Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt was one of three statewide officeholders appointed to their roles by Gov. Mike Parson. He took over for Josh Hawley after Hawley won his U.S. Senate race in 2018.

Schmitt joined St. Louis Public Radio’s Rachel Lippmann and Jason Rosenbaum to talk about the work he’s done to combat violent crime and expand testing of sexual assault kits, his lawsuits against China and the Affordable Care Act, and how Donald Trump’s margin of victory might impact his race.

You can find an episode with Schmitt’s Democratic opponent, Rich Finneran, here.

Here’s some of what Schmitt discussed on the podcast:

• How his partnership with federal prosecutors known as Safer Streets will reduce violent crime in St. Louis and Kansas City. “For witnesses to come forward, they got to know that you’ve got prosecutors lined up, that when they charge this case, they’re actually going to move forward and they can get convictions,” he said.
• He defended his efforts to intervene in the case against Mark and Patricia McCloskey, who have pleaded not guilty to two low-level felonies after pointing guns at protesters on their street in June. Though Schmitt is not their attorney, he has filed a motion to have the case dismissed, because he said, “I think it’s a very dangerous precedent that people across the state or in the city of St. Louis could feel that they would potentially go to jail for exercising their fundamental right of self-defense.”
• He’s paying close attention to the 15th Senate District race between incumbent Republican Andrew Koenig and former state Rep. Deb Lavender. It would be bad for St. Louis County, he said, to not have Republican representation in a supermajority Republican chamber.

Follow Rachel on Twitter: @rlippmann

Follow Jason on Twitter: @jrosenbaum

Follow Eric Schmitt on Twitter: @eric_schmitt

Music: “Training Montage” from the Rocky IV soundtrack, by Vince DiCola