Mark Harris, the North Carolina 9th District Republican congressional candidate, has been embroiled in a months-long election fraud scandal since the night of the midterms. Now, it seems, he’s done answering questions about it.
On Monday night in Charlotte, NC, Harris addressed a group of Mecklenburg County Republicans. After his remarks journalists attempted to ask Harris questions.
At that point, according to WSOC TV, Harris literally sprinted from the room, escaping out a emergency fire escape and setting off the fire alarm in the process.
WSOC says that as reporters followed Harris and a few people accompanying him down the stairs to the fire exit, an unknown man tried to block the door so they couldn’t leave. When asked if he worked for the city, the man let the reporters exit.
After making it safely home without answering questions, Harris retweeted reporter Joe Bruno’s tweet with an extremely normal explanation of why he left in such a hurry.
He just loves college football! How could you fault a man for sprinting away from the press to catch a big game?!
On Twitter, Harris’ Democratic opponent Dan McCready commented on the events.
“Mark Harris can run from the media, but he can’t hide from the truth,” McCready wrote. “The people deserve answers.”
A former state fire marshal also commented on Twitter, calling Harris’ use of the fire exit was “appalling.”
It’s true that things aren’t going great for Harris, who was ahead by 905 votes in initial counts after the midterms. After accusations of election fraud, the results remain uncertified, and thus the 780,000 residents of the district are currently not represented in Congress. House Democrats, who are now in the majority, have said they will launch an investigation of the election, which could lead to a new election in the district.
But for now, Harris has won—in that he didn’t have to talk to any reporters. It’s a wonder more politicians don’t work on their sprinting before getting involved in election fraud.