A major donor to Missouri Republicans who funneled millions into supporting the first election campaign for Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) condemned the lawmaker on Thursday for inciting a violent pro-Trump mob to lay siege at the U.S. Capitol earlier this week.
In a statement to the Missouri Independent, David Humphreys, the CEO of Tamko Building Products, who in recent years provided millions to various groups supporting Hawley, condemned the GOP lawmaker for showing “his true colors as an anti-democracy populist by supporting Trump’s false claim of a ‘stolen election.’”
According to the Thursday statement, Humphreys accused the GOP senator of being a “political opportunist,” and railed on him for employing “irresponsible, inflammatory, and dangerous tactics” that have sowed discord and fanned the flame for a raid of the U.S. Capitol that left five people dead.
“Hawley should be censured by his Senate colleagues for his actions which have undermined a peaceful transition of power and for provoking yesterday’s riots in our nation’s capital,” Humphreys said in the statement.
Hawley had emerged as the first senator to announce he would back House members in objecting to Electoral College votes in several battleground states lost by President Trump during the Jan. 6 session that ultimately reaffirmed Joe Biden as the nation’s next president. Even after a violent raid of insurrectionists breached the U.S. Capitol sending lawmakers to shelter in place and pausing the session, Hawley persisted in objecting to Electoral College votes in Pennsylvania.
Humphreys had meanwhile been a major donor to Missouri Republicans leading up to 2020. His family provided roughly half of the $9.2 million Hawley raised for his 2016 campaign for attorney general, the Missouri Independent noted.
The donor’s statement came hours after Hawley’s political mentor, former Sen. John Danforth, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in an interview that supporting Hawley was “the worst mistake I ever made in my life.”
Earlier in the day, Simon & Schuster also announced that it would cancel a contract with Hawley for a book it had planned to release in June.
“We owe it to our children and grandchildren to protect our country and its Constitutional underpinnings,” Humphreys said.
