Hutzell: Andy Harris the bully shows up at the end of his Maryland campaign

Cat Murphy stood there, determined to remain composed as Andy Harris threatened to have her arrested.

Look at the picture by my Banner colleague Ulysses Muñoz. It’s the moment when Harris, an eight-term Republican U.S. representative, revealed his true character.

At the end of the campaign in Maryland’s 1st District, one in which he has been largely silent, Harris finally came out swinging — at a 22-year-old college journalist.

“You’re going to have to take her camera,” he told an aide, who, perhaps wisely, didn’t move. “She is violating the law.”

This should have been an easy moment for Harris. We were in Cambridge, his hometown, and he’d just offered a brash performance at a 90-minute forum with his underdog challenger, Democrat Dan Schwartz.

Instead, Harris’ behavior in this small community center might be Maryland’s most telling political moment this year, potentially pushing the forecast blue wave high enough to cause an upset.

Harris casually dismissed any such wave, telling Schwartz, the moderator and the at-times hostile audience they had the facts, the math, the questions and even basic manners wrong.

“You’re rude,” he admonished the crowd when it laughed and jeered.

Then, with the audience gone, Harris took on a scrum of journalists. The representative tried to make it about him and me.

My Banner colleague Brenda Wintrode asked about his decision to participate in the League of Women Voters forum, causing him to lose whatever passes for his composure.

“I resent the premise of that question,” Harris said, jabbing his finger at her. “Where are you from?”

He knows.

Harris, who doesn’t like what I write about him, said he won’t talk to The Banner until I get fired, a threat he’s made repeatedly over the last 18 months.

“I’m right here, sir,” I said, a few feet away. ”You can tell me directly.”

Instead, the representative turned on Murphy, a University of Maryland grad student covering the event for Capital News Service. She dared suggest Harris answer Wintrode.

“I think you should respect their questions,” Murphy said.

Surrounded by reporters recording him, Harris told only her to stop, wildly misstated state law on recordings and threatened to have her arrested.

“She is violating the law,” he said, pointing at Murphy. “In fact, get an officer in here.”

Was he imitating Donald Trump? The president revels in bashing women reporters, calling CNN’s Kaitlan Collins “stupid,” “nasty,” a “sleazebag” and a “third-rate reporter.”

No, this was classic Andy.

He’s got an ever-growing list of perceived enemies, and now Murphy’s on it.

During the raucous forum with Schwartz, Maryland’s only Republican in Congress bounced from grievance to grievance, naming those he sees as villains.

Gov. Wes Moore, Columbia, China, U.S. Rep. Sarah Elfreth, Iran, radical environmentalists and their solar panels, Western Shore people and, in particular, Democrats in Annapolis.

He attacked plans to replace the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, bid a not-so-sad adieu to Haitian immigrants working in the Eastern Shore poultry industry, complained about Italian billionaires funding wind farms and repeatedly chastised the crowd.

“You all say you believe there’s a First Amendment, but only if you agree with them,” Harris said. “I’m sorry, I got to do it. ... I’m going to tell you, you’re rude.”

Harris walked into the room on a warm October night, resplendent in an ivory jacket and tan pants. He and “yes, I own a tie” Schwartz shook hands.

Schwartz attacked the representative for failing to save Cecil County’s only birthing center, for voting to take away Maryland’s power to regulate data centers and cutting Social Security Administration operating costs.

He accused Harris of refusing to meet with constituents, including parents of service members killed in uniform.

“We also have a Gold Star father in the room tonight, Mr. Michael McDowell, who lost his son, 1st Lt. Hugh Conor McDowell, in a training accident in Camp Pendleton,” Schwartz said. “He has not been able to get answers from our congressman, and there are multiple Gold Star families who reach out to me saying the same thing.”

Through it all, Harris smirked. He laughed and shook his head. He waved his arms, brushing away Schwartz’s criticisms. He dismissed, explained, insulted.

“Once again, you’re entitled to your opinion, not your own facts.”

“That’s the facts. Y’all can look it up.”

“Didn’t I say that I don’t agree with that? I thought I did. That was a few minutes ago. It’s OK. We have short-term memory doctors for that.”

Even moderator Glenna Heckathorn wasn’t safe. She asked about regulating artificial intelligence and data centers, and Harris suggested it was the wrong question.

“You’ve got two things, AI and data centers, which are not exactly the same,” he said. “I think you have to deal with them separately.”

When Schwartz blamed high diesel prices on Trump’s war with Iran and criticized the president’s deal to buy it cheap from Russia during its war in Ukraine, it set off another explosion — second only to the one with Murphy.

“Let’s get the facts,” Harris said. “The facts are that diesel prices have gone up. There’s no question about it. Why has it gone up? Because the Democrats have environmental regulations.”

The crowd didn’t buy it, shouting over Harris as he bent facts.

“Oh, come on now,” Jair Devereaux of Easton said from the back of the room. “Stop that! Stop that!”

Heckathorn stepped in. She asked both candidates to call on their supporters to remain civil. Harris refused.

“You don’t need to hear from me because my people aren’t interfering with Mr. Schwartz,” he said. “It’s only one way.”

Murphy, the young journalist, will undoubtedly remember her encounter with Harris. So will the people in the room and perhaps those who watched it from home.

The representative avoids this sort of forum, saying it’s not worth his time. He may know how bad they make him look. As head of the dwindling Freedom Caucus, he’s got a national profile.

On a warm night in Cambridge, Andy the bully was on the loose again. By Wednesday morning, national news outlets were taking note, and by the afternoon the video was everywhere on social media.

Maybe this time voters will notice, too.