More than a year after cutting 30% of its workforce and disrupting dozens of public health programs, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is lagging in hiring compared to other health agencies in the federal government, according to the union representing current and former CDC employees.

The newly revealed numbers on hiring come as a clearer picture is emerging of the impact of widespread cuts made by the Trump administration’s now-shuttered Department of Government Efficiency in its effort to shrink the size of the federal workforce.

The Department of Health and Human Services has been authorized to make hundreds of new hires, but according to an analysis conducted by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 2883, the CDC has roughly one new hire for every six reported staff laid off or placed on administrative leave.

According to the union’s analysis of USAJOBS and Office of Personnel Management data, the numbers, first reported by ABC News, show the CDC posted 147 job announcements from Jan. 2 through Sept. 10, 2026, with 95 new hires from January to July 2026. Those new hires are just 16.5% of the total number of employees lost to DOGE reductions in force. NIH has newly hired 34%, the FDA 39% and CMS 131.7%.

Across the CDC, there are roughly 50 so-called “zombie” programs — initiatives that Congress has fully funded with American taxpayer dollars but with little staff to do the work, according to a union analysis. 

In a statement, the Department of Health Human Services said, “CDC continues to deliver on its critical public health responsibilities, while strategically hiring and aligning its workforce with the agency’s priorities.”

But according to the union analysis that ABC News reviewed, there are dozens of “zombie” programs across the public health field that impact chronic diseases, injury prevention, oral health, reproductive care, traumatic brain injury and rape prevention. Yet, the programs remain idle with reduced staff. It remains funded because CDC experts were laid off, are on paid leave or have left.

For example, the Office of Smoking and Health has a budget of $246 million and all of the programs within the office are on hold or it’s trying to do its work with contractors while the full-time employees are on paid administrative leave and are not allowed to work, according to AFGE. 

Among other programs faced with steep cuts and little staff: a $6 million program for sickle cell data collection; $11 million for managing epilepsy; and $41 million for Alzheimer’s surveillance and risk prevention, according to the union.

The Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, one of five programs Congress funded within the $113.5 million Safe Motherhood/Infant Health initiative, was also impacted. The PRAMS program provided one of the most comprehensive collections of data on maternal health.

‘Catch-as-catch-can’

In many cases, full-time employees like doctors and scientists who are experts in their fields are on administrative leave. Those staffers are paid but not allowed to come to work as lawsuits challenge the cuts. In other cases, the agency hired contractors to replace the CDC experts who have long guided decisions on research, data collection and community health programs.  

Health care experts are sounding the alarm. 

“The programs are running kind of as catch-as-catch-can,” said Dr. Georges Benjamin, who serves as CEO of the American Public Health Association. 

While some public health efforts have continued in the program, Benjamin stressed that it’s limited.

“It means people who are doing the work are working really hard to do minimal stuff,” he told ABC News.  

“What it ultimately means is that we will not have the information that’s necessary to make sure as we all grow old, we’ll be able to live our best,” he said.

Sickle cell program in jeopardy

The Sickle Cell Foundation of Georgia relies on data collected by the CDC and the state to reach patients with sickle cell in underserved communities. Many of those patients are willing to wait hours for care, knowing their monthly visit is their only window to see a specialized hematologist.

“If we don’t [treat them], then nobody will, and these people just go without healthcare,” Dr. Anthony Onyegbula said.

ABC News followed Onyegbula as he made his approximately 100 mile journey from Atlanta to Columbus, Georgia, to treat patients who otherwise would have to travel for specialized care. On this day, Onyegbula and his nurse saw 39 patients in a single day, including Marcus McGhee, who is now blind in his left eye due to complications from the disease. McGhee, 34, said he’s holding his breath in between his medical visits.

“It’s like a ‘to be continued,’ McGhee said. “During this whole month, my mind is just racing … What am I gonna have to go through this time?” he said.

Sickle cell is a genetic blood disorder that can cause chronic pain and be potentially fatal. The disease predominantly impacts African Americans and minorities.

Dr. Tabatha McGee, CEO of the Sickle Cell Foundation of Georgia, said the data from the CDC’s sickle cell data collection program is critical to reaching patients. 

‘We will lose more warriors if we don’t know where they are,” she said, adding, “We can’t get them the care that they need. We will lose them.”

Health experts seeing an impact

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services told ABC News, “President Trump and Secretary Kennedy have made improving care and outcomes for Americans living with sickle cell disease a top priority.”

“Across HHS, CMS is expanding access to treatment, FDA is approving new options, HRSA is strengthening care, NIH is advancing research, and CDC is continuing surveillance that helps states identify gaps in care and treatment,” the spokesperson added.

Yet, health experts warn they are seeing an impact.

In a September letter to the CDC Director Erica Schwartz, the American Society of Hematology stated that the division was facing “a number of immediate challenges” and warned there were “early signs that the national data infrastructure built through years of federal investment is beginning to erode.”

“Grantees facing difficulties in planning with the risk of losing key staff with essential program and data expertise; pauses in data collection and analysis; and disruptions to patient care,” the group wrote in its letter to Schwartz.  

The federal health department notes research has expanded across other federal health agencies. In July, the FDA approved the first gene therapy for children as young as two with sickle cell disease and awarded grants to expand access to care.

Under the first Trump administration, the sickle cell data collection program expanded to reach 16 states, covering half of the nation’s sickle cell population. The program provides grants to states, academic institutions and non-profit organizations to gather data on the disease, complications and treatment.

But health experts paint a much different picture in Trump’s second term.

“It’s just morally wrong,” Dr. Karen Remley, the former CDC Director for the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, told ABC News.

Remley argued: “It is wrong to know that we have ways to help people with disease and to intentionally not take care of them. That is wrong.”

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In Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, third-generation rancher Scott Belden is in the middle of harvest. And anxious. 

“It’s probably the most stressful time in my life,” Belden, 55, said.

It’s not just the demanding time of year that has the lifelong rancher uneasy — the record-breaking cost of diesel is also putting additional pressure on him and his business. 

“The inputs are out of control. The diesel prices are out of control, along with everything else. So we’re just in a very trying time. Very uncertain,” he said. 

Oil prices have spiked since the start of the Iran war. The average price for a gallon of diesel was $6.32 on Thursday, according to AAA, and prices have increased by more than 65% since the war began back in February.

Belden says he wakes up at 3 a.m., worrying about how to make it all work with the crushing fuel costs hitting his bottom line. All his vehicles and equipment run on diesel, and during harvest, he burns 90 to 100 gallons of the fuel a day. 

Belden’s ranch includes cattle and custom harvesting for hay — the latter he says is “absolutely unprofitable” with the costs of fuel. 

“If I want to continue to operate, I’m going to buy diesel. No matter what the price is, I’m going to buy diesel,” he said. 

“It don’t take no [mathematician] to figure out that it’s costing me $1,000 to $1,400 more a week,” he said. 

“It’s a very trying time when you know, you don’t know when that’s going to end. You don’t know, and you can’t — you can’t always pass that on to your customers because you set the prices, and they’re all — they’re all struggling, too. You know everybody’s in this together,” he added.

With the midterm elections less than three weeks away, polling shows the economy and cost of living are a top concern for many voters. 

A three-time Donald Trump voter, Belden believes Republicans will pay the price for the ongoing pain at the pump.

“Middle of America is hurting,” Belden warned. “The lifeblood of America is diesel fuel. Everything you eat, consume, wear is delivered with a diesel-powered vehicle. So, I do believe it’s going to hurt them tremendously.”

While Belden stands by his vote for the president, he is glad Trump is term-limited. 

“The president has a lot to do with these fuel prices,” he said. “He’s made some decisions that didn’t go the way he thought they’d go, and now we’re weeping the consequences of some of them decisions. And so I wouldn’t say regret, but I’m glad we’ll get someone new next time.”

Trump has said higher fuel prices are worth the cost of preventing Iran from building nuclear weapons and that they will come down quickly after the war is over, although he has over the last few weeks shifted the blame to Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy infrastructure in their ongoing war.

The president last week made a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to import 300,000 tons of its diesel fuel and promised that millions more are coming, though experts say that won’t do a lot to bring costs down.

Belden says he’s expecting prices to stay high, despite Trump’s promises. 

“I believe everything goes up and comes down, but I’ve learned they go up real fast and come down real slow,” he said. 

While he has absorbed the increased operating costs so far, he warned that it won’t be possible much longer. 

“I think we’re all in trouble. If we don’t get control of this diesel fuel and get it — like right now — people, people are probably consuming the loss, like as myself, but that cannot continue. So if they don’t get control of the diesel fuel soon, we’re really going to see a spike.”

“We’re just going to have to pray that we make the right decisions and that our customers stick with us.” 

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Amid questions about her legal credentials, White House press secretary Katie Zacharia said in an interview Thursday that she did not pass the bar exam.

In an interview on Fox News, host Sean Hannity asked: “You went to Pepperdine law school but you did not pass the bar exam, correct?” 

“Correct,” Zacharia replied. 

Asked if she ever took the bar exam for a second or even a third time, she said she did not. 

Earlier, two people with direct knowledge of the matter told ABC News that Zacharia did not pass the bar exam in the United States.

Zacharia, who held her first White House press briefing earlier this week, has described herself as a lawyer and President Donald Trump called her “an attorney” in a social media post last week announcing her role in his administration.

There has been scrutiny over whether she passed the bar after Popular Information reported earlier this week that there was no evidence she was licensed to practice law. There was also a Wall Street Journal report saying that Zacharia sat for the bar in 2011 but did not pass.

In an earlier interview Thursday with Real America’s Voice, Zacharia clarified that she did take the bar exam after obtaining her law degree from Pepperdine University in 2011 — but stopped short of explicitly stating whether she passed the exam. She said the results of the bar exam were “somewhat inconsequential” because she knew she would be moving to China afterward where she worked in international transaction law.

“I’ll take the bar and see what happens,” Zacharia said of her mindset at the time. “The results are somewhat inconsequential because I knew I wouldn’t need the bar in China, and — and we left shortly thereafter. And after moving to China, I think– I didn’t — I didn’t really think much of the bar results or consider that something that I needed to focus on, and I was offered a job at a — in an international practice division of a — of a Chinese law firm.”

Zacharia took the California bar exam after graduating from Pepperdine Caruso School of Law but did not pass, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said.

The White House did not previously respond to questions to the press secretary’s office about whether Zacharia passed the bar exam.

Zacharia noted that she consulted with people in the legal field and asked whether she could title herself as a lawyer, providing legal analysis, rather than an attorney at law providing legal advice.

“I consulted, for a very long time, many people in the field: ‘Is it OK and acceptable if I label myself “lawyer,” not “attorney at law,” not “Katie Zacharia, Esquire,” but “lawyer,” and provide legal analysis, not legal advice?,’ And they said ‘absolutely, absolutely,’ across the board. ‘You can call yourself a lawyer, you have a JD, and to buffer that, you have international legal experience in transactional law, which gives you the ability to analyze it, not necessarily give advice,'” Zacharia told Real America’s Voice.

Zacharia added that she is “very careful” how she refers to herself, saying she never presented herself as a practicing attorney.

“I never came across as someone who was an attorney at law,” Zacharia said.

Asked about the reports of Zacharia’s credentials, the White House would not directly respond, providing a statement from Zacharia saying she “practiced international transaction law, with all the appropriate credentials.”

A White House official added that Zacharia has “her JD from Pepperdine.”

“Katie moved to China with her husband after graduating because of his job at an American private equity firm while she worked on international transaction law,” the White House official added.

Earlier this week, during a White House departure with Trump, Zacharia was asked by a reporter in which state she passed the bar exam. Trump waved Zacharia over to respond herself to the question, to which she responded she “moved to China.” When pressed again, she repeated to reporters that she “moved to China.”

Zacharia later clarified her response in a phone interview with the New York Times, claiming she couldn’t hear the reporter’s question.

“I assumed the question was, ‘Where were you after law school?,'” Zacharia told the New York Times.

“That’s all I could hear over the sound of Marine One,” Zacharia added. “And, wanting to respect protocol, the distance behind the president, kept me from moving closer to hear the question.”

Asked Thursday whether she plans to weigh in on legal matters while serving as press secretary, Zacharia said she did not.

ABC News’ Rachel Scott and Luke Barr contributed to this report.

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President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that Nidal Hasan’s execution by firing squad “will not be streamed” — reversing the controversial announcement by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that the killing would be publicly broadcast.

Trump said that Hasan’s execution will still take place as scheduled “by firing squad” — even though it will not be livestreamed.

The Pentagon had maintained earlier this week that the livestream was moving forward. But in a new statement to ABC News, Defense Department spokesperson Sean Parnell said that Hegseth and Trump are now “completely aligned.”

“President Trump and Secretary Hegseth spoke about the decision to not livestream Hasan’s execution ahead of the Truth Social announcement. The Secretary supports the President’s decision, and they are completely aligned,” Parnell wrote.

Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and wounding another 32 in a 2009 shooting at Fort Hood, Texas. Hasan, who described the attack as an act of jihad, is scheduled to be executed by firing squad on Dec. 3 at the same base where he committed the attack.

“I think streaming the execution for all to see might have been a strong deterrent for the World to witness how America deals with Terrorists and SCUM like Hasan but, many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die, through streaming, or through any other visual device,” Trump wrote in a social media post Thursday morning. “He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed.”

Trump added that the execution can be viewed in person by the families of victims if they choose.

John Galligan, who has represented Hasan for years as his civilian attorney, said the cancellation of the livestream came “as no surprise.” Galligan still criticized what he views as the administration’s broader mishandling of the execution, adding that Hegseth made a “dumb decision” to “livestream any execution” since it “violated the Army’s own regulation.”

Public executions were once common in the U.S., but states began restricting and abolishing the practice in the mid 19th and early 20th centuries. The last widely recognized public execution was carried out in Kentucky in 1936.

Last week, Hegseth vowed to make the execution public and confirmed it would be livestreamed. But Trump and his advisers earlier this week were mulling whether to no longer livestream Hasan’s execution, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News, amid a hesitancy over whether broadcasting the execution could super charge anti-American propaganda or reflect poorly on the U.S.

Vice President JD Vance said last week that he wasn’t sure whether there would be a livestream, adding that he wouldn’t watch it if there were.

Many lawmakers — including several Republicans — spoke out against the livestream. Outgoing Republican Sen. Thom Tillis condemned the livestream plan last week saying that, “Public executions are what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do. It should not be happening in America.”

Eight in 10 Americans say that Hasan’s execution should not be livestreamed, according to an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll conducted using Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel out Thursday morning.

Reaction from Fort Hood shooting survivors

Alonzo Lunsford, a sergeant who had served in the Army since 1990, was among those injured in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting. Hasan shot him seven times — including in the head and in the stomach.

Lunsford said that receiving the news that the Pentagon would not livestream Hasan’s execution was “a sigh of relief,” calling the administration’s reversal a “very smart choice.”

“We show that we’re a better nation and a better people than to livestream something like that,” Lunsford told ABC News. “Even though what [Hasan] did and why he did it is messed up, it shows that we can rise to the occasion to be better than him or anyone like him.”

Keara Torkelson was a 21-year-old Army specialist preparing to deploy to Iraq when Hasan shot her at Fort Hood. A shot to her back and a bullet grazing her skull led to medical complications and her ultimate retirement from the Army.

Torkelson said “removing the livestream is the right decision.”

“Justice doesn’t need to be broadcast to be real, and the victims and survivors shouldn’t have to relive any part of this through a public spectacle,” Torkelson told ABC News.

“For those of us who lived through Nov. 5, 2009, this is so much more than a headline or a political debate. It’s part of our lives and our story that we continue to carry. I believe there is a way to acknowledge accountability and justice while still honoring the lives lost, the survivors, and the families who have lived with the aftermath for nearly 17 years.”

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The war in Ukraine has continued to rage in the days after President Donald Trump declared an energy ceasefire there, with Russia targeting civilian and energy infrastructure as the U.S. applies pressure on Kyiv to halt attacks on oil refineries in Russia, which Trump says are to blame for the high price of diesel fuel.

As the president’s announcement of a partial ceasefire Sunday — covering energy infrastructure in both countries — failed to yield any limits to the fighting, he continued to apply public pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The U.S. government-owned satellite infrastructure used by Ukraine’s military for drone navigation and air defense on Wednesday was not operating at its normal functionality, raising concerns that American support for Kyiv was ebbing.

Zelenskyy said on a British television program Wednesday that his country was “losing a strong partner” in the United States, days after he said his military did not receive critical early warnings from partners of attacks that it had come to expect.

Six people were killed in strikes in Ukraine on Wednesday, Zelenskyy said.

A defense ministry official in Kyiv said overnight Wednesday that restrictions placed on Starshield, a satellite communications network owned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX but contracted for use under terms set by the Pentagon, “disrupted” a number of “critical missions” in Ukraine.

A Ukrainian source said the restriction gave the Russians “real leverage on [the] frontline” by inhibiting the military’s ability to defend against jet-powered Shahed drones. As the hours passed Wednesday, the Starshield limits began to loosen, but remained a concern for Ukraine.

The source said SpaceX did not warn Ukraine of the move or answer questions about the rationale for the halt.

Elon Musk, the chief executive of SpaceX, said on Wednesday that “Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government” and “any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately [President Trump.]”

The White House, Pentagon and SpaceX did not respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.

‘Only hurts Ukrainian forces,’ analyst says

George Barros, an open-source analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, said “US decisions to throttle [Starshield] only harms Ukrainian forces on the defense in Ukraine,” noting that Ukrainian forces have never been permitted to use the SpaceX networks for strikes deep into Russia.

“This decision will significantly degrade Ukraine’s mid-range strike capability — a key driver of Ukraine’s recent battlefield momentum in 2026,” he said in a post on X.

Intelligence sharing from military to military is America’s primary contribution to Ukraine’s war effort, analysts said, providing key early warnings for Russian strikes and targeting information.

Trump said Tuesday that intelligence sharing was continuing as usual.

A Ukrainian source in Kyiv on Wednesday said warnings did come overnight Wednesday — but they were late.

European allies of Ukraine would look to fill any gap left by a U.S. drawback on intelligence sharing, but two European officials acknowledge there would still be a gap in Ukraine’s intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities.

The battlefield impacts come amid tensions between the U.S. and Ukrainian presidents — and between negotiators working on a diplomatic solution to the conflict.

Trump says Ukraine causing ‘a world problem’

Trump has insisted the two sides stop targeting energy infrastructure, but he has focused in particular on Ukraine’s strikes on Russian oil refineries. Over the weekend he struck a deal with Moscow to release diesel exports into global markets.

Trump said on Saturday Ukraine should not “hit the refineries, because that’s [caused] a world problem.”

After a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, Trump said he would authorize a Treasury Department license for the export of Russian diesel, overriding existing sanctions.

Gregory Brew, an energy analyst at the Eurasia Group, said the deal — which would facilitate the export of some 74,000 barrels a day of diesel, a fraction of the amount Russia exported less than a year ago — was motivated by Trump’s domestic political calculations.

“All of this is being driven by the administration’s desire to bring down fuel prices ahead of the midterm elections to try to improve Trump and the Republicans’ outlook in that vote,” Brew said. “So this is all being driven, I would say, largely by short-term considerations geared around energy prices and the midterm election outlook.”

U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators, including Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, met Friday about a potential peace framework in Miami, where tensions rose over the arrangement with Russia.

Made aware of the forthcoming announcement from Trump, Ukrainian negotiators cut the meetings short, according to a source familiar with the Miami talks.

Looking for leverage

Two days after the Miami talks, Trump on Sunday said Ukraine and Russia did agree to a ceasefire on energy targets, but neither side corroborated the claim. A U.S. official told ABC News Trump’s announcement was driven by his frustration with the Ukrainian president to compromise on an energy truce.

Zelenskyy has said he would order his military to abide by a truce only if Putin would do the same.

“If Trump really does want Zelenskyy to make concessions — either to agree to this energy ceasefire or to permit this this diesel deal [with Russia], or to to bow to a broader deal that is maybe a little bit more favorable to Russia — he’s going to look for ways to to exercise that leverage,” Brew said, referring to a potential curtailing of intelligence sharing.

The Kremlin has also been mum about the ceasefire, with Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov saying the diesel deal and a broader peace agreement were on separate tracks.

Peskov reiterated what he called Moscow’s consistent position “that we do not want a ceasefire” but instead “want lasting peace.”

Trump’s pressure campaign on Kyiv may be aimed at facilitating his diesel deal with Russia, Brew said.

“I would imagine that the Russian requirement for this deal to move forward is a halt to attacks on refineries,” he said. “Russia needs its refineries to be operating under ideal circumstances in order to ramp back up diesel exports.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Wednesday that Ukraine remained ready to enter into a ceasefire, conditional on Russia laying down its arms simultaneously. Tensions with the Americans were not new, he said, recalling a Trump outburst in the Oval Office a month into his presidency, when he scolded Zelenskyy publicly.

“In less than two years, Ukraine has gone from ‘You don’t have the cards’ to ‘Don’t play your cards,'” Sybiha said Wednesday.

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Maryland Republican Rep. Andy Harris on Tuesday appeared to lose his cool during a gaggle with reporters, singling out a journalist and threatening her with legal consequences if she recorded him on video.

“You do not have my permission to record. If you record, we will refer you to prosecutors,” Harris told the reporter in a video captured by a Baltimore Banner photojournalist following his debate against Democratic opponent Dan Schwartz in Cambridge, Maryland.

“Everyone in here is recording,” responded the reporter, identified as Cat Murphy, a data reporter at Capital News Service. “Why am I not allowed to?”

“But you are not allowed to,” Harris responded. “We are in a two-party state. You are not allowed to.”

Harris had just left the contentious debate in which some in the audience interrupted him with laughter as he tried to blame Democrats for the high price of diesel.

“You’re rude,” he said angrily, pointing to a woman in the audience. 

Harris, who is seeking a ninth term in the House, repeatedly referenced Maryland’s all-party consent law, the Maryland Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Act, which makes it unlawful for any person to “willfully intercept … any wire, oral, or electronic communication” — a felony subject to imprisonment for not more than five years and/or a fine of not more than $10,000.

But the law protects only private conversations, not situations such as a public official conducting a news conference with accredited journalists where the participants have no reasonable expectation of privacy, a Maryland labor and employment attorney said.

Joyce Smithey, managing partner of the Smithey Law Group in Annapolis, said Harris was “misapplying” the two-party consent law.

“A congressman speaking to journalists in a press conference has no reasonable expectation that his remarks are private,” Smithey said. “Other reporters were openly recording. The fact that he expressly withheld consent from one journalist does not transform an otherwise public exchange into a private conversation. There is no basis under Maryland’s two-party consent law for suggesting that the journalist was committing a crime simply by recording that exchange.”

The video shows at least eight journalists participating in the gaggle with the congressman and Murphy told ABC News Wednesday she is credentialed through a gallery at the U.S. Capitol. The debate last night did not require press registration, Murphy added.

“With all due respect, this is a public forum,” another reporter told Harris as the quarrel continued.

“Do you know the law?” Harris retorted, growing agitated. 

“I’m not a lawyer,” the journalist admitted before questioning the congressman’s credentials. “Are you? You’re a doctor.”

“Yeah, actually, I’m a legislator,” affirmed Harris, an anesthesiologist by trade. “Yeah, I actually, I actually know the law well.”

When Murphy attempted to steer the clash back to her questions about U.S. military hostilities with Iran, Harris looked around for law enforcement and called for an officer.

“You said that it could have gone smoother and it could have gone better. What did you mean by that?” Murphy asked regarding the congressman’s comments on Iran during the debate.

“Take her camera. You’re going to take her camera. She is violating the law. In fact, get an officer in here. She’s violating the law on two-party, two-party recording,” Harris stammered. “We need an officer.”

The unidentified reporter again spoke out in Murphy’s defense, contending that Maryland’s two-party consent law applied to telephone communications.

“Audio and video have to have two-party approval in Maryland,” Harris insisted. “Now they may not have to have it in Washington D.C. They have to have it in Maryland. She needs my approval to record.”

“We are in public,” Murphy insisted.

Harris didn’t wait for an officer to respond to his pleas and pushed his way out of the room. 

“She’s ruining all your chances to get an answer about anything,” Harris bemoaned. “See y’all. Thank her. Thank — thank her profusely!”

ABC News attempted to seek comment from Harris on Wednesday but has not received a response.

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