SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – Hours after raising his fist in solidarity with protestors outside of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley fled as those same protestors breached the building during the insurrection, according to the House panel investigating the riots.
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During the House of Representatives Jan. 6 committee's hearing on Thursday night, its second in prime time, Virginia Rep. Elaine Luria said a Capitol Police officer told the panel that "Senator Hawley's gesture riled up the crowd" as demonstrators gathered outside of the Capitol's security gates that morning, ahead of Congress' scheduled certification of President Joe Biden's electoral college victory over Donald Trump.
"Later that day, Senator Hawley fled, after those protestors he helped to rile up stormed the Capitol," Luria said, before playing closed circuit security footage of Hawley running from the building.
Luria said the Capitol Police officer who spoke with the committee said Hawley's raised fist "bothered her greatly because he was in a safe space, protected by the officers and the barriers."
Following the violence on Jan. 6, Hawley voted against certifying the electoral results in Arizona and Pennsylvania. He was one of 147 Republicans in both chambers of Congress to vote to overturn the election results in at least one state, and one of eight in the Senate. Hawley and four other Senators voted against certifying the result in both states.
The first-term Senator faced criticism within and outside of his home state for leading congressional efforts to vote against certifying the election results, with the Kansas City Star writing in an editorial that Hawley had "blood on his hands."
KCBS Radio Political Analyst Marc Sandalow said the committee – which includes Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger and seven other Democrats – had "no reason to show" the clip other than "to humiliate Senator Hawley" during Thursday night's hearing, which largely focused on what Trump did and did not do during the insurrection itself.
But Sandalow said the testimony of two former Republican White House staffers, as well as Cheney and Kinzinger's presence on the committee,
"There are moments like that are gonna earn some criticism from Republicans, but the fact that you have Liz Cheney up there, as conservative as Republicans get, leading the charge, and Adam Kinzinger ... really makes it look as if it's not nearly as partisan as some Republicans are gonna complain it is," Sandalow told KCBS Radio's Patti Reising and Bret Burkhart.
Hawley didn't acknowledge Thursday's hearing on social media. He instead appeared on Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight," making misleading claims about what travel documents that immigrants living in the country without legal permission can use.
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