Maryland Senate Republican nominee Larry Hogan sought to strike a neutral tone to former President Donald Trump’s guilty verdict on Thursday, contrasting the GOP’s message that it was a “rigged” political process.
Hogan, a former two-term governor and centrist Republican, said in a statement before the guilty verdict was handed down by a jury in Trump’s New York hush-money trial that Americans should “respect the verdict and the legal process” — regardless of the result.
TRUMP GUILTY IN MANHATTAN HUSH MONEY CASE
“At this dangerously divided moment in our history, all leaders — regardless of party — must not pour fuel on the fire with more toxic partisanship,” Hogan said. “We must reaffirm what has made this nation great: the rule of law.”
He was met with swift rebuke from Trump campaign senior advisor Chris LaCivita, who suggested Hogan sealed his own political fate in a deep blue state. A longtime anti-Trump Republican, Hogan will need all the GOP voters he can muster in order to flip the open Senate seat red.
“You just ended your campaign,” LaCivita responded to Hogan on social media.
The Hogan campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump was found guilty on all 34 felony counts for falsifying business records of a hush-money payment to pornstar Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election to shield a past alleged extramarital affair.
Congressional Republicans were unified in their decry of the “rigged” verdict that they vowed would only invigorate the GOP to get Trump elected in November.
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“The real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people,” Trump told reporters outside the courtroom following the verdict. “We didn’t do a thing wrong. I’m a very innocent man.”
Trump will be sentenced on July 11 at 10 a.m.
