January 6 Committee Trolls Insurrection Cheerleader Josh Hawley

Rolling Stone promised me, Exclusive: Jan. 6 Committee Plans to Humiliate MAGA Lawmakers Who Cowered During Capitol Attack.

Apparently insurrectionist cheerleader Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) is the only loser that the committee took the time to troll last night. They gave him the Forrest Gump treatment: “Run, Hawley, Run.” Video Shows Josh Hawley Fleeing The Jan. 6 Rioters He Had Just Saluted:

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The Jan. 6 House select committee revealed never-before-seen surveillance footage Thursday of Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) fleeing the U.S. Capitol during the insurrection, not long after he’d infamously held up a fist in solidarity with Donald Trump supporters as they prepared to storm the building.

The footage was shown during the second hour of the committee hearing, with Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) describing how Hawley fanned the flames of the insurrection shortly before running to safety.

“Earlier that afternoon, before the joint session started, [Hawley] walked across the east front of the Capitol,” Luria said, referring to the congressional session to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election. “As you can see in this photo, he raised his fist in solidarity with the protesters already massing at the security gates.”

“We spoke with a Capitol Police officer that was out there at the time,” Luria continued. “She told us that Senator Hawley’s gesture riled up the crowd. And it bothered her greatly because he was doing it in a safe space, protected by the officers in the barriers. Later that day, Senator Hawley fled after those protesters he helped to rile up stormed the Capitol. See for yourself.”

The committee then played the footage — showing Hawley at a near sprint running through the halls of Congress — first at its actual speed and then a second time, in slow motion.

The audience inside the committee hearing room, largely Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan police officers who defended the Capitol on January 6, broke into laughter.

The footage quickly became red meat for the internet, an ultimate “how it started, how it’s going.” Before the hearing even ended, Twitter users scored the footage with music ranging from Kate Bush to Benny Hill.

Clip Of Sen. Josh Hawley Running From Jan. 6 Rioters Gets The Treatment On Twitter:

The Jan. 6 House select committee revealed surveillance footage Thursday of Hawley fleeing the building during the insurrection that he helped incite. The audience at the hearing broke into laughter as it aired.

Not long after, Hawley became a laughingstock on Twitter as well. One Twitter user even created a viral thread of the video set to everything from “Chariots of Fire” and the Benny Hill theme song to Kate Bush’s hit “Running Up That Hill.”

Reminder: Missouri’s major newspapers all called on Josh Hawley to resign shortly after January 6 because of his role in inciting insurrectionists and leading the group of senators who voted not to certify the electoral college vote. This cowardly traitor has yet to resign.





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2 thoughts on “January 6 Committee Trolls Insurrection Cheerleader Josh Hawley”

  1. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch in an editorial opinion says “Hawley’s sprint was more than just funny. It encapsulated his core cowardice.”, https://www.stltoday.com/opinion/editorial/editorial-hawleys-sprint-was-more-than-just-funny-it-encapsulated-his-core-cowardice/article_c4331e60-888a-5676-9869-7d65265d2506.html

    By now, it’s likely that every politically sentient person in Missouri has watched and re-watched the brief video aired in Thursday night’s House committee hearing showing Sen. Josh Hawley darting through the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, like Road Runner with Wile E. Coyote in hot pursuit. Laughable as the video is, it’s important to remember the deadly serious context surrounding this sidesplitting comeuppance for a politician who so richly deserves it. Lives were lost that day, the seat of government was breached for the first time in more than two centuries, American democracy was destabilized in what may yet prove to be permanent ways — and Missouri’s junior senator was instrumental in all of it.

    When then-President Donald Trump refused to accept his clear defeat in the November 2020 election, every congressional Republican had a choice to make: Endorse Trump’s scheme to undermine public confidence in the results by falsely claiming that mass voter fraud had cost him reelection, or put party aside and stand up for democracy. Hawley, like far too many of his fellow Republicans, chose the former.

    It was a common betrayal of duty within the party, but Hawley’s betrayal had unique consequences. Under a byzantine electoral process that both parties in Congress are even now attempting to reform, it takes just one member of each chamber objecting to a given state’s electoral results to trigger floor debate over those results. The House, being the House, had plenty of Trump sycophants lining up to pull that trigger, but it looked for a time like Senate Republicans would do the responsible thing and decline.

    Then Hawley — and, initially, only Hawley — announced he would object. With that, the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6 went from being a pro-forma rubber stamp of a settled election to a showdown over Trump’s big lie that would make the Capitol a target for the mob.

    As Trump’s insurrection simmered that day outside the Capitol prior to the attack, Hawley raised his fist in solidarity with the crowd. At Thursday’s hearing of the House committee investigating the attack, Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Virginia, displayed the now-iconic photo of that fist-pumping moment and said members spoke with a female Capitol Police officer who “told us that Senator Hawley’s gesture riled up the crowd, and it bothered her greatly because he was doing it in a safe space, protected by the officers and the barriers.”

    Luria continued: “Later that day, Senator Hawley fled, after those protesters he helped to rile up stormed the Capitol. See for yourself.” The committee then aired the brief video showing Hawley lurching across a Capitol hallway — then re-ran it again in slow motion. Missouri’s hero was running for his life.

    The crowd in the committee room erupted with laughter, as, no doubt, did legions of home viewers. Twitter was quickly overtaken by memes of the video, backed by fitting music — the theme from “Chariots of Fire,” Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” — along with the famous film scene in which Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump darts down a dirt road in a stiff-backed running gait that looks remarkably similar to Hawley’s.

    “From now on,” noted one wag, “if political reporters ask Josh Hawley if he’s planning to run, he’s going to have to ask them to clarify.”

    This newspaper, like others, has said Hawley should resign for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection — a position we continue to hold today — though it would be naïve to think he’d ever entertain it. If Hawley had a shred of shame, it would surely have manifested itself before now. The fact that he would later use the infamous photo of his raised fist as a fundraising tool says all there is to say on that topic.

    [The clip] demonstrated beyond any doubt that Hawley understood, in real time, the physical danger he helped uncork that day. And yet he kept twisting that corkscrew, carrying through that night on his objection to the election results that had endorsed Trump’s lie and emboldened his followers.

    The entire scenario might also have value in convincing Republicans of conscience why this man doesn’t deserve their continued support. Not because of a momentary image that makes him look foolish but because it provides a vivid metaphor of the kind of politics he represents: bombastic, demagogic, self-interested — but ultimately devoid of courage.

    [T]hink about that. Faced with constituents who had been misled by a lying president to reject the results of a fair election, Hawley doesn’t seek to educate them on the facts but rather agrees to give official voice to the lie, because that’s what they want. That’s not a leader, it’s a follower — one who follows the worst elements of his party, even after an attack that endangers him, his congressional colleagues and democracy itself. And that’s a legacy from which Hawley can never run.

  2. The Kansas City Star in a Sunday editorlal opinion says “Josh Hawley is a laughingstock.”

    “Fist pumper to fleeing coward: Jan. 6 video shows Missouri who Josh Hawley really is”, https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/editorials/article263718073.html#storylink=cpy

    During Thursday night’s televised hearings of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, coup attempt at the U.S. Capitol, Rep. Elaine Luria showed video of Missouri’s junior senator that will surely follow him the rest of his life. In the clip, Hawley sprints across a hallway as he and his fellow senators are evacuated after insurrectionists had breached the Capitol building. When it played on the screen, the audience in the room with the committee erupted in laughter.

    Of course, Twitter immediately dogpiled. Hawley’s name was the No. 1 trending topic in politics that evening as users shared the hashtag #HawlinAss along with GIFs of a galloping Forrest Gump.

    “From now on, if political reporters ask Josh Hawley if he’s planning to run, he’s going to have to ask them to clarify,” quipped one.

    [A] signature Hawley issue is masculinity — as in, how little of it American men seem to have these days. It’s a frequent topic in his speeches and on his podcast, where “the left-wing attack on manhood” is a dire threat to our society. Regnery Publishing is set to release his book “Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs” next year. [Seriously?] Twitter didn’t see much virile bravado as he ran from the mob.

    But funny as the visual of the self-proclaimed manly senator’s immediate retreat was, there’s absolutely nothing amusing about Jan. 6, 2021. A bipartisan Senate report concluded seven people died as a result of the attack. Two more Metropolitan Police officers took their own lives shortly after. About 150 members of law enforcement were injured, and it’s impossible to know how many others caught up in the horrific event will carry scars for life, of body and mind.

    We said that day [in an editorial opinion] Hawley has blood on his hands for his role in perpetuating the lies that drove thousands of people to violence. That remains true.

    Beyond the physical toll, though, is the damage Jan. 6 continues to inflict on our democracy and our shared sense of truth. The House committee is systematically demonstrating how too many Republicans in Donald Trump’s orbit allowed him to incite the riot, which he had promised in advance “will be wild,” and were then unable to get him to call his fans off until unimaginable damage had already been done.

    SHAMELESS SENATOR STOLE COPYRIGHTED PHOTOGRAPH

    Chung’s photo of Hawley and his salute has become iconic. Taking a page from the Trump playbook, Hawley has co-opted the famous image, flagrantly violating copyright laws by slapping it on T-shirts and camouflage beer koozies for sale on his political campaign’s fundraising website. Politico, owner of the image, sent a cease-and-desist demanding the merchandise be removed from sale. And duh, Hawley refused — a defiance shameful and shameless in equal measure.

    Shame, clearly, is not a motivating factor for any number of Republicans still caught up in Trumpworld. Hawley has never apologized for attempting to reinstall a man who everyone around him knew had lost the election, as witness testimony continues to confirm. Surely the Yale and Stanford grad isn’t gullible enough to believe the craven lies about tampering with voting machines and dead people casting ballots that ooze through social media.

    And that’s the reason watching Hawley racing away from the Capitol invaders struck so many people as blackly hilarious. Saluting the Trump posse was politically expeditious for him before the siege began. Yet once he realized his own safety was in real danger from the angry revolutionists swarming the building, he hotfooted it away from “his” people to the protection of the security forces charged with protecting him. Where’s that fist in the air now?

    We realize Hawley’s conscience won’t make him suddenly do the right thing and tell the Jan. 6 committee what he knew and when he knew it. But as GOP Rep. Liz Cheney said Thursday while announcing more public hearings to come: “Doors have opened, new subpoenas have been issued, and the dam has begun to break. … We have considerably more to do.” The committee has delivered on its promises so far.

    [H]istory will not look kindly upon the dead-enders who continued to defend Trump long after it became apparent his conduct was indefensible. When Cheney is saying even more birds are singing, believe her.

    [Sen.] Josh Hawley might not fear a little mockery of his hasty flight from Capitol marauders. But he might be justified if he’s afraid of what emails or text messages some previously-loyal staffer might be considering turning over to the House committee. Stay tuned to the hearings.

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