It’s been said that you can tell a lot about someone from the company they keep, and Andy Harris’s persistence in keeping company with white supremacists and neo-Nazis tells us he’s not the kind of guy who should be representing us in Congress. If you believe we should replace him in 2022, chip in $5 today to join my campaign and help me get it done.
Take Harris’ meeting in 2019 with alt-right activist Chuck Johnson, a former Breitbart reporter and frequent Internet contributor whose white supremacist and anti-Semitic views include:
denying the magnitude of the Holocaust and doubting that Auschwitz and the gas chambers were real
believing that Muslims are “genetically different in their propensity for violence or rape,” and
suggesting that racial inequities can be explained by the idea that black people are “dumber.”
Johnson’s views and associations with Republican members of Congress made news even before Harris met with him. Johnson was known for organizing crowdfunding efforts to raise money for white-supremacist and neo-Nazi causes, and it was widely reported that Republican congressman Matt Gaetz invited Johnson to the 2018 State of the Union address.
Yet, when questioned about his meeting with Johnson, Harris said in a statement that he was “unaware of [Johnson’s] previous associations” and added: “I disavow and condemn white supremacy and anti-Semitism.”
So if he condemns white supremacy and anti-Semitism, then how does Harris explain his longstanding support for Hungarian dictator Viktor Orbán? Orbán has charged that “powerful Jewish financiers are scheming to control the world,” run pressure campaigns to force Jewish leaders, businesses, and institutions out of Hungary, and is leading Hungary’s efforts to rewrite the history of its collaboration with the Nazis during the Holocaust. Even while Orbán assumed more and more authoritarian power and expressed extreme nationalistic views, Harris expressed support for Orbán after the European Parliament voted to censure Hungary for cracking down on freedom of the press and academic freedom and politicizing its judicial system. And when the U.S. government decided that it was in America’s interest to challenge Orbán and support democracy and a free press in Hungary, Harris opposed U.S. efforts to do so. Harris reportedly even traveled to Hungary to support Orbán.
Apparently, Andy Harris has a thing for Eastern European ultra-nationalist leaders. In 2018, he and four other Republican congressmen planned to meet secretly in Prague with Tomio Okamura, the leader of the Czech Republic’s most extreme far right political party. Leaders of that party have advocated the gassing of “Jews, gays, and Roma.” Okamura himself has called for the end of religious freedoms in the Czech Republic, wants to ban Islam and other religions he views as undesirable, and has urged Czechs to walk pigs and dogs through Muslim neighborhoods and around mosques.
Look, we all know about Andy Harris’s anti-democratic views. He continues to support the Big Lie that Donald Trump actually won the 2020 election. He was one of a handful of Republican congressmen who voted to challenge the election results, even after Trump supporters violently attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 to change the outcome of the fair and lawful election. Harris even refused to commend law enforcement officers who bravely defended the Capitol that day against the insurrection attempt.
Add that to his buddying up with white supremacist, anti-Semitic, neo-Nazi dictators and public figures and it tells us that Andy Harris rejects some of our most important American values and principles: democracy, the rule of law, equal rights for all, and religious tolerance. A man with such extreme views doesn’t belong in the U.S. Congress.
I need your support to take on Andy Harris and make sure he doesn’t impose his far right, antidemocratic views on the U.S. like his buddies are doing in Europe. I need your help to keep Andy’s supporters like Chuck Johnson and their anti-Semitic views far from influence in Congress. I need you to help me protect the Constitutional principles that have endured for over two centuries.
Please help by contributing to my campaign today.
-- Dave Harden
Dave Harden is a Democrat running for Maryland's 1st Congressional District. Dave's running to replace Andy Harris and will help the 1st District unlock its extraordinary potential. Support Dave with a donation today.
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