Latest / Balance of Power / Trump Stumps For Sullivan in Alaska; White House Asks Amb. Guilfoyle to Resign

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Trump Stumps For Sullivan in Alaska; White House Asks Amb. Guilfoyle to Resign · Balance of Power

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Speaker 6: Here in Washington, where we were all watching this morning
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Speaker 6: the White House briefing room for the inaugural press briefing
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Speaker 6: of the new White House press secretary, Katie Zachariah, of course,
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Speaker 6: stepping into the shoes that were vacated by the former
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Speaker 6: press secretary, Caroline Leavitt. Maybe one could describe this performance
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Speaker 6: as being a little bit slow out the gate.
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Speaker 7: In fact, the entire thing, though, was very fast.
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Speaker 6: This briefing didn't last for too long, actually only entailing
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Speaker 6: about five and a half minutes of of questions that
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Speaker 6: Katie Zachariah took from Breitbart, Fox, and the Daily Mail.
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Speaker 6: The Daily Mail specifically asking her about Ambassador to Greece,
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Speaker 6: Kimberly Guilfoyle, who, of course, was at one point engaged
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Speaker 6: to the president's son, Don Jr.
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Speaker 7: and has been facing ethics.
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Speaker 6: Questions amid allegations that she asked a top Trump donor
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Speaker 6: to pay off her $ 100, 000 American Express bill that was
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Speaker 6: reported that the president, and he suggested this openly, wasn't
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Speaker 6: too thrilled by this.
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Speaker 7: So the Daily Mail asked about it. Here was this exchange.
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Speaker 8: Kimberly Guilfoyle, the Daily Mail has been reporting on her
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Speaker 8: since last year. The president said yesterday to reporters that
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Speaker 8: he is considering firing her.
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Speaker 7: Do you know a timeline for that?
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Speaker 6: And also, potentially, who could be on the short list
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Speaker 6: to replace her if he does?
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Speaker 7: We have asked Ambassador Guilfoyle to resign. She has been
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Speaker 7: a wonderful asset to the team, and we wish her well.
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Speaker 9: A wonderful asset despite the series of reports by the
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Speaker 9: Wall Street Journal alleging she solicited or accepted money, travel,
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Speaker 9: and other benefits from private individuals while using her access
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Speaker 9: to the administration and her diplomatic position for leverage. We
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Speaker 9: didn't think this is where we'd be starting today with
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Speaker 9: Josh Wingrove, but he's got the byline on the story.
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Speaker 9: Bloomberg White House reporter is with us now live on
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Speaker 9: the North Lawn. Josh, this moved pretty quickly. I know
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Speaker 9: there was a series of reporting, but once the president
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Speaker 9: was asked about this Just in the last 24 hours,
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Speaker 9: he expressed pretty.
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Speaker 1: Clearly that he was upset with her. Is she actually gone?
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Speaker 1: Has she resigned?
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Speaker 10: No, that's an interesting question because she put a lengthy
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Speaker 10: goodbye post up that didn't actually include the words I
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Speaker 10: quit or anything to that effect. She said, well, her
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Speaker 10: time as ambassador may be coming to an end. And
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Speaker 10: so the White House has said that they asked her
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Speaker 10: to resign. She seems to broadly be acknowledging that her
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Speaker 10: departure is imminent. But, you know, who did what and
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Speaker 10: whose decision it was is a little unclear. Clearly, she resigned.
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Speaker 10: you know, was at the risk of being pushed out
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Speaker 10: if she didn't jump herself. And so this might all
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Speaker 10: be semantics, I suppose. But the bar to get to
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Speaker 10: this point is quite high, as we know, right? Trump
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Speaker 10: typically waves off a lot of these types of stories
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Speaker 10: and concerns. This one, I think, was just so, you know,
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Speaker 10: compelling and detailed and conclusive that he didn't really have
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Speaker 10: a lot of choice but to distance himself from it
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Speaker 10: at minimum. So we'll see where it goes from here.
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Speaker 10: No word yet on whether they'll have a replacement or
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Speaker 10: move quickly to do it. But it is, of course,
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Speaker 10: the latest in sort of a slow exit of Ms.
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Speaker 10: Guilfoyle from what had been at one time the inner
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Speaker 10: circle of the Trump family.
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Speaker 6: Well, Josh, we also didn't know how slow the process
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Speaker 6: would be or if a replacement would ever come for
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Speaker 6: the press secretary position once Caroline Levitt stepped down from
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Speaker 6: that role. Katie Zachariah, of course, is the one who
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Speaker 6: is now in it. And gave that answer, announced the
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Speaker 6: news that they had asked Guilfoyle to resign. But it
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Speaker 6: was so short, the nature of her exchange with reporters.
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Speaker 6: And I know you were in the room and she
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Speaker 6: said in part the reason why was the president was
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Speaker 6: about to get on Marine One and just answer a
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Speaker 6: bunch of questions from reporters. Anyway, what does that say
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Speaker 6: about the role of the press secretary as she steps
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Speaker 6: into it?
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Speaker 10: Yeah, I mean, he was over an hour from departing,
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Speaker 10: so I don't put a lot of weight in that
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Speaker 10: particular one. I mean, look, when Sarah Sanders left in
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Speaker 10: the first term, she was followed by a press secretary
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Speaker 10: who did not brief once, Stephanie Grisham. Grisham is now
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Speaker 10: a fairly avowed anti-Trumper, never Trumper. And so to take
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Speaker 10: over from Levitt and brief early, I suppose, is... in
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Speaker 10: some ways a positive thing in terms of public access
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Speaker 10: and transparency. She only took three questions. You mentioned that
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Speaker 10: they were all from right-leaning outlets. And so I think
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Speaker 10: if she continues to do that, that she'll continue to
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Speaker 10: face questions about her efficacy in the role. But some
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Speaker 10: officials telling me so far they think that she was
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Speaker 10: just nervous and that she'll grow into the role. You know,
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Speaker 10: time will tell. The trick here that Caroline Leavitt and
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Speaker 10: Sarah Sanders navigated better than some of their other colleagues
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Speaker 10: is it is very tricky to be Trump's spokesperson because
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Speaker 10: he considers himself the chief spokesperson. And of course, many
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Speaker 10: times when you're standing at the podium, it's audience of one,
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Speaker 10: not just audience of two, like I have with you two,
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Speaker 10: my fine colleagues here. So you're in many ways performing
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Speaker 10: into the camera for one guy and one guy only.
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Speaker 10: One guy who, of course, is a pretty long track
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Speaker 10: record of growing frustrated with people and tossing them overboard
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Speaker 10: when he wants to. So she's sort of walking on
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Speaker 10: eggshells a little bit. We'll see where it goes. but
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Speaker 10: a pretty guarded debut here. Very short, friendly questions, avoiding
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Speaker 10: the rest of the room. So we'll see how often
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Speaker 10: she briefs going forward. Again, there's precedent for never briefing
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Speaker 10: at all. So really all options here are on the
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Speaker 10: table in terms of the playbook of a Trump press secretary.
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Speaker 9: Well, realizing he may be watching right now, Josh, just
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Speaker 9: before I ask you about his travels, has there been
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Speaker 9: any commitment to brief regularly or with any particular cadence?
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Speaker 10: We'll see. It slowed down under Caroline before she left.
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Speaker 10: And of course, they were filling the gap with briefings
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Speaker 10: from officials, including the vice president and cabinet secretaries. But no,
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Speaker 10: the short answer is no, we don't know. And of course,
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Speaker 10: if the midterms go poorly for Republicans in the past...
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Speaker 10: That has led to a journey, let's say, for the
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Speaker 10: president who can become more unpredictable in those kinds of environments.
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Speaker 10: And so we'll see right now. But as of now,
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Speaker 10: we just simply have no commitment from them about whether
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Speaker 10: the new press secretary will continue to brief or whether
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Speaker 10: they'll continue that cadence of sending Vance or others to
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Speaker 10: the podium.
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Speaker 6: All right, Josh Wingrove, live on the North Lawn of
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Speaker 6: the White House for us. Thank you so much. Now,
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Speaker 6: we just covered with Josh a number of things that
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Speaker 6: were discussed in the White House press briefing today. Katie
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Speaker 6: Zachariah also was asked a question as to whether or
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Speaker 6: not the United States was still sharing intelligence with Ukraine.
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Speaker 6: She said she would have to get back on that question.
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Speaker 6: So then it was posed directly to President Trump as
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Speaker 6: he left the White House en route to Marine One.
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Speaker 7: And this is what he told reporters.
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Speaker 3: Have we stopped sharing intel with Ukraine?
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Speaker 11: No, we haven't. We helped them. But we're really helping
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Speaker 11: them get to a final answer. We want the war ended, Peter.
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Speaker 1: We are helping them and we are sharing intel.
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Speaker 11: We want the war to end.
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Speaker 1: So we're working with them and with Russia on getting
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Speaker 1: the war to end.
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Speaker 6: The president also saying that he believes both sides do
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Speaker 6: want to see the war end. And when it comes
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Speaker 6: to this energy ceasefire that he announced, the two sides
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Speaker 6: had agreed to, he said he'll let everyone know if
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Speaker 6: Russia has broken it. So for more, we turn now
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Speaker 6: to Kelly Grieco, Senior Fellow with the Reimagining U.S. Grand
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Speaker 6: Strategy Program at the Stimson Center, who is back with
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Speaker 6: us once again here on Bloomberg TV and Radio. Kelly,
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Speaker 6: it's always good to have you on Balance of Power.
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Speaker 6: When we consider this energy ceasefire that has been announced,
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Speaker 6: whether or not it's been abided by, can you just
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Speaker 6: talk about how symmetrical it is on either side for
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Speaker 6: Ukraine to refrain from striking Russian energy infrastructure versus Russia
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Speaker 6: making the same commitment when it comes to Ukraine?
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Speaker 3: Yes. So first of all, thanks for having me. It's
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Speaker 3: wonderful to be back.
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Speaker 12: I would just say, you know, both sides are engaged
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Speaker 12: in a.
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Speaker 7: War against energy infrastructure.
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Speaker 12: And it's actually critical to both theory of victory long term.
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Speaker 12: So for the Ukrainians, they're, of course, going after refineries
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Speaker 12: and oil facilities in Russia because that's what's generating a
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Speaker 12: lot of the revenue that's financing the war. And that
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Speaker 12: has started to have actual impact. We're seeing that. There's
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Speaker 12: something like a decrease around just under 20% in tax
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Speaker 12: revenue that is traditionally coming from the oil industry for Russia.
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Speaker 3: So that's feeding the machine.
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Speaker 12: But then on the other side, the Russians have been
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Speaker 12: going after Ukrainian energy in electrical grids. And of course,
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Speaker 12: not only does that have a humanitarian implication, but it
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Speaker 12: also impacts the ability to keep production going, particularly defense
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Speaker 12: production for the Ukrainians. So the question then would be
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Speaker 12: with a ceasefire, do they both benefit from a ceasefire,
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Speaker 12: or does one side benefit asymmetrically? And I would say
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Speaker 12: at this point, I think a ceasefire in many respects
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Speaker 12: favors the Russians more than the Ukrainians.
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Speaker 3: In the sense that the Russians.
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Speaker 12: Especially if they're able to sell their oil, they can
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Speaker 12: get this reserve of cash from that, be able to
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Speaker 12: increase production, and then ultimately, maybe after the elections, return
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Speaker 12: back to this long-term strike campaign.
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Speaker 9: So are we just cutting off Ukraine at the knees
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Speaker 9: here by limiting their ability to strike? at these Russian refineries?
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Speaker 9: Or is there another way for Ukraine to inflict damage
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Speaker 9: on its enemy?
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, there's.
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Speaker 12: Always other ways to inflict damage on your enemy. You know,
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Speaker 12: for example, the Ukrainians, for example, haven't really gone after
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Speaker 12: as much airports, for example, to disrupt travel, things like that.
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Speaker 12: But there's nothing I would say that I can think
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Speaker 12: of off the top of my head that can have
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Speaker 12: the same potential impact as going after these refineries. Again,
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Speaker 12: because this is where the revenues are often coming from
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Speaker 12: to generate and feed the war machine. So it has
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Speaker 12: a big impact, I would say, on the Ukrainian and
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Speaker 12: particularly what their theory of victory is for trying to
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Speaker 12: reduce some of the pressure on them and make this
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Speaker 12: war less attractive to Putin.
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Speaker 6: Well, you mentioned targeting airports, Kelly, and while we may
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Speaker 6: not be seeing it in this conflict, we have seen
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Speaker 6: in the Middle East the Houthis targeting Saudi Arabia's main
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Speaker 6: airport in Riyadh and having some success resulting in multiple
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Speaker 6: fatalities and a number, hundreds of injuries over the course
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Speaker 6: of a series of days. When it comes to this
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Speaker 6: fight against the Houthis that Saudi and the Saudi-led coalition
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Speaker 6: in Yemen are conducting, the U.S. to this point has
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Speaker 6: not been participating. And the president said on True Social
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Speaker 6: today that he will not be doing anything until after
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Speaker 6: the election, something he reiterated to reporters as he was
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Speaker 6: getting on the helicopter.
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Speaker 7: Just listen.
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Speaker 4: The Houthis are misbehaving very badly.
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Speaker 7: They're misbehaving very badly.
10:47
Speaker 8: No good.
10:47
Speaker 4: I don't know how it affects the election. I don't
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Speaker 4: think that it's true. I just know Iran will never
10:52
Speaker 4: have a nuclear weapon. And that's now happened. There's never
10:55
Speaker 4: been a nuclear weapon. But the Houthis are misbehaving, yes.
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Speaker 6: I don't know, Kelly, if you would classify what has
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Speaker 6: been happening as simple misbehavior, but what does it say
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Speaker 6: about Saudi Arabia's capabilities with all of the advanced military
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Speaker 6: technology that they have access to, including some of our own,
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Speaker 6: that they are not able to fend off all of
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Speaker 6: the attacks that the Houthis are conducting successfully?
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Speaker 2: Yes.
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Speaker 12: I mean, I think in fairness, though, you're right, the
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Speaker 12: Saudis have advanced capabilities, many of them from us, but
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Speaker 12: we can still see the Houthis are able to get
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Speaker 12: things through. I would just say in fairness to them, though,
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Speaker 12: that the United States conducted a significant operation against the
11:35
Speaker 12: Houthis as well to try to protect, say, commercial shipping
11:39
Speaker 12: in the Red Sea for a time. And we were
11:42
Speaker 12: not successful either. What we're really seeing is that the
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Speaker 12: Houthis in particular, they're really good with these launchers, hiding them,
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Speaker 12: moving them really quickly. They're practiced for over a decade
11:53
Speaker 12: at this. And it makes it really hard to find
11:55
Speaker 12: them and destroy them. And they're able to ultimately get
11:58
Speaker 12: things through. And I think this is one of the
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Speaker 12: reasons probably as well that the president is going to
12:02
Speaker 12: be very reluctant to get involved in this situation because
12:05
Speaker 12: he's learned already once how challenging this is. And of course, he's,
12:09
Speaker 12: as you noted earlier, very concerned about oil prices.
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Speaker 9: Interesting reporting by The Wall Street Journal today on what
12:17
Speaker 9: might come next. Kelly, the president has made clear no
12:21
Speaker 9: strikes against Iran until after the midterm elections. We've got
12:26
Speaker 9: another carrier strike group on the way. And now we
12:28
Speaker 9: read that with this free time on its hands, Tehran
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Speaker 9: is busy fortifying defenses, rallying loyalists, threatening a wider, harsher
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Speaker 9: response against the U.S.
12:38
Speaker 1: And its Gulf allies.
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Speaker 9: Satellite images show Iran strengthening sensitive locations, including nuclear sites
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Speaker 9: and border areas, to make them more resilient to attacks.
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Speaker 1: What's going to happen on November 4th?
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, the first thing.
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Speaker 12: I just say is that this, you know, the president
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Speaker 12: saying he's not going to do anything before the election. OK,
12:58
Speaker 12: that might be true. But the adversary, Iran, may choose
13:01
Speaker 12: to do something before the election. And I think you
13:04
Speaker 12: could make an argument that if you're sitting in Tehran
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Speaker 12: and looking at this and hearing these kinds of comments, that,
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Speaker 12: in fact, you see that there's actually maybe good incentives
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Speaker 12: here to actually escalate before the election and put even
13:15
Speaker 12: more pressure on the president. So I think that's something
13:17
Speaker 12: we should just be very aware of is that this
13:20
Speaker 12: is dangerous, the potential for escalation here. And the fact
13:23
Speaker 12: that you're reporting that they're reinforcing their defenses and getting
13:29
Speaker 12: ready for another round suggests that they're prepared to do this.
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Speaker 12: They're prepared to escalate and, in fact, might think that
13:34
Speaker 12: it's quite likely that it's only a question of when.
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Speaker 6: Does Iran have greater capability to escalate right now, despite
13:42
Speaker 6: all of the destruction that the U.S. military wrought on
13:44
Speaker 6: Iran's military industrial complex, trying to take out the centers
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Speaker 6: of this activity? Are they still able to escalate in
13:51
Speaker 6: a way that the U.S. might be reluctant to, given
13:54
Speaker 6: our own drawdowns of munitions?
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Speaker 3: Yes, they do.
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Speaker 12: I mean, based on what we know in terms of
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Speaker 12: open source information, about what they have in terms of capabilities.
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Speaker 12: What it seems is that during the course of the war,
14:06
Speaker 12: the United States buried a lot of these underground sites
14:09
Speaker 12: that had their missiles and their missile launchers. And so
14:12
Speaker 12: for a time they were not accessible to them, but
14:14
Speaker 12: they've since been able to dig that out. And most
14:17
Speaker 12: of that capability still exists. And so they have enormous
14:20
Speaker 12: capability capacity with drones and missiles to be able to.
14:24
Speaker 3: Resume the war.
14:25
Speaker 12: And as you rightly mentioned, If we go into round two,
14:28
Speaker 12: the United States and its partners are not in the
14:31
Speaker 12: same position to defend against those attacks because we've really
14:34
Speaker 12: gone through so many of our interceptors that help us
14:37
Speaker 12: defend them off.
14:39
Speaker 9: Really interesting, Kelly. It's great to have you back with us.
14:41
Speaker 9: She's with the Stimson Center. Kelly Grieco, live on Bloomberg
14:45
Speaker 9: TV and radio. Kelly, that story in the Wall Street
14:47
Speaker 9: Journal goes on to say the government in Tehran is
14:50
Speaker 9: preparing Iranians for renewed war, even sending paramilitary forces to
14:54
Speaker 9: read stories to kindergartners. and advertising training in firing shoulder-mounted
15:00
Speaker 9: anti-aircraft missiles. It does not sound like a regime that's
15:04
Speaker 9: preparing to negotiate a peace settlement.
15:06
Speaker 7: No, it certainly doesn't.
15:07
Speaker 6: And of course, President Trump has suggested openly that he
15:10
Speaker 6: would be willing to resume activity against Iran as well,
15:13
Speaker 6: just waiting to do so until after the election. But
15:16
Speaker 6: at this point, that's just a matter of weeks or
15:17
Speaker 6: three weeks from midterm day. And the president's travel schedule
15:21
Speaker 6: proves it as he makes tracks to Alaska today with
15:24
Speaker 6: more states on the way later this week.
15:25
Speaker 7: We'll get into the Details with our political panel up next.
15:29
Speaker 1: Stay with us on Balance of Power. We'll have much
15:31
Speaker 1: more coming up after this.
15:35
Speaker 5: Just say, Alexa, play Bloomberg 1130.
15:54
Speaker 6: Following the money on Wall Street as we here on
15:56
Speaker 6: Balance of Power follow the money in politics. And it
15:59
Speaker 6: has been moving around a lot in this final stretch
16:02
Speaker 6: ahead of the midterm elections, which of course are just
16:04
Speaker 6: three weeks from today. There's a lot of it flowing
16:07
Speaker 6: to different places. There's a lot of it being raised
16:09
Speaker 6: in general, including remarkably in the 48th most populated state
16:15
Speaker 6: in the United States.
16:16
Speaker 7: That would be Alaska. Just over 700,000 people live in Alaska.
16:21
Speaker 6: And yet the Democratic candidate for Senate in Alaska, the
16:24
Speaker 6: former congressman Mary Paltola, raised 17 million dollars in the
16:28
Speaker 6: third quarter, according to new figures that have just been released.
16:33
Speaker 6: That is a lot of money per person and underscores
16:36
Speaker 6: how competitive that race there is. One of the many
16:38
Speaker 6: reasons why we're seeing the president and others focusing their attention.
16:43
Speaker 6: President Trump, of course, as we speak, is on board
16:45
Speaker 6: Air Force One en route to Alaska to rally for
16:47
Speaker 6: Mary Paltola's opponent. the incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan.
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Speaker 9: It just so happens one of our panelists has raised
16:53
Speaker 9: money in Alaska. Let's bring in our panel, Bloomberg Politics
16:56
Speaker 9: contributors Rick Davis and Jeannie Shanzano.
16:59
Speaker 1: Here they are.
16:59
Speaker 9: Rick is our, of course, Republican strategist and partner at
17:02
Speaker 9: Stonecourt Capital, having run the McCain-Palin campaign.
17:07
Speaker 1: He knows a little bit about Alaska.
17:08
Speaker 9: Jeannie is our Democratic analyst and Democracy Visiting Fellow at
17:11
Speaker 9: Harvard Kennedy School's Ash Center.
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Speaker 1: What do you make of $ 17 million here, Rick?
17:16
Speaker 9: And It reminds me of the movie Brewster's Millions. Can
17:21
Speaker 9: you spend all that in three weeks?
17:24
Speaker 1: It reminds me.
17:25
Speaker 13: You could probably fund three campaigns there for five years
17:29
Speaker 13: with that kind of money. I mean, it really shows
17:31
Speaker 13: some level of enthusiasm for Mary's campaign up there with
17:37
Speaker 13: Democratic donors. I mean, it's a substantial amount of money.
17:42
Speaker 13: And as you point out, you could probably buy every
17:45
Speaker 13: voter a new bunch of tires for their truck as
17:52
Speaker 13: a way of campaigning in that state. But yeah, it's
17:55
Speaker 13: pretty phenomenal, and it should give her a pretty big
17:58
Speaker 13: boost coming into the final three weeks of the campaign.
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Speaker 6: Well, so then enter President Trump, who is hoping to
18:08
Speaker 6: provide a boost of his own for Mary Patola's opponent,
18:11
Speaker 6: Dan Sullivan, who, of course, is the incumbent in this scenario. Jeannie,
18:15
Speaker 6: does President Trump making that trip today help offset, given
18:18
Speaker 6: all of the free earned media he is capable of getting,
18:22
Speaker 6: as we well know, the attention that comes with the
18:25
Speaker 6: sitting president of the United States? How far can he
18:27
Speaker 6: go to helping erode some of the gains that Patola
18:30
Speaker 6: has been able to make?
18:33
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean, Kayleigh, if I was Dan Sullivan, the
18:36
Speaker 8: Senator Dan Sullivan, not the other one, I would be
18:40
Speaker 8: very nervous about Donald Trump coming there because look at
18:43
Speaker 8: what he did with John Husted last night. I mean,
18:46
Speaker 8: it was a bizarre weaving, as he likes to call it,
18:50
Speaker 8: about body parts that will go unnamed. So we'll see
18:53
Speaker 8: what he does after he's traveled like over 3000 miles worldwide.
18:57
Speaker 8: four time zones to get to Alaska and campaign for
19:01
Speaker 8: this guy in a state that he won by double
19:04
Speaker 8: digits and Democrats never do well in. So, you know,
19:08
Speaker 8: he's going to, I'm sure, be full of energy. Not
19:11
Speaker 8: to mention, I don't know that I'd want to be
19:12
Speaker 8: the new press secretary on that plane after that lackluster
19:15
Speaker 8: rollout there. She's got to travel with him. They're all
19:18
Speaker 8: going up there. And I imagine he's going to have
19:21
Speaker 8: a lot to say And you're right. Nobody can get
19:24
Speaker 8: free media like Donald Trump. But they need a lot
19:28
Speaker 8: of help up there because let's not forget, in 2024,
19:31
Speaker 8: Patola overperformed Kamala Harris in a bad environment. And of course,
19:37
Speaker 8: Donald Trump, I'm sure, is going to rail against the
19:39
Speaker 8: fact that this state has ranked choice voting because there's
19:43
Speaker 8: nothing he hates more than this crazy way of electing people.
19:46
Speaker 3: So I think he's going to have a lot.
19:48
Speaker 7: To say today.
19:50
Speaker 1: Well, you know, it's interesting. Well, Peltola pulled in 17 million. Remarkable.
19:55
Speaker 9: We don't actually know how much the Sullivan campaign raised
19:59
Speaker 9: in the third quarter, but the Sullivan campaign is spending money.
20:03
Speaker 9: We have news today of a new million dollar ad buy,
20:06
Speaker 9: which gets you a lot of commercials in Alaska, as
20:08
Speaker 9: I think Rick and Jeannie would both tell us. And
20:11
Speaker 9: it features a native Alaskan who refers to Peltola as.
20:17
Speaker 1: A liar in her native language.
20:21
Speaker 9: We also have a response ad from Senate Majority PAC
20:23
Speaker 9: hitting Sullivan for affordability.
20:26
Speaker 1: But listen to how these two are playing in Alaska.
20:29
Speaker 1: I've been commercial fishing here for 45 years and it's
20:31
Speaker 1: never been this tough. Insurance has gone up, diesel, food,
20:34
Speaker 1: everything's gone up. And Dan Sullivan just keeps voting to
20:37
Speaker 1: raise our costs even higher.
20:39
Speaker 2: Mary Peltola has forgotten our Yupik values. Lying about Dan
20:43
Speaker 2: Sullivan's family and being used by lower 48 outsiders to
20:47
Speaker 2: do harm to Alaska.
20:50
Speaker 1: Has forgotten our Yupik values.
20:54
Speaker 9: Uh, Rick, if you're living in Alaska, you're inundated right now.
20:58
Speaker 1: What does a million dollars buy you? And will these
21:00
Speaker 1: ads move the needle?
21:03
Speaker 13: I feel really cut to the quick, Joe, a lower
21:05
Speaker 13: 48 outsider. It doesn't get any worse than that.
21:08
Speaker 1: And look, I.
21:11
Speaker 13: Mean, the reality is that, you know, you can only
21:15
Speaker 13: advertise so much right after a couple thousand points of
21:18
Speaker 13: media every week, which costs you about 10 cents in Alaska.
21:22
Speaker 13: You know, it's just saturation television. And what's interesting is
21:27
Speaker 13: the Patola commercials are all about cost of living and
21:32
Speaker 13: in issues that are kitchen table issues and to go
21:36
Speaker 13: after her ethnic roots and that kind of thing. I
21:39
Speaker 13: just think, you know, for the cycle we're in kind.
21:41
Speaker 7: Of misses the boat.
21:43
Speaker 13: But you got Trump in Wasilla and, you know, like
21:45
Speaker 13: maybe he'll say hello to Vladimir Putin because, you know,
21:49
Speaker 13: you can see Russia right from the shores of Wasilla.
21:51
Speaker 13: And and that would actually not surprise me based on
21:54
Speaker 13: what Jeannie said about his lack of discipline on the stump.
21:57
Speaker 13: But we're pulling out all the stops in Alaska. And look,
22:01
Speaker 13: Dan Sullivan's a really good guy. He served the state well.
22:06
Speaker 13: I think any other cycle we wouldn't be talking about
22:08
Speaker 13: Alaska in a contest. But this is going to be
22:12
Speaker 13: a very rough cycle for all Republicans. And Dan's going
22:15
Speaker 13: to have to fight to regain his seat.
22:18
Speaker 6: Was the last time President Trump was in Alaska when
22:21
Speaker 6: Putin came to meet him there for.
22:22
Speaker 14: The summit last summer?
22:23
Speaker 1: Probably isn't that right. Big flyover that night.
22:25
Speaker 11: Yes, indeed.
22:26
Speaker 1: Right on the beast.
22:28
Speaker 6: Anyways, we continue on the subject of Alaska, Jeannie. While
22:30
Speaker 6: we put a lot of attention and for good reason
22:32
Speaker 6: on the Senate race, there's also a gubernatorial contest in
22:35
Speaker 6: the state, and I was struck. by the Cook Political Report,
22:38
Speaker 6: moving four governor's races in Democrats' direction today, one of
22:42
Speaker 6: them being Alaska, which goes from toss-up to lean Democrat.
22:47
Speaker 6: Is that the effect of the Senate race potentially having
22:50
Speaker 6: influence on the Democratic race? Are these things just moving
22:53
Speaker 6: together in tandem?
22:55
Speaker 7: How could they influence one another?
22:58
Speaker 8: Yeah, they absolutely can. I mean, we always talk about
23:01
Speaker 8: the fact that the top of the ticket can impact
23:03
Speaker 8: the bottom. Although in this case, I think there is
23:06
Speaker 8: an environmental issue which is helping this along for the Democrats.
23:10
Speaker 8: And I think the last time, Kayleigh, that Democrats won
23:13
Speaker 8: the gubernatorial election. race there was in 1998. So I
23:17
Speaker 8: could say the last century and make it sound much,
23:20
Speaker 8: much worse, but it's pretty bad. And so, you know,
23:24
Speaker 8: what helps them along is the cost of living. I mean,
23:27
Speaker 8: you can talk to anybody in the lower 48, as
23:30
Speaker 8: Rick was just talking about, and costs are really high.
23:34
Speaker 8: But you go to Hawaii, you go to Alaska, and
23:37
Speaker 8: the costs are much, much worse. And Also, we are
23:40
Speaker 8: coming in for a really tough winter, and energy costs
23:44
Speaker 8: are much, much worse there. And so Mary Patola has
23:47
Speaker 8: done a really good job of focusing on that. And
23:51
Speaker 8: we're seeing a theme across these races from Republicans in
23:54
Speaker 8: tight seats, like in Michigan and Alaska, where they're trying
23:57
Speaker 8: to sort of refocus and distract from the economics of
24:01
Speaker 8: the race and focus on the personal, whether it's about
24:04
Speaker 8: Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan or Mary Patola in Alaska. But
24:08
Speaker 8: the idea that you're going to sort of get Alaskans
24:11
Speaker 8: to stop paying attention to their own pocketbook and pay attention, sorry,
24:16
Speaker 8: to these sort of personal. issues, which are not to
24:19
Speaker 8: mention also usually racial and ethnic charges, I think it's
24:24
Speaker 8: not going to work as we are seeing costs rising
24:27
Speaker 8: as quickly as they are and so many people disenchanted
24:31
Speaker 8: with this president. And not to mention, the president keeps saying,
24:34
Speaker 8: make this a referendum on me. Well, when you ask
24:37
Speaker 8: people to do that, they're going to think about the
24:39
Speaker 8: economy that you are in charge of. And if it's
24:42
Speaker 8: not good, your party is.
24:43
Speaker 3: Going to pay the price.
24:45
Speaker 9: Is the president a lower 48 outsider? I think he'd
24:48
Speaker 9: be included. I think that's all of us. While the
24:53
Speaker 9: president's stumping this evening in Alaska, you've got your pick
24:56
Speaker 9: of debates. And these could be chippy. Rick, we've got
24:59
Speaker 9: Senator John Ossoff, Congressman Mike Collins, Georgia. We saw what
25:03
Speaker 9: happened last time when he accused Mike Collins of hiring
25:07
Speaker 9: half the Third Reich. That's going to be at the
25:09
Speaker 9: Atlanta Press Club. Ashley Hinson and John Turek in Iowa.
25:12
Speaker 1: And we've got another.
25:13
Speaker 9: Round in Maine. Jeannie's talking about making things personal. It
25:19
Speaker 9: got real personal with John Ossoff and Mike Collins last time.
25:23
Speaker 1: Is that a race, Rick, where that's called for? Yeah, no, look,
25:29
Speaker 1: voters are.
25:30
Speaker 13: Worn out on this kind of hyper sensationalism, performance politics.
25:36
Speaker 13: You know, you don't have to you don't even have
25:37
Speaker 13: to put that in a poll to understand that we've
25:40
Speaker 13: overdone that as a political system in America. And frankly,
25:43
Speaker 13: you're not doing yourself any favors. by throwing those kinds
25:46
Speaker 13: of punches. But look, the one thing I would say
25:49
Speaker 13: about all this discussion, and we keep making it sound
25:51
Speaker 13: like these Democrats are really good at what they do,
25:54
Speaker 13: this entire election is about Donald Trump. He's made it
25:57
Speaker 13: that way. It's going to be that way. You look
26:01
Speaker 13: at his numbers in the states we've been talking about
26:03
Speaker 13: in North Carolina, Alaska, and Georgia, it's horrible. I mean,
26:06
Speaker 13: his approval ratings are below 40%, and his strongly disapproves
26:11
Speaker 13: are almost 50% of that. So when you have those
26:15
Speaker 13: kind of numbers going into midterm, if you're a Democrat,
26:18
Speaker 13: you're going to look great. If you're a Republican, no
26:20
Speaker 13: matter who you are and how hard you've worked, you're
26:22
Speaker 13: going to look awful. And that's what we're seeing.
26:25
Speaker 11: In this election.
26:28
Speaker 6: Well, Jeannie, that's certainly saying something. Just quickly on the
26:31
Speaker 6: debates tonight, we have about a minute left. Are voters
26:33
Speaker 6: going to learn anything that they didn't learn in the
26:36
Speaker 6: debates that they've already seen between all of these candidates?
26:39
Speaker 7: This is the third one in Maine in the span
26:40
Speaker 7: of a week.
26:42
Speaker 8: Yeah, who knew Maine's really going to town? You know,
26:45
Speaker 8: I think so. I am all in favor of more debates, better.
26:49
Speaker 8: I think, of course, for us, this is also, Kayleigh,
26:51
Speaker 8: an audition for 2028. So we're seeing some of that.
26:54
Speaker 8: But I have to say, Troy Jackson had my favorite
26:57
Speaker 8: line of the entire debate season when she tried to
27:00
Speaker 8: defend the fact that she took road salt out of
27:04
Speaker 8: the tariffs with Canada. And he said, you can't eat salt.
27:08
Speaker 8: And that summarizes this entire election.
27:12
Speaker 14: All right.
27:12
Speaker 6: I'm sure we're going to get some one-liners like that
27:15
Speaker 6: out of three debates tonight. Jeanne Shanzano and Rick Davis,
27:18
Speaker 6: Bloomberg Politics contributors in our political panel on this Tuesday.
27:21
Speaker 6: Thanks so much for joining us. And as we were
27:23
Speaker 6: talking about the climate and what the polling bears out,
27:26
Speaker 6: we'll speak with Eli Yokely of Morning Consult up next
27:29
Speaker 6: for more on the midterms.
27:30
Speaker 1: Stay with us on Balance of Power. We'll have much
27:32
Speaker 1: more coming up after this.
27:38
Speaker 5: You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast. Catch
27:41
Speaker 5: us live weekdays at noon and 5 p.m. Eastern on
27:45
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27:48
Speaker 5: Listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts or watch
27:51
Speaker 5: us live on YouTube.
27:54
Speaker 6: Walking us through some of the softness we are seeing
27:56
Speaker 6: in equity markets today and chip stocks, especially, as Charlie said,
27:59
Speaker 6: that has a lot to do with concern over the
28:02
Speaker 6: AI boom and whether or not it is going.
28:04
Speaker 7: To be sustainable.
28:06
Speaker 6: Of course, there's the question of whether there is an
28:08
Speaker 6: overinvestment being made into the infrastructure that powers artificial intelligence.
28:12
Speaker 6: And of course, there's all the political complication that comes
28:15
Speaker 6: with that infrastructure and the blowback that has been a generating,
28:18
Speaker 6: driving force of voter sentiment in this midterm election. But
28:22
Speaker 6: there is the question as well of not just the
28:25
Speaker 6: political or the market impact, but the actual economic impact
28:28
Speaker 6: of all of this and the extent to which it
28:30
Speaker 6: could fuel inflation. This is something that our colleague, Salia Mohsen,
28:34
Speaker 6: got into with Fed Governor Christopher Waller earlier today at
28:38
Speaker 6: Bloomberg's New Economy Forum in New Delhi.
28:41
Speaker 7: Here was part of their conversation.
28:43
Speaker 14: Yeah, I mean, the whole build-out, obviously, if you're building
28:46
Speaker 14: out several trillion dollars of investment in AI, and you
28:50
Speaker 14: have to buy all that stuff, and your demand is
28:52
Speaker 14: perfectly inelastic, you'll pay whatever price if you're one of
28:56
Speaker 14: the hyperscalers. You're going to bid up the price of
28:59
Speaker 14: all semiconductors of all type, and that's going to spill
29:02
Speaker 14: over to anybody else who uses those products. And that's
29:05
Speaker 14: what we're starting to see in the US. We're starting
29:07
Speaker 14: to see AI having a spreading out of inflation because
29:11
Speaker 14: it's just increasing demand for everything else. Now down the
29:14
Speaker 14: road when this stuff is done and they've kind of
29:16
Speaker 14: built it out, that kind of demand pressure goes away
29:20
Speaker 14: and then you hopefully will start seeing all the supply
29:23
Speaker 14: effects which means we can produce more output faster and
29:26
Speaker 14: at a lower price. So it's one of these two
29:29
Speaker 14: stage things. Demand is going to be, especially the size
29:32
Speaker 14: of the investment. I mean this is shocking. how much
29:35
Speaker 14: is being spent on this compared to any other point
29:37
Speaker 14: in history. And so you're gonna see these price pressures
29:41
Speaker 14: early on. How long are they gonna last? It could
29:44
Speaker 14: last anywhere from two to three years, given how much
29:47
Speaker 14: they've committed already to spend out in the future. Now,
29:51
Speaker 14: if all that falls off, if suddenly there's a pullback
29:54
Speaker 14: or you can't meet this build-out, you can't do it,
29:56
Speaker 14: that'll put a check on prices.
29:59
Speaker 11: But the benefits on inflation.
30:00
Speaker 14: Down the road are, they're down the road as far
30:02
Speaker 14: as I'm concerned.
30:03
Speaker 11: They're still a few years out.
30:04
Speaker 1: A few years off.
30:05
Speaker 15: Is there any chance that the inflation that's stemming from
30:09
Speaker 15: the AI build-out could be embedded in the economy for
30:12
Speaker 15: a longer time?
30:14
Speaker 14: Yeah, I mean, like I said, it's very specific what
30:16
Speaker 14: it is. It's not like a broad-based effect. It spills
30:20
Speaker 14: over into a smaller set of goods than other things.
30:25
Speaker 14: And we know that at some point this huge build-out
30:27
Speaker 14: and huge demand is going to I won't say completely
30:31
Speaker 14: come to an end, but it's going to taper off
30:33
Speaker 14: a lot.
30:34
Speaker 15: Well, let's talk about the AI build-out. There is still
30:37
Speaker 15: a lot of investment that's coming through. A lot of
30:40
Speaker 15: that is being issued in corporate debt. We're seeing a
30:44
Speaker 15: lot of financing to help with the AI build-out. And,
30:48
Speaker 15: of course, that debt is sensitive to U.S.
30:51
Speaker 11: Treasuries.
30:52
Speaker 15: And we've seen yields skyrocket. Global yields are high. Can
30:56
Speaker 15: you talk through a little bit about... what you see
31:00
Speaker 15: in U.S. yields, whether that could be longer term, and
31:03
Speaker 15: how much of the global higher yield picture has to
31:05
Speaker 15: do with the narrative in the U.S., and what's separate?
31:09
Speaker 14: Yeah, I mean, everybody's suddenly paying attention to high yields,
31:11
Speaker 14: and when you look at it, it's not yields have
31:14
Speaker 14: gone up because there's expected higher future inflation. That doesn't
31:18
Speaker 14: show up. Inflation expectations are well anchored. So all of
31:22
Speaker 14: the buildup is not coming from an inflation premium. That's
31:26
Speaker 14: not where it's coming from.
31:27
Speaker 11: So it is a factor of real growth.
31:29
Speaker 14: If you have real growth and real productivity and these
31:32
Speaker 14: investments are going to pay off, you're willing to pay
31:34
Speaker 14: more in terms of your interest cost.
31:37
Speaker 11: And people know that and they'll ask for it. So
31:40
Speaker 11: real growth.
31:41
Speaker 14: Has an effect on these real yields. Now on top
31:44
Speaker 14: of that, you have general fiscal concerns around the world.
31:48
Speaker 14: All governments are kind of sitting here in a, at
31:51
Speaker 14: least in advanced countries, not such a great state. And
31:54
Speaker 14: we're seeing that in France right now. So some of
31:57
Speaker 14: this is just driving up yields in some countries that
32:01
Speaker 14: aren't necessarily related to the US or maybe some other countries.
32:05
Speaker 14: And then the competition from AI is a serious, serious concern.
32:13
Speaker 9: Fed Governor Christopher Waller speaking at Bloomberg's New Economy Forum
32:17
Speaker 9: in New Delhi. You know, it's really something, Kayleigh, when
32:20
Speaker 9: you consider rising interest rates, all the trends that he's
32:23
Speaker 9: talking about and the worries about too much lending when
32:26
Speaker 9: it comes to AI, all of this spills into the
32:28
Speaker 9: conversation that we're having on the midterm campaign trail when
32:30
Speaker 9: we're talking about affordability. All of these inputs are an
32:34
Speaker 9: economic but also a political conversation. Now with the president
32:37
Speaker 9: on his way to Alaska, he's going to be talking
32:39
Speaker 9: about all of these very issues just from a very
32:41
Speaker 9: different angle.
32:43
Speaker 6: Yeah, and that will certainly be on display in a
32:45
Speaker 6: number of these races. He, of course, before he went
32:47
Speaker 6: to Alaska yesterday, was just in Ohio, where data centers
32:50
Speaker 6: have been front and center in terms of the political advertising,
32:54
Speaker 6: specifically that Sherrod Brown is wielding against the incumbent Senator
32:57
Speaker 6: John Husted, who wanted to see the Ratepayer Protection Act.
33:01
Speaker 6: passed in Congress in the Senate before recess for that
33:05
Speaker 6: very reason. That, of course, did not, and it may
33:07
Speaker 6: have been too late anyway, as voters' minds on this
33:09
Speaker 6: issue do seem to have been largely solidified with just
33:11
Speaker 6: three weeks to go until Election Day.
33:13
Speaker 1: Data center looming large on the campaign trail.
33:17
Speaker 9: We wanted to get the pulse of one of the
33:19
Speaker 9: best pollsters we have worked with in Eli Yokely, U.S.
33:23
Speaker 9: politics analyst at Morning Consult, partners of ours during the
33:27
Speaker 9: last cycle, And with so much noise on the campaign
33:30
Speaker 9: trail and such a high expectation for a blue wave,
33:33
Speaker 9: we wanted to pick Eli's brain for a while and
33:36
Speaker 9: see how he's feeling about things. It's great to have
33:37
Speaker 9: you back with us on Bloomberg TV and radio, Eli Yokely.
33:42
Speaker 1: Where is your head before we.
33:43
Speaker 9: Start drilling down on races in your own research when
33:46
Speaker 9: it comes to states and districts? Broadly speaking, as the
33:48
Speaker 9: president makes his way to another red state, are we
33:52
Speaker 9: getting beyond ourselves here three weeks out with talk of
33:55
Speaker 9: a blue wave or a red tsunami, a red undertow,
33:59
Speaker 9: whatever you call it? It does seem that Washington has
34:02
Speaker 9: decided it's figured out what's going to happen on November 3rd.
34:05
Speaker 1: How about you?
34:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, look, the House contest seems pretty decided.
34:12
Speaker 3: Consistently throughout the year, we've seen Democrats with a strong
34:16
Speaker 3: margin on the national generic congressional ballot. You look at
34:20
Speaker 3: the Senate, that's an open question now. I don't know
34:23
Speaker 3: that it was a few months ago. And a lot
34:26
Speaker 3: of that's because of these issues we're talking about. This
34:29
Speaker 3: affordability issue, for example, has been massive on the election
34:34
Speaker 3: this year. It's AI, but it's not just AI. You
34:37
Speaker 3: ask voters if Trump is making things like health care
34:40
Speaker 3: a top priority, housing costs, the economy more broadly, taking
34:44
Speaker 3: on inflation, for example. They're far less likely to see
34:48
Speaker 3: him doing that as they want him to. And this
34:50
Speaker 3: has been consistent throughout the campaign. And it really started
34:53
Speaker 3: getting worse for Trump's standing. After the Iran war, when
34:58
Speaker 3: the gas price issue hit voters very, very hard. And
35:01
Speaker 3: the big thing that happened then was an enthusiasm hit
35:05
Speaker 3: on the Republican base. In the last few weeks, we've
35:07
Speaker 3: measured some of Trump's worst intense support among Republican voters
35:12
Speaker 3: across the country overall. And in some of these key states,
35:17
Speaker 3: I mean, if you're him, this is where you probably
35:19
Speaker 3: can try to move the needle by going into some
35:23
Speaker 3: of these red states where his numbers have declined a lot.
35:26
Speaker 3: I mean, we saw double digit declines in Trump's standing
35:28
Speaker 3: in Alaska. The shares of voters who strongly approve of
35:32
Speaker 3: him in places like Kansas is under 50 percent. It's
35:35
Speaker 3: no wonder. People like the Cook Political Report made that
35:38
Speaker 3: Kansas race a toss-up. The problem here may not be
35:41
Speaker 3: a red anything, just because Democrats are much more motivated
35:46
Speaker 3: to show up this year than Donald Trump's base is.
35:51
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's incredible to see your figures from Morning Consult.
35:55
Speaker 6: The president underwater by four points in Florida, by five
35:59
Speaker 6: points in South Carolina, by nine points in Kansas, to
36:01
Speaker 6: your point, Eli, which is why Democrats are feeling like
36:03
Speaker 6: the map.
36:04
Speaker 7: Has widened significantly.
36:06
Speaker 6: But to get back to Joe's question as to whether
36:08
Speaker 6: or not all of this risks being overblown, and I
36:11
Speaker 6: do not mean this as a dig at a pollster,
36:13
Speaker 6: but what is so difficult about capturing in polls the
36:17
Speaker 6: actual sentiment of voters? Because we hear that frequently on
36:19
Speaker 6: this show, that the polls aren't trusted or they feel
36:21
Speaker 6: that they could be off in some way.
36:24
Speaker 7: Why is it hard?
36:26
Speaker 3: Well, first of all, sentiment is very easy. The challenge
36:30
Speaker 3: we get into here is who shows up to vote.
36:33
Speaker 3: And that is an art, not a science for a
36:36
Speaker 3: lot of political pollsters here. It gets tougher in some
36:40
Speaker 3: of the states. But the one thing that we just consider,
36:44
Speaker 3: and the reason that I feel probably more confident in
36:46
Speaker 3: Democrats taking the House and the Senate race as being competitive,
36:50
Speaker 3: It's these big long term trend lines and all of
36:53
Speaker 3: them are bad. If you look nationally, I think this
36:56
Speaker 3: week Donald Trump got his worst approval rating among independents
37:00
Speaker 3: we've ever clocked. I think his standing last week was
37:02
Speaker 3: worse among Republican voters than it was immediately after the
37:06
Speaker 3: January 6th Capitol attacks in terms of strength. There is
37:10
Speaker 3: a huge enthusiasm problem on the right. Democrats are more
37:14
Speaker 3: fired up for their own candidates. They're more likely to
37:17
Speaker 3: say they're going to vote. That's the challenge that pollsters
37:20
Speaker 3: get into, is relying on those people. But, you know,
37:23
Speaker 3: in midterm elections, the kinds of people who are showing
37:26
Speaker 3: up traditionally are the kinds that Democrats are fighting for.
37:30
Speaker 3: I mean, the kind of electorate we're seeing looks more
37:33
Speaker 3: like 2018 than it did.
37:35
Speaker 11: A while ago.
37:36
Speaker 3: I don't know that we know it's going to be
37:38
Speaker 3: a blowout. I mean, the one thing we're dealing with
37:40
Speaker 3: this time that's different is just the fact that you know,
37:42
Speaker 3: people have pretty strong views about where they are in
37:45
Speaker 3: Donald Trump. It's hard to get people to move their minds.
37:48
Speaker 3: But he weighs so much more heavily on this election
37:52
Speaker 3: than like Joe Biden did, for example, back in 2022,
37:55
Speaker 3: when Democrats overperformed their expectations of the midterm elections. I
38:01
Speaker 3: think that the trend lines make us feel pretty comfortable.
38:04
Speaker 3: I think the challenge will be looking at some of
38:06
Speaker 3: these key states. But what is very clear there is
38:09
Speaker 3: Donald Trump is a weight on all of these candidates.
38:11
Speaker 3: And the other, the incumbents, the other thing here, too,
38:15
Speaker 3: by the way, is there's a lot of people running
38:17
Speaker 3: who voters are not as aware of. And so the
38:19
Speaker 3: president's weight in these places matters quite a bit.
38:24
Speaker 1: We mentioned data center, Eli.
38:26
Speaker 9: You've been tracking Americans' feelings about data centers for the
38:30
Speaker 9: better part of a year. And it's fascinating to watch
38:33
Speaker 9: the deterioration as you write in the headline, the data
38:35
Speaker 9: center build out. is losing the argument when it comes
38:39
Speaker 9: to blaming for electricity prices, harm to water prices, and
38:42
Speaker 9: benefits to U.S.
38:43
Speaker 1: Competitiveness. Who's losing? Is it the AI executives or the administration? Or, Eli,
38:49
Speaker 1: is there no difference?
38:51
Speaker 3: You know, that is a fun question. If you ask
38:53
Speaker 3: voters who they, if they support or oppose a local ban,
38:57
Speaker 3: for example, those who want to ban data centers are
39:03
Speaker 3: they focus on these issues like the AI companies, the
39:06
Speaker 3: lack of trust. If you ask them who they blame
39:08
Speaker 3: for rising power bills, though, they're more likely to say
39:12
Speaker 3: the government right now than they are the companies. On
39:17
Speaker 3: the other hand, that doesn't let the companies off the hook.
39:20
Speaker 3: I mean, they're losing the arguments on whether this is
39:24
Speaker 3: good for American competitiveness, for example. That's been flat. The
39:28
Speaker 3: only things that have risen in voters' mind have been
39:30
Speaker 3: blame for higher energy bills and concerns about water in
39:36
Speaker 3: their local communities. There's not been a positive argument put
39:39
Speaker 3: forward that's been credible to the American people. This is
39:42
Speaker 3: one of those issues that we started tracking a year ago,
39:45
Speaker 3: public sentiment on the I mean, people say it's the
39:51
Speaker 3: campaign issue. It is, but it was there before the
39:54
Speaker 3: politicians got there. I'm from Southwest Missouri in Joplin. Look,
39:58
Speaker 3: this is something that people on the ground are talking about.
40:01
Speaker 3: They were talking about it before any politicians in D.C. were.
40:05
Speaker 3: This is something people felt in their electric bills. And
40:08
Speaker 3: the reason they did is it added to all of
40:10
Speaker 3: these concerns that they're feeling about crisis more broadly. I mean,
40:14
Speaker 3: you can talk to health care executives. You can talk
40:16
Speaker 3: to tech executives. You can talk to energy executives. And
40:19
Speaker 3: you can basically say the same thing. The American people
40:22
Speaker 3: have an affordability problem. They don't think Washington is acting,
40:26
Speaker 3: and they're mad. On the other hand, it probably is
40:28
Speaker 3: somewhat of an opportunity for these companies to jump in there.
40:31
Speaker 3: But on the data center issue itself, I think it
40:34
Speaker 3: paints a picture of concerns that have gone unaddressed from
40:38
Speaker 3: the American people. They're OK with the technology generally. People
40:43
Speaker 3: are using it. They don't trust the companies, though, and
40:46
Speaker 3: they blame it for their power bills. Look, the American people,
40:48
Speaker 3: they'll get to the competitiveness thing. They'll get to the
40:50
Speaker 3: good thing for the American economy once they figure out
40:53
Speaker 3: their power bills.
40:56
Speaker 14: All right.
40:56
Speaker 7: Eli Yokely, U.S.
40:57
Speaker 6: Politics analyst at Morning Consult. Eli, thank you so much
41:01
Speaker 6: and stay in touch. We'll hopefully be checking back in
41:03
Speaker 6: with Eli in the next three weeks.
41:09
Speaker 9: Thanks for listening to the Balance of Power podcast. Make
41:12
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41:15
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41:17
Speaker 1: And you can find us live every weekday from Washington, D.C.
41:20
Speaker 1: at noontime Eastern at Bloomberg.com.