Hear Maryland governor's message to Trump wanting to deploy National Guard in his state

CNN

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins speaks with Maryland Democratic Gov. Wes Moore about President Donald Trump’s latest comments about crime in Baltimore and whether Trump can order deployment of the National Guard in his state. #CNN #News  # news #breaking #24x7

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00:00Now, the president has long championed the death penalty. For D.C., though, I should note it is not

00:04a simple ask, given capital punishment is not even in the city's legal code, and achieving it

00:10would likely face major obstacles here. But this all came as the president also made clear he plans

00:15to extend federal control over D.C. with help from Congress after his 30 days to do so is up

00:22and will then require their authorization.

00:24Number one, we want to stay there for longer than 30 days. As you know, we have an absolute

00:30mandate, and I can extend it, but I'd rather not have to declare a national emergency because

00:35by that time, I mean, right now, there's not an emergency.

00:40After the president threatened to send in the National Guard to other states and cities,

00:44one governor invited him to come to the city that he was calling out,

00:48an invitation that the president responded to this way today.

00:51Baltimore, Westmore, was telling me he wants, I want to walk with the president. Well, I said,

00:58I want to walk with you too someday. But first, you got to clean up your crime because I'm not

01:02walking. I'm not walking in Baltimore right now. Baltimore is a hellhole.

01:09My lead source tonight is the Democratic governor of Maryland. You just heard the president mentioned

01:13there, Westmore. And governor, thank you for being here tonight. I think just first off,

01:18what is your response to the president calling Baltimore, as he put it there, a hellhole?

01:26Well, the president seems to be obsessed with me. You know, today he called me a beauty, and

01:31when I first met him, he just talked about how I was a good-looking guy. And now he just continues to

01:37make statements that are just flat-out false about our state's largest city. You know,

01:44the reality is, is that when I first became the governor, Baltimore in 2022 had about a homicide

01:50a day. Now, in the past two and a half years, Baltimore and the state of Maryland have had

01:55amongst the fastest drops in violent crime anywhere in the United States. The last time the homicide

02:00rate was this low in Baltimore City, I was not born yet. And we have done it by making historic

02:06investments in law enforcement, by making historic investments in predictive technologies. And we've

02:12done it by actually working with the mayor, working with the state's attorney, working with community

02:16violence intervention groups, and working with the community to be able to ensure that people can

02:21feel safer in their neighborhoods. And the thing is that we know we have more work to do, but we're

02:25not going to be performative or cynical about the way we are doing it and not taking the approach that

02:32the president of the United States seems to be taking about making people safe in communities.

02:37What are you going to do if he sends in the National Guard to Baltimore, though? I mean,

02:40we've seen other governors try to fight it, like in California, Governor Newsom. And, you know,

02:45losing, they lost that battle in court.

02:49Well, I'm very, very clear. I am the commander in chief of the Maryland National Guard, not him.

02:54And the Constitution authorizes that. And so the Maryland National Guard moves on the authority of

03:01the commander in chief. And I will not authorize the Maryland National Guard to be activated

03:05for something that is either not mission critical or mission aligned. And I think what the president

03:11of the United States is doing is it is not it is not sustainable. It is not scalable. And it's also

03:18not constitutional, that it is a direct violation of the 10th Amendment. And even and even if he wants

03:25to talk about other things he can do to try to activate, the reality is, is that he still needs states

03:30to be able to invite the federal government to come on board to be able to do that. And the thing that

03:35gets me most about this is how deeply disrespectful this is to members of the National Guard, who signed

03:41up for this job, as I did when I deployed overseas, and I led paratroopers in combat, where we signed up

03:48with the expectation that the commander in chief and the people who was who was declaring our orders

03:52was actually taking it seriously. And the problem is, we are seeing a lack of seriousness from the

03:58president of the United States to a very serious situation. And that's why I invited him to come

04:03to Baltimore, to come be educated, to come learn. So he does not to spout nonsense from the Oval Office

04:09and things that are just blatantly not true about what is actually happening and the work that's

04:14happening in coordination to make people feel safer in their neighborhoods. Does that invitation

04:19still stand?

04:22That invitation still stands. I would I would I would love for the for the president of the United States

04:27to actually come and learn. I would love to be able to introduce him to our violence interrupters

04:33that are on the ground groups like we are us that are on the ground doing the work. I would love for

04:38him to come spend time with the mayor of Baltimore to go learn about the things we actually need. For

04:44example, the president really wanted to not spend a spend a million dollars a day on something that

04:50is theatrical, actually spend that time and put that report those resources that money into things

04:55like license plate readers, put that money into into things like making sure that we can put more

05:00cops on the beat and that we could also make sure we have more community violence interrupters and

05:03they're getting the supports they need. You know, you point out that crime is down rightfully so

05:08in Baltimore, but some people might look at the numbers and say, OK, well, the city still has the

05:12highest highest overall crime rate, third highest violent crime rate. And those are numbers that that

05:18justify what the president is saying. I want you to listen actually today because this is a point he kept making

05:25repeatedly during this cabinet meeting, which is basically he's winning a political game against Democrats

05:30that they're making other Democrats defend crime numbers like like what I just said there. Listen to how the

05:35president put it today. The Democrats have lost two and a half million. Other than that, they're

05:43extremely happy. No, they're very depressed. They're very depressed. And their new box that they've fallen

05:49into is crime. There was a consultant on one of the shows this morning I was watching. I thought he was very

05:55good. He's a Democrat consultant. And he was screaming, no, no, don't let him do this to you. Don't let it's

06:03another trap. Do you worry that it's a trap? I worry that he's not taking this seriously.

06:13This isn't a game. This is not politics. The eight years under the previous governor in Maryland,

06:20we went eight years in Baltimore with 300 plus homicides every single year unabated.

06:28that during that time, during the eight years of my predecessor, the homicide rate in the state of

06:34Maryland nearly doubled. The nonfatal shooting rate did double. And I refuse to be a governor who

06:39is just going to sit there and offer thoughts and prayers while we allow bloodshed in our neighborhood.

06:44So what did we do? We actually got serious. We actually started working together. We started making

06:50historic investments in our community groups and in local law enforcement. We started actually making

06:55investments to ensure that we could use technology to stop crime before it happened. And if someone

07:00committed a violent crime, particularly with a firearm, I want them in handcuffs in 24 hours,

07:05we started taking this seriously. And that's the problem that I'm seeing here is that we are actually

07:12working together to take this issue seriously. And right now from the president of the United States

07:17with his, with his, you know, jeering cackles around him, that the only thing we are hearing

07:22is them laughing about the fact that this is a political ploy. It is real to people who have

07:29lived in communities for so long that have been neglected and that have been ignored. And I can

07:34tell you right now, when they're watching the fact that this is just becoming a political game

07:39to those who are sitting in positions who could actually do something about it, that is the thing

07:45that will have consequences in the ballot box later on.

07:47You mentioned what the president has, has said about you talking about your, how you look. Um,

07:55you actually interacted with him last year at the army Navy game. He's claiming that you called him

08:01the greatest president of your lifetime. And there's actually audio of the conversation that the two of

08:07you had that, that Fox news aired. Obviously you were there for this conversation, but I want everyone

08:12else to have a chance to listen to this. Presidents. Welcome back to Maryland, sir. Welcome back to

08:20Maryland. It's good to see you. Thank you, sir. Great to see you. Great to have you back here.

08:28Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Well, we are, we are very, very anxious to, uh, to be able to

08:33work closely with you. And, you know, I know the key bridge is something that we're, uh, it's going well.

08:39I mean, we spoke with speaker Johnson yesterday and, uh, speaker Johnson says he believes that we're

08:42close to the hundred percent cost share. And, uh, and the thing is, I told him when we get that

08:46hundred percent cost share done, we are going to be able to go to the key bridge and be able to watch

08:51because I will have it done in 28 long time on budget. Thank you, sir.

08:58Did you interact with him at any other point in, in that conversation? Did you ever tell him he was the

09:04president in your lifetime? I know this is breaking news to everybody, but, but the president is not

09:13telling the truth. Uh, what happened right there was when I first met the president. And then after

09:18he started talking about how I'm a good looking guy, I started talking about the importance of the

09:21key bridge and how this state put on a case study on how to recover in times of crisis that, that we

09:29were able to bring closure to all six families, to the individuals who were lost that night on the

09:34key bridge. And when they told us it was going to take 11 months to clear the federal channel,

09:38that this state got it done in 11 weeks. And we started talking about how it was going to get

09:43done. And then he later on invited me to come sit with him at the game. And I told him, I said,

09:48I'm good. I have my own seats. And I went to go sit with the cadets and the midshipmen.

09:52So no, I never called him the greatest. And I just find it absolutely comical that, uh, that that was

09:59his, uh, uh, his, the way he remembered that conversation. Governor Westmore, thank you for

10:04your time tonight. Thank you so much.

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