Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan took to Facebook Monday to hit back at claims by a local columnist that baldness and chemotherapy treatments are to blame for his “nasty” politics in closing the Baltimore City Detention Center.
“A ’columnist’ called me nasty and mean for not giving Democratic legislators prior notice of our plan to close the Baltimore City Detention Center,” the Republican wrote on Facebook. “He even blamed it on my cancer, saying maybe the bald head and chemo was making me mean.”
Barry Rascovar wrote an opinion piece Sunday for the online Maryland Reporter, which asked, “What happened to the friendly, smiling, easygoing Larry Hogan? Mr. Nice Guy has morphed into Mr. Nasty.”
“Perhaps his hairless Kojak look, as well as his tough chemotherapy sessions, help explain what’s going on,” Mr. Rascovar wrote.
Mr. Hogan, who revealed to the public in June that he has been diagnosed with an advanced and aggressive form of lymph node cancer, shot back that for “safety reasons, we could not leak this plan in advance to the gang leaders and criminals running the jail.”
“We did give notice early that day to legislative leaders in advance,” he wrote. “In spite of 10 days of 24-hour chemo I haven’t become mean and nasty, I’m still the same nice guy I have always been, and we are still accomplishing great things for Maryland.”
In response, Mr. Rascovar told the Washington Free Beacon that “[t]he governor put his own spin on what’s been happening in his Facebook post, which all politicians do. But the facts — and his own words at the jail-closing announcement in Baltimore — tell a different story.”
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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