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RTCTPowerPolitics01112025BBlock430pm_2025-01-11-16-59-54

Welcome back to Power and Politics. I'm Mark Suddall. We are continuing our conversation with Governor Ned Lamont, and let's talk a little bit about the new Trump administration here, the second term for Donald Trump. What does that mean for you and the folks here in Connecticut? I think the jury's out a little bit, but remember I served for two years with President Trump when I was first elected. Uh, you, you have to work with who's ever in the Oval Office and we worked together pretty collaboratively. We spent a lot of time, uh, you know, during COVID we're on every, you know, week or so with the president for the COVID task force. It wasn't always easy, but we got things done. Now Trump certainly, as you know, has been pretty tough on immigration and uh of course this being a sanctuary state here in Connecticut, is that gonna affect any of our uh state policies here? Look, we'll see, you know, we're quite clear if there's somebody who's a danger to the community, somebody's committed a felony, somebody who's a criminal, um, a, we got them, um, incarcerated, and if, uh, the federal government can provide assistance in getting those people off the street, you know, I'm with you. Uh, if they want to go after, um, some poor kid who was a dreamer, just happened to be came over here at the age of 2 and they. Uh, jaywalk, um, you know, I'm not playing in that game. I mean, but you know, I guess extreme cases from, from what has been talked about your community, I'm right there. We're keeping you safe, right, right, OK. Uh, now what about, uh, congestion price? We just started here in New York this week. Uh, we had a lot of folks in Connecticut that, of course, uh, work in New York City. Talk about that. Well, as you may be remembering, you do have to pay for transportation and life, and that's what, uh, New York City and Governor Hole are weighing. Thankfully for Connecticut, almost all of our folks commute by train, and a lot of that congestion pricing money is gonna go to upgrade Metro North and speed up service into, uh, Manhattan. Do you think that'll also prompt more people to take the trains and maybe there will be more trains available or I think so. I hope so. I think that's part of the goal, yeah. Uh, now we've certainly had a significant increase in runway crashes and fatalities here in our state. How can we prevent more of these? Uh Look, we're doing everything we can in terms of enforcement and technology and flashing lights, but the other 90% is really up to you. Don't drink and drive, and for God's sake turn off your phone when you're, uh, driving. Put that away. Those are some of the things. Things that really have caused a real acceleration of wrong way driving we're being pretty tough in particular around our construction zones because I got workers near the street. We had a couple of fatalities and I got to do everything I can to protect our DOT workers and police who are patrolling those sites. Talk about the uh possibility of lowering the drunk driving limit in Connecticut from 0.08 to 0.05. I think that's something the legislature will take a look at. Look, you can try, you can outlaw alcohol. Um, I think most importantly we're enforcing what we see is distracted driving on our streets. We're putting in place technology, and I want you, if you have a friend who shouldn't be driving, get the keys out of his hands. Now you have hinted at the idea that you would be open to running for a third term as governor, um, will you? A jury's out on that, to tell you the truth, Mark, um, so I've said, you know, 125 times, um, everybody's always running in this state. We've got a good legislative session, a lot on our plate, a new president coming in. I wanna make sure we get through this session, then I'll make up my mind with Annie and the kids, uh, sometime next summer. Uh, we just lost, uh, President Jimmy Carter. Uh, he was late and, and stayed here this week, uh, it was a day of mourning on Thursday. Uh, how do you think that he'd like to be remembered? First of all, he is a man of character, don't, don't take that for granted. He was a decent good man working every day on your behalf. Um, it was a complicated time when he was there stagflation. He didn't create it, inherited it, you know, but he did get a guy named Paul Volcker in the Fed, and that did bring down inflation. Too late to re-elect Jimmy Carter, I might add, and he did big things in terms of deregulation that people forget about, so he wasn't a liberal or conservative in the traditional sense. He made a difference. Well, certainly what he did for the Middle East as well. Absolutely. Look at the Camp David Accords. Yeah, amazing. Um, artificial intelligence certainly is, is a good thing, but it can also be a bad thing depending on how it's used. How do we need to, to regulate this more in our state very carefully. As I said at the um state of the state um uh America is an innovation leader. We have a patchwork of regulation. We need some guard rails to protect people, but don't go too far. Europe is a. Regulatory leader, great regulation, but they don't invent anything. Their innovation is slow. The economic growth is slow. I care. I want Connecticut to be a leader when it comes to artificial intelligence. We have the workforce, the skills, the university. I'm gonna double down our artificial intelligence with centers right here. I don't want to do anything to get in the way of that. Uh, electric vehicles, you, you, you kind of backed off a little bit, I think, on that mandate. Where, where are we now with that in the state? I wanted to follow the federal standards, um, so what we do, we do in conjunction with all the other states. My sense is that Donald Trump's probably not a big fan of EVs, electric vehicles, although a guy named Elon Musk may be whispering in his ear. So I'll sit back and we'll follow the lead of the. But I think EVs and in particular, hybrids are a big piece of our future. Hybrids are a lot less expensive than your internal combustion. You go twice as far, 3 times further than you did before. The batteries are back up there. I think that's a big piece of our future, both from a pollution point of view and affordability. Well, I think that's going to be the big key for some folks in our state. Can they afford it? But certainly when it comes to the hybrids, they're less expensive than the alternatives, certainly less expensive to operate. EVs were still catching up in terms of, you know, obviously Joe Biden gave real incentives to bring down the price of electric vehicles. I don't think that's going to survive the Trump administration. All right, we have one more segment left for the governor. We're gonna take some viewer questions, uh, that we'll ask uh the governor as well, so we want to stick around for that.

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RTCTPowerPolitics01112025CBlock430pm_2025-01-11-17-00-44

Welcome back to Power and Politics. I'm Mark Sudall. We're in the final segment of our half hour with Governor Ned Lamont, and we're gonna take some viewer questions, uh, right now to take a look at. So let's look, uh, first of all, this one from Violet in Stratford. Violet ask as we face uncertain political times and potential federal. Challenges to LGBTQ plus rights, particularly access to life saving, gender affirming care for transgender individuals. How do you plan to ensure that our state continues to be a safe haven for the LGBTQ plus community and protect the rights and wellbeing of its most vulnerable residents? We protect the rights and well-being violet of all of our residents and especially young people. I couldn't stand the campaign over the last 6 months. The hundreds of millions of dollars went to. Sort of demonize these kids, um, some of them, you know, be you gay or think you may be trans, stop demonizing these kids. Step back, we'll figure out sports and gender affirming, but don't demonize the kids. OK. Our next question is from Maryland in Greenwich, and Maryland wants to know what is Governor Lamont doing to protect immigrants and their families amid the Trump deportation plans. Look, some of the language is scary. Um, let's see how that plays out, but I will tell you that, um, if there are any criminals or those who committed felonies, uh, we're getting them off the street and keeping you safe. But that's 16 year old dreamer as I said before, um, who came to this country when she was 2 years old, is now a junior at, um, Guilford High School. I'm gonna protect you. All right, Cheryl is asking how will Connecticut handle unrest due to race, religion, culture, or citizenship? Same way as we've done it before, you know, we had, um, the George Floyd, um, you know, and I saw riots and things happening all over the country, not in Connecticut. We worked together our police were right there taking a knee, keeping people safe. I feel pretty good about where Connecticut is. We look out for each other. All right, Keith and Avon is asking now, do you believe there is still room for improvement to safeguard and expand access to abortion care? It's at risk, Keith. Um, I can't tell you exactly what's gonna come out of, uh, Washington DC Everything we can do in Connecticut, we're gonna stand up and make sure your reproductive rights are protected. All right, that's our viewer questions and that's our program. Governor, we do not. Thank you so much for being with us. Thanks, Mark. That's our show. Thanks for watching.

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Gov. Lamont discussed a number of topics including the state's economy, high electric rates, health care costs and much more. 

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