Hogan: 2024 GOP candidates 'should be disqualified from running' for refusing to 'challenge' Trump

18 June 2023

Former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan (R) on Sunday tore into Republican 2024 presidential candidates who passively validate right-wing defenses of ex-President Donald Trump, who despite facing dozens of criminal charges is the party's clear frontrunner for the nomination.

"What's it gonna take?" to defeat Trump in the primary? ABC News host Jonathan Karl asked Hogan on This Week.

"Well, I think it's gonna take somebody that emerges from the pack and that really does go directly at him. I think Chris Christie did a good job and started out with a good launch because he's the only one challenging him," Hogan said. "And if you look at, you know, we got eleven, twelve challengers out there that aren't challenging him and they're, you know, sort of enablers and, and just making excuses. I don't see anyone saying, 'Why should we move on from Donald Trump' with the exception of Chris Christie and maybe Asa Hutchinson, two of my former colleagues, both of whom are tough prosecutors and former US attorneys that are taking this indictment more seriously than some of the others. But look Trump obviously gotta bounce. We, I think most of us expected him to get a bounce because there's a rallying around him and defending him because they feel he's being unfairly attacked, and it's the weaponization of the Justice Department. But it's absurd that candidates won't stand up and say that 'These are very serious charges, we need to take them seriously.' And you know, if you're not gonna challenge him, why challenge him?"

Karl had additional questions.

"But, but what do you make of Nikki Haley, who on one day comes out and says, 'These are very serious allegations. If true, he was reckless with national security,' and then the next day attacks the Justice Department and says that she would suggest that she would pardon him?" he queried.

"Well, I thought it was absurd and she was right the first day," Hogan replied. "But, you know, I think they're all trying to find that balance. And I get the fact that they are concerned about overzealous prosecution. It's, but this is not the Russia probe. You know, this has very serious potential national security implications. And to say, 'We don't wanna look at that?' Anybody who doesn't wanna look at the facts, they should be disqualified from running, not just Trump."

Watch the clip below or at this link.

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