Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said Democrats should work toward bipartisan deals, including on immigration, with Stephen Miller — despite the “well of distrust” he holds for the new White House chief of staff.
Moore, a potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, told POLITICO’s Alex Burns on Tuesday that even though Miller is “the architect of some of the most racist, xenophobic, homophobic policies that we have,” he still believes there’s room to negotiate with the White House to ease the targeting of unauthorized immigrants living in the U.S.
“One thing I’ve always said to the people of my state is I will work with anybody, I will bow to nobody,” he said at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s B20 Summit.
“I wish that there was a different team, because I think the well of distrust that Stephen Miller and his policies have fostered have been deeply poisonous,” the governor continued. “But I still want to make sure that we’re doing good things on behalf of the people of our jurisdictions, and I do think we have a window to do it.”
President Donald Trump floated the possibility of a bipartisan immigration deal during a “60 Minutes” interview on Sunday as he acknowledged that the aggressive deportation policies he enacted at the beginning of his term were “too tough” and “took people that had good jobs.” Trump appeared to reverse course on Monday, telling reporters he opposed offering “amnesty” for undocumented immigrants.
Voters have long said Trump’s mass deportation campaign is too aggressive, and some Hill Republicans have pointed the blame at Miller, who masterminded the policy, for their lost support among Hispanics this midterm cycle. Moore said there’s a window for “real bipartisan agreement” on immigration despite Miller’s ascension last week.
Oklahoma GOP Gov. Kevin Stitt, who co-chairs the National Governors Association with Moore and also spoke at the summit, said Trump “won on a strong border” — but governors need a “seat at the table” when it comes to issuing workforce permits.
Asked what message it sends to international business to have a top staffer in the White House who is a hardliner on immigration, Stitt deflected.
“I’m not going to speak to his hardlineness on that issue,” Stitt said, referring to Miller. He added that he thinks there’s a path forward for unauthorized immigrants contributing to the economy: “If you are here chasing the American dream, contributing to society, and you’ve come here illegally and a company is vouching for you, that’s literally what we want. We educate people here, we want the best and brightest here, and I think there’s a solution.”
Stitt, who has not spoken to Trump since the midterms, said the president has “softened” on immigration in recent interviews.
“There’s a real solution, and I think President Trump can lead on it. He can lead and hopefully … the Democrat majority in the House and the Senate will now work with him and we can get something done,” the Republican governor said.
Moore, in the interview, also pointed to AI safety as an area for potential bipartisan agreement and urged the incoming Democratic-controlled Congress to create federal regulations on AI companies that include “protections on our pocketbooks” along with protections for workforce development and infrastructure.
So far, much of the regulation has been left to the states. But Democrats in Congress are weighing multiple bills to enact safety standards protecting consumers from AI as Americans grow increasingly concernedabout the dangers of the technology.
“It’s not useful to have 50 different guidelines for how this country should think about this,” Moore said. “We need Washington to get in the game.”
The Democrat also warned businesses to stay away from Trump’s ballroom and meme coin.
“I would tell you right now that this will not age well,” Moore told the audience at the B20 summit. “There will not be a long term benefit to this. That with the American people, the best way for us to fight for capitalism is to make sure that we’re building a system that everyone can see the benefit for and that we’re not parsing off who it can actually benefit.”
Andrew Howard contributed to this report.
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