The Kansas City Star’s editorial board has eviscerated Missouri’s junior senator in an opinion piece published after the Capitol was stormed Tuesday by pro-Trump seditionists.
“No one other than President Donald Trump himself is more responsible for Wednesday’s coup attempt at the U.S. Capitol than one Joshua David Hawley, the 41-year-old junior senator from Missouri, who put out a fundraising appeal while the siege was underway.”
“This, Sen. Hawley, is what law-breaking and destruction look like. This is what mobs do. This is not a protest, but a riot. One woman was shot and has died, The Washington Post reported, while lawmakers were sheltering in place.”
“No longer can it be asked, as George Will did recently of Hawley, “Has there ever been such a high ratio of ambition to accomplishment?” Hawley’s actions in the last week had such impact that he deserves an impressive share of the blame for the blood that’s been shed.”
The newspaper noted that Hawley was the first Senator to say he would oppose the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College win on Jan. 6. It requires one senator and one House member for an objection to a state’s electoral votes to be debated.
After Hawley stepped forward, Sen. Ted Cruz and other members of what the newspaper called the “Sedition Caucus” rushed to put on a show of loyalty to Trump.
Hawley cannot claim ignorance as an excuse for his actions. He is a graduate of Stanford and Yale Law School, and clerked for Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. He is overly ambitious who was aiming for a presidential run.
After encouraging the protesters earlier in the day, Hawley tried to cover his ass with the following Tweet:
The Star sarcastically noted: “So modest, Senator, failing to note your key role in inspiring one of the most heartbreaking days in modern American history.”
The editorial concluded by noting that Hawley and other Republican lawmakers who supported Trump’s con about widespread election fraud “knew all along that his claims were bogus.”
“Now that they’ve seen exactly where those lies have landed us, decency demands that they try to prevent further violence by making clear that Joe Biden did not win by cheating. Please, gentlemen, surprise us.”
So far Hawley is not surprising anyone. Soon-to-be-Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has pressured Republican senators to drop objections to swing state electoral votes to speed up the certification process after the Senate rejected the challenge to Arizona’s electoral votes.
Only six Republican senators ended up supporting the challenge to Arizona’s Electoral College votes. At the start of the day, more than a dozen Republican senators had expressed support for the challenge.
The Hill reported that Hawley will go forward with his plan to object to Pennsylvania’s Electoral College votes.
"Senator Hawley spoke during the debate on the Arizona objection, but he will object to Pennsylvania once Congress returns to the joint session, and when the Senate and House go back to their chambers for the debate on Pennsylvania, he will yield his speaking time to move toward a vote," said Kelli Ford, a spokesperson for Hawley.
It was unclear whether the Senate and House would each use the two hours allotted to debate the Pennsylvania challenge.