Baker Cries In Meeting With Domestic Abuse Survivors

PLYMOUTH, MA — In an emotional meeting with domestic abuse survivors Wednesday, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker openly cried and apologized for not being able to push through legislation that would have offered them more protection.

"I literally wrote in my notes, 'I sometimes wonder whose side we're on'," Baker said during the live-streamed roundtable.

Last year, Baker renewed his push a bill first filed four years ago that would have made it easier for prosecutors to hold people accused of violent crimes in jail while they await trial. Had the bill passed, it also would have required police to take fingerprints of all people arrested, no matter what the charge, rather than just those arrested for felony charges. The bill has stalled in the wake of pushback from defendants' rights advocates.

"We filed this legislation…four years ago," Baker said. "I have to say I've never been so distressed about my incompetence and my ability to actually deliver for someone than I am right now."

Baker also discussed the failed efforts to pass a "revenge-porn" bill that and would create criminal penalties for adults who distribute sexually explicit images for revenge purposes. Minors charged under the proposed laws would be sent to a diversion program.

With more than 30 other states having taken similar steps to prevent the practice sometimes known as "revenge pornography," Baker says he wants to address the "unintended problems" in the existing law.

Baker filed new versions of the two bills Wednesday. Neither has been assigned a bill number.