Latest / Bloomberg Intelligence / Why Is Uber Under So Many Investigations?
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg p m L Podcast. I'm pim Fox.
- 0:08Speaker 1: Along with my co host Lisa Bramowitz. Each day we
- 0:11Speaker 1: bring you the most important, noteworthy, and useful interviews for
- 0:15Speaker 1: you and your money, whether you're at the grocery store
- 0:17Speaker 1: or the trading floor. Find the Bloomberg p m L
- 0:20Speaker 1: Podcast on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, and Bloomberg dot com. Uber,
- 0:32Speaker 1: the scandal ridden driving a ride sharing service, is uh
- 0:37Speaker 1: evidently reportedly the subject of two additional, formerly undisclosed investigations,
- 0:43Speaker 1: and here to talk about why this company has been
- 0:47Speaker 1: uniquely targeted by regulators and lawmakers. I want to bring
- 0:51Speaker 1: in Max Chafkin, who writes for Bloomberg Business Week and
- 0:53Speaker 1: joins us UH, to talk a little bit about this. So, Max,
- 0:56Speaker 1: you know, what is it about Uber that has made
- 1:00Speaker 1: it subject to so many investigations? Right? So, as you said,
- 1:03Speaker 1: we we've learned. My colleague Eric Newcomer reported earlier this
- 1:07Speaker 1: morning that first of all, there is an additional criminal
- 1:10Speaker 1: probe that's looking into Uber's alleged theft of trade secrets
- 1:14Speaker 1: from Google, and another one looking at price fixing. I
- 1:17Speaker 1: think the answer to the question I asked of of
- 1:18Speaker 1: sort of what was going on and and this is
- 1:21Speaker 1: in the piece, but the company had kind of a
- 1:24Speaker 1: culture of I guess you might say rule bending, uh
- 1:28Speaker 1: and and and some might call it legal innovation. And
- 1:31Speaker 1: I think that's that's a term that some people inside
- 1:33Speaker 1: of you Uber had used might call it cheating, right, yeah,
- 1:37Speaker 1: And that's and that's something I think we've seen before
- 1:39Speaker 1: in the financial services industry, where these financial services innovations
- 1:43Speaker 1: sometimes uh, you know, push into areas of you know,
- 1:46Speaker 1: breaking ethical rules or even criminality. Well, Max, I wont
- 1:50Speaker 1: if you get to tell us about the executive ranks
- 1:52Speaker 1: of Uber. Who's there to actually fix the company and
- 1:57Speaker 1: then justify its multibillion all the valuation so so uh
- 2:03Speaker 1: recently Travis Kalenik Uh this this the former CEO, a
- 2:07Speaker 1: guy who sort of most closely associated with the founding
- 2:10Speaker 1: of Uber. Step down. There's a new CEO, the former
- 2:13Speaker 1: Expedia CEO, Dera Coastra Shah. He hope hope on getting
- 2:17Speaker 1: that one right, um, but on the pronunciation. But he's
- 2:21Speaker 1: been basically doing a an apology tour and and sort
- 2:24Speaker 1: of going around from to to offer, from office to
- 2:27Speaker 1: office to office, trying to sort of turn the page
- 2:32Speaker 1: and say, this is not going to be a company
- 2:34Speaker 1: that sort of by default bends the rules. And we're
- 2:38Speaker 1: learning that he is looking into some of these sort
- 2:41Speaker 1: of you might call them counterintelligence programs. It appears that
- 2:45Speaker 1: Uber had kind of almost its own personal, sort of
- 2:47Speaker 1: private spy service that was run by the former General Council,
- 2:52Speaker 1: the former Chief Security officer. Right. So, just to get
- 2:54Speaker 1: a little bit more specific about what the allegations are,
- 2:57Speaker 1: we talked about their program called Hell that that's what
- 3:00Speaker 1: they named, that basically tracked other competing ridesharing services where
- 3:06Speaker 1: they were to allow Uber drivers to go compete with
- 3:09Speaker 1: them more directly. They also kind of cloaked themselves sometimes
- 3:13Speaker 1: Uber drivers and would arrive instead of some of the
- 3:16Speaker 1: other competing rides sharing services. These are among uh, some
- 3:20Speaker 1: of the services that they provided that are being targeted
- 3:23Speaker 1: by regulators. Yeah, I mean when you when you take
- 3:25Speaker 1: a step back, you brought up Hell there. There was
- 3:28Speaker 1: also a program, similar program in Australia that was designed
- 3:32Speaker 1: to it seems like spy on maybe you might say
- 3:35Speaker 1: UH an Asian uh a taxi service UM. Basically in
- 3:41Speaker 1: all sorts of ways, it appears that that engineers inside
- 3:44Speaker 1: of Uber kind of broke with norms as far as
- 3:48Speaker 1: privacy and and uh sort of uh, you know, data
- 3:52Speaker 1: securities concerns. So so for instance, they were routinely uh
- 3:56Speaker 1: calling cabs from from Lift, a competitor, and and basically
- 4:00Speaker 1: trying to hire those drivers. They were routinely scraping data
- 4:04Speaker 1: from other services, and and this this thing called gray Ball,
- 4:07Speaker 1: which is a subject of another investigation. They were sort
- 4:10Speaker 1: of routinely trying to identify police and law enforcement officers
- 4:15Speaker 1: and try to make it more difficult for those people
- 4:18Speaker 1: to use the app, basically giving law enforcement um fake
- 4:22Speaker 1: data allegedly. So it's a whole bunch of it's a
- 4:25Speaker 1: whole swirl of things. You start to add it up,
- 4:27Speaker 1: and and obviously it looks like a culture of uh
- 4:30Speaker 1: that that's problematics at least, you know, Max said, it
- 4:34Speaker 1: makes me maybe considered that you know, with a hefty valuation, Uh,
- 4:39Speaker 1: may be considered that How is that it justified when
- 4:42Speaker 1: you have competitors that may offer exactly the same kind
- 4:45Speaker 1: of service without these legal problems? I mean, what competitive
- 4:50Speaker 1: advantage do they have that they got a list of
- 4:51Speaker 1: clients and everyone has the app, but everyone's got the
- 4:54Speaker 1: other app. And they're the same clients. Yeah, And I
- 4:56Speaker 1: mean this this gets to a pretty significant issue for Uber,
- 5:00Speaker 1: which is, right now, they are trying to raise money,
- 5:03Speaker 1: raise a big boatload of money from soft Bank, including
- 5:06Speaker 1: some of this money is going to buy out existing
- 5:08Speaker 1: shareholders in an auction, and we don't know exactly what
- 5:11Speaker 1: the valuation is going to be. Is it going to
- 5:14Speaker 1: be you know, closer to to Uber sort of on
- 5:17Speaker 1: paper valuation around seventy billion, or is it going to
- 5:20Speaker 1: be more like fifty build billion or something like that.
- 5:22Speaker 1: And and and the fact is that I think I
- 5:25Speaker 1: think investors might might be asking questions about sort of
- 5:29Speaker 1: how brittle is Uber's business, how how how secure? Why
- 5:32Speaker 1: not invest in lift or why not invest in any
- 5:34Speaker 1: of the other rides sharing services? Because the thing is,
- 5:37Speaker 1: it's supposed to be asset light, right, So you don't
- 5:39Speaker 1: put all your capital into the automobiles. You let the
- 5:42Speaker 1: drivers assume a lot of the risk. And you want
- 5:45Speaker 1: a valuation of a tech company, Well, there are a
- 5:47Speaker 1: lot of other people that can figure that out, now, right.
- 5:49Speaker 1: I mean if you the thing is, if you believe
- 5:51Speaker 1: in the business, and you believe that that these companies
- 5:54Speaker 1: create value, you still acknowledge the Uber is much bigger
- 5:56Speaker 1: than any of these other companies. It has a bigger network,
- 5:59Speaker 1: it's it's a better known brand. Although Lift is competitive
- 6:02Speaker 1: in certain cities, Uber is kind of the biggest, UH
- 6:06Speaker 1: of these apps in most of the most of the
- 6:08Speaker 1: cities where rides sharing companies play. At what point, though, Max,
- 6:12Speaker 1: does this start to snowball where you have regulators targeting
- 6:16Speaker 1: the business both because of some potential infractions as well
- 6:21Speaker 1: as mounting opposition from taxi services that have been long standing. Well,
- 6:27Speaker 1: it is starting to snowball. I mean what we saw
- 6:30Speaker 1: in London where where regulators in London who had kind
- 6:33Speaker 1: of given Uber the okay, sort of we're reading this
- 6:36Speaker 1: news that was happening in the US about this program
- 6:38Speaker 1: gray Ball, which I mentioned earlier, and said hey, wait
- 6:41Speaker 1: a minute, we're not okay with this, and they basically
- 6:44Speaker 1: announced that they were taking Uber's license away. And now
- 6:46Speaker 1: they've sort of reopened negotiations. They're trying to negotiate a
- 6:49Speaker 1: new deal with Uber. Uh. There's there there rumblings that
- 6:52Speaker 1: the same thing could happen in Brazil. And I think
- 6:54Speaker 1: it's important to remember and and Uber was very good
- 6:57Speaker 1: at sort of playing local politics, like going from city
- 7:00Speaker 1: to city figuring out how to get their service legal
- 7:03Speaker 1: or basically pushing and forcing regulators hands to make it legal.
- 7:06Speaker 1: But each of these cities have very specific local issues,
- 7:09Speaker 1: and it's not like it's a done deal to any
- 7:11Speaker 1: any mayor anywhere around the world. If if, if he
- 7:14Speaker 1: or she decides it's popular to go after Uber can
- 7:16Speaker 1: do that, and there's not much Uber can do, and
- 7:19Speaker 1: it's it could potentially, especially if criminal inquiries lawsuits continue,
- 7:23Speaker 1: amount this won't go away. It's not like Uber is
- 7:26Speaker 1: legal everywhere and it's gonna be legal everywhere forever. Just quickly,
- 7:29Speaker 1: because I know this is slightly off topic, but you
- 7:31Speaker 1: also have been writing a lot about Facebook and legal issues.
- 7:34Speaker 1: Have you noticed that the technology industry now faces the
- 7:37Speaker 1: legal same legal issues that maybe the non tech world
- 7:40Speaker 1: had faced, you know, decades earlier. Yeah. Absolutely, And I
- 7:43Speaker 1: think there is an interesting sort of Facebook connection here.
- 7:45Speaker 1: The the Uber chief security officer, Joe Sullivan, was at Facebook,
- 7:50Speaker 1: and you wonder how common are these kind of internal
- 7:54Speaker 1: spy agencies. I mean, Uber had a lot of consumer data,
- 7:57Speaker 1: but it is not the only company in Silicon Valley
- 7:59Speaker 1: with of data that's ultra competitive that has been pushing
- 8:03Speaker 1: in all sorts of ways, and I think we have
- 8:05Speaker 1: to look at this and ask, you know, how common
- 8:08Speaker 1: were these practices, you know, industry wide, And I don't
- 8:11Speaker 1: think we know the answer yet. All right, well, we're
- 8:13Speaker 1: gonna look to you for the answer. I think you
- 8:14Speaker 1: got almost you know, at least a couple next stories
- 8:16Speaker 1: out of that one. Thanks very much for joining us.
- 8:19Speaker 1: Max Chafkin is a columnist for a Bloomberg Business Week.
- 8:22Speaker 1: A writer for a Bloomberg giving us some details about
- 8:26Speaker 1: what's going on with Uber and those additional criminal investigations. Well,
- 8:42Speaker 1: there is a one hundred and eight year old company
- 8:44Speaker 1: that a lot of people in America have never heard of.
- 8:47Speaker 1: It is now called Mo Mochi ice Cream, and the
- 8:50Speaker 1: chief executive officer joins us now, Craig Burger. Thank you
- 8:54Speaker 1: so much for joining us. You became CEO about two
- 8:57Speaker 1: months ago and had previously been uh, the CFO of
- 9:01Speaker 1: the company. What excited you about the opportunity of leading
- 9:05Speaker 1: this particular company. Yeah, I think the fact that we're
- 9:09Speaker 1: innovation in the snacking category is everything I needed to
- 9:13Speaker 1: hear and see. So the company has done a phenomenal
- 9:16Speaker 1: job taking a very old item like mochi ice cream,
- 9:21Speaker 1: and have really targeted the millennial consumer to bring it
- 9:24Speaker 1: to the masses. So we're really changing the snacking world
- 9:28Speaker 1: one mochi ball at a time. All right, So can
- 9:30Speaker 1: you tell us what exactly is a moochi? Many people
- 9:34Speaker 1: may know it as a Japanese dessert. You're calling it
- 9:36Speaker 1: a snack the form fact. I'm sorry I have to
- 9:39Speaker 1: use this on my son tonight. I'm changing the world
- 9:42Speaker 1: one mochi ball at a time. You know, when they
- 9:44Speaker 1: start giving me flack about anything gone so well, they're
- 9:46Speaker 1: going to give you a cooler of it later on,
- 9:48Speaker 1: of course. And I want to just tell people how
- 9:51Speaker 1: it's made and and a little bit of the history
- 9:53Speaker 1: of the company, because if you're from Los Angeles at all,
- 9:56Speaker 1: you're very familiar with the heritage of this company. Yeah,
- 9:59Speaker 1: let me start. So, the company is a hundred and
- 10:01Speaker 1: eight years old, uh. And it was a confectionery to
- 10:05Speaker 1: start so, dealing in primarily Japanese bakery items. And the
- 10:12Speaker 1: founders invented basically mochi ice cream, which is a premium
- 10:16Speaker 1: ice cream surrounded by sweet rice stough uh. And that
- 10:20Speaker 1: brand was under the Mikawaya name and it had primarily
- 10:25Speaker 1: traditional Japanese flavors, So people who tried the product loved it,
- 10:31Speaker 1: but the awareness was very small. So then in two
- 10:34Speaker 1: thousand sixteen, Century Park Capital private equity out of Los
- 10:39Speaker 1: Angeles purchased the company, and they had this vision of
- 10:42Speaker 1: taking a very ethnic snack and really taking it to
- 10:46Speaker 1: the masses by creating a brand new brand, the Mimo
- 10:51Speaker 1: Mochi ice Cream brand, and coming out with more traditional
- 10:54Speaker 1: flavors that we know, like strawberry chocolate, cookies and cream,
- 10:59Speaker 1: and really targeting the millennial consumer something that had never
- 11:03Speaker 1: happened before. You mean, rather than red bean paste or
- 11:07Speaker 1: green tea mochi. Uh, they want to get more American.
- 11:10Speaker 1: I'm wondering, where is the market for mochi ice cream.
- 11:14Speaker 1: Is it simply in the big cities or is there
- 11:17Speaker 1: greater acceptance of more quote unquote ethnic foods in other
- 11:22Speaker 1: places outside of the city's okay, great question. Let me
- 11:25Speaker 1: start out with the market itself. So Mochi ice cream
- 11:28Speaker 1: falls under the frozen novelty category, which is about a
- 11:32Speaker 1: three billion dollar category, and that category has been flatted
- 11:36Speaker 1: down slightly over the last couple of years. Mochi ice
- 11:40Speaker 1: cream is part of that category. Mochi ice cream is
- 11:43Speaker 1: the category within there that it has the most growth
- 11:47Speaker 1: over the last year or two, primarily driven by Mymo
- 11:51Speaker 1: Mochi ice Cream. It's definitely a coastal brand. We started
- 11:56Speaker 1: out in l A and really in the last seven
- 11:59Speaker 1: months have blown up My Mo Mochi ice Cream nationwide.
- 12:03Speaker 1: But in l A, San Francisco, Seattle, and now New York,
- 12:07Speaker 1: we're really blowing it up. Craig, what's the biggest challenge
- 12:11Speaker 1: for you to expand awareness of this brand? I mean,
- 12:15Speaker 1: what have you been most surprised at with respect to
- 12:19Speaker 1: the difficulty. Well, it's pretty interesting because most people you
- 12:22Speaker 1: talk to have never heard of Mochi ice cream. So
- 12:25Speaker 1: the first thing you try and do is have them
- 12:27Speaker 1: try it. So you know, We've hired a marketing team,
- 12:31Speaker 1: We've got a strategy in place to really increase the
- 12:34Speaker 1: trial and awareness of the product, and part of that
- 12:37Speaker 1: is being done through what we call the Mochi Bar concept.
- 12:41Speaker 1: And we're really we're the first ice cream company to
- 12:44Speaker 1: break away from the ice cream freezer in the retailers
- 12:48Speaker 1: and go into the perimeter of the food stores with
- 12:52Speaker 1: a self serve Mochi bar, and that's a paid sampling
- 12:56Speaker 1: event because consumers are paying anywhere from a dollar fifty
- 13:00Speaker 1: two dollars for Amachi ball and trying it on the spot.
- 13:04Speaker 1: And it's usually the normal reaction. The first time they
- 13:09Speaker 1: bite into it, it's wow, that's kind of weird, and
- 13:12Speaker 1: then the second bite is, oh my god, I love
- 13:15Speaker 1: this stuff. So it's uh, it's a great thing to see,
- 13:19Speaker 1: you know, it's something that is really uh, taking the
- 13:22Speaker 1: stores by surprise and building overnight. Was it a conscious
- 13:28Speaker 1: effort to turn it into a snack as opposed to
- 13:31Speaker 1: a dessert and therefore the smaller form factor. Yes, so
- 13:34Speaker 1: we see it as a snack. You know, millennials snack
- 13:36Speaker 1: at least four times a day. Uh, this is a
- 13:39Speaker 1: perfect product. And ten calories per hundred and ten calories.
- 13:44Speaker 1: It's handheld, it's portable, it's grabbing go. It fits their lifestyle.
- 13:50Speaker 1: You know, we have fifteen or so flavors. What does
- 13:53Speaker 1: it cost? Uh? You know, it comes by the ball.
- 13:57Speaker 1: If you buy an e Moachi bar would be anywhere
- 13:59Speaker 1: from all fifty to two dollars a ball in a
- 14:02Speaker 1: six pack. The retail is about five or dollar a ball.
- 14:06Speaker 1: I love how targeted millennials are. They like snacks, not
- 14:09Speaker 1: desserts because deserts are too fattening, and they like it
- 14:11Speaker 1: small and they like it quick. Who right there, you go, Well,
- 14:16Speaker 1: you've definitely defined the market, and I think you're gonna
- 14:18Speaker 1: start eating some of these moments. I must say that
- 14:20Speaker 1: we gotta leave it there. Thanks very much, Craig Burger.
- 14:23Speaker 1: He is the chief executive of Momochi ice Cream. NAFTA
- 14:39Speaker 1: North American Free Trade Agreement five hundred and twenty five
- 14:43Speaker 1: billion dollars. That's a total amount of trade between the
- 14:45Speaker 1: United States and Mexico. Mexico is the number three trading
- 14:49Speaker 1: partner of the US, right after Canada, also a signatory
- 14:54Speaker 1: to NAFTA. Here to tell us about the renegotiation of NAFTA.
- 14:57Speaker 1: There's our own White House correspondent. We've got Jennifer Jacobs
- 15:00Speaker 1: joining us from Washington, d C. Jennifer, maybe just outline
- 15:02Speaker 1: exactly what is scheduled to happen today, who's going to
- 15:06Speaker 1: be there and what do they really aim to accomplish. Uh. First,
- 15:10Speaker 1: it's Jennifer Epstein of on our White House team. Just
- 15:14Speaker 1: wanted to make sure that's clear to that people aren't confused.
- 15:18Speaker 1: Uh if they know our voices. Um so Uh. Prime
- 15:22Speaker 1: Minister Trudeau is coming to the White House a little
- 15:25Speaker 1: bit later today to meet with President Trump. It's their
- 15:28Speaker 1: fourth meeting since President Trump took office at the beginning
- 15:31Speaker 1: of the year. Um. And and this is the same
- 15:34Speaker 1: time that there are a whole bunch of uh you
- 15:37Speaker 1: know that that that we're in this fourth round of
- 15:39Speaker 1: trade negotiation talks. Uh, and that's happening here in d
- 15:43Speaker 1: C as well. Uh. You know, we're just anticipating in
- 15:48Speaker 1: the US to continue to take a pretty hard line
- 15:51Speaker 1: on some things that they that that they're kind of
- 15:54Speaker 1: that the U. S officials kind of expect Mexico and
- 15:58Speaker 1: Canada to be relucked into, including substantially raising the requirement
- 16:05Speaker 1: of the requirements for rules of origin for vehicles. Um,
- 16:09Speaker 1: you know what share has to be uh of the
- 16:12Speaker 1: of the vehicle has to be built built in the
- 16:14Speaker 1: United States. Jennifer and the rest of NAFTA. Jennifer, I'm
- 16:18Speaker 1: struck by President Trump versus Congress, versus his diplomats. Is
- 16:25Speaker 1: President Trump carrying the weight of a unified group of
- 16:30Speaker 1: politicians and policymakers as he renegotiates NAFTA or is he
- 16:37Speaker 1: increasingly isolated in some of his demands? You know, I
- 16:40Speaker 1: think this is a situation where in order that it's
- 16:43Speaker 1: increasingly isolated, I think it's been isolated all along. That
- 16:47Speaker 1: that while there are certainly a big populist tervor uh
- 16:52Speaker 1: to pull out of NAFTA, or that NAFTA the bad
- 16:54Speaker 1: deal and it must be renegotiated, that there are so
- 16:58Speaker 1: many Uh, there's so many US lawmakers who are who
- 17:03Speaker 1: really would not do not actually support going all the
- 17:07Speaker 1: way and getting out of NAFTA. You know, for this president,
- 17:10Speaker 1: seems like threats are not just threats, but are It
- 17:13Speaker 1: depends on what it is, of course, you know, if
- 17:15Speaker 1: we're talking about nukes, who knows. But uh, you know,
- 17:19Speaker 1: threats on something like this are threats that he seems
- 17:22Speaker 1: poised to follow through on, just the way he has
- 17:25Speaker 1: initiated the process of pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement. Uh,
- 17:30Speaker 1: just as you know we are anticipating some kind of
- 17:33Speaker 1: reversal from the um Iran deal. Uh. These are things
- 17:38Speaker 1: where this president is willing to negotiate, was willing to
- 17:42Speaker 1: threaten uh in hopes of negotiating. Well, but what ends
- 17:46Speaker 1: up happening is that he just ends up pulling out
- 17:49Speaker 1: all altogether and just given up on these things, Jennifer Epstein. Uh.
- 17:53Speaker 1: And I also I apologize because of course I know you,
- 17:57Speaker 1: and I just want to mention also that people can
- 17:59Speaker 1: follow you on Twitter or your twit Twitter handle is
- 18:02Speaker 1: at gen x j E N E P s. And
- 18:06Speaker 1: as someone who is certainly covering historic presidency uh and
- 18:11Speaker 1: has a background in history with your degree from a Princeton,
- 18:15Speaker 1: can you just sort of step back for a moment
- 18:17Speaker 1: and tell us what do you what kind of reactions
- 18:20Speaker 1: or what conversations do you have with other people, uh,
- 18:23Speaker 1: and their reaction to this effort to renegotiate NAFTA, What
- 18:27Speaker 1: did they tell you? How did they react? Well? Thanks, Pim,
- 18:30Speaker 1: and don't don't worry about it. It's fine. It happens
- 18:32Speaker 1: all the time in both ways with us. We get
- 18:34Speaker 1: each other's emails all the time. UM. So I think
- 18:38Speaker 1: that that in the context of this, this is pretty unusual.
- 18:41Speaker 1: You know, this is the president who seems to be,
- 18:45Speaker 1: you know, at once attempting to fulfill some of its
- 18:48Speaker 1: campaign problemises, which is something that presidents trying to do
- 18:51Speaker 1: and oftentimes you know, get stopped up on either because
- 18:55Speaker 1: once they get into office they realize, you know, just
- 18:57Speaker 1: how untendable something is, or they just can't get the
- 19:00Speaker 1: support from Congress something like this. The President seems to
- 19:02Speaker 1: be ignoring all of that and just trying to move
- 19:04Speaker 1: ahead in his own way without uh and necessarily getting
- 19:09Speaker 1: anybody else on board. Uh. And that just this kind
- 19:13Speaker 1: of uh, you know, indicative of his style and his
- 19:17Speaker 1: desire to be a bull in the china shop. You know,
- 19:21Speaker 1: I'm struck by the fact that the US Chamber of
- 19:23Speaker 1: Commerce Chief executive Officer Thomas Donohue was speaking in Mexico
- 19:28Speaker 1: City yesterday and said that he would fight quote like
- 19:32Speaker 1: hell to defend NAFTA if Trump tries to pull out.
- 19:37Speaker 1: I'm wondering what could be the fallout if President Trump
- 19:42Speaker 1: decides to single handedly pull out. Well, you know, it
- 19:47Speaker 1: would obviously, uh, you know, turn the ire of a
- 19:50Speaker 1: whole lot of members of Chamber of Commerce, of the
- 19:52Speaker 1: Chamber of Commerce, which is you know, the hugest uh
- 19:56Speaker 1: business lobby in the country. That all that that you
- 19:59Speaker 1: would send only have a president who's still despite having
- 20:03Speaker 1: dissolved his various councils uh seems to you know, rely
- 20:08Speaker 1: on that kind of support and the and the support
- 20:11Speaker 1: of the establishment mainline Republicans dwindling as they may be.
- 20:17Speaker 1: That if if they can't even rely on him to
- 20:19Speaker 1: kind of support their business interests, uh, you know, why
- 20:22Speaker 1: should they be supporting him at all? For Epstein, thank
- 20:25Speaker 1: you so much for joining us. Jennifer Epstein covers the
- 20:27Speaker 1: White House for us here at Bloomberg News and NAFTA.
- 20:31Speaker 1: Talks are going on today in Washington between President Trump
- 20:37Speaker 1: and the head of Canada. Thanks for listening to the
- 20:42Speaker 1: Bloomberg P and L podcast. You can subscribe and listen
- 20:45Speaker 1: to interviews at Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, or whatever podcast platform
- 20:49Speaker 1: you prefer. I'm pim Fox. I'm on Twitter at pim Fox.
- 20:54Speaker 1: I'm on Twitter at Lisa abramowits one before the podcast.
- 20:57Speaker 1: You can always catch us worldwide on Bloomberg Radio.