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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