Former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan (R) said during an interview Monday that the classified document scandal that has engulfed several top U.S. political leaders is a “mess” and that politics needs to be kept out of the investigations.
Hogans’ remarks come after former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden both found themselves under active criminal investigations for their handling of classified material. Former Vice President Mike Pence self-reported finding classified material in his home, although it is unclear if there is an ongoing investigation into him.
“We ought to get to the facts and have a fair investigation and try to keep the politics out of it. And we probably ought to consider whether we’re over-classifying some of these documents,” Hogan said. “We just don’t know at this point who had what documents and why or how dangerous they were.”
Hogan says that he believes that Pence handled his situation better than both Trump and Biden.
WATCH:
Former Gov. Larry Hogan (R-MD) tells Neil Cavuto that he doesn't think Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee, says he'll certainly be challenged by other Republicans, and that if he were to be nominated, he likely wouldn't win. pic.twitter.com/xnhDXUnglI
— Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) February 1, 2023
TRANSCRIPT:
NEIL CAVUTO, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Governor, I’d be curious.
I know a governor gets to see some classified documents now and then. I don’t know how you respond to what’s been happening. And you’re hearing about this president, the former president, the former vice president, who knows how many others down the road.
What do you think of this whole classified document mess and, if you became president, how you would try to police it?
FMR. GOV. LARRY HOGAN (R-MD): Well, I think it is a mess.
And, quite frankly, we don’t have all the answers. And I think we need to get to the bottom of it.
But there’s an — it’s just like everything else in Washington. There’s a lot of kind of noise. And I think the average person just doesn’t understand. You got Republicans blaming Democrats, and Democrats blaming Republicans.
And, look, we ought to get to the facts and have a fair investigation and try to keep the politics out of it. And we probably ought to consider whether we’re overclassifying some of these documents. We just don’t know at this point who had what documents and why or how dangerous they were.
I think we should get to the bottom of it. We should try to fix it, so it doesn’t continue to happen. I think Rob Hur, who was the Trump U.S. attorney for Maryland, is a really sharp, fair guy who’s going to do a thorough investigation.
And I think Mike Pence handled it the right way. He came out right away, admitted the mistake, and cooperated, and apologized. And I think that probably he handled it better than either President Trump or President Biden did.
CAVUTO: But, obviously, it is something that’s out of control, to your point, Governor.
I’m just wondering, many of these cases have involved aides or something who are packing up for the boss. In this case, it could be the former vice president, even the past president or the present president, and they see this stuff.
Now, whether they start rifling through it themselves is anyone’s guess. But the fact that at least President Biden and Vice President Pence have said they were unaware — that’s not quite the same with President Trump, as you know — is that itself even more dangerous than being aware?
HOGAN: Well, I guess we — it potentially is pretty dangerous, and which is why we — I think we got to get to the bottom of it and trying to find a fair and objective process, so we just — it’s not just all politics, and we actually try to fix a problem that appears to exist.
And, yes, we don’t know who packed up the documents, what the documents were, whose responsibility it was. But it’s a problem. And it’s a mistake that we have got to figure out how to fix.