Hogan calls Trump’s comments on Harris’s mental abilities ‘outrageous and unacceptable’
Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, the Republican candidate for Senate, said former President Trump’s comments attacking Vice President Harris as mentally disabled are “outrageous and unacceptable” in an interview Sunday.
In an interview on CBS News’s “Face the Nation,” host Robert Costa pressed Hogan about Trump’s remarks and asked whether he thinks the 45th president is fit for office.
“Well, I think all of that is outrageous and unacceptable. And I’ve already called him out, when he had the one interview where he was questioning her racial identity, and now he’s questioning her mental competence.”
Hogan, who’s running as a moderate Republican in a blue state, added that Trump’s remarks are “insulting not only to the — to the vice president, but to people that actually do have mental disabilities.”
“And, you know, I’ve said for years that Trump’s divisive rhetoric is something that we could do without. I think he’s his own worst enemy,” Hogan continued.
Hogan suggested Trump’s attack on Harris is a symptom of a larger problem in politics and Washington.
“I’m very concerned about the toxic and divisive politics that seems to continue really back and forth. It’s what people are so fed up with. It’s why they want to change Washington,” he said.
Hogan’s criticism follows recent attacks from the former president against his opponent, Harris, attacking her as mentally incompetent.
“Kamala is mentally impaired. If a Republican did what she did, that Republican would be impeached and removed from office, and rightfully so, for high crimes and misdemeanors,” Trump said at a rally in Wisconsin this weekend, according to multiple reports.
“Joe Biden became mentally impaired. Kamala was born that way. She was born that way. And if you think about it, only a mentally disabled person could have allowed this to happen to our country,” Trump added, according to the reports.
Earlier this week, Trump said Harris has “bigger cognitive problems” than President Biden, who ended his campaign amid public concern over his mental acuity.
Other members of his party have criticized Trump’s remarks, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who said Sunday on CNN, “I just think the better course to take is to prosecute the case that her policies are destroying the country,” adding, “I’m not saying she’s crazy — her policies are crazy.”
Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung did not address Trump’s remarks, or Hogan’s criticism, in a statement to The Hill, but he called Harris “wholly unfit,” blaming her for what Cheung suggested was an inadequate border strategy.
“Kamala Harris is wholly unfit to serve as president, as evidenced by the shocking ICE numbers that were released last week detailing her abhorrent dereliction of duty of not securing the border allowing murderers, rapists, and convicted criminals to pour into our country to terrorize communities,” Cheung said.
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