New Reporting: “Candidate Hogan’s Words on Trump Don’t Match His Record”

Republican Larry Hogan’s campaign rhetoric doesn’t match his real record of blocking efforts to hold Donald Trump accountable, according to new reporting from the Baltimore Banner.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT.

Baltimore Banner: Maryland Democrats Say Candidate Hogan’s Words on Trump Don’t Match his Record

By Brenda Wintrode

September 17, 2024

• Former Gov. Larry Hogan paints himself as one of a few Republicans who never backed down to ex-President Donald Trump, but the Democratic attorney general who served during Hogan’s two terms disagrees.
• The state’s former top attorney recalled dozens of times where Hogan could have stood up to Trump but repeatedly chose to stand down. Instead, lawmakers had to change state law, giving Frosh the unilateral authority to sue the Trump administration and cutting Hogan out of the process.
• During Trump’s term, Frosh sued the federal government on behalf of Marylanders dozens of times. Among the reasons: to protect their civil rights, to preserve the Affordable Care Act used by hundreds of thousands of Marylanders, to guard access to contraception and access to food stamps and to keep offshore drilling away from the Chesapeake Bay.
• The governor also withheld funding for Frosh mandated by the General Assembly.
• “He is the antithesis of someone who stands up for something,” Frosh said. “He was ducking and running.”

Legislature Cut Hogan’s Power

• Days after Trump’s inauguration, the 45th president ordered a travel ban, barring people from certain Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.
• Frosh wanted to sue on the basis of religious discrimination and on behalf of students and workers trying to come to Maryland. The quickest route to suing the federal government at the time was to seek the governor’s permission. But Hogan never answered Frosh’s request, he said.
• The attorney then went to the General Assembly for help, an alternative allowed by law, and the Democratic-led legislature acted. They changed state law to scrap Hogan’s authority, giving Frosh sole power to sue if the federal government threatened the public interest and welfare of Marylanders.

Hogan’s Balancing Act

• The campaign ad that has Frosh vexed calls Hogan “an early critic of Donald Trump, one of the few Republicans who never caved.” 
• If Hogan was truly disgusted, Frosh said there were far more opportunities to show it.

Put it in Writing

• Now that Hogan is again running for public office, critics are comparing the former governor’s projected image against their recollections of his actions, or lack thereof, while in office.
• The former governor’s record should face “legitimate public debate,” said Baltimore Democrat Del. Sandy Rosenberg.
• “Here’s a commercial on the one hand, but here’s what he [Hogan] didn’t do on the other,” Rosenberg said.
• “It is almost comical to me that it’s being framed as though he [Hogan] was not sort of doing the bidding of the [Republican] party at the time,” Ferguson said.
• “I don’t trust him to stand up for Maryland’s values when It comes down to it in the United States Senate, because I saw what he did when he was governor.”