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

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

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: You know, Curtis, we haven't really talked about this Iranian
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: terror plot. There was an attack that was planned on
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: a U.S. military base in the United Kingdom, but John
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Decker's all over it. John Decker, WOR, White House and
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Washington correspondent. He's also host of the podcast, The White
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: House Briefing Room with John Decker. You can find that
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: on the iHeartRadio app. So, John, I know that there
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: was an availability yesterday. I know you got several questions in.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Tell us the latest on this terror attack. I know
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: that President Trump was very proud that it was thwarted.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: John?
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: Momentarily, we'll get him up there. I think the dischronification. Oh,
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: here it is.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: There you go.
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: Hey, John, did you hear what I said?
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: No, I missed everything that you said leading up to
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: your introduction. I'm so sorry.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: I was saying really nice things about you, how many
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: questions you got in, that you were the star of
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: the availability, and that.
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: Stop glazing them!
• 0:59
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: But we were talking about the terror attack that was
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: thwarted in the United Kingdom, the one by Iran. Donald
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Trump seems like he was very proud of that.
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: That he thwarted it well absolutely and he was asked
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: about it he said he would not have released those
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: individuals on bail he made it sound like u.s intelligence
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: has more information uh.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: than has been made public regarding these individuals uh.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: and uh.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: as far as british authorities are concerned they say that
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: their investigation is not closed so this matter uh... you
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: know may still have uh... elements of it that we
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: do not know yet and these individuals may indeed uh...
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: ultimately be charged with certain crimes and punished for those
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: crimes related to alleged terrorism at this British air base
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: that the U.S. uses.
• 1:54
  Speaker 5: John Decker, Fox News Sunday had on the ambassador to
• 1:58
  Speaker 5: Red China, and he said something that I think stunned
• 2:02
  Speaker 5: not just me, but others in the country, that when
• 2:06
  Speaker 5: President of the United States Donald Trump was entertaining President
• 2:09
  Speaker 5: Xi over the two days. He actually offered to sell
• 2:14
  Speaker 5: American weapons to Red China. Please say it ain't so,
• 2:18
  Speaker 5: John Decker. Please say it ain't so.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: Well, this is a question that I asked President Trump
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: yesterday when I was in the Oval Office. Because as
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: you point out, David Perdue, he is the U.S. ambassador
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: to China. That's what he said in that Fox News
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: Sunday interview yesterday. And I asked the president essentially what
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: you just asked me. Can you confirm that? Can you
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: confirm what Ambassador Perdue said in that interview? And the
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: president seemed a little confused or baffled by my question.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: He said, do you mean China or Taiwan? And I said, no,
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: I mean China. I mean the PRC. And the president
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: said that that was not something that he offered. But
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: let's just say for argument's sake that the president said
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: to Taiwan, why would you bring that up with China?
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: Why would you say we're going to sell some weapons
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: to the country that you view as a breakaway province?
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: Is that OK? You know, so there's a lot, I think,
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: more to that story than perhaps that we know.
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: At this point.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: How much do we know about President Trump's schedule over
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: the next several weeks before the midterms? I know he's
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: going to be barnstorming, but it's going to be really
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: fascinating where he chooses to go. Do we have any
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: kind of schedule yet?
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: We do for this week. We don't have it for
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: next week. The president will be traveling to some head-scratching places,
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: for me anyway. Why would you go to Alabama? Why
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: would you go to Oklahoma? I mean, those are not
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: states that are viewed as states that are in doubt.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: It's North Carolina. It's Ohio. It's Maine. It's Alaska. And
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: I'm sure the president will hit those spots, but I
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: don't understand why you take time away from visiting states
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: Those critical states where very competitive Senate races are going on.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: It's a zero-sum game. If you're in Alabama one day,
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: that means you're not in Ohio, and that means that
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: you're not in Iowa. And so I don't understand the
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: president's schedule this week. As far as Ohio is concerned,
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: I'll travel with the president on Saturday to Ohio. That's
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: for that very competitive races where Democrats are hoping to
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: flip a seat. And right now it's a coin toss
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: in terms of who's going to win that Senate race.
• 4:30
  Speaker 5: So, John Decker, so far what I can gather, what
• 4:33
  Speaker 5: both the president of the United States, Donald Trump, and J.D. Vance,
• 4:37
  Speaker 5: the vice president, because he'll also be out on the stump,
• 4:40
  Speaker 5: they are going to say to people before the midterm elections, yeah, okay,
• 4:45
  Speaker 5: price of gasoline, diesel, home heating, fuel oil up, utilities up,
• 4:49
  Speaker 5: groceries up. But, you know, it's a sacrifice you all
• 4:53
  Speaker 5: have to make in order for Iran not to have
• 4:56
  Speaker 5: a nuclear weapon.
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: They don't really think that that's going to work, do they?
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: Well, that's the message. That's the message the president has
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: been delivering for weeks, if not months. It's a message
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: that is hard to sell to individuals and families that
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: are dealing with high gas prices. I asked the president yesterday,
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: you know, how long can we expect these elevated prices
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: at the pump, elevated prices for diesel? Will it last
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: through the midterm elections? And the president said what he
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: said before, as soon as the war is over, it'll
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: come down. And he's right about that. But when will
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: the war be over? That's the big question. It doesn't
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: look like it's ending anytime soon.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: President Trump has doubled down on his promise to give
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: thousands of dollars, $ 5, 000, I believe, $ 5, 000 to every American
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: that votes. I guess every American, doesn't matter if they
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: vote or not, if The Republicans take the Senate and
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: the House. And my question to you, Mr. Constitutional Attorney,
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: is that legal? Is that constitutional?
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: Well, that's going to be challenged for sure. As you know, Larry,
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: and as you know, Curtis, the power of the purse
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: resides with Congress. The president has given different answers at
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: different times. The president told me in January that he
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: doesn't need congressional authority to do that. He told me
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: that at the very beginning of the year. One of
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: his chief economic advisors, Kevin Hassett, told me something completely different,
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: that it does require congressional approval. And it's not clear
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: whether Congress would have enough votes to approve that $ 5, 000
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: check coming from the federal government. So that is one
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: of those issues that is unknown. And it's also unclear
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: why the president needs to do it after the election.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: Republicans control the White House, the House, the Senate right now.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: If the president wanted to cut a check right now
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: and believes he has authority, he could do so tomorrow. So,
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: you know, to me, that would be something in which
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: voters may say, thank you, Mr. President. Thank you for
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: that $ 5, 000 check. I'm now going to vote for Republicans
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: rather than string it out there and hope that the
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: voters vote your way on Election Day.
• 7:08
  Speaker 5: Well, the big focus of late has been artificial intelligence,
• 7:13
  Speaker 5: both the data filing centers that are popping up all
• 7:16
  Speaker 5: over the country.
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: And the warnings of the CEOs, danger, danger, danger.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 7:22
  Speaker 5: The president has said it's fake news, yet he's hosting
• 7:25
  Speaker 5: a conference today. What does he hope to accomplish?
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: Well, the president wants to get these leaders of artificial
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: intelligence on the same page. You know, as you may know,
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: on Sunday night, the president hosted the CEO of Anthropic,
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: who has been one of those industry leaders who said,
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: is urging the federal government to put in place guardrails
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: as it relates to artificial intelligence. We did not get
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: a readout in terms of how that dinner went with
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: that CEO, either from the White House or from Anthropic.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: The president will meet with other leaders from the artificial
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: intelligence industry for this lunch. Right now it's closed press.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: I'm in the pool today. Hopefully that opens up and
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: I can answer a lot of the questions that you
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: may have. Curtis and Larry, about the president and the
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: administration's focus on AI going forward.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: You know, the Republicans are calling them public service announcements,
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: but the Democrats are saying these are political ads that
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: shouldn't be paid for with taxpayer money. But they seem
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: like they're going to continue happening over the weekend during
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: some of the football games. People may have noticed there
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: was an ad that featured Donald Trump in black and
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: white prominently. Is this one of those cases? I'll go
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: back to the constitutionality of this. Is this one of
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: those cases that's going to be challenged?
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: It's going to be challenged. And here's the issue. You know,
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: if Democrats retake control of the House, this could be
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: one of the issues that they hang their hat on
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: as far as an article of impeachment against the president
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: using taxpayer dollars for this effort. You may say, well,
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: that's not an impeachable offense, and that's always debatable because
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: impeachment is a political exercise. But there are individuals who
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: say this certainly skirts that dividing line between legal and illegal.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: And as you point out, Larry, the administration is moving
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: full speed ahead with this, thinking this is going to
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: change the minds of undecided voters with about four weeks
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: to go until election day.
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: Now, the president ratcheted up the tariffs.
• 9:43
  Speaker 5: He said basically no cattle, no dairy, no Billy Joel motorcycles,
• 9:51
  Speaker 5: no nothing.
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: What the hell is that?
• 9:53
  Speaker 5: I mean, this is costing the Republicans in the Midwest
• 9:57
  Speaker 5: and in New York because the tariffs are hurting people.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: Well there are a lot of things that are hurting
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: people the high gas prices high prices at the grocery
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: store and then on top of that the president's tariffs
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: policy in certain places uh for sure uh and you
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: mentioned some of those places also let's not forget up
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: in new england with the seafood industry that also is
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: being hit hard by tariffs, reciprocal tariffs being imposed upon
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: American seafood. So that is one of those additional headwinds
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: that Republicans are dealing with heading into the midterms. You know,
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: I've looked at it very closely in terms of what
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: the Senate looks like in particular, the House. I think
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: that there's this conventional wisdom that Republicans will lose the House.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: The Senate is the big unknown. And as you know,
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: it's a 53-47 advantage that Republicans have right now, which
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: means Democrats need to flip four seats. And to me,
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: I think they can do it. You know, it's one
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: of those things. It really is getting a full straight,
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: you know, in poker. But it's certainly possible for Democrats
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: to do that. And they're hoping that Texas and Ohio
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: and North Carolina and Alaska, and maybe even Iowa, flip
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: to give them control of the U.S. Senate for the
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: next two years.
• 11:20
  Speaker 5: Well, thank you very much, John Decker, our WOR White
• 11:23
  Speaker 5: House correspondent. All the questions that you were able to
• 11:27
  Speaker 5: get into the queue that the President answered for you,
• 11:30
  Speaker 5: and you shared it with us. Many, many thanks, John.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: Thanks a lot, Curtis.
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: Thanks, Larry.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: Talk to you real soon. Bye-bye.