david: this is my kitchen table

and also my filing system. over much of the past three decades i've been an investor. the highest calling of mankind i often thought was private equity. then i started interviewing. i watched your interview so i know how to interview. i learned how leaders make it to the top. jeff: he said to 250, i said fine. i didn't negotiate and i did no due diligence. david: i have something i would like to sell. and how they stay there. you don't feel inadequate as the second wealthiest man in the world, is that right? [laughter] i'm in the statehouse house in maryland where i just had a conversation with wes moore, the charismatic governor maryland. he said he would deftly run for reelection in two years. he also said he hasn't decided if you will run for president of the united states but many people think he would be an excellent candidate in four years. my conversation with him was one of the most interesting ones i've had with any governor in recent years. you were asleep one night and somebody i think woke you up and

said the key bridge was collapsing. who woke you up and what did you say? gov. moore: it was our fantastic chief of staff at 2:02 in the morning. he called and said the key bridge is gone. and that key bridge, it's over two miles long. it is in the skyline of every picture of baltimore and has been there since i've been born. i said what do you mean, gone? he said it collapsed. and immediately we began mobilizing. we were on the phone with the fbi trying to figure out was there terrorism involved. what exactly happened? how many cars were on the bridge? how many people are unaccounted for? i will never forget that morning because immediately you saw how we had to put the state in the state of emergency, we had to begin coordinating efforts but i will never forget that morning. david: a number of people were working in the middle of the

night on the bridge and i guess most if not all of them lost their lives. now the bridge is going to be repaired. somehow you managed to get the federal government to pay for all of it. gov. moore: bipartisan support. david: when will the bridge reopen? gov. moore: in 2028, we will have the bridge done. david: why is it important to maryland and baltimore to have the key bridge anyway? gov. moore: the port of baltimore really is america's gateway. it's one of the most important not just maritime facilities but just port entries we have in the country. two thirds of the country get its goods from the port of baltimore as the main entry point. but there are only three main arteries to the port of baltimore. you have the harbor tunnel. you have the baltimore tunnel. and then you have the key bridge. the problem is all hazmat materials -- oil refineries, etc. -- they cannot take tunnels

legally. they can only take the bridge. this is having a distinct impact not just on transit and transportation but having a distinct impact on goods and commerce being able to move. david: as we talk there have been fires in california. do you have advice for your fellow democratic governor gavin newsom about how to handle crises like these? gov. moore: it's heartbreaking what's going on in southern california. i reached out to gavin as soon as i heard about what happened and offered our support and offered our resources as well because i was humbled how many governors reached out to me right after the key bridge. did the same. that bond does matter. when i think about the key bridge, the most important thing we were able to do is have unified command. was be able to bring everybody on board. we were singing from the same sheet of music. we all had unified goals. david: what caused the ship to crash into the bridge? what was the cause?

gov. moore: they are still going through that now and there is litigation the attorney general has filed and we are going through the process of identification. the thing we know is bridges don't just collapse. there is negligence that caused the bridge to collapse on david: march 26. maryland has had a reputation in this metropolitan area of being a higher tax state than virginia. recently you announced a $3 billion budget gap you are trying to deal with and part of it is you are increasing taxes on wealthier people. gov. moore: yeah, but what we are doing is this -- no one agrees the tax code makes sense in the state of maryland. i said we've got to be able to reform the tax code to make us more competitive and simpler fairer and progrowth. ,i announced a budget plan. it is counterintuitive but i find the people to deal with the budget deficit, the structural deficit we inherited, we are actually going to give two thirds of marylanders a tax cut and we are going to take 82% of marylanders and say you pay

either less in taxes or there is no change. we did not raise the sales tax . we did not raise the income tax. with cut the corporate tax rate in the state of maryland and eliminated the inheritance tax. for a lot of people it seemed odd because they were like why don't you raise sales taxes or raise property taxes? my answer is this. a, i would have found that to be a lazy way of thinking because it is not not reform. we have to reform the tax code. the second piece is it's not progrowth. i want to attract businesses to come to the state of maryland. that's why in our budget we have some historic adjustments to doing regulatory reform, permitting reform procurement , reform. actually we announced an executive order focused on government modernization where it's all about getting rid of government waste, the unnecessary spending, when consolidation, fleet consolidation, i.t. consolidation. focusing on real estate.

all things that can get the economy going. that has been the focus. we've got to get out of this crisis by focusing on growth. david: as we talk donald trump is about to be inaugurated again as president of the united states. as a democratic leader and a democratic governor of maryland very democratic estate, do you , a feel like you are a leader of the opposition or that your job is to cooperate with him? how do you view donald trump, someone you work with or oppose? gov. moore: i'm not the leader of the resistance. i'm the governor of maryland. i've got 6.5 million people i answer to and some of them voted for donald trump and some did not vote for donald trump. what they all have in common is they are from maryland. the way i will approach working with this new administration is the way i would approach working with any administration. i understand how tethered maryland is to washington and the federal government. we have over 160,000 federal

employees. we are the home of some of the largest federal installations in the country in the state of maryland. a lot of our infrastructure projects are being underwritten i the federal government, including the key bridge. i understand how important the relationship is and i am very clear i will work with this administration and find ways of finding common sense solutions that are going to uplift maryland, invest and support maryland. i will push back on things that i think are either don't make sense or are unconstitutional or challenge our values. but i am approaching this truly with a sense of partnership. david: why do you think maryland has now become such a liberal state question mark such a -- wearable state? -- liberal state? such a democratic state? gov. moore: we tell people we are, this is the northernmost southern state. i'm one of the only democratic southern governors in the country. the bloodiest battles of the civil war took place in

maryland. i'm the first black governor in the history of the state of maryland. literally down the street are the docks, the annapolis docks, which was one of the country's first and largest slave ports. the building we are in right now , the state capital was built by , the hands of enslaved people. the dichotomy and complexity of the state is very real. it is something i take a real sense of pride in. david: you ran for governor initially in 2022 and were elected overwhelmingly. you are up for reelection in 2026. you haven't announced yet if you are running. gov. moore: i can announce now i am running for reelection. [laughs] david: you are running for reelection as governor. i think you are likely to win a based on everything i know about maryland politics. the question is are you thinking of running as well for president of the united states? the answer to that question is --? gov. moore: no. i have the best job around and i love the momentum we are seeing

in the state of maryland. i think about when i was first elected, maryland was ranked 43rd in the country in unemployment. now maryland is going on 15 straight months amongst the lowest unemployment rates in the entire country. when i was elected governor maryland was in the middle of the scourge of violent crime. over an eight year period, a homicide rate nearly doubled, baltimore city had eight straight years of over 300 homicides. now maryland has among the most precipitate drops in violent crime of anywhere in the country right now. i love the momentum we are seeing here and i want this to be maryland's decade and i want to lead that charge. david: suppose people say you did a great job as maryland governor. he talked about some of the things you have been -- you have done. you've been reelected over memorably. -- overwhelmingly. but the party needs a charismatic figure to be the leader in the post-donald trump era, you would say? gov. moore: people should pay attention to what we are doing here in maryland.

because the momentum we are seeing -- marylanders seem very happy. our numbers are strong. but people understand the momentum we are having here is really big and important. ♪

david: the biggest city in the state is baltimore. why is baltimore so important to you? gov. moore: it's our state's largest city. if your state's largest city is not thriving, your state cannot thrive. that's just a mathematical equation. the only way this will be maryland's decade is if it is baltimore's time. that's what we focused on being able to extend the orioles' lease. why we focus on keeping the preakness in maryland for generations to come. why we invested in the convention center. the reason we focused on housing and getting rid of vacant housing. the reason we focus on violent crime. now baltimore is having the most precipitous drop of anywhere in the country when it comes to homicides and nonfatal shootings and carjackings and autos theft. if you can have baltimore thriving, your state will

is going to thrive. david: let's talk about your background, which is unusual. where were you born? gov. moore: in takoma park, maryland. david: your parents did what? gov. moore: my father was a radio journalist. my mother was his assistant. david: your father died when you were only three years old. gov. moore: he died from what is basically the epiglottis that we all have. his became so swollen that it just sat on top of his windpipe. basically his body suffocated itself and he died in front of me. david: did you realize what was happening when it was going on? you were only three years old. gov. moore: i did not. my mother tells a story how at his funeral, my uncle vin took me up to see his body for the final time in the casket and i actually touched him and i asked if he was going to come with us. even at that time i had no idea

what had fully happened and didn't really process until i got older. david: you have siblings? gov. moore: an older sister and a younger sister. my mother had a hard time with the transition. she didn't feel safe in the neighborhood. she didn't feel safe in the house. she called up my grandparents. david: you grew up there, were you a great student or athlete? gov. moore: i was not a great student. what was really interesting was that the work actually came easy to me. the attention to detail and the interest in doing it did not. by the time it was 11 years old, i had handcuffs on my wrist. by the time i was 13, i was kicked out of my school and sent to a military school in pennsylvania. i had a really difficult time transitioning. david: you went to the military school and it was sort of a college and high school combined? gov. moore: it was, a junior college.

it was a two year college and also middle school and high school. that is what changed everything for me at the middle school. they put me in charge of something and i was actually accountable to other people, for my actions. i just believe deeply in accountability because it helped to save my life. david: you went into the army and you were there for a year or so before you went to hopkins? gov. moore: i was in two years. so i finished up, got my associates degree, i'm one of the only governors in the country with a two year college degree. that is the ring right here. i transferred after finishing my associates degree and i went to johns hopkins to finish my undergrad. david: who told you to apply for a rhodes scholarship? gov. moore: it was a mutual friend of ours, kurt smoke. i entered with kurt who at that time was the mayor of baltimore. i have a picture in my office of him pointing to a picture in his office back when i was a young intern and i had hair and he was

a young mayor and he had hair. the picture he's pointing to is his rhodes scholarship class. it was in that moment that he was telling me i want you to apply for the rhodes scholarship. david: you got a rhodes scholarship. only 32 americans every year get them. you went to oxford. when you got there did you study anything? gov. moore: i did, i got my masters in international relations. right now i am all but -- about dissertation for my doctorate in international relations. david: usually when people finish their rhodes scholarships and they get degrees or don't, they come back and run for office will they go to a private equity firm. they go to investment banking firm. they teach us someplace. you did something different. what did you do after your root scholarship -- rhodes scholarship? gov. moore: what was interesting. initially i went to the world of finance and i remember getting a phone call from a friend of mine

who at that time was a major. he called me -- a major in the army. he had just finished in iraq and was getting deployed to afghanistan and he called me and said when are you gonna get in the fight? that was such an indicting question because he was right. i had trained with all of these people. i had done my airborne training, become a paratrooper. many of these people were on their second and third deployments and i hadn't done a single one. i made the decision and i left. i left banking and linked up with the 82nd airborne division and we deployed to afghanistan. david: how many years were you in afghanistan? gov. moore: almost a full year. i was thankful for the people i was serving with. the 82nd are some of the best and most hardcharging soldiers the army has ever created. there were really hard days. david: what did you do when you came back? gov. moore: i did a white house fellowship. part of it was my deputy brigade

commander was also a former white house fellow. david: after you finish the white house fellowship, what did you do? gov. moore: i went to citi. i spent close to five years working for citi doing investment banking, m&a and also doing technology. david: you did that a number of years and then organization came along called robinhood and they said we want you to head it up. what is robinhood and why did you take the job? gov. moore: it's one of the nation's largest poverty fighting organizations. it started over 30 years ago and it started with an initial idea of saying what if you could take analytics and data, the same way we take analytics and data when we are making trading decisions and we are buying companies, and put that toward the poverty fight? david: after four years at robin hood, you decide to run for governor of maryland never having run for anything else before. did you think you had a chance? gov. moore: the data didn't show i had a chance.

i was pulling 1% in our first pole. it is true. literally i am not voting was poling higher than wes moore. i was running against statewide elected officials, the former head of the dnc, two cabinet secretaries. one of the people i was running against was on my board at robin hood, which made board meetings awkward. i had people who were seasoned at this. but i think what resonated with people is that i don't come from a political background. i don't come from a political family. i don't do the politician thing. i don't do the partisan thing. i just really focus on results and actually meeting people where they are and i think that resonated with folks. david: you get elected governor. do you actually say i'm really happy now i governor? am you took the job, the first day you were sworn in did you realize the responsibilities were greater than you thought

were not that difficult of a job? gov. moore: it is a hard job but also there were things we inherited we did not anticipate. i remember coming in and being able to read reports about the fiscal crisis we were about to inherit. that we are currently navigating the worst fiscal crisis maryland has seen in 20 years and it has been predicted since 2017. but the problem was, it wasn't dealt with because there was covid money and covid money cap to masking the obstacles and masking the fact our business model in the state of maryland was broken and our economy wasn't moving. we were just so deeply underperforming when it came to growth. whether it be the way medicaid was completely out of whack and a billion-dollar expenditure not anticipated. we didn't see it coming. there was a brokenness of state government that i don't think we fully understood. that's why our first priority had to be fix state government. david: what is your typical day

as a governor? you do some interviews, maybe an interview like this. [laughter] at the beginning of every morning as i understand it, you , go over to the naval academy and work out with the navy midshipmen. gov. moore: that's right. david: you are a little older, is that difficult? gov. moore: they wouldn't know it. i do. honestly i love the naval academy is down the street, as an army guy, i figured out who to talk to. they have that beat army stuff all over the place was david: you keep up with all that? gov. moore: there's no way i am letting navy smoke me. no way. even when times are tough and times are challenging, remember where we've come from. remember what as a country we have seen. remember as a state what we have endured. and we are still here. ♪

david: by the way when the , legislation was passed that provided the funding for the key bridge, initially attached was a provision that said the rfk stadium in the district of columbia would go back to the control of the mayor and could maybe be used for the washington commanders as a site for a future stadium. the washington commanders now play in maryland. you agreed to let the decision past. sed. it passed in a separate bill at 1:30 in the morning. your view is the commanders may still stay in maryland? will you try to keep them? well they go to d.c.? gov. moore: maryland is still the best spot for the washington commanders. i understand the history of it and them being at rfk. i think this is a location they will have the used -- the easiest direction when it comes to site placement. it can be the most cost-effective, we can create a live-work-play environment for

the washington commanders. i enjoy competition. i think competition makes us stronger. i love the momentum we are seeing here and i want this to be maryland's decade and i want to lead the charge but i also do very much believe the washington commanders should be and will be in the state of maryland. ♪

david: so i am not going to get you to say you will run for president. i know that. but you are going to play a role i assume in the democratic party the next couple of years yonder maryland i assume. gov. moore: absolutely. absolutely. david: do you think governors are more qualified to be presidents than people who are senators? gov. moore: i think if people want to find inspiration, look at the states. because we just get stuff done. we don't play the partisan game. i've introduced 26 pieces of legislation since i have been governor. not only have we gone 26 for 26, we have gone 26 for 26 bipartisan with both democrat , and republican support on every bill i have introduced. i would say if you really want to see what it means to focus on results -- because that's what i focus on. i don't do the partisan party stuff. results. show me results. i think if you look at what's happening in maryland and what is happening in the states i , think you will start seeing what results look like. david: if somebody is watching

this and they are not from maryland but they want to know how little bit about maryland, what would you encapsulate about what people should know about the state of maryland? gov. moore: i would say maryland really is america in miniature. tell me what you want to do in a matter where you are standing, i can tell you where to have a world-class experience within two hours. if you want to go to the beaches, if you want to go skiing, if you want to visit farmland, go see the o's -- tell me what you want to do and i will tell you how to get there within two hours. we are the home of innovation . the home of johns hopkins university. the home of the nsa. the home of the applied physics lab. the home of fort meade into the naval academy. the home of four historically black colleges and universities. we have so much to offer in the state of maryland and i think that's one of the reasons people are so excited about the growth trajectory we are on. david: final question, how can you bottle the happiness you have?

how you get to be so happy and smiling all the time? does anybody ever make you feel bad about something? gov. moore: one of the things i lean on a lot is history. even in really dark times, really challenging moments i am , a history buff. i think about having a chance to read about one of our most famous marylanders, harriet tubman. on my toughest days i go back to my office in my house and i will read on harriet tubman. then i think of myself, what am i complaining about? no matter what kind of day i am having, imagine having a theoretical conversation with harriet tubman, explaining to her how tough my day was when i know how tough all of her days were. i think that it's important we live life with a sense of context. that even when times are tough and even when they are

challenging, remember where we've come from. remember what, as a country, we have seen. remember, as a state, what we have endured. and we are still here. that i think continues to give me a sense of hope and optimism. i know that no matter what kind of days we are having, we are our ancestors' wildest dreams and there is a sense of pride i have in that. ♪

>> davos.