Perry Johnson reflects on race for Governor

And thanks for joining us on our nightly deep dive into all things people, power and politics. This my friends is The Pulse. I'm Rup Raj. If you've paid any attention this midterm cycle, you know a big issue is affordability. A financial advisor joins us to talk about the market volatility that usually happens leading into the midterms and what you should know. And former Republican candidate for governor Perry Johnson is back in Studio C tonight reacting to the results. It was a bruising campaign with a lot of verbal attacks lobbed. What's next for him and his thoughts on the governor and Senate race? And we're diving into AI safety concerns with expert Joe Tavares. A new test out of the UK shows it can create fake identities, email real people and try to cover its own tracks while trying to get malicious code approved. Joe's diving into all of that and the questions all of this is raising. A packed show as always. So let's kick things off by running through some of the other big stories we're on top of right now. Beginning in Michigan, where five noncitizens are facing charges tonight accused of voting in the 2024 election, Attorney General Dana Nestle's office announced the charges and also charged a US citizen accusing them of registering their noncitizen spouse to vote. So to dig even deeper, we're going to go by the numbers. 16 cases of noncitizens voting in 2024 were brought by Nestle's office. As we just said, six people were charged in those cases and of those, 10 were closed without any charges. 22 cases between 2009 and last year are also under review, but all registrations by noncitizens have been canceled whether charges were issued or not. And to dive even deeper, there were actually more than 5.7 million ballots cast in 2024 and there were six people charged as noncitizen voters. And you can see how low that percentage is right over here and it is important to note, nowhere near enough to swing the results for any race. And that's important to note also because that, you know, who cast those ballots illegally, we should say they should not have been able to do so. And the reason they were able to do so, it's also important to note that we should look into that. It should be probed so it doesn't happen again. The GOP gubernatorial ticket has a team. Republican candidate for governor John James has chosen his running mate. State Representative Jay DeBoer. Now he represents St. Clair, Northern Macomb County. James says he chose DeBoer because he's run a business, served in local government and overseen elections. DeBoer is in his second term in the statehouse. The President Trump trade war where his new import taxes on Canada are just days from taking effect. The U.S. offered Canada a proposal earlier this week to scale some of those back, but Canada shot it down. Canada says if there's no deal, they'll work with other markets. And with the midterms just months away, the White House is doubling down on those tariffs while Democrats not surprisingly say they'll oppose that. We're setting prices so that the Chinese can't dump anymore and we're setting tariffs to say build it here. We've got the industry here. It's too small and it's going to explode. We know we have headwinds coming at us every single day. Trump's tariffs eating away at people's paychecks. Those headwinds may well be a constant, but they can never be an excuse. And the tariffs against Canada take effect August 19th. They affect more than $20 billion in goods from our neighbors across the Detroit River. We're staying with the economy because like we said off the top, it's a huge concern going into the midterms and there's usually some market volatility leading into the election. Jeff Frater-Cangelli is the managing principal of Frater-Cangelli Wealth Management and he's in studio. See her tonight to give us an idea as to what we can expect on this rollercoaster ride and what we all can do to protect our portfolios and our money. And so it's so good to see you, Jeff. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me, Ruth. So we have the big, you know, it's the economy's stupid. James Carville said that back in the Clinton days and he wasn't wrong. That still holds the test of time. However, during these midterms, things get a little bit dicey sometimes. Talk for a moment about what happens during this time with our economy. Well, the markets do not like uncertainty. And right now we're facing what happens in November with the midterms coming and what happens to our Congress. We have a full control with the Republicans, the president and the Congress. And typically going back as far back as we know, the power gets shifted back to whoever's out of power. And so the market's anticipating this. What could happen next? We don't forget all the impeachment processes that went through Trump's first time around. That creates uncertainty and volatility. So a lot of that angst gets built up. And we see it as opportunity coming from the wealth management side. As long as you plan accordingly and you have enough liquidity to overcome any uncertainties relative to your budget or unforeseen variable expenses, and you have discretionary dollars that you can take advantage of these opportunities, historically, that's exactly how we've approached it. We plan ahead. So when you take a look at what companies are doing right now, because they help determine, of course, the tone of the economy, they're the ones who are hiring, they're the ones who are not hiring, they're the ones deciding on the next move. What are companies and corporations doing right now as they wait to see who comes into office? Well, we just saw the unemployment numbers come out within the last couple of weeks, and they were a surprise to the fact that we had, we didn't lose as many jobs. We had more people employed. That was a surprise. That's right. The narrative has been more negative, typically going into elections, and this hasn't been any different. And the anticipation was higher unemployment, and it actually went the other way. So companies are hiring, they're building infrastructure. It's ranging from infrastructure to the jobs that come after you build the infrastructure, which I believe is the next iteration of what we can anticipate relative to jobs. You talk about corporations. Now, back to the people, as you were kind of referencing at the beginning, in terms of the autonomy that people have with their own wealth, what they can do. How do people handle their portfolios, whether it be small, medium, or large right now, waiting to see who may come into office? Rupert, I'm really concerned to our citizens locally here and them saying, I'm just going to wait. I'm going to hold off. I'm going to hold off on putting away into my 401k, to my savings that I typically do because I'm just nervous about what's happening. That's the opposite of what we should be doing. We should be staying the course. We should be buying when things are concerning, when volatility is on the uprise. If we think back to just this year alone, we saw the market earlier this year in March down 9%. We're up 22% since that bottom out in March. In every election year, we have something of the like. Going back the last two midterm elections, we were down over 20%, yet the market 90% of the time after the election is up, and it's up on an average of 19% for the following nine months, yet investors are thinking, let's hold off. It's the opposite. You identify your short-term needs, maintain liquidity so you can overcome any type of unforeseen and foreseen obstacles for need for cash, and you put away your longer-term money that you know you don't need for the three years or beyond, and you take advantage of these types of pullbacks. I want to ask you a question about those who aren't invested in the stock market necessarily. I think there's something more than 50% of the people in this country are invested in the stock market, right? That sounds right. Then you have everyone else who watches every day on the news. We say, the Dow is up or down, and we're in the green. Why is that important for people who aren't invested to know when the Dow does well, everyone does well? Is that a direct connect there that people should be making? Well, I think there's a disconnect at times, the factors that lag to the realities, Main Street versus Wall Street, but the reality is if companies don't have the ability to hire and increase their wages due to the fact that they're not profitable, it's going to hurt us on Main Street. It is intertwined, ultimately, and the fact is we want our economy, we want our companies to do better because, therefore, it reflects back on the citizens and employment, an opportunity for us to earn more money. When you look at the situation with, for instance, Abdul Al-Sayed versus Mike Rogers, that's kind of a flashpoint in the country, and people are watching it so closely because it is kind of representing two very different ways of thinking. Whether you agree with it or not, bottom line is the economy may go one way or the other. How closely are investors watching, whether it be progressives or conservatives who get back in? Well, I think if we've learned from history, the election and the outcome of the election has little to do with how the economy and the markets perform. I think the policies that have been implemented for the last two years are going to carry us, the tailwind of that is going to carry us through any potential negative repercussions to the election, not going directly to how it might have been anticipated being more beneficial to, ultimately, us as citizens and the workforce, or as well, corporations. It typically doesn't have as big of an impact relative to which side of the aisle is better for the economy and what's better for capitalism, if you will. I think we need to do our homework. I think a lot of folks that are out there thinking that maybe one party is really for the people and there's better opportunity there if we get this new socialism idea through, do your homework. Take a look at the facts. Take a look at other countries that have been in this type of economic, political alignment, and what has happened, and talk to the people that have lived in that environment. Do your homework. And that's, unfortunately, I don't think what's happening to the degree I would hope. And you don't mean on Facebook, in real life. You have to do actual homework, because the populist movement on the left, the populist movement on the right, both of them are saying the same thing. We got to get out of these corporations and get money back with people, not just the left, but the right are saying that as well. President Trump said that a lot when he first got into office. When you see the fact that the oil companies continue to keep their prices elevated, while the reality of the fact is we saw a brief reprieve with the amount of supply and demand aligning to lower Brent crude oil, yet the prices stayed higher. And I think our president stepped in and he said, listen, we're going to look at this and we're going to go right to the bottom line and see if our citizens are being taken advantage of. Can't happen. Jeff, it's really good to see you. Thank you for your time. Always appreciate your perspective on The Pulse. Well, we're going inside AI after the break as well. There's more safety concerns we're learning about, including creating fake identities. AI expert Joe Tavares weighs in and Perry Johnson is in Studio C tonight talking about the future with the Republican races ahead. We'll be right back. Back now on The Pulse, looking at all things people, power and politics. Here to dive into some new AI safety concerns, AI expert Joe Tavares. And it's always good to see you, Joe. Thanks for joining us. Yeah, thanks for having me. So it sounds like there was, you know, when you look at this situation that happened where there was a test that was being done and in this test, AI or I guess the agent that was assigned to do a task broke out and went into the everyday Internet and caused a little bit of mischief. But it was all because of human design. Talk about what happened here. Yeah, I mean, they they set up these sandboxes for the AIs to play in and they're testing the new models to see the security vulnerabilities they're able to uncover. Seems like a misconfiguration in the system that they were sandboxing in allowed the agent to take the instructions a little more literally than the test that intended. And what ended up happening is this AI agent created fake identities, emailed real people, tried to get malicious code approved out there. When you look at how far AI has come and you look at the guardrails that are needed, this test was done for good reason. Does it give you pause and reason for concern? Absolutely, especially the social engineering, which like that's the foundation of hacking at this point. Like, it's it's difficult to get somebody's encryption keys, but it's easy to pretend to be that person and maybe call their phone company and get the number switch, things like that. So it was taking, you know, the first step to hacking and establishing kind of a footprint socially so that it could gain trust in these trusted systems. And so we know that this was a test that was done on purpose in order to see where the guardrails were and to see what needs to happen moving forward. What lessons can be learned from this so that AI doesn't the animal doesn't get loose in the cage and take over the zoo, so to speak? It's difficult to say one of the biggest things is having observability and knowing what that agent is doing throughout the sequence of actions that it takes. So again, we talked about it being a misconfiguration. The researchers should have been able to see it escaping from the cage and what it did after that, because that's your real signal versus all the noise. So it is ultimately the human who designed it, the human who's monitoring it. I mean, as much as you want to say AI is as it's only as smart as the people who are administering it. Isn't that true? Absolutely. The guardrails largely come from the operator. You know, if you give a broad task like, hey, create paperclips and the computer is sufficient as such that it could start to turn cars into paperclips, turn the studio into paperclips. It doesn't have any context around that except what it's provided by the operators. So it was just doing what it was told to do. Talk for a moment about, you know, policy and and Washington and where we stand with AI regulation. I know that a lot of the big tech, let's face it, let's just be honest, they're very much in bed with many of the lawmakers in Washington. And so when that happens and you have money being exchanged, it's hard to keep neutrality and understand that the guardrails need to be placed from the government. Do you think enough is being done? I think there's a lot of lobbyists in there and maybe a lack of understanding of the depth and capability of the newer models in Congress and the House. I think they would be advised to support the big companies, because when you look at it, we are in an arms race with China, with Russia, with other near peer adversaries. And essentially whoever gets to artificial superintelligence first, if it's possible, will win that race. And that's kind of the stakes at the table right now. Is that why we're seeing this push for data centers all across our state and America and such a quick and kind of like brash fashion? Because this is an international race, right? It is. And I do think that, again, whoever gets there first ultimately is going to capture that prize. And you wonder how much of it comes from, you know, high up folks in Washington to be the president or senators or congresspeople who are urging states, hey, get on board with this because we have to do this. It feels like a mandate a bit. Yeah. You know, we've talked about driving through fog. We're still driving through fog. You know, you can kind of make out the buildings in the distance and you can see what might be out there. But ultimately, like maybe slow down and take precautions while you're driving. Kind of, yeah. Peek out the window and see where you're going and what's coming your way. Yeah. And stuff. And we'll do it with your watchful eye as we continue on this foggy road. Joe, tomorrow is great to see you. Thanks for joining us here tonight on The Pulse. Thanks for having me. We're diving into the race for governor. Next, the matchup is set between Jocelyn Benson and John James. But one of the men James defeated in the primary is with us in Studio C, Perry Johnson with what's next for him and the party. You're watching The Pulse on Fox 2. It is people, power and politics. Welcome back to Detroit's only nightly political talk show. This, my friends, is The Pulse here with his thoughts on the race for governor, former Republican candidate Perry Johnson and Perry. It's good to see you. Thanks for joining us here tonight. We're back in the studio where I last saw you. You were standing right here with John James and Mike Cox next to you. And you were making a case for why Michigan needed Perry Johnson. Do you still believe that Michigan needs Perry Johnson's ideas? Absolutely. I don't think anybody doubts the fact that our government has been inefficient. I mean, the bottom line is when you have this inefficient government, they're really getting the money from the people here and our people are hurting and we can't afford it anymore. They asked me to estimate the amount of waste. And while I haven't gone in and done my mega audit, if I were to give an estimate, I would say it's somewhere between 20 and 25 percent of mega waste here in Michigan, just ways in which we could be more efficient and we'd get more out of our money. So, Perry, let me ask you this. So you have these great ideas. You've run super successful companies. You're a quality guru for all those years. You have experience on your side. What is it about politics and Perry Johnson that first attracts you? And what makes it so that at the end you didn't win a few times? Second time for governor, once for president. What is that? Is there what is it that politics requires that you wish you had? Well, you have money, plenty of it. You ran it with 30 million dollars. What else what else is needed to convince people of what the bottom line is that in the political arena, you don't get to meet most people and most people never even get to see you. All they're seeing is an ad. And as a matter of fact, now roughly 35 percent watch broadcast. And you have another 35 percent in streaming, 35 percent you never get to at all. Yeah. So the only way that you have a chance to even resonate with people is to actually get in front of them. So what happens in the real election? Well, in this case, what really happened is, you know, that Trump came in first. He endorsed him and that was OK. But when he came in the week before, it was it's really very difficult. And that's difficult to go up against. Oh, yes. An in-person endorsement from President Trump at that factory floor and one week from the election, because he came in that Friday. He didn't do that in some of the other states. And the endorsements went south. So when you saw that happen a week before the election, what did you tell your team? What did your team tell you? I didn't know until it actually happened how bad it was going to be. In fact, I was advised that we can recover. But the bottom line is that it made it very, very difficult. We had a movement, too. I mean, I I had so much excitement. And when I went to places, I mean, the the fervor was magnetic. Well, 35 percent of the people who went to the polls to vote for a Republican voted for you. They did. It's a pretty good number. Here's the funny thing is Mike Cox was out of the race, but people didn't even know it. Yeah. Oh, and that's true with Valerie McMurrow as well. Perhaps they knew it, but they voted for her in large numbers for the Senate race. Let's talk about the future now of the Republican Party and and John James. What is it that if there's something you could advise John James and his team on some Perry Johnson wisdom, what would that be moving forward? Well, right now, we know that that Senate race is very important. It may be one of the most important races in the history of our entire. Let's start with John. John James and Jocelyn Benson. What advice would you give? We'll get to the Senate race in a minute. What about the governor's race? Well, what advice would you give someone who's running for governor right now? I would focus on the fact that we have an inefficient government and we need to make it more efficient. I think that affordability is still a major issue that we have in the state. And I think people have to recognize that they should have a right to keep their money. Now, I've always been a big believer that if this state wants to move anywhere, it has to eliminate the state income tax and we have to do it before the other states start doing it. You don't think John James or anyone else running for governor? I know we do that. Well, you asked me what I thought he needed to do. Yeah, I think he needs to focus on the fact that we have to have a leaner operation. And I think people like the idea of keeping their money. I do believe that my forty seven forty seven rang through and I would be going to the baseball game and they'd be yelling forty seven forty seven because people want an extra forty seven hundred forty seven dollars every year. I think no one would argue that people would want that for sure. I think people don't always understand how you would do that, how you would get that to them and how that money all shakes up the income tax and there's the money ready to go. It's that simple. I want to ask you about the Senate race. What do you make of this? Rogers, Abdul, I'll say Ed race right now. I think it's probably one of the most significant, important races that we've ever had in the history of our country. It is a decision of whether or not you want freedom or do you want communism? And the bottom line on this is that freedom wins out. I campaigned on the basic principle of freedom. That's how our country was founded on the basic principle that everybody has a right to make their own decisions and to be free. And, you know, the free market is what made us where we are today. We are the strongest economy in the world by leaps and bounds. And you'll see we have this what, thirty, thirty six. What is it now? I guess we're up to about thirty four, thirty five trillion dollar economy, thirty three and a half, thirty four. And you'll notice that even China was doing nothing with communism. What happened when they introduced the free market? They suddenly soared. Well, I don't think Al Sayed is saying get rid of the free market. I think he says he's a capitalist who knows how capitalism works. We should also point out that he does not have the endorsement of the DSA, the Democratic Socialists of America, Democratic Socialists of America. He doesn't have that endorsement. His job, I think, from his political calculus point of view is to move more to the center. Is it Roger's job to move more to the center as well? Or should he continue to do what so many people who have had the endorsement of President Trump do, which is to move alongside President Trump? Or do you kind of separate yourself? I think Rogers is running on a very good theme. He's talking about how we have to really take a look at one. His ads are on education and we have to prepare people so that they can get better jobs. Certainly his idea of the shops, something that I first brought up, what, four years ago, we should be teaching shop in schools. Now, think about it. You have I have a son, a 17 year old son. He says he wants to major in philosophy. I said, why? What are you going to do afterwards? Dad, I'd love to philosophize. I said, well, that doesn't pay you a lot, but you got to work with your mind in your hands to make something. And that's the carpentry classes certainly hurt. Bottom line is this electrician. But does does Mike Rogers align himself more and more lean into the Trump endorsement or does he try to lean away and more towards the center? Well, I think Mike Rogers is going to do what Mike Rogers wants to do. I haven't really had long discussions on what platform he should have. I always believed my platform was the platform that was the platform of the future. And that is that we are going to have a leaner government, a more efficient government. But what he's running on right now is being a senator. Yeah. And as being a senator, he has to go along with making sure that the Republican ticket wins. Well, Perry, you're a money guy. You've got to pay the bills and go to break and come back, of course, with our next program. But I want to say thank you for joining us here. You're a gentleman and it's always been a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you so much for your time. Perry Johnson. That is a pause for tonight. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm Rupraj. As always, it was good to be with you.