Maryland gubernatorial 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 wearing a black polo shirt with the group’s insignia.
Safely behind, Cox shook Henry’s hand and accepted a black comb.
“Here, this is a gift to you from the Maryland Proud Boys,” Henry said in the video, which was originally on Cox’s Vimeo account but was later removed and republished by the Washington Post.
The aspiring governor looked at the comb in confusion before asking the man’s name and putting on his best political smile.
“Nice to meet you,” Cox said, before moving on to the next guest who was waiting to introduce himself.
The Republican has since denied any connection to the group, telling the Post he “didn’t even keep the comb.”
Maryland gubernatorial hopeful Dan Cox was seen accepting a comb gift from the 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, saying he ‘didn’t even keep the comb’. He said in a statement: ‘I’ve never seen it before, and haven’t seen it since. I have no affiliation with anyone involved in the 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 that he gave me something.
I had never seen it before, and I haven’t seen it since. I have no affiliation with anyone involved in the violence on January 6, period.
After winning the July primary, the father of 10 children began to distance himself from extremists within his party. He deleted his account on Gab, a social platform known for a lot of white nationalist and hate speech, according to the Post.
He has not publicly commented on his decision to delete the account.
He even publicly distanced himself from Trump, despite the former president hosting an event for him at his Mar-A-Lago mansion, with tickets ironically costing $1,776 and getting photographed with the two cost $25,000, according to the Post. .
Cox has also distanced himself from Trump’s Make America Great Again movement and has tried to distance himself from being known for his attendance at the January 6 riots, where he allegedly fixed buses for the rally and called Mike Pence a ‘traitor,’ according to Maryland. Affairs.
Though he has said he thought the election was ‘stolen’ and attended the Stop the Steal rally with seven of his children. She insisted that she left before the riot broke out.
The Proud Boys were also in attendance during the riot and have been in the dock for the past few years while the trials of the insurrectionists take place.
Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and four lieutenants have been charged with seditious conspiracy in connection with the January 6 riots at the US Capitol.
These are the most serious charges brought against Tarrio and the right-wing group to date.
Tarrio was not involved in the January 6, 2021, riots on Capitol Hill, but allegedly orchestrated the activities from a “command and control” structure within the fringe group.
Police arrested Tarrio in Washington two days before the riots and charged him with ripping up 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 the January 6 riots at the US Capitol. Local chapters have apparently been recruiting “aggressively” since the unrest.
The father of 10 children attended the Stop the Steal rally with seven of his 10 children, but said he left before the riots started. Since then he has begun to distance himself from the extremists in his political party.
Tarrio pleaded guilty in August to two misdemeanor charges for the BLM flag burning and received a five-month sentence.
Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, said local Proud Boys chapters have been ‘working aggressively’ since January 6.
“It is disturbing to see the Proud Boys appearing at legitimate political events. They shouldn’t be,” he told the Post.
‘It’s a white supremacist group, a misogynist group. The number of Proud Boys involved in the violence is a mile long. The group is so dangerous that Canada and New Zealand have banned it as a terrorist organization.’
A spokesman for Cox’s opponent, Wes Moore, told the Post that the comb moment “shows what we’ve known all along: Cox is a dangerous extremist who doesn’t belong anywhere near the governor’s office.”
Maryland begins early voting on Tuesday.
