On january 1st, 2015. In 2018 overwhelmingly reelected to a second four your term receiving the most votes of any candidate and becoming the second republican governor in the 242 year history of the state. Governor hogan discussed his new book which launched on the date of his book, surviving cancer, riots, a Global Pandemic and the toxic politics that divide america. He spitted the book to his publisher on february 1st just before the coronavirus pandemic in the United States and was in publication two month, about combating the coronavirus and dealing with the white house. We invite you to enjoy our Virtual Program coming from air force one civilian Leadership Academy with governor larry hogan and Raven FoundationInstitute Executive director john bush. Governor hogan, great to have you this afternoon. In conjunction with what a great book, probably your first and it will turn out to be your best, a fantastic story. It will probably be my best and worst, my only one. I hope other people will as well. Host when i read it, the first couple chapters, the reader is reminded you come from a political family. Your father, larry hogan in congress in the 70s ran for the senate, had another major job in maryland. You just come from a pedigree and that is important to your background. Thank you for mentioning my dad. I am proud of him, he served in congress for three terms back in the 70s and gave up a safe seat in congress to run for governor but i learned a lot about Public Service and integrity from my dad. I spent most of my career in the private sector but probably had something to do with my early interest in politics and the reason i took an interest in getting involved. Your dad famous as you well know, one incredible moment of fame him being the first republican member of the house, the first republican on the House Judiciary Committee to support the impeachment of president nixon. My dad was, and my dad was fond of nixon and thought he did especially with respect to china. One of the folks on the Judiciary Committee making to the process was fair, pushing back when he thought democrats were being too partisan, fought to make sure the president could present his own witnesses, present evidence but he was a former fbi agent and georgetown lawyer who after seeing all the evidence pained him but he really believed the president committed impeachable offenses, the first republican on the committee to say so. At the time a lot of republicans were mad at him and the white house and his friends in congress, folks in the district but the thing he is most remembered for, the thing i am most proud of that he had the courage to stand up and risk his own political career and put aside Party Loyalty and personal affection to do what he thought was right for the country. Host a courageous act. Speaking of your dad, i had to smile about it, you ran for the senate in 1982 two years into the reagan presidency, and we have a lot of scripts here that president reagan used to support, members and senator, and what president reagan speaking about your dad, president reagan said for an advertisement 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 brains and hard work, you and i believe in so deeply. That is the first time i have heard that. I dont remember it from back then and it is incredible. Thanks for sharing it with me. I send you a copy. A lot of people admire Ronald Reagan. You are truly an authentic reagan republican, has to be the case. And my dad got in politics in the 60s. College republicans, when i was in college in 1976 my dad who was in the house with gerald ford who i got a chance to meet my dad was chairing the campaign for reelection, my dad had a big party and forward becoming Vice President and the president because this role, a great man and great leader, i was so enamored with reagan that in 76 i was at the convention as an alternate delegate, just a young kid, the youngest member of the delegation, youngest person at the convention but i was marching around with my reagan sign and my reagan hat because a positive vision for the future and the way he spoke just reached me in a way that gerald ford didnt and my dad got so angry because hes a friend of ford and sharing the campaign, what are you doing out there supporting reagan . But i really like him. I was a true believer in 76 when he was unsuccessful and i got involved, i was a chairman, worked with a delicate in 1980 and 84, nobody had more of an impact on me, nobodys philosophy i was more interested in then Ronald Reagan. I was coming of age out of college, served on the inaugural committee, just made he was a guy who i still look back to all the time and think about, the kind of leader i aspired host this is your first book. Some who finished the first book look back on and on as a moment of exhilaration. Where do you fit in . Guest it was a little bit cathartic. I won in 2014 as governor of maryland, an impossible thing to do, we had the highest percentage of democratic voters of any state in america, had very little money, no one expected us to win. I was the second republican in 50 years to be elected. When we pulled that off people said you should write a book about how you did that. I havent really accomplished anything. I cant write a book and then i went through after 90 days of being governor, riots in baltimore, we got credited with doing a good job about handling, you should write about that experience and then i battled lifethreatening cancer when i was governor, you have to talk about this and then won reelection and became the second governor in 242 years to be reelected, you have to write about this so eventually i got around to it, i finished the book and turned it in february 1st right before the coronavirus crisis, to write the book, i enjoyed the process and hope people enjoy reading it. I asked the publisher to put it on hold, it was supposed to be out two month earlier and they could only delay it until the end of july but asked me to add, make it more current 2 things going on today with my leadership with the National Governors association and fighting the Global Pandemic and the economic crisis we are dealing with so it makes for a more interesting book but was difficult to get this done, we planned a big book tour around the country and we are doing all of it virtually because we are dealing with the crisis and because it is impossible to have in person events these days. Thank you for giving us the opportunity. Host congratulations on winning a tough fight on cancer. Had the same experience, three different kinds of cancer but a magnificent accomplishment that you have been able to fight and beat that disease a few months into your first term as marylands governor. How can you have thought that fight and won the state at the same time . Guest i am glad you made it successfully for your battle. It changed me as a person, made me realize things that are important, i met so many incredible people that went through tougher battles than my own, met their families and see what they go through. It is something i will be involved in forever trying to raise awareness and raise money for organizations, fighting to we find cures for these diseases but i was only goner for five monthend just won this huge overwhelming upset victory, the biggest one in the country and this first legislative session after putting together an entire government in an overwhelmingly democratic monopoly state and cut taxes for the first time, balanced the budget, got rid of 5. 1 billion deficit in the first 90 days, then battled the riots in 60 days later got hit with this news, i was on my first trade mission to asia and wasnt feeling well, aches and pains and a little tired but didnt think it was anything serious, went to the doctor and had doctors tell me i had advanced and aggressive cancer all over my body. It affected my groin and ended up being almost 18 month battle, 24 hour a day chemotherapy and i was dealing with all that while being governor in a tough state with a lot of things going on. I talk about this experience in my book and i think it really i got to meet some people and talk about the people i met and what it was like going through that but my first it was fathers day weekend when i got this diagnosis on friday, i thought i have to tell my wife and daughters and my dad who was 80 at the time coming over for fathers day governor at the Governors Mansion and he took it harder than anybody, doesnt matter how old you get i was to him a little boy he couldnt keep out of trouble and protect so he cried the whole time but then had to announce it to the whole state of maryland, tried to be transparent and share it with them. They had 6 Million People who put their trust in me and i had to explain to them i was going to continue to try to keep working as i worked from the hospital bed continuing, came out of it stronger than ever. Aside from finding the best doctors you can advice, people going through a similar experience as you did, is there one really important piece of advice you might give . I am a big believer in the power of prayer. On awful lot of people praying for me. Having a positive attitude, a mental part, physical ravages of the diseases trying to stay positive and focused, and people who care about you, thousands of people pulling for me, not everybody has that and try to get the best medical care and attention you can. I was lucky because in maryland, we had an amazing medical facility and great doctors and nurses taking care of me but people need a support network and have got to stay positive. Host lets talk about another terrible illness for a few minutes that you covered, the final chapters in your book, coronavirus. Out here at the Reagan Library in california, facing a tremendous crisis but the number of cases continues to grow but you all seem to have gotten a better handle on it in maryland, i know it has been one heck of a struggle. How have you been able to do that . Guest i dont want to be overconfident, we have a good handle on the numbers right now we are not being complacent. This virus is by no means behind us and i believe we have the potential for this to continue to get worse going into the fall and we are seeing alarming spikes and increases across the country. The virus doesnt recognize borders and some people are taking different actions that affect where they are in the curve and how successful they have been in flattening the curve. Our metrics we are following are still trending pretty good. Number of cases, we increased testing dramatically so cases are going to go up a little bit but looking at positivity rates, hospitalization, death rates all of which are trending down, to stay on top of this we saw some states in relatively good shape that are out of control and weve got to listen to the advice of Public Health professionals, epidemiologists and smart scientists. Weve got to wear masks and social distance into those things. We reopen 90 of our economy, reached the peak of the virus 90 days ago and have downward trending numbers but we watch it every single day and if we have to take action to stop it we are going to not hesitate to make those decisions. We had to make difficult decisions, we have difficult times in the early part of this as did every state in the nation and i never imagined being in this position or making the kinds of decisions we have but almost every day we are making decisions that had to be made to keep people safe. Host this is not inexpensive, and cause real have it in the financial system. How is it going in maryland. The state financial, impacting the economy. Im concerned what it is doing to Small Businesses, the unemployment at skyrocketed and loss of revenue. Additional people we have got to help, businesses are suffering and people outspending money because they dont feel safe. Revenues to the states are down, down as much as 25 , 30 , have to make very tough fiscal decisions, how to provide more services they need for less revenue. It is going to be tougher governors across america. Still Sticking Point between the white house and the states governors on whether there is federal assistance to manage the impact . We have a difference of opinion between the governors and the white house. I chair the National Governors association and work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and have throughout this entire pandemic, 41 or 42 calls with all the nations governors, many of them with the president and or Vice President and cabinet, communication with the administration and governors on their own has been good. The governors have been good about sharing best practices about what is going on in your state, how have you dealt with that, the federal government has stepped up with respect to the cares act and funded that is desperately needed to help people who are unemployed or help Small Businesses or help us with certain issues but we are also a little bit frustrated that we are not getting all the assistance and help we need, there could be a National Testing strategy in this process of that would have been helpful. Of 50 states scramble with everybody making things up on their own. I dont want to monday morning quarterback because we are still in the middle of this and, take federal, state and government working together to continue to fight this battle, but the good news is we are all communicating and trying to work through differences of opinion. Host the media often times tend to overplay any criticisms or dispute between governors and the president. You know how that works, you have a long conversation most of which is fairly productive and one sentence will get pulled out a and blown into a headline. It seems more hostile or negative than intended to be. There has been some friction and there have been disagreements but we have also been appreciative for the help we have gotten and when the president is doing a good job we recognize that and we feel they are following a short or there are real needs the states have i havent been afraid to stand up and tell them fairly directly, that is my job. You mentioned National Testing strategy, if there were one element of the administrations actions during all this, we really should have done that better and that would have been most helpful. I talk about the early stages of this as i was writing about in the march april timeframe, early may. At the early stages, we had got more aggressive. There were smart people in the administration who were aware what was happening and giving advice, developing this and saying lets leave that up to the states. I appreciate state flexibilities but there are certain things only the federal government had the ability to do and a massive Testing Program early could have helped us stop the spread at an earlier stage before we had 140,000 deaths, the messaging while we had great meetings of the Coronavirus Task force, sometimes the president s communication was different than we were hearing so the messaging was one of the big problems, reagan was such a great communicator. I think communication skills fell a little short on this coronavirus. Host affair point. Someone in california, the unfortunate news last week from governor newsom, the fall semester needing to operate online rather than in person, made a decision in the state of maryland with a lot of concern about that. Guest everybody is concerned, everyone would like to see kids back in schools, in the classrooms, we need to make sure we go about it in a way that is safe for kids and teachers. We havent made the final decisions yet, independent state board of education put out a plan, framework of a plan a month ago and now getting an input from each of our jurisdictions to put a draft to gather. What we will see is some flexibility in areas that are impacted differently where some people are doing more online learning, hybrid and other schools that are able to open up. We will follow cdc guidance which has been excellent and try to do what we can to give kids learning again in a safe way and air on the side of getting kids learning again and in the classrooms doing it safely. Host several chapters, one of the most difficult situations you had to face, terrible unfortunate circumstances involving freddie gray and baltimore police, we are seeing similar situations in baltimore in cities throughout the United States today as a result of the what lessons do they learn, in baltimore, dont want to monday morning quarterback, facing the situation in their own states. At the time when i wrote five chapters, riots in baltimore how much of a parallel there will be but i had been governor just 89 days when the worst violence in 47 years broke out in the largest city of baltimore and in the first few hours after the death of freddie gray and the beginning is of the black lives Matter Movement just after ferguson, violence and distraction broke out in baltimore, 400 businesses looted and destroyed, 127 police and firefighters hospitalized. City police force is overwhelmed, citizens of baltimore crying for somebody to come in and keep them safe. In a matter of years, a state of emergency, members of the national guard, giving peace and calm to the citizens of baltimore, we did it in a way that we allow peaceful protests to take place for a solid week, legitimate frustrations and we did not want to aggressively move against those protesters to inflame the situation but we stopped, not allow any more violence or destruction. We did it very successfully. We got praise across the country for that. The people of baltimore appreciate it, they felt like things would be okay and we lowered the temperature. I think that is part of the problem, two things going on. Cities are not handling the violence and destruction, they are allowing it to take place. In some cases we have say in portland which is going on for months, the federal response about too aggressive and further inflaming. I taught a course at the Nationa