Maryland GOPers defend fellow Republican implicated in Trump meeting to overturn 2020 election
On Thursday, The Baltimore Sun reported that prominent Maryland Republicans are refusing to do anything to condemn Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) following reports of his close involvement with the effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
"The Baltimore Sun reached out to 10 state Republicans, including state party leaders, elected officials and candidates, seeking their opinion on the U.S. House panel’s finding Tuesday that Harris met with Trump and other GOP representatives at the White House and discussed a strategy in which Vice President Mike Pence would reject state electors’ tallies," reported Jeff Barker. "The committee says the plan — which Pence did not follow — was illegal, and Democratic candidates hoping Tuesday’s primary election earns them the chance to run against Harris this fall have called the six-term Republican a 'traitor' seeking to subvert democracy."
However, according to the Sun, some Republican officials in Maryland are largely still defending him — by trying to falsely claim Democrats did the same thing.
“Questioning the outcome of a presidential election is nothing new. Hillary Clinton told her supporters not to accept her loss in 2016,” said state Del. Kathy Szeliga to the paper, evidently unaware that Clinton conceded the election the next morning. Baltimore Republican Party official Tom Kennedy also claimed Rep. Jamie Raskin tried to overturn the 2016 election, saying “What everyone forgets is that, thanks to the Democrats, objecting to election results has practically become an American tradition.” (Raskin did not try to overturn the 2016 election.)
Meanwhile, according to the report, "Six Maryland Republicans, including state party chair Dirk Haire, gubernatorial candidates Dan Cox and Kelly Schulz, and Republican National Committeewoman Nicolee Ambrose did not respond Wednesday or Thursday to Sun emails or texts about Harris sent to them or their spokespersons. Mike Ricci, a spokesperson for Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, referred a reporter to an interview Hogan gave Wednesday on WBAL radio.
The two-term governor, when asked about the significance of Harris’ attendance at the White House meeting, told the station: 'Well, I don’t know anything about the meeting and unfortunately I had about a 14-hour day [Tuesday] so I wasn’t watching television so I didn’t see the hearing.'"
For his part, Harris himself has dodged reporters following the revelations about his involvement in the 2020 plotting.
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