This article was republished with permission from WTOP’s news partners at Maryland Matters. Sign up for Maryland Matters’ free email subscription today.
This content was republished with permission from WTOP’s news partners at Maryland Matters. Sign up for Maryland Matters’ free email subscription today.
First District congressional candidate Heather Mizeur (D) rebuked incumbent Rep. Andy Harris (R) on Friday for speaking to a conservative conference taking place in Hungary. In a statement, she accused him of being an embarrassment and a “failed” representative who clings to “radical” views.
CPAC Hungary, a three-day event in Budapest, features Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán and Fox talk show host Tucker Carlson, both of whom have embraced race-conscious immigration and abortion policies that are gaining traction on the right.
Harris criticized abortion-rights supporters during his speech but he made no mention of “replacement theory,” which holds, among other things, that more restrictive abortion laws would help the U.S. replenish its supply of white babies.
The six-term lawmaker, the only Republican in Maryland’s congressional delegation, did warn of the threats posed by “woke political correctness,” Marxism and socialism.
“History has taught our countries that these ideologies have failed in every age and destroyed every nation that they have entered,” he said. “Our countries are each engaged in a renewed fight to remove these corrosive elements from our way of life, our classrooms, corporate boardrooms, entertainment events and even the media.”
Harris said that children are “coming under increasing attack by left-leaning educational and political indoctrination,” and he applauded Hungary for “strategically” avoiding war, inflation and “cultural, moral and even intellectual decline.”
Harris’ six-minute speech, which included a heavy-metal guitar track, was delivered remotely. The lawmaker is co-chair of the Hungarian-American Congressional Caucus.
Although journalists were denied entry to the conference, the gathering generated headlines when CPAC Chair Matt Schlapp appeared to embrace the idea that immigration threatens to “replace” white people in the U.S.
“If you say there is a population problem in a country, but you’re killing millions of your own people through legalized abortion every year, if that were to be reduced, some of that problem is solved,” Schlapp said, according to vice.com. “You have millions of people who can take many of these jobs. How come no one brings that up? If you’re worried about this quote-unquote replacement, why don’t we start there? Start with allowing our own people to live.”
Orban has emerged as a hero to many American conservatives, who have been exposed to him largely through Carlson. A recent New York Times analysis concluded that Carlson’s show “may be the most racist show in the history of cable news — and also, by some measures, the most successful.”
Several other Republican figures are speaking at the conference, including other members of Congress, and Mark Meadows, President Trump’s last chief of staff.
In her statement, Mizeur sought to tie Harris to Orban, calling him “Harris’s political idol.” She also sought to tie the Harris to the massacre at a Western New York supermarket, noting that Carlson’s show “was cited by the killer who opened fired in a supermarket in a predominantly black area in Buffalo last week.”
Two calls to Harris’s new spokeswoman, Anna Adamian, were not returned as of Friday afternoon.
Mizeur and David Harden are competing in the July 19 Democratic primary for the right to run against Harris in November.
“Andy Harris is a dangerous extremist. His votes are not within the mainstream views of the First District. He is radical and hypocritical,” Mizeur concluded. “He claims to support Ukraine but is speaking today in Hungary with Tucker Carlson to lavish praise on Putin’s greatest European ally. None of this is acceptable.”
