A photographer and a fist pump. The story behind the image that will haunt Josh Hawley
The crowd was building on the east side of the U.S. Capitol shortly after 12:30 Wednesday afternoon, but Francis Chung didn’t see much that was visually interesting.
Nor did Chung, a photojournalist for E&E News, a D.C.-based group of publications that cover energy and environmental issues, have any inkling that he was about to capture one of the iconic images to emerge from the day the Capitol was breached by rioters.
At that point, the group of about 300 was fairly calm and occasionally chanting. But their energy flared when a motorcade pulled up. Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley appeared from behind the cars, headed for a scheduled joint session in the House of Representatives.
The freshman Republican gave a thumbs up, a fist pump and waves as the crowd cheered. Chung rushed to shoot, knowing that Hawley was a key player in Republican plans to challenge the Electoral College results. He went inside a congressional office building to transmit his images to E&E News.
The photo of the fist pump, Chung said, “is what it is,” a truthful depiction of Hawley’s apparent show of “solidarity” with the Trump supporters present at the time.
“There’s just a mutual acknowledgment between the senator and the crowd,” he said, “There was a mutual show of what I would interpret as approval or support.”
Chung finished up and went to transmit his images back to E&E News.. The non-verbal interaction, he said, garnered a more engaging photo of a lawmaker than he is usually able to achieve.
But within an hour the context of the fist pump changed dramatically, for Chung and for Hawley.
By the time Chung came back to the east side of the Capitol where Hawley had appeared, barriers around the perimeter of the building had been pulled down. Police, he said, were no longer trying to stop people from entering the Capitol grounds.
As the historic day progressed, Chung’s photo kindled a firestorm on social media. The image seemed to crystallize Hawley’s week-long role as the face of the Electoral College challenge to Biden—and the chaos it unleashed.
“His clenched fist in front of the Capitol will seal his fate,” said former Missouri Rep. Tom Coleman. “He thought he was getting the mantle of leadership from Donald Trump and his followers, but there’s not enough of them to ever give him a future in politics.”
Several members of Congress, including Missouri Rep. Cori Bush, called for his resignation.
Hawley’s office did not respond to specific questions about that moment.
The senator released a general statement saying he would “never apologize for giving voice to the millions of Missourians and Americans who have concerns about the integrity of our elections. That’s my job, and I will keep doing it.”
Like scores of other journalists in DC, Chung spent the rest of his day documenting the scene as the crowd forced its way into the Capitol and then ran unchecked, entering typically heavily restricted areas.
“It just kept getting more and more intense,” Chung said. In more than 10 years as a photographer, Chung said he had never seen anything quite like it.
As the Hawley photo gains attention, Chung said it’s not his place to delve into the political debate.
“All I did was document what happened but this photo kind of speaks for itself.”
The Star’s Jesse Newell and Bryan Lowry contributed to this report.
This story was originally published January 7, 2021 at 8:17 PM.
