This is Balance of Power, live from Washington, D.C. Answering to Congress: Jensen Huang faces mounting scrutiny over an affair at the center of national security questions involving China. Today is his deadline to respond to requests for a briefing, as lawmakers prepare a subpoena if he doesn't comply. The White House warns Democrats that their planned investigations and subpoenas could cross into blatant criminality. An early investigation before Democrats take control. A representative joins us about whether there is still room to work with President Trump. Speaker Mike Johnson says the House is ready to move on permitting reform if the Senate sends it over, putting momentum behind a bipartisan item. Kevin Brady joins us on what Congress can get done before Democrats take control. From Washington to TV and radio worldwide, welcome to Balance of Power.
We begin with breaking news that will increase scrutiny on Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. The New York Times reports, in addition to the affair with the alleged Chinese spy, Jensen Huang had an affair with an Nvidia executive who reported to him. They suggest he had an affair with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia's vice president of health care. These people telling the New York Times under the condition of being anonymous. Under Nvidia's code of conduct, employees are told to avoid situations where actions create conflict. In addition to the affair with the potential Chinese asset or woman the U.S. suspected of being such, President Trump stood by Huang. We go to the White House, where we find Jeff Mason. We heard from the President this week about how he thinks Jensen Huang is suffering personally due to this coming to light. I would imagine if the affair with the alleged spy wasn't enough, information about a second alleged relationship wouldn't change anything.
You are probably right. The President has turned on his closest allies before. We have seen that within his own staff over the last week, when he essentially got rid of Susie Wiles and elevated Stephen Miller. He has stood by Jensen Huang so far. He sees him as an integral part of the AI race with China, which the President made clear he wants the U.S. to win. His focus, when asked about the controversy before the New York Times reporting tonight, has been to sympathize with the pain he is going through, without a lot of comment about the national security risks that may have been involved or the pain his family is going through from the affair.
Looking at Truth Social, we haven't seen anything from the President yet since the headline. Jensen Huang is not the only executive or individual Democrats would like to bring to Capitol Hill for questions. When we consider the aggressive oversight that might come from the new majority, the President's top lawyer warned the incoming majority that some of its planned investigations could amount to, quote, blatant criminality, signaling a ready fight. Knowing Stephen Miller has been tapped as the chief of staff, what are we in store for? What is the Department of Justice prepared to do?
An aggressive letter, and as you suggested, that the White House doesn't intend to back down or compromise, not intending not to show a fight against an expected slew of investigations examining the behavior of the President, his cabinet, perhaps his family, in a way that will really increase oversight of Congress that we haven't seen for the past two years while Republicans have been in charge. The letter, coming across in a threatening way, suggesting the investigators, before we even see what the investigations are, that they might be moving into criminality themselves simply by doing the investigations. That is a sign that this White House is not only ready to fight, but also go on its own legal offense, potentially suing back or taking legal action against those who investigate it.
You thought the first two years was fun. Jeff Mason, live from the White House. Joining us is Democratic Congresswoman Suzan DelBene, who chairs the Congressional Campaign Committee, tasked with getting Democrats elected to the House. We welcome you back. Congratulations on a huge night. You have new members in town and a new spirit. Before you get a chance to celebrate, there is work to be done. As orientation takes place, you deal with the lame-duck session, you need to elect new leaders. Jeffries?
It will be Hakeem Jeffries. He will be the next Speaker, the first Black Speaker of the House. And he has led through the minority, standing up for communities across the country, helping us to elect a historic new class of members into the 120th Congress. I look forward to him being sworn in as Speaker.
Some incoming members have suggested Jeffries needs to make clear what his promises are to them and the American people to deliver on issues over the next two years. What, in your mind, should a future Speaker Jeffries commit to? What can be accomplished?
Leader Jeffries has been clear, and across the caucus, the priorities we have and that we have heard from people: costs. People have lost health care. If they have it, it is expensive. Because of Republicans ending the tax credits for the Affordable Care Act, the war driving up costs, diesel in particular have had a huge impact on rural America. Folks are struggling. They want Congress to stand up for them, members of Congress who will be representatives, not a rubber stamp for the administration. That is what we have coming: 260 Democrats in the next Congress who are there to serve the people, so we will truly have the people's House again in the House of Representatives.
Looks like the people's House, the upper chamber is going to have an additional shade of blue. As you were speaking, CNN decided to call the race in Mississippi, the Senate race. The Democrats got it — Scott Colom is the winner, beating Cindy Hyde-Smith by more than 3,000 votes. You are not a member of the Senate and the election wasn't part of your portfolio, but you and your members spent a lot of time in Mississippi and through what many refer to as the New South. What does this mean for the map being redrawn for 2028?
We saw across the country, definitely in the South, people are tired of broken promises, families struggling, and wanting representatives who will stand up for them. We ran incredible candidates. I always said they were our secret sauce, and that sauce is not secret anymore. People can see the great new representatives we have here in Washington for orientation. But they stood up for their communities. These folks are running in purple districts that are deeply connected to their communities, independent-minded, running for office to make sure their communities had a voice. So we won races in South Carolina, we kept our seat in Alabama. Despite redistricting in Florida, our incumbents are coming back. We gained a seat in Florida. Across the country, we had success, but in places that people might not have expected, because great candidates focused on the issues that matter. People are ready for change.
What do you say to the people who suggested it is not so much Democrats won the races, but Republicans lost?
Republicans clearly didn't care about the needs of the American people. Their policies made life harder across the country, and they never even talked about it. What was the ending message? I guess it was Trump standing at the reflecting pool, which shows how much they didn't care about the struggles families are going through. It was a combination of people going through struggles and being inspired by great candidates. Those two things are true, and that is why we won big. We have 28 new members who won in districts that Trump won in 2024 by double digits. That shows you how much stronger candidates are and how the map expanded.
The big vote in the House last night to impeach Secretary Pete Hegseth, which of course failed by fewer votes than the number of Democrats who missed the vote. There was an instance, Democrats whipped around veterans benefits. Nobody called for a roll call vote. You have new members in town, and everybody is probably feeling the vibes from last week, but is this a conference that needs to get organized? Where is this the new normal?
Definitely the Hegseth impeachment resolution was referred to the Judiciary Committee. Jamie Raskin will be in charge of that as it moves forward. And the games on the floor today show you it has been reflective of what we have seen from Republicans all Congress. It hasn't been about calling out.
When members miss a vote, does that change?
People need to be there for votes.
The Hegseth impeachment vote wasn't the only significant vote. There are a few you would not have gotten a chance to take part in because they were internal to the Republican conference, but Republicans elected Jim Jordan to be the minority leader in the next Congress. What hope does that give you for opportunities for bipartisan compromise?
It shows Republicans haven't learned anything. They didn't hear the voices of the people. People rejected their policies. They lost seats all over the country, including seats that Trump had won by wide margins, because they weren't listening to their communities. Seems like they are not listening anymore. They don't seem more focused on the costs and struggles what families are going through, health care, the war. They are tone deaf. We will focus on policies to address the needs of the communities. We will look to move that forward in the House and Senate. If they want to be part of change and standing up for communities, we will work across the aisle, but we aren't going to let them slow us down.
We were talking about the letter from the White House counsel to the incoming chair of the Oversight Committee, Robert Garcia, who said 'lawyer up' on Twitter the night of the election. The White House is concerned, referring to blatant criminality, threats to the executive branch designed to deter them from public service, he writes, and a process designed to instill fear may cross the line into aggressive enforcement. Should they prepare for charges from the Department of Justice?
I guess they are clearly scared of something, across the board. We will do that. That is what Congress should have been doing the last two years, but Republicans were more interested in being a rubber stamp than being representatives. It will take place in committees across the Congress, making sure the administration officials come forward, that they follow the laws we put in place, instituting programs we put in place, and we are going to ask them to speak up, to be present before Congress.
Oversight or investigation needs to happen into Nvidia and Jensen Huang, and everything that came to light in recent days?
There should be an investigation. Many have called for it. We need to understand the implications on national security. It's important that he responds, and it is important that lawmakers are engaged in getting answers.
We appreciate that. Democratic Congresswoman DelBene. We will have more on the breaking news involving Jensen Huang's relationship. We are tracking how the stock is moving and what this means for his future at the company. We will have more ahead on Balance of Power on Bloomberg TV and radio.
This is Balance of Power, alongside Joe Mathieu, I am Kailey Leinz. In markets, stocks rebounding in the regular session with investors piling back into tech stocks, including Nvidia, but it is a different story after hours. There's fresh reporting from the New York Times on the extracurricular activities of Jensen Huang. Let's turn to Power Moves with Norah Mulinda in New York.
What a difference 24 hours makes. The market was questioning the AI buildout, but today we saw traders buying the dip, a lot of the optimism coming from the expectations for potential valuation when it comes to Anthropic and OpenAI. What really caught the attention of a lot of investors has been the ever-evolving story as it relates to Nvidia. One of the biggest boosts to the S&P 500 today, the stock up about 2.9% in the trading day in that cash session. We saw a reversal in the post-market session, down 3.5%, off the headline from the New York Times saying Jensen Huang is said to have had an affair with an Nvidia executive who reports to him, and that's compounding the earlier news about a potential affair with him and a suspected Chinese spy. That's been hanging over this company as investors grapple with what this means as it relates to the company more broadly and as it continues to endure investigations. You're seeing companies like AMD and Broadcom gaining off the news in after-hours trade. We will see how this trickles down, but it's an evolving story with the attention on Nvidia.
That's for sure. Norah Mulinda, live from New York. As we go deeper on the news, complete with the breaking news we have from the New York Times, Jensen Huang said to have had a relationship with an Nvidia executive who reports to him. Bloomberg's Mike Shepard is with us in Washington, D.C. The walls are closing in — how does he survive this?
This is a tougher case for him to prevail. The second instance of indiscretions, perhaps this one in violation of company policies regarding relationships between managers and subordinates, adds a new element to the scandal that's been unfolding since October 29, when the New York Times first reported a close relationship with another person. This is a woman who is suspected by U.S. intelligence of being a Chinese spy and perhaps using her relationship with Jensen Huang to glean information from him about his conversations with President Trump or about the company's own trade secrets.
To remind us of the timeline, we just learned of this affair, it happened some time ago. What the New York Times is reporting on is more recent.
The engagement and interactions between Jensen Huang and the spy go back to 2024. It's unclear when their relationship became romantic, but they clearly did know each other going back a few years. The episode the New York Times is reporting on happened in March at one of the company's developer conferences. It raises questions about whether there was any sort of warning from his own team of security, and how much internally was known at the company as well among senior leadership and the board.
Well, considering their earnings blackout comes with the days leading up to the reporting of results, can the company say anything publicly about this, and will there be an announcement, presumably on the earnings call?
They are not responding to the Times report for the moment. Jensen Huang was reached briefly by the Times reporter, but he said, 'I don't think you should be speaking with me,' and hung up. The executive in question, Kimberly Powell, with whom he had this relationship, was also not available for comment. It's unclear what the company will be saying, but there will be uncomfortable questions during the earnings call. Nvidia is facing pressure from Congress to answer questions before a closed-door briefing of the House Intelligence and Foreign Affairs Committee and also the China Select Committee to talk about the relationship with the executive who is suspected of acting on China's behalf.
It's a Washington issue as well as Wall Street. The street is reacting, Nvidia down about 4%. We spoke to Nikki Haley about the alleged spy affair earlier, and this is part of what she told us.
It's a tough situation, he has no successor, and this is a very important company, which is why attention should have been put on this. My first thought is Trump shouldn't meet with President Xi next week to make a real point of how serious we are taking this. If he still thinks it's important to meet with him, he should absolutely bring it up. It's hard to imagine that Jensen Huang was not influenced when you look at the actions that took place.
The timing really is something, because President Trump is making tracks to China next week. He has said he doesn't necessarily plan to bring this up with Xi, but how might this affect U.S. policy?
The President said Xi might bring it up as a way of complaining about U.S. allegations of spying by China against the Nvidia chief. It's extraordinary to think the President would go into this meeting and not bring it up. Another thing Nikki Haley brought up was also the question of key-man risk at Nvidia, which is highlighted by this episode. During an interview with Emily Chang, he mentioned he didn't really have a successor in mind.
Possibly another 20 years. It's unclear how they would do a handoff as the scandal unfolds. Going back to the President's meeting with China, it raises questions about whether there will be other actions the U.S. might try to take to counter this activity.
The idea of key-man risk in mind, the after-hours reaction is fascinating because not only do we see Nvidia down significantly, nearly 5%, but we are seeing significant gains in AMD and Broadcom, maybe the two nearest competitors to Nvidia when it comes to GPUs. Wall Street is trying to find the next leader already. Will one of these two?
It could be, but Nvidia's chips are so good and so coveted by the rest of the market right now. If you are building a data center, have plans to become the next hyperscaler, you go to Nvidia first, second, third, and fourth. They really are the top choice.
More gradually. You would have to see step changes in quality and performance by competitors and products. Companies like Google are developing their own AI data center chips, they have their own processing units. Monday, they announced two new versions of the TPU intended to be that kind of challenge to Nvidia.
Thank you so much. Jensen Huang has a lot of questions he needs to answer, but we also heard from Nikki Haley that she has questions for the State Department and Commerce Department and President Trump himself and those in the national security space about what they knew and the information, at least when it comes to the Chinese spy affair, if they shared it with Jensen Huang about the concerns.
