The United States Capitol Police have opened an investigation into an incident involving Rep. Andrew P. Harris (R-Md.), following reports he entered the U.S. Capitol with a firearm.
HuffPost reported that Harris set off newly installed metal detectors outside the House chamber on Thursday and was stopped by Capitol Police.
One officer motioned to another to indicate that the First District lawmaker had a weapon hidden inside his suit coat, the site reported.
A journalist who witnessed the encounter reported that Harris tried to offload the weapon to a nearby colleague, Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.), but Katko refused to take it, telling Harris he didn’t have “a license.”
HuffPost also heard Harris complain to some fellow members that he had asked his staff to remind him about the screenings and they hadn’t.
Harris then left on the elevators and 10 minutes later returned to the House chamber, the site reported. He placed his cellphone and keys on a desk to the side, did not set off the magnetometer and was allowed to enter the House floor.
In an email on Thursday night, U.S. Capitol Police spokeswoman Eva Malecki told Maryland Matters, “The USCP is investigating the matter.”
NBC News reported on Thursday that a “Capitol official” who was present “saw a firearm on the person of Rep. Harris and relayed that to his superiors.”
“To be clear, Rep. Harris did not enter the Floor,” the official said.
The metal detectors outside the chamber were ordered put in place by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) after the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. They have become a flashpoint among some Republican members, and they have at times created tension with police.
Harris’ communications team frequently does not respond to requests for comment from reporters and they did not respond to an email from Maryland Matters on Thursday night. But they did release a statement to Fox 45 News in Baltimore, which said:
“Because his and his family’s lives have been threatened by someone who has been released awaiting trial, for security reasons, the Congressman never confirms whether he nor anyone else he’s with are carrying a firearm for self-defense. As a matter of public record, he has a Maryland Handgun Permit. And the congressman always complies with the House metal detectors and wanding. The Congressman has never carried a firearm on the House floor.”
Despite the District of Columbia’s strict gun laws, members of Congress are allowed to carry unloaded weapons in congressional office buildings and on the Capitol grounds, but not in the chamber.
Several GOP members have boasted of carrying weapons wherever they go, prompting calls from Democratic lawmakers for metal detectors to be installed outside the chamber.
Pelosi is reportedly considering fines for members who bypass security checkpoints inside the Capitol.
HuffPost reported on Thursday that Harris “has repeatedly flouted the magnetometers that were installed near the House chamber after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.”
The incident involving the six-term lawmaker came two weeks after thousands of supporters of former President Trump stormed the Capitol in an attempt to block the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
The siege forced members of the Senate and House and Vice President Mike Pence to flee into secure locations. Five people died in the uprising, including a Capitol police officer.
The attempted coup led to the second impeachment of Trump and an unprecedented increase in security around the building.
Harris is a loyal supporter of President Trump who has spoken frequently about his fear that the government will try to strip citizens of their guns. He is the only Republican in the state’s congressional delegation and has received campaign contributions from the NRA.
Harris was one of nearly 150 GOP lawmakers to vote to block Biden’s win, even after the attempted insurrection. When lawmakers returned to the House chamber to resume their work in the overnight hours of Jan. 7, Harris got into a scuffle on the House floor with Rep. Colin Alred (D-Texas).
Harris’s baseless claims that Biden’s win was marred by fraud has been condemned by Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) and led to numerous calls for his resignation.
By Bruce DePuyt
Miller says
If voting for overturning legitimate state certified ballots isn’t enough, perhaps flouting House rules and common sense safety will be enough for people on both sides to demand that this embarrassment of a representative resign. Now.
Michael McDowell says
“Six-gun Andy” Harris. Harris of course blames his….staff. Anybody but himself, of course, it’s the “help’s” fault. Like his hero, Trump, Harris never admits error, never accepts responsibility, whether it’s this or ranting about Gov Hogan’s responsible Covid 19 safety precautions last summer. Harris is a joke as a doctor too. And spent our time — yep, we pay for this do nothing radical extremist — on the day of the Impeachment vote, “doctoring” to his “patients” in an Eastern Shore hospital and earning nice dollars for it. But he’s not paid to double dip. He works for us! This hypocrite pledged to run for only 6 terms and he’s on his 6th. Then arrogant Harris, all mouth and no ears, arrogantly says last Saturday that he’s running again! The liar. This is the guy who proposed legislation in the Congress on….term limits! Just Google the last two words. A coward who runs from voters’ who question him, lives in a bubble, delights in an Amen Chorus of Trumpers at his faux “town halls,” and has been supping big time at the public trough and doing damn all for 20 years now, first in Annapolis as a rabble rousing senator and now in the House. Pressure him to keep his 6-term pledge! Resign!
Paula Reeder says
This was a blatantly deliberate,knowing and serious transgression. Harris needs to be fined and sanctioned – and he needs to resign. Enough is enough!
Debra Blanchfield says
One wonders if he also brings his weapon to the hospital where he works…
Bob Ozinga says
The statement that Harris’s office released to Fox 45 was the most incoherent, illiterate “communications” piece I’ve seen in years. And Harris is paying these people?
Deirdre LaMotte says
Harris is nothing on the Hill, and he knows it. This stunt was done to remind Fox that he is still around. Harris’ 10 years
have been spent on talk radio spewing lies and cozying up to Agro-interests, who see the Bay as a sewer. Who
ever runs against him will have a tough time; his red district (thanks to Democrat redistributing) is solid.
Harris is unstable and an ineffective legislator who is entrenched. Ugh. Our Governor needs to head up
new redistributing, and quickly.
Deirdre LaMotte says
Redistricting……
Beryl Smith says
Harris is an embarrassment to the voters and residents of his district. He no more represents us than fly! As for “attending to his patients”–heaven help them if he is as incompetent at anesthesiology as he is at governing.
Gren Whitman says
Be assured that Harris’s supporters–his “base,” if you will, on the Shore and In Harford, Baltimore, and Carroll counties–are eating this up.
He’s just guaranteed his re-election in 2022.
Briggs says
If ever there were a reason to enact term limits on elected representatives, Mr. Harris gives us the perfect model.