Hawley 'riled up' Capitol crowd before later fleeing Jan. 6 attack, House committee says

Galen Bacharier, Springfield News-Leader
·2 min read
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U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley's fist pump "riled up the crowd" gathered at the steps of the U.S. Capitol prior to the riot on Jan. 6, 2021, the House committee investigating the attack said in a hearing Thursday evening.

Hawley gained notoriety immediately following the incident when a photographer captured him raising his fist toward the crowd on Capitol Hill that day. But he had gone unmentioned throughout the hearings held by the House committee thus far, until U.S. Rep. Elaine Luria, a Virginia Democrat who sits on the panel, turned the focus to Missouri's junior senator.

"Earlier that afternoon, before the joint session started, he walked across the east front of the Capitol," Luria said, as the photo of Hawley flashed on the screen.

"We spoke with a Capitol police officer who was out there at the time," Luria continued. "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."

The committee then played previously unshown U.S. Capitol security camera footage of Hawley running to evacuate the building, shining a bright circle and playing the clip twice, again in slow-motion. He is then shown jogging down steps alongside other people in the building. The video prompted laughter from inside the committee room, according to reporters present.

Hawley's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday evening.

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Hawley, who led efforts in the Senate to challenge and decertify the 2020 election results in Arizona and Pennsylvania, has defended the fist pump; his campaign has sold merchandise with the photo featured on it, despite requests from POLITICO, whose photographer captured the image, to stop doing so.

Galen Bacharier covers Missouri politics & government for the News-Leader. Contact him at gbacharier@news-leader.com, (573) 219-7440 or on Twitter @galenbacharier.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Jan. 6 hearings: Hawley 'riled up' U.S. Capitol crowd before fleeing