NBC "Meet the Press" - Interview with Mike DeWine
Interview
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
CHUCK TODD:
All right. Dan Barouch from Boston and Harvard, and Peter Hotez from Baylor with us from Houston, thank you both for sharing your expertise with our viewers. Much appreciated. Have a safe Memorial Day weekend. And joining me now is the Republican governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine. Governor DeWine, welcome back to Meet the Press.
GOV. MIKE DEWINE:
Morning, Chuck.
CHUCK TODD:
I want to start with, look, this Memorial Day weekend, one of the top places to go normally in your state would be Cedar Point. Cedar Point, an amusement park, not yet open. When do you think that's going to happen? And is that, to you, the real start that, okay, you're at a next level of reopening in the state of Ohio?
GOV. MIKE DEWINE:
Well, that would be a next level of reopening. Chuck, I have no idea when Cedar Point will be able to open. Our kids and grandkids love to go there. We would love to go there. But we're certainly not there yet. If you look at our data, our replication rate is one to one. We are now reopening. We've got to see how this reopening is going. The reports I get back, it's going pretty well. Our restaurants are doing what they need to do, keeping the space. Retail is doing the same thing. But we're not there yet as far as, you know, mass gatherings of people.
CHUCK TODD:
Do you have a -- what is -- do you have a metric where you'll pull the emergency brake in your mind? And is that a metric you're willing to share with the public? I mean, I'm thinking about the next three weeks. We're going to find out how Memorial Day weekend went probably around Father's Day weekend.
GOV. MIKE DEWINE:
Well, Chuck, the thing I keep talking to the people of the state of Ohio is, and by the way, they did a great job for two months keeping the distance. Now we're at a different phase as we open up. And so not only do we have to wash our hands, keep a distance, but now we're asking everyone who's out in public to wear a mask. I mean there was a recent review done by Stanford of, I think, 17 different studies that had been done in regard to masks. And they are very effective in stopping these droplets that we put out when we talk and when we sneeze and do other things. And so it really is going to depend, I think, on how well all of us do. I have great confidence in Ohioans. And so we're really promoting wearing the masks and keeping that distance as we open up the economy. We think we can do two things at once.
CHUCK TODD:
You brought up the mask debate. I was going to wait until later in this interview to bring up a fellow governor in North Dakota. I want to play for you what he said about the mask debate on Friday. Take a listen, Governor.
[BEGIN TAPE]
GOV. DOUG BURGUM:
If someone is wearing a mask, they're not doing it to represent what political party they're in or what candidates they support. They might be doing it because they've got a five-year-old child who's been going through cancer treatments. They might have vulnerable adults in their life who currently have COVID and are fighting.
[END TAPE]
CHUCK TODD:
For those of us that have covered American politics for so long, it was hard not to be moved by that governor's message just now, Governor DeWine, because it was like,"How did masks become this political dividing line?" You yourself wanted to make it mandatory and you decided to back off. Do you wish the president would help you out here a little bit more?
GOV. MIKE DEWINE:
Well, the governor is right. The governor's spot on. I've watched that clip a couple of times. And this is not about politics, this is not about whether you're liberal or conservative, left or right, Republican, Democrat. We wear the mask, and it's been very clear what the studies have shown, you wear the mask not to protect yourself so much as to protect others. And this is one time when we truly are all in this together. What we do directly impacts others. And we're not saying -- if you're in a car and you're driving by yourself, you don't have to wear a mask. You don't have to wear a mask if you're out, you know, away from people hiking or doing all kinds of different things or in your own house. But when you go out and interact directly with people, we're asking Ohioans to do this. And so it doesn't -- it's not about politics, it's not about conservative or liberal. It's about helping other people.
CHUCK TODD:
Is there a point that you're going to reissue your executive order? Or do you feel as if the pushback you got and you're like, "Okay, I'll just publicly keep telling you that I think you should do it."
GOV. MIKE DEWINE:
Well, our order does say that every employee in every business, unless there is some reason that they can't wear that mask, every employee's wearing a mask today. So that's a fundamental change in Ohio. As we go out, a lot of stores you'll see 90% of the people who do, the customers are wearing masks. But we want to continue to up that throughout the state because it is really what we need as we open up the economy. Look, Chuck, this is a risk. But it's also a risk if we don't open up the economy. All the downsides of not opening up the economy. We can do both these things.
CHUCK TODD:
Let me ask you quickly about Congress and the lack of debate right now about the next round of funding, of aid, rescue money, whatever you want to call it, in this case if it's still rescue or stimulus. What does the state of Ohio, what do you need in your budget from the federal government?
GOV. MIKE DEWINE:
Well, we need, you know, from the government, federal government, an extension of our ability to use the National Guard. That's very, very helpful. We have National Guard next week going out into our nursing homes. They've done a phenomenal job. More flexibility is important. Look, Chuck, they're processing the money now. I think Congress will come up with something. And again, the flexibility for the cities and our towns, our villages, our counties as well as for the state. We have, because of the economy down and the tax revenue down, you know, we're very concerned about our ability, frankly, to fund our schools. So these are basic things that we need that flexibility for.
CHUCK TODD:
Do you think it's good policy to let a government go bankrupt if they don't have the funding right now? Or is that something you think the government should plug a hole in until we're through this crisis?
GOV. MIKE DEWINE:
I'm not going to get into that. Look, we, we're focused on getting the job done. We don't intend to go bankrupt in Ohio. We have to balance our budget every single year. And we just made $760 million worth of cuts. And we did what we have to do and it's the same way with local government in Ohio. They're going to do what they have to do.
CHUCK TODD:
All right, Governor DeWine, Republican from Ohio. Thank you for coming on and sharing your views. And I hope you have a safe Memorial Day weekend.
GOV. MIKE DEWINE:
Thanks, Chuck.
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