Former Florida GOP Rep. David Jolly on Monday chastised Lara Trump, the daughter-in-law of former President Donald Trump, after the Republican National Committee co-chair declined to say if the committee will support GOP Senate candidate Larry Hogan in light of the former Maryland governor’s tepid defense of “the rule of law.”
Hogan last week urged “all Americans to respect the verdict and the legal process” just before Trump, at the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse, became the first former U.S. president convicted of felony crimes.
“We must reaffirm what has made this nation great: the rule of law,” Hogan, who’s running an “unexpectedly tight” Senate race in “deep-blue” Maryland, wrote in a tweet.
READ MORE: 'Republicans are circling the wagons': GOP strategist busts claim verdict helps Trump
In response to Hogan’s statement, Trump campaign senior advisor Chris LaCivita declared, “you just ended your campaign.”
Lara Trump, who became a co-chair of the RNC in February, appeared to echo LaCivita's sentiment, telling CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday Hogan “doesn't deserve the respect of anyone in the Republican Party at this point.”
Asked if the RNC is “willing to cede the Senate seat to the Democratic Party and not support Larry Hogan,” Lara Trump declined to throw her support behind the Senate hopeful.
“What I'll tell you is we, of course, want to win as a party, but that is a shame and I think he should have thought long and hard before he said that publicly,” Lara Trump replied.
READ MORE: Mexican president-elect deemed 'less Jewish Jew' after she thanked her husband — Jesús
Discussing the Republican infighting on MSNBC Monday, Jolly agreed the RNC is willing to “throw away … at least a sliver of hope of a Senate majority” over Hogan’s comment.
"I'm struck at how bad Republicans are at this right now,” Jolly said. “... This is an example of a leading Senate candidate on their team, a Republican, probably the only Republican in Maryland that has a shot at winning statewide, but because he stepped out of line with perfect fealty to Donald Trump, he got swatted down and abandoned.”
“And this is why they're so bad at it,” Jolly continued. “First of all, in Maryland alone, this is a seat that if Republicans could win, it really means they have won the Senate back. They control the Senate, and yet Lara Trump and the Republicans are willing to let this one go just out of vanities for Donald Trump.”
“But the second reason they're so bad at this is the following: They are so off-message following the Trump trial," Jolly added. "The angry grievance for Republicans right now arguably still works in the economic populism lane, right? 'You're being left behind. Inflation is bad, I'm going to fight for your job.' That message resonates. Angry grievance around Donald Trump does not work. That is off-message.”
READ MORE: 'National embarrassment': Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Fauci attack 'crazy and irresponsible'
“Here’s what's so telling about the Republicans in this moment: The right answer is to say nothing about Larry Hogan,” Jolly explained. “You don't have to say anything about him. You don't have to acknowledge he said that. If you're Donald Trump and the RNC, let Larry Hogan, a Republican, run a Republican race that's right for Maryland Republicans, and let him try to win that race.”
“All Lara Trump has to do is shut up,” the former GOP representative said. “She couldn't do it out of vanity. Vanity is blinding in politics, and we're witnessing that after the Trump verdict.”
Watch the video below or at this link.
READ MORE: 'Just not true': Reporter delivers rapid-fire fact-check of GOP Trump defenders
