By Paul Bean
In Governor Scott’s first post-election press conference Wednesday, November 13, reporters asked Governor Scott his thoughts on President Trump’s plans as an administration. The questions were focused around immigration, “maintaining democracy,” and how he plans to have a relationship with the new Trump administration.
Vermont Public reporter Peter Hirschfeld asked about the reality of Trump’s plan to deport millions of illegals and the effects that might have on Vermont farms. “The president has talked about deporting all 17 million people who are in the country,” he said.
Gov Scott: “I think that’s just unrealistic. I just don’t see how that could happen.”
Hirschfeld: “Well if you’re a migrant farm worker in Enosburg, it feels pretty real and so there are representatives of those communities that want to know what are our state leaders including the governor going to do to keep us safe from that outcome?”
Scott: “Well again, we proved before that we would take whatever action we needed to to protect Vermonters and some of those folks who are here that we need to have as part of our communities, but we didn’t react until I came into office. It was into January, we knew more about what the plan was at that point in time by the president. I’m not sure that we know completely what his plan is. Because I don’t see that what he has proposed is realistic and I would have to think that those who are coming into power with him would understand.”
Governor Scott was asked about the potential of joining the organization “Governors Safeguarding Democracy” started by Democrats J.B. Pritzker of Illinois and Jared Polis of Colorado. This organization is made of attorneys general and other Democratic governors (including Governor Gavin Newsome of California) who “have pledged to resist conservative Trump policies on everything from immigration to rollbacks on environmental protections.”
Governor Scott told the reporters that he was not interested in joining at this time because he perceived their move as political. “I don’t know who’s leading it, I think Governor Pritzker is one, Governor Newsome might be another. I don’t know if you connected the dots but I think they’re running in 2028, right? So I think we have to take the politics out of this, and we have to work together in some way to get through this.”
VTDigger Capitol Bureau Chief Sarah Mearhoff asked: “So you don’t think that the promises that Trump has made on the campaign trail… it sounds like you don’t think a lot of them are going to fully come to fruition?”
Gov Scott: “I think that they will address some of them, most of them maybe in some form, but not to the magnitude that he committed to on the campaign trail. No, I don’t I believe, but we’ll see.”
Hirschfeld wondered if his past comments about Donald Trump would affect his relationship with the administration. “How concerned are you about comments you’ve made about the president elect affecting the incoming administration’s posture as it relates to Vermont and how you go about forging relationships with key members of that Administration in the coming months?”
Scott: “I’ll probably know some of those cabinet members in my interactions with other governors. I believe that there’ll be some governors who will be part members of his cabinet eventually and I have good relationships with them.
“I’m not going to be any different than I’ve been before. I call them like I see them and I did that in the first four years of the Trump Administration and I’ll continue to do that because I think it’s important that we have that. I’ll do it in a respectful, civil way.”
Scott may have been speaking about Governor Doug Burgum of North Dakota, a friend of the Vermont governor who spoke at the VTGOP state convention in May and was last night nominated by the Trump administration as Secretary of the Interior.
Governor Scott finished his comments by saying, “I respect the Office of the President. I want to make that clear regardless of who’s there because it’s part of who we are and we have to move on so we were able to work with the administration.
“His administration, previously, there were some good things that he did, that we supported, and we advocated for and they helped us in ways as well, so we’ll see what happens. I’m hoping that he will spend more time trying to bring the country together and trying to improve on some of our shortcomings and less time on retribution, because that is just a waste.”