'Bless his heart': Colleague mocks right-winger over idea Trump should win NC before vote
A right-wing Republican wants North Carolina to hand its electoral votes to Donald Trump even before the population votes because the aftermath of Hurricane Helene is making it impossible for many to get to the polls.
Politico reported that Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, thinks the election is such a foregone conclusion that voting isn't needed.
He's urging the move to be made by North Carolina’s Republican-controlled Legislature, arguing that it “makes a lot of sense.”
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Politico quoted Harris as making the suggestion at a Republican Party dinner in Maryland. He said any difficulties with voting in the area could be enough for North Carolina's state legislature to declare in advance that Trump would get the 16 electoral votes.
“You statistically can go and say, ‘Look, you got disenfranchised in 25 counties. You know what that vote probably would have been,’” Harris told the crowd. “Which would be — if I were in the Legislature — enough to go, ‘Yeah, we have to convene the Legislature. We can’t disenfranchise the voters.’”
In a keynote speech at that same GOP event, pro-Trump activist Ivan Raiklin argued that New Hampshire, Arizona, Nebraska, Georgia, and Wisconsin could also make similar moves. Harris asked how that could be justified, given that those states weren't hit by the hurricane.
“It looks like just a power play,” Harris said. “In North Carolina, it’s legitimate. There are a lot of people that aren’t going to get to vote and it may make the difference in that state.”
When asked to explain the remarks, Harris issued a statement from his campaign to Politico: "As I’ve repeatedly said, every legal vote should be counted. I would hope everyone could agree that legal American voters whose lives were devastated by the recent storms should not be disenfranchised in the upcoming voting process."
Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) said on Friday that he hasn't heard of any effort to have the legislature step in.
“It makes no sense whatsoever to prejudge the election outcome. And that is a misinformed view of what is happening on the ground in North Carolina, bless his heart," he told reporters.