Maryland’s U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, in a video posted to social media, offered support for a plan to award North Carolina’s electoral votes to Republican Donald J. Trump due to hurricane-caused disruptions to voting.

The video from a Republican Party dinner in Talbot County on Thursday was posted online by Ivan Raiklin, the evening’s keynote speaker who is the self-anointed “secretary of retribution” and plans to go after Trump’s enemies if he’s elected this year.

The 35-second video clip shows Raiklin holding a microphone and having an exchange with Harris, seated at a dinner table next to his wife, Nicole Beus Harris, the chairwoman of the Maryland Republican Party. Harris’ district includes the Eastern Shore, Harford County and portions of Baltimore County.

Harris, the new chair of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, appears to agree with parts of Raiklin’s speech, which included advocating for the legislature in hurricane-damaged North Carolina decide to award electoral votes to Trump, instead of following the will of voters casting ballots.

“In North Carolina, that makes a lot of sense,” Harris says in the video. “I mean, you statistically can go and say: Hey, look, you got disenfranchised in 25 counties. You know what that vote probably would have been, which would be — if I were in the legislature — enough to go, ‘Yeah, we’ve got to convene the legislature. We can’t disenfranchise those voters.’”

Raiklin is among Trump loyalists who have advocated for ways Trump could be assigned Electoral College votes outside of the typical process, particularly in North Carolina, where the western part of the state suffered significant damage from Hurricane Helene.

Rolling Stone magazine reported this week that Raiklin is urging people to pressure leaders in North Carolina’s state legislature to award the state’s 16 Electoral College votes to Trump. Republicans hold the majority in North Carolina’s House of Representatives and state Senate. Raiklin boasted online that Harris’ remarks amounted to an endorsement of his plan.

North Carolina is among a handful of swing states that could determine the outcome of the neck-and-neck presidential contest between Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

Harris did not seem to support employing Raiklin’s legally dubious strategy in other states: “But how do you make the argument in other states? I mean, otherwise, it looks like it’s just a power play. In North Carolina, I mean, it’s legitimate. I mean, there are a lot of people who aren’t going to get to vote and it may make the difference in that state.”

At another point during the evening, Harris challenged Raiklin, saying that the U.S. Congress would have to vote on accepting the presidential electors from each state — a potential roadblock to his plan.

Raiklin responded that “the pressure will be so great from the public” for Congress to reject “an absolutely legitimately run and conducted allocation of its electors.”

Near the end of his remarks, Raiklin asked Harris if he could be invited to speak about his plans to the full Freedom Caucus. Harris is shown nodding while others in the audience cheer and applaud.

Harris’ congressional office issued a statement in response to questions from The Banner:

“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.”

A few hours later, the office issued an updated statement that said the congressman’s remarks were misconstrued, and also included a false statement that emergency aid was sent to immigrants. Those items are budgeted separately and FEMA says no money has been diverted from emergency relief.

“Yesterday’s theoretical conversation has been taken out of context,” the statement read. “As I’ve repeatedly said, every legal vote should be counted. Currently, voting is going well in western North Carolina, despite FEMA spending over a billion dollars housing illegal immigrants instead of helping North Carolinians. However, what is still at play is Rep. Raskin’s threat to have the Democrats deny electoral certification under the 14th amendment.”

U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat and fellow Marylander, recently said he’d accept a Trump victory if it was “a free, fair and honest election,” the website Axios reported. But Raskin cast doubt that Trump would use honest means to win.

By Friday morning, more than 2.3 million North Carolina residents voted through mail voting and early voting, which started Oct. 17, representing 30% of statewide turnout so far, according to Karen Brinson-Bell, executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections.

The state made provisions for voters in 25 counties designated as a disaster area to request vote-by-mail ballots if they’ve been displaced and can’t make it to their regular voting location. Brinson-Bell said “the vast majority” of regular Election Day voting locations will be open in affected counties.

Raiklin was the keynote speaker at the Lincoln Reagan Dinner hosted by the Talbot County Republican State Central Committee, held at the Miles River Yacht Club in St. Michael’s. Harris, who became chairman of the House Freedom Caucus this fall, was listed as one of the sponsors of the event. The video from the event was first reported by Politico.

Vice President Kamala Harris responded to the proposal Friday afternoon saying: “America deserves to have leaders who respect the importance of one of the pillars and foundations of our democracy, which is free and fair elections.”