Pelosi’s Asia tour, Arizona primary, inflation: 3 things to watch in D.C. this week

Yahoo Finance's Kevin Cirilli joins the Live show to discuss the latest happening in Washington, D.C., this week.

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- A busy week is on tap down in Washington, DC. Let's bring in Yahoo Finance contributor Kevin Cirilli. Kevin, take it away.

KEVIN CIRILLI: Well, look, all eyes are on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Indo-Pacific trip, and especially whether or not she decides to visit Taiwan. Now, this is interesting for three quick reasons. The first is, obviously, she would be the first House Speaker to visit Taiwan since 1997, when former House Speaker Newt Gingrich visited there.

And it also comes at a time in which the US and China tensions have been pushed to the forefront. Take a listen to what Speaker Pelosi said on Friday before departing for her trip. Here she is.

NANCY PELOSI: The President earlier, well, earlier in his term, talked about a strong emphasis on the Asian Pacific. He has visited there. The vice president has visited there, the Secretary of Commerce, and others. And we want the Congress of the United States to be part of that initiative.

Of course, as a West Coast person, we see the Pacific as there-- that's our, their home. We're part of that as well. That is not to diminish the importance of our trans-Atlantic relationships as well.

KEVIN CIRILLI: Now, previously the United States had scheduled military exercises with Australia, Japan, and South Korea, as well as a few other countries. Obviously, folks also tracking the commentary coming out of the Chinese Communist Party. But the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is scheduled to have not one, but two hearings this week on Taiwan and Communist Party of China's involvement in the Middle East. So a lot of back and forth that will be carefully watched here.

Just quickly, two other quick points, from the CHIPS Act perspective, many in the business community are speculating that should Pelosi go to Taiwan that this is, again, communicating to the Taiwanese that the United States has strong support for Taiwan, and that they should not look at the investment into the semiconductor chip manufacturing industry in the United States as a sign that they're pulling support from Taiwan.

And then finally, this is going to be really interesting. Speaker Pelosi has managed to receive bipartisan support, including from some ultra conservatives in the House of Representatives, who are praising her should she visit Taiwan. So Xi Jinping has done the unthinkable and been able to unify Republicans and Democrats around their support for Taiwan.

- Kevin, several states as well here separately, they're gearing up for primary elections. So Arizona here, if we zero in on that state, a big one to watch. Tell us more about there.

KEVIN CIRILLI: Well, this is a political proxy between former President Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence. And here's why. So Kari Lake has gotten the endorsement of Trump. And then you have the old Republican establishment backing the-- backing the opposition candidate in terms of-- I'm sorry, Robson, in terms of the opponent there, who used to work on the Arizona Board of Regents. And so it's going to be really interesting to see whether or not Trump wins or if Pence is able to pull it off.

But what's even more interesting is that Governor Doug Ducey, who has also endorsed Karen Taylor Robson, who Pence has backed, has also gone against Trump. So this is an incredibly important state. It was a state that Trump beat Clinton in 2016 but that Biden won back in 2020. And look out for Governor Ducey. He's, of course, the former CEO of Cold Stone Creamery turned a-- he's a term-limited governor. And should he be able to win this proxy Republican battle, it would lead to a lot of speculation for his own political future on the national stage.

- I don't think I knew that about Cold Stone Creamery and Ducey's former role there. Interesting.

KEVIN CIRILLI: No, I used to scoop-- I used to scoop ice cream many, many summers ago at Cold Stone.

- Oh, there you go. You got the inside scoop on-- sorry. Finally--

KEVIN CIRILLI: Wow. Wow.

- --of course, a persistent topic of concern we've been talking about is inflation and recession. What's the latest in DC on that front? Obviously, it's something the president has had to address and has addressed frequently.

KEVIN CIRILLI: All right, well here's the scoop. And I mean [INAUDIBLE]. Look, Senator Joe Manchin has come out with what he's saying is a proposal that would lower inflation. This Friday we're going to get a jobs report data. And that's going to be carefully monitored. But inflation will be the talk of the town, no doubt, as lawmakers head into their August recess at the end of the week.

- Scoop, there it is. Kevin Cirilli, thanks so much.

- No, no, no.

- I appreciate it.