Inslee during CNN Town Hall: I am a 'perfect matchup' against Trump

Washington State Governor Jay Inslee talks with A&R Solar workers after announcing his candidacy for President of the United States, Friday, March 1, 2019 at A&R Solar in Mount Baker. He pledged to make climate change his number one priority. less Washington State Governor Jay Inslee talks with A&R Solar workers after announcing his candidacy for President of the United States, Friday, March 1, 2019 at A&R Solar in Mount Baker. He pledged to make climate ... more Photo: Genna Martin Photo: Genna Martin Image 1 of / 12 Caption Close Inslee during CNN Town Hall: I am a 'perfect matchup' against Trump 1 / 12 Back to Gallery

Gov. Jay Inslee was given an hour of national exposure at a CNN Town Hall on Wednesday night, and used the time to project a sunny upbeat attitude even as the presidential candidate talked of the perils of climate change and bullying President Donald Trump's foreign policy.

"I believe I am a perfect matchup against him (Trump) because I am a very optimistic person and he is a very pessimistic person," Inslee said.

The Washington governor was affable and at ease even as he reversed past stands. On marijuana, for instance, Inslee voted against the initiative that legalized recreational pot in Washington. On Wednesday, however, he said: "It has been an unalloyed success in the state of Washington and it is my belief we should decriminalize and legalize marijuana.

Inslee was given a grilling by Washington, D.C.-area college students, who caught him unprepared at one point, but gave Inslee the chance to bring up a seminal vote in his political career.

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Near the end, Inslee was asked a detailed question about recycling, a field where citizen initiatives have made Washington a leader. America's "greenest governor" stumbled.

"I thought I had the answer to every question," Inslee said. "But I do not have an answer to that."

He delivered a brief thought about "redesigning our packaging systems," talked briefly about plastics in the stomachs of whales, and added: "We've got to stop making products that end up having to be recycled."

The contrasting high point came on gun safety. Representing a Central Washington congressional district, Inslee cast a key vote in 1994 to approve a ban on assault weapons. He would catch hell for it a few weeks later during a town meeting at Cle Elum-Roslyn High School.

"I lost my seat but I have never regretted that vote because I do not believe anyone congressman's or politician's seat is more important that any child's life," said Inslee.

The Governor spoke of the need to "confront the NRA," praised the passage of three gun safety initiatives by Washington voters, and said: "We're not done yet."

Long-ago actions are revisiting Democratic presidential candidates, from Joe Biden's klutzy behavior during the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill hearings, to Bernie Sanders' votes on firearms regulation.

With Inslee, it was his vote for the 1994 crime bill, that resulted in mass incarceration of drug offenders, many of them African-American.

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He did a mea culpa. "If I knew then what I know now, I would not have cast that vote because it has resulted in racial disparities in our system," Inslee said.

He noted measures in Initiative 940, passed by voters in November and recently amended by the Legislature . . . such as schooling police officers in "deescalation tactics" and other measures to curb "police violence."

Resistance to Trump was a constant Inslee theme.

"When I heard about child separation (at the border) my blood just wanted to boil," he told the audience. "Ask Trudi -- we've been married 46 years, and she thinks it's as hot as I've ever been -- in a good way."

Inslee suggested any attempt to impeach Trump will be futile, and that it will be the job of voters to remove him in 2020, and make Trump "a blip in history."

Inslee also criticized Boeing, which for a Washington politician is like L'Osservatore Romano criticizing the Pope. It was a particular rarity for a Governor who angered Aerospace Machinists leaders by urging ratification of a contract that made major concessions to Boeing.

"I would have grounded those (737) jets much sooner," Inslee said. "I do not believe the administration acted with the alertness they should have." "Sooner," Inslee said, meant after the crash in Indonesia late last year.

Inslee hit climate change early and often, delivering familiar sound bites: Reacting to a false statement by Trump, he declared: "Wind turbines don't cause cancer, they cause jobs." (They certainly have in the Ellensburg-Vantage area, and on the Washington-Oregon border between Pasco and Walla Walla.)

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"I am the only candidate who has pledged to make defeating climate change the number one priority of the United States," Inslee said, in a line he has already used dozens of times in seven weeks on the campaign trail.

He ticked off "decades of experience," co-authoring a book (Apollo's Fire) and making Washington a laboratory for green energy jobs. The "clean energy revolution" will create "thousands of jobs in this country," Inslee said in another familiar refrain.

Inslee has astutely tried to remove doom and gloom from his pitch on climate change, and did so Wednesday night. "One most renewable energy we have is perseverance," he argued.

The CNN town hall was not Inslee's breakthrough moment, on the order of the appearance that has caused the campaign of South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg to take off. He was, however, relaxed, affable and lucid.

Not surprisingly, the Inslee campaign told donors it was pumped.

"Jay's CNN Town Hall has just ended and all I can say is: Wow," campaign manager Aisling Kerins said in an email blast to supporters.