Sound On: WH Inflation Celebration, Twitter Whistleblower

mind to imagine something like this going on. What union is going to say no to him? I mean, Joe Biden, is Mr You Schloomberg Sound On with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio. President Biden celebrates democrats inflation legislation even as inflation heats up and the markets fall down. Welcome to the fastest hour in politics. With a sunny day on the South Lawn today and a down day as you've

been hearing on Wall Street. We'll talk about the optics today at the White House and how prices will in the mid terms with Greg Valier, chief policy strategist at a g F Investments. Joe Manchin's deal to speed up fossil fuel permitting is outraging many Democrats, But how does it actually work and what could it mean for prices this winter. We'll discuss with Frank Maisano at Bracewell our

signature panel in place. Bloomberg Politics contributors Jeannie Chantano and Rick Davis are with us for the hour, and we start with the lead on Wall Street, worst day since June of thanks to that same inflation data. Here to walk us through the carnage is Charlie, Thank very much, Joe Matthew CPI Tuesday steep losses across the board. In fact, every single stock in the Nanostack one index down today. That index plunged five and a half percent. By the time it was all over. At the close, we were

at or near the lows of the day. SMP down one hundred seventy seven to decline there of four point three percent. The Dow was down one thousand, two hundred seventy six points a drop There are three point nine percent, the Nanostack Compositive Index down sixty two, a drop of five point two percent. The two year yield now at three point seven five percent, ten years at three point four percent. Spot Gold up twenty three cents. The ounce to two right now West Texas enemy to AC crew

tumbled five tenths of one percent one a barrel. So it was a broad based sell off again, as Joe mentioned, worst day in more than two years, after hotter than expected inflation data fueled bets on a jumbo hike by the Federal Reserve next week. I'm Charlie Pelletteatjo Matthew was a Bloomberg business flash. Charlie, thank you. So that's the backdrop to the celebration today on the South Lawn. Talk about timing. This is just hours after the CPI came out.

Of course, they didn't know what this number was going to be when they planned this. Thousands of people were there at the White House to celebrate passage of Remember the Inflation Reduction Act the i R. A President spoke on a stage today with a wireless mike, wearing shirt sleeves at the aviators on and he called out Republicans for not supporting the bill. Here he is Republicans that could have and should have joined us on this bill as well. After all, this bill cut costs for families,

help reduce inflation. At the kitchen table because that's where they look at how much of the monthly bills and how much do they have to pay out for the necessities, And it gave them this a little more breathing room with My dad would say, of course, they are looking at those bills and inflation, as we learned this morning, is running hotter than expected right now, despite the efforts of the Fed. Joining us with his thoughts as we

barrel down the shoot towards the mid terms. Here is Greg Valier back with US, a g F Investments chief US policy strategist. Greg, what what timing here? I'm assuming they didn't plan to coincide this unless they were rolling the dice on celebrating, you know, the first CPI to show to show a real drop here. How does that resonate across the country. It's such a terrible, terrible buzz kill. What can you say, almost at a loss for words over an event like this. Uh, the Fed obviously has

to get really aggressive now. Uh basis points later this month is a guarantee. There's a minority view that it could be a hundred basis points, which I doubt, and then another couple of fifties before the end of the year. So we've got a lot of upside on yields. Officially a buzz kill called by Greg Valier the headline at the terminal, Greg, this is when investors are reading Biden's

plan to celebrate economy fizzles with inflation roaring. This was supposed to be kind of a pivot and messaging here to move away from the ultra magas stuff, which got a lot of people upset. Whether it ends up having a positive impact in the long term. It was time to start celebrating the accomplishments, and I assume the White House was hoping there would be data to go along with it. What do you make of this, this whole celebration today. Yeah, well they couldn't call it off, but

that probably would have looked bad. And you know, ironically, there is some good stuff out there. I think what's happened in Ukraine is just remark of what a great, great story that is. And the labor market is really strong. We don't have enough workers. But this inflation story does not play into the Biden narrative. It plays under the Republican narrative that we spent too much damn money. So

how do you take this on the road? I mean, this was the sort of the launch of this, uh this this line of campaigning, right and the optics that came with it. Joe Biden wants to go out there and say I'm actually I told you I would do it, and I'm fixing inflation. It's it's just not gonna what's the al saying that that that dog won't hunt? I mean, there's no rationale for saying something like that. I mean, gasoline prices clearly are down. That's what I was going

to point to, ninety days of lower gas prices. That's worth something, right, and he will he'll point to that. But food is not budged. Food is still a real problem, and other things are inflationary as well. And now we might have a railroad strike, so there are still things that I think would argue that inflation will stay high. That The main problem I would argue is that workers who see an inflation rate of eight or nine percent

in the UK, they want some of that. They want increases at that level, and that's going to be really contentious. You mentioned a possible rail strike. This is a really big deal and it's snuck up on a lot of people here with the deadline on Friday. Now there are two out of a dozen unions that have yet to come to terms. Here. Karine John Pierre, the Press secretary at the White House, was asked about it because we know now that members of the administration are are personally involved,

including of course our Labor Secretary Marty Walsh. People to judge the Transportation Secretary. Here's what Karine John Pierre was messaging today. We have made crystal clear to the interested parties the harm that American families, businesses, and farmers and communities would experience if they were not to reach a resolution. What's the line that the administration is going to use here? Should it be Congress write some legislation to deal with us,

don't look at us. Well, the President has already used a sixty day cooling off period. He doesn't have the ability to do another one, So it would have to be Congress. I don't see that happening. Maybe down the road, but I don't see an imminent move by Congress to do anything. So unless Marty Walsh can pull a rabbit out of his hat, and we can only assume that is still a possibility before Friday, give us a sense of what that means. For the economy here, this is

a massive interruption. Yeah, there's two big stories here. One is commuters and a lot of big Northeastern cities may have problems getting to work, and a lot of goods will be delayed, especially coal. So as we start the winter, having a gridlock in the Cole area is not a real good story. Maybe another month of data. Is the White House data dependent? Greg? Yeah, I think so. Maybe we got a good number. Maybe the economy will show some signs of growth. But again, this this is a

clear tobacco. It's a really bad day. And you know, of all the people who have been damaged, I put Buddha Judge high on the list. He had a horrible summer with flight delays, flight cancelation. Now he's got his fingerprints on the railroad story about that, Greg Valiere, a great conversation, and thank you for getting us set up here on the fastest hour in politics. We need to assemble the panel early because we want to get right to it with Rick and Genie Gregg. Thank you our

Bloomberg Politics contributors, Jeanie Schanzano and Rick Davis. Give me a sense, Genie of of how that played for you. Today watching the President out there on the lawn, and I want to just pull everybody in here, because it was late afternoon at the White House, just as the Dow Industrial Average was extending losses, you know, beyond a

thousand points. Right around that time of day, the markets in a panic over the very same topic that the President was set to discuss, and that of course is inflation. But the distance, the distance from Wall Street to Washington was on full display here as we heard these sounds across the alf long. Let's listen. Just yes, name James Taylor. You yeah, the trademark hat on the brimmed hat, brand new pair of boots for the occasion. He kicked things

off with a little fire and rain. The White House program for the event refers to him as a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient and a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That's like a step away from the Ways and Means Committee. So why not? And I'm actually well, I'm still not sure exactly, Jeanie Chanzano, is that the definition of tone deaf to have a party on this on the lawn with a high priced talent to come and sing to you following a CP

I like we saw this morning. You know, I can never say it's tone deaf listening to James Taylor, a huge fan. Um. You know, there's a couple of unfortunate things. Number one, UM, the fact that the bill was named an inflation Reduction Act. Um. It's I keep in an infrastructure bill myself because it fits their definition of a soft infrastructure bill. And there's wonderful things in this bill

that should be highlighted. The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Um. If you look at the lowering of prescription drug costs, a lowing health insurance costs, energy costs. So there are wonderful things to celebrate. It was a huge achievement. But I think for me, when we look at what the Press Secretary had to say today, they've got to be

able to message this properly. The reality is Americans won't feel the benefits of this, except in the case of prescription drugs, maybe in lower health insurance for a while.

And they have to be honest about that. And so, yes, James Taylor is fine, they deserve a victory lap, but they've got to be honest about the real pain people are feeling now and the fact that they are willing to put aside their short term political gains for long term political help to the American public, regardless of what happens in the midterms. That should be the message. I'm

I'm very curious here from Rick on this one. I mean, I don't know, you have James Taylor play inside for the v I P. S Later as something, Rick, I mean, it just it had this. It had the smacking of, you know, a sort of rich guy's barbecue with the high price talent talking about inflation when this is a bill that's planting seeds. Maybe you do have a celebration with James Taylor in a year when you have you know, nine months of lower prices or something like that. How

does this play for you? You know, this is the biggest blind spot that this administration has is their ability to execute. One year ago, they were withdrawing from Afghanistan, and it was a disaster. I don't think anyone would doubt that they wanted to reduce the troops in Afghanistan, and many people were even for the withdrawal, but nobody wanted to do it in the haphazard fashion that this

administration executed. And here we are on the morning of a CPI announcement and you're having an Inflation Reduction Act signing and you don't know what that is gonna be. They could have scheduled this thing on any day, even before or after, so somebody would have gotten in trouble and Rick Davis's office for this bit of scheduling, fire the schedulers, and you know, and and and start thinking

about what's going on around you. I mean, and the fact that they got burned by the number, well, you know, everybody was a little disappointed. You can't really honestly argue with that. But let tone deafness. Yes, you have to tell them to cancel the band and take the you know, plan indoors and do it quietly at the Rose, at the Presidential Office, the Oval office. So I mean, like it's just they cannot get out of their own way. This is a ad ready to be made. Every Republican

is gonna have this in near quiver. And frankly, they give back Republicans a message that was starting to dwindle, which is, oh my god, we gotta quit talking about inflation. Well not now, not now, Genie. Although this was supposed to be a messaging pivot, do they put that right back in their pocket? Or is this actually what we're gonna hear between now and November. Yeah, I mean they didn't put it back in their pocket. It's back in

their pocket. That's the reality. We will hear it. They have a response to it, but they got a message appropriately JT. They call him on Cape cod and Martha's Vineyard, where gas prices I believe are still just right underneath the five dollar mark, at least on the island. The panel stays with us. Next, as Lindsey Graham drops legislation on abortion. This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg Sound On with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio. So maybe it's

happening again on both sides of the aisle. Right. Joe Biden celebrates an inflation bill on the same day Inflation one's hotter than feared. Markets tank, and while Republicans could be reinforcing their message on inflation, Senator Lindsey Graham grabs the wheel with a new proposal he rolls out today for a national abortion band a ban after fifteen weeks. The senator explained why fifteen weeks I feel comfortable at

fifteen weeks. The science tells us that the nerve endings are developed to the point that the unborn child feels pain. And this is what people are covering for the Republican messaging today. Let's reassemble our panel Bloomberg Politics contributors Jeanie Chanzino and Rick Davis Genie, is this as much of a gift to Democrats as what Joe Biden gave Republicans today on the South Lawn? Boy? Is it ever? The political gods they give and they take away? And here

the universe there is, you know, inflations rising. It's all Republicans want to talk about. It's all they should be talking about. And he swoops in to say something that almost every Republicans just you know, decided to walk away from. And Tom Tillis had it right. I want to be talking about inflation, he said, And now I've got to talk about this. And so, you know, you scratch your

head to imagine what Lindsay Graham is thinking. You know, he seems to be in a sort of a past state with this idea, uh, that this is about pro life versus pro choice, and it's not. Most voters are somewhere in the middle. And what they want Republicans to talk about now when we saw this in New York nineteen with a good candidate on the Republican side, is that they want them to say, like Mark Mulinaro up there, what are the limits? Where do you draw the line?

Is it rape? Is it incest? What is it? Or are you just going to let these legislatures run them up? And that's what they should be talking about, and instead or not talking about it at all, he's trying to talk about a band. Well, let's be clear that this legislation includes exceptions for rape or incest. Uh, fifteen weeks, more stringent than bills that he has introduced in previous years. This is not the first turn for Lindsey Graham that

would have made abortion illegal after twenty weeks. So this cranks it down to fifteen And we need to be honest with everyone here, as I think Lindsay Graham was today in his news conference, there's really no path for this. The bill is not likely to get very far, unless, of course, Republicans managed to get both the Senate and the House. So what's the point then, Rick, If this doesn't have a path, why mighty the waters with this messaging or is is this actually what Republican voters want

to hear? You know, Republican voters like hearing this, especially pro life Republican voters. He was surrounded by women activists in this area, all of whom he's been working with for you know, three decades on this issue. You mentioned it. He's done this bill repeatedly every other year for the last twenty years since he's been the United States Center. I mean, this is not an unusual Lindsay Graham play.

I mean, if anything, the only thing different this year is that he's gone exactly what you described from a twenty week band to a fifteen week band based on what he's alluding to, which is a new new level of knowledge on science. But look, this is you know, this is standard operating procedure for the vast majority of the Republican Party. So if you're Lindsay Graham and you want to continue to be seen as a major national player, uh,

you're gonna actually talk about nationalizing an abortion ban? And uh been a question probably Rick would have been, what is this? How does this play with with the Republican strategist in you? Is that the speech that you wanted to give today when you could have been harpened on the CPI all morning. Yeah. No, he had to be given this speech next year after the mid terms, right, I mean, he's not running for re election. This isn't a naked political uh grab on his part to win

a re election. This is just him trying to position himself as a player nationally. And the reality is whatever level of insecurity he's got, you know that he doesn't have to worry about that. He's a national player, whether he likes it or not. And there are days when he probably wishes he weren't. So yeah, this this is

off message. And if you're Mitch McConnell, you're scratching your head going you know, look, Lindsay, I don't disagree what's what you're trying to accomplish, but did you have to try to do it today? Um, just like we were talking about the Biden administration being a bit tone deaf on message today. So lindsay, yeah, we we've we have

found the nexus yere. White House Press Secretary Koarine Jean Pierre Genie says, in a statement that was put out on this Graham's bill is quote wildly out of step with what Americans believe unquote, um, it's it's sure difficult to quantify that. I know that Democrats think that this really is a winning issue going into November, but a lot of this is conjecture based on very few races since the Row ruling, right it is, I mean there, you know, we don't know what the impact is going

to be. But what we do know is there's a big difference sitting here today in September then there was six months ago. And that difference is the jobs decision that has resonated. Whether it impacts voting in the mid term, we don't know. We know what happened in Kansas, we know what happened in New York nineteen. We know by reports there has been an increase in voter registration among women. So the potential is there for this to be an issue.

And we know if we go and we talk to women, they are concerned about what this means for their ability to make decisions about their own healthcare. And that's the danger here. You know, Lindsay Graham maybe living in two, but this is two and you know, the environment has changed on this issue, and he doesn't seem to have caught up and that's by Republicans are keeping an arms distance from this today. You come at this from the

other side. Senator John thun Rick says, there are a lot of Americans out there in favor of reasonable restrictions. This bill would counter Democrats messaging that Republicans want to ban all abortions. Is there some truth to that? Sure there is. I mean, you know, Lindsay has created the safe harbor for people for a long time. He's gonna put out, you know, what is deemed at least and instibate a reasonable position for a pro life member of Congress.

And uh and people can retreat to that right they sail well, I I'm for the Graham bill and not getting too much trouble. Rick and Genie, they'll be back on sound on. I'm Joe Matthew. This is Bloomberg. It's a refrain that we've heard many times from President Biden over the last couple of years, even but really over the past year in which we've seen high oil and gas prices about the number of leases that big oil

company's hole to explore on federal land. Here he is back in June, this idea that they don't have oil to drill and to bring up simply not true. This piece of the Republic is talking about Biden shutdown fields wrong, nine thousand leases, he says, outstanding. And so they've talked about to use it or or lose it rule and so forth. And we've explored this topic to learn that there's actually a lot more to getting a permit to drill for oil and gas, even if you've got the

lease on the land. That's why Senator Joe Manchin has pushed for reform in this permitting process to speed things up, and that's outraged a lot of progressives and did not know about this deal, which came from Mansion's negotiation with Chuck Schumer on the Inflation Reduction Act, the one solebrated today at the White House. See how it all comes around. The question though, is why, in part why are some Democrats against this reform as the bill is also balanced

by climate spending and incentives for more renewable energy. And that's where we start with Frank Maisano, senior principle at Brace Well back with us on Bloomberg Radio. It's great to have you here. Frank, I realized we don't have actual language in legislation, but that says a lot about where we are in this process. Right, there's no consensus

on this. Yeah, absolutely, Joe, You're well, thanks for having me back, and I'm glad to talk about this because we're at a stage where we really don't know what the details will be in this. And I just set that in the context of having twelve legislative days here remaining in September, and probably less than that because they want, because these guys want to get out of their past the cr and bumped this to December, late November December and get back in campaign uh in many of their

states and Congress to districts and things like that. So you know, it's a really tight schedule. It's hard to believe that they be able to come to such detailed legislation uh in in such a short time frame, especially with the kind of opposition you're seeing from progressives, which I'll get to in a minute. You know, the Republicans still aren't happy either, because you know that they've kind of been dragged along into this last minute budget deal all of a sudden, which was kind of a surprise

to them. Well it's interesting you say that too, though, because the is the the other Senator from West Virginia, Shelley Moore Capital has her own bill. Joe Manson must be loving this right. It was introduced yesterday. Shelley Moore Capital backed by thirty eight of her Republican colleagues. Joe Mansion, Frank doesn't even know if he can get ten. Are they going to cancel each other out in West Virginia? Yeah?

I don't think so. But you know, look, I think what you're starting to see is people recognizing that they don't have the time to do this in September, so they're starting to lay out there in aociating positions right

as this. Look, this is a serious effort. It is something that is not going to go away if it passes here um, and if it misses the cr here in September, it certainly is going to be a major discussion point in any kind of lame duck budget session that would would occur that we're going to have to get to because they're gonna have to kick this into December. So it's not going away. It's something that Joe Mansion

will continue to hold out. So I think what you're seeing is Shelley Moore Capital and the Republican side thinking, hey, here's what we would take, and you have on the other side progressives in their letters saying we don't want us at all, right, And I think that's a short sighted view in a sense, because the energy transition Joe doesn't happen unless we get some kind of permitting reforms.

So speak to that. If this permitting reform happens, does that actually speed the process to the point where we get increased domestic production and prices move? Can can we connect those dots? I'll tell what it does. It increases the opportunity for us to build renewable projects and transmission lines that can carry that renewable energy. Right. I mean, look, the reality is the utility industry, the oil and gas industry in many cases have already moved towards cleaner and

better fuel. The utility industry is a good example. They're expanding wind, they're expanding solar. We need transmission lines to move it. But the bottom line is all of these things face opposition from local communities, from activist groups, and from things like that. And so if you're going to have an energy transition as fast as progressive an environmental activists wanted to occur, you're gonna have to have some help in the permitting arena, because that's the key. Is

this an issue or is this an environmental issue? In terms of the infrastructure that you're talking about. In many cases, that is a nimby issue. We don't want it in our back yard. I mean, look like there's a giant solar project in uh in Solln, California called Ivan Paw, which which I worked on individually, and you know, we had people fighting us for five or seven years on that project. Right now, we finally got over it. Right now it's operating uh and and actually doing great and

helping balance the grid in California. Right with the challenges that they faced, and we we would have gotten over it faster if there would have been some sort of permiting reform that could have helped us speed that along. You would think just would have more bipartisan support. With what we've seen in Texas and in California. To your point, you couldn't have two states you know, further apart politically here. But what would it mean, Frank for this multi billion

dollar Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline in West Virginia. Well, I mean, look, I think the Mountain Valley pipeline is Joe Mansion's price of admission. That's what they say process right and and look for every one Mountain Valley pipeline you have, you have hundreds of renewable projects that are need that need this type of does that to prove is the pipeline is sure thing if he gets the bill, Well, well, I mean that you know, that's what he's shooting for.

Who knows what the details will be on it, but um you know again and Frankly, we will need natural gas transmission lines because natural gas is a supporter of reliability and the grid when it comes to expanding renewables, right, that's one of the reasons why we've been able to expand renewables. So natural gas is going to be a player U. It will continue to be a player as we clean it through renewable natural gas in through through

hydrogen use in the future. So you know, we need this type of infrastructure, both from from the natural gas and clean natural gas side, to the to the electricity grid to developing the projects themselves. Come back and talk to us when we get some print. I enjoy the conversation. Frank Maisano with us from brace well on sound On. We'll reassemble the panel next to get their thoughts on this for a moment, and turn our attention as well to the Twitter whistleblower that made a lot of news

today inside the Beltway. Another tough day for social media, big tech on Capitol Hill. That's ahead. I'm Joe Matthew. This is Bloomberg. You're listening to Bloomberg you sound on with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio. It's not the only news on Twitter today, in fact, not Elon Musk this time, but a whistle blower here in Washington. We're gonna talk about that in just a moment. Yet another call for regulation on big tech and specifically on social media. Joe

Matthew in Washington. Thanks for joining us on Bloomberg sound On, the fastest hour in politics as we try to keep you up to date with what's always happening at the White House. And an interesting update, a curious update here in the President's schedule late in the day as well. He's on his way to Wilmington, Delaware tonight. Strangely, you know, you don't see a lot of unannounced moves like that. Strangely,

he's coming back tonight as well. Somebody asked if he kept the fawcet running a quick run to the house in Wilmington, Delaware. We don't know why yet, will let you know as we reassemble the panel. Here for an interesting turn in the news about Joe mansion. Rick Davis is with us and Jennie Chanzano. You always do wonder, Rick, you know when you get a piece of news like that, what's behind it? Donald Trump was seen stepping out of a private jet wearing golf shoes at Dallas Airport a

couple of days ago as well. Yeah, I mean, what's with these two guys both having mystery trips in the same week? Is it the do o j? Is it just their own socialist calendar? I mean, what's going on in Washington? Uh? Genie, this is interesting with Joe Manchon here. Could he be the one in this case who actually, you know, he had the deal, but he's the one who ends up empty handed. And I say that knowing he got a lot in the Inflation Reduction Act. But

this Permitting reform bill is being challenged by both sides. Yeah, and you know it's so fascinating because when the deal was struck who didn't think ahead that this was going to be coming down the pike. And you know, was it Joe Manchin? Was it? You know, Chuck Schumer? Was it Joe Biden? So if he is left empty handed,

you've got to wonder whose fault that is. And I think Frank made a really important point to in fact, number one, there's very little time left to get this cr put together with this amount of pushback on it. And number two, the idea that permitting reform is important

to get to renewable. That's a message that if that's what Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden and others believe, they should be putting putting out there, and they should have gotten Bernie Sanders and other Democrats and people who care about the environment rightly so on their side to say this is a step in the right direction. None of

that seems to have happened. And so here we are again a government potentially could get shut down without a budget past and you know it's gonna be egg really in Chuck Schumer's face if this happens, Well, is it on Chuck Schumer to get this moving? Here? Rick, You've been around enough Senate deals to kind of get a sense of this. Maybe there's a noisy period like this, Maybe this bill goes once it's done in written, goes together with the Capitol Bill to create like Frank was saying,

something more palatable to both sides. Yeah, you know, look, I mean you see this all the time when you're coming to the end of a cycle like this, you know, and it's September and its election year, and you have all these people running around saying, oh, this is the stuff I want to pack into the cr. Uh. You know, the President wants his stuff, you know, Joe Manson wants his quote deal payoff. But the reality is you've got to talk to the appropriators because they're the only ones

that really matter in this. And everything I'm hearing is, at least from the Republican side, Richard Shelby is going to have a clean cr. He's not gonna give Biden anything, and he's not gonna give Mansion anything, and he's not gonna give any Republicans anything. He's gonna put a clean cr on the table and say vote for this. And the likelihood is if that's what he does, then that's

what's going to happen. About it Uh, interesting language today, which brings us to one of the most bipartisan issues on Capitol Hill, and that is, of course, cracking down on big tech. A whistle blower hearing today of Twitter whistleblower before the Senate Judiciary Committee. This is a former executive in a self described hacker, saying that the company's years behind when handling and protecting user data that's yours.

In fact, he had some pretty pretty wildlines about this. Uh. Peter Zako goes by his online profile name Mudge, and he told the committee today that the mishandling of data at Twitter could easily fall into the wrong hands, and that goes for anyone who is using the platform. Here he is, I'm here today because Twitter leadership is misleading the public, lawmakers, regg Laters, and even its own board

of directors. They don't know what data they have, where it lives, or where it came from, and so unsurprisingly they can't protect it. This kind of vulnerability is not in the abstract. It's not far fetched to say that employee inside the company could take over the accounts of all of the senators in this room. How about that for a line, Rick Davis, I don't know if that brings it home for people. But a lot of senators have been licking their chops over an opportunity to crack

down to regulate these websites. That they get any closer today, well, you know, I think it shows just how wild west some of this um uh internet technology is, right. I mean, like we always think of this stuff is like you know, mathematical formulas, right, all this stuff is absolutely straightforward, but it's not and and and I think the look into this is is illuminating. But at the end of the day, I mean, it's Twitter, right, It's not your bank account,

it's not your so security number. Uh, you know, it's Twitter, and it was the Digital Public Square come on, right, Yeah, Well you know ask Elon musk uh no telling how he's going to change it. And so if the worst thing that happened is that we just find out that these guys are just lousy managers, it's going to add fuel to the reform movement on Capitol Health for sure. But like of all the things we've heard about being penetrated,

your Twitter account should worry anybody. Well, I'll tell you what. Listen to John Kennedy, the Republican Senator from Louisiana because he's well, I mean he he spins the tail as well as anybody listen. This makes me want to stick my head and non of then this is disgusting. And we're not talking about um people that that don't understand technology. I'm talking about the board of directors, all the engineers at at Twitter, the CEO. They all knew all of this.

This is very basic stuff. It's very easy to fix, except for one little problem. It costs money. Genie, We've all wanted to put our head in enough. And I think at some point, because of Twitter, he just has a special way of saying it. I just are we on the way to like a big tobacco style hearing where you've got the heads of all the social media sites all being asked, you know, difficult questions specifically about security, about national security, people's privacy and so forth. Or have

they already played that tune? Is this just another hearing today? I thought this hearing was fascinating, and to me, it was much broader than Twitter. I thought that the attack was not so much on Twitter, and they do have sensitive information by the way, they have our geolocations, they

have our emails associated with our accounts. A lot of personal information is housed at Twitter, and according to this whistleblower, employees have access to all of that and they haven't been able to ferret out or identify foreign you know, people who are working from the Chinese government according to the FBI and others. So that is a scary proposition.

But I think even scarier is the fact when he said that our US regulators are not up to par and that Twitter, like most social media sites, is more scared of the French equivalent of the FTC than our own. And so this is a failure in my mind, of not just Twitter, or any single corporation or any single social media site, but regulation overall. Yes, there's a bipartisan consensus,

and these senators can say whatever they want. Reality is, we've seen very little action on any of this, and we've all left been left vulnerable because we all have to use it to live in this world. And so that is a scary proposition. You can count the bills. There are just a number of pieces of legislation waiting in committee that that could affect some of what we're talking about here, Rick, But we can't even get a budget done right now with the mid terms and so forth.

This isn't the conversation for today, is it. You know, it's an ongoing conversation. I mean, genies write there are lots of issues related to, but unrelated to, uh, this

current you know, uh situation with Twitter. But I would say too, I mean, you know, the reason that there's a scarier French regulators because they pass laws that are very counter to free enterprise and entrepreneurship, right, I mean, like there's a reason there's no there's not a Twitter version in France of the kind of uh kind of unique characteristics that we're able to do. There's a reason the largest uh internet companies in the world are either here or in China. So um, it's you get what

you pay for. I do think that the idea that the FTC just allows that the internet companies regulate themselves is in for a change. But the worst thing you can do is take an engine of growth like these have been for our country and the technology advances we've made them all not necessarily just Twitter, um and and

put a cap on that. So I think I think that's one of the issues that Capitol Hills wrestling with, is they don't want to stifle the growth of our industry, but they also don't want to get them let them

get away with unfettered uh deregulation. It is pretty amazing that this hearing takes place the same day that Elon Musk headline drops here, Genie, is this going to be an issue in twenty four It's obviously too late to be a major decider here in the midterm elections, but twenty four, especially if you've got Donald Trump or a Trump endorsed candidate running for president, it's it's gonna be

a big talker. It is, and I think it's something that everybody can understand because we are all vulnerable to it. And you know, the reality is we have to both be able to create fabulous new technology and protect our national security and our privacy at the same time. It's doable, but there's got to be a will in the federal system to do that. Jennie Chanzano, when Rick Davis make up our signature panel here on sound on a great talk tonight, we covered a lot of ground here and

by the way, happy primary day. This is it for primary season. Tomorrow night we'll review the results from New Hampshire Delaware and beyond on the fastest hour in politics. I'm Joe Matthew. This is Bloomberg.