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Morning, yes, let's say these negotiations between the US and the Iranians, But much more acutely, now, what happened last night at the White House Correspondents Association dinner in Washington, DC. The three of us were in attendance there, along with many of our Bloomberg colleagues, and to get everyone up to speed, shots were fired early on in that dinner. The President, the Vice President, many members of his cabinet ushered out of that building the present giving a statement
afterward at the White House about what had happened. We know that the suspect has been apprehended from California. But still the uncertainty that followed in the immediate aftermath of that shooting remains.
There's a lot that we still don't know.
And I'm going I mean, we are assuming a motive, but to what we were talking about earlier, they haven't charged him with that yet, so that means that they haven't proven that's too. Charges to come on Monday, which had to do with guns weapons charges because that is, you know, the clearest thing that they can get before investigating this more. But we need to know more about this subject. And the other big question is basically how
did this happen? And that's something that we think we're gonna be talking about a lot here in Washington and throughout the week.
We were sitting near each other and it was just a startling.
It's amazing it was, and hearing the stories of everyone we've had on this morning of exactly what happened, from people ducking under tables, to the confusion, to the fear in people's faces. I saw one woman in tears. So it's an example of what can happen in this type of situation that people were just confused and didn't know.
Where to go and what to turn and what to do.
All right, we've got some sound and video were going to kind of run everybody through what happened. As a president was having his mind read by the evening's entertainment, several thuds could be heard in the ballroom. Initially, neither the president nor the guests took much notice. Then a column of security, Secret Service, and tactical teams swarmed the ballroom. The Vice president and President were quickly whisked off stage, followed by the president of the White House Press Corps.
Uijajang.
Secret Service jumped tables and flip chairs to rush cabinet members, including Stephen Miller and a pregnant Katie Miller, out of side door. The Speaker of the House resurched through the lobby. Cabinet secretaries were extracted from their tables, while ambassadors, VIPs and guests sheltered under them. Journalists decked for cover while
trying to record on their phones. Guests who weren't evacuated were asked to wait, but with an active crime scene just outside the ballroom door, the President instead called a press conference at the White House.
Can you described what was going through your mind, how you were feeling in that moment.
That's very good question. Actually, it was always shocking when something like this happens. Happened to me a little bit, and that never changes the fact we were sitting right next to each other. First, Lady, am I right, And I heard a noise and sort of thought it was a tray. I thought it was a tray going down. I've heard that many times, and it was pretty loud noise, and it was from quite far away. He hadn't preached the area at all. They really got him, but so
it was quite far away. But it was a gun, and some people really understood that pretty quickly.
Other people didn't.
I was watching to see what was happening. Probably should have gone down even faster.
Back at the Hilton, the US Attorney for the District of Columbia, Mayor of DC, and chief of Police held a press conference.
I'm not exactly one hundred percent from there with this. I do know in this instant tonight.
I know there was a security plane that was developed by the Secret Service at the Metropolitan Police Department, assisted with and I know that security plan did.
Work this evening, leaving many unanswered questions, an empty ballroom and visibly shaken staff left to clean up the mess.
Stay with us for more on Bloomberg this weekend. Right after this, getting a tweet.
Here from the President post on truth Social from the President United States, talking about the prospects of there being a new ballroom at the White House that we've been discussing over the course of the morning. The President brought that up in his comments to the press last night, saying, what happened last night at the Hilton here in Washington, d C.
Is further evidence of the.
Fact there needs to be a space of size at the White House for an event like this could be helped. We've talked with Jeff Mason a bit about the complication factors around all of that. That wouldn't be a public venue, of course, But the President here taking issue with the lawsuit that's been filed against the construction of that ballm
You see, they're a very lengthy post. I'm not going to read all of it, but taking that litigant to task, suggesting again that this is something that needs to happen and would have perhaps prevented.
What we saw last night.
Ye yeah, and Jeff Mason in that big block of text, the part that stands out to me is right at the top, and the President says, this.
Is the exactly what happened last night is exact.
Reason our great military, secret Service, law enforcement, and every president for the last one hundred and fifty years have been demanding that a large, safe and secure ballroom be built on the grounds of the White House. Is that accurate and why is this something the president is focused on this morning.
No, it's not accurate, and it seems almost uncomfortable to have to be fact checking the president on something that is not as important as what happened last night. But he is following a political adage, which is never let a good crisis go to waste, and I think that's exemplified in what he said last night and in this particular post.
The president's ballroom.
Is going through a whole bunch of legal threats that's really gotten under his skin. He wants to have it built before he leaves office at the end of his second term. There are question marks about that, even as there's a big pile of nothingness the East Wing used to stand, and he is emphasizing that if this event had been there, if that existed, then there would be more security. But you're right to mention, which I did earlier as well.
It was the ballroom at the White.
House is not going to be a public ballroom for outside organizations to use. And the White House Correspondence Association is an organization of journalists, not of that that does not work.
For it, like the wedding venue.
Correct, some twelve hours after this incident took place, we're getting more information on what transpired, more information about the suspect, Jeff and across television this morning, we're hearing from policymakers and politicians who were in attendance at this dinner. We're going to hear from a couple here in just a moment. But Todd Blanche, the Acting Attorney General, was on Meet
the Press this morning talking about that investigation. What did he learn, How does that advance the stories we know it of who this individual is, and indeed what the focus of this law enforced investigation is going to be going forward.
It's getting a few more details, but not a lot. It's a thirty one year old apparently teacher from California who traveled to Washington, d c.
By train.
To the extent that that's interesting, we know that he had apparently a shotgun, another gun.
And multiple knives.
He stayed at the hotel at the Washington Hilton, which we were referring to earlier as the Hinckley Hilton, and that is how he had those weapons, but still raising a lot of security questions about how he made it down at least two escalators to get very close to the ballroom before he was taken down.
All right, Jeff Mason, thank you so much.
And joining us now is Republican Congressman Michael McCall of Texas. He serves on the Foreign Affairs and Homeland Security committees.
He was also our guest at the.
White House correspidence correspond It's dinner last night.
Chairman, First of all, how are you? And the first thing I.
Want to ask you is we spent a lot of time standing in that well after this all happened last night. When you went about the dinner last night, do you think there was enough security there?
You've been there before, what are your thoughts?
Yees put my chairman of Homeland Security had on his former counter terrorism federal prosecutor. I would say the secret serch did an amazing job. Capitol police escorted the members out in the emergency vehicles, but the outer perimeter, if you will, was very free access. It's an open hotel, and I think that was part of the risk you know, involved here, if you had.
To analyze it.
It's very difficult to harden that kind of environment when you have the president coming in. When I was sort of amazed, you had the president and the vice president at the head table and the speaker, so you had the line of secession right there. If a bomb had gone off or something more dramatic, you know it would be it would fallow Chuck Grassley Amazingly.
After this took place, you think Secret Service and the Capitol Police for squiring you and hear congressional colleagues out of the room. Something Joe Matthew brought up a few minutes ago is what it was like to see those security officials on stage, Yes, with weapons, but then how secret Service those law enforcement knew exactly where everybody was. There was an ear quiet in this space. But talk
a bit about that. What you were thinking is you watched all of that unfold because I confess from where I was sitting, we were beginning to eat. There was some commotion and then it became very very quiet in the room.
Well, I heard three gunshots, so I knew something was horribly rolling, and you're not quite sure what's going to happen after that, right, and I saw the President being taken off the stage, a secret service jumping up on the stage with their weapons pointed towards the audience, and it was surreal, you know, like you know, it's not an ordinary event. Unfortunately, it's becoming too commonplace in this country. But they went into action very quickly and escorted the
cabinet members out of the room. But you don't know what's gonna happen quite after that. I didn't know before you can have like an AR fifteen and a spray of bullets and or we're gonna be diving under the tables. And fortunately we heard the three gunshots and that was the end of it. But you know, this country's getting too violent, you know, and the rhetoric needs to tone down.
In my opinion.
I was at Texas A and M talking about civility and politics just this last week with Henry Quaer or a Democrat, talking about you know, how we can agree to disagree, but with civility, and I think last night it's a good lesson for all of this and you know, amazingly the press, right, we were celebrating the First Amendment and the freedom of the press, and the press were there along with Republicans and Democrats all together celebrating our constitution.
And the First Amendment does not allow for political violence.
We were talking about the First Amendment, but it often comes into contradiction, it seems, with the Second Amendment, especially when your party votes on issues, they've been very reticent. More and more we were talking about Jim Brady and the Brady Bill that was the Reagan administration. This is a current Republican climate in which almost any gun control,
even lawns gun control, is impossible to get past. Is that something your party should reevaluate, given what you just talked about, the heated political rhetoric and the violence that we're seeing.
Yeah, it's interesting as I was talking to your CEO right next to me about this very issue before the shooting, and when I met with Michael Bloomberg and he donated my campaign. This is many years ago. He said, you're from Texas and you know, where are you on guns?
Right?
And you know we were having this conversation that you know, of course the weapons purchased I think it wasn't like an AR fifteen.
It wasn't.
I used to prosecute gun cases. A lot of them were stolen, but there has to be a way too. Usually after the fact, flags come up, like yeah, I knew this guy and I thought there was a problem, but they don't report it until after. And I had to build like a fusion center to capture the red flags and then be able to act beforehand, or at least provide more security if there's a threat out there. So I think there is room for improvement here. I don't think you're going to see my party, you know,
infringing on the Second Amendment, per se. But you know, there are certain weapons under the nineteen sixty eight Gun Control Act, you know, like fully automatic machine guns or you know, And that was an out growth of you know, Robert Kennedy. You know, of course, you had John jfk assassinated in sixties, Robert Kennedy, and then you had Martin Luther King, and we had that legislation in nineteen sixty eight. That's the last time we've done that.
Cherman Maritis mentioned Michael Blomberg, of course, the majority shareholder of Bloomberg LP. The parent company of Bloomberg News. When we get that out there, I want to ask you about what Homeland Security is going to do next year the Committee on Homeland Security.
Will there be an investigation?
Do you think what questions do you have about the way in which all of this unfolded. I think a lot of us took note of the way that security was set up. You rightly bring up the fact this was an open hotel, there were guests, they are totally unaffiliated with this dinner. What do you want to see investigated in terms of what that perimeter was, like, how fortified.
I think we have to we have to take a look at the outer perimeter. Now, as I understand, he was a guest at the hotel, So anytime you have a big event like that, and you know, it's known as a Hinckley Hotel because in nineteen eighty one, Regae was shot there, so it has a bit of a checkered past, and so I do think we'll be analyzing that.
I think also it just re emphasizes how important it is to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security and stop this nonsense of a shutdown of a very important agency within our federal government.
Still partially shut down.
It is.
What is your take on the appropriateness of the president's true social posts that we just saw this morning and everything we've talked about violence, political rhetoric, that the president is focusing on building a ballroom.
What's your take on that.
Well, let me say first, I think his remarks last night were very gracious towards the press, you know, into both Democrats and Republican alike. I'm glad he took the high road in the rhetoric, which I think needs to be addressed. You know, the ballroom, you know, I was in the East wing and he pointed to it.
It's a big hole in the ground.
It's gonna have a lot of security features to it in the basement. But I think, as I was pointed out earlier, this is a private association, It's not that's a federal building essentially.
So I don't know.
I mean, I think it would certainly be a lot more secure if it was done in a place like that. The next time the president shows up, I think they're going to tighten up security even more so on the outer perimeter and again the line of secession all being there. At the same time, I think we had to take a look at that as well.
Is that concerning? Is that something Congress should investigate?
Yeah, of course. I was really shocked that the president and vice president were.
At the table Togain surprise.
Yeah.
Yeah, I'm going to go back to the rhetoric, and I'm cure is how hot a rhetoric has shaped the way that you approach your job? Is it something that you give more thought to God forbid something like this were to happen. How has it shaped the way that you and your colleagues in Congress approach the job. We've seen some reticence to attend town hall meetings if they
get pretty fractious. Who knows what might happen. What are the consequences on a day to day basis for having the kind of heated rhetoric that we have in this country.
We're a reflection of the American people, and there is a violent rhetoric out there, but we don't have to be an echo chamber for that. And the irony was I was just at this symposium at a university in my district where we talked about this very issue and how it needs to be I've been up there twenty two years up here, and it's changed for the worse, and it's okay to go on social media and say vile things about the other party and other members of Congress, and the president.
Doesn't some of that coming from the top down. Isn't the president partly to blame for that?
Well, I think we're probably all to blame. And you know what happens when these when these things occur, everybody says the right things for a couple of days, and then I'll give this a couple of weeks and we're going to be right back at you know, this violent rhetoric out there, and it doesn't seem to change. You can't legislate that that that is a conduct issue. It's
a moral clarity issue. And I think, uh, the institution is weakened and hurt by the political politics in general are hurt by this violent rhetoric that is out there today. And I hope members do reflect on this, the ones that want they're five minutes of fame on YouTube and social media. I hope they reflect. It's not how I conduct myself. I wasn't raised that way. It's on my value system. I show respect for people that have other opinions,
and that's what democracy is all about. That's what the press, the First Amendment, freedom of speech and press is all about. And we got to respect each other a little.
Bit more last night.
You know, I've been in war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. I've you know, heard mortar shells and you know ammunition. I'm going to Ukraine and this summer and you know, drones and all that kind of stuff. But you don't expect that. You know that the Hilton Hotel in Washington, DC.
You have confidence in who's going to be leading this investigation prosecution, so cash matel not somebody who has traficial background for somebody running the FBI. Mark Wayne Mullen just taking this job over his DHS secretary. Should we be at all worried about those individuals' capacity to see this through?
Well, they're the figurehead.
I do think, like when I was a Federal protesty, the line, FBI agent's line, you know, secret service, They've been doing this for many years. They're professional and they know how to conduct this. I'm almost surprised we don't know anything more about the shooter, to be honest with you, other than you took a train, which I think is very strange. He had a couple of weapons and knives. You were there last night, Christina, We were at the
table together. Yeah, somehow he runs in, he gets pretty darn close to the ballroom, and then we heard the gunshots, and so, yeah, there were a lot of unanswered questions. I didn't know if it was going to be like in Austin, Texas we had the property of all Islamist terrorist you know, does it look like this is that's the case here? And I don't know what motivates somebody to do something like this, and we don't know the answer to that right now.
Very quickly, before I let you go, you said you think Congress should look into why all the cabinet officials were there, you know, the last survivor issue. But I'm wondering you think there should be a congressional investigation into what we've been talking about, how he got that far the perimeter and the security precautions around the president.
Oh, ye, one hundred percent, And we will, and I think the Homeland Security Committee will be charged with that responsibility.
But I do.
Let's not lose fact that the Secret Service immediately popped up in the room, went into action, and the captal police.
So I'm very proud of what they did.
All right, thank you so much for joining US. Congress, Michael Paul, nice to see you again. Stay with us for more on Bloomberg this weekend. Right after this, we want to turn it out to Democratic Congressman Don Bayer of Virginia. He serves on the Ways and Means and Joint Economic Committees.
And thank you for coming down. I know, I guess up, it's be long to hit. I know you weren't at the.
Dinner last night, but I also know you know what's going on and you watched it. I just want to get your reactions to what happened and where you think we go from here, and what, if anything Congress should be investigating.
My youth was dominated by the assassination of doctor President Kennedy, doctor King Bobby Kennedy, and we had this long other than the tragic shots at the same hotel with Ronald Reagan, a long period of time with peacefulness.
This has really been upsetting.
And you find that on Capitol Hill a lot more security all around, metal detectors everywhere, a lot more Capital police. They actually put a lot of money in the buzzet for personal security for members, And now when we do town hall meetings, we're always talking to the local police making sure there's two or three of them there on just in case.
And that's because the rhetoric has gotten so.
Huge, exactly, and it's a terrible thing. You know, I don't support much of what President Trump has done, but the last thing I want is for him to be shot.
Like, give you a variation on the question, I asked the chairman Emeritis of the FORDA Fairs Cuddy, that is, has it affected the way that you go about your job, your awareness of that rhetoric, a sense that something terrible could happen at a town hall or a public event.
Is it something you worry about?
I think I don't worry. I think my wife worries about more than I do.
Also, I don't feel like I'm a particularly high profile in terms of going versus of viral And you know, if I were AOC or Margorie Taylor Green something like that, I'd be much more worried about it.
We have Attorney General Toald blanch Is on CNN moments ago.
We want to play you what he just said. It doesn't sound.
From our preliminary investigation it does appear the suspect was targeting members of the administration.
I don't want to go beyond.
That because we don't have specifics yet about particular members of the administration, except that we do understand that that was his goal and his target he, of.
Course, is the acting AG.
I want to correct myself there, but what is your take on the fact that he was there to possibly harm not just the president but members of the administration and the cabinet and people who may not be his high profile maybe not safe in this climate either, although.
You know, if you look through different administrations, a lot of Trump's folks think peak heagteth or Cash Mattel there much higher profile, that's than Pam Bondi than they have been in the past. I'm trying to think sometimes you'd reach back and say, who was that person for Barack Obama or Joe Biden.
We want to talk about what's happened in Virginia politics over the last few weeks, but let me get one more question to you about this, and that is, how would you like to see Congress's.
Role going forward in all of this?
So it's really early hours yet, not even early days yet, in this investigation. The suspect likely to be charged on Monday, as we understand it. What's Congress's role here in the wake of what happened yesterday?
You know, the very first thing, David I'd say is that we continue to try to improve our rhetoric.
You know that we're in the country. One of the things most obsessed me is that.
We are more divided than we've ever been, maybe back to the Civil War. We seem to have different understandings of who we are in our factories, our understanding of our history. So the notion of treating each other with respect, even though we could have very different policy approaches, seems to still be essential to that.
Should Congress be investigating either why so many members within the line of succession were in the same room, or the security apparatus and how this all happened.
I was really concerned myself as Marco Rubio and the vice president and the president.
That's really concerning.
I know it shouldn't just be one person that good takeover.
Should you be investigating, I just show Congress investigator.
Well, that'd be a good oversight thing for sure. On ways and means, I tend not to thinking more about the tariffs in the taxes.
There enough and plenty to think about that.
We can talk about that in a minute as well, But let's talk about redistricting and what's happening in Virginia. Did what's stalled for the moment in Virginia? I was saying during the break, I was on vacation traveling through Virginia and the signs were everywhere, vote yes, vote no, really yes on this referendum just a few days. I still love to see if they get taken down. It did pass what your governor had pushed for here, this
redistrict that was advantageous for Democrats. Now it's a stand still as Republicans have filed a lawsuit against it.
Where does it stand? How do you see all of this playing out?
And I don't need to point out we're getting closer and closer here to the midterm elections.
Well, I was glad that it passed with some reluctance. So we passed a construcial amendment four or five years ago, getting rid of jerry manderins. We have the least gerrymandered districts in the country before this, but after Donald Trump said he's entitled to five seats, in It took three in North Carolina, two in Ohio, one coming up in Missouri.
Florida is about to meet. I think to do the same thing.
We felt we had to push back and we got three million people showed up was gubernatorial style turnout for an election in April, and it didn't pass by a lot three percent of ninety thousand votes. And now you know, in a perfect democratic world is ten Democrats and one Republican. But that's not a given. We still have to go win those seats, and we'll be running in many cases against Republican incumbents who've been there many years and have deep relationships in the community.
But I do want to ask you as we talk about turning down the political rhetoric, it is very hard to get elected as a moderate in Congress right now, partly because of the way these districts are drawn and the way voters are mobilized. That these tend to vote for the extremes of the party, which is why initially Democrats worthy.
You know, when they go low, we go high.
Party is there could there be a potential backlash to changing tactics here and that the things you say that we should have in Congress might be harder.
To get there could be a backlash.
But Christine digo to something that's been really important to me my eleven years in Congress, which is the notion that you have so many safe seats that Democrats have to run to the left and their primary Republicans run to the right. We typically worry about who's going to take us out in the primary, not in the general election. And that then means when you come to Congress, there's
no overlap. When I was a kid, there are lots of very conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans there are you don't have many of them anymore.
Not to get nerdy on.
You, but nerdy this is Bloomberg.
Bring it out a fair representation actors that have been pushing for eleven years. Takes us back to multi member districts, which we had for the first sixty years in America and ranked choice voting, and that then makes you Northern Virginia that I represent, would have three districts, and you'd be fighting for the middle rather than the extreme. It would hopefully bring also you end up not that you
don't want to have the extremes. The Marjorie Tayl of Green and the like, but it should get cut off those ends and bring people back together.
Mention your own ways and means.
You're also the senior Democrat on the Joint Economic Committee. We just got news that Senator Tom Tillis of North Carolina is prepared to go ahead with voting for Kevin Warsh because of what's happened with the investigation in Jerome
Powell and the Federal Reserve. Your reaction to that, I wonder if you are a supporter of Kevin Worsh's candidacy for that position, and also just your reaction to the way that all of this has unfolded, both the investigation on the Justice Department side and now it being punted over to the IG at the Federals.
I'm thrilled that they've withdrawn the the case against j.
Powell.
It was silly to begin with. If you look at cost overruns. There are so many in the federal government for many, many different reasons, and the thought that blaming him for it was pretty ridiculous. I'm so glad that Senator Tillis had stood up for that.
And for Kevin wors It's interesting you look at his history.
He was largely at a deficit hawk and somebody that believed in manishing higher interust rates.
So and I was very.
Pleased with his testimony saying that he wasn't going to be a sock buffet.
For Donald Trump.
But do you think this is enough for Powell to step away, because as we've been talking about here, there's no guarantee that they can't restart this investigation. He could do what the President wants him to do and then still end up facing these charges.
Yeah.
But Wes, we've seen so many of these investigations. Once you get to a grand jury, they throw it out right away. You know, there's a lot a lot of this is showmanship that and it does have It costs the poor person that's being persecuted.
Dollars, money, money, and anxiety.
And of course so it's it's unfair and that the going after political enemies, whether it's a Democrat or Republican.
Is a bad thing.
You again, join Economics Committee have a great vantage on this US economy, it's placed in the global economy. This war is continuing, lasting longer than the President said it wouldn't. We've heard so many warning signs from our guests, policymakers and experts about what the fallout has been so far and what it's likely to be as we see in Asia parts of the world, real difficulty in getting oil, getting refined.
Fuel products and fertilizer.
All that's going to have your sense of what this means for the economy. How worried you are about the prospects of a war that lasts longer and longer.
Well, I think one of the main reasons down Trump kind elector was because of the all the inflation during COVID, which is during Biden and his tariffs have moved us in the wrong direction, and then the war having get a huge impact on both grocery prices and fuel I'm paying in northern Virginia.
It's only four ninety nine.
If only only yeah, yeah.
That, and it could get worse.
How a big picture, I still very much believe in the American economy. We have an awful lot of interesting things going on, including and I know Mike and I your previous guest co co chair of the AI Caucus, there's so much good coming out of AI, including five percent productivity growth in the last quarter, and so much danger because of the real plause of huge job displacement you're studying.
Weren't you remember that you were like studying eyes.
I'm still in a masters or something that.
Yeah, I still get nine courses to go out of Jards Mason, but I'm working on it.
So we only have a tiny bit of time.
But when it comes to AI spiking energy prices, this is all coming into focus with what's going on in Iran and there's a crunch on supply and demand everything else. As you look towards the midterms, as you look towards November, you talk about those kitchen table issues and how they got President Trump into office.
Will Democrats take.
Advantage of that and will this help you going into the fall?
Oh?
I think so, you know, things look very good right now, but it's April and a week's a long time in politics. But we have many seats we think we can take, relatively few that we need to defend, and with the presidents disapprove, we're rating at fifty eight percent.
This is potentially wave election.
Although you look back to Charlie Cooky said wave elections tend to follow wave elections one way or the other. So there aren't that we have to temper our expectations. You only need three or four seats.
Gentlemen from the eighth Congressional District of Virginia, Don Bayer, thank you very much for joining us.
Stay with us for more on Bloomberg this weekend. Right after this.
Here to discuss more is Rise Communications founder and former Republican Congression advisor Leslie Shedd and former Senior Advisor for Political Engagement during the Biden administration, John McCarthy. Great to have both of you with us. We saw you at the dinner last night, and John, let me start with you.
I'm piecing together each of our own experience of what unfolded there, and I'm curious sort of where you were in the room and the degree to which in the moment you had an understanding of what was happening and what unfolded after that.
Well, I don't think that anybody in the moment had any clear picture of what was going on, obviously, it being a room full of journalists people. Kind of then once the activities stopped, I went around the room and kind of started comparing notes, and I think I heard about six different retellings of what had actually transpired.
I was sitting at the.
Back of the room, kind of by the door, where the lot of the main central activity occurred, and my face was to the door, and at the time you saw agents kind of come out of that door, you'd hear gunshots, and at that point people dropped to the
table pretty quickly. It's obviously a very crowded ballroom, and you know, people watching don't always know, but you don't actually know a lot of the people you're sitting around necessarily, so about half your tables kind of under the table, under the tablecloths.
Other people have their heads down.
That transpires for a couple of minutes, probably, and then folks kind of started to put their heads up, and then there ended up being a lot more kind of noise coming from the center of the room, which in retrospect was probably the detail ees being kind of removed from the room, cabinet members exactly. And then the thing that really amazed me is kind of once that seemed to clear, I mean, there was no kind of announcement
that everything had cleared. But the thing that kind of amazed me is once you're looking up for a second, you look around the room, and I mean, I spent four years in the last administration, and I have always been so amazed by the Secret Service. I mean without missing a beat. I mean they stood up and physically stood in front of the President, which I am always amazed by them. And then I was really amazed by
the journalists in the room. The fact that they were able to kind of stand up and just start muscle memory, you know, kicking and start doing their job again, I
thought was pretty remarkable. And you know, people sometimes give this dinner in this weekend a little flak, but you know, as you looked around the room and saw those people kind of stepping in and doing what they're supposed to do in that moment, they kind of reminded you that what they're doing is very important and that a lot of the people who do it are very good at it.
And you also said, we've been talking about the other folks who.
Helped make that dinner happen, including all the back of house staff, and you said some point you saw them with.
Their hands up or yeah, in the kind of rooms that kind of open up off the ballroom, A couple of the doors flung open, and it looked at you know, at some point that they were kind of being held in kind of a security like posture, and that was pretty alarming too, because at this point you didn't know what was happening at all. You didn't know if someone was still in the room. You know, you didn't know how many. And again no one sits and says, okay, now you're clear, feel free to move about. So it
was kind of a jarring posture. And you know, a lot of the people in that room are probably used to being around, you know, protected individuals situations like this. Obviously, a lot of the journalists were there for the incident in Pennsylvania with President Trump and Generos six, but for these people who you know, are there just to kind
of support this function. I've been going to the dinner for years, and I've actually really enjoyed talking to a lot of the weight staff there because they actually take
such a point of pride in working there. I actually remember a couple of years ago there was this one man who was a waiter there and I was asking him how many of these he'd worked at, and he actually went back in and pulled out a bunch of the old programs that he kept there with him because he always took it as such a point of pride that he gets to kind of work at this historic event, and it really, when you step back for a second, it is exactly what Washington is supposed to be in
the sense of it should be about mutual respect, It should be about lowering the temperature and finding kind of comedy in difficult times. So I mean again, every kind of player in it, from the weight staff to the journalists in the room kind of all ended up doing what they were supposed to do and it does kind of give you some hope in humanity in pretty difficult times.
Let's see, I want to ask you about rhetoric. So there have been these calls to tone down the rhetoric.
I mean, I think the cover station about hetoric began before the event itself.
There were a lot of people wondering what tack the President would take giving this speech to the White House Correspondents Association and its guests.
Given he hadn't gone to the dinner before.
Given what he said to the press before, there was a market change in his tone last night when he did speak to the press in the briefing room, he was very gracious to the President the association and also somewhat chokingly said he couldn't give the speech that he intended to give.
After what had happened.
It's maybe folly to kind of look at a moment like this and predict whether it's going to change things. But does it feel like this is a moment when there's the prospect of change in the way that people of differing views get along with?
Yes, I mean, I would love to see that right civility in our conversation. It seems to be gone. And it's really frustrating and scary when you work in politics to think I can't go to a party with my friends without having to walk through magnometers and have secret service and police and roads closed off everywhere just so that we can get together and celebrate the First Amendment. I mean, it's just a really it's a scary time.
I will say one of the things that stood out to me last night with the president's remarks was when he said, you know, it wasn't a Trump event. There were Republicans there there, Democrats, they're conservatives, liberals, members of the media. We were all gathered there together to celebrate the First Amendment, and this horrible thing happened, and it's just it's scary to me more than anything.
But you know, Mike McCall you're for a boss who has this long time.
We just swapped you out of these seats.
He was saying that this is not something you can legislate, and there is a point to that.
So what do you do. You're a realist, you've.
Been this town a long time, but you guys are on opposite ends that are very close friends.
What do you do?
Does it have to come from the top down or could Republicans in Congress take the lead on this and will be.
I have to, like, I don't want to not place blame on different politicians and.
People in DC.
For sure, there are definitely some politicians that have not great rhetoric on both sides of the aisle. But you know, you just said that John and I are friends. I have a lot of friends that are Democrats. Republicans and Democrats get along here. This is our city. We all
work together, we all live together. I do think that there's a lot of camaraderie between Republicans, Democrats, journalists, you know, people that work here and that what you see online often are people that don't know anything about DC.
They've never been here before.
They see something online and they want to be a part of a conversation or they have a specific, you know, idea about something and they go off the rails.
This guy came.
From California, so you know, I think that the Congressman's right.
They're trying to legislate the.
Way that somebody thinks, and especially in a country that prioritizes free speech, it's going to be hard. I do think that, you know, we want to see more leaders out there trying to lower the tone.
Of the rhetoric, and you know, Congressman McCall is a perfect example of that. I think he mentioned this.
He was just at a big event like last week, I think in Texas with Henry Quaar talking about the importance of bipartisanship and civility.
Yeah, and I mean, I hope that that's true. I think there's kind of two issues at hand here. The first of which is there's not really a political reward for being a centrist and being kind of a you know, not that flashy, not that exciting elected official.
That's true, and that's.
Not what we're partly to blame for this as well, because that's not what we pick up it.
Was the second point, Yeah, exactly, I was going to say that's part of the problem, whether it's the media or the algorithms. It doesn't reward someone who wants to sit and say have you read my substant of white paper on this issue. Instead, it's the kind of snappy SoundBite that gets the political reward in the end. So, you know, I think that these elected officials need to step up and remember that they are really elected to
be in many ways chief citizens. But simultaneously, both the media and of course the tech platform is et cetera need to also recognize that they play an important moderating force in all of this too.
I will read your snappy white paper or whatever you've David Gara.
Reads all of the snappy white papers. John McCarthy Leslie said, hang on, we're going to keep you here. Actually we've got to go to break but we want to keep talking to you more about all of this because a lots of breakdown and we do want to talk. We don't want you to fight, but we want to talk a little bit about some of the contentious issues going on on the hill. We are still in a partial
government shutdown. We've got a fed chair, we've got a whole bunch of other stuff, and the King is going a visit, so we want to discuss all of this, So stay in your seats and you at home, please stay in your seats.
Bloomberg this weekend will be.
Right back on all the platforms and stick with us this morning.
Welcome back to Bloomery this weekend. David Gerr with Pristina Rafina. We have John McCarthy and Leslie shed with a skin as well. John, let me start with you on what's just transpired over the last hour. That is, Senator Tom Tillis of North Carolina has dropped his opposition to the nomination of Kevin Warsh. He had locked it in protests because of what had been happening with the Department of
Justice and Jerome Powell. He writes in a statement that he's posted on x with the assurances that he's gotten. I look forward to supporting Kevin Worsh's confirmation. He's an outstanding nominee and it's time for the Federal Reserve to move beyond this distraction and return its full attention to its mission. Curious for your reaction broadly, but more specifically, your reaction to this. Emboldened Tom Tillis, who yes, is outgoing his days are numbered as a Senator from North Carolina.
But what is his attitude toward this, the way that he's approached this, say to you about the way that lawmakers, perhaps more broadly, could take a.
Stand in a way that they haven't in recent months and years.
Yeah, I mean outgoing lawmakers tend to be some of them bolden in boldened, yes, but they also, you know, are the most ones open.
To deal making.
When I was back in the Biden administration, when we were looking towards the bipartisan Infrastructure law, the senators who are really available to us are no longer serving. By and large, they're the ones who are willing to kind of cross the aisle get a couple things done, and they're thinking about their legacy. The only thing I would caution here is that assurances tend to not last very long.
Inside of the Trump administration, I think we saw a lot of assurances given around the nomination of Secretary Kennedy. We've heard people kind of speak out since saying that they were a little concerned about some of his actions since so I don't know, you know, what these assurances were, but I don't know that I would, you know, take them to the bank if I were the senator, Let's say, I want.
To get your take on why this happened. Why the dog backed off this investigation, because the President had gone really hard on this, despite members of his own part already saying, you are you know, as my mother would say, cutting off your nose, despite your face, you have a long term goal. This is going to complicate it. Why was he so set on this in the first place, and what do you think ultimately changed his mind.
Well, I want to start by saying, I am here for Tom Tillis's yolo like moment right now. I honestly just can't wait to see what happens next on this one, because you know, he's funny and he cares about stuff, and he's not afraid to, you know, hold people's feet to the fire.
You know, I'm a lawyer too.
I like to say I play a lawyer on TV, But you know, I think if you go through and look at the case, it just wasn't a strong case. And attorneys can actually get in trouble if they are pursuing cases like aggressively over time where they just don't have the evidence to.
Back that up.
So I'd be willing to bet it's probably a little bit to do with that, probably definitely to do with the Kevin Morsh nomination.
I personally thought always that this was a bit of a distraction.
We've got a really big election coming up in November and a little bit, and i'd really like to see, you know, the president and the administration one hundred percent focused on that.
Right now, we're talking about jerrymandering. What happened in Virginia a couple of weeks back, And I'm curious how you see the evolution of this story. So Florida is poised perhaps to do some of this itself. But I think a warning that we got early on was if Republicans initially were to start doing this, it would be this kind of tit for tap thing, and lo it seems to have been that. Where do you see all of this leading this conversation about the way that states decided?
Yeah, Io, I think no offense to John, but I think that there was kind of a belief among Republicans that Democrats would roll over because they had been for quite you know, several months at the beginning of the administration.
Several years, perhaps Democratic party right there look at this agreement.
So you know, I think what we're at a wash kind of right now. Right like ten seats for Democrats, nine seats for Republicans. I go back again to you know, I just feel like this is a bit of a distraction. It's taking time away from people, it's taking money away, it's taking political capital away that I would.
Rather be seen invested in.
Racist is that we need to try to protect members that we already have, as well as really great candidates that we've got coming up. And you know, I know there's a lot of attention paid to these federal races, but we've got a lot of really great governor's candidates, attorney's general candidates. There's gonna be a lot of interesting races this November.
So all right, we've got about two minutes left.
Yeah, okay.
I would just say that it actually exemplifies the tension that's in the Democratic Party right now, because, you know, this is something that Democrats would largely not be for.
Right.
Democrats have overwhelmingly each Congress introduced a lot of good government bills, from money out of Politics to independent redistricting. But there's also this new lane of the party that's telling them that they want their nominee to fight more So, I think that this is playing out in a really weird way where Democrats are trying to find their new
footing in this new generation. And I think that's why you're seeing some of the kind of you know, outside groups come in and support with such vigor some of these independent redistricting efforts, you know, reforms, but you know, these kind of more partisan efforts in practice.
Trying to correct the over correction, right with Joe Biden, that was this over correction, I think, to President Trump and trying to figure out this new happy medium. How can they be you know, against the way that they don't like the way the President speaks or his policies, but still be interesting and you know, get attention.
Exactly.
We've got a very short jump ball here when it comes to kitchen table issues and the midterms and November.
Which party is going to do it better easily?
Democrats and the Republican Party. The Republican Party has not been able to focus on this since they got here. I mean, the president had a mandate to lower costs, and I mean take your pick ballroom wars, you know, foreign invasions, you know, none of that is bringing down costs.
I don't need to ows the mentalist here too.
Exacinitely Republicans, Oh, you know, and I know, I know everybody's surprised, right, but I think to the biggest reason is that Republicans have a record to run on right now. I just see a lot of anti Trump stuff for Democrats, and you know, not a lot of ideas.
Leslie Shad John McCarthy.
Thanks to both of you if you're joining us here on this Sunday after what was an eventful and difficult weekend for a lot of folks, but appreciate your perspective here on the Sunday morning.
Thanks for joining us on today's Bloomberg This Weekend podcast. Don't forget to tune in live for the show every Saturday and Sunday morning, starting at seven am Eastern.
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