Gov. Wes Moore, Rep. Mike Lawler, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, Catherine Russell

0:00Margaret Brennan:I'm Margaret Brennan in Washington and this week on Face the Nation, the Trump administration builds up the federal presence in the nation's capital to crack down on crime. And the president vows to use similar tactics in other U.S. cities. The number of National Guard troops sent to protect Washington continues to grow as President Trump praises his own plan to clean up the city. D.C. was a hellhole and now it's safe. The numbers were horrible. It was a crime infested rat hole and they do have a lot of rats. We're getting rid of them too. But as Mr. Trump dismissed district leaders claim of a 30 year low and violent crime, he's vowing a similar surge in Chicago, New York and other cities.

0:45Margaret Brennan:What could that mean for public safety in your community? We'll check in with Maryland Democratic Governor Wes Moore and New York Republican Congressman Mike Waller. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell hints at an interest rate cut and the stock market soars. But he also cautions that the U.S. economy is facing challenging times. There is significant uncertainty about where all of these policies will eventually settle and what their lasting effects on the economy will be. We'll get a reality check on Powell's speech on the state of the economy from economist Mohamed El-Aryan. Plus, a UN-backed group confirms residents of Gaza City are facing catastrophic conditions of famine and warn that it will soon expand to other areas within the Gaza Strip.

1:32Margaret Brennan:New Hampshire Democratic Senator Jean Shaheen is visiting the region and will join us. We'll also talk with UNICEF Executive Director Katherine Russell. It's all just ahead on Face the Nation.

1:57Margaret Brennan:Good morning and welcome to Face the Nation. It's quiet here in Washington as we come on the air this morning, but the debate is heating up over President Trump's calling up of nearly 2 ,300 National Guardsmen, along with federal agents from ICE, the ATF, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the FBI, and others, to patrol the streets of the city alongside D.C. police forces. And we're seeing yet another instance of Trump's expanding of the federal government's reach, this time when it comes to control of police in local communities. Will we see pictures like these in other U.S. cities in the future? Well, one of the places President Trump has mentioned is needing help fighting crime is nearby Baltimore.

2:42Margaret Brennan:And joining us right now is Maryland's Democratic Governor, Wes Moore. Thank you for being here. Thank you so much for having me. So here in D.C., there are guardsmen from six different states on the street. The mission is, quote, beautification duty and support. The defense secretary has authorized them to carry M4 and M17 rifles. But to date, we have not been able to locate anyone armed within the National Guard on the streets of D.C. Why, though, are you so opposed to this deployment? Well, there's plenty of reasons. You know, one, it is not sustainable. You cannot continue this type of pace of operations, particularly when it's costing over a million dollars a day in order to do this.

3:25The second, it's not scalable. You're not going to be able to do this in every single major American city, particularly when many of the cities that have the highest crime rates are the places that have actually deployed their National Guards to Washington, D.C. So who's going to go do the work in their cities? The third, it's unconstitutional. It's a direct violation of the Tenth Amendment. And for a party that talks about state rights, it's amazing how they're having such a big government approach in the way they're conducting public safety. The fourth reason is because it's deeply disrespectful to the members of the National Guard.

3:54You know, 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 think 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.

4:23Margaret Brennan:Well, the National Guard does say that these troops will be trained and deputized by federal marshals. So this is going to be distinct from the military rules of engagement. But it is counter to every bit of training that we received. When I joined the military, we joined with a clear intention to fight and win our nation's wars. The members of our National Guard are trained up to be able to address things like emergency situations, situations where you need a surge of supports for traumas and disasters that are happening within individual jurisdictions. That is not this. And this is a direct deflection that the president is authorizing.

5:03Margaret Brennan:We know the president watches the program and he likely saw the guest listing because he's tweeting about you. We're truthing, I guess. He says the governor of Westmore of Maryland has asked in a nasty and provocative tone that I walk the streets of Maryland with him. And he's talking about crime ridden Baltimore. It's quite lengthy. But he goes after your record on crime. He says it's a bad one. He says if you need help, he will send in the troops, which is being done in nearby D.C. I mean, when we saw a few weeks ago the deployment on the streets of Los Angeles, the governor of California tried to go to the courts and he was unable to stop it.

5:40Margaret Brennan:Is the reality here is you can't stop the president from sending troops to Baltimore if he wants to. The year before I became the governor in 2022, Baltimore was averaging almost a homicide a day. And I came in and I said, I refuse to be a governor who just offers thoughts and prayers to this situation. So we said, we're actually going to work in partnership with Mayor Scott, work in partnership with local elected officials, work in partnership with local law enforcement. We made the largest investments in local law enforcement in our state's history, over$50 million going to Baltimore City alone.

6:14Margaret Brennan:That came from federal money. That came from both federal and state money. And also, Maryland became one of the only states that actually helps to fund the U.S. attorney out of balance sheet, taking many of those gun crimes and actually turning them into federal charges. And the results have been have been incredibly encouraging, where Maryland's had amongst the fastest drops in violent crime of anywhere in the United States in the past two and a half years. The homicide rate in Maryland is down over 20 percent since I have been the governor. And the last time the homicide rate was this low in Baltimore City, I was not born yet.

6:43And so the reason that I've asked the president to come and join us is because he seems to enjoy living in this blissful ignorance, these tropes and these 1980 scare tactics. And, you know, just last week I was in Baltimore and I was with a group called We Are Us, who is a violence intervention group. And they say, we're all we got, we're all we need. And that's exactly how people in this community feel, because while the president is spending his time from the Oval Office making jabs and attacks at us, there are people actually on the ground doing the work who know what supports would actually work to continue to bring down crime.

7:17But it's falling on deaf ears of the president.

7:19Margaret Brennan:You're talking about the positive trend line at the president's pointing to the FBI statistics, which shows Baltimore is the fifth most instances of violent crime on a per capita basis. fourth highest murder rate. To your point, the city of Memphis is also on that list. And the governor of Tennessee sent those National Guard troops here to this city, not to the streets of Memphis. And we know we have work 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 just theatrics. But the mayor in Baltimore did just say he wants federal help.

7:53Margaret Brennan:He doesn't want National Guard troops, per se, though. He says he wants agents from FBI, DEA and ATF. Do you need more federal help in policing if your mayor thinks you do? Oh, absolutely. And we need the president to stop cutting funding, because if you look at the president's budget, it actually cuts funding towards violence intervention groups. It cuts funding towards the bureaus of the FBI and the ATF that are supporting local jurisdictions like Baltimore, that it doesn't do anything about things like ghost guns and these extended glock clips that allow these glocks to essentially turn into automatic weapons.

8:26Those are actually real tangible things that the president of the United States could do and where you could put capital to actually make our community safer.

8:33Margaret Brennan:So you are a Democrat who is, President Trump says so as well, possibly a presidential candidate. He talked about you the other day. Yeah. He spent a lot of time talking about you. I've been on his mind a lot. You're spending time talking about crime. Is this something that as a Democrat, you think the Democratic Party needs to be more vocal and muscular about when running for office? Because I hear you doing that. It's a very big change from 2020 when the idea was defund the police. Absolutely. And yet the president's spending all of his time talking about me. I'm spending my time talking about the people I serve.

9:05And yes, I believe that we have to be able to address the issue of crime. I came up in and I have existed in neighborhoods and communities that have been chronically neglected. And I remember one of the first things that happened in our first months in, I had to visit shock trauma inside of Baltimore because Baltimore had one of the largest mass shootings in its history. And I visited a young man, a teenager who was just finished surgery and had one of his testicles shot off and was talking about how was he ever going to become a father? And I said at that point, I refuse to continue doing this and not putting the proper resources in place and not being able to put a real focus on making our community safer.

9:46And that's why it is so frustrating when we're hearing from the president of the United States, something that is just purely performative without actually focusing on these communities and these neighborhoods who believe that progress is possible and who are willing to put in the work. And we're just simply asking for Washington to be able to acknowledge it and support it.

10:04Margaret Brennan:He says you're not presidential timber at all. I imagine you disagree with that assessment. No, I've been very clear. I'm not running for president. But it's interesting that but it's interesting. The president seems to be more concerned about my future than he is about the future of the American people. And that's where I'm asking him to keep his focus, focus on the things that actually matter right now, which is the fact that his economic policies are driving up prices on everything from electronics to the clothes that we wear to the food that we eat. Talk about the fact that he has immigration policies that are knocking out tens of thousands of jobs in the state of Maryland.

10:40Talk about the fact that you are about to kick veterans and seniors off of health care. Don't worry about my future. Worry about theirs.

10:48Margaret Brennan:I want to ask you, you brought up immigration. One of the residents of your state, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, was just released from pretrial detention on Friday. But the Trump administration has instructed him to report to ICE within 72 hours for deportation to Uganda. He's originally from El Salvador. He was mistakenly deported to that prison in El Salvador and then return to the U.S. This is federal policy. This is not state policy. But I do wonder, is there anything that you are doing to help his family stay united? What we know is that, you know, and all we're asking for is that the Constitution be followed on this.

11:26The Constitution is very clear about how we deal with these types of issues. And when we look at what's happened in this situation, it's the president manipulating the fact that we have a very broken immigration system inside this country. But instead of actually doing the work that it requires to fix it, actually working in Congress to come up with a comprehensive immigration bill, the president is using to just working to exploit the brokenness. And I am very clear that there is no higher priority for me than public safety.

11:54Margaret Brennan:You want him to face a day in court, in other words. Absolutely. I want to process. I just simply want a court and a judge to decide what is going to be the future fate of this case and all cases like this, and not simply the president of the United States or the secretary of Homeland Security who is who's trying to be judge, juror, prosecutor and executioner inside this case. I believe in the Constitution and I believe that that's what we should follow for this case. I want to ask you about something your party is tinkering with here, redistricting or gerrymandering, as some people know it. You've said you don't like talking about it, but all options are on the table when it comes to your state.

12:35Margaret Brennan:There's only one seat here that is actually Republican, and it's a seat held by Representative Andy Harris. Are you considering trying to redraw lines in Maryland? Yeah. When I say all options are on the table, all options are on the table. Are you actively looking at it now? Yeah, because and I think and I think we have to. Yes. And I think and I think we have to, because I think what's happened is this is what people hate about politics in the first place. The fact that the president of the United States, very similar to what he did in Georgia, where he called up a series of voter registrants and said, I need you to find me more votes.

13:08We're watching the same thing now where he's calling up legislatures around the country and saying, I need you to find me more congressional districts.

13:14Margaret Brennan:He's doing it. That may be different. But Democrats redistrict. You know this. But Gavin Newsom's doing it right now. A few years ago in New York, we saw this. This can backfire. Do you really want to go down this road? I want to make sure that we have fair lines and fair seats, where we don't have situations where politicians are choosing voters, but that voters actually have a chance to choose their elected officials. We need to be able to have fair maps. And we also need to make sure that if the president of the United States is putting his finger on the scale to try to manipulate elections because he knows that his policies cannot win in a ballot box, then it behooves each and every one of us to be able to keep all options on the table to ensure that the voters' voices can actually be heard and we can have maps.

13:55Margaret Brennan:And you don't think in that one district where they represent, they have a Republican representative that they are actively being represented in Maryland? I think if you look at maps across the country, less than 10 % of congressional seats are actually competitive by nature, less than 10%. And so if you look at the average win margin in our state and so many states, the average wind margin is upwards of 20 to 30 percent. So that means we already have so many gerrymandered areas that we have to be able to add a measure of fairness in the way that it's applied. And so, yes, all options need to be on the table in the state of Maryland.

14:26Margaret Brennan:And you're looking at it, you said. Governor, thank you for your time this morning. Thank you so much. Face Nation will be back in a minute. Stay with us. And we're back now with the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, New Hampshire's Senator Jean Shaheen. She joins us from Amman, Jordan. Good morning, Senator. I know we've got a bit of a delay here, so I'll launch right in. Good morning or afternoon here. Yeah, exactly. You do sit on the Armed Services Committee as well. Here in Washington, there was a sudden round of firings we learned of on Friday. There was Lieutenant General

15:09Margaret Brennan:He was dismissed. The Pentagon did not explain why. In addition, the Navy Reserve Chief Vice Admiral Nancy LaCour was fired. The Navy SEAL, who oversees Naval Special Warfare Command, Rear Admiral Milton Sands, was dismissed. Has Congress been informed as to why these leaders are being fired by Secretary Hagseth? I'm not aware that Congress has been informed about any of these firings. And they come on the heels of firings earlier this year of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the head of Naval Operations, Admiral Franchetti, and a series of other military leaders. And it's unfortunate because one of the things, one of the strengths of America's military are the professional military leaders who have come up through the ranks, who have the training, the expertise to be able to do the jobs.

16:06And what we don't want is political people in those jobs who are not going to give honest assessments of the military situation wherever we happen to be. So it's very troubling.

16:20Margaret Brennan:I believe our feed there just froze, and we're going to try to get that back up if we can. The senator is joining us from Amman, Jordan. And we're back now with Senator Jean Shaheen, who joins us remote from Amman, Jordan. We lost you there, but we're so glad you're back with us now, Senator. Let me ask you about why you are in the Middle East right now. We heard on Friday, this internationally recognized body backed by the UN, the IPC, it tracks hunger. And they confirmed, technically confirmed, there is a man-made famine underway in Gaza. This is a very rare designation. Only four other times has one been designated.

17:05Margaret Brennan:The country you are in, Jordan, called it a shameful failure of humanity that Israel is starving Palestinians with impunity, called it a war crime. Would you say that that three-month blockade by Israel of Gaza is a war crime? I think it is a shameful black mark on humanity that the world has allowed this to happen and that Israel is allowing this to happen. We had a very good meeting today with King Abdullah of Jordan, and one of the places that we visited is the Jordan Humanitarian assistance program that is trying to get aid into Gaza. This is a funded trucks and warehouses and food that the United States has contributed to as part of this administration.

17:59They are trying to get in 150 trucks a day into Israel, and Israel has prevented those trucks from going in in a way that would provide the nutrition that Gazans need to prevent starvation. It is unacceptable. Prime Minister Netanyahu is the point at which obstruction is happening. He needs to look at what he's doing and change his position.

18:28Margaret Brennan:The Israeli prime minister's office on Friday had a very harsh statement about the famine designation. They called it, quote, a modern blood libel spreading like wildfire through prejudice. That suggests this is about anti-Jewish hate rather than starvation. How do you make sense of the Israeli defense? I don't think that's a good defense. The fact is this is not about anti-Semitism, which I abhor and the United States position is against anti-Semitism and we need to do everything we can to prevent it. But the reality is we have people dying because they are systematically being starved to death because Israel is refusing to allow in the humanitarian aid that people need to keep alive.

19:19Not only that, they're getting ready to do another or they've already started planning another major incursion into Gaza in ways that are going to kill more people. So this is not acceptable. The world needs to speak out. I think it's very important that we allow that humanitarian aid in to the people who are starving.

19:41Margaret Brennan:I understand your criticism right now. I want to ask you a little bit, though, about standing U.S. policy, because this has been a problem even during the Biden administration. In fact, former Deputy National Security Advisor for President Biden, John Feiner, just wrote a piece in The Atlantic. And he said that while he stands by the decision to embrace Israel after October 7th, he believes we did far too little, far too late to limit the truly catastrophic civilian harm that Israel's response inflicted. Do you agree with him and do you wish that you spoke out more forcefully sooner? I don't think this is a partisan position.

20:27With me on this journey to Jordan is Congressman Joe Wilson from South Carolina. He agreed with me that we need to make sure those humanitarian aid trucks get into Israel. We need to do everything possible to ensure that Prime Minister Netanyahu is stopping the roadblocks that are preventing the humanitarian aid from getting in. I think it's something that I hope that both Democrats and Republicans can embrace.

20:58Margaret Brennan:But do you agree with this self-criticism by this key Democrat? Do you think Democrats should have said more soon? We should be doing more and we should have done more. Absolutely. I want to also ask you. I think everybody should have said more sooner. Not just Democrats, but Republicans. Why are you now? We had the opportunity to be here today to meet with those Jordanians who are working very hard to try and get humanitarian aid into Gaza, who are being stymied in that effort by bureaucratic obstacles that make no sense. When it takes hours to scan a truck, which could be done in two to three, and it diverts the aid when it's costing hundreds of dollars per truck, and they turn those trucks away, and when they come back the next day, it costs another hundreds of dollars more for the same truck.

22:02when they find an excuse for why it gets stopped at the border. That's not a legitimate effort to get humanitarian aid into the people of Gaza who are starving. And that can be changed. All it takes is Prime Minister Netanyahu saying, we're going to allow that aid in.