WASHINGTON — The U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol showed a video Thursday night of U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley fleeing the Senate chamber that spread rapidly through the internet, was set to theme music and mocked on late night television.
Missouri’s junior senator used it the same way he’s used all of his actions surrounding the insurrection — as an opportunity to raise money for his campaign.
On Friday morning, the Missouri Republican tweeted a link to his campaign website, which is selling a white coffee mug with an illustration of Hawley holding his fist up to protesters who later stormed the U.S. Capitol over the words “Show Me Strong.”
On top of the link he added a “kissy-face emoji”: a smiley face with lips puckered and a small heart near the mouth.
His office has not responded to a request for comment about the video. The Senate is in recess for the weekend and Hawley is not slated to return to the building until 3 p.m. ET Monday.
U.S. Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., presented the clip of Hawley running about halfway through Thursday night’s prime-time committee hearing, emphasizing that former President Donald Trump failed to react as senators and the vice president were frightened enough to run for their lives.
She presented the contrast between the image Hawley has projected that day — the raised fist — with his reaction as rioters had reached the second floor of the U.S. Capitol and were closing in — a spotlighted Hawley running, stiff backed, folder in hand. The room broke out in laughter.
Michael Fanone, a former police officer who was attacked during the riot, told reporters that he saw the amusement in the video, but said it angered him.
“The first thought that popped into my mind is ‘Josh Hawley is a bitch and he ran like a bitch,’” Fanone said. “And the fist pump, combined with what he did in the immediate aftermath shows the true character or lack thereof.”
While Hawley has said he stands by his objection to the certification of the election, the committee has presented little evidence that he was closely involved with Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 presidential results.
Instead, it appears he was able to capitalize on the politics of the moment, as a large portion of the Republican base believed Trump’s unfounded claims that the election was stolen.
In both the buildup and aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol, Hawley has used negative publicity to raise money for his campaign fund. He has said he intends to run for reelection in Missouri in 2024, but is widely considered a potential presidential candidate.
He raised money after becoming the first senator to say he would object to the certification of the 2020 presidential election, setting off a long vote that was interrupted by rioters who violently attacked U.S. Capitol Police officers and broke windows to enter the U.S. Capitol, causing lawmakers, staffers and reporters to flee.
He raised money the day of the insurrection, shortly before the Capitol was breached.
He raised money after the initial backlash to the insurrection died down, quadrupling his fundraising total from the previous year.
And he raised money by selling campaign merchandise — coffee mugs, t-shirts, beer koozies in a variety of colors — with the picture of him raising his fist to protesters that day (Hawley has said it is “not a pro-riot mug”).
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., criticized Hawley for fundraising even after he fled from the Senate.
“Remember: Even after running for his life, Sen. Hawley chose to fundraise off his encouraging and fist-pumping the violent mob, and even sold merchandise of himself doing so from then through *this year* — even after Politico, who later acquired the image, sent a cease and desist,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter Thursday evening.
Hawley has said he is not watching the committee’s hearings and appeared on Fox News during the hearing Thursday night to talk about illegal immigration.
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