Transcript: How Cities How Cities Are Fighting Back Against Trump
Mayor Justin Bibb: Yeah, I didn’t know how good I had it under former president, Joe Biden. It has certainly been a chaotic seven months under the Trump Vance administration. But despite the chaos, despite the uncertainty, despite the instability, we are still delivering here in Cleveland, and my democratic colleagues across the country are still delivering. And we’re standing in the gap right now. We’re standing in the gap to continue to make dramatic strides, making sure we reduce violent crime and keep our city safe and secure. We’re standing in the gap to make sure our residents still get affordable housing. Or get food from our local food banks, as we see these immoral cuts to SNAP benefits. We’re standing in the gap to make sure residents have the ability to make sure their kids have good quality schools to go to, as we see these cuts in the Department of Education. And so one of the things I love about being a mayor is that there are no excuses. I can hem and haw all day about the fact that we don’t have a good partner in the federal government right now, but at the end of the day, we still have to deliver. And we’re doing the best we can to deliver in these chaotic times.
Perry Bacon: Let me ask ‘cause I, I’ll be honest, I read a lot of news about Chicago and Boston and Los Angeles. I have to confess, I don’t know what’s actually happening in Cleveland day to day. I mean, are you getting this kind of aggressive [treatment]? I don’t think the National Guard is there as far as I know, but are you getting the sort of negative impacts other cities are getting from the sort of militarized intervention [that other cities are facing]?
Mayor Bibb: Yeah. And, you know, just this week, Congressman Max Miller, wrote an op-ed in the Washington Times calling for the National Guard to come to Cleveland and, and listen. I have a lot of respect for Congressman Miller. He’s been very supportive of my vision as mayor, and I’ve said consistently I’ll work with anybody, Democrat, Republican, or independent who shares my vision to move Cleveland forward. But this is an area where I disagree with the congressman. We don’t need the National Guard in Cleveland and Perry, let me tell you this. I’ve seen firsthand in my three years as mayor what it’s like to work with the federal government to reduce violent crime and keep my city safe. Just two weeks ago, we did a special operation with the US Marshals and got over one hundred and thirty violent criminals off the street. When Steve Dettelbach was running the ATF, we launched their first ever crime gun intelligence center in Cleveland, and we got thousands of illegal guns off our streets and solved a historic rate of homicides in our city. We got huge federal funding to invest in, violence interruption programs who work with gang members, work in the streets and hotspots to quell gang violence, to keep our city safe. So I know what it’s like to have a strong federal partnership around public safety, but the National Guard ain’t the solution. We need more money to hire more police. We need more money to get illegal guns off our streets. We need more money to invest in the FBI to stop gang violence and stop other issues of human trafficking in our city. That’s where the federal government can be supportive right now, in America’s cities, not with deploying the National Guard.
