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Baker, who emphasized his campaign work for his fellow Republicans as “he’s been a Republican for 40 years,” called the president’s claims of voter fraud “unfounded.”
“But this latest move to employ the Justice Department on all of this is wildly inappropriate and stalling an orderly transition process, especially at a time like this, is equally unacceptable,” he said, adding, “I can’t think of a worse Es time to stop a transition that in the midst of a deadly pandemic to which the federal government remains the main responsibility to respond. “
Hogan, a moderate Republican who speculated he was considering a presidential bid in 2024, called what is happening “really dangerous.”
“In the midst of this pandemic, this economic collapse, people are dying all over the country, not knowing if we are going to have a transition,” he lamented during a press conference on Tuesday.
“There is no transition, and how long is this going to last?” he continued. “Without a finished stimulus package, without additional relief from the virus, it is insane. We have to move on.”
The comments from both governors come as the administration has so far refused to sign a key document needed to formally begin President-elect Joe Biden’s transition process as Trump continues to baseless allegations of voter fraud and refuses to concede the race. As of Tuesday, the nation has seen more than 10.2 million cases and 239,300 deaths from the coronavirus, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Both men, who congratulated Biden on his projected victory, had chosen not to endorse Trump in the presidential election.
Baker has long made it clear that he does not align ideologically with the president, and his communications director said in October that the governor did not endorse Trump’s re-election bid. In March, Baker refused to tell the State House News Service who he had voted for in the state’s Republican primary, but said he did not vote for Trump. The governor had previously said that he did not vote for Trump in 2016.
Hogan did not promise to vote for Trump when asked by radio host Hugh Hewitt in July, saying that he would decide who he would vote for on Election Day after writing to his father during the 2016 election. He told the Washington Post in October he wrote in Ronald Reagan for President when he cast his 2020 ballot, saying, “I thought it was important to just cast a vote that would show the type of person I would like to see in office.”
The two governors have also criticized Trump on other key issues.
Baker criticized the president’s “bitterness, combativeness and self-interest” in the wake of protests across the country following the police assassination of George Floyd.
In September, Baker
urged Trump and the Senate “to allow the American people to vote for president before a new judge is nominated or confirmed” following the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Days later, he criticized the idea of staying in office after losing an election after Trump failed to commit to facilitating a peaceful transition of power.
The pandemic has exacerbated tensions between Trump and Hogan.
Hogan wrote a scathing Washington Post op-ed in April pointing out the initial “failed” efforts of the coronavirus testing administration, followed by a book published over the summer further criticizing the federal response to the pandemic.
This story and the headline have been updated to include comments from Republican Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan.
CNN’s Betsy Klein, Alison Main, Keith Allen, and Leslie Holland contributed to this report.
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