Hogan would be the 51st seat Republicans need to take control of the Senate and push forward an extreme agenda
Maryland Democrats held a press call on Friday on Republican Larry Hogan’s record of putting the GOP ahead of Marylanders and how Hogan, who was personally recruited by Mitch McConnell to hand Republicans control of the Senate, would be the 51st seat Republicans need to push forward an extreme agenda.
Friday’s press call featured former Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, Senator Chris Van Hollen, Rep. Jamie Raskin, and Rep. Glenn Ivey. The call followed new reporting from the Baltimore Banner showing Hogan repeatedly sought to block efforts to hold the Trump Administration accountable for actions harmful to Maryland.
WATCH A RECORDING OF FRIDAY’S PRESS CALL
“Larry Hogan has been talking a lot about standing up to Donald Trump, that’s not what I remember… The legislature mandated that the governor appropriate a million dollars so my office could do its work [to hold Trump accountable]. Hogan was bitterly opposed to that, and despite the legal requirements, he just refused to do it,” said former Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh. “Please don’t tell me that Larry Hogan is going to stand up to Donald Trump. The house was on fire for four years, and Larry Hogan did not so much as spit on the blaze. I don’t believe he will do any better in the United States Senate. Sending him to give the Republicans the majority in the Senate, as Mitch McConnell hopes, is just flat out dangerous.”
“We know that Larry Hogan is going to give Republicans the gavel, because he said so himself. He was asked if he would caucus with the Senate Republicans, and his answer was, ‘of course, I’m a lifelong Republican,’” said Senator Chris Van Hollen. “What that means, and it needs to be very clear to Maryland voters, is that the very first vote that Larry Hogan will cast will determine control of the United States Senate. Hogan has said on his very first vote, he will put Mitch McConnell and Ted Cruz and Lindsay Graham in charge. Once you do that, once you hand over the gavel to the Republicans, they get to set their agenda, their MAGA agenda, and they get to block a Democratic agenda. And we know Marylanders don’t want that to happen.”
“Not only would putting the Republicans in charge be the first vote that Larry Hogan casts, it will be the most important vote. In essence, it determines everything else that’s going to happen after that,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin. “The key vote you cast is, ‘Are you going to put the Democrats in control of the agenda, or you’re going to put the Republicans in control of the agenda?’ To put the Democrats in control of the agenda in the U.S. Senate, we’re talking about restoring Roe versus Wade… universal violent criminal background checks, red flag laws, [and] a ban on assault weapons… What matters is, who are you voting to put in charge of the agenda.”
“Hogan campaigned against Maryland’s ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines… and he refused to sign legislation banning ghost guns, guns that don’t have serial numbers,” said Rep. Glenn Ivey. “That’s a bill that we’ve got a variation of that pending in the House right now. It has 160 Democratic co-sponsors and zero Republican co-sponsors. Hogan is going to be on the side of the Republicans on that if he gets here. Same thing with the assault weapons issue. I’ve got a bill that would raise the age to get assault style weapons from 18 to 21. We’ve got 160+ co-sponsors in the House. We have zero Republicans. Larry Hogan is going to be on the side of the zero Republicans.”
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