Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) is being accused by Biden supporters of “threatening” democracy with his newly-announced plan to object on January 6 to the certification of the Electoral College’s vote.
“I cannot vote to certify the electoral college results on January 6 without raising the fact that some states, particularly Pennsylvania, failed to follow their own state election laws,” Hawley said in a Wednesday statement.
President Donald Trump and his legal team continue to accuse states like Pennsylvania of voter fraud, especially when it comes to their processes for mail-in ballots.
Hawley also blasted social media companies like Twitter and Facebook for trying to sway the election in Biden’s favor, likely referencing the controversial move by the platforms to suppress the sharing of a New York Post story claiming to reveal compromising material taken from a laptop allegedly belonging to Joe Biden’s son, Hunter.
The data released by the Post weeks before the election included correspondence that implied the former vice president was involved in his son’s foreign business dealings, something he has long denied.
“At the very least, Congress should investigate allegations of voter fraud and adopt measures to secure the integrity of our elections. But Congress has so far failed to act,” Hawley said.
Millions of voters concerned about election integrity deserve to be heard. I will object on January 6 on their behalf pic.twitter.com/kTaaPPJGHE
Hawley’s decision follows a group of House conservatives pledging to object to Congress’ certification of the president vote in January. He is the first senator to back the effort, giving the Trump supporters more weight in their potential longshot plans as they can now force a debate on certain state’s results by having both members of the House and Senate objecting.
Hawley’s announcement has led to a wave of criticism from liberals, who claim he is threatening democracy by demanding a congressional investigation into allegations of voter fraud, while others saw the announcement as a way for Hawley to give a slight boost to his 2024 chances.
“Josh Hawley is an enemy of democracy, and now he’s going to force every one of his colleagues to go on record as to whether they are as well,” liberal activist Jon Favreau tweeted.
People like Hawley and Cruz eagerly signing up to help the president in his bid to overturn the election results is a good reminder that it’s not just Trump — the entire Republican Party is a threat to US democracy
It was always just a question as to which one of the 2024 hopefuls was going to be first to sign up in any way for the president’s campaign to undermine confidence in the election and overturn the results. Cruz said he would argue the Tx AG case in SCOTUS, and here’s Hawley. https://t.co/32MYBUnJ0h
Making him unfit to serve, anti-democratic. Un-American. And a disgrace. https://t.co/p4YQtFHzQ4
Despite Hawley mentioning in his statement that Democrats have objected to Electoral College votes in the past, his newly-announced intention has drawn the ire of Democrat politicians, including Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) who slammed the effort as a “coup attempt.”
This is how you run for President on the Republican side in 2024. You join a coup attempt. Democracy will prevail. As lead Dem on Rules Com. I will guarantee it. There’s a bipartisan group of electeds who will put our country first. See you on the 6th! https://t.co/jDkGVi4vDw
The most surprising reaction to Hawley, however, came from retail giant Walmart. The company’s Twitter account slammed the Republican senator as a “sore loser” and replied to his public statement on Twitter by writing, “Go ahead. Get your two hour debate.”
Conservative critics have pointed to the store’s ties to Chinese suppliers as a possible motive for jumping into the debate as Republicans have become especially critical of China and overseas trade under President Trump.
Walmart just outright attacked a US Senator standing up for the American people 80% of Walmart’s suppliers are in the People’s Republic of China pic.twitter.com/ZklOh9scxm
Walmart hates Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, & Tom Cotton because they are America First & China Last. Woke, globalist, corporate multi-nationals only care for short-term profits & are bonafide enemies of long-term U.S. national security. https://t.co/PkFeXoD243
Moments after Sen. @HawleyMO said he’d *object* to Electoral College certification on Jan. 6 due to states *failing* to follow election laws & “mega-corporations” interfering on behalf of Biden, @WalMart shows exactly what he means by calling him a *SORE LOSER.*Outrageous.? pic.twitter.com/xlHkIgMn7y
Walmart is headquartered in Arkansas, a neighbor state to Hawley’s Missouri, which itself has over 100 Walmart locations. The store’s tweet reply to Hawley has since been deleted.
However, the senator fired back, saying that Walmart “insulted 75 million Americans.”
After Kyle Plotkin, Hawley’s chief of staff, asked Walmart to “explain” the deleted tweet, the company released a statement claiming the tweet was from a member of their social media team who meant to post it to their own personal account.
“We apologize to Senator Hawley for this error and any confusion about our position,” the company said.
The tweet published earlier was mistakenly posted by a member of our social media team. We deleted the post and have no intention of commenting on the subject of certifying the electoral college. We apologize to Senator Hawley for this error and any confusion about our position.
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