, and thank you for talking with us. I'm Joe Matthew. This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg. Sound On with Joe Matthew. On Bloomberg Radio as they continue counting early

votes in Arizona. As we just discussed with the chair of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, we are reminded that it is not a coincidence. We're seeing vigilante ballot watchers gather around drop bosses, not only in Arizona, but in other states. They've been encouraged to do so for months. Look at France to having an election. You know what they do, same day, voting, all paper ballots, very simple. They have no problem. And that's what we have to

get to. We can't have these elections and go for forty eight days. That was in April in Ohio, Donald Trump, of course, and that's a refrain we have heard since before the twenty elections. Listen to Arizona gubernatorial candidates. Nominee Carry Lake right, same thing, never said, she told John carl and ABC recently. Doesn't say election month in the constitution.

It's called the election day. And so there's a lot of confusion around your gonna you breathe a word about this, the twitter blows up, I'll tell you that, and so we assemble the panel. They know about these things. Rick Davis and g D Schanzano are Bloomberg Politics contributors and our signature panel here. Rick Noeh knows Arizona politics better than you. And you hear about a long time Republican like Bill Gates being threatened of course for doing his job,

and you wonder how this is gonna end. And not everybody's gonna be settled with this on Tuesday. God, we won't even know the outcome of most of these races on Tuesday. Well, we probably will in Arizona only because they're so efficient what they do. And I'm so glad you had Bill on. I've worked with him when he was in state party to ensure you know, ballot security. Uh.

And look, every campaign has a ballot security operation. Lawyers you know who are on call or even in you know, polling places in precincts where there might be some problems to lend a hand, poll watchers who volunteered to do their civic duty and go into the polls. All this is really healthy for the for the American democracy. What what is amazing is that armed vigilantes are able to run off voters. And believe me, they're on and off voters.

They're only there to run off voters. And and in the past, when we've seen this in campaign activity, it gets called out and the federal judges who administered these elections federal elections are are usually sharp to to slap them across the knuckles. Um. And I'm a little surprised at nothing like that's happened so far in Arizona. I gotta be honest, gen you know, it's dark out, you're on your way home from work, presumably maybe you're on

your way in. You you do the overnight shift. If I got out of my car and saw like a bunch of pickup trucks with dudes with their faces covered, armed, I'm pretty sure i'd leave, how about you? Yeah, that's right. And and some of these cases, these complaints that have been filed, you have you know, a couple in one case who said that they the people were armed, they

were dressed in military gear. They were filming them, following them and then recorded their license plates numbers, their faces covered. And of course it's illegal to film within seventy five of a poll in Arizona. But I think you know the reality of this is the genesis of all of this.

This is happening because you have leaders, and you just played some of them, like Donald Trump and like Carrie Lake and others Mark Fincham, who have been going around and saying because Donald Trump lost the election Arizoned by ten thousand points, it had to be because voters had improperly cast ballots. And so this false claim of casting ballots in these ballot boxes is what is sort of the genesis of all of this. And that's why you

got these vigilante groups going around. And as you mentioned, it's not just Arizona, you know, Arizona, as he talked about, they're going to start counting votes. Are they already stounded counting votes? But look at Pennsylvania where this is also going on. They don't start counting until election day, So we are looking would be a hundred years old before we know the results of this election. We're gonna feel

like it at least are they doing enough? Rick? Though, to your point of enforcing the law around these drop boxes? Do they need more security there? Clearly trying to be careful to Bill Gates's point and not turn these, you know in into police state polling places. Yeah. Look, I mean the drop box is a relatively recent phenomena. Right. I mean, there really weren't drop boxes around prior to COVID.

People dropped off their ballots at you know, their county UM administrative offices and in some cases even near their precincts UM and and and and Genie's right. There are rules that are governed those places. Those same rules may or may not apply to these drop boxes that are in you know, all kinds of different places, usually parking lots and you know, uh, shopping centers, which there are a prolethora of in Arizona, and and so um. The

reality is a lot of this is untested. But I would say one thing, these are not just some vigilante groups that have gotten together and said, oh, we're going to do this on your own. That's incredibly difficult to do. It is highly likely that six months from now we'll be reading about another investigation that these things were coordinated, that they were part of a strategy to intimidate voters,

and it nationally coordinated. I mean, look, somebody has a vested interest in seeing this happen, and nine times out of ten it's not some local vigilante group. So who's behind this, Genie, Well, it's hard to know. And I think Rick is right. We're going to hopefully we do find out. Intelligence assessments have focused on China, for instance, seeking to influence several elections here. And you don't just want to name China. It can be it can be

domestic groups that you know. This is power at work. And let's not forget the result of this. More than six of US jurisdictions have election deniers on the ballot. That's over three people. Those people, at least a substantial number will be running our elections in many across many parts of our country. And that is a scary proposition. And this is the first time this cycle that the d o J has entered an ongoing case involving drop boxes like this. Sounds like they're going to be more.

Rick and Janie are here for the hour. This is the fastest hour in politics. Sound on, I'm Joe, Matthew and Washington to bring in Scott Kelly next. Yeah, that's Scott Kelly, the astronaut. As we turned to Ukraine, this is Bloomberg. The situation in Ukraine is grim. Eighty percent more than eighty percent of Kiev. There's no running water right now, three and fifty thousand apartments lost power according to the mayor. Still no water supply about at this point.

For instance, Russian missiles and drones damaging infrastructure in ten regions of Ukraine, hundreds of locations without power, and we're watching the capital of Kiev just bathed in darkness. That's a very eerie thing to consider here. In some US military personnel apparently now operating inside Ukraine. We're gonna get to that in a moment. Ned Price, spokesman for the

State Department, says Vladimir Putin continues to target civilians. We've all seen a number of UH strikes and bombardments that appear to be nothing more than an effort to brutalize UH the people of Ukraine. And as we've discussed on this program, there's gonna be some changes coming, most likely in the form of the House leadership. If Kevin McCarthy gets his way and in fact become speaker. He says,

no more blank checks. And we've heard questions from progressives on the left as well about how much we should be spending. Although this infamous letter was withdrawn, this is going to be a concerted debate as we move beyond the mid terms and towards the election. That's why I remember we talked to Mark Hamill and now look at this.

He doesn't just play one. He is an astronaut. Scott Kelly, former NASSA astronaut, retired U. S. Navy captain, is now one of the newest ambassadors to United This is the fundraising platform put forth by President Vladimir Zelenski. Kathyin Kelly, it's great to have you with us here on Bloomberg.

I appreciate the time today very much. What did President Zelenski tell you when you spoke with him, Well, the first thing you just said is, you know, officially asked me if I would be part of this fundraising platform, and of course, you know, I agreed. I'm a big

supporter of Ukraine. I have Ukrainian family members, Ukrainian friends, and uh, you know, all of those people are suffering in different ways, and I think we we all need to do whatever we can to support Ukraine because I think in the end, we're really just supporting democracy and and freedom. Even though you know this is a war currently in Europe, it doesn't mean that it's going to get get better if we, uh don't do whatever we

can to help. So how do you get the word out beyond conversations like this when Captain, how do you help President Zelenski raise the cash and get the hardware needs? Yeah? Well, you know, certainly social media is important, but also you know, normal regular media like this and and just people you know, passing the word that this is a really important cause. My my area that I'm working on is is medical supplies, particularly ambulances. The Russians destroy you know, ten a week

or they steal them, so um. You know, now, like you just mentioned, you know, they're not only because they're losing on the battlefield, they're now taking revenge on innocent civilians, including on their medical infrastructure. Well this is this is fantastic. And are you're you're raising money specifically for ambulances? Is it like the drone program where there they would actually accept donations of ambulances themselves or are European nations helping

on that front too? You know, I think that you know, people have reached out to me with saying that hey, I have an ambulance donate, Um, so I need to figure that out some or whether that's viable, but currently is it's to raise money to purchase ambulance that will be then used in Ukraine. Are you worried about funding here in the US drying up because of politics? Funding for what? For Ukraine? You know? This was this has been essentially a blank check, if I can use that term.

And it looks like it's gonna be a harder case to make for the president. Yeah, I mean it's uh, you know, certainly, I think anywhere we spend our money uh is uh, you know, needs to be scrutinized, especially

when it's this amount. But I think if you look at the facts here that this is a worthy cause, And you know, I feel like we need to be putting in whatever we can within our means, of course, but within our whatever we can to defeat Russia, because I do think this is an existential threat to the you know, the rest of the free world. Well, Captain, you must feel pulled in two different directions here. Obviously, as a as a retired Navy captain, a former fighter pilot,

you've got a certain feeling about this as well. But you are a NASA astronaut who shared space with Russian cosmonauts, and I wonder how you rationalize that as we try to figure out our future in space that's a whole different idea here, divorcing Russia in our project for the International Space Station. Do you feel like your hand is being forced in that direction? You know, it's a it's a tough question whether you know, Russia should stay a

part of the International Space Station program. I you know, it's really complicated for them to leave. Having said that, I think we're at the point where we might just show them the door. Obviously, that's my personal opinion. It's not anything I've gotten officially from NASA or anywhere anyone else. But I would say that for future programs, you know, without a change of you know, leadership in Russia, Um, that is more in line with you know, Western values

on you know, freedom and democracy. I don't see them participating in any anything ever again with with us. And you've had wonderful working relationships with Russians in the space program, haven't you. Yeah. I have some, you know, some great Russian friends in the space program. Some are cosmots, some are you know, engineers, administrative personnel that I know. I mean, I know a lot of Russian people, and a lot of them are you know, exactly in line with my thinking.

And I think on most free people's thinking on this, and then there are some others that it's just shocking, how you know, the Russian propaganda that they've been exposed to for you know, decades as just you know, altered their ability to to you know, think rationally on this idea.

I mean, I had one Cosmov tell me that, you know, he is absolutely convinced that the Nazis and NATO we're going to are were imminently going to invade Russia and this is the only way they could defend themselves, which is absolute absurd. I'm pretty smart person for thinking, yeah, right, supposed to be. I mean, it's just pretty amazing to think about five thousand dollars Captain Kelly you raised by launching an n f T to support Ukraine. You've been at this for a while. Yeah, I've been at this

from from the very beginning. And like I said, you know, I have a niece and nephew that are Ukrainian Americans. Their dad and my brother in law was an archive, you know, a place that is currently you know, you know, really a focal point of this war right now. And yeah, so this is an issue that I took to heart right away. I saw it as you know, with Russia starting a war in Europe unprovoked, that this was an issue that we should all get get behind it helping Ukraine.

And I had platform to do it because I had, you know, between you know, Twitter folls and and exposure in Russia and and and and in Ukraine a little bit my you know, I read a book that was translated into Russian, so I'm somewhat of a known figure there, and I have the ability to tweet in Russian at the Russian people and try to show them what the reality of this is. So I I took it. I've

taken it very seriously from the very beginning. You've actually you've been a notorious troll on social media for some Russians, so you kind of spooked off the platform. Yeah, I don't know if I call it a troll. Well, you know, maybe the noun version is that the trolling captain is what I want to say, you know, my first trolling ever, if that's what you want to call, maybe maybe referred to it as like social media warrior. I like that.

It's consistent consistent with your resume. Who are you spooking off of Twitter? Next? M oh, I'm not targeting anyone in the specific The reason I, you know, went after the head of rusk Cosmos, the Russian space agencies because he threatened to leave an American crew member behind that he was responsible for and I was just absolutely shocked.

So you know, I went at him in his own language, in ways that he could you know, ways that he can understand um, with language that would get his attention, and I think it may have worked. You talked to your brother about this when it comes to war funding, obviously, the senator from Arizona. You both have a platform, Captain Kelly. Yeah, you know, I have not talked to him specifically about

like you know, government policy or legislation, legislation. I mean, I think he's certainly aware of my stance, and I understand that he's a you know, a big supporter of freedom and democracy and supports Ukraine, so you have I haven't gotten into any specifics, like you know, hey, you should vote for this or they probably listen to me anyway. Yeah, I'm not so sure about that. I think you have

a few things in common, uh, including your biology. But look, in terms of President Zelenski, he's been asking Washington to help close the skies that that was the refrain when he addressed uh the Joint Session of Congress. There was a time when he was begging for fighter jets. You're a former fighter pilot. Would they actually make a difference? Well, that's a good that's a good question, you know because right now, and it's my understanding that Russia does not

control the skies of Ukraine. So you know, on one hand, I think it would it would be helpful and make a difference. I'm much sure how much of a difference it would make. Having said that, I think, you know, anti missile systems would be really helpful because they're getting you know, having you know, cruise missiles and other you know, things that you know that could be countered with, uh,

you know, some existing systems out there. So whether you know airplanes are really required and how you know, giving Ukraine a bunch of F sixteens or something. But would that be helpful? Sure? I think it would be helpful. Would it make a huge difference, I'm not probably, Uh, I probably don't know the details there with the air

war enough to really really comment on that. Well, everybody likes to talk like an expert, and you actually are one, though, it sounds like it's more complicated than a lot of people are making it out to be. Yeah, I think just given given a country a bunch of airplanes when the you know, when the airspace is not dominated by Russia right now is uh? I think something that really has to be studied and what it does to escalate

the situation or not. Well, I want to congratulate you and thank you for the work that you're doing in the service that you've provided not only our cound for you, but now that the people of Ukraine. It's admirable and the captain, we thank you for being here on Bloomberg appreciate. Scott Kelly, by all means, flew over eight thousand hours in more than forty aircraft two hundred and fifty carrier landings in his naval career. I know people refer to

him as an astronaut. He spent more time in space than Luke Skywalker. This guy is a Tomcat pilot. Anybody who puts an airplane down on the deck of an aircraft carrier in the rain at night has my respect. By the way, no one who flew in fough fourteen should ever be called to troll. Get your ambulances ready. I know he's going to figure out a way to take a donated ambulance, maybe a barge full overseas. I'm Joe,

Matthew and Washington. This is Bloomberg Sound on the fastest hour in politics with the best panel in the business. Jennie Chantano and Rick Davis are back with us now. Of course our signature panel. I mentioned a bit earlier here some US military personnel. I'm amazed this is not making a bigger headline. US military personnel now operating inside Ukraine. I thought that was never going to happen, didn't we say that as part of a team of weapons inspectors

that are helping Ukrainians operate. You know, these very sophisticated systems that we are providing. Brigadier General pat Ryder speaking for the Pentagon, my understanding is they would be wealth uh well far away from any type of frontline actions. We are relying on the Ukrainians to do that. We're relying on other partners to do that. So away from the front lines. But we're in Ukraine having had a fit over Iranians doing similar work in Russian occupied areas

of Ukraine. Genie isn't this what Joe Biden said would never happen? Could this not threaten a direct conflict with US forces? Well, you know, anything could threaten that, and I think that is a real concern obviously. But of course, what are they doing there. They are helping the Ukrainian and military utilize their training and helping them utilize this

equipment properly that we are providing. I mean, it would make little sense if we were providing this much equipment, you know, and just sort of leaving them to their own devices. So, you know, I know that that's what the administration is hoping that putin sees has as a difference, but you know, there's there's no guarantees on that, and um, you know, we obviously aren't facing them on the ground in a battle directly in that way, sure, but it's

you know, we're in the zone here. And the idea was that we would never we were pulling Ukrainians out of country to train them on these weapons systems in Poland and Romania. Now we're just going in rick. Maybe maybe we should have done this all along. But doesn't this seem significant? You know? I think it's significant because anytime you have our personnel in the country of the Ukraine. Uh with Vladimir Putin lobbying missiles right and left at

civilian targets, they run the risk of being injured or killed. So, um, I think I think that's that's obviously a news item. I think it's naive to think that we are now giving them very sophisticated weapons, unlike the ones that I think Genie was referring to, where you know they're basically

Russian retreads. That we could move these guys to Poland from Ukraine, teach them how to use it, and then send them back in Um, you know it would it normally takes six months for US personnel or how do you see systems, and that's not in the battle zone. So I think it makes sense. It's just, you know, it does change the complexity of the war. But this is a war that I think, you know, you have to be prepared for a lot of complexity as this segments on, because this this is not the way anybody

would have written a script. You know, at the start of this war, would you bet that there are CIA operatives working in the country or ununiformed military operative Stewart you know, maybe closer to the front lines, Rick, or in Kiev. I hope our intelligence agencies are doing everything they can to support the war effort on behalf of the Ukrainians. We've got a diplomatic core there. Of course, we have to protect them, Genie, but that's a little

bit different from what we're talking about. You've got to believe US intelligence is on the ground there, right, Yeah, yeah, you have to believe that, you know. And the intelligence has really won the day for Ukraine. The United States, NATO, all of the countries together have done a really amazing job in that arena, so they must be there. To your point, though, there is always the risk of escalation.

I mean, if you know, as Rick said, some U S soldier, some military official, you know, an intelligence operative, somebody is killed, that could lead to an escalation. And that is always the fear, that's always the danger. We wanted to keep this a proxy war, but there's only so long you could do this. With sixty billion dollars going over there, it's not going to last. Well, I'll tell you, Oh, it sure doesn't look like it's getting a lot better. When you see Kiev with the lights

again here no water. This is getting to feel desperate for a lot of civilians in Ukraine. You guys have access to an ambulance, can help out Captain Kelly. What do you think, Rick, I want to volunteer to be an ambulance driver for Captain Kelly. I mean, you know, that would be a luck. That's a commitment. But yeah, I'm gonna go start calling everybody I know in the

hospital business and see if they got spares. I love that we know you have the resources here in the connections, Rick, you know, talking about Russia and and our partnership in space, that's pretty stark. When Scott Kelly, of all people, Genie says that the marriage is over, that's right. That really was a stunning statement on his part, and you are so right. You know, I would be nervous to call him a troll or trolling Joe Matthew because he's a

really tough guy. But looking at his Twitter feed, it is quite remarkable what he says. You know, he calls in a murderer, a thief, a war criminal, kidnapper, so you know, but then to hear him say that the relationship with the United States and Russia, at least as far as he's concerned and what he would hope would happen is over is a stunning statement from somebody who's devoted his life to cooperation in space and and you know, to hear that this is where we are today, speaks

volumes about what has happened in just six months. This is someone who has had an opportunity to look at the Earth from space, just a perspective most of us will never have a worldview literally that will never have and he did it for longer. I mean, he's a record holder. His last mission, his final mission aboard the I S S was three hundred forty days as they were, you know, experimenting on the impact of extended exposure on the human body. Uh, we're done with Russia in space, Rick, Right,

that's not a relationship you're gonna rebuild. Yeah, I mean, I thought his comments were really striking. Here's a guy who has served with Russians, knows the language, knows people, understands the culture, and for him to sort of slam the door as he described on that relationship, especially in the one area that you thought could survive cooperation is an outer space. Um. I think it's one of the most telling things I've heard on this program and quite

some time. It's remarkable. Well, we thank the Captain again for being with us, and thank you Matt for introducing us here on Bloomberg Sound on one of the other stories popping today. I have to ask you both about it, because my god, they just keep coming. Brings us back to Georgia. Jane Doe speaks in this case to ABC News Gloria all right at her side. This is the second woman to accuse, of course, herschel Walker, the Republican Senate nominee, of paying for and what she describes as

forcing her essentially to have an abortion. In her own words today, he did not want me to have the child. And he said that, he said that because of his wife's emily and powerful people around him, that I would not be safe and that the child would not be safe. That's very menacing. It is a very menacing It is very menacing. But Rick Davis, it doesn't matter, right, Look, all this stuff is a compilation of who herschel Walker is.

That you can't ignore the noise in the system. Uh. It's it may be too little, too late, um uh. But then again, this campaign, I mean, the thing we have to remember about Georgia, right, is that if neither one of these guys get they're in for a runoff for another month. And so this kind of news could have an impact, you know, thirty days from now. Whether or not it can impact the election tomorrow is a question.

But but certainly these kinds of things as they proved themselves out and they they either you know, become fact or they fly in the face and become fiction. Um uh, this could haunt him. Republicans really haven't blinked at this one, Jennie and listened to herschel Walker today turning back, and he's been on the attack lately. Yesterday was Barack Obama. Now it's of course his opponent, Senator Raphael Warnock. He even told us he had a doll that dog and

even belonged to him. He was fooling us dead and I want to wear that dog at today. That dog problems That same thing he said, that's the same thing he said during the debate. During the debate he became Scooby Doo because you can remember this. They asked him, they asked him, say said will you support Joe by four run? And he went like okay, I got you. Now live at the improv with herschel Walker. By the way, that's a pretty what was a pretty good Scooby Doo.

I have to say, Genie, is this is the way to go? You know it? You had me there, Joe Matthews. I was trying to figure out where is this possibly going? And now I got it. Um it took a while. Wow. Um, this is a race that's you know, one point six, it's within the margin of error. As Rick mentioned, it's

probably going to go to a runoff. He you know, has been going on the offensive trying to certainly not you know, not discuss these issues because of course he is somebody who has supported abortion bands without exceptions, and he has denied these allegations. And this woman today decided to show her face. Whether it makes a difference, I'm not sure. But let's not forget every vote is going

to count in this race. It's going to be incredibly close, and so for that reason, these types of issues may play to a certain extent, absolutely incredible. But I think Rick is onto something there. Just wait for the runoff. That is when this really might start to have an impact, because boy, until then, it's too close to call. And on this day, after Halloween helped her, but we're brought back with the helm of herschel Walker to the classic

school but sorts. That's it for sound on, Rick and Jennie, thank you as we leave you with little underscore here. I'll meet you back here tomorrow with of course, our signature panel and a lot more to talk about as Barack Obama gets back on the trail. I'm Joe Matthew, this Bluebird