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Speaker 2: I think y'all are ready to hear from our keynote, right,
Speaker 2: all right, let's see this. I will introduce them. They
Speaker 2: are ready to come on first our moderator. Our moderator.
Speaker 2: Of course you all know him, Chuck Todd. He's a
Speaker 2: six time Emmy Award winner and former hosts of Meet
Speaker 2: the Press on NBC. He now hosts the Chuck Todcast,
Speaker 2: which is a weekly podcast featuring in depth interviews with
Speaker 2: political leaders, and of course he will be interviewing Governor
Speaker 2: Wes Moore.
Speaker 3: Wes Moore is there we go.
Speaker 2: He is the sixty third governor of the state of
Speaker 2: Maryland and the state's first black governor.
Speaker 1: That's right, that's right.
Speaker 2: He's the author of the Other Wes Moore, which is
Speaker 2: a perennial New York Times bestseller, and his most recent
Speaker 2: book is Five Days, which tells the story of Baltimore
Speaker 2: in the days following the death of Freddie Gray in
Speaker 2: twenty fifteen. Please welcome them both to the stage.
Speaker 1: Well, this is good. We save a little bit of time.
Speaker 1: I don't have to do the extra work of reminding
Speaker 1: everybody about their cell phones and the silencing and all
Speaker 1: of that. But officially, I want to do my part
Speaker 1: on behalf of the Texas Tribune. While welcome, It is
Speaker 1: an honor to have Governor Wes Moore here. We're both
Speaker 1: DMV ers. So for those of you, I still weird
Speaker 1: out by saying DMV because I think the most people
Speaker 1: that are like, why are you talking about the Department
Speaker 1: of Motor Vehicles. We're trying really hard in the Mad
Speaker 1: Atlantic to make this District Maryland Virginia thing stick, aren't
Speaker 1: we exactly? You knowact it goes? Well, let's just get started.
Speaker 1: I got a laundry list of stuff I'm want to
Speaker 1: ask you about. But I actually want to start with this.
Speaker 1: You're a pretty optimistic guy. Yes, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: people in this room that feel a lot of pessimism
Speaker 1: about the country right now, and I have it in
Speaker 1: my family. I think a lot of people, Which is
Speaker 1: you vacillate between oh my god, where are we headed to?
Speaker 1: Look we're going to be okay? Where do you sit
Speaker 1: on that spectrum? You know? Of this is you have
Speaker 1: Gavin Newsom who says, you know, he doesn't ever want
Speaker 1: to have free and fair elections again versus this is
Speaker 1: a period in time in American politics and things are cyclical.
Speaker 1: What's say you? Well, I think both those things are true.
Speaker 3: And first let me say you what a real pleasure
Speaker 3: it is to be back here, vish'alle and thank you
Speaker 3: so much for having me.
Speaker 1: And it's an honor to being too shock it really is.
Speaker 3: And shout out to Sonal and shout out to the
Speaker 3: team for putting on once again another amazing, amazing conference
Speaker 3: that I'm just truly humbled in honor to be a
Speaker 3: part of. I think both of those things are true.
Speaker 3: I don't think Donald Trump wants to have more free
Speaker 3: and fair elections. The reason I'm optimistic is because I
Speaker 3: believe that if we do our part, Donald Trump is
Speaker 3: not going to have the final say that this actually
Speaker 3: becomes a unique moment for where leaders actually have to
Speaker 3: show themselves. And you know, one of the eight things
Speaker 3: that I feel about. You know, and this is going
Speaker 3: to sound a little bit odd, but this. You know,
Speaker 3: I've now been governor for for two and a half years,
Speaker 3: and we're really proud of all the work that we've
Speaker 3: gotten done in two and a half years. But these
Speaker 3: past ten months have both been the most challenging and
Speaker 3: the most important that we've had to deal with over the.
Speaker 1: Past two and a half years.
Speaker 3: Challenging for the obvious reasons. And I can talk about
Speaker 3: why Maryland that no state has taken the brunt of
Speaker 3: Donald Trump more than Maryland, where I have over two
Speaker 3: hundred and seventy thousand federal employees, more than any other
Speaker 3: state in this country. Donald Trump has now fired over
Speaker 3: fifteen thousand of my people. That we have not received
Speaker 3: a dollar of federal disaster relief, despite having historic floods
Speaker 3: over in western Maryland, that he's taken away billions of
Speaker 3: dollars in grants and capital towards our state. That he
Speaker 3: has now tried to take away the FBI building because
Speaker 3: he says that he will never let the FBI building
Speaker 3: go to a liberal state, that he's threaten to put
Speaker 3: national Guard inside of our streets. I mean, like, there
Speaker 3: is no state that has had to take on this,
Speaker 3: not again, not glancing blows, but I mean direct shots
Speaker 3: from the president. The thing that I also know, though,
Speaker 3: is this is despite all of that, this is actually
Speaker 3: a chance where leadership has the chance to show itself.
Speaker 3: And I think it's never mattered more who your governor is.
Speaker 3: It's never mattered more, who your attorney's general is. It's
Speaker 3: never mattered more whether your people have fight or not.
Speaker 3: And I love the fact that actually, in this moment,
Speaker 3: that we have a chance to show what does a
Speaker 3: better direction actually look like like. I don't have the
Speaker 3: luxury to just rail against the system. I don't have
Speaker 3: the luxury of just talking about how bad things are.
Speaker 3: I have an obligation to show my people what a
Speaker 3: better direction actually looks like. And so the thing that
Speaker 3: continues to give me and why I still am deeply,
Speaker 3: deeply optimistic about our future is both because I know
Speaker 3: our history and like, listen, if anyone thinks that these
Speaker 3: are this is the worst of times. I kind of
Speaker 3: remind people that, you know, I literally come from a
Speaker 3: state that if you look at my state flag, my
Speaker 3: state flag, because people forget Maryland is the northernmost southern
Speaker 3: state in the country, Like, the state flag of Maryland
Speaker 3: is literally a combination. It's a contradiction, right, It's a
Speaker 3: combination of both a Confederate symbol and a Union symbol.
Speaker 1: You know, some of us joke that the Mason Dixon
Speaker 1: line has moved somewhere into Virginia now, but I take
Speaker 1: your point.
Speaker 3: But you know, but I mean, but it's like real,
Speaker 3: It's like the bloodiest battles of the Civil War were
Speaker 3: fought in our soil. Right, that we are literally the
Speaker 3: birthplace of redlining in the state of Maryland, That we're
Speaker 3: the birthplace of Harriet Tubman, the birthplace of Frederick Douglass.
Speaker 3: And part of the reason that I do have a
Speaker 3: real sense of hopefulness and optimism is, you know, I
Speaker 3: imagine to myself, like what would a hypothetical conversation between
Speaker 3: between me and Harriet Tubman be, Like, like me telling
Speaker 3: Harriet Tubman how difficult my day was, you know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying. So it's like, so I just you got
Speaker 3: to keep this in context where I understand what Donald
Speaker 3: Trump thinks, but I'm just a firm believer that Donald
Speaker 3: Trump is not going to have a final say.
Speaker 1: How much effort should be made to confront Donald Trump
Speaker 1: by the Democratic Party leaders, and how much effort should
Speaker 1: be made about laying the groundwork for a world post
Speaker 1: Donald Trump.
Speaker 3: So I think there has to be a combination where
Speaker 3: where we do have an obligation to push back, because
Speaker 3: you cannot watch what is happening right now and think
Speaker 3: that we're just going to sit here and take it
Speaker 3: or ignore it. I have a very real problem. I
Speaker 3: have a very real problem with people who, in this
Speaker 3: moment are getting really quiet. I have a very real
Speaker 3: problem in this moment with these people who, these leaders
Speaker 3: who somehow think that if we just sit quiet, the
Speaker 3: beating will stop, or if we just say nothing, he
Speaker 3: will ignore us. And I just want to be very clear,
Speaker 3: that is not how this game works, and that's not
Speaker 3: how this movie's gonna end. Like, we have an obligation
Speaker 3: both to push back, but we also do have an
Speaker 3: obligation to push forward. And you know, and I think
Speaker 3: about it now, and I was speaking earlier with with
Speaker 3: with Solo about it where there will be a post
Speaker 3: Trump world, right, And I think that everything that we
Speaker 3: are seeing right now, it's going to fall into five categories,
Speaker 3: and we just have to be clear about what category
Speaker 3: everything we're talking about falls in. There are some things
Speaker 3: that are just broken and will never be repaired. There
Speaker 3: are some things that are broken and we can repair.
Speaker 3: There's some things that are broken and we can repair.
Speaker 3: But differently, there's some things that will survive that we
Speaker 3: need to break, and there's certain things that will survive
Speaker 3: that we need to keep.
Speaker 1: We just had to be.
Speaker 3: Very clear and very honest about what things fall in
Speaker 3: each of those five buckets. But I think so we
Speaker 3: have to come up with that balance of yes, pushing back,
Speaker 3: but also being very clear that that pushing back is
Speaker 3: not going.
Speaker 1: To be enough.
Speaker 3: We also have to find ways of pushing forward as well.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the government shutdown. This had to feel
Speaker 1: you had to be torn about it. On one hand,
Speaker 1: you you just talked about the importance of pushing back.
Speaker 1: On the other hand, you have a lot of constituents
Speaker 1: that were out of work and we're struggling because they
Speaker 1: weren't going to get paid, and it's a you can't
Speaker 1: pay your rent with a promise, right, you need to
Speaker 1: actually have cash in the checking account. Was it a
Speaker 1: good tactic? Was it the right call? Should it still
Speaker 1: be shut down?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm I'm I'm gonna be honest, Chuck, I'm not
Speaker 3: torn about at all. There is no reason that the
Speaker 3: government should have been shut down. But because think about it,
Speaker 3: like this has very and I don't know a single
Speaker 3: governor that says, oh, yeah, we should just shut the
Speaker 3: government down like this has real human consequences for us.
Speaker 1: You're glad it opened up.
Speaker 3: Oh, I'm very glad and opened up. But I'll give
Speaker 3: you I'll give you a caveat and and perst of all,
Speaker 3: first of all, it's just absurd.
Speaker 1: That Washington, d c. Can just shut down.
Speaker 3: Like I mean, like like.
Speaker 1: By the way, it's two legal people, one in Carter's
Speaker 1: Justice department, one in Reagan's Justice department, who just came
Speaker 1: up with a legal theory that this is what happens
Speaker 1: when there's a funding dispute, that we should just cease operations.
Speaker 1: It's crazy, it's ridiculous, it's not in the constitution. It
Speaker 1: should never happen.
Speaker 3: Ever, Okay, ever, we should never allow a government shutdown,
Speaker 3: and like, think about it, Like I can't walk into
Speaker 3: my state house and say, you know what, Maryland, we're
Speaker 3: shutting down.
Speaker 1: I can't do it at McDonald's.
Speaker 3: Kim McDonald's, Ken ken a family. Could you walk to
Speaker 3: your family tonight and say, you know, y'all shut down,
Speaker 3: we're shutting down, shut down, turn no streaming right, Like,
Speaker 3: no one does this except for Washington DC. So the
Speaker 3: whole idea that we have government shutdowns is just so
Speaker 3: absurd on its face, and particularly when you have very
Speaker 3: real human consequences. I'm like, again, I have over two
Speaker 3: hundred and seventy thousand people, many of whom and who
Speaker 3: have the audacity to do things like making sure that
Speaker 3: our food is safe, who have the audacity of doing
Speaker 3: things like making sure that we're finding the cures to diseases,
Speaker 3: who are crazy enough to think that their job is
Speaker 3: so special that they're trying to keep planes from colliding
Speaker 3: or that or that that military veterans like myself, that
Speaker 3: that military veterans can get the medication that they need.
Speaker 3: Like these are who you went after, and by the way,
Speaker 3: for many of these people that you then turn around
Speaker 3: and force them to go to work with no pay,
Speaker 3: while we have people in Washington who are getting paid
Speaker 3: and not going to work. Right, So so we did
Speaker 3: so in our state, we made sure that we were
Speaker 3: going to take care of our people. So that's why
Speaker 3: in our state, you know, I said that we were
Speaker 3: going to do and I worked with our private tech
Speaker 3: to partners. I said, We're doing a moratorium on all evictions,
Speaker 3: on all utility shutoffs. You were not going to evict
Speaker 3: our federal workers or shut their utilities off because they
Speaker 3: are not getting paid for something that is not their faults.
Speaker 3: That we told all of our federal workers, all these
Speaker 3: people who are going to work and not getting paid
Speaker 3: but still paying to go to work, that I told
Speaker 3: them all all transportation that we have in the state
Speaker 3: of Maryland, just show your badge. Transportation for you is free.
Speaker 3: You do not have to pay for anything. And that
Speaker 3: we had to do things like and then we saw
Speaker 3: a situation where you go to President of the United
Speaker 3: States who's doing things like breaking the law and trying
Speaker 3: to cut off SNAP despite the fact that, by the way,
Speaker 3: twenty eight thousand SNAP recipients in our state are military veterans.
Speaker 3: One in one in three, one in four of our
Speaker 3: federal workers are military veterans. So I love this for
Speaker 3: a person who claims to love the military, and the
Speaker 3: first thing you're doing is going after our veterans. So
Speaker 3: the federal government should never been shut down in the
Speaker 3: first place. However, I will say this how deeply inhumane
Speaker 3: it is and it was to think that a good
Speaker 3: compromise is that a prerequisite for reopening the government is
Speaker 3: kicking people off of health care or having premiums jump
Speaker 3: by eighty and ninety percent. So I am very glad
Speaker 3: the federal government is reopened. I'm very glad that we
Speaker 3: can stop doing stupid things like shutting down our federal government.
Speaker 3: But I do want to be very and I know
Speaker 3: I didn't have a vote, so no one asked me
Speaker 3: my opinion, but I do want to be very clear.
Speaker 3: You would never find anything ever with my signature on it,
Speaker 3: that thinks it's okay to kick people off of health
Speaker 3: care as somehow that means you have a justifiable or
Speaker 3: you have a function in government. If you are kicking
Speaker 3: people off of health care, it means your government is
Speaker 3: not functioning. And we have to be very very clear
Speaker 3: about that.
Speaker 1: Let me ask about when the President was starting to
Speaker 1: pick on other cities. After he picked on Washington, Baltimore
Speaker 1: was mentioned, and you did an interest. You made an
Speaker 1: interesting decision. You said, no, we don't want the National
Speaker 1: Guard here, that's a mistake. However, I'm going to bring
Speaker 1: in UH state police to assist in Baltimore. Frankly, I
Speaker 1: thought that was pretty politically savvy. But I will ask this,
Speaker 1: Does that mean Donald Trump has a point about our cities?
Speaker 1: Not at all? So why did you do it?
Speaker 3: Well, I didn't. The reason I did it, it wasn't a
Speaker 3: response to Donald Trump at all. You know, when I
Speaker 3: first became the governor of Maryland, we had a violence
Speaker 3: crisis in our state. In twenty twenty two, the year
Speaker 3: before I became the governor, Baltimore City was averaging about
Speaker 3: a homicide a day. That if you look at the
Speaker 3: eight years before I became the governor Maryland was Maryland average.
Speaker 3: The Maryland homicide rate had doubled over an eight year period.
Speaker 3: The non fatal shooting rate did double.
Speaker 1: Do you know what's the cause? How much of it
Speaker 1: was COVID, how much of it's something else?
Speaker 3: Well, No, I think there's a whole bunch of reasons.
Speaker 3: I thought, you think it had one. If when you
Speaker 3: neglect communities and you allow hope to leave, violence will
Speaker 3: enter and will fill the space. I think we had
Speaker 3: a very real issue when it came to law enforcement,
Speaker 3: and I think, you know, when I talked about, you
Speaker 3: know the book that I wrote five days, how there
Speaker 3: was a steep cutoff and fall off of law enforcement
Speaker 3: people who were signing up, who are staying on the role.
Speaker 3: And so there's a few things that I did because
Speaker 3: I was very clear, I said from Jump Street when
Speaker 3: I knew the crisis we had, I'm not going to
Speaker 3: spend my eight years just giving eulogies and offering thoughts
Speaker 3: and prayers that we're actually going to address the issue.
Speaker 3: And so when I came on board, we made historic
Speaker 3: investments in local law enforcement and making sure you had
Speaker 3: not just boots on the ground, but saying we can
Speaker 3: have a police force that moves with appropriate intensity and
Speaker 3: absolute integrity and full accountability. That we said we're going
Speaker 3: to invest in technologies and basically saying you can utilize
Speaker 3: technologies to make sure that if someone commits a violent crime,
Speaker 3: particularly a violent crime with a firearm, I want them
Speaker 3: in handcuffs in twenty four hours. And also we said
Speaker 3: we're going to invest in our community, community violence intervention groups,
Speaker 3: community violence interruption groups, because so much of the violence
Speaker 3: that we were seeing in our communities it was retaliatory
Speaker 3: by nature, and so you must invest in community to
Speaker 3: be able to help to address those issues. When so
Speaker 3: here was the reality when Donald Trump started making his
Speaker 3: threats that for the past two and a half years,
Speaker 3: there is no state that has seen a faster drop
Speaker 3: off when it comes to violent crime than the state
Speaker 3: of Maryland. That the last time the homicide rate was
Speaker 3: this slow in Baltimore City, I wasn't born yet. That
Speaker 3: we are literally watching historic drops in violent crime, historic
Speaker 3: drops and property crime and auto thefts and carjackings and
Speaker 3: homicides and non fatal shootings. And the President wants to
Speaker 3: look at us like we're the problem. I said, is
Speaker 3: to President, you don't need to look at us like
Speaker 3: we're the problem. Actually, shoul look at us like we're
Speaker 3: the solution. And if you want to spend time, if
Speaker 3: you want to spend time actually learning instead of bloviating
Speaker 3: from the Oval office, these like nineteen eighties Archie Bunker,
Speaker 3: you know, you know then you should come spend some
Speaker 3: time with it.
Speaker 1: So I'm did you offer to take him for a while?
Speaker 1: I did.
Speaker 3: I offered it take him for a walk. I told
Speaker 3: him if it was too long a walk, I would
Speaker 3: get him a golf cart. I you know, you know, I'm,
Speaker 3: I'm I I mean, but because the thing about it is,
Speaker 3: and this is also why it was so offensive to me.
Speaker 1: You know, he he.
Speaker 3: Uses the military like it's some form of like some
Speaker 3: like these childish toy soldiers, and it's just really rich
Speaker 3: because he's someone who does not know what it means
Speaker 3: to put on the uniform. He doesn't know what it
Speaker 3: means to say goodbye to your family, He doesn't know
Speaker 3: what it means. He does not know what it means
Speaker 3: to be willing to put your life on the line
Speaker 3: for the person to your left or to your right.
Speaker 3: And as someone who does, as someone who served my country,
Speaker 3: as someone who led soldiers in combat, I just found
Speaker 3: it deeply offensive that his solution to this was this,
Speaker 3: you know, this childish endeavor of saying, well, we'll just
Speaker 3: send the National Guard into cities. And let's be very
Speaker 3: clear if there was any data to show that this
Speaker 3: would actually work.
Speaker 1: Again, I'm a data driven person. I'm listening.
Speaker 3: Here is the problem. There is no data. This was
Speaker 3: not a data driven decision. This was an emotive splurge
Speaker 3: that the President has a habit of making. And so
Speaker 3: if you look at what's happened, even when he's deployed
Speaker 3: National Guard to Washington, d C. And these other places,
Speaker 3: here's what I can tell you. The National Guard members
Speaker 3: who are not trained for municipal policing. That is not
Speaker 3: what they are trained for. And I know that because
Speaker 3: I am the commander in chief of the Maryland National Guard.
Speaker 1: And I know what my people are trained for.
Speaker 3: And they are supposed to be deployed during times of emergency,
Speaker 3: during times of crisis. They are not there to perform
Speaker 3: performative stunts. And so the truth is is that we've
Speaker 3: had members of the National Guard who have taken more
Speaker 3: selfies than done arrests. We have members of the National
Speaker 3: Guard who have picked up more trash than actually conducted
Speaker 3: drug busts. And so the issue that I had, of
Speaker 3: the multiple issues that I have with the President when
Speaker 3: he was threatening to do this and trying to make these,
Speaker 3: you know, these ridiculous comments about me and members of
Speaker 3: our National Guard is how deeply disrespectful it is to
Speaker 3: members of our military, because these are people who are
Speaker 3: willing to risk their lives if necessary, because they trust
Speaker 3: that their commander in chief is taking their lives seriously.
Speaker 3: They trusted the directions that the commander in chief are
Speaker 3: making are not just lawful, but informed. And they trusted
Speaker 3: their commander in chief would never put them in a
Speaker 3: situation that they are not trained for, and never put
Speaker 3: them in a situation that they are not prepared to
Speaker 3: excel in. And I found it just deeply disrespectful to
Speaker 3: our National Guard, deeply disrespectful to their family members to
Speaker 3: ask them to do these quixotic missions simply because the
Speaker 3: president is trying to prove a political point.
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Speaker 1: I read today actually that the incoming mayor of New
Speaker 1: York City has been calling various governors seeking advice on
Speaker 1: how to deal with Donald Trump, and one of the
Speaker 1: governors he called was you, is that a correct report?
Speaker 1: That is correct port? Do you mind sharing the advice
Speaker 1: you gave him?
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I I the the advice. Uh, you know,
Speaker 3: the advice that I gave him is performance matters more
Speaker 3: than anything else. What Donald Trump is talking about, what
Speaker 3: Donald Trump is doing is performative. What people want in
Speaker 3: your jurisdiction is performance. They want results. And this is
Speaker 3: actually one of the big things that I think about
Speaker 3: for the Democratic Party, where you know, people are like, well,
Speaker 3: what's the message for the Democratic Party? Like the Democrats
Speaker 3: don't have a messaging problem. The Democrats have a results problem.
Speaker 3: You've got to actually deliver results, and and and and
Speaker 3: the and the thing that I'm very clear about is
Speaker 3: that if you you know, when you say when when
Speaker 3: the present is like, we need to talk more about affordability. No,
Speaker 3: you need to address affordability, sir. You don't need to
Speaker 3: talk about affordability. You need to make sure we're doing
Speaker 3: things like making sure that housing is more available because
Speaker 3: one of the leading causes for people to lead jurisdictions
Speaker 3: is rising housing costs, and if you have increased demand,
Speaker 3: which means more people coming to an area, the thing
Speaker 3: you have to do to address it is you have
Speaker 3: to increase supply. You have to build more housing, and
Speaker 3: you have to build it fast. Right if you really,
Speaker 3: if you really want to address things like rising energy
Speaker 3: CAUs it's not just talking about rising energy costs. You
Speaker 3: need to have more energy options and you need to
Speaker 3: stop doing what we're watching the president do. Where in
Speaker 3: our state, I'm very clear that we want to be
Speaker 3: able to explore all energy options because you want to
Speaker 3: increase supply. So that means why are we not looking
Speaker 3: at investing in things like solar, Why are we not
Speaker 3: investing in win, Why are we not investing in nuclear?
Speaker 3: And look at nuclears a clean energy option? But no,
Speaker 3: but the President still continue to take an ideological perspective
Speaker 3: to it and then turn around and say, well, let's
Speaker 3: blame democrats why prices are going up. And so the
Speaker 3: thing and the council that I really gave it that
Speaker 3: like listen, you know, don't don't get distracted, stay focused,
Speaker 3: and stay focused on delivering the results that the people
Speaker 3: of your jurisdiction need. And if you do that, You're
Speaker 3: gonna be fine.
Speaker 1: It does seem as if you only deal with you
Speaker 1: only respond, you only respond to Trump. You don't seem
Speaker 1: to seek out confrontation with.
Speaker 3: High I have no desire to pick a fight with
Speaker 3: the President of the United States, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: But I refuse to let the president of the United States,
Speaker 3: you know, pick on my people where I've been very
Speaker 3: clear with the people of my state, like I will
Speaker 3: work with anyone, but I will bow down to no one,
Speaker 3: and I will not let and I'm not gonna let
Speaker 3: the people of my state become a pincushion for for
Speaker 3: his for his uh, you know, for his childish s florness.
Speaker 1: I'm going to drop the Trump subject here after this
Speaker 1: one last question. He's won two terms for president. What
Speaker 1: does he do? What does he do well that has
Speaker 1: allowed him to get elected twice? Ah, what have you
Speaker 1: learned anything from him?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 3: Absolutely, And listen, I think we will be.
Speaker 1: We would be.
Speaker 3: We can spend all night long talking about the dangers
Speaker 3: of what he is doing and how we literally have
Speaker 3: a president United States who's using the Constitution like it's
Speaker 3: a suggestion box.
Speaker 1: I think I wish he did use it as a suggestion. Thoughts,
Speaker 1: actually he.
Speaker 3: Should take more suggestions. But we would also be foolish
Speaker 3: not to acknowledge the speed in which he moves. Where,
Speaker 3: you know, I think about it this way, where.
Speaker 1: You don't care about institutions and whether they have to
Speaker 1: write their own version of the memo before you get
Speaker 1: to institute implement your plan.
Speaker 3: Right, Oftentimes everything from Democrats is.
Speaker 1: Like an eight year research paper.
Speaker 3: It's like, well, let's do another analysis of the analysis
Speaker 3: that we concluded of the last analysis.
Speaker 1: You need to make sure to approve a committee to
Speaker 1: do that analysis.
Speaker 3: By the way, Donald Trump did not need a two
Speaker 3: year commission to decide he was going to start a
Speaker 3: trade war. Donald Trump did not need a four year
Speaker 3: analysis to decide that he was going to break the
Speaker 3: law and kick children off of snap. Donald Trump did
Speaker 3: not need a eighteen person commission to decide that he
Speaker 3: was going to take parts of the Constitution and literally
Speaker 3: pick and choose which judge's orders he would follow and not.
Speaker 3: And I just think that the Democratic Party has got
Speaker 3: to stop being the party of no and slow and
Speaker 3: starting the party of yes. And now I think the
Speaker 3: Democratic Party have got to start moving faster. I think
Speaker 3: the Democratic Party have got to be start being more
Speaker 3: more deliberate. I think the Democratic Party has got to
Speaker 3: stop making everything a tenth grade debate club research paper.
Speaker 3: And I just believe that you know, there is something
Speaker 3: that we do understand that he actually does that he
Speaker 3: moves with a level of speed and frankly, Donald Trump,
Speaker 3: and I said, Donald Trump is a fantastic vessel for
Speaker 3: the frustration. He's someone who's going to tell you what's
Speaker 3: wrong with it. He's going to see someone who's going
Speaker 3: to tell you who broke it, who's to blame for it,
Speaker 3: and why he alone can fix it. Right, Donald Trump
Speaker 3: is a vessel for the frustration, but he's not a
Speaker 3: vehicle for the solution. I think the answer that the
Speaker 3: Democrats have got to do is we've got to start
Speaker 3: being the vehicle for the solution and stop pretending like
Speaker 3: these problems are not problems. Because if we start moving
Speaker 3: with a sense of speed to address the issue that
Speaker 3: if we can have, if we if our solutions actually
Speaker 3: match the speed in which people's lives are falling apart,
Speaker 3: then you're not going to have election problems anymore.
Speaker 1: But that's the thing I think we've got to learn
Speaker 1: from him. Let's you brought up affordability and you brought
Speaker 1: up electricity, and this is this is It looks like
Speaker 1: the electric bill in twenty twenty six is going to
Speaker 1: be what the price of eggs was in twenty twenty four, right,
Speaker 1: Meaning this is going to be an issue. We're seeing
Speaker 1: it everywhere. Right. It was a big, big issue in
Speaker 1: New Jersey. I'm a Virginian. Louden County is on fire
Speaker 1: about these data centers. Maryland's in an interesting spot right
Speaker 1: as far as where your place is on the grid,
Speaker 1: and you know, you're having to have more transmission lines right,
Speaker 1: are coming through the state in order to power these
Speaker 1: data centers in the v of the DMV. And yet
Speaker 1: the way we do electric bills, it's all state regulated
Speaker 1: and all of that stuff. This feels like we are
Speaker 1: we're sort of a slow motion train wreck where suddenly
Speaker 1: government's going to get left with a huge tab to
Speaker 1: subsidize a whole bunch of people who can't afford electricity anymore.
Speaker 1: What can be done proactively in your state to lessen
Speaker 1: the impact of what is clearly going to be a
Speaker 1: surge in electrical uh, a surgeon use off the grid,
Speaker 1: which is just going to raise all of our electric bills.
Speaker 3: And it's it's it's it's insane that we've even gotten
Speaker 3: here in the first place, because there's just been a
Speaker 3: deep level of negligence that is that's existed.
Speaker 1: You know we have now you don't have to tell
Speaker 1: Texans about a power grid issue. That's true. I think
Speaker 1: they're well aware and allow will laugh about it. You know,
Speaker 1: it's real. Let's hope there's not a tough winner here.
Speaker 1: That's right, right, they have a tough winner. That grid
Speaker 1: goes down, all of us may pay a price.
Speaker 3: Across I'll say, it's it's not just y'all that will
Speaker 3: pay it pay a larger price.
Speaker 1: It's it's it will be the entire country. Right.
Speaker 3: So there's a there's a few different things that I
Speaker 3: think we have just completely missed a boat on. We've
Speaker 3: missed a boat when it comes to understanding the level
Speaker 3: of surging, surging demand that exists. And it's not just
Speaker 3: it's not even just surging demand that you have from
Speaker 3: UH companies and technology, it's also just the human surge
Speaker 3: of demand that has now existed that we have not
Speaker 3: made the investments when it comes to grid technology, we
Speaker 3: have not made the investments when it comes to pipeline
Speaker 3: and when you do have a few of these operators
Speaker 3: for example, you know, and for us it's it's it's
Speaker 3: PGM where you know where there's about thirteen states that
Speaker 3: PGM covers down on where the processes are opaque, the
Speaker 3: processes are convoluted, and the processes are things that frankly,
Speaker 3: for a lot of the states we don't have a
Speaker 3: measure of involvement in and so we have PJAM who
Speaker 3: will then make decisions about which projects they will then
Speaker 3: allow without the input that's coming from us, from from
Speaker 3: our individual states, from Pennsylvania, from Maryland, from Virginia, from
Speaker 3: all from Jersey, from all these other states.
Speaker 1: But your state regulatory agency with the power companies doesn't
Speaker 1: have any impact on this.
Speaker 3: Camp because because they are they are an independent with rates.
Speaker 3: All they do is just approve rates well. And what
Speaker 3: they do is they prove projects okay. And so the
Speaker 3: problem is is that if you have a choke point
Speaker 3: for projects that allowed to come on, it means that
Speaker 3: you have a decreased supply. And so I think you
Speaker 3: have to have reform within PJAM. You have to allow
Speaker 3: and be speedier about putting more projects that allowed to
Speaker 3: come on board. We have to do a better job
Speaker 3: of diversifying the type of energy options that we have.
Speaker 3: If you can do that, you're then able to increase
Speaker 3: the supply that's then able to address the supply and
Speaker 3: demand curve. The problem is is that we have found
Speaker 3: ourselves in a situation that for a decade plus there
Speaker 3: has not been this type of investment. And so now
Speaker 3: you come up with a situation where you have a
Speaker 3: crisis situation and something where people are now watching their
Speaker 3: energy bills continue to skyrocket for the same exact product line.
Speaker 3: And so I agree, I think this is one of
Speaker 3: the crucial issues that we've got to be able to
Speaker 3: sort on, and frankly, something that no individual state alone
Speaker 3: is going to have to figure out. It's going to
Speaker 3: take really a coordination between all of our individual states
Speaker 3: to do it.
Speaker 1: I hear you, But look, you're in an electioneer. People
Speaker 1: are going to want some They're going to want some
Speaker 1: help right now. Yes, what could you do in the
Speaker 1: state level.
Speaker 3: Well, we can help when it comes to things like like,
Speaker 3: for example, just a few weeks ago, I just put
Speaker 3: an additional ten million dollars that is going towards energy
Speaker 3: prices and energy bills as we're coming up to as
Speaker 3: we're coming up to our winter season, helping with heating bills.
Speaker 3: So we've done rebates that have gone back to the people,
Speaker 3: to the people of our state. So there are things
Speaker 3: that we can do to help out with the immediate pain.
Speaker 3: But I think that has to be matched with also
Speaker 3: additional investments that's can be made to deal with the
Speaker 3: long term processes, because none of us have an interest
Speaker 3: or frankly, there is no state that has a balance
Speaker 3: sheet to continue just finding more expensive band aids. We've
Speaker 3: got to actually fix the wound that is causing increased demand.
Speaker 3: But where supply is just not keeping up or matching
Speaker 3: with it.
Speaker 1: What should the all these AI tech companies that are
Speaker 1: skyrocketing the stock market, they have these incredible valuations, they're
Speaker 1: building these data centers, and look, there's it's not every
Speaker 1: state where the data centers are causing this problem. It's
Speaker 1: it's some states that they are, some that they aren't.
Speaker 3: And some data centers have no I have their own.
Speaker 1: Power centers and all of that. What I guess the
Speaker 1: question is if if somebody wants to build a data
Speaker 1: center in Maryland. What does that? What would a Microsoft
Speaker 1: have to do or an IBM if they wanted to
Speaker 1: build a data center in Maryland, what would you want
Speaker 1: them to do to minimize the impact on your residence. Well,
Speaker 1: I think there's a few things.
Speaker 3: One is, and I've been very clear and we've actually,
Speaker 3: you know, had projects that we say are not going
Speaker 3: to move forward, because if you're not moving forward with
Speaker 3: the community, then things cannot move forward.
Speaker 1: These aren't job creators, are they, these data centers?
Speaker 3: Well, they're they're job creators, but they're not job creators.
Speaker 3: And when you're looking at that long term job creators, no,
Speaker 3: and not and not massive job creators. Right, So listen,
Speaker 3: I am actually I believe that we need to do
Speaker 3: a better job of critical infrastructure. I believe that our
Speaker 3: state needs to do more to invite critical infrastructure. I also, though,
Speaker 3: believe that nothing can or will happen in my state
Speaker 3: without the impact of the community. And I think the
Speaker 3: community will always have the final say with me. It's
Speaker 3: part of the reason that I have a lot of
Speaker 3: issues with some of these projects that pg going back
Speaker 3: to PGAM that they then put on board, where you
Speaker 3: were literally putting together lines and transmission lines and you're
Speaker 3: looking at them, You're putting it throughout my map without
Speaker 3: realizing that people actually live there, like it's a game
Speaker 3: about where they are placing this without any form of
Speaker 3: feedback from us or any former feedback from the community.
Speaker 3: And so I believe that we need to invest in
Speaker 3: critical infrastructure. I believe that when we're talking about the
Speaker 3: future of AI and cyber and quantum, that these are
Speaker 3: things that I want my state to be not just
Speaker 3: a national but a global leader in. But I also
Speaker 3: know that this has to happen in partnership with the community.
Speaker 3: This is not going to be what we're doing to
Speaker 3: the community. It has to be what we're doing actually
Speaker 3: with the community in these build outs.
Speaker 1: Are you working with any of these companies that have
Speaker 1: taken that attitude?
Speaker 3: Oh, well, we are, because for all these companies, they
Speaker 3: understand if you're not taking that attitude, then you're not
Speaker 3: doing projects in my state.
Speaker 1: You before you were a politician. I first met you
Speaker 1: when you were CEO of something called the Robin Hood Foundation. Yeah,
Speaker 1: in New York City. It's an incredible a charitable organization
Speaker 1: primarily funded by the Wall Street folks. Right, would you
Speaker 1: say fair Yeah. I say this because Wall Street money
Speaker 1: right is a dirty word in the Democratic Party today. Well,
Speaker 1: this is why I want to give you a chance. Yeah,
Speaker 1: make your case for why Democrats shouldn't be so skeptical
Speaker 1: of Wall Street.
Speaker 3: Well, I think about the work that I did at
Speaker 3: Robin Hooden, and it's this idea that for each and
Speaker 3: every one of us, we should understand the scourge that poverty,
Speaker 3: and particularly child poverty is in our society. I mean fundamentally.
Speaker 3: That's actually the reason why I ran. That's really the
Speaker 3: reason and why I ran for governor in the first place.
Speaker 3: Is you know, when I was talking with you know,
Speaker 3: I remember actually talking with a board member, Robin d
Speaker 3: and when I told him, I think I'm gonna leave
Speaker 3: and I'm gonna go run for governor. And he said, well,
Speaker 3: what is shees doing to work on? I'm like, I
Speaker 3: want to work on things like child poverty. I want
Speaker 3: to work on things like the racial wealth gap. And
Speaker 3: he's like, but you're doing that here, why would you
Speaker 3: leave and run for office? And I remember looking at
Speaker 3: him and saying, and.
Speaker 1: Acquire a whole bunch of extra bureaucracy to do those
Speaker 1: things sometimes, right.
Speaker 3: Now, that's right, yeah, And I remember looking at him
Speaker 3: and I said to him, why do you think poverty
Speaker 3: exists in the first place, Like, do you think poverty
Speaker 3: exists because one group is just not working hard enough?
Speaker 3: Like we have poverty because we have policies that allow
Speaker 3: it to exist. We have poverty because we have policies
Speaker 3: that put people in poverty and keep them in poverty.
Speaker 3: We have a wealth gap, not because one group is
Speaker 3: working eight times harder, but there are policies that allow
Speaker 3: this to exist. And so I think that the only
Speaker 3: way you're actually going to address it that you know,
Speaker 3: I remember doctor King had a quote that sat on
Speaker 3: my desk where it said philanthropy is commendable, but the
Speaker 3: philanthropists can never forget the economic injustice that makes philanthropy necessary.
Speaker 3: And my whole thing is this is that for our philanthropists,
Speaker 3: what you're doing is good, but if you do not
Speaker 3: understand why the policies that are being put in place.
Speaker 3: The policies for example, like we saw where you know,
Speaker 3: with the Big Beautiful Bill that was the largest upwards
Speaker 3: consolidation of wealth in world history, that literally was just
Speaker 3: making it. It created all these challenges so billionaires could
Speaker 3: get a tax cut. And so I have and if
Speaker 3: you look at what we did in the state of Maryland,
Speaker 3: where we actually did an adjustment to our tax code,
Speaker 3: where we gave the middle class a tax cut.
Speaker 1: In my state. And yes, I asked.
Speaker 3: Wealthy Marylanders to pay more, because I said, I have
Speaker 3: no problem asking those who have done very well and
Speaker 3: who have benefited from the society that has been created,
Speaker 3: to say, I'm asking you to pay a little bit
Speaker 3: more so we don't have to lay off police officers
Speaker 3: and firefighters, so we don't have to lay off school teachers,
Speaker 3: so we can make sure that we can have safe
Speaker 3: communities and have the best public education system inside this country.
Speaker 3: And so I'm a person who says and believes deeply
Speaker 3: like I don't you know when people say, you know,
Speaker 3: do you lose sleep over billionaires? I said, I don't
Speaker 3: lose sleep over billionaires. I want billionaires to pay their
Speaker 3: fair share. But I don't lose sleep over billionaires. I
Speaker 3: lose sleep over how many people we have living in poverty.
Speaker 3: And I think we need to stay focused on ensuring
Speaker 3: that if we can create a more equitable society, and
Speaker 3: if we can create a society that listen, if you
Speaker 3: do well. Congratulations, God bless you. But what I am
Speaker 3: saying is this, you cannot do well just simply on
Speaker 3: the backs of working people and then not expect that
Speaker 3: there should be some form of way that we should.
Speaker 1: Have a tax system that is a fair tax system.
Speaker 3: That allows you to be able to get back into
Speaker 3: a society that you benefited from.
Speaker 1: There's a reason results matter more than promises, just like
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Speaker 1: Their fee is free unless they win. There is a
Speaker 1: a poll that was out a couple of weeks ago
Speaker 1: by my former polsters, I call them my former posters.
Speaker 1: I miss my guys that we do the NBC News
Speaker 1: poll with but plurality of Democrats. Democrats were the only
Speaker 1: political group that had a net negative view of capitalism
Speaker 1: and a net positive view of socialism. Why do you
Speaker 1: think that is well?
Speaker 3: I mean, honestly, I'm not sure if people if you
Speaker 3: ask people the benefits of you know, what is socialism
Speaker 3: or what is capitalism, that people would.
Speaker 1: Actually give you an understanding of what that. I don't
Speaker 1: think they know the definitions.
Speaker 3: No, I mean, like honestly, like I remember, you know,
Speaker 3: I remember having a conversation with somebody who actually lives
Speaker 3: up in New York and this was actually during during
Speaker 3: the primary for the mayor's race, and they were like
Speaker 3: all in on Mamdani and so I was like, Oh,
Speaker 3: that's that's cool. So I was like, so, you know,
Speaker 3: so you know what excites You're there telling me all
Speaker 3: this stuff. And I was like, are you a democratic socialists?
Speaker 3: And they're like, what's that? Like? They didn't, they weren't
Speaker 3: making the connection.
Speaker 1: I got you. And I think for a.
Speaker 3: Lot of people, the idea of what is a capitalist?
Speaker 3: What is a socialist? What is this?
Speaker 1: What was that?
Speaker 3: I think if you ask people fundamentally, like what do
Speaker 3: you believe in? Like, I can tell you like what
Speaker 3: I believe in, Like I believe that that that not
Speaker 3: everyone should end up in the same spot, but everyone
Speaker 3: should have a fair shot. I believe that we actually
Speaker 3: should be a society that believes opportunity is a real
Speaker 3: thing and not a punchline.
Speaker 1: Equal access not equal outcomes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and and and that, and that we all shouldn't
Speaker 3: have the.
Speaker 1: Same equal solution for everybody.
Speaker 3: I mean it's the reason that, for example, that we
Speaker 3: have made the largest investments in trade and apprenticeship programs
Speaker 3: inside of our state because I'm very clear, like we
Speaker 3: have some of the best four year colleges in America,
Speaker 3: and something that I'm very proud of in the state
Speaker 3: of Maryland. But I'm also very clear I am going
Speaker 3: to end this lie that every single one of our
Speaker 3: students needs to attend one of them in order to
Speaker 3: be economically successful. It's just not true that we are
Speaker 3: going that we've eliminated this idea that we're evaluating high
Speaker 3: schools based on your four year college acceptance rates. That's
Speaker 3: an input, but it's not a key performance indicator. It's
Speaker 3: basically saying that, like, how do we make sure that
Speaker 3: we're having opportunities for people to be able to live
Speaker 3: out their God given opportunities and God given potential that
Speaker 3: people should have a chance to pursue work and wages
Speaker 3: and wealth and know that there's not one singular path
Speaker 3: in order to get there, you know. And I tell
Speaker 3: people like, listen, I joined the army when I was
Speaker 3: seventeen years old, Right, I think I'm the only governor
Speaker 3: in this country who graduated from a two year college, right,
Speaker 3: you know? I and you know, and things worked out
Speaker 3: pretty well. So it's like, so there is no one
Speaker 3: singular path that we want people to go down. And
Speaker 3: I think when we're just talking about what does it
Speaker 3: mean to have a society that works for everybody. I
Speaker 3: believe that we need to know I am a I
Speaker 3: am a capitalist. I also, though, believe that we need
Speaker 3: to make sure that we have a fair and equitable
Speaker 3: society as well.
Speaker 1: Do you think the S word is a branding problem,
Speaker 1: the socialism No.
Speaker 3: I think that we need to make sure that our
Speaker 3: society actually works for people. And when and when you
Speaker 3: when you have a situation where you know, I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't think that the answer for how do we
Speaker 3: fix society is complete redistribution.
Speaker 1: I think the way you.
Speaker 3: Actually fix society is you remove the barriers that are
Speaker 3: keeping people from participating and competing in the first place.
Speaker 3: I think one of the biggest ills we have on
Speaker 3: society right now is a level of concentrated poverty, and
Speaker 3: not just concentrated poverty, but generational poverty that we have
Speaker 3: within our state. Is the reason that we in Maryland
Speaker 3: passed something called the Enough Initiative, which stands for engaging neighborhoods, organizations, unions, governments,
Speaker 3: and households basically everybody. And it is the most aggressive,
Speaker 3: most aggressive place based strategy that this nation has seen
Speaker 3: to address the issue of concentrated and generational childhood poverty.
Speaker 3: That I believe that we need to be able to
Speaker 3: address the racial wealth gap because the problem with the
Speaker 3: racial wealth gap is that it doesn't just hurt one group.
Speaker 3: Is that the racial wealth gap has cost this country
Speaker 3: sixteen trillion dollars in GDP.
Speaker 1: Over the past two decades. That's GDP.
Speaker 3: And so if you really want to have an economy
Speaker 3: that works for everybody, have an economy that actually everybody
Speaker 3: can participate.
Speaker 1: In, the issue of reparations became a bit of a
Speaker 1: back and forth with your legislature, particularly, I think the
Speaker 1: Black legislatures there. We've been studying this for decades, Yes,
Speaker 1: don't Why hasn't it happened? Well?
Speaker 3: And the reason when this when this came up in
Speaker 3: the General Assembly and they passed another commission, Yes, another study,
Speaker 3: year study, and frankly this this.
Speaker 1: By the way, let me I apologize. I forgot to
Speaker 1: tell you guys about questions. And we're a couple of
Speaker 1: minutes away from him taking your question, so hurry up
Speaker 1: and get him in. They're up there. I was a
Speaker 1: bad moderator anyway, Governor going.
Speaker 3: So, so if you if you look, if you look
Speaker 3: at our state, we have we have done four studies
Speaker 3: over the past twenty years dealing with this these.
Speaker 1: Types of issues.
Speaker 3: Sure, and I know that for a fact because one
Speaker 3: of which my wife worked on it. And so when
Speaker 3: a bill was passed for me to do another study,
Speaker 3: I vetoed it, and I vetoed it because I'm like,
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, what are we studying? I don't need another
Speaker 3: two year study on something that I already know the
Speaker 3: answer to.
Speaker 1: Is this about whether to do it or how to?
Speaker 1: In your mind, should discussion be about whether to do
Speaker 1: it or how to do it?
Speaker 3: I think the work of repair is a now action
Speaker 3: because there is no one who needs to explain to
Speaker 3: me the history of racism that we have seen in
Speaker 3: the state of Maryland. Like I said, Maryland is the
Speaker 3: home of redlining. We have watched more when you look
Speaker 3: at things like unfair appraisal values and historically red line neighborhoods.
Speaker 3: That has been one of the greatest wealth thefts that
Speaker 3: we have seen in our nation's history. And it was
Speaker 3: born in Maryland that we have seen. How you know,
Speaker 3: when people talk with pride about the history of Frederick
Speaker 3: Douglas and Harriet Tubman, I'm like, yeah, but you do
Speaker 3: understand that there's a reason that Frederick Douglass and Harriet
Speaker 3: Tubman were born in Maryland and we now know their
Speaker 3: stories because some of the most creative and racist policies
Speaker 3: in our nation's history were born in Maryland. You know,
Speaker 3: I am I am the first African I'm the first
Speaker 3: black governor in the history of the state of Maryland
Speaker 3: and only the third African American ever elected in the
Speaker 3: history of the United States as governor. And it is
Speaker 3: not because I'm only the third African American ever qualified
Speaker 3: to be a governor. Like we have to be clear,
Speaker 3: there's a history to this, and so the reason, so
Speaker 3: the reason that I said the reason that I said
Speaker 3: that is this when I say, what is the work
Speaker 3: of repair? The work of repair for me does not
Speaker 3: require another two year study. The work of repair is
Speaker 3: things like what we did where we invested over one
Speaker 3: point three billion dollars in our states for HBCUs, which
Speaker 3: is a sixty percent increase than what we saw for
Speaker 3: my predecessor. The work of repair is doing things like
Speaker 3: doing things like procurement reform, where we've now invested over
Speaker 3: eight hundred million dollars in black owned businesses in the
Speaker 3: state of Maryland and making sure we're giving a fair
Speaker 3: distribution of state dollars that are.
Speaker 1: Going to black owned businesses.
Speaker 3: The work of repair is doing like what we did
Speaker 3: with our Just Community Initiative, where we put four hundred
Speaker 3: million dollars going to communities that have been historically that
Speaker 3: have been historically discriminated against through Jim Crow, through segregation,
Speaker 3: through mass and karcer The work of repair is doing
Speaker 3: things like what I did. What I did last year
Speaker 3: when I pardoned over one hundred and seventy five thousand
Speaker 3: misdemeanor cannabis convictions in the stroke of a pen, which
Speaker 3: is the largest mass part in the history of the
Speaker 3: United States of America. That's the work of repair, and
Speaker 3: what I'm not interested in more studies. I'm interested in
Speaker 3: actually doing the work. And that's the message that I
Speaker 3: wanted to send.
Speaker 1: I want to invite our friends at the Texas Tribune
Speaker 1: up so we can get ready for the Q and
Speaker 1: A portion here. But I'm going to do one more
Speaker 1: question to you, of course, the question that annoying people
Speaker 1: like me are going to ask you a lot between
Speaker 1: now and the filing deadline in New Hampshire. You have said,
Speaker 1: but you have said I'm not running for president in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty eight. It is not your fault that none
Speaker 1: of us believe you, because no. I say this because
Speaker 1: I'm old enough to remember when Bill Clinton pledged to
Speaker 1: serve a full four year term and one election in
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety and he did not serve that full four
Speaker 1: year term. I'm old enough to remember when Barack Obama
Speaker 1: came on Meet the Press and said he's not running,
Speaker 1: and then six months later came on Meet the Press
Speaker 1: and said, well, I've had to change of heart. So
Speaker 1: why should we believe you that you're not running in
Speaker 1: twenty eight.
Speaker 3: Well, first, because I'm not, but.
Speaker 1: But also you know what sherman esque means, right, Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: you got sherman esque it. If you know, if nominated,
Speaker 1: you will not you will not accept it.
Speaker 3: I am, And this is this is this is a
Speaker 3: very a very honest answer where I realize how much
Speaker 3: I'm playing with house money right now.
Speaker 1: I am.
Speaker 3: I'm probably the most improbable governor in this country. Where
Speaker 3: I'm I'm literally a person who watched my dad die
Speaker 3: in front of me when I was three years old
Speaker 3: because he didn't get the healthcare he needed. I'm a
Speaker 3: person who had handcuffed my risk by the time I
Speaker 3: was eleven. I'm a person who watched my mom, who
Speaker 3: was an immigrant single mom, not get her first job
Speaker 3: that gave her benefits until I was fourteen, not get
Speaker 3: a job that allowed her to work one job instead
Speaker 3: of multiple jobs until I was fourteen years old. And
Speaker 3: I'm now the sixty third governor of my state, and
Speaker 3: I love my work. I love the fact that we
Speaker 3: have made Maryland has gone from being forty third in
Speaker 3: the country and unemployment to now going a year and
Speaker 3: a half of having amongst the lowest unemployment rates in
Speaker 3: the entire country. That Maryland has had amongst the fastest
Speaker 3: drops in violent crime anywhere in America. That Maryland now
Speaker 3: is the first day in the country that has a
Speaker 3: service year option for all of our high school graduates.
Speaker 3: That Maryland, that Maryland is now the first state in
Speaker 3: the country that actually has a playspation initiative to deal
Speaker 3: with the issue of generational concentrated childhood poverty. That we've
Speaker 3: been able to turn a deficit into a surplus and
Speaker 3: give the middle class a tax cut, like I am
Speaker 3: playing with house money right now, and so I, uh no,
Speaker 3: it's a note. It's a note because I mean, I listen,
Speaker 3: I know that I've got I've gotten now four hundred
Speaker 3: and thirty six days before I go back in front
Speaker 3: of the people of my state and ask them for
Speaker 3: another four years. And it's asked that I take very seriously.
Speaker 1: Actually, it's a little lesson that I think, right, AC. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right. That's till my next inauguration. View, that's right. Oh, listen,
Speaker 1: running back now, that's kind of running by my next inauguration. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I will see see the microphone to our friends at
Speaker 1: the Texas Tribune and we hear from you.
Speaker 5: Cameron with the Texas Tribune, thank you so much for
Speaker 5: your great questions. First one USI and Pico from Austin asked,
Speaker 5: what is one policy you support that the Democratic Party avoids.
Speaker 3: It's interesting because I mean, like I I and I say,
Speaker 3: I say I say this. I say this in context
Speaker 3: where I was not the choice of the Democratic Party.
Speaker 3: You know, when I when I first ran for governor,
Speaker 3: I ran against three statewide elected officials, I ran against
Speaker 3: two Obama Cabinet secretaries. I ran against the former head
Speaker 3: of the DNC, and like me, the one who had
Speaker 3: no political experience at all, And I laugh and I say,
Speaker 3: you know, when I told my family I was running
Speaker 3: for governor, I like, I had to convince my family
Speaker 3: to vote for me. And it's not that we're not cool,
Speaker 3: like we're cool, it's I had to convince many members
Speaker 3: of my family to vote. So I don't I don't
Speaker 3: really consider myself to be a creature of a party.
Speaker 3: I mean I think about it this way, where you
Speaker 3: know where you know when you know over this process
Speaker 3: of this past year, for example, you know, when I
Speaker 3: was very clear to members of the Democratic Party in
Speaker 3: my state, we have a Democratic cousel and Democratic Senate,
Speaker 3: and I told the people of my party, I said, listen,
Speaker 3: if anything is sent to my desk that I believe
Speaker 3: infringes upon my executive authority or makes it harder for
Speaker 3: my cabinet secrets secretaries do their job. If anything is
Speaker 3: sent to my desk that is an unfunded mandate, or
Speaker 3: if anything is sent to my desk that is a
Speaker 3: study or a or an eight year commission, I'm vetoing it.
Speaker 3: And I ended up vetoing more bills than any Democratic
Speaker 3: governor in the history of the state of Maryland by
Speaker 3: five x. So I actually think there's a lot of
Speaker 3: Democrats who would say that, well, he doesn't know what's
Speaker 3: align with a lot of things that we think are
Speaker 3: priorities as a party. And frankly, I'm okay with that
Speaker 3: because I don't consider my self one who has to
Speaker 3: get put in a box when we talk about our policies.
Speaker 3: When people say, do you believe when you're addressing, you know,
Speaker 3: economic growth, are you pro business or are you pro worker?
Speaker 3: My answer is I'm not choosing that. I'm going to
Speaker 3: make sure we're supporting our workers. That we've raised a
Speaker 3: minimum wage, that we've been able to add an apprenticeship
Speaker 3: and trade programs, that we have a permanent child tax
Speaker 3: credit and earn income tax credit. And I've done things
Speaker 3: like permit reform and regulatory form reform and made it
Speaker 3: easier for businesses to be able to come and grow.
Speaker 3: We've incentivized businesses to come and choose and stay in
Speaker 3: the state of Maryland, because I believe if you believe
Speaker 3: if you have business growth and businesses choosing your areas,
Speaker 3: then that means more people are going to be hired,
Speaker 3: more entrepreneurs are going to be created, and you have
Speaker 3: more economic growth.
Speaker 1: So I'm not choosing that.
Speaker 3: I'm a person who believes we made the largest investment
Speaker 3: in law enforcement and made the largest investment in our community.
Speaker 3: And so I it's difficult for me to answer because
Speaker 3: I feel like so much of what I have done
Speaker 3: has not been a political orthodox and there is. I
Speaker 3: don't call a party leader to ask permission when I
Speaker 3: make decisions. I make decisions on behalf of what I
Speaker 3: think is best for my people, and you know, kind
Speaker 3: of let the chips call with their manage, right.
Speaker 5: Samuel from Austin asks, how do we bring back by
Speaker 5: partisanship when the middle of the isle seems to no
Speaker 5: longer exist?
Speaker 3: Thank you, Samuel, I would say this. I think the
Speaker 3: middle of the isle doesn't seem to exist in Washington,
Speaker 3: but I don't think that's actually real in communities and neighborhoods.
Speaker 3: I think the way you bring back by partisanship is
Speaker 3: you actually show up. I mean, I think about it
Speaker 3: this way. Where you know, I remember on I think
Speaker 3: it was day two or day three when I was governor,
Speaker 3: I was I had a conversation with with a mayor
Speaker 3: of a town called Lonacone, which is all the way
Speaker 3: in western Maryland, and and he was telling me about
Speaker 3: a water crisis he was having and he was on
Speaker 3: a boilwater advisory. And when I was on the phone him,
Speaker 3: I said, you know, mister Merril, I'm on my way.
Speaker 3: And we headed out to western Maryland. And when I
Speaker 3: met him, Uh, he's become a good friend. A guy
Speaker 3: named a Mayor Coleburn. When I met him, he said
Speaker 3: to me, he said, Governor, do me a favor. Turn
Speaker 3: three hundred and sixty degrees. So I turned three hundred
Speaker 3: and six degrees. And he said, the only guarantee I
Speaker 3: can give you is you ain't see a Democrat within
Speaker 3: five miles of anywhere.
Speaker 1: You just looked.
Speaker 3: And he said, he said, but I tell you what. Yeah,
Speaker 3: the first government has been here since nineteen ninety six,
Speaker 3: and we've continued to work together. We continue to work together.
Speaker 3: When Maryland, when we had historic floods in western Maryland,
Speaker 3: which the President of the United States denied all federal
Speaker 3: aid and federal lief to Western Maryland.
Speaker 1: I the most republican part of the state.
Speaker 3: Literally seventy eight percent of that part of that state
Speaker 3: voted for Donald Trump, and he left them behind. And
Speaker 3: he will not be forgiven for that. But I remember
Speaker 3: when I announced my reelection, Samuel that Mayor Coburn and
Speaker 3: several other Republicans from all around the state were the
Speaker 3: first ones to come out and endorse me. And they
Speaker 3: came out and they said, they came out and they said, listen,
Speaker 3: we might not agree with the governor and everything, but
Speaker 3: I'll tell you what. He shows up and he creates
Speaker 3: a table that's big enough for all of us. And
Speaker 3: so the thing that I would say, how do you
Speaker 3: restore by partisanship is don't pretend that bypartisanship is dead.
Speaker 3: What we're watching this with this reality television show in Washington, DC,
Speaker 3: is not a reflection of our communities where people are
Speaker 3: just fighting for their people. They're just fighting to make
Speaker 3: sure that they're not left behind. And I think as leaders,
Speaker 3: the reason that we've been able to be successful in
Speaker 3: our state with both Democrats and Republicans is because I
Speaker 3: think the people of our state know that we don't
Speaker 3: get into the partisan games in the back and forth.
Speaker 1: We just try to do good bye our people.
Speaker 3: And that's why I think that you know you're watching
Speaker 3: at the state level that bipartisanship is very much alive
Speaker 3: and well.
Speaker 5: John the parent of a UMD student asks, what is
Speaker 5: your message to those in their early twenties who grew
Speaker 5: up during COVID and are now watching the upheaval in
Speaker 5: this country's institutions.
Speaker 3: Uh First, John, go TERFs, go TERFs.
Speaker 1: You know, it's hard.
Speaker 3: It's I feel bad for a lot of these students too,
Speaker 3: because for a lot of them, this measure of.
Speaker 1: Chaos and uncertainty is for it's it's.
Speaker 3: It's defining for them, and so I understand the frustration.
Speaker 3: I remember when I I actually gave a graduation speech
Speaker 3: to the University of Maryland two years ago. They actually
Speaker 3: they followed up by asking Kermit the Frog to give
Speaker 3: it the year after. I know how to feel about.
Speaker 1: That, but it'd be harder to follow Kermit.
Speaker 3: It would be hard to Actually, I'm glad it went
Speaker 3: before Kermit, actually, but I remember the speech that I
Speaker 3: gave to the graduates is probably the advice that I
Speaker 3: would give to John to UH, to your to your
Speaker 3: child is when people are telling you what you want
Speaker 3: to explore and what you want to study, you know,
Speaker 3: do you choose uh stem, do you choose life sciences?
Speaker 1: Do you choose medicine? Do you choose humanities?
Speaker 3: The advice that I would give them is as they're
Speaker 3: thinking about what is they want to do to prepare
Speaker 3: themselves for the rest of the world, is choose tough.
Speaker 3: Choose the thing that's going to force you to wake
Speaker 3: up a little bit earlier. Choose the thing that's going
Speaker 3: to force you to stay up a little bit later.
Speaker 3: Choose the thing that's going to force you to get
Speaker 3: out of your comfort zone and.
Speaker 1: Stay there for a while.
Speaker 3: Because the reason that I think I've been able to
Speaker 3: adapt in this moment is I think about my experience
Speaker 3: in the military, where you know, I joined when I
Speaker 3: was seventeen, I became an army officer by the time
Speaker 3: I was nineteen. I deployed overseas with a unit, and
Speaker 3: I led paratroopers with a unit that I actually joined
Speaker 3: when they were already in theater. That part of my
Speaker 3: job was to try to get Tllybond members to try
Speaker 3: to leave and to join the Afghan forces and to
Speaker 3: turn their weapons and join this new Afghan government where
Speaker 3: no matter what the obstacle is that comes in front
Speaker 3: of me, Now I realized that I'm never going to
Speaker 3: flinch because we're just built differently. That was kind of
Speaker 3: forged out of us. And so when you have a
Speaker 3: generation that's coming out of COVID and then you have
Speaker 3: them now going into Trump and we have all these
Speaker 3: things that are happening. The only guarantee I can give
Speaker 3: to each and every young person inside of my state
Speaker 3: is challenges are on their way. I don't know what
Speaker 3: it's going to look like for you, but it's on
Speaker 3: its way. And so the best preparation that I can
Speaker 3: give you to how to deal with it, no matter
Speaker 3: what it looks like when it actually comes your way,
Speaker 3: is choose tough now, because it's the best preparation that
Speaker 3: you're going to have when that tough thing ends up
Speaker 3: facing you, and that thing is going to learn that
Speaker 3: you're not going to lose sleep over it.
Speaker 1: Make it lose sleep over you. If you could wave
Speaker 1: a magic wand would you have mandatory National service? Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3: I mean it's the reason that we in Maryland. Maryland
Speaker 3: is now the first state in the country that has
Speaker 3: a service your option for all of our high school graduates,
Speaker 3: where every high school graduate now is a chance to
Speaker 3: have a paid year service and they.
Speaker 1: Can choose however they want to do.
Speaker 3: They can work, and they can serve veterans, they can
Speaker 3: serve in the environment, they can work with young people,
Speaker 3: they can work with older adults. The only thing we
Speaker 3: ask is tell us what makes your heart beat a
Speaker 3: little bit faster, and we're going to give you an
Speaker 3: opportunity to do it, a paid opportunity to do it.
Speaker 3: And I remember, you know, when I ran for governor,
Speaker 3: I had people who I serve with in the military
Speaker 3: who came and campaigned on my behalf. Many of them
Speaker 3: were not Marylanders, many of them were not dem Crats,
Speaker 3: but they were literally just coming in door knocking and saying,
Speaker 3: I just want to tell you about the guy that
Speaker 3: I served with, because I'm just a big believer in
Speaker 3: this time of this political divisiveness, in this time of
Speaker 3: this political vitriol, that service will save us because service
Speaker 3: is sticky, and those who serve together will generally stay together.
Speaker 1: So absolutely, I want to make.
Speaker 3: Sure, and I would love it if every young person
Speaker 3: our society could spend a little bit of time being
Speaker 3: part of something bigger than themselves, learning how remarkable this
Speaker 3: country is and learning that that line between them and
Speaker 3: somebody else is not as thick as society wants us
Speaker 3: to believe.
Speaker 1: That it actually is we got what two more?
Speaker 3: And then we writer from.
Speaker 5: Houston asks what do you believe is the best route
Speaker 5: for Maryland to overcome the significant redistricting roadblocks that have
Speaker 5: occurred in the last few months.
Speaker 1: I knew the audience is going to ask about redistricting.
Speaker 1: I left it off.
Speaker 3: I love it, and it's good to be in Texas,
Speaker 3: the home of this conversation in the first place. So
Speaker 3: I've just been very clear. And I know you know, uh,
Speaker 3: you know. Listen here here's what I know. Every state
Speaker 3: goes through this process every decade after the census comes
Speaker 3: out that determines whether or not they have fair maps. Right,
Speaker 3: and Donald Trump decided to start picking and choosing which
Speaker 3: states should go through this process mid decade.
Speaker 1: Didn't He didn't call all of us. He called some
Speaker 1: of us to include y'all. I called y'all first.
Speaker 3: And my only thing is this is that when you
Speaker 3: look at this idea that if other if states are
Speaker 3: going to go through a mid decade process of determining
Speaker 3: whether or not they have fair maps. I don't know
Speaker 3: why some states should do this and some states should
Speaker 3: sit on their hands. My point is this is that
Speaker 3: you know and and and by the way. This is
Speaker 3: actually pretty consistent of what we have seen from Donald Trump,
Speaker 3: where you know, whether it's calling states and saying I
Speaker 3: need you to redistrict or whether it's calling election officials
Speaker 3: in Georgia and saying I need you to find me votes.
Speaker 3: It's just very clear that when he knows his he
Speaker 3: cannot win on policies. So what does he do. He
Speaker 3: changes the rules, He rigs the game. And so my
Speaker 3: only point is this, and why I you know, I
Speaker 3: ordered a Governor's Redishing Advisory Commission in Maryland where we
Speaker 3: now have a bipartisan group led by one of our senators,
Speaker 3: Senator angel Alsobrooks, who's now leading a bipartisan group to
Speaker 3: actually go talk to people, to listen to people, and
Speaker 3: then decide whether or not Maryland has fair maps. Because
Speaker 3: I am just I am very clear on this, and
Speaker 3: I'm hard set on it that if this country is
Speaker 3: going to go and if parts of this country are
Speaker 3: going to go through a mid decade process to determine
Speaker 3: whether or not they have fair maps, then so will.
Speaker 1: The state of Maryland.
Speaker 4: And and Donald Trump is not going to choose what
Speaker 4: our democracy looks like, the people of Maryland will choose
Speaker 4: what our democracy looks like.
Speaker 3: And so our commission now is in place. They're already
Speaker 3: doing wonderful work. They're going to come back with their recommendations.
Speaker 3: But while we all can talk, you know, while we
Speaker 3: all can talk about a fair map process, I just
Speaker 3: believe deeply that democracy cannot be a spectator sport. Democracy
Speaker 3: cannot be something where certain states are deciding and determining
Speaker 3: whether or not they have fair.
Speaker 1: Maps that we need to go through. Our process says.
Speaker 3: It needs to be a process that involves real people
Speaker 3: and revolves our input. And I'm excited for the fact
Speaker 3: that the state of Maryland, just like these other states,
Speaker 3: are going to move.
Speaker 1: I will make sure.
Speaker 3: That come next November, Maryland is voting with fair maps
Speaker 3: and we will have a representative democracy that actually reflects
Speaker 3: the wills and the hopes and the ambitions of the
Speaker 3: people of my state.
Speaker 5: Last one, Dan from Austin, asks, what's your pitch to
Speaker 5: get people to move from Texas to Maryland?
Speaker 3: And do you believe in your freedoms?
Speaker 1: Do you now listen?
Speaker 3: I mean I'm actually listening.
Speaker 1: I really believe that lets start with the live music.
Speaker 1: They're going to want to know if you have good
Speaker 1: live music.
Speaker 3: We actually have one of the best live music scenes
Speaker 3: inside the inside the entire country. And that's real talk Maryland.
Speaker 3: In fact, Baltimore is actually Baltimore. The Baltimore region has
Speaker 3: actually been ranked as one of the top live music
Speaker 3: scenes inside the country. But I know Austin y'all are
Speaker 3: up there too, But Baltimore is great. But I will
Speaker 3: say this in addition to the fact that, in addition
Speaker 3: to the fact that you know, they call Maryland American
Speaker 3: miniature for a reason, and it's because I don't care
Speaker 3: what you tell me. You want to do. Tell me
Speaker 3: what you want to do. Do you want to go
Speaker 3: hike mountains? Do you want to go to beaches? Do
Speaker 3: you want to go to ballgames? Do you want to
Speaker 3: go see farmland? Tell me what you want to do,
Speaker 3: and I can tell you how to have a world
Speaker 3: class experience in Maryland within two hours. There's no place
Speaker 3: in the country like that. And the other thing that
Speaker 3: I would tell you why Maryland is so special, in
Speaker 3: Maryland is so unique. I really think Maryland is the
Speaker 3: best place in the world to change the world. I
Speaker 3: really think Maryland is a place where we watch entrepreneurial
Speaker 3: endeavors grow and thrive. I believe Maryland is a place
Speaker 3: where we we actually respect people's freedoms and we respect
Speaker 3: people's histories. That Maryland is a place that we actually
Speaker 3: make sure that people have a chance to learn and
Speaker 3: grow and be an inclusive society. That when Maryland, when
Speaker 3: we were watching a larger debate that was taking place
Speaker 3: around the country about things like reproductive health and reproductive rights,
Speaker 3: that in Maryland, what do we do. We actually made
Speaker 3: reproductive health part of Maryland's constitution so that no matter
Speaker 3: what the Supreme Court says in Maryland, we will protect that.
Speaker 3: That when we watch places around the country that were
Speaker 3: banning histories and banning books and talking about what parts
Speaker 3: of history we were going to remember and what parts
Speaker 3: of history we were going to reflect, Well, what did
Speaker 3: we do in the state of Maryland? I very proudly
Speaker 3: sign legislation banning the banning of books. You cannot ban
Speaker 3: books in my state. That we're talking about we're talking
Speaker 3: about a state right now that is beautiful and diverse
Speaker 3: and growing with one of the fastest job growth rates
Speaker 3: inside the entire country, with a state that is truly
Speaker 3: the epicenter of life sciences in it, and aerospace and defense.
Speaker 3: That Maryland is the home of true national gems, likenists,
Speaker 3: the NIH, and military installations like Fort Meade, one of
Speaker 3: the largest military and veteran communities inside this entire country.
Speaker 3: That we have some of the best academic and some
Speaker 3: of the best academic measures inside the entire country, some
Speaker 3: of the best public schools inside of America. That we
Speaker 3: are a place that invests inside of our future. And
Speaker 3: so I believe deeply, and it's not just because I
Speaker 3: am biased. There's a reason that we are watching business
Speaker 3: after business come and choose Maryland because this is a
Speaker 3: chance for them to be able to grow and thrive,
Speaker 3: and frankly, for their employee base to know that you're
Speaker 3: not just going to have one of the best pipelines
Speaker 3: for higher education in K twelve employees, but also a
Speaker 3: place where your employee's visions and hopes for their future
Speaker 3: can actually be realized and their freedoms are going to
Speaker 3: be protected.
Speaker 1: Let the record show he didn't mention Obay and Old Bay, Obay,
Speaker 1: crab Cakes Baltimore Orioles, Baltimore, Ravens. You do not be
Speaker 1: Is there anything you wouldn't put Old Bay on? Nothing? Olbay.
Speaker 3: I think is actually the greatest spice because you can.
Speaker 3: Obay is breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert is true.
Speaker 1: I had Obay ice cream. I'm telling you.
Speaker 3: It'll change your life.
Speaker 1: It'll change your life. That's why you moved to Maryland.
Speaker 1: Thank you Covin, Thanks your lu thank you everybody.