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- [00:01]
Host
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations. So by now you probably know that the state of Ohio went from a purple state a little bit over a decade ago to becoming a red state. Although it's got some blue dots in there. But maybe it should have gone back to purple or blue because this whole red state thing doesn't really seem to be helping at all that much. Take a look at some of these recent headlines from various places in Ohio. I mean, this one from Fox 8 Cleveland, for example, although it's a blue city, Veterans affairs to cut 70,000 jobs. Local veterans are deeply concerned. How about this headline? The chips act brought intel to Ohio. Trump wants the chips act gone. He announced no more chips act. MAGA Mike Johnson @ the joint session address. Will Ohio's congressional representatives defended. I don't know. I saw them all giving a standing ovation when Donald Trump said to get rid of the jobs in Ohio and elsewhere. Here's this one as well from Akron. These three Northeast Ohio federal buildings could be sold by the Trump administration. How about this one from Axios? Ohio farmers face uncertainty amid Trump tariffs. The nation's breadbasket is feeling the pressure as new tariffs on our country's largest trade partners trigger guess what? Retaliation, leaving farmers worried about their livelihoods. It goes on to talk about how Midway Midwest states like Ohio heavily rely on agriculture, especially soy, corn, pork, dairy and wheat. And escalated trade tensions could have caused could cause serious economic consequences for farmers and rural communities. And it probably doesn't help as well that Donald Trump puts tariffs on that, takes them off, then puts them on again, then takes them off again. It is total Trump chaos. Not good for business. Let's call in the Cleveland mayor, Mayor Justin Bibb. Mayor Bibb, this chaos is not good for business. What are you seeing in your city, sir?
- [02:24]
Justin Bibb
Well, if this is what making America great again looks like, Clevelanders aren't buying it and I'm not buying it as mayor of Cleveland. And it has certainly been a chaos for the nearly 50 days that President Trump has been in the White House. And many Ohioans were optimistic about the president's second term. And Ohio has a lot to lose if we don't find a way to lower the cost of goods and services. We have to make sure the intel deal happens The CHIPS act is going to be a boon for Ohio and to see Vice President Vance and President Trump say we want to get rid of that, it makes no sense. And so we need to continue to fight for Cleveland, fight for Ohio and hold this administration and Republican led Congress accountable to do what they said they were going to do in terms of lowering prices, making the economy work again for working class and middle class Americans, and making sure that cities like Cleveland can be a part of, of America's comeback.
- [03:44]
Host
What are you seeing in Cleveland in terms of Trump gutting federal programs, federal jobs? I know that you've been leading a lot of initiatives to try to help all of these people who have lost jobs to find jobs in other sectors, but how hard has that hit Cleveland from your, from your vantage point?
- [04:05]
Justin Bibb
Yeah, I, you know, I just talked to an employee at the VA and he's very concerned. Many of his employees are just sitting in a conference room waiting whether or not they're going to get fired. And this is not just happening at the VA locally in Cleveland, it's happening at hud, it's happening at dfas, it's happening at our local EPA affiliate. And these are good paying jobs in our city. And because of all the uncertainty that we've seen with these cuts, led by Elon Musk and Doge, we launched just yesterday a rapid response hub for federal workers living in Cleveland and across Cuyahoga county to make sure they can get job training, resume help and a pathway to another job if their job goes away. And there's a way to do this. Democrats all across this country, especially Democratic mayors, we believe in good government. We believe in efficiency. And we've been here before. Under President Clinton and Vice President Gore, there was a focused strategy to cut fraud and waste out of the federal government. And they worked with a Republican speaker of the House, Anu Gingrich, to not only, you know, make the government more efficient, but they balance the budget. So we know how to do this. But it's important that we bring some common sense back to Washington in terms of how we manage the federal government.
- [05:47]
Host
Look, under former President Biden, Cleveland was. And you. Cleveland was back. Yeah, I mean, Cleveland was thriving. I mean, you started to see some of that great storied history and manufacturing and other sectors return with the jobs of the future. You know, it was really one of those, you know, incredible stories. I mean, look, with your leadership and I'm sure you're doing everything you can to trump proof it. You know, I still think you'll be there. But now you're facing different types of resistance. You know, you know, in many ways, do you feel like, you know, the city's under attack from this administration and that your posture is, is, is, is different? I mean, that perspective shift really quickly because, you know, Trump was trying to create certain characters of cities like Cleveland as being failing and all of these things. It actually wasn't. It wasn't. Yeah.
- [06:49]
Justin Bibb
You know, it's so frustrating now to hear all these uninformed anecdotes that Democratic led cities are failing. And look, do we have some major challenges in big cities across this country? Absolutely. But in cities like Cleveland, Atlanta, Detroit, Nashville, Tulsa, we're seeing real gains right here in Cleveland. Just today, we're going to house our 150th resident who had been living on the street in an encampment where we're going to essentially have functional zero homelessness in Cleveland because of the work we've done to get government out the way to make sure there is nobody in our city living in a tent. We're making big strides, not only in Cleveland, but across the country around violent crime. In Cleveland, we worked with our police union leadership to reduce violent crime by 26% by investing in the police. And that's the same story you're seeing in big cities and medium sized cities all across this country, led by Democratic mayors. And so under President Biden, we had a president who believed in investing in cities like Cleveland. He was a great partner to us. And I just want to implore President Trump to work with mayors on these issues. Immigration, case in point, now is the time to not only secure the border, but make sure we work with this Republican led Congress to pass common sense immigration reform. And mayors, especially Democratic mayors, have been delivering every single day.
- [08:34]
Host
That's the thing, right? Former President Biden had a bipartisan border bill that would have actually addressed the issues and the complexities of it and provided cities with the resources they need when it comes to immigration. But just look at Trump's joint session, right? He singles out another city in Ohio, Springfield. He spread lies and says, you know, it's a wreck, it's the worst. The Haitians have destroyed it. And the Springfield mayor came out and said, that's not that you're wrong, you are, you are wrong. And now, though, what you're doing is actually hurting the community because the incredible workers are now fearful of their lives and livelihood. So you're now creating the circumstance that you fear mongered in the first place and is trying to make it A self fulfilled prophecy. You know, I know as a mayor, you're probably close with a lot of the other mayors in the state. And there's got to be some mayor solidarity happening here regardless of Democrat, Republican or whatever, right?
- [09:38]
Justin Bibb
Yeah. I mean, we have a great group of mayors in Ohio. The mayor of Springfield, Mayor Roux, he had just recently got elected when all that nonsense went down last year during the presidential election. And he's a Republican, a common sense Republican. And thankfully, we banded together as mayors and supported our Republican governor, Governor DeWine, to support Springfield who was getting attacked with major bomb threats to the mayor and that community. That's not how we lead in Ohio and that should not be how we lead in this country. And you mentioned the president's speech on Tuesday. He talked for almost two hours, the longest address to Congress, I think, in American history, but spent less than five minutes talking about the economy. And now every day there's a new policy around tariffs. And look, I'm all for making sure we hold our trade partners abroad accountable to ensure we're protecting American workers, protecting American industry. But this is not the way to yield our influence abroad. The economy right now is certainly going to be faced with a recession. You saw the Fed in Atlanta came out with a report earlier this week that's predicting a nearly negative 3% decline in GDP. I have employers in Cleveland who are concerned about hiring and investment. And it's our economy right now is fragile. And so again, we can't afford chaos in economic policy. We can't afford chaos in immigration policy. And mayors are seeing this every single day.
- [11:25]
Host
And so what would your message be as we conclude this interview? To the people of Cleveland, but generally to people who are living in cities like Cleveland across the country, who are nervous right now, who feel betrayed, they were promised lower prices on day one and now they're being told by the Trump administration, no, short disturbances are good for you. It's like, it's like a cleanse. It's like a detox. We all want detox. That's what their pitch that they say. They said that Scott Bess and his treasury secretary detox. What's your message to the people of Cleveland and frankly to people throughout the country right now? Especially people are looking to you because you're crushing it in Cleveland and you got a national profile now.
- [12:09]
Justin Bibb
Yeah, well, my message is simple. As the old saying goes, there's no Democratic way to create a job, no Republican way to fix a pothole. And America's mayors, especially America's Democratic mayors, are delivering every damn day. From addressing our issues around violent crime and public safety to making sure we have an economy that works for the middle class and working class, but also to make sure we uplift the values we hold dear in this country. The values of safety, the values of security, the values of freedom, and the values of choice. And so continue to fight for those values. Support your mayors. And now more than ever, it's important for the Democratic Party to make the case and articulate our alternative vision for this country. And our mayors have the right ingredient to making that vision a reality.
- [13:08]
Host
Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb his first time on the Midas Touch Network. We hope it's the first of many. Thanks for joining us.
- [13:15]
Justin Bibb
Thank you everybody.
- [13:16]
Host
Hit subscribe and let's get to 5 million subscribers this month. Thanks for watching. Can't get enough Midas? Check out the Midas substack for ad free articles, reports, podcasts, daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski and more. Sign up for free now@midasplus.com.
- [13:42]
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