Exclusive: GOP Senate candidate Hogan touts Trump endorsement in private fundraiser after repeatedly saying he didn’t want it
CNN
Maryland GOP Senate candidate Larry Hogan touted an endorsement from Donald Trump in a private donor call and suggested it helps him with the former president’s “hard core” supporters, after repeatedly stating that he did not want Trump’s endorsement.
Maryland GOP Senate candidate Larry Hogan touted an endorsement from Donald Trump in a private donor call and suggested it helps him with the former president’s “hard core” supporters, after repeatedly stating that he did not want Trump’s endorsement. On the call Wednesday, a local GOP donor asked Hogan about the public perception that Hogan and Trump “hate each other.” The former Maryland governor clarified that he did actually receive Trump’s endorsement, according to a video of the call exclusively obtained by CNN. “Donald Trump actually endorsed me,” Hogan says, interrupting the donor and repeating: “Donald Trump actually endorsed me.” Hogan, who was a popular GOP governor during Trump’s first term in the White House, has often clashed with the former president and once even considered a primary challenge against him. And the relationship between the two men has become a major question during this year’s Senate run. “Governor Hogan was responding to a question about whether he and Former President Trump ‘hate’ each other. Governor Hogan rejects the notion of hatred in politics, and will attempt to work with anybody who is elected,” Blake Kernen, Hogan campaign spokesperson, said in a statement to CNN. “As he said in the same answer, he will always be his own independent voice even if it angers some members of his party. As he reiterated yesterday on CNN, he won’t be supporting Former President Trump,” the statement said.
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