Maryland’s Trump-backed Republican candidate for governor is in damage control mode after footage emerged of him accepting a gift from a member of the Proud Boys. Dan Cox shook hands with one of the white nationalists at his primary victory party over the summer, and footage of their exchange was available on a Vimeo account run by Cox until The Washington Post inquired about it—after which it quickly disappeared, according to the newspaper. The footage shows a young man in the Proud Boys’ signature black-and-yellow polo shirt approaching Cox and saying, “Here, this is a present from Maryland Proud Boys to you. It’s a comb. Proud Boys comb.” Cox can then be seen taking the gift, a black comb, and shaking the man’s hand as he says, “nice to meet you.” Cox has since denied having any affiliation with the man in the video and said he had trouble hearing him during the event due to “the noise of the victory celebration.” “ I had never seen him before, and I have not seen him since. I have no affiliation with anyone involved in violence on January 6th, period,” he said in a statement published by the Post. He also said he “did not even keep the comb.”
