Maryland Governor and Baltimore Mayor Abruptly Remove Mics and Walk Away During 'Touchy' Interview With CNN's Don Lemon

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan abruptly walked away during an interview with CNN's Don Lemon Monday night after he repeatedly pressed them about their efforts to maintain order amid protests over the death of Freddie Gray, a black man who died of a spinal injury sustained while in police custody.

Lemon asked Rawlings-Blake and Hogan why a state of emergency and outside resources weren't called in over the weekend when demonstrations appeared to be intensifying, with both the governor and mayor responding that officials initially had the situation under control.

"It escalated to the point this evening — or late this afternoon — where it was out of control and when the mayor called and asked us to declare a state of emergency, we were ready and prepared," Hogan said.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan walk away from an interview with CNN's Don Lemon (CNN)

Rawlings-Blake said she had concerns about bringing in the National Guard and other resources she said could have prematurely escalated the violence.

"We have to respond to what was going on on the ground," she said, adding that she didn't want to turn Baltimore into a military state and wanted to be prudent about deciding when additional assistance would become essential. "When we saw the breakout violence in the small groups, we realized that it was time to bring in additional resources."

Lemon wasn't appeased by those responses, though, and continued to ask why the state of emergency wasn't declared until Monday.

"I don't know how many times we can to tell you, but we can't activate until we've been asked to come in," Hogan said, with the mayor further explaining why she waited until Monday to ask for help.

"This was an incident that sparked this afternoon," Rawlings-Blake said. "This has not been around the clock activity … we got the incidents that happened over the weekend under control."

Hogan reiterated that every resource at the local, state and federal level is being deployed and that the mayor and governor are doing their best to get the situation under control.

After 11 minutes of back and forth, Rawlings-Blake and Hogan abruptly ended the interview, walked away and removed their microphones, with Lemon subsequently calling them "touchy."

Watch the exchange below:

(H/T: Mediaite)