A major newspaper in Rep. Josh Hawley’s (R-MO) home state is joining in on the laughs after the Jan. 6 Select Committee aired security footage of the GOP congressman fleeing from insurrectionists as they stormed the Capitol.
In an editorial published Saturday, the Kansas City Star knocked Hawley as a “laughingstock” over the Jan. 6 video that shows him sprinting away from the mob of Trump supporters who breached the Capitol. The editorial board said the video will “surely follow him the rest of his life.”
“Shame, clearly, is not a motivating factor for any number of Republicans still caught up in Trumpworld,” the Star wrote.
The Star pointed to the comic relief that social media users found in the video that the Jan. 6 Select Committee aired of Hawley last week. The Star then condemned Hawley for being a “fleeing coward” on the day of the Capitol insurrection after pushing the Big Lie of a stolen 2020 presidential election.
“We said that day Hawley has blood on his hands for his role in perpetuating the lies that drove thousands of people to violence,” the Star wrote. “That remains true.”
The board noted that Hawley has never apologized for his efforts to secure a second term for former President Trump even as witness testimony continues to confirm that there was no widespread election fraud that would have changed the results of the election.
“Watching Hawley racing away from the Capitol invaders struck so many people as blackly hilarious,” the Star wrote. “Saluting the Trump posse was politically expeditious for him before the siege began.”
The Star slammed Hawley once again for boosting Trump’s bogus claims because once the GOP congressman realized that his own safety was compromised on Jan. 6, he “hotfooted it away from ‘his’ people.”
“Where’s that fist in the air now?” the Star wrote.
The Kansas City Star’s scathing editorial comes a day after another newspaper in Hawley’s home state, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, tore into the GOP congressman in response to the Jan. 6 video.
The Post-Dispatch wrote that the video showing Hawley scampering away from the mob of insurrectionists on Jan. 6 “encapsulated his core cowardice” and “demonstrated beyond any doubt that Hawley understood, in real time, the physical danger he helped uncork that day.”
During its public hearing on Thursday night, the Jan. 6 Select Committee zeroed in on Hawley as it detailed Republicans’ fear during the insurrection.
The panel showed the now-infamous photo of Hawley raising a fist in solidarity with the insurrectionists, before airing footage of Hawley sprinting out of the Capitol building to get away from the crowd of insurrectionists he had helped incite.
Twitter users swiftly reacted to the video of Hawley with glee, with some users making “Hawleying ass” jokes.
