The currency is also higher but it has taken over the conversation and brazil. David he said brazil and argentina were devaluing their currency. What has the central bank been doing . Julia the central bank has been trying to pop up the currency. It has late due to several factors, including the dollar being strong worldwide. A lot of it is not tied to brazil. There was some disappointment in the oil option. There were a lot of factors behind it. Argentina had the election earlier in the year and have currency controls for a while. They are not doing anything. The central banker is speaking at a luncheon and has just reiterated that the brazilian is a Floating Exchange currency we only intervene when there is dysfunction. David give us a sense of how important steel exports are from brazil to the United States. Julia is one of the biggest export products between brazil and the u. S. , the secondbiggest, trailing only oil. In terms of civil exports as a whole, it is not a lot. Brazil exports as a whole, it is not a lot. Exports over 10 times then what we export to china. David now lets go to berlin. I was surprised with what happened to the coalition, particularly the sdp. Explain what happened. The sdp has voted for a leftleaning Party Leadership and this came somewhat as a surprise because this leadership wants to call into question the grand coalition. They have basically said they want to renegotiate the coalition contract. Angela merkel says there is no way we will reopen the contract, though Angela Merkel herself is obviously interested in keeping this publishing. Her spokesperson keeping this coalition. Her spokesperson said maybe there is a way to basically start with talks on top. David the Market Reaction seem to assume that if there is a move to the left, this may affect the stimulus and austerity plan going off of stimulus. Is that right . Birgit yes. One of the reasons and one of the demands is that the government should give up a balanced budget policy and it is basically Angela Merkels party that says on the record is a finish we are challenged we are cherishing. Of a lead for infrastructure in education. For us to stay in this government, the government should give up the balanced budget. David can Angela Merkel moved to the left without losing her base in the cdu . Birgit that is a very good question. The cdu has already bent over to keep the spd in government. They have introduced a series of left policies, ranging from pension to minimum wage. The party base of the cbu says there is no way we will make these major conceptions. There is only a limited room. David thank you so much. Now lets go to tom orlik in washington. We have numbers out of china that were encouraging on the manufacturing front over the weekend. Tom that is right. Over the weekend we had the official manufacturing pmi and we had the shy shin manufacturing pmi. The earliest and most watched pages of how china factory sector is doing. They are both pretty encouraging. The official pmi moved back above the 50 mark that separates improving from deteriorating conditions, and the pmi bank even higher. The important caveat that i would add is that there could be some seasonal effects at work. David that was going to be my question. Is this a oneoff or is this in response to stimulus from the Chinese Government . But there has been stimulus that stimulus has been drip feet and moderate. I do not think that will be what is driving the rebound at that point. Our feeling is there a seasonality in these numbers, a big october holiday maybe was a dragon the previous month. November numbers could be reflecting a bit of a oneoff as factories returned to work. The other point i would flag is some of the structural problems china faces are not going away, and indeed are looking a bit more serious. If we look at the price data in the pmi surveys, but we are seeing is the factories are facing a slide in their output prices. That will drag on profitability and that will be a problem for china heading into 2020. Encouraging numbers out of china. At the same time, we got ism numbers which went the other way. South of 50 and going in the other direction. Tom disappointment in the ism numbers pointing to a deterioration in conditions and a little but of a surprise given the end of the g. M. Strike and some encouraging news or at least tentative signs of a ceasefire in the u. S. China trade war might have been expected to cause a little bit of a raise higher. What this number underscores is even if we do get the u. S. China trade truth, the problems in the u. S. Manufacturing sector are not going to be easy to fix they will not go away quickly. David thank you so much. He is the chief economist at bloombergs economics. Time to get a check on how markets are reacting to the top stories. We have abigail doolittle. I read your note. Theres little ism, but there could be trade. Abigial theres little bit of everything. We finally have something to talk about. It is interesting the divergence when tom were talking about between china and the u. S. In the u. S. The eyes and manufacturing for the fourth month in a row the ism manufacturing for the fourth month in a row, sitting at the lowest level since the financial crisis. This is worrisome for investors that perhaps there will be some sort of prolonged manufacturing contraction as we are seeing and stop selling off on that today. The worst day in almost two months. Are being hitocks by the tariffs on brazil and argentina. Abigial the Steel Companies are getting a lift because of tariffs going back on to brazil and argentina because of president s tweet. Is another tweet that came out from President Trump this morning and that seems like a risky gamble in terms of his saying if there is no deal, the u. S. Will increase tariffs on china. Right now we are getting close to that december 15 deadline. If those tariffs going to place, im not sure that is priced in. You are seeing wobbly action for the u. S. Stocks today. As we know, day by day, anything can come out. David as it comes to phase one, date i day is the right expression. Many thanks abigail doolittle. Now we turn to Mark Crumpton for bloomberg first word news. We are having a little bit of technical difficulties with Mark Crumptons mike. We will get that fixed. Protesters took the streets again in hong kong after the victory in the election. What does it mean for the u. S. China trade association. We will talk with matthew bey about that, next. Ons is balance of power Bloomberg Television and radio. David this is balance of power on Bloomberg Television and radio. No sign the hong kong protests are going away anytime soon. The Chinese Government promised retaliation against the United States. For more insight, we welcome matthew bey, strapped core tcore seniorra global and analyst. The phase one agreement in trade negotiations. Does one put the other in jeopardy . Matthew i think it does. If you look at the u. S. China trade talks, we know they are complicated for the trade issues themselves. Once we start looking at the lookaded issues, now you at the hong kong protest in the u. S. Putting into place the new bill and then china already responding by doing a couple of measures against the u. S. Today, those are two things that are getting blended in a way they havent been a month ago or two months ago. Making that last stretch to try to get a phase one deal even more difficult ahead of the december 15 deadline. We willeijing said retaliate if the United States goes forward with the statute. The first actions they have taken do not involve trade. It is ngo they are going after. Does that give you any assurance they may be will not mix it up with the trade . Matthew i think they are trying to slow it down to the point where they do not want the two to mix. The hong kong issue is a National Security issue for china. At the same time, they do want to deal made at some point. That is why when you look at things that would disrupt ngo from activity in china, something they have already been doing for several years, preventing u. S. Military business to hong kong, these are things they know and have done in the past that is just the low hanging fruit. If we start to see the u. S. Expand the scope of what it does and starts implementing the law, that is one china could make more moves against the u. S. That are more retaliatory and could go after trade issue. David lets turn to a different geopolitical issue. Later this week opec plus is having a meeting. What we expect to come out of that . Theres a move to further cut the output quotas. Matthew that is a great question. I do not think it matters so much when we talk about the geopolitical implications, im not sure it matters whether the extent the deal this week or in march or whenever. The point is that saudi arabia is driving them to extend the deal at some point. It will happen. The question is when to they seal the final deal. Saudi aramco is imperative when you look at the saudi aramco ipo. They definitely need to have the deal extended. They cannot have the saudi aramco ipo fail to the degree where the stock price wants to start being traded. Theyre going to push for a deal and i think opec plus will get the deal. They may not have the cuts march, but it is definitely something that could happen down the road. David the other major player appears to be russia. Are they inclined to support saudi arabia . Matthew they will take away and see approach. They will not jump onto whatever saudi arabia says. You know there is an agreement with saudi arabia that is implicit. Russia has no interest in doing it. They are comfortable with oil prices where they are at. They do not have any kind of saudi aramco ipo type thing. They will take a wait and see approach they will continue to follow through with their commitments whether it feels right to them. They are deafly going to be amenable to an extension but they will not be bending over backwards to get one. David we are talking to matthew bey of stratfor. The president of the United States heads to london for nato celebrations. There is a big issue pending, maybe we will hear about possible sanctions about the french digital tax. Explain that to us. Matthew earlier this year france put into place a digital tax on a Global Tech Companies that largely hit u. S. Tech companies because u. S. Tech companies are the largest. The u. S. Started a section 301 investigation on ranson particular and that investigation on france in particular and that is due to come out today. If they move forward with any kind of economic penalties against france, that can include tariffs and other measures. We are watching for that. The fact they are making this report public means they are probably going to be finding an affirmative and likely moving forward. The question is what is the scope, particularly when we already have the United States putting into place large tariffs on the eu as a relates to the airbus dispute. Is is frank david france a little bit on its own and this . This is part of what she said. It would only be fair we picked it up again if a Global Solution is not possible. Everyone who plays by the book has nothing to fear. That goes without saying. We have an investigation into , and we aredata asking a number of questions to apple and to facebook right now. Being is Emmanuel Macron a team player with the eu and it comes to the digital tax . Matthew i think theyre willing to get to an agreement moving forward. They said they would repeal their own tax when there is an eu mechanism or an agreement around what the attack should look like or what he Digital Services tech should be looking at. They are going alone first but i do not think they are the only ones going alone. The u. K. Has put out the possibility of doing their own Digital Services tax. So has canada. Globally there is a lot of momentum behind this. The u. S. Will be the one hit the most by this given the fact that u. S. Tech companies are the largest. Issue give us one other they will be taking up in london when it comes to trade. When it comes to trade, they will be talking about potential auto tariffs down the road. The section 230 two deadline for the u. S. Imposing auto tariffs has already passed. There are reports of the u. S. Around broader trade issues. That could give legal justification for things like tariffs on the auto sector or much broader than that. That is something that will deftly be coming up. David thank you so much for joining us today. That is matthew bey, senior Global Analyst at stratfor. Now we will turn to Mark Crumpton whose microphone is now working. Mark we will try this again. China is striking back at the u. S. Beijing is freezing port visits by u. S. Warships after threatening to retaliate from President Trump signing the bill backing protesters. Theals package appellate body upholds or modifies wto rulings, the most important function of the genevabased trade organization. The u. S. Is blocking new appointments to the panel on white house claims the wto has overstepped its mandate and infringes on american sovereignty. As weve been reporting in germany, Angela Merkels party is playing hardball. The christian democrats have told the social democrats therell be no renegotiation of the terms of their alliance and they can quit the governing coalition if they cannot accept that. The social democrats have picked new leaders who say they will demand policy changes. Joe biden is trying to breathe new life into his campaign in iowa. It is a place where he struggles despite leading the field and most National Polls. Joe biden kicked off an eightday bus tour this weekend. On february 3ses are the first test for the democratic field. Global news 24 hours a day, on air and tictoc on twitter, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. I am Mark Crumpton. This is bloomberg. David . David still ahead, President Trump says he is imposing tariffs on steel exports on brazil and argentina and u. S. Steel stop shoots up on the news. This is balance of power on Bloomberg Television and radio. David this is balance of power on Bloomberg Television and radio. Time for the stock of the hour. Shares of u. S. Steel are up 4 after President Trump announced he is reinstating tariff on steel and aluminum from brazil and argentina. Good news for u. S. Steel. Kailey u. S. Steel and a number of other domestic steel producers. They all rallying off of this. The idea being tariffs on steel imports in brazil and argentina will boost a mystic steel prices. One analyst says they could go as high as 580 to 585, that is up 565. That is good for these guys. It is also not necessarily bad for brazilian steelmakers. They are also rising today because analysts say the u. S. Is not that large of a market, it will not have that much of a financial impact. They export very little to the u. S. Much more to china. When you look at brazil, there steel exports to china have doubled in the past several years. When you total up soybeans along with the steel, everything they are sending over to china is 25 billion in the first 10 months, that is more than 10 times the amount of steel they have shipped to the u. S. David good news for u. S. Steelmakers. They get to charge more for their products. What does it mean for their manufacturers, people buying steel to put it into their products . Kailey this all goes to that manufacturing narrative. We have seen with u. S. Steel producers, we have tariffs back two years ago. The idea this would help steel producers. What we have seen as a result of this large narrative in regard has weighed on growth and created uncertainty, which has weighed on investment and you are seeing the steelmakers under pressure in part because prices are lower and in part because of the issues you pointed to. David President Trump made a big priority of reestablishing the Steel Industry in this country. Some of it is the demand. How much people are buying. When he first came in we thought he would have a big infrastructure program. Kailey what happened to the wall. David a lot of steel that has not come through. Kailey and we have seen a rebound in recent weeks because the growth narrative seems like it is picking up more in demand for the commodities and materials is going to pick up. Every time you get a tweet from the president or suggestion that trade war uncertainty is going to accelerate once again and that weighs on it, and then we look at things outside of trade. Other things that are external to that narrative, that is still very much the dynamic weighing on demand. Correlation or a is steel on its own . Kailey in part you can talk about commodity and material demand because those are very tracked global growth. For these issues, it is more idiosyncratic, at least as a relates to brazil and argentina and the impact on domestic steelmakers. David but if youre u. S. Steel you will take it where you can get it. Up next, the thanksgiving holiday is over but impeachment is just beginning. We go through the saga playing out this week on capitol hill with our political panel. That will be coming out next. Power andlance of we are on Bloomberg Television and we are on bloomberg radio. David from new york, this is balance of power on Bloomberg Television and radio. Im david westin. The impeachment probe is moving toward the house. The Intelligence Committee will release its report while the Judiciary Committee will begin formal hearings on a possible impeachment of President Trump. For more on the political implications, we welcome pristina greer from fordham university, and Joseph Watkins from causeway strategies. Christina, let me start with you. I watched the week and programs. There was almost a consensus, this impeachment thing is not working for the democrats. The you think thats harsh . President i think the democrat new that the president was not going to come before them and speak. Obviously with the media cycle there is a conversation about pizazz. But representative ship and now that there are going to a case to lay out the case for impeachment. David do they need to get off the stage in order to give the democratic candidate for president enough stage before the election . Christina we have to do both, walk and chew gum. Many democrats feel this is a constitutional crisis, so the impeachment process needs to go forward. Whether people agree with it or not, certain red flags have been excavated in the past few months. Even though there is a lot of division and tension even within the Democratic Party as to whether you focus just on ukraine or go all the way back to 2017 and consistently lay out the case, based on what the framers intended, i think this is a process that the democrats feel needs to happen. Explain politically how important the impeachment process is or is not to the white house. Are they focused more on the economy . Joseph the white house is more focused on the economy, they know that is what moves numbers. They also know the impeachment hearings are working to the benefit. If anything, while representatives that are and shifts will be methodical about how they go about doing this, the reality is, the president poll numbers are only getting stronger. Republicans are more firmly behind the president than ever before. In some instances, over 90 approval with republicans. Likewise, as long as those numbers stay in place, the senate is not going to move against the president. You wont find republicans in the senate or house making any overt moves against the president. They will be supportive throughout this process. On the senate side, once it comes to the senate, they will not vote to convict the president. Probably bet will strengthened by this, certainly with his base, and maybe by some americans in the middle who he may be able to convince that this was an unfair witchhunt, although schiff and nadler have been methodical in the way they are prosecuting the case. David you heard about the middle, what happens to them. The president clearly has the republicans behind him. Do you read anything into the fact that the economy is doing quite well, but at the same time, his Approval Ratings are around 42 . It should be higher than that. Does that suggest there other things going on . Christina we know that people go to the polls based on pocketbook issues. How do i personally feel in my life is going . Thelso know there is economy, and how you feel about your own personal income. We are seeing slight cracks in the foundation. The 2018 midterm showed us that. Many americans are not feeling like they are doing as well as the president promised. He is reprimanded or punished at the polls in 2020. Quite a few more months to see if this economic stronghold hold for people individually. I think for people in the middle, there are two things. There is the economic track, and there are things people that are accountable with the president s rhetoric, things going on at the border, and other moral issues. Past, though, americans have voted on pocketbook issues. David obviously, people care about pocketbook, but is that being suppressed because people are not comfortable with the way the president presents himself . People mayarly, some not like the way the president represents himself, the rhetoric, tone, but it resonates with his base. If you look at the numbers with Small Business owners, 60 of Small Business owners want to see him be reelected. They like what is happening with the economy, they dont want to see a change. They are frightened at the prospect of a Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren trying to change what is happening with the economy. That only further strengthens President Trump. As long as the economy is strong and you have a strong black friday, maybe Even Stronger cyber monday, those will help President Trump in the longterm. David christina, democrats running for president. We have National Polls that doingte joe biden is quite well, but in iowa, not so much. He is behind by a good margin. Can he turn things around in iowa, and how well does he need to do in iowa . Keep in mind, bill clinton did not win iowa, second in new hampshire. Joe biden realized that i was not for him. We see Pete Buttigieg doing well for right now. Iowa is in february, so a lot could change. I think joe biden is putting a lot of his eggs in a South Carolina basket. Anjust does not want to have embarrassing show in iowa, which is why he is going on this bus tour. We see from his numbers, he is having a rough time in iowa and new hampshire. David is fourthplace embarrassing for the Vice President . Hard for theuld be Vice President to stomach a fourthplace finish in iowa. Like any other candidate, he needs to continue to raise money and have momentum, a second or first place finish in iowa, and that is not guaranteed. He has to be careful over the next 7, 8 days to not have a lot of gaffes, to sound like he is something that can contest President Trump, should he be the nominee in 2020. That means he has to really work hard and build confidence among iowa democrats. That is a tall order right now. David thanks to Christina Greer and Joseph Watkins. Michael bloomberg is the majority owner of bloomberg lp, the Parent Company of bloomberg news. Lets go to Mark Crumpton with first word news. Mark President Trump is onnstating steel tariffs brazil and argentina. He says it is devaluing their currencies, and that is not good for farmers. The president called on the Federal Reserve once again to lower interest rates. Purchased the website domain for President Trumps 2020 campaign slogan. Sellsmerica great. Com items such as bumper stickers. The European Union has not complied with in order to end illegal subsidies for airbus. A Compliance Panel ruled the eu had not taken sufficient steps to end the harm to airbus rival boeing. E trumps pushed Th Administration to impose tariffs on eu goods in october. The block is expected to appeal. There is a new job in mark carneys future. The bank of england governor has accepted the role of special envoy for Climate Action and finance. You and secretarygeneral Antonio Guterres says he has taken a pioneer role, pushing the climate issue in the financial sector. Carney is set to leave the boe january 31, but there is speculation he may be asked to extend his term. Global news 24 hours a day, onair, and tictoc on twitter, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. Im Mark Crumpton. This is bloomberg. Coming up, President Trump says americas farmers are hurting because of currency manipulation. What is the plight of the American Farmer today, and what do they blame it on . We speak to thomas halverson, the cobank ceo. This is balance of power on Bloomberg Television and radio. David this is balance of power on Bloomberg Television and radio. Im david westin. Trump was up early this morning, tweeting about the plight of American Farmers, saying brazil and argentina have been presided over a massive devaluation of their currencies, for farmers,good and then he gives his solution, which is to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imported from brazil and argentina. We welcome Tom Halverson, ceo of cobank. He joins us for todays conversation in chief. Lets start with the plight of American Farmers. Things aboutus bankruptcies, people going out of business. Where is the u. S. Farmer today . Picture evenvaried we are in a softer position than we were five or six years ago in agricultural. You could make the case we are probably pass the worst and netnet farm income will be higher this year than last year, but the source of the cash flow is indicative of the softness. Somewhere in the vicinity of 25 net farmd of that income in 2019 will come from transfer payments in various forms from the government. As i have said in the past, every farmer would much rather sell their product into an active and successful market rather than rely on transfer payments. David one thing we read, when you look at some of the subsidies being done right now in connection with u. S. China trade, they tend to go disproportionately to the big guys. They dont wriggle down to the smaller farmers. It part of the problem is, is a rather blunt instrument. If you are selling into a market , that creates one set of results. Trying to smear millions of dollars across a large sector of the economy and get to equitable results is a complicated and difficult thing to do. Get more is not similar to the fact a larger producers get more in the marketplace as well. That is the way the marketplace is differentiated. Is not differentiated different in agriculture than other industries. The smaller people are by definition smaller and get less of it. David the Farming Community is not a monolith, but if you could generalize, if you are a farmer and you feel pretty tight right now, what do you attribute that to, who do you blame . Bunch ofou ask a farmers, you will get a differentiated set of answers, depending on their geography, political predispositions. People vote on lots of issues, not just on their pocketbook, although some do. But their explanation of the pocketbook results they are experiencing can be quite different. You could ask one farmer and say, the tariff story, who do you hold responsible . They might say the president. Ask another farmer, and they might say the chinese. Are you willing to wait while we duke it out in this trade war for a good result . A lot of them will say, absolutely. I trust the president. I will support them even though in the short term that cost me a lot of money. Other people may have a different view. I am very reluctant to be drawn into portraying any portion of our Customer Base as monolithically of this view or that. It is really quite varied. David we are speaking with Tom Halverson of cobank. When a farmers sees the president saying we are going to impose steel and aluminum tariffs from brazil and argentina and that will help the farmers. When i first read it, i was not sure how the one leads to the other. Be wayrmers tend to above normal in the population in terms of Understanding International trade, because they are so dependent on their livelihood, they Pay Attention to whats going on in overseas markets where their products are sold. But a lot of people would know the foreignnd that exchange effects of brazil and argentina have more to do with the fact that those economies are suffering and underperforming. Therefore in currency position is more a function of that than their attention to do anything with respect to agricultural markets. The reality of the pain and suffering economically that u. S. Secondarily experiencing at the hands of brazil and argentina is predominately caused by the trade war, which means we are not exporting Agricultural Products that we were exported to china before. That has created an opportunity for people like brazil and argentina to fill that market. And because their economies are not performing well and their foreignexchange rate is lower, that gives them a further tailwind to take market share from us. David as you suggest, the u. S. Is not exporting soybeans to china, brazil is. His has gone on longer than people, including the president , anticipated it would. At what point do those trading relationships get etched in and it is hard to reverse . I think we are already at the point where you cannot flipped the light switch and relations go back to where they were. We all have to hope and believe and trust a decent trading arrangement will be put into place. We will have to go back and vigorously compete to reestablish markets that American Farmers and the agricultural complex work for a generation to build up. I have a lot of confidence in their skills in capability in that regard but it is not just going to fall back easily. David you know well in other business sectors when there is real strife, there tends to be consolidation. Are we seeing that in the Farming Community right now . Will the profile of the American Farmer be different at the end of this strife, then at the beginning . Tom the answer is yes. Always cyclical versus structural factors. The longterm aggregation and consolidation of u. S. Agriculture has been going on my lifetime. That wouldve continued anyway. These cyclical factors just intensify those pressures, as you suggest. Farming is one of those industries where the producer tends to be assetrich but cash flow pour. They have a lot of land, equipment, but right now what they are having is cash flow difficulties. That results in the people in the lower quartile by whatever metric having to do things. Some of go bankrupt. Bankruptcies are rising. But the good news is, as in valleys are holding pretty steady. Interest rates are very low. The capital cost of curing your assets is not out of control. It is really a cash flow stress caused by low Commodity Prices and an inability to sell those products for the price you could three or four years ago. Acceleratebsolutely that longterm structural trend of consolidation, whether we like it or not. David we will have more with Tom Halverson. Youll be talking about usmca and the growing divide between the world and u. S. Economies, coming up in the second half hour on bloomberg radio. When a president ial candidate like joe biden want to jumpstart his campaign in iowa, what does he do . He gets a bus. We take a look at his bus tour planned ahead. This is balance of power on Bloomberg Television and radio. David this is balance of power on Bloomberg Television and radio. Im david westin. Fire up the engines. Looking tos rejuvenate his president ial campaign in iowa with an eightday bus tour focusing on rural areas and traveling with tom vilsack, the popular former governor there, as well as the former agricultural secretary under president obama. Rural areas and traveling with tom vilsack, the popular former lets welcome in wendy begemann benjaminson. Is this something that can get joe biden goinglets welcome ag . We have to wait and see, only the third day of the bus tour. He is still the solid frontrunner nationally, and what he said over the weekend on the campaign trail is that he is hoping this bus tour will get him back in the lead in iowa, where he started out. He promised to spend a lot of time there, and then he didnt. He spent a lot of time raising money elsewhere, and now is trying to go back to iowa and say in the next 60 days, please consider me. David i have to ask you about the name of the bus tour, no malarkey i dont think i have heard that word since i was a young boy. I have not either and apparently there are some people out there who have never heard the word and are wondering what no malarkey means. I guess it beats the more crude alternative. David an alternative to the Straight Talk express . John mccain in new hampshire, i guess no malarkey means Straight Talk. That is what he hopes it means. Are sometimes a challenging thing for President Trump, and he is hoping to prove that it is not for him. David why is Pete Buttigieg doing so well in iowa in your judgment . He has a very good ground game in iowa, which is important, which i have said on your show before. People in iowa expect to meet the president ial candidates, or someone that works closely with them. Pete buttigieg has an excellent ground game, he is from the speaks to their issues. As people are taking a second and third look at some of the big programs that warren and sanders are promoting and there are more questions about how to pay for them, buttigieg is a moderate alternative, where biden may be seen as sort of old news. As people are taking a second and third look at some of the bigdavid in fairness, the formr Vice President is doing well nationally. It seems the strategy is not to embarrass himself in iowa or new hampshire, and then really make a stand in South Carolina, super tuesday. Is that a viable strategy . It is. A lot of people get the nomination without winning iowa. Iowa,linton did not win got new hampshire, and then was the comeback kid. That is a good strategy, he has overwhelming support in South Carolina. David many thanks to wendy benjaminson. Coming up, the second half hour of balance of power. This is bloomberg. Mark im Mark Crumpton with bloomberg first word news. The white house may take part in future impeachment hearings but President Trump will not be represented wednesday when the house Judiciary Committee takes up the matter. Thee house cancel criticize panel for demanding a response before any witnesses have been named. He called the process unfair to the president. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said he never spoke with President Trump from the position of a quid quo pro according to an interview published today. President trump claims president zelensky had backed up his assertion that he is done nothing wrong, but some and skated not go that far and simply said he never wanted ukraine to look like beggars in regard to u. S. Military aid. Chief eddiece johnson has been fired. His dismissal was due to his ethical lapses. An inspector generals report detailed a recent incident in which johnson was found asleep behind the wheel of his suv. He later told the mayor he consumed alcohol with dinner that night. Johnson plann