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Maryland governor hopeful Dan Cox has denied any affiliation with the far-right group Proud Boys after a video surfaced of him accepting a gift from a member.
At an event this summer, the Republican was mingling with voters when he was approached by Henry, a member of the Maryland Proud Boy who wore a black polo with the group’s insignia.
With security close behind, Cox shook hands with Henry and accept a black comb.
‘Here, this is a present from Maryland Proud Boys to you,’ Henry said in the video, which was originally on Cox’s Vimeo account, but later taken down and reposted by the Washington Post,
The governor hopeful looked at the comb confused before asking the man’s name and putting on his best politician’s smile.
‘Nice to meet you,’ Cox said, before moving on to the next guest waiting to introduce themselves.
The Republican has since denied any connection to the group, telling the Post that he ‘did not even keep the comb.’
Maryland governor hopeful Dan Cox was seen accepting a gift of a comb from a Maryland Proud Boy – a far-right group – at an August event (pictured: Cox at the same event)
He has denied any affiliation with the group and said he ‘did not even keep the comb.’ He said in a statement: ‘I had never seen him before, and I have not seen him since. I have no affiliation with anyone involved in violence on January 6, period’
‘In the noise of the victory celebration, it was hard to hear what was being said,’ he said in a statement to the Post. ‘I was surprised by him handing me something.
‘I had never seen him before, and I have not seen him since. I have no affiliation with anyone involved in violence on January 6, period.’
After winning the July primary, the father-of-10 started to distance himself from extremists within his party. He deleted his account on Gab, a social platform known to have a lot of white nationalists and hate speech on it, according to the Post.
He has not spoken publicly on his decision to delete the account.
He’s even distanced himself publicly from Trump, even though the former president did host an event for him at his Mar-A-Lago mansion, with tickets costing an ironic $1,776 and to be photographic with the two of them cost $25,000, according to the Post.
Cox has also pulled away from Trump’s Make America Great Again movement and has tried to distance himself from being known for his attendance of the January 6 riot, where he reportedly arranged buses to the rally and called Mike Pence a ‘traitor,’ according to Maryland Matters.
Although he has said he thought the election was ‘stolen’ and attended the Stop the Steal rally with seven of his children. He insisted he left before the riot broke out.
The Proud Boys were also in attendance during the riot and have been in the hot seat over the past years as trials happen for insurrectionists.
Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and four lieutenants have been charged with seditious conspiracy in connection with January 6 US Capitol riot.
These are the most serious charges leveled against Tarrio and the right-win group to date.
Tarrio did not take part in the January 6, 2021 riot on the Capitol, but allegedly orchestrated the activities from a ‘command and control’ structure within the fringe group.
Police arrested Tarrio in Washington two days before the riot and charged him with vandalizing a Black Lives Matter banner at a historic Black church during a protest in December 2020.
He was ordered to leave DC but instead went to an underground parking garage where he met with a documentary film crew, other Proud Boys and Elmer Stewart Rhodes III, the founder of the Oath Keepers, another far-right group that was represented in the riot.
Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and four lieutenants have been charged with seditious conspiracy in connection with January 6 US Capitol riot. Local chapters have apparently been ‘aggressively’ recruiting since the riot
The father-of-10 did attend the Stop the Steal rally with seven of his 10 children, but said he left before the riot began. He has since started to distance himself from extremists in his political party
Tarrio pleaded guilty in August to two misdemeanor charges for the BLM flag burning and was given a five-month sentence.
Heidi Beirich, a co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, said local chapters of the Proud Boys have been ‘working aggressively’ since January 6.
‘It’s disturbing to see Proud Boys showing up at legitimate political events. They shouldn’t be,’ she told the Post.
‘It’s a white supremacist group, a misogynist group. The number of Proud Boys involved in violence is a mile long. The group is so dangerous that Canada and New Zealand have banned it as a terrorist organization.’
A spokesperson for Cox’s opponent Wes Moore told the Post the comb moment ‘shows what we’ve known all along: Cox is a dangerous extremist that doesn’t belong anywhere near the governor’s office.’
Maryland starts early voting on Tuesday.
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