When Senator Josh Hawley raised his objection to Electoral College certification, the crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) erupted in standing ovation, cheering cheers and a “USA” shout.
The Missouri Republican said he objected to Pennsylvania’s electoral votes to “have a debate on electoral integrity”.
“What was the result of that? I was called a traitor,” he told the crowd, “I was called a seditious, the radical left said I should resign” or I would be forced to leave, he said.
Donald Trump lost the Electoral College vote for President Biden 306-232.
“For the past six weeks, the radical left, its corporate allies and the liberal media have tried to cancel me, censor me, expel me, shut me down, prevent me from representing the people of Missouri, prevent me from representing you and guessing I’m here today, I’m not going nowhere and I’m not going to back down, “said Hawley.
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“I did what my fellow Democrats did in every election a Republican won in the past 20 years,” arguing that Democrats were opposed to voting in 11 different states.
In 2017, when then Vice President Biden chaired the Senate, he rejected half a dozen House Democrats’ objections to Trump’s victory.
“I thought it was an important position and so the left came after me. They tried to silence me. They canceled a book,” said Hawley, a staunch ally of former President Trump.
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Hawley said he was working for “a new nationalism, a new agenda, to make the government of the people in this country real”.
“We are not the past, we are the future,” he said of Trump-style populist Republicans like him.
Hawley, who, along with Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, led the fight against certifying Electoral College results until there was an investigation into Congress on electoral fraud, took seriously what many took as a role in stirring up protesters pro-Trump who then attacked the Capitol on January 6. He lost a book contract with Simon & Schuster, and Democrats launched an ethical complaint against him, with some demanding his resignation.
The passionate response that Hawley got at CPAC was indicative of a conference closely aligned with Trump, contradicting some predictions that the ex-president’s star power in the Republican Party would diminish in the days after President Biden’s inauguration.
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Hawley, who has attracted national attention when confronting Big Tech and retaliating against “conservative censorship” by proposing bold projects to control his power, is considered by some to be preparing for a 2024 race, if Trump does not jump in to mix it up.
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