Maryland GOP Gov Hogan: Trump-backed state party governor nominee is a 'nut,' not 'mentally stable'

Outgoing Maryland GOP Larry Hogan is escalating his comments about the mental health of his state party's Trump-backed gubernatorial nominee, whom Hogan earlier this week called a "nut" and not "mentally stable."

Hogan, an outspoken critic of former President Trump, made the comment Wednesday on WGMD-FM, a conservative-leaning radio station on the Delmarva Peninsula.

"He's not, in my opinion, mentally stable," Hogan said of nominee Dan Cox, according to The Washington Post. "He wanted to hang my friend, Mike Pence, and took three busloads of people to the Capitol."

Cox last year called Pence a "traitor" because as Trump’s vice president he rejected calls to stop Congress from certifying the 2020 election results inside the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, when the riot started.

Cox, a state delegate who attended the MAGA rally before the riot, later apologized for using such language and denounced the violence that day in the nation's capital.

Hogan, who this weekend is at the Iowa state fair – considered a must-stop for prospective presidential candidates – also said in the radio interview that Cox has "no chance whatsoever" of winning Maryland’s gubernatorial election in November. (Among registered voters in the state, Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-to-1.)

Cox said in response: “Hogan has a problem with telling the truth and mounting smear antics.” 

Hogan has also previously referred to Cox, who strong opposed Hogan's pandemic mandates, as a "QAnon whackjob."