Hogan slams Trump over NABJ race comments: ‘The American people deserve better’

Maryland Senate candidate Larry Hogan (R) on Wednesday offered a subtle critique of former President Trump after the Republican nominee questioned Vice President Harris’ racial identity during an offensive interview at the National Association of Black Journalists conference in Chicago.

“Attacking the racial identity of Vice President Harris or anyone is unacceptable and abhorrent,” Hogan said., Former Governor of Maryland, I wrote this on Wednesday night “The American people deserve better,” he said on social media platform X, without naming the former president.

During the event, Trump appeared to mock Harris’ background: When asked if Republicans were claiming that Vice President Harris was a “DEI hire” (for diversity, equity and inclusion), he responded that the Democratic front-runner “just happened to be black in recent years.”

“I knew her indirectly for a long time, but not much directly. She was always just promoting her Indian heritage, her Indian heritage,” Trump told the crowd.

“I didn’t know she was black until a few years ago when she became black, and now she wants to be known as black,” he added. “So, I don’t know if she’s Indian or black.”

ABC News correspondent Rachel Scott said Harris has “always identified as a Black woman.”

Mr Trump went on to criticise Mr Scott’s tone as “hostile” and “nasty”.

“But you know, I respect both people, but she clearly isn’t,” he said. “She’s been Indian her whole life and then all of a sudden she turns around and becomes black. I think someone should look into that.”

The vice president’s mother immigrated from India and her father immigrated from Jamaica. She attended Howard University, a historically black college in Washington, D.C., where she was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

Democrats and White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre quickly responded to the remarks, calling Trump’s response “nasty” and “insulting.”

Hogan has emerged as one of Trump’s most vocal Republican critics in recent years, but Trump said in June that he hoped Hogan would win.

The former governor has sought to distance himself from the former president as he seeks the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Ben Cardin in strongly Democratic Maryland, even going so far as to run ads calling for his independence from Trump.

The Hill has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.