Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) on Sunday listed the reasons why he opposes President Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., including his seeing it as “disrespectful“ to the guard members.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration began surging federal law enforcement across parts of the nation’s capital to crack down on what the White House said was an unacceptable level of crime, despite statistics showing violent crime has declined in the city.
Last week, Trump took federal control of the Metropolitan Police Department and deployed hundreds of National Guard troops across the city to further the crack down on crime.
Moore, in a Sunday interview with CBS News’s “Face the Nation” with Margaret Brennan, said there were “plenty of reasons” why he opposed the deployment, including that it is unsustainable, not scalable, and unconstitutional.
“The fourth reason is because it’s deeply disrespectful to the members of the National Guard,” Moore said. “As someone who actually deployed overseas and served my country in combat, to ask these men and women to do a job that they’re not trained for is just deeply disrespectful.”
“And so when we’re thinking about all of these lasting factors, when we’re thinking about the fact that it serves as a distraction from the fact that the president’s disastrous economic policies are making everything more expensive for everyday Americans — is making life harder for everyday Americans, there is a multitude of reasons that I am against this, and I will not authorize the Maryland National Guard to be utilized for this,” he continued.
Last week, Trump suggested he could bring his takeover efforts to other Democratic-led cities, including Baltimore, which he called in a Truth Social post on Sunday morning “out of control” and “crime ridden.”
He also slammed Moore in his post for asking the president to “come walk the streets with us,” saying he needs to “rethink” his decision to give money for repairing the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed after being struck by a cargo ship.
“Governor Wes Moore of Maryland has asked, in a rather nasty and provocative tone, that I ‘walk the streets of Maryland’ with him,” Trump wrote. “I assume he is talking about out of control, crime ridden, Baltimore? As President, I would much prefer that he clean up this Crime disaster before I go there for a ‘walk.’”
He also accused Moore of having a “very bad” record in his handling of crime in the state and offered to send troops to the state if he “needs help, like Gavin Newscum did in L.A.”
Moore on Sunday touted Baltimore’s decline in crime in the past few years but also said there is still work “we have to do.”
“We know — if one person does not feel safe in their neighborhood, that’s one too many. But we also know what tactics actually work and what tactics is just theatrics,” Moore said.
Moore also admitted his state needs more federal help in cutting down on crime, which Trump can do by stopping funding cuts for violence intervention groups, and the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives bureaus “that are supporting local jurisdictions like Baltimore.”
“Those are actually real, tangible things that the president of the United States could do and where you could put capital to actually make our communities safer,” Moore said.
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