Police contradicted a statement by Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) That his family was violently “terrified” by “Antifa” protesters outside his home on Monday night.
After a small group of protesters spoke out against Hawley’s plans to challenge President-elect Joe Biden’s certification in Congress, the senator reacted with indignation on social media. Hawley tweeted that “Antifa scoundrels came to our home in DC and threatened my wife and newborn daughter” while he was traveling to Missouri, claiming the group had “shouted threats, vandalized and tried to open our door.” He swore that he and his family “would not be intimidated by the violence of the left”.
The officers arrived at the Vienna, Virginia home around 7:45 pm after receiving a call about the protest, according to the Associated Press. The police apparently saw the protest differently than the 41-year-old senator, with master policeman Juan Vazquez, spokesman for the Vienna City Police Department, telling the media on Tuesday that “people were “during the protest.
Vazquez added that the protesters “just left” after the police informed them about a law against making noise in front of houses and a garbage code. He said the demonstration had produced “no problems, no arrests” and, contrary to Hawley’s characterization, the police “didn’t think it was a big deal”.
“The Hawleyes are grateful for their support of law enforcement,” Kelli Ward, a spokesman for Hawley, said in a statement obtained by Newsweek. “Left-wing activists refused to disperse until the police showed up.”
“In fact, when Josh’s wife, Erin, asked them to leave, they shouted horn threats at Erin, a newborn baby and her neighbors, and then they kept stepping on their porch to knock on the front door. and peek inside the house in Erin, “added Ward.
Stefani Reynolds-Pool / Getty
A YouTube video of the protest recorded by the group, which Ward shared with Newsweek, shows about a dozen protesters outside Hawley’s home for less than an hour. The group is seen holding posters and candles, while occasionally repeating a song promising to “strike back” when “democracy is under attack”, while group leaders speak through megaphones in protest against the senator’s challenge to the election result .
Hawley’s wife is shown briefly opening the front door and asking the group to leave, while members of the group are later seen approaching the door and leaving a copy of the United States Constitution. Nothing that can be accurately described as terrorism, vandalism or “shouted threats” is shown in the video, nor is the group seen trying to open the door.
“It was a candlelight, snowflake vigil,” ShutDownDC, the group that organized the protest, tweeted in response to Hawley’s reaction on Monday. “And your home isn’t in DC, it’s in a suburb 30 minutes outside the district. You should be representing Missouri in the Senate. Why did you move your primary residence to the Virginia suburbs?”
Hawley objected to characterizing the protest as a “vigil”, tweeting that activists were “shouting threats through megaphones, vandalizing property, knocking on house doors and terrorizing innocent people and children”. He insisted that the video proves that the “Antifa scoundrels” were “trying to intimidate” his family and harass neighbors. It is unclear whether Hawley is referring to the same YouTube video, which was also shared on Twitter and other social media platforms.
The challenges planned for Biden’s victory, in which several members of the Republican Party, in addition to Hawley, indicated that they will participate, have virtually no chance of altering the outcome of the election. For an objection to even a single state on the Electoral College voter list to be upheld, it would have to be voted on and approved by both the House and the Senate.
It is extremely unlikely that the Democratic-led House will vote in favor of the challenges. The Senate led by the Republican Party must also reject the latest effort to overthrow Biden’s victory, with more than enough Republican senators already congratulating Biden and indicating that they will oppose any effort to undermine voters’ will. Biden defeated Trump by 306 to 232 votes from the Electoral College, while his more than 81.2 million national popular votes outnumbered the outgoing president by more than 7 million.