Baltimore mayor on crime reduction, city cleanup

You wouldn't know it standing on this street corner today, but walk a few blocks with Mayor Brandon Scott, and there's no missing the problem. The city has thousands of these broken-down, boarded-up row houses, the result of a long civic Spiral, People and businesses leaving, blight and crime moving in. What's the relationship between vacancies and crime and then population, people moving out or moving in? Listen. When you have-- it looks like someone doesn't care, people who want to do bad things are going to come.

But since 2019, when Baltimore's murder rate hit an all-time high and ranked among the worst in the nation, something has changed. The number of vacant buildings is down 25%. The population actually grew in 2024. And murders have hit a nearly 50-year low. It's a 15-year, $3 billion strategy of how we're going to deal with vacancy in Baltimore, block by block.

President Trump, however, has held on to a far grimmer picture, declining Governor Wes Moore's recent invitation to walk the streets. I'm not walking in Baltimore right now. Baltimore's a hellhole.

Even floating the idea of sending in the National Guard, as he did elsewhere. I deployed our National Guard and federal law enforcement to restore law and order to our most dangerous cities. The president just last night, at the State of the Union address, said that he's responsible-- his administration-- for this massive reduction in murders nationwide. To that, you say what? Baltimore's responsible for Baltimore's. We have a strategy.

It's a strategy that includes targeting those most likely to commit gun violence, a strategy the neighbors here seem to be noticing. Are they getting ready to build houses up there? Yep. There'll be more houses built.

As blighted buildings come down and piles of illegally dumped trash gets picked up-- Hold on. Is that the guy you called? Yeah. The trash guy right now? They coming to pick it up right now.

In this case, just minutes after the mayor spotted them. It's a reversal the mayor hopes means an update to his city's reputation. We are doing all of this together because Baltimoreans believe that we are the greatest comeback story in the country.