Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan calls Trump's tweets "outrageous and inappropriate"
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has had enough of the president's tweets — and he's had enough of the attention on them.
Hogan, a popular Republican governor in a heavily blue state, has no tolerance for President Trump's three-day Twitter rant against respected black lawmaker Rep. Elijah Cummings and Baltimore. Mr. Trump's comments declaring Cummings' district a "rodent-infested mess," among other things, have prompted assessments from critics that he's inflaming racial tensions again, after earlier this month telling four congresswomen of color to "go back" to their countries. Mr. Trump even called Cummings, the chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee looking into the president's finances, a "racist."
Hogan, addressing the president's attacks on Cummings in an interview with Baltimore radio station WBAL on Monday, called the comments "outrageous and inappropriate." But he also expressed frustration with responses to the president's tweets.
"Enough is enough," Hogan said. "I mean, people are just completely fed up with this kind of nonsense."
Hogan lamented that angry and divisive politics are tearing the nation apart, urging the White House and Congress to focus more on solutions than name-calling. Maryland, Hogan said, wouldn't turn down more assistance from Washington, placing responsibility on both Congress and the White House.
"We sure could use some help from the White House and from the Congress," Hogan said. "And the past couple of days would have been a lot more productive if we were talking about solutions to problems rather than who tweeted what, and who called whom by what name. I mean, it's just absurd."
"Perhaps once all this tweeting stops, and all the name calling calms down, maybe we can get Congressman Cummings and his colleagues in Congress and the president and his team over at the White House to focus on what can the federal government do to help us stop these issues in Baltimore City and in Chicago and in Los Angeles and other cities around the country, because we're not the only ones," Hogan added.
At the beginning of the year, Hogan wasn't ruling out a primary bid to challenge Mr. Trump. But he has since announced he won't try to take the president on in 2020.
"I have a commitment to the 6 million people of Maryland and a lot of work to do, things we haven't completed," Hogan told The Washington Post in June.