KANSAS CITY – A moment during Thursday night's primetime January 6th hearing brought laughter amid a somber and serious showcase of the former president's actions and inactions during the insurrection.
That moment provided by Missouri's junior senator, as the public saw the actions of Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) before the US Capitol assault and as Trump supporters began their attack - his raised fist in solidarity with the gathered mob - then video showing Hawley fleeing through the halls of the Capitol.
US Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA) projected the image of Hawley raising his fist as she described events.
"As you can see in this photo, he rasied his fist in solidarity with the protesters already amassing at the security gates," Luria said. "We spoke with a Capitol police officer who was out there at the time. She told us that Senator Hawley's gesture riled up the crowd."
Luria then showed surveillance footage of Hawley running through the Capitol as lawmakers were evacuated.
That prompted a room-wide outburst of laughter from the gallery at the hearing.
While he was the first US senator to object to certification of the 2020 election, Hawley did denounce the violence that had occurred during the assault.
Hawley's reelection campaign began selling coffee mugs with the image of Hawley and his raised fist earlier this year. As reported by the Missouri Independent, Politico sent a cease and desist letter asking the campaign to stop selling items featuring the copyrighted image. In response, Hawley’s campaign said the image fell under “fair use” laws, refused to stop using it, and continued to raise money off of it.
The morning after the video showing Hawley fleeing the Capitol was released, and took social media by storm, Hawley tweeted out a link to his campaign store.