Maryland Gov. Wes Moore defended his rhetoric towards President Donald Trump over crime in his residence metropolis of Baltimore amid an escalating feud between the 2 leaders.
“I’ve little interest in preventing with the president, however I’ve an curiosity in preventing for my communities and preventing for our individuals,” Moore advised ABC Information’ “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz in an interview that aired Sunday.
Earlier this month, Trump supplied to ship the Nationwide Guard into different cities throughout the nation after his legislation enforcement surge into Washington, D.C., calling Baltimore “thus far gone.” Moore responded by formally inviting the president to hitch him and Baltimore officers on a public security stroll.
After the 2 continued to commerce barbs on social media, Trump rebuked the invitation and renewed his risk to ship the Nationwide Guard into Baltimore, calling town a “hellhole” within the Oval Workplace on Tuesday.
ABC Information’ Martha Raddatz walks the streets of Baltimore with Maryland Governor Wes Moore.
Julia Cherner/ABC Information
“Wes Moore was telling me he desires — ‘I need to stroll with the president.’ Effectively, I stated, ‘I need to stroll with you, too, sometime. However first you have to clear up your crime,” Trump stated.
Baltimore, like many of the U.S., has seen a drop in crime and homicides in recent times, however stays one of many nation’s most violent cities. It had the fifth highest charge of violent crime and fourth highest homicide charge per capita in cities with no less than 100,000 individuals final yr, in accordance with latest FBI information.
Whereas Moore acknowledged there may be nonetheless “work to do there,” he touted the progress the state has made and known as out the president’s feedback.
ABC Information’ Martha Raddatz sits down with Maryland Governor Wes Moore in Baltimore.
Julia Cherner/ABC Information
“It might simply be nice if we may have a president of the USA to truly perceive that this is without doubt one of the nice American turnaround tales that is occurring proper now, and we’d love the assistance to have the ability to proceed to try this work as an alternative of this — conceited criticism and cynicism that he continues to introduce into the dialog,” Moore stated.
Moore stated whereas he “would love extra federal help,” he known as the Nationwide Guard deployment in Washington, D.C. “performative.”
Raddatz pressed Moore on the discount in crime in Washington for the reason that elevated federal presence that D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser cited this week.
“You have heard Mayor Bowser say [they’ve seen an] 87% discount in carjackings, robberies minimize by half. Why would not you need that right here, if that’s really serving to?” Raddatz requested.
ABC Information’ Martha Raddatz speaks with Maryland Governor Wes Moore in Baltimore.
Nathan Luna/ABC Information
“If the president of the USA had been to have a severe dialog with me and say, what can we do — significantly while you take a look at the price of the Nationwide Guard of properly over one million {dollars} a day?” Moore responded. “I might inform him issues like, we want to ensure we’re growing funding for native legislation enforcement.”
“Asking me to deploy my Nationwide Guard, people who find themselves not skilled for municipal policing, is simply not a severe method,” Moore added.
In posts on his social media platform, Trump has additionally resurfaced an argument over Moore’s army report. The New York Instances reported last year that Moore falsely claimed to have been awarded a Bronze Star in a 2006 White Home software. Throughout his 2022 marketing campaign, clips of Moore being launched as a Bronze Star recipient and never correcting the interviewers in 2008 and 2010 surfaced.
Moore had been beneficial for the medal however didn’t obtain it till final yr and has called it an “sincere mistake.”
Governor Wes Moore formally receives the Bronze Star Medal in a ceremony on the Governors Mansion in Annapolis, Maryland, on Dec. 20, 2024. Lt. Normal Michael Fenzel, United States Coordinator to Israel and Palestinian Authority pins the bronze star medal on Governor Wes Moore.
Marvin Joseph/The Washington Put up through Getty Photographs, FILE
In response, Moore known as Trump “President Bone Spurs” in a post on X, referencing Trump’s medical deferment from the Vietnam draft.
Moore stated about his put up: “when the president desires to assault my army report as somebody who’s really a adorned fight veteran, as somebody who really has served abroad, as somebody who has defended the nation, I simply assume that if the president desires to have an actual debate about public service and concerning the sacrifice for this nation, he ought to actually sit that debate out. I am not the one he desires to have it with.”
Requested why he put the Bronze Star on his 2006 software, Moore advised Raddatz he “did not give it some thought” since his commanding officers advised him to incorporate it.
“I believe it is fairly widespread information or widespread perception that when your, when your commanding officers, and your superior officers let you know, ‘Hear, we put you in, and we have gone via every thing, in order you are going via your software, embrace it.'” Moore stated. “I included it, and I did not give it some thought.”
Pressed on why he did not right the interviewers after they wrongly launched him, Moore stated “Even on the time of these interviews, it wasn’t one thing I thought of.”
“Now I am grateful that the army, after they discovered that the paperwork was misplaced and did not course of [it], that they got here again and awarded me the Bronze Star,” Moore stated. “So I do have a Bronze Star that I earned in Afghanistan and a Fight Motion Badge that I earned in Afghanistan. So I am happy with that, however that is not why I served.”
“However do you remorse not correcting while you had been launched that approach?” Raddatz requested.
“I do not remorse not going again and constantly wanting over my service information. I do not. I am grateful for the service I did. I am grateful for the truth that I had the chance to guide troopers in fight, what a small fraction of this individuals of this nation will ever perceive,” Moore responded.
Governor of Maryland Wes Moore speaks onstage through the 2025 ESSENCE Pageant Of Tradition at Ernest N. Morial Conference Middle in New Orleans.
Arturo Holmes/Getty Photographs for ESSENCE, FILE
Moore’s nationwide profile has risen from his public conflict with the president and a few have drawn comparisons to California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s brash model.
Requested how Democrats ought to method taking up Trump, Moore stated the get together ought to “transfer with the sort of aggression that’s crucial.”
“The Democrats do not have a messaging downside, there is a outcomes downside. The Democrats must ship outcomes and cease being the get together of no and sluggish and begin being the get together of sure and now as a result of the frustration that folks have, it’s actual,” Moore stated.
Whereas hypothesis mounts about his 2028 presidential ambitions, Moore stated he is centered on delivering outcomes for Marylanders.
“You have to deal with defending your individuals proper now and the problems that the individuals in our states are dealing with, and that is the place I do know my focus is,” Moore stated.
