NBC "Meet the Press" - Transcript Interview with Mike DeWine
Interview
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CHUCK TODD:
Governor Polis, Democratic governor of Colorado, joining us from Boulder, Colorado this morning. Governor, thank you. Let me turn now to Governor DeWine. And, Governor, you've got 60% of your state under a, under a mask ordinance. But if somebody drives along the Ohio Turnpike and you pull off, you may not know what county you're in and whether there's a county ordinance. And I ask it this way because, Governor, would it be a lot simpler to have one standard for the state when it comes to masks? I understand having different standards on restaurants and businesses. But on the mask front, why have all of these sort of different mandates depending on the county you're driving in?
GOV. MIKE DEWINE:
Well, first of all, Chuck, we Ohioans have done very well. You know, we flattened the curve very
early. Ohioans did what they needed to do. When we reopened, we were one of the first states to put in place a very sophisticated policy about how you reopen. And that has included a mask requirement for every, every employee. As far as customers now coming in, as you pointed out, we're at 60%. Frankly, we've seen that go up as our counties have turned red. We're going the wrong way. We're at a crucial time. And so this week, you may see a lot more counties under, under that mask requirement. So we certainly would not rule out going, going statewide. We're certainly looking, looking at that. But, there's a, you know, there's a lot of things going on. And one of the things that we've tried to do, we're running TV ads. We're going to start a new ad this, this coming week. We're going to preview it on Tuesday. Really, the message is: You wear the mask for other people. You wear the mask to protect your grandmother. You wear the mask to -- and so it's not just the orders. The orders are obviously important. But getting people to buy in and to understand, getting a 20-year-old to understand that he or she may, you know, feel invulnerable, nothing's going to happen to them. But they may get it, they may not know they have it. They may go home and see their grandmother. She may get it, she may end up dying. That's the message that, you know, we're trying to get out across the state of Ohio.
CHUCK TODD:
Isn't, though, your message diluted if you don't mandate it? I mean, look, let me ask it this way. It looks like because you're getting a lot of criticism from the right on these mandates, on the idea of a mandate. And I know there are protests about mask-wearing in front of, in front of your offices and residences. I think it was one planned for today in Columbus. Are you letting that pressure sort of keep you from issuing this statewide order? I mean, if you know you're about to put more counties in a red alert in a couple of days, why wait?
GOV. MIKE DEWINE:
Chuck, I don't think anybody in Ohio who's watched what I've done over the last four months
doubts that, you know, I'll do what we need to do to protect Ohioans. I gave a speech Wednesday night which was basically said to the people of Ohio, "Look, we are at a crucial stage. We are at the point where we could become Florida." You know, you look at our numbers today versus where Florida was a month ago, we have very similar numbers. So we're very, very concerned. It's not just about masks though. If we -- I went out and talked to all our, on a phone call this week, talked to all our health departments, and here's what they report back. Here's where it's occurring. It's occurring in bars. It's occurring in churches. It's occurring from people who have traveled out of state. But a lot of it, frankly, is just people in casual settings, 20, 30, 40, 50 people gathering together. And so it's not all about orders. Orders are important. But it's also about getting people to understand, "Hey, this is, this is very, very serious. And now, while we did a great job early on in Ohio, we are now headed in the wrong direction." And frankly, I'm very, very concerned about that. So we're going to move ahead with orders--
CHUCK TODD:
Let me ask you this.
GOV. MIKE DEWINE:
You're going to -- Chuck, you're going to see more orders from us this week. But I, again, want to emphasize it's not all about orders. You've got to get people to come along with --
CHUCK TODD:
I --
GOV. MIKE DEWINE:
-- you as you do this.
CHUCK TODD:
Right. No, I get that. I get that. Let me ask you a bigger, bigger picture question. Do you have confidence in the president and this coronavirus task force right now, given the fact that we're basically right back to square one?
GOV. MIKE DEWINE:
I think people look, frankly, to the governors. Historically, we've looked to governors to deal with, you know, crises, whether it's tornado damage, whether it's a flood, a pandemic. We look to governors. And so, you know, what this administration has been able to provide us and that Congress has provided us, and we thank both of them, is the money. You know, we're going to continue to need money for testing. As I look at where we go in Ohio, we have doubled the testing in the last five weeks. Frankly, Chuck, we need to double it again. We can only do that with money coming in from the federal government. And it has to be over a long period of time. We're not going to be out of this in a month, or two months, or three months.
CHUCK TODD:
I understand you say that people look to their governors, but you sort of ducked the question here. Do you have confidence in, in the president and his leadership on this virus right now?
GOV. MIKE DEWINE:
I have confidence in this administration. We're on a phone call every week, every governor, Democrats and Republicans, sometimes twice a week with the vice president. The vice president has been doing an absolutely phenomenal job in leading that. And, of course, the president has delegated that to the vice president. Anytime I've asked, "Look, we need something. We need to try to get more reagents. We need to get the FDA moving," every single time I've asked the president or I've asked the vice president, they've come through. So, you know, getting into a discussion and trying to figure out, "Okay, is it the president?" or whatever it is, you know, this is not about politics. This is frankly about getting the job done every single day. And all the governors are out there fighting to get it, to get it done.
CHUCK TODD:
Well, but you're -- you have to launch an ad campaign to convince people to wear a mask. If the president of the United States said, "Wear a mask," would you need to run that ad campaign?
GOV. MIKE DEWINE:
Well, he wore a mask this past week. So we were very thankful for that and very happy that he wore a mask and said that, you know, people should wear masks. So, look, it's no different than anything else. In this country, we're not used to wearing masks. You know, Fran and I were on a trade mission to Japan a few months ago, and a lot of people wore masks. It's more of the culture. In this country, we don't have the culture to do that. And so what we have to do is so people understand it's not just about them, that when they walk into a store, it's important for them to wear that mask for somebody else. That's why we run the ads. That's why we -- and they're all, they're all Ohioans talking to other Ohioans and saying, "Look, we've got to do this together." And Ohioans have done well. But it's, look, people are getting weary across this country. People are weary about staying home. They want to get out. And I understand that. Our message is: You can get out. You can participate in the economy. But please be careful. Don't do things that are just, don't make any sense. And that's the message that we keep trying to bring across to the people of Ohio.
CHUCK TODD:
Governor DeWine, Republican governor from Ohio. As always, sir, thank you for coming on and expressing --
GOV. MIKE DEWINE:
Thanks, Chuck.
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