This article was republished with permission from WTOP’s news partners at Maryland Matters. Sign up for Maryland Matters’ free email subscription today.
Gov. Wes Moore (D) said Wednesday he would be willing to accept help from the federal government to fight crime in Baltimore, just not through the deployment of National Guard troops as President Donald Trump (R) has repeatedly threatened.
Moore was responding to Tuesday comments by Trump during a rambling news conference in which he called Baltimore and Chicago crime “hellholes” that needed the presence of federal troops, a deployment he insists he has the authority to order, despite governors and a federal court saying otherewise.
Moore and Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott (D) have said repeatedly that rates of homicides and gun violence are declining in the city, but admit there is still work to be done.
Moore said Wednesday using the National Guard to fight crime, as Trump wants to do, would be “performative” and “ridiculous.” He said other federal agencies, such as the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, make more sense for crime-fighting.
“If you want to have a serious conversation about things that the federal government could provide that could be helpful, it could be FBI and ATF support … Those are always useful, and we’re still working in partnership with them,” Moore said in response to reporters’ questions at an unrelated event in Columbia.
“But I’m not going to do things just because it makes people feel good or because we think that people walking around in military fatigues and a long gun somehow makes communities safe,” he said. “Having members of the Guard picking up trash and raking mulch is not a useful spread of resources.”
The trash and raking comment was a reference to the presence of National Guard troops that Trump deployed to Washington, D.C., last month. Guard members, from D.C. and other states, don’t have arrest powers, so some have been assigned to beautification duties, such as raking and trash pickup.
But Trump called the presence of federal troops in Washington a success, pointing to a drop in major crimes in the city since their deployment.
“It serves as a template – and we’re going to do it elsewhere,” Trump said of the troop presence.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, like Moore and Scott, has argued that crime was already falling in the city before the troops showed up. But she acknowledged this week that the federal presence has helped drive down crime rates even more, earning praise from Trump.
Bowser is in a tough spot, however: While governors control their states’ National Guard troops, the D.C. Guard is under the control of the president, who can deploy them for 30 days in an emergency. And as those 30 days draw to a close, it appears the GOP-controlled Congress is prepared to extend the president’s authority to keep troops on the street.
Bowser on Tuesday issued an executive order outlining a “path forward beyond the presidential emergency” for city officials to “ensure coordination with federal law enforcement to the maximum extent allowable by law within the District.”
It specifically named federal law enforcement agencies — the FBI, ATF, U.S. Park Police, Drug Enforcement Administration, Capitol Police and the Secret Service. Left out were references to the National Guard or the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers who have also surged into the city, often masked and poorly identified as they make high-profile public arrests.
Bowser’s order said that in order to “maintain community confidence” in law enforcement, any federal authorities going forward should not wear masks, should identify their agencies and themselves as they make arrests or otherwise interact with the public.
When asked Wednesday if he would accept a National Guard presence, if it meant that help from other federal agencies would also be provided, Moore rejected the notion.
“I would hope the president is more serious of a leader than to say, ‘The only way I’ll give you something that’s useful is to give you something ridiculous,’” Moore said.
“The National Guard is not trained for this. The National Guard is trained for things like natural disasters and emergencies and deploying overseas,” he said. “I have too much respect for the members of our National Guard to put them on missions they are not trained for.”
It’s the latest round in weeks of verbal sparring between Moore and Trump that has been been escalating since the president sent National Guard troops to the District.
It was revived Tuesday, when a reporter asked Trump if he planned to deploy the National Guard to Chicago. In his reply, Trump looped in Baltimore, describing both cities as “a hellhole right now” citing gun violence, homicides and other crimes.
Without saying when, Trump said he planned to send troops into Chicago — despite fierce opposition from the governor and mayor there — and insisted that “we have a right to do it, and that includes Baltimore.” But he also said it would be better if Moore and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker asked for the help.
“I would love to have Gov. Moore call, because I watched him over the weekend trying to explain, ‘Baltimore, what we need is housing,’” Trump said. “No, they don’t need housing. They need to get rid of the criminals
“These are hard-core criminals,” he said. “They’re not going to be good in 10 years, in five years, in 20 years, in two years they’re going to be criminals. They were born to be criminals.”
Moore, who had just announced an executive order Wednesday aimed at speeding government approval for new affordable housing developments, said it was “sad” that the president didn’t appreciate how reducing the state’s housing shortage plays into crime reduction.
“What we’re doing is actually working to reduce the stem of violence,” Moore said.
