Surveillance: McCain Was A Life-Long Learner, Stavridis Says

let's get admirals trevit us out. Of course it tofts and of course this wonderful book See Power, which talks about our oceans. Uh is well, Admiral, thank you so much for joining us this morning. Your thoughts on John McCain, Well, let me start. We've been talking correctly about what it means that the nation to lose John McCain, If I may, I want to tell you what it means for the Navy to lose that. That's exactly what I wanted. He is. He really is a legend, starting back at the Naval

Academy where he was the ultimate bad boy. He had more demerits than anybody in his class. He graduated at the absolute bottom of his class. He got away with everything and he was beloved for it. Flashed forward incredible heroism in Vietnam. We all know that um and then consistently for the rest of his life, the Navy continued to be a touchdown. He was the son and grandson of two fourth star admirals, and I can tell you, as a fourth star admiral myself, that is not an

easy position. I look at my own children in the Navy struggling with that. John McCain was an icon for this nation, but even more so for the U. S. Navy. We will miss him deeply. Who are the new John McCain in the Navy? If you go to Annapolis today, who are the new John mccains? How do you build them today? We are fortunate that the service academies, and here I'll I'll grudgingly admit, the place just up the river called West Point does a pretty good job. Thanks

as that. The Air Force Academy in Colorado, it wasn't aware of that either. And all those academies are all about duty, honor, country. They are all driven by honor codes that say we will not lie, cheat, or steel. And they produced people to throw a name out like Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs for Star Admiral as straight as as an arrow and extraordinary leader. There are plenty of John McCain's out there these days.

Admiral Steverda's John McCain was a naval aviator and that also had an effect on the way people look at appropriations and the power that the US Navy is able to project. I'm wondering if you could just comment on his role as an naval aviator and what legacy he will leave there. Yeah. I have to begin by saying that I came out of the Academy and I wanted to be a naval aviator, you know, like Goose and

Maverick and Top Gun. By the way, the remake is coming out soon, uh, And I could never do it because every time I did a barrel role, I lost my lunch in the cockpit. So I have enormous respect for these aviators and really that ability to project power from c on these massive aircraft carriers, eight combat aircraft on the decks of each, seven acres, those sovereign American acres that go anywhere. They can move a thousand miles

in a day. These are extraordinary machines of war, but they are useless without these naval aviators like John McCain. You commanded the Enterprise Carrier Strike Group and that conducted operations in the Persian Gulf operation of Rocky Freedom operation and during Freedom. What's changed in terms of the use of aircraft carriers to project not just military force but

political influence. What's really changed since I had command of Enterprise and we were doing simultaneous operations in Afghanistan, in Iraq and over the Horn of Africa. That that incredible operational flexibility, that ability to maneuver, that has not changed. But what has changed is the rise of pure navies, notably China and Russia have become much more capable at sea.

So instead of, if you will, getting open sea space to move those carriers and simply launch those strikes, today our carriers have to worry about other navies at sea who can compete with us, like China and Russia. That means we have to be better at missile defense, better at anti submarine warfare, better at protecting the carrier at

seed than we had to previously. Admiraldu To finish up with our discussion of John McCain before we get back to more important international relations matters with your work at TuS Fletcher School. Al Hunt, in his beautiful essay, mentions John Glenn and I think there's not enough said about you know, we know of McCain over Vietnam, but the technology of the Korean War that Ted Williams and John Glenn flew in was is medieval? Is medieval the right word? Yes,

medieval is the right word. And you're right to mention both of those legends, especially John Glenn, who was a lifelong naval aviator. He was a US Marine Corps and of course they're part of the Department of the Navy, and they flew basically flying crates that were very similar to what came out of World War Two. By the time John Cane was flying much more advanced radar, much better capability. You have to tip your hat to people like John Glenn when I when I look at what

we're talking about here, it is about the deployment. His pin was mentioning the boats in the water today, the aircraft carrier excuse me, shift, so what I know spoken like your thank you? Yeah, God nailed nailed that as far as I got airmalster Vitas was a grumming canoe with wings, yes, with the wigs within this adimalster view. This is a new technology. Would Senator McCain know the

two technology? Could he land a plane on one of these new carriers we have in a minute, And I will tell you that actually that technology makes it tom So you could probably land plane on an aircraft carrier. That's how good it is now. Seriously, John McCain, UH, open, intuitive, lifelong learner, and I think that's very important quality and a leader that ability to change and step into new technology.

And John McCain did that every day. That's why he was so important on the Senate Armed Services Committee because he knew those technologies so well as he was funding them for us to take them for Well, let's finish up this discussion before we get back to uh the work at hand. Your wonderful book in my book of the Year, The Leader's Bookshelf had a seventy nine books in it. For our listeners, what is the book in your the Leader's bookshelf that has the most to do

with Senator McCain. I think the one that would reflect the most would be another prisoner of war story, and that's James Stockdale, who you'll recall Tom was at one point vice presidential candidate with Rossborough. He and his wife Sybil. Stockdale and his wife Sybil wrote a book called In Love and War about Stockdale's time in the camps, alternating chapters between the two of them. It's a love story that transcends war and is also brings to focus what

John McCain went you win those camps. Let's come back with James Durvinus the toughs. James Stockdale pim buried at the Naval Academy and Mr mckaine will join him. Yes, he was at most Stocktail was also he was shot down, uh in North Vietnam. That was in September. We'll come back with James Trevines. Lots to talk about on our

International Relations film. I liked where you're going there with the boats at ham today and uh ships boats, ships, Yeah, well, I gotta say also, you know, just over the weekend there was a report that there were there were three Russian warships that were spotted passing through the bus Verus that connects Turkey. Let's let's come back and talk to James drevinus about that more typical themes what we thank him? First?

Comments on uh Senator McCain John gollub with us listening to the opening show festivities, and there's sort of that August and in school used to start Wednesday of Labor Day, and that's sort of when you reallocated your portfolio. And as we all know, anybody with parents, we hate it. It's all starting earlier and earlier. Were there? Now, how do you reallocate this morning? Well, I'm first of all, I'm not sure that you really do relocate, but you

and I were talking about this before on TV. The real question is how much of your money do you put in technology? And how how strong are they equity investment?

Where do you put it in tech? Yeah? And I think, um, right, right now, these companies are just so powerful in their ability to earn and their potential upside, and even as importantly, the damage that they're doing to other large parts of the economy in the process of their success is just making them look relatively so much more attractive, relatively attractive, and that goes to the idea of value trap. Where's the value trap in the market? Our listeners. They're gonna

make decisions there in cash. They've missed the bull market. Where are we twelve months trailing? I can bring this up in a Bloomberg quickly with the w E I function. It's only up eighteen percent double digit in the last twelve months. Okay, fine, where's the value trap that I want to buy cheap? But it's a mistake. Well, I will tell you. When I'm talking to traditional value investors, they're finding it hard to find anything that looks really cheap.

But I think that perhaps the area might be in consumer staples. Companies that were very expensive have fallen a fair bit, are a little bit cheaper than the market right now, but their their brands are just getting demolished by technology. And we are changing the way that we're buying things because you can, you know, have you know, just search on Google or or or Amazon. I'm going to pick up a major consumers something you buy at

the grocery store all the time, folks. In revenue growth is flat with the hope and prayer of single digit growth into the future. Versus a major tech company where in ninety days you can get two years of revenue growth that you get in a food company. And I know that you you love the idea of cash flows, but if you look at the price for per cash flow on these tech companies are trading at a discount to the market, partially because investors don't fully believe that

this growth can continue into the future. And I think that they're likely gonna be wrong. And part of this is the management of those tech companies. Is it safe to say that that they're not making the accounting and

capital deployment mistakes of previous Tech Bowl markets. I think there's a little more responsibility out there and maybe that or may just be that that some of these stories are are coming of age um and and you know, I was mentioning this again on on on the TV show this morning, but if you look at the revenue revenue chart of Amazon versus Walmart, one of them, you know, which is the Amazon line just looks like it launches, that it was at one pace for a period of

time and then all of a sudden revenues and profits as we all became more comfortable with the types of brands and and this and it's not only that one company but others as well. How do you buy tech if our listeners say, I don't want to buy just the three names everybody else owns. Yeah, I mean you can buy any t I you can buy a broad portfolio. Might mind you. You know, there's a whole there's obviously there's there's there's dozens or hundreds of companies that that

are part of that that ecosystem. And yeah, you don't want to buy just five or seven names. Um And and there's there's success stories in everything. In a matter of fact, if you even look in areas like reads UM with you know, real estate investment trust, which wouldn't be what you think about technology, but the most exciting companies there are companies they are building data centers UM

for cloud computing, and those are interesting plays. Um. You're seeing that in you know, in in innovative consumer companies that are using technology. So it's not just in our group. Our David Wilson does a great equity update in the nine o'clock hour, sort of like the ten stocks of the day. They're moving in that and I have been really quite taken by the the the idiosyncrasies of each retail story. Now retail has got to react to Amazon.

We all understand that as well. How do you how do you strategize about retail and the cacophony of the American consumption. Well, I think you have. I think you have a couple of stories here. One is that in the near term, these these companies are doing UH surprisingly well because the American consumer is in great shape and the you know, the unemployment rate is low, wages are beginning to rise, which has other side effects, but the consumers in super shape and that's helping UM a lot.

But the question is is it masking UM? Perhaps? And I think that the long term story is is somewhat dire for many of these brick and mortar names, but but no different than people who have invested in Japan, where it was for twenty or thirty years a downward trend line, but with periods of brilliant jumps where you

wanted to play play the game. Right now, maybe one of those times where retail, even though it's on a downtrend, looks absolutely brilliant because the consumers in great about I think that large cap companies are probably going to continue to do UH to outpage UM there in a in a world where again the economy is good right now, but in the world world. The economy has been tighter. We're managing margins has been the key to six says. Larger companies have just done a better job at managing

those expenses in margins. John Golub with a start at sweets as we look at the equity Margaret, you know what in August afternoon we had animals to beat us on and wonderful comments on John McCain and talking about international relations on this day, as we did with John gobb of Credit Sweets, a little different conversation, and we could do that with Fred Lane with Lane Generational, which is a dead serious effort with Raymond James to actually

talk to people about the emotion of money. Now. Granted, you know, Fred Lane, what what's your minimum investment? Two dred million, five thousand? What's a reasonable number? And to a lot of people that's upot and other people to rounding here. But the answer is, and I don't want to say, what's a doal gonna do? Should I be in the market. I want to talk about how the sweat is different now from the kids than it was

twenty or forty years ago. You've got to deal with the emotion of families, the generational and how are the kids different than they were a generation ago. Well, I don't think the kids are so different. I think we as parents and some in some cases, have been overly concerned with our kids emotional well being and maybe haven't asked him to do enough chores and be self sufficient enough.

I'm saying this about my own children as well. Um But I think in general that my concern is that the next generation, UM, well, I think find it a little harder to accumulate capital. Then this past generation has founded. The baby boomers have found it easier because there were so many of us entering the economy that drove GDP growth, And I think the I think today's world is a little different than it's gonna be harder to accumulate capital.

I think global growth is going to be over time, it's going to be declining, and that's going to make it harder to accumulate capital. In the old days, you had a cash flow off of a pot of money and you could write ignorances tuition to whatever school. Today, pim correct me if I'm wrong. It's overwhelming. It is for families and generations. It's just overwhelming. How do you deal with that? How do you deal with somebody with a pot of money who says, look, I can't do

this because I can't write the checks. I got to dip into capital. Well, Michael, actually myel no, no, we're taking notes. Yeah, no, I listen. Most of my clients aren't in that aren't directly in the crosshairs of that dilemma. However, I think the question, and I'm glad it's being asked increasingly, is is there are a good return on investment in a college education? The rack rate, the rate that's supposed

to be paid frequently is not okay. So you know, you got average university, maybe they're seventy seventy five all end, but magically they come up with a scholarship for kids. But your kid could put the puck in under the crossbar from he was different, thank you. Both My kids were different because they were hockey players. And that's rather unfair. They are heavily recruited athletes and that and that they're

they're putting a different class. But for the average, the really smart, hard working kid, he's probably not gonna get scholarship help if his parents have means and the and the worst people that the people who are the worst off, I should say, are the people are making two fifty thousand dollars year because they're making enough, and they've been good savers and put money away, and they have equity in their home, and the universities don't want to hear

about the fact that they need help. And so you know, frankly, a lot of those kids are going to end up um the beneficiary of their parents large and the parents are gonna end up with a lot less than in the way of retirement income. And it's it's an unfortunate situation. That's one of the reasons I say to everybody, all clients, let me meet your children. Let's get the magic compounding going when they're young years old. Put away ten fifteen

thousand dollars a year consistently every year. That adds up by the time you're fifty. It's a lot of money by the time you're fifty. Fred Fred Lane, I want to ask about the context in which we kind of do all these comparisons, you know, and and one of the things I've kind of noticed is everyone's trying to compare now to a period, let's say, after the Second World War, and if you look at that as the anomaly. Not everyone had any money. I mean, no one had anyoney.

I can remember conversations around the dining room table where when asked about the depression, my father would say, what depression? No one had any money before, no one had any money during, and no one had any money afterwards. And I'm wondering whether we're comparing this to some nostalgic gold and age that really didn't exist from most people. Look, the standard of living for the average from Americans in

general is breathtaking lee high, there's no question about it. Uh. And yet by comparison, when we see the super wealthy and the very wealthy all a function of the accumulation of wealth that's gone on, um, you know, certain people are gonna feel as if they've missed out, they missed missed because they only have two cars and they have a boat, and they don't have a summer home, and oh too bad. And and I'm not saying that dismissively.

I'm not saying that dismissively risively, But I'm saying a different in a different fashion, which is the wealth effect has created a class of human being, a class, a small class who are unbelievably wealthy, but you know, it's a function time. You know you you remember, I remember Pam in six when I came to Wall Street, the dow was at six hundred in four d. If you had just put money into the market, it didn't matter what you did. You know, you you you would accumulate

tremendous levels of capital. But you have to be in the game in order to benefit from the game. Patient and also unemotional, staying the course. Staying the course, you make adjustments, of course, but no pun intended. But but nonetheless, um, you have to be in the game, and you have to be unemotional and frankly, you know, when there's a rollover in the market, bingo, that's the time to be

putting money to work. Where I grew up, it was people that bought Kodak, you know, from Frank Strong and George Eastman, or they bought a company called hay Lloyd, which became a company called Xerox. You must have clients about Apple for a song or Amazon when they sold books. What do you advise them to do when it becomes twenty and thirty and of a portfolio? How dare you sell that? Do you write? Puts again? It? Well? What

do you do with a huge gain that overweights a portfolio. Well, I think writing some some calls against it, having some having some of that stockhold against you makes sense. I mean, they're comes a point when there's over concentration in a portfolio. I'm talking about, man, I'm not talking about some cutesy pie academics out of m I t talking about huge overconcer If someone is fifty or eighty or nine of their portfolio in one stock, you have to caution them

to diversify because things happen right now. It's it's it's tricky because um, I mean, I have a client who owns tens of thousands of stock as a result of being on a board, UM, and the stock has continued to appreciate and appreciate and appreciate, appreciate. It's very well positioned. It's in the life sciences healthcare sect but well it's it's fift of this individual's net worth, So it's not excessive. It's a little excessive, quite honestly, but there's enough resources

so it's it's okay. But um, you know we as you I think you know. Tom My portfolio for my growth investors is fifteen stocks we say we don't rebalance, but we do. When we get to eleven or twelve or thirteen percent, we have to rebalance. It's imprudent not to so we've owned companies, you know. But this is against in in Fred and I are on the same page on this full disclosure, folks, against the industry of rebalancing.

If you get the three or four percent of a portfolio, and think of all the gain you lost on Apple or Amazon if you're smart enough to buy him. I mean, there's a whole list of stocks, look at the top. I mean, is it too too much, Fred to say it's basically on the edge of Sequoia. You and I are talking about a model that really harkens back to the genius of Sequoia. Absolutely listen. I mean concentration matters. You have to you can't. If you own the market,

you will perform like the market. If you want to outperform the market, you have to be concentrated, which means you have to have a point of view, and you have to have sectors and companies that you know well that you feel will will perform in a superior way. And that's a focus on secular growth. In my experience buy stocks now. Yes, Um, although new money coming in.

I'm telling my clients, look, if you if you're if you're the kind of person who's going to have a regret that we buy it at this level and it goes down ten percent because of which I'm not predicting, but if you're going to live with deep regret and you're not gonna you'll get that back within a year or two, there's an alternative E and so certain clients we're putting money into ninety and two hundred seventy day and three hundred sixty day c d s and when

they when they're a tour, we put the money to work. So we're kind of dollar cost average. It's a psychological thing and it's not really compete. It's not coming to me to be doing it because I don't think we're in I don't think we're ready for over session. This was valuable, but it's not why we booked you are the Toronto maple Beliefs just totally loaded this year? Is it going to be like a joy for you to go to Boston Fleet Centered, Boston Garden whatever and see

the Toronto map Beliefs. It's never a joy to go to Fleet because the Bruins just don't have the skilled players that I like to see plays. Really, I like to the opposing teams. Boston has always had a tradition in my view, Bobby or being the great exception of not having flashy, highly skilled, great skating players. Don't they just don't. They don't play e C a c Hockey. I mean, get you know, cut to the chase right right, Fred Lane with us and e c a c Hockey

and of course with Lane generational with Raymond. Some interesting inside there, folks. Right now, Aaron Brown with us with ubs as we look at where to places the money and the big difference, Aaron is, all of a sudden, there's a yield in the short term space. Are we back to normal equity and bond correlations? Yeah? I think that we are back to what I think is going to persist for some time, which is a negative stock

bond correlation. I think that's really important for asset managers and particularly for US as an asset allocator, in that given the fact that the stock bond correlation is negative, it helps actually for acid allocators to be long stocks and be long bonds. As a diversifier, so you actually can stay longer stocks and have a larger weight of

allocation to equities in your portfolio. Given the fact that the stock bond correlation is negative, how two thousand six has been that long, right, it has, and we think it's going to persist. What could turn it negative is if we were to see inflation spike well ahead, Well, I was going to ask about the earnings boom that you're seeing in US companies particularly, and where they're going to use the money that they make. Are they going to be paying down more debt? And that means that

it's going to be less supply of corporate bonds. So that's that's likely, right. I think that you are going to see them continuing to pay down debt. But I think that particularly right now, given the fact that rates are still low, that the expectation that rates are going to rise, you are still going to see a bringing pretty lofty bond issuance um, which is one of the reasons actually that we are negative high yield right now in our asset allocation portfolios. Aaron Brown with us, and

we will continue right now. Is is such a tradition PIM is a moment of silence at the New York Stock Exchange. It is more often, but today most poign, isn't it. Yes, it is a moment of silence for the passing of Senator John McCain formal Navy aviator and also really a mavericka in the on the floor of the U. S. Senate, and in New York, of course Senate Schumer talking about renaming the Russell Building in Washington

for John McCain. Let us listen in to the quiet at the New York Stock Exchange, the New York Stock Exchange and honor of John McCain. We've seen this many times, Pam. And of course as we come up on September eleven, I should announced within the remembrance of September eleventh that I'll be with Cantor Fitzgerald again this once again this year with scarlet food. Yes, and there in their efforts to remember September eleven, continue with the Aaron Brown of UBS,

Managing Director ahead of asset allocation? Is asset allocation uh, something that depends on the perspective of UBS or the perspective of the client. It's a great question. It Actually we have our own capital market assumptions that our own

asset allocation views. There are certain parameters the clients, when we're speaking with clients will set for us and with us until they'll ask us to take a specific overweight to an asset class, or to a country, or in many cases to hedge if we're talking to our sovereign wealth fund, to hedge, the underlying currency that they transact in. Also we're seeing increasingly is specific clients want to increase

their private market asset allocation views. So whether it's into real estate, into hedge funds, into venture capital, or into real assets like real estate, timber, other commodities. So a lot of times, certainly we will have our own views and we have our own capital market assumptions that underpin how we allocate. But a lot of the dialogue that we have with clients is understanding what their parameters are and what they either want to include or exclude in

terms of asset allocation. Well, the reason I asks, and I'm glad you mentioned these these situations is because risk is a two edged sword, right at least two, maybe a nine. But the reason being that risk is great when you're making money, But do they really understand the risks that they're taking by asking to go into these

private investments that may lack liquidity. It's interesting because if you rewind a couple of years ago in terms of the asset allocation conversations that we were having, they were looking to mitigate risk, they were looking to lower their equity allocations. Now that we're you know, several years, in ten years into the bowl market equity assets have outperformed,

you know, certainly what their expectations are. We're now actually seeing the opposite conversations having and clients wanting to increase risk, willing to take more risk on potentially more a liquidity risk as well, in order to earn a higher return. And so the question I think is prudent, which is is this the right point in the cycle to be doing that? And I think given how well really, you know, um, private market assets have performed, there is a willingness to

be able to take that illiquidity risk. The one thing I will say is there are from our asset allocation studies, there are benefits to diversification, to expanding the asset classes and the remit in which you're investing in. You know, the question can you be too diversified? I'm sorry, can you be too diversified. Absolutely, you can be huge risk. Absolutely. It's been one of our themes for the show today.

I mean, not that you want to own only Apple or only Amazon and look like a genius, but you know it's Peter Lynch called a diversifications a tangible issue, and that's why I think you really have to be critical in terms of the interplay between tactical asset allocation, which we define as inside is twelve months and longer

term asset allocation, which we define as twelve months. How do you respond to clients very quickly or how do you respond to clients that diversified out and we're underinvested in equities and they're angry. I mean, so a lot of the studies we're doing now are for those types

of clients. And we think that it's right now in the cycle you should still be long and be overweight equities, and we don't think that it's too late to be overweight equities at this point, but we understand that over the next three years we're predicting that we will have our recession. So you have to be really managed that tactical risk as well. Aaron Brown, thank you so much with you will be yesterday on the Battle of Alice

asset allocation. This is a great pim to have Fred Lane with us in the Aaron Brown really, you know, it's it's like that timy year. Yes, and also just to you know, be a little patient and don't get emotional. Well, that were easier said than done, particularly with do you talk to James Travitis earlier about the navy and John McCain is appropriate to talk to the twenty second Attorney

General of Arizona about John McCain in Arizona. And this is Grant Woods, who is the rarest or rare in American politics, someone within the middle territory of his Republican party. Grant was wonderful to have you with us in particularly, I would suggest out of New York and Washington, the focuses on John McCain of the east of Annapolis and of the Naval Academy where he'll be buried. How divisive was John McCain within Arizona Republican politics. Well, that's a

good question. Thank and thank you for all you're doing here to honor Senator McCain and talk about his amazing life. Um well, I think as time went on. Uh, there's a big difference as but I think we see around the country between the hardcore activists and the Republican Party, and they were generally not very supportive of Senator McCain

and haven't been for a long time. And then you had the general um pop elation there that you know, just Republicans throughout Arizona, and obviously he was very popular there. He won handily every time that that he ran. So you know, when you go to the Republican meetings with

the hardcore, it wasn't pretty. Uh, you know, when when he when he ran for president in O eight and they they did their little election at the state Republican meeting and they endorsed Duncan Hunter for president now John McCain, and that didn't work out too well for them, I don't think. But it was typical, you know, it's just this just the way it goes. It was they were pretty hardcore and they didn't like the fact that he

regularly worked with people across party lines. Can you explain the what seemed to be the personal enmity between President Donald Trump and Senator m team Why did that exist? I don't think, um, I think it's a one Way Street. To be honest with you, I think Senator McCain, Um, you know, he's, as everyone knows now and and has reflected upon, he had quite the remarkable life, and he had been up against different powerful forces his entire life.

So here in his latter years, when Donald Trump entered the picture, that was no big deal for John McCain. John McCain is going to be John McCain, and that means he was going to say what he thought and do what he thought was right for the country. And he didn't really didn't really engage in any of this um personal enmity. On the other hand, it really did seem to get under Donald Trump's skin. And I think that's just because it's reflective of the men um and um.

President Trump has been very um, very good at ridiculing people to the point where they ultimately backed down and go away or um or get on board, and that that just wasn't gonna happen with John. But I can tell you over the last couple of years, so since since Trump announced until until now, um, it really wasn't personal. It didn't really bother him. These insults or slights are all of that. The only one that got that bothered John was when he said that John wasn't a hero

um because he was captured. And I promise you it was not because of him taking a personal insult to that there less, it was about the other po debuts and the fact that here in their later years they had to deal with this that's not and he really resented that. I will say Grant was one of the most employant images we've seen as we speak of John McCain, was him going up in airplane stairs with Rob Portman

of Ohio. I would suggest you and Senator Portman represent the dinosaurs of the Republican Party, the dying breed, maybe with Olympia Snow of Maine of some form of Montorism. How risky is your Republican Party of doing a wig, if you will, of wandering into the trap of the Whigs of eighteen fifty, eighteen fifty two and on to the death of eighteen fifty six. Is that a legitimate

risk out in Arizona. I I think so for sure, and I think it will happen here in Arizona, and I think it will happen across the United States if things don't change. And as Senator McCain always said, if if for no other reasons, He'd like for you to

do things for the right reason. But if for no other reasons, look at the demographic and if if the Republican Party is going to be anti hispanding UH, anti minorities, if it's going to be um AH, if it really isn't going to stand up for the Constitution and just be divisive between groups, then there really is no future there. And if you talk to people who are under the age of I don't know, it's a thirty five, they don't understand why the Republican Party acts that way. They

don't see race necessarily as as even an issue. They don't see discrimination against UM people because of their sexual orientation as as an issue. Why are you people still talking about these things? And I think as we go forward, UM Republicans are going to have to remember what they're all about, which is limited government, which is a strong

national defense and working with our allies. And most importantly for John McCain's perspective, we have to stand for what he's it for, and that is free basic human rights in the United States around the world. And if we don't stand for that, if it's just a party about me, me mean, which is the opposite of John McCain. Then, um,

then it probably deserves to go away. Well, I just want to reintroduce, uh, speaking with Grant Woods, former Attorney General of the State of Arizona and the former chief of staff for a Senator John McCain when he was in Congress as a congressman. Grant, just tell if you can a little. There's a story that maybe not a lot of people know, having to do with how Senator John McCain requested a combat assignment in the Vietnam War.

And he was thirty years old when he was assigned to the U. S. S. Forestal and he escaped death on the forest all during a horrendous fire. Yes, yes, well yeah, that's where he he wanted to be where the action was. You know, he was, Um, he was quite the character. Um always and in those days he was kind of your Tom Cruise stereotypical fighter pilot, you know, a little hard, play hard, and and he wanted to

be he wanted to be in combat. And then when he went on he was on the forest call, he was on the deck that day, and uh, that was just one of the big tragedies of all time in our military. And I know, I know, Jona. I mean, there was a guy, I forget, I forget what his nickname was, but there was a guy who would wash your window of your of your jet just before you were getting ready to take off. So they were all lined up and this guy always gave him a thumbs

up and and he said something, some little phrase. And so there's John in there in the cockpit. The guy does that, and then all of a sudden there's this huge explosion with one of these bombs that gone up in the and he looked down, Uh there was a fire, and then another big explosion, and when he looked down that that guy who he knew very well, who was his friend, was gone. He had evaporated into the air.

And somehow John got out of that plane before the next huge explosion and made his way across the deck, whereas you know, many many people didn't um. And I think the remarkable thing there, which doesn't surprise anyone, is that almost immediately he asked to uh go to another ship so he could get back in the air and back fighting for our adventure. Well, great Woods, thank you so much. Was greatly greatly appreciate your attendis today. Mr Woods a close, close friend and adviser to John McCain

in Arizona. Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg Surveillance podcast. Subscribe and listen to views on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, or whichever podcast platform you prefer. I'm on Twitter at Tom Keene before the podcast. You can always catch us worldwide. I'm Bloomberg Radio