Moore: ‘I have no interest in fighting with the president, but I have an interest in fighting for my communities’

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore defended his rhetoric against President Donald Trump over crime in his home city of Baltimore amid an escalating feud between the two leaders.

“I have no interest in fighting with the president, but I have an interest in fighting for my communities and fighting for our people,” Moore told ABC News’ “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz in an interview that aired Sunday.

Earlier this month, Trump offered to send the National Guard into other cities across the country after his law enforcement surge into Washington, D.C., calling Baltimore “so far gone.” Moore responded by formally inviting the president to join him and Baltimore officials on a public safety walk.

After the two continued to trade barbs on social media, Trump rebuked the invitation and renewed his threat to send the National Guard into Baltimore, calling the city a “hellhole” in the Oval Office on Tuesday.

“Wes Moore was telling me he wants — ‘I want to walk with the president.’ Well, I said, ‘I want to walk with you, too, someday. But first you’ve got to clean up your crime,” Trump said.

Baltimore, like most of the U.S., has seen a drop in crime and homicides in recent years, but remains one of the country’s most violent cities. It had the fifth highest rate of violent crime and fourth highest murder rate per capita in cities with at least 100,000 people last year, according to recent FBI data.

While Moore acknowledged there is still “work to do there,” he touted the progress the state has made and called out the president’s comments.

“It would just be great if we could have a president of the United States to actually understand that this is one of the great American turnaround stories that’s happening right now, and we would love the help to be able to continue to do that work instead of this — arrogant criticism and cynicism that he continues to introduce into the conversation,” Moore said.

Moore said while he “would love more federal support,” he called the National Guard deployment in Washington, D.C. “performative.”

Raddatz pressed Moore on the reduction in crime in Washington since the increased federal presence that D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser cited this week.

“You’ve heard Mayor Bowser say [they’ve seen an] 87% reduction in carjackings, robberies cut by half. Why wouldn’t you want that here, if that is actually helping?” Raddatz asked.

“If the president of the United States were to have a serious conversation with me and say, what can we do — particularly when you look at the cost of the National Guard of well over a million dollars a day?” Moore responded. “I would tell him things like, we need to make sure we’re increasing funding for local law enforcement.”

“Asking me to deploy my National Guard, people who are not trained for municipal policing, is just not a serious approach,” Moore added.

In posts on his social media platform, Trump has also resurfaced a controversy over Moore’s military record. The New York Times reported last year that Moore falsely claimed to have been awarded a Bronze Star in a 2006 White House application. During his 2022 campaign, clips of Moore being introduced as a Bronze Star recipient and not correcting the interviewers in 2008 and 2010 surfaced.

Moore had been recommended for the medal but did not receive it until last year and has called it an “honest mistake.”

In response, Moore called Trump “President Bone Spurs” in a post on X, referencing Trump’s medical deferment from the Vietnam draft.

Moore said about his post: “When the president wants to attack my military record as someone who’s actually a decorated combat veteran, as someone who actually has served overseas, as someone who has defended the country, I just think that if the president wants to have a real debate about public service and about the sacrifice for this country, he should really sit that debate out. I’m not the one he wants to have it with.”

Asked why he put the Bronze Star on his 2006 application, Moore told Raddatz he “didn’t think about it” since his commanding officers told him to include it.

“I think it’s pretty common knowledge or common belief that when your, when your commanding officers, and your superior officers tell you, ‘Listen, we put you in, and we’ve gone through everything, so as you’re going through your application, include it.'” Moore said. “I included it, and I didn’t think about it.”

Pressed on why he didn’t correct the interviewers when they wrongly introduced him, Moore said “Even at the time of those interviews, it wasn’t something I thought about.”

“Now I’m thankful that the military, after they found out that the paperwork was lost and didn’t process [it], that they came back and awarded me the Bronze Star,” Moore said. “So I do have a Bronze Star that I earned in Afghanistan and a Combat Action Badge that I earned in Afghanistan. So I’m proud of that, but that’s not why I served.”

“But do you regret not correcting when you were introduced that way?” Raddatz asked.

“I don’t regret not going back and consistently looking over my service records. I don’t. I’m thankful for the service I did. I’m grateful for the fact that I had the opportunity to lead soldiers in combat, what a small fraction of this people of this country will ever understand,” Moore responded.

Moore’s national profile has risen from his public clash with the president and some have drawn comparisons to California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s brash style.

Asked how Democrats should approach taking on Trump, Moore said the party should “move with the kind of aggression that is necessary.”

“The Democrats don’t have a messaging problem, there’s a results problem. The Democrats have to deliver results and stop being the party of no and slow and start being the party of yes and now because the frustration that people have, it is real,” Moore said.

While speculation mounts about his future presidential ambitions, Moore said he’s focused on delivering results for Marylanders.

“You’ve got to focus on protecting your people right now and the issues that the people in our states are facing, and that’s where I know my focus is,” Moore said.