Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Congressman Brad Sherman of California, the Democrat is with us now. Congressman, we do want to talk to you as you sit on the Foreign Affairs Committee about NATO and some other matters as well. But of course there was a caucus meeting with you and your colleagues this morning. Did any consensus about the future of Biden as the nominee emerge from that meeting or did it just create more confusion?
We at a consensus that Biden has been an outstanding president. Biden had a bad night. Trump has led a bad life. As to what we should do now, I won't say that. You know, we're a Democratic party.
We've got a lot of different views.
Some thought that no matter what, Biden should be our nominee and it shouldn't be discussed. Others thought we are at to urge Biden to drop out. I took kind of a midpoint. I think that the delegate will make the best possible decision. If Biden provides more tests and more information, we'll see that in the press conference he's
going to do in a couple of days. I would like to see him for ninety minutes live at nine PM in the next couple of weeks, because on September tenth, he's got his second debate with Trump, which will be ninety minutes live at nine PM, and it's important that the delegates have a chance to see him perform under a similar circumstance.
This is an endless conversation, obviously, Congressman, and I can hear your support for Joe Biden here, while I realize you want to see more. How much time is there for Democrats? Is it between now and the convention in Chicago? Or are we looking at a couple of weeks here knowing that we've got issues potentially getting on ballots and so forth.
If it's not going to be Joe Biden at the top of the ticket, I.
Think it's clear that we can get on all the ballots if we act. At the time of our convent, Ohio was an outlier. They've changed their rules, So although we were planning to meet Ohio's requirements by having a virtual vote in early August, we can now do this on August twentieth, and that is that will work for all fifty states as.
A political convention. Is the deadline?
Yes, and yet I think we'll be making a decision, a collective decision, long before then, and I think important that we see before the convention that Biden can meet that test of September tenth when he debates Trump a second time.
What we have heard from the President congressman is a suggestion or a pushback against polling that suggests he is lagging behind Donald Trump in a meaningful way, or perhaps that has widened since his debate performance at the end of last month. Do you believe what you're seeing in the polls.
Well, it takes a while for a major event to really register with the public and really be reflected in the polls, and so I think it's polls for a few days from now. It will reflect what happened on June twenty seventh. But I don't think anybody would say that the debate performance helped the Biden campaign, and I think a similar performance on September tenth would be a
big problem. And that's why I think we need our presidential candidate, the leader of our party, to demonstrate, then the words of Nancy Pelosi, that was an episode, not
a condition. I think he can meet that test. I'd prefer the test to be as close as possible to the one he'll face on September September tenth, But there'll be a number of ways in which he demonstrates to the delegates, who are the ultimate decision makers here, that he is fully up to the job not only of beating Donald Trump, not only of beating him in the debate, but also governing this country until the end of the second term.
Well as a Democrat who has not yet made up his mind on this or found common ground with colleagues in the House. And from your perch on the Foreign Affairs Committee, Congressman, what are you looking for when Joe Biden speaks at the NATO summit today at five o'clock? What do you want to hear? What spirit do you expect him to bring to the podium.
I want him to deal with tough questions that he may not have anticipated, and to acquit himself well. I am very sure that his policies toward NATO will be reasonable and ones that I would generally support. So I'm not looking at that press conference in terms of is does he have the right views about.
Our foreign policy?
I'm looking at that press conference to see whether he can convince the country that one debate was just an episode.
Okay, So if you're not looking for policy, Congressman, others might be is there a tangible outcome you would like to see from the NATO summit this week as it pertains to Ukraine or anything else.
Well, I think we need European countries and Canada to step forward and meet that two percent commitment. The majority of NATO countries have done that, but most of that majority are the smaller countries with the smaller gross national products. We need to see Germany and France step forward, when need to see Canada step forward and spend more on their own defense. They used to think that they're on a totally safe continent.
That is clearly not.
The case.
You make of all this talk of trunk proofing NATO, Congressman, and the idea of European nations looking to stand up their own armies, possibly an EU army, and a world in which the United States is no longer leading as the tip of the spear in this alliance.
Is that a conversation that you're allowing.
I think that if they spend the money, and particularly on equipment and develop their own military forces, that the NATO command structure will work well. I think that if there are so many reasons for Europe to be able to do more, maybe one of those reasons is that under a Trump administration, America would do less.
It's great to have you, Congressman, weigh in on that, given your seat on the Foreign Affairs Committee. Just in our final moment with you knowing you also sit on House Financial Services. What's your top question for FED shaired Jerome Powell when he testifies before you tomorrow.
Well, the big issue here was his testimony today that they're going to completely revise and republish the Aposal three banking regulations. Too many of our regulations push the banks to put their money on Wall Street and not to make those small loans to businesses on Main Street. And we need bank regulations that don't unfairly discriminate in favor of a buying billion dollars bond portfolios and instead push the banks to their traditional role of making loans in local cities.
Brad Sherman of California