WASHINGTON – One of his top early supporters now says he ‘was the biggest mistake I’ve ever made in my life’, and a top donor called for him to be convicted by the Senate.
These are just a few of the condemnations that Sen Josh Hawley has come under way since the Republican in Missouri became the first senator to announce that he would object to the counting of the election college votes and then proceeded came up with his plan even after pro-president Donald Trump stormed the Capitol on Wednesday.
The largest newspapers in his home country asked him to resign. His publisher canceled his contract for an upcoming book with him. He was looted by both Democrats and Republicans for leading the futile protest effort.
And a viral photo of Hawley entering the Capitol before the riot, in which the senator appeared in a slender fit, cut his hair perfectly and lifted his fist to the gathered crowd, has already become a lasting image of a day which will soon not be forgotten.
“It was like a Dukakis-on-the-tank moment,” one Republican strategist told NBC News, referring to a famous attack on the Democratic presidential candidate in 1988, “because he just looked sly and out of place. and looks like a doofus. . “
At 41, Hawley is the youngest sitting senator and is considered a possible 2024 Republican presidential candidate. Since his Senate election in 2018, he has carved out a space for himself as the leading Republican critic of the tech giants – a policy area that has garnered him widespread support and coverage in the press. It is now overshadowed by his objection.
After the riot, Hawley condemned the violence at the Capitol and said he was merely objecting to voters to give his voters in Missouri, a state that went to Trump by 2020 by 15 points.
“I do not think he is the right person to blame the finger on him for what happened,” a senior Republican assistant told NBC News. “I think Trump was the one who was at the protest before and fired everyone. Trump is the one who has been doing this for weeks since the election. He’s getting everyone fired, and I think that’s why Senator Hawley did what he did. the pressure of his constituents. ‘
Yet Hawley’s counterpart, sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., Not among the handful of Republicans to object. Nor did others from states where Trump achieved resounding victories in November, such as Senator Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Who condemned the attempt. Congress finally counted the election of President Joe Biden and later this month set the scene for his inauguration.
“I mean, did he have to do that?” asked Hawley’s assistant. “It can be discussed.”
Before any violence took place at the Capitol, Hawley was under fire from colleagues, whether it was like Senator Jeanne Shaheen, DN.H., who told MSNBC last week she believed his attempt “bordered on rioting or treason” or Senator Mitt Romney, R-Utah., who said the objections were merely an act to ‘improve the political ambitions of some’, referring to possible 2024 presidential aspirations.
Hawley spoke on the Senate floor and said violence would not be tolerated, but an investigation into allegations of voter fraud was needed.
No evidence was presented of widespread voter fraud that would affect the election in one of the swing states that Trump lost, and the belief that there was such fraud took root among Republican voters with the president and others promoting it.
Hawley specifically objected to the voters of Pennsylvania because he believed a law passed in 2019 to expand the postal information there violated the state constitution. Yet, as sens. Bob Casey, D-Pa., And Pat Toomey, R-Pa., Said in defense of the state’s election, such constitutional objections to the law – which were passed by a Republican-controlled legislature – first came into being. after Trump lost.
“Today we have seen the damage that can be done if men in power and responsibility refuse to admit the truth,” Toomey said. “We have seen bloodshed because a demagogue has chosen to spread falsehoods and instill distrust of his own fellow Americans. Let us not commit such fraud. Let us reject this motion. ‘
Hawley “talks about Pennsylvania because he wants to come here one day and run for president,” Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Pa., tweeted. “The lies he told inspired today’s violence. He still tells the lies. Pennsylvania will never forget. ‘
Rick Tyler, who was a communications director of Senator Ted Cruz’s 2016 campaign (the Texas senator led his own objection to the election results), said the criticism Hawley was getting along with was “well-deserved.”
“Congressmen do have the right to challenge voters, but it must be carefully weighed against substantial evidence of misunderstanding,” Tyler said. “In the case of Senator Hawley, there was no such evidence to suggest that the voters were not legal. It is not good enough to say that you represent the voters who believe the election was illegal when the allegation was based on lies. and conspiracies that have been thoroughly refuted. by election officials, reports, court cases and the absence of credible evidence. ‘
“Sen Hawley’s job was to present the truth,” he added. “Instead, he chose to stir up an uprising with President and others, namely Senator Cruz.”
Amid Hawley’s objections, comments he made during the president’s indictment last year have resurfaced. At the time, Hawley said that accusation amounts to ‘overthrowing a democratic election because you do not like the result, because you believe that the election was in some way corrupt, while the evidence actually shows that it was not . ‘ He said it ‘honestly’.
Hawley’s rise in GOP politics was rapid. He was elected to the Senate for less than two years until his first term as Attorney General in Missouri, the first elected office he held. He was not then someone who dominated the headlines, although he drew attention because he blamed human trafficking on the sexual revolution of the late 1960s.
The senator has a qualification for the establishment, having obtained degrees in Stanford and Yale, where he attended law school, and that he is attending the Supreme Court, Chief Justice John Roberts, where he met his future wife, Erin Morrow, himself a fellow Roberts clerk, met.
In the days since his formal objection, anger has snowed on him, though it remains to be seen how it will affect his position with Republican voters.
“Supporting Josh and trying so hard to get him elected to the Senate was the worst mistake I have ever made in my life,” said former Senator John Danforth, R-Mo., And a mentor for the senator, to the St. Louis Post said. -Send Thursday. “It is very dangerous for America to continue with the idea that the government is not working and that the vote was fraudulent.”
Shortly after the remark, Simon & Schuster, who were to publish his forthcoming book ‘The Tyranny of Big Tech’, announced that they would cancel his contract with Hawley and pointed out the ‘deadly uprising’.
In addition, an increasing number of Democrats in Congress called for him to resign immediately, while Biden said Hawley and Cruz ‘continue the big lie’.
Hawley slammed critics backed by the book publisher, whom he saw as a “wake-up call”, saying Biden’s remarks were “unworthy, immature and immoderate”.
His office did not return a request for comment from NBC News on the setback on his efforts. But in a statement to the Missouri TV outlet KSDK, Hawley said he would “never apologize for voicing the millions of Missouri and Americans who express their concerns about the integrity of our election.”
Zack Roday, a former senior Republican assistant to the House and spokesman for former House President Paul Ryan’s campaign, said a protest could be beneficial for Hawley.
“Admitting that he chose the wrong or, at his best, wrong way to articulate his concerns about the election would be a sign of character, confidence and ultimately power,” Roday said.
Matt Mackowiak, a Republican strategist, told NBC News he thinks it’s a piece to call a procedural objection as a senator as ‘incitement’. “
“But he should have ended his objection to the voters after what happened,” he added. “He’s likely to be ineffective in the Senate, at least for a while. It’s unfortunate because he’s impressive and courageous. But who knows where things’ are headed now?”