Is Andy Harris a Benedict Arnold? He attended a White House meeting on December 21, 2020, at which a legal theory was promoted supporting the ludicrous concept that the Vice President can single-handedly reject slates of electors. The plan was to set aside Joe Biden’s seven million vote plurality win and keep Donald Trump in the White House. President Trump adopted the legal theory, but Mike Pence rejected it. That rejection almost cost Pence his life on January 6.
According to testimony that the House Select Committee received regarding the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol, the purpose of the meeting was to discuss a plan to “encourage members of the public to fight the outcome on January 6.”
What was Harris’ role at the meeting? Did President Trump tell Harris and the other 10 Republican Congresspeople at the meeting (including then-Congresswoman-elect Marjorie Taylor Green) that armed militia men would storm the Capitol to ensure that the electoral college vote was never certified? Did Harris volunteer to help make the assault on the Capitol successful? First District voters deserve to know the answers to these and other questions.
Andy is not talking, perhaps with good reason in that sedition is a felony. Benedict Arnold got shot for it. It appears that Harris has concluded that his constituents do not think the events of January 6 were important or, in some cases, were justified. I hope that enough First District voters will disagree to impact the 2022 election.
Heather Mizeur won the Democratic primary and will face Harris in November. Many pundits suggest that she cannot win. They suggest the district is just too conservative for a domestic policy expert to win. These pundits may be right, but could Harris’ complicity in the January 6 insurrection make a difference? I hope it can.
Even hard-core conservatives should now understand that a coup attempt occurred on January 6. That knowledge should prompt them to reassess Mr. Harris. Even if they oppose Democratic policies and hate Joe Biden, they should consider whether they want to reward Andy Harris with another term in Congress. Here’s how Heather put it: “I’m running against Andy Harris because he is a traitor, and I am a patriot.”
A few Spy readers will respond to this column by telling me that I am crazy. Maybe. But evidence is growing that the January 6 hearings are making a difference. Politico reports that a New York Times/Sienna College poll showed that growing numbers of Republicans would prefer someone other than Trump to be their standard bearer in 2024. The same article reports that a series of recent focus groups showed an erosion in support for Trump.
Last week I discussed Trump with a conservative friend. The talk gave me hope. The friend expressed chagrin that Harris attended the December 21st meeting. “Why couldn’t he just focus on representing us?” was the comment. The friend also wanted to know why Harris does not feel obligated to tell his constituents his role in a meeting of conspirators.
My friend smells a rat. When I commented that “at least he wasn’t giving Proud Boys tours of the Capitol on January 5,” my friend sighed and asked me to give him a break. “He broke his oath of office,” my friend told me, “If he schemed to violate the Constitution, he wasn’t protecting it, and he has to go.”
It is now too late for First District Republicans to replace Harris as their candidate for Congress. The only alternative is to vote for Ms. Mizeur. Will First District Republicans do that? If the election were held today, they would not. Mizeur would lose. But what if we learn that Harris was more than just a cheerleader for Trump in the days preceding January 6? That could make a difference.
So do not tell me Mizeur cannot win. And do not tell me that Handgun Harris deserves another term in Congress. He does not. He did a poor job representing the district before January 6. His actions since then are the icing on the cake.
Harris needs to come clean. He needs to tell us why he was at the December 21 meeting, what other conversations he had with Trump and other co-conspirators leading up to January 6, and he must condemn the Trump coup.
And, just in case Andy decides to lie about what he did, or to continue his stonewalling, maybe Jamie Raskin (D-MD), a member of the January 6 Committee, can lend a hand. The January 6 Committee must explore fully the actions of the 10 Republican Congresspeople and report their findings to the public and, if the facts merit it, to the Department of Justice.
J.E. Dean is a retired attorney and public affairs consultant writing on politics, government, and, when the Constitution is not under attack, other subjects.
Den Leventhal says
Umm. You say “Benedict Arnold got shot for” his treason. Actually, he died in 1801 at the age of 60 in London.
John Dean says
Thank you for that clarification. I didn’t know that.
Paula Reeder says
You can bet your bottom dollar that Handgun Harris will keep mum on the subject of his active participation in the Trump administrations efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The fact is that seditious conspiracy is only the tip of the iceburg of the litany of reasons for voters to tell Harris to take a hike -from his tight-fisted opposition to the ACA to his noxious support for unfettered gun ownership and carry rights (including his own action to illegally carry a concealed handgun into the Capitol) to his most recent vote against marriage equality and womens’ reproductive control rights Harris is clearly an extreme right wingnut and miserable chavanistic misanthrope.
We deserve better and come November, there’s no question that the best choice to represent our District in Congress is Heather Mizeur. With any luck, Harris will be indicted for his crimes against America and the American people before then and – God willing – will withraw from the race!
Eric Thomas says
Ms. Reeder, I agree with the scenario of a Harris indictment and withdraw could likely lead to Ms. Mizeur winning (I believe that she would be running unopposed so a write-in would be needed, but could be wrong in my understanding.), but this is one of the very few ways that Ms. Mizeur could win and that is still iffy. A left-of-center progressive message does not resonate well in MD’s 57% republican 1st district so saying it is unlikely that she wins running against any republican is a huge understatement. In my opinion, she has as much chance of winning as Dan Cox does of being the Governor of MD which is somewhere between slim and none for the same reasons (hard-right candidate running in a 69% democrat state) which is why the democrats meddled in the republican primary, according to published reports. The democrats knew that Kelly Schultz would be a far tougher candidate to beat so they unethically manipulated the republican primary to benefit their candidate, but I digress, sorry.
John Dean says
Paula: Thank you for reading the piece and for your comment. As I am sure you know, I am on the same page. I am pretty sure Mizeur will win in Talbot County, I worry about the rest of the First District, despite the evidence against Andy “Handgun” Harris.
Chris Gordon says
Harris was also one of the 20 lunatic fringe Republicans who voted against the anti-human-trasfficking bill.
John Dean says
Thank you for pointing that out. I believe the best means of defeating Andy Harris is to promote information about his dismal record in Congress as well as his complicity in the events of January 6.
Thank you for reading the piece.
Joan Berwick says
Amen!
Kevin Flynn says
Mr. Dean: After reading the headline for this article, I thought you were running against Andy Harris. Suggest you (or the editors) add some punctuation, or maybe a reference to Heather Mizeur.