Andy Harris Threatened to Prosecute a Student Reporter. Maryland's Wiretap Law Doesn't Cover a Press Gaggle.
On the night of October 13, 2026, Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) wrapped up a debate in Cambridge, Maryland, and invited reporters into a side room for a post-debate gaggle. Cat Murphy, a master's student at the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism and a credentialed reporter for the student newswire Capital News Service, asked him about his remarks on the Iran war. Harris turned on her: "You do not have my permission to record! If you record, we will refer you to the prosecutor." He then told the room, "You're gonna have to take her camera... She is violating the law. In fact, get an officer in here."
Harris had one argument, repeated over and over. When Murphy pointed out that everyone in the room was recording, he answered: "But you are not allowed to. We are in a two-party state." He told another reporter, "Do you know the law?" and insisted, "I'm a legislator... I actually know the law well." He said audio and video "have to have two-party approval in Maryland," unlike Washington, D.C., and that "she needs my approval to record."
Harris cited the Maryland Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Act, which bars willfully intercepting oral communications without all parties' consent. A willful violation is a felony carrying up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. But the law reaches only private conversations. Maryland's Supreme Court held in 2018 that it applies where a person has a "reasonable expectation of privacy" — which, legal experts say, an open press gaggle in a public building is not.
Kevin Goldberg, vice president of the Freedom Forum, told NBC4 that Maryland's two-party consent rule simply didn't apply: Harris was speaking to a group of reporters in a public space. "If a reporter has a right to be in a space and work as a reporter, they cannot be denied that right simply because somebody doesn't like the coverage or somebody doesn't like the questions or somebody doesn't like their viewpoint," Goldberg said. Lucy Dalglish, a Merrill College professor and former media lawyer, said a candidate at a public forum, with members of the public in the room, is "not a private situation." Michael Nilsson at George Washington University and Baltimore attorney Jeremy Eldridge said the same. Police never removed the reporter.
Rafael Lorente, dean of the Merrill College, said in a statement that 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. Cat recorded openly in a public space alongside other news outlets, and that is her legal right." He added that he was "proud of how she handled herself in a difficult situation," and later told The Baltimore Banner that the exchange left him "sad for our democracy."
Two days later, Harris defended himself on FOX45's "In Depth" without offering an apology. "She was not asking. She actually started by criticizing the way that press gaggle was being conducted," he said. "That's not the role of a journalist." He blamed the "liberal media" and a "liberal audience" for the scene, saying he had come to answer questions.
Democratic challenger Dan Schwartz seized on the episode, saying the night showed Harris was "out of touch, out of practice talking to voters, and much more interested in picking fights and spinning his story than offering real answers." Schwartz is running on affordability, consumer protection, opposition to tariffs and protecting Medicaid. Polling is sparse: a Democratic-sponsored survey of 482 likely voters in late July put Harris ahead 52 to 39 — a 13-point lead — and betting markets give him roughly a 92 percent implied chance of winning.
On October 14, Murphy appeared on CNN with Jake Tapper, who asked whether the confrontation made her want to stay in journalism. She said she had "no intention of stopping" covering Harris, or of leaving the field.
The district at the center of this — Maryland's 1st, the state's only Republican-held House seat — is also the target of a redistricting fight. Harris, chair of the House Freedom Caucus and a staunch Trump ally, is seeking a ninth term. During the 90-minute forum, hosted by the League of Women Voters before more than 150 Eastern Shore residents, he and Schwartz clashed over diesel prices, deportation's effect on the poultry industry and rural health care — agreeing only in opposing the redistricting amendment on November's ballot, which polling shows most Marylanders also oppose.
Harris was first elected in 2010. Mail ballots are already out and early voting opens in late October. A sitting congressman demanding a student journalist's camera and threatening criminal referral has become a defining image of the race's closing stretch.