As part of our special coverage on this Super Tuesday, we turned out of Jim Gilmore, the former chair of the Republican National Committee, former governor of Virginia. It's good to see you, sir, Welcome back to Bloomberg. You were recently calling for unity in the party following a string of early victories for Donald Trump. That has been affirmed repeatedly with more than ten victories tonight in favor of the former president. Is it time for Nicki Haley to drop out?
Well, yes it is. It's a little late for her to be dropping out. To say the truth, I gathered together about twelve leading conservatives in the country and said Nikki a letter in the early part of February, right after the sith Carolina primary, and said, look, you didn't win your home state, You've lost all the primaries up to this point, all the caucuses. Get out and support the president, and lets you unify the party and get
about the serious business of defeating President Biden. That has to be our goal now of the entire Repobel Party. And by staying in and just attacking Trump the way she has personally, I think that she's probably missed her vest opportunity to get out. But still she still should and we should unify the party. It's a serious business.
Well, sir, you speak of unifying the Republican Party. Certainly you use that language and that letter addressed to Miss Haley. And yet when you look at the vote tallies coming in, granted, the votes have not been complete across any of these Super Tuesday states, but she currently has forty seven percent in Vermont. In Virginia, where you served as governor, thirty four point six percent. Yes, the state was called for Trump, but she is pulling in a relatively significant share of voters.
Cand a Republican party that divided actually be unified in time for a general election in November.
Oh, I think the party can unify in time for a general election. They look, these are landslide numbers. Let's let's be honest with each other here, and this is a really landslide election that we're seeing tonight. And frankly, it's been a landslide up to this point the state of Virginia. You know, there are a lot of people, different kinds of attitudes and the people in Virginia. I've served as governor of the state. But Trump is carrying the state tonight two to one, almost two to one,
and that's dramatic. And then many of the other states are sometimes three and four to run to one. This is a landslide primary victory tonight. So the point is this, this is an opportunity for Nikki Helly to get out and say, look, the time has come for us to unify the people who have been supporting me. That's an honest thing to do. Everybody that runs in an election
is going to get vote. The time has come to really get out there and talk about the serious business of changing the country, of really addressing the issue on the border, of really addressing crime in the streets, of really addressing this problem of inflation which President Biden created. Let's face it, at the beginning of his administration. He
created this inflation. He did it deliberately. But the problem is that working men and women discovery of suffering because of this is costing so much money now just to have the necessities of life. There's a president amath of COVID.
Governor. We don't really have a way to confirm me intentionally caused inflation here at Bloomberg, but I most recently you were with us to talk about your passion to fund our ally in Ukraine at war right now with Russia. If Donald Trump is the next president, A lot of folks think that money might not be coming. Is that a worry of yours?
Well, let me say this. You know and everybody else knows that I am a strong supporter of Ukraine. I believe the Russian aggression is a serious global issue and has to be addressed. But when I was ambassador to Ossee and Vienna on behalf of the United States, that was the time when President Trump actually gave Javelin weapons to the Ukrainians so that they could resist the Russian onslaught. He never really told me or anybody around me to back up from the Russians. We were taking a very
strong message there. The point is that I believe that the track record for President Trump has been strong on foreign policy, and certainly if I'm in a position to advise him, I would advise him of the importance of the Ukrainian support.
Sir, are you hoping you would be in a position to advise him in a second administration? Would you seek a job?
Well, I'd seek to have an opportunity to to offer him the best counsel that I can s up to the President as to what he wants to do. But I, on my part, feel strongly about this issue and about the other issues as well. And you know, once again I've beg to differ with you on inflation. I observed all those big, big spending programs to President Biden was putting in place at the beginning of the administration, and I knew, just like you did, that it was inevitably
going to cause inflation, and we got inflation. The interesting question is the impact that it has on working men and women. This is now a populist campaign, which really means that he's concerned about people living paycheck to paycheck, people who are trying to makegainst me trying to pay tuitions, trying to pay gas, trying to pay groceries. This is a campaign, and a candidate addresses and speaks to those issues.
All right.
Jim Gilmore, former chairman of the Republican National Committee, former governor of Virginia, thank you so much for joining us.
Joining us now is Selinda Lake, the president of Lake Research Partners, for her take on what we've learned this evening. It's great to see you on Super Tuesday. Thanks, thanks for it. Here is the story tonight that the pollsters were right. Ah, I'd love that to be the story.
We're never no one ever says that I'm coming back every night. But you guys, no, I think the story is the same story it was like six months ago. Joe Biden is going to be the nominee of the Democrats and Donald Trump is going to be the nominee of the Republicans.
Fair enough, Okay, fair enough. And Nikki Hayley perhaps was a factor only on the margins and may not be a factor after this evening, depending on what decisions.
She We hope she stays in.
How likely is that though? In your mind?
I think it depends on her own owners, And I think I would assume that there's an awful lot of pressure for her to get out if she doesn't win anything tonight. But you know, it depends on her donors. That's when candidates get out, when they run out of money.
Yeah, of course, there's a special group out there, seventeen percent who dislike both candidates. I'm to be honest with you, I'm surprised on some days that number is so small considering the conversation we're having in America right now about age about divisiveness. What did they do stay home?
It's a really great question, and in some of the polls it's a size twenty twenty one percent. It's record high number for this early in the game. By the end of the campaign, there's often a number of voters, but this is a record high number this or like many of them are contemplating third party and when you push them, they'd really like a different set of choices. But when you push them right now, they go for
Joe Biden, and they have pretty consistently. That's good news for us because in twenty sixteen they search for Donald Trump. So it's a very different election time.
Well, so when we're looking at some of the figures in these Republican primary states in which Nicki Haley, while yes, is losing to Donald Trump, she's pulling pretty consistently right now, knowing the full figures aren't in twenty to thirty percent, how many Nicki Haley voters could become Joe Biden voters? Is there an overlap in the ven diagram of those double haters and the people who are voting for Nicki Haey?
Is an overlap but it's hard because they hate Joe Blacking so much, so I think it's more Liza. They'd be third party. There's also a lot of voters considering skipping the race, not skipping voting, but skipping the race, so down.
The ballot just yeah, top, yeah.
And that's interesting because we've only had like three percent of the voters that do that normally, and usually the presidential brings people in, but now that presidential is discouraging people.
How about that? So tell us about the sample. We keep hearing the samples broken, people light upholster, They don't answer their damn phone anymore. You have to get them online. How do you get an accurate number in this world?
Well, it's really hard. And can you tell all your viewers to please pick up the phone yourself. If it says Lake Research Polls.
Please take it out.
Oh yeah, But you call them back time and time again. You offer them multiple ways to respond online, telephone, text, and you also you try to like we introduce ourselves by saying we're not selling anything. We're not going to ask you for a contribution.
Because people like.
To give their opinions, but they just don't want to be hammered to change your utilities.
That's the first word out of your mouth. I'm not selling you anything, and I am not a liar yet from this.
Yeah, this is how the sausage is made. The sausage being political polls in the United States you mentioned a few times now though, So Linda, this idea of people maybe going to a third party. You don't like this general election matchup between Democrats and Republicans. You look for option see whatever option see is Utah just closed at the top of this hour at ten pm Eastern. RFK Junior was on the ballot in Utah. He's struggled to
get on other ballots, though. How real of a factor is he in this in this contest?
Well, the interesting thing is, first of all, he's not on the ballot in very many places, but he is on the ballot in a cup of swing states. It's also RFK is being misunderstood for his father. You probably saw the poll by Echelon where half of the voters identified his father's picture for him. And what's interesting is if you get to know him, you don't like him, but that name is very formidable on the Democratic side, and all of the third parties pull from the Democrats.
That pulls from Joe Biden. And this is the important piece that third parties can't win, but they can't be spoilers and they can elect Donald Trump.
It has to be like Democrats need to run a clarifying campaign on this. I'm being serious, This isn't your father's Kennedy.
Well, they actually have in the Free Press, and people are quite surprised when they hear that he's an anti vaxer, when they hear that he has a mixed record on abortion, They think of him as a Kennedy and environmentalist. So what could be wrong with that?
Well, you bring up abortion. Of course, in the last election cycle, mid term cycle in twenty twenty two, we saw that issue as really being a turnout driver and in fact a disruptor in the elections. Democrats performed significantly better than was expected going in. Is that going to be the same kind of force in twenty twenty four? It doesn't have the same galvanizing effect that much further down the road from the Dobbs decision, the overturning of Rope.
Well, this is the gift that keeps on giving. So there were some voters who thought, well, they're done it's over until the IVF decision and then the Supreme Court in Alabama, and then the Supreme Court decision that's coming down about jailing providers in Idaho, and then the Supreme Court decision that comes down about medication abortion nephipristone. And what voters have concluded is they're not done yet. They
really mean it, they really want a national ban. And there are a number of states that have initiatives on the ballot and we haven't lost an initiative yet. We saw the surgeon turn out in Ohio on campuses and young people. So yes, this is a very key rategic element of the twenty twenty four elections.
So often we have Slimda Lake at the table here do a little quick math with us. Trump campaign says he's presumptive nominee, likely by March nineteenth, maybe even the twelfth, after running the table like this tonight. Yeah, it's the earlier date in your view.
I think so, And honestly, I think he's a nominee today. I think he was a nominee last month. And Joe Biden is our nominee in Kate there was any question about that.
I just want to follow up on your point though about young voters. You mentioned how the abortion issue drives them out, but we also saw in Michigan young voters in the college towns yeah, ann Arbor and East Lansing, more of them voting uncommitted because young people also have a problem with the president's stance on Israel, given what's happening to Palestinian life in Gaza. How concerned are you about the uncommitted movement or more just what it means.
I'm very concerned about it. I'm very concerned about the division among young voters because that was part of our secret sauce, not just for this election, but for the long term.
I will say this.
They're not going to vote for Donald Trump. They might vote for third party right, they could not show up, they could skip to presidential, they could vote with third party. The president and the vice president taken lots of actions around abortion, around student loans. I hope and pray that we have a ceasefire before Ramadan and all of those will be important. But young voters are very divided, and it's very very serious concern for our party.
We're waiting for results in Utah. Just to reset. If you're joining us late here, as part of our special coverage on Bloomberg TV and Radio. Donald Trump winning eleven of fifteen states. It's been a sweep so far, Kayley. I know that you've got your eyes on Vermont here and that could swing back into Nikki Haley's favorite here, but this is pretty remarkable. Joe Biden now also winning the Democratic presidential primary in Utah, and we should have
mentioned if we didn't already, Minnesota came in for Joe Biden. Kayley. We'll be looking at the results a little more carefully. To get back to what you were talking about him. The series of uncommitted protest campaigns in states like Minnesota, much like we saw in Michigan, give us a sense of what to look for in the general.
Yeah, or what to look forward to in the state of the Union is Biden tries to message around those issues. So, Linda, it's worth noting that Super Tuesday is today, forty eight hours from now. Joe and I will still be here in studio for another long day because the President will be addressing the nation, perhaps the biggest speech he can give in this election cycle, aside from the convention. What is the number one thing he needs to message in that speech.
I think there are three things that he needs to do. One, he needs to set up the contrast, and he's really fighting mad and prepared to do that. Number Two, he needs to address the economy and inflation, and I think you're going to hear him be very very aggressive about price gouging and rising prices and the actions they're going
to take and they have taken. And then the third thing is he has to paint the picture of what four more years of Joe Biden will be and what the hell that four more years of Donald Trump could be?
All Right, Slinda Lake, great to have you with us at our DC studios this evening. Really appreciate you joining us, Linda Lake, Lake Research Partners, President and polster. Now we want to get some final thoughts from our political panel, Rick Davis, partner at Stone Cord Capital, and Jeanie Shanzano, political science professor at Iona Universities. We wrap up our Super Tuesday programming here on Bloomberg Television and Radio. Genie, first to you, what really did we learn tonight?
I think we learned that Joe Biden has a task ahead of him with this unusual setup of Super Tuesday. And then two days later the State of the Union.
And his task is big.
That maybe why he didn't come out tonight and speak publicly, and it is to tell the American public not only what he's done, but what he is going to do. And you know, he is facing really bad poll numbers over the last weekend, so he's got his work cut out for him. But he has the race that he wanted, and so does Donald Trump. They both wanted to face each other again, even if we don't want it. That's what they want and they're going to get it.
Eat to be the wet blanket here, but I'm always glad to play that role. We said in New Hampshire it was a late night there, Rick, we said this would be the beginning of the general election. Here we are saying it again. Did we just waste all that time? No, it's not wasted.
I mean it was interesting and we got to see a little bit of fighting.
But there's no.
Question this was Donald Trump's night. Not only was it Donald Trump's night because he collected the delegacy needs he'll he'll finish it off next week. But the reality is that they both of his opponents, Nicky Haley and Joe Biden gave him the night. It was his night to talk and nobody else did so. As Genie said, Biden's got a job to do. On Thursday, that'll be his night to talk and and that will signify the real cutting of the ribbon and off to the general election.
This is the moment that voters are going to be looking in to see what the candidates were saying. They'll see Donald Trump in the news tomorrow the victor, and they'll wait to see I guess from Joe Biden on Thursday.
Absolutely, and of course we're can. Genie will be with us on Thursday for that coverage of State of the Use It Union, And come Thursday, we don't know whether or not Nicki Haley will still be in this race. We have about ninety seconds left with you two, if you had to put odds by the next time we see you on Thursday on State of the Union night as to whether or not Nicki Haley will still be in the running. Genie, would you take that?
But oh, I have no idea.
You know, I think, you know, I think it depends on the donors. I mean, I think in this case, you really do have to do what Bloomberg does best follow the money, because she doesn't get out because she's not going to win. She gets out because she can't. She doesn't have the money to go forward. So I think it's all up to her donors.
I think, yeah, I think that quiet is telling us everything there's there's there'll be no more campaign that has any legitimacy, And if she does, it's only a matter of time before she gets out. And then the question is does she endorse Donald Trump or not.
That's spoken from somebody who's been there and had those hard conversations. Well, of course, keep you posted on whatever we're hearing from Nicki Haley's campaigns to Rick Davis and Geanie Shanzano. That does it for us here for now in Washington,