| | | | |  | | By Brakkton Booker | With help from Ella Creamer, Ife O. Olatuna, Jesse Naranjo, Rishika Dugyala and Teresa Wiltz
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POLITICO illustration/Photo by AP | What up, Recast family! Former President Donald Trump has been indicted, again. This time it’s about his post-presidency handling of classified documents. His rivals for the GOP nomination in 2024 pounce — on the federal government — but rally behind the former president. Plus, the Supreme Court issues a surprise ruling on the Voting Rights Act. First, though, a conversation with Wes Moore of Maryland, the nation’s only Black governor. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, the barrier-breaking candidate just five months into his first term, says the divisive rhetoric being pushed nationally around limiting how history is taught and the banning of books is personal. “You cannot condemn my history and you cannot minimize it without thinking that you are making a direct attack on my present and my future,” Moore tells The Recast from the offices of the National Governors Association in Washington, D.C. In these early days of the GOP presidential primary process, “anti-wokeness” and depicting critical race theory as liberal indoctrination of children are animating issues. Moore says these debates and the push by some red-state legislatures to minimize what is taught in classrooms makes the nation overall fundamentally weaker.
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He joined nine other Democratic governors, including Phil Murphy of New Jersey, the chair of the Democratic Governors Association and fellow first-year governor Maura Healey of Massachusetts in urging textbook publishers not to yield “to the unreasonable demands of certain government representatives calling for the censorship of school educational materials.”
It’s an opening for Moore, who is looking to elevate his national profile in the coming years, as many believe he has future White House ambitions. During a commencement address last month at Morehouse College, a historically Black, all-male institution in Atlanta, Moore called conservative politicians to task. “When politicians ban books and muzzle educators,” he said, “they say it’s an effort to prevent discomfort guilt — but we know that’s not true.” “It is about a fear of people understanding their power.” Moore’s attacks on the Republican Party are far more subtle than the direct assaults from California Gov. Gavin Newsom, another Democrat with sights on the Oval Office. This week Newsom announced that California officials are exploring whether to charge the 2024 GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis with kidnapping after the Florida governor sent a plane of migrants to Sacramento.
|  | | DeSantis claimed responsibility for sending the plane, but argues the migrants were not kidnapped, adding he doesn’t have sympathy for sanctuary states, according to CBS News. Moore, when pressed, says DeSantis is using “stunts” to curry favor with GOP voters, adding this jab, alluding to the Florida governor’s ongoing feud with Disney: “The Florida model of success is doing things like going after your largest employers, right?” We chop it up about why Moore feels compelled to speak out about the culture war issues surrounding education, whether the Biden administration is pushing back hard enough on this issue — and how he sees his role as a 2024 Biden surrogate. ◆◆◆ This interview has been edited for length and clarity. THE RECAST: You've gone on the offensive lately, railing against Republican legislatures and Republican governors who are banning books and, in your words, “muting” teachers. Do you feel obligated as the only sitting Black governor to speak out about this? MOORE: Well, I don't feel like I've taken a first shot. I feel like they did. When you start minimizing my history, when you start minimizing the history of a collection of underserved people who have been underrepresented and under-respected — groups who have all been part of a larger tapestry in this country and then you then go on the offensive to say “but too many students are feeling discomfort learning history” — then I feel like I do have an obligation to not just step up and say that we're not doing that in Maryland. But also, let’s be clear, the country can't do this. This is going to make us fundamentally weaker. And to do it under this guise and blanketed lie of “Well, we don't want people feeling guilt” is absurd. And I feel like it is important to call that out. Because it's not that they don't want people feeling guilty; it’s because they don't want people feeling empowered.
|  Gov. Wes Moore speaks during an event at the University of Maryland, May 11, 2023, in College Park. | Nathan Howard/AP Photo | THE RECAST: This is obviously a salient issue on the Republican side, especially for folks who are vying for the GOP nomination for president in 2024. Why do you think this is a top-tier issue that animates the GOP base? And where do you think the Democrats need to be on this? MOORE: I think about what leadership actually is. Leadership isn't always telling people what they want to hear. It’s actually being able to infuse into the conversation, the context, the information and the type of foundational learning that makes us all feel like we're part of a larger solution, part of a larger conversation. It is unfortunate because I know some of these people who are running for the nomination on the Republican side, and for many of them, they're smart people, but they're just choosing not to act like it. I think as anyone who believes that our nation and that our country and our communities deserve better than that, then I think we do have an obligation to step up and call out foolishness when we see it. And I think anyone who's saying that, well, we can't give in to “a woke mob” — whatever that even means — I think you're being disrespectful to democracy, you're being disrespectful to to the idea that our nation can actually be better, can actually do more together. THE RECAST: You say you know some folks running who are leaning into this. Is there one person in particular? Or several people?
|  | MOORE: The problem is, I wish there was one person. It’s become a rallying cry. It's senators, it's governors — a tech entrepreneur — all these people who are singing from the same false hymnal. So I wish I could just say: This person would stop that. The problem is I can't, because I'm watching this dog whistle become a chorus. THE RECAST: Earlier this week we saw that California Gov. Gavin Newsom has stepped up his attacks on DeSantis after the Florida governor sent migrants to Sacramento. Newsom alleges DeSantis committed crimes and is launching an investigation into the matter. Do you think it’s a good tactic to have governors to attack one another in this manner? MOORE: The challenge I think that we've seen from DeSantis is these stunts are not new. Listen, he’s running on the idea of, well, look at the Florida model of success. The Florida model of success is doing things like going after your largest employers, right? And make your largest employers pull billion-dollar projects, because you have decided that this is something that works for you politically. The Florida model of success is telling women that the decision about your reproductive health is not between you and a doctor. Actually, this [state house representative] and this senator and this governor should have a say in that. The Florida model of success is telling people that books about Hank Aaron and Roberto Clemente should not be read because it makes people feel bad.
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Moore dons an Orioles hat prior to a baseball game between the team and the Texas Rangers, May 27, 2023, in Baltimore. | Julio Cortez/AP Photo | THE RECAST: But again, what would the Democrats have to do? As a first-term, first-year Democratic governor, an ally of the president, do you think the president needs to be doing more on this? MOORE: I think that we all have to be able to use our voice on this. When I was down at Morehouse and thinking about what message I want to send to these young men, it was: The importance and the power of our history is something that cannot be minimized — in particular by people who have a vested interest in trying to minimize it because they somehow feel you understanding your power puts theirs at risk. I stood with nine other governors who said we are urging all of our publishers in the largest publishing houses to push back against these book bans. I was proud of the fact that we were able to join with members of the Biden-Harris administration and say that we are going to make sure our individual states are going to forcefully push back and start looking at how we focus on not just legislation.
|  Moore shakes hands with President Joe Biden after a black-tie dinner for governors and their spouses Feb. 11, 2023, at the White House. | Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images | But also, I want to make bigotry expensive. If you do not want to live in a state where your curriculum is being evaluated, and they're deciding that they want to pull these books and pull this content from your classrooms, come to the state of Maryland. I want to make bigotry expensive for these folks who are doing this. This is not about 2024. It’s about more than that. This is really about the fabric of our country, and what it is that we're willing to fight for. THE RECAST: You are likely going to be one of the president's most high-profile surrogates as he ramps up campaigning in the coming year. While Biden does talk about this issue, he doesn’t do it in a way that excites the Democratic base. Is this something that you're previewing as you plan to go around the country stumping for Biden? MOORE: The things I'm going to be speaking about are why I think the president is the partner that I need as one of our nation's governors.
|  Biden greets Moore, center, and Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott before speaking about infrastructure Jan. 30, 2023, at the Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel North Portal. | Andrew Harnik/AP Photo | I can't think about the opportunities that we are moving fast on in Maryland — the work that we're doing around climate and economic growth — without thinking of the president and that's because we have a partner like Joe Biden in the White House. The reason that we're able to now go on three straight months of the lowest unemployment in the history of the state of Maryland, is because we have a partner in Washington, where we've been working together on things like the Frederick Douglass Tunnel, which is going to produce 30,000 jobs in the state of Maryland. The reason we're able to make very real progress on things like public safety, it's not just because we've decided to put in $122 million to law enforcement, it's also because we're working with the federal government, to be able to make sure we're getting and keeping these illegal guns out of our communities and our neighborhoods. I have the partner that I need in Washington, D.C., in order for this to be Maryland's decade, and that's what I'm going to be speaking on. ◆◆◆ OK, fam: That smoke from the Canadian wildfires is starting to dissipate and that is cause to celebrate! Some quick-pop news, then the weekend to-dos.
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2024 Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy speaks with POLITICO journalists at POLITICO's offices in Arlington, Va., June 5, 2023. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | Beg Your Pardon — Several of Trump’s GOP opponents have rushed to his defense following his latest indictment. As POLITICO's Jessica Piper notes, one of his rivals vowed to pardon the ex-president if he’s elected. Gen Z and Guns — Young Republicans aren’t clinging to guns like the rest of the GOP, writes POLITICO education reporter Juan Perez Jr. SCOTUS Ruling Helps Dems? — In somewhat of a surprise ruling, the conservative-leaning Supreme Court ruled in favor of upholding a portion of the Voting Rights Act. And in the process, the court likely helped Alabama Democrats gain an additional House seat. More of our team coverage of the ruling here. Today’s Google Doodle honors the late, great Willi Ninja, godfather of vogueing.
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