Donald Trump slams 'RINO' Maryland Governor Larry Hogan for spending $9.5M on 'flawed' COVID tests - after the Republican broke ranks and called on the president to concede election
President Donald Trump has slammed Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, for breaking ranks after the governor called on him to concede the election.
'This RINO will never make the grade. Hogan is just as bad as the flawed tests he paid big money for!' Trump tweeted on Sunday morning, using the acronym for 'Republican in name only.'
Trump linked to a Breitbart article which relayed reports that coronavirus tests imported from South Korea by Hogan were flawed and ended up not being used.
Hogan spent $9.46 million in April to import 500,000 coronavirus tests from South Korea with the help of his South Korean-born wife, but the tests turned out to be flawed, the Washington Post reported.
Trump golfs at Trump National Golf Club on Saturday in Sterling, Virginia. Trump went golfing as he continues to challenge the results of the 2020 Presidential election
Hogan, a frequent critic of Trump, trumpeted the arrival of the South Korea tests in April and praised the assistance of his South Korean-born wife Yumi (with him above)
Maryland 'quietly' paid the same South Korean company an additional $2.5 million for 500,000 replacement tests, but the University of Maryland laboratory abandoned its use of the replacement tests after a spate of suspected false positives.
Around 370,000 of the replacement tests have been used by a private lab, the Post said.
Hogan, a frequent critic of Trump, trumpeted the arrival of the South Korea tests in April and praised the assistance of his South Korean-born wife in obtaining them.
Trump's fusillade came after Hogan appeared on CNN's 'State of the Union' program, criticizing the refusal of many in his own party to acknowledge Trump's defeat.
'We're beginning to look like a banana republic,' Hogan told CNN host Jake Tapper. 'Frankly I'm embarrassed that more people in the party aren't speaking up.'
Trump's fusillade came after Hogan appeared on CNN's 'State of the Union' program, criticizing the refusal of many in his own party to acknowledge Trump's defeat
Asked if he believed that Trump would concede the election, Hogan replied: 'Well, I have confidence that, on January 20, the president-elect is going to be sworn in, but I'm not sure I could say that I'm confident that the president's going to do the right thing.'
'It just gets more bizarre every single day. And, frankly, I'm embarrassed that more people in the party aren't speaking up,' he said.
Other Republicans have begun to speak out against Trump's tactics. Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a prominent Trump ally, said Sunday it was time for him to concede the race to President-elect Joe Biden .
'Yes,' he told George Stephanopoulos on ABC's 'This Week' when asked if Trump should concede to Biden to enable the transition process to begin.
'And what's happened here is quite frankly, the conduct of the president's legal team has been a national embarrassment,' Christie said.
Christie said the president has had access to the courts. 'If you've got evidence of fraud present it,' he said.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, an ally of President Donald Trump, said Sunday on ABC's 'This Week' that it was time for Trump to concede to President-elect Joe Biden
President Donald Trump, photographed Sunday at the White House before leaving for a game of golf, has refused to concede the election to Biden and instead continues to push legal challenges and conspiracy theories about widespread fraud
On Sunday, Trump left the virtual G20 conference early to go golfing at his Virginia resort for the second day in a row.
Earlier, Trump had bristled at news reports that said he blew off a part of the G20 on Saturday to go golfing.
'Just arrived at Virtual G20,' Trump tweeted Sunday morning. 'Was here yesterday also , but some of the Fake News Media failed to report it accurately - as usual. My speech is available (they said I didn't make a speech).'
Since Biden was declared the winner two weeks ago, Trump has launched a barrage of lawsuits and mounted a pressure campaign to prevent states from certifying their vote totals.
So far, attempts to thwart certification have failed in courts in Georgia, Michigan and Arizona.
On Saturday, Judge Matthew Brann, a Republican nominated by former President Barack Obama, dismissed a similar effort in Pennsylvania, writing that the case amounted to 'strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations.'
Brann compared the campaign's legal arguments to 'Frankenstein's Monster,' concluding that Trump's team offered no proof of rampant corruption.
For Trump to have any hope of remaining in the White House, he needs to eliminate Biden's 81,000-vote lead in Pennsylvania. The state is due to begin certifying its results on Monday.
Trump's lawyers vowed a quick appeal, but lawyers who opposed him in court say he is out of time.
'This should put the nail in the coffin on any further attempts by President Trump to use the federal courts to rewrite the outcome of the 2020 election,' said Kristen Clarke, president of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
Biden got an estimated 6 million more votes than Trump in the November 3 election, and is projected to prevail 306-232 in the state-by-state Electoral College system that determines who will take the oath of office on January 20.
On Friday, the number of positive coronavirus cases in the U.S. since the start of the pandemic stood at more than 12 million, and the death toll at 255,000.
Positive test results and hospitalizations have accelerated across the country in recent weeks, with nearly one million more cases recorded in just the last 6 days.
This compares with the 8 days it took to get from 10 million cases to 11 million, and the 10 days it took to get from 9 million to 10 million.
More than 1 million people flew through U.S. airports on Friday, according to data from the Transportation Security Administration, fueling fears of even greater spread of the virus. It was the second-heaviest domestic air traffic day since the start of the pandemic, despite pleas from health officials for Americans to stay home.
'This is the 2nd time since the pandemic passenger volume has surpassed 1 million,' TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein wrote on Twitter on Saturday.
Friday marked another milestone in the United States as the highest number of new COVID-19 cases was reported - 196,815 infections in a day.