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- [00:01]
Congressman Glenn Ivey
The thing about AI for business, it
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Host (Bloomberg Weekend)
may not automatically fit the way your business works.
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Congressman Glenn Ivey
At IBM, we've seen this firsthand.
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Host (Bloomberg Weekend)
But by embedding AI across hr, IT and procurement processes, we've reduced costs by
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Congressman Glenn Ivey
millions, slash repetitive tasks, and freed thousands of hours for strategic work. Now we're helping companies get smarter by putting AI where it actually pays off, deep in the work that moves the business. Let's create smarter business.
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Narrator/Commercial Voice
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Congressman Glenn Ivey
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Host (Bloomberg Weekend)
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Narrator/Commercial Voice
Bloomberg Audio Studios Podcasts Radio News welcome to the Bloomberg this Weekend Podcast with David Gura, Christina Raffini, and Lisa Mateo.
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Host/Interviewer
Thanks for joining us for today's selection of convers.
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Host (Bloomberg Weekend)
You can listen to our favorite discussions right here on the podcast, but also make sure to join us live every Saturday and Sunday morning starting at 7am Eastern.
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Host/Announcer
We're on Bloomberg Television Radio and the Bloomberg Business app, bringing you unique takes and in depth interviews on news, politics, lifestyle and culture.
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Host (Bloomberg Weekend)
Trump has taken social media, saying that ICE will be at American airports while accusing Democrats of endangering the US over homeland security funding. Joining us now is Maryland Congressman Glenn Ivey. He's a member of the House Appropriations and Ethics Committees. Congressman Ivey, thank you very much for being here. And let's start with the goings on on Capitol Hill this weekend. We're looking for any signs of progress here as we've seen this standoff between Republicans, Democrats on this funding issue. Do you see any signs of movement here? Any progress as we have The President indicating that ICE is going to be at American airports on Monday morning.
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Congressman Glenn Ivey
Yeah, I'm not sure that that threat is helpful for a couple of reasons. One is that ICE isn't trained to do it. But two, I think, you know, we've got the possibility of actually paying tsa, getting a bill passed that would fix that issue and, and put the funding forward there. There's two options. The Democrats have offered an option. If we can't work something out with respect to ice, let's just pass a bill that, that pays everybody else. And I've also seen the Republicans put on the table some agreement potentially, to some of the demands that Democrats have made with respect to reforming ice. Although they left off the judicial warrants part. The one thing that the Constitution actually requires, they didn't have in the version that I saw. But I think there's a chance to fix this. You know, sending ICE to the airports. You know, if he wants to do it, fine. If he doesn't, fine. I think the biggest way to fix this, though, is just to pass the legislation to pay them.
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Host/Interviewer
Is there any fear? You know, during the last shutdown, Democrats stood on principle and, and basically lost. I mean, had to give in where some, some members of the party gave in. And then it was seen as a political loss. Is there any concern that history might repeat itself here, especially as the situation, if the situation at airports get worse and the American public really starts to make noise about how this is impacting their daily lives?
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Congressman Glenn Ivey
Well, first of all, let me disagree that it was a loss. You know, I didn't agree with my Senate colleagues who agreed to move forward without getting the actual adjustment for the ACA tax credits. But I think Democrats in the House certainly made the point. And Americans who had their premiums double and triple or quadruple fully understand now that it's totally on the Republicans. Trump and Republicans in Congress refuse to do any kind of extension, even a short term one, try and figure out a way to keep their premiums for jumping those Americans. And there's millions of them are paying the price for that. Now, with respect to the ICE issue, I think it's kind of the same thing. ICE had been solidified in the public mind as a major problem with respect to the Trump administration. They wanted the border closed down, but they didn't want people getting shot in the face and, you know, killed for exercising their First Amendment rights. And they didn't like people getting dragged out of their cars and windshields shattered and teacher aides and gardeners and waitresses getting arrested. They didn't want any of that stuff. And I think we saw that in Minnesota. So I think at the end of the day, we were going to make sure we hold on and get as many of these issues addressed with respect to ice, because they're out of control and people are dying on the, they died on the streets and they're dying in custody in some ways because ICE is not that trained to do what they're doing right now. And it shows.
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Host (Bloomberg Weekend)
Let's shift our focus here to the war, the ongoing war in the Middle East. And we've seen the Pentagon indicate that they're going to request $200 billion for this war. That number could shift a little bit, but still an extraordinary amount of money, about a third of the Pentagon' the equivalent of that. I'm curious what your appetite is for a request like that, how you think that's going to go down on Capitol Hill. I did note that Senator John Kennedy noted he would not go along with that without some more hearings on strategy in the course of this war. How is this resonating around the other House of Congress, around the House of Representatives?
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Congressman Glenn Ivey
I mean, I've got zero Appetite for that $200 billion. And the fact that he's got Marines heading over there right now strongly suggests he's looking at putting boots on the ground and instead of trying to wrap this up quickly, is looking at the long term type of quagmire that I think we all want to avoid. So I have zero interest in that. And $200 billion, you're right, that's a whole lot of money and could have funded, for example, the ACA tax credit extension we were just talking about a moment ago and some of the other major issues with respect to SNAP benefits and the like. So I think it's way off track. I think it's a, a number that doesn't make any sense, especially given some of the stated goals. You know, they haven't actually landed on what the mission is. And I think they need to come back to Congress if they really want to have an extended war. Let's have the War Powers act debate. Let's have a real one this time and have an actual vote to see if the American people really have an appetite for that. So far they don't. And they've made no effort, Trump administration made no effort to persuade the American people and that's showing. And as the gas prices get higher, the American people are, I think, are going to get even less appetite for this.
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Host/Interviewer
Congressman, I want to ask you about war powers because even if Republicans and Democrats agree that they didn't want the president to go forward anymore with this military mission, realistically, is there anything Congress can do to stop the president if he wants to launch a war in Iran or Cuba or anywhere else he decides?
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Congressman Glenn Ivey
Well, funding is a big part. You know, we control the power of the purse and that's what the $200 billion request is about. And public opinion is another big piece too. I think he's really swimming upstream on, on this one from a public opinion standpoint. You know, gas prices in my area were about 295 or so like a month ago. Now they're getting almost to $4. And you know, you layer that on top of the increasing in high prices for groceries due to the tariffs, he's put on top of that, the health care, healthcare credits expiring, and we just talked about that a moment ago, electricity prices, the affordability crisis that's been spawned almost entirely by the Trump administration is really starting to wear on the American people and undermine his magna base is fine, but the independents are the ones that are going to drive the midterm elections and he's way underwater with them. And the Republican Party is increasingly too. So I think you might start seeing some defections from Republicans in Congress because they're going to be worried about getting reelected in November.
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Host (Bloomberg Weekend)
Last question I have for you about the war centers on the way that we've seen it waged thus far? Yes, there have been a lot of kind of the legacy ballistic missiles that we've seen deployed in the past, but we've seen so many drones being used. So much emphasis on AI warfare going forward here. I know that's something of interest to you, work, research work that's being done in your district on AI and quantum computing. How well positioned is the US to embark on this new kind of warfare as we've seen it play out? Yes, in Iran, across the Middle east, but also in Ukraine as well.
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Congressman Glenn Ivey
You know, to be Frank, I think we've been caught a little flat footed on this. You know, the drone issue. If we've been paying close attention to what's going on in Ukraine and the fact that Iran started supplying drones to Russia in the middle of that, we would have been doing more, I think, to upgrade our ability not just to, to build drones and have them ready for ourselves, but for countermeasures. So right now what we're looking at is drone attacks in via Iran or you know, their drones cost like 20,000 bucks for very sophisticated ones. We're using, you know, anti measures that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, maybe even a million dollars each. So it's certainly not cost effective. And I think, you know, we missed the chance to try and have countermeasures that are more affordable and allow us to be more sustained in protecting ourselves and our allies. And I think that's showing right now. So hopefully you can turn the corner on that relatively quickly. And I think add in the efforts with respect to AI and quantum and the like. Trump administrations really attack science and, you know, technology a lot in the United States, certainly the university and research level. We've got to turn that around. China's pushing engineers and scientists towards these projects by the thousands. We've been cutting back. We can't afford to do that if we're going to stay competitive with China.
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Host/Announcer
All right.
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Host/Interviewer
Congressman Glenn Ivey, he is on the House Appropriations Committee, Democrat from Maryland. Thank you so much for joining us this Sunday.
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Host (Bloomberg Weekend)
Stay with us for more on Bloomberg this weekend, right after this.
- [10:38]
Narrator/Commercial Voice
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Congressman Greg Steube
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Host (Bloomberg Weekend)
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Congressman Glenn Ivey
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Congressman Glenn Ivey
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Commercial Voice
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- [12:48]
Host (Bloomberg Weekend)
We're going to turn out to the other side of the aisle and see what's happening there. We spoke with Republican Congressman Greg Stubby of Florida. He serves on the House Intelligence Commission. Take a listen. Congressman, thank you very much for being with us. And over the course of the weekend, we've been hearing kind of a variety of arguments for why the US Is at war with Iran. We've heard about the prospect there may be more troops sent to the region, maybe some troops on the ground in Iran. I'm curious, sort of what your sense is of where this conflict is going directionally and what questions you and your constituents have about what course this is going to take.
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Congressman Greg Steube
Yeah, I mean, the president has made it clear and the Pentagon's made it clear. We've decimated their navy. We continue to take out their ballistic missile sites. There was a launch last night. You know, the Iranians said back in February that their missile capability was only like 1200 kilometers and they launched a intermediate ballistic missile, 4000 kilometers to try to hit one of our UK US bases. So obviously their capabilities they said they were having and what we thought they had, they have much more than that. So at this point, obviously the president and the administration want to secure the Strait of Hormuz as much as possible to be able to, to be able to get back to normal shipping. He's sent a 10 Warthogs, he sent Apaches. I think those ground troops that they're moving to the region, although not on the ground there, are there to secure the strait. That obviously is a focus now because you're seeing oil prices and energy prices increase because the tankers aren't able to get through that strait.
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Host/Interviewer
But the president has said the US doesn't use the strait. We don't need it. So should the US Try to secure that strait?
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Congressman Greg Steube
Well, I think it's like a 20% of oil that goes through that comes the United States. It's 80% of the world's oil that goes through there. So obviously, even though we can produce at home, that obviously impacts overall global oil rates and oil rates right here at home. We're seeing the price of the pump increase all across the country. So I think they want to get that back to normal. There's also a number of fertilizer that goes through there. Potash comes through that region, and there's a lot of fertilizers. So you're seeing impacts in the agricultural sector as well. So the President, I think the administration wants, rightly so, to secure that as much as possible. I think the Japanese yesterday, when the prime minister was in town, agreed to help assist in securing that. I think once that happens, I think you'll see the economy kind of level back out once that there's able to move traffic through the strait.
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Host (Bloomberg Weekend)
You served in Iraq. You're an army jag. I'm curious what your experience in that conflict does to inform your sense of how this one is unfolding. Of course, there was a lot of complaint and concern about how that was lengthened and how there were so many different rationales delivered for it. How are you thinking about this conflict in the context of that one in which you served?
- [15:33]
Congressman Greg Steube
Well, I'm relieved in the fact that the administration and Hegseth and the President have been very clear that we're going in, accomplishing a mission and we're getting out. We're going to take out their ballistic missile capability, we're going to take out their nuclear capability. And we had the intel hearing this week where I think they kind of got into some of that in the open hearing where the public was able to hear some of that. So I'm very positive about the fact that we're going to go in, accomplish the objective and the mission and get out, and we're not going to be there for an extended period of time. We haven't put boots on the ground there like we did in Iraq in the early time in the surge. I served there from 06 to 07, which was one of the more violent times to be there. I don't want to see our troops on the ground in the country. I think having troops in the region to be able to secure the Strait, I think is very important. But we've already shown very quickly that we can go in with both air power and naval power and destroy the things that we need to destroy without putting boots on the ground.
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Host/Interviewer
I want to follow up on that because the President there have been reporting the president is considering or has asked for plans to possibly take Carg Island. That may or may not require boots on the ground. If the president wanted to do that and it required a US military presence on that island, would you support that?
- [16:45]
Congressman Greg Steube
Yeah, that island is pretty strategic because it's right there by the strait, and the Iranians have a number of different assets there that allows them to put mines and those. Those boats they use. So I could see a limited deployment just to that island to ensure that the Iranians can't continue to use that to. To harbor and harm the shipping through the strait. I think that would be a smart move if that was something that we did in a limited capacity. I think, again, we have the ability through our air power and our naval power to be able to push back on a lot of the capabilities that the Iranians have. I think we've destroyed a number of their ballistic missile capabilities. They still have more, which is why you're still seeing strategic targets. But I think a lot, a small limited incursion to that island to ensure that the traffic through the Strait of Hormuz I think is a good approach, a limited approach where we're ensuring that the international traffic that's going through there is secure as it's traveling through.
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Host/Interviewer
But as David mentioned, limited actions in Middle east, especially when it comes to the US trying to do limited actions and these often drag on for years and sometimes decades. Is that not a concern?
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Congressman Greg Steube
I mean, I don't have that concern. You. You saw what happened in Venezuela. We went in, we got Maduro and we got out, and we don't have assets there. And you're seeing a very positive improvement there in the country of Venezuela and the relationships that we've had. We had the interior Secretary not too long ago. The Venezuelans are openly now selling their oil to us. It's a much different political and economic environment there than it was when Maduro was there. And there was a large group of people from the media that were saying we would be there forever and we would have troops on the ground. And none of that has happened. So I trust the President, I trust what's happening at the Pentagon and hegseth to make this a limited campaign to go in and strike the strategic things that we need to strike and then pull out and allow whatever is going to happen with the people of Iran to happen, whether it's a democracy or republic that comes there after the leadership is taken out and they have the opportunity to have democracy there in the
- [18:52]
Host (Bloomberg Weekend)
time we have left. I'd love to ask you about Those hearings that were on Capitol Hill over the course of last week with Dni Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratliff, and a kind of thread through both of them was this issue of how imminent was the threat from Iran. Curious for your thoughts on that, but more so there were some testy exchanges surrounding what Dni Gabbard said about who gets to make the determination of what is an imminent threat. And she said that's the President's purview. That's something that he can do. And I think there are a lot of former intel folks who said, look, that's dismissing the work of a rather large intelligence community. How did you read what she had to say? Is that something that raised any concerns for you?
- [19:26]
Congressman Greg Steube
Well, it didn't. And she's right. I mean, at the end of the day, the President is the commander in chief of the military and has the ability to determine whether we need to be defended or need to go kinetic and be aggressive to protect the homeland and protect our bases in the region. And that's a decision that the president ultimately gets to to make. I think there was a lot of discussion in the hearing about this immediacy and how we kind of define that. There were a lot more of that discussion in the closed door hearing that was classified in nature. And you heard several of them say when that question came up that there's more information that can be provided in a classified setting. Obviously, I can't go into that here, but I think that's, I mean, we're seeing the ramifications of that. Just last night people were saying that the Iranians, the Iranians themselves in February were saying that they didn't have any missiles that went over 1,000 kilometers. And they launched one last night, 4,000 kilometers, and thankfully it didn't hit our base. So obviously they have a lot more capabilities that one, they have said and two, that a lot of people in the world thought that they had the capabilities to do. Obviously, the President has all of that intelligence in real time and is able to make a determination based off a threat that he sees to our bases in the region and to our allies in the region.
- [20:39]
Host/Interviewer
Congressman, quickly, before we let you go, Congress is bracing for a Pentagon request that could be as much as $200 billion to help fund this war. Any concerns about spiraling costs? Do you think that's going to pass and do you and your colleagues support that?
- [20:54]
Congressman Greg Steube
For me, it's going to need to be offset by cuts in other places. We're $39 trillion in debt we can't continue to keep spending and not go after the debt and the deficit spending. So for me, it's going to have to be offset some, some way somehow. I think that there's a lot of conservative members like myself that are in a similar circumstance. There are some members and I've heard the reporting yesterday where there's a couple of members that said they're absolutely not going to support that. So you're going to have a challenge on the floor because we have a two vote majority right now. Thomas Massie is going to be a no. If one more Republican is a no, then it's not going to go. If they try to do a rule on it, which I assume they would, and those members vote against the rule, we're not even going to get to a vote. I don't think you have 2/3 majority to be able to pass it. I don't believe, and I don't know this, but, but I wouldn't, wouldn't assume that the Democrats are going to support $200 billion for the Iranian war. Maybe there's a handful of them that would, but even if there's a handful of them, that's not going to get you over that 2/3 threshold. So that is to be going, going to be a challenge getting something like that through the House just by virtue of the fact that if you have two members on the Republican side that are down on the rule, you're not passing a rule. And I don't believe as we sit here today that the Democrats would support a two thirds suspension bill on something like that.
- [22:12]
Host/Interviewer
Congressman, thank you so much for joining us. It's been lovely to talk to you. And also look at that sunny backdrop behind you. We're a little bit jealous here in cold New York.
- [22:20]
Congressman Greg Steube
Yeah. Come and join the rest of New Yorkers and everybody else in the great state of Florida.
- [22:26]
Host/Interviewer
Stay with us for more on Bloomberg this weekend, right after this.
- [22:33]
Narrator/Commercial Voice
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- [23:03]
Commercial Voice
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- [24:04]
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- [25:00]
Host/Interviewer
All right, we have a full court press, quite literally for our political panel today. Joining us now is Politico reporter Jason Beaverman. Back with us are Bloomberg's White House reporter Skylar Woodhouse and Bloomberg's senior reporter Miles Miller. Miles, I want to start with you because border czar Tom Homan is on TV saying a couple things I want you to comment on. First of all, he says the airports, ICE could go to the airports as soon as tomorrow. He says there will, I'm being told, will go to the airports as soon as tomorrow. There is a plan today and they're going to execute it tomorrow. And then also he's saying that ICE will not go into homes without judicial warrants.
- [25:35]
Miles Miller
You know, that will solve one of the issues that we had heard from Democrats. Right. Democrats want judicial warrants in order for ICE to go into. That does not solve the issue of identification on ICE officers. It does not solve the issue of also wanting ICE officers and agents to not be en masse. So it's one piece of the two other things that Democrats need to get this bill done. But yeah, as you said, you know, this first came out from the President 8:15 this morning on Truth Social, saying that the great Tom Homan is in charge and he will be making sure that ICE agents are at the airports. We talked about this in the first hour. What will this look like? Likely, you know, assisting TSA agents and making sure that you put your stuff in your bins all correctly, but they don't have training for this. So it'll probably be in a support role more than anything. But then the added layer of ICE agents at airports means that they'll also be looking for people in the country illegally.
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Bethenny Frankel
Right.
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Miles Miller
Which they said very, you know, something that doesn't happen often. And so it'll be interesting to see how this all comes together.
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Host (Bloomberg Weekend)
Scott, pick up on what Miles was talking about there. That is the president's reliance on Tom Homan. We saw that in Minnesota as well. And I'm curious, sort of your reaction to that, him being deployed in this circumstance as well, but also just the president's engagement with this story. So it's been a standoff that's taken more than a month now between Republicans, Democrats. Like many legislative battles, he has kind of kept a safer move or a fair distance from from the goings on Capitol Hill.
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Jason Beaverman
Yeah, well, Homan is he's been around for a very long time, and he's sort of viewed as, you know, the adult that gets brought in when things might start to be going crazy. And we saw that with what was going on in Minnesota before Kristi Noem was ousted as the Homeland Security secretary. Homan came in and sort of tried to calm the temperature. So, so, I mean, look, it'll be interesting to see how things go. I mean, I think it's very interesting that with ICE right now, there's obviously a lot of distrust. And what we saw in Minnesota, the way the tensions quickly just grew and obviously TSA agents are sort of viewed as being friendly, even though they'll yell at you to take your shoes off or I guess put your stuff in the viewed as sort of, you know, more friendly law enforcement agents and so
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Host/Interviewer
obviously how late you are for your flight.
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Jason Beaverman
But that's also true. Yeah, but I mean, so It'll be interesting to see how the relationship between now bringing ICE in does with, with tsa. And maybe it'll bring some calm, but it could also just cause more disruption.
- [28:15]
Host/Interviewer
Jason, I want to ask you about the optics of this ahead of the midterms, because as we were just talking about, one of the things that still hasn't been settled is when ICE is out on its immigration work, whether or not they will be covering their faces, whether or not they will be in a standard uniform. These are things Democrats want and Republicans have not come to the table. What are these guys going to be wearing at the airports? What are they going to be looking at? And there are already some people like tsa, some people don't. There's already a tendency to film TSA when you're mad at them. I just feel like the presence of ICE agents is not going to help anybody's stress level at the airport. But is this a good idea before the midterms?
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Political Analyst/Commentator
I think you raise a lot of questions that everyone's asking, Right. We didn't even know until maybe 10, 20 minutes ago that they really were going to show up on Monday. It's clear that, you know, Democrats want change. They want real accountability for the ICE officers. But Republicans have this leverage in this shutdown where they can create these long lines at the TSA and they can kind of force their hands and we'll see if there's going to be any capitulations, any concessions, and what deal kind of gets more made. But if anything, you know, I think putting ICE officers in the airports draws more attention to the chaos that's going on. Maybe it will speed up these lines. We really don't know as we're really, you know, flying by the seat of our pants.
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Host (Bloomberg Weekend)
I think, Miles, I'm curious, kind of who's running the show at DHS at this point? We've talked about Tom Homan, Marquin Mullen, yet to be confirmed, Kristi Noem on a new adventure in a newly created job for her at this moment. When it comes to border security, when it comes to, to security of the homeland, who is in charge? Who's calling the shots?
- [29:48]
Miles Miller
Yeah, I think when President Trump wrote on Truth Social this morning that Tom, the great Tom Homan is in charge, that's what he meant is that he's in charge of this operation and he's also in charge of the, the issues in the homeland. I think, you know, it's going to still take some time for Mark Wayne Mullen to get in his seat. And Kristi Noem has already picked her people who she's taking with her to the State Department. And so Tom Homan's keeping the wheels on the train, which is, you know, if you are, you know, a longtime follower of politics and government, it's not a bad thing given his experience at ICE and being, you know, a career ICE official.
- [30:28]
Host/Interviewer
I think our controlman was just saying they do have some sound from Tom Homan from his appearance this morning. So we're going to play that for you guys. How is that going to work? Are ICE agents going to move into American airports starting tomorrow, Monday?
- [30:42]
Congressman Greg Steube
Yes.
- [30:43]
Alex Rodriguez
And I'm currently working on the plan
- [30:46]
Congressman Greg Steube
now of execution, working with the director of ICE and the administrator at tsa, the acting administrator.
- [30:53]
Alex Rodriguez
So we'll put together a plan today
- [30:55]
Congressman Greg Steube
and we'll execute tomorrow.
- [30:59]
Host/Interviewer
Is this something the White House has capacity to do? Right now? The president is sounding a little bit tired. He's got a couple fronts, more than a couple fronts going. There's a war in Iran. There's problems at home. There's a midterm coming up. Is this a fight that the president didn't need to pick or does he think he's solving one of these problems that is taking so much of his time?
- [31:18]
Jason Beaverman
Well, President Trump, one thing you could say he's a, you know, he's excellent at doing is shifting the narrative. Obviously, what we saw with Iran and his new 48 hour window, right.
- [31:32]
Host/Interviewer
He's told Iran they've got 48 hours to clear the straight or he starts.
- [31:35]
Jason Beaverman
So now structure, you know, and that was a pretty harsh, harsh threat. And now obviously lots of questions being raised there. So for him to wake up, you know, I know, I know this was talked about yesterday with bringing these agents to the airports, but he's got a lot going on. So he's going to move the needle when one thing is starting to maybe unravel and not go the way pan out the way he would like. So he's now going to focus on ICE agents going into airport and talking about how this is, you know, the Democrats fault. So he likes to move the messaging because he wants to wave, you know, something shiny here to deflect from something that's going on over there. So it'll be interesting to see. But he's got a lot going on. I mean he, he, you know, he's multitasking like no other. But we'll see.
- [32:20]
Host/Interviewer
President's must.
- [32:21]
Jason Beaverman
We'll see what comes tomorrow. We'll see what comes tomorrow.
- [32:23]
Host (Bloomberg Weekend)
Multitasking, Jason, perhaps Vacillating as well. Let's talk about what he's kind of moving, moving attention away from this 48 hour deadline is designed to keep people, I guess, from worrying about the fact that that strait has been closed, remains closed. A lot of analysts saying it could be closed for a very long time. Some investment banks talking about the prospect of $200 a barrel oil. This is a critical issue and one that will become more and more critical as we approach the midterm elections and I think certainly is front of mind for a lot of lawmakers.
- [32:48]
Political Analyst/Commentator
You remember when President Trump was elected, that was the number one issue that pocket book issues, if you remember. I remember going to the gas station, seeing those stickers, Joe Biden pointing at the price and saying, I did that. And here we're in a similar situation where gas prices are skyrocketing, voters are going to the polls. But you know what, I'd be interested. Democrats are already confident. Now, how long will this last? I've seen some reports these high gas prices could last until 2027. Now we're talking about potentially impacting the presidential election, certainly the primaries. So it seems like we're kind of in that similar situation where pocketbook stuff is top of mind and Democrats are quite cynically probably feeling really good about all the strife that's going on.
- [33:32]
Host/Interviewer
Myles, when it comes to these really high oil prices. We've heard the President say we don't use the Strait of Hormuz. So it's fine, we'd like it open, but it doesn't really impact us, but it does impact prices regardless. And one of the things people are now about talking, talking about is how catastrophic it would be if Iran were to hit something outside the region, if they hit an oil facility in Europe or in the U.S. given all the turmoil, all the turnover that's happened at these US Domestic agencies, I'm thinking the FBI and dhs. Give us your assessment of whether the national security apparatus is able to meet and monitor potential threats to the homeland.
- [34:04]
Miles Miller
Yeah, you know, the really interesting thing about the intelligence community, but also homeland security is the, that it's not just focused on Washington, but you've got the states, you know, the 50 states in this country that are, that are, you know, working in fusion centers to make sure that they're checking for threats. And, you know, that's the, that's the one thing is that, you know, while it seems like the wheels have come off the train in some parts of Washington, you still have the career people in addition to having, you Know, local governments that are working on making sure that they're protecting against threats. You know, one of the threats right now looks like drone threats. You know, could there be the potential of some kind of drone threat within the interior United States? We have just finally gotten approval in this city and in cities across the country to be able to mitigate that kind of threat. So.
- [34:56]
Host/Interviewer
So previously you couldn't shoot a shot.
- [34:58]
Miles Miller
No, you could not shoot a drone down. It was that. No, you. You could not. And now. And that has now recently been changed. So it's about how local governments are working with the federal government to get this kind of stuff done. But, you know, it's also, none of this stuff really happens at the top leadership level. You know, they're having the conversations with career officials to make sure that, you know, this heightened threat posture continues to be followed and that. And that threats are continued to be looked into.
- [35:25]
Host (Bloomberg Weekend)
Miles, I'd love to end by talking about Robert Mueller, who passed away on the 20th, I believe, and the president has marked that, I should say, celebrated the death of him yesterday in this tweet. I don't know if we can put it up once again, but get us up to speed here on the legacy that he leaves. Not the legacy as defined by President Trump here, although it certainly is one that intersects with Donald Trump's presidency and the period thereafter. He, as Christina pointed out a while ago, hugely instrumental in reforming the federal investigation after 9 11. Talk a bit about the work that he did over the years leading up to, of course, the Russian investigation.
- [35:55]
Miles Miller
You think about what happened on 911 and, you know, the steps that this country took to increase their threat posture after 9 11. You know, you started to learn about threat levels in the country. You started to learn about lone wolf terror and homegrown terror, and all of the that is directly attributed to the way that he rebuilt the agency. There were FBI agents who were killed on 9 11. If you remember, the Secret Service's office was in the World Trade Center. That so that what happened there was a good amount of intelligence was lost during that attack. But so much was learned. We started to learn about the FBI Most Wanted list. We started to learn about the inner workings of Al Qaeda putting officers and agents around the country. That is his legacy, of course, brought back as special counsel, but for good reason, because of the years of training and experience, but also the leaders that he was able to shape in the department moving forward. That's a legacy that is huge in the FBI. And to see those words yesterday, definitely talking with agents and hearing from the FBI Agents association. You know, everybody was shocked and alarmed by what they saw.
- [37:14]
Host (Bloomberg Weekend)
Miles, thank you very much. It's Miles Miller. He's a senior reporter here at Bloomberg, covers law enforcement, Department of Homeland Security for us out of New York. Jason Beaverman of Politico joining us here on Set New York at Skyler Woodhouse who covers the White House for us at Bloomberg News up here in New York this weekend.
- [37:27]
Host/Announcer
Stay with us for more on Bloomberg this weekend right after this.
- [37:34]
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- [40:00]
Host/Interviewer
All right, so Major League Baseball's opening day.
- [40:02]
Host (Bloomberg Weekend)
You've been waiting for this.
- [40:03]
Host/Interviewer
Listen, we talked. We talked about this in the break. I'm not a sports girly, but I do love going to a baseball game. And, Lisa, you sat down with a rod to talk baseball and business.
- [40:11]
Host/Announcer
Yeah, Alex Rodriguez. So he's, you know, he's going beyond sports. He's also a businessman. So I got the honor, I got to sit down with him over at Bloomberg Invest, talk to him a little bit of a few things about what he looks for, an opportunity. Also, when are the Yankees going to win another World Series? And finally, of course, how we got to start in real estate.
- [40:29]
Alex Rodriguez
Look, I was born right here in New York City, 1975, in the shadows of old Yankee Stadium, the house that Babe Ruth built. And I come from humble beginnings. And, you know, we were lifelong renters. And as a young man, I said, boy, if I can ever trade places with a landlord, I will, because we had to move every 18 months. And that kind of inspired me to one day be on the other side of that trade. And I had an opportunity about 10 years later and in my early 20s and is when I made my first real estate investment. And it was just a small duplex, and then we sold that for double. And we did it again and again. And now over the last 25 years, we've acquired more than 20,000 keys multifamily. And it's been a good business.
- [41:12]
Host/Announcer
It definitely has. You've looked up to people like Warren Buffett, to Magic Johnson. What's some of the. The best advice they've given you or something that sticks out in your head?
- [41:21]
Alex Rodriguez
I think what Warren Buffett has taught me is, you know, stay in your circle of competence. Right. Don't be wide and shallow. Go narrow and deep. And what are the two or three things you do really good? That you have a competitive advantage. And then when I was playing, he would say two things. Be the best baseball player you can be and be a gentleman, because reputation is everything.
- [41:38]
Host/Announcer
There you go. Words to remember. So you expanded beyond real estate. Your portfolio has grown so much. What do you look for in an opportunity?
- [41:47]
Host/Interviewer
Opportunity?
- [41:48]
Alex Rodriguez
Well, I mean, the one constant today is change. And things are changing faster than ever when you look at AI and how it's transforming business. Some for the good, some for the bad. But we do. We do three things at Avocor. We do real estate, which is our legacy business. We do sports. We own our two franchises in Minnesota, the Timbals and the Minnesota Links. And then we own part the of. Of about 30, 35 companies in which we made investments. Most of a minority, some majority. But we look at companies that we have an opportunity to help more than just our capital. Do we have a great passion for it? Do we understand it? And can we actually bring value to the founders? And that's really what we think about it. And obviously we want to buy at the right price and buy really good businesses.
- [42:34]
Host/Announcer
Now, you've had so much success, but you've also had some setbacks and you've been very open about it. Your docu series, Alex versus A Rod, incredible series. You really opened up in there. Even maybe there were some business transactions that didn't go quite the way you wanted. How do you handle those setbacks or what lessons have you learned from them?
- [42:52]
Alex Rodriguez
Well, I think, look, when I just turned 50, right? And when you've been around a while, you, hindsight is always easier to go by and go, oh, I wish I didn't make that decision decision or that decision. But I think you have to lead with it. And you know, my mistakes, whether it's been in baseball or, or anything else, you know, where I used to be ashamed of it, now I've had a great opportunity to turn the lens inward, do a tremendous amount of work over the last 10 or 15 years, and I lead with it now and I just lay all the cards on the table. But learning from your mistakes and then being able to play offense in the future, it's worked well for me.
- [43:33]
Host/Announcer
Excellent. Yankees opening day around the corner. What does this current team have? Does it have the DNA to be a championship team or maybe. What are they missing?
- [43:43]
Alex Rodriguez
Well, I think they're going to get some health back. You know, Garrett Cole coming back is huge. It comes down to a few things. It comes down to great pitching, good defense, situational hitting. Obviously the Aaron Judge elephant in the room is he's 34, so that window start closing at some point. So if you're the Yankees and you're the fan base, you want to capitalize on one of the greatest players of our generation to be able to collect the world title. And the key is, as you get to October and right before the playoffs is I Call it the two H's. You want to be healthy and you want to be hot. And hopefully they can do that this year.
- [44:20]
Host/Announcer
What do you think about robot umpires entering the season this year? What's your take on it? How is it going to change the game?
- [44:27]
Alex Rodriguez
You know, you can make an argument that can make it better. Right. But I'm a big proponent for umpires. I think umpires are in many ways, they're underpaid, they're underutilized and underappreciated. I mean, if you think about an umpire referee in sports, you have, you know, you have nine players from each team screaming at you. You have both managers, you have two catches that are not happening. You have hitters that are not happy. But at the end of the day, when you have some of the great umpires that I've been around and I've been fortunate to work with, and I can think of over a dozen of them, they make the game better, they control the pace of the game, they're a big part of the game. And I just think we can't really forget how important they are because it's still a human game played by humans.
- [45:09]
Host/Announcer
Yeah, they get a bad rap.
- [45:11]
Alex Rodriguez
I think so. And they're very, very good. I mean, if you think about an umpire who may have to call 300 balls and strikes and you miss five, they're going to scream at you for 50. Right. So I'm a big believer in umpires. I'm a little bit old school there.
- [45:24]
Host/Announcer
Okay, let's take you from baseball to basketball. You join the ownership team behind Minnesota Timberwolves, the Minnesota Links. The landscape is changing for sports management. Ownership kind of going away from the family owned business. How do you think, I mean, big money involved as well. How do you think it's going to impact sports or particularly the sports fans?
- [45:47]
Alex Rodriguez
Which part? The fact that you have institutional capital coming in.
- [45:49]
Host/Announcer
Correct.
- [45:50]
Alex Rodriguez
Well, it's interesting because, you know, this happened a little bit after Covid and I remember 6th street made a big investment into the San Antonio spurs and that was like a big wow moment. I think it's a great tool. I think you still have to have guardrails. But I think so far for the NBA's work went really well. NFL is now dipping their toe in whether we can buy 10% from institutional capital. That's also going to be very interesting to watch. And I think for baseball, where it is right before big collective bargain agreement negotiation, it'll be interesting because I do think that right now I'm a Contrarian by nature is the best time to invest into a baseball team because of
- [46:27]
Congressman Greg Steube
all the
- [46:29]
Alex Rodriguez
other unanswered questions. And it's very fluid right now. People don't know what's going to happen with the cba. Are you going to strike? Are you not going to strike? There's a lot of moving parts. What happens Regional sports networks, is Rob Manfred going to try to bundle all the. All of them, just like Roger Goodell has in the NFL. And it's worked out beautifully for them. So because there's so many questions, is a good time to buy at a pretty decent multiple.
- [46:53]
Host/Announcer
And there's been a lot going on in Minnesota itself. I mean, you've had the ice agents on the streets. How do you talk to the team about this? Because obviously they're going through a lot mentally as well, through all this.
- [47:05]
Alex Rodriguez
Yeah, you know, it's very, very sad time in Minnesota for the people there that have to endure so much. The one great thing about sports, it's the time that we can all agree that we can all wear, you know, the color blue for the Timberwolves or purple or whatever color we're wearing that night. And it unifies people. You know, we have 20,000 people every night at our game. We have a game tonight. And it's just great when you have 20,000 people cheering for one team, smiling, hugging, not asking political questions, not caring about political issues, but really caring about, can the Timbals win tonight? Can Anthony Edwards score 35 points? And I think the Timbals and the Lynx have been a uniter and really a great medicine for the people of Minneapolis.
- [47:52]
Host/Announcer
And I have to talk about the deal. Jason Kelly, your partner in this. What can we expect for the next season?
- [47:58]
Alex Rodriguez
Well, we have some incredible guests, which we're not ready to announce yet. But the first three seasons have been really great. Jason Kelly has been a dream partner. He's a great quarterback. I call him Tom Brady. And we have a lot of fun. We have some incredible guests. And now we have having really, really prominent people calling us to say, hey, can we go get on the deal? Which is really exciting for us.
- [48:18]
Host/Announcer
Have you learned anything from this show, business wise?
- [48:21]
Alex Rodriguez
Oh, I've learned so much. I mean, really is a masterclass when you see the type of people, both men and women, from all walks of life, from all walks of fields of business and sports, they just give you some incredible gems, some great nuggets. And if young entrepreneurs must watch TV because. Because you can learn so much in a matter of 30 or 45 minutes.
- [48:42]
Host/Announcer
All right, you can listen to the deal. That's with Alex Rodriguez, Jason Kelly, anywhere you get your podcast. You can also watch it too. It's on Bloomberg Originals and also on Bloomberg tv.
- [48:53]
Host/Interviewer
Thanks for joining us on today's Bloomberg this Weekend podcast. Don't forget to tune in live for the show every Saturday and Sunday morning starting at 7am Eastern.
- [49:01]
Host (Bloomberg Weekend)
We're on Bloomberg Television Radio and the Bloomberg Business app, bringing you unique takes and in depth interviews on news, politics, lifestyle and culture.
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Congressman Glenn Ivey
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Alex Rodriguez
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Alex Rodriguez
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Alex Rodriguez
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