WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol on Thursday highlighted footage of U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., fleeing the Senate Chamber as the building was being overrun by a mob of Trump supporters.
The video served as a rebuke to the image Hawley projected that day, when he was captured in a photograph confidently raising his fist to protesters who would later violently break into the U.S. Capitol building.
U.S. Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., showed the committee the famous photo of Hawley along with a comment from a member of the U.S. Capitol Police who watched the moment.
"She told us that Sen. Hawley’s gesture riled up the crowd and it bothered her greatly because he was doing it in a safe space protected by the officers and the barriers,” Luria said.
Then, Luria showed footage of Hawley as the U.S. Senate chamber was being evacuated.
“Later that day, Sen. Hawley fled after those protesters he helped rile up stormed the Capitol,” Luria said. “See for yourself,” she added, with contempt. In the video, Hawley, spotlighted, jogs out of the Senate chamber holding a folder.
The committee slowed the video down and played it again. Then they showed him hustling down the steps to the Senate subway. People in the room — which included Capitol staff, police officers and reporters — broke out into audible laughter.
Hawley’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The committee also revealed that he was among a list of senators who spoke to Rudy Guiliani, who leading the Trump campaign’s legal effort to overturn the election results.
The hearing, broadcast in prime time, marked the first time Hawley has been publicly mentioned in the House investigation.
While Hawley has been able to financially capitalize on the photograph of him raising his fist — his campaign sells an illustrated version on Twitter — the committee has not shown evidence that he was involved in the inner workings of the Trump-led effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Hawley was the first senator to say he would object to the certification of the election, setting up a process where both chambers had to hold votes to certify the electors from Pennsylvania and Arizona.
In his speech on the Senate floor that night after the mob was cleared from the building, Hawley condemned the violence before continuing with his objection.
He was one of six senators, along with Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall, who continued to object to the results even after the mob had violently stormed the Capitol.
Hawley has repeatedly said he is not watching the committee hearings, calling them a political stunt by the Democratic Party.
He appeared on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show during the hearing, where he talked about illegal immigration.
The committee hearing was focused on how former President Donald Trump spent his time between learning that the Capitol had been overrun and before he made a speech in the Rose Garden of the White House telling the rioters to go home.
They highlighted Trump’s inaction as members of his family and staff urged him to condemn the violence. “President Trump didn’t fail to act,” said U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill. “He chose not to act.”
The video was instantly criticized online, where some Twitter users set it to music, like Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill. “And Josh Hawley thinks our military has a ‘masculinity’ problem...” said Lucas Kunce, a former Marine running in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.
( Star reporter Jonathan Shorman contributed reporting.)
