problem. i don t want to second guess the mayor s decisions. i know that she was trying as best she could. there was a difficult situation, the baltimore city police and fire were doing the best they could. and when she asked us for help we responded. politics, chuck? i think the fact is it s easy to monday-morning quarter back her decision on when to call in the national guard but that is a big step when you make that decision and you don t want to do it lightly and you understand why there may have been a couple hours of deciding, you hope your own police department can handle the situation like that. but let s be realistic here. we re seeing potentially a very very early preview of what could be a big issue that ends up in the 2018 race when governor hogan is running for reelection and it s possible the baltimore mayor if mayor blake ends up being the democratic challenger. and then we have to think of
. i m determined not to turn this into a political issue. we have to get this right, bring peace and order and healing in our city. i m not going to play politics with it. the decision to bring in the national guard is a decision that has to be very carefully weighed and when we knew that all after all of the resources we brought to this effort were insufficient, then i called in the national guard and i stand by that. that was baltimore mayor stephanie rawlings-blake speaking to our own al sharpton last night amid the riots and unrest that have gripped her city. the mayor herself has been criticized for remarks she s made and her response to the crisis. it s a rare stumble for one of the brightest political stars in the country. joining me now, the moderator of meet the press, chuck todd. chuck, good morning. good morning, jose. you ve had mayor
joblessness that s gone on in baltimore for a long time and significant issues with the baltimore police department. i mean after all, mayor rawlings-blake on her own went to the state legislature recently in an effort to try to strengthen her hand in disciplining officers. she also asked the federal government and this is somewhat unprecedented to come in and, if you will review and investigate whether their patterns and practices of constitutional violations being carried out by the baltimore police department. so here s the mayor asking the justice department to come in. so all of these facts hi joblessness, the sense that the department has not been fair to the community sort of has created add chamber of anger and we see people reacting. but the important thing is that baltimoreans across the board it
rawlings-blake on your show a couple times. what can you tell us about it? she s part of on the national board of the dnc. i believe she was the youngest person ever to be elected to the baltimore city council. she came into office in not the perfect circumstances, the mayor previously i believe it was sheila dixon had to resign due to charges on embezzlement so she took over because of an ethical cloud over city hall. and got some high mark ss for being transparent, the next generation of political leaders out of baltimore and many folks believed she is potentially a leading democrat. either she may run for the u.s. senate, she indicated no. my guess is it s a definite no at this point. but a likely challenger to larry hogan there 2018. it s been a tough test for her. and the sentence she used
which is give the demonstrators space to destroy, that she says was taken out of context. how has she handled that criticism? i have to say. i think trying to argue the meaning of the phrase and defend that is probably wasted energy. this is one of those moments where she would have been better off saying i said that? this was a stupid thing to say. that s not what i meant to say. and instead of sort of i felt like she s gotten defensive about it. understandable. she s under some stress right now. her city is in deep trouble. i think there was a much better way to handle that something that i think in hindsight i would assume she wishes she never said. and the governor initially seemed to take jabs at the mayor for not calling out the national guard sooner. he walked it back a bit yesterday. here s what he said chuck. i don t want to point fingers at anyone. i m not here to place blame, i m here to try to solve the