Good morning everybody. First, thank you for joining us this morning. I'm happy to be
able to provide you all with some content during this slow news week. I know it's good
to be here. I wanted to take this opportunity to provide a few reflections on the results
of the election earlier this week. To begin with, I want to highlight some really positive
news from the election, which is that this election once again was administered in a
way that was free and fair and safe and secure. There were a few hiccups that we had in Wisconsin.
That's not unusual for there to be small issues that arise. But by and large, we had an election
that went smoothly. And we have results that Wisconsinites can count on. That's not unusual
in Wisconsin. I have talked over the years about how our system works well and how it
can be trusted. I'm glad to see following this election, unlike the 2020 election, that
there have not been attacks, baseless attacks on the integrity of the election. It's good
to see that people are respecting the outcome. And I am hopeful that one of the results of
this election will be that the baseless attacks we have seen in election denialism will finally
be put to rest. The reality is that our system works regardless of who has won the elections.
I would also like to congratulate the many candidates who won elections this year and thank
those who ran. There are going to be some notable changes as a result of this election,
both at the state level and at the federal level. In the state, the composition of the
state legislature is going to be changing dramatically. I believe that Democrats picked
up 10 seats in the state assembly. They picked up four seats in the state Senate. So we're
going to be looking at a much more evenly divided state legislature that much more closely
reflects the political divide in the state of Wisconsin. I'm looking forward to working
with members of the legislature on a number of different topics, but topics that will
help us make progress for Wisconsinites. That includes working to get needed funding for
the Office of School Safety, funding for the state crime labs, and funding for victim
service programs that are facing severe cuts both across the state of Wisconsin and across
the country. Now, with the election of Donald Trump, there's of course going to be significant
policy change at the federal level. And that's how our system is supposed to work. Elections
lead to changes in policy. Where there's room for agreement, I hope that the new administration
will seek to find common ground. We all want our communities to be safe. We all want a
healthy and growing economy. We all want our nation to be strong. And we should all be
willing to work across the aisle when it's in the best interests of the people that we
serve. I also think it's notable that Donald Trump went out of his way to distance himself
from the agenda set forth in Project 2025. I think he said he had never heard of it or
never read it. He asserted that he wouldn't support and in fact would veto a national
abortion ban. He recently indicated that he's not thinking about repealing the Affordable
Care Act. And his supporters have vociferously rejected the idea that he poses a danger to
our democracy. At the same time, there's justified concern that a Trump administration could take
a very different path from the one I just mentioned. I know that folks are worried about what the
future holds for women's ability to make their own reproductive health care decisions, about
access to affordable health care more broadly, and about whether people may be targeted by the
new administration based on their identity, their speech and their viewpoints, or simply for doing
their jobs as an election worker or a reporter. So let me be clear, those kinds of actions are
wrong and we are committed at the Department of Justice to standing up against them. While
this election will result in a policy shift at the federal level, it did not change a single
word of the U.S. Constitution. A top priority of mine at the Department of Justice has been and
will remain protecting the rights of Wisconsinites. And we've done a lot of that during my time as
Attorney General. My first two years as AG were during the first Trump administration and we challenged
a number of Trump administration policies where those policies were contrary to the best interests
of the people of Wisconsin and inconsistent with the law. We often work together with other AGs
around the country and frequently we won those cases, for example opposing efforts to roll back
efforts to address climate change. We've also worked to protect people's rights in the state of Wisconsin.
We've consistently protected the freedom to vote in this state including working to uphold the
results of the 2020 presidential election, standing up to the Gableman investigation, and as we will
be doing in the Supreme Court in a short amount of time, standing up to protect the fair administration
of our elections against an attempt to fire the administrator of the Wisconsin Election Commission.
Likewise, we've worked to protect reproductive freedom in Wisconsin. And next Monday, our office will be in
the state Supreme Court arguing about what the 1849 law that we have all become familiar with means
for abortion access in Wisconsin. So we have been tested in this office. We are prepared to defend
the rights of Wisconsinites if necessary. And let me say that if the new administration infringes
upon the freedoms of Wisconsinites or attempts to use our system of justice as a tool for vengeance,
we will act. We will act to protect the best interests of the people of the state of Wisconsin.
We'll act to uphold equal justice under the law. And we will act to defend Wisconsinites' freedoms.
So thank you all for joining me with that. I'm happy to open it up to questions.
We've become aware of some of the text messages that have gone out. And I know that
these are not just in Wisconsin. There are other states where this has happened as well.
First, anybody sending harassing or threatening text messages is completely unacceptable.
And anybody making racist statements or bigoted statements in text messages is something we cannot
tolerate. I encourage anybody who has information about those texts to contact local law enforcement.
I think it's important that there is an appropriate law enforcement response and what that will be
will depend on the nature of the information that law enforcement receives.
I know that our office has been in contact with the school district in the wake of this incident.
One of the things that we have preached with respect to the office of school safety and the
work that it does is the importance of getting information from students and others who first
seek concerning information to trusted adults. That's why we have a 24-7 tip line, the Speak Up
Speak Up program. But we also want to encourage anybody who has concerning information to reach
out. The more that we can have positive interventions happen early, the less likely it is that an
incident is going to occur. The other thing our office of school safety has been engaged in
is working to provide training and guidance to schools around the state on the prevention of
targeted violence. There is a pathway that people who engage in targeted violence go on
and the earlier in that pathway we can intervene, the safer our communities are.
So that's what I can speak to at this point in time.
I'm curious if you can talk about how you will ensure that all the scouts and knights,
youth, trans youth, and parents and trans youth can go forward with safety and health and life.
Yeah well first of all I will say on a personal level that I found a lot of the campaign commercials
we saw deeply concerning. Targeting people based on their identity or any other number of factors
is inconsistent with our values. I also think it's notable that the states where there was the most
campaigning happening, the swing states, if you compare 2024's results to 2020, that's actually
where Kamala Harris did the best relative to Donald Trump. So in the states where those kinds of
commercials were running as well as the Harris commercials, Republicans underperformed. And I
hope that that sends a message that those types of messages are not ones that resonate with people.
Look we are committed at the Wisconsin Department of Justice to standing up for the rights of all
Wisconsinites. And in the event that there are efforts to target people based on their identity
that are unlawful and we are able to take action, we're committed to doing that.
Josh one of the things Donald Trump said during the campaign was that he was going to enlist the
National Guard and Republican led states to help with this mass deportation. And in a state like
Wisconsin, which he didn't name, he said in states where that aren't run by Republicans,
he would send in the guard from other states to go do whatever. What would you, how would you
think about such an action happening in Wisconsin and the National Guard from another state coming in?
Well first let me just say, you know I think seeing what rhetoric from the campaign translates
into policy actions is going to be an important task for all of us. As I mentioned in my remarks,
you know there are a lot of different issues that were raised in the campaign and I think we could
see very different approaches taken by this administration. I don't think anybody thinks that
that the administration isn't going to you know be able to take action on some of the issues that
were talked about. A key issue for example was inflation and I think we would all like to see
the Trump administration take action to reduce prices. At the same time you know there were
there were a number of other comments made that even within the Republican party got pushed back.
You know Ron Johnson said not long ago that he didn't think that kind of mass deportation effort
was going to happen. So I think it remains to be seen what's coming. In terms of our approach,
what we are going to do is to make sure that that the laws and the Constitution are followed.
You know I think everybody wants to have an orderly and a safe process with our immigration
system and a process that's fair. I think it's critical that we protect people's rights in that
process and we ensure that there's due process. So we will see how things unfold. You know the
idea of having a national guard from one state going into another state is not something that I
think any governor I shouldn't say that that's probably too broad but I think most governors of
either party don't want to see. At the end of the day we are one nation and following an election
we should try to come together find common ground and figure out how we can make progress
not divide people state by state based on national guards or other topics.
Are there lessons from the first Trump administration you're going to take going into
multi-state litigation? I mean Wisconsin joint initiated a number of lawsuits but not as many
as say California and New York are you expecting to be more aggressive this time around?
I think we will continue to work together with other AGs offices as we confront challenges that
arise. You know we the first two years of the Trump administration I was not in office and
the policy at the Department of Justice was was quite different than it was during
my first two years in office which were the last two years of the first Trump administration
but but there's going to be a lot of action taken I think by the Trump administration quickly
to the extent that that action is inconsistent with the law and it's contrary to the interests
of Wisconsinites that's where we would get involved. Our goal is to protect Wisconsinites
and if that means working with other states or or taking a lead on something we're going to
assess how best we can approach it and take that action. Anti-abortion groups have criticized
Planned Parenthood for providing abortions in Wisconsin while your lawsuit over the 19th century
law is still pending. Is Planned Parenthood acting legally right now? Well right now we have a decision
from the Circuit Court in Dane County the only court that has addressed this issue and it found
that the 1849 law does not apply to consensual abortions. The court also issued a declaratory
judgment confirming that fact so so we have a ruling from a court finding that there is not a
broad ban on abortion as a result of the 1849 law. Now that case is going to be heard by the
state Supreme Court but if if there was anybody if if the other side in that case had wanted to
stop that judgment from being in effect it they folks could have sought to stay that decision that
didn't happen. So right now that's that's the the guiding principle we have on the law and
my understanding is that the actions Planned Parenthood has taken are consistent with that.
If Congress is able to enact nationwide restrictions on abortion, what actions could the Wisconsin
Attorney General's office take? What actions would you consider pursuing? Well it would depend on the
specifics of any legislation that was passed but in light of the Dobbs decision there is no
federal constitutional protection provided for abortion that goes beyond the basic protections
we have with any laws that are enacted and so the passage of a federal abortion ban would have
enormous consequences for abortion access in Wisconsin and in other states where where there
currently is access. So I don't want to give people false hope that there if there is a federal
abortion ban passed that there's likely to be a successful legal challenge. I think on the contrary
if Congress does pass a ban people are looking at having their access to safe and legal abortion
taken away. I don't want to see that happen. Does Trump's election make it more or less likely
to be a contrary election as Attorney General? You know I think that I feel confident in saying
that the last thing that most Wisconsinites are focused on right now is future elections
myself included sorry. I'm focused on it. I appreciate that Scott but right now our focus is very much
on reacting to the results of this election. Of course we have a lot of work we do at the
Department of Justice that is not meaningfully impacted by election results and we're going to
continue doing that work effectively but also making sure that the rights and freedoms of
Wisconsinites are protected going forward and making sure that we are prepared for how to do
that as we move into the next administration is is our focus right now. All right thank you all
for being here have a good weekend everybody. Thank you.