The Year's Biggest Stories and a Biden Christmas

and they never tell you the truth right. A license to lie is called being a Congress Bloomberg Sound On Politics, Policy and perspective from DC's top names, and how hard this time of year can be. That's why sometimes the smallest act of kindness it can means so much. Bloomberg Sound On with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio. They've passed

the budget, Now the exodus. Welcome to the fastest hour in politics, as the House clears a massive government funding package just in time for Christmas, sent over the objections of many Republicans. Tonight we dare look inside the one point seven trillion dollar plan with the help of our two experts on the hill, Bloomberg Government's Emily Wilkins and Jack Fitzpatrick with us in just a moment and as lawmakers head for the hills. Today we look across the

divide to the next Congress with a Republican lead. House. Jim Kessler of Third Way will join us later on the new agenda. We'll look back on the stories that resonated most with voters this year. Turns out they're different for Democrats and Republicans. Will learn more from Eli Yolkley of Morning Consults. It was the last piece of business for the sevente Congress. Here's the Majority leader, House Majority

Leader Stenny Hoyer on the floor. We are here today to fulfill one of Congress's most basic responsibilities, to fund our government and keep it working for the people. And they did the one point seven trillion dollar omnibus we've been talking about now for days and weeks past the House today to to oh one after the Senate passed it yesterday, averting a government shutdown at midnight tonight. So I feel required to say, nobody was actually threatening that,

and it didn't come that a little pain. Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy railed against the bill for about half an hour a day angry speech, and rank and file Republicans took their time for the same Some leadership members did as well. Isn't a Texas Congressman Roy chip Oh, and you should have seen the whaling and nash you have teeth them. Well, what are you gonna do? We don't

want to be here until Christmas? Why don't you tell that to George Washington and the boys crossing the Delaware in seventeen seventy six or the boys in bath Stone in What were they doing on Christmas? Were they trying to fly out of the nation's capital and their jets back to their homes around their warm fireplaces so they can be with their families after they absolutely just royally screwed the country and their kids and grandkids, because that's

what they just did. Chip Roy, Congressman Chip Roy, easy for me to say, forgive my dyslexia, he went, he was, and like many of his colleagues when after the way the entire process was handled, he was not only talking about Democrats either. Listen, hell, we've the Senate makes us look like William the Conqueror. They don't even bother to do Appropriations committee work. They just scoff and sit at their tables and go, well, we'll just do the work

for him. Yeah, thanks Mitch, Thanks Mitch, and so how about we start there with Jack and Emily Bloomberg. Government's Jack Fitzpatrick and Emily Wilkins. This is their specialty. This budget stuff has them working hard, and we're lucky to have him on this busy day. And maybe if you guys have a minute, we can stretch out here on this, uh. Emily.

Congressman Jim mcgovernment made a point to remind House Republicans today that as they vote no on the bill, they will also happily then take credit for projects that were funded in their districts with this budget. That's that's just the way it goes, right, That is, I mean, your Republicans, they their whole thing has been that they want to cut spending, that they want to reduce the depsit they are tying it to inflation. And you know, this is

exactly what we expected to see from Republicans today. We did see a handful of Republicans actually go ahead and vote for the omnibus. You also saw, of course, that bipartisan support in the Senate where it's absolutely required. But I don't think anyone was was shocked that Chip Roy went to the House for today and said what he said, Uh, staying with of course, Kevin McCarthy at this point. Yeah, and that's you know there. Of course, they both have

their own their own reasons here. Kevin McCarthy, you know, was you could argue auditioning for the job. It wasn't lost on me, Jack when when Jim McGovern went up to the microphone at one point and said, oh, based on what I just heard, he doesn't have the votes yet. Yeah. You know, there was a lot of politics on the floor, but I think everybody could kind of tell where this was going. Uh, it was clear that generally Republicans were going to vote against this, but they weren't gonna lose

Democratic vote. The Democrats still have the majority. Now this can all kind of be seen through a lens of uh McCarthy positioning himself for an eventual speaker's vote, kind of alliging self with some conservatives, your Chip Roy types, who are very enthusiastic about saying, look, this process that has gone very poorly from their perspective on spending lately

has to change in our house Republican majority. So this vote wasn't some pivotal thing where it looked like it was going to fail, But they had to give some speeches and get into it because they're not happy about the way things have been going. Well, let's get into this a little bit here. By the way, we should note emily that a lot of these votes were done by proxy. Right, there was almost nobody uh in the

House today. What were those numbers like, Well, there were I think about two sixteen people who are actually in the sixteen the chamber. Sixteen voted by proxy. Do a eighteen is the middle line? So I think that gives you a good idea. And I mean, let's proxy voting. You know, they're They're kind of two sides to it, right. There's certainly the argument that lawmakers need to be here, that they need to do their job. On the other hand,

lawmakers knew the bill was written. They knew that they were just pushing through what the Senate has has already cranked out. And a lot of them, you know, they want to be home, They want to be with their families. They too, are frustrated with how long the process has took. Yesterday, House Majority outgoing House Majority Leader Study Lawyer was talking about his own frustrations with the appropriations process and the budget process that we've seen, Uh, and next year, of

course proxy voting. Kevin McCarthy has made it clear that is going to be absolutely eliminated, but I think it is worth it just to sort of see how this little experiment played out with proxy voting. I mean, yes, you saw members, you know, missing committee hearings and then zooming in while they were on their boats in the

middle of the water on the beautiful day. But at the same point, you had members who this year, um, you know, they were taking care of six loved ones, they had cancer, they had legitimate reasons for not being able to show up to cast a vote. And I think it's it's you know, would be interesting to see if Congress ever decides to take a look at how you provide members leeway while still making sure that they actually show up in the chamber. But that will be

over in the Republican Leadhouse Saily. Yes, yeah, that's at least at least for an hour. Something changes, but but that's what we can expect on on January three. Let's get into the bill a little bit here, Jack, everyone's been here in the top line number because it's eye popping, um. And we've heard a lot about funding for Ukraine because of largely the Zelenski visit this week and some some high profile skepticism, but some of the other important components

include like the funding for the Pentagon. A ten percent increase in defense spending. That's a lot more than President Biden asked for. How did Mitch McConnell pull that off? You know it? It actually started to get obvious that Biden was going to have to sign off on way

more defense spending than he asked for. Remember, they put together their budget proposal at the end of March, not that long after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and you could tell even in June or July, Republicans would start offering amendments and markups on the initial bills saying we need more for the military, and Democrats were really on

the defensive, so you knew that was gonna happen. I think the X factor the last month or so was, you know, there's a tradition, uh that's bipartisan that gets everybody on board that if you increase defense by x amount, you do the same for non defense and vice versa. Republicans wanted a bigger increase for defense than non defense. They succeeded in in getting that. It was a bigger

boost for defense than non defense. Um. But ultimately, you know this, this boosted discretionary spending pretty significantly year over year, and that's how you get a deal. You get a good increase for both sides. Defense gets Republicans on board, non defense gets Democrats on board. Uh. And I think largely the war in Ukraine and the amount of they had to they had they had to send money back to the US military that used its draw down authority

to help. You grand, that really boosted a bipartisan level of support for more defense spending in particular. Yeah, if that's the win for Republicans, Emily, was there something sweet that Democrats got that that they might not have expected? I mean, there were a couple of different things in there. You definitely saw the Electoral Reform Act, which is something that Democrats have been talking about for a while. Are really trying to make it difficult for members to do

what they did on January six raising that threshold Foreign agreement. UM. I mean I think for Democrats too, it was just getting it passed, getting it done, uh, not carrying this over to next year when you're going to see Republicans control the House closing the deal. You mentioned the Electoral College Act that had bipartisan support, right, Jack, This was something actually that that's important that our listeners should know about that. You know, this goes beyond the spending plan.

There were a couple of things attached to it, and looting this one following that that last committee hearing of the January six committee is a pretty big deal. Yeah. The the attachments on this kind of bill we talk about it's a government funding bill, but it's also the last must pass piece of legislation, so that means they attack on other important things. Uh. And you're right, the

Electoral count Act was bipartisan. That was something Susan Collins in the Senate, the Republican was one of the people working on to essentially set a higher threshold for challenging presidential election results and make it clear that the vice president's role in that is a bit of a check the box kind of thing. That this this was to avoid a twenty January six kind of issue. Um. And in addition to that, they added some other uh, non appropriations,

non funding measures. There's the thing that U bands, once it is assigned into law, will ban federal employees from having TikTok on a government owned account. There were some measures to increase requirements uh for workplaces to make a comidations for pregnant employees and breastfeeding employees that were added on late. So this you know this they didn't get their tax measures. They wanted to get a big tax bill. They didn't quite get that. There are other things that

fell off. There was no covid uh supplemental funding. But it's it's a big legislative vehicle. And and those are a few of the other things that they kind of tack on that the ornaments that they put on the Christians tree, all of those were got bipartisan votes, right, or they wouldn't have happened to electoral account Act of

TikTok band uh. If you and and and some of the others that you know, for for protecting pregnant women in the workplace, uh, you have to to admit that there there was This was a bipartisan exercise, despite a lot of the very passionate objections we heard from some House Republicans to the Emily, Yes, I mean this is something that you know Democrats they that they have worked a while for on this um. They have you know,

looked into a number of things. I mean, I think if if I can also just sort of say that really for Democrats, I mean, it caps off what has been a pretty productive hundred seventeenth Congress. I mean, just just to pointing out that, you know, you could do consider the bills that they passed. Do you consider things they got done? I think yeah, you know that that overall, like they were able to get, you know what, much more done than I think we were expecting them to

with the very near margins they had. You guys can both keep TikTok on your phones just to be clear, right when you're walking on the halls of like maybe you can show that to the lawmakers if they need to know. I'm not on TikTok yet, I Joe, I need you to teach me how to get TikTok. You're asking the wrong dude. We can learn this together, though, Jack. The two old appropriators who you've covered very closely, Senator Patrick Lahy Richard Shelby are leaving the building. They both

played a pretty big role in making this work. Is it gonna be more difficult without them? Um? You know, this was a good way for them to cross the finish line. I don't know if it's necessarily going to be more difficult without them. It's going to be more difficult to do basic legislating and fund the government with a divided Congress and a narrow Republican majority in the House. But you know they're looking at the people in line are Patty Murray and Susan Collins to be the top

appropriators in the Senate. Those are two well established lawmakers who have a lot of experience doing appropriate nations work. Patty Murray was one worked with Paul Ryan on the budget deals like ten years ago. Um, there's a lot of trust and faith there that it would be notable that the the the four corners, as they say, the four top appropriations member those two Rosadelaaro and k Granger

would all be women for the first time. Um, so there's there's some lawmakers are kind of looking forward to working with them. But this was a nice way to cross the finish line for Shelby and Leahy, who themselves have a good solid legislative record and it didn't want to see this fall apart in their last go around. Yeah, that's right. Both delivered very touching Uh, farewell addresses, and I'm sure we'll be remembered only by both sides of the aisle. I mean they've they're part of the woodwork

up there. Uh, not a mention of Batman that I was that I heard, at least in Lady's farewell addressed. But it's on the leadership battles now, Emily. And this is what's gonna keep keeping you up at night in the new year. On January three, this is when we find out how difficult life is really going to be for Kevin McCarthy, how is this going to work? So basically, it's the very first thing that the House does before they approve any sort of rules, is they get in

there and they elect a speaker. And people say that to eight team is the magic number. That's pretty much right. McCarthy nearly needs to get all of his members either in line or if he can't get them to vote for him, he needs to get them to vote present. That's also another thing to keep an eye on because that does impact the tally. But at this point, look, there are five Republicans who have come out said they

will not support McCarthy, they will not vote present. They are going to be supporting Andy Biggs or another member, and that poses a problem for McCart because he he needs at least one of them to be able to to, you know, agree to be on board. And they five have said that there's more than them, that they are

members who haven't announced yet. And I think at this point from the perspective of those members, from your Andi Biggses and your Bob Goods, there's no reason for them to say that they will vote for McCarthy until the second that they do it, because they are trying to get concessions in the House rules, things that will give them more power to operate in the next two years. And I think they're those negotiations are ongoing right now.

They are still trying to figure out exactly what the House rules will be for next year and how that balance of power will work. And so at this point, I think they're all kind of in this we're all in a bit of a holding pattern, trying to see

what these House rules are going to be. Uh. And of course, there there's always the chance that come January three, if McCarthy doesn't get it on the first or sepe of ballot, that they might look to potentially make some rules that that makes it easier for him to be able to become speaker and and could make it easier, uh, for Kevin McCarthy to be fired. Right, Isn't this kind of what they're asking for here? Is this rules changed, Jack, that would make it easier easier for one member to

challenge the speakership. Yes, that is something that has been discussed. Uh. My understanding that they're still having some pretty broad, odd and a variety of discussions on rules. The issue you're talking about is something I've heard brought up UM. But to be honest, when I've talked to members and tried to get them to say, all right, what's your list of demands? Uh, it sounds like they're still having pretty broad discussions about that, about UM spending rules to cut

down on spending and more. Jack Fitzpatrick, Emily Wilkins, Happy New Year. Will meet you back here for the rumble in the House. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg so on with Joe Matthew on blue Bird Radio. So it's just us locals left here inside the bubble, give park

wherever you want, goats eight at whatever restaurant. Members of Congress are on the way to Grandma's house here, Chris crossing the nation on airplanes as we speak, course many we're already home, having voted today by proxy about half of them, as we learned from Emily Wilkins. But the next time we get the business on Capitol Hill January three, again, it's going to be the start of a new Congress with a Republican lead House. We're just not sure exactly

who the speaker is going to be. But everyone is still asking the same question, will they get anything done, or at least what will they try to get done? Senator Chuck Schumer was asked this in his year end news briefing with reporters listen following, Maga is like Thelma and Louise going over Cliff, and that's what we saw in the election. And I intend to reach out both on in the Senate and even in the House to some of the more mainstream republic Kins and say let's

work together. There are a whole lot of issues we can work together on. I'm not gonna you'll ask me which ones I'm not going to delineate, but I believe this these two years, the next two years, we had a huge We have a huge um uh uh, two years to follow. I think it's gonna be a lot more productive than people think, and not just on appointments and judges and things that we in the Senate can do on our own. As to the debt ceiling, it's

got to be done in a bipartisan way. It always is a party that tries to hold up the government and demand something in return is going to lose. Well, it certainly sounds hopeful, but as the Majority leader just suggested, not everyone sees it that way. I'm curious to hear from Jim Kessler, who knows Senator Chuck Schumer as well as anyone, co founder of a Third Way Democratic strategist

and former legislative policy director for Senator Schumer. He's going to be in the majority, of course, Jim, welcome back. It's great to have you. But you're gonna have a Republican lead house. How much will that grind things to a halt? Yeah, I mean this is gonna be a very interesting couple of two years. And I heard Schumer saying just what he said on the radio before, like

he really believes this. Look, the variable is the Republican House, because what we're witnessing right now is the fracturing of the GOP before our very eyes, and it's playing out in the drama about whether McCarthy is going to be speaker or not. And look, I'm not so sure he'd become speaker here, and if he does, he'll be extraordinarily weak, but the weakest speaker of our lifetime. So that's going to weigh into the possibilities of whether stuff gets done

or does not get done. Well, does that give Chuck Schumer the upper hand or a reason for Kevin McCarthy to not cooperate? Well, I think you're going to see two things happen. One that's that we'll all see, which is, you know Democrats, you know Republicans, even with a weak speaker of the House, they're going to be doing investigations of Hunter Biden and trying to show that the January

six riots were really Nancy Pelosi's fault, not Donald Trump. Underneath, you're going to see a lot of bipartisan efforts behind closed doors. That gets the blessing of Schumer, gets the blessing of Hakim Jeffrey's possibly McConnell on some of these, But the situation with McCarthy's he could lose his speakership if he has it at any moment, so he will be treading very lightly. I expect the first year of the new Congress to be very ugly and the second

year possibly very productive. How much does a presidential campaign, whether it's Biden, Trump or something else, impact action on Capitol Hill or at least the political mood the climate there will impacted on certain things in which the party of a party feels that if something gets done, it will it could change the direction of the race. So, for example, something really needs to get don on immigration, but Republicans really feel that if the border is in chaos,

it gives them an advantage. So while there have been efforts to get something done, Republicans have walked out every single time. So you know, that might be a higher bar than some other things that could get done well. So let's have a real talk for a minute. Then.

Is there a list of of realities that Chuck Schumer has in his pocket or are we going to hear some familiar ideas like an expanded child tax credit, for instance, or maybe the Safe Banking Act comes back around, or what he seems to be working on a more sort

of equitable approach to cannabis legalization. These don't sound like things Republicans want to play with, right, And you have to remember that we're coming off of a Congress that was extraordinarily productive, one of the most productives of the last several decades. So a lot has already gotten done. But there are certain things that Republicans want, and really some Democrats want to. There's research and development tax spreadit there.

There are priorities out there. There's a there's gonna be a debt ceiling vote, and you know, no one wants brinkmanship on the debt ceiling. There will be brinksmanship on the debt ceiling. So there's potential that that that would be a vehicle. And people are already talking about a government shutdown in September, for mind the one that we just averted today. Right. I mean, look, we should not be playing with the debt ceiling whatsoever. This should get done.

It should get done on the bipartisan basis. But I want to have a reality check out there. Republicans have gone to the you know, nth degree, to the very final second and beyond on the dead ceiling, and Kevin McCarthy's house is going to do it again. I mean it could be Steven Scalesa's house too. Well, that's true. We're talking with Jim Kessler on Bloomberg Sound on how about permitting reform? Jim, will Joe Manchin have the same

juice in this new Congress? Well, I hope permitting reform gets It's something that a lot of Republicans and Democrats agree upon. There's potential there. Joe Manin is really working on it. You know, this was a promise Chuck Schumer mad and he tried to keep that promise. Republicans tanked it. Well, this get caught up in politics. It's very possible. But you know what we saw this Congress is deals got done, and you know, I think there's a possibility on permitting reform.

Senator Schumer has been giving kirston Cinema pretty wide birth since she announced her decision h to to leave their Democratic Party and and being independent but also sort of tacitly work with the Democratic Caucus. I'm not sure it's even been defined yet, Jim, what's that going to look like next year? What we just saw kirston Cinema cut an immigration deal with fellow Democrat John Tester to save the Omnibus bill. You know, kirston Cinema lover her her

or hater, Democrat or independent. She has been involved in nearly every major piece of legislation that has passed in the last two years, particularly the bipartisan pieces of legislation. I think she's going to be in on deals, not out of deals, in the next two years, in on deals and help to the Democratic leadership. Yes, how about Joe Mansion then? Does that does this sort of reframe his position and his level of influence in the Senate or is it much the same if she's not going

to be a Democrat? I think um so. On a lot of things. She acts like a Democrat. She she is the fifty first vote, the way Angus King, who is also independent from Maine, is you know, as an independent, but behaves in most places like a Democrat. I think Joe Mansion is relieved that he's not the fiftieth vote there, and it gives democrats some lee white p actually on things like judges and appointments where you don't need to get fifty of fifty, you can get fifty of fifty one.

You know, we talked a lot about whether Senator Schumer can get along with a potential speaker, Kevin McCarthy. What is Mitch McConnell's relationship going to be like if McCarthy has the gabble, Well, Mitch McCarthy, Mitch McConnell and Kevin

McCarthy don't really have a great relationship right now. And you know he McCarthy uses McConnell as a foil um, just like Trump uses McConnell as a foil And what you're going to be seen in the next two years is the fracturing of the Republican Party play out in a nomination process that I still believe Donald Trump will win and I in you know, fights, proxy fights that are going to go on in the House and the Senate.

And and so McCarthy has to stand up to McConnell, which is a weird thing for to do to to hold on to his leadership position if he gets that speakership goal in his relationship with Donald Trump isn't helping, is it. Well, the McConnell relationship with Donald Trump is is awful, thankfully, and the McCarthy relationship with Donald Trump is obsequious. Woit. We're in for some very interesting months here, Jim, is Joe Biden going to announce a run for president

next month? I don't know if it's next month, but I think by March she will announce that he's running for president. So he's in, and you see Trump as the nominee. We're doing this over again. It's scary movie too. It's the sequel, okay, And this is the one thing that you know about horror movie sequels. The villain never dies until the last scene of the last sequel, which hopefully will be soon. God right, that hand is coming out of the water. Jim, thank you. I'm really glad

you could join us tonight. I know there's it's a busy time and everyone's trying to get to their families and so forth. But thanks for all your insights this year, and we do look forward to talking with you in God, I'm not to get used to say in that Happy New Year. Jim Kessler, co founder Third Way and former legislative policy director for Senator Schumer, who's in a pretty good mood because he makes his way back to New York. This is Bloomberg So Long with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio.

It's always fascinating to see what bubbles to the top in our splintered media world. Since so many people get their news in so many places, not everyone's lucky enough to have a terminal, and in a year like we just had, it's useful to look back on what drove people's view of the country and the world, particularly in an election year. What was it that was defining the

world around them. Morning Consult has been doing this research now for several years, an annual study, building a huge amount of data so far on the stories that, as they say, we're seeing read and heard by American voters. And we're joined by Eli Yoakley, senior reporter at Morning Consult, with more on this. Eli, welcome back to Bloomberg. Hey anytime,

all this and you as well. Your headline this year mid terms, Mara Lago, malaise, the news that broke through in two But the fact is, Eli, mid terms in Mara Lago didn't actually even rank in the top five most salient news events by your ranking. The baby formula shortage was even higher on the list. What do you make of that? It's been quite a year. There's been a lot on Americans. You know, this is the fifth year we've done this project we call Seeing Red Heard.

We based it on hundreds of surveys we conduct throughout the year, eaching public openion on a range of issues. And you know, we do do these surveys to ask about what's happening with President Biden or what Congress is doing and how voters feel matter. But a big part of that is understanding, well, what's actually breaking through the American people. And so this year, um, we were watching the mid term if we're watching everything happening with legislative

action on Capitol Hill. But one thing that been true for the last five years of this project, as the events of the of the moment stand out. I mean, this year, the biggest news event in its time was the shooting in the Bald, Texas of Mi Elementary School, and that was followed by the fall of Roe v. Wade and then the death of the Queen. You know, all these stories that make the top three. Less Hurricane ends up there too, as well as the Russian invasion

of of Ukraine. All these stories in the top list are like made for TV moments, and we remember wall to wall coverage earlier this year of the Russian invasion of the two weeks of coverage or more of the of the queen's death. Um, the one that stands out in terms of how we think about the mid terms is probably Row and this was a decisive moment in the minds of the married people. Was a fifty year precedent change. It had big weight in terms of just news value, but then it also weighed on a lot

of voters and understanding. Talking to you from Kansas City right now over in Overland Park, Kansas is sort of the heart of the abortion debate this year. That's where we saw a lot of people respond pretty discerally in quite a red state and voting to put the abortion rights in the constitution in cases. Um, that was that was a big bullet for the American people. That stood out in a pretty big way at the moment. Row falls as a story is number two behind the Uvaldi

shooting on on this list. Voters and your your words, saw read or heard a lot about it, and one could argue eli that it was the overriding issue in the midterm elections. So maybe there's some cross over there. Yeah, for sure. I mean, you know, I remember having a lot of conversations and people this year about how the economy weigh on the American gable when it came to their votes this year, and clearly it did. But in Washington,

it was all the wall coverage. Um, you know, all the all the political folks, we're talking about the latest inflation report, and those just weren't working through the American people in the way that they were to you know, policy elites who watched these things very closely. I think folks knew their gas prices were rising. I think that was pretty obvious as they drive next to the store or on their way to work in the mornings. But these these piecemeal moments did not break through the big way.

One thing that did say that to us was the fact that, you know, they did break through the Republicans bigger when they did the Democrats. Um. It was the same with some of the stories about immigration numbers. Order. Um, you know, Republicans generally hear less about the mainstream news stories that we're thinking about, but they did hear more

than Democrats about some of these economic numbers. On the other side of that, you know a lot of Democrats were more likely to hear about some of the negative Trump stories. So clearly, I think the American people consistently in our tracking of this stuff. Uh, news bubbles do exist, and it's something that I think on how they think about what's happening in Washington. The campaign season itself was ranked eighth here behind Mara Lago, even though you can't

really have the campaign without the role ruling. I guess that's also to a certain extent, comes down to semantics. Yeah, for sure. You know, the thing that stuff got to me about the Morrow Lago raid um was the fact that that was a had about the same level of salience among Democrats and Republicans and independence for that matter. That wasn't the divisive issue in terms of how voters

said that they consumed it um. And on one side of that, I remember watching the Democratic enthusiasm where they were thinking about the mad term elections increased, But so did Republicans. I mean, Republicans are not afraid to talk about the Morrow of the Raid. It was the framing

of it. If you remember that it was a you know, it was this it was this bad investigations, political investigation gone broke, and it broke through to a lot of Republicans, and I think it's something that definitely energized I remember correctly, Donald Truck got some of his best numbers of the year after that, right about Republicans voters, and so some of this is even about about framing as much as it is about aware that we're talking with Eli Yoakley,

Senior Quarter at Morning consult about their annual ranking. Here of the stories the news that broke through in if you go to Morning Consules website and check out the scene red herd presentation here on the main page, and you'll see Eli Oakley's name, they're sharing the byline with

Cameron easily. You can actually filter these stories by party. Democrat, all voters, Republican are the three choices here, and some of these might surprise you to your point, Eli, In some cases it's across the board level of interest, almost no difference. In other cases, based on your political beliefs,

you notice a story more than someone else. I mean, I think one of the more like funny moments in this in this analysis was we were going through the divides between where Republicans heard more about something that Democrats did, and it reminded me of a story that I had totally forgotten about it that was back in January. Would Joe item was kind of a hot mike using an expletive or a sort of introduced you have Fox News, Republicans were almost twice as likely to hear about that.

Forty one percent of Republican voters said they heard a lot about Joe Biden's offhand comment about a Fox News reporter. I think that tells you a lot about um where some of these folks service. I'm watching Fox News that they it was like the queen had died in January in terms of how that was, how that was covered, they gave a lot of attention to that. I think that I think that's a pretty clean picture of it. That's really incredible stuff. That's why this is becoming more

valuable each year you do it. The more data, the more interesting the takeaways. Here, Eli, thanks for joining us again this year. I'm just gonna throw out there presidential campaign top story next year, I would imagine it's gonna be this is a long campaign, Donald Trump, Donald Trusts all ready to go, and he's winning. He's winning right now, He's still winning. Whatever it is, it will probably include his name. Eli Yoakley, Senior reporter at Morning Consult, Happy Holidays,

Happy New Year, come back and see us. There were several others that we didn't mention on the list. By the way, you Valdi as we mention was the number one story. Seventy of voters saw read or heard a lot about it. But there were two other shootings on this top fifteen list that they put out here. Buffalo and Highland Park are both right around the fifty mark. Three shootings, three mass shootings in one year. Here that

makes the list. I'll tell you what though, for better or worse, ranking just above the Buffalo shooting, the death of Bob Saggett fifty right there, Democrats and Republicans. It puts the world in perspective when you dig through this data. I've got a special Christmas message for you on the way on. What is my final sound on of two. I'm Joe Matthew. This is Bloomberg. This is Bloomberg with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio. Bloomberg Sound On is brought

to you by Innovation Refunds. That small business is impacted by the COVID nineteenth pandemic may qualify for the Employee Retention Credit. Let Innovation Refunds. Do the work fight out now. If your organization qualifies for e r C assistance. They've already helped businesses claim over two billion dollars in payroll tax refunds. Learn more at get refunds dot com. I'm Joe, Matthew and Washington. Welcome to the final moments of sound on here at the threshold of the weekend. We're gonna

be unpacking everything that happened this past week for some time. Huh. I mean it was really something. The final hearing of the January six Committee, the referral of criminal charges of Donald Trump. We had the surprise visit of Voladimir Zelenski. His meeting with the President. Has addressed to Congress the big budget, from the deal in the Senate to final passage in the House, the end of the hundred seventeen Congress,

all that in the last five days. It's a good reason to drop the knives here, step away from the politics, and reflect on a year that we're going to be feeling the impact of for some time. That's what I'll be doing this weekend to close out a very challenging

year for a lot of people. President Biden spoke about the light of the season in a Christmas address from the White House you know, and I believe Christmas as a season of hope, and throughout the life of this country has been during the weeks of December, even in the midst of some of our toughest days, that some of the best chapters of our story have been written. It was during these weeks and back into at President Lincoln prepared the Emancipation Proclamation, which he issued on New

Year's Day. At Christmas, and the week out weeks after, Pearl Harbor, Franklin Down and Roseld hosted Winston Churchill in this White House. Together they planned the Allies strategy to defeat fascism and autocracy. And it was that the most terrible year of years, the year of assassination and ride

of war and chaos. At the astronauts of Apollo eight circle the moon and spoke to us here on Earth from the silence of space on a silent night on a Christmas Eve, they read the story of Christmas Creation from the King James Bible. In the beginning, God c then and the earth and the earth with about form and void, and darted with upon the bin of Adam, and then the bearing of God and monk, upon the pain of the water, and God mad let there be light, and they all was light, and God all the light

they could divided, the light from the Doctor. That light still with us, illuminating the way forward as Americans and the scissors of the world, A light that burned in the beginning, and at Bethlett, the light that shines still today in our own time, our own lives as we sing, Oh Holy Night. His law is love and as Gospel

as peace. I wish you and for you and foreign nation now and always is that we will live in the light, the light of liberty and hope, of love, and generosity, of kindness and compassion, of dignity and decency. So from the Biden family, wish you and your family peace, joy, health and happiness. Merry Christmas, happy Holidays, and all the best of the year. That's more like it. With apologies to Argyle. Merry Christmas, everybody. It's almost time to queue up,

die hard and curl up with the family here. Merry Christmas and happy Hontkats to our producers. Christy in Viata and Matt Shirley are technicians. Justin Miller, Sebastian Escobar and Sarah, and be good to each other. I'll see you back here in a week, Happy New Year, back in twenty three. I'm Joe Matthew. This is Bloomberg, twelve o'clock at so I turned my head and singing, and the man going

better back down on the loss. I picked the wallet and then I took a point down the listening to co sett Santa Claus a million dollars in the call, run into Jee. I know the back to call, but I never feel the st right to tell of going on the matter back to him that night. But when I got hold, come on the tree from Santa and do