The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Gov. Wes Moore Talks Running For Reelection, National Guard, Big Beautiful Bill, Sean Duffy + More

Episode Date: October 21, 2025

Today on The Breakfast Club,  Gov. Wes Moore Talks Running For Reelection, National Guard, Big Beautiful Bill, Sean Duffy. Listen For More!YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakfastClubPower1051FMSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Look, the world can seem pretty scary. right now. But my goal here is for you to listen and feel a little better about the future. Listen and subscribe to Here We Go Again with Cal Penn on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Two rich young Americans move to the Costa Rican jungle to start over, but one of them will end up dead and the other tried for murder three times. It starts with a dream, a nature reserve, and a spectacular new home. But little by little, they lose it. They actually lose it. They sort of went nuts. Until one night, everything spins out of control. Listen to Hell in Heaven on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hold on. Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up. The breakfast club. Do you all finish or y'all's done? Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy. Just hilarious.

Salomey and the guy. We are the breakfast club. We got a special guest in the building. Yes, indeed. This morning, we got your governor, Jess. You already know. Governor Maryland, Governor Westmore. Welcome.

It's going to be back. Back of my favorite constituent. What's up? What's up? How are you doing? Y'all might be related. You got the same last name? I'm saying.

Yeah. That's cousin. Yes. If it's not, you should say it is. I always do. I always say it. Yeah. Makes sense.

That's my cousin. And everybody loves Governor Westmore. Oh, yeah, you can go ahead. You ain't ever asked for no partner, though. I didn't. That was the conversation at this interview. explain some stuff how are you feeling first or foremost

I'm feeling great man I'm feeling great honestly everything's good it's like you know I say this thank God we're in Maryland you know because I see everything that's going on around the country and I see the fear

the frustration and I see like Maryland's just moving different Maryland's taking care of each other there's no state that's taking it on the chin from this Trump administration like Maryland has I mean like people forget Before this ridiculous federal government shutdown, Donald Trump had already fired over 15,000 Marylanders who were federal workers, pulled grants, I mean, you know, restricted any type of

aid to our folks over in Western Maryland despite having historic floods. Literally, when we put in for federal disaster relief, which we qualified for, they literally sent a message back saying support for Maryland is not warranted. Wow. That's it. So, but despite all that, we have some of fastest job growth rates inside the entire country, one of the lowest unemployment rates in the entire country. We're making sure we're taking care of our federal workers. We're making sure we're a little bit uplift in our community. So, listen, thank God we're in Maryland.

I use Maryland as an example all the time, because I remember I was at my daughter's Chilean tournament back in February. And the amount of people who were walking up to me who were concerned that they were either going to lose their jobs and they already had lost their jobs because of those was insane. So I can imagine what you get. And Sean, it's crazy because, like,

Who are we talking about? We're talking about people who do things like make sure that our food is safe, right? Make sure that our critical infrastructure is protect. Make sure that veterans, like myself, who come back home and who need medication, that they're getting their medication. That's who they're choosing to go after first. And so looking at this assault that we have had on our federal workers. And again, and now we're talking about the only way that you're going to reopen a government

is by cutting people off health care, raising premiums by 95%. health care is already too expensive. And now you're talking about raising premiums by 95% for folks. Like, this is crazy what's going on. And so Maryland, you know, in many ways, Maryland really does take it and have to take it. Like, these are not indirect blows. These are direct shots at me, indirect shots at us. We get it.

But the thing that we're really focusing on is how can we make sure we're protecting our people and really diversifying our economy? So we're not, we don't have to be as reliant on Washington, D.C. or who sits in an Oval Office? Break it down. Like, how are you getting through it? because there's governors and mayors that are having a hard time, but Maryland is making it through. So how is Maryland making it through?

How are people finding jobs? How are people paying rent and car notes and putting food on their table? How are you guys doing it? Well, one is I think our folks realize is that we're not been in the need of nobody. Anybody who's sitting there saying, well, if you just be quiet, they'll stop. Or if you don't push back, I'm like, listen, I don't know a situation. where it's like listen if you just be quiet they'll stop beating you like that's never happens never never and so the thing that we're doing we're just being we're being aggressive about

what it means to protect our people so for example with our federal workers we've made sure that there are pipelines for our federal workers to be able to get available and essential state jobs or private sector jobs we started something called feds to eds where we knew that maryland as well as many other states has a teacher shortage right now so i'm saying if i got someone who's working for the federal government who is interested and qualified, get them certified, get them trained, get them in a classroom as quickly as possible. So we can both address the teacher shortage as well as making sure that they're getting employment. That alone, we've now seen since I've been the governor, we have, we have closed that teacher shortage we have by 25%.

And a lot of that is because of these federal workers who are now coming on board. We have federal workers who they are forcing to go to work, which is, this is crazy. There are federal workers they are forcing to go to work and not paying them so we got folks in maryland who are working and not getting paid we got politicians in washington who are paid and not working right and so and we still got to pay taxes and we still got to pay taxes on them while they're not doing anything right and so for the for federal workers who are now forced to go to work and they're taking public transportation they're paying for public transportation despite not getting a paycheck so what did i do i said for all public transportation for federal workers it's free

Wow. It's free. Just show your federal government pass and you're good. Wow. So we are making sure we're being aggressive. We're said we're as long as we can. We're going to cover down on Medicaid, snap, WIC, despite the fact that the federal government is now cutting it off from our states.

I'm saying that in the state of Maryland, we're going to make sure that our people are protected and our people are taking care of. So I tell our folks, man, while Washington is telling this country, you're on your own in Maryland, we tell our people we leave no. behind. I want to ask you about the No King's protest that were happening this weekend. In your view, what does the level of turnout say about public sentiment toward executive power in America today? Well, I tell you, one of the things I was really taken by, it's not even just the numbers, it's the where. Some of the biggest No King's turnouts that we had in our state

were in rural parts of our state, conservative parts of our state. And I think about it this way, man, It's like, you know, for example, when we just announced our re-election two weeks ago, some of the first people that came out and endorsed us were actually Republican lawmakers. Republican lawmakers in Western Maryland because they were like at a time, and these are places that voted for Donald Trump by 75, 77, 78 percent. And but they were like, but listen, in our time of need, the governor showed up. We were some of the first boots on ground when they had historic. flooding out in western Maryland the president nowhere to be found that we

actually invested millions of dollars to make sure that they can get furnaces because I'm telling you right now we're talking about some of the coldest parts of our state and people who do not have furnaces people will lose their lives this winter we put in millions of dollars from the state to make sure they're good the president support for Maryland is not warranted because of you exactly I know I know my bad y'all my bad But it's like, but the point is, it's like, so when you're going out there and you're seeing No King's protests, when you're saying them like, listen, this is, is this about, you know, is this about rule of law? Yeah, it's about rule of law.

Is it about you came in and you say you make things more affordable? And we said how energy prices have risen by 20% since he's been the president that these tariffs are making everything from the clothes that we're wearing to the food that were, that food that were eating more expensive. Yeah. But you know what it's also about? You keep breaking your promises, man. everything you said that you were going to do they are now waking up and realizing he never cared about you

he promised economic change on day one for him and it happened he's had great economic change he has been I tell you the two greatest beneficiaries of the Trump administration so far have been the Trump family and China the Trump family and China

have had a great streak for the past 10 months why China because it seemed like they've been they've had like issues because when American leadership pulls back who's helping to fill up the vacuum got you that oftentimes when you're talking about our foreign policy this this really is a a larger battle between the u.s and china china being one of the fastest growing economies over a period of the past 20 years china being a

country that is always pushed and reflected and said like we want to make sure that we're having our proper respect and the united states who in many ways is kind of like this upstart You know, they're like the startup in the globe. You know, we're about to celebrate 250 years. China's like 250 years. That's a blink of an eye when it comes to Chinese history. But also, look at what has now happened as the U.S. has pulled away from things like foreign aid and support in everywhere from Africa to South America. Who's helped to fill in that feeling like that China?

Right. Who has helped to come in when we're having conversations about new resources and energy supports, right? and come up with long-term energy supplies when you have the Trump administration who's pulling away from increasing energy supplies, which, by the way, is making energy prices more expensive on everybody. I believe that we should be investing in solar

and wind and nuclear and all the energy technologies that can help to make energy prices more affordable because when you increase supply, you then can be able to decrease costs. Donald Trump is simply saying, like, nah, we're not doing any of that stuff. You know what that's going to do?

It continues to drive energy prices up. Do you know who is investing in those new technologies? China. So listen, the Trump family and China have done very, very well. Over the past 10 months, the average American family, not so much. We had a bunch of candidates up here, mayoral candidates from New York and governors from Jersey. And everybody talks about their relationship or wanting to work with Trump. Is that even an option with you?

Listen, I'm very clear, man. I will work with anyone. I will just bow down to no one. I'm not built that way. Like, I'm always going to fight for my people. Like, the people of my state, they understand, like, I'm not, I don't come from a political world. I don't come from a political family. I don't come from a political background.

I'm a soldier. That's who I am. That's how I'm built. And so if someone is trying to do something that's going to benefit the people of my state, if someone's trying to do something that's going to benefit my community and my people, then I'm always interested in being able to find ways of working together. and so forth. The problem is I have seen nothing from this administration that shows there's an interest in that. I have seen nothing but shots at us. I've seen nothing but talk about how

you're going to send national guards into my communities. I've seen nothing but them turning down federal aid and federal supports that is justified and necessary for the people of my state. I've seen nothing but them using, except using the Constitution like it's a suggestion box. So, you know, if you want to have a real conversation about being able to help the people, of Maryland and lift us up and continue the trajectory that we've been on since my administration has come on board. I'm always down to have that conversation. Now, as a former soldier, talk about the negative things about having soldiers put into the community. There are so many problems with this, and it's so deeply performative. And here's a thing that gets me on a couple

fronts. If he wants to have a real conversation about making our community safer, I'm here for that. I've been very clear. There is no higher priority for me than making sure that our communities are safe. I think about what's happened in Maryland. In Maryland for the eight years before I became the governor, we saw the homicide rate nearly double. The non-fatal shooting rate did double. Baltimore City, the year before I became the governor, in 2022, we had almost a homicide a day. And so when we came on board, I said, I am not going to be a governor that's going to sit there and give eulogies and give thoughts and prayers and not do a damn thing. about actually making our community safer.

So what do we do? I started working with Mayor Scott. I started working with local, sorry, Mayor Scott, Mayor Baltimore. I started working with local law enforcement. I started working with county executives around the state. I started actually, we made historic investments in predictive analytics and technologies

and community violence intervention groups, community violence interruption groups. And the results have been this. In the past two and a half years, we have seen how Maryland has had amongst the fastest drops in violent crime anywhere in the United States of America, amongst the fastest drops in property crime,

anywhere in the United States of America. The homicide rates in the state of Maryland, since I've been the governor, are down nearly 25% that we have seen in Baltimore City. The last time the homicide rate was this low in Baltimore City, I wasn't born yet. That's the kind of drops we've seen. And now, despite that, the presidents talk about how we have children who are natural-born killers, and he's now going to send the National Guard in our community. I'm like, first of all, you're 1980s, Archie Bunker.

mentality mindset is not going to fly because it goes against all data that's actually happening and the momentum we're actually seeing. But the other thing about it is this, man, it's that like I know what it's like for these soldiers. I know what it's like to put on the uniform. I know what it's like to say goodbye to your family. I deployed, I led soldiers overseas in Afghanistan. And so for him to continue to have this fetish of military uniforms, like it's a child, where he's going to ask these men and women to do this. something that he was never willing to do. Say goodbye to your family and to go to deploy and to do operations and missions that A, they, you know, municipal policing is not something our National Guards

are trained for. I'm the commander in chief of the Maryland National Guard. I know my guys are trained for. And that's not one of them. And I also know that if you look at what's happening in Washington, D.C. and the deployments that they're having, you know, I can tell you that these National Guards, men and women, these citizen soldiers who are giving up their lives, because they trust their commander-in-chief, have taken more selfies and they've made arrests. They've painted more fences and picked up more trash than they've actually done drug busts.

So what are we talking about right now? This is what the president is doing, and heck Seth and all these guys, it is just, it's performative, it's offensive, it's offensive to our communities, it's offensive to these military personnel, it's offensive to their families, because you're now asking to leave their families

and to do what? And nobody ever asking what's the long-term solution? Never. Like, what's the long-term solution for crime prevention? Okay, you're doing this now, but what's the long-term plan? If he wants to have a serious conversation, I would love for the President of the United States, and I'm not holding my breath on this,

to have a serious conversation about policy because, listen, I tell them, you know what I would love to do? I know for myself and the mayor and our county executives, we'd love to talk to you about banning glocks switches and the ability to turn these glocks into automatic weapons. We'd love to have a conversation about banning ghost guns. We'd love to have a conversation

with you about additional ATF and FBI resources and supports. I'd love to have a conversation with you about LPRs, license plate readers, so that can help to actually track down crime. I'd love to have a conversation with you about stop cutting the funding that was coming to our communities for community violence intervention groups that were actually on the ground doing the work. But he's not interested in that. But what he is interested in doing is he'll cut funding for stuff that's actually working, but then ask the American taxpayer to pay over a million a day so they can watch National Guard take selfies. Are you concerned, like when you saw the meeting that, you know, Secretary of War,

Pete Hex-F and President Trump had with the U.S. military generals and admirals, are you concerned that some of those generals and admirals may go along with him and pledged loyalty to him and not the Constitution? Yeah, you know, it's, um, the, I remember I'm on a bunch of different like group chats things, um, with a lot of military folks who I served with and people were still And I remember getting one from a buddy of mine, and he said, listen, I've oftentimes disagreed with the commander-in-chief. Not often am I embarrassed by him. Wow.

Because I'm embarrassed. Wow. Because there's just a lack of seriousness that he and... In the new podcast, Hell in Heaven, two young Americans moved to the Costa Rican jungle to start over. But one will end up dead. The other tried for murder. Not once. People went wild.

Not twice. Stunned. But three times. John and Anne Bender are rich and attractive, and they're devoted to each other. They create a nature reserve and build a spectacular circular home high on the top of a hill.

But little by little, their dream starts to crumble. And our couple retreat from reality. They lose it. They actually lose it. They sort of went nuts. Until one night, everything spins out of control. Listen to hell in heaven on the I-Heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Big Take podcast from Bloomberg News dives deep into one big global business story every weekday.

A shutdown means the... We don't get the data, but it also means for President Trump that there's no chance of bad news on the labor market. What does a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich reveal about the economy? Our breakfast foods are consistent consumer staples, and so they sort of become outsized indicators of inflation. What's behind Elon Musk's trillion dollar payout? There's a sort of concerted effort to message that Musk is coming back. He's putting politics aside. He's left the White House.

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Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Here we go. Hey, I'm Kelpen. And on my new podcast, Here We Go again, We'll take today's trends and headlines and ask, why does history keep repeating itself? You may know me as the second hottest actor from the Harold and Kumar movies, but I'm also an author, a White House staffer, and as of like 15 seconds ago, a podcast host. Along the way, I've made some friends who are experts in science, politics, and pop culture. And each week, one of them will be joining me to answer my burning questions.

Like, are we heading towards another financial crash like in 08? is non-monogamy back in style? And how come there's never a gate ready for your flight when it lands like two minutes early? We've got guests like Pete Buttigieg, Stacey Abrams, Lili Singh, and Bill Nye. When you start weaponizing outer space, things can potentially go really wrong.

Look, the world can seem pretty scary right now, because it is. But my goal here is for you to listen and feel a little better about the future. Listen and subscribe to Here We Go Again with Cal Penn on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Crying Wolf Podcast is the story of two men, bound by injustice, of a city haunted

by its secrets, and the quest for redemption, no matter the price. White victim, female, pretty, wealthy, black defendant. Chicago, a white woman's murder, a black man behind bars, for a crime he didn't commit. I got 90 years for killing somebody I have never seen He says the police are his friends And then that's it They turn on it

A corrupt detective How he was interrogated the techniques That's crazy A snitch and a life stolen They got the wrong guy But on the inside Lee Harris finds an ally In his selly Robert

Who swears to tell the truth About what happened to Lee And free his friend And if you're with me You're golden I'll take care of you I'm going to be with you. You stuck with me for life.

Listen to the Crying Wolf podcast, starting on October 22nd, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Except our taking on this, there is, you know, and one thing I, you know, always say is that, listen, as soldiers, we know our job. We know our oath. We took an oath to the Constitution and always protect and defend people. against all enemies of this country, foreign and domestic. And we took an oath that we would always honor all lawful orders of the President of the United States.

The thing that is really challenging for a lot of people right now is this blurring of a line that we are seeing from this White House about what orders are lawful and what orders are not. And we've seen it in other countries. Like we've seen it in Germany. We've seen it happen in Germany. We've seen it happen in Russia and the Stalin.

Like, what if, just say, 30, 40% of those military people say, you know what, we're going to ride with the president. Yeah. No, let's see what. I think this is, and this is where, this is where we know that we are in a really complicated and dangerous place.

Hmm. You know, I take my role as commander and chief of the Maryland National Guard very seriously. I take my commitment to these men and women. I take my commitment to their families. I take it very serious. It's the reason that, you know, We have done everything from, you know, having the largest tax cut to military veterans and younger military veterans in Maryland's history, that we have double the amount of leave that they have so they can stop using their PTO on things like military training if they're a state worker.

It's the reason that we have made Maryland the first state in the country that now has a pathway to free dental care and health care for members of our National Guard because I don't know how someone can wear the uniform of this country and have to wear about their dental care. So there's a whole lot, and our military communities know that I ride for them. But knowing that we are getting this type of, this type of, you know, almost like comedic effort at leadership on our national side about the usage, about the serious and frankly the very sobering usage of our military personnel is deeply disturbing. I would call it an authoritarian effort as opposed to a comedic effort. And I was going to ask you, like, when you think about the No King's protest, what do you think about the framing? And, like, is there a responsibility for an elected leader to address, like, the perceptions of authoritarianism, whether it's, you know, real or perceived? Yeah. I mean, I think there is, and I think people, and I think people are seeing it.

I think people are seeing it in their own real lives. And I think people, and here's the point, too, is that if people thought that this was benefiting their life, this would be one thing, right? If people are like, listen, we had to clean things up and we had to make sure that government worked and we had to. But you know what? I'm watching my prices go down. I'm watching my education system being better. I'm watching transportation assets being built. I'm watching all this stuff.

That'd be one thing. But no one is arguing that. Everybody's just saying, wait a second. So we're seeing all this authoritarian takeover. But what I'm also saying is my energy prices keep going up. we're seeing this takeover, but what I'm also saying is we're now seeing books that are being banned

and things that I can't teach and things that I can't leave. We're seeing this takeover, and you know what? All my neighbors are losing their jobs. Yeah. And so they're like, so what exactly is this

and what exactly is the point? And it goes back to the thing that I really believe about Donald Trump and frankly one of the challenges we had with the Democratic Party is, you know, Donald Trump was a great vessel for the frustration.

absolutely he could tell you what is wrong he could tell you who was to blame he could tell you you know what they screwed this thing up and oftentimes we were you know we the democrats we're kind of sitting there like well you know well it's not true and things aren't that bad it's like guys like you have to understand what people are actually feeling right now right put your boots on the ground put your boots on the ground if you spend your time in communities you will understand the frustration that people are feeling so that that that Trump being the vessel for the frustration made sense. It allowed him to rise inside this place.

But I think people are very quickly realizing that he was a vessel for the frustration, but he's not a vehicle for the solution at all. To piggyback on what Charlemagne says, so how do you look at the judicial system now, right? You see Trump, people get arrested. And Trump's like, that's my guy. I'm a part of him and everything he has is wiped off. You know, oh, that's my guy. You ain't got to pay no money back.

It's wiped off. It makes me look at it two ways. One, nothing serious. And two, it makes me feel like sometimes when the Democrats have a guy that went down for something that's maybe not just, that we just leave our people hanging. Or I should say they just leave their people hanging. We saw that with Maryland Moldman? Yeah. 100%.

So how does that make you feel when you look at the judicial system and you look at, you know, somebody that you helped try to get in office, whether it was Biden on the second term? And then you see how they take care of their people. Yeah. You know, I remember when I first came in, the, I ended up winning with more individual votes than anyone who'd ever run for governor in the history of state of Maryland, despite literally starting at 1%. Like, I don't come from any political background at all. Only one thing beat me on the ballot that year. And now was cannabis. So I was like, yo, who is cannabis?

And how did it so popular? But the same time that I was like, definitely voted for cannabis. But the same time that I was elected governor of Maryland, Maryland voted to have a recreational cannabis market. So I said, okay, so we're going to make sure that it's rolled out in a safe, in a smooth, and an equitable way. And at the same time, there is no way that I'm going to celebrate the benefits of legalization if we do not address the consequences of criminalization. So we got to work. And I ended up. up signing the largest mass pardon in the history of the United States of America

when I pardoned over 175,000 misdemeanor cannabis convictions in the stroke of a pen and saying like, you know, you cannot, we cannot treat every sentence like a life sentence where we got a new billion dollar market in the state of Maryland, but I got people who can't get a barber's license, right? That was how we can utilize the power of the pardon in a way that actually supports the people, in a way that actually helps to right some of these wrongs that have been taking place before there's there's a very humble responsibility that i know i take where i'm one of 51 people on the planet that have the ability to pardon right all of our state's governors and the president of the united states those are the only

ones that have the ability to look at somebody and say we are going to forgive you of the past issue you might have been involved with we're going to make sure we can clean up your record to make sure we can give you a second chance at life it's a very unique power and i think about donald trump man and the first thing that he did when he got back into office his time was part of the people on january 6th there is just so everything that i'm seeing right now none of it surprises me because the man told you who he was and who he was going to fight for and so i think that you know I'm thankful that we have a legal system in some cases that is helping

to hold the line. I'm thankful that we have judges that are actually honoring the law and not bending the knee yet at the same time this weaponization of our legal system that we continue to see and frankly this very

loose way that he is using a very specific and powerful ability to pardon. I think is more just a continuation of the case. Well, I got three more questions because I know you got, you're on time schedule. Okay. How are you handling the pressure you're facing to redistrict Maryland? Well, I'm very clear.

Listen, Maryland, if we have this country and we have Donald Trump who is picking and choosing which states should redistrict. And people, and people remember why we're even having this conversation, right? The reason why we're having this conversation is because what issue is Donald Trump going to run on in midterm elections? You're right. I made all your prices higher I fired a bunch of people and driven up the unemployment rate we've made our communities less safe

but hey vote for me you're not going to win on that so what do you do you change the rules you rigged the game frankly it's a very it's a simple continuation of what this man has done his entire life right and so my point is this if

Donald Trump is calling individual states and individual Republican states and saying I need you to find me a congressperson here. I need you to do this. I need you to find me a fair map. Then my point is this. If all these states are going to have conversations about do they have a fair map, so will Maryland.

You have to. You got to fight with fire. You got to. Former Vice President Kamala Harris said it last week. You got to fight fire with five. If these states are going to talk about do they have a fair map, then you know what? Maryland needs to decide, do we have a fair map to?

That's right. Do we have a fair map? And I can tell you right now, if you look at our congressional districts and people talk about I don't like gerrymanding, I hate gerrymandering. I think it's ridiculous. I think it's ridiculous right now

that less than 10% of all congressional seats are actually competitive. The average congressperson ends up winning by like 20, 30, 40 points. So all you've got to do is make a pass to primary. And you're good, right? So this entire system is gerrymandered right now. And so if we are going to talk about

what does it mean to have fair maps and what does it mean to have systems where people can actually be heard and represented and you have people choosing the representatives and not represent them choosing their people, then you know what? add Maryland to that list who should have that conversation too. Absolutely.

And the Baltimore Banner reported that you have a 54% approval rate, but voters can't identify any of your accomplishments, Governor. How do you plan to rectify that by the time the elections roll around? Well, you know, here's the thing. Basically, they say they like you, but they don't know what you did. Fives. That's actually kind of five. Fives.

No, but you know what, though? But here's the thing that I think the people of our state know, is that when we first came on board, we had, we were 43rd in the country in unemployment. All right. Now, we are now going on having amongst the lowest unemployment rates in the entire country, one of the fastest job growth rates in the entire country. And that's over the past year and a half despite watching the assaults that we've seen from the federal government, that we have seen in our state that we went from having amongst the highest violent crime rates inside the entire country to now having amongst the fastest drops in violent crime. anywhere in the United States of America that we have been able to create make Maryland the first in the country that has a service year option for all of our high school graduates that we've been able to make Maryland a state that has the

first state-based place-led initiative to address the issue of childhood poverty that we have been able to actually do procurement reform and now creating over 800 million dollars for black-owned businesses inside of the state of Maryland that we have made investments over 1.4 billion dollars to Maryland's HBCUs at a time when the federal government is pulling back from our HBCUs, that we have actually raised a minimum wage and made it easier for working people to be able to survive and exist within our society, that we have actually, we have actually tax cuts for the middle class in Maryland, tax cuts for military veterans in the state of

Maryland. And yes, I asked wealthy Marylanders, millionaires, to pay a little bit more to help to make sure that we can have the best public schools inside the entire, inside of the entire country. So I think that people see that we're doing the work. I think people see and are happy about the fact that Maryland is really leading the charge, people see that, you know, they got a governor who's standing on the wall and who's going to fight for him. And I appreciate the fact that we're still, you know, amongst one of the most popular Democratic governors in the country.

But it is something to say for, you know, people to like you just because you bring them joy. Yes. They're not know anything that you've done, but I like them. Unapologetic joy. And we're out in the communities. Like, I'm telling you, and Jess knows, like, I've got this reputation of being governor outside

because they're like, he's everywhere. We're out in the community. We're out with the people. people and listen and i think that's what people have come to not just appreciate about us but expect from us is that you know when i when i first came out and when people said again when people like well you know you were not the democratic democratic party's real choice when you first decided you want to run the answer was i wasn't i was the only person never run for office for my life i was running against statewide elected officials i ran against the former head of

the democratic party and we ended up winning because i wasn't the choice of the party I was the choice of the people And that's always how I'm going to ride for the people in Maryland I want to ask you this The Francis Scott Key Bridge, right? Because I saw this you got some criticism from the U.S. Transportation Secretary. Sean P. Duffy.

Yeah. Sean P. Duffy. about what he said. Sean P. Duffy. The way you're handling it, he didn't really like that. P. Duffy. I like what you doing. Like what you doing.

That was good. I like what you doing. I like what you doing. You're picking up what I'm putting down. I like what you doing. You're picking up what I'm putting down. I was out of the same place. I like that.

I like that. I like that. I'm sorry. That's his name. Sean King Ducky. Yes. Yeah. And here's the thing.

I mean, I remember my grandfather used to tell me. Don't let someone take something away from you that they never gave you in the first place. Yeah. You know, a little over a year ago, we had one of the most traumatic moments in our state's history. where, you know, a ship the size of three football fields slammed into, you know, our Francis Scott Key Bridge. Yeah.

And we lost six workers, people who fell, who were fixing potholes, who fell 180 feet into dark cold waters and lost their lives. And how that first morning when they were like, when I was asking the workers, because we were, you know, on the ground immediately. And I said, how long do you think it's going to take for us to clean up this channel?

because the Port of Baltimore was responsible for about 13% of my state's economy. And they says, you know, governor's probably gonna take about 11 months. And I said, that's the wrong answer. And we worked hard, we worked together, and we got it cleared in 11 weeks. When they told me the permitting

or a bridge of that size, they're talking like a two mile long bridge. Permitting alone could take two and a half years. We got it done in months. We are making historic progress on something like this. And if you look at a, bridge like the Gordy Howe bridge, for example, you know, they started that in 2007, about the same size of bridge. It's still not done. And we're talking 20, close to 20 years.

And I have said, we will rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge on our time, and I'm not going to get distracted by foolishness. And so our people are moving at historic speed to be able to get this bridge back up, to be able to restore confidence in government and restore confidence in what we can do and actually get done. So I appreciate the commentary that we got from, you know, Sean P. Duffy and the president on this. But the thing I will say is this, is that we're going to do our job. And we're going to make sure we're going to make the people of Maryland to make the people of this country proud. And I'm really thankful that Congress, bipartisan Republicans and Democrats in Congress were the ones who approved the 100% cost share because, you know, we're currently

in litigation. The American people are going to be made whole on this. And I'm thankful to Congress because they are the ones that appropriated the money. This is my last question. You know, I want you to talk about this because, you know, I saw you get a little flack because you vetoed a measure to create a commission to study potential slavery reparations in the state of Maryland. But to me, you had a valid reason if people actually heard your whole statement. Exactly.

I mean, listen, what I said was, I'm a person of action. I don't need more studies. I mean, like, we have, we have done. we've done four studies over the past 20 years on similar type of elements one of seven yeah so four four studies over the past 20 years okay okay by the way one of which my wife worked on and so when we're now talking about doing a two-year study uh on something that I already know the answer to I'm like what are we studying and this was my point I think about the work and again I'm not I'm not saying that that this issue was not worth working on in fact frankly

I've been working very closely with the members of our caucus and members of the community around a whole series of these issues. It's the reason that we just authorized $400 million for our just community initiative, which made sure that we're putting $400 million of additional capital into communities that have been the subject and have been truly hurt by racist and discriminatory policies, things like redlining, things like mass incarceration, things like, you know, things like mass highway constructions, which were cutting off neighborhoods. that we said we are going to identify all those communities and neighborhoods, and we're starting off with just $400 million that's going specifically to those neighborhoods to address the racist policies of the past.

It's the reason that we've done things like historic investments in our HBCUs because they've been historically neglected and pulled back on. Maryland has four remarkable HBCUs. We're putting historic investments back into them. It's the reason we've done things like the mass pardons and giving people a second chance of life because who do people think that that is going to benefit most? It's the reason that we've done things like procurement reform and created black millionaires

inside of the state of Maryland. I am unapologetic about the support for our black community, for the support for the support, for black people who oftentimes have been the fabric and the backbone for so much of our society. And I know right now when we are watching this assault, this assault on our communities, when we're watching, you know,

the Trump administration now is fire, and to find more black women than we have seen in a generation that we have now seen our insurance being pulled away grants going to entrepreneurs that everything that is connected to diversity equity inclusion that they are making illegal

we don't need it to your study right now man I need action I need action and so that was the point that we're trying to make is that in this time in this crisis moment I don't need a study let's get to it let's get to it Absolutely.

That's right. Absolutely. Let's get on with it. We appreciate you for joining us, running for re-election in 2026. My cousin. I say, Merlin. Merlin. Governor Westmore.

Thank you for joining us, brother. Appreciate y'all. Thank you, guys. It's the breakfast club. Good morning. Hold on. Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up.

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