U.S. Rep. Andy Harris declines to apologize to student reporter in TV interview

U.S. Rep. Andy Harris declined to apologize for his confrontation with a student journalist following a debate earlier this week in an interview with Fox45 Thursday evening.

Harris’ heated Tuesday night exchange with University of Maryland graduate student Cat Murphy went viral after he threatened to have her prosecuted if she didn’t stop recording him — falsely claiming she was violating the state’s wiretap law — and asked staff to call police when she refused.

Harris blamed the story, picked up by national news broadcasts, on “the liberal media” in the interview with Fox45 reporter Mikenzie Frost. The eight-term Republican representing the Eastern Shore and Cecil, Harford and part of Baltimore County said he was being badgered by reporters.

“Do you believe you owe that student journalist an apology?” Frost asked.

“If she called me and asked I would tell her what bothered me,” Harris said, “What bothered me is that she didn’t ask a question, she criticized the way I was conducting the news conference. She’s a journalism student and I think she should realize that’s not really your purpose.”

Harris again incorrectly characterized Maryland’s law requiring consent to record conversations during the interview with Frost.

The law applies to private conversations and not public ones, such as Harris’ news conference with reporters.

“There is clearly a need for two-party consent,” Harris said. “But it would have applied to everyone.”

Harris’ frustrations Tuesday began during his debate against Democratic candidate Dan Schwartz and boiled over with reporters in an informal news conference he set up.

He refused to answer questions he said were “silly” or “stupid.”

Murphy, a reporter for the Capital News Service, UMD’s student-staffed newswire, told him he should respect the press corps.

He then lashed out at her and demanded she stop recording him, citing Maryland’s wiretap law. When she refused, he threatened prosecution and told his staff to get police to escort her out of the room.

The fiery exchange went viral for the wrong reason, Harris said.

“Pushing back against the liberal media badgering a conservative politician is really what’s newsworthy here,” he said.