GEOFF BENNETT: President Trump is threatening to send National Guard troops into other Democratic-led cities after ordering the Guard into Washington, D.C. One of his main targets is Baltimore.

The president has repeatedly described the city as crime-ridden, and today suggested the Guard could -- quote -- "clean it up."

Maryland's Democratic Governor Wes Moore called the threats inappropriate, and he invited the president to visit Baltimore to see firsthand the progress the city and state leaders say they have made in driving down crime.

The president pushed back during a Cabinet meeting this afternoon.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: 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 got to clean up your crime, because I'm not walking... (LAUGHTER) DONALD TRUMP: I'm not walking in Baltimore right now.

Baltimore is a hellhole.

GEOFF BENNETT: For more, we're joined now by the mayor of Baltimore, Brandon Scott.

Mr. Mayor, thank you for being with us.

BRANDON SCOTT (D), Mayor of Baltimore, Maryland: Thank you for having me.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I know you say you welcome support from federal law enforcement when it's coordinated, but what's your response to what you heard there from President Trump and his threat to send National Guard troops into Baltimore?

How seriously are you taking that threat?

BRANDON SCOTT: Well, we take it very seriously.

But, first and foremost, I just think that to have the president of the United States, the person who's supposed to be the leader of the free world, one, talking about their own cities that way, but, two, more importantly, not acknowledging that the city of Baltimore is safer today than it has been in my lifetime because of the leadership of myself and others here from my police department, our state's attorney, our attorney general, our violence intervention workers, who work hard each and every day, and we're safer now than even in his first term, it's just very disrespectful and it's unfortunate.

But we still welcome that support, if done the right way, because we work with our federal law and foreign partners each and every day here in Baltimore.

And I don't -- I'm not -- have never been one for the political dog and pony show or the gotcha and the back-and-forth.

That's never been my style.

My style is to focus on what matters the most to me, and that's continuing this historic reduction and violence in Baltimore, because, as you and I are talking right now, we have the fewest amount of homicides through this date on record.

And that's something that the president or anyone else can take away from us.

But we're not celebrating.

We're acknowledging that and saying that we can go further and would hope that the president would work alongside us to do that, instead of trying to treat my city as a political theater or political pawns in some game, because that's not something that we appreciate.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, to your point, Baltimore has seen real progress.

Homicides are down by more than 20 percent over last year, non-fatal shootings down nearly 20 percent.

But the city is still battling one of the highest violent crime rates in the country.

What more needs to happen to sustain the gains that you're seeing?

BRANDON SCOTT: Yes, I think that we have to continue the strategy.

And I think that what your viewers have to understand is that, when you're talking about Baltimore and its crime rate, right, you're talking about us having years of having 300-plus homicides.

We broke that with an historic reduction in 2023.

And then we had another record-breaking year in 2024.

And we are now down 30 percent this year so far on that record reduction.

Everyone understands that this is an issue that we need to tackle.

It's actually the reason why I got into public service in the first place.

I decided when I was 7 years old that I wanted to be the mayor of Baltimore because I saw someone be shot in my community, and no one cared, right?

We are talking to someone who also was the co-leader of the 300 Men March, the largest anti-violence movement that Baltimore City has ever seen, where me and 30 of my closest friends would walk around the toughest neighborhoods in the city, the ones that were experiencing that violence, every Friday night, no guns, no vests, none of that.

This is an issue that's very personal to me in so many different ways.

And what we need to see happen is continued investment.

We need the president to restore cuts to federal grants for programming that is around community violence intervention.

We need him to send more FBI, DEA, ATF agents to work alongside our police department on their predetermined already missions and cases, not taking them off of these cases to roam around D.C. or any other city or to do immigration, but allowing them to continue to go after gun traffickers, violent offenders, drug organizations.

That's what we need to have happen to continue this, because you don't see me celebrating.

We are safer than we have ever been in my lifetime and that's still not enough for me.

GEOFF BENNETT: It has been more than two weeks since President Trump deployed the National Guard in Washington, D.C. D.C., as you know, is unique, in that it falls under federal authority, whereas Baltimore does not.

But what lessons do you take from how it has played out so far?

BRANDON SCOTT: Well, that, one, it's a very real thing and, two, that we have to be making sure that we're communicating with our residents and other folks about that this is a possibility for us.

We hope that the president hears that we will like to see public safety investment done the right way, but that also we have to be prepared for if this does come.

And I think that that's the conversation that I'm having, that mayors around the country or having, and that we have to realize that, even amidst all of this progress on reduction of violence in Baltimore and D.C., in Chicago, all these other cities, this is a real threat to our communities and that we have to also not be fooled.

Stay focused on our mission here, not allow these distraction tactics and this flooding zone to distract us away from the things that matter here at home.

GEOFF BENNETT: Yes.

You know, I have spoken with Democrats who say that Donald Trump is using crime as a wedge issue to portray Democratic Black-led cities as lawless.

Washington, D.C., New York City, Chicago, Baltimore.

How do you see it?

BRANDON SCOTT: You can see that.

The proof is in the pudding, right?

All of the cities called out are places that have Black mayors that are Democrats, and many of them have governors that are the same way or states that are that way.

It's unfortunate, right?

This, for me, violence, gun violence, it's not a partisan issue.

It shouldn't be a partisan issue, all right?

It shouldn't be a partisan issue when we're asking for things like ghost guns to be banned or Glock switches to be banned, because those bullets that are coming out of that Glock that is now an automatic weapon doesn't care if somebody's Republican and Democrat, doesn't care if they're a grandmother or a police officer.

It's just literally taking people away from their families.

These things should not be a partisan issue.

In my time as an elected official, I have worked with Republicans, Democrats, whoever, who want to work on this most important issue.

And it's unfortunate that, yet again, it's being used to draw a wedge, but also to distract people from other things, and also to just not tell the truth.

The truth is that these cities are safer than they were in the president's first term.

They're safer in many cases than they have been in decades.

And we should be acknowledging that, while focusing in on continuing to see the reductions, not this dog and pony show that we are seeing right now.

GEOFF BENNETT: Brandon Scott is the mayor of Baltimore.

Mr. Mayor, thank you for being with us.

BRANDON SCOTT: Thank you.