Evidently Mitch McConnell decided that it would be worth one more shot to talk to his caucus before the January 6 joint session of Congress where the electoral college certificates will be opened and the votes counted. As well you know, this is Missouri Senator Josh Hawley’s fifteen minutes of fame and he is fundraising off of his rebellion against democracy right now. McConnell set up a conference call to his caucus and said that the January 6 vote was “the most consequential of my career.” When he got around to asking Hawley what he planned to do — crickets. Axios:
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On the call, McConnell asked Hawley to explain what he planned to do on Jan. 6, said a source on the call.
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Then, Indiana Sen. Todd Young pressed Hawley on which states he planned to contest, and Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey defended the integrity of his state’s elections.
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There was just one problem: They were met with silence. Hawley hadn’t dialed into the conference call — a fact first reported by Politico’s Alex Isenstadt.
What’s next: Hawley has no plans to back down from his decision to object to the certification of the electoral votes — a ploy destined to fail on Jan. 6.
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Hawley has been fundraising off of his planned objection to the election results, and this afternoon he emailed his Senate colleagues explaining his reasoning and copy-pasting a public press release he issued the day before to announce his decision.
Josh Hawley is busy lining his pockets, he’s got no time for this nonsense. Hope springs eternal in Trump world and Hawley is apparently happy to keep it alive as long as it devolves into donations.
It’s not surprising that he dodged McConnell because he can’t justify his actions. They are unjustifiable. As has been stated before and you will hear it again in the next few days, this is political theater, plain and simple.
Meanwhile, Trump is even more furious with McConnell than before, because McConnell has once again stated publicly that Trump lost.
The context was McConnell saying we’re being asked to overturn the results after a guy didn’t get as many electoral votes and lost by 7 million popular votes,” the source said.
If there’s one thing Trump can’t stand, it’s people who won’t join him in bubble world.
I guess we’ll see if Moscow Mitch wants to play hardball. Stripping Hawley of all his committee assignments, in effect marginalizing him and making him useless to the voters of his state might be the only thing McConnell can do for now, but cutting off access to Senate campaign funds could follow. Mitch could also stick it to Missouri in legislation down the road. I fear Hawley has gone past the point where he can back down should McConnell have a face-to-face with him and threaten him. But Mitch can kill his Presidential ambitions which is what this is all about for Hawley. Especially if he (McConnell) manages to convince the others thinking about backing Hawley’s play to stay silent, let him take ALL the heat (in the Senate) for this stunt and leave him twisting in the wind.
You’re assuming Mitch is going to have the kind of control to deliver such a punishment. The available evidence suggests otherwise.
People who won’t join him, shatter his illusion.
Could we please retire this notion that McConnell is this supervillain who has more than a few years left in his tank? He’s lost control of everything he fought to gain.
In another era, Hawley would have been the master of a plantation: white, wealthy, Ivy League-education. He is the epitome of the elite.
No doubt that’s his self-image in this one. But the reality remains that he’s closer to one of those White Russian nobles who stupidly thought offing Rasputin would save their version of Russia.