| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
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Fight for Democracy
00:09:51
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| Democracy is bigger than any one person. | ||
| Freedom and democracy must be constantly guarded and protected. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We are still at our core a democracy. | |
| This is also a massive victory for democracy and for freedom. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Maryland Governor Wes Moore and Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott held a news conference on crime reduction efforts in Baltimore. | |
| They spoke against the Trump administration's proposal for an increased federal presence in the city, stating that Baltimore has the lowest crime rate in years. | ||
| They also address mental health, community partnerships, investing in community members, and Trump administration policies on public safety. | ||
| Good evening, everybody. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good evening. | |
| We just finished having some time. | ||
| We're walking around our communities and walking with our partners, partners like our fantastic mayor, Mayor Scott, who's actually from this area. | ||
| People like our other local elected officials, people like clergy, people like Safe Streets and Park Heights Renaissance. | ||
| And we are us. | ||
| And we rise and community groups and community leaders of people who will fight for our neighborhoods and fight for our children and fight for our future. | ||
| We had a chance to listen, to listen to village elders talk about what's required and necessary. | ||
| Listen to people who live in communities and who oftentimes find themselves living in communities where people were more focused on talking about them instead of talking with them. | ||
| Had a chance to speak and walk around here with local law enforcement. | ||
| Brave men and women who put on the uniform and who understand that they also are part of the communities too and want to fight and advocate on our behalf here. | ||
| But people who understand that the work of Baltimore is necessary for the success of the state of Maryland and the work in the state of Maryland is necessary for the success of the United States of America. | ||
| People who understand when you're talking about Baltimoreans, you're talking about Americans too. | ||
| And we're going to fight for our communities, not with our communities. | ||
| We will fight for our communities and not with our communities. | ||
| That we know how much work needs to happen. | ||
| But this is a group that's ready to do the work and is ready to do the work together. | ||
| I think about hearing stories from our mayor, who's telling me he grew up right around here. | ||
| Right there. | ||
| And talking about how when we approach this work, whether it's Senator Hayes and all others around us, when we approach this work, we approach this work and take it personally. | ||
| That this is not a hustle. | ||
| And this is not political gains. | ||
| This is about in a moment when people are looking to us and trying to say, do you understand the assignment? | ||
| Do you understand what is required? | ||
| And do you understand what it takes? | ||
| And the answer is: all of us. | ||
| It takes the members of the city council that we have here. | ||
| It takes the members of the General Assembly that we have here. | ||
| It takes the members of the community that we have here. | ||
| It takes the members of law enforcement that we have here. | ||
| It takes some of our partners from Washington, D.C., at least the ones from Washington, D.C., who want to actually spend time and help Baltimore instead of just talk about Baltimore. | ||
| Because up here and all around here, you see the beautiful tapestry of our city and the beautiful tapestry of our state, and you see the realization of a pledge. | ||
| A realization of a pledge that we would focus on meeting this moment. | ||
| And we stand here together two and a half years ago when our administration first came on board and we said that we were going to take an all-the-above approach to public safety, that you were never going to militarize your way into safe streets. | ||
| That we had to both make sure we were increasing accountability and also increasing opportunity. | ||
| But both those two things had to go hand in hand, and that meant engaging everybody. | ||
| It meant engaging our agencies and our public defenders. | ||
| It meant engaging our elected officials and our nonprofits. | ||
| It meant engaging our state agencies and our prosecutors. | ||
| It meant bringing everyone around the table. | ||
| And that's exactly what we've worked to do. | ||
| That in our time, we've been able to increase funding for the Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center and provided MCAC with over $58 million, a historic number since I have taken office and become the governor of the state. | ||
| That we've been able to give historic funding to local law enforcement, including over $50 million to Baltimore City alone. | ||
| But also, it means giving historic funding to our community groups and to the people on the ground and the people who are making sure that the ones who are closest to the challenges are also the ones who have the solutions. | ||
| They're just hardly ever at the table, investing in not just dealing with the problem after it happens, but preventing the problems from happening in the first place. | ||
| And one thing that people have learned: we are not going to rest on our laurels. | ||
| That we are proud of the progress that we've been able to make, that we are all very, very clear about how much work still needs to happen. | ||
| Because also, and I want to say this loud and clear: if one person does not feel safe in their neighborhood, that is one too many. | ||
| And we are going to do anything and everything in our ability to make sure that everybody, no matter where they call home, can say that my home is safe. | ||
| My community is safe. | ||
| My neighborhood is safe. | ||
| My home is safe. | ||
| We will stop at nothing to make sure that everybody in the state of Maryland feels that way. | ||
| But we know to do that is going to take all of us. | ||
| And it's going to take people who actually believe that Baltimore, Baltimore, Baltimore, can and will always be the crown jewel of the state of Maryland. | ||
| that we are the home of Thurgood Marshall. | ||
| That we are the place where the Star-Spangled banner was that the story and the legacy of Baltimore goes as far back as 1812 in the War of 1812, where in Fort McHenry, we told the British not here. | ||
| And that, frankly, is a message that we need right now because here is what I know. | ||
| We do not need an occupation. | ||
| And we do not need people putting in performative and theatrical resources because they do not care about the actual results that they're trying to hope for. | ||
| If you want to learn what works, come down. | ||
| Come spend time. | ||
| Come learn. | ||
| Come learn. | ||
| And come learn that we're what we need. | ||
| That we are the change we've been waiting for. | ||
| And that progress is not impossible. | ||
| Progress can happen. | ||
| But it only happens when we choose to work together. | ||
| And that's what today represents. | ||
| We're always going to stand firm for Baltimore. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Always. | |
| Like I said, we will work with anybody, but we will bow down to nobody. | ||
| We're not built that way, y'all. | ||
| We're going to fight for our people. | ||
| We're going to fight for our communities. | ||
| We're going to fight for our neighborhoods. | ||
| And most importantly, we're going to fight for our children. | ||
| And they will remember that when it was hard, that this group showed we were even tougher. | ||
| I'm thankful for each and every one of you. | ||
| And I'm thankful. | ||
| And I'm thankful that I have a partner in the work like Mayor Scott. | ||
|
Partnership In Park Heights
00:15:04
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| I'm thankful that we have somebody who takes this work personally. | ||
| I'm thankful we have someone who stands tall. | ||
| And I'm thankful we have somebody who never forgot where he came from. | ||
| And so it is my honor to turn this microphone over to my friend and my partner in the work, your mayor, Mayor Brandon Scott. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We are we got We all we got. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Governor, and to all of our state local officials who are here with us. | ||
| For y'all who have not been here before, welcome to Park Heights, the best neighborhood in Baltimore. | ||
| Welcome, welcome. | ||
| As the governor said, we know that gun violence is very personal to me, but we chose this particular location to drive home how important it was and why. | ||
| I grew up right there in a little house with a red awning. | ||
| My aunt is always ready to yell at me for us waking her up from her sleep. | ||
| She works late night shift. | ||
| But this was my playground. | ||
| This is where I hit my first jumper that you all know goes in all the time, especially the safe streets workers. | ||
| This is where I caught my first touchdown, where I hit my first home run, even where I got my first kiss. | ||
| Don't tell my wife. | ||
| But it's also where I first saw someone get shot. | ||
| And imagine being a young man and having to duck in those bushes alongside and not being able to make it back home. | ||
| That's why I became a public servant. | ||
| That's why I dedicated my life to Baltimore City. | ||
| Because back then, no one cared about Park Heights. | ||
| Back then, if it wasn't the third Saturday in May, we weren't getting anything. | ||
| Those days are over. | ||
| But those days are not just over for Park Heights. | ||
| The days of us ignoring what is actually causing violence and not handling gun violence as the public health issue that it is are over. | ||
| We said that we were going to reduce homicides by 15% from one year to the next. | ||
| Some people laughed. | ||
| Some people asked me every other day when we were going to hit 15. | ||
| And then when we hit 20, it got quiet. | ||
| And then when we hit 24, it got even more quiet. | ||
| And now that Baltimore has the fewest amount of homicides through September the 5th on any day on record is even more quiet. | ||
| But all of us know that the seven homicides that we had last month, the lowest any August has ever seen, are seven too many. | ||
| Because one life is one too many. | ||
| But we have to acknowledge that progress to understand where we need to go. | ||
| When you think about everybody out here today, we truly are all we need. | ||
| Whether you wear a uniform or orange shirt or black, We Are Us t-shirt or peace team shirt. | ||
| Every single person out here, or you just got your Ravens or Oreos gear on with your underarms and new balance, you are all we need. | ||
| We don't need folks who don't understand Baltimore, who don't care about Baltimore, who don't know what Baltimoreans mean to each other to tell us what we are and who we are. | ||
| Because we know that we are Charm City. | ||
| We are the people in the greatest city in America. | ||
| And we are so grateful to have the support of our state and our wonderful governor. | ||
| Because we all remember those years when we act like we didn't really have a governor for eight years. | ||
| Right? | ||
| And when you think about the governor restoring the partnership between the BPD and the Maryland State Police Department, allowing them to bring extra resources, we are showing that we can do this ourselves. | ||
| None of us are celebrating and saying that we've solved gun violence. | ||
| But what we are saying is that we, as a collective, have us in the best position that we have been in 50 years. | ||
| And now we want to take it even further. | ||
| We do not need an occupation. | ||
| We do not need troops on our streets. | ||
| But we do need folks who want to be at the table and recognize that people in Baltimore are humans. | ||
| That our young people aren't born to be criminals. | ||
| That they are a resource to invest in, not a problem to solve. | ||
| But I want to also be very clear about the time that we're in. | ||
| We're in the time where we need everybody to stand up, especially every leader. | ||
| If you're a pastor, a community leader, an elected official, a leader in your school, this is not the time to hide because you cannot hide from these people. | ||
| Do not shrink. | ||
| Stand up in the moment. | ||
| So 100 years from now, when your great-great-great-grandchildren are thinking about what you did, they will know that you stood up to fascism, that you stood up to racism, that you stood up to folks who are trying to destroy a democracy to make it so that only a certain group of people have anything. | ||
| That's what we're doing every day in Baltimore when we save lives. | ||
| That's what we're doing every day in Baltimore when we show people the right way to deal with gun violence. | ||
| So I am so grateful to the governor and his team for their support for restarting this partnership, but for their partnership each and every day. | ||
| But most grateful for all the folks on the outside who are here, but support us in Baltimore to make Baltimore the best Baltimore it can be. | ||
| We all we got. | ||
| We all we need. | ||
| We all we got. | ||
| We all we need. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| And I think I am turning over now, Mr. Governor, I think to the police commissioner. | ||
| Yep. | ||
| of Police Commissioner Richard Worley. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I thought the police commissioner was a tough job, but I think following those two gentlemen is a little more tougher. | ||
| So first of all, I want to thank Governor Moore, thank Senator Hayes for being here. | ||
| Thank you, Mayor Scott, and most importantly, our community members who are here with us today. | ||
| We're here to highlight the partnership in driving down crime in Baltimore. | ||
| The progress we've made as a result of hard work of the men and women of the Baltimore Police Department, along with the strength of our community and law enforcement partners. | ||
| Together, we are saving lives and restoring hope in our neighborhoods. | ||
| I want to recognize and thank Maryland State Police, Maryland Transportation Authority Police for their ongoing collaboration and support in helping us reduce violence in Baltimore. | ||
| Adding additional resources to our neighborhoods is one important step towards creating safer communities and improving the quality of life in our city. | ||
| This partnership builds on the work that we've already led to significant reductions in homicides, non-fatal shootings, carjackings, robberies, auto theft, and just about every other crime category. | ||
| This is about restoring proven partnership, one that for many years was critical in implementing BPD's work. | ||
| At the same time, we continue to listen to our residents respond to their concerns and send a clear message that violence will not be tolerated. | ||
| We know we have work to do, especially in communities like Park Heights. | ||
| And we know enforcement alone is not enough, and it never has been and never will be. | ||
| That's why our partners at Monte, We Are Us, ROCA, and most importantly, our community leaders are helping us rebuild trust and create a stronger Baltimore. | ||
| Once again, I want to thank the members of the Baltimore Police Department, all our partners who stand here today, uniting in one message of the collaboration and commitment to making Baltimore safer. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| At this time, I'll turn it over to my friend, Colonel Roland Butler, the Maryland State Police. | ||
| Thank you, Commissioner Worley. | ||
| Mayor Scott, Governor Moore. | ||
| Most importantly, thank all of you all for being here and being part of this occasion. | ||
| The Maryland State Police is proud to work with its agencies, the Maryland Transportation Authority and the Baltimore City Police Department. | ||
| It's more than the work that you see here. | ||
| It's the work behind the scenes, from the officer on the footbeat to the administrative professional that shares information. | ||
| You've heard some astounding numbers, but they're more than just numbers. | ||
| How do you arrive there? | ||
| That's experienced that's shared both ways across the state and also from the results you have in the city back out to other parts. | ||
| Baltimore is leading the way. | ||
| The Maryland State Police is thankful to be part of the change that you've embarked upon. | ||
| We intend to go out and provide the services that you need to feel safe and enhance the safety you already feel. | ||
| It doesn't matter whether you're traveling around the state of Maryland, through the city of Baltimore, everyone has the right to feel safe, to feel secure, and we intend to do everything in our power to continue that. | ||
| You will see no daylight between these departments. | ||
| We attend the police effectively and constitutionally, protecting and respecting your rights as citizens of the state of Maryland. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I'd like to turn it over to Chief Joe Scott. | ||
| Thank you, Colonel Butler. | ||
| As Colonel Butler said, I'm Chief Joseph Scott from the Maryland Transportation Authority Police. | ||
| And for the governor, I just want to say, sir, I walked around earlier in the crowd, and the synergy that's in this crowd is phenomenal. | ||
| It's phenomenal. | ||
| I came here for a purpose to represent the Maryland Transportation Authority Police, and I am super proud of my agency. | ||
| But to the mayor and to Commissioner Worley, let me say this. | ||
| The historical numbers that you have been putting out these last two years is historic. | ||
| And all I want to do is be a part of it. | ||
| To the men and women of the Baltimore City Police Department, none of this happens without you. | ||
| Your work, your commitment, your dedication, even when no one else is looking. | ||
| I thank you for your dedication. | ||
| And what the Maryland Transportation Authority Police will bring is a partnership. | ||
| A partnership you saw last year when the Key Bridge went down. | ||
| Those are the type of collaborations that we need today in order to get things done. | ||
| And we have to work collectively. | ||
| So what you see here is a collaboration. | ||
| And for the citizens of Baltimore City, we're here with you. | ||
| We're here with you. | ||
| I might not be BPD, but I'm human. | ||
| And the human element of me said, I am here for you. | ||
| And because of that, understand, you're covered. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Questions? | ||
| So can we kind of get a little more idea of what this renewed partnership is going to look like on the ground? | ||
| Will there be a higher presence of officers in motivation for those partnerships? | ||
| Yeah, it's just going to mean continued collaboration. | ||
| You know, one thing that we've seen from our intelligence sharing to also our cooperation between our local units, that we are watching a new day that is happening between the state of Maryland, the city of Baltimore, the state of Maryland, and other jurisdictions around. | ||
| And I think when you're looking at the results that we've continued to see across the board, and everything from homicides, non-fatals, carjackings, auto thefts, et cetera, category after category, where we are literally looking at year-on-year drops of upwards of 25% in each of those categories, that does not happen by accident. | ||
| It happens because we have these people who are coordinating and who are speaking and communicating. | ||
| And so the thing that we are going to continue to see is that while we are encouraged by the progress we've seen thus far, we're very clear now. | ||
| We know what works. | ||
| We know what investments that we want to make to continue having that progress show itself. | ||
| And we know there's still more work to do. | ||
| So this is just a continued reminder to the people of our communities that we are not fighting with them. | ||
| We're fighting for them. | ||
| And we're going to make sure that on behalf of the people of Baltimore and on behalf of the people of the state of Maryland, we are focused on making sure we're meeting this moment. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Cover Mark. | |
| Hi, hi, Pam. | ||
| Can you talk a little bit about how this event came together and what your goal was in coming out there, coming out here and bringing all these people together? | ||
| Well, I mean, we have events where we do walks together. | ||
| So this is something that's been a cadence that we have developed, you know, for the past two and a half years since our administration came on board. | ||
| You know, we're very clear from Jump Street that in order to have a thriving state, that the state's largest city needed to thrive. | ||
| And we are also very clear that the partnership that, frankly, the mayor and the people of Baltimore deserved, that that was not there before. | ||
| And so we knew that we were going to focus on renewing it, that we believe in being boots on ground and being able to actually talk to people and be able to hear about what people's fears, apprehensions, hopes, and dreams are. | ||
| And so we just decided that we would just have another continuation of the work that we're doing together on the ground for this walk and just decided to make it happen now. | ||
|
unidentified
|
How much of this was inspired by the president's continued arms against Baltimore? | |
| Nothing we are doing is inspired by the president. | ||
| The president does not inspire us. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I work here at St. Ambrose, Didi when it started. | |
| And my question is: what is the state doing around mental health and funding mental health, not only in the public sector, but those of us who are entrepreneurs and private taxes in our crisis? | ||
| Love that question. | ||
| Thank you so much. | ||
| So, in case we don't hear the questions about mental health, and I'm a very big believer that mental health oftentimes is both the cause and the mental health and challenge of mental health is both the cause and the consequences of violence. | ||
|
National Guard Investments
00:07:31
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| Both the cause and the consequence. | ||
| And so, we both have to make sure we're addressing mental health early to be able to support those before they enter into mental health crises. | ||
| And also, once people are in mental health crises, make sure there's a measure of rehabilitation that can bring them back. | ||
| It's not lost on any of us, particularly those in law enforcement, particularly those with our Department of Corrections, that the largest mental health provider that we have in the state of Maryland are our prisons. | ||
| It's the largest mental health provider that we have. | ||
| And so, our ability to make sure we're making those proper investments, that we have now invested over a billion dollars into mental health supports inside of the state of Maryland because we believe that in order to actually address both the cause and the consequences of a lot of the violence, it means being able to address the mental health challenges that people are facing. | ||
| Because, listen, life is hard on folks. | ||
| Life is tough. | ||
| And we're seeing, especially right now with some of these policies that we got from Washington, D.C., we're watching the prices of everything go up from energy to food to the clothes we're wearing. | ||
| We're watching how Maryland has now had more federal workers fired than any state in this entire country. | ||
| This Trump bands administration has now fired over 12,000 federal workers. | ||
| They were watching federal supports that were supposed to come on board to include $30 million that was supposed to go towards gun violence and violence prevention programs now being slashed. | ||
| Like, it is hard on people. | ||
| And frankly, it's hard on people who are life has already been hard on them. | ||
| And so we've got to make sure that we see them and invest in them and invest in the entrepreneurs and the social support networks that are making sure that people are going to be okay inside this moment. | ||
| Yeah, I mean, my message is for people who feel unsafe inside their neighborhoods, that there's nothing we won't do to be able to support you and help. | ||
| And it's the reason that we're all standing together. | ||
| And we know what works. | ||
| And I know what doesn't. | ||
| I take a very real sense of pride that I am the commander-in-chief of the Maryland National Guard. | ||
| That the Maryland National Guard moves on the orders and on the instructions of the Commander-in-Chief. | ||
| And the reason that I take that so personally is both because I respect these men and women deeply. | ||
| These citizen soldiers, who in many cases, these are people who have other jobs. | ||
| These are people who live in communities. | ||
| These are people who have families. | ||
| And we're asking them to go and deploy to do things that are performative. | ||
| That is so deeply disrespectful to them. | ||
| It's so deeply disrespectful to the American taxpayer when we know that the mobilization of the National Guard that's taking place right now is literally costing over a billion dollars a day. | ||
| Your money. | ||
| Taxpayer dollars. | ||
| So you can have National Guardsmen picking up trash and raking mulch. | ||
| And I know this is someone who's actually worn the uniform of this country. | ||
| As someone who's deployed overseas, as someone who's had to say goodbye to my family, as someone who was willing to risk it all and give my life if necessary, because I trusted the orders of the commander-in-chief, because I trusted the orders of the people who were telling me that I needed to go do what I was about to do. | ||
| And so, I take it way too seriously to think that we should be doing performative and theatrical actions. | ||
| That we actually believe in making sure that our people are safe and making sure that our neighborhoods are safe. | ||
| And we are willing to do the work to make that happen and not to do something that is purely theatrical and politically motivated and serving as a distraction to the fact that your economic policies are not working. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Based on what we are seeing in D.C. with the National Guard that has been there, and I know you said that you think it's global theater and that there is some data to prove that the National Guard is all being, you know, crime and going to anything. | |
| How do you argue that the violence climate drops in DC 27 to the Federal Serge has been in the district with the National Guard there? | ||
| Law enforcement experts will say that having an additional law enforcement presence there is more fun. | ||
| I would say having additional federal supports does matter. | ||
| And I think both myself and the mayor have been very clear. | ||
| We want more federal supports, but we want federal supports that actually work. | ||
| The fact is, you know, if you look at the president's proposed budget, the president's proposed budget actually cut funding for the FBI and the ATF and their bureaus. | ||
| That the budget that we have actually cut $30 million for violence prevention programs. | ||
| That if the president were serious about being able to make sure that our communities are safe, you would do things like banning ghost guns and getting these untraceable guns and these illegal guns out of our neighborhoods and out of our communities. | ||
| That you would focus on things like Glock switches because you have these weapons, these Glocks, that essentially now are turning into automatic weapons. | ||
| But that takes a level of seriousness that we're not getting from the White House. | ||
| And the truth is that, and again, if they want to talk about what's happened, show me a single piece of data. | ||
| How many arrests have the National Guard made? | ||
| How many legal guns have the National Guard taken off the streets? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| Right? | ||
| The answer is zero. | ||
| So do not tell me it's the National Guard that is causing something when you have no data to back up that that's the case. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Last question. | |
| We have a question. | ||
| Are we putting any extra resources from now on towards public safety to get the crime rate even lower than the 50-year homicide loans? | ||
| Yeah, we're continually looking at the resources that we have on board and making sure that they are targeted and smart. | ||
| You know, I think we all have been very clear and have said there is nothing that we will not do to make sure that the people of our communities and our neighborhoods are safe. | ||
| There's nothing that we won't do to make sure that our children are safe. | ||
| And so one of the beauties of this collaboration, one of the beauties of the fact that we're actually working together, is the fact that there is essentially a daily pressure testing of what resources are required, what resources are necessary, where should we be putting those resources, and making sure that we can move quickly and smartly to be able to address those needs. | ||
| So that is going to continue to be an ongoing conversation between the state of Maryland and the city of Baltimore. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay, thank you all very much. | |
| Thank you all. | ||
| Congressman Cohen, welcome to the program. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| It's good C-SPAN still funded by the government. | ||
| It is not funded by the government. | ||
| What do you mean? | ||
| Well, I thought you didn't get any money from the government at all. | ||
| No, not at all, and we never have. | ||
| What a disappointment to Elon Musk. | ||
| I'm sure he liked the doge to you. | ||
| Thanks for having me. | ||
| Love C-SPAN. | ||
|
unidentified
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Appreciate the opportunity to come out. | |
| You know, I wish we could have a thousand C-SPANs across the media spectrum. | ||
|
unidentified
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Unfortunately, we don't. | |
| I think C-SPAN is a huge, huge asset to America. | ||
| Not just the coverage that we get of both chambers on one and two, but programs like Washington Journal that allow policymakers, lawmakers, personalities to come on and have this question time during Washington Journal. | ||
|
unidentified
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So it's a huge benefit. | |
| I hope that all these streaming services carry C-SPAN as well because it's an important service to the American people. | ||
| I'm actually thrilled that this time in Washington Journal, I'm getting a lot of really substantive questions from across the political aisle. | ||