Latest Release of Epstein Files Has Trump Mentions; Governor Ned Lamont on Wind Farm Pause

Summary

Balance of Power – Bloomberg

Episode: Latest Release of Epstein Files Has Trump Mentions; Governor Ned Lamont on Wind Farm Pause
Date: December 23, 2025
Hosts: Joe Weisenthal, Kailey Leinz
Guests: Laura Davison (Bloomberg), Congresswoman Becca Balint, Rick Davis (Republican strategist), Jeannie Shan Zaino (Harvard Kennedy School), Governor Ned Lamont (Connecticut)

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Overview

This episode of Bloomberg’s Balance of Power dives deep into two major political stories: the latest release of Jeffrey Epstein files—which include new, detailed mentions of former President Donald Trump—and the White House’s abrupt suspension of major wind farm projects off the East Coast, focusing on the Connecticut-based Revolution Wind. The show features reporting, political analysis, and firsthand reactions from both lawmakers and local officials.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

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1. Latest Epstein File Dump and Trump’s Involvement

[01:34 – 15:20, 19:05 – 30:40]

Key Developments

• Thousands of new pages in the Epstein case were released by the DOJ, with numerous mentions of Donald Trump, including documented flights on Epstein’s private jet—eight between 1993 and 1996, multiple times alongside Ghislaine Maxwell and unnamed young women.
• Trump has consistently denied flying on Epstein's plane or visiting his island, claims now undercut by these flight logs.
• DOJ issued a rare statement calling some of the released claims “unfounded and false,” raising concerns about politically motivated messaging.

Political & Institutional Reactions

• Laura Davison, Bloomberg:
  “Trump is really, really worried about interest rates in particular... He is not able to compel markets to do exactly what he wants them to do.” (03:07) “He said he was never on the plane, he never went to the island. And now it's showing that he was in fact on the plane. ... This is clearly someone who's in damage control mode.” (05:40)
• Congresswoman Becca Balint (D-VT):
  “He has tried to distance himself from Jeffrey Epstein for years now. It was clear that they had a much closer relationship than he will admit to.” (09:09) “Americans can handle the truth. We want to see the documents so that we can make a decision for ourselves.” (09:24) “It is long past time for this administration to come clean on the president’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.” (12:19)
• DOJ statement [08:13]:
  “To be clear, the claims are unfounded and false, and if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already.”

Congressional Oversight

• Bipartisan calls to hold the Attorney General in contempt for lack of transparency and perceived stonewalling, with both House Democrats (Jamie Raskin) and Republicans (Tom Massie, Ro Khanna) expressing serious concern.
• Balint stresses the importance of full disclosure: “What this whole disgusting case needs is a lot of disinfectant... It’s long past time for that to end.” (13:19)

Notable Quotes & Analysis

• Jeannie Shan Zaino:
  “This drip, drip, drip is going to ... continue ... and that is most unfortunate for the president and for the White House politically because the president wants to be talking today about very good economic news. It is all being drowned out...” (21:53)
• Rick Davis:
  “They’re trapped in their own spin at this point. ... There’s no such thing as a come clean policy at this White House. ... It’s seemingly on the borderline of incompetence.” (23:21, 24:18)

Institutional Failure & Public Accountability

• Both panelists and Rep. Balint point to decades-long institutional failings, especially at the FBI, to act on early, credible reports of Epstein’s criminal conduct.
• “We have an institutional and a government wide problem.” (Jeannie Shan Zaino, 25:34)

Memorable Moments

• The broadcast recounts new revelations, such as a grotesque handwritten letter from Epstein to Larry Nassar found among the latest documents, further implicating the extent and gravity of Epstein’s network. (21:53)

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2. Political & Economic Messaging: Trump’s Reaction to Economic Data

[01:34 – 03:39, 28:17 – 30:40]

Market Reaction & Messaging

• Trump took to Truth Social to tout unexpectedly positive GDP numbers (4.3% annualized vs predicted 2.5%) but lamented that “good news” now causes market stagnation or drops due to interest rate hike fears.
• He wishes for a “market the likes of which we haven’t had in many decades, one that goes up on good news, down on bad news. The way it should be.” (Paraphrased, 01:34)
• Analysts note the historic inverse relationship between Main Street economic good news and Wall Street’s fear of interest rate hikes.

Political Analysis

• Trump’s focus remains on market metrics rather than daily affordability issues facing voters, a point emphasized by Laura Davison and echoed by Rick Davis.
• Rick Davis:
  “Only three or four months ago, Joe, we were talking about, has Donald Trump lost his interest in the markets?... He hasn’t made many comments about it lately. And then now he seems obsessed with it all over again.” (28:17) “He can’t get out of his own way to say, we’ve got good economic news today. Let’s celebrate that. So I think the president is frustrated. It is showing through.” (Jeannie Shan Zaino, 29:41)

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3. The Wind Farm Pause: Connecticut’s Revolution Wind in the Crosshairs

[32:22 – 43:13]

Policy Context

• The Trump administration has suspended leases for five major wind farms along the East Coast, citing national security (potential radar interference)—despite most projects, like Revolution Wind, already being over 80% complete and previously permitted, even during Trump’s first term.
• The move stands in stark contrast to the administration’s support for nuclear and coal and comes amid surging energy costs and winter heating needs.

Connecticut’s Response (Governor Ned Lamont)

• Gov. Lamont:
  “Not a heck of a Christmas present, was it? ... This was a real shock to our system. They did it to us over Labor Day as well. This time they pulled the permits and we’ve got to fight like heck to come back because you’re never going to bring down the price of electricity New England, unless we get more generation.” (34:16) “No, I think the president said, I don’t like wind power. Come up with another way that you can shut it down. ... But don’t stop us in mid construction for the second time in three months. You’re just blowing a hole in our efforts to bring down the price of electricity in New England.” (35:20) “Our project has been fully vetted, permitted, state, federal, up and down, inside out, every which way you can.” (38:34)

Economic and Political Impact

• Halting the project, which would supply power to 350,000 homes, could sharply increase electricity costs in Connecticut and Rhode Island, especially during peak winter demand.
  • “More likely to spike. We can’t put pipes in the ground to get natural gas and oil. ... The more generation we have, the less spiking energy during very cold periods. And that means we can save money for electric rate bearers.” (36:11)
• Lamont describes the administration’s justifications—first birds and whales, now radar—as pretextual:
  “Last time around it was birds and whales. This time around it’s radar. I don’t know what it’s going to be next time.” (39:57)
• The governor laments the business uncertainty:
  “It makes it very difficult to do business with this administration. Very difficult.” (39:57)

Affordability & State Action

• Connecticut has set aside funds to protect the most vulnerable from surging costs, but Lamont underscores the challenge as federal policies yank supports and block in-state energy solutions.

Memorable Quote

• “Pulling the plug on Revolution win in the ninth inning makes no sense at all.” (42:24)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment / Speaker | Key Topics | |-----------|-----------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:34–03:39 | Joe Weisenthal, Laura Davison | Trump’s economic messaging, interest rates, market conundrum | | 04:34–06:31 | Joe Weisenthal, Laura Davison | Epstein files: Trump’s denials vs. flight logs, DOJ response | | 08:13–15:20 | Joe Weisenthal, Becca Balint | Congresswoman Balint on full disclosure, committee action, public trust | | 19:05–30:40 | Panel: Weisenthal, Shan Zaino, Davis | Political fallout and institutional failure on the Epstein matter | | 32:22–43:13 | Gov. Ned Lamont, Joe Weisenthal | Wind farm suspension, Connecticut’s energy future, affordability crisis |

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Notable Quotes

• Joe Weisenthal on Trump’s “market rule”:
  “He wants a market the likes of which we haven’t had in many decades, one that goes up on good news, down on bad news. The way it should be, he says.” (01:34)

• Laura Davison:
  “This is a lot of like very complicated mental gymnastics here that the President is asking both us as traders to do as he's trying to kind of create this economic message.” (03:58)
  “Trump, however, is still very motivated by some of those metrics that, you know, your average person isn't watching. ... Whereas people are still like, hey, my rent feels expensive. ... My grocery bill is 25% up from what it was a couple of years ago.” (03:58)

• Rep. Becca Balint:
  “Americans can handle the truth. ... What this whole disgusting case needs is a lot of disinfectant, a lot of very powerful men and some powerful women have been protected. And it's long past time for that to end.” (13:19)

• Jeannie Shan Zaino:
  “This drip, drip, drip is going to ... continue... and that is most unfortunate for the president and for the White House politically because the president wants to be talking today about very good economic news. It is all being drowned out...” (21:53)

• Gov. Ned Lamont:
  “Our project has been fully vetted, permitted, state, federal, up and down, inside out, every which way you can.” (38:34)
  “This hurricane jerky, on again, off again. First they did in tariffs, then they didn't snap. Now they're doing wind power. Makes it very difficult to do business with this administration. Very difficult.” (39:57)

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Tone and Original Language

The tone throughout is journalistic, analytical, and occasionally incredulous—reflecting both the gravity of the Epstein revelations and the political frustration over the wind energy shutdown. Guests and hosts maintain a sense of urgency, skepticism, and directness, especially as they discuss transparency, government accountability, and the economic hardships felt by constituents.

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Summary Takeaways

• The Epstein file dump is politically explosive, directly implicating Donald Trump in previously denied associations, and raising bipartisan demands for transparency.
• The Trump administration faces sharp criticism for its economic messaging disconnect and for abruptly suspending already-permitted renewable energy projects, with real consequences for energy prices and business stability.
• Across both stories, guests highlight a crisis of public trust and the need for transparency and institutional accountability.

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For listeners who missed the episode:
You’ll get a nuanced understanding of how the Epstein files are reshaping political discourse, particularly around Trump's denials and the administration's response, as well as an inside view of state-level frustration with the federal government’s unpredictable energy policy—delivered with unfiltered commentary from both politicians and experts.

Transcript

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[Joe Weisenthal]

The Trump rule, as he puts it on Truth Social the financial news today was great, he says, referring to the GDP report you've been hearing us talk about. Up 4.2%, he writes. As opposed to the predicted 2.5, it was actually 4.3 on an annualized rate. But in the modern market, the president writes, when you have good news, the market stays even or goes down because Wall Street's heads are wired differently than they used to be. If you're an investor or a market watcher, you'll get a case, the president says. In the old days when there was good news, market went up. Nowadays, when there's good news, market goes down because everybody thinks that interest rates will be immediately lifted to take care of potential inflation. He goes on to write that he wants a market the likes of which we haven't had in many decades, one that goes up on good news, down on bad news. The way it should be, he says. Though of course at any point in modern history when interest rates were in question, yes, good news on Main street has always been bad news on Wall street, and vice versa. If it's the interest rate game you're playing, and we are right now With a lot of questions about the Fed meeting, not to mention the Fed chair in the new year. This is where we start our conversation with Laura Davison, our deputy Washington bureau chief, who's on the other end of the Truth social feed. Not to mention the latest dump of Epstein files. We're going to try to cover it all. Laura, it's great to see you. This is a stock market that the President love to Trump. It's near all time highs. Why worry about it on a day like today when you've got great economic news?

[Laura Davison]

Well, you can see in this Truth post that Trump is really, really worried about interest rates in particular. This is, you know, he's supposed to be meeting with Rick Reeder, a potential Fed chair this week and as he's kind of started to figure out is that he is not able to compel markets to do exactly what he wants them to do. We've seen this time and time again with the Liberation Day tariffs throughout the year that, you know, he is trying to, you know, tell his traders, hey, look, it's good news go up and you know, we should keep interest rates steady. However, that's both how the Fed is thinking as well as how traders are thinking as they're looking at the whole holistic economy which has a bunch of other warning signs out there.

[Joe Weisenthal]

Pretty tough if you're, I guess if Kevin Hassett right now or whomever thinks they might be getting the next job as Fed chair because the President saying when, when the data blows the COVID off the ball, when we're too hot, I still need you to cut. And I guess the market would go up in that world, but that would be unsustainable, wouldn't it?

[Laura Davison]

It's very likely. This is a lot of like very complicated mental gymnastics here that the President is asking both us as traders to do as he's trying to kind of create this economic message. This just really goes to show how much the President has really struggled when it comes to economic messaging. His team wants him out there talking about affordability, talking about these pocketbook issues that resonate with voters. You know, Trump, however, is still very motivated by some of those metrics that, you know, your average person isn't watching. He's motivated by the stock market, he's motivated by some of those key indicators, whereas people are still like, hey, my rent feels expensive. My, my, I can't buy a house. I, you know, my grocery bill is 25% up from what it was a couple of years ago.

[Joe Weisenthal]

Well, combine this with the latest dump of the Epstein files. Not a great news day, at least if that's the way the President is interpreting the economic news, because the markets are pulled in positive right now. But we've got another big dump. Thousands more. Epstein files. And the President's name is appearing more times in this tranche than the first. He was asked about this at Mar a Lago last evening. Here's what Donald Trump said. Everybody was friendly with this guy, either friendly or not friendly. But, you know, he was around. He was all over Palm beach and other places. The head of Harvard was his best friend, Larry Summers, and Bill Clinton was a friend of his. But everybody was so downplaying his relationship with Epstein, only to learn this morning, according to an email from an Assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, Donald Trump was listed as a passenger on at least eight flights on Epstein's private jet between 1993 and 96, including at least four flights on which Ghislaine Maxwell was also present. Email says Trump also took at least one flight with Epstein and a 20 year old. Is this the most significant finding in this second day?

[Laura Davison]

This very much could be. And this has been one of the points that Trump has repeatedly denied. He said he was never on the plane, he never went to the island. And now it's showing that he was in fact on the plane. According to these documents. You know, Trump, in his remarks last night, he, you know, he mentioned that he thought it was a shame that people's reputations were being tarnished because of their connections with Jeffrey Epstein. And also mentioned he thought it was, you know, a distraction from all the work that the White House is doing. So this is clearly someone who's in damage control mode. We also saw the Justice Department come out with a very interesting and I would say, unusual tweet.

[Jeannie Shan Zaino]

How about that?

[Laura Davison]

Saying that, you know, in these documents, yes, Trump is named, but it is false and salacious and these, these essentially sort of undercutting their own documents and their own release. So this is, you know, clearly, you know, some of the critics coming out saying that this process has gotten very political, that, that the, that the White House and the Justice Department are trying to protect Trump. This feeds a lot of that suspicion.

[Joe Weisenthal]

Yeah. Laura, thank you so much. I know it's a super busy day in the newsroom and it's always great to have you, Laura Davison, with us. Stay with us. On Balance of Power. We'll have much more coming up after this.

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[Joe Weisenthal]

That statement that Laura refers to coming from DOJ reads some of these documents I'm reading directly here. Some of these documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election. To be clear, the claims are unfounded and false, and if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already. This is where we start our conversation with Becca Ballant. The Democratic Congresswoman from Vermont's at large district is back with us on Bloomberg TV and Radio. Congresswoman, it's great to see you. I wasn't expecting to have a full conversation with you about the Epstein files, but I'll start with what appears to be news today and the administration speaking by way of the doj to suggest that the actual files being released are sensationalist and untrue. What do they mean by that?

[Becca Balint]

What they mean by that is they don't like what's in the file, so they're trying to distract from it. I mean, let's just look at one instance alone. When you look at the eight flights that so far we've been able to document that the President was on, he has tried to distance himself from Jeffrey Epstein for years now. It was clear that they had A much closer relationship than he will admit to. And what is so frustrating to so many of us right now is that Americans can handle the truth. We want to see the documents so that we can make a decision for ourselves. And, you know, I want to highlight for you one of the ways in which people connected to this horrible case of Jeffrey Epstein have themselves had their names dragged through the mud. I'm thinking about people like Maria Farmer who had said, because she had once worked for Jeffrey Epstein, she had said all the way back in 1996 to the FBI, this man has a problem with child pornography. 1996, it took the release of these documents for her to finally be vindicated that in fact she did go to the FBI and it was buried. And so we deserve to get the information unvarnished, unfiltered, from this release of documents. And of course, the President and his team are going to try to spin it, but just the fact that there were eight flights that he was on that he did not admit to, there is other material here. And Americans can handle the truth. We want to see the truth.

[Joe Weisenthal]

Americans can handle the truth. Congresswoman, you have an important post on the Judiciary Committee. There has been talk by the likes of Ro Khanna and Tom Massie about holding, and that would be, of course, these are the two names on the discharge petition holding the Attorney General in inherent contempt. Is that something that you plan to pursue on your committee?

[Becca Balint]

So certainly I don't want to get ahead of my ranking member, Jamie Raskin, but certainly both members on the House Judiciary Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee have strong concerns that we are not getting honest answers from this administration. And I think it is time to have the Attorney General come before us to answer the questions because she was the one, in fact, that had gone on TV with so called binders of names of documents related to the case. And then it turned out that as soon as we called the bluff and said, okay, let's come forward with the information, all of a sudden she clams up and is not willing to be straight with us. And again, the Americans can handle the truth. What they can't handle is being treated like they're idiots. And I feel like what we've been getting from this administration as it relates, the Jeffrey Epstein case is treating Americans like they are children and they can't decide for themselves by looking at the documents. And of course, we want to redact any names of victims, but the victims who many of us met with back in November, they said, look, we want the information out. Don't Tell us that you're protecting us when we're the ones that want the information out. And so it's long past time for this administration to come clean on the president's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

[Joe Weisenthal]

There's a lot of other stuff I want to ask you about, but I'm going to pose a question here that we hear asked frequently by Republicans who are critical of Democrats posture towards this whole story. This question just arrived from a terminal user. Please ask the representative why they, and I'm assuming he means Democrats, why they didn't care about the Epstein files during Biden's presidency. How would you answer him?

[Becca Balint]

Well, so I want to just be clear with the, the person who's writing in about that. This is a case for, for myself and many of us who have been victims of abuse ourselves. And there are people in Congress like myself who have been victims of abuse ourselves. I don't care where the truth takes us have if it implicates any past presidents of either party or anyone in a position that should have released more information, I want to see it. I want to see the light of day. And there were pending cases that were going on under the Biden administration that restricted the amount of information that could be released. But I want it all out. I'm one of those people that says what this whole disgusting case needs is a lot of disinfectant, a lot of very powerful men and some powerful women have been protected. And it's long past time for that to end.

[Joe Weisenthal]

Well, they're going to keep coming out here. Congresswoman, what are you going to be looking for? The next dump and the dump after that?

[Becca Balint]

What I'm going to be looking for is who are those people who are responsible back in 96, back in 2008 that continue to make decisions to give this man, Jeffrey Epstein and his associates a pat on the wrist. At what point did we know who else was implicated? This was not just one man. There were other people that had to have been involved in abusing all of these young girls and women and covering up about it. And so I want to go where the information takes us. And I fully anticipate it will be powerful men and women across the political spectrum. And I don't give a damn about that. I want these women to finally get some modicum of justice.

[Public.com Announcer]

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[Joe Weisenthal]

Congresswoman, we got big economic news today and we were talking about it right before you joined us with Laura Davison. Big spending from consumers. Third quarter GDP came in much stronger than expected, hotter than expected, depending on who you ask here to the point where there are questions and president's truth thing now about the potential interruption in interest rate cuts because of this. Did Democrats and mainstream economists get the impact of tariffs wrong? What are Vermonters feeling?

[Becca Balint]

Oh, my gosh, no, I don't think they got it wrong because we're talking about the markets versus what people are feeling at home. What people are feeling at home is they can't afford a house, they can't find an apartment. They have real concerns about the amount of debt and student loans that they're carrying. And so oftentimes this top line information about the markets really does not trickle down to regular people, many of whom don't have these investments, people who are living paycheck to paycheck, many of them here in Vermont. And so oftentimes it's a mixed economic picture. But I can tell you I've been back in Vermont now talking to rank and file voters, people who are feeling like things are not in a good place right now. And certainly if you run any kind of small business that relies on imports of whether it's goods or parts that you need for your products, this has not been a good year for you because you have to either pay for it out of your own pocket or pass it off to consumers. There are numerous businesses that I've talked to in Vermont that may not survive this tariff regime. So it's always a mixed bag of economic information. What I'm most concerned about is what rank and file people are telling me across Vermont. And what they're still telling me is they are struggling. Absolutely. Still struggling.

[Joe Weisenthal]

What are you hearing when you talk to folks who run the resorts like Smuggler's, Notch, like Stowe, when you go to the Trapp Family Lodge? Congresswoman, are there Canadians around this season?

[Becca Balint]

A lot fewer Canadians around this season. They are voting with their feet. And it is unfortunate. You know, I'll just say to listeners, it was an unfortunate visit that Secretary Noem made to our border communities months ago in which she was mocking Canada as the 51st state. And they haven't forgotten that. It was an incredible slight to them. We are one of their biggest trading partners in Vermont. So they're voting with their feet. They're not coming to the resorts. Some people who have come here for four decades for the holidays have decided not to come. And it really hurts those again, a lot of those, certainly the resorts, but the mom and pop restaurants and stores that benefit from that traffic.

[Joe Weisenthal]

Well, I'm sorry to hear that. And I hope that it's at least a beautiful winter season up there and that the resorts find a way around it. Congresswoman, it's good to have you back on Bloomberg TV and radio. That's Becca Ballant, the Democrat from Vermont's at large district. Stay with us on Balance of Power. We'll have much more coming up after this.

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[Joe Weisenthal]

Thousands more pages to go through in newsrooms across Washington and New York today. Another drop of Epstein files from the Department of Justice. They came down in the middle of the night. It was 3 o' clock in the morning. And so we've had a couple of hours to dig through all of these. And federal prosecutors, as we are learning in this latest bash, had prepared an indictment of Jeffrey Epstein in 2007 that would have charged him with sex trafficking. Grand jurors heard months of testimony on the case. This now just emerging. Three of his employees, two of his companies would have been charged in a draft indictment that accused him of abusing girls as young as 14. This is tough stuff. There's nothing good that I have to say about this story right now if you're already concerned about the Epstein story. But we're also learning more about Donald Trump. Remember on Friday when that dump took place around 4 o' clock in the afternoon, one of the first names to emerge was Bill Clinton. And there were a bunch of photos of him as well, including one in a hot tub, another in a swimming pool, another on a plane with a young lady whose face is obscured. The redactions were almost as big a story as the emergence of Bill Clinton. It's a different look today. Donald Trump's name appears throughout these thousands of pages many more times, as we also are learning for the first time that he was somewhat of a regular on Jeffrey Epstein's private jet. The president has said he was not on the jet or on the plane or on the island rather. And in this case, we do have flight records showing that the president before, of course, he was the president. Donald Trump traveled on Epstein's jet many more times than has been previously reported, with at least eight flights between 1993 and 96, including at least four in which Ghislaine Maxwell was present and a flight with Epstein and a 20 year old whose name is redacted. Two flights as well with, quote, women who would be possible witnesses in a Maxwell case, unquote. So we're getting a little bit more color here. And by the way, there are thousands more files to be released. And it looks like this is going to go right into the new year. We turn to our political panel for their thoughts on an issue that has been fraught with political risk for Donald Trump. Bloomberg Politics contributors Rick Davis and Jeannie Shan Zaino are with us. Rick is Republican strategist partner at Stone Court Capital. Jeannie is democracy visiting fellow at Harvard Kennedy Schools Ash Center. It's great to have you both with us. Jeannie, how, how big of a revelation is this because Donald Trump isn't talking today. He doesn't have any public events. People are out shopping. Maybe this doesn't resonate with a lot of people, but the fact that he was on this plane at least eight times means what to you?

[Jeannie Shan Zaino]

Yeah. And that email you read from a prosecutor from the Southern District of New York. And what we still don't know, or at least I don't know, maybe reporters who are coming through these have found is what was the response to his or her email with this revelation of these eight lights. And that'll be fascinating. Another portion that we're learning now is this very grotesque letter handwritten apparently from Epstein to, to Nasser, Larry Nasser, the convicted sex offender who, whose victims were, you know, over 150 young gymnasts. There's a handwritten letter sent apparently from Epstein to Nasser with some really grotesque comments in it, including about the president. This is all in this drop of 30,000 today. And I think this drip, drip, drip is going to your point, continue, I think maybe into the new year. And that is most unfortunate for the president and for the White House politically because the president wants to be talking today about very good economic news. It is all being drowned out by these very, very difficult stor in which his name is mentioned.

[Joe Weisenthal]

Yeah, the letter to Nassar, a convicted sex offender, is quite remarkable here. Jeannie from the damage control department. Rick, what does the White House do with this if the president said he was never on the jet?

[Rick Davis]

It's a really good question. It's almost like they're trapped in their own spin at this point. You can now see why Donald Trump reversed course after years of saying get the files out to the point where now, you know, he's been the primary obstruction in the last year of his administration to shield the public from these files. So it's now we know why it's been so painful to watch this administration try to bootstrap their way into what to do about these files. And this is no better. The idea that they haven't delivered all the required. There's a law that requires them to deliver all those, all that data on Friday. They didn't do it. They continue to eke it out. It's only hurting their case. It's only upsetting more Republicans. Democrats were already on the hunt, but now Republicans are saying, wait a minute.

[Joe Weisenthal]

This is a law.

[Rick Davis]

You have to adhere to it. There's talk about all kinds of contempt provisions for DOJ and things like that. So it's actually getting worse, I think, not better. Everything they've done to try and improve the situation is only exacerbated it. There's no such thing as a come clean policy at this White House. They're trying to spin it as best they can, but as Jeannie says, in the meantime, when good things happen, they're not going to get any attention. And when bad things happen, it's just going to seem like piling on. So it's going to be a rough holiday season for the White House because best that we can tell, they'll just keep eking this stuff out, taking down pictures, putting them back up after they're caught. You know, it's really is seemingly on the borderline of incompetence.

[Joe Weisenthal]

Wow. Jeannie, we just talked to Congresswoman Ballot of Vermont, a Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, who says the ranking member, Jamie Raskin, is working up potentially contempt charges here for the attorney general. We know that Tom Massie and Ro Khanna have already said that they plan to pursue inherent contempt. Do you actually expect a congressional answer to this? It would. It would require Republicans to play along.

[Jeannie Shan Zaino]

It would. And you know, I think as we looked at that discharge petition and so many people thought it was probably going to go nowhere, and then it ended up getting wildly huge bipartisan support. In the end, this could go somewhere. And, you know, I just think about it, Joe. Like, have you ever gotten an email where somebody emails you and then tries to retract it? Now, you may not have looked at that email originally, but once they retract it, you're like, what was in there that they didn't want me to see? This is what the White House and the Department of Justice are doing and have been doing. Susie Wiles was absolutely right when she said Bondi whipped this. Imagine if they had just said, we are going to do what the president promised on the campaign trail, release everything. If they had gotten ahead of this story, it wouldn't necessarily be good for the President for sure. But it would be a lot less painful for the president. But more importantly, victims of all of this. And I would just also add this goes well beyond President Trump and President Clinton. It goes to our institutions, the FBI getting complaints about pedophilia in Jeffrey Epstein 30 years ago and not doing anything to address that. Garcia is right. Robert Garcia, the congressman, to get that investigated. We have an institutional and a government wide problem. And so yeah, you know, at this point the White House is going to have, to Rick's point, a very bad Christmas of this because they're not handling it well. This is crisis management number one and they're failing at that.

[Joe Weisenthal]

I'm sure. I've never tried to retract an email or a text, Jeannie, but you know, I was thinking earlier, eight times, gosh, maybe that's not a lot if you fly on friends, private jets. But how many times have you ridden in someone's car? Eight times. Would you remember that person? Because he's going to be asked if he remembered this, having claimed to have not been on the plane. By the way, President's not truth socialing about this story today. He is truthing about a stronger than expected economic report, Rick, that he doesn't seem to be very happy about. He says financial news today was great. Referring to the GDP. It was up 4.3%. He says 4, 2, but whatever. But in the modern market, when you have good news, the market stays even or even goes down, he says because Wall Street's heads are wired differently than they used to be. In the old days when there was good news, the market went up. Now where there's good news, the market goes down because everybody thinks that interest rates will be immediately lifted to take care of inflation. Looking back at the market, we're right near our highs of the day here, Rick, and we're set to close near our highs for the year. Good news on Main street has long been bad news on Wall Street. What's he talking about?

[Rick Davis]

Never predict the market halfway through the day. I think that's really good advice someone needs to give to Donald Trump. And, and look, only three or four months ago, Joe, we were talking about, has Donald Trump lost his interest in the markets? He doesn't seem to care. He's just putting out economic news during the day that affects the markets, doesn't seem to care markets go up or down. He hasn't made any comments about him lately. And then now he seems obsessed with.

[Joe Weisenthal]

It all over again.

[Rick Davis]

I mean, why, why pull away from the positive news? You have about growth in the country, talk about manufacturing, talk about new jobs. Instead, he laments the fact that the market's not performing the way it should be. Honestly, I mean, he's, he's like bracketing himself. I'll give you the bad news first, then I'm going to tell you the good news and I'm going back to the bad news. I mean, like, I've never seen anything like it. I mean, like, you know, he's usually much better at promotional skills, but today he seems a little off his game. And, and maybe it's because the conversation.

[Joe Weisenthal]

We'Re having around Epstein, it's a honker. This is a long post, Jeannie. I don't know if anyone's counted the words here yet, but he goes on to write, a nation can never be economically great if eggheads are allowed to do everything within their power to destroy the upward slope. Who's he talking about? Us?

[Jeannie Shan Zaino]

I think so. I'm personally offended by that, Joe. And you know what made me laugh? And I couldn't read the whole thing, but the top in caps where he says the Trump rule and then he ends it by saying anybody who disagrees with me about the Trump rule will never be fed there. You know, it's, it's, to Rick's point, it makes very little sense. He's got a story to tell. Just like the other night when he had 18 minutes. Instead of telling a story that makes sense to people, instead of empathizing and saying, hang in there, things are going to get better, he's screaming at people here. He can't get out of his own way to say, we've got good economic news today. Let's celebrate that. So I think, you know, the president is frustrated. It is showing through, but he's not the first president to feel this way. They simply do not like how these things are reflected in the market when they are the best interest for them.

[Joe Weisenthal]

Jeannie Shanzano and Rick Davis are great panel Bloomberg Politics contributors. Thank you both. Stay with us On Balance of Power. We'll have much more coming up after this.

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[Joe Weisenthal]

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[Joe Weisenthal]

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[Podcast Host]

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[Joe Weisenthal]

Big news coming from the White House yesterday. The administration suspending leases for all five wind farms that are currently under construction off the East Coast. One of them in particular we're going to be focusing on here Revolution Window, which is just off the coast of Rhode island, just south of Point Judith, if you know where that is, and is currently being assembled in New London. Now this should not be a big shock if you followed what President Trump has said over the course of the campaign, his first term and now back in the White House in this case the Interior Department in fact halted these projects in the name of national security, suggesting that the turbines may interfere with radar. The president, of course, has never been a fan of wind energy, as we're reminded through the ages. Listen, I never understood wind. You know, I know windmills very much. I've studied it better than anybody. You see these things all over the place. They destroy everything. They're horrible. And the most expensive energy there is, they ruin the environment. They kill the birds, they kill the whales. So we're going to try and have a policy where no windmills are being built. We don't allow windmills. We're not allowing any windmills to go up. I mean, unless there's a legal situation where somebody committed to it a long time ago, we don't allow windmills. You're not supposed to lose money with energy. And everybody that's doing wind is in virtual bankruptcy right now. And so here we are with five projects representing $28 billion in committed capital, several billion of those in the state of Connecticut, which is why we're glad to be joined by the governor of Connecticut, Democrat Ned Lamont, it's great to have you, sir, with us on Bloomberg TV and radio. If in fact this is halted here. The mayor of New London, Michael Pissero, says the Grinch has just stolen Christmas. Is he right?

[Ned Lamont]

Not a heck of a Christmas present, was it? What you just heard the president say he doesn't like wind power, but he's not going to interrupt things that were permitted a long time ago. Our win revolution win was actually permitted under Trump 1 back in 2018, 19. So a long time ago. So this was a real shock to our system. They did it to us over Labor Day as well. Remember, they had a stop work order, no warning at all. This time they pulled the permits and we've got to fight like heck to come back because you're never going to bring down the price of electricity New England, unless we get more generation. And that's what wind power does.

[Podcast Host]

Governor, in September, your state successfully won its bid in courts to lift the moratorium that the Trump administration put in when it first took office on wind power. Now the administration is going at it again and raising national security concerns. Some analysts are looking at that and saying this could be a more durable way to essentially do the same thing. What's your take and do you think those national security concerns are legitimate?

[Ned Lamont]

No, I think the president said, I don't like wind power. Come up with another way that I, that you can shut it down. And it was only very recently they came up with these national security concerns. I talked to the secretary of Interior, Doug Burglum, I known for many years. I said, I'm not sure this is for you, but if you want to, we'll come down, we'll talk to you about it. We'll bring down the folks building the wind power, the engineers, but don't stop us in mid construction for the second time in three months. You just blowing a hole in our efforts to bring down the price of electricity in New England.

[Joe Weisenthal]

You know, we understand that this project is about 85% complete. It would power some 350,000 homes across Connecticut and Rhode Island. What will happen to electricity bills without the wind farm?

[Ned Lamont]

More likely to spike. We can't put pipes in the ground to get natural gas and oil. We're just not that type of a state. We don't have that capacity. It's very rare that we can create our own generation Offshore wind is one way we can do that. And the more generation we have, the less spiking energy during very cold periods. And that means we can save money for electric rate Bears.

[Podcast Host]

We want to welcome our viewers joining us from the TV side, Bloomberg TV colleagues. And we are here with Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont talking, of course, about this new announcement out of the Department of Energy today, putting a halt on those five major wind farm projects, including the one that's being assembled in your state. Governor, I'm curious how this is going to play with constituents, not only in your state, but across the country as energy prices are, are expensive, it's cold and they're looking to spike. You know, the energy crisis is something that's constantly talked about. This is also an administration that is trying to remove barriers to other forms of energy, including nuclear. The president has said he wants to restart coal, so why not add wind energy to that? Why is this specific mechanism of generating power in his crosshairs?

[Ned Lamont]

It is contradictory. I've talked to the president about this. He cares very strongly about bringing down the price of electricity, especially in New England, where we don't have a lot of our own generation and gets expensive. I said we'll work with you on a nuclear power, work with you on natural gas and other sources, but don't pull the plug on a plant that's already 85% complete, ready to turn on in just a few months. That makes no sense at all. I thought we had an agreement. They weren't going to do that. Then we were shocked.

[Joe Weisenthal]

All right, well, I want to get back to the justification from the administration here, Governor, and I know you commented on this briefly, but I'd like to hear more about the national security concerns, or lack thereof, knowing that the Interior Department says these turbines may interfere with radar systems. We understand. However, according to the attorney general, William Tong, the project's already gone through federal review. He says fully vetted, permitted state, federal, up and down, inside out, every which way you can. Is that correct?

[Ned Lamont]

William's absolutely correct. And actually it went through a very strong national security review over the last few years, voted on a bipartisan basis in Congress just a year and a.

[Joe Weisenthal]

Half ago where they said the administration just making this. Is the administration just making this up then?

[Ned Lamont]

I think so. But look, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Get us down there. We'll bring the very best engineers from Worsted. Who's the developer? We'll talk it through. But there's no excuse for shutting this down in mid stride, not in the ninth inning of the ball game. What they're seeing, drones, has changed the world dramatically. They want to take a second look at onshore radar. It didn't change the world in the last 12 months.

[Jeannie Shan Zaino]

Months.

[Podcast Host]

Also, this is not to a point you made earlier. This is not a new technology. These wind turbines have existed in Europe much to the president's chagrin for quite a few years now. We haven't previously heard of it having big impacts on NATO or Europe's military readiness and offshore areas there. We've also got some reporting from Bloomberg and analyst at Raymond James saying I'm skeptical that there's any new information about the military concerns all of a sudden that single handedly warrants these projects being halted. So do you think this is an aesthetic, not necessarily an economic or national security decision?

[Ned Lamont]

Do I mean last time around it was birds and whales. This time around it's radar. I don't know what it's going to be next time. I got to tell you, I come out of the business world, I thought the Trump administration had a lot of business folks and it was going to be a pro business administration. But this hurricane jerky, on again, off again. First they did in tariffs, then they didn't snap. Now they're doing wind power. Makes it very difficult to do business with this administration. Very difficult.

[Joe Weisenthal]

Well, I'd like to hear more about that. Just from your view in Connecticut. You mentioned snap. We can add Obamacare subsidies that are about to expire, sending people's bills higher. How much are you and other governors working to fill affordability gaps that are being created by the administration?

[Ned Lamont]

I can tell you here in Connecticut, we've set Aside, you know, $500 million, just at least protect the most vulnerable. But the idea that you're going to yank food support from working families when food prices have almost doubled in the last five years made no sense. Minister pointed out when it comes to the health care subsidies on the exchange change, people are going to see their bills go up one or $2,000. That's a heck of a Christmas present. And that's a real shock to the system. So we made sure that we protected all of our families up to about 128,000. Then we softened the blow for everybody else.

[Podcast Host]

Governor, you said you've been talking to the Trump administration throughout this process and about this decision, how they were treating it previously. I'm wondering, did you get any kind of a headline? Heads up. Have you spoken to the president since this decision came down? And if not, what do you want to tell him.

[Ned Lamont]

Now? This really came out of left field at the very last moment. We had had a conference call, all the governors with Secretaries Bergman. Right. Just a couple of Weeks ago, talking about pipelines and natural gas, this did not come up at all. Like I said, I think this was a problem, the solution, looking for a problem, and it's the wrong solution.

[Joe Weisenthal]

Just lastly then, Governor, what would you tell people driving to work today in Putnam, Connecticut, who are already looking at expensive electric bills? They're worried about the data center that might be coming in next door. Do they need to brace for higher prices and what will they look like in 2026?

[Ned Lamont]

Well, we're seeing a pause on data centers just because they suck so much electricity and drive up costs. But one of the things we need is more generation. I think those ratepayers and Putnam know all too well that we're doing everything we can to add more electricity generation, bring down costs for you and your family. And pulling the plug on Revolution win in the ninth inning makes no sense at all.

[Joe Weisenthal]

Well, this is something that we're going to keep talking about here. It sounds like you might not have a sense or be able to quantify how much those bills are going to rise. Governor, is that fair to say?

[Ned Lamont]

I can tell you that it's going to go up and it could go up dramatically during very cold times when wind power is generating the most and we're going to have a spike in energy demand. That's what I'm trying to protect you from.

[Joe Weisenthal]

I hear you. And right when heating oil season kicks in in New England. Governor, it's great to have you. We appreciate your insights today on Bloomberg. Joining us live from Connecticut, that's Democratic Governor Ned Lamont with us. Thanks for listening to the Balance of Power podcast. Make sure to subscribe if you haven't already at Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. And you can find us live every weekday from Washington, D.C. at Noontime [e-mail] these days, it seems like AI agents are just about everywhere. You turn every field and every function. But without identity, you can't trust they'll serve your business instead of jeopardizing it. Fortunately, Okta helps you get identity right by securing your AI agents identities, giving you a single layer of control, a single standard of trust. So whether an AI agent supports a single user or your entire enterprise, with Okta you'll turn risk into opportunity. Secure every agent, secure any agent. Okta secures AI. We buy insurance for peace of mind. But every year millions of claims are denied, not because people did anything wrong, but because their policies quietly excluded what happened. Insurers know every detail. Policyholders rarely do. That's why my policy advocate exists for just 27 cents a day. Their platform reads your policies and explains where you are vulnerable. They don't sell insurance, they deliver transparency before you trust your policy to protect you. Let my policy advocate tell you what it really says. Go to mypolicyadvocate. Com.