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Politics Drive.
A lot of conversations on this program, including one that we're about to have Kaylee, following a ruling today by the Supreme Court. They've been adding opinion days of a lot of cases left. This one brings us to the bump stock.
Band Yeah, six to three ruling the Supreme Court effectively gutting the ban on bump stocks that was put into place during the Trump administration after the Las Vegas shooting in October of twenty seventeen that killed six sixty people wounded hundreds more, the deadliest mass shooting still in modern American history.
That's right.
That's why we're glad to spend some time with Congresswoman Dina Titus, who represents Nevada's first district and had a visceral reaction to this ruling earlier. Congresswoman, Welcome to Bloomberg TV and Radio. We appreciate the time you're giving us today. You tweeted following this ruling, the Supreme Court just got it a year's long bump stock band. You call it terrifying, and you end your message with the line and angry lawmaker is a motivated one. The fight is far from over.
Will you provide a legislative answer to this ruling today?
I already have done that.
In fact, I first introduced the bill in twenty seventeen, right after the shooting that was in my district, and I brought it back every session since it has some bipartisans support, and if it came to the floor, I believe it would pass because the public opinion is so in our favor. We predicted that the Supreme Court would do this from the very minute that the ATF took action. We knew somebody would sue. So the best way to deal with the problem then and now is through legislation.
Well, Congressoman, as I noted, this did go into effect during the Trump administration, and we know that Donald Trump does have a close relationship with Congressional Republicans. We saw that on full display here in Washington yesterday as he met with Republican members of both the Senate and the House, all of whom seemed to be for the most part behind him. Is it actually Donald Trump who needs convincing here to push for a legislative answer?
Well, I don't have any sway with Donald Trump, and I don't think this is very high on his agenda. And most of the Republicans have been in bed with the NRA for such a long time that they resist this. The ATF under Trump made this ruling to try to circumvent legislation, probably knowing full well that it would be struck down by the course. We knew it. I don't know why they wouldn't know it, So it was a symbolic gesture, and it's just taken this long to finally
have the truth come out. And in the meantime, we've been trying to get that legislation passed so we wouldn't be so to the ruling of this very conservative and insensitive Supreme Court.
The shooting in Las Vegas in your district that brought us to this point of having a bump stock ben is still the largest, the deadliest in modern American history. Congresswoman, what are you hearing from people in your district?
Today.
Well, we've been working with some gun violence advocacy groups. Moms Demand Action is very active in my district. They've put crosses up on the site where the shooting occurred. There's a lot of support, and in fact, Nevada legislature passed above stock bill. Eleven states have done that as well as the District of Columbia. Those laws won't be affected by this decision because it was narrowly written just on basis of a technicality, so those will still stand.
But that tells you something about how the people in Nevada field, and Nevada is a wild West state with a lot of people guns, but they know these aren't for hunting or for four bump stocks are strictly for killing, and that's what they do.
Well, Congressman, that really gets to the heart of the question that was before the court, which is whether a bump stock converts a semi automatic weapon into a machine gun. The court today ruled that it doesn't. Would your constituents disagree.
Oh absolutely, And look at the descending opinion. Just as Sodermyer says, if it walks like a duck and it talks like a duck, it's a duck. They looked at some kind of pulling of one finger as opposed to the overall function of the guns. Of the bump stock, you attach it to a gun, it will allow you to fire four hundred to eight hundred rounds in one minute. Think of the people you can take out in one
minute with that many bullets. So it's very clearly a transformation of a regular gun to an automatic gun that machine guns we outlawed in the thirties.
There will be another Supreme Court decision come up on whether certain that risk individuals should be able to apply for a gun license, those who've been involved in domestic abuse. Does this ruling today make you worry about the next Well, I worry.
About everything that comes out of this Supreme Court frankly, but yes it does. You know, there's a lot of talk about we need to deal with the mental health problems, keep guns out of the hands of people who can do harm. It's not the gun, it's the person. And yet here's a measure that does just that. We'll see if they strike it down or not. Likely they will because the NRA uses the argument knows under the tent any little thing that we do, they say, attacks your
second Amendment rights. That's absolutely not true. I'm a gun owner. I grew up in the South dead and went hunting all the time till had two little girls who saw bamby and that put an end to that. But we're not trying to take away guns. We just want responsible use of guns the way they're intended to be, for sport or for.
All Right, Congresswoman, we appreciate you joining us today. That is Democratic Representative Dina Titus of the first District of Nevada, her district, of course, show, including the Las Vegas Strip where we saw those events take place in October of twenty seventeen. Perhaps not a surprising ruling from the Supreme Court we got today with the six to three decision. The Congresswoman herself said that she expected it, and yet one that certainly is getting a lot of attention here in Washington.
Two weeks of opinions left.
We've got a lot more in some big ones too, including presidential immunity Kayleie, that we'll be talking about before the end of this month. This is the fastest show in politics, Ballance of Power, only on Bloomberg.
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Welcome to Balance of Power, the Friday Edition. I'm Joe Matthew in sweltering Washington and lander with us on the radio, on the satellite and on YouTube, where you can watch us right now. On YouTube and easy to find search Bloomberg Global News. You'll find our live stream there that goes straight through the day from our studios in Washington and New York. As we assemble our panel with the billboards going up in Milwaukee, we saw this coming. Maybe
the T shirts, the hats, I don't know. Do they have the coozies made yet? The billboards are out though, after Donald Trump described the city in the key swing state where his convention will be held next month as horrible. That would be Milwaukee, The DNC is now launching billboards in ten locations across beautiful Milwaukee featuring the president's former presidents insults of the city that again will be home
to the RNC next month. Rick Davis is so us this day after Seersucker Thursday, Bloomberg Politics contributor and Genie Shanzano was back in the mix as well.
Great to see you both.
Welcome to our panelists on this Friday, Jeanie. I know it's silly season here, but is this the strategy the DNC wants to be pursuing for the next six months?
And I'm sorry I missed yoursucker Thursday.
You know that it was cool.
So much about yesterday was just a reminder of the craziness that Donald Trump brings. Everything from him and Nancy Pelosi potentially being together, to Hannibal Lecter to Taylor Swift. I mean, this is what the man is talking about his first time back in the Capitol Complex since January sixth. And of course, the Milwaukee is horrible rings large. You know,
we saw the cover of the Milwaukee Sentinel Journal today. Yeah, I suppose it's not the first time we have heard a candidate or a presumptive nominee say something bad about a swing state or a swing city. But yeah, the Democrats are going to ride it through all its worth. It's all we'll see when we go to Milwaukee. So it should be a lot of fun.
Can't wait.
Yeah, the front page of the Journal Sentinel. Rick, I'm looking at it now in my terminal Trump, this big bull head of Trump.
Milwaukee horrible. Now.
To be fair, the Trump campaign tried to clarify his remarks and see he was talking about crime in the city. He wasn't trying to insult the city. But Rick, you've run conventions before. Is this the right way to roll into Milwaukee?
Yeah, it's kind of tough on the Post Committee, who's out there raising tens of millions of dollars to support the Republican National Convention. You know, when your nominee, who you're going to basically spend all this money celebrating, thinks you've got a horrible city, you know. But I think there's even bigger things at stake here. I mean, as
you mentioned, this is a battleground state. Every poll we've in the last six months has basically called this thing dead even And just as a reminder, Biden only won this by twenty thousand votes in twenty twenty, so this is one of the key states. Biden has to win this state, we think, in order to win the presidency, and Trump gives them a gift like this. I mean, they can explain all day long what they want, but these billboards are going to remind people that he called
our city horrible. I mean, Spinach is horrible. How can a city be horrible? That's such over the top.
All right, so this is too good.
Producer James answers, the call Biden Harris campaign is already up with not a horrible city T shirt. You've got the map of the state here thirty two dollars, by the way, and the coozies are in.
Look at this.
I love Milwaukee coozies with the mug of beer Genie. I guess we've already answered the question. This is how you respond if you're the DNC.
Oh it is.
And I want to tell Rick Popeye is not going to be happy. Spinach is not horrible. It's very healthy and very good, as is Milwaukee a beautiful city.
You know.
But it was it was comical to hear the Republicans come out of this meeting and every Wisconsin Republican was saying, well, he didn't say it, well he said it, but he was talking about crime or you know. It was this back and forth, you know, as if he was your crazy Grandpa at Thanksgiving dinner who just was tired and drank too much and was just you know, going on and on, and they were held responsible for what he
was saying. And of course, the reality is is that this is what we are going to be faced with for the next rest of this campaign and if he wins, for the next five years. And this is a gift to the Democrats, not just this statement in Milwaukee, but the fact that Trump is back, and Trump is back
being trunk. And while this gets his base gin and people laugh, there are a big coalition of people who are saying, the man goes back to Capitol Hill and talks about Hannibal Lecter not being so bad because he invited a friend. I don't even know what that means beyond the you know, it's it's reminiscent of the sharks in Arizona the other day. This is what we're in Stofford. Do we really want to turn over the nuclear codes to him? And that is a big problem for Republicans
and the Trump campaign. So Democrats say, go at it, keep talking Donald, because it's not good. He was better off Twitter, in his contained bubble of you know, social media, where nobody sort of paid attention to every little thing he was saying. But he's back now, wow.
Oh my god.
Five of the ten billboards will feature Donald Trump's remarks in full quote Milwaukee, where we're having our convention, is a horrible city unquote. The other five billboards will include the tweet from Jake Sherman at punch Bowl with the siren and including that same line. I don't know, get your koozies and T shirts now. All I know, Rick is there's a debate coming, and this is serious business.
We can fool around with T shirts and coozies all day, but the clock is ticking here, and Joe Biden is going to be in three different time zones over the course of this two week period. He was in France last week, is in Italy today. He's got to get him a red eyre Well. I guess that's on Air Force one fly overnight to California for the big fundraiser with George Clooney this week, and he's on other stuff
next week. Would you need to take the president in this case or your candidate aside and say, sir, it's time to start preparing for the debate.
Yeah, this is really troubling the schedule that they're putting Joe Biden in, and I'd say even beyond the debate, just his own ability to perform at a high level is really being I think put in danger. I mean, two trips to your Europe in a month, back and forth. Why wouldn't you just stay over there, do a little gardening and somebody's placed in Germany and hang out for a while and recover from one big event to another.
And now they're going to put him on a whirlwind back and forth across the country in order to get him ready for a debate.
I really think.
I mean, I've now been through debates since Roma Reagan's nineteen eighty debate and virtually every Republican president since then, and the one thing you've got to do is be rested. You have to be fresh, You have to be able to sit and think. And usually that goes along with a pretty aggressive debate prep sessions that have to be built into the schedule, and incumbent presence always made the mistake, Oh, every day on my job is debate prep.
That's bunk.
It's not debate prep. You're doing your day job. And usually the president in power for the first term has a horrible first debate, and we can go through them all. I mean, they're like legendary and I've cried through every one of.
Them, and so like, I think these guys have to wake up in the White House and realize that their candidate's going to be tired and he's not going to be prepared and they should not expect him to do well.
And the whole idea was this was this wild card debate that he had to do well in.
Mm hmm, Genie, it's less than two weeks away. Are you getting nervous here?
I mean, this would be a lot to ask for a twenty year old to be doing all of this travel right now. I realize they've set aside some time at camp David. I guess in that week before the debate, is that enough?
You know?
The reality is is that Joe Biden has debated Donald Trump before. He's prepped for two debates with him. So there is that reality. It is curious to me because of course Biden's camp chose this time. They knew there was going to be a G seven, they knew there was going to be the normandy. Those are both important. They have this fundraiser this weekend, so they chose this. You know, what we can say is expectations of Joe
Biden couldn't be lower. I mean, if he comes out in his mildly conscious and able to, you know, say basic things, I think it's going to be a win at this point. But you look at the other side. You have Jason Miller out there saying Donald Trump doesn't need any prep. He's not going to be need to be programmed by staff. He's going to demonstrate elite stamina like he doesn't the rallies, I mean, they are going on and on about how Donald Trump has this thing
wrapped up, no prep. You know, expectations will be bet and so, you know, I think the other side of this is going to be fascinating as well, considering we basically are looking at an incumbent on incumbent debate and so I'm not sure Donald Trump is any more prepared for this than Joe Biden is. And last time around, Donald Trump was very, very office rocker, and Joe Biden had a pretty good performance. And I don't know that that won the election for him, but it certainly helped him in the polls.
Elite stamina I think I saw that stuff at seven eleven.
Rick.
Is this a traditional murder board, as you guys call it. Do you put the incumbent in a room at a podium and somebody else is playing Donald Trump? Or is Joe Biden beyond that?
Nobody's beyond that. And if Joe Biden thinks he is beyond it or that by debating Donald Trump twice and arguably winning because Donald Trump lost it somehow prepares him for this, It's all nuts. These are all circumstantial. Everything has changed since twenty twenty. And if he doesn't think so.
Look at his approval rating.
You know, he's at thirty nine to forty percent and he was at fifty four percent and twenty twenty. Joe Biden doesn't have anything to give back to the field. And so yeah, I mean, why in the world would you not have somebody who's going to perform the antics that Donald Trump will perform on the debate stage standing next to next to Biden. And the thing you have to worry about Joe Biden right now, because we've seen
the quick temperate lately, is him losing his cool? You know, Donald Trump, I'm sure is going to get up there and try and get the guy to go after him and talk about non presidential, talk about outside your comfort zone. Last thing you want is dark Brandon showing up on the stage.
Well, what's he gonna have to do with triple gainer when he comes out here to prove to everybody that he's not too old for this genie? I mean, I do I wonder where the bar is for both of them. Donald Trump is suggesting they be drug tested because he thinks they gave Joe Biden something for the State of the Union. And I do wonder what does Joe Biden do if Donald Trump, to rix point pulls you know a classic What if he shows.
Up a half an hour late just to psych him.
Ount he could do anything. It's Donald Trump. I'm still wondering if he shows up at all, given that there's no audience. But you know, we'll have to see. But you know, for Joe Biden, he does know how to handle this. Does he need debate prep? Absolutely? Does he need rest? Absolutely? I think a week is enough. But
you know, we'll have to see. But don't forget Donald Trump also has to perform, right, This is not all about Joe Biden and Donald Trump has to perform, and he can't perform the way he did quite frankly yesterday in the House talking about Taylor Swift, Hannibal Lecter, Nancy Pelosi and him being a good item. I mean, this is craziness. And if that is the Trump that shows up, that is more of a problem, I think than Joe Biden having less, you know, stamina than people might imagine.
The bar is low for Joe Biden. People don't hate him, they don't think he's crazy. They just think he's old and he is old. Donald Trump, they think is crazy and potentially dangerous. So he can't bring that Donald Trump to the show.
Wow, I don't don't even know what to say.
She's not a Hannibal elector fan. Geenie Shanzino and Rick Davis.
You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast. It's live weekdays at noon Eastern on Apocarplay and then round Oto with the Bloomberg Business app. Listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts, or watch us live on YouTube.
With It is the Friday edition. Welcome to the Threshold of the weekend. As Joe Biden wraps things up at the G seven in Italy a bit later on today. This is the last big day of the confat before he comes back to Washington, knowing that there's been a lot of discussion, not only about Ukraine, and we spent a lot of time on this yesterday, this new security deal between the US and Ukraine. We brought you Joe Biden's bilateral news conference with President Zelenski.
But of course Israel came up.
I believe it was our own Josh Wingrove who went there asking for an update on a cease fire, and we didn't get too much of an answer on that.
With news today that things are not cooling off in Israel, The New York Times reporting on this, and it's pretty heavy duty, with strikes increasing in southern Gaza and now new attacks against Hezbolah in Lebanon, and we've been talking about the potential for a new front to the North, if we can't already call it that, and not the first time that we've discussed this with Michael Allen who joins US now, I'm glad to say on our Friday edition,
managing director partner at Beacon Global Strategies, you spent time as special assistant to the President's Senior director for Counter proliferation Strategy, just the voice that we want now. It's great to see you, welcome back, Thanks for reving. Are we going to have a second war in Israel? We've been waiting for something to break here with Hesbeala. It sure feels like we're close.
I think we are. I was there a month ago, and across the political spectrum in Israel they say our psyche the way we are post October seventh, and even after Iran took direct shots at us, we can no longer rely solely on our military deterrent. We have to look at the capability of our adversaries and then make a judgment of whether we can live with that. And Israel cannot live with another genocidal terrorist organization just over
their border. They're a small cun They can't forever have an evacuated space where no one is Honestly, Israel's almost been at war for the last eight months with Hesbela. They hit them all the time, they do senior leaders constantly. But I do think it's going to become a hotter war as Gaza finishes.
The skirmishes or the shell across the border that we've seen what does that mean then, because it's not the first time that you've warned us about this. Yeah, what does that mean for a potential ceasefire with Hamas?
You can't have both, can you?
I don't think you can have both. The Israelis, by the way, don't want a two front war. I think they would rather wrap up let's call it major combat operations in Rafa and in Gaza. They'll always be there forever more. I think in some limited fashion, I think they want to get that done. They want to move forward. President Biden and his administration are unalterably opposed to Israel declaring war on Hesbala. So we're heading loggerheads again with Israel about what the right thing for them.
To do is.
So we can where Joe Biden can take that ceasefire proposal folded up and put it back in the drawer.
For now, it sounds like well, also, Hamas is just saying no all the time. Now we can debate whether Biden has been too anti Israel. So Hamas is hanging back and saying, I'm going to get more of what I want if I just wait. Because the world, including Israel's best friend in the United States, isn't standing with them. But also Hamas put forward twelve to fifteen other things that they wanted out of a ceasefire deal, and I think most of them were total nonstart.
What was to trap this idea of a permanent ceasefire? Why not just deal with phase one six weeks because Hamas says it's not signing anything unless it's permanent. It Israel says it won't be permanent until the elimination of Hamas, So what are we doing.
The only leverage I think Hamas has is the hostages, and the more that they let go or the more they get rescued, I think they think they lose leverage and the only thing they want is a complete cessation of hostilities. And they can read the newspapers Nanna who says, well, no matter what we put forward in this agreement, we're not going to be able to give up going after
Hamas if there's still a military force there. So I think at the end of the day, that's what Senoar's calculation is, which is I can't get everything I want, so I'm not going to even start this process.
As we spend time with Michael Allen at Beacon Global, strategies of the throws of a dangerous world and a dangerous Middle East. Imagine Israel declares war against Hesbalah, what happens to US Iranian relations, if I can even use that term.
So I think the United States should try to get a little tougher on Iran. They are making in what for well, sanctions or at least to enforce the sanctions that are already on the books that we're not currently implementing or otherwise enforcing. I think that they have to look to the head of the snake. It's Iran. They need to put pressure on them, rather than always putting only pressure on Israel.
To curb its hostilities.
It's got to be both sides of the equation if.
They want to have success. Well, boy, that's something.
And you wonder what Anthony Blinkoln thinks about that as he continues shuttle diplomacy coming off his eighth trip. Now, these have not been terribly effective.
They haven't. There is actually an alternative. There is a diplomatic path in Lebanon. It's a guy named Almos Hawkstein. He has been requested by the people in Lebanon to come over to try and broker some sort of deal.
This is a senior advisor to senior advisor to Presdice on this program before and always helped to shepherd the energy policy at the Exactly, this is about relationships, as your point.
Exactly, They've asked him to see if he can figure out a way to get Hesbela to withdraw north of the Latani River. That would give Israel more confidence at least that the terrorist organization isn't going to run over in the middle of the night and massacre everyone.
That's fascinating.
So we go from Bill Burns, the head of the CIA, to a presidential advisor. Is being able to turn the key to some diplomatic solution.
Not the Secretary of State.
He Almos Hostein needs some backing. Though he can't just solve this diplomatically all on his own. He needs some leverage, and I think that means they have to go through Tehran and not just wow television.
Does that happen?
It's hard to see because I think there's what meetings take place. Well, if you believe this Wall Street Journal article from about ten days ago, the administration doesn't understandably doesn't want any more problems in the Middle East. Before the election doesn't want a regional escalation scenario, and they asked the Europeans, according to the Wall Street Journal, to not punish Iran for their new nuclear transgressions. So I don't know that the administration is conditioned in this way
to think, let's put more pressure on Iran. But I know it's not going to work. When I go to Israel and I talk to everyone there, and everyone across the political spectrum says we've got to do something about Hesbelah before September. First, kids need to move back into their communities, get back to school, and get back life back to normal.
Well, if it does feel like we're on the verge of something. Lastly, after what we heard from Joe Biden yesterday speaking I think specifically to Patriot missile systems, but maybe consider this even more broadly with our commitments to Ukraine. YEA, does that slow weapons deliveries to Israel. He made it clear that we will fulfill our obligations to Ukraine before anything goes anywhere else.
So you have to go weapon system by weapon system, and I think that we have a great relationship with the Israelis on iron Dome. Iron Dome goes arrow and the rest and uninterrupted, uninterrupted. We're working on that jointly. Patriots, though, are in demand all over the globe, and we're trying to get a bunch of Europeans, like the Spanish or the Greeks to say, hey, you know what, maybe we don't need these so badly and we ought to transfer them to the Ukrainians.
Well, we also try to increase manufacturing capacity on these missiles.
Right, that's hard to do, Roger, I'm glad the NDAA just passed. We need to rebuild the defense industrial base.
Well, we'll see what Raytheon can do about that. I know that they're expanding down south as well. Beacon Global Strategies. Michael Allen, what a Treat's good to see you. Safe travels until we see you again. He's just about always about to get on an airplane when we talked to him. I'm Joe, Matthew and Washington. Thanks for being with us here. On the Friday edition of Balance of Powers, we turn our attention to Capitol Hill.
What a day that was yesterday.
With Donald Trump making his return to the capital for the first time since the January sixth attacks on the Capitol. Spent time with lawmakers. He was feted by the House and the Senate Republican lawmakers, and then spoke to the business.
Community at the Business Roundtable.
We walked you through all of his movements yesterday across town, and Zach Cohen joins us now with the view from the Capitol Bloomberg Government Congress reporter, Zach, it's good to see you. I wonder just the the broader impact of what we saw yesterday shaking hands with Mitch McConnell. He even got Mitt Romney in the room here. So it does seem that the establishment on Capitol Hill is all behind Trump now is that official?
It does seem like the majority of both House and Senate Republicans, with a few notable exceptions, attended these meetings that were just off of the Capitol Building and party
offices on Capitol Hill, and Trump was really fed it. It sounds like in both situations they wished a happy birthday, which I believe is today, And certainly no lack of unity among these two parties or excuse me, among the party as they head into the November elections, where both the White House as well as Congress, both chambers will be hotly contested and so you had people like Senator Susan Collins, Lisa Brokowski, more moderate members who actually voted
to convict Trump and his impeachment trial after the January sixth insurrection op not to attend. Romney himself initially thought he wasn't going to make it, but it's like the Palm Beach was canceled, he told a few of us,
and so did end up going as well. So a good indication that Republicans are trying to rally around the flag here, despite the federal convictions, despite the attempts to overthrow the election, and despite in some states the really difficult politics with Trump at the top of the ticket.
Yeah, he's seventy eight years old today.
Huh, So the former president got a big birthday bash here in Washington. Happy Flag Day, by the way, Zach, I haven't said that to anyone yet.
You're writing about.
Some of the folks we saw gather around the President when he spoke yesterday. I mean, he had half the Republican Senate behind him at the NRSC standing at the podium,
none beaming more I would argue than jd Vance. But as you write, Senator Marco Rubio jd Vance, Tim Scott, all praised by Donald Trump yesterday, all three competing to be his vice presidential candidate, his running mate in this race, and Zach If it's any of these three, his choice is going to have an interesting downstream effect on the Senate, which is something you're writing about today.
What should we be bracing for?
Right And in that meeting, I have heard from some sources that make of this what you will that Trump ended up praising Tim Scott, the Republicans from South Carolina, a little more effusively than Marco Rubio and JD. Vance, who are two other Republican senators who are in contention for the vice presidential nomination nomination. Trump has said that he plans to make that announcement just in time for Milwaukee when the Republicans meet there to formally nominate him
as their pick for president. And so we got a little bit of color there. But I've been thinking more ahead to next January. If in fact, one of these three or four senators that are in contention becomes the next vice president, that would create not just an opening in their Senate seat, but potentially openings in Senate leadership.
Tim Scott, for instance, is currently the ranking member on the Banking Committee with jurisdiction over Walls Street in the financial industry more broadly, and if he ends up going to the White House, then Senator Mike Browns from South Dakota, which holds billions of dollars in trusts, he would take over potentially that chairmanship the Committee if Republicans do flip the majority, and so you could see a lot of turnover not just in the White House but the Senate
depending on who this pick is.
It's pretty remarkable.
I love the Marco Rubio geography issue here, by the way, is this real? Somebody's got to move right either. Donald Trump, if he chose Marco Rubio, would have to make his permanent address back in New York, and I guess he could do that pretty easily, certainly on paper.
But Marco Rubio has even.
Suggested he might move out of Florida or would be willing to to be Donald Trump's running mate, which is more likely.
I mean unclear at this point. But yes, there is this constitutional requirement that both the president and the vice president on a national ticket can't be from the same state and they can't contest and the votes in that state if they are not, And I can't imagine Republicans would give up the opportunity to win in Florida's electoral College votes given how far the state has swung in
their direction in recent elections. There's actually some president on that some of the mind in earlier today, then Governor George Bush of Texas chose Dick Cheney as his running mate. Cheney moved his official residence from Texas back to Wyoming so that they would not conflict with that constitutional prerogative.
And so I do think the residential issue is one that they would have to figure out if Rubio, who is a telegenic rising star in the party for sure, a former presidential candidate in his own right, if Trump were to pick him, but Tim Scott Tom Cotton from Arkansas in the mixed Doug Bergen, we hear a lot about the North Dakota governor. So certainly it's not a done deal yet. I think the residency issue for Rubio is one they have to consider.
That's a big question about Senate leadership, which you've already referred to. Interesting to see Donald Trump with Mitch McConnell. They're not friends. Donald Trump has repeatedly insulted his wife, and it was the first time that we saw these two together since January sixth, But boy, it was all smiles. Same of course for John Corner, who wants to have the job. John Thune wants to have the job. Will Donald Trump essentially call this if he wins reelection, who the next Senate leader will be.
Well, McConnell steps down in November, Certainly a lot of Republican senator is going to be wondering if Trump makes an endorsement in that race, which he hasn't yet, that would certainly sway a lot of their decision making. Now, a lot of jockey has already happened behind the scenes. You've got some senators that have already pledged that publicly are privately to either as you mentioned John Cornyn from Texas, a former party chairman, a former whip, John Thune from
South Dakota, there's another South Dakota senator for you. A number of pledged their support to him, is what I've been told so. And then there's Reck Scott from Florida, who is clearly angling for a Trump endorsement. He actually told me in Florida just a couple of weeks ago that he's hoping Trump gets involved, but hasn't predicted that would essentially be the case. Trump certainly has a lot
of influence on this party and among this conference. But at the end of the day, this is an elections this behind closed doors, on a secret ballot, and so it's really hard to whip for anybody. And you're all Trump's influence is certainly present here, I'm not sure it's determinative.
Always a treat to talk to Zach Cohen, our Friday treat today from Bloomberg Government.
Zach, it's great to see you.
Thank you, thanks for listening to the Balance of Power podcast. Make sure to subscribe if you haven't already, at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and you can find us live every weekday from Washington, DC at noontime Eastern at Bloomberg dot com.