“In light of recent events, we have informed the host of this event that it will no longer be held at our hotel in Orlando or at any Loews Hotel,” said Sarah Murov, a spokeswoman for the hotel group, in a statement. “Loews Hotels & Co is appalled and is opposed to the January 6 events at Capitol and all those who supported and incited these actions.”
The luxury hotel chain said in a statement that the event was planned by Fighting for Missouri PAC for next month at the Loews Portofino Bay Hotel in Orlando, Florida. Fighting For Missouri PAC did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.
In response, Hawley said in a statement provided by his office on Sunday that he “will not bow to corporate pressure from the left”.
“If these corporations don’t want conservatives to speak, they should just be honest about it. But comparing the leadership of a debate in the Senate floor to inciting violence is a lie, and it is dangerous,” he said.
The Missouri senator has faced backlash in the days since Jan. 6, when he and other Republicans in Congress objected to counting some Electoral College votes for Joe Biden, promoting false allegations of electoral fraud that were echoed by members of the crowd incited by President Donald Trump.
“After witnessing the disturbing and deadly uprising that occurred on Wednesday in Washington, DC, Simon & Schuster decided to cancel the publication of Senator Josh Hawley’s next book,” the company said in a statement.
Hawley responded at the time by calling the action “Orwellian” and claiming it was a “direct attack on the First Amendment”.
Kansas City, Missouri-based Hallmark greeting card company also said it was severing relations with Hawley and requested that he and Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall return the campaign contributions to his PAC.
HALLPAC “supports elected leaders from a wide variety of views – including Democrats, Republicans and independents,” said the company. “Hallmark believes that the peaceful transition of power is part of the foundation of our democratic system and we abhor violence of any kind. The recent actions of Senators Josh Hawley and Roger Marshall do not reflect the values of our company.”
CNN’s Oliver Darcy and Jazmin Goodwin contributed to this report.