WEBVTT - Interview Only w/ Governor Wes Moore - How Democrats Can Push Back Against Trump 0:00:00.400 --> 0:00:04.080 Having good life insurance is incredibly important. I know from 0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:07.160 personal experience. I was sixteen when my father passed away. 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:09.600 We didn't have any money. He didn't leave us in 0:00:09.640 --> 0:00:14.000 the best shape. My mother single mother, now widow, myself 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:15.880 sixteen trying to figure out how am I going to 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:19.079 pay for college and lo and behold, my dad had 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:22.320 one life insurance policy that we found wasn't a lot, 0:00:22.640 --> 0:00:25.360 but it was important at the time, and it's why 0:00:25.480 --> 0:00:28.720 I was able to go to college. Little did he 0:00:28.800 --> 0:00:32.560 know how important that would be in that moment. Well, 0:00:32.680 --> 0:00:34.760 guess what. 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Application times may vary and the 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:35.319 rates themselves may vary as well, but trust me, life 0:01:35.360 --> 0:01:38.080 insurance is something you should really think about it, especially 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:39.639 if you've got a growing family. 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:46.600 I think y'all are ready to hear from our keynote, right, 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:50.440 all right, let's see this. I will introduce them. They 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:53.600 are ready to come on first our moderator. Our moderator. 0:01:53.680 --> 0:01:56.000 Of course you all know him, Chuck Todd. He's a 0:01:56.040 --> 0:01:59.560 six time Emmy Award winner and former hosts of Meet 0:01:59.600 --> 0:02:02.760 the Press on NBC. He now hosts the Chuck Todcast, 0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:06.120 which is a weekly podcast featuring in depth interviews with 0:02:06.200 --> 0:02:09.440 political leaders, and of course he will be interviewing Governor 0:02:09.480 --> 0:02:10.040 Wes Moore. 0:02:10.639 --> 0:02:12.760 Wes Moore is there we go. 0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:15.840 He is the sixty third governor of the state of 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:18.320 Maryland and the state's first black governor. 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:20.480 That's right, that's right. 0:02:21.040 --> 0:02:23.280 He's the author of the Other Wes Moore, which is 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:25.959 a perennial New York Times bestseller, and his most recent 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:29.079 book is Five Days, which tells the story of Baltimore 0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:31.920 in the days following the death of Freddie Gray in 0:02:32.800 --> 0:02:43.720 twenty fifteen. Please welcome them both to the stage. 0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:48.160 Well, this is good. We save a little bit of time. 0:02:48.200 --> 0:02:52.040 I don't have to do the extra work of reminding 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:55.359 everybody about their cell phones and the silencing and all 0:02:55.400 --> 0:02:58.440 of that. But officially, I want to do my part 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:01.520 on behalf of the Texas Tribune. While welcome, It is 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:04.600 an honor to have Governor Wes Moore here. We're both 0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:10.280 DMV ers. So for those of you, I still weird 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:12.919 out by saying DMV because I think the most people 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:14.919 that are like, why are you talking about the Department 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:17.680 of Motor Vehicles. We're trying really hard in the Mad 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:20.440 Atlantic to make this District Maryland Virginia thing stick, aren't 0:03:20.440 --> 0:03:24.360 we exactly? You knowact it goes? Well, let's just get started. 0:03:26.000 --> 0:03:27.560 I got a laundry list of stuff I'm want to 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:30.959 ask you about. But I actually want to start with this. 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:34.480 You're a pretty optimistic guy. Yes, there's a lot of 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:38.480 people in this room that feel a lot of pessimism 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:42.400 about the country right now, and I have it in 0:03:42.400 --> 0:03:44.000 my family. I think a lot of people, Which is 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:48.600 you vacillate between oh my god, where are we headed to? 0:03:50.120 --> 0:03:56.920 Look we're going to be okay? Where do you sit 0:03:57.000 --> 0:04:01.080 on that spectrum? You know? Of this is you have 0:04:01.120 --> 0:04:03.720 Gavin Newsom who says, you know, he doesn't ever want 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:07.280 to have free and fair elections again versus this is 0:04:07.320 --> 0:04:10.800 a period in time in American politics and things are cyclical. 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:16.840 What's say you? Well, I think both those things are true. 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:21.120 And first let me say you what a real pleasure 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:23.719 it is to be back here, vish'alle and thank you 0:04:23.760 --> 0:04:24.520 so much for having me. 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:26.800 And it's an honor to being too shock it really is. 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:31.840 And shout out to Sonal and shout out to the 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:35.120 team for putting on once again another amazing, amazing conference 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:37.080 that I'm just truly humbled in honor to be a 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:40.680 part of. I think both of those things are true. 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:42.520 I don't think Donald Trump wants to have more free 0:04:42.520 --> 0:04:46.960 and fair elections. The reason I'm optimistic is because I 0:04:47.000 --> 0:04:48.640 believe that if we do our part, Donald Trump is 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:52.120 not going to have the final say that this actually 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:56.440 becomes a unique moment for where leaders actually have to 0:04:56.440 --> 0:05:00.599 show themselves. And you know, one of the eight things 0:05:00.640 --> 0:05:02.800 that I feel about. You know, and this is going 0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:06.200 to sound a little bit odd, but this. You know, 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:08.760 I've now been governor for for two and a half years, 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:11.280 and we're really proud of all the work that we've 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:13.400 gotten done in two and a half years. But these 0:05:13.520 --> 0:05:18.159 past ten months have both been the most challenging and 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:20.880 the most important that we've had to deal with over the. 0:05:20.880 --> 0:05:22.600 Past two and a half years. 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:26.200 Challenging for the obvious reasons. And I can talk about 0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:30.440 why Maryland that no state has taken the brunt of 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:34.120 Donald Trump more than Maryland, where I have over two 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:36.840 hundred and seventy thousand federal employees, more than any other 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:39.360 state in this country. Donald Trump has now fired over 0:05:39.760 --> 0:05:43.760 fifteen thousand of my people. That we have not received 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:46.680 a dollar of federal disaster relief, despite having historic floods 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:49.120 over in western Maryland, that he's taken away billions of 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:53.800 dollars in grants and capital towards our state. That he 0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:55.960 has now tried to take away the FBI building because 0:05:55.960 --> 0:05:57.800 he says that he will never let the FBI building 0:05:57.839 --> 0:05:59.880 go to a liberal state, that he's threaten to put 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:02.680 national Guard inside of our streets. I mean, like, there 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:05.360 is no state that has had to take on this, 0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:09.080 not again, not glancing blows, but I mean direct shots 0:06:09.800 --> 0:06:14.080 from the president. The thing that I also know, though, 0:06:14.320 --> 0:06:19.039 is this is despite all of that, this is actually 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:22.120 a chance where leadership has the chance to show itself. 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:26.760 And I think it's never mattered more who your governor is. 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:32.560 It's never mattered more, who your attorney's general is. It's 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:35.719 never mattered more whether your people have fight or not. 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:39.599 And I love the fact that actually, in this moment, 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:42.800 that we have a chance to show what does a 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:45.640 better direction actually look like like. I don't have the 0:06:45.720 --> 0:06:48.080 luxury to just rail against the system. I don't have 0:06:48.120 --> 0:06:50.360 the luxury of just talking about how bad things are. 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:54.080 I have an obligation to show my people what a 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:58.040 better direction actually looks like. And so the thing that 0:06:58.200 --> 0:07:01.160 continues to give me and why I still am deeply, 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:04.279 deeply optimistic about our future is both because I know 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:07.200 our history and like, listen, if anyone thinks that these 0:07:07.200 --> 0:07:10.040 are this is the worst of times. I kind of 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:12.560 remind people that, you know, I literally come from a 0:07:12.560 --> 0:07:14.840 state that if you look at my state flag, my 0:07:14.920 --> 0:07:17.880 state flag, because people forget Maryland is the northernmost southern 0:07:17.920 --> 0:07:21.160 state in the country, Like, the state flag of Maryland 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:24.800 is literally a combination. It's a contradiction, right, It's a 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:27.880 combination of both a Confederate symbol and a Union symbol. 0:07:27.920 --> 0:07:29.480 You know, some of us joke that the Mason Dixon 0:07:29.520 --> 0:07:32.240 line has moved somewhere into Virginia now, but I take 0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:32.720 your point. 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:34.320 But you know, but I mean, but it's like real, 0:07:34.360 --> 0:07:36.840 It's like the bloodiest battles of the Civil War were 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:40.600 fought in our soil. Right, that we are literally the 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:43.960 birthplace of redlining in the state of Maryland, That we're 0:07:43.960 --> 0:07:47.320 the birthplace of Harriet Tubman, the birthplace of Frederick Douglass. 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:49.600 And part of the reason that I do have a 0:07:49.640 --> 0:07:52.280 real sense of hopefulness and optimism is, you know, I 0:07:52.440 --> 0:07:55.760 imagine to myself, like what would a hypothetical conversation between 0:07:55.840 --> 0:07:59.360 between me and Harriet Tubman be, Like, like me telling 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:03.480 Harriet Tubman how difficult my day was, you know what 0:08:03.480 --> 0:08:05.800 I'm saying. So it's like, so I just you got 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:09.720 to keep this in context where I understand what Donald 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:12.440 Trump thinks, but I'm just a firm believer that Donald 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:13.680 Trump is not going to have a final say. 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:18.080 How much effort should be made to confront Donald Trump 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:21.480 by the Democratic Party leaders, and how much effort should 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:24.280 be made about laying the groundwork for a world post 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:24.920 Donald Trump. 0:08:27.840 --> 0:08:29.800 So I think there has to be a combination where 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:34.000 where we do have an obligation to push back, because 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:36.880 you cannot watch what is happening right now and think 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:38.360 that we're just going to sit here and take it 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:46.720 or ignore it. I have a very real problem. I 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:49.040 have a very real problem with people who, in this 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:52.560 moment are getting really quiet. I have a very real 0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:56.360 problem in this moment with these people who, these leaders 0:08:56.559 --> 0:08:59.440 who somehow think that if we just sit quiet, the 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:03.000 beating will stop, or if we just say nothing, he 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:05.400 will ignore us. And I just want to be very clear, 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:08.800 that is not how this game works, and that's not 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:12.640 how this movie's gonna end. Like, we have an obligation 0:09:12.960 --> 0:09:17.080 both to push back, but we also do have an 0:09:17.080 --> 0:09:20.839 obligation to push forward. And you know, and I think 0:09:20.880 --> 0:09:22.920 about it now, and I was speaking earlier with with 0:09:22.920 --> 0:09:25.520 with Solo about it where there will be a post 0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:29.600 Trump world, right, And I think that everything that we 0:09:29.640 --> 0:09:33.000 are seeing right now, it's going to fall into five categories, 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:36.720 and we just have to be clear about what category 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:39.480 everything we're talking about falls in. There are some things 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:43.760 that are just broken and will never be repaired. There 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:47.320 are some things that are broken and we can repair. 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:51.760 There's some things that are broken and we can repair. 0:09:52.080 --> 0:09:56.360 But differently, there's some things that will survive that we 0:09:56.440 --> 0:09:59.800 need to break, and there's certain things that will survive 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:01.120 that we need to keep. 0:10:01.400 --> 0:10:02.280 We just had to be. 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:05.679 Very clear and very honest about what things fall in 0:10:05.720 --> 0:10:08.360 each of those five buckets. But I think so we 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:11.240 have to come up with that balance of yes, pushing back, 0:10:11.559 --> 0:10:15.320 but also being very clear that that pushing back is 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:15.880 not going. 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:16.280 To be enough. 0:10:16.400 --> 0:10:18.600 We also have to find ways of pushing forward as well. 0:10:18.880 --> 0:10:21.240 Let's talk about the government shutdown. This had to feel 0:10:21.320 --> 0:10:23.520 you had to be torn about it. On one hand, 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:26.400 you you just talked about the importance of pushing back. 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:28.280 On the other hand, you have a lot of constituents 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:30.560 that were out of work and we're struggling because they 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:33.800 weren't going to get paid, and it's a you can't 0:10:33.800 --> 0:10:36.560 pay your rent with a promise, right, you need to 0:10:36.600 --> 0:10:41.160 actually have cash in the checking account. Was it a 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:45.240 good tactic? Was it the right call? Should it still 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:46.160 be shut down? 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:50.080 Yeah, I'm I'm I'm gonna be honest, Chuck, I'm not 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:51.719 torn about at all. There is no reason that the 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:55.040 government should have been shut down. But because think about it, 0:10:55.080 --> 0:10:57.360 like this has very and I don't know a single 0:10:57.360 --> 0:10:59.040 governor that says, oh, yeah, we should just shut the 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:02.640 government down like this has real human consequences for us. 0:11:04.000 --> 0:11:05.079 You're glad it opened up. 0:11:05.800 --> 0:11:08.480 Oh, I'm very glad and opened up. But I'll give 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:12.160 you I'll give you a caveat and and perst of all, 0:11:12.200 --> 0:11:14.440 first of all, it's just absurd. 0:11:14.040 --> 0:11:16.240 That Washington, d c. Can just shut down. 0:11:17.520 --> 0:11:19.240 Like I mean, like like. 0:11:20.600 --> 0:11:24.720 By the way, it's two legal people, one in Carter's 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:28.480 Justice department, one in Reagan's Justice department, who just came 0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:30.720 up with a legal theory that this is what happens 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:33.920 when there's a funding dispute, that we should just cease operations. 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:37.800 It's crazy, it's ridiculous, it's not in the constitution. It 0:11:37.920 --> 0:11:39.480 should never happen. 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:43.960 Ever, Okay, ever, we should never allow a government shutdown, 0:11:44.160 --> 0:11:46.960 and like, think about it, Like I can't walk into 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:48.840 my state house and say, you know what, Maryland, we're 0:11:48.840 --> 0:11:49.400 shutting down. 0:11:51.040 --> 0:11:53.320 I can't do it at McDonald's. 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:55.840 Kim McDonald's, Ken ken a family. Could you walk to 0:11:55.880 --> 0:11:57.800 your family tonight and say, you know, y'all shut down, 0:11:57.880 --> 0:12:02.040 we're shutting down, shut down, turn no streaming right, Like, 0:12:02.320 --> 0:12:05.640 no one does this except for Washington DC. So the 0:12:05.760 --> 0:12:09.880 whole idea that we have government shutdowns is just so 0:12:10.240 --> 0:12:13.640 absurd on its face, and particularly when you have very 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:16.560 real human consequences. I'm like, again, I have over two 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:20.760 hundred and seventy thousand people, many of whom and who 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:23.080 have the audacity to do things like making sure that 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:26.640 our food is safe, who have the audacity of doing 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:29.520 things like making sure that we're finding the cures to diseases, 0:12:30.679 --> 0:12:32.720 who are crazy enough to think that their job is 0:12:32.760 --> 0:12:34.959 so special that they're trying to keep planes from colliding 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:40.080 or that or that that military veterans like myself, that 0:12:40.080 --> 0:12:42.480 that military veterans can get the medication that they need. 0:12:43.880 --> 0:12:47.120 Like these are who you went after, and by the way, 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:50.199 for many of these people that you then turn around 0:12:50.280 --> 0:12:52.240 and force them to go to work with no pay, 0:12:52.480 --> 0:12:54.520 while we have people in Washington who are getting paid 0:12:54.559 --> 0:13:01.680 and not going to work. Right, So so we did 0:13:01.840 --> 0:13:04.600 so in our state, we made sure that we were 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:06.920 going to take care of our people. So that's why 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:09.600 in our state, you know, I said that we were 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:11.439 going to do and I worked with our private tech 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:14.600 to partners. I said, We're doing a moratorium on all evictions, 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:17.360 on all utility shutoffs. You were not going to evict 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:19.920 our federal workers or shut their utilities off because they 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:22.360 are not getting paid for something that is not their faults. 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:24.520 That we told all of our federal workers, all these 0:13:24.520 --> 0:13:26.360 people who are going to work and not getting paid 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:29.440 but still paying to go to work, that I told 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:32.840 them all all transportation that we have in the state 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:36.360 of Maryland, just show your badge. Transportation for you is free. 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:41.360 You do not have to pay for anything. And that 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:43.080 we had to do things like and then we saw 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:44.760 a situation where you go to President of the United 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:48.400 States who's doing things like breaking the law and trying 0:13:48.440 --> 0:13:52.280 to cut off SNAP despite the fact that, by the way, 0:13:52.640 --> 0:13:56.800 twenty eight thousand SNAP recipients in our state are military veterans. 0:13:57.480 --> 0:13:59.679 One in one in three, one in four of our 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:03.120 federal workers are military veterans. So I love this for 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:05.600 a person who claims to love the military, and the 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:08.079 first thing you're doing is going after our veterans. So 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:11.719 the federal government should never been shut down in the 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:18.080 first place. However, I will say this how deeply inhumane 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:21.960 it is and it was to think that a good 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:26.600 compromise is that a prerequisite for reopening the government is 0:14:26.680 --> 0:14:30.120 kicking people off of health care or having premiums jump 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:34.360 by eighty and ninety percent. So I am very glad 0:14:34.400 --> 0:14:37.280 the federal government is reopened. I'm very glad that we 0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:40.160 can stop doing stupid things like shutting down our federal government. 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:41.600 But I do want to be very and I know 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:43.080 I didn't have a vote, so no one asked me 0:14:43.160 --> 0:14:45.480 my opinion, but I do want to be very clear. 0:14:46.720 --> 0:14:50.480 You would never find anything ever with my signature on it, 0:14:50.880 --> 0:14:53.920 that thinks it's okay to kick people off of health 0:14:53.920 --> 0:14:56.640 care as somehow that means you have a justifiable or 0:14:56.640 --> 0:14:58.520 you have a function in government. If you are kicking 0:14:58.520 --> 0:15:00.600 people off of health care, it means your government is 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:02.760 not functioning. And we have to be very very clear 0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:03.080 about that. 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:11.840 Let me ask about when the President was starting to 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:15.400 pick on other cities. After he picked on Washington, Baltimore 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:19.280 was mentioned, and you did an interest. You made an 0:15:19.320 --> 0:15:23.000 interesting decision. You said, no, we don't want the National 0:15:23.000 --> 0:15:26.680 Guard here, that's a mistake. However, I'm going to bring 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:34.240 in UH state police to assist in Baltimore. Frankly, I 0:15:34.240 --> 0:15:37.680 thought that was pretty politically savvy. But I will ask this, 0:15:39.600 --> 0:15:42.160 Does that mean Donald Trump has a point about our cities? 0:15:42.600 --> 0:15:45.000 Not at all? So why did you do it? 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:47.800 Well, I didn't. The reason I did it, it wasn't a 0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:51.840 response to Donald Trump at all. You know, when I 0:15:51.880 --> 0:15:57.160 first became the governor of Maryland, we had a violence 0:15:57.480 --> 0:16:02.480 crisis in our state. In twenty twenty two, the year 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:05.000 before I became the governor, Baltimore City was averaging about 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:07.960 a homicide a day. That if you look at the 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:11.280 eight years before I became the governor Maryland was Maryland average. 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:15.840 The Maryland homicide rate had doubled over an eight year period. 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:17.520 The non fatal shooting rate did double. 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:19.800 Do you know what's the cause? How much of it 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:21.800 was COVID, how much of it's something else? 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:24.520 Well, No, I think there's a whole bunch of reasons. 0:16:24.560 --> 0:16:26.960 I thought, you think it had one. If when you 0:16:27.080 --> 0:16:32.000 neglect communities and you allow hope to leave, violence will 0:16:32.120 --> 0:16:34.960 enter and will fill the space. I think we had 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:37.480 a very real issue when it came to law enforcement, 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:39.600 and I think, you know, when I talked about, you 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:42.200 know the book that I wrote five days, how there 0:16:42.320 --> 0:16:45.400 was a steep cutoff and fall off of law enforcement 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:47.560 people who were signing up, who are staying on the role. 0:16:48.040 --> 0:16:49.880 And so there's a few things that I did because 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:52.920 I was very clear, I said from Jump Street when 0:16:52.920 --> 0:16:55.440 I knew the crisis we had, I'm not going to 0:16:55.440 --> 0:16:59.160 spend my eight years just giving eulogies and offering thoughts 0:16:59.160 --> 0:17:02.640 and prayers that we're actually going to address the issue. 0:17:02.640 --> 0:17:04.880 And so when I came on board, we made historic 0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:08.360 investments in local law enforcement and making sure you had 0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:10.160 not just boots on the ground, but saying we can 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:13.280 have a police force that moves with appropriate intensity and 0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:16.959 absolute integrity and full accountability. That we said we're going 0:17:17.000 --> 0:17:20.280 to invest in technologies and basically saying you can utilize 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:22.680 technologies to make sure that if someone commits a violent crime, 0:17:22.680 --> 0:17:25.959 particularly a violent crime with a firearm, I want them 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:28.720 in handcuffs in twenty four hours. And also we said 0:17:28.720 --> 0:17:32.320 we're going to invest in our community, community violence intervention groups, 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:35.320 community violence interruption groups, because so much of the violence 0:17:35.320 --> 0:17:37.640 that we were seeing in our communities it was retaliatory 0:17:37.680 --> 0:17:41.119 by nature, and so you must invest in community to 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:45.119 be able to help to address those issues. When so 0:17:45.320 --> 0:17:47.679 here was the reality when Donald Trump started making his 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:50.960 threats that for the past two and a half years, 0:17:51.160 --> 0:17:54.320 there is no state that has seen a faster drop 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:57.720 off when it comes to violent crime than the state 0:17:57.760 --> 0:18:00.840 of Maryland. That the last time the homicide rate was 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:04.480 this slow in Baltimore City, I wasn't born yet. That 0:18:04.560 --> 0:18:09.480 we are literally watching historic drops in violent crime, historic 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:12.639 drops and property crime and auto thefts and carjackings and 0:18:12.680 --> 0:18:16.600 homicides and non fatal shootings. And the President wants to 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:19.080 look at us like we're the problem. I said, is 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:20.399 to President, you don't need to look at us like 0:18:20.400 --> 0:18:21.920 we're the problem. Actually, shoul look at us like we're 0:18:21.960 --> 0:18:25.640 the solution. And if you want to spend time, if 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:28.760 you want to spend time actually learning instead of bloviating 0:18:28.760 --> 0:18:31.919 from the Oval office, these like nineteen eighties Archie Bunker, 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:36.000 you know, you know then you should come spend some 0:18:36.040 --> 0:18:36.399 time with it. 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:38.800 So I'm did you offer to take him for a while? 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:39.120 I did. 0:18:39.160 --> 0:18:40.800 I offered it take him for a walk. I told 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:42.200 him if it was too long a walk, I would 0:18:42.200 --> 0:18:47.760 get him a golf cart. I you know, you know, I'm, 0:18:47.880 --> 0:18:53.639 I'm I I mean, but because the thing about it is, 0:18:53.680 --> 0:18:56.199 and this is also why it was so offensive to me. 0:18:58.119 --> 0:19:00.560 You know, he he. 0:19:00.240 --> 0:19:05.760 Uses the military like it's some form of like some 0:19:05.920 --> 0:19:12.440 like these childish toy soldiers, and it's just really rich 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:15.359 because he's someone who does not know what it means 0:19:15.400 --> 0:19:18.560 to put on the uniform. He doesn't know what it 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:21.720 means to say goodbye to your family, He doesn't know 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:24.639 what it means. He does not know what it means 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:28.080 to be willing to put your life on the line 0:19:28.880 --> 0:19:30.680 for the person to your left or to your right. 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:35.560 And as someone who does, as someone who served my country, 0:19:35.800 --> 0:19:38.920 as someone who led soldiers in combat, I just found 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:42.359 it deeply offensive that his solution to this was this, 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:47.480 you know, this childish endeavor of saying, well, we'll just 0:19:47.520 --> 0:19:50.720 send the National Guard into cities. And let's be very 0:19:50.720 --> 0:19:54.160 clear if there was any data to show that this 0:19:54.200 --> 0:19:55.200 would actually work. 0:19:55.880 --> 0:19:57.719 Again, I'm a data driven person. I'm listening. 0:19:57.960 --> 0:20:01.480 Here is the problem. There is no data. This was 0:20:01.520 --> 0:20:04.400 not a data driven decision. This was an emotive splurge 0:20:04.800 --> 0:20:07.240 that the President has a habit of making. And so 0:20:07.320 --> 0:20:09.480 if you look at what's happened, even when he's deployed 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:13.680 National Guard to Washington, d C. And these other places, 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:17.200 here's what I can tell you. The National Guard members 0:20:17.240 --> 0:20:19.679 who are not trained for municipal policing. That is not 0:20:19.720 --> 0:20:21.840 what they are trained for. And I know that because 0:20:21.880 --> 0:20:24.080 I am the commander in chief of the Maryland National Guard. 0:20:23.920 --> 0:20:25.280 And I know what my people are trained for. 0:20:26.160 --> 0:20:28.639 And they are supposed to be deployed during times of emergency, 0:20:28.720 --> 0:20:32.159 during times of crisis. They are not there to perform 0:20:32.200 --> 0:20:35.240 performative stunts. And so the truth is is that we've 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:37.600 had members of the National Guard who have taken more 0:20:37.600 --> 0:20:41.240 selfies than done arrests. We have members of the National 0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:44.480 Guard who have picked up more trash than actually conducted 0:20:44.520 --> 0:20:49.000 drug busts. And so the issue that I had, of 0:20:49.080 --> 0:20:51.200 the multiple issues that I have with the President when 0:20:51.200 --> 0:20:53.240 he was threatening to do this and trying to make these, 0:20:53.280 --> 0:20:56.000 you know, these ridiculous comments about me and members of 0:20:56.000 --> 0:21:00.359 our National Guard is how deeply disrespectful it is to 0:21:00.480 --> 0:21:03.840 members of our military, because these are people who are 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:07.760 willing to risk their lives if necessary, because they trust 0:21:07.840 --> 0:21:11.200 that their commander in chief is taking their lives seriously. 0:21:12.160 --> 0:21:14.800 They trusted the directions that the commander in chief are 0:21:14.800 --> 0:21:19.959 making are not just lawful, but informed. And they trusted 0:21:20.000 --> 0:21:22.359 their commander in chief would never put them in a 0:21:22.400 --> 0:21:24.920