Updated Feb. 19, 2026, 10:08 a.m. ET
On the Thursday, February 19, 2026, episode of The Excerpt podcast: As a leading figure in the Democratic Party, how does Maryland Governor Wes Moore think his party can prove to voters that they’ve figured out a way forward heading into this year’s midterm elections? Gov. Wes Moore joins The Excerpt to share thoughts on all things politics.
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
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Francesca Chambers:
Maryland Governor Wes Moore was taken aback when he learned that he wasn’t on President Donald Trump‘s invite list for the White House’s annual meeting for governors, a historically bipartisan event. As a leading figure in the Democratic Party, a larger question looms though for Moore, how does he think his party can prove to voters that they’ve figured out a way forward heading into this year’s midterm elections?
Hello and welcome to USA TODAY’s The Excerpt. I’m USA TODAY White House Correspondent Francesca Chambers. Today’s Thursday, February 19th, 2026. Joining me now is Maryland Governor Wes Moore.
Governor Moore, thank you so much for being here.
Wes Moore:
It’s great to be here, Francesca. Thank you.
Francesca Chambers:
I wanted to start with your dispute with President Donald Trump. He said this week that the polluted spill in the Potomac River is your fault and you should call and ask for his help if you need it. Have you?
Wes Moore:
What the president is talking about is a break in a DC pipe that took place on federal land. How Maryland gets caught up in this? I have no idea. That is just some very creative facts from the President of the United States. The reason that we were involved starting in early January when this first happened was because we heard from our neighbors about this break, and I wanted to make sure that there was no contagion that hit the state of Maryland and I believe in helping your neighbors. So that’s why our Maryland Department of the Environment were some of the first boots on the ground that they’ve been testing water quality, that they have assisted Washington DC in their quest of being able to address the issue of the spillage and why it’s now been over a week since that issue of the spillage has now been solved.
And now the problem is solved, now the president wants to reach out and not just say that it’s been our fault, which we had nothing to do with this, but also not acknowledging the fact that this was his responsibility. This was the federal government whose job it was to do this. And since they didn’t do it, I did. And so if the president wants me to ask politely, here’s my ask, Mr. President, yes, I had to do your job for the past month, but please, will you please start doing your job?
Francesca Chambers:
What is your motivation for being combative with President Trump at times and then other times you’re not?
Wes Moore:
Well, this is not about being combative with President Trump. I have no desire of being combative with the President of the United States, but I also have no desire of watching my people be attacked. I’m just built different. I mean, I’m a soldier by nature. I fight for my people. I defend my people. And when I’m watching someone attack my people, I have no problem returning fire. And I don’t care if it happens to be the President of the United States. I have no desire to get into a back and forth with the president. I just want to make sure that the president understands that fighting for Americans means fighting for Marylanders too.
Francesca Chambers:
You’ve said it’s not lost on you, that you’re the only Black governor in this country and you were excluded from what had traditionally been a bipartisan dinner at the White House. You also said that President Trump’s actions speak for themselves when you were asked point-blank during a recent town hall if you believe he’s a racist. You deliberately declined to call him one. Why is that?
Wes Moore:
Well, because I can’t speak to the president’s heart. I can’t speak to what he feels or what he says behind closed doors when I or others are not around. But I can speak to his actions and I can speak to how his actions hit members of our community, members of the Black community. I know that when I’m watching him do things like cutting scholarships and grants for HBCUs intentionally, when I’m watching him do the greatest assault on Black female employment in the past year that we have seen in our nation’s history, when I’m watching doing things like saying that our history doesn’t matter or that 8(a) programs should be canceled or that our book should be banned, I can tell you that his actions are speaking a whole lot louder than maybe he understands or realize about does he really support every community in this country or does he support the friends he’s giving tax cuts to while the rest of us just end up carrying the bag for the rest of his policies.
Francesca Chambers:
So are you currently planning to attend a separate breakfast that’s taking place for governors at the White House this week?
Wes Moore:
Well, I know we’re going to attend all the variety of things that’s taking place with the other governors. The NGA is one of one. It serves a very unique role where it’s the only place where you watch our nation’s governors, both Democratic and Republican governors, come together to discuss real issues and real topics. I’m proud that I was elected by my peers to serve as vice chair of the organization. We will continue all the traditions of being able to make sure that we’re spending time together, getting to know each other, Republicans and Democrats, and work together, but none of us are interested in attending a reality television show set. We also know that if you are excluding individuals, part of our organization, then that means you are excluding the organization and the organization as a whole. The NGA will not participate in something that all the governors are not invited to.
Francesca Chambers:
So you’re not going to the breakfast?
Wes Moore:
No. If all the governors are not invited to, there is no NGA breakfast. That is just the president deciding who he wants to invite. And the president can invite whoever he wants, but it will not be a National Governors Association event.
Francesca Chambers:
Were you invited to it?
Wes Moore:
No. The president’s been very clear on multiple occasions that he does not want to see me, so I’m fine with that.
Francesca Chambers:
He’s actually holding a Black History month event just around the corner right now. What do you think he’s done to help Black Americans?
Wes Moore:
I mean, it’s a question for President Trump. I could not give you an answer off top. I’ve seen what I’ve seen just during Black History month. I’m glad that he’s holding an event now. I hope he addresses why he thought it was appropriate or funny to do a video calling the former first family that depicted them as apes. I hope he’s willing to speak about the policies that he has put in place that has made Black unemployment in this country spike since he’s become the President of the United States. I hope to hear that he thinks that Black history is worth celebrating and lifting up because I think his policies have not shown that.
Francesca Chambers:
You’ve said that Democrats need to enlarge their base. How do you think your party should go about doing that?
Wes Moore:
Well, I think we’ve actually got to show up and care about it. I don’t come from a political background in that way, but the thing that I know is that oftentimes there’s a state pattern that takes place when it comes to election time. It’s like where do democratic candidates go in order to juice their base, right? So they’ll go to the same places with the same lines, talking to the same people and hope that you can get people to show up. I just don’t think that’s the answer. I think that the answer is you go everywhere and you speak to everyone. And whether they vote for you or not, that’s on them, but they can never say that you didn’t try.
I know when I go out to the people of the state of Maryland, I have the same philosophy I had when I led soldiers, where I never once asked my soldiers, what’s your political party? Because it didn’t matter, right? We had one goal and one mission and we had to go accomplish that. And so when I’m going all around the state of Maryland and I’m asking Marylanders for their vote come November, I’m not just going to the Democratic areas. I will go everywhere. And I think that’s how people see that’s not just how we campaign, but it’s how I govern.
Francesca Chambers:
President Trump won’t be on the ballot this fall and he’s term-limited as president. Do you think that attacking him is the best way to bring back swing voters to the Democratic Party?
Wes Moore:
I don’t, because actually I think that this is not about President Trump. This is about the people we represent. I can’t speak to what other folks do, governors or everywhere else, but that’s never my desire. I just want to make sure that my people are good. I want to make sure that we are spending our time. And oftentimes, when you’re looking at policies, it does mean push back against this administration when we’re watching the administration do things like break the law so they can take away food assistance, or when you’re watching them do things like have the largest assault on the federal workforce. And that’s now impacted over 25,000 Marylanders, larger than any state in this country. So we do have a need, unfortunately, in this climate to push back, but I don’t want to spend all my time pushing back. I want to spend my time actually pushing forward and coming up with new ways for the country to see that the state of Maryland is showing that there is just a better way and that there’s a better path.
Francesca Chambers:
Based on what you’ve seen, do you think he’s fit to serve?
Wes Moore:
I think the people decided that Donald Trump should be the President of the United States, but I can tell you, when you’re looking at the policies in the state of Maryland, when you’re looking at the fact that we are now seeing the greatest impact on employment that we have seen in our state’s history in such a short period of time, when we have watched how our state has not received a single dollar of federal disaster relief since he’s been the President of the United States… In fact, no state that didn’t vote for Donald Trump has received a dollar of federal disaster relief since he’s been the President of the United States. I think that the people of my state are seeing the impacts of rising prices on everything. Energy is up. Beef is up. The price of steel, aluminum are up because of these tariff prices and tariff policies.
So I think the people, while they elected Donald Trump last November, in November ’24, I think there’s a lot of people who are wondering why the policies that he talked about on the campaign trail, that those are not the things that he’s focusing on since he’s become the president.
Francesca Chambers:
You stood by President Biden after his disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump. Did you ever suggest to him or his staff that he should quit the race? And did you feel that he was up to serving four more years in office?
Wes Moore:
Well, no. I think President Biden made the right decision not to run. Do I wish that the people who are close to him and around him would’ve advised him earlier to do that? I do. But I also know that the person who I saw as president was someone who stood by us in our darkest hours, where when a ship the size of three football fields slams into the key bridge. And at 2:02 in the morning, my phone rings and immediately I’m putting the state on the state of emergency. We’re on the phone with first responders. We’re on the phone with local jurisdictions. I know that we are now hours away from our state waking up and realizing we had one of the most tragic moments in our state’s history, and my phone rings and it’s the President of the United States. Hearing the President of the United States say to you, we’re going to be with you every step of the way, that mattered, and he was.
And so do I think President Biden made the right decision not to run? I do. And do I wish people who around him would’ve advise him earlier? Yes, but I also know the man who stood by us when we needed the president to do that most.
Francesca Chambers:
You said recently that you see no reason to run for president in 2028. What would change your mind?
Wes Moore:
I mean, I don’t know what would change my mind. I’m a pretty confident person in where I am and where I stand on things. I’m someone who believes we’re doing good work in the state of Maryland. I think Marylanders believe that too. I’m someone who believes that our mission of addressing this issue of child poverty and the racial wealth gap are things that we’ve made real progress on, but we still have more work to do. And so I just know that I’m not one of these people that’s been in this business for 20 and 25 years going from job to job to job and thinking about what you want to do next. I’m someone who ran for office for the first time in my life because there were things that I wanted to accomplish for my state. And I just think that there’s more work to do.
Francesca Chambers:
And given that you’re a former athlete, I do have to ask you before we let you go, have you been watching the Olympics and is there anybody in particular you’ve been rooting for?
Wes Moore:
So real talk, I have not. I’m not as big in a Winter Olympics fan. Summer Olympics, I’m generally all in and a whole bunch. The Winter Olympics sports, honestly, it’s like, a lot of them, I don’t understand. And for a lot of them, just to be honest, it’s pain for me to almost watch it because I know how bad I would be at it. I’m for everybody American and I want the country to do well, but I could not tell you a single thing about, frankly, a single sport.
Francesca Chambers:
Not even the ones the Marylanders are competing in?
Wes Moore:
Oh, no, I know we got four Marylanders and I’m all things Maryland. Yeah, we’re all good on that. However, I could not tell you the difference between, what is it, a luge or a… I know the bobsled because the Jamaican bobsled team back in the day, but I’m not a Winter Olympics guy.
Francesca Chambers:
Well, thank you so much for joining us, Governor Moore, and thanks to our senior producer Kaely Monahan for her production assistance. Our executive producer is Laura Beatty. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending a note to podcasts@usatoday.com. Thanks for listening. I’m USA TODAY White House correspondent Francesca Chambers. We’ll be back tomorrow morning with another episode of USA TODAY’s The Excerpt.
