Maryland Rep. Andy Harris questions student reporter's right to record him after contentious debate

It was a contentious night on Maryland's Eastern Shore for Rep. Andy Harris, the state's only Republican in Congress.

Harris, who represents Maryland's 1st Congressional District, clashed with audience members during a debate Tuesday in Cambridge with his Democratic challenger, Dan Schwartz. Afterward, he challenged a student journalist's right to record him and sought to have the reporter removed from a press gaggle.

Following the debate, reporters gathered to interview Harris. During the exchange, he challenged a reporter from The Baltimore Banner before singling out Cat Murphy, a student journalist from the University of Maryland, and arguing that she did not have permission to record him.

The exchange was caught on camera.

Harris cited Maryland's two-party consent law, which generally requires all parties to consent to the recording of a private conversation. But attorney Jeremy Eldridge told CBS News Baltimore that the law did not apply to the interaction because it took place in a public setting.

Contentious debate

The debate itself featured tense moments, with audience members interrupting both candidates and Harris engaging in a heated exchange with a woman in the crowd.

"You all say you believe there's a First Amendment but only if you agree with you," Harris said. "You should let me finish the sentence, ma'am. You are rude."

Schwartz also challenged Harris over his record in Congress.

"This guy put forward his own legislation in 2013 that would have limited members to six terms. Now he's running for his ninth," Schwartz said.

Rafael Lorente, dean of the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism, addressed the incident involving the student journalist in a statement posted on social media.

"Merrill College students know their rights as journalists," Lorente said.

"Cat Murphy is a master's student at the University of Maryland, credentialed as a reporter for our Capital News Service and doing the job we teach our students to do," Lorente continued. "Cat recorded openly in a public space alongside other news outlets, and that is her legal right."

Murphy spoke with CNN about the exchange.

"I was focused on doing my job, and asking my questions that I wanted answers to, and I think I did that," she said.

CBS News Baltimore reached out to Harris for comment but has not heard back.

Attorney explains Maryland's two-party consent law

Eldridge told CBS News Baltimore that Harris did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy during the exchange because he was speaking with reporters in a public venue.

"If the congressman is having a conversation with journalists whom he invited into a public venue, then the congressman would not have an expectation of privacy, meaning what we would refer to as a two-party consent rule would not be applicable," Eldridge said.

In 2019, a college student at Salisbury University was charged with illegally streaming a meeting with a congressional staffer for Harris.

Eldridge said that earlier case may help explain why Harris was particularly sensitive to the issue, but he said the circumstances of Tuesday's exchange were different.

"This congressman in particular has been the victim of illegal wiretapping previously and that matter was prosecuted in the Maryland court system," Eldridge said. "So the congressman is probably sensitive to this issue, but in this situation, the congressman was wrong on the law."