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Last week, President Donald Trump threatened to deploy the National Guard into other major Democratic cities, including Chicago, New Orleans and Baltimore, that he claims have “out of control” crime.
Last week, President Donald Trump threatened to deploy the National Guard into other major Democratic cities, including Chicago, New Orleans and Baltimore, that he claims have “out of control” crime.
Trump, who said earlier this week on social media that D.C. is now “crime free” as a result of his federal emergency declaration weeks ago, has his eyes set on sending in federal law enforcement to Baltimore, which he called a “hell hole” during a news conference Tuesday.
Trump said, as president, he has “the right to do it, because I have an obligation to protect this country. And that includes Baltimore.”
The pushback by leaders from the targeted cities and their state’s governors continues.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore joined WTOP’s Anne Kramer and Shawn Anderson to talk more about the president’s latest threats.
Listen to the interview below:
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore joined WTOP to discuss President Trump’s latest threats to deploy the National Guard in Baltimore.
The transcript below has been lightly edited for clarity.
- Anne Kramer:
The President just said this week that the people of Baltimore want federal agents to come in and get crime under control in the city. He even called Baltimore a “hellhole.” Can you actually do something to stop the federal law enforcement coming into Baltimore? And if so, what can you do?
- Maryland Gov. Wes Moore:
That’s why I’ve been very clear that what the president is urging and what the president is talking about with the activation of the National Guard, it’s not sustainable. I mean, he is literally spending over a million dollars a day to have the National Guard raking mulch and picking up trash. That is not scalable, and that is also a violation of the 10th Amendment, and individual states’ rights.
So my declaration that I will not authorize the Maryland National Guard to be able to patrol our cities, because it is not either mission aligned or mission critical, stands. And so we are very clear about what the Constitution holds and upholds, about where presidential limitations begin and end, and also what my responsibilities are as the Commander in Chief of the Maryland National Guard.
- Shawn Anderson:
Now, you’ve been pretty tough on President Trump here in the last few weeks. Are your responses the right way to go when it comes to handling the president, let’s say, compared to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat as well. She seems to be walking the line much more carefully, even parsing her comments about the president.
Tell us about the different approaches here in dealing with President Trump.
- Moore:
Well, this is not personal between myself and the president. I mean, the president’s attack, and frankly, the ignorant comments that he continues to make from the Oval Office, he’s trying to make it about me versus him. This is not, in my opinion, about anything about me and him. This is about me defending my people. This is about me protecting Marylanders.
And when you’re making these comments saying Baltimore is a hell hole or a death scape; when you’re making comments about our children, saying that they’re “natural born killers”; when you’re talking about doing things like taking away Key Bridge funding that you never authorized in the first place; when you’re saying you’re not going to support our people in Western Maryland, who have had to endure historic floods; when you’re firing our federal workers — and Maryland has had more federal workers fired than any state in this country.
When you’re coming after our people, people know that I’m a soldier, and I will fight for and protect our people, and that is all I’m doing. This is not about trying to fight Donald Trump. This is about me fighting for Marylanders.
- Kramer:
Is there any wiggle room there? So if President Trump came to you and said, “Hey, I acknowledge the fact that crime is getting under control in Baltimore. But would you like some more help from the federal agents? I could send them in.” Because, yes, violent crime, particularly murders, are down in Baltimore, but people in Baltimore City are still complaining about carjackings, armed robberies in places like Harbor East, Fells Point, Fed Hill. Any thoughts about that?
- Moore:
I’m very clear that my number one priority is public safety, and if one person does not feel safe, then we will stop at nothing to make sure that everybody in our communities are safe.
We’re watching very encouraging results, and it’s not just homicides, it’s non-fatal shootings, it’s auto theft, it’s carjacking. It’s across the board, that year-on-year, we are down over 25% in pretty much every single statistical category within Baltimore and across our state. So we’re very proud of the progress that’s being made in the state of Maryland, even though we know the work is not done.
And I have said to the president that we would we would absolutely and gratefully accept more federal support on things that actually make sense. And so instead of doing things like cutting $30 million from violence prevention programs, which he did, instead of doing things like proposing like in his proposed budget, where he cut funding for the FBI and the ATF, we would love to have more support for FBI and ATF and to get these illegal guns out of our neighborhoods and off of our streets.
We would love to be able to have more support for local law enforcement, the way that in our state budget, I have actually increased funding for local law enforcement by historic numbers in the state of Maryland. We would absolutely welcome more federal supports. But what I do not want is performative measures like advancing the National Guard inside of our communities to do jobs that they’re not even trained for.
- Anderson:
President Trump has said he would consider withholding funding for the replacement Key Bridge in this war of words with you. Can he do that?
- Moore:
The president never authorized funding for the Key Bridge, so the president can’t take away funding for the Key Bridge.
Key Bridge funding was authorized through Congress, and Congress was the ones, both Republicans and Democrats, who understood that the Port of Baltimore is a crucial avenue to our American economy, that two thirds of the country receive their goods from the Port of Baltimore, and the Key Bridge is an absolutely historic and important measure to make sure that you have a fully functioning Port of Baltimore.
And so the President of the United States does not have the authority to pull funding for the Key Bridge. Only Congress can do that, and I don’t think Congress would want to hamstring the American economy by making a decision like pulling away from the 100% cost share and agreement that we have between the state of Maryland and our federal government.
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Ciara Wells
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