The delayed for two months to have five chapters on battling the coronavirus in dealing with the white house she said made for more timely interesting boo book. Now invited to enjoy your Virtual Program coming to you from the air force academy with governor larry hogan and Foundation Institute executive director. Governor hogan is absolutely great to have you this afternoon its so great to be with you thank you. Conjunction with what a great book governor. Their assumption task stories in this. Such an honor to be with you today. Its probably going to have best and maybe my worst book as well as my only one. When i reddit right there in the first couple of chapters that reminds you came from a political family from congress in the 70s and ran for the senate you came from pedigree in maryland. Im very proud of him and gave up a safe seat in congress to run for governor. I learned a lot about Public Service and integrity for my dad put ice but most of my career in the private sector. Certainly probably had something to do with my early interest in politics. And the reason why it took interest in getting involved. Your dad was famous for calling them as you see you then. An issue no one incredible moment of fame with him being the first republican member of the house. The first republican i think the Judiciary Committee to support the impeachment of president nixon, right . I was in high school the time heard my dad was sitting on that Judiciary Committee. He was a strong supporter president nixon. I got a chance to meet the president. He was fond of nixon and thought he did a good job is one of the folks on the Judiciary Committee fighting to make sure the process was fair make sure the president and present evidence. He was a former fbi agent and a georgetown lawyer that after seeing all of the evidence it pained him that he really believed he was a first on the committee to come out and say so voters in the district the things im most proud of him about pretty had the courage to stand up, put her outside his own political career and put aside Party Loyalty and personal affection and do what he thought was right for the country. Host yes that is a courageous act i just had to smile about it you had to run for in doing some research that everyone president reagan used the great script and we got the governor with president reagan speaking about your dad. We dont need rubberstamps in the senate. What we need are hardworking people of ability and integrity. Like larry hogan who are willing to contribute their brain and hard work to building the american future, you and i believe in so deeply. Unite think after the first time i heard that. Its really incredible thank you for digging that up and sharing with me. I will send you a copy, governor. You are truly an authentic reagan republican has to be the case because you have some history i dad for scott m politics by him when i became interested i was involved of the teenager i was in college republicans, when i was in college when i was in 1976 my dad was in the house with president gerald ford which i got to see meet him and his family for my dad was chairing the campaign for reelection prayed my dad had big part in ford becoming the Vice President and then the president because of his role. He was a great man and a great leader. I was so enamored with reagan that in 76 i was at the convention as an alternate delegate. I was just a young kid. And that youngest member of the delegation. Maybe the youngest person at the convention on the floor. But i was marching around with my reagan sign mi reagan at because i thought he was such, his positive vision for the future and the way he spoke just reached me in a way that frankly gerald ford didnt. And my dad is a friend of fords when you doing out there supporting reagan out there. I was a true believer in 76 when he was unsuccessful. I got involved, i was a chairman and an 84 nobodys philosophy as i was more interested in with Ronald Reagan i was coming of age served on the inaugural committee is to look back to all the time. Thats kind of leader i aspire to be. See when this is your first book i believe. Some have finished their first book some people found the process miserable, where you fit in . Slow cathartic i think i wrote most of the books for it i wanted 2014 as a governor of maryland which was nearly an impossible thing to do in the highest democratic voters, we had very little buddy and nobody expected us to win process second republican 50 years to be elected. And will be pulled that off people said you should write a book about how you did that. I sit i havent really accomplished anything, i cant write about. Then it went through after 90 days of being governor of the riots in baltimore. We got credited with doing a good job of handling this you should write about that experience. Then i battled this lifethreatening cancer while i was governor after five months in. They said you have to talk about this. And then one, huge reelection became the second governor in 242 years republican american to be reelected. They said you have to write about this parade so eventually got around to it. I finished the book, turn to dan, february before this coronavirus crisis. That took a long time as you know to write the book. But i enjoyed the process. And i hope people will enjoy reading it or die asked the publisher to put hold. It was supposed to be out about two months earlier. And they can only delayed until the end of july. But the me to it add and make it more current some the things were going on today with my leadership of the National Governors association and fighting get makes for more interesting book. But its difficult to get it done, planned a big book tour around the country. And now we are doing it all virtually. As we are still doing with the crisis because its just impossible to have in person events these days. So want to thank you for giving us this opportunity with you for first event. Governor, first congratulations on winning a tough fight on cancer. I have unfortunately had the same experience diagnosed with stage three different kind of cancer i thought but just magnificent accomplishment for you to have been able to fight and beat that disease. In just a few months into your first term as marylands governor. How is it possible for you to have fought that fight and run the state of the same time . Guest will god bless you im glad you made it successfully through your battle. I will tell you it really change me as a person. It made me realize the things that are important. I met so many incredible people that went through tougher battles than my own. We got to meet their families and see what they went through. Something im going to be involved in forever and trying to raise awareness and raise money for organization and find cures for these diseases but id only been governor for five months we had just won this big huge overwhelming upset victory the biggest one in the country. And then i had my first legislative session after putting together an entire government in an overwhelmingly democratic monopoly state. We cut taxes for the first time we balance the budget. We got rid of a 5. 1 billion deficit all the first 90 days and then battled the riots in 60 days later i got hit with this news. I came out of the blue press on my first trade mission to asia. And i had, wasnt feeling that well. I had aches and pains but i was a little tired but i can think is inning serious. I went to the doctor ended up having doctors came in i had an aggressive cancer all over my body from my neck and my groin. It ended up being almost an 18 month total battle with 24 hours while big a brandnew governor in a tough state with a lot of things going on. Ive some of the stories about people i met todd await tell my familys fathers day week when i got this news pretty have to tell my wife and my daughters and my dad who is 80 at the time. He was coming over for fathers day. He took a harder than anybody. I was still his little boy he couldnt keep out of trouble and protects he cried the whole tim time. We announce it to the whole state of maryland i tried to be very transparent good 6 million just put their trust in me i continue to try to working i worked from the hospital bed continuing to try to run the state came out of it, thank god stronger than ever. Aside from finding the best doctors you can advice governor for people going through a similar experience as you did you dig deep, theres one important peace of advice you might give them a big believer in the power of prayer of a lot of people praying for me having a positive attitude with the mental part despite the physical ravages of these having a support network, not just your family but have people who care about you is lucky enough to have thousands of people across the state who were pulling from a paid not everybody has that. And have the incredible medical care and attention you can and listen to your doctors i was lucky because in maryland we have an amazing medical facility. We had great doctors and nurses were taking care of me. I think people need a support network. They got to stay positive. They will get through it. What whats talk about another terrible illness for a few minutes. I know some of the final chapters in your book. Obviously that is coronavirus. Here at the Reagan Library in california is the governor we are still in the states facing a tremendous crisis the number of cases continued to grow in the number of deaths grow. You all seem to have gotten a better handle on it in maryland. And i know it has been one heck of a struggle. How have you been able to do that . I dont want to get too overconfident to read because we do have a pretty good handle on the numbers right now. But we are not being complacent. With this could get worse getting into the fall. We are seeing alarming spikes across the country the virus does not recognize borders. And some people are taking different actions and its affected where they are in the curve and how successful they have been in flattening the curve. Right now, our metrics that we are following are still trending pretty good. The number of cases, we have increased testing dramatically. So you can touch a lot more people, cases are going to go up a little bit. We talk about positivity rates, hospitalizations, and people are filling hospital beds in icu beds and or death rates all of which are trending down. Weve got to stay vigilant and stand top of this. You saw some states that were in a relatively good shape that have just are out of control no now. Weve got to listen to the advice of the Public Health professionals. The epidemiologist the smart scientist. Weve got to wear masks and social distance into all those kinds of things. We successfully and safely reopen but 98 of our economy. We reached the peak of the virus who watch it every single day were not going to hesitate to leave those decisions. We have to make very difficult decisions as in every state in the nation. I never imagine being in this kind of position or making the kinds of decisions we had to. Almost every day we are were making decisions that had to be made to keep people safe. Sure, sure. This is not inexpensive onshore all this unexpected virus in all 50 states can cause havoc states Financial Systems how is it going in maryland are really impacted impacting the economy and most all those Small Businesses out there. The loss of revenue the additional people weve got to help. Because of that because people arent working because businesses are suffering and because people arent outspending money the revenue is down and many states may be as much is 25 or 30 . Theyre not as bad as some other states. But we are going to be really impacted and have to make very tough fiscal decisions in the state about how we provide more services to more people who are really in need with a lot less revenue. So its going to be tough for governors across america. Is it still a Sticking Point between the white house and the states governors on whether there will be any federal assistance to help manage the impact of the state level . I dont know if youd called a Sticking Point. There is a difference of opinion sometimes between the governors and the white house. We have, i tear the National Governors association. We work with her colleagues on both sides of the aisle. And have throughout this entire pandemic. I think we have had 41 or 42 calls with all of the nations governors, many of them with the president and or Vice President and the cabinet. The communication with the ministration governors on their own and on the call has been good. And the governors have been really good about sharing best practices about what is going on in your state how have you dealt with this house is working. In the federal government has stepped up it with respect to the cares act with the funding out there is to help people unemployed or help the Small Business are also frustrated and sometimes were not getting all the assistance and help we need. We had early testing the 50 states grandma with everybody making stuff up on their own. Soon take the federal and State Government to continue to work this battle the good news is we are all communicating. Working to the differences of opinion. I know governor that media often times tend to overplay if there is any criticism sort of dispute you know how that works most of which is fairly productive. In one sentence will get pulled out of their, its seems more hospital or negative than its intended to be. But i would say there has been some friction and there has been disagreement. Weve also been appreciative for the help that we have gotten. The governors agree we certainly recognize that their real need the states have id have not been afraid to stand up and tell them in a fairly directly, thats my job as the chairman of the governors. You mentioned National Testing strategy. If there was one single element about the administration, the actions during all this is that the one you say boy we really should have thought that through better . That wouldve been of most help to the governors of the state. I talk about this in the early stages of this i was writing about in the march april timeframe, early may. At the early stages had we gotten more aggressive, there were some really smart people in the administration that were aware in giving advice to the white house. I think they were a little bit slow on developing this and saying lets leave that up to the states. I appreciate the states flexibilities for but theres certain things only the federal government had the ability to do and i think a massive Testing Program early could have helped us stop the spread in an earlier stage before we had 140,000 deaths in this thing spiraling out of control in a number of states. I think the messaging while we had great meetings at the Coronavirus Task force with the Vice President all these leaders, sometimes the president s communication wasnt different than what we were hearing from the rest of the administration. Thank the messaging was one of the big problems we had been her tongue but here we are with the reagan was such a great communicator, i think the communication skills fell a little short with this for the president for yeah under should fairpoint. Schools out here in california around the Reagan Library most of the states we got the unfortunate news just last week from Governor Newsom from the semester at least all of the Public Schools are going to need to operate online rather than in person. Have you made a decision in the state of maryland how the schools will operate . Im sure there are a lot of parents concerned about that. Everyone is concerned about would like to see your kids get back in the schools as quickly as we can. Think its really important to actually have kids back in the classroom. I also need to make sure we go about it in a way that safe for the kids and the students so we havent made the final decisions yet for the way it works in our state we have a state board of education. Put out a plan, kind of a framework of a plan about a month ago. Put a draft together some flexibility in areas that are impacted and affected differently or some people may be different from Online Learning some type of hybrid. Other schools that are able to open up. Were going to do it, policy to guidance which has been excellent. And listen to the Public Health professionals and just try to do everything we can to get kids learning again in a safe way. Error on the side of getting kids learning again. And in the classrooms were doing it safely. Sure, sure. There is a several chapters in your book, governor about where you talk about one of the most difficult situations you have had to face terrible unfortunate circumstance involving Freddy GrahamBaltimore Police and all of that, i dont need to tell you. We are seeing similar situations. Like you faced in baltimore. Occurring in cities throughout the United States today. Thats the results of a tragic killing of george floyd. What lessons did you learn and tackling situation of baltimore. I dont want a monday morning quarterback but is there advice to be giving to other governors now facing the situation in their own states . Yes i think there are a lot of parallels part as i mentioned i finished most this book on vibrate first and put it on hold. I had no idea the time that i wrote the five chapters about the riots in baltimore how much of a parallel there would be to whats going on now. I had been governor just 89 days when the worst violence in 47 years broke out in our largest city of baltimore. And in the first, just the first few hours this was after the death of freddie gray at the very beginnings of the black lives Matter Movement just after ferguson. But in the first few hours violence and destruction broke out in baltimore. We had 400 businesses burned, looted and destroyed. 127 police and firefighters were injured and hospit