Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) on Sunday rejected as “crazy” a suggestion from Maryland’s lone Republican congressman that the state has adopted a totalitarian approach to fighting COVID-19.
His comments came one day after Rep. Andrew P. Harris, a physician who represents the Eastern Shore and portions of Baltimore, Harford, and Carroll counties, harshly rejected the governor’s handling of the crisis at a #ReOpenMaryland rally on Saturday.
Speaking to a crowd of protesters in Salisbury, at the conclusion of a rally that began in Frederick, Harris said, “I didn’t wake up in communist China and I didn’t wake up in North Korea this morning. And tomorrow morning I should be able to go to the church of my choice and worship the way I chose.”
Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Hogan fired back.
“I’m not sure where he woke up yesterday morning, but maybe he confused North Korea and South Korea,” the governor said of Harris. “South Korea’s doing a great job on testing and we just saved the lives of thousands of Marylanders by getting those half-million tests from Korea.”
“But I don’t really have any further comment,” Hogan added. “He’s obviously got the right the right to say whatever crazy things he wants to say, but I don’t really need to respond to ‘em.”
In a statement to Maryland Matters on Sunday night, Harris defended his comments at the rally.
“Defending freedom of religion is not crazy to many people,” Harris wrote. “There were hundreds of people in Salisbury yesterday … who want a common sense approach to re-opening our churches and businesses that so many other governors have taken.”
Hogan spoke dismissively of Saturday’s ReOpen Maryland rally, telling CNN that “a couple dozen people” attended the event. “Sadly, we had far more people die yesterday in Maryland than we had protesters.”
Harris said Hogan’s statement was factually false.
The Maryland Department of Health reported an additional 27 deaths from COVID-19 on Saturday.
“[F]actually many more protested than those who died in Maryland yesterday, each of which, of course, is a tragedy,” the congressman said.
The Frederick News-Post reported that 250 cars gathered in the parking lot of Francis Scott Key Mall on Saturday to participate in the rally.
The Salisbury area, located in Harris’ district, is home to one of the highest per-capita infection rates in the country.
Hogan has come under increasing pressure to dial back restrictions on commerce and social interaction in recent weeks.
On April 17, Republicans in the House of Delegates urged him to adopt a “regional” approach to business reopening and recreational activity. The following week business groups pushed him to allow small retailers to do “curbside” deliveries.
The group ReOpen Maryland formed on Facebook and held a rally in Annapolis on April 18, demanding that the governor allow businesses to reopen on May 1.
Hogan has said that reopening the state too soon risks a sharp increase in coronavirus infection, which in turn could overwhelm hospitals.
Although they are GOP officeholders in a state dominated by Democrats, Hogan and Harris have little in common. The men are not close.
The congressman’s decision to serve as the keynote speaker at the ReOpen Maryland rally, and his harsh rhetoric, combined with Hogan’s barbed response on national television, represented a remarkable substantive and stylistic clash, observers said.
“When you’re criticizing Hogan’s response, you’re also criticizing the recommendations of scientists, public health experts and epidemiologists,” said Goucher College political science professor Mileah Kromer, director of the school’s Sarah T. Hughes Field Politics Center.
“Andy Harris has aligned himself with Donald Trump consistently and Hogan has not,” she added.
Kromer noted that Maryland residents have given Hogan high marks for his handling of the coronavirus epidemic.
By Bruce DePuyt
James Wilson says
Obviously , Trump toady Harris graduated magna cum dumb from Trump University .
Dorothy Whitcomb says
Governor Hogan has shown strong effective leadership. I applaud his efforts and the success he has had moving Maryland along an intelligent, science-based path towards health and economic reopening. I’m not surprised at all by Harris’s vitriol or willingness to play to the restlessness of folks who just don’t seem to understand how high the stakes are here. What continues to surprise me is that physician can be so willfully blind to the peril he wants to put us all in.
Bob Parker says
Rep. Harris clearly doesn’t understand that the 1st Amendment to the US Constitution prohibits laws establishing a national religion or impeding the free exercise of religion for its citizens and doesn’t say anything regarding attending religious services. Akin to the understanding that Freedom of Speech does not allow someone to cry “fire” in a crowded movie theater, an individual’s freedom ends when it imperils the safety of others in society. The current limitations on public gathering does not prevent an individual from practicing his/her religion, it only prevents group religious activities that potentially subject others in society to risk, in this case the Covid-19 pandemic. Additionally, religion is not something that one practices 1 day a week, but is the moral and ethical beliefs that one incorporates into their personal philosophy. Representative Harris, time for you to go back to school to learn the U.S. Constitution and to take time for introspection so you can re-connect with the religious underpinnings of your character.
Gary D. Saluti says
Kudos to Gov. Hogan. I am registered as an Independent but I hope that Larry Hogan runs for President in 4 years. He’s got my vote.
Rod Coleman says
Governor Hogan is a leader who has done an outstanding job in an extraordinarily difficult period. Congressman Harris is a grandstanding twit.
I know who I’ll be following.
Howard Freedlander says
I side with Gov. Hogan.
Eugene Lopez says
It’s sad we have Cong. Harris as our representative. Very sad – not quite as sad as having D. Trump as our President, but still sad, nonetheless. But, on the other hand, we have a great, effective leader in Gov. Hogan. Glad, very glad.
Jennifer Healy says
MR HARRIS>>>If you saw all the people who decided to show up in St Michaels MD last Saturday May 2, you might rethink your position. People do not know how to take care of themselves during this emergency situation. My town was packed with visitors walking all over main street, looking at closed stores? While some people did have masks on, there were many more people who DID NOT have on a mask. No, Mr Harris, people do not know how to take care of themselves, or their neighbors!
I am greatly angered that so many people were selfish enough to show up last Saturday and bring the virus with them! Talbot County has been doing a great job respecting the requests of Mr Hogan to stay home, as evidenced by our low infection rate of 47 people. I will be watching to see our infection rate soar after this weekend because so many people were very thoughtless. While we are a tourist destination, we are also a town of families-moms, dads, kids, grandparents, aunts, uncles, neighbors and friends. None of us wants to get sick, much less die because people are tired of staying home. We have already lost one person to this horrible disease. I do not want to loose any one else. And I do not want to get sick either. A short time of sacrifice by way of staying separated is not much to ask in order to keep us all safe. Lifting these restrictions too soon is only asking for trouble, greater infection rates and deaths. Two final thoughts: 1) Saint Michaels loves having visitors, showing off the wonderful town we are blessed to live in. Everyone, PLEASE, wait until this crisis has passed before you come in for a visit. And 2) Concerning the privilege of worshiping in a special building with your fellow parishioners: While it is comforting to be together in a place of worship, God is on duty 24/7 , watching and listening to us all. Buildings are not required!
Alan Boisvert says
Harris has injected too much bleach and Lysol to be an effective leader. He apparently has a strong preference for cult-flavored kool-aid as well.
Like trump, he is an embarrassment to humanity.
Bishop Joel Marcus Johnson says
As a bishop and citizen, I am profoundly disappointed in the cheap self-aggrandizement by Representative Andy Harris MD as he grovels for votes in a district in which he has long and roundly abased himself with a lack of concern for the health of its residents, on this issue first rushing to harm anyone he can in his reckless desire to open wide the doors of his perceived god whilst stuffing the ballot box, his constituents stricken and dying. He is as professionally bankrupt as he is morally, shriven of conscience, swollen in ego, his dignity beneath a worm. May he undergo self-examination of his soul, pray repentance and seek absolution, ere he rot in his congressional grandeur.