Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) said Wednesday that he doesn’t regret “anything” he did on January 6, 2021, including his expression of solidarity with pro-Trump protesters who later stormed the Capitol.
On the morning of January 6, before the protest turned violent, Hawley was photographed raising his fist in solidarity with the crowd of Trump supporters gathered outside the Capitol. Many of Hawley’s Democratic colleagues have argued that the show of support was inflammatory and a cop said Hawley’s actions “riled up” the protesters, the January 6 Committee reported recently.
“I don’t regret anything that I did that day,” Hawley told CNN. “And I want to thank — say thank you for all the help with my fundraising. It’s been tremendous.”
Video footage captured that day, and presented at a committee hearing last Thursday, showed Hawley running through a hallway and hurrying down a stairway with other members of Congress after the rioters began to breach the Capitol premises.
Asked about that video Wednesday, the Missouri senator replied, “This is just an attempt to troll. ..I don’t regret anything I did on that day. And the reason I’m being attacked by the January 6 committee is because I’m in their way, and the stand that I took is one…I won’t back down from.”
After the riot, Hawley denounced the violence and said he was merely there to object to the electoral counting process in certain disputed swing states and to reject their electors on behalf of the citizens of Missouri, many of whom he claimed raised serious concerns about election integrity.
“I cannot vote to certify the electoral college results on January 6 without raising the fact that some states, particularly Pennsylvania, failed to follow their own state election laws,” Hawley said in December 2020, making him the first GOP senator to announce such action. “And I cannot vote to certify without pointing out the unprecedented effort of mega corporations, including Facebook and Twitter, to interfere in this election, in support of Joe Biden. At the very least, Congress should investigate allegations of voter fraud and adopt measures to secure the integrity of our elections. But Congress has so far failed to act.”
Along with Senator Ted Cruz and a handful of other Republican senators, Hawley voted in favor of rejecting slates of electors submitted by Arizona and Pennsylvania on the grounds that pandemic-driven changes to their electoral processes rendered the results illegitimate.