Latest / Curtis Sliwa & Larry Mendte In The Morning / WOR White House Correspondent Jon Decker Interview

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WOR White House Correspondent Jon Decker Interview · Curtis Sliwa & Larry Mendte In The Morning

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  Speaker 1: Well, we are in full swing with the midterm elections
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  Speaker 1: and Congress is already adjourned. Let's ask John Decker about that.
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  Speaker 1: John Decker, WOR White House and Washington correspondent, host of
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  Speaker 1: the podcast, The White House Briefing Room with John Decker,
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  Speaker 1: which can be found on the iHeartRadio app. Well, John,
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  Speaker 1: I feel like with you in Washington, you look at
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  Speaker 1: Congress and say, hey, thanks for stopping by. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: that was a quick visit, wasn't it?
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  Speaker 2: Well, it was quick.
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  Speaker 3: Two reasons why the House has already gone back to
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  Speaker 3: their home districts. One, they want to campaign. The Republicans
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  Speaker 3: are very much concerned about the dynamics leading up to
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  Speaker 3: the midterms. And as a result, they want to get
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  Speaker 3: back to their home districts. The other reason, there was
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  Speaker 3: going to be a privileged resolution voted upon on the
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  Speaker 3: House floor. The resolution would be considering the impeachment inquiry.
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  Speaker 3: of the Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, that resolution brought up
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  Speaker 3: by Thomas Massey, the Republican from Kentucky, that now will
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  Speaker 3: not be brought up, at least in the short term,
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  Speaker 3: because the House has adjourned for a number of weeks
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  Speaker 3: until the midterms.
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  Speaker 4: John, you mentioned the resolution by Massey to have Secretary
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  Speaker 4: of War Pete Hegseth impeached. The story that really didn't
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  Speaker 4: get any traction that I was really interested in, and
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  Speaker 4: I think a lot of people were, is there was
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  Speaker 4: talk that the Pentagon has deployed weapons in space, and
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  Speaker 4: then I didn't hear anything more about it. Can you
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  Speaker 4: flesh that out for us?
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  Speaker 3: Well, just that, just a confirmation. That's pretty rare, too,
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  Speaker 3: when you factor that in, Curtis. You know, a confirmation
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  Speaker 3: of what you just said, that the Defense Department has
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  Speaker 3: deployed weapons. weapons in space. Obviously, the U.S. is in
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  Speaker 3: a space race. We're in a space race against Russia,
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  Speaker 3: in a space race against China. And that's the reason
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  Speaker 3: why I think they publicly made that known in terms
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  Speaker 3: of what the U.S. has already done. And, you know, that's,
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  Speaker 3: I think, the next arms race that we're going to
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  Speaker 3: see involving those two superpowers.
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  Speaker 1: So interest rates go up a quarter of a point.
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  Speaker 1: And I thought Donald Trump handled it pretty well. He
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  Speaker 1: was tempered. It sounds like Kevin Warsh is the Trump whisperer.
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  Speaker 1: He knows how to handle him. He called him before
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  Speaker 1: and told him the reasons.
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  Speaker 3: Well, that's right. And the president put out a social
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  Speaker 3: media post, also spoke to reporters before he boarded Air
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  Speaker 3: Force One yesterday. What essentially the president's thinking is, is
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  Speaker 3: he's angry at the Fed itself. but he's not angry
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  Speaker 3: at the person that he put to lead the Fed,
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  Speaker 3: and that's Kevin Warsh, who replaced Jerome Powell in mid-May.
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  Speaker 3: And so the reason that the Fed raised interest rates
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  Speaker 3: by a quarter of a point announced yesterday has everything
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  Speaker 3: to do with inflation worries and persistent inflation worries lasting
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  Speaker 3: perhaps through the end of this year.
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  Speaker 4: Now, John Degg, maybe you can help me and our
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  Speaker 4: listeners with this Kennedy Center issue issue. The president, I guess,
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  Speaker 4: yesterday said, look, if you don't put my name up
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  Speaker 4: on there, you can rip down the Kennedy Center. How
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  Speaker 4: did it get to this point?
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  Speaker 3: Well, it got to this point because this is something
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  Speaker 3: that is near and dear to the president. He wants
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  Speaker 3: his name on that building. And, you know, even if
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  Speaker 3: it means not having the necessary repairs done to the
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  Speaker 3: Kennedy Center, he's essentially holding that hostage now. The president's
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  Speaker 3: fine with that. The president says that he will essentially
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  Speaker 3: stop any new repairs, any new renovations happening at the
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  Speaker 3: Kennedy Center, unless and until a federal appellate court agrees
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  Speaker 3: to allow him to affix his name to the facade
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  Speaker 3: of that building. And that's where we are right now.
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  Speaker 3: It's pretty remarkable. A federal judge has already ruled that
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  Speaker 3: Donald Trump's name cannot be put on On that building,
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  Speaker 3: it can only be done through an act of Congress.
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  Speaker 3: And so that's been made clear to the president. And
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  Speaker 3: in the meantime, there is a tarp that is on
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  Speaker 3: the front of the Kennedy Center. And the reason for that,
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  Speaker 3: the administration says, is to protect the marble. There are
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  Speaker 3: those that say the reason for that is the president
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  Speaker 3: just doesn't want to see John F. Kennedy, his name
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  Speaker 3: and his name alone on the facade of that building.
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  Speaker 1: Let's talk about the new focus on the assassination attempt
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  Speaker 1: of Donald Trump back in Butler, Pennsylvania in 2019, because
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  Speaker 1: some new information, especially about Thomas Crooks, has come out,
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  Speaker 1: but not enough information. I know there have been hearings
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  Speaker 1: about this, and I know that there have been investigations,
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  Speaker 1: but there's so much that we still don't know. So
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  Speaker 1: I saw that Truth Social post overnight, and And putting
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  Speaker 1: aside the political accusation that it was a Democratic plot,
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  Speaker 1: he had some really good points that of all the
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  Speaker 1: things that happened that day that we still don't understand
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  Speaker 1: to this day.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think that's all right. You know, I find
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  Speaker 3: it odd it's coming out at this particular moment in time. Remember,
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  Speaker 3: the president is doing everything he can, including that rally
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  Speaker 3: that he had yesterday in North Carolina, to energize his base.
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  Speaker 3: And this is something he believes would energize his base.
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  Speaker 3: So the rally last night for Michael Watley, who's running
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  Speaker 3: for the Senate in North Carolina, Republicans are hoping to
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  Speaker 3: hold on to that Senate seat. The president putting out
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  Speaker 3: that social media post overnight. You may recall in the
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  Speaker 3: Rose Garden just the other day, the attorney general, Todd Blanch,
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  Speaker 3: was asked about this, and he didn't really have anything
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  Speaker 3: to add in terms of pointing fingers at any individual
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  Speaker 3: or any administration in terms of what happened to the president,
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  Speaker 3: that assassination attempt with the president. while he was on
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  Speaker 3: the campaign trail in July of 2024.
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  Speaker 1: He did say at one point the same Justice Department
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  Speaker 1: that was investigating what happened on that day is the
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  Speaker 1: exact same Justice Department that tried to put the president
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  Speaker 1: in prison for the rest of his life. That was
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  Speaker 1: a pretty strong comment.
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  Speaker 3: Well, it is a strong comment. Remember, it's the Secret Service,
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  Speaker 3: the U.S. Secret Service, whose job it is to protect
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  Speaker 3: the president. So it really has nothing at all to
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  Speaker 3: do with the Department of Justice in terms of what
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  Speaker 3: happened on that day. That being said, if the DOJ
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  Speaker 3: finds there was any kind of wrongdoing, any kind of
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  Speaker 3: fault associated with what happened in mid-July of 2024, they
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  Speaker 3: certainly can do what they need to do in terms
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  Speaker 3: of bringing charges against any individuals that did not live
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  Speaker 3: up to their duties on that July day.
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  Speaker 4: Now, John Decker, we have gone from zero miles per
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  Speaker 4: hour to 2,000 miles per hour in terms of discussing AI,
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  Speaker 4: artificial intelligence, the benefits, the dangers. But yesterday, as you
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  Speaker 4: pointed out, as the Senate and the House are closing
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  Speaker 4: up until after the midterms, this I didn't understand. The
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  Speaker 4: Senate blocked a kill switch bill? I mean, they were
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  Speaker 4: already talking about a kill switch bill. That would suggest...
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  Speaker 4: that they're taking seriously a lot of the warnings of
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  Speaker 4: the CEOs who say, we need the government involved. We
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  Speaker 4: can't control this anymore.
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  Speaker 3: Well, you know, look, if you listen to the people that,
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  Speaker 3: you know, would be in the know about this, that's
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  Speaker 3: the CEOs of these tech companies, these artificial intelligence companies
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  Speaker 3: like Elon Musk, rather than to the politicians, then you're
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  Speaker 3: likely to see legislation come forward from Congress. But based
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  Speaker 3: upon what the president put out on social media yesterday,
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: earlier this week, any bill that comes out of Congress
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  Speaker 3: attempting to regulate the AI industry, I think is certainly
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  Speaker 3: going to be vetoed by the president. He's made that clear.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is odd, and I kind of agree with J.D.
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  Speaker 1: Vance on this. It is odd that all of these
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  Speaker 1: companies are coming and saying, hey, we want to be
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  Speaker 1: regulated by the federal government. And as Scott Besson said,
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  Speaker 1: A couple of times he said, you want to regulate,
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  Speaker 1: regulate yourself. Why do you need the government? Just put
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  Speaker 1: on the guardrails yourself. It is an odd situation, John.
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  Speaker 3: Well, it is, but I think that when you have self-regulation,
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  Speaker 3: it's just that. You're in a competitive environment. One company
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  Speaker 3: may abide by those self-imposed regulations. Other companies may not.
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  Speaker 3: But then if you have federal regulations imposed, It's an
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  Speaker 3: even playing field for all of these AI companies. And
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  Speaker 3: I think that's the reason why you do have the leaders,
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  Speaker 3: the tech leaders of these companies coming forward and saying
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  Speaker 3: we'd like the federal government to come in and regulate
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  Speaker 3: our industry.
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  Speaker 1: They're far ahead. I just wanted to comment. They're pretty
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  Speaker 1: far ahead. That's why they want this. Go ahead, Curtis.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, I'm sorry.
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  Speaker 1: I'm done.
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  Speaker 4: Very quickly, have you noticed we haven't discussed Iran at
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  Speaker 4: all with you at this point?
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  Speaker 3: No.
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  Speaker 4: Is that because we're just at an impasse and I
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  Speaker 4: think everybody accepts this is just going to drag on?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think that's right. We may not talk about
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  Speaker 3: Iran in the sense that there's an ongoing conflict every day,
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  Speaker 3: but we are talking about– The impacts of that conflict
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  Speaker 3: and gas right now, according to AAA, on.
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  Speaker 2: Average, $ 4. 44 a gallon across the country, much higher in California,
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  Speaker 2: well above $ 6 a gallon in California, much higher in
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  Speaker 2: a lot of Western states like Alaska as well. So
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  Speaker 2: that's something that when you look at the calendar, I
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  Speaker 2: think we're 47 days away. from the midterm elections. That's
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  Speaker 2: something that weighs on families, you know, and their budgets,
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  Speaker 2: the high price of gas. And the president and Republicans
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  Speaker 2: very much well aware of that. And they are concerned
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  Speaker 2: that that would be the overriding factor that leads Democrats
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  Speaker 2: to take over the House and potentially the Senate as well.
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  Speaker 1: John Decker, WRR White House and Washington correspondent and host
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  Speaker 1: of the podcast, The White House Briefing Room with John Decker,
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  Speaker 1: which can be found on the iHeartRadio app. Thanks again, John.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks, Curtis.
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  Speaker 1: Have a great day.