Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley’s fundraising efforts, which went on even as the U.S. Capitol was being sacked, have paid off bigly. This is why politicians lie: because it’s so much more lucrative than telling voters anything they don’t want to hear.
In January, Hawley’s treasonous behavior was indisputably good for business. And trying to overturn an election, even after blood was spilled by a far-right mob conned into believing it had been stolen, has so far been a good career move.
According to his campaign, he just had his most fantastic month as a U.S. senator, moneywise, even if — and this part was a pity — some people did die, some of the 140 cops who were injured did suffer brain injuries, and not a few members of Congress did fear for their lives.
OK, a few donors were horrified, and former mentors blanched. But Hawley’s perfidy has still been profitable. He’s been rewarded for claiming that he was just standing up for his constituents and for election integrity, after an election that Donald Trump’s security chief was fired for calling the most secure in U.S. history. So where’s his incentive to change?
His campaign is triumphant that “despite much ink being spilled about corporate political action committee support being paused and three donors separating themselves from Sen. Hawley, the Hawley campaign has seen a surge in financial support — raising nearly $1 million in January with thousands of new donors.”
The more he’s “canceled” and “muzzled” by the “woke mob,” as opposed to the real one he egged on, the better the haul.
There will be more violence, since Hawley and others are still pushing the same election fraud lie that led to the pro-Trump riot on Jan. 6, after months of hyping the threat from antifa while ignoring far more serious right-wing extremism.
But even then, will he reconsider his revenue-enhancing rhetoric?
His book, “The Tyranny of Big Tech,” is going to make him a lot more money than before Simon & Schuster decided, in what he called “a direct assault on the First Amendment,” that they no longer wanted to have anything to do with him.
Meanwhile, “available instantly” on Kindle — thank you, Big Tech — is his new e-book, "Living in a Troubled Age: The Collected Works of Senator Josh Hawley," which “brings together over 20 of his greatest and most influential speeches and statements to date as a United States senator.”
In case you’re thinking that our 41-year-old junior senator has been spending all his time flacking his next campaign and his next book, though, that’s not the case. No, he’s also distinguished himself as the only member of the U.S. Senate who as of Tuesday had voted against every one of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet nominees.
He’s said he’s reintroducing a resolution to investigate the origins of COVID-19 in China.
And of course, he’s keeping fact-checkers fully employed, earning two “mostly false” ratings from PolitiFact in the last month.
On Wednesday, as Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick, who died defending members of Congress from the rioters Hawley raised his fist to urge on to victory, lies in honor in the Capitol Rotunda, Hawley should pay his respects by staying away.
