El-Sayed Fights Trump Villain Tag

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1:01Listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts, or watch us live on YouTube. Summer is officially over. Fall is here, and reality does set upon us on this Tuesday, and our reality in the United States. Now includes higher tariffs on billions of dollars of US exports that are bound for Canada. As Mark Carney, the Prime Minister, followed through on his threat to impose retaliatory tariffs on these billions of dollars worth of goods from motor cycles and cosmetics to cheese to steel, which could see tariffs go up to 50 percent in retaliation, of course, for the higher tariffs that the Trump administration has placed on an equal amount of Canadian goods. It's a trade war that shows no sign of letting up, especially now as President Trump is suggesting he might go after Canadian aircraft maker Bombardier and its US sales. And there's no sign that the war between Russia and Ukraine is letting up anytime soon, either despite the efforts over this weekend made by US envoy Steve Whitkoff and Jared Kushner,

2:01as they traveled first to Moscow and then to Kiev for talks with Russia and Ukraine. So let's get into all of this now as we turn to Bloomberg's Kate Sullivan, who covers the White House forest and is joining us live from the White House north lawn. Okay, let's start with Canada, the higher tariffs this trade war. Do we have any idea how President Trump plans to respond if he will to these new retaliatory measures? That's right. We're certainly expecting a response. So as Canada is now ramping up these tariffs, we're watching closely to see what the president says today about this. We've not heard yet. Today he had an event honoring 9-11 emergency personnel victims and did not mention that at that event. One area that Canada is focusing on in particular is US steel exports and I think that will be an important area to watch. They're increasing the import tax on many US steel items to 50%. And of course that's going to affect US steel exporters in Michigan and Ohio. And those are critical battleground states with close midterm elections. Canada clearly placing a bet here that

3:06this will improve their negotiating standing when it comes to this trade war with the US. When it comes to the Bombardier jets just quickly, Kate, which President Trump threatened to go after any sales of those planes to the US, do you have any sense of what authority the president could do that under if it exists? It's a great question, Kayleigh. I think there right now are a lot of questions about what the president actually wants to do, what he's going to try to do. Of course, we saw the Supreme Court intervened when it came to the tariffs, but the White House and the administration have found a lot of ways to get around these restrictions and we've seen them really try to ratchet up these tensions with Canada and try to use everything at their disposal. So right now we're watching closely to see how exactly they're going to implement this because that is a key question here, of course. Oh, we have so many questions for this White House and for you, Kate, on geopolitics as well, as we understand at least according to what the Kremlin has said,

4:11President Trump spoke by phone with Russia's Vladimir Putin today after Steve Whitkopf and Jared Kushner traveled to Moscow for talks with Russia and then to Kiev for talks with Ukraine as well. What is the read from the White House on how all of this went? How that phone call went with Putin, if there is one. That's right. So there are reports this phone call happened. We haven't heard from the President directly yet on what exactly was discussed and how that phone call went, but it's very notable coming after this big trip from the President's envoy, Jared Kushner, who of course is also his son-in-law and Steve Whitkopf. They went to Ukraine and Russia over the weekend. As they tried to really revive and revamp these long-stalled talks to try to end the war in Ukraine, it was notable because it was the first time that the envoy went to Kiev to meet with Zelensky in Ukraine. They'd been to Moscow before to speak with Vladimir Putin, but this was the first time Trump's envoy's went to Kiev. It's also notable that it does not appear that there was any kind of significant

5:11breakthrough or progress when it comes to these talks. And Trump, of course, as a candidate when he was running for President, promised dozens and dozens of times to end this war in Ukraine in about 24 hours, he said, right when he took office, that of course has not been the case. But the President repeatedly pointed to his relationship with Vladimir Putin as a reason why he believed that he could get that done. But, you know, New Bloomberg reporting today is showing that US and European officials are privately acknowledging that this war is likely to stretch into next year, at least, and that Putin is looking to really revamp those attacks on Ukraine this winter. All right, Bloomberg's Kate Sullivan Live at the White House for us. Thank you so much. And for more on the war between Russia and Ukraine and whether or not talks to end it, can advance materially. We turn out to Melinda Herring senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center, who's here with me in our Washington, DC studio. Melinda, welcome back to Bloomberg TV and radio. It's great to have you here in DC after I believe a very recent trip to Ukraine.

6:17When did you return? And if we could begin, tell me what you heard and saw there. It's great to be with you. So I was in Kiev for Independence Day in the National Prayer Breakfast. I was in Laviv. I was in Kiev in Cherny, which is in the north. And it was really intense. Putin really started to hit Kiev very, very hard. I was there before the Kushner Whitkopf visit. And I slept in bomb shelters most nights. And this is the daily new reality. And the Russians are now using jet-powered drones. And they're two to three times faster than the old drones. So they're able to evade air defense. And it's a really big problem right now. Well, evading air defenses, one thing, just having adequate air defense in general, is another question as well. What air defenses does Ukraine currently have to withstand any kind of Russian attack? Not much, but they're still using, they're able to take out Shaheeds. I mean, they're doing it the old fashioned way. So it depends on which region of Ukraine you're talking about. But they absolutely urgently need more air defense, particularly a Patriot interceptor. There is new technology that's being developed, though, to take down these jet-powered

7:21drones. There's three to five companies that are in trials. They're not successful yet, but they're getting pretty close. So I think that it's terrible what's happening, but it's also forcing Ukraine to innovate even faster. Well, as we consider the timelines here, if they're still trying to push for this innovation, if anything, it speaks to the fact that they expect that this is still going to be a challenge for some time to come. Did you get any sense while you were in Ukraine that they are expecting that this war could have a negotiated outcome to it in the near-term? Are they doubling down, buckling down, prepared for the long haul? There's absolutely no indication that this war is going away. I know everyone wants it to go away. No one wants it to go away more than the Ukrainians. They're the ones that are suffering and in the bomb shelters every night. The war is not going away. Unfortunately, Vladimir Putin is turning up the pressure. So we saw during the Whit cough, Kushner visit, he stopped hitting the city of Kiev, but look a little bit closer. He continued to bomb Ukraine, just not the city of Kiev. So it's an act of will and an act of choice. As soon as the negotiators left, he ramped up the pressure. So over the last 24 hours,

8:25there have been air raid alerts for about 18 of 24 hours. It's been a miserable period. They just hit a newsroom. They just hit historic districts of Kiev. And this is the largest city of Ukraine. And Putin is calculating that if he puts enough pressure on Kiev, that Kiev is going to say uncle and they're not going to. And last week they hit the SBU. It's their equivalent of the FBI. And they hadn't done that before. And that was a major hit. And that was meant to send a message to Whit cough and Kushner don't come. It's dangerous here. And the Russians also hit two of the major airports because the guys had planned to land in Kiev. They didn't, they weren't able to do that. Well, but they did make the trip. They did make the trip. And this was the first time. This is the this is a big deal. So yeah, nothing came out of it. Your correspondent is right. But it did do a few things. So Whit cough has been to Moscow eight times. And if you're going to be a negotiator, you got to go to both sides of both sides of the conflict, right? So good on them for going. I like what Ukraine did with the symbolism though. So it's important to study the images. This is

9:26what we get paid to do. And the Ukrainians served a Crimean Tatar menu. And on the placemat, it says Crimea is Ukraine. Ukrainians were not subtle. Good. They also hosted the guys at St. Sophia. And that was another beautiful historic church. And it was another message to say, hey, Ukraine has been around before Russia. And then also in in Moscow, Zolinsky, or sorry, Putin had said there's Nazis there. And they were talking about the Kiev regime. So then when Whit cough and Kushner made it to Kiev, Zolinsky came out, shook their hands and said, do you see any Nazis? And he gave them T shirts to say Kiev regime. So they had a little bit of fun with it. So I think the Ukrainians did well symbolically. And Ukrainians, ordinary Ukrainians, got three days to finally rest after eight days of continuous bombing. So from a human perspective, it was great that people got a break. And also Whit cough and Kushner got us a Ukraine for themselves in experience. And I hope they'll come back. Well, and to your point on this, the symbolism and a menu saying Crimea is Ukraine, when it comes to the question of Ukraine's territorial integrity, is there any

10:30sign? Did you have any indication when you were there that they are prepared to make some kind of territorial concession if there are to be negotiations to end the war? Do the two sides just remain fundamentally fixed far apart from each other on that? So Moscow is the problem. Moscow needs to change its position. And it has not changed its position whatsoever. So we see what came out of the three hour and ten minute meeting Moscow is nothing. Putin is maintaining that he wants Ukraine to give up territory that Ukraine holds. That's not a negotiation. They want to limit the size of the armed forces of Ukraine. They want veto power over Ukraine's foreign policy. They're basically saying Ukraine's not a sovereign country. There's no negotiation. The war is not going away. And Ukraine is right to prepare. And Europe is right to prepare as well. And one of their good news item that came out of the key of meeting, I think the US is finally starting to consider its participation in winter. Ukraine is almost froze to death last year. We have women, children, and people need not only air defense, but they need heaters. They need batteries. And I would love

11:32to see the Department of Energy in the State Department do more and prepare now. Well, we know that Russia is not afraid to use the cold as a weapon to your point. We are getting some headlines through from Interfax citing Sergei Lavrov saying that how long the special military operation will last is dependent. He says much to depend on the advice the West gives Ukraine. We heard no good advice. What do you think the messaging is from the US to Ukraine right now? Or frankly, the message from the US to Russia. Sergei Lavrov is also saying that Wittkov and Kushner are dealing with a problem not demanding something unfair or impossible. So I think it's important to go back and look at the White House statement that came out after that meeting with Wittkov and Kushner. And it was really revealing. It says that we need to go back and deal with the original causes that caused the war. And this is code for Putin's understanding of history. Putin doesn't believe that Ukraine is a real country. The Ukrainian people are not a real nation. And the language isn't real. He wrote along his historical essays about it. He talks about

12:34the root causes. So he's not even in order to have a negotiation, you have to accept that another state is sovereign. And he doesn't accept that Ukraine is a sovereign nation. So it's more, so the Russians are trying to play down the clock. They're trying to get involved in intricate negotiations and get the US involved and just play down the clock. That's what they're doing because they're still gambling that time is on their side. And then they can outlast us and outlast the Europeans. I don't think that's true though. Well, why isn't it true? Why would Russia have reason to believe that the clock is actually ticking for the Kremlin? So I think Europe is waking up. Has it woken up fast enough? No, but it is waking up. The Germans definitely are waking up. The Brits are alive. So when I was in Kiev at Independence Day, the new prime minister came and he gave a speech. Yeah. And he said, I chose to come to Kiev. He announced another package and he's announcing even more defense cooperation. The Brits are alive and well. Congress is probably going to change in January. And I expect the new Congress to be much more pro-Ukranian. This Congress has done nothing for Ukraine. So right now, the Linsio-Gram sanctions bill is,

13:37we're waiting. It passed the Senate. We're waiting for either House leadership on the Republican and Democrat side to do something. And it's now or never with this bill. Well, on that, we've heard from a number of Democrats on this program. Others have said it publicly as well that they are more than willing to provide support to Ukraine. They would like to see greater sanctions on Russia. What they're concerned about is granting more terror authority to President Trump. What would you tell someone who has those concerns about the potential consequence of passing sanctions on Russia? So that objection is nonsense because there is an out for the European countries that they're worried about. So they need to read the bill in the details more deeply. That's not a real worry. The real worry, though, the real rub is that some of the House Democrats are a little miff that they weren't involved in the negotiating process on the Senate side and the Senate did it without them. Look, I understand that, but be big boys and girls. Ukraine needs U.S. support now. And even if you don't love the bill, it's time to pass it. This Congress has been, I can't even think of a plight where they've been missing an action. It's embarrassing to look at my Ukrainian colleagues in

14:41the face, my European colleagues in the face when I talk about American support for Ukraine. We've done squat since President Trump came back into power. Well, President Trump had suggested at least at one point that he was willing to grant a Patriot licensing to Ukraine. Then he suggested maybe that that wasn't a done deal. As Ukraine moving forward with that, where exactly does that stand? So the President backtracked and there are ongoing conversations. The excuse was it's going to take years in order to make this happen. And that's true. Yes, it will take two to three years in order to make it happen. The Ukrainians will be able to push ahead because they're sophisticated. But there's things that could be done now. The Ukrainians are also testing Ukrainian indigenous systems. They're not as good. The Patriots are better. But Trump should have made that deal, signed it, inked it, and pushed it forward. This war is not going away. I told you before, at least two more years, it could be another three or four years. Really? Three to four years. So there's too many contingencies. I can't lay out all the variables. We don't have time. But yeah, this war could drag on for another three to four years. Well, that's incredible to

15:41consider. I would assume that Ukraine is going to continue to make technological advances. Absolutely. We're speaking to in that time. And already we've seen Ukraine have incredible success going after Russian refineries. It's had an impact globally on diesel prices. So this could potentially lead to a more serious energy situation in the next three to four years. If they are going to continue to pursue going after that vulnerability of Russia. That's right. So Ukraine has managed to hit every major Russian oil refinery, except for one. And it's powers to hit. So the US is doing a really good job with Intel support. You see the Ukrainian striking with precision, but they're getting better at their long-range and they're going to continue to innovate with technology. Wow. A very insightful conversation. Melinda Herring, fresh off a trip to Ukraine. Thank you so much for joining us. She's of course a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center. And we appreciate the conversation. We have more important conversations coming up. I'll speak, of course, with the Democratic

16:42Senate candidate, Senate candidate in Michigan, Abdul Al-Tzayev, shortly and right ahead. I'll be speaking with our political panel as we turn back to the issue of tariffs and the trade war between the US and Canada, which is only getting hotter today with the implementation of retaliatory tariffs from the Canadian government on a number of US goods. That's just a head here on balance of power on Bloomberg TV and radio. Some people treat Chachy-P-T like some kind of smart search engine. And some use it to get work done. Chachy-P-T work is a new way of working in Chachy-P-T that can take action across your apps and files, stay with a project for hours if needed, and turn a goal into finished work. It's designed to help you move from a chaotic starting point to a reviewable first version. So all the source materials, briefs and scattered information that you have to grind through to turn into something useful can just become something useful. Put Chachy-P-T to work on your most ambitious ideas and projects. Get started at chachy-P-T dot com by selecting Work Mode,

17:43available on plus and pro plans. You are listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power Podcast. Catch us live weekdays at noon and five PM Eastern. On Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg business app, you can also listen live on Amazon Alexa from our flagship New York station. Just say Alexa, play Bloomberg 1130. Watching the markets of course kicking off the trading week on a Tuesday after the holiday weekend, a Tuesday which, as expected, has brought with it higher tariffs placed on billions of dollars worth of US goods, at least those that are bound for Canada. Mark Carney's government following through on its threat, promised tariffs on a number of products up to 50% tariffs on US steel. Tariffs also being placed on a number of consumer goods, be it cosmetics, motorcycles, cheese. And interestingly, Carney does seem to have had politics in mind, not just his domestic politics at home where this trade war and his hard stance on it actually does seem to be working in his political favor, but also the reality that here in the US,

18:46the midterm elections are quickly approaching. We're just 56 days away from Election Day. And the balance of power will be decided by just a handful of states, like for example, Michigan and Ohio, which each have critical Senate races and which each stand to suffer due to some of these tariff selections that are being made, like that on motorcycles and steel, for example. Of course, Haley Stevens unsuccessfully ran to be the next Democratic nominee for Senator in Michigan, but she was on Bloomberg this weekend, over the weekend, talking about how Michigan voters think about this trade war with Canada. This is what she said. No one in Michigan was told by President Trump when he was campaigning that he was going to start a trade war with Canada and lick the bootstraps of China. But that's what he's doing and everyone running for office who calls himself a Republican who's out there, you know, distracting on these other, you know, slogans and wins in the day, they own this. They own this backwards trade agenda and I'm sick and tired of it.

19:49For our audience on radio, obviously, you can hear the passion in her voice. I would just tell you that this also came with some pretty strong hand gestures as well. She clearly feels passionate about the trade issue. The question is going to be how many other Michiganders and how many other potential swing voters across the country feel the same and how will that impact decisions when it comes to who they select on the ballot? For more, we turn to our political panel, Jeannie Shanzano, Bloomberg Politics contributor, Democratic analyst and democracy visiting fellow at Harvard Kennedy's Ash Center alongside John Ceton, a Republican strategist and founder and CEO of Echo Canyon Consulting. John, to begin with you, if you were running a Republican campaign in Michigan, if you were working for Mike Rogers or you were working for John Houston in Ohio and you were looking at the way in which tariffs placed by Canada could have a detrimental impact on your state. How big of a political problem is this? I think you have to acknowledge that people are hurting, that people are concerned with high prices and higher gas prices or gas prices that

20:53are higher than they would like. And I think that you need to really connect with people and first and foremost, let them know that they're heard and then that you have a specific plan if elected to take on these higher prices. I would avoid taking on the tariff issue head on because I'm not sure that it's a winning issue right now. The polls show that it is not. But what I think Republicans can do is say to look, we have a better plan and if elected, we will implement a better plan that the Democrats have to bring prices down without raising taxes. Well, and if you're a Democrat, Jeannie, how can you message to voters that you want to bring prices down if there's authority being executed on the executive level to implement tariffs? What could a member of Congress or a Senator do about that? They can just keep pointing to how closely connected all of these candidates have been, especially the incumbents, to Donald Trump, as he has for the last two years, gotten us involved in, you know, I agree with with Haley Stevens, these non-sensical trade wars.

21:59We know from long ago tariffs are Donald Trump's favorite word and tariffs used in a particular way, tariffs used for particular reasons. Most people agree that makes sense. But when you are launching a massive trade war against all the countries in the world, when you are mounting that against our closest ally in Canada, and I wish the Treasury Secretary this weekend had been listening to what John C. and just said, because of course, as opposed to taking that kind of advice, he went on Fox News and described the trade war between US and Canada as a kin to a little yippy dog is how he described the entire country of Canada, our closest ally, barking at this large German shepherd. That's certainly not what you want to be saying, nor do you want to be doing what the President is doing, going on truth social yesterday and threatening Canada's bombardier, this huge

23:02sale of aircraft where he posted Kaley in caps, no more selling bombardier in the United States. And this resulted in massive pushback, not from people and swing states or Republicans, but from Republicans in Kansas, a really reliably red state. People like Roger Williams, who said, come on, these are 1200 plus jobs, Jerry Moran, Roger Marshall, I should say, not Williams, that's another guy. But these are the kinds of people who are saying, these are a lot of jobs that you are impacting. And you know, don't worry, people of Kansas, we have spoken to the White House. This is exactly the antithesis of what they need 60 days out of a midterm election. Well, to Jeanne's point, Roger Marshall did take to X to say, I'm going to fight to keep bombardiers over 1200 Kansas jobs. I've already taken that concern inside the Oval Office, the exposts from Senator Jerry Moran reads, the presence of bombardier in Wichita supports a local workforce of more than a thousand employees who contribute their talent and expertise

24:05to our nation's defense and aerospace capabilities. He goes on, John, to say that he reached out to the Trump administration to make certain the President is aware of the significant contributions of bombardier to Kansas and the importance of its presence in Wichita. Do you think the President was aware of those things when he made that threat? Would it matter to him? I can't speak to whether or not he was aware, but I do know that he is very concerned with the majorities in the House and Senate. And so I don't think he would willfully do anything that would impair all the reelection efforts of Senator Marshall or others. But I do think that it's an opportunity perhaps for the President to give credit to Mr. Marshall that he was able to make the case to walk back this particular statement. I may give him a little bit of a bump in what has turned out to be a much more competitive race than I think a lot of people expected. Well, as we consider the economic forces that are making a lot of these rates competitive,

25:06we talked about the impact of terrorists. Then of course, there's also the impact of the war with Iran to consider in how it's translated into higher gas prices, which remain high even this late in the cycle with the summer driving season now past us with Labor Day being over. The President took to truth social yesterday to write that oil prices will drop precipitously, like everything else is dropping when we win the war with Iran. Having previously characterized this war has already been won by the United States. John, if he takes that message onto the stage this week in Dallas or if he continues to spin it as he campaigns for Republicans in the run-up to the midterms here that don't worry, oil prices are going to come down when we win, but we haven't won yet. Is that a winning one? Message that is, not worth. He'll have a very supportive crowd in Dallas. I think that he'll get a great response there out on the campaign trail. I'm not so sure. I think I've said on this program and others that I think that the one thing the White House could

26:08do potentially a little bit more of is explaining to the American people why it was important to have this war right now, to get rid of Iran's nuclear capabilities and to really weaken a state-sponsored of terror. I'm not certain that the American people fully see that the reasoning behind the war, and that is why they're so concerned with gas prices. I mean, look, Americans will share sacrifice when they understand that the cause is a good one. Right now, what I would like to see is as long as we are engaged in this squirmish that the American people be given a real understanding of why we are doing this and why temporarily gas prices are where they are. Yes, they will come down once the war is over. They just aren't down yet. 415 a gallon is the average across the country according to AAA. While the president in that true social post, she went on to say ultimately, gas will be down at $3 or even $2. A gallon that it will all happen quickly if it doesn't happen before

27:10November. What does it mean? It's incredibly problematic, and as much as the president likes to say, he's not worried about the midterm, we know that he is. And it's so curious that truth social that you just read, Kayleigh, because not only has he said, I mean, I've lost count, you know, 30, 50 or more times that the war is over. Just Friday, in response to a question from a reporter who was asking about JD Vance pushing back on the idea that we were in a war at all, the president agreed and he waxed poetical about the fact that this is a conflict, it's not a war, and yet merely 72 hours, he's describing this as a war that we haven't won yet. And so one big question is, which is it? Is it a war? Is it not? And then of course, the timeframe, he's been promising since the war began. Adnauseum, if you look back on truth social, that it will be over soon,

28:13that it's almost over and prices will come down precipitously. We are seven months into this thing. John is right. They have never explained to anybody's satisfaction why we're in this. But now people are paying almost double what they were paying for a gallon of gas. On Labor Day, as you mentioned, we're over $4 a gallon. It was $2.98 when the war started at the beginning of the Trump administration prior to February 28th. That is an enormous jump in prices. And he will be held responsible for that at the ballot box. You know, a lot of people have started comparing 2026 to two decades ago, 2006. We don't know if it will turn out for Donald Trump. In this midterm, the way it turned out for George W. Bush. But there are a lot of things that are similar. And one of the main things is, of course, a very, very unpopular war, rising costs and real concerns about corruption

29:14and a president who doesn't seem to have a handle on the pulse of the American people, whether it's because he's surrounded by sick offense and people who tell him what he wants to hear or not. That is a real problem for Republicans as they face off in 60 days at the ballot box. All right, Jeannie Shanzano and John Ceton are political panel today. Thank you. Some people treat Chachy PT like some kind of smart search engine. And some use it to get work done. Chachy PT work is a new way of working in Chachy PT that can take action across your apps and files. Stay with a project for hours if needed and turn a goal into finished work. It's designed to help you move from a chaotic starting point to a reviewable first version. So all the source materials, briefs and scattered information that you have to grind through to turn into something useful can just become something useful. Put Chachy PT to work on your most ambitious ideas and projects. Get started at chachypt.com by selecting work mode available on plus

30:18and pro plans. You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast. Catch us live weekdays at noon and 5 p.m. Eastern on apple car play and Android Auto with the Bloomberg business app. Listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts or watch us live on YouTube. I'm Kayleigh Lions here in Washington broadcasting live on Bloomberg TV and radio tomorrow. I'll be doing so not from here in DC. But from Dallas, Texas, where the first ever Republican midterm convention will be held over the course of Wednesday in Thursday, a number of candidates will be flocking to the event. The president, of course, will be speaking on both nights, all in an effort to make a turnout drive ahead of the midterm election, which of course is in just 56 days for more on what we can expect over the course of these festivities. We turned to Bloomberg's Texas bureau chief Julie fine. He's joining us live from Dallas. So Julie, obviously, you have been in the planning stages for this for weeks. What exactly should we be expecting

31:21over the course of Wednesday and Thursday? Well, you can expect plenty of president Trump. He has expected to speak both evenings. He's expected to keynote the first and be involved the second evening as well. So you can expect plenty of him. There's a group of candidates that will be coming through as well. Some cabinet members that will be part of this. What will be interesting is you will hear from Attorney General Ken Paxton. He, of course, is in a very difficult challenging Senate race in the state. That's one that could really affect the balance of power in the United States Senate. So it should be a very busy few days, but again, make no mistake about it. The headliner here is president Trump. Well, be that as it may. You mentioned Ken Paxton, which maga ink the president's super PAC announced over the weekend, they will be given $10 million to the effort to get him elected. What does that say about his stance, frankly, as a candidate, his relative strength or weakness, especially when it comes to the money game going up against James Talleriko,

32:24has proved to be a prolific fundraiser. James Talleriko is a prolific fundraiser. He has greatly out, out raised Ken Paxton. It certainly says a lot where this race is. Kaylee, as you know, this is an extremely red state. It has not elected somebody statewide from the Democratic Party since the early 90s. I mean, we're looking over three decades ago. So the fact that Ken Paxton is in this situation is not unheard of here. Don't forget that Beto O'Rourke ran against Ted Cruz in 2018. And there was a time in this race that the Cook Political Report called it a toss-up. That, however, was in September. That happened here with the Ken Paxton race in August. So certainly, his campaign knows that they have plenty of work to do ahead. If they are going to make this money, the money from President Trump obviously very welcome at this stage of the race, but he certainly has some ground to make up, especially in the fundraising game. All right, Julie Fine, live from Dallas. Julie, I'll see you tomorrow. Thanks so much for joining us.

33:28And as Julie mentioned, Ken Paxton will be one of the speakers at this convention. So too, will Mike Rogers, the Republican candidate for Senate in Michigan, who was locked in a tight race with progressive Democrat Abdul El Sayed. I would imagine you'll hear his name said, by Mike Rogers, maybe a few other times at the convention, as we've heard, it invoked a lot, including by Vice President JD Vance, who went to Michigan to rally support for Republicans. Mike Rogers included and had some pretty sharp words about El Sayed. Listen, there's something about Abdul El Sayed that is very, very evil and on the rise in the United States of America today. And it's people who see themselves not as citizens of a combination, but see themselves as fighting for one group at the expense of others. And that is how, ladies and gentlemen, you destroy the United States of America. We've heard a similar language from others as well, including the NRSC, which has launched a

34:29number of attack eds against El Sayed, including one describing him as the most radical candidate in America. Listen, Abdul or Man Mohammed El Sayed, the most radical Senate candidate in America. El Sayed pledged support for the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, a designated foreign terrorist group. He wants to hike taxes on Michigan waitresses, delivery drivers, and seniors on social security. And I'm pleased to say, to respond to these things himself, Abdul El Sayed, the Michigan candidate, Democratic candidate for Senate is joining us now on Bloomberg TV and radio. Abdul, thank you so much for being here. Obviously, I'm sure you are familiar with these lines of attack by now. Also, the sense that Republicans across the board seem to be equating your candidacy with that of Democrats all over the country, this cycle. So where is the daylight between you and other Democrats? Let's just talk about what Michiganers are worried about. What's dangerous to them, what's dangerous to them is that they're watching their entire paycheck

35:30get gobbled up by gas. They can't afford who groceries. They're getting priced out of utilities that are way too expensive, all bought and paid for by the corporations who are buying people like microadders, JD Vance, and Donald Trump. So if we want to talk about where we need to be, we need a politics that actually answers for their challenges. And that's what we're offering. Donald Trump, JD Vance, and microadders have no real solution to anything. So they're just going to point to me and point to my faith and how I pray and my name and say, well, he's out of step. I don't know. I'm a lot more in step with the Michiganers. I'm meeting up and down the state because I actually spend my time in my state. Unlike microadders who, you know, Daddy's telling him he needs a hug. So microadders go fly all the way out to Dallas, give Daddy a big hug and say really nice things about Daddy, who is fighting a tariff war. We have no business fighting with Canada in a hot war with Iran. Well, so as you say, you want to address the concerns of Michiganers, let's talk about some of the specific ways that you've talked about doing that because you say you aren't a socialist that you don't identify with the DSA that you fundamentally are a capitalist,

36:31just one that believes in regulation. So what regulatory levers specifically would you be looking to pull? Well, number one, I think we need an empowered federal trade commission that can stand up to monopolies and oligopolis that are using their market power to fundamentally distort what ought to be markets that folks can freely enter and exit. You know, when you've got monopolies and oligopolis in almost every aspect of their life, they do two things and, you know, folks at Bloomberg probably understand this better than I. Number one, they spend their effort to raise prices. And number two, they use their power to suppress wages. It's the reason why we're watching as our prices go up and our ability to keep up with those prices stays suppressed. The second thing we really need to do is to make sure that corporations can't buy politicians so that those politicians are going to turn a blind eye. Here in Michigan, you've got people who have gone without power now for days and days because of a storm. That happens every single time you get a storm in Michigan from a corporation called DTE, which is paid $64,000 to help microodgers alone get elected and

37:36has spent money to elect 93% of the state legislature. So those two things, number one, addressing oligopolis and monopolies and number two, making sure corporations can't buy politicians. Those two would go a long way to actually restoring a kind of capitalism that allows people to participate. Well, one of the areas in which you have been very vocal about your support is Medicare for all. And I wonder how you would respond to someone who would say if you are looking for Medicare for all. And you've described this on your own campaign website about how it would render essentially private plans provided by insurers redundant and unnecessary. That may not be a capitalist idea if you're taking out private competition at the end of the day. What would your answer to that be? And how exactly can the United States afford this? Well, the market that people want in healthcare isn't the market for health insurance, which you don't really have a market anyway. You get an employer that employer has one of two or three plans and you got to pick between those two or three plans. That's not a market. The market we actually want is the market for a doctor or a hospital.

38:38And right now that is getting squeezed because of health insurers. What happens is that health insurers and hospital corporations negotiate these deals behind closed doors. They call them trade secrets and they build these sweetheart deals in ways that enable both private insurers to gobble up other private insurers to achieve monopoly power in a local community. And hospitals to buy up other hospitals to achieve monopoly power in that community. That seems to me to be pretty anti-market. Medicare for all would offer the same reimbursement rate for every provider and it would make sure every single person in this country could actually be a customer in that market. That to me seems like an actual market system and it would enable the best providers to be able to go and compete and people would be able to vote with their feet. That's what we really want choice in the matter. And right now we don't have that. That choice is being suppressed by networks that are being corrupted by health insurers that you don't even get to pick from. So yeah, I just think that's the best way to go and it would cost us less. Well, so let's talk more about the cost. You mentioned a moment ago a dual our audience here at Bloomberg, which is well-keyed into the bond

39:42market as well and higher long-term borrowing costs than in part or stemming from a $40 trillion debt that the United States is facing. So what needs to be done about that? If you want to provide health care to everyone and have all of the costs associated with that, where is the offset? What do you do about entitlements? How would you as a senator propose getting our arms around this deficit? Well, number one, the deficit always grows under Republicans who do two things. They cut taxes on the richest people and then they take us to super wars. We shouldn't be fighting. It grew under President Biden as well. Well, it grew by a lot more under Republicans. That's empirical fact. And you're seeing exactly what happened again now. Donald Trump did what? He cut taxes among against billionaires and corporations and then took us towards we have no business fighting. So to all the billionaires listening, I think you ought to pay for your fair share and we ought to tax your wealth. And I think we should stop fighting wars that we have no business fighting. You do that and you can actually pay for the things that Michigan does and Americans generally

40:42need and deserve like health care, child care, good infrastructure and good schools. Well, on wars, you obviously have been critical of the war with Iran that the US and Israel of course joined forces in together. And you've had some sharp words for Israel as well. And actually earlier today, two rabbis held a press conference asking for you to walk back or to announce some of your past statements about Israel, including describing Israel as blood thirsty and evil that you framed American Jewish support for Israel in terms of money corruption and purchased loyalty. How do you reconcile those comments with the Michigan Jewish community? Look, I believe deeply in Jewish safety. That is a non-negotiable for me. But I also believe that we ought to be spending our money here to build schools and provide health care and child care here rather than sending our money abroad to a foreign government that's done terrible things with our money. Israel did a genocide in Gaza. They are empowering settlers to continue to illegally settle the West Bank. They have cleared the way for the annexation of Southern Lebanon all with our tax dollars. I categorically oppose that and I think we should not be funding it

41:45with money that ought to be used here. Now, that is a separate issue when it comes to the well-being of folks here. That is a non-negotiable when it comes to our foreign policy. I believe in a foreign policy that also pays attention to people here. The money we send abroad to drop bombs on other people's kids is money we should be spending here to provide for health care and good schools here. Those two things have to be separated apart. Now, I know in many conversations with Jewish community leaders, they tell me, look, we've got to be able to differentiate between Judaism and the Jewish community here and foreign policy somewhere else and I agree. And so my commitment to the Jewish community, that is iron clad, when it comes to safety and security here in Michigan, there is no question asked that I will always stand up for Jewish safety. When it comes to our foreign policy, we've got to be clear about the role of international law. We've got to hold those who break it accountable and we cannot continue to subsidize unconditionally foreign militaries that use our money to do dastardly things. And finally, as we consider what the military is currently engaged

42:46in against Iran, Abdul-Aubisley, gas prices and diesel prices have gone much higher. Diesel is now at a record. Is the best way out to bring those costs down for Michiganders and for Americans as a whole to continually pursue economic warfare against Iran that seems to be the direction the administration is heading in. And I wonder if you think that that's a better strategy. Well, look, at the end of the Obama administration, we had achieved peace without any war. And that peace was torn apart by Trump administration number one. And now we've got war under Trump administration number two. And ask yourself whether or not that's working for you. This Labor Day, we have the highest gas prices since 2012. Highest gas prices since 2012. Diesel, we pay for that at the grocery store. This is not working. We have to end it. We need to stop fighting wars. We get to start making peace. All right, Abdul-Aubisley, I'd running for Senate in Michigan. Please come back to balance of power here in Bloomberg TV and radio. We'd love to talk with you more, especially get into the data center issues as well. Maybe flock cameras. There's

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