Hawley has new publisher for ‘Big Tech’ book that was dropped by Simon & Schuster
Sen. Josh Hawley has found a new publisher after his book was dropped by Simon & Schuster in the wake of the siege of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump.
The conservative publisher Regnery announced Monday that Hawley’s “The Tyranny of Big Tech” will come out this spring.
“Regnery is proud to stand in the breach with him. And the warning in his book about censorship obviously couldn’t be more urgent,” Regnery President and Publisher Thomas Spence said in a statement.
Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, has been widely condemned for his encouragement of the Jan. 6 protest that ended with a violent mob rampaging through the Capitol on the day Congress voted to formally certify Joe Biden’s win over Trump.
Hawley and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, also a Regnery author, led objections in the Senate to Biden’s victory, citing baseless claims the election was stolen.
The day after the siege, Simon & Schuster canceled Hawley’s book deal. Hawley, in turn, called them a “woke mob.”
“As a publisher it will always be our mission to amplify a variety of voices and viewpoints: at the same time we take seriously our larger public responsibility as citizens, and cannot support Senator Hawley after his role in what became a dangerous threat to our democracy and freedom,” Simon & Schuster said in a statement in which they said they didn’t come to the decision lightly.
Before the riot, the Missouri senator was photographed giving a fist pump to a crowd of protesters at the Capitol. The image contributed to widespread condemnation of Hawley and he began to lose donors.
Former Sen. John Danforth, a Missouri Republican who had promoted Hawley as the future of the party, called his support of Hawley “the biggest mistake I’ve ever made in my life.”
Many lawmakers have called on Hawley to resign, including Missouri Congresswoman Cori Bush, New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Texas Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro.
A Change.org petition also calling on Hawley to step down has garnered more than 142,000 signatures as of late Monday morning following rallies across Missouri in Kansas City, St. Louis, Springfield and Columbia.
This story was originally published January 18, 2021 at 10:47 AM.
