Washington journal continues. Us as governor larry hogan, republican of maryland. Joining us is governor larry hogan, republican of maryland. Hes also the chair of the National Governors association. Governor, let me begin with the news on the coronavirus. We had 150,000 deaths and cases are on the rise in your state and across the country. Is it time for a National Strategy rather than governors coming up with their own strategies . Well it was probably a time for a National Strategy back in february or march. Ive been somewhat critical of the fact that early in the, i talk about this in my book, early in the pandemic, i thought it was important for the federal government to come up with more of a National Strategy on testing, on Contact Tracing, on a more coordinated, from the federal level, attack from this virus. Thats behind us now and the virus has spread across the country. Governors have been on the front lines out of necessity and taking actions that we think are necessary. Obviously, we are continuing to do so and doing everything we can to stop the virus. We need to have and we do have the support and assistance of the federal government. This is going to take us all at the federal, state and local level. The public and private sector. The cooperation of our citizens, which we jointly represent, to get this back under control. Youre the chair of the National Governors association. How do governors Work Together through this association . Its been one of the things that i have been most proud of. The governors across america, unlike some of our friends and colleagues in washington, there is very little partisanship. Although we do not always agree on every single issue, there has been tremendous cooperation and collaboration. We have really been in this together. Im proud of the governors on both sides of the aisle who stepped up. Weve taken some individual actions that may differ from one another, but the working relationship, through the National Governors association, has been incredible. Its not something that i think has ever happened quite like this before. Ive been active in the association for almost six years since i became governor. Im on the executive committee. Weve now had, i think, 46 Conference Calls with all of the nations governors. Many of which who were with the president , the Vice President and the Coronavirus Task force. Just in the past few months, weve talked numerous times and that has not happened in the last few years. Theres discussions about how youre dealing with this in your state. Sharing best practices and giving advice. Theres also a lot of Regional Governors coming together and working across their borders and party lines to work in a regional way. The less formal, like picking up the phone or texting governors across the country, has been invaluable. Bipartisan Common Sense Leadership has been invaluable. We do not wear red uniforms or blue uniforms. The virus does not care what party you belong to. It does not recognize state borders. We are all in this together. I think the National Governors association, which im very proud to chair, has been more relevant and more effective than it has ever been. Give us examples of how youve had to compete against each other . Thats one of the frustrations that i talk about in my book. I have been arguing that we shouldve had a different Strategy Early on. When it came to really critical things like test kits and much needed supplies of ppe. Basic things like ventilators and swabs and tubes and reagents and transport medium. Things that, you would think, would not be so difficult to acquire. Things we could easily have had a federal strategy on. Instead, weve had 55 states and territories all competing with each other and with the federal government and with other countries around the world for desperately needed supplies in a very constrained market. It was just masked chaos, it really was. Things have improved. The federal government has stepped up. We urged them to utilize the defense production act, and thankfully, they did. They produced ventilators here in america. They did a great job with that. We have a plentiful supply of ventilators now. They also used the defense production act on swabs. But now were running, once again, shorten lab capacity. Some of the private labs are taking ten days or two weeks to get test results. Rendering them basically worthless when it comes to track the virus and do our Contact Tracing to stamp out the infection. Weve made progress, but we are continuing to fall back behind and not get our hands around this virus as we head through the summer and into the fall. Let me read some headlines. The washington times. Democrats reject trumps offered for four short term relief deal. You have the wall street journal. Relief deal is nowhere close as bipartisan ago she asians falter. You have the Washington Post editorial. Congress heads towards an economic lift. The wall street journal just reporting, breaking news, the economy contracted at a record 32. 9 annual rate last quarter and weekly jobless claims rose to 1. 4 3 million amid signs of slowing recovery. If congress does not renew these enhanced federal unemployment benefits, what is the impact on maryland citizens . If congress cannot find some kind of a bipartisan compromise and get this done, its going to be quite disastrous for the country. Governor cuomo, whos my vice chairman of the National Governors association, and i put out a statement yesterday. This has been nearly unanimous between all the republican and democratic governors. Weve been pushing for more relief. The governors are on the front lines trying to provide more services to more people that are desperately in need. We need a 500 billion dollars in order to continue to provide some of those services. Justin state and local governments, we also laid off 1. 6 million workers like Frontline Health workers, teachers, firefighters and people who are trying to help our struggling country. Its not helpful to the economic recovery. Its very frustrating to us. I was just talking we had a commitment from the white house months ago. The president said he was going to support this. Now, none of this appears to be in the discussion in washington. The governors continue to push in a fairly bipartisan and unified way to get the republicans and democrats on both sides of the aisle and both houses and the administration to put aside whatever petty partisan differences there are. I dont care about the specifics and this side wants these things included and decide once these things included. They cannot leave without getting something done. They just got back from a july 4th recess, theyre about to leave on an august recess and all we hear is partisan bickering, divisiveness and gridlock. It absolutely cannot happen because the people of america need them to get something done for a change. We will go to calls. James in lancaster, virginia. Republican. Good morning governor, how are you doing . Good morning. Quick questions. I keep hearing the United States is the highest and death toll and that can be true because china does not report accurately. A little while ago, i listened to bbc and they did a study to look at the current rate of deaths, not just corona. The numbers were way off compared to what they were reporting four corona over fiveyear period. Course, here our system is very antiquated. We cant find those numbers. I dont want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, what i drive across the state and pick up trash and the sensation work field and i dont know anybody in my field that has gotten sick. We are right in it. You cant get no closer than where we are. Im confused by that. Okay, lets have the governor respond. We really have had 150,000 deaths in america. I know a lot of people feel like china has not been forthcoming and is perhaps not sharing truthful information. That certainly has been the case in the past. I cant speak to who is reporting factual information and who isnt. I know the United States is and we actually do have 150,000 deaths. Thats more people than the total of people who died in the korean war and vietnam war in total. Thats just over a few months. Weve had more than 3000 people die in the state of maryland and 82,000 people whove gotten sick. Weve had more than 12,000 people hospitalized. Its real. Its not a conspiracy theory. The good news is were doing much better than most of the other states around the country. Our Positivity Rate is down below the recommended 5 . Were about 4. 5 . Many states are in the 20 something percent. The virus is running rampant. Many of those states have to reshut down their economies. We continue to be open. That is why our Unemployment Rate is 8 . Thats about 30 better than the rest of the country. This is real. I know and hysteria, sometimes people say these guys falling and everyone is sick and its out of control. Other people are saying its completely fake and made up. The truth is, this is a very serious virus. People say its just the flu. Well, we did have 40 people die from the normal flu but weve had more than 3000 people die in our state from this virus and theres going to be many more. So were taking it very seriously and watching these numbers every single day and taking all the steps we can to keep people safe and to make sure that we get everybody back to normal as quickly as we can. The way we do that is by taking all the steps necessary to reopen our economy safely and to do all the things that the Public Health doctors are advising us to do. Freddy is next. It hes in indianapolis. A democratic color. Good morning governor. Governor, from a democratic point of view i like to say i think youve been doing a great job as a republican governor and so has my governor here in indiana. Most governors, especially those in the south who are doing terrible. Governor, i dont want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but i believe there are those in the government who are enjoying seeing what is going on including our president , mr. Trump. I dont think he has any concern or regrets for the people who are dying, especially those people of color. He just sees the people dying is collateral damage. Theres probably been nobody, certainly no republican, whos been willing to speak up more than me when i disagreed with the president. Ive said that i thought that his messaging was all wrong and then he had not taken the virus seriously enough from the beginning of the crisis. Ive not agreed with all the moves, but i dont think thats true. I would not say that he doesnt care about the people dying or that he looks at it in black and white terms. I think the president is concerned about the deaths. He may be has not taken all the steps he has to take and certainly has not been communicating to the American Public the way i think he should. I wouldnt go so far as to say that he does not care about the people dying in america. Time is in a independent in saline, texas. They, its your turn with the governor. My question has to do with the malaria drug and the cpac and the zinc. Why county from day one my daughter is a nurse and i know a lot of nurses on the front line. Theyve used this from day one and still prescribe it. A friend of mine, she was at deaths door, they gave it to her and it knocked it out of her in two days. You look at our country, we have 1 million and a half people. We have 75 deaths. My question is why dont people come see what the counties are doing who hardly have any death . Were not really having a problem. You go south of us to the Dallas County which is more to the left and they refused to prescribe it and have 600 and something deaths. My question is, why are all these people so against it when you dont have anything else out there and it seems to work wherever its at . Every friend of mine that got sick gotta prescribe and they are well. If i start getting it, i just dont understand why people refused to give it to people and let them die. We heard the point. Dave governor . I cant speak exactly to what they are doing in their county or the effectiveness of sink. I can tell you that all across america, we are doing much better. Hospitals have figured out. There are therapeutic drugs that have saved lives. Were seeing a rise in cases across the country and were seeing a big rise of the number of people being hospitalized. But were not seeing that same increase in deaths for in icus. It is at a slower rate. So people are getting sick enough to get to the hospital, but they are finding ways to keep them from dying and they are using a whole host of things that they did not know were effective back in the spring. We do not have a cure, we do not have a vaccine, but they are finding ways to keep people alive. And our state, i will tell you an interesting thing that we have been focused on lately because people are talking about this. At the very beginning across america, it was mostly older people. We had these outbreaks in our state and every state in nursing homes. Most of the hospitalizations and people in icu and on ventilators and most of the deaths were people in the seventies and eighties. Thats no longer true. 56 of our cases are now under 40. Our hospitals, more of more if the increase in hospitalizations are people under 40. Our biggest cases are in their twenties and thirties. It has shifted. These are healthier stronger people who are not dying, but they are getting the virus. Some of them pretty badly and seriously enough to be hospitalized. They are finding some treatments and drugs that help reduce the severity. Were sharing these things across the country. Thats a positive thing. We havent stopped the virus, but i think were finding some ways to treat it better and to keep people alive. Governor, what was behind your announcement yesterday to expand statewide mask orders . We were one of the first states in the country to take an action on masks. It has worked fairly effectively. The federal government has now been messaging very strongly on this as well. Even the president was wearing a mask and saying it was patriotic to wear a mask which was a major departure from his earlier messaging. Its what most of the people in his administration, the professionals and experts, have been saying for the long time. In our state, weve done a massive amount of new testing so our cases are starting to rise. Thats not as big of a concern to us. Our positivity is still remaining fairly level and flat cause. However, were concerned that all the states are blowing up across the country. 21 of them have been declared hotspots. The federal government, just the day before yesterday, said 21 states need to start shutting down parts of their economy. They need to put in place ten person gathering limits. 30 states have been masking orders now. This has changed dramatically. The virus does not recognize borders. Our Public Health officials, all of our expert epidemiologists, they said this one step we can help keep businesses open and people working and people out of the unemployment lines. Its the simplest thing. I know some people are concerned about it or frustrated about it, but most people support it. Most people are following it in our state and its a whole lot better than shutting down all the businesses and making people go back to a stayathome order. We will go down to kaplan, louisiana. Chris, a republican. Yes. Ive been trying to call you since your last top. I want to give a message to all the democrat voters up there when with all the rioting and looting and killing. I want to know there are people out there who do care about you. Chris, do you have a question or comment for the governor . Our time is short so i want to jackie who isnt brantford, connecticut. Yeah. Thank you. Hi. I wanted to know if you think the u. S. Is doing enough as far as finding the pandemic globally . Especially in terms of aid to countries that were already ravaged by poverty and other Health Crises . No. Im not sure the u. S. Is focused on helping other countries. Im not sure the u. S. Is doing enough to fight the virus right here in america. Thats really where our focus needs to be. The chant as chairman of the National Governors association, were pushing for more help where its desperately needed. Thats not to say we should ignore folks in need in other places, or right now we have the worst case of the virus and it is spreading rapidly across this nation. Its going to kill tens of thousands of more people if we dont ramp up our efforts right here at home. As you mentioned governor, right now in the republican proposal, there is no aid for state and local governments. What would be the impact of that on the state of maryland if there is no additional aid from washington . What will you have to do . Its fairly disastrous. Fairly disastrous. Movies analytics talked with all of the nations governors. They predict in average downturn in revenue of 30 to the states. Our state is in much better shape economically than most states in america. We only have an 8 unemployment. Its the worst weve had in a long time, but many states are at 23 or 25. Its still a terrible economic situation. Worst then the socalled great recession. We have hundreds of thousands of people unemployed. Our budget hit means some states are going to take 30 reductions in their budget. Thats devastating. Were probably going to be looking at up to 15 reductions in agencies across the state government. That means furloughs and layoffs with and some essential services and departments which will be drastically curtailed, and or eliminated. You finish your thought. I know mcconnell said at one point just let the states go bankrupt. I dont think thats a very smart move. Again, the states are the ones that are trying to be on the front lines and taking care of these folks who need help. Also putting people on the unemployment line and having no one there to help them, it seems to be a disastrous outcome. Not good for the country, not good for the states, and politically, it seems to be a disastrous move as well. When we come out of this pandemic, would you consider raising taxes . After we come out of this pandemic, which i dont know when we will come out of it, were just going to have to figure out where we are as a country, as a state. We are in uncharted territory. This is the worst Global Pandemic that weve dealt with in my lifetime. Its also the worst economic crisis weve ever dealt with. Were taking it one day at a time. We have no idea what the future will look like. Jackie in greensboro, north carolina. Republican. Yes. Is it better for the United States federal government to go into debt to Cover Services as opposed to the states . The federal government is the only when the prince money for one thing. The states are out here picking up the slack for the things that the federal government didnt step up and do. Theres only so much money to go around. These states are doing quite a bit and spending into our budgets and expending all the money and our rainy day funds. State and local governments are going to step up. Some of these programs are the responsibility of the federal government. Jan into cancel newcastle, pennsylvania. Democratic color. Hi. I wanted to ask you a question. With this virus being so bad and all these democratic mayors, and governors, are allowing all this stuff to go on. All these perpetrators. Theyre all together day after day and night after night spreading this virus everywhere. With the president , god bless him, wants to bring help in, they refused it. I dont see whats going to happen in this country between this virus going everywhere and all this stuff thats going on. Burning buildings down and putting people out of business. Okay jim. Governor, whats your take on the protests across the country and coronavirus . I can hear the emotion in her voice. You have these triple things going on in the country which makes it so unprecedented. We have the virus that were dealing with. We have the worst economic crisis. Then, in some cases we have very peaceful protests where people are expressing their frustrations over the tragic death and murder of george floyd. We also have some violence breaking out in certain cities where there is destruction and burning and looting. All of this is happening at the same time which is unprecedented in america. I talk about all of these things in my book. Right after i became governor in 2015, i had only been governor for 89 days. The worst violence in 47 years broke out in our largest city of baltimore. The city was overwhelmed. 400 and something buildings were burned and looted and destroyed. 120 police and firefighters were injured. The city was completely overwhelmed and unable to handle the situation. I immediately declared a state of emergency. I sent in 1000 Additional Police officers from around the state and region and from other states. Also, 4000 members of the national guard. We allowed peaceful protests to continue for a solid week and let people express their frustrations. But we stopped all the violence and the burning and the looting and the hurting people almost immediately. I think responding separating out the peaceful protesting from violence and destruction is something that we need to figure out a way to do. We did it fairly effectively in 2015. I think many of these mayors and governors have not done it that way. I dont think that the federal government should have to come into the cities and i dont think they should come in too aggressively to further inflame the situation. I also think that the mayors and governors have not done their job by continuing, im not talking about the peaceful protesters, but some of the violent destruction thats been going on for more than two months. Allowing that to continue is completely unacceptable. We just cannot have lawlessness in some major cities across america. The governors book out today. Still standing, surviving cancer, riots, a Global Pandemic and the talks of politics that divide america. Governor, how did you have time . Quickly, because the house is about to gavel in. How did you have time to write a book . I finished most of it last year. I turned it in on february 1st. I was supposed to come out in 1st of june and i push the pause button. They would only hold it until july 28th and i added just a little bit at the end about the coronavirus. I did it long below before any of this happened. Governor, white right a book now . If you can in 30 seconds. I wrote it earlier than all of this. Ive just been meaning to do it for a long time and finally got the opportunity. It was unfortunate that he came out right now in the middle of all of this but it was the only time the publisher would bring it out. I think people enjoy it. Its about what . Its about surviving cancer, riots, Global Pandemics and divisive politics that divide america. That is the name of the book. Thank you for talking to our viewers. Come back again, please. Thank you. Next a look at the 1960 lunch counter citizens. In 1960, four African American students sat down at a segregated lunch counter in greensboro north carolina. Launching a Civil Rights Movement that would spread to other cities throughout the country. University of massachusetts professor Tracey Parker join American History tv and washington journal to take questions for desegregation protest from that time. Watch American History tv. Tonight and over the weekend on cspan three. At the Richard Nixon president ial library in california. This is just over one hour. Ladies and gentlemen, the honorable michael pompeo. The honorable ladies and gentle t
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.