'I Will Not' Resign: Congressman Andy Harris On Call To Step Down

WASHINGTON, DC — Congressman Andy Harris was inside the Capitol as protestors breached the building. Harris, the lone Republican in Maryland's congressional delegation, condemned the violence that erupted. At the same time, he called for an investigation into the 2020 election and objected to the election results in two states.

"Democrats are calling for unity, yet also calling for the expulsion of Members who objected in yesterday’s Electoral College count," Harris said in a statement Thursday afternoon. "Today, some Marylanders are even calling for my resignation, which I will not do."

Among those calling for his resignation is Yvette Lewis, chair of the Maryland Democratic Party.

“Even after yesterday’s attack, Representative Harris continued to defend the President, and even the rioters themselves — unfathomably saying that they were there for ‘valid reasons,'" Lewis said in a statement.

Harris contested the allegation.

“I have routinely and consistently rejected violent protests, whether in the case of yesterday, or last summer," Harris said in a statement.

"This should never have occurred in the U.S. Capitol," Harris told WBAL Radio after the riot in Washington, D.C. "We have protestors every day on Capitol grounds," he said, but when people break windows and disobey orders from the Capitol Police: "You have crossed a line that you should never cross."

The Maryland Democratic Party chair said Harris crossed a line in objecting to the election results.

"Despite seeing the destruction and harm his falsehoods have wrought, Representative Harris continued to legitimize and fuel the attempted insurrection, voting and speaking against the certification of the Electoral College," Lewis said.

Harris objected to the certifying the electoral votes in Arizona and Pennsylvania and was among 106 Republican lawmakers in December who signed an amicus brief objecting to the election results in four swing states: Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

"Some of my colleagues, including those still in the Maryland delegation, offered objections in 2017 when counting the electoral votes for President Trump," Harris said in a statement Thursday. "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."

On the house floor, Harris got into a dispute during the certification process while Congressman Conor Lamb, a Pennsylvania Democrat, said Republicans "inspired" the attack on the Capitol with lies.

"A woman died out there tonight, and you're making these objections," Lamb said. "Let's be clear about what happened in this chamber today: invaders came in for the first time since the War of 1812."

A moment later, Lamb added that protestors entered the U.S. Capitol largely unbothered Wednesday "because of the way they looked." That caused commotion from the Republican side of the aisle, and shortly thereafter Harris interrupted and asked that Lamb's words be removed from the record. When Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected the request, there were increased shouts.

"It's sad, but it's true," Lamb raised his voice, as Pelosi tried to gain control of the growing disorder.

Things devolved from there, and C-SPAN video feed of the hearing showed the benches clearing on either side of the U.S. House of Representatives.

PBS political reporter Lisa Desjardins, who witnessed the scene, said the deputy sergeant at arms in the chamber had to help separate what quickly became a group of dozens of members of Congress on their feet, yelling, in the area where Harris had been sitting.

Expected objections also were made to the electoral votes of four other battleground states Biden also won — Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin — but those dissipated because they were made verbally and not formally presented for lack of support by a specific senator.

"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," Harris said in a statement Thursday of his votes about Pennsylvania and Arizona.

The overnight proceedings in Congress came just hours after representatives from around the nation sheltered in place or were evacuated from the Capitol as protestors stormed and breached the building. Four people died as a result of the mayhem, according to officials. One woman was fatally shot inside the Capitol. The three other deaths were reported around the Capitol grounds. D.C.'s police chief said the victims — a woman and two men — suffered fatal medical emergencies, but did not elaborate.

Jan. 6 "will forever be remembered as the day that our very halls of democracy were occupied by those who opposed our most sacred duties. It will also be remembered as the day that our president, and some in the Republican Party, failed to stand up for the very ideals the Capitol Building symbolizes," the Maryland Democratic Party chair said in a statement. “I hope the good people of Maryland’s First Congressional District see this blatant assault on our democracy, and their freedom for what it is, and join us in calling for the immediate resignation of Representative Andy Harris."

Harris still said he hoped for a blue ribbon commission to look into the election results, stating in an interview with WBAL Radio he was "afraid that barring that kind of investigation ... I'm not sure that we're going to get out of this."

In a statement Thursday, he said: "We did not call for the overthrowing of an election. Joe Biden will be President on January 20th."

See Also:

• MD Leaders Condemn 'Insurrection' That Overtook U.S. Capitol
• Updated: 4 Die At US Capitol; Bowser Extends Public Emergency
• Maryland Police, County Officers Deployed For DC Protest
• Electoral College Count: How MD's Congressional Delegation Voted
• Late-Night Chaos Erupts As Congress Debates PA Electoral Vote

Patch editors Justin Heinz and Alessia Grunberger contributed.