Far-left Democrat Deb Haaland used a friendly national television appearance on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” this week to promote her new memoir, tout her Biden administration record, and frame her campaign for governor as a direct fight against President Donald Trump.
Haaland, who recently won the Democratic nomination for New Mexico governor, appeared on the program to discuss her book, “A Voice Like Mine,” while the hosts repeatedly highlighted her biography and potential to make history again if elected governor.
The segment opened by noting that Haaland was one of the first Native American women elected to Congress and later became the first Native American to serve in a presidential cabinet when Joe Biden selected her as secretary of the interior.
Haaland leaned heavily into that theme, saying the title of her book came from her first congressional campaign.
“My media consultant, she said, we were all on a call one day and she just said, well, Congress has never heard a voice like yours,” Haaland said. “And I was like, yeah.”
She added that the phrase became a campaign slogan: “Congress has never heard a voice like mine.”
Haaland told the program that “representation matters,” pointing to her work on missing and murdered Indigenous people and federal Indian boarding schools.
But the interview quickly shifted from biography to politics, where Haaland gave voters plenty to notice.
Asked about running as a former Biden administration official after Democrats have faced anger over how Biden’s presidency ended, Haaland defended the record.
“I have a long record of accomplishment serving with President Biden as the secretary of the interior,” Haaland said.
She specifically touted placing “millions of acres of land into conservation” and claimed the Biden administration “stood up a clean energy transition for our entire country.”
“We have a strong record of accomplishment and nothing can take away from that,” Haaland said. “We did those. We did that work.”
For conservatives, that line may be one of the most revealing in the interview. Haaland is not distancing herself from Biden. She is running directly on the Biden-Haaland record, including the administration’s aggressive land and energy agenda.
Haaland also pointed to her time running the Department of the Interior, saying her executive experience separates her from other candidates.
“I have the experience of leading a department of 70,000 career staff and an $18 billion annual budget,” she said. “I did that for four consecutive years.”
Then came the anti-Trump pitch.
Haaland said that “right now leadership is important in our country” and declared that “governor is the first line of defense against the worst policies coming out of the Trump administration.”
When asked how she would deal with the Trump administration if elected governor, Haaland immediately listed deportations, Medicaid, and food stamps.
“It’s not just deportations, it’s cutting of Medicaid and SNAP benefits,” she said, claiming those policies “could close five rural hospitals in my state.”
She then blamed Trump for rising costs.
“Trump is making things more expensive,” Haaland said, citing gas prices “over four and a half dollars a gallon.”
Then she escalated the attack.
“Trump is making people in my state sicker, poorer and hungrier,” Haaland said.
Haaland said New Mexico would need to “push back against this administration” and “sue the administration for the things that they are obligated to our state for.”
“I know how the federal government works and I’m going to work hard to make sure that New Mexicans are protected against these worst policies that are coming out of the White House,” she added.
The comments offer a clear preview of Haaland’s general election strategy: nationalize the race around Trump, defend the Biden administration, and portray herself as the governor who would fight Washington Republicans.
The interview also included comments likely to raise eyebrows among conservatives concerned about land use, energy, and private property. Haaland described New Mexico and the broader United States through the lens of ancestral land, saying, “The United States was all Indian land at one time and it is our ancestral homeland.”
“And so we care deeply about the land, the water, our natural resources,” she said.
That worldview tracks closely with Haaland’s record at Interior, where she pushed conservation, clean energy, and federal land policies that many Western energy producers, ranchers, and rural communities have criticized as hostile to traditional land use.
Haaland also promoted the Biden administration’s green energy agenda, saying it produced “12 offshore wind projects and 50 solar projects in the southwest alone.”
The appearance was largely friendly, with hosts praising Haaland’s story and history-making political career. One host called her story “incredible,” while another highlighted her “thirty fifth generation New Mexican” background.
But for New Mexico conservatives, the substance was more important than the soft-focus framing.
Haaland used the national platform to embrace the Biden record, push a climate-heavy federal résumé, attack Trump over immigration and spending fights, and promise to use the governor’s office as a weapon against the current administration.
If elected, Haaland made clear she would not be a check on the far-left policies coming from national Democrats. She would be one of their most eager state-level enforcers.