Speaker 1: Every day a week. Click yours up the Breakfast.
Speaker 2: Club, finish for y'all done morning.
Speaker 3: Everybody is stej Envy, Jess hilarious, Charlamagne the guy. We
Speaker 3: are the Breakfast Club. We got a special guest in
Speaker 3: the building. Indeed, this morning we got your governor Jess.
Speaker 1: You all righty now govern up Maryland.
Speaker 3: Governor west More, welcome, it's.
Speaker 1: Going to be back back of my favorite constituent.
Speaker 4: What stuff are you doing?
Speaker 2: You might be related the same last name.
Speaker 1: I'm saying, yeah, that's cousin.
Speaker 2: If it's not what you say it is.
Speaker 4: I always always say, yeah, makes sense, that's your cousin.
Speaker 4: And everybody loves Governor west Yeah.
Speaker 2: You't go ahead.
Speaker 1: You ain't ever asking no pardon, though I didn't.
Speaker 4: That was the conversation at to this interview. Expand some
Speaker 4: stuff from me.
Speaker 2: How are you feeling?
Speaker 1: First and foremost, I'm feeling great, man. Everything's great. Everything honestly,
Speaker 1: everything's good. It's like, you know, I say this, Thank
Speaker 1: God where Maryland? You know, because I see everything that's
Speaker 1: going on around the country, and I see the fear,
Speaker 1: the frustration, and I see like Maryland's just moving different.
Speaker 1: Maryland's taking care of each other. There's no state that's
Speaker 1: taking it on the chin from this Trump administration like
Speaker 1: Maryland has.
Speaker 2: I mean, like people forget.
Speaker 1: Before this ridiculous federal government shut down, Donald Trump had
Speaker 1: already fired over fifteen thousand Marylanders who are federal workers,
Speaker 1: pulled grants, I mean, you know, restricted any type of
Speaker 1: aid to our folks over in western Maryland despite having
Speaker 1: historic floods. Literally, when we put in for federal disaster relief,
Speaker 1: which we qualified for, they literally sent a message back
Speaker 1: saying support from Maryland is not warranted.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's it.
Speaker 1: So But despite all that, we have some of the
Speaker 1: fastest job growth rates inside the entire country, one of
Speaker 1: the lowest unemployment rates in the entire country. We're making
Speaker 1: sure we're taking care of our ferial workers. We're making
Speaker 1: sure we're uplifting our community. So listen, thank god we're
Speaker 1: in Maryland.
Speaker 5: I use Maryland as an example all the time because
Speaker 5: I remember I was at my daughter's Chilean tournament back
Speaker 5: in like February, and the amount of people who were
Speaker 5: walking up to me who were concerned that they were
Speaker 5: either going to lose their jobs and they already had
Speaker 5: lost their jobs because the dose was insane, So I
Speaker 5: can imagine what you get.
Speaker 1: And Sean is crazy because like, who are we talking about.
Speaker 1: We're talking about people who do things like make sure
Speaker 1: that our food is safe, right, make sure that our
Speaker 1: critical infrastructure is make sure that veterans like myself who
Speaker 1: come back home and who need medication, that they're getting
Speaker 1: their medication. That's who they're choosing to go after first.
Speaker 1: And so looking at this assault that we have had
Speaker 1: on our federal workers and again and now we're talking
Speaker 1: about the only way that you're going to reopen a
Speaker 1: government is by cutting people off health care, raising premiums
Speaker 1: by ninety five percent. Health Care is already too expensive,
Speaker 1: and now you're talking about raising premiums by ninety five
Speaker 1: percent for folks like, this is crazy, what's going on?
Speaker 1: And so Maryland, you know, in many ways, Maryland really
Speaker 1: does take it and have to take it. Like these
Speaker 1: are not indirect blows. These are direct shots at me,
Speaker 1: in direct shots at us. We get it. But the
Speaker 1: thing that we're really focusing on is how how can
Speaker 1: we make sure we're protecting our people and really diversifying
Speaker 1: our economy so we're not we don't have to be
Speaker 1: as reliant on Washington, DC, or who sits in an oval.
Speaker 3: Office break it down, like how will you getting through it?
Speaker 3: Because this governance in May is that are having a
Speaker 3: hard time, but Maryland is making it through. So how
Speaker 3: is Maryland making it through? How are you know, people
Speaker 3: finding jobs? How are people paying rent and car notes
Speaker 3: and putting food on their table? How are you guys
Speaker 3: doing it well?
Speaker 1: One is I think our folks realizes that we're not
Speaker 1: been in the need of nobody. Anybody who's sitting there
Speaker 1: saying well, if you just be quiet, they'll stop, or
Speaker 1: if you don't, if you don't push back, they'll I'm like, listen,
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't know a situation where it's like listen,
Speaker 1: if you just be quiet, they'll stop beating you. Like
Speaker 1: that's never happens. Never. And so the thing that we're doing,
Speaker 1: we're just being We're being aggressive about what it means
Speaker 1: to protect our people. So, for example, with our federal workers,
Speaker 1: we've made sure that there are pipelines for our federal
Speaker 1: workers to be able to get available in essential state
Speaker 1: jobs or private sector jobs. We start is something called
Speaker 1: fedes to eds, where we knew that Maryland as well
Speaker 1: as many other states has a teacher shortage right now.
Speaker 1: So I'm saying, if I got someone who's working for
Speaker 1: the federal government who was interested and qualified, get them certified,
Speaker 1: get them trained, get them in a classroom as quickly
Speaker 1: as possible, so we can both address the teacher shortage
Speaker 1: as well as making sure that they're getting employment. That alone,
Speaker 1: we've now seen since I been the governor, we have
Speaker 1: clothes that teacher shortage we have by twenty five percent,
Speaker 1: and a lot of that is because of these federal
Speaker 1: workers who are now coming on board. We have federal
Speaker 1: workers who they are forcing to go to work, which
Speaker 1: is this is crazy. They are federal workers that are
Speaker 1: forcing to go to work and not paying them. So
Speaker 1: we got folks in Maryland who are working and not
Speaker 1: getting paid. We got politicians in Washington who are paid
Speaker 1: and not working right, and so.
Speaker 5: We still got to pay taxes, and we still got
Speaker 5: to pay taxes on them while they're not doing anything right.
Speaker 1: And so for federal workers who are now forced to
Speaker 1: go to work and they're taking public transportation there paying
Speaker 1: for public translation despite not getting paycheck. So what did
Speaker 1: I do? I said, for all public translation for federal workers,
Speaker 1: it's free.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: It's free. Just show your federal government pass and you're good.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: So it's like, so we are making sure we're being aggressive.
Speaker 1: We were said, we're as long as we can, We're
Speaker 1: going to cover down on Medicaid snap Wick, despite the
Speaker 1: fact that the federal government is now cutting it off
Speaker 1: from our states. I'm saying that in the state of Maryland,
Speaker 1: we're going to make sure that our people are protected
Speaker 1: and our people are taken care of. So I tell
Speaker 1: our folks man, while Washington is telling this country, you're
Speaker 1: on your own, in Maryland, we tell our people we
Speaker 1: leave no one behind.
Speaker 5: I wanted to ask you about the No King's protests
Speaker 5: that were happening this weekend, and in your view, what
Speaker 5: does the level of turnout say about public sentiment toward
Speaker 5: executive power in America today.
Speaker 1: Well, I tell you one of the things I was
Speaker 1: really taken by. It's not even just the numbers. It's
Speaker 1: the where some of the biggest No Kings turnouts that
Speaker 1: we had in our state. We're in rural parts of
Speaker 1: our state, conservative parts of our state. And I think
Speaker 1: about it this way, man, where it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: for example, when we just announced our reelection two weeks ago.
Speaker 1: Some of the first people that came out and endorsed
Speaker 1: us were actually Republican lawmakers. Republican lawmakers in Western Maryland
Speaker 1: because they were like at a time, and these are
Speaker 1: places that voted for Donald Trump by seventy five, seventy seven,
Speaker 1: seventy eight percent, but they were like, but listen, in
Speaker 1: our time of need, the governor showed up. We were
Speaker 1: some of the first boots on ground when they had
Speaker 1: historic flooding out in western Maryland. The President nowhere to
Speaker 1: be found that we actually invested millions of dollars to
Speaker 1: make sure that they can get furnaces, because I'm telling
Speaker 1: you right now, we're talking about some of the coldest
Speaker 1: parts of our state and people who do not have furnaces,
Speaker 1: people will lose their lives this winter. We put in
Speaker 1: millions of dollars from the state to make sure they're good.
Speaker 1: The president support from Maryland is not warranted because you
Speaker 1: exactly exactly.
Speaker 2: I known y'all.
Speaker 1: But it's like, but but the point is, it's like,
Speaker 1: so when you're going out there and you're seeing no
Speaker 1: kings protests, when you're seeing them, like, listen, this is
Speaker 1: is this about? You know? Is this about rule of law.
Speaker 1: And it's about rule of law. Is it about you
Speaker 1: came in and you'd say you make things more affordable?
Speaker 1: And we said, how energy prices have risen by twenty
Speaker 1: percent since he's been the president. That these terrorists are
Speaker 1: making everything from the clothes that we're wearing to the
Speaker 1: food that were that food that were eating more expensive. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but you know what, it's also about you keep breaking
Speaker 1: your promises. Man, everything you said that you were going
Speaker 1: to do. They are now waking up and realizing he
Speaker 1: never cared about you.
Speaker 2: Right, He promised economic change on day one.
Speaker 1: For him, and it happened. He's great economic change he
Speaker 1: has been. I tell you, the two greatest beneficiaries of
Speaker 1: the Trump administration so far have been the Trump family
Speaker 1: and China. Ooh, the Trump family in China have had
Speaker 1: a great streak for the past ten months.
Speaker 2: Why China, because it seems like they've been they've had.
Speaker 1: Like issues because when American leadership pulls back, who's helping
Speaker 1: to fill up the vacuum?
Speaker 2: Got you that?
Speaker 1: Oftentimes when you're talking about our foreign policy, this really
Speaker 1: is a larger battle between the US and China. China
Speaker 1: being one of the fastest growing economies over a period
Speaker 1: of the past twenty years. China being a country that
Speaker 1: is always pushed and reflected and said, like, we want
Speaker 1: to make sure that we're having our proper respect. And
Speaker 1: the United States, who in many ways is kind of
Speaker 1: like this upstart. You know, they're like the startup in
Speaker 1: the globe. Now we're about to celebrating two hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty years. China's like two hundred and fifty years, Like
Speaker 1: that's a blink of an eye when it comes to
Speaker 1: Chinese history. But also look at what has now happened
Speaker 1: as the US has pulled away from things like foreign
Speaker 1: aid and support and everywhere from Africa to South America.
Speaker 1: Who's helped to fill in that China right, who has
Speaker 1: helped to come in when we're having conversations about about
Speaker 1: about new resources and energy supports right and come up
Speaker 1: with long term energy supplies. When you have the Trump
Speaker 1: administration who's pulling away from increasing energy supplies, which by
Speaker 1: the way, is making energy prices more expensive on everybody.
Speaker 1: I believe that we should be investing in solar and
Speaker 1: wind and nuclear and all the energy technologies that can
Speaker 1: help to make energy prices more affordable because when you
Speaker 1: increase supply, you then can be able to decrease costs.
Speaker 1: And Donald Trump is simply saying like, nah, We're not
Speaker 1: doing any of that stuff you know that's going to
Speaker 1: do it continues to drive energy prices up. Do you
Speaker 1: know who is investing in those new technologies? China? So listen,
Speaker 1: the Trump family and China have done very, very well
Speaker 1: over the past ten months. The average American family not
Speaker 1: so much.
Speaker 3: And we had a bunch of candidates up here, Mayoro,
Speaker 3: candidates from New York and governors from Jersey, and everybody
Speaker 3: talks about their relationship or wanting to work with Trump.
Speaker 3: Is that even an option with you?
Speaker 1: Listen, I'm very clear, man, I will work with anyone.
Speaker 1: I will just down to no one. I'm not built
Speaker 1: that way. Like I'm always going to fight for my
Speaker 1: fi Like the people of my state, they understand like
Speaker 1: like I'm not. I don't come from a political world.
Speaker 1: I don't come from a political family. I don't come
Speaker 1: from a political background. I'm a soldier. That's who I am.
Speaker 1: That's how I'm built. And so if someone is trying
Speaker 1: to do something that's going to benefit the people of
Speaker 1: my state, if someone's trying to do something that's going
Speaker 1: to benefit my community and my people, then I'm always
Speaker 1: interested in being able to find ways of working together
Speaker 1: and so on and so forth. The problem is, I
Speaker 1: have seen nothing from this administration that shows as an
Speaker 1: interest in that. I have seen nothing but shots at us.
Speaker 1: I've seen nothing but talk about how you're going to
Speaker 1: send national guards into my communities. I've seen nothing but
Speaker 1: them turning down federal aid and federal supports that is
Speaker 1: justified and necessary for the people of my state. I've
Speaker 1: seen nothing but them using them except using the constitution
Speaker 1: like it's a suggestion box. So, you know, if you
Speaker 1: want to have a real conversation about being able to
Speaker 1: help the people of Maryland and lift us up and
Speaker 1: continue the trajectory that we've been on since my administration
Speaker 1: has come on board, I'm always down to that conversation.
Speaker 3: As a form of soldier talk about the negative things
Speaker 3: about having sold just put into the community.
Speaker 1: There are so many problems with this, and it's so
Speaker 1: deeply performative. And here's the thing that gets me on
Speaker 1: a couple fronts. If he wants to have a real
Speaker 1: conversation about making our community safer, I'm here for that.
Speaker 1: I've been very clear there is no higher priority for
Speaker 1: me than making sure that our communities are safe. I
Speaker 1: think about what's happened in Maryland, and Maryland for the
Speaker 1: eight years before I became the governor, we saw the
Speaker 1: homicide rate nearly double. The non fatal shooting rate did double.
Speaker 1: Baltimore City the year before I became the governor, in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, we had almost a homicide a day.
Speaker 1: And so when we came on board, I said, I
Speaker 1: Am not going to be a governor that's going to
Speaker 1: sit there and give eulogies and give thoughts and prayers
Speaker 1: and not do a damn thing about actually making community safer.
Speaker 1: So what do we do? I started working with Mayor Scott.
Speaker 1: I started working with local Sorry may Scott, Mayor Baltimore.
Speaker 1: I started working with local law enforcement. I started working
Speaker 1: with count executives around the state. I started actually, we
Speaker 1: made historic investments in predictive analytics and technologies and community
Speaker 1: violence intervention groups, community violence interruption groups, and the results
Speaker 1: have been this. In the past two and a half years,
Speaker 1: we have seen how Maryland has had amongst the fastest
Speaker 1: drops in violent crime anywhere in the United States of
Speaker 1: America amongst the fastest drops in property crime anywhere in
Speaker 1: the United States of America. The homicide rates in the
Speaker 1: state of Maryland since ide and the governor are down
Speaker 1: nearly twenty five percent that we have seen in Baltimore City.
Speaker 1: The last time of homicide rate was this slow in
Speaker 1: Baltimore City. I wasn't born yet. That's the kind of
Speaker 1: drops we've seen. And now, despite the head the presidents
Speaker 1: talk about how we have children who are natural born killers,
Speaker 1: and he's now going to send the National Guard in
Speaker 1: our community. I'm like, first of all, you're nineteen eighties
Speaker 1: archie bunker men talenty mindset is not going to fly
Speaker 1: because it goes against all data that's actually happening and
Speaker 1: the momentum we're actually seeing. But the other thing about
Speaker 1: it is this man is that like, I know what
Speaker 1: it's like for these soldiers. I know what it's like
Speaker 1: to put on the uniform. I know what it's like
Speaker 1: to say good boy to your family. I deployed, I
Speaker 1: let soldiers overseas in Afghanistan. And so for him to
Speaker 1: continue to have this fetish of military uniforms like it's
Speaker 1: a child where he's going to ask these men and
Speaker 1: women to do something that he was never willing to do.
Speaker 1: Say goodbode to your family, and to go to deploy
Speaker 1: and to do operations and missions that a they You know,
Speaker 1: municipal policing is not something our National Guards are trained for.
Speaker 1: I'm the commander in chief of the Maryland National Guard.
Speaker 1: I know my gods are trained for and that's not
Speaker 1: one of them. And I also know that if you
Speaker 1: look at what's happening in Washington, d C. And the
Speaker 1: deployments that they're having, you know, I can tell you
Speaker 1: that these National Guards men and women, these citizens soldiers
Speaker 1: who are giving up their lives because they trust them
Speaker 1: commander in chief, have taken more selfies than they've made arrests.
Speaker 1: They painted more fences and picked up more trash than
Speaker 1: they've actually done drug busts. So what are we talking
Speaker 1: about right now? This is what the president is doing
Speaker 1: and Headseth and all these guys. It is just it's performative.
Speaker 1: It's offensive. It's offensive to our communities, it's offensive to
Speaker 1: these military personnel. It's offensive to their families because you're
Speaker 1: now asking to leave their families and to.
Speaker 5: Do what And nobody ever asked him what's the long
Speaker 5: term solution, like, what's the long term solution never for
Speaker 5: crime prevention? Okay, you're doing this, now, what's the long
Speaker 5: term plan?
Speaker 1: If he wants to have a serious conversation, I would
Speaker 1: love for the President United States, and I'm not holding
Speaker 1: my breath on this, to have a serious conversation about policy,
Speaker 1: because listen, I tell him, you know what I would
Speaker 1: love to do. I know for myself and the mayor
Speaker 1: and our Acount executives, We'd love to talk to you
Speaker 1: about banning block switches and the ability to turn these
Speaker 1: blocks into automatic weapons. We'd love to have a conversation
Speaker 1: about banning ghost guns. We'd love to have a conversation
Speaker 1: with you about additional ATI n FBI resources and supports.
Speaker 1: I love to have a conversation with you about lpr's
Speaker 1: license plate readers so that can help to actually track
Speaker 1: down crime. I'd love to have a conversation with you
Speaker 1: about stop stop cutting the funding that was coming to
Speaker 1: our communities for community violence intervention groups that were actually
Speaker 1: on the ground doing the work. But he's not interested
Speaker 1: in that. But what he is interested in doing is
Speaker 1: he'll cut funding for stuff that's actually working. But then
Speaker 1: ask the American taxpayer to pay over a million dollars
Speaker 1: a day so they can watch National Guard take selfies.
Speaker 5: Are you concerned, like when you saw the meeting that
Speaker 5: you know, a Secretary of War Pete Hexf and President
Speaker 5: Trump had with the US military generals and admirals.
Speaker 2: Are you concerned that some of.
Speaker 5: Those generals and admirals may go along with him and
Speaker 5: pledge loyalty to him and not the Constitution.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, it's the I remember I'm on a
Speaker 1: bunch of different like group chats things with a lot
Speaker 1: of military folks who I served with, and people were
Speaker 1: still in and I remember getting one from a buddy
Speaker 1: of mine and he said, listen, I've oftentimes disagreed with
Speaker 1: the commander in chief, not often. Am I embarrassed by him?
Speaker 2: Wow?
Speaker 1: Because I'm embarrassed. Wow, because there's just a lack of
Speaker 1: seriousness that he and accept there are taking on this.
Speaker 1: There is, you know. And one thing I, you know,
Speaker 1: always say is that listen, as soldiers, we know our job,
Speaker 1: we know our oath. We took an oath to the
Speaker 1: Constitution and always protect and defend people against all enemies
Speaker 1: of this country, foreign and domestic. And we took an
Speaker 1: oath that we would always honor all lawful orders of
Speaker 1: the President of the United States. The thing that is
Speaker 1: is uh is really challenging for a lot of people
Speaker 1: right now. Is this blurring of a line that we
Speaker 1: are seeing from this White House about what orders are
Speaker 1: lawful and what orders are not.
Speaker 5: And we've seen it in other countries, like we've seen
Speaker 5: it in Germany. We' seen happen to jenerremies having a
Speaker 5: you know, Russia under style, and like what if just
Speaker 5: say thirty forty percent of those military people say, you
Speaker 5: know what.
Speaker 2: We gonna ride with the president.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, let's say what I think this is and
Speaker 1: this this is where this is where we know that
Speaker 1: we are in a really complicated and dangerous place. You know,
Speaker 1: I take my role as Commander in chief of the
Speaker 1: Maryland National Guard very seriously. I take my commitment to
Speaker 1: these men and women. I take my commitment to their families.
Speaker 1: I take it very serious. It's the reason that you
Speaker 1: know we have we have done everything from you know,
Speaker 1: having the largest tax cut to military veterans and younger
Speaker 1: military veterans in Maryland history, that we have double the
Speaker 1: amount of leave that they have so they can stop
Speaker 1: using their PTO on things like military training if they're
Speaker 1: a state worker. It's the reason that we have made
Speaker 1: Maryland the first day in the country that now has
Speaker 1: a pathway to free dental care and health care for
Speaker 1: members of our National Guard, because I don't know how
Speaker 1: someone can wear the uniform of this country and have
Speaker 1: to worry about their dental care. So there's a whole
Speaker 1: lot our military communities know that I ride for them,
Speaker 1: but knowing that we are getting this type of this
Speaker 1: type of you know, almost like comedic effort at leadership
Speaker 1: on our national side about the usage, about the serious
Speaker 1: and frankly the very sobering usages of our military personnel
Speaker 1: is deeply disturbing.
Speaker 5: I would call it an authoritarian effort. Yeah, as opposed
Speaker 5: to a comedic effort. I was gonna ask you, like
Speaker 5: when you when you think about the no Kings protests,
Speaker 5: what do you think about the framing and like, is
Speaker 5: there a responsibility for an elected leader to address like
Speaker 5: the perceptions of authoritarianism, whether it's.
Speaker 2: You know, real or proceeds.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I think there is, and I think
Speaker 1: people and I think people are seeing it. I think
Speaker 1: people are seeing it in their own real lives, and
Speaker 1: I think people and here's the point too, is that
Speaker 1: if people thought that this was benefiting their life, this
Speaker 1: would be one thing, right if people are like, listen,
Speaker 1: we had to clean things up and we had to
Speaker 1: make sure that government worked, and we had to And
Speaker 1: but you know what, I'm watching my prices go down.
Speaker 1: I'm watching my education system being better. I'm watching transportation
Speaker 1: assets being built. I'm watching all this stuff. That'd be
Speaker 1: one thing, but no one is arguing that. Everybody's just saying,
Speaker 1: wait a second. So we're seeing all this authoritarian takeover,
Speaker 1: but what I'm also saying is my energy prices keep
Speaker 1: going up. We're seeing this takeover. But what I'm also
Speaker 1: saying is we're now seeing books that are being banned
Speaker 1: and things that I can't teach and things that I
Speaker 1: can't lead. We're seeing this takeover and you know what,
Speaker 1: all my neighbors are losing their jobs. Yeah, And so
Speaker 1: they're like, so, what exactly is this and what exactly
Speaker 1: is the point? And it goes back to the thing
Speaker 1: that you know, I really believe about Donald Trump. And frankly,
Speaker 1: one of the challenges we had with the Democratic Party is,
Speaker 1: you know, Donald Trump was a great vessel for the frustration. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: he could tell you what is wrong. He could tell
Speaker 1: you who is to blame. He could tell you, you
Speaker 1: know what, they screwed this thing up. And oftentimes we were,
Speaker 1: you know, we the Democrats, we're kind of sitting there like, well,
Speaker 1: you know, well it's not true and things aren't that bad.
Speaker 1: It's like us, like, you have to understand what people
Speaker 1: are actually feeling right now.
Speaker 2: Right, put your boots on the ground.
Speaker 1: Put your boots on the ground. If you spend your
Speaker 1: time in communities, you will understand the frustration that people
Speaker 1: are feeling. So that Trump being the vessel for the
Speaker 1: frustration made sense. It allowed that him to rise inside
Speaker 1: this place. But I think people are very quickly realizing
Speaker 1: that he was a vessel for the frustration. But he's
Speaker 1: not a vehicle for the solution at all.
Speaker 3: To piggyback on what Schaula Mane says, so, how do
Speaker 3: you look at the judicial system now?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: You see Trump people get arrested and Trump's like, that's
Speaker 3: my guy. I'm a part of him, and everything he
Speaker 3: has is wiped off. You know, Oh, that's my guy.
Speaker 3: You ain't got to pay no money back. It's wiped off.
Speaker 3: It makes me look at it two ways. One nothing serious,
Speaker 3: and two it makes me feel like sometimes when the
Speaker 3: Democrats have a guy that went down for something that's
Speaker 3: maybe not just that we just leave our people hanging.
Speaker 3: Oh I should say they just leave their people hanging.
Speaker 2: Yeah Maryland mold.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So how does that make you feel when you
Speaker 3: look at the judicial system and you look at you know,
Speaker 3: somebody that you helped tried to get in office, well,
Speaker 3: whether it was Biden on a second term, and then
Speaker 3: you see how they take care of their people.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: You know, I remember when I first when I first
Speaker 1: came in the I ended up winning with more individual
Speaker 1: votes than anyone whould ever run for governor in the
Speaker 1: history of the state of Maryland, despite literally starting at
Speaker 1: one percent, Like I don't come from any political background
Speaker 1: at all. Only one thing beat me on the ballot
Speaker 1: that year, and that was cannabis. So I was like, yo,
Speaker 1: who is cannabis? And but the same time that I
Speaker 1: just definitely voted yeah absolutely, But the same time that
Speaker 1: I was I was elected governor of Maryland, Maryland voted
Speaker 1: to have a recreational cannabis market. So I said, okay,
Speaker 1: so we're going to make sure that it's rolled out
Speaker 1: in a safe, in a smooth, and an equitable way.
Speaker 1: And at the same time, there is no way that
Speaker 1: I'm going to celebrate the benefits of legalization if we
Speaker 1: do not address the consequences of criminalization. So we got
Speaker 1: to work and I ended up signing the largest mass
Speaker 1: pardon in the history of the United States of America
Speaker 1: when I pardon over one hundred and seventy five thousand
Speaker 1: misdemeanor cannabis convictions in the stroke of a pen and
Speaker 1: saying like, you know, you cannot we cannot treat every
Speaker 1: sentence like a life sentence. Where we got a new
Speaker 1: billion dollar market in the state of Maryland, but I
Speaker 1: got people who can't get a barber's license, right. That
Speaker 1: was how we can utilize the power of the pardon
Speaker 1: in a way that actually supports the people, in a
Speaker 1: way that actually helps to right some of these wrongs
Speaker 1: that have been taking place before. There's a very humble
Speaker 1: responsibility that I know I take where I'm one of
Speaker 1: fifty one people on the planet that have the ability
Speaker 1: to part right. All of our state's governors and the
Speaker 1: president of the United States, those are the only ones
Speaker 1: that have the ability to look at somebody and say,
Speaker 1: we are going to forgive you of the past issue
Speaker 1: you might have been involved with. We're going to make
Speaker 1: sure we can clean up your record, to make sure
Speaker 1: we can give you a second chance at life. It's
Speaker 1: a very unique power. And I think about Donald Trump
Speaker 1: man and the first thing that he did when he
Speaker 1: got back into office his time was part of the
Speaker 1: people on January sixth. There is just so everything that
Speaker 1: I'm seeing right now.
Speaker 2: None of it.
Speaker 1: Surprises me, because the man told you who he was
Speaker 1: and who he was going to fight for. And so
Speaker 1: I think that, you know, I'm thankful that we have
Speaker 1: a legal system in some cases that is helping to
Speaker 1: hold the line. I'm thankful that we have judges that
Speaker 1: are actually honoring the law and not bending the knee.
Speaker 1: Yet it's the same time, you know, this, this this
Speaker 1: weaponization of our legal system that we continue to see,
Speaker 1: and frankly, this you know, this very loose way that
Speaker 1: he is using a very specific and powerful ability to pardon,
Speaker 1: I think is more just a continuation of the case.
Speaker 5: Well, I got through more questions because I know you
Speaker 5: got Okay, how are you handling the pressure you're facing?
Speaker 2: To redistrict Maryland.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm very clear. Listen, Maryland, if we have this
Speaker 1: country and we have Donald Trump who was picking and
Speaker 1: choosing which states should redistrict, and people and people, remember
Speaker 1: why we're even having this conversation, right, The reason the
Speaker 1: reason why we're having this conversation is because what issue
Speaker 1: is Donald Trump going to run on in a midterm elections?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: I made all your prices higher.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: I fired a bunch of people and driven up the
Speaker 1: unemployment rate. We've made our communities less safe. But hey,
Speaker 1: vote for me. You're not gonna win on that. So
Speaker 1: what do you do? You change the rules, You rig
Speaker 1: the game. Frankly, it's a simple continuation of what this
Speaker 1: man has done his entire life. Right. And so my
Speaker 1: point is this, if Donald Trump is calling individual states
Speaker 1: and individual Republican states and saying, I need you to
Speaker 1: find me a congress person here, I need you to
Speaker 1: do this. I need you to find me a fair map,
Speaker 1: then my point is this, if all these states are
Speaker 1: going to have conversations about do they have a fair map,
Speaker 1: so will Maryland.
Speaker 2: You have to you gotta fight fire with.
Speaker 5: Fight, and former Vice Fred Kamala Harris said it last week.
Speaker 2: You gotta fight fire with fight.
Speaker 1: If these states are going to talk about do they
Speaker 1: have a fair map, then you know what Maryland needs
Speaker 1: to decide. Do we have a fair map too? Do
Speaker 1: we have a fair map? And I can tell you
Speaker 1: right now if you look at the our congressional districts
Speaker 1: and people talk about I don't like jeremanny, I hate jeremanner.
Speaker 1: I think it's ridiculous. I think it's ridiculous right now
Speaker 1: that less than ten percent of all congressional seats are
Speaker 1: actually competitive. The average congress person ends up winning by
Speaker 1: like twenty thirty forty points. So all you got to
Speaker 1: do is make it past the primary and you're good. Right,
Speaker 1: So this entire system is jerrymandered right now. And so
Speaker 1: if we are going to talk about what does it
Speaker 1: mean to have fair maps and what does it mean
Speaker 1: to have systems where people can actually be heard and represented?
Speaker 1: And you have people choosing the representatives and not represented
Speaker 1: choosing their people, then you know what add Maryland to
Speaker 1: that list? Who should have that conversation too?
Speaker 5: Absolutely, and the Baltimore Banner reported that you have a
Speaker 5: fifty four percent approval rate, but voters can't identify any
Speaker 5: of your accomplishments, Governor, how do you plan.
Speaker 2: To rectify that by the time the elections roll around.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, here's the thing.
Speaker 2: I think they say they like you, but they don't
Speaker 2: know what you did that's actual lives.
Speaker 5: No.
Speaker 1: But you know what though, But here's here's the thing
Speaker 1: that I think the people of our state now is
Speaker 1: that when we first came on board, we had we
Speaker 1: were forty third in the country in unemployment. Right now
Speaker 1: we are now going on having amongst the lowest unemployment
Speaker 1: rates in the entire country, one of the fastest job
Speaker 1: growth rates in the entire country over the past year
Speaker 1: and a half, despite watching the assaults that we've seen
Speaker 1: from the federal government that we have seen in our state,
Speaker 1: that we went from having amongst the highest violent crime
Speaker 1: rates inside the entire country to now having amongst the
Speaker 1: fastest drops in violent crime anywhere in the United States
Speaker 1: of America. That we have been able to create make
Speaker 1: Maryland the first day in the country that has a
Speaker 1: service year option for all of our high school graduates.
Speaker 1: That we've been able to make Maryland a state that
Speaker 1: has the first state based placed place led initiative to
Speaker 1: address the issue of childhood poverty, that we have been
Speaker 1: able to actually do procriment reform and now creating over
Speaker 1: eight hundred million dollars for black owned businesses inside of
Speaker 1: the state of Maryland. That we have made investments over
Speaker 1: one point four billion dollars to Maryland's HBCUs at a
Speaker 1: time when the federal government is pulling back from our HBCUs,
Speaker 1: That we have actually raised a minimum wage and made
Speaker 1: it easier for working people to be able to survive
Speaker 1: and exist within our society. That we have actually we
Speaker 1: have actually had tax cuts for the middle class in Maryland,
Speaker 1: tax cuts for military veterans in the state of Maryland.
Speaker 1: And yes, I asked wealthy Mairee own there's millionaires to
Speaker 1: pay a little bit more to help to make sure
Speaker 1: that we can have the best public schools inside the
Speaker 1: entire inside of the entire country. So I think that
Speaker 1: people see that we're doing the work. I think people
Speaker 1: see and are happy about the fact that Maryland is
Speaker 1: really leading the charge. People see that, you know, they
Speaker 1: gotta they got a governor who's ah, who's standing on
Speaker 1: the wall and who's going to fight for him and
Speaker 1: I and I and I appreciate the fact that we're still,
Speaker 1: you know, amongst one of the most popular democratic governments
Speaker 1: in the country.
Speaker 5: But it is something to say for, you know, people
Speaker 5: to like you just because you bring them joy.
Speaker 1: Yes, did not know anything that you've done, but I
Speaker 1: like them unapologetic joy. And we're out in the communities,
Speaker 1: like I'm telling you, and Jess knows like I've got
Speaker 1: this reputation being governor outside because they're like, he's everywhere.
Speaker 1: We're out in the community. We are out with the
Speaker 1: people and listen. And I think that's what people have
Speaker 1: come to not just appreciate about us, but expect from us.
Speaker 2: Is that.
Speaker 1: You know, when I when I first came out, and
Speaker 1: when people said again, when people are like, well, you know,
Speaker 1: you were not the Democratic Democratic Party's real choice when
Speaker 1: you first decided you want to run, the answer was
Speaker 1: I wasn't. I was the only person never run for
Speaker 1: office for my life. I was runn against state wide
Speaker 1: elected officials. I ran against the former head of the
Speaker 1: Democratic Party, and we ended up winning. Because I wasn't
Speaker 1: the choice of the party. I was the choice of
Speaker 1: the people. And that's always how I'm gonna ride for
Speaker 1: the people.
Speaker 6: Now, I want to ask you the Franciscott key Bridge, right,
Speaker 6: because I saw that you got some criticism from the
Speaker 6: US Transportation Secretary about what he's saying, the way you're
Speaker 6: handling it.
Speaker 5: P Duffy like what you're doing, what you're doing like.
Speaker 2: That? I like that.
Speaker 1: That's his name. Yes, yeah. And here's the thing I mean,
Speaker 1: I remember my grandfather used to tell me, don't let
Speaker 1: someone take something away from you that they never gave
Speaker 1: you in the first place. Ye you know, a little
Speaker 1: over a year ago, we had one of the most
Speaker 1: traumatic moments in our state's history where you know, a
Speaker 1: ship the size of three football fields slammed into you know,
Speaker 1: our FRANCISCTT key Bridge and we lost six workers people
Speaker 1: who fell who were fixing potholes, who fell one hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty feet into dark, cold waters and lost their lives.
Speaker 1: And how that first morning when they were like when
Speaker 1: I was asking the workers because we're you know, on
Speaker 1: the ground immediately, and I said, how long do you
Speaker 1: think it's going to take for us to clean up
Speaker 1: this channel? Because the Port of Baltimore responsible for about
Speaker 1: thirteen percent of my state's economy. And they says, you know,
Speaker 1: Governor's probably going to take about eleven months, and I
Speaker 1: said that's the wrong answer, and we worked hard, we
Speaker 1: worked together, and we got it cleared in eleven weeks.
Speaker 1: When they told me the permitting for a bridge of
Speaker 1: that size, they meant we were talking like a two
Speaker 1: mile long bridge. Permitting alone could take two and a
Speaker 1: half years. We got it done in months. We are
Speaker 1: making historic progress on something like this. And if you
Speaker 1: look at a bridge like the Gordy Howbridge, for example,
Speaker 1: you know they started that in two thousand and seven
Speaker 1: about the same size bridge. It's still not done and
Speaker 1: we're talking twenty close twenty years. And I have said
Speaker 1: we will rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge on our
Speaker 1: time and I'm not going to get distracted by foolishness.
Speaker 1: And so our people are moving at historic speed to
Speaker 1: be able to get this bridge back up, to be
Speaker 1: able to restore confidence in government and restore confidence in
Speaker 1: what we can do and actually get done. So I
Speaker 1: appreciate the commentary that we got from you know, Sean P.
Speaker 1: Duffy and the President on this, but the thing I
Speaker 1: will say is this is that we're going to do
Speaker 1: our job and we're going to make sure we're going
Speaker 1: to make the people of Maryland to make the people
Speaker 1: of this country proud. And I'm really thankful that Congress,
Speaker 1: bipartisan Republicans and Democrats in Congress were the ones who
Speaker 1: were proved who approved the one hundred percent cost share,
Speaker 1: because uh, you know, we're currently in litigation. The American
Speaker 1: people are going to be made whole on this, and
Speaker 1: I'm thankful to Congress because they're the ones that appropriated
Speaker 1: the money.
Speaker 2: This is my last question.
Speaker 5: You know, I want you to talk about this because
Speaker 5: you know, I saw you get a little flack because
Speaker 5: you vetoed a measure to create a commission to study
Speaker 5: potential slavery reparations in the state of Maryland. But to me,
Speaker 5: you had a valorie if people actually heard your home statement.
Speaker 1: Exactly, I mean, listen what I what I said was,
Speaker 1: I'm a person of action. I don't need more studies.
Speaker 1: I mean, like what we have we have, we have,
Speaker 1: we have done. We've done four studies over the past
Speaker 1: twenty years on similar type of elements. Four studies over
Speaker 1: the past twenty years, by the way, one of which
Speaker 1: my wife worked on. And so when we're now talking
Speaker 1: about doing a two year study on something that I
Speaker 1: already know the answer to I'm like, what are we studying?
Speaker 1: And this was my point. I think about the work,
Speaker 1: and again I'm not saying that that this issue was
Speaker 1: not worth working on. In fact, frankly, I've been working
Speaker 1: very closely with the members of our caucus and members
Speaker 1: of the community around a whole series of these issues.
Speaker 1: It's the reason that we just authorize four hundred million
Speaker 1: dollars for a Just Community Initiative, which made sure that
Speaker 1: we're putting four hundred million dollars of additional capital into
Speaker 1: communities that have been that have been the subject and
Speaker 1: have been truly hurt by racist and discriminatory policies, things
Speaker 1: like redlining, things like mass incarceration, things like you know,
Speaker 1: things like mass highway constructions which were cutting off neighborhoods.
Speaker 1: That we said, we are going to identify all those
Speaker 1: communities and neighborhoods, and we're starting off with is four
Speaker 1: hundred million dollars that's going specifically to those neighborhoods to
Speaker 1: address the racist policies of the past. It's the reason
Speaker 1: that we've done things like historic investments and our HBCUs
Speaker 1: because they've been historically neglected and pulled back on. Maryland
Speaker 1: has four remarkable HBCUs we're putting a storic investment back
Speaker 1: into them. It's the reason we've done things like the
Speaker 1: mass pardons and giving people a second chance of life,
Speaker 1: because who do people think that is going to benefit most.
Speaker 1: It's the reason that we've done things like procurement reform
Speaker 1: and created black millionaires inside of the state of Maryland.
Speaker 1: I am unapologetic about the support for our black community,
Speaker 1: for the support for black people who oftentimes have been
Speaker 1: the fabric and the backbone for so much of our society.
Speaker 1: And I know right now when we are watching this assault,
Speaker 1: this assault on our communities, when we're watching you know,
Speaker 1: the Trump administration now is fire and to find more
Speaker 1: black women than we have seen in a generation that
Speaker 1: we have now seen seen our insurance being pulled away,
Speaker 1: grants going to entrepreneurs, that everything that is connected to diversity, equity,
Speaker 1: inclusion that they are making illegal. We don't need it
Speaker 1: to your study right now, man, I need action. I
Speaker 1: need action. And so that was the point that we're
Speaker 1: trying to make is that in this time, in this
Speaker 1: crisis moments, I don't need a study.
Speaker 2: Let's get to it.
Speaker 1: Let's get to it.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, that's right.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, let's get on with it.
Speaker 3: We appreciate you for joining us, running for re election
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1: My cousin ye.
Speaker 2: Govern to west More, Thank you for joining.
Speaker 1: Us, brother, appreciate y'all. Thanks the Breakfast Club.
Speaker 2: Good morning.
Speaker 1: Hold up every day I wake click your ass up
Speaker 1: the Breakfast Club.
Speaker 2: You don't finish for y'all. Done,