Sen. Josh Hawley
Joshua (Josh) David HawleyFormer DHS detonates Republicans for stalling Binden Mayorkas GOP Senate candidate slowly choosing Biden to lead DHS conservatives biased to ‘wave of censorship’ MORE (R-Mo.) He denied on Wednesday that he was trying to overturn the presidential election with his votes to challenge the results of the Electoral College in Arizona and Pennsylvania on January 6.
Hawley said St. Louis KMOX radio station that he did not intend to change the results of President Biden’s election with his votes and instead sought a congregational debate on “electoral integrity”.
“I never said that the goal was to overthrow the election,” he said. “That was never the point and it was never possible.”
“What we need to have are fair, free and open elections, and I think that Congress needs to do its job and examine electoral irregularities,” said the senator.
Hawley’s votes to contest the results came after President Trump
Donald TrumpFBI says California extremists may have targeted the Newsom House Democrat in a resolution to expel Marjorie Taylor Greene from Congress Facebook to reduce political content on the MORE platform for weeks after the election promoted unsubstantiated claims that widespread voter fraud led to his loss and called on his supporters to protest the certification on January 6.
Protesters supporting Trump ended up breaking into the Capitol that day in an attack that resulted in five deaths and temporarily delayed Congress from asserting Biden’s electoral victory.
Congress met again later that night, after the building was secured. Eight Republican senators and 139 Republican Party members still voted to challenge the results of the Electoral College in at least one of the two states, despite the violence of the day.
Hawley and Sen. Ted Cruz
Rafael (Ted) Edward CruzHillicon Valley: Biden’s cyber priorities focus on Russian hack | Apple and Facebook report revenue growth in late 2020 | International officials stop ‘most dangerous malware in the world’ McCaul asks senators to block the Commerce Secretary’s vote on Lankford de Lankford’s concern to remain on the Tulsa Race Massacre Centenary Commission after the Capitol riot MORE (R-Texas) were among the most scrutinized, facing accusations of inciting violence by committing themselves to ally with House Republicans who contested the results, which forced both chambers to debate before eventually certifying the vote.
The Missouri senator refuted this characterization of his actions, calling it a “lie” to have provoked the rebels by suggesting that Biden’s election could be overturned.
“This is just a lie,” says Hawley. “This is a lie told by the left-wing crowd that now wants to silence me and Ted Cruz and 140 members of the House and 13 senators and anyone who dared to face them. Anyone who is a Trump supporter who refuses to double the knees. And I will not be silenced. “
“It is a lie that I was trying to overturn an election or that Ted Cruz was trying to overturn an election,” he added. “It is a lie that I incited violence”.
When asked during the interview whether he currently or before the January 6 vote thought that “the election was stolen” or that Biden “is an illegitimate president,” Hawley replied, “I never used that rhetoric.”
Several Democrats, as well as the largest newspapers in Missouri, asked Hawley to resign after his challenge to the Electoral College.