Maryland GOP Gov. Larry Hogan forcefully rebuked President Trump for his speech prematurely declaring victory in the presidential race and indicating he would challenge the results in court on Wednesday, calling it “outrageous” and “uncalled for.”
“I thought it was outrageous and uncalled for and a terrible mistake. I have often said, while we may have disagreements here and there, I said sometimes the president can be his own worst enemy. I think that was another example of it early this morning with the lashing out,” Hogan said during a virtual Washington Post event when asked for his opinion of the president’s speech early Wednesday morning.
“Regardless of where you stand on this race and what party you are and who you voted for, most Americans really want a free and fair election process, and they want us to count the votes,” Hogan continued. “I think they are doing that in every state, that they’re being very cautious to make sure we count all the absentee ballots and provisional ballots. There’s Republicans and Democrats overseeing the process.”
“And to stir up all of this anger and frustration, I mean, I think is a really bad mistake for the president to make, and, quite frankly, I think that’s what voters rejected in this race, was the divisiveness and the kind of anger on both sides,” he added.
In a speech to supporters at the White House early Wednesday morning, Trump said he had won the race against Democratic nominee Joe Biden even as millions of votes had yet to be counted. He also claimed he would seek action by the Supreme Court to stop fraud, implicitly threatening the continued counting of ballots.
“This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election,” Trump said in remarks from the East Room of the White House, later adding, “We want all voting to stop.”
Trump’s remarks came as several battleground states remained too close to call. As of Wednesday afternoon, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Nevada and Georgia had not been called for either candidate by most media observers, casting uncertainty over the election. Both campaigns expressed optimism that they could win the election.
On Wednesday, Trump continued to wage misleading attacks on the voting process on Twitter, and some of his messages were marked by the social media company as containing disputed information.
Hogan has been a rare and vocal critic of the president within his own party. Hogan was among a handful of conservatives who rebuked Trump for his remarks Wednesday after Election Day.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), who has informally advised Trump, including helping him with debate preparation, called Trump’s remarks a “bad strategic decision” and a “bad political decision.”