Hawley Has Defiant Tweet Amid Much Mockery

Thursday's prime-time Jan. 6 hearing put its main focus on the actions of former President Trump. But the other politician getting a lot of attention on Friday is GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri. The House panel investigating the Capitol riot showed a now-famous photo of Hawley raising his fist in a gesture of support toward demonstrators that afternoon at the Capitol, and it coupled that with video of Hawley fleeing after the rioters entered the building. As Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria put it: "Later that day, Senator Hawley fled after those protesters he helped to rile up stormed the Capitol."

• Laughter: As this video clip from journalist Dan Przygoda shows, those attending the hearing broke into laughter when video of Hawley running in the Capitol was displayed.
• Defiant: Hawley hadn't responded publicly as of Friday morning, but he did tweet an image of the famous fist photo. It adorns a coffee mug he's selling for $20 with the slogan "Show-Me Strong," a reference to his home state.

• Memes: Hawley memes are all the rage on Twitter, notes HuffPost, which rounds up videos setting his run to various songs, including Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" and the "Chariots of Fire" theme. Insider also has a roundup, which includes a Forrest Gump reference.
• Analysis: Philip Bump of the Washington Post assesses all this, and it doesn't land well for the senator. "Hawley wants the visual of his involvement in Jan. 6 to be that fist pump: the guy willing to fight for Trump," he writes. "Instead, it is now that slow-motion video: the guy who thought he was cleverly leveraging Trump's base for his own purposes, only to see things suddenly unfold in a dramatically different way."
• Analysis, II: A similar sentiment is voiced by Ben Mathis-Lilley at Slate: "Hawley's urge to become president is physically palpable, and while [he] did not seem likely to ever fully win over MAGA voters before this, getting caught on video running away from a group of them like a cartoon drum major running from a cartoon bear has probably permanently foreclosed the possibility."
• A nickname: Panel member Adam Kinzinger took to Twitter to christen Hawley, a fellow Republican, with the nickname "Fistpump McRunpants," notes the Hill. More seriously, he added, "Worth remembering: Josh Hawley was the first senator to say he would object to the electoral college, causing a cascade of Ted Cruz-es."

(More Josh Hawley stories.)