Hogan calls for ‘both sides’ to ditch ‘toxic’ rhetoric after Trump assassination attempt

SUITLAND, Maryland — Maryland Republican Senate hopeful Larry Hogan is looking to both political parties to turn down the heated rhetoric in the wake of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.

The “tragic incident,” as the former two-term centrist GOP governor described it, was fueled by “divisive rhetoric and angry, toxic politics” from Democrats and Republicans.

“I think we’re at a dangerous inflection point where it’s like a tinderbox, and everyone needs to be careful with their words,” Hogan told the Washington Examiner during a campaign stop to meet with veterans Tuesday. “Words from either side that kind of make it worse are something that we don’t need right now. I’ve been long a proponent of lowering the temperature and finding a way to do away with the divisive rhetoric and the angry, toxic politics.”

He added: “Frankly, it’s not just what the Democrats said or what the Republicans — it’s both sides need to just start finding a way to bring the country together.”

Drawing contrast, many Republicans have faulted the rhetoric from President Joe Biden and his Democratic allies for the shooting that grazed Trump, left one spectator dead, and injured two others.

Hogan is facing Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, a Democrat, in the race that could determine control of the Senate. The battleground contest between the two has been, by all accounts, fairly cordial.

The pair embraced after running into each other at a July 4 parade. Hogan declined to say Tuesday that Alsobrooks was part of the “toxic” politics dilemma facing the country.

“We’re just trying to stay focused on the issues that matter to most Marylanders,” he said. “We disagree on issues. But hopefully, we can keep it to be very civil dialogue between the two of us. I like her and respect her. We just have very different visions and very different views.”

As an anti-Trump Republican, Hogan is trying to overcome the odds in deep-blue Maryland that Biden dominated by more than 30 points in 2020.

Hogan said he was not familiar with Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), the 39-year-old tapped as Trump’s vice presidential nominee this week during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. Hogan lauded Vance’s Marine Corps service and his age, a refreshing change of pace from the “two old guys running for president.”

“But he and I have different views on a lot of things,” Hogan said.

Vance has received intense scrutiny over disparaging remarks he made about Trump before being elected to the Senate in 2022, a campaign that the former president endorsed.

Known then as the author of the New York Times bestselling book Hillbilly Elegy, Vance classified himself as a “’Never Trump’ guy” and had no shortage of denigrating euphemisms before Trump took the Oval Office in 2017: “idiot,” “America’s Hitler,” a “cynical a**hole like Nixon,” and “unfit for our nation’s highest office.”

Vance has since said he was wrong about Trump and was won over during the former president’s first term. The senator has pointed the finger at the Biden campaign’s rhetoric for the assassination attempt on Trump.

Hogan said Vance’s transformation was reminiscent of a broader Trump theme in the GOP, one that he has long criticized.

“I think that’s been not just particular to J.D. Vance, but an awful lot of people who seem to be changing their views and their positions,” Hogan said. “I’m not one of them.”