He was an original Never Trumper who toyed with a 2020 GOP primary challenge, but Maryland Republican Gov. Larry Hogan is not jumping onto the impeachment express.
“We do need to get to the bottom of the facts. Absolutely we do. I’m very concerned about it. But am I ready to say the president should be impeached? No, I don’t have the ability to make that decision,” Hogan said Monday night in an appearance at Georgetown University.
“We have some serious allegations which are concerning and troubling. We haven’t had hearings. We haven’t gotten all the facts,” he said at the event hosted by Georgetown’s Institute of Politics and Public Service and the Georgetown University College Republicans.
In response to a @Georgetown student question, @GovLarryHogan says the evidence to come out so far in the Trump impeachment inquiry is “troubling” & “disturbing,” but that he is not ready to say definitely that he should be impeached. pic.twitter.com/HOIAeiqjRn
— Georgetown Politics (@GUPolitics) October 7, 2019
“I think we need to find out what the facts are to see if an inquiry is appropriate,” said Hogan.
Answering questions from students and the institute’s executive director, Mo Elleithee, the two-term governor said that unlike in the 1970s, when former President Richard Nixon faced impeachment, today’s politics and the media may be too partisan to allow a fair judgment.
On the media, he said, “There’s way too much opinion and not enough reporting of the facts so that people can make their own opinion. This is part of the problem of divisiveness in America.”
Responding to a student’s question, @GovLarryHogan talks about the media, “there’s way too much opinion and not enough reporting of the facts so that people can make their own opinion. This is part of the problem of divisiveness in America.” pic.twitter.com/rSH9WSRbxc
— Georgetown Politics (@GUPolitics) October 7, 2019
To Elleithee, Hogan recalled that his father, former Maryland Rep. Larry Hogan, was a staunch supporter of Nixon while he served on the House Judiciary Committee that considered impeaching the president over the Watergate affair.
In the end, he said, his father put partisanship aside and supported impeachment.
But in today’s politics, Hogan said there appears to be little appetite for a cool-headed assessment of the facts against Trump, under fire for seeking a political “favor” from Ukraine’s president in a controversial phone call.
“I’m concerned about in this environment can you have a hearing like that where people would listen to the facts and the evidence and be fair,” said the governor.
“I want to get to the facts, but I think in this environment it’s really difficult . In an election year are the Democrats going to be fair, is the media going to be fair, are the Republicans going to look at it? I don’t know how we get this thing solved,” he told the audience.
“It’s a different time and I think neither side is going to be looking at it objectively,” he said, adding, “I just know both sides are being very partisan and that’s no way to run a fair and objective hearing.”
