Resignation or censure? What elected officials are saying about Josh Hawley’s fate
Two Senate Democrats have called for Josh Hawley to resign. A Republican colleague said he did something “really dumbass.” That’s part of the wave of national commentary regarding the future of Missouri’s junior senator.
Critics have charged that Hawley helped create the climate for Wednesday’s Capitol riot by being the first to challenge President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College certification. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz also organized support for Hawley’s objection.
Chris Coons, a Democratic senator from Delaware, was asked directly whether if he supported those demanding that Hawley and Cruz resign.
“Yes,” Coons said. “I think they should resign.”
Patty Murray, a high-ranking Democratic senator from Washington, backed Coons’ stance in a series of tweets Friday afternoon.
“Any Senator who stands up and supports the power of force over the power of democracy has broken their oath of office,” Murray said. “Senators Hawley and Cruz should resign.”
Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska did not say he would support any Senate movement to censure Hawley. But in a Friday interview on NPR’s Morning Edition, he was plenty critical of Hawley’s decision to object to the electoral college votes.
“Senator Hawley was doing something that was really dumbass,” Sasse told NPR. “And I have been clear about that in public and in private since long before he announced that he was going to do this. This was a stunt. It was a terrible, terrible idea, and you don’t lie to the American people, and that’s what’s been going on. The American people have been lied to, chiefly by Donald Trump, and lies have consequences. And those consequences are now found in five dead Americans and a Capitol building that’s in shambles.”
When asked directly about censure — an idea pushed Thursday night by former Hawley donor David Humphreys — Sasse did not commit to an opinion. He did say “the mechanism of how the Senate handles it next is something that we’ll obviously need to talk about.”
“The most fundamental issue for any individual senator is their conscience to their oath of office to the Constitution and their relationship with citizens of the state that they serve,” Sasse said, “so Missourians are the most important people in that conversation.”
Other national leaders also shared their thoughts Friday on what they believed should be next for Hawley.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat from New York, said she would consider support for censure or expulsion of Hawley and Cruz, according to WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
“I’m deeply concerned, and I don’t think they fully understand how misguided and how irresponsible their actions have been,” Gillibrand said. “And so I think we should look at it.”
Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democratic from Connecticut, was also asked on ABC’s “The View” whether Hawley should resign.
“I think that’s up to him and the people of Missouri,” Murphy said. “I just think that he needs to change his behavior very quickly.”
New York Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also continued her attack on Hawley for a second day while responding to a tweet Hawley sent about losing his book deal with Simon & Schuster.
“You should be expelled,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote, in part.
As of Friday afternoon, more than 83,000 people had signed an online petition to expel Hawley from the Senate, with Change.org reporting it as the “largest and fastest-growing (petition) on our site.”
This story was originally published January 8, 2021 at 2:36 PM.
