Lara Trump, the co-chair of the Republican National Committee, on Sunday blasted former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) for not coming out to defend her father-in-law, former President Donald Trump, who was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records in his hush money trial.
Hogan issued a statement Thursday, ahead of the announcement of the former president’s conviction, urging Americans “to respect the verdict and the legal process” regardless of the outcome.
“At this dangerously divided moment in our history, all leaders — regardless of party — must not pour fuel on the fire with more toxic partisanship,” Hogan said in his statement. “We must reaffirm what has made this nation great: the rule of law.”
In an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union,” Lara Trump came out forcefully against Hogan, who is now the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Maryland.
“I think it’s ridiculous, and I think anybody who’s not speaking up in the face of really something that should never again have seen the light of day, a trial that would never have been brought against any other person aside from Donald Trump, doesn’t deserve the respect of anyone,” she said.
Hogan “doesn’t deserve the respect of anyone in the Republican Party at this point, and quite frankly anybody in America,” she continued.
Asked if the RNC would still be willing to spend party resources to support Hogan’s Senate bid, Trump replied: “I’ll get back to you on all the specifics monetarily, but what I can tell you is that as the Republican Party co-chair, I think he should never have said something like that.”
Chris LaCivita, a co-manager of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, also took issue with Hogan’s comments.
“You just ended your campaign,” LaCivita wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Hogan, a moderate Republican, served as governor of Maryland for eight years but was barred from running again due to term limits. About a third of the state’s registered Democrats crossed party lines twice to vote for him.
Hogan is now running for a seat held by the retiring Sen. Ben Cardin (D), giving Republicans a pick-up opportunity in a deep-blue state.
Earlier this year, Hogan considered running for president, but ultimately decided against it. He is one of the few Republicans who has been publicly critical of the former president.
In March, Hogan explained his decision to stay out of the Republican presidential primary in a New York Times op-ed. “We cannot afford to have Mr. Trump as our nominee and suffer defeat for the fourth consecutive election cycle,” he wrote. “To once again be a successful governing party, we must move on from Mr. Trump.”
A week later, Trump easily won the required number of delegates to secure the GOP presidential nomination.
