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Some very troubling news with this fighter pilot down and Iran still missing, the Iranian government, a provincial governor is apparently offering a sixty six thousand dollars rewards of citizens who quote capture the pilot alive.
Imagine the urgency of what's taking place on the ground right now. And we'll remind everybody that when President Trump delivered his primetime address to the nation just a couple of nights ago, he said that Iran no longer had any anti aircraft equipment, that we had won the skies, and this is a difficult reminder that we have more wood to chop here with a lot of missiles and a lot of launchers in Iran that are still left.
There were also increased strikes in the United Emirates overnight. UA said it detected sixty nine projectiles fight fired from Iran Friday, including forty seven drones and eighteen ballistic missiles.
Well, well, we've got some great voices to talk to us about this, all right.
We want to bring in Mark Apudo. He's AXIO senior politics reporter. Ethan Brawner, He's Bloomberg News Israel Bureau chief and Brigader General Mark Kimmitt, He's former Assistant Sectuary Estate for Political Military affairs. Thank you all so much for joining us. Mark, first, I want to start with you because President Trump spoke to NBC very briefly and said the situation with the down pilot doesn't alter negotiations with Iran or the trajectory of this war. What's your take on that.
Well, he's saying when he feels he has to, but we have no fa and says to what's going to happen if the pilot is killed or the crew member I should say, if the crew member is held hostage, or if the crew member is rescued three very different scenarios that can affect very differently how Iran deals with the United States and therefore how the United States deals
with Iran. Trump has benefited from these reporter calls where he kind of says nothing or sort of delivers the same message he says on truth social and there's not much pushback, and so here he's sort of being given that advantage. But the reality is this is that the White House yesterday was expecting that it was good Friday, people were going to be in and out of the office pretty quickly and they'd be out by mid morning.
And instead what wound up happening was this, and there was an all day meetings in the White House in the Situation Room. President was and rightfully so, very concerned, and there's a lot of worry. There is some indications that there might be some sort of special operators in the United States on the ground assisting in the search, but that's only an indication, we don't know. Nevertheless, this marks a real major turning point in the way in
which this war has discussed for the reasons you just said. Namely, while the United States does have a lot of air superiority, over the skies of Iran, it doesn't have complete air superiority, and in this case, thinking that the United States did help lead to this pilot bank shot down.
General Kimmitt, we'd love to hear from you on both ends of this search. First, the actual search and rescue operation that's underway right now, whether it includes boots on the ground or the C one thirties and helicopters that we saw video.
Of over the weekend. But also what is this pilot going through.
These are of course very well trained men and women for an instance like this, talk to us about the seer training that they are putting into place.
Now, let's first talk about the seer training. That's a very very specialized course given of pilots and in some cases other special operations forces. They go through a couple of weeks of this exact type of scenario. You're on the ground, your plane is crash, you're possibly injured, you have nothing more than what you're carrying on yourself and some communications. The first and most important thing is to,
as they say, learn to live like a bunny. In other words, imagine you're a small, fragile, quiet little bunny. You just don't try to be brave, try to hide, try to find the right time to contact your rescue team. But first and foremost, get yourself in a place where you can't be found and don't attract anything other than those aircraft that are coming to save you.
In general, when they eject, they don't eject together. They're on two different parachutes. What is the protocol? Are they supposed to find each other? Does it depend on the situation. I know the big impetus is survive. What do you do? Do you look for your other guy or do you run and hide?
Or does it just depend Yeah, it just depends, as you say. I mean, for example, if you've seen the other parachute go down and it's near where you are, you might want to try to link up. But typically your first focus is on yourself. You don't do anything to expose yourself. You may get over to your buddy to make sure that he or she is not injured, but it's got to be an independent action that the individuals are taken. Because more people just bring in more, attract more, attract more.
Yeah, Ethan Brauner, we know that Tehran is offering a reward, as Christine mentioned sixty six thousand dollars to citizens who capture the pilot alive. To what extent might this American pilot run into friendly people on the ground.
Well, I wish I could really answer that with any authority. Look, I mean, the Masaden has been offering beast rewards in Iran two for a long time now, and some of them are getting answered. I don't really know if the sixty six thousand dollars is going to do it. I think that this is a battle that isn't really fundamentally about money, you know, it is about two cultures at war with each other, and of course within around there's
a culture war as well, So I don't know. I mean, you know, I think I would say that also in the history of wars, you know, one down a crew member is not a huge tragedy. But it's just for us, we don't really consider this to be a necessary war most Americans, and therefore everything that happens seems like it's going to knock the thing off over the edge, right.
And also maybe you know, I don't what is in south western Iran. I mean, it's it's pretty rural. The provincial governor is one of the people who's called to this bounty, what's out there, who's out there, and where could the dangers be.
I mean, I don't have any greater granular knowledge than you do Southwestern around.
I'm sorry, no, I'm sorry to put you on the spot. I just yeah, it's it's interesting to me because we've seen from these other pilots there was another aircraft that went down as well, and the pilot was able to punch out and get to I think Kuwait and so so I'm assuming they're close to the water there, but I don't know what the infrastructure is or even where these pilots would be trying to go.
In Southwest around. Yeah.
Right.
You know, we've barely talked about the A ten Warthog because there is not a search and rescue operation underway.
But Mark, this is a pretty big deal too.
We just added a number of these aircraft to the region to help with strafing runs along the Strait and be ready for whatever the President might be asking for. Do we have any information on what caused this plane to go down?
No, we don't.
One of the things that a lot of people point out, which you know, it's the general there can talk about more than I can, is the Aten Warhog is a very old plane. I mean, my father was in the Vietnam War and they were in service at that time, and there have been moves by the Air Force periodically to get rid of it. But it's sort of an iconic airplane, in part because it flies slow enough and fire so many rounds that it has a lot of advantage.
But nevertheless, whether it's mechanical or whether it was brought down by enemy fes, I'm not quite sure, but we shouldn't rule out the mechanical reasons for the reason stated that is that these are variable airplanes.
General to that point. I was asking some military folks about that yesterday. I was asking, you know, why we're still using the F fifteen, Why we're still using the Aten? Maybe you can explain it a little bit, But I was told that the F fifteen, excuse me, has almost a perfect airframe, and there was actually an incident where one of the wings was shot off and the plane could still land. Is it because these planes are just workhorses.
They're around and they do get the job done. Why are we still using these and what are they really good at?
Well, first of all, I think you're referring to the A ten, not to the F fifteen. The F fifteen is a high performance aircraft, flies high flies fast, drops precision munitions. The A ten came into use in the eighties. It's a tank killer, has thirty millimeter gun on it, which has depleted uranium rounds on it, and it was built to stop the Soviet assault into Western Europe. It is essentially a plane built around a gun, and as you said, it is so sturdy you can brow a
wing off and still rand it. Very slow, very vulnerable. But the pilot actually sits in a titanium bathtub because he is expecting or she is expecting to get hit by ground fire.
That thirty millimeter gun is about the size of a Volkswagen bug inside the front of that airplane.
It's pretty remarkable, Ethan.
I'd like to ask you about Iran's offensive capabilities Beyond what we saw in the shooting down of this airplane. Iran is launching about twenty missiles a day at Israel, firing one or two at a time. How long can it continue this cadence?
Right?
This is a great question. I mean, the Israelis have been saying for weeks now that they've taken out seventy percent of the launchers and the vast majority of their missiles ballistic missiles, and then of course every day we see more of them still coming, and in smaller amounts, as you said, one or two per volley, and therefore eminently gettable with Israel's defense systems, but they don't seem to be able to stop them at all, and there's a growing sense that they're able to repair them more
quickly than has been allegend. As we know, of course, President Trump one day says one thing and one day another thing, and it's very difficult for us to know exactly. It's a enormous country, a ninety million people, and the idea that somehow we are able to know exactly what's going on across the entire region and all the launchers
seems unlikely. And this is a country that's been at war on and off, you know, plenty, and is clearly ready to suffer while it takes down in that asymmetrical way against a bunch of a Western country that really isn't entirely sure why it's there.
And speaking of that flip flopping mark, we have some sound from the President over about how the objectives of this warm we've heard from the administration. The messaging has changed throughout the conflict. We're going to play that for.
You, going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We're going to bring them back to the stone ages where they belong in the meantime. Discussions are ongoing. Regime change was not our goal. We never said regime change, but regime change has occurred because of all of their original leader's death. They're all dead. The new group is less radical and much more reasonable.
Right, it's not regime change, but we got regime change. The new group is less radical, which I think is a source of quite vigorous debate on that. And we're also hearing this familiar two week timeframe we were seeing earlier. It's almost like when the airlines tell you, oh, twenty more minutes, twenty more minutes. The White House just keeps saying, oh,
two more weeks, two more weeks. What's your take on all this and how the messaging is impacting operations and how people feel about this conflict.
Well, colleing Barackravine, myself in access we had written about the complications of kind of understanding what the actual signal versus the noises coming from the president, because it has lots of things, some of them are contradictory to his opponents and his critics, and this is just sort of madness to his supporters and people in the White House. This is part of a strategic genius keeping things ambiguous
and keeping everyone off balance. But I think it helps to go back to the original February twenty eighth announcement with the beginning of the war that Trump had made. He laid out four goals that the US military would accomplish, which is destroying the nuclear, missile, naval and terrorist proxy funding capabilities of Iran. He then added another one, saying that he hoped, essentially that the people of Ron rose
up and shook off the regime. So while he didn't say we are going to do regime change, he made it clear that the United States would like the.
Running people to do that.
Now, contrast that with the clip you just played, which is the President of the United States is saying that we're going to bomb them back to the Stone Age. And that's a little different from sort of suggesting that we want to help liberate the people of Iran. Originally, we want to help liberate them from Prussian and now we're possibly going to plunge them in a darkness and
destroy all their infrastructure and the electricity. Now it's not that quite clear and simple, but it has heard that way, and that speech caused the markets to plunge, which is a nightmare scenario for the president.
It's something you didn't want to have happened.
Be watching the markets of course when they reopen after this long weekend. And big thanks to our panel of getting things started here, Marco Puto. Great to have you, Ethan Bronner and retired General Mark Kimmitt. Just part of our conversation today on Bloomberg this weekend.
Stay with us for more on Bloomberg this weekend.
Right after this, the White House is asking Congress for one point five trillion dollars for defense for the twenty twenty seven fiscal year. That would be the highest level in modern history, any forty percent increase from what the US spent on the Pentagon this year.
We're already at a trillion dollars this year. You see what the President said on Wednesday, Christina.
The President has said a lot of things on Wednesday, Joe, which which thing are.
We talking about it's not possible for us to take care of daycare, medicaid, medicare all these individual things. We have to take care of one thing, military protection.
We have to guard the country. He says, Well, I know one individual who might have something to say about that, and he is our next guest.
Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin is with us to top our nine o'clock hour here on the East Coast on Bloomberg this weekend. It's great to see you, mister Martin. Welcome back to Bloomberg TV and Radio. I want to ask you about a lot of things here, including the midterms, but your thoughts on this when it comes to messaging and Democrats who are on the campaign trail as we
speak with a Congress that is not in Washington. Is this an ad that's already been written for you by the president?
Well, certainly, I mean, of course, we've already started playing it. We've already been pushing it out all throughout the country.
Because what a remarkable statement from a president of the United States to suggest that the only thing that federal government should be focused in on is of course, fighting wars of choice around the world at an enormous expense, at the expense of hard working Americans right now, who are really struggling based on this disastrous economic policy that Donald Trump has pushed over the course of this last year, which is making it harder for people to already afford
their lives, and this war now of course making it even more difficult. Look, the reality is is he's made it very clear what his values are, and these are choices, of course, and he's decided to pick fights around the world and again to make it clear that people who need child care in this country, people who are concerned about the rising costs of groceries and the lack of affordable housing, and the fact that they can barely afford their utility costs or fill up their gas. You know,
the reality is is right now people are struggling. Donald Trump is ignoring their cries for help.
When it comes to the midterms, what is the priority for Democrats? Are you going to try to wrap this all into one? I mean, the president ran on affordability, gas prices are going up. How are Democrats planning to capitalize and message on that? Because sometimes the messaging is not your party's forte, but there is a lot there to do. How are you going to make this happen for your party.
Well, listen, I would say if you look at the last year, we have had tremendous success. We've won over ninety percent of the elections on the ballot, historic over performance which was just about fourteen percentage points on average, which is an all time high. And the through line on that is that all of our Canada that's focused almost exclusively on affordability, making sure that we address the anxiety of this nation right now, which is really around
the economy. Many Americans are falling behind and no one feels like this economy is working for them right now. And so as we go into these last two hundred and fourteen days left until the midterm election, we're going to focus on three really important things. One is, of course, affordability. How do we make sure that you can afford to get to work, How do we make sure that you actually have a job to go to How do we make sure that you can afford your rent or your
mortgage or putting groceries on the table, as I mentioned earlier. Second, we're going to focus on the emergent healthcare crisis in this country based on the big Ugly Bill and the fact that they're going to take away so much revenue from healthcare systems in this country. Three hundred hospitals are going to close a quarter and nursing homes are going to close. Healthcare premiums are rising on almost every American right now. Healthcare is an emergent crisis in this country.
And the last thing we're going to focus on is fixing this corrupt and rig system that only benefits the wealthy, the well connected, and the powerful at the expense of everyone else in this country. And so that's what Democrats are focused on. We're going to focus on delivering real solutions to what's vexing the American people right now, focus just on fighting wars of choice around the world that
are costing. The average American household is paying four hundred dollars more a month to litigate this war and Iran, and it's four hundred dollars a month they don't have based on this disastrous economy that Donald Trump has.
Pushed with a gallon of gas at four dollars and ten cents today on average, according to Triple A Ken, we want to talk to you about resources. We had a conversation just last week on Bloomberg with Congresswoman Susan Delbenet, who chairs the D Triple C. They're targeting Trump plus eleven plus thirteen seats in some districts, making this a much wider effort. I realize you have history on your side, you might even have the message on your side. But how about money. The RNC has a nearly seven to
one money advantage over the DNC right now. You pulled in ten point three million in February, the RNC eighteen and a half million. Do you have the money the resources to pursue that many seats.
Well, absolutely, And in combination with the D Triple C, the DS and our other partners, of course, we do.
Look, you know, we don't need to.
Outraise the Republicans. We just need to raise enough money to be in the ring so we can compete and fight. And I'll give you an example on that. In Texas, we flipped a state Senate seat there. It was a plus seventeen percent Trump district. Our candidate won by fourteen percentage points, meaning it was a thirty one point swing, and the Republican opponent, they're raised two and a half million dollars to our candidate's three hundred and eighty thousand dollars. Again,
we don't need to outraise the Republicans. We just need to have enough money to compete. And look, last year we raised a record amount of money for a first year chair of the Democratic National Committee.
We raised a record.
Amount of money and what was fueling that was the grassroots dollars, you know, the small donors averaging fifty one dollars, you know, that was what was fueling our effort, and we raised a record amount which allowed us to win a record amount of races. Of course, we've got win at our back. We've got momentum as you mentioned, we've got a message that's resonated, and we'll have the resources
to make sure that we can compete. And as you mentioned, because of this historic overperformance, we've been able to expand out the map. We can now any Republican who sits in a fourteen percent or less district in this country is now targeted by the Democratic Party because they are vulnerable. And that's fifty Republicans who sit in those seats are
now on our target list. We've got a great path to the US House, and as crazy as it sounds, there's an equal chance of us winning the US Senate back as well.
And almost every time I have a Democrat honor talked to a Democrat, I ask them two questions, who is the leader of the Democratic Party? And if you actually take back the House and or the Senate, is there anything you can actually do to stop the legislatorship a gender of a president who seems not to care whether he has congressional approval for most of the things he does.
Well, let me answer the first thing. You know, look, there's many leaders of the Democratic Party. I happen to be one of them. I'm the chair.
Is that part of the problem?
Yeah, well no, Look, this is always the problem for either party when they're out of power.
Right.
The reality is is that you know, the president and the party in power has a much bigger megaphone. That's just always the case. And so we've got great governors out there, We've got great some mayors out there, We've got wonderful members of Congress. So there are many leaders, and of course we're a big ten party. That means we've got lots of different ideas out there, right, And as we come into this presidential race in twenty eight
and we get a nominee. Of course, then you know, it will start to come into focus who the leader of the Democratic Party is. But until that time, right, we have many leaders who are delivering for the American people, who are actually standing up. I've been very proud of watching what our governors have done during this last year to actually deliver on promises that they've made to the
American people. I've been proud of watching our mayors use the power they have to protect communities in this country from this administration. I've been really proud of our members of Congress using their platforms to actually speak out and hold this president accountable. And so, look, there are a lot of leaders of the Democratic Party, and you know, look,
I get that question a lot. I'm very proud of the fact that we have so many great leaders in this party who are standing up, delivering on the promises they made to the American people, and actually fighting to
make a difference in their lives. And on the second piece, you know, look, I think when we win back control of the Congress and hopefully the Senate, our job is to pass legislation to actually stand up and do what we said we were going to do, and you know, put it on Donald Trump's desk and you know, make him make a choice if he's going to actually sign legislation that's going to bring down the costs for American people and actually help create jobs, and actually restore health
care access in this country and help, you know, families that are struggling with childcare and finding jobs. At the end of the day, if we do those things and the President still refuses to sign them, the Republicans will have no chance of winning in twenty twenty eight. So what we're going to do is we're going to focus on doing our jobs and delivering on the promises that
we made to the American people. It will be up to the President to decide whether or not he wants to join Democrats at that point.
When we consider what primary voters are looking for here in this midterm cycle, there was fascinating research out recently from the group Third Way, of course famously moderate according to some dangerously moderate depending on the progressive you might be speaking with.
They talked about.
What primary voters' lives are like, what primary voters are looking for, and it came down to basically a question or an argument of pragmatism versus progressivism. Seventy five percent of Democratic self identified Democratic primary voters said they prefer pragmatism to twenty five percent progressivism. Is that going to be an important theme to follow in this campaign cycle?
Well, look, I mean, I don't like to put a label on any of this. I do agree that what Americans want right now is results. They're sick and tired of watching parties, politicians from both parties say one thing and then get into office and do another. They want people to stand up and fight for them and deliver. And you know, it's one of the challenges both for the Republican Party and it has been for the Democratic Party.
But what I think you're seeing right now, which is why Donald Trump's numbers are so low and the Republican Party is in jeopardy right now, losing both chambers of Congress and has been losing throughout the country right now, is you have one party that's actually delivering. Look at what Abigail Spanberger and Mikey Cheryl did on day one after they were elected governor. Look at what other Democratic elected officials are doing throughout the country to stand up
and deliver on those promises. And the Republicans continue to ignore the pleas of this country to focus on the issues that matter most of the Americans. And so look, I think at the end of the day, you know, you can call it pragmatism, or you can just you know, call it look delivering on your promises. You know, one of my first bosses said that you should never separate the life you lead from the words you speak. And it's critical right now because most Americans are just sick
and tired of politics as usual. They want someone who's going to stand up, be their champion and help them actually get ahead and not just get by.
All right, that out. Americans are sick and tired of politics. They are frustrated with Congress members in both parties, and they have a new accountability buddy making its presence known, and that is TMZ, the site we usually think of as gossip. We spoke to Harvey Levin on that site about why they are now going after members of Congress who are seen on vacation while the government is shut down. We're gonna play some sound for you when.
You look at what we're doing with these photographs and videos. It's really the big thing we're doing, because what we're doing is we're showing how the public feels about them, and I think they've lost that big view of it and started looking at it, you know, the blame game that the Republicans didn't vote on this, so the Democrats didn't do that, and they're not stepping back and looking at Congress as a whole.
We've only got about thirty seconds here, but I'm curious what your reaction to this is because it does tap into a broader spectrum of the American public really annoyed that Congress is not doing what they sent there to do.
Yeah, I've always said sunlight is the best disinfectant. You know, it's important for folks to hold elected officials and leaders in Congress and throughout the country accountable. And you know, during a time when government shut down and you see you know, politicians taking vacations, politicians, you know, not doing their job while people are suffering, of course, people are
going to be frustrated. And so again there should be a wake up call to every politician in each party to make sure that in times of crisis like this in this country, it requires people to stand up, do their job and deliver for the American people. And again, Democrats are doing that Republicans are sitting on their asses while people are suffering in this country.
Ken Martin, Chair of the DNC. We thank you for a great conversation. Ken. Happy Easter to you and thanks for joining us. I just want to know why Lindsey Graham was at Shaye Mickey and what he ate while he was there with.
The bubble ones. Stay with us for more on Bloomberg this weekend. Right after this this year's Easter baskets might be missing some go to suites as consumers pull back from some of those items due to higher prices and economic pressures. A new report from Bloomberg Intelligence finds Easter candy sales are down five percent so far this year. Equity research analyst Diana Roseo Paynat joins us, now, thank
you for coming in. I don't know if this is sad news or good news that, but Easter candy sales are down. But where are you noticing that most.
Well, it's pretty much on chocolate people, see. I know, it's one of the biggest share compared to non candy non chocolate, so obviously the hit is mostly on them, and it's mostly on volumes. People are pushing back on price increases. That has been happening for the past eighteen months, and they're being strategic about their spending.
Is it because chocolate is getting more expensive faster than some of the other items are. I mean, it's one of the few candies I let my have, well, my goodness, the few candies I have myself. And I noticed I bought it yesterday and I said to the women, so this is like nine dollars and she's like, yeah, it's getting really expensive even for us to buy.
Yes, exactly, I mean it's it's because of cocoa prices I have been very high, so chocolate tears have had to pass through those price increases. But obviously the demand seems to be a little bit on the weaker side because of it. So we project that, you know, throughout the season, Eastern candy sales is probably they're going to probably fall about five percent.
So we were talking before we started, and you said, this is the week that people buy the most of their Eastern candy. This is not like Christmas where people plan ahead. People go, oh, shoot, it's Easter, I gotta buy some stuff.
Exactly.
Yeah, so this week actually is the third of the purchase of Eastern candy that is going to happen this season. Yes, so this is I guess the make or break week for the holiday. But you know, sixty four percent of shoppers actually wait until the next day to get the candy for half a price.
You're buying that discount.
It's terrifying at the discount, which obviously affects sales overall.
We've also got some breakdowns of what people's favorite chocolate brands and non chocolate brands are for Easter. Okay, so it's Cadbury. Really people really like Cadbury eggs.
They absolutely do you like them? Well a little bit, I mean, I honest, be honest.
So it's funny.
Because I actually brought some, you know, Cadberry eggs for the associates here in the department and those who are the first ones to really ze.
So apparently they're very famous.
All right, America. I mean, not my favorite, but to each his own. Next is Reese's Hershey Dove, Eminem's Jeered Delly, which is like, I'm kind of fancy chocolate. Oh, and Kinder Eggs. We used to live in Germany where those are from Kinder Eggs are really popular. And then for non chocolate brands, we've got jelly belly. Now, those are my favorite. Those like they come out once a year. They have those carrots full of tangerine jelly bellies. If
you have those, oh yes, yes, they're good. They're the best. I can't stop eating them. Peeps. I'm not convinced anybody.
Really likes peeps. Peeps, well not really.
No, They're like one of those things you feel like you have to put in the easter basket.
But then they but they're a forty one percent of the market share.
I think it's an aesthetics thing. I think they're just like cute and people want to like them, and then they just taste like sugar. Sorry, peeps, I know I'm going to get like canceled for my candy. Hate so our patch kids. I didn't know that. I don't with an easter candy. Star Wars. How do you feel about Star Wars?
Oh?
Well, I mean they're good. Some of them are. I like the cherry.
Are you're pro Star Wars? Well, let's just say it's okay. Skittle, Swedish fish and nerds. Oh that's really interesting. And then when it comes to overall what people are going to buy this Easter candies at the top ninety two percent, so they're gonna buy candy. Food is at ninety percent. What are the other things that people are going to buy?
So they're actually going to buy greening carts and decorations, so those are like, yes, they want to be on the unaffestive mode. And you know, like I said, like I said on the note is you know, ninety percent of people are going to celebrate Easter, so it's a significant holiday for it.
But you say flowers are only forty six percent. I know we're not buying flowers. I don't you have to give Grandma flowers at Easter?
Well, I guess it's because they die soon enough, so and they're expensive.
I mean, flowers are also one of the things that I've noticed, I've really gone up, all right. I was reading through this essay of yours here and it also says that it's not just kids getting to enjoy Easter baskets. A Ferrero survey I'm assuming that's for a Rochet that again in Fancy Chocolates found that sixty six percent of respondents think adults deserve an Easter basket as much as
kids twenty eight percent. By Easter candy specifically for themselves guilty as charge, and sixty four percent, as you already mentioned, planned to buy candy on sale the day after Easter. I mean, adulthood is hard. Kids have it easy. Don't we deserve an Easter basket?
That's what sixty six percent of people of saying. And I agree.
You know, you have to celebrate as much as possible, bring some joy to your life. But uh, and this, you know, going back to the sales forecast, is actually it is a tail wind for sales because there's obviously more demand for the candy, but again they are probably a lot of them are waiting for the next day to to get it in promotions, and even right now, if you walk the aisles, which I tend to do when I visit a grocery store, I don't know how sad that makes me, but.
I don't think that makes you said at all. I'm looking for sales, we're looking for good things.
Well, and I also, you know, I channel checks, so that is I noticed that, you know, there's more promotions for the Eastern candy, so you know, there seems to be a lot of eagerness to move inventory, and that is obviously going to be the headwind for the season.
So when you look at the industry as a whole, I mean sales are down, are they down a concerning amount? Is this really a problem? Do you think it's a bell weather for the industry or I.
Would say, actually, you know, basically our base case in area calls for a five percent you know drop. But if things are, if people pull back more than what they used to what they normally do, we're probably going to see a nine percent decreasing Easter candy sale.
And that is significant.
That's pretty significant. That is I mean, I would imagine there are other holidays. It's Christmas is big. I mean, I guess Halloween is like the big candy time. So we have to wait until then to see if they can rebound from this.
Well, I mean Eastern will be I will call it about weather for the you know, at least the summer months and how you know, the industry will will you know, will behave in terms of candy sales as overall. But yeah, this is a significant you know, it's holiday for the season. It's about ten percent of candy cells for the US.
So they'll tell you it will help you industry out. I'll get you an easter basket. You can get me an easter basket. Sounds good and will be participating. That's I agree, you know, for the good of the economy, Yes, exactly, we have to do it for the economy. Dana, thank you so much for coming and we really appreciate it. Of course, you could read more of this awesome analysis on the Terminal and Bloomberg dot com. I have jelly bean.
Wow, jelly bean. Yeah, well, Jellybelly, as you said, were among your favorites right now.
Jellybean.
That's great, But the peeps people are being a little weird about the peeps.
It's like it's the candy corn of Easter.
Yes, that is a good anouncer.
They get no respect, but they're mandatory.
About me.
Lisa.
You were just saying, how old are your kids?
And you got them mine eighteen and twenty three, and I still get them easter baskets.
You know, it's different. They wake up and they wake up.
It's there, but it's like now it's like beauty products, shaved kids, tattoo cream like all that kind of like that's what it's transitioned. To stay with us for more on Bloomberg. This weekend.
Right after this, Welcome back to Bloomberg.
This week it is time for Pointed the Pointed News Quiz, where I try to defend my title, but Joe Matthew knows everything, so I don't know.
You're about to learn otherwise.
All right, we're gonna learn how to do this because you're new. So Lisa's gonna run.
Okay, So let me explain it. This is a game for risk takers, are you right?
Absolutely, I'm known as one.
Okay, good, good, good, okay.
So you're going to join it.
Okay.
So there are three categories I'm going to give you. You have thirty chips in front of you. They're in three different you know sections here. You place your bets on each category, thinking, you know what, I feel confident in this one. I'm gonna stay with ten or maybe on you invent No, I did not. It's on Bloomberg dot com.
You have to go check it out.
Well, you can play along at home.
Okay, I thought you invented it for Bloomberg. I did not.
I'm not that gifted. We crip it from our brilliant colleagues over in the Games department.
LISTA what are the top all right, So let's get to the categories first.
Okay.
So the first category is resignations. The second category is wearables. The third category is food and beverage. If we need, we have a bonus. But we'll see to that it does, it has, but we still tied.
Yeah, okay, so place your bets.
Are you going ten each? What do you?
What do you Okay, I'm going to do five on resignations because there's been a lot of names in that category recently, and I'm splitting. I'm not okay, well, slip, I won't.
What do we want to make this? Okay, I'm here spread it out. Ten on all three?
Okay, ten on all three.
Take those we have here for.
For you to write your your your answer. Okay, let me give you your first question for our first category, which is resignations.
Okay, here's your question. Okay.
Air Canada CEO stepping down after his response lea.
I'm not gonna okay, hold on, hold.
On, give you give yourself some credit, stepping down after his response to a deadly runway collision which faux.
Pop did he commit?
What did he do wrong that caused him to step down?
Really?
What did you think?
What do you think I.
Thought it was gonna be a Pam BONDI question.
And then you like how we have the music to soothe you as as you go along there. Joe, Oh, he's writing furiously.
I have a good feeling about I don't know what he's writing his vernie hand.
Rightfully, You folks at home have got it. It's okay, Joe, we only have like re read flip it, Joe, what do you got? He moved his what his seat back?
About tweet on Twitter?
He made his statement in mostly English, so think about French as well. So okay, so what was this major?
Yes, Quebec.
They were not happy because you's a French ongoing political issue.
So yeah, exactly what they know? This you have to say in both language.
Everyone else?
Yeah, so lisagains.
So I get you have to pass them over to me.
I get your chips.
See all right, I'm gonna get some, Okay, next one.
The next one is Warrible's Google developing a fitness band to compete with Aura, and which other brand that's on its way to an IPO. So Google is developing a fitness band, It's going to compete with Aura, and which other brand that's on its way to an I p O.
I knew this would be my week spot here. I don't think either of us are another brand, whole other brand.
Yes, that's on its way to an I p O.
Thirty seconds.
Oh, I don't think any I only know one. I'm putting the only one I know. Yeah, same, What are they around anymore?
You're both wrong? The garment is what is a wolf?
Yes?
Okay, okay, they plan to release it later this year, but who no, they they're going for an I p O pretty soon. And the reason why it's so big is because Chase credit Card did like a rebate with their fitness band, so so many people started to get so you could get into these Yes, so that was a big drawing.
All right, we've had a long going okay, well, food and beverage, man, we got this.
Got I was going to go all in on this one.
You got em. That's what we're doing, both of those things Togetherlast night before about that.
Food and beverage, Unilabor agreed to sell its food business to which company in a forty four point eight billion dollars deal.
Do you yes?
I know what?
This was a good story.
Yes, well now I think I know I think I know it.
I think I even read it on the air. I don't remember the headline.
Though, the big corporate food giants think about it.
Okay, food business. I'm just putting this to be funny because we had chocolate.
You did, Okay, you said her, she's Sancisco. No McCormick, all right, well yes, yes, yes, it's the spice maker with.
You many other mccormy. No one else is merging with Cisco. That you, guys, thank you, was restaurant depot was merging with Cisco. Thank you, Patrick, and our control room for you guys.
You know you have zero points.
You know what's on the holiday. Here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna go for a bonus.
Okay, and whoever guess it gets all the chips, I'm going for it. Okay, that's what we're doing already at least rules Now you're both losersdy, we're going to try to redeem ourselves.
Okay, Okay.
The bonus question is candy okay, which Hershey brand was called out by its namesake founder's band son for skimping on ingredients. Yes, wait, what happens if there's a tie, then then you get candy to both of you.
Seconds ready, yes, all right?
Do I get to come back tomorrow?
You you get to come back to Wind and you get all your chips back and you get and don't you don't have to eat one because you did not lose, So that was going to be the thing we're.
Gonna have to eat, all right, guys, Joe Matthew Yah, So tomorrow we'll have multiple choice correct no, but play at home.
Bloomberg dot Com slash pointed.
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