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

Transcript

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

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, everybody across the country, and especially in Washington, D.C.,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: is now talking about AI and the potential future dangers
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: of AI. So let's bring in John Decker, WOR White
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: House and Washington correspondent, host of the podcast, The White
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: House Briefing Room with John Decker, which can be found
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: on the iHeartRadio app, because Donald Trump certainly has weighed
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: in on this issue, but Congress also wants to get involved.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: And John, AI has become the issue of the week
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: ever since several of the people in the industry are
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: issuing warnings about going too quickly with AI. What does
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: the president have to say about it, and what is
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Congress talking about doing?
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Well, you're absolutely right, Larry. This issue rose to the
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: forefront because a number of tech leaders, including Elon Musk,
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: are calling for federal regulations concerning AI. They're concerned about
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: their own industry. Anthropic's CEO put out a statement that
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: got a lot of attention over the weekend, and that
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: also drew the attention of President Trump. And so what
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: he's saying is he doesn't believe there should be any guardrails.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: He doesn't believe there should be.
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: Any federal regulations. And the reason he.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Says that, Larry, is because he believes it's a national
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: security issue as it relates to the U.S., and the
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: competition is that the U.S. has with China. So the
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: president has weighed in on this. Nine social media posts
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: on this topic alone yesterday. And I don't think we're
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: done with it. And of course, keep in mind, Larry,
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: that next week, President Trump will meet with President Xi
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Jinping at the White House. He's hosting him for a
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: state visit. This topic will certainly be on the agenda.
• 1:44
  Speaker 4: Now, John Decker, he was really harsh in his commentary.
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: He said, meaning the president, He dismissed safety concerns as
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: a hoax. Now, we've heard that term used before. The
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: president is bright. He knows about a lot of things
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: in life. But there aren't that many of us Americans
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: that know much about AI, including the president. This might
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: be an opportunity for the vice president, J.D. Vance, who
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: spent a lot of time in Silicon Valley, was helped
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: by Peter Thiel and others. He knows all these players.
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: to basically delegate this to him. I mean, this is,
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: I would say, J.D. Vance's strength, not negotiating peace with Iran,
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: and let him try to figure out something with the
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: CEO executives who seem to be warning us. I mean,
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: normally companies don't warn you about problems because they don't
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: want government interference. These guys are pretty much saying, no,
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: we need government to get involved. I think that might
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: be the better route.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, I think that is a good idea.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: You might be right. Right now, as you know, what
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: the vice president's main task is, is ferreting out fraud
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: in the government. We'll see if the president also tasks
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: him with this. But I think the president's comments that
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: he made in Ireland over the weekend and then those
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: Truth Social posts have made it pretty clear that even
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: if he delegates this issue to the vice president, The
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: president has made it clear he doesn't see.
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: Any need for federal regulation. Zero. And as a result,
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: I think.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: That if any legislation were somehow to make it out
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: of Congress, and we're still in the early stages of that,
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: it's pretty clear that President Trump would veto that legislation.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Let's get to the Supreme Court for a second, because
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: just in case that nobody knows, you're a constitutional attorney
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: as well. And the Supreme Court blocked sweeping mail ballot
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: restrictions for midterm elections, including giving the U.S. Post Office
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: more power. But they were pretty definitive. The vote was
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: very lopsided. So tell us what they said, why they
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: came up with this ruling.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: Well, this was a majority opinion signed on to essentially
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: by seven justices, two justices dissented, an eight-word dissent written
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: by Samuel Alito, joined by Clarence Thomas.
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: And what they essentially said was they.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: Will let a lower court's ruling on this issue to stand,
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: which means that the president's executive order will not take hold.
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: It will not be implemented.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: And that would have involved the U.S. Postal Service, their
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: involvement with mail ballots for this election cycle, for the midterms. Now,
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: the interesting thing here is they were only ruling on
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: whether or not that injunction should remain in place. And
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: that's where that 7-2 decision came into play. But what
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: they did not rule on is whether the executive order
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: itself is or.
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: Is not constitutional.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: And I think that what the president's executive order says
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: It's still out there.
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: It's going to be litigated.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: And in fact, some of the things that are contained
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: in that executive order could indeed, Larry and Curtis, be
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: implemented in time for the 2028 presidential election. So the
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: focus here is whether or not essentially the post office
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: had the time to implement what was contained in that
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: executive order. And a majority of the court said they
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: did not have the time and they did not want
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: to impact this upcoming election in that way.
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: Now, John Decker, just to try to simplify this, because
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: there have been so many courts involved in this process
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: and now, obviously, the United States Supreme Court. This cycle
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: with the midterms, about one-third of Americans now vote by mail.
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: They have that as a choice. That's all going to
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: be the same. None of that is going to change
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: on November 3rd?
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: Not one bit of it's going to change for November
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: 3rd for the midterm. So if the president was trying
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: to and he was trying to affect the way that
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: mail ballots are counted and cast, he is not going
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: to be successful in that endeavor, at least for the
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: 2026 midterm election.
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: He could ultimately be successful.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: We'll have to wait and see as it relates to
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: the way ballots are cast for 2028, the presidential election year.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: That would give the states enough time to implement the
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: changes that would be necessary in order to comply with
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: that executive order.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Well, the Republicans in the Senate have to be happy
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: they got one more vote back. Mitch McConnell has returned,
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: and I know you can't be everywhere at once, but
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: did you by any chance happen to see him?
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: I have not.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: I'm not on that side of Pennsylvania Avenue.
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: I'm at the White House. I saw the video.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: I saw the still photos of Mitch McConnell arriving back
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: after months. I think the last time that he cast
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: a vote was way back in June, if I'm not mistaken.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: So it's been months since Mitch McConnell has been on
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: Capitol Hill.
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: Now he's back and now.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: He can exercise his vote on behalf of the people
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: of Kentucky. Of course, he is not running for reelection.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: There is an open seat to serve six years in Kentucky,
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: and we'll see where that goes. But Mitch McConnell is back,
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: and Republicans can now count on his vote, you know,
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: in terms of the various pieces of legislation that get
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: voted upon between now and the end of this term.
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: Now, John, give us a little insight, if you can.
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and President Donald Trump
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: have a very good working relationship.
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: Very good.
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: Apparently, the Crown Prince, who's getting squeezed from all sides
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: now by the.
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: These sort of covert operations that Iran supports in Yemen
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: and also the Shia militias in Iraq, called up the
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: president twice, either before he went to Ireland or afterwards,
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: and said, help, we need military help. We've had to
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: stop pumping out any oil. We're the number one oil
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: exporter in the world. We've had to pretty much bring
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: that to a halt. Is it true that the president
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: said to the crown prince, no, you're not getting any
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: military assistance from us?
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: Well, I think that it's evident that the president said no,
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: because you don't see the U.S.
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: Military being moved or repositioned in any.
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: Way to help out Saudi Arabia deal with their oil
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: flow situation. As you know, the Houthi rebels have attacked
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: oil facilities that Saudi Arabia maintains.
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: Along the Red Sea. And that's problematic. And it's problematic.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: You know, it's the reason why we've seen oil prices
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: tick up even higher just over the course of the
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: past few days because of these attacks by the Houthi
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: rebels on oil facilities that are maintained and owned by
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: Saudi Arabia.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: You know it's funny i heard a whole lot of
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: dissension in the republican party and and from democrats especially
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: we're going very public with their decision about that midterm
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: convention but now afterwards i've talked to a couple of
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: people and they even democrats say hey you know what
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: that's a good idea it actually turned out to be
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: a pretty good idea do you think we're going to
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: see a whole lot more of these in the future.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: You know it's a very good question you know uh...
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: i think it really depends upon you know, where we
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: are in any election cycle. Democrats, they considered it, this
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: election cycle, to match Republicans and have their own midterm convention.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: But from their perspective, the dynamics were such that they
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: felt they already had the energy necessary on their part
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: heading into the midterms that a midterm convention like the
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: Republicans just had in Dallas wasn't necessary. Now, you know,
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: things can change.
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: Who knows what may happen? You know, we'd have to look.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: All the way ahead to 2030, you know, in terms
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: of the next potential midterm convention. And maybe Democrats will
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: rethink their decision as to whether or not to hold
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: one in 2030.
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: Do appreciate that, John Decker. Live White House correspondent for WOR.
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: Always has his finger on the pulse. We appreciate you
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: getting us updated.
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: That means.