Just Another Wes Moore Lovefest
Wes Moore gets yet another National Television interview touting his national ambitions, but ignoring his failures as a leader
We know that Governor Wes Moore loves the attention of the national media. But, as usual, we also know that the national media loves Wes Moore.
Wes Moore spent his Good Friday not with family or at Church, but droning on about himself during yet another national TV interview that aired Easter Sunday morning on CBS Face the Nation.
What did the interview boil down to? Well, certainly not about his record
The economy and gas prices. Moore acknowledged Maryland residents are feeling the economic squeeze but was blunt that his preferred fix isn’t a gas tax holiday. He argued the real solution is to stop fighting foreign wars, which he said have driven gas prices up by over a dollar. CBS News He touted Maryland’s response on other fronts: anti-price-gouging enforcement against corporations, holding data center companies accountable for energy costs, and a middle-class tax cut funded by asking the wealthiest Marylanders to pay more.
The Iran war. This was the dominant theme. Moore compared the current conflict to Afghanistan, noting the U.S. spent 20 years, over two and a half trillion dollars, and more than 2,400 American lives there without changing who runs the country. CBS News He said the situation was “sitting horribly” with him and that the White House has never clearly articulated the mission or what success looks like. He was particularly critical of launching the war while simultaneously gutting USAID and the Department of Homeland Security. On the U.S.-Israel relationship, he said accountability needs to be part of any important alliance.
The “five buckets” framework. Moore had previously outlined a theory for how the next president will need to sort through what Trump has done. O’Keefe walked him through it. Moore put the Iran war and U.S. foreign policy in a broader bucket around how military force is used, and said Trump had broken all three of his core campaign promises: bringing prices down, releasing the Epstein files, and staying out of foreign wars.
Federal programs and states. When O’Keefe raised Trump’s suggestion that states should handle Medicaid, Medicare, and daycare, Moore called it “nonsense,” saying no state budget can absorb those responsibilities. CBS News He noted Maryland sued the administration over illegal SNAP cuts and won, and then took $63 million from a state fiscal responsibility fund to cover food assistance when the federal government tried to cut it anyway.
Commencement addresses. Moore is giving three this spring, including one at Valley Forge Military Academy, where he was sent as a troubled kid. He said he’ll tell those cadets he’s proud of their commitment to service but is praying for leadership that makes decisions with service members and their families in mind.
The through-line of the whole interview was Moore positioning himself as a governor doing damage control on multiple fronts while drawing a sharp contrast with Trump’s foreign policy instincts. Worth noting for your purposes: the “five buckets” framework is clearly something he’s road-testing for a larger audience, and this interview was an audition for it on a national stage.
What it wasn’t was a talk about Moore’s troubled record in Maryland. He certainly was not asked about spending Larry Hogan’s surplus. He was not asked about the record structural deficits facing the state. He was not asked about electricity rates, and how his policies have contributed to higher rates and lower electric supply. Nor were there any questions about Moore’s failure to act to improve education, or mandating transgender high school sports, promoting abortion tourism, his meaningless Republican endorsements, failed housing plans, his inability to keep personnel, his fraying relationship with state Democrats, or even his approval rating dropping below 50 percent.
But hey, at least he got to test out campaign themes for 2028 instead of having to defend the very record he will be running on.