In remarks to political elites gathered in New York City this month, former Republican Maryland Governor Larry Hogan described the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol as “the worst thing that’s happened in our nation.”  Imagine that. Worse than the Civil War, Pearl Harbor, Vietnam, and 9/11.  Worse than the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, or Martin Luther King Jr. Worse than slavery. The former Maryland governor, who is flirting with the possibility of running for President on the No Labels ticket, demonstrates the political peril of going “off message” or simply not having one in the first place. 

His remarks go further than President Biden, who called the riot “the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War,” and who was widely criticized for making the comparison.  Hogan, on the other hand, doesn’t qualify his assertion.  It is important to understand the context of how Hogan described January 6 to see this unforced political error. 

Hogan’s comments at an October 3 political event are unedited.  Moderated by NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, the forum was a genteel political salon where Hogan had the microphone largely to himself. 

Larry Hogan (the video is cued to his comments): “Talking about standing up to democracy, and you know just a little bit of a segue, the assault on the Capitol was the worst thing that’s happened in our nation.”  

It was a big segue and one not even in response to Mitchell’s line of questions. How does a two-term governor with national ambitions and who identifies as a Republican make such an extreme statement outside of the political mainstream? Even most of the far-left politicians in the country don’t go that far.  Nevertheless, there are possible explanations.  One is that Hogan was pandering to a left-wing political audience.  

Hosted by Columbia University, the forum featured Hillary Clinton, who recently joined the faculty.  The organization holding the forum, the Institute of Global Politics, is itself part of the Ivy League school, where Clinton serves as the institute’s chairperson and which is stacked with prominent democrats serving in an advisory capacity, including Georgia political activist Stacey Abrams and Obama Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew.  The panel discussion entitled “Across the Aisle,” was promoted by PBS Newshour and featured just one other panelist, New York Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul. As an echo chamber for advancing left-wing, academic-driven public policy, the forum was a safe space for Hogan to invoke the politically charged Capitol Hill riot to a sympathetic audience.

Another possible reason to exaggerate the impact of 1/6 is to repeat a favored talking point.  Hogan’s act of making and receiving phone calls regarding activating the Maryland State Police and National Guard features prominently in a 10-minute campaign commercial in which he urges viewers to “stay tuned” for his future political plans. In the commercial, it is 200 Maryland State Police who were said to be activated as members of Congress apparently said to Hogan, “They were in danger,” urging him to dispatch state resources.   At the forum, however, the number of state police Hogan said were activated grew to 250, and Congressional leaders, including Maryland Democrat Steny Hoyer, were “begging him” to send the police and the guard.  Here is how Hogan described his actions at the forum:

Larry Hogan ( at 3:35:40 in the above video): “I immediately sent the Maryland State Police—250 riot-trained police—and I called up the Maryland National Guard and leaders of Congress were calling me as the next door governor begging for help. We were the first ones to arrive.” 

A final motivating factor for Hogan inflating the importance of 1/6 could be to call attention to his political enemy, Donald Trump, with whom he has disagreed as far back as 2016. Here is how Hogan describes Trump’s actions:

As we were taking action and sending people, the President was sitting in the Oval Office in the White House watching television, taking no action.

Okay, it’s Hogan to the rescue; democracy has been saved. While some might dispute these facts and whether the former governor is committing a political error with his recounting of January 6, it’s hard to see how Hogan reaches the political center of the country with such overblown rhetoric.  After all, the mission of No Labels, for which Hogan serves as national co-chair, is advancing bipartisan cooperation where issues like the economy are far more of a concern to voters than partisan divisions, let alone replaying the 2020 elections and subsequent transfer of power.   Hogan is essentially positioning himself on the far left of the political spectrum with this issue. We are left to speculate on Hogan’s motivations. 

If Hogan wishes to be perceived as a serious Presidential contender and reach independent-minded voters of this country, he should clarify his public remarks about 1/6. 

Jim Pettit was policy and communications director for Larry Hogan’s exploratory organization, Change Maryland, and served under former Gov. Robert Ehrlich. He has previously posted on RedState at Larry Hogan Uses 'No Labels' and His 2014 Playbook to Push His Shadow Candidacy for President.