Skip to main content

tv   Bloomberg Markets Balance of Power  Bloomberg  May 17, 2019 12:00pm-1:00pm EDT

12:00 pm
on the brief today, shawn donnan from washington on steel and aluminum tariffs. bill faries on tensions in the middle east and in london just shenkman over finger-pointing. sean, i will start with you. we have had a headline about steel and aluminum tariffs. what is going on? news on another big day in the trade wars. it looks like the trump administration is poised to lift steel tariffs on canada and mexico. this has been a long-running irritant in relations with canada and mexico and has also been something that republicans in congress, chuck grassley, namely, has been pushing for to try to get this new version of nafta through congress in the coming months. david: that is the question it raises.
12:01 pm
when you talk about mexico and canada and talk about the usmca, is this an indication they will break loose the logjam? shawn: potentially. this is a move aimed at doing that and a name to help farmers who have been part of the retaliation of mexico and canada as a result of the still tariffs. give us one second on the china dispute if you would. there is a sense in the markets, they are getting used to the idea this will not get resolved soon. is that the sense in washington? both sides are settling down for a long slog? shawn: there is a sense that a deal is not anywhere close. that if donald trump and xi jinping meet at the g20, the best we can hope for is another truce in more talks rather than a grand bargain. david: thank you so much for joining us from washington. that is shawn donnan. now let's turn to bill faries.
12:02 pm
a week of tension over iran. one of the latest developments? bill: on a couple fronts we have seen developments. the week started off with a tense note with the u.s. withdrawing most of its diplomat from its consulate in baghdad. we have reports from our national security team about president trump reeling in some of the concerns that a major conflict was imminent. he said yesterday to reporters that he hopes there is no war and we know there has been a big dispute among his advisers amount how hard line they should be. we still have more u.s. military hardware in the region and moving to the region and there is still some fear that even if the leaders on both sides are not looking for a conflict that something could happen on the ground or in the waters off iran that could escalate into a larger incident.
12:03 pm
there is an effort on the u.s. side to dial back some of these tensions. we have now sent an aircraft carrier force in as well as a bombing group. is it to the theory that iran will change its behavior just because the presence of that military force? bill: the u.s. continues to say it had the intelligence over last weekend that alarmed the officials at the pentagon that prompted the white house to say we should accelerate the deployment of some of these assets, which were already going to the middle east, and in addition send a few more as assigned to iran that if we are interpreting this the wrong way, you need to make sure you are backing down. on the other hand, iran says it has just been responding to what it perceives as you as aggressiveness and u.s. efforts to isolate it from the rest of
12:04 pm
the world, particularly by shutting off oil sales. still a very tense atmosphere in the region, but there is a growing effort to say hold on, too close to this a shooting conflict. david: let's go back to something you referred to. mr. bolton has been well known for years as being a bit more on the belligerent side, a little more willing to use force. president trump has seem to want to pull back. what is that dynamic as far as your reporting tells you and why do you have mr. bolton there if he is not interested in using military force? bill: john bolton has a long history of advocating a very hard line on iran and advocating war in some instances. that was something that was known and pointed out when he came into the white house. soon after he arrived was when president trump withdrew from the nuclear treaty. that said, you have a president
12:05 pm
that campaigned on getting the u.s. out of intractable middle east conflicts. a lot of his political advisers have been alarmed at the events this week. they do not think a war in iran is a winning campaign platform in 2020 and they've been trying to balance that against people like john bolton who have always been very hard. bolton,ogy is that john known hardliner is to president trump want tariffs are two president trump in trade. a tool he can go to when he needs it and can withdraw when it is convenient to do so. having john bolton there is a sign to american adversaries. john bolton does not make the final decision. david: a fascinating take. now let's go to london. there been developments. jeremy corbyn says we are done with talks, and then we had the prime minister say it is your fault that labor does not know what you think. jess: that's right.
12:06 pm
both sides blaming each other in the thoughts -- in the collapse of these talks. today was not that great of a surprise after six or seven weeks of the opposition labor party and the u.k. government trying to reach a compromise, they both admitted they are not able to find a solution. theresa may has one last attempt to get her withdraw agreement bills through parliament. if he does not manage to do that , it looks like she will have to chart a path to stand down. david: there were reports coming out of that 1922 committee that she might be stepping down even if she does get it through. is the theory that if she does win she would remain as prime minister? does not wantmay to leave. becausehose reasons is the question of who is going to replace her is wide open and we could end up with boris johnson as the leader.
12:07 pm
he has said he would back a no deal brexit which theresa may believes to be economically damaging for the country. if she does get her deal through, she has said she will stand down. maybe that will pave the way for a more moderate leader. david: thank you so much. now is to check on the markets with emma chandra. emma: the markets cannot quite make up their minds. we started lower than we gained. then we saw the headlines about the u.s. potentially lifting steel and aluminum tariffs on canada and mexico. those gains were short-lived and now we are back in the red. the dow jones rarely changed. markets trying to figure out where to go. china and trade issues still top of mind. they seemed to deteriorate overnight. we had the huawei exit band news and are looking at how this choppy session will develop over the course of the day. it means it has been a fairly
12:08 pm
choppy session for the 10 year for treasuries. now trading unchanged after dropping earlier in the session. let's take a deeper look at the s&p 500 and look at it over the course of this week. this is over five days. if you look at today, you can see it is similar to tuesday, wednesday, and thursday, where we started lower and had a rally and more of a selloff. today's move is happening in a much shorter time and the selloffs we thought tuesday through thursday were long enough to turn the s&p 500 negative. we'll be looking to see where we end up this week because that will have a big impact on where we end up in the week overall. let's look at the movers today. those steel and aluminum tara: headlines, while temporarily good for the markets, were not good for some of the meals in the u.s.. looking at u.s. steel, falling today because of those tariffs,
12:09 pm
they would lose some protections. let's take a look at some of the other movers. we are at the health insurance doing well, united health, cigna, and humana some of the best performers on the s&p 500. this is because the new role negotiating medicines for -- some of the more forceful policies -- rising on that news. david: thank you so much to emma chandra. a week of heightened tensions in the middle east centering on iran. we talked to a former state department official. that is next. this is bloomberg. ♪
12:10 pm
12:11 pm
david: breaking news involving the federal reserve or. bloomberg has learned the white
12:12 pm
house is considering derek kan for one of two open seats. bloomberg fed reporter joins us now from washington with the story. tell us about derek kan. what do we know? every indication that this is probably at a very plump -- a very preliminary stage. there is no nomination and the process seems to be in a very early stage. he has been a member of the board of directors at amtrak and worked at lyft, the ridesharing company. he is a transportation policy wonk. he has been described as a smart, capable guy, more of a mainstream conservative than the folks previously considered for fed positions under president trump. when it comes to macro economics and monetary policy, he is very an unknown factor.
12:13 pm
david: we saw a photo of him with his loss, elaine chao, who happens to be married to mitch mcconnell. is that a coincidence? christopher: someone just told me he is a former advisor to mitch mcconnell. it does seem like that is a reasonable connection to make that may have led to him coming on the radar screen. a very capable and smart guy but not not a lot known about this fellow in terms of monetary policy. scramble byck off a people looking for any information about what he thinks about economics and monetary policy. as you know, there was a lot of controversy over stephen moore and herman cain, fellows who were considered for the nominations to the fed. democrats are going to be worried or looking for was in the background. david: there was controversy, but a lot of that had to do with
12:14 pm
republican senators who would confirm. that connection to mitch mcconnell will not hurt him if he is nominated, i would think. now we will turn to mark crumpton with first word news. mark: a coincidence in politics, who knew? the trump administration is backing off politics. bloomberg has used the u.s. will lift steel and aluminum duties on canada and mexico in exchange for stronger enforcement actions. that should help clear the way for a new treaty to replace nafta. in the meantime, president trump delaying auto tariffs aimed at the eu and japan for at least 180 days. that will leave time to work out a deal to restrict import. when it comes to sanctions, .hina is in iran's corner china's minister voiced operation to the sanctions and pledge to support iran's effort to safeguard its interest.
12:15 pm
the trump administration revoked waivers on japan and other buyers of iranian crude. corbynarty leader jeremy says compromise brexit talks are over. he says negotiations with theresa may's conservative party has gone as far as they can. the prime minister had hoped to reach a deal that would ensure passage in parliament. lawmakers have already rejected may's brexit agreement three times. she puts the blame squarely on labor. >> we have not been able to overcome the fact that the opposition and labor about whether they want to deliver brexit or hold a second referendum which could reverse it. aid groupsnational say conditions in syria's northwest averaged prices point in their calling for an end to the fighting. officials say the violence has displaced 180,000 people in the last two. the conflict shattered a
12:16 pm
cease-fire that had been in place since september. global news 24 hours a day, on air and @tictoc on twitter, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. i am mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. david? david: it has been a week of charges and denials over possible -- implicating iran. this comes as a backdrop of increased u.s. sanctions against iran and the u.s. moving military into the area. served in the united states air force and then went on to become assistant secretary of state under president obama. he is the author of the book "red line: american foreign-policy a time of fractured politics and failing states." welcome back. you are the perfect man to try to square the circle. there's been a headline that just cross now. it says the administration has taken unprecedented nonmilitary
12:17 pm
action involving iran. it says iran will face tough choices. we do not know the details of that, but give us a sense, what are the options? p.j.: part of the dilemma is that the options for both the united states and iran are narrowing. both sides are stuck with policy choices that are not working as intended. the trump administration withdrew from the iran nuclear deal believing that a better deal was available. even this week president trump tweeted he expects iran to be prepared to talk soon, but there is no indication iran will negotiate with united states or negotiate with the trump administration. for iran, they expected that europe and russia would insulate iran from the economic pressure ron is being placed on i -- on iran and now the economic
12:18 pm
pressure is taking a bite and they are not sure they can wait out the trump administration so they may be probing what else they can do, as mark just reported, trying to seek common cause with china. they may well be threatening shipping in the gulf. anything they can do to try to figure out how to force a relaxation of the situation they are experiencing. toid: it is always difficult effectuate the ends you are seeking. how difficult is it with iran, where there is asymmetric warfare possible. it has been a concern that it is not the military that might take action. they have a lot of surrogate actors in that area that can do things. you're never sure what they're up to. p.j.: it is a real question whether the intelligence
12:19 pm
picture, how much that is evolving. you had a british official within the ongoing operation in the region say this is nothing new. we have had iranian threats to aq before.nnel in ir we have had the tanker wars of the 1980. maybe iran is pulling that playbook out again. we are seeing, we have seen before, but the policy context is changing in such a way that the threat is risk is rising and that means both sides may end up in a place they do not intend to be at a point of military confrontation. david: we have focused on the sanctions on iran by the united states and the jcpoa and pulling out of that. one of the things that did not get as much support as it deserved was are declaring the iranian national guard as a
12:20 pm
terrorist organization. how important is that? p.j.: i think that is potentially very important. the intelligence services have long cautioned. a has been an option for number of years and the intelligence community has cautioned against it because that gets you very close to an unstated policy of regime change , which as bill faries was reporting, is certainly something that is cross the mind of mike pompeo and john bolton. part of the dilemma is the dynamic places the hardliners on both sides. you have a john bolton who would like to see something break with iran, and then you have the more conservative elements supporting the ayatollah, they have been saying to the so-called engager's like the president, it is fully to engage the united states, they will just renege from previous agreements.
12:21 pm
you may well see that hardline forces are taking action trying to create options. in this action, reaction cycle, the risk of a confrontation, an accident, a miscalculation, they'll go up. savid: we talked to bill farie about the role of john bolton, who happens -- who tends to be more belligerent, where president trump once out of these conflicts. what is your role on the outside? is this a matter president trump using john bolton as someone who is to the more hostile side, or is the real dissension within the white house? there is a very clear division as to what the best course of action is. bolton supports the president in withdrawing from the iran nuclear deal.
12:22 pm
the president believes a better deal is available. more conservatives do. there's no evidence going back to the obama administration that a better deal is -- was available. for john bolton, putting pressure on iran for pressures say is an acceptable strategy for him to see if something fundamentally changes. you also have a secretary of state encouraging the iranian people to rise against their government. you have a policy that goldman is comfortable with and pompeo is comfortable with -- that bolton and pompeo are comfortable with without a path forward. david: that is p.j. crowley, former state department spokesperson. canadian prime minister justin trudeau says he spoke today with president trump about tariffs on aluminum and steel. no details were provided. bloomberg has already reported the u.s. is poised to live steel and aluminum tariffs in favor of
12:23 pm
stronger enforcement action. we will bring you any headlines as they develop. this is bloomberg. ♪
12:24 pm
12:25 pm
david: i am david westin. chipmaker corvo is our stock of the hour. emma chandra is euros more. -- this isis one way huawei, today's stock move for qurvo is one of the worst performers on the s&p 500. it was down around 10% and it is all about huawei. one way is it second-biggest customer. qurvo'snts for 10% of revenue just behind apple. if you take a look at the number of other huawei suppliers like samsung analog devices and a company i was reading about today, down 16%.
12:26 pm
that gets 50% of its revenues from huawei. david: wilbur ross so there might be waivers. any hope for that? emma: not if you talk to the analysts at how one. -- at cowen. they do not expect any to be issued or very few to be issued. a number of those analysts and equity strategist saying investors are underestimating the impact of this. david: not a pretty picture. thank you so much to emma chandra. have we seen the high watermark of u.s. china trade relationships? that is next. this is bloomberg. ♪
12:27 pm
12:28 pm
at comcast, we didn't build the nation's largest gig-speed network just to make businesses run faster. we built it to help them go beyond. because beyond risk... welcome to the neighborhood, guys. there is reward. ♪ ♪ beyond work and life... who else could he be? there is the moment. beyond technology...
12:29 pm
there is human ingenuity. ♪ ♪ every day, comcast business is helping businesses go beyond the expected, to do the extraordinary. take your business beyond. david: this is "balance of power." i'm david westin. for bloomberg first word news, we go to mark crumpton. mark: president trump wants to
12:30 pm
spend billions to build a wall on the mexican border with my secured under his declaration of a national emergency. but it first must get past the court. californiaudge in will consider arguments in two cases that seek to block the white house from spending defense and treasury department money for wall construction. thecase has claimed emergency declaration was an illegal attempt to ignore congress which authorized far less spending and the president wanted. bloomberg has learned the white house has considered there are con for a seat on the federal reserve board. he is an undersecretary at the department of transportation and has been a senior adviser to transportation secretary elaine chao since 2017. the president has named for people for the two open seats on the board. none of them have made it through the senate. russia is getting his voting rights back in the council of europe. they suspended russia's voting rights after the country's
12:31 pm
annexation of the crimea 2014, which ukraine and most of the world viewed as illegal. russia, a member since 1996, then stopped paying membership fees in protest. taiwan has become the first place in asia to legalize same-sex marriages. lawmakers approved a bill after facing pressure from groups on both sides of the issue. the president, a backer of the law, tweeted on may 17 in 2019 in taiwan, love one. we took a big step toward equality and made time on a better country. global news 24 hours a day, on-air, and @tictoc on twitter, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. i'm mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. thanks so much, mark. geopolitical turmoil was the order of the week, let off by in u.s. china trade talks. in the end, the markets did not suffer all that much. does that take away some of the
12:32 pm
incentive to get a deal done? a senior fellow at the brookings institution specializing in foreign policy and the global economy. he served at the world bank and at the treasury department as the emissary to china. welcome back. i ask the question, is there something less of an incentive because the markets are not all that roiled by what happened. >> you are right about that, david. been made they have their responded tension between the u.s. and china escalating. if you look back over the week, the market is down somewhat. this week, you have the white house saying they were not moving ahead with auto tariffs, primarily for germany and japan. that was a relief for the market, a signal that president trump is not pursuing trade wars in every direction, just concentrating on china. the market is down a little bit
12:33 pm
but it seems to have absorbed that. david: also reporting from bloomberg that the president is ready to relieve tariffs on steel and aluminum from canada and mexico. maybe pulling back on another part and the markets are liking that. played from the chinese side. we heard overnight from the semi official channels over there, and it sounded like pretty tough talk. saying we can weather this thing, we are not going to give into the united states. it felt like their side was hardening. >> the most recent development is the u.s. actions against huawei preventing them from selling into the u.s. market. more importantly, preventing u.s. companies from selling to huawei. huawei has 30 key u.s. suppliers , and if it cannot buy from them, it will be seriously damaged in its business. that has definitely contributed to a chilly tone in the beijing response.
12:34 pm
about no needlk to get back to negotiations. journalists ask what are the plans for the u.s. team to come to beijing? the chinese response is there is no need to talk right now unless there is any compromise. we may be settling in for a pretty long period of just status quo between these two. david: when you raise the huawei, telecom issue, is that a different issue from the trade negotiations? president xi and china have committed themselves in a strategic for fashion to move forward in tech, telecom, 5g. the president says he is concerned about where that is going. can that be negotiated out? wilbur ross said it was not a negotiation over the huawei dan. >> unfortunately, i think it will be a negotiation, and it really should be a national security decision.
12:35 pm
it is understandable the u.s. does not want while weight equipment in key u.s. technology, but not letting americans buy handsets, that seems hard to defend. more importantly, you have all of these american suppliers selling to china. these are not particularly high tech items, just things that china cannot easily produce itself. probably in the end, there will be a trade agreement. it may take a long time but eventually many of these proud -- suppliers will get waivers, licenses would be the correct word, and that is an unfortunate lesson. this should be a national security decision but we should be negotiating over it and getting back to a more sensible decision. david: from your deep understanding of china and its regime, what is the risk from your point of view on the chinese retaliating against the huawei and telecom ban, by
12:36 pm
moving against some of our tech industries. gets a lot, apple from china and sells a lot into china. there are a lot of manufacturers that get components from china. what are the risks the chinese could escalate retaliation? >> this is the debate going on in beijing right now. you have a group of hardliners who would like to do these measures, start hurting u.s. tech firms. you also have calm her voices in beijing saying this is not going to be a big problem for the american firms, it will end up hurting china more. john is trying to attract foreign investment. they definitely had a damaged reputation for a while, trying to bring foreign investors back. if they start isolating american companies, penalizing them in ways that architecture judicial, that will hurt their long-term objective. i think they will agonize over this but i would not be surprised if they stay relatively calm, stay focused on
12:37 pm
how they can grow their own economy, and just wait the united states out on some of these trade issues. david: president trump has tweeted in the past that he thinks the chinese are in no big rush because they are hoping he may be defeated in 2020 and can negotiate with somebody else. i spoke to the deputy campaign manager for joe biden that day about how a president biden, if it came to pass, would differ from negotiations with the chinese. hase believes that trump sacrificed opportunities to really force china's hand. he has abandoned our allies. joe biden would bring the full negotiating force of our allies to the table. position isiden's apparently i will be successful with the chinese in a way that president trump was not because i will have allies with me. is that true? we have had allies in the past
12:38 pm
and we have not gotten this fixed with china. i'm a big supporter of the transpacific partnership. i'm not sure any of these candidates is talking about getting back into tpp. that was aimed at creating a like-minded group of countries in the asia-pacific, dealing with a lot of these issues, investment, intellectual property rights protection, data. setting up a positive club of countries that have good institutions around this. then we all agree that the wto needs to be strengthened, needs to have some enforcement powers on these issues. working more multilateral complement the efforts you have a bilateral discussion with china. david: always great to have you with us, david dollar, brookings institution's senior fellow. president trump moving in on china's telecom companies and
12:39 pm
got rare bipartisan support. how much is the threat to national security? we ask congressman will heard of the house intelligence committee. this is bloomberg. ♪
12:40 pm
12:41 pm
david: you are watching "balance of power" in bloomberg television. i'm david westin. democrats have been quick to criticize many of president trump's actions on china but yesterday he had a different response from some lawmakers when he moved to curtail chinese telecom companies from doing business with the u.s. chris van hollen praise the move in an interview with us just yesterday. >> what we know is that while way and zte, at the end of the day, they answer to the government of china. if maybe, embedded in a telecommunications networks
12:42 pm
around the world even more than they are today, then we believe it puts everybody at greater risk. david: we welcome congressman will hurd, republican member of the intelligence committee and a former cia officer. good to have you here. you are a former member of that intelligence committee. give us an assessment of how big a risk while way is to our national security. >> no question huawei is an extension of the federal government and that the chinese government can come and pressure them to do anything that they want him to do. so they are a security risk. we look at supply chain security . this is one of those areas. while we should be promoting and talking to our allies about the problems of huawei, we should also be making sure that u.s. 5g deployment is moving forward at
12:43 pm
pays, that we are working with allies and other competitors to andei, samsung, nokia, there is a third 1 -- i'm drawing a blank. david: ericsson. >> ericsson, there you go. these three all the alternatives. areeed to make sure that we incentivizing the deployment of 5g technology in our major cities and throughout rural communities as well, so that american companies are the ones that take advantage of the infrastructure that 5g provides. right now, huawei has 30% of the global market, and it is cheaper. david: this is a national security issue as you say. at the same time, we had these negotiations over trade going on with china. we just go to a brookings institution expert who said it would be impossible to keep those things separate. visit also love for this to not bleed over into trade?
12:44 pm
of this stuff is interconnected. one thing we should also do right now is go ahead and put additional sanctions on zte. handsets, produce the telephone, mobile handsets. they were proud to have violated a number of international sanctions. we could've put a ban on allowing u.s. parts to be used in zte products for up to seven years. this would have been a death blow to one of the largest and most profitable chinese companies. i think we should rethink that and ultimately prevent that ban. zte also uses u.s. manufactured chips in their phones. guess what? this is playing hardball with the chinese to make sure they are doing and following proper rules. the chinese are continuing to use cyberattacks to scale intellectual property, investing
12:45 pm
in american companies and ultimately in order to buy them. we made changes recently in a process called cfius. this is reviewing technology that has a national security implication. some of the recent changes, we have known the venture capital community has had to rethink whether they accept chinese capital, because if they want to sell to the government, this would be impacted. instead of getting into a , wefor-tat with tariffs should be doing something simple. if an american company cannot do it in china, a chinese company cannot do it in america. require trade negotiations. that is something that we have the power in order to do, in order to ensure china is behaving properly. you cannot do this alone. david: i want to turn to a different trade issue, usmca, which is important to you. you are from south texas. theeard today reports that
12:46 pm
u.s. may be pulling back on steel and aluminum tariffs with can do and mexico. is this an effort to get the usmca going again, and do you favor it? will: i've been saying for three years putting steel and aluminum tariffs on our allies is not a smart thing to do. those are ultimately a tax on american consumers. we are seeing how they were impacting our agricultural industry, ranching industry. potentially increasing the cost of buying vehicles and making homes. on ourg those tariffs friend is a good thing in order to move negotiations. we have about 30 days for canada goes out of section -- session to move into election season. we also need to make sure speaker pelosi brings the usmca to the floor so we can start getting votes to get this done. in the u.s. and canada, we build things together. 14 million jobs based on trade.
12:47 pm
we should be talking about how we increase north american competitiveness in other parts of the world. one way to deal with china is to make sure we have allies. there is no better ally and neighbor than canada or mexico. we can make sure that our north american economy continues to dominate. david: you are a republican in the house but the democrats in the house are key to getting usmca through the congress. what is the likelihood that will be done as you count the votes? will: if i'm counting the votes, i'm again we may need 36 democrats in order to vote for this. there washe last time a vote here in the house doing with trade. that was to give president the trade promotion authority, the authority to negotiate a trade deal, bring it to congress for an up or down vote. in that boat, a republican house, republican senate to give president obama that victory, we only had 26 democrats do that.
12:48 pm
the difference is there have been a lot of changes in labor and environment when it comes to usmca. my democratic friends for the last three years have been talking about the importance of the relationship with mexico. i'm hoping that we can get them to a yes. this is something that creates jobs here in the united states of america. david: one more issue that if x the border, immigration. we heard from the president his plan yesterday. just as his plan for dealing with huawei got bipartisan support, this got bipartisan opposition. evil were very disappointed from a lot of different directions. you know the issue well, near and dear to your constituents. what do you make of the president's plans, what should we be doing an immigration? have 820 miles with the border, more than any other member of congress. i spent a decade as an undercover officer in the caa. the plan announced yesterday was
12:49 pm
only two pieces of the broader four-prong in the immigration problem. the president just dealing with legal permanent residents, how people can become u.s. citizens. tps, itot address daca, did not address a temporary or seasonal worker. it did not address fixes in asylum. 500-page document and the devil is in the details. i have been working on the issue. i think i have an idea of how we can get things passed in a narrow way. unfortunately, it does not address the crisis happening at the border right now. ultimately, the way we deal with a crisis at the border is by addressing the root causes in central america specifically, the northern triangle. a special establish representative for the northern triangle. the is not a problem for
12:50 pm
u.s. and mexico but for the entire western hemisphere. david: spoken by the congressman who has more border than anyone else. great to have you with us, will hurd. coming up, a judge orders portions of the mullah report related to michael flynn be made public by the end of the month. how it fits into the broader legal drama surrounding president trump. that is next. this is bloomberg. ♪
12:51 pm
12:52 pm
david: this is "balance of power" in bloomberg television. i'm david westin. flynn is back in the news again. court documents made public yesterday revealed president trump's former national security advisor told a special counsel's office that people connected to the trump administration and congress try to influence his cooperation with the russian investigation. to learn more, we welcome tim o'brien. if that was not good enough, they apparently have some
12:53 pm
recordings and voicemails of people that called michael flynn, saying you don't want to cooperate with those folks. >> who those people are will be the next shoe to drop in all of this. it raises this whole issue of obstruction. this gets back to the op-ed that we have spoken about. obviously, the mueller report. mueller had twin goals in mind to prepare his report, was there conspiracy and was their obstruction? he decided there was not enough on the conspiracy side of it but a lot of people on the law enforcement side of it thought there was plenty on obstruction. now you have this new wrinkle with michael flynn in which he is saying far earlier than people expected, people reaching out to him, that there were phone calls, lawyers involved, certain members of congress were involved. that has to get unraveled now. is that cast of characters? david: the point i took from the op-ed in "the washington post" was this.
12:54 pm
we are getting too bogged down in the legalese. the redacted portions, seeing those, but but went went on --what went on? is this a standard move for presidents? this is pretty much standard for donald trump. >> not only does he normalize things, but he is reckless. that is an entirely nonideological, nonpartisan observation. that is how he manages things. the danger in that is when he does not think things through, people he is hiring, or policies he is pursuing, it can go off the rails. typically when it does go off the rails, he tries to walk it back. why didn't i know about this? that in the past hour he was not fully informed about michael flynn. a part of the mueller report, who will rid me of this guy?
12:55 pm
in the end, mueller said, i don't think he really did upchuck justice because people did not do what he told them to do. >> in certain cases, the standards of obstruction is not that your participant in the underlying crime or that your efforts to obstruct were successful. it is merely about intent. the difficulties in all of this is can you prove a person was knowingly doing something? there is ample evidence in the report that trump knew exactly what he was doing and did not dispute it. to the point, the president did not sit down for an interview with mueller's attorneys, but he makes a point in the report that we would have press this, but we felt it would have slowed the process down. secondarily, we thought we had ample evidence anyways to prove the president's state of mind. david: knowing trump as you do, what would it take for people to say that is enough? we have already accepted a lot
12:56 pm
of things that we normally would not have. >> i don't think the pivot here is legalese. i think it is people weighing the political scale. you go down a difficult political road if you decide to begin overturning the results of a democratic election by pursuing an impeachment process, impeachment of a sitting president. on the other hand, there is a lot of evidence that would more than action. david: the economy is growing and people are making money. tim o'brien, thank you for being here. coming up, bank of canada 's comments on trade, finding a successor, and whether the market has stabilized. ♪
12:57 pm
12:58 pm
12:59 pm
1:00 pm
jonathan: from new york city, i'm jonathan ferro. bloomberg "real yield" starts right now. coming up, trade tensions simmering. chinese statement yes it does of interest in talks. seeingrhigh yield bond fund's the biggest outflows since december, leaving the treasury market run for a rate cut with yield near 2019 lows. the market looking for the fed to nail a soft landing. >> we think we will have a soft landing. >> pretty soft landing. >>

43 Views

info Stream Only

Uploaded by TV Archive on