Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md.-1st, is rejecting calls for his resignation for continuing to argue against accepting the Electoral College vote from Pennsylvania just hours after a mob egged on by President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol and murdered a Capitol Police officer.
Those urging Harris to resign also note that he sought to instigate a physical confrontation on the House floor early Thursday morning after getting his feelings hurt for being called a liar.
In a statement issued Thursday afternoon, Harris said he would not resign, but also compared Wednesday’s deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol by armed insurrectionists to violent protests last summer.
Harris, in his written statement, said:
“I have routinely and consistently rejected violent protests, whether in the case of yesterday, or last summer.
“Democrats are calling for unity, yet also calling for the expulsion of Members who objected in yesterday’s Electoral College count. Today, some Marylanders are even calling for my resignation, which I will not do.
“My colleagues and I held legitimate Constitutional concerns about how the November election was conducted in certain states and felt compelled to highlight those concerns during the formal vote count. We did not call for the overthrowing of an election. Joe Biden will be President on January 20th.
“Some of my colleagues, including those still in the Maryland delegation, offered objections in 2017 when counting the electoral votes for President Trump. Congress is afforded the right to count, and object, to electoral votes, which we utilized yesterday to highlight concerns we had regarding the November election.
“There was nothing treasonous or seditious about it in 2017, nor this year.”
Harris backed objections to the electoral college counts from Arizona and Pennsylvania. GOP objections to the results from four other swing states — Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin — did not get a debate or vote when those objections failed to get support from any U.S. senators.
Lawmakers had begun the debate on the objection to the Arizona count when the rioters broke out glass in doors and windows to illegally gain entry to the U.S. Capitol.
After order was restored, the debate continued and the objection was soundly rejected in both the House and Senate. As a result of the violence, several U.S. senators who had planned to join objections to one or more of five other swing states announced they would no longer support those efforts
However, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, who was the first lawmaker to call for objections to the Electoral College results, did sign on to the objection to the Pennsylvania results, leading to an early Thursday morning debate in the House.
Harris spoke animatedly in support of the objection about 25 minutes into the debate and began shouting nearly an hour later after Rep. Connor Lamb, a Pennsylvania Democrat, noted his Republican colleagues had lied during the debate.
That later prompted Rep. Morgan Griffith, a Virginia Republican to ask that Lamb’s remarks be stricken from the record. His request was denied by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who said it was not made in a timely manner.
As Lamb continued to speak, saying, “The truth hurts,” shouting could be hear in the House chamber.
Journalists who witnessed the incident said Harris shouted “He called me a liar” and made gestures indicating he wanted to fight.
Rep. Colin Allred, a Texas Democrat and former NFL linebacker, was among a dozen or more members from both sides who converged in the aisle near Harris.
The (Baltimore) Sun reported that Harris, in a written statement, said: “Nothing physical ever happened, or was going to happen. Mr. Allred stepped in only to ease tensions at the end of a difficult day.”
The Sun also reported that an Allred spokesman said Allred could be heard on video of the incident asking Harris: “Are you serious, man? Haven’t you had enough violence for today?”
The overwhelming majority of those commenting on a tweet from Harris with a link to his statement — including numerous commenters who said they were First District residents — urged the congressman to resign.
Here is a sample of those comments:
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