Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan Says ‘a Couple’ of Trump Cabinet Secretaries Pushed Him to Challenge the President in 2020 GOP Primary
Maryland’s Republican Governor Larry Hogan said that he was encouraged by “a couple” of Donald Trump’s cabinet secretaries to challenge the president in the 2020 GOP primary.
During an appearance on Bloomberg TV, Hogan revealed the news from his new book, Still Standing. Hogan has been a frequent, outspoken critic of Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic — and the president has publicly swiped back.
Bloomberg host Kevin Cirilli brought up the apparent betrayal by members of the Trump cabinet in the Thursday interview. Calling it a “stunning revelation” Cirilli asked Hogan point-blank to name names.
“There were only a couple and I am not going to reveal the names because they are private conversations and I certainly would not want to see a couple of friends fired from the administration,” Hogan responded, implying the cabinet officials are still working for the White House. “I don’t think it comes as any surprise to folks that there are a lot of people in the administration who have sometimes spoken out. It was just one small thing to mention in the book. Certainly not a main focus of anything we were talking about. I did not have any kind of a serious effort to try to run for president. But a lot of people are encouraging me. I was surprised to hear how close some of these folks were in the White House.”
Following up, Cirilli asked Hogan what he thought the motivation was for urging the moderate Maryland Republican to run.
“I think it was a little bit of a concern about losing the election and when the bottom is going to drop out of this thing and what was the alternative,” Hogan said. “And could we find someone who could perhaps put together a winning coalition in the fall.”
The Bloomberg host then noted that Hogan has publicly said he did not vote for Trump in 2016, prompting a question about his possible endorsement of Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden. On Monday, the Democratic National Committee announced that former Ohio Republican Governor John Kasich will speak to the party’s 2020 convention, almost assuredly to endorse Biden.
“That’s a decision that I have until November to figure out,” Hogan said, not ruling it out. “Right now, I am chairing the National Governors Association and I’m sort of prohibited from getting too actively involved in the partisan politics because I’m representing governors on both sides of the aisle and we are trying to get things done in Washington. So I’ll leave that to later to figure out.”
Watch the video above, via Bloomberg TV.
