'Quite rich': Right-wing lawmaker hammered on CNN over 'reckless' rule change idea

A far-right congressman’s suggestion that electors in North Carolina could be assigned to Donald Trump even before votes are counted is part of a nationwide “MAGA blueprint,” according to one political analyst, who called the lawmaker out on CNN Friday as “hypocritical.”

The moment came on CNN’s "The Situation Room” after host Wolf Blitzer played a clip of Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) who floated the idea that the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature could take the unheard-of step of assigning electors in light of challenges revolving around Hurricane Helene.

“You statistically can go and say, ‘Hey, you got disenfranchised in 25 counties you know what that vote probably would’ve been,’” Harris, who chairs the House Freedom Caucus, says in the partial clip. “…we can’t disenfranchise that vote.”

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Gevin Reynolds, columnist for The Root and a former associate director of speechwriting for Vice President Kamala Harris, characterized the congressman’s talk about disenfranchised voters as “quite rich.”

“I think it's rich for Congressman Harris to talk about disenfranchisement and the vote when it was the Republicans on the Supreme Court who gave us the 2013 decision of Shelby County v. Holder, which gutted the Voting Rights Act. So, I think it's quite hypocritical and quite rich for Congressman Harris to talk about this,” Reynolds told Blitzer.

He added that the idea “is just one piece of a nationwide MAGA blueprint when you talk about what MAGA Republicans are trying to do to disenfranchise, especially Black voters, out there and suppress the vote.”

Blitzer noted that the congressman issued a statement walking back his comments, which he added were taken out of context.

“As I’ve repeatedly said, every legal vote should be counted,” Harris said in the statement.

Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former Trump White House staffer, called Harris' comments "deeply reckless," but appreciated the congressman appeared to walk back the statement.

Watch the clip below or at this link.