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Michelle Hossein is with us. She flew in to go to a quiet White House correspondence dinner to speak to pigil of the American Express Definitive in the United Kingdom where they work at the BBC, and of course the host of the Michelle Hussein Show across all of the Bloomberg platforms. We're thrilled she could pick up the pieces for us on this Monday morning. Michelle, I think we've all seen the video, seen the tape, relived it. I
don't want to do that. What Americans want to know of every persuasion is how does the United Kingdom have less violence than we have? I guess it goes back to a horrific event in the nineties, But what is the legislative parliamentary courage that your nation has that we just can't do?
Good morning talk, Good morning Paul. Wow, you are really putting me through my paces right at the beginning of this. It's so good to be with you from DC. And yeah, it was a really dramatic event. I will say that. You know, there was this sense of anticipation, a real sort of freesong around this particular dinner because the President
was coming. But as I was crouched under the tables for those minutes, it took before the room was cleared of the VIPs and it appeared that the person was dealt with and we kind of emerged back into putting our heads above the parapet as it were. In those moments, I was thinking as an outsider to the United States about the nature of gun culture in this country and how different it is in the UK. And I will say that you have a long running history where you
know the right to bear arms. It is there as part of your as part of your history for such a long time. The UK never had that for starters. But in nineteen ninety six there was a horrific school shooting at a primary school in Scotland and that did lead to the licensing of firearms regime that we continue to have in the United Kingdom and which some people continue to criticize as being too lax. But essentially the framework is that licensing of firearms is done through your
local police force. So every local police force in the United Kingdom knows who is licensed to bear arms within their community. That's the hallmark of it. So Dunblane, that town in Scotland became the tourists for a school shooting. But the culture, the environment, the trajectory, the rights are very different in the United States. But yeah, all of this was going through my mind as I was under that table on Saturday night.
Michelle, another big day in Washington, DC today is the King and Queen of England arrive here. What do you think the agenda is for the King and Queen?
You know, this visit was already complex for a number of reasons, primarily because of tensions between the US and the UK governments over the Iran War. The difference of opinion, the fact that British ministers and the Prime Minister openly refer to this as being President Trump's war. That has been a real disappointment to the President, who would like the UK to be firmly on side. The UK position is that British bases are only to be used for
defensive action against Iran. So that was complex. The fallout from Jeffrey Epstein already made that complex. That's what the King is flying into today. But then I was with British diplomats on Saturday night. They were amongst the guests in the room, Bloomberg's guests and the guests of other news organizations, and of course they were immediately thinking and we immediately started to think about any review of the
arrangements for this particular visit. So there has been a last minute review of security, some arrangements perhaps have been changing around the margins, but this is a tight itinery in DC, in Virginia, in New York in the coming four days. And basically the King's mission is going to be to use his lifelong diplomatic skills to try and
to try and improve the relationship. And really that means the relationship between the Prime Minister and the President, which is not as the UK would want it be.
And the way they're going to improve this is up Massachusetts Avenue. Michelle Hussein with us with Bloomberg again the Michelle Hussein Show, and we continue with her this morning. Now, Michelle, I want to cut to the chase. It's the Royal Garden Party. You're attending it as well. If I went, can you see me in the Lack and Company London black Beaver furfelt at it's thirteen hundred dollars? Could I pull off the top at Michelle.
The dress code. I'm sorry to disappoint you. I think going to be more ordinary. We've actually been told hats are not encouraged, whereas if you go to a Buckingham Palace garden party it is very much hats encouraged for the guests. So there's going to be a different vibe. But this is one of the first engagements that the King and Queen will have here in the United States.
It'll be in the beautiful setting of the British Embassy, just you know, about fifteen minutes drive away from where I am, the incredible Edwin Luttein's designed residence, so that's the setting. The King, with his interests in gardens, will no doubt be looking around the gardens very carefully. So I think the hope will be that it sets a tone for the visit and therefore for the next few days, and again this sense that perhaps the King is the one who can sort of smooth over the troubled waters.
I mean, let's face it, the most likely scenario is that God willing, everything goes well for the next few days. The President says nice things about the UK, the King says nice things. We know he will about the United States, there's a lot of there'll be a lot of talk about America at two fifty. That is the reason for this particular visit. Most likely things will go back. But after they leave.
I got to get to sid Michelle David Charter over at the Times of London. This is the heart of the matter. A royal visit after a presidential shooting. It's nineteen seventy six over again. Your visit is changed, is it not.
Yes, no doubt. There's you know, that evidence that we had on Saturday night of just how inflamed the political climate is in the United States. That's going to be in everyone's the forefront of everyone's minds. The fact that this hugely important state visit comes less than forty eight
hours after that White House correspondence dinner. I think, you know, from the British hope and expectation will be that the King sort of elevates that situation, that there's something about his presence that makes everyone around him rise above politics, and that will have been the hope for the UK US bond at this particular moment in time. Maybe even it's got something to offer the United States domestically as well, a reminder that there are conversations that happen like above
and beyond the political phrase. So perhaps that's what he brings with him as he flies in today.
Michelle, thank you so much with her coverage here of the visit of the King and Queen this afternoon. Of course, we'll have Bloomberg coverage on that throughout all of the afternoon that Michelle Hussein Show. Look for that as a wonderful podcast.