Josh Hawley hits the panic button

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With the heat being turned up on Republicans who are having a difficult time spinning the Capitol insurrection as anything other than the treason it was, Josh Hawley is now trying to claim that the violence he incited was never an attempt to undo the election at all – and that the reason he refused to acknowledge legitimate voters was simply to trust the integrity of U.S. elections.

“I never said that the goal was to overturn the election,” the Missouri senator said while giving an interview to a St. Louis radio station. “That was never the point and it was never possible.”

You read that right. He’s officially going into denial mode and throwing the insurrectionists under the bus that he definitely did fire up with lies about how the election was rigged against them. He’s likely testing the waters for a new strategy to distance himself from the people who thought they could pull off a successful coup – taking the GOP at its word – but this admission ultimately reveals how he has nothing but contempt for Republican voters.

By trying to distance himself from the crazies, Hawley may have given the single best ad for not only Democrats running in 2022, but also for voting rights legislation that Democrats need to pass in Congress. It’s clear that pushback against Republicans for inciting a dangerous siege is taking its toll, as they’re doing the best they can to sweep it under the rug. We’ve already seen Hawley go on record to say he won’t be running for president in 2024, which leads us to wonder if there’s more ugly details to the insurrection that are just waiting to surface after the investigation.