Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is adamant that he is not complicit in any way in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
On Tuesday, Hawley was asked by a reporter, “What do you say to your fellow senators and to Americans who believe that you are complicit in this attack?”
“That’s outrageous. I would say it’s absolutely outrageous and an utter lie,” Hawley responded.
He added, “And no one, I think, who knows any of the facts alleges any such thing.”
Watch the video below:
Reporter: "What do you say to your fellow senators and to Americans who believe that you are complicit in this attack…?"
— The Hill (@thehill) February 23, 2021
Sen. Josh Hawley: "It's absolutely outrageous and an utter lie." pic.twitter.com/pbcM328ypH
Hawley has faced allegations that he helped incite the riot at the Capitol by questioning the results of the presidential election and announcing that he would vote to disqualify electoral votes in states that former President Donald Trump lost.
“That’s false. And the allegation itself is corrosive and dangerous,” he wrote in an op-ed in the Southeast Missourian.
He continued, “Let me say again, as I have said before: the lawless violence at the Capitol last week was criminal. There can be no quibbling about that. Those who engaged in it should be prosecuted and punished.”
He also defended his decision to vote to disqualify the electoral votes.
Additionally, he claimed that his goal was not the overturn the results of the election, as IJR reported.
“I think we need to have a debate about election integrity. I think this is the right forum to do it in. This was never about overturning an election, but it is about Congress exercising its oversight capacity. It is about shining a light on what some of these states did,” he said.