Maryland Democrat Governor Wes Moore sat down with FOX45 Baltimore’s Mikenzie Frost to discuss the federal takeover of policing in Washington, D.C., and how Maryland will respond:

MIKENZIE FROST, FOX-45: REPORTER: We know the BPD, the Baltimore Police Department is understaffed, severely, understaffed. We hear often hundreds of officers short. The same thing is true in Washington, D.C., we hear Mayor Muriel Bowser talk about this as well. She also said that having the impact of the federal surge has helped with the presence of law enforcement and helped people in the community feel safe. Do you think that would be the same case here in Baltimore if the federal government sent federal law enforcement here? GOV. WES MOORE (D–MARYLAND): Yeah. I mean, I look at Maryland, where I’ve made the largest investments in local law enforcement in the history of the state of Maryland. That includes over $ 50 million to BPD alone, and there are still shortages. So if the federal government says, Let us help you. Let us actually double down on the support that the state has given to local law enforcement, I would absolutely welcome that in the form of sending additional agents from the federal government. Absolutely. If we’re talking about doing things like strengthening the FBI bureaus and the ATF bureaus in our cities, then 100% I’m very willing to have that conversation. But the thing I want to do is make sure you’re using the right tool for the right challenge. And when I hear things like, We are going to mobilize the Maryland National Guard, my first answer is: you don’t have the authority to do that. I’m the commander-in-chief of the Maryland National Guard. But the second piece is this: that’s not the right tool for what we’re actually trying to accomplish. If we want to have a conversation about the right tools-and that includes FBI, ATF, all these other things-then I am very excited to have that conversation with the White House. MIKENZIE FROST, FOX-45: REPORTER: You and other Democratic governors yesterday just sent out a statement saying that this was an abuse of power from the president to continue threatening to send in the National Guard. That’s a different message than what we’re hearing from the mayor of D.C. Do you disagree with what she’s recently said? GOV. WES MOORE: I frankly don’t know exactly what the mayor of D.C. has said, so I can’t speak. MIKENZIE FROST, FOX-45: REPORTER: I can read you the quote. She said, We greatly appreciate the surge of officers. GOV. WES MOORE: I appreciate her opinion. I also think there’s a distinction between saying we welcome federal support and we want to mobilize the National Guard. One, I think, actually focuses on performance. The other is performative. And I don’t think any of our neighborhoods want performative right now. MIKENZIE FROST, FOX-45: REPORTER: But they’re seeing results. GOV. WES MOORE: I know. As the governor of this state and as the commander-in-chief of our National Guard, I don’t want performative. And I take too seriously the responsibility that I have to these men and women who wear the uniform, these citizen soldiers. I take too seriously the responsibility that I have to their family members. The pledge that I don’t just make to them-the pledge that I make to their family members-is that I will never utilize you for things that I find to be performative or political. When I mobilize the National Guard, we are talking about sincere cases of natural disasters, traumatic incidents, overseas conflict-things that they’re actually trained on. But no, I do not feel that in a moment when we are having encouraging results, but still have so much more to do to make people safe in our communities, that the answer is, Let’s do something performative, rather than, Let’s actually focus on results. MIKENZIE FROST, FOX-45: REPORTER: Looking at taking the National Guard out of this conversation and looking at this continuous back-and-forth that has played out on the national media and on social media between you and President Donald Trump since the National Guard has been deployed in D.C. on August 11th-you’ve been on national TV nine times. Is what you’re doing really best for the people of Maryland and the people of Baltimore, or is it best for Wes Moore’s political career? GOV. WES MOORE (D–MARYLAND): My only concern is the people of Maryland. That’s it. And that’s who I’m fighting for. You’re never going to hear me talk about what this means for me personally. It’s only about what it means for our folks.

Here’s the full interview, picking up from there:
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