Baker Hopes To Work With Trump On 'Common Interests', Hopes President-Elect Can Unite Nation
BOSTON (CBS) - Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker didn't vote for Donald Trump, but he said Wednesday he's looking forward to working with the president-elect.
Throughout the campaign, Baker said he would not support his party's nominee. He questioned whether Trump has "the temperament to serve as president."
But after Trump's stunning upset win over Democrat Hillary Clinton, Baker said it's time to work together.
"As far as I'm concerned, the election is over. He said all the right things last night, he said all the right things this morning, and I'm looking forward to seeing how he goes about the process of developing his team," Baker said. "I think that will be a statement about a lot of things."
"I look forward to working with him and with his administration on a lot of the stuff we share common interests in," Baker continued.
Though he didn't cast a ballot for Trump, Baker said he's optimistic about the future.
"Of course I'm hopeful. I mean, elections are opportunities for people at the state or local or federal level, wherever they take place, to speak to the public about how they feel about things," Baker said. "I thought both Donald Trump's comments last night and Sec. Clinton's comments this morning reflected a desire on the part of the two major players in this whole conversation to speak to and to reach out for a unified process going forward and of course I'm optimistic."
The President elect was not the only thing approved on Tuesday's ballot that Baker did not support, though. Baker had campaigned against question 4 on the Massachusetts ballot, urging the state not to pass legal recreational marijuana. The ballot measure passed, though, which Baker said he will honor in as safe a way as he sees possible. He's not quite sure what that looks like yet.
"It's going to depend to some extent on the conversation that we have with the folks in the legislature and others," Baker said. "Our view on this is it's the people's vote and we're going to honor that. But, we need to make sure that we implement this in a way that is consistent with the a lot of the rhetoric and the dialogue that took place during the course of the campaign, which is that it will be done in a way that does protect public safety and ensure that only those who are supposed to have access to this product will."
