Hogan: Trump push against bipartisan border bill made me ‘angry enough’ to run for Senate

Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) says former President Trump’s efforts to help to tank the Senate’s bipartisan border bill is the reason he decided to enter his state’s Senate race.

“It’s why I decided to run for the Senate, actually,” Hogan said Monday.

“I had never given any consideration to this race. I said 100 times, I didn’t aspire to become a senator. I didn’t need a job. I wasn’t looking for another title,” Hogan told Luke Russert at the launch of MSNBC Live in downtown Washington.

But Hogan said he had a change of heart last month when he “saw a real solution to secure the border and to provide funding for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan — something that most of the Republican senators had said was, all those things were important — and they were they were told to vote against what they believed in.”

Trump had urged Republicans in the upper chamber to vote against the bill before it was unveiled last month, saying its passage would be a political victory for President Biden. The border security package failed in the Senate by a vote of 49-50, with the majority of the Senate’s GOP conference voting against it.

The move, said Hogan — a frequent critic of Trump — made him “frustrated and angry enough to say, ‘I think I’m gonna go down there and try to do something about this.’”

Hogan launched a surprise GOP bid last month to replace outgoing Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin (D).

The 67-year-old Senate hopeful said what’s missing in politics today is people who are “willing to put country above party” and “willing to stand up and do the right thing.”

“I think we need people that don’t care about their next reelection, that aren’t just bound and do whatever the party tells them to do. We need people that care about America and putting it first, whether that means standing up or not,” Hogan said.

He shed some light on who encouraged him to enter the Senate race, saying that while he had a “very brief conversation” with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), it was Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) who “put on a full-court press and had a dozen or so senators call.”

Former Vice President Mike Pence also gave him a call, Hogan said. But it was former President George W. Bush who was the “most convincing guy,” according to Hogan.

“[Bush] thought that I had an important voice that was needed for the party,” Hogan said, “and that this being in the Senate, he thought that there was a missing voice for our party to get back on track to a more Reagan-esque, bigger tent party.”

“And [Bush] said, ‘Even though you probably don’t want to be a senator, you know, we need you,’” Hogan said.

The ex-governor’s remarks came at the kickoff of the cable network’s live event series, MSNBC Live.

The packed event at The Showroom in Washington and hosted by Russert, who serves as its creative director, also featured an interview by former White House press secretary and MSNBC host Jen Psaki with Biden principal deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks; a conversation between Stephanie Ruhle and actor Sophia Bush and entrepreneur Nia Batts; and a preview of Super Tuesday with MSNBC’s data-loving national political correspondent, Steve Kornacki.