ST. LOUIS — For the first time since 17.7 million Americans watched video of Josh Hawley running to escape the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, Missouri's junior senator fielded questions from reporters and suggested the publicity might have helped his campaign fundraising efforts.
"I don't regret anything I did on that day," Hawley told the press. "And, you know, it's a privilege to be attacked on January 6 committee. And I want to say thank you for all the help with my fundraising. It's been tremendous."
The Federal Election Commission's filing deadlines won't require Hawley's campaign to show donor receipts from last week until later this year. Hawley's campaign previously sold coffee mugs with a picture of him raising his fist in a gesture of solidarity with the mob.
During last week's primetime hearing, U.S. Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Virginia) quoted a Capitol police officer who recalled Hawley's gesture during her testimony to the committee.
"She told us that Sen. Hawley's gesture riled up the crowd, and it bothered her greatly because he was doing it in a safe space, protected by the officers and the barriers," Luria said.
Then the committee played video in real-time, and again in slow motion, showing Hawley running through the halls to escape the same mob he excited earlier in the day.
Missouri House Democrats quickly organized a 'Hawlin' Hawley 5K' and sold merchandise to mock Hawley for running away from the Jan. 6 mob.
Back on Capitol Hill, Hawley brushed off the surveillance video as "an attempt to troll."
"Oh, listen, let's not pretend to take any of that seriously," he said when reporters asked why he was running from the mob. "All of that is 100% trolling. And listen, as I say: It's a privilege to be attacked on the January 6 committee and I've just come from Missouri and all I can say is people in Missouri are pretty grateful for my stand."
Moments after Hawley spoke with reporters in Washington, D.C., he sat down one-on-one for an interview with 5 On Your Side's political editor Mark Maxwell.
Below is an unedited transcript of Senator Hawley's Wednesday afternoon interview with 5 On Your Side.
Mark Maxwell: We just watched a video of your interview on Capitol Hill with reporters where you gloated about how that video of you running from the mob is helping boost your fundraising. Is this all a game to you?
Senator Josh Hawley: Oh, I didn't gloat. I was asked if I regretted anything that I did on January 6. And I said that I don't, as I have said many, many times before. Listen, the people of Missouri sent me to Washington to represent them, not to represent the DC establishment, not to represent the DC press corps. And I'm not going to apologize for representing the people of my state. That's what I did on January 6th. I stand by my actions on that day.
Maxwell: You were actually objecting to the certification of election results in another state in Pennsylvania. You ultimately lost in that effort. Pennsylvania's election results were certified. But what if you had won and blocked those 20 electoral votes in Pennsylvania? What then?
Hawley: Well, the... I mean, it would have had no outcome on the effect of the election. This is why it was never an attempt to overturn the results of the election, as I said at the time... before, in fact, we cast those votes. What the election... What that process afforded me was an opportunity to register an objection to the state of Pennsylvania where they did not follow their own law. You had the Supreme Court of that state intervene during the election to change the rules on balloting, to change the rules on absentee balloting, to change the rules about how the ballots were to be counted. I just think that's fundamentally wrong. So yeah, it was a protest vote. And it was also an opportunity to force the debate on the floor of the Senate. I mean, that's what the law permits for. And that's what I did. By the way, it's what Democrats also have done in 2000, in 2004, and in 2016.
Maxwell: But not after a mob had beaten down the doors of the Capitol. The circumstances there were, of course, very different. There was also talk in the Trump White House about a strategy of having other electors ready in the state legislatures to overturn the results at those states. You're right, Pennsylvania's 20 votes on their own would not have overturned or brought Biden's electoral count below 270. But if you had another state or two in the mix, you might have been able to pull that off. Did you discuss a strategy like that with anybody else?
Hawley: No. And you noticed that I didn't vote for states that would change the outcome of the election? Because my goal was to do exactly what I said it was at the time, which was for states that did not follow and... the object... The state to which I filed an objection was Pennsylvania, a state that did not follow its own laws, and its Supreme Court intervened to change the rules. I just think that's fundamentally lawless. And I think the... if we can't debate that on the floor of the Senate, according to the laws of the United States, and the rules of the Senate, I don't know where you can.
Maxwell: Well, certainly, the specifics matter, and the laws that they allowed were to allow ballots that arrived in the mail on or before election day to not necessarily include the date stamp, because obviously, unless you had a time machine, you could not have sent that ballot after the election if it arrived before the polls closed. I want to move on though to this question. We know from President Trump's aides that instead of de-escalating the assault on the Capitol, the one that you later ran from, he was placing phone calls to Republican senators asking them to do exactly what you did. Those phone records are missing. So we don't know who he called. Did you talk to Donald Trump on January 6?
Hawley: No, and I don't think they are... What's missing? They have phone logs from that day.
Maxwell: The phone records from the White House.
Hawley: That's... Hasn't that story been disproved? But no, I didn't talk to him on the sixth.
Maxwell: You did not talk to President Trump at all in those 187 minutes?
Hawley: No. No, as I've been asked many times over the last year and a half. I did not talk to him on the sixth. And by the way, let's just go back to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision. This is a decision that fundamentally, I think, threatens the basic due process clause and maybe the equal protection clause of the United States Constitution insofar as it allows the ballots in Pennsylvania to be treated differently and to be judged differently than elsewhere all across the country. I mean, it's a serious, serious issue. And to have... Can you imagine the outcry if you had a red state that had changed its balloting rules in a way that decidedly favored another candidate and favored the Republican candidate in the middle of the election? I mean, again, I just think it is absolute lawlessness and the right place to debate it was the floor of the Senate.
Maxwell: Perhaps our last time questioning you before the Missouri primary on August 2. I want to give you a chance to respond to the fact that neither Eric Greitens nor Eric Schmitt would take any of our questions, even when we sent them questions in advance. Vicki Hartzler would. What is the obligation of a Missouri senator or an elected official to engage with and take questions from the press even when you don't like those questions?
Hawley: Oh, well, listen, I mean, I leave that up to the to the individual. I have to say that for my part, as you know, every week that we're in session, and where we can physically do it, and we can get to a camera, I sit down with Missouri reporters, and take take as many questions as possible. So, you know, we've done literally hundreds and hundreds of one on one interviews with Missouri press, local press, just this year alone. So that's my policy, and I'm gonna keep doing it.
Maxwell: I was just told this is our last question. So you were, before, the attorney general for Missouri. So too is Eric Schmitt. How do you evaluate his job in that role you once held? Oh, they hung up on us. Alright. Alright. I guess we're done.