Rep. Harris downplays impact of Capitol siege, defends President Trump’s election claims

Rep. Andy Harris on Wednesday compared protesters’ siege of the U.S. Capitol, which left one woman dead, to Black Lives Matter and other protest movements. He also echoed President Donald Trump’s false claims of widespread irregularities in the November election.

Harris, the sole Republican in Maryland’s congressional delegation, is also one of the dozens of House Republicans who went into Wednesday’s counting of electoral votes prepared to sign onto objections to returns from battleground states.


Harris was on the House floor with 120 to 150 other members, debating the objection to Arizona’s 11 electoral votes for President-elect Joe Biden, when the U.S. Capitol police escorted House leadership off the floor.

“And normally when that happens, you have an idea that there’s some security issue going on,” Harris told Phil Yacuboski.

He had heard tear gas was used in the Rotunda and after protesters started knocking on the chamber doors, police escorted members from the chamber.

“It definitely got out of hand, no question about it. it shouldn’t happen like that,” Harris said. “But again, people are very discouraged, they’re disappointed. The country is polarized. People have watched riots over the summer, for valid reasons, but they’ve turned violent with no repercussions.”

Trump released a video asking protesters to go home but also repeating false claims about the November election.

“Look, I think he made it very clear that people should leave peacefully. I think he made it clear that they should always obey the law enforcement orders,” Harris said. “What was lacking, in this case, was, when the president called for an investigation into an election that has a lot of irregularities… he’s not been joined by people on the left.”

He said Biden should endorse the formation of a blue-ribbon commission that would spend 10 days investigating claims of widespread voter fraud and other irregularities. The Trump campaign has mounted dozens of court challenges, finding little success.

“But short of that, I’m not sure that we’re going to get out of this without some people feeling that they’ve been wronged,” Harris said.

He said he would be ready to return to the House floor on Wednesday night, though said it may take some time to clean up the chamber, which was looted.

Stay connected with the most up-to-date coverage of the stories that matter. Tune in to WBAL NewsRadio for real-time updates and in-depth analysis. Listen at 1090AM, FM 101.5, wbal.com, or through the WBAL NewsRadio app. Stay informed, stay ahead.

Recommended Posts

Loading...