1/13
This past week, before he did an interview with a top-rated AM radio station in St. Louis, and THEN being interviewed on CNN, Senator @HawleyMO wrote an Op-Ed for the fourth highest circulated newspaper in America. #velshi

2/13
In all of those extremely high-profile appearances, he repeated his grievance that he is being quote "cancelled" and quote "muzzled." That's rich. #velshi
3/13
Hawley freely discussing his being "muzzled" seems lost on him as he writes about how "corporate monopolies and the left team up to shut down speech they don't like and force their political agenda on America…” #velshi
4/13
Hawley continues: "For those who still believe in free speech & the First Amendment, this is the time to take a stand." That's cute. Complaining about being cancelled while speaking on the Senate floor. Complaining about shutting down free speech in a major newspaper #velshi
5/13
Hawley seems to enjoy taking stands, he's just not overly discerning about their being rooted in truth. And when they clearly aren't rooted in the truth, Hawley believes he bears no responsibility for what he says. Hawley can apparently dish it out but can't take it #velshi
6/13
During an interview with Fox News on January 4th, Hawley was asked if he believed Donald Trump would still be President on January 20th & his response was, "Well that depends on what happens on Wednesday". #velshi
7/13
Senator Hawley was all-in on the lies about election fraud and was suggesting in that Fox interview that then Vice President Mike Pence could magically change the outcome of the election. #velshi
8/13
On Wednesday, Jan. 6, an angry mob stormed the Capitol. Hours later, Hawley, a Yale Law School grad who knew better, followed the insurrection by rejecting the decisions of literally DOZENS of judges who declared there was no voter fraud in the 2020 elections. #velshi
9/13
Hawley now claims he wasn't looking for a different outcome but was simply giving "voice" to Missourians who were concerned about allegations of fraud. Concerns Hawley himself created by repeating Trump lies and perpetuating a dangerous disinformation campaign. #velshi
10/13
Some found Hawley's actions to be a conspiracy too far and chose to question his ethics, not publish his book and in general, distance themselves from him. To Hawley, that's muzzling. #velshi
11/13
There are real people muzzled from speaking their thoughts & Sen. Hawley is not in the same zip code, area code or country code with any of them. Sen. Hawley seems to be mistaking the term "muzzled" for, what's the word I'm thinking of … responsibility? #velshi
12/13
The accomplished and well-educated Hawley seems to believe freedom of speech means not only the right to say whatever he wants, truth and facts be damned, and under no circumstances should his words carry consequences. #velshi
13/13
Unlike those who are truly muzzled from speaking for truth, Hawley is protected by the First Amendment and he's a member of the Senate which gives him a platform to always speak. For a man who claims to be "muzzled", Josh Hawley sure does talk a lot. #velshi

More from Ali Velshi

More from Government

This is a good piece on fissures within the GOP but I think it mischaracterizes the Trump presidency as “populist” & repeats a story about how conservatives & the GOP expelled the far-right in the mid-1960s that is actually far more complicated. /1

I don’t think the sharp opposition between “hard-edge populism” & “conservative orthodoxy” holds. Many of the Trump administration’s achievements were boilerplate conservatism. Its own website trumpets things like “massive deregulation,” tax cuts, etc. /2

https://t.co/N97v85Bb79


The claim that Buckley and “key GOP politicians banded together to marginalize anti-Communist extremism and conspiracy-mongering” of the JBS has been widely repeated lately but the history is more complicated. /3


This tweet by @ThePlumLineGS citing a paper by @sam_rosenfeld and @daschloz on the "porous" boundary between conservatives, the GOP and the far-right is relevant in this context.


This is a separate point but I find it interesting that Gaetz, like Roy Moore did In his failed Senate campaign, disses McConnell. What are their actual policy differences? MM supported taking health care away from millions, a tax cut for the rich, conservative judges, etc. /5

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